Figma Adds Animation + Adobe Buys Topaz Labs | Motion Mondays

Adobe is making a massive move by acquiring Topaz Labs, Figma just shipped a full native animation timeline, and a motion designer runs live experiments to find out if AI is finally taking his job.

Figma Motion is officially here, and it is bringing keyframe animation directly to the design canvas. With full animation curves and interactive capabilities, it is stepping right into Rive's territory for web UI motion. Meanwhile, Adobe picks up Emmy-winning AI company Topaz Labs, creators of Video AI and Photo AI, arguably the best upscaling tools on the market.

Also this week: Substance Painter 12.1 delivers some massive quality of life updates, including an auto-rebake feature that removes a major bottleneck. Plus, we check out Nordmesh bringing SketchUp-style modeling natively into Cinema 4D, CurveConductor overhauling your animation curves in After Effects, a new tool for ripping textures from skewed photos, and the return of the Pixel x Pixel Tokyo conference. Finally, we've got some incredible artist spotlights from Cub Studio and Lucia Alonso, and we check in on Abraham E. for our Student of the Week. Show notes and links below!

New Course: Unreal Engine for Broadcast Design

We are excited to release Unreal Engine for Broadcast Design, taught by Jonathan Winbush. The course is built for motion designers who want to bring their work into Unreal for real-time graphics, broadcast packages, and motion design workflows. This is not a general Unreal course - it is built for people who come from After Effects and want to understand what Unreal can actually do for the kind of work they make. Live for All Access members now.

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Please Note: Unreal Engine for Broadcast Design 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
• Unreal Engine for Broadcast Design
• Rive Academy Kickstart
• Character Animation Bootcamp
• Courses & workshops coming soon

🗒️ SHOW NOTES

• Adobe Buys Topaz Labs
• Node Ninja Plugin
• Substance Painter 12.1
• Nordmesh for C4D
• CurveConductor for AE
• Texture Ripper
• Weight Paint Box
• Figma Motion
• Rive Character Challenge
• Pixel x Pixel Tokyo

🎨 ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

• Cub Studio
• Roger Kilimanjaro
• Lucia Alonso
• SOM Student of the Week - Abraham E.
• Abraham E.'s portfolio