Ben Affleck on AI and VFX
Ben Affleck’s take on AI in VFX is interesting mainly because it says the quiet part out loud. Yes, some AI tools will replace parts of CGI work, mostly the repetitive and background stuff, and yes, the reason is money and speed. That is already happening.
What makes the whole thing slightly ironic is that AI is called “just a tool” right up until someone loses work or income, then it suddenly feels very real. Some people are already seeing jobs reduced, shots replaced, or income cut, especially in smaller productions and ads. Others point out the costs, the energy, the ROI, and say the bubble might crack.
So we are stuck in the middle. AI is either the future, an expensive experiment, or both at the same time. Very comforting stuff, obviously
ComfyUI Free 5 Hour Course
If you want to learn ComfyUI properly in 2026, this beginner friendly course by Pixaroma is an excellent place to start. The five hour course begins from the basics and focuses on understanding how diffusion based image generation works, how nodes connect, and how to build workflows step by step.
I watched the entire course myself, and even after working with ComfyUI regularly, I still found several useful insights.
This is not a sponsored recommendation, and I do not know the creator personally, but as an educator I genuinely feel people should not spend money unnecessarily when such high quality content is freely available.
If you are serious about learning ComfyUI, this course is well worth your time.
VES Awards 2026
The VES nominations are out, and on paper it looks like business as usual. ILM leads with 16 nominations, Avatar: Fire and Ash racks up ten, and projects like Andor and Jurassic World: Rebirth show where the big VFX swings are still happening.
Whatever happened at the Annie Awards, the VES remains the place where craft actually gets recognized. This is the part of awards season that still cares about pipelines, complexity, and the people who made the impossible shots work, not just brand heat or franchise fatigue.
That said, none of this magically fixes anything. Awards do not shorten crunch time, stabilize budgets, or improve job security for most artists.
They do not stop credits from being missed or schedules from collapsing. The VES celebrates excellence, and that matters, but the industry problems everyone talks about all year are still very much alive the morning after the trophies are handed out. It is a nice spotlight, just not a solution.
Flux 2 Klein
Fast image generation, real editing, local, and running on consumer GPUs. Under a second inference on paper, a few seconds in real use, and suddenly the whole “you need a massive cloud setup” story starts to wobble a bit.
The fact that the 4B model is Apache-2 licensed makes it even more awkward for anyone betting purely on closed platforms. You can generate, edit, and move on without asking permission or watching a meter tick up in the background.
The slightly absurd part is how normal this already feels. Running an LLM, image generation, and image editing on a single GPU, at the same time, with enough VRAM left to actually work, is not supposed to be possible yet.
But here it is, just casually doing it. Five seconds per image, prompt enhancement baked in, edits handled like it is no big deal. This is one of those releases that does not scream hype, but quietly shifts expectations. And once expectations move, it is very hard to push them back.
48 laws of VFX
Inspired by Robert Greene’s timeless The 48 Laws of Power, we’ve distilled the essence of navigating the VFX industry into The 48 Laws of VFX. This guide isn’t about manipulation or office politics—it’s about understanding the unspoken codes of the craft, the workflows, and the psychology of working in a fast-paced, creatively demanding environment.
Never Outshine the Supervisor
Let them take the credit; their approval keeps you in the game.
Never Put All Your Talent in One Software
Versatility is your weapon. Don’t let dependency limit your power.
Conceal Your Deadlines, Reveal Only Results
Always appear in control, even if the render crashed an hour ago.
Always Have a WIP
Even if you’re stuck, show progress. Deadlines demand appearances.
Learn to Steal Like an Artist
Every VFX breakthrough builds on someone else’s node tree.
Don’t Fix What Isn’t Broken
If the client is happy, resist the urge to tweak.
Read rest here : https://topicroomsvfx.com/psychology/the-48-laws-of-vfx/
