Discovering Ian Hubert, Blender, and low-budget VFX mastery

Meet Ian Hubert, Blender VFX artist, builder of worlds, astounder of accountants. Our dreams can be bigger than we imagine.
Huge SF dock complex by Ian Hubert

What are visual effects? Can they ever love us back? Nearly ten years ago, Ian Hubert turned up on YouTube with a science fiction web series called Dynamo. To us old-fashioned narrative peeps, the episode looks like a mess. Turn it off when your head hurts.

The visuals are stunningly intricate. The whole project is built in Blender, a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software toolset developed over 20 years from a core group in Holland. While it feeds the games community’s passion for lush technologies, hyper-vigilance and stomach-churning physics, it is not actually an interactive tool. That space belongs to Unreal Engine, though they are often combined.

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David Tiley was the Editor of Screenhub from 2005 until he became Content Lead for Film in 2021 with a special interest in policy. He is a writer in screen media with a long career in educational programs, documentary, and government funding, with a side order in script editing. He values curiosity, humour and objectivity in support of Australian visions and the art of storytelling.