In The Substance, director Coralie Fargeat dives into visceral horror and body transformation, and Paris-based studio NOID delivers on that vision with eerie precision. Tasked with over 40 creature shots, NOID seamlessly blended digital and practical effects to create a truly unsettling metamorphosis.The studio’s work captures the grotesque beauty of transformation—stretching skin, shifting forms, and surreal body horror moments that grip the viewer. Their visual effects don’t just support the narrative—they elevate it, making The Substance a disturbing yet captivating experience that lingers long after the credits roll. The post The Substance – VFX Breakdown by NOID appeared first on Vfxexpress.

Earlier this year, elected officials from 18 towns and counties devastated by Hurricane Helene gathered outside the Madison County courthouse in Marshall, North Carolina. Standing in a street still stained with the mud left behind when the French River overran its banks, they called for swifter state and federal help in rebuilding their communities. Everyone stood in the chill of a late January day because the first floor of the courthouse, built in 1907, remains empty, everything inside having been washed away in the flood. The county’s judicial affairs are conducted in temporary offices as local leaders wrangle state and federal funding to rebuild. Local officials hope to restore the historic downtown and its most critical public buildings without changing too much about it. They, like most of the people impacted by Hurricane Helene’s rampage in September, don’t doubt another flood is coming. But they are also hesitant to move out of its way. “When you talk about what was flooded and moving it, it would be everything, and that’s just not realistic,” said Forrest Gillium, the town administrator. “We’re not going to give up on our town.” They may not have to. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is no longer enforcing rules, first adopted during the Obama administration, that required many federally funded construction projects to adopt strict siting and building standards to reduce the risk of future flooding. The rules were withdrawn by Donald Trump’s first administration and then re-implemented by executive order under former President Joe Biden. Now they’ve been withdrawn by Trump for the second time. The change eases regulations dictating things like the elevation and floodproofing of water systems, fire stations, and other critical buildings and infrastructure built with federal dollars. Ultimately, the rules were intended to save taxpayers money in the long run. Many other federal, state, and local guidelines still apply to the programs that help homeowners and businesses rebuild. Still, FEMA said rolling back the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard will speed up recovery. “Stopping implementation will reduce the total timeline to rebuild in disaster-impacted communities and eliminate additional costs previously required to adhere to these strict requirements,” the agency said in a statement released March 25. Trump rescinded the standard through an executive order on January 20. It had required federal agencies to evaluate the impact of climate change on future flood risk and weather patterns to determine whether 500- and 100-year flood plains could shift and, if so, consider that before committing taxpayer money to rebuilding. The guideline required building critical facilities like fire stations and hospitals 3 feet above the floodplain elevation, and all other projects receiving federal funding at least 2 feet above it, said Chad Berginnis, who leads the Association of State Floodplain Managers. The idea was to locate these projects so they were beyond areas vulnerable to flooding or design them to withstand it if they could not be moved. Easing the standard comes even as communities across the U.S. experience unprecedented, and often repeated, flooding. Homeowners and businesses in Florida, along the Mississippi River, and throughout central Appalachia have endured the exhausting cycle of losing everything and rebuilding it, only to see it wash away again. The Federal Flood Risk Management Standard was meant to break that cycle and ensure everything rebuilt with taxpayer money isn’t destroyed when the next inundation hits. “Why on earth would the federal government want it to be rebuilt to a lower standard and waste our money so that when the flood hits, if it gets destroyed again, we’re spending yet more money to rebuild it?” Berginnis said. Last fall, federal climate scientists found that climate change increases the likelihood of extreme and dangerous rainfall of the sort Helene brought to the Southeast. Such events will be as much as 15% to 25% more likely if the world warms by 2 degrees Celsius. With more extreme rainfall come challenges for infrastructure designed for a less extreme climate. “You’re going to have storm sewers overwhelmed. You’re going to have basins that were designed to hold a certain kind of flood that don’t do it anymore,” Berginnis said. “You’re going to have bridges that no longer can pass through that water like it used to. You have all of this infrastructure that’s designed for an older event.” The Natural Resources Defense Council said the Obama-era standard was developed “because it is no longer safe or adequate to build for the flood risks of the past” and with the rollback, “the federal government is setting up public infrastructure to be damaged by flooding and wasting taxpayer dollars.” Officials across western North Carolina have expressed frustration with the pace of rebuilding while acknowledging that they don’t want to endure the same problems over and over again. Canton, North Carolina, continues recovering from its third major flood in 20 years. “Everything that flooded in 2004 flooded in ’21. Everything that flooded in ’21 flooded in 2024,” Mayor Zeb Smathers said. Strategies like new river gauges and emergency warning systems, coupled with land buyouts, have helped mitigate the threat. However, mitigation brings its own risk. The town has seen its tax base dwindle as people who lost their homes moved on after accepting buyouts or decided that rebuilding was too much effort. When it comes to public buildings, Smathers struggles with the idea of moving something like the school, which has seen its football field flooded in each storm. He feels it is more cost-effective to rebuild than to move, and saves energy and hassle, too. “I don’t think it’s a one-size-fits-all situation,” he said. “But in the mountains, we’re limited on land and where we can go.”  Much of downtown Canton lies in a flood plain next to the Pigeon River. Smathers wants more flexibility from FEMA and greater trust in local decisions rather than more rules about where and how to build.  Though local governments fronted some of the cost of rebuilding according to national flood risk standards, much of that required work has been federally subsidized. Josh Harrold, the town manager of Black Mountain, said the Obama-era rules weren’t onerous. Helene decimated the town’s water system, municipal building, and numerous buildings and homes. “We know this is going to happen again,” he said. “No one knows what that’s going to be like, but we are taking the approach of, we just don’t want to build it back exactly like it was. We want to build it back differently.”  Harrold and other officials said they don’t yet know how Trump’s order rescinding the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard will impact reconstruction. And it comes as some municipalities adopt and refine stricter flood plain rebuilding rules of their own. In January, Asheville adopted city ordinance amendments to comply with the rebuilding requirements set forth by the National Flood Insurance Program. It is not clear what Trump’s order might mean for that. City officials did not respond to a request for comment. Berginnis said communities may not see immediate results from this change—but the effects will be felt in the future if leaders bypass the added protection it required: “Everything that gets rebuilt using federal funds will be less safe when the next flood comes.” —By Katie Myers, Grist This article was originally published by Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for its newsletter here. The coverage is made possible through a partnership between Grist and BPR, a public radio station serving western North Carolina.

Every parent, teacher, or caregiver knows the heart-stopping moment of discovering colorful artwork extending beyond paper onto walls, furniture, or clothing. Children’s artistic exploration naturally knows no boundaries, with their creative impulses often resulting in permanent decorations where they’re least wanted. These artistic mishaps, while showcasing a child’s developing creativity, can lead to frustrating cleanup sessions and sometimes damaged surfaces that no amount of scrubbing can restore. While digital tablets have revolutionized how children interact with art, most fail to capture the fundamental joy of color mixing that traditional paints provide. Current devices typically offer pre-selected color palettes or digital brushes that don’t mimic the natural blending experience of physical media. Children miss out on the magical discovery of watching blue and yellow transform into green or experiencing how adding white creates lighter tints of their favorite colors: essential learning experiences in color theory and artistic development. Designer: Yifeeling Design The HueHub concept reimagines digital art for young creators by combining tablet technology with the tactile experience of traditional painting. Unlike standard tablets, HueHub features a specialized layout with a main drawing canvas and an innovative side panel containing three primary color blocks of red, yellow, and blue, plus a dedicated mixing area where children can blend these colors to create endless combinations. This thoughtful design bridges the gap between digital convenience and traditional artistic discovery. What makes this concept truly special is how it simulates a painter’s palette experience in the digital realm. Children can “dip” their stylus into virtual paint, mix colors in the dedicated tray, and apply their custom-created hues to their artwork, all without the mess of traditional paints. The software would recreate realistic paint behaviors like blending and texture, helping children understand color relationships while keeping floors and furniture pristine. Parents get peace of mind while children enjoy the full sensory experience of creating art. Perhaps the most innovative aspect of the HueHub concept is its color-capturing stylus that could “pick up” colors from real-world objects. Imagine a child fascinated by the exact shade of a flower petal or autumn leaf being able to capture that precise color for their digital masterpiece. This feature would create a meaningful connection between digital art and the physical world, encouraging children to observe their surroundings more closely and bring those observations into their creative work. The HueHub concept represents a thoughtful approach to children’s digital art tools that respects how children naturally learn about color and creativity. By combining the cleanliness and convenience of digital media with the experiential learning of traditional painting, this device could transform how young artists develop their skills. Although just a concept, the technologies that could make this possible already exist and can paint, pardon the pun, a future where technology enhances rather than replaces the fundamental artistic experiences that help children understand their colorful world. The post Painting Tablet Concept Teaches Kids the Joys of Mixing Colors without the Mess first appeared on Yanko Design.

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