The Viral Formula Unlocked + After Effects Plugin of the Year? | Motion Mondays

A long-hidden After Effects stylization extension comes to light, Epic (barely) teases Unreal Engine 6, and a developer just made all of his plugins free.

This week, DIIS arrives from Croatian studio Dammit, 15-year-in-the-making After Effects stylization extension that turns non-photorealistic rendering styles into one-click presets, no roto or masking required. Epic's Unreal Engine 6 announcement amounted to a logo reveal at an esports tournament, though Tim Sweeney's plan to unify standard Unreal with Unreal Editor for Fortnite is worth watching. Rive pushed a major UI overhaul that makes the tool significantly faster to navigate, and developer Davey of Motion Fun made his entire plugin catalog free, citing AI-compressed dev time as the reason the old model no longer holds up.

Also this week, Photoshop 27.7 landed with seven AI features and mixed reviews, Illustrator's Blend tool got a useful panel upgrade, and the Blender VHS Generator brings retro compositor looks in-engine. Frame Rate released a brand manifesto film by The Furrow and offers a hot deal for the SOM audience (see show notes below). Our friend Emonee LaRussa is teaching her viral growth system in a five-week camp, and Joey's Ringling FutureProof keynote "You Don't Need a Job" is now on YouTube. Also School of Motion has a new free resources tab including the 500 Studios ebook, the Motion Design Hiring Guide, and Node Ninja - a free Cinema 4D plugin that builds a complete Redshift material in one click.

New FREE Tool: Node Ninja

School of Motion just launched its first free Cinema 4D plugin, and it solves one of the most tedious parts of working with Redshift. Node Ninja reads your texture folder and builds a complete, production-ready Redshift material automatically: every map connected, every node wired, color spaces set correctly. One click. Done.

GET NODE NINJA FREE →

Please Note: Node Ninja is a free download - no credit card required. Works on Mac and Windows.

Did you know?

School of Motion has two FREE courses!

Path to Mograph is an in-depth look at a career as a Motion Designer, aimed at students who are ready to start their mograph journey.

Level Up is for motion designers who've already gotten started, but need to figure out the next step in their career.

If you decide to take the plunge into All-Access, then you'll also get access to our Jobs Board, as well as monthly livestreams and workshops with industry experts!

All that on top of joining our amazing SOM Community, and access to ALL of our courses, with unlimited (real human!) coursework critiques!

🎓 School of Motion Courses Mentioned

• School of Motion All-Access

• School of Motion Team Training

• Unreal for Broadcast Designers

• Courses & workshops coming soon

🗒️ Show Notes

• DIIS for After Effects

• Unreal Engine 6 tease

• SOM Free Resources

• Node Ninja (free C4D plugin)

• Rive Editor 0.8 changelog

• Motion Fun (free plugins)

• Photoshop 27.7 release notes

• Illustrator Blend Tool demo

• VHS Generator for Blender

• Frame Rate (use code SOM15 for 15% off your first year)

• Emonee LaRussa Secret Formula

• You Don't Need a Job (keynote)

🎨 Artist Spotlight

• Art & Graft + Marina Nakagawa — Made By Dyslexia

• Buck - Spotify Mix Tools

• Digital Kitchen - Spider-Noir titles

• Student Spotlight - Gareth Bowden

• Gareth Bowden's portfolio