PlayStation Plus shifting focus to PS5 games next year, will only "occasionally" include PS4 titlesAs "many" players now on PS5.Image credit: Sony News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on Jan. 29, 2025 Sony has announced it's shifting the focus of its PlayStation Plus monthly games and Game Catalog updates toward PlayStation 5 titles starting early next year, and that PlayStation 4 games will only "occasionally" feature thereafter.Announcing the news alongside its refreshed monthly games line-up for February 2025, Sony said it was "evolving" the PlayStation Plus service to reflect the fact "many of our players are currently playing on PS5 and have shifted toward redeeming and accessing PS5 titles from the Monthly Games and Game Catalog benefit".As such, PlayStation Plus Monthly Games and Game Catalog will switch their focus to offering PlayStation 5 titles starting in January 2026. "PS4 games will no longer be a key benefit," Sony elaborated, "and will only be occasionally offered." The company did, however, confirm it "may still" provide titles playable on both PS4 and PS5 after the changeover.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Xbox Developer Direct - four promising games also coming to PlayStation.Watch on YouTubeSony also stressed the switch won't impact monthly PS4 games already claimed via PlayStation Plus. "You'll continue to have access to games you've already redeemed as long as you remain a member," it wrote. "For Game Catalog, PS4 games will still be available to play until it leaves the catalog as part of our monthly refresh.""We'll continue to evolve the experience of PlayStation Plus and optimise the benefits you receive," the company concluded in its announcement, "including exclusive discounts, online multiplayer access, online game save storage and more. As we shift our focus to PS5, we look forward to adding new PS5 titles monthly for you to enjoy."

PlayStation Plus February games revealedPayday 3! High on Life! More!Image credit: Starbreeze Studios News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on Jan. 29, 2025 With February fast approaching, Sony has announced the next batch of monthly titles coming to its PlayStation Plus subscription service - this time featuring heists, at least one high, and a whole lot of gobble-adjacent platforming.Starting next Tuesday, 4th February, PlayStation Plus members across all subscription tiers - that is Essential, Extra, and Premium - gain access to the following three titles:Payday 3 (PS5)High on Life (PS4, PS5)Pac-Man World Re-Pac (PS4, PS5)Starting with Payday 3, it's the latest entry in Starbreeze Studios' co-operative heist series, which released in 2023 - and while it's struggled to usurp its predecessor in terms of popularity, it's still a decently good time. Vikki Blake called it a "furiously good fun, if criminally unadventurous" follow-up in her three star review, noting it unfortunately fell short of Payday 2 in "almost every aspect". Still, its arrival on PlayStation Plus might just help give it a boost.As for High on Life, Eurogamer contributor Edwin Evans-Thirlwell really wasn't a fan when this comedic shooter from Squanch Games - the studio founded by Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland - launched back in 2022. Edwin proclaimed it a "mediocre shooter with an unfunny attitude problem", slapping it with the dreaded (and now rather antiquated) Eurogamer Avoid.Finally, there's Pac-Man World Re-Pac - a bouncy remake of Namco's 1999 3D platformer Pac-Man World. We didn't review this one when it arrived in 2022, but it currently has a Very Positive rating over on Steam, which is a promising sign.All the above will be available to PlayStation Plus members from 4th February to 3rd March, leaving less than a week to claim January's monthly games - Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe, and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit: Remastered.Sony also notes PlayStation Plus' Monthly Games and Game Catalog will shift their focus toward PS5 games starting in January 2026. PS4 titles will only "occasionally" feature from early next year, it explains, "as many of our players are currently playing on PS5". It does, however, add, "We may still provide titles that can be playable on both PS4 and PS5 consoles after this date".

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games hereCOVID affected all of us differently, but mod developer InspectorXyto has turned the years-long pain of the global pandemic into a new slice of virtual art. Created for Valves VR spin-off Half-Life: Alyx, the new Half-Life: Austria mod transports players into a virtual recreation of the country for fans to escape into.Half-Life: Austria releasedReleased in pre-super-early-alpha on Steam Workshop, this new mod aims to enhance the campaign of Half-Life: Alyx with a dose of Austrian humor and countless Easter Eggs. While simple, at least for now, players are encouraged to experience a little bit of culture as they replay Alyx.For example, many signs, posters and magazines in the game has been translated into the Viennese language. Additionally, players will be able to discover a host of Austrian groceries and food items inspired by shopping during the first lockdown.I could decimate that sandwich.Pandemic-era memes and other goodies have also been introduced including the infamous Ibiza video or Kickis notorious corona worm treatment. Finally, the games Combine enemies have also taken a crash course in Viennese dialect to offer a new experience. Whether that improves their efficiency is up for debate, the modder explained.So far, the community has taken well to the Half-Life: Austria mod with many calling it a good laugh. While its currently in very early stages, its a fun new culture to explore for those who want it. After all, what else is there to do while we wait endlessly for Half-Life 3 to release.Of course, theres also a host of other mods that have been created for Valves brilliant VR game. The Gunman Contracts series of mods essentially bring an entirely new game to players and some talented modders have even recreated BioShock within the VR title. Of course, theres also a swathe of Halo mods bringing classic weapons and armour to the game.For more content on VideoGamer, check out our interview with Elder Scrolls creator Ted Peterson or read about the future of Baldurs Gate 3 modding.Half-Life: AlyxPlatform(s):PCGenre(s):Action, Adventure, ShooterSubscribe to our newsletters!By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.Share

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games hereThe First Descendant is fantastic but not perfect. Nexon has a lot of exciting plans in the pipeline, as evidenced by the February 2025 roadmap and the developers intentions for Season 3 in March. However, while there is a lot of new content in line for TFD, there is a bit of a pickle that needs to be fixed after gameplay proves a shocking conspiracy theory amongst The First Descendant community is actually true.The First Descendant gameplay provides TFD deletes your bulletsAmongst The First Descendant community, there has been a conspiracy theory about FPS in regard to DMG output and bullets registering hits.While complaints can, and have been, simply brushed off as skill issue, git gud, or use a different weapon core, a gameplay demonstration proves that the theory is actually true. This gameplay demonstration comes courtesy of YouTuber, Vash Cowaii, who shows that TFD deletes your bullets.The purpose of the gameplay demonstration is to show that The First Descendants fire rate is modified by your FPS. To prove this, the example used in the gameplay comparison is 30 FPS vs. 140+ FPS.The test undertaken involved the YouTuber shooting at a Colossus in both FPS. This is because the damage received to the boss should be the same across both FPS examples, so long as the Colossus isnt killed, and the same fire rate is used.In order to leave no wiggle room for doubt, the YouTuber conducted the test four different times at 30 and 140+ FPS each, at four different rates while also using the Amplification mod to eliminate crit damage multiplier. They also conducted the test on Moltren Fortress because its easier to avoid hitting weak points unlike with other bosses.At 30 FPS, Vash Cowaii discovered that at 800 and 1,000 fire rate, the results are virtually identical, however, at 1,333 fire rate, we do see a significant damage loss, and at 1,818 fire rate, the difference is equally pronounced.For 140+ FPS, the results are pretty much the exact same with a slight difference at the 1,333 fire rate, which could just be an outlier. Per Vash, this shows there are two problems with The First Descendant.The first problem is that the fire rate does get modified by your frame rate as proven, and the second problem is that the higher your fire rate goes the more dmg you do actually lose. The YouTuber reports that at 140FPS, the difference between 1,333 fire rate and 1,818 fire rate is a 25% damage loss.Lastly, the YouTuber proclaims that while the fire rate FPS issue is annoying, this game is straight up deleting your bullets and thats stupid as s***. You can check out the gameplay demonstration below:Hopefully this is something Nexon can and will fix. Unfortunately, its not listed amongst the plans for the next update set to arrive on February 6th.For more The First Descendant, check out the 2025 roadmapfor more details about what Nexon has planned this year.The First DescendantPlatform(s):PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series XGenre(s):Action, Adventure, RPG5VideoGamerSubscribe to our newsletters!By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.Share

When artist Noelia Hobeika and video editor Burke Williams decided to plant roots in Paris ahead of the birth of their first child, the couple, who split their time between Brooklyn and the French capital, discovered a Haussmannian apartment that, while brimming with charm, had remained untouched for decades. What followed was a transformation that married understated elegance with deeply personal touchesall under the thoughtful eye of designer Thomas Fournier.The homeowners in the apartments living room. Noelia Hobeika sits on one of a pair of 1950s Italian armchairs featuring their original velvet, sourced from Pomona, while Burke Williams stands alongside one of Hobeikas works, entitled Hommage. The art infuses the room, outfitted in warm neutrals, with rich color.We really wanted the interiors to stand the test of time and transcend any particular period, style, or trend, Hobeika shares, noting that the couple desired a comfortable, highly livable home. The apartments renovation, which involved reinventing the outdated kitchen and bathrooms, also prioritized functionality. We needed additional storage and a layout that worked for a young family, Hobeika adds.Having first admired Fourniers work in AD France, Hobeika was struck by Fourniers ability to blend French, Italian, and Asian influences with a timeless sensibility. Her Parisian upbringing and Lebanese Argentine heritage helped shape the design direction. His aesthetic felt like a natural extension of my own taste, she notes. Collaborating with him was a delighthis instincts and proposals were spot-on from day one. Williams, who admits he initially took a backseat in design decisions, grew increasingly involved as the project unfolded. Its been a learning experience, he says. And now, I cant imagine a better place to start our family.The entry welcomes guests with a masterful mix of styles and eras. A Chinese Qing Dynasty portrait from the late 19th century, a 1920s Art Deco pendant, and a contemporary bench from Lea Zeroil all set the tone for the eclectic space beyond.

Trillium doesnt have great representation either. You rarely see it used by florists. Amateur gardeners often mistake the plant as dead and done. And it confuses even the best of botanists. In that regard, I see trillium as more of a coconspiratora fellow misfitthan a symbol of pride.Not aiding the flowers reputation, most varieties wreak. Its thought of as a stinky plant, and that disgust is awfully familiar to the repulsion Ive experienced from prejudiced groups within the queer community who see me as tainted or downright gross because of my sexuality.Trillium often appear in large numbers and can create a floral carpet.Photo: Scott Shymko/Getty ImagesBut despite all the shade, trillium still thrives. According to Montague, the plants large bracts are an adaptation to capture the tiniest amounts of light that reach the forest floor.Different species develop their own characteristics in response to the microclimates they inhabit and the animals they interact with, Montague says. Some trillium hold their flowers high (pedicellate), while others hug their flowers on their shoulders (sessile).As a teenager, I came out as bisexual, but I quickly took it back for my own safety. A decade later, as an adult, I came out publicly as pansexual. Now, another decade later, I see my journey like a trillium. It took me a long time to bloom. And when I did, I had to hug my flower on my shoulder so tight. But over time I built a drift of chosen family, married the love of my life, and most days I hold my flowers high.Trillium has this funny habit of appearing in groups of four or four hundred, Montague adds, Sometimes sprouting up at the feet of trees or in sprawling populations filling a moist cove.Im reminded of sitting at a friends kitchen table as a teenager, in awe of how fiercely his mother accepted me and how warm I felt there. Or how I came out to a former bossthe first time ever professionallyand his validation created a cascade of conversations with people in my life. It was a watershed for my confidence in myself, and proof that, like trillium, there is strength in numbers.Bicon landscapingTrillium is not a bouquet flower and Manion strongly cautions against using trillium for floral arrangements, since it takes the plant so long to flower. Montague advises against collecting trillium and other flowering plants from the wild, as their chances of survival after transplant are low. Plus the flower is considered sacred in some Indigenous Native American cultures, and picking it is not recommended.

By Matthew Gault Published January 29, 2025 | Comments (30) | The DeepSeek AI application is seen on a mobile phone in this photo illustration taken in Warsaw, Poland on 27 January, 2025. Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images OpenAI and Microsoft are big mad that Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has stolen their market share and, possibly, portions of their code. Its a deeply funny claim from the company that made ChatGPT, a program it once admitted couldnt exist without free access to all the copyrighted data in the world. OpenAI told The Financial Times that it had evidence DeepSeek used what it called distillation to build its wildly successful chatbot. Ill let David Sacks, a storied member of the PayPal Mafia and current White House AI and Crypto czar, explain how distillation works. Theres a technique in AI called distillation, Sacks told Fox News on Tuesday. Its when one model learns from another model. What happens is the student model asks the parent model a lot of questions just like a human would learn. But AI can do this asking millions of questions and they can essentially mimic the reasoning process that they learn from the parent model. And they can kind of suck the knowledge out of the parent model. Got it. Distillation is when one AI sucks off another AI. So its a fancy word for copying.OpenAI is alleging that DeepSeek got a bunch of outputs from ChatGPT and used those outputs to train DeepSeek, thereby standing up an LLM at a fraction of the cost of the billions used to train ChatGPT. OpenAI wouldnt give Financial Times any evidence to back up the claim and also said that its impossible for any company to make a direct copy of ChatGPT. Theres substantial evidence that what DeepSeek did here is they distilled the knowledge out of OpenAIs models, Sacks said on Fox News, without providing said evidence. And I dont think OpenAI is very happy about this. I think one of the things youre going to see out of this is our leading AI companies taking steps to prevent distillation.Bloomberg had a few more details. An OpenAI insider told the outlet that Microsoft had noticed weird activity around ChatGPTs API and flagged the company. The API calls may have been linked to DeepSeeks distillation of ChatGPT. If the allegations are true, its possible that DeepSeek made a bunch of calls to ChatGPTs API, generated a bunch of data, and then used that to train its own LLM. They noted this might violate ChatGPTs terms of service. Heaven forfend. DeepSeek dethroning ChatGPT on Apples AppStore coincided with hundreds of billions of dollars in market value around AI companies being wiped out from the stock market earlier this week. NVIDIA, which manufactures the chips used to train the chatbots, lost more than $500 billion.Sacks assured Fox News viewers that America was still number one and that the U.S. just has to keep building the big beautiful datacenters that Trump wants. There are still great advantages to having an enormous number of chips. And this is an area where America could continue to lead, is a build-out of this infrastructure and having the most advanced chips, Sacks said. So I think its a little bit of an overreaction to say that America does not need AI data centers anymore. I think we need to build out these big AI data centers. I think President Trump has expressed support for them and I think we need to make it easier to build those data centers, to get them permitted and licensed, and to get power generated, to get electricity for those data centers. Always on message, Trumps AI czar emphasized that the reason China was catching up was twofold. One was burdensome regulations imposed on AI companies by Biden. The other was that the AI companies had gotten too damn woke.I think that our AI companies got a little distractedI think that maybe they got a little bit complacent. They didnt realize how close these Chinese companies were to them. They wasted a lot of time on things like DEI. You saw there was woke AI, Sacks said. The models were basically producing things like black George Washington. As of this writing, DeepSeek is still number one on the App Store.Daily NewsletterYou May Also Like By Lucas Ropek Published January 28, 2025 By Matthew Gault Published January 28, 2025 By Thomas Maxwell Published January 28, 2025 By Matthew Gault Published January 28, 2025 By Kyle Barr Published January 28, 2025 By Matthew Gault Published January 27, 2025

Jingle LsFortnite hands Call of Duty the L by 10 million hours in the most important battle there is: most playtime racked up by people ignoring their families on Christmas DayHey, it's as good a day to relax and shoot your way through some matches as there is.Image credit: Epic/Activision News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Jan. 29, 2025 We're nearly at the end of January now, so you're likely well back into the flow of things after Christmas, but it's worth taking a brief look back, because we've just gotten the results of a key battle. Which game did people spend more time using to ignore their relatives or help speed up digestion or Christmas Day? It's Fortnite, because of course it is.Research firm Ampere (thanks, Chris Dring over on VGC) has checked under the tree for this data as its dissected how the final month of 2024 played out and you'll also not be surprised to learn that the main competitor to the home of the default dance for this crown was seemingly another massive shooter. Call of Duty. You might have heard of it.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. According to Ampere, on Xmas Day itself alone, Fortnite amassed 30 million hours of playtime. That would mean that the average Fortniter spent something like 2.3 hours on that day trying to get number one victory royales, attending Mariah Carey concerts, and/or the nine million other things you can do in Fortnite at any given time. Meanwhile, Call of Duty games collectively amassed 20 million hours of playtime on Christmas Day, with Black Ops 6 being the one you'd certainly expect to be the main driving force behind that push. It came up short, though, like you desperately trying to trying to organise a last second push into enemy territory in a Nuketown match you're clearly about to lose. It's ok. You'll 360 no-scope 'em next time.Plus, if you're CoD itself, you've got nothing to complain about, with Ampere's data showing Black Ops 6 was "one of the biggest games over the Holiday period", having set itself up nicely for a big December by helping the Call of Duty HQ it's part of attract 38 million monthly users in November '24.It also drove a bumper month for Xbox alongside Indiana Jones and his big round thing, with $465 million being spent on Microsoft games in December. Ampere's data points to that having made the company the worlds biggest publisher across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms for the month. It beat out EA, which, as ever, was chiefly riding the EA Sports FC wave, which was still had strong momentum, even if FC 25 didn't match its predecessor's numbers.Were you chug jugging away in Fortnite while you let your Holiday feast settle a bit before trying to move again? Let us know below!

Pictures of YouOn its 10th anniversary, its time to admit that Life Is Strange was never simply a love story: it was a watershed moment for games that tell hella authentic, human storiesThe original Life is Strange is just about old enough to have a legacy at this stage, but what, exactly, is that legacy?Image credit: VG247 Article by Rebecca Jones Guides Writer Published on Jan. 29, 2025 Life is Strange might not be the biggest blockbuster series, but at this point in its history, the franchise is a respectable presence in publisher Square Enix's stable nevertheless. Theres a reason the Japanese company has kept the property in its catalogue, even as its divested most of its other Western IP.It's been a decade since the release of LiS' first ever episode, and the long-since-completed original can now comfortably point to four full-length follow-up games (each accompanied by a one-shot bonus episode), two comic book sequel series, two prose novels, and a mooted television adaptation as evidence that it has, indeed, enjoyed a fair amount of success as a franchise.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. With so much canonical and extra-canonical material for a game's legacy to form around, it can be difficult to rewind your perception of Life is Strange to the point in time where it all began. But 10 years ago this week (or indeed today if you played it on PC, although Xbox and PlayStation owners had to wait until January 30 and February 3, respectively), all the world at large knew of Life is Strange came from its premiere episode, Chrysalis.The original Life is Strange is just about old enough to have a legacy at this stage, a cultural frame of reference that generally regards its most famous feature as the sapphic romance between playable protagonist Max and her best friend Chloe. This love story is now such a sacred text at the heart of LiS fandom that last year's direct sequel was reviled by many fans from the outset for breaking them up.It can feel odd, then, to go all the way back to Chrysalis and realise that actually even though the original Life is Strange did eventually act on some of the hints of an underlying attraction between Max and Chloe, which don't get me wrong, was a not-so-small deal in 2015 it maybe wasn't the groundbreaking moment for queer representation in games that we all remember, either. Name a more iconic duo. | Image credit: Square EnixWhich is not to say that Life is Strange wasn't doing groundbreaking things with representation. In their reception to Chrysalis, several contemporary reviewers seemed amazed (and slightly bewildered) that Square Enix had thrown their good name behind a female-fronted time travel adventure when the story could surely have worked just as well with male leads.And indeed, series originator Dontnod has spoken in numerous interviews since about the difficulty they had finding a publisher, since the first stipulation most companies laid down was that the narrative needed to be retooled with a male protagonist a condition that Dontnod firmly refused to entertain.Despite being written by a duo of male writers (and setting aside the occasional awkward attempt at millennial slang), I can personally attest to Life is Strange painting a rather authentic portrait of young womanhood circa the 2010s. Perhaps it's because you don't actually need to have experienced being a woman first-hand so long as you've got a decent handle on the fact that women are, in fact, quite a lot like most other people. Male writers can sometimes be over-praised for simply taking note of this, though, so I also want to take a moment to appreciate the fact that Jean-Luc Cano and Christian Divine demonstrated an understanding of the internal tensions and group politics particular to teenage girls when they wrote Life is Strange.It's easy to take a surface-level read and divide the female cast of LiS into good girls (Max, Kate) and bad girls (Chloe, Victoria) and of course, we all know that the bad girls will show their gentler sides over the course of the story. But something that's always resonated with me despite going underappreciated is that the good girls aren't exactly angels either. At the start of the game, the highly religious Kate tacks anti-abortion literature to the door of a classmate whose recent pregnancy termination is an open secret at the school; despite her status as a bullying victim being a core plot point, she's clearly not immune to the temptation to carry out a little herself under the guise of some well-meaning justifications.And of course Max, upon learning to control her time travel powers, immediately sets to work using them to cover up her social awkwardness and increase her standing with the school's popular cliques arguing that doing so gives her access to more detailed and reliable information to fuel her role as amateur sleuth. Is that a look of just friendship? | Image credit: Square EnixLife is Strange as a franchise has a lot to say about what members of disenfranchised groups do with the power that's within their grasp, and even though the first game is not exactly a triumph of intersectionality focusing as it does almost exclusively on white girls who were already relatively privileged to begin with there's an authenticity to both their acts of kindness and their moments of pettiness. LiS resists condemning its central characters on the basis of one mean-spirited action, but it also doesn't paint anyone in a saintly light just for managing to be a basically decent human being.Stacked up against this nuanced portrait of the tumultuous tail-end of girlhood, it's unusually the young male characters in Life is Strange who fall a bit flat. The narrative seems wholly ambivalent on whether we should interpret Max's shy admirer Warren as a nice guy or a Nice Guy; and while school bully Nathan has some pitiable details revealed in his backstory, it's never enough to add up into even a single redeeming quality.All of which is to say that Life is Strange really was a revolutionary moment for female leads in video games not simply because the protagonist and deuteragonist are both young women, which had definitely been done before, but because the girls in the story are consistently the driving force behind their own and one another's actions.What is less present in this first outing, however, is the queer representation that the series is arguably best known for today. Chloe is rather blatantly gay-coded; the "blue haired lesbian" trope was already recognisable shorthand in 2015, in case you somehow missed both her romantic longing for Rachel and her flirtatious overtures towards Max. But the nature of both relationships is still largely subtextual, and even if you successfully read between those lines, the game retains a measured ambiguity about whether either is reciprocal. It's entirely possible to complete a playthrough of Life is Strange without seeing the sole overtly romantic scene between Chloe and Max which, on the subject of tropes, can only occur in the ending where Chloe dies. Bury your gays, indeed. Sometimes, they're more than simply memories. | Image credit: Square EnixOf course, the Life is Strange series is iconic for its queer representation today, but that legacy has been built up significantly over the intervening decade thanks to developer interviews, multimedia spin-offs, and follow-up games which made a concerted effort to draw out the focus on queer characters and relationships. The original laid that groundwork, undeniably, but didn't necessarily poke its head all the way over the parapet straight away.But this revelation doesn't need to be accompanied by disappointment. Max and Chloe's status as star-crossed true lovers may have found most of its support outside of the original text itself, but the fact remains that Life is Strange presented the gaming world with two female leads who stood out strongly enough both as individuals and as a pair, whether regarded romantically or platonically to inspire devotion from players who still care deeply about these characters 10 years later.Actually I take it back: Life is Strange totally is a love story, just not one that hinges on the existence of an ideal romance, or indeed of a romantic dimension to its central relationship at all; or on the need for permanence to make that bond significant. It's also a love story that each lead character gets to experience self-contained with herself, as a fully realised individual who drives the action of her own story forward.And the fact that this story about superpowered girls and their feelings was a success was instrumental in shifting the way triple-A publishers approached female leads in games: a decade down the line, playable women aren't treated like box office poison any more, and while that's surely not all down to Max and Chloe, they were definitely there helping to lead the charge. Even though, you know, on paper there's no reason the time travel thing wouldn't have worked just as well with some forgettable PS3-era standard military dude.

Artist SpotlightA CGI Artists Guide to Creating Beautiful Product RendersMike DiCola takes product photography to the next level! Discover how this CGI artist, with a background in photography, uses cutting-edge technology to create hyper realistic product shots with captivating animation. by Greyscalegorilla Meet the Artist Mike DiCola is a CGI artist based in Charlotte, North Carolina. A graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology, his background in photography informs his artistic approach, where he merges photorealistic and artificial elements. He creates captivating visuals through a blend of 3D modeling, photography, and videography. You may have even seen his work on Fox Sports during the Super Bowl, World Series broadcasts, and Big Noon College Football. DiCola thrives on collaboration and frequently works alongside photographers, videographers, animators, and designers to bring his unique vision to life. Mike DiCola + Greyscalegorilla Plus Using the Studio app Mike effortlessly transferred materials, light textures, and 3D models to his product viz C4D project with ease. Get Plus Learn More Mikes background in photography brings a unique perspective to his meticulous and artistic approach to animation. To jumpstart his project in Cinema 4D, Mike used the Greyscalegorilla Starter Scene for Redshift, which includes a pre-built studio environment with lighting and cameras ready to go. How this animation was made He began by exploring Greyscalegorillas extensive library of assets, carefully selecting the perfect cosmetic packaging models to showcase his vision. To these models, he applied realistic materials and textures, further enhancing them with beautifully crafted, custom-designed labels. Next, Mike focused on composition. He played around with different arrangements of our product photography props, fine-tuning the scene until everything clicked. With the composition set, he expertly added cameras and lighting, mimicking the techniques of a seasoned photographer to create depth and visual interest. Cinema 4D + Redshift setup Final render with models, materials, and lighting. Finally, he infused the scene with eye-catching movement, bringing the products to life with subtle animations and captivating transitions. The result? An animation thats both beautiful and technically impressive. Cinema 4D + Redshift setup Final render with models, materials, and lighting. Greyscalegorilla 3D Assets Used in this Render Cosmetic Packaging Models3D Models20 D bottles, tubes, canisters and tubs to show off your shelf-ready and ad-worthy branding, labels and products. Browse Collection Product Photography Props3D ModelsAn assortment of plinths, stands, and stairs to best showcase your jewelry, gadget and cosmetic renders. Tasteful? Fancy? This collection does both. Browse Collection TerrazzoMaterials 80 high quality terrazzo materials, using 40 distinct color combinations in both dense and subtle dispersions. Browse Collection 5,000+ assets are waiting...Get PlusWhen you join Greyscalegorilla Plus, you unlock a whole new workflow that follows you to your favorite 3D apps. Stay in the flow with the Studio desktop app, granting you unlimited access to download and send assets straight into your project with one click. Get Plus Leave a Comment:Cancel This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.