Adobe's Major Partnership Announced & Blender Gets New Leadership | Motion Mondays

Adobe builds a future with Runway, Blender has a changing of the guard, and Tencent introduces an AI retopology tool that looks like the real deal.

This week, we're covering Adobe's announcement of a multi-year partnership with Runway that gives Creative Cloud users exclusive early access to Gen 4.5 and other cutting-edge AI video tools. We're also saying goodbye to an era as Blender founder Ton Roosendaal officially steps down after 32 years. Plus, Tencent just dropped PolyGen 1.5, and it might be the best AI retopology we've ever seen—could manual retopo finally be a thing of the past?

We've got a sweet new After Effects plugin called Delay Motion Pro that brings C4D-Delay Effector style follow-through animation to AE, Nick Greenawalt's viral projection mapping tutorial, and Maxon dropping Cinebench 2026 while also fumbling an AI announcement that didn't go over well. We're looking at Dell's massive new 52-inch 6K monitor, checking out a cool new design reference site called SearchSystem, and exploring Rokoko's take on whether AI will replace mocap. As always we’re highlighting incredible work from Moth Studio using Rive, Steven Ong's new reel, School of Motion alumni Marina Nakagawa, and even an AI Star Wars fan film.

⚡️ New Course: UX Animation Essentials

We are excited to release UX Animation Essentials, where you’ll learn to transform static interfaces into engaging experiences using industry-standard UX motion tools. You'll work through a realistic music app project from kickoff call to developer handoff, learning not just how to animate interfaces, but why certain motion choices solve specific user problems. You’ll also get introduced to the strategic toolkit - Figma for rapid prototyping, After Effects for polished assets, ProtoPie for gesture-based interactions, and Rive for runtime animation - while also learning when to reach for each tool, how to speak the language of product teams, and how to spec your work so engineers can build it.

LEARN MORE ➔

Please Note: UX Animation Essentials is included as a part of our All-Access and Team Training programs.

🎓 SCHOOL OF MOTION COURSES MENTIONED

• School of Motion All-Access

• School of Motion Team Training

• Photoshop & Illustrator Unleashed

• NEW: UX Animation Essentials

• Courses & workshops coming soon

🗒️ SHOW NOTES

• Intro to Viral Projection Mapping

• Delay Motion Pro for After Effects

• Introduction to Data Binding

• Maxon Cinebench 2026

• Maxon teases Digital Twin

• Blender's Founder/CEO steps down

• Dell announces the first 52" 6k monitor

• Adobe and Runway Partnership

• Tencent releases Hunyuan 3D Studio 1.1

• Will Generative AI Replace Motion Capture in 2026?

• SearchSystem - Design Reference Site

🎨 ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

• Moth Studio for Zoe

• Marina Nakagawa showreel

• Star Wars Beggars Canyon - Short film

• SOM Student of the Week - Harini Aroul Arassou

• Harini Aroul Arassou's LinkedIn