Macworld If you want to add some quick edits to a photo or video, Apple’s free Mac apps – Photos and Preview – can do a good job, but for anything more advanced you’ll need a dedicated image editing app like Adobe’s Photoshop. For years now it has been the industry standard, due to its wide range of features and capabilities, but it does come with a substantial subscription fee that might be a bit too much for the casual user. Here’s how to get a copy of Photoshop on your Mac, or, failing that, the next best thing. Plus, because you can’t beat free, we’ll also explain your options for getting Photoshop on Mac at no cost, as well as rounding up the Best Mac free image and photo editors. If you’d like to get the same software on your tablet, read How to get Photoshop on iPad. How to get Photoshop free on a Mac: Adobe Express As Photoshop is professional-grade software, you won’t be able to get the full version for free aside from the 7-day trial that we’ll cover below. However, Adobe does offer a stripped down version that covers a lot of the same ground if your demands aren’t too high. Adobe Express is a free, online web app that offers a range of editing tools, such as the ability to crop, reshape, flip, and recolor images. You can also add text (there are plenty of templates and fonts to choose from), make the background of an image transparent, quickly put together collages, and generally improve the style and form of your photos and videos. Adobe Express comes with access to 1 million+ royalty-free stock images you can use for posters or social media content, plus you get 5GB of storage. Adobe If you want more advanced features, including Generative AI for instantly creating images, removing backgrounds in video, one-click resizing, a much larger selection of stock images, not to mention 100GB of storage, then you can sign up to Adobe Express Premium for $9.99/£9.98 p/m, with the option to cancel at any time. There’s also a free 30-day trial so you can see if Premium gives you all the Photoshop capabilities you need, without spending any money. If you’re happy to work online rather than with a dedicated app, and you’re not after the high-end editing features, either Adobe Express or Adobe Express Premium are probably the ones to go for, plus you have those trials to ensure whether the tools you need for your particular workflows are included. How to get full Photoshop for free If you want to use the full version of Photoshop, then there is the aforementioned free trial, or you could sign up to a short-term subscription to at least keep the costs down. Trial: The first option is a Photoshop trial. There is a 7-day free trial that gives you access to the full program, with no restrictions. While Adobe advertises the free 7-day trial, you can actually get 14 days free, because you can cancel within 14 days of your initial order and get fully refunded. In fact, you could, theoretically, get 21 days free if you had the trial and then canceled your subscription after 13 days. Don’t forget though, as you’re then liable to pay 50% of the entire 1yr contract if you miss the deadline. Monthly subscription: The second option is signing up for a subscription on a monthly rather than an annual basis. This won’t give you Photoshop for free, but the option will allow you to access all the features of the software on a shorter-term basis, then cancel when you no longer need it. We’ll run through the various subscription options in the sections below. Adobe To explain how it works we need to explain the difference between Adobe’s two monthly subscription packages: one is cheaper ($22.99/£21.98 a month) because it is part of an annual plan; the other is a more expensive option ($34.49/£32.98 a month), but you can cancel without having to pay Adobe anything. Adobe doesn’t list these options on the site, instead you have to click the Buy Now button then you can select from the three options: Annual – Billed monthly, Monthly, and Annual – Billed upfront. Photoshop with 100GB of cloud storageU.S.U.K.Annual plan paid monthly$22.99£21.98Annual plan paid upfront$263.88£262.51Monthly plan (cancel at any time)$34.49£32.98Buy it hereBuy it here Adobe explains the legal terms of the various contracts here. Basically, if you sign up for the cheaper ‘annual contract, paid monthly’ and then choose to end your subscription you will be able to do so, but if you end the contract after the first 14 days “you’ll be charged a lump sum amount of 50% of your remaining contract obligation and your service will continue until the end of that month’s billing period.” This is a slightly better scenario than if you were paying annually – in that case, your contract will continue to the end of the term. You wouldn’t get any money back. This is why the best option, in this case, is to sign up for a month-to-month contract. In this case, the contract will automatically renew every month, but should you choose to cancel (we explain how to cancel below) you will be able to use Photoshop until the end of that month, at which point your contract will cease. If you need Photoshop, but you don’t want to tie yourself into a contract with Adobe, this could be the best option for you. However, you should note that you will lose access to anything you have saved in Adobe’s cloud after 90 days. If these options aren’t quite what you’re after, you can always look for alternatives to Photoshop, as there are some excellent apps currently available. We also have a round-up of the Best Mac free image and photo editors, which includes options such as Seashore and Gimp. How to get Photoshop on a Mac without an annual subscription If you were hoping to buy a copy of Photoshop to own, as in not paying on a subscription basis, we have some bad news for you: Adobe no longer sells what is known as a ‘perpetual license’ for Photoshop and its other apps. There is one option though: you can buy Photoshop Elements. Photoshop Elements is designed for amateur rather than pro photographers, but it does offer a number of photo editing features that might be sufficient for your needs. One very important thing to note though is that Adobe has changed how Elements works, so that when you make your purchase you’re only getting a 3-year licence. That means, once the three years are up, the app will stop working, although you’ll still be able to access all of the work you created. You can buy a copy of Photoshop Elements directly from Adobe’s website for $99.99/£86.99. (Buy Photoshop Elements from Adobe). See our review of Photoshop Elements for more information. You can also buy Photoshop Elements on the Mac App Store for $99.99/£99.99. The benefit of Photoshop Elements is that you can buy it outright and install it on your Mac. You will have access to features like masks, layers, colorisation, image manipulation and other useful, more consumer-level effects with Elements. If you’re a creative professional though, or are used to the full-blown version of Photoshop, then you may find too many tools missing from the box. If you want to take a look there’s also a 7-day free trial of Photoshop Elements so you can take the software for a test run. If you don’t care about how up-to-date your software is you might be interested in buying a secondhand copy of Photoshop, or an old Mac with Photoshop installed. Just be aware that Adobe doesn’t support all older versions in terms of updates, so the ones you find might not be compatible with later iterations of macOS, plus newer Macs won’t run old versions of Photoshop. You’ll also need to confirm that the software license hasn’t already been used, as usually these are non-transferable. And generally, we would advise against buying a used Mac (unless it’s certified refurbished). For more information read: What version of macOS can my Mac run? If a subscription to Photoshop isn’t for you, and Photoshop Elements isn’t enough, we recommend you look at alternatives to Photoshop, many of which have comparable features with the benefit of being available to buy outright. The best options include PixelMator Pro, Affinity Photo and others. See: Best Photoshop alternatives for Mac. Is there an education discount for Photoshop? There is one other way you can save money while getting a copy of Photoshop for your Mac. If you are in education then you may qualify for a discount. However, you can’t sign up for a reduced price on the Photoshop-only tier, you have to get the entire Creative Cloud collection, which includes Photoshop and a large collection of other Adobe apps. The student and teacher deal for Creative Cloud does represent quite a hefty reduction. At the time of writing, Students and Teachers pay $19.99/£16.24 a month, which is around 70% less than the normal subscription rate. Photoshop for Mac price If you have accepted that you need to pay for a subscription to Photoshop you will want to know how much it costs. There’s not actually a straightforward answer: it depends on how you want to buy it. Whether you love or hate the subscription model, there are a few options to choose from if you want to get a copy of Photoshop: Photoshop: If you just want the single Photoshop app you can have that for $20.99/£19.97 a month if you sign up for a year, or $31.49/£30.34 a month if you just pay on a monthly basis. Sign up on Adobe’s website. Photography Plan: However, the Photography Plan is actually the best deal. It includes Photoshop, Lightroom (for web and mobile), and Lightroom Classic (for desktop), plus 1TB of storage. The bundle costs $19.99/£19.98 a month, but you will be on a contract for a year as there’s no monthly option. Sign up on Adobe’s website. Plan: Photography Plan with 1TB cloudU.S.U.K.Annual plan paid monthly$19.99£19.97Annual plan paid upfront$239.88£238.42Monthly plan (cancel at any time)n/an/aBuy it hereBuy it here Business: If you are a business user you ought to sign up for the Business option where you can get a single Photoshop license for $37.99/£27.99 ex VAT a month per license. It’s worth noting that all the Adobe CC apps, including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, and Acrobat, cost $89.99/£65.49 (ex VAT) per license a month. Sign up on Adobe’s website.  How to cancel a Photoshop subscription The ease with which you can end your Photoshop contract is one of the benefits of Adobe’s decision to switch from selling copies of Photoshop outright to a subscription model. It also means that you only need to pay for Photoshop for as long as you need it. So if it’s just for a short-term project you can unsubscribe as soon as the work is done. Here’s how to cancel your subscription: Sign in to the Adobe web page where plans are managed. Sign in to your Adobe account. Under the My Plans tab find Manage Plan (or View plan) and click on that. Now click on Cancel plan. Give your reason for cancellation. Click on Continue. Best alternatives to Photoshop on Mac? There is plenty of great photo and image editing software available on macOS, many of which come with lower price tags than Adobe products. One of our favorites is Affinity Photo 2 from Serif, which boasts a wide range of powerful tools, a friendly interface and costs $69.99/£67.99 as a one-off payment, and also offers a 30-day free trial. Seriff Another popular choice is GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), which is completely free and comes with an incredible range of tools and features. The interface can take a little getting used to, which is not uncommon with open-source software, but once you get to know your way around, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve. There’s also a large collection of tutorials for the software on YouTube, so if you’re willing to put in the time then it’s a powerful suite that will cost you nothing at all. We also recommend you read Best Mac for photo editing. You may also be interested in: How to get Adobe Illustrator on a Mac and How to get InDesign on a Mac.

Editor's take: Windows 11 brought a slew of UI changes and "improvements" few users welcome. File Explorer's state is particularly dire, yet Microsoft shows no sign of backing off its relentless quest to make the interface worse. What should be a simple file manager is now a confusing mess, frustrating longtime users and driving a flood of third-party fixes. Microsoft's revamp of the Windows 11 File Explorer context menu hid or removed many helpful features, sparking a boom in third-party tools to restore the old interface. Once again, Microsoft is reinventing the wheel with a redesigned Start Menu that brings more frustrating changes to the right-click menu. The Redmond corporation has added a new "AI action" sub-menu to File Explorer's context menu. This change is already available to unpaid beta testers in the Windows Insider program with the recent Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5603 (KB5058488) released to the Dev Channel. Microsoft explains that AI actions in File Explorer offer a deeper interaction with users' files through AI technology. The first four AI actions focus on image editing. Bing Visual Search helps find similar pictures online. Blur Background and Erase Objects automatically detect and modify objects and backgrounds in Photos. Remove Background lets users extract an image's background in Paint. The four AI context menu options support JPG and PNG files but hardly represent an AI revolution. These new actions directly link Bing search or image-editing features from the File Explorer menu – nothing extraordinary about that. Microsoft plans to launch new Copilot-powered AI actions in the coming weeks. Microsoft 365 subscribers will soon get a new "Summarize" option to generate summaries of larger documents – Word, PDF, or TXT – stored on OneDrive and SharePoint. Microsoft also has a "Create an FAQ" feature that utilizes Copilot's chatbot to transform cloud documents into a neatly formatted, AI-generated Q&A list. // Related Stories The new Microsoft 365-exclusive AI actions sound far more promising than a handful of shortcuts to AI tools in a couple of Windows-native image editors. Still, I'd bet a kidney they won't ease the frustration for anyone who's disliked Windows 11 File Explorer since day one. Microsoft's new mission is to bring AI everywhere, so get ready to welcome your fully AI-powered Windows operating system sooner than you think.

Manage Backgrounds with the Free Blueprints Add-on By Robert Rioux on May 20, 2025 Add-ons Robert Rioux offers a free Blender add-on to easily manage background images for modeling. It will automatically set up all views and gives you the possibility to "swap axis" so the the X axis becomes the front view. Itm allows you to adjust all images at the same time too.Link Github: Blueprints add-on

My name is Kaylynn, and I joined Unity as a member of the Diversity Recruiting team in 2022 as a project coordinator. My first priority was to head our conference engagements for the year. While I was initially nervous to lead such an important project, I am very happy to have done so alongside an amazing team, and am excited to share a behind-the-scenes recap of our recruiting travels.To kick off our first in-person conference of the year, members of the University Recruiting team and I headed to Washington, D.C., in September for the Center for Minorities and People with Disabilities in Information Technology’s Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference. The Tapia Conference was a great experience and held true to its 2022 theme, “A Time to Celebrate!” Attendees included undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and professionals in computing from all backgrounds and ethnicities. This was my first in-person recruiting event coming out of the pandemic and my first with Unity overall. I can still remember experiencing jitters before we opened our booth on the first day, but the University team brought me up to speed fast, which boosted my confidence in speaking to students about our internship programs.Looking back at my time at Tapia, my favorite memories come from the engagement opportunities – connecting with others over common backgrounds, ethnicities, disabilities, and genders. Our team really did a great job in fostering the opportunity to develop relationships with candidates that extended beyond the conference itself.At the end of September, I joined several other Unity representatives in Orlando, Florida, for the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC). While I have been to many recruiting events before, I had never been to a conference as big as this one. In 2021, GHC virtually hosted 29,000 people, and holds the record for the world’s largest gathering of women in computing.During our time at the conference, our recruiters had a lot of early mornings and late nights but, nonetheless, it was always fun. We usually started our day at 8:00 am sharp, when we could be spotted running to the shuttle stop to make it to the convention center on time.During the day, attendees could find the smiling and welcoming faces of our team at the booth, talking to potential candidates about the business and open opportunities. The career fair closed each evening at 5:00 pm; however, because we had so many candidates who wanted to speak with us, we would usually stay for an extra 30–45 minutes. Other conference events included participating in onsite internship interviews led by our University team or volunteers from across Unity. Having volunteers available allowed us to carry out all interviews and, later, make some internship offers.Although GHC was full of long days and nights, it was one of my favorite conference engagements because of the talent and drive evident in the room. It was rewarding to connect with so many candidates who were really excited to talk about Unity and eager to show us the projects they have built or are working on with our software.A second reason I enjoyed GHC was due to it being my first chance to meet all my wonderful teammates in person. These days, since we primarily meet and chat virtually, it was nice to see each other in person. The conference gave us the chance to spend five days working together and getting to know one another.In November, my team, our inclusion partners, and ComUnidad – the Latinx Employee Resource Group (ERG) – members packed our bags and headed to Charlotte, North Carolina, for the annual get-together of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE). At the SHPE 2022 National Convention, we met hundreds of candidates from the Latinx community and created relationships with these prospective candidates for upcoming programs.With more than 13,000 students and professionals attending the event, we spoke to many aspiring engineers from different specialties. At the time, I was unaware that there were so many different types of engineering. Other than meeting so many talented engineers, networking, and giving out cool swag at the booth, our team also participated in onsite interviews, which – much like the other events – allowed us to speak to many candidates and, ultimately, make some internship offers.During my time at the booth, candidates shared their interests, projects, and career goals, and it was exciting to hear stories about how their persistence and hard work got them to where they are today. Seeing undergraduate and graduate students juggling finding internships at conferences on top of their busy school and home lives made me feel very proud of all those attending.A week after we wrapped up at SHPE, we headed to Austin, Texas, for Blavity Inc.’s AFROTECH Conference. AFROTECH is known for being the place for all things Black in tech and Web3, and was quite different from our other in-person engagements in 2022. This was because we were not only there to recruit, but we also participated in two additional conference activations: hosting a learning lab and an event in our Austin office.On the Monday, we started with a career fair, which included several team members from Recruiting and B-United – the Black ERG – helping out at the booth. We spent three days speaking to both internship candidates and advanced professionals and tech entrepreneurs.On the second day, Unity hosted a learning lab that showcased our real-time 3D capabilities. As part of the lab, an expert panel featured Unity’s Raymond Graham, Krystal Cooper, and Nick Straughn. Over 300 attendees packed the workshop to engage with our experts and learn more about the panelists’ respective career journeys.On the final day, we wrapped up our AFROTECH activations with an in-office Unity @ AFROTECH event. Unity for Humanity grantee Black Terminus AR joined us, and its founder Damien McDuffie wowed the crowd with an interactive VR exhibit. The in-office event was one of my favorite parts of this conference because it gave such a personal touch to the week. As a company, we were able to connect with candidates and creators on a more intimate level in our cool workspace.Throughout 2022, our team attended and represented Unity at seven virtual or in-person diversity recruiting engagements. In addition to the conferences I shared above, we participated in the National Society of Black Engineers’ annual convention, Latinx in Gaming’s CONEXION, and three QueerTech activations.During my time as a coordinator on some of these projects, I traveled to places I’d never been before, worked with amazing team members, and met candidates with great passion for technology and Unity.While our diversity recruiting approach at Unity includes many additional strategies to build relationships with candidates traditionally underrepresented in tech, I really enjoyed being able to create sustainable relationships with candidates face-to-face during my first year on the team.As we know, it is hard to be what you can’t see. At Unity, this means that showing up to events like these, with representation as a focus, helps us connect with candidates we might never have had the chance to get to know. It was an honor to be a part of these efforts in 2022, and, from a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) perspective, it is great to know that, with each conference we attend and each person we meet, we inch one step closer to connecting underrepresented communities to the world of tech and to Unity.To learn more about Unity’s DEI strategies and initiatives, visit our Inclusion and Diversity page. To explore open roles, check out the Unity Careers site.

Tony's Chocolonely has unveiled a new look, partnering with Chuck Studios to launch a fresh culinary identity that puts the chocolate front and centre. The Dutch impact-led brand, known for its bright wrappers and mission to end exploitation in the cocoa supply chain, is now turning its focus to the product itself, giving its famously chunky bars the spotlight. Chuck Studios, whose client roster includes KFC, McDonald's and Knorr, were brought on to help strengthen Tony's brand distinction in an increasingly saturated category. Their approach started with a simple yet powerful insight: the most iconic thing about a Tony's bar is its unapologetic chunkiness. More than just a texture, the bar's chunky form and famously uneven pieces are a visual metaphor for inequality in the chocolate supply chain. Olaf van Gerwen, co-founder and global creative director at Chuck Studios says: "While Tony's Chocolonely's mission-led marketing built the platform it stands on today, it's the product that will truly set Tony's apart in the crowded chocolate industry." Central to this new culinary identity is the introduction of a new brand asset: 'Neil.' Named after Neil Armstrong, the first man to step on the moon (and leave behind a satisfyingly chunky footprint), Neil is a pair of bite-sized chocolate chunks that represent everything Tony's stands for. They're broken, not cut, thick, not flat, and always shown tilted, with crumbs and inclusions spilling out to evoke deliciousness and dynamism. According to Chuck Studios, consumers often instinctively snap off the same two chunks when opening a bar. By spotlighting these pieces and giving them character, the brand turns a common user behaviour into a memorable visual code. From now on, Neil will appear across all touchpoints as the edible emblem of Tony's. Chuck Studios also developed a detailed system of visual codes designed to boost memorability and ensure consistency across the entire product range. The first of these is the Golden Ratio. Bars should be shown two-thirds wrapped and one-third unwrapped, with torn edges and exposed foil to highlight texture and premium feel. Next is the Balancing Bar. Every bar should be displayed at a 66-degree angle, a detail drawn from Tony's existing visual identity. Then there's the Paper Background: chocolate bars must sit on real paper texture backgrounds, colour-matched to the bar's wrapper, or defaulting to Tony's signature red in group shots. Finally, Inclusions on Show: ingredients inside the bars should always be visible in the shot, with a mix of whole pieces, crumbs and chunks to showcase the bar's flavour and bite. These visual rules apply across Tony's growing product range, from its bestselling Milk Caramel Sea Salt to the US-market Everything Bar. The idea is to create a strong, sensory-first aesthetic that not only looks delicious but also feels unmistakably Tony's. Sadira Furlow, chief marketing officer at Tony's Chocolonely, explains: "As our voice in the cocoa space grows louder and our impact expands, we realised we hadn't yet fully captured the visual magic of our chocolate. We needed a visual language that matched our purpose and passion." The result is a brand identity that invites people to "taste with their eyes" – a move that cleverly balances Tony's ethical mission with indulgent appeal. For a brand that has always challenged the norms of what a chocolate company can be, it marks an important evolution: one that connects its purpose-driven DNA with product-led storytelling. Olaf adds: "Food and product depiction play a huge role in brand building. Developing a culinary identity creates a consistent and ownable representation of your food across touchpoints. In the case of Tony's, it was already a stand-out product on the shelves. "The new culinary identity shines a light on the deliciousness of their chocolate and shows it in a unique way, so it becomes recognisable even without the brand name."

Interviews A Minecraft Movie: Piotr Karwas (VFX Supervisor) & Elizabeth “Liz” Bernard (Animation Supervisor) – Digital Domain By Vincent Frei - 20/05/2025 With 20+ years in film and advertising, Piotr Karwas has supervised VFX for top directors including David Fincher and Tim Burton. His recent work includes The Electric State, Elevation, he’s here today to talk about the Digital Domain work on A Minecraft Movie. After discussing The Electric State with us a few months ago, Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Bernard is back—this time to talk about her work on A Minecraft Movie. How did you and Digital Domain get involved on this show? Piotr Karwas: We were approached by the Warner Bros. VFX team as they were looking to bring on an additional vendor to help complete the remaining visual effects work. It was also an opportunity to be the best dad ever, since both of my kids are huge Minecraft fans. How was the collaboration with Director Jared Hess and VFX Supervisor Dan Lemmon? Piotr Karwas: I’ve known Dan Lemmon since our time working together at Digital Domain. We collaborated on several projects in the early 2000s, so it was a great opportunity to team up again. As for Jared, I’ve been a fan of his work ever since his first feature, Napoleon Dynamite. Years ago, I also had the chance to briefly work on his film Gentlemen Broncos. The blend of Jared’s signature humor with the global phenomenon of Minecraft was simply too exciting to pass up. I knew I wanted to be involved. Although Digital Domain joined the project later in the production process, we quickly got up to speed and delivered our work on time, despite some challenges. What are the sequences made by Digital Domain? Piotr Karwas: Our primary focus was the final battle sequence, but we also contributed to several fully live-action shots featuring set extensions and some CG animation, primarily around the entrance to the mine. Could you walk us through the process of creating the 500+ Piglins and Iron Golems clashing in that 360° battlefield? What were some of the major technical challenges in making that sequence come to life? Piotr Karwas: One of the key creative challenges was striking the right balance between honoring the iconic look and feel of the game while delivering a cinematic, action-packed experience. The goal was to blend a sense of realism through the movement and design of characters and environments with the charm and style of the Minecraft universe. Under the guidance of Jared and Dan, and in close collaboration with the other vendors, we were able to craft something truly unique. The battle unfolds during the Piglin invasion, as the sunny atmosphere of the Overworld begins to transform into a darker, more menacing environment reminiscent of the Nether. The entire battlefield was designed to function seamlessly in both visual states, capturing the warmth and cheer of the original Overworld, while also supporting its dramatic shift into a hellish landscape filled with fire and gloom. Additionally, the stylized world of Minecraft presented some technical hurdles, especially in large scale crowd sequences. The characters’ unconventional anatomy, limited range of motion, and signature fighting styles added an extra layer of complexity but also pushed us to be creative and innovative. Liz Bernard: We started out with 10 piglins, each of which had 2-6 costumes, plus 8 weapons and 2 torches. We were able to get a lot of variety out of that for our piglin horde. The golem army was smaller and more uniform, and golems are too powerful to be messing around with weapons. Instead, they prefer to use their iron arms to smash through their opponents, so we didn’t have as many different iterations, costumes, and such for the iron golems. In Animation, we moved as fast as possible to clean up and modify a big pile of motion capture so that we could provide our Crowds team with over 300 unique animation cycles and clips. Those clips included everything from golems doing windmill arm attacks, to piglins hacking at golem legs with axes and swords, to baby piglins running around in circles, freaking out. Although we started with motion capture for most of the piglin actions, transferring those actions from a full sized human mocap actor onto 10 different blocky piglins with giant angular heads and different body proportions meant each mocap clip needed a lot of adjustment. For example, piglins cannot raise their square little arms very high because their shoulders will quickly crash into the head. Once we had ploughed through that chunk of work, our Crowds team strung those actions together in Autodesk’s Golaem software to create the crowds seen in the backgrounds of our shots. In the mid-ground, we animated a custom set of longer battle vignettes that we could reuse in a number of shots by reorienting them to camera and offsetting their timing. And of course, there was quite a lot of hero animation to fill in the foreground and tell the story of the ebb and flow of battle. Minecraft is known for its blocky aesthetic. How was the animation rigging approached to stay true to that while enhancing the characters’ performance for live action? Liz Bernard: The piglins, hoglins, and wolves were rigged as pretty standard fleshy characters. The wolves had blocky chests and hips, which our Rigging team kept relatively stiff to preserve the original block shape even when we posed the characters in action. Because we were in a hurry on this fast-paced show, we needed to get rigs into Animation’s hands as quickly as possible, so we ended up relying on our shot modeling/sculpting team to adjust some of the characters’ bodies after animation was approved. They paid special attention to the final look of their shoulders, elbows, and knees, to make sure that the bend at each joint stayed as blocky as possible. The iron golems were a lot trickier to get right because they were made of stiff blocks of metal, had no deforming parts, and their joints were extremely simple. We discovered right away that making an iron golem walk meant instant intersections where the legs attach to the hips and the arms attach to the shoulders. So, to solve that problem and get the golems engaged in the battle, we had to give the animators complete control over every body part. This is not something we typically do because it’s easy to go overboard and end up “off model,” but in this scenario, it was absolutely required. This level of control gave the animators the option to offset body parts to achieve the necessary range of movement without visible intersections on screen or gaps in silhouette. Houdini was used to procedurally generate environments for the film. What were some of the most challenging aspects of creating such vast, dynamic landscapes? Piotr Karwas: The environments posed a unique challenge, not just because of their blocky nature, but because it was essential to make the Overworld feel like a tangible, real place. Some design choices were influenced by physical sets that had been built, while others drew inspiration from the real world. We focused on introducing a sense of natural imperfection, subtle elements like slightly uneven lines, worn edges, scuff marks, scattered debris, dirt, and even touches of realistic vegetation. All of this had to be carefully integrated into the strict, grid-based aesthetic of the Minecraft universe. Our environment team rose to the challenge and delivered a highly detailed immersive location, while working under a demanding production schedule. What were the biggest challenges in adapting Minecraft’s creatures and characters into a live-action setting while retaining their iconic charm? Liz Bernard: Because we came onto the project towards the end of shot production, we were able to use other vendors’ work as a rough guide for how our characters should move and behave. The Iron Golems in particular were a fun challenge, and although Sony had a few shots that we could refer to for the overall movement, it was up to us to establish their combat style. We researched how the golems fight in the game, which, as it turns out, is quite simple. We stuck with the game’s stiff legged walk, simple straight arm swings and skyward scoops to match the game’s iron golem attack style as closely as we could. However, purely matching the game wasn’t going to look quite right in a live action environment with human actors. So, on top of the simple performance, we layered weight shifts to counterbalance the heavy arms. We also added some additional step patterns to get them into position to attack piglins so that they would appear clever and more agile without straying too far from the game aesthetic. We also improved the contacts between the golems’ arms and each piglin to really sell the sense of effort and weight in each attack and hit. The destruction of the Overworld Portal seems like a monumental task. How was such an epic scene created, and what role did the environment and FX teams play in bringing it to life? Piotr Karwas: One of the biggest challenges was figuring out the mechanics of how large-scale destruction would play out in the Minecraft world. We had to carefully determine which elements would follow real-world physics and which could behave in a more stylized, game inspired way. We also spent considerable time designing the post-collapse remains to ensure they were visually compelling and cohesive for the staging of the shots that followed. The portal destruction sequence, in particular, appeared in the two widest shots of the entire sequence. These moments required both armies to be on screen, complete with fallen Iron Golems, defeated or pork-chopped Piglins, and digital doubles for every actor. It was a massive technical, logistical, and creative undertaking. We worked on these shots all the way to the final hour. Can you describe the bespoke zombification transformation pipeline developed for the Piglins? How did this process differ from traditional character transformations? Piotr Karwas: By the time we joined the project, the zombification effect had already been largely developed by Weta FX. One of our main challenges was matching their established look while ensuring visual consistency across both their shots and ours. At the same time, we knew we had to push the effect further. After all, this was the grand finale, where the evil army was being defeated. We also wanted the transformation to feel distinct, especially when applied to large numbers of Piglins. To achieve that, we went as far as building complete skeletal systems that could be revealed during the transformation. How was lighting handled to simulate firelit nighttime chaos? What tools or techniques were critical in creating that atmosphere? Piotr Karwas: To achieve the most realistic look, we used actual fire simulations to drive the lighting on both the characters and the environment. We initially started with just a few fires, but Jared was drawn to the striking visual accents and the warm hues they cast on the characters. As a result, we ended up populating the scenes with hundreds of fires. The air was also filled with atmospheric elements like smoke, ash, and embers, all contributing to a richly textured, apocalyptic feel in every shot. To manage this across numerous shots, we developed semi-automated methods to batch simulate the effects efficiently. How was humor incorporated into the animation, especially with subtle gags like pork chops dropping onto the battlefield or background antics? What approach was used to time these moments? Liz Bernard: We had a good time adding easter eggs and gags into this epic battle scene! Piotr let me know early on that Jared would welcome goofy touches, especially on background characters, so I made sure to pass that information on to my team of animators. What did I get back? Nose picks, butt scratches, belly slaps, and all sorts of goofy behaviour in the background. We usually didn’t center those things in the action unless it was called for in the script (in fact, Jared and Dan had to pull us back a few times), but if you look carefully, you’ll find maximum silliness all over the place. And, of course, I have to mention the Great Hog here. He was probably our funniest character and the most challenging to animate. His style of movement was dictated by his unusual proportions, in particular, his itty-bitty legs and long chunky arms. Those stumpy legs meant his stride was super short unless he broke out into a full quadruped gallop, which our team animated with extra oomph and effort to get a good laugh. The Great Hog’s low rider pants took a dive after one particularly strenuous sprint across the battlefield to attack Natalie. When he rose up on hind legs in anticipation of smashing her with his giant blocky fists, Jared wanted to make sure that the audience could see clearly the gag that his butt crack was showing. In VFX, we traditionally call a gradient of options that we would pitch to the client a “wedge.” In this case, we needed to get a read on how low to go with the pants before we simulated them in CFX, so we sent over a “wedge” for the pants and butt crack for Jared to pick from. In this case, I guess it was actually…a wedgie. How was the visual humor seamlessly integrated into the more intense action sequences, and was there a particular moment that captured this balance perfectly? Liz Bernard: The visual humour was baked into the action from the get-go, from game to storyboards to previsualization. I mean, there’s something inherently funny about dozens of piglins in shorts getting smacked high up into the air and then poof! turning into porkchops. When I welcomed each animator to the show, I made a point of mentioning that they were a little more free to tell jokes with pantomime on this show than they might be used to on more realistic productions. Because we were always in a mindset to make each shot as funny as possible without distracting from the story points, the flavour in animation dailies was always funny. My team pitched piglins getting run over by the Great Hog by accident, baby piglins riding on an iron golem attempting to attack its head, some utterly hilarious slow-mo action with exaggerated overlap a la Baywatch, a hoglin and piglin rider mugging for the camera as they gallop by in the foreground, wolves clamped on by their teeth to the waistband of the Great Hog, and a whole lot of over-acted melodramatic writhing as the piglins zombified after the portal collapsed. You don’t have to tell animators twice to be silly. With such a large-scale project, how did the animation and VFX teams collaborate to maintain a cohesive style across both departments? Were there any specific moments where this collaboration stood out? Liz Bernard: This was a ripsnorter of a project timeline, so all departments were hitting the ground running and developing their parts of the project concurrently. That’s always challenging and requires a lot of communication to pull off. We had a bullpen of experienced folks in our show leadership, and knowing what each other’s departments could and couldn’t do saved us a lot of time as we ramped up. For example, we were able to establish a single groundplane early in our animation schedule, which helped us avoid having to adjust the character’s feet contacts to an evolving environment even as artists were still building the overworld battlefield. The Environments team did a great job set dressing the environment after we had placed our animation and crowds’ characters, so that we did not need to worry about running through plants, pebbles, fires, or corpses. The FX department established a workflow with the Crowds team to “porkchop” any crowds piglin that got smacked by crowds’ iron golems. Setting these rules and criteria helped each department streamline their processes. And, our production team did an absolutely incredible job making sure that every department stayed on target, communicated their roadblocks and breakthroughs effectively downstream (and sometimes upstream!), and adjusted the schedule to compensate. I think the moment where this collaboration really shone was when we saw all of the zombification shots at the end of the sequence starting to fall into place. One day, it felt like we had all of them left to tackle, and the next, we had our methodology kinks worked out and they all started to drop like dominoes. Piotr Karwas: As Liz mentioned, the schedule was extremely tight, especially for executing the film’s grand finale. We had to move quickly and strategically, knowing that things would evolve and change throughout production. I’m incredibly grateful to our amazing team at Digital Domain. Across all four locations, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Montreal, and Hyderabad, our artists worked around the clock to bring it all to life. Yes, there were long hours, high stress, and the usual frustrations with technology that doesn’t always behave but in the end, it was all absolutely worth it. Seeing kids enjoy the movie so much made everything worthwhile. Chicken Jockey! Looking back on the project, what aspects of the visual effects are you most proud of? Piotr Karwas: Without a doubt, the Great Hog’s butt crack was the highlight for me. Liz Bernard: Just the sheer scale of this thing is wild. This is one of those “more is more” kinds of projects that don’t come around so often in our world of photorealistic visual effects. Nothing was supposed to be “real” here, everything was exaggerated, every frame we produced was chock full of crazy action, over the top humor, and easter eggs. I’m very proud of our animation team for embracing this hilarious show in a more cartoony style that we don’t often have the opportunity to tackle. And, man, it tickles me that the fans got such a huge kick out of it all when the movie hit theatres. What else can you ask for? How long have you worked on this show? Piotr Karwas: About six months Liz Bernard: Just six months from start to finish. What’s the VFX shots count? Piotr Karwas: Digital Domain delivered 187 shots not including omits. What is your next project? Piotr Karwas: A Minecraft Movie I hope. Jokes aside, I’m looking at a whole slate of different projects. Liz Bernard: All I can say right now is that it’s a science fiction film that comes out in 2026. Stay tuned! A big thanks for your time. WANT TO KNOW MORE?Digital Domain: Dedicated page about A Minecraft Movie on Digital Domain website. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

The popularity of the actual play show Critical Role helped make 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons wildly successful. But now, Critical Role Productions has become more than a booster and frequent collaborator for D&D: It’s become a competitor. After years in development, Daggerheart, a tabletop RPG from Critical Role’s publishing imprint, Darrington Press, launches today. And the book shows just how much lead designer Spenser Starke and the book’s other designers have learned from playing 5e, as they address some of that game’s biggest issues.Problem: Failure is boringThere are few things as satisfying as rolling a natural 20 in a clutch situation in D&D, but D&D’s d20 system has a big drawback. It’s inherently very swingy, with a wide range from success to failure, and it can lead to situations where failure means the PCs accomplish nothing, and the story doesn’t move forward in a meaningful way. Roll low, and you might miss an attack, miss a key clue needed to progress the plot, or be unable to bypass a locked door to get to the next goal.Daggerheart changes the math by having players roll two d12s and add the results, which generally smooths the probability curve in favor of success. But the more significant change is a system inspired by how Fantasy Flight’s Star Wars roleplaying game represents the pull of the light side and dark side of the Force. One of the d12s represents hope, while the other is fear, and the higher number determines which aspect is dominant in the totalled roll.Succeeding with hope is nothing but good news for the PCs. Failing with hope gives them a hope point, a resource that can be spent on numerous special abilities, as a sort of consolation prize. Fear, in turn, gives the game master a fear point they can use to introduce complications or activate abilities for antagonistic NPCs.That system, combined with a collaborative narrative focus, means there’s never an instance where a roll has no effect. If you can’t pick that lock, you might hear guards approaching, or even trigger a trap, depending on whether you failed with hope or fear. Miss a roll with fear in combat, and an antagonist will get a turn to act. Failure always has consequences that move the game forward.Image: Darrington PressProblem: Advantage and disadvantage are too significantOne of 5e’s key mechanics is the concept of advantage and disadvantage — rolling two d20s and taking the better or worse result, respectively. It’s an elegant way to avoid having numerous modifiers for conditions like being aided by an ally or trying to strike a hidden foe. But the math makes those edges and penalties too significant.Daggerheart keeps the concept, but changes the effect to adding or subtracting a d6. The game also simplifies D&D’s laundry list of conditions — “grappled,” “paralyzed,” “heavily obscured,” etc. — to just three options: “hidden,” “restrained,” and “vulnerable.” It creates a convenient way to modify rolls without making GMs worry about the specific mechanics too much.Problem: Species and background choices are too importantIn the original 5e ruleset, players had to limit their species and background choices to ensure they got attribute boosts to the key stats for their class, or risk not being able to hit as frequently or do as much damage as players who made the more optimized choices. The 2024 ruleset removed attribute bonuses from species, but instead shunted them into backgrounds. That means you’re operating at a real disadvantage if, for story reasons, you want your wizard to have been a soldier instead of a scribe.Attributes are entirely divorced from these decisions in Daggerheart, and just assigned based on what’s best for your character class. The other decisions give you flavorful minor abilities that might be better for some classes, but are fairly broadly applicable, like a giant having extra hit points, or a person who grew up in the wilderness being able to move silently. It keeps the mechanics from getting in the way of the fantasy.Image: Darrington PressProblem: Spellcasters have a lot more choices than non-castersAdmittedly, this isn’t a problem for everyone. Some new TTRPG players can be intimidated by lots of options, and might prefer the simplicity of playing a fighter who’s mostly going to move and attack on their turn, rather than considering which spells to use and prepare. Wizards of the Coast worked to offer more complexity to martial characters in the 2024 rules with the weapon mastery system, but mostly created more subclasses that are hybrids of casters and weapon-wielders.No matter your class, Daggerheart characters all have equivalent options, thanks to a card system reminiscent of 4e D&D or Gloomhaven. Every level, characters get to choose new cards, which could represent a wizard using a runic ward, or a bard bolstering their allies with a pep talk. The modularity of the system also makes it easier to multiclass by just taking cards associated with other classes, at the price of digging deeper into your base abilities.There’s still more work to be doneFor all the problems they’ve solved, the Daggerheart designers left some big holes that need filling. The downtime action section is very thinly sketched. The game is deeply ambivalent about loot, preferring to abstract treasure rewards and costs into amounts like “a handful of gold” or “a chest of gold.” Upgrading gear is important to stay competitive, but the section on weapons is the weakest past of the entire book: Weapons follow a clear linear progression based on character tier, but their stats are printed over and over again, rather than being condensed with the formula.And GMs are encouraged to come up with their own gear, but there are no tools provided. Special items only available at higher tiers have random names, like Wand of Essek or Aantari Bow, with no descriptions to give them the character of powerful D&D magic items.But overall, Daggerheart is a strong evolution of medieval fantasy roleplaying. It shows a deep understanding of Dungeons & Dragons’ flaws, addressing them by drawing on the strengths of other systems. Even for groups not ready to fully make the switch to a new game, the book can provide some inspiration for making a D&D game a bit better.Daggerheart is available for purchase now at through Critical Role shops and local game stores in the Darrington Press Guild, which offer a PDF free with a physical copy. The core set will arrive at Amazon and book stores including Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million starting June 3. The free beta playtest is still available at DriveThruRPG.For those who want to see Daggerheart in action, Critical Role has released several one-shots and specials. “Age of Umbra,” new eight-episode series run by Matthew Mercer will launch on May 29.See More:

Jr. User Acquisition Manager (f/m/d)Kolibri GamesBerlin, Germany2 minutes agoApplyWe are Kolibri Games - a mobile games developer from Berlin. We believe that with the best people, we can make games that players will enjoy for years to come.Our games have defined the idle genre, and bring enjoyment to hundreds of millions of players all around the world. This is possible due to the talented people who make us who we are. ‘Kolibris’, as we call ourselves, are on a mission to continue making great games and we're looking for new talent to join our team. We strive to offer you a fair recruitment process and a great candidate experience, as well as a friendly environment to work in, with plenty of opportunities to learn and grow.Jr. User Acquisition Manager (f/m/d)We are looking for a User Acquisition Manager to work within our marketing team and help acquire new players for our current and future mobile games.Working with a highly experienced team, you will plan and manage marketing campaigns. Monitor and optimize our UA campaigns and help to increase our global game presence. We’re keen to find a passionate gamer with a quantitative mindset and a strong hypothesis-driven approach, who can dive into data and help optimize based on key KPIs and company goals.ResponsibilitiesPlan and execute user acquisition campaigns across various user acquisition channels: social media, video ad networks, and incentivized.Analyze and optimize UA campaigns based on internal performance KPIs.Test ad creatives and provide input and data-driven insights into creative development.Provide input for marketing automation.Manage day-to-day partner relations;Stay up-to-date with industry trends and explore new scaling opportunities.RequirementsAnalytical skills and mindset;A team player who can adapt easily to others;Highly motivated, hands-on, and a well-organized work approach;Basic knowledge of user acquisition campaign channels such as Meta, Google, Unity, TikTok.Proficiency in Excel/Google Sheets; basic data analysis and visualization skills.Clear verbal and written communication in English.Desirable skillsUp to 1 year of experience in digital marketing, preferably in performance/user acquisition marketing.Familiarity with mobile measurement platforms (e.g., Adjust, Appsflyer) is a plus.Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Economics, Data Science, or a related field.Passion for games, especially mobile gamesKolibri Games is an equal opportunity employer. We come from 40 different countries and many different backgrounds. We celebrate diversity and we are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees, regardless of their age, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, physical appearance or disability.We are an international studio, so don’t forget to send in your application in English. Although it is not mandatory, we always appreciate a cover letter stating your motivation to join us.We look forward to hearing from you!Your Benefits – We’re game to support youCompetitive Salary - We believe that top performers should receive top paymentLearning Budget - We believe in learning. A generous personal learning budget to spend on learning and development, including books, workshops and attending conferences. We also offer in-house training such as coding and German classesFlexible Working Hours and Home Office – We believe in a good work-life balanceEquipment - State-of-the-art technical equipment, including laptops and phones, which may also be used in your free timeKolicard - We offer you a monthly flexible budget of 50 euros that you can use for a gym membership, transportation, shopping etc.Mobility budget - We offer a monthly budget that will make your commuting to work easierRelocation - Relocation support to help you move to BerlinPension - Opportunity to save for your pension tax-freeBonus Level – We love to have a good time, tooFood and Drinks - Fresh fruits to keep you healthy and fresh coffee to keep you alert. We also have a fully stocked fridge with Smoothies, Coke, Club Mate, beer etcParties and Team Events - Apart from our regular parties, BBQs and movie nights we also have a team event budget you can use to buy games or sports equipment to make working here even more funCompany Holidays - Every year we go on an amazing company holiday to relax and bond as a teamFriday Celebrations - Company-provided dinner and drinks on Friday afternoons Create Your Profile — Game companies can contact you with their relevant job openings. Apply

If you watch anime, particularly of the shonen variety, you likely know Toei Animation. The studio is best known for adapting popular manga like Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon, and it’s got plenty of work coming out. When those series and films release, some may have been made with artificial intelligence. In Toei’s recently published financial briefing for 2024-2025’s fiscal year, one slide reveals the studio’s invested an undisclosed sum of money into Preferred Networks, a Japanese company with “cutting-edge AI technologies.” The two hope to “co-develop new business opportunities and improve the efficiency and quality of our production, capitalizing on synergies between AI and animation production technologies.” © Toei Toei is specifically eyeing AI usage for storyboards in productions, along with coloring (and color specification), backgrounds, and in-betweens. Use cases cited include having the technology automatically correcting in-between or specifying and picking the correct colors, and generating backgrounds from referenced photos. At the time, the slide only talks about future prospects, and makes no mention of the technology being incorporated in the studio’s current works like One Piece or the upcoming Digimon BeatBreak and Gosu. AI has been controversial to use and discuss across the larger entertainment industry. While it’s often been argued to be a means of efficiency and helpful to reducing menial work, workers across different creative fields like (voice acting and art) feel their livelihoods have been threatened by studios’ adoption of the technology and its integration into projects without artists’ consent. Others consider it a form of theft or digital necromancy that could add extra steps to the production process or lead to unintended errors upon release. Toei’s a big company, and how it uses the technology will impact everyone, from other studios to the fans who watch their works. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

About Us:Revenue Vessel is a growing, venture backed software company on a mission to revolutionize how logistics companies sell. In 13 months, we’ve built a product that our customers love, hundreds of thousands in ARR (doubled in the last 3 months), and a path to grow to over a $1.8M in revenue in the next 12 months. Most notably, we’ve only spent as much cash as our current revenue, meaning that we’re already an efficient business.Revenue Vessel is operating in the highly-specialized vertical of logistics, but we’re doing something totally different than other logistics software companies. While other companies sell to operations teams that have entirely unique, mission critical processes, we’re taking advantage of a key secret: every logistics team sells roughly the same, and all of them are poorly served right now.The three co-founders have strong backgrounds in the space: former Head of Demand Gen at Flexport, former top performing SDR manager at Flexport, former Head of Eng at Rutter API, respectively.This could be a billion dollar business, and we don’t need to compete with other Silicon Valley founders in order to get there. We just need your help to pull it off.Role Overview:You will be joining an engineering team of 4, all former startup veterans, as a senior technical IC. You will be given a large chunk of responsibility over the product, and as an early member of the team, you will be a key part of shaping our culture, growing the company, and building an amazing product. You will be expected to tackle projects across front end, backend, or data engineering.For one role, we’re looking for an engineer who can help us the underlying data infrastructure that can support the definitive customer record for this industry. We still need our engineers to be generalists, so we want some full-stack experience, but if you love backend and data, we have a spot for you building something exciting.For our other open role, we’re looking for an engineer who dreams about talking to customers, mapping out requirements, and then spitting out code faster than Cursor’s terrible memory management can handle.You will LOVE this job if:You want to work closely with smart, high integrity, personal growth-oriented co-workers.You enjoy working independently and quickly on things.You are a product-oriented or data-oriented engineer who cares first and foremost about solving customer problems.You are excited to take radical ownership of features and systems.You love being in the thick of it all, understanding the whole workings of a startup, and building a plane as we fall from the sky.This job is NOT for you if:You want the immediate cushy and chill life that a large, stable tech company provides.You find yourself excelling in highly-structured, hoop-jumping cultures.You are worried about taking on personal risk.You want to move into engineering management in the next two years (we probably won’t hire a big team for a while) or build a big team around you.In order to excel here, you will need to:be the type of person who never shies away from a problem just because you haven’t done it before.Learn quickly and teach yourself new concepts as neededBe familiar with our tech stack (TypeScript, Next.JS, TypeORM, React, Postgres, Heroku)Be familiar with full-stack web development as well as backend/data work, and excel at one of them.Write solid code quickly and understand when speed trumps quality and vice versa.Communicate incredibly well and proactively communicate status and priorities.A typical week might involve building a new feature, polishing the product for a 10/10 customer experience, and scaling our systems as our user count grows.Company Values:The company values these things. If you’re excited about this, we’re excited about you. If these aren’t you, then we’re probably not the right place.Brutal focus: We do one thing at a time, and we do it extremely well. Right now, we’re building sales tools for logistics companies. We say no to everything else, even if someone was waving a $1M check in front of our eyes.Too high integrity: We believe that integrity in business is incredibly important. We’d happily lose some money if it meant doing right by a customer or prospect.Improve and Get Better Every Day: We believe in making the business and ourselves 1% better every day. As we make more money, we plan to re-invest most of it in improving our existing team as well as our processes. We give and take kind, candid feedback, and we’re always looking for ways to become better.You want to build a money printing machine: We believe that at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is cash in vs cash out.What We Offer:Fully remote work environment with flexible hoursExtremely Generous equity (we want you to feel so invested in the company's success that you make away like a bandit)Competitive cash compFor US employees, top-tier health insurance, dental, (optional) life insurance, (optional) therapy through talkspaceApplication Process:Our interview process includes a round of interviews focused on your technical skills and problem-solving approach. Once we’re sure you can code, we have another interview focused on culture fit.Apply NowLet's start your dream job Apply now Meet JobCopilot: Your Personal AI Job HunterAutomatically Apply to Remote Full-Stack Programming JobsJust set your preferences and Job Copilot will do the rest-finding, filtering, and applying while you focus on what matters. Activate JobCopilot