Blender Gets Serious About Physics + a Motion Designer Built His Own App | Motion Mondays

A motion designer at Shopify built a whole new mograph app from scratch, and Blender is having a big week for physics simulations.

This week, Caddis is a new GPU-accelerated mograph and compositing app, free in open beta now. On the Blender side, ZOZO's free Contact Solver add-on tackles mesh interpenetration in cloth sims, and Blender 5.2 Alpha adds cloth tearing via Geometry Nodes. After Effects Beta added color labels for individual effects, the same way you already label layers.

Also this week, Node Ninja, our free C4D plugin, is closing in on 900 downloads in its first week. Aharon Rabinowitz has a Curious Refuge workshop on May 27th, and Portfolio Review is May 28th. Beeble launched Canvas, an AI-powered node-based compositor, and Genesis brings in-engine camera tracking to Unreal Engine 5.7. Cool work this week from Canva's stop-motion Italian campaign, a hallucinatory short from Yoko Yuki, and TheLittleLabs' Cloudy and Friends Kickstarter. Student spotlight is Bethany Vaughan from Electronic Arts.

New Course: Cavalry Kickstart

We are excited to release Cavalry Kickstart, a 13-hour foundational course taught by Greg Stewart for motion designers ready to think procedurally and build flexible animation systems that would take hours to set up in After Effects. Learn to create mograph-style effects, dynamic text animations, and responsive templates that update in real time.

[LEARN MORE]

Please Note: Cavalry Kickstart is included as a part of our All-Access and Team Training programs.

New Course: Cinema 4D Insider

We are also excited to release Cinema 4D Insider, a 4-hour professional-level course taught by EJ Hassenfratz that transforms how you work in Cinema 4D! It covers faster workflows, scene organization, Redshift mastery, and team-ready production techniques.

[LEARN MORE]

Please Note: Cinema 4D Insider is included as a part of our All-Access and Team Training programs.

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

• FREE: Node Ninja (free plugin)

• NEW: Cavalry Kickstart

• NEW: Cinema 4D Insider

• Advanced Motion Methods

• Courses & workshops coming soon

🗒️ SHOW NOTES

• AE Beta - Color Labels for Effects

• Caddis (free beta)

• Node Ninja (free)

• Aharon's Curious Refuge Workshop

• Fire and Ice - Aharon's AI Short

• Motion Upscaler

• Water Sparkles Preset (free)

• Beeble Canvas

• Figma Design Agent

• Genesis - Unreal Engine Camera Tracker

• ZOZO Contact Solver (free)

• Blender 5.2 Alpha - Cloth Tearing

🎨 ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

• Canva "Wild Design" - Stop-Motion Campaign

• Yoko Yuki - Short Film / Music Video

• TheLittleLabs - Cloudy & Friends Kickstarter

• SOM Student of the Week - Bethany Vaughan (Advanced Motion Methods)

• Bethany Vaughan's portfolio