Black Friday means my inbox (and I’m sure yours) is full of sales from every tool and platform competing for attention, and while some of them absolutely deserve your time and money, others are more of a distraction.

So I figured this was the perfect opportunity to put together my top picks of tools, plugins, and resources for creating bigger, better worlds faster (that just happen to have a big discount right now.)

But first here's the weekly roundup of changes in tools and technology that are shaping the future of worldbuilding and creative work.

NEW TECH UPDATES

Weekly Roundup

1. Hunyuan 3D Studio Upgrades to 1.1

Tencent’s Hunyuan 3D Studio has been updated to V1.1 with the Hunyuan 3D-PolyGen 1.5 model, which is explicitly aimed at moving AI-generated meshes closer to production-friendly topology rather than just concept sculpts.

Their approach is to learn native quad topology end-to-end, so instead of only triangle based meshes, PolyGen 1.5 tries to produce cleaner loops and more readable wireframes to reduce how much retopo you need before bringing assets into a game engine.

This looks like another step toward “AI that gives you something you can actually rig, UV, and bake,” but still not a magic replacement for manual modeling or cleanup yet.

Check out Hunyuan 3D 1.1

2. Cascadeur Updates to V.2025.3

Nekki released the 2025.3 version of their physics-based animation software this week. For those unfamiliar with Cascadeur, it positions itself as a semi-automated/AI assisted toolset for rigging, posing, and animating characters (though it does contain standard tools as well). The update includes:

Reworked Inbetweening: Inbetweening has been fundamentally redesigned. It is now part of the Timeline Interpolation system, allowing you to combine Inbetweening and standard interpolation per animation track. Style settings can be adjusted directly from the Timeline context menu for a faster workflow.

Quadruped Support: As of this week's update, the AutoPosing tools now officially support non-humanoid characters (quadrupeds), a long-requested feature for creature animators.

Filament Renderer in Viewport (Alpha): A first preview of the new Filament Renderer (from Google) is offered for download as a separate Windows-only installer. It introduces improved lighting, shadows, ambient occlusion and material-based rendering.

Check out the release blog.

3. RealityScan Updates to Mobile & Desktop

Mobile 1.8​ 

• AR point-cloud overlay while shooting

• New Object Mode with automatic background removal

• Improved in-app cleanup tools (lasso/rectangle selection)

• Focus-peaking and capture timer for sharper, more consistent input

• Optional continuous light for dark environments

Together this should make quick mobile prop scans more reliable and easier to clean.

​Desktop 2.1​ 

• Support for mixing photos with LiDAR/SLAM datasets

• Import and filter classified point clouds (.las/.laz)

• More stable alignment on mixed data

• Cleaner UV unwrapping and updated texture tools

• New export controls + CLI/API hooks for batch processing

THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHT
Black Friday | Cyber Monday

None of these are affiliated or sponsored in any way. They’re just what I’ve been using and testing and would purchase again myself even at full price.

If you prefer to watch a more in-depth video on these tools and resources you can check out the dedicated video I did on Black Friday ​over on YouTube.

1. Dash by Polygonflow

​If you spend serious time in Unreal Engine, Dash is the worldbuilding plugin that somehow makes things both easier AND more controllable. Scattering, roads, terrain, physics-based placement, all without diving into Unreal’s technical depths. 30% off perpetual plans right now, and they just dropped a full demo scene so you can test every feature in one place.

2. Marmoset Toolbag 5

Marmoset is 20% off all licenses right now, but if you’ve been on the fence for the perpetual license, now’s actually a smart time to consider it. Unlike most perpetual deals, Marmoset doesn’t limit upgrades to a year but by major version. Since v5 just dropped, you’re getting maximum runway before you’d need to pay again. And, if you had a v4 license, dig up that October email because your 30% upgrade code stacks with the Black Friday discount.

3. Premium Asset Packs

There are countless places to source 3D assets and most of them run sales pretty regularly. But Black Friday is specifically the time to consider the higher-end kits because the steep discounts make the biggest difference when the entry point is already high.

​Kitbash3D​ is running 40% off both their Unlimited subscription as well as individual kits.

​Big Medium Small​ (my favorite source) has their entire catalog at 40% off as well.

I know many of us just create most of what we use, but I’ve found it incredibly helpful to pull apart these premium kits and really study how top artists structure their assets. There’s just simply a huge difference between the passable, affordable stuff floating around online and kits built by artists working at a high level in the industry right now.

If you’re earlier in your 3D journey, I genuinely can’t recommend this highly enough as a way to build a reference point for how things should be done.

I previously owned the Tokyo Back Alleys, Greebles, and Astronova, and have now picked up the newer Cyberpunk collection which are all worth it whether you’re actually kitbashing scenes together or just learning from how they’re built.

4. William Faucher’s Easy Suite

His entire lineup on Fab is 30% off (Easy Mapper, Easy Atmos, Easy Fog, Easy Rain, Easy Snow, and Easy Toolbag). These lean more film/VFX than gamedev, but I use them constantly for personal projects and portfolio renders when I need to add environmental elements quickly.

5. Ultra Dynamic Sky

A complete sky and weather system that gives you way more (intuitive) control over lighting, clouds, time of day, and atmosphere than Unreal’s defaults. Normally $50, currently 50% off through the weekend.

6. Electronic Nodes + Darker Nodes

A bit of a deep cut pick but Electronic Nodes turns your Unreal Blueprint spaghetti into clean circuit-board-style wiring with 45/90 degree angles, and Darker Nodes gives you a more modern editor theme with better fonts and colors.

More quality-of-life than essential, but both 30% off through Cyber Monday if you’re planning to spend more time in Unreal’s node editors.

7. Hardops + Boxcutter

These two add-ons are responsible for me switching from Maya to Blender.

Hard Ops handles modifiers, bevels, mirroring, and workflow automation while Boxcutter lets you draw boolean cuts directly in the viewport. Together with the (essentially) free Machine3Tools, they create a non-destructive toolkit that made it impossible for me to go back to Maya.

30% off on Superhive right now.

8. RizomUV

I’ve been meaning to try this for ages but kept hesitating at the price. RizomUV is a dedicated UV application built purely for speed and packing efficiency (auto-unwrapping, smart seam placement, industry-leading packing algorithms, UDIM support).

If it can make the most mechanical part of 3D genuinely faster, it’s probably worth full price, but 30% off until December 7 means it’s finally leaving my wishlist.

Also worth mentioning: RetopoFlow 4 is also 25% off on Superhive if you’re looking to spend less time on retopo in 2026.

9. Courses/Education

I wouldn't have made it through 3D art school or gotten to where I am now without both the free content these creators put out every week and their paid courses when I was ready to go deeper.

​Blender Bros​ is 50% off (their Hard Ops/Boxcutter and Hard Surface Game Assets courses got me started)

​CGCookie​ is 30% off premium courses

​Unreal Sensei​ is 50% off his masterclass

​Bad Decision Studios​ has a big discount on their UE courses (more VFX/filmmaking vs game art) but I just had to shout out these guys as a thank you to all of the genuinely positive energy they bring to our space.