Real-time NPCs and optical mocap

A quieter stretch on the release calendar, with one genuinely big swing in it: optical-quality motion capture without the optical rig.

Move AI Genesis

Move AI announced Genesis, a markerless motion-capture system it built with EA, aiming for optical-quality results from ordinary video. The pitch is studio-grade capture without the suit or the marker setup, which would put high-end animation in reach of much smaller teams. EA's involvement is the tell: this is aimed at production, not demos.

Also this week

Convai's new Unity SDK

Convai shipped a new Unity SDK built on WebRTC transport, with NeuroSync driving real-time lip-sync. The result is conversational NPCs that talk and move their mouths in sync, inside Unity, at runtime.

Cascadeur 2026.1

The physics-aware animation tool added a new PBR renderer, AI Root Motion, and Unreal Live Link, so you can push animation straight into an Unreal scene.

Moonlake gains computer use

Moonlake's world-modeling agent can now operate Blender directly, clicking through the actual UI rather than just emitting scripts. Another step toward AI that drives your DCC tools instead of replacing them.

Suno v5.5

Suno's music model reached v5.5, adding owned voices, custom models, and what the team calls learned taste. Useful if you are scoring a trailer or prototyping a soundtrack.

Quick hits

Dash 1.11 lets you draw scattering presets straight into the viewport. RealityScan 2.1.1 improved COLMAP and Gaussian-splat prep. Ultra Dynamic Sky v9.4 added a flexible water-level system for varied biomes.

More soon.