Material Maker 1.6
20. April 2026

Material Maker 1.6 has been released!

20. April 2026 By admin

In January I wrote an article about Material Maker on my Patreon.

This application is a free open-source solution to generate procedural materials (and even animated ones ) for 3D and games, making it a good alternative to commercial solutions like Adobe Substance Designer or InstaMat Studio.

My (free) Patreon article:
👉 https://www.patreon.com/posts/material-maker-1-156071426?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Now the new version Material Maker 1.6 was released:
👉 https://rodzilla.itch.io/material-maker/devlog/1491329/material-maker-16

Have fun!
Helge

#opensource #foss #indie #indiedev #indiegame #pixeltrain #helgemaus

Splash Blender 5.1
24. March 2026

Blender 5.1 has been released!

24. March 2026 By admin

The motto “Performance meets stability in Blender 5.1“” is the headline over this new release.

After the major rebuilds (and the sometimes painful clear-cutting) for the jump from Blender 4.5 to Blender 5.0, the developers have now taken the necessary time to stabilize this work and make it more production-ready again, removing existing obstacles.

At the same time, a lot of emphasis was placed on performance, which can now be felt in many areas of Blender 5.1. That’s always a great thing!

However, that does not mean that some welcome innovations have also arrived in this release.

There are some exciting goodies, especially in the areas of Grease Pencil, Geometry Nodes, Video Sequence Editor and Sculpting:-)

However, for anyone who has to stay on Blender 4.5 LTS due to the increased and changed hardware requirements, there is nothing in my opinion that would force a direct update.

Here is the link to the official feature list:
https://www.blender.org/download/releases/5-1/


My picks for some Blender 5.1 overview videos

As always there are also some informative overview videos on YouTube:

What’s New in Blender 5.1! Official Overview by CGCookie

Blender 5.1 Features in LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES! By SouthernShotty

Blender 5.1, Five simple quality of life improvements by Christopher3D

Blender 5.1: NEW Rigging and Animation Features by CGDive

I hope you like, what you see 🙂

Learn Blender with me!

I would also like to point out my Blender online training. You can find my German-language courses here:
https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/de/kurse?software=b45db5db-1c20-4778-88f1-23f4753a12f9

If you are looking for the same topics in English, please contact me (info (at) pixeltrain.net )!

Have fun!

Helge

UCU Painter for Blender
6. March 2026

Hand-painting textures in Blender with UCU Paint

6. March 2026 By admin

Especially when texturing stylized NPR assets for games or animations, the comfortable painting of textures for 3D objects is necessary. For this purpose, several commercial applications such as Substance Painter, 3DCoat or InstaMAT are available externally from Blender.

However, for my own workflow for animations and games, I have been using a free Blender Extension called “UCU-Paint by ucupumar” for some time.

This amazing add-on allows me to work directly in Blender. In the background, this extension creates a standard node-based Blender shading tree and can even work with my own shaders or external textures for a PBR workflow.

This extension can be easily installed in Blender under „Preference → Get Extensions“.

https://extensions.blender.org/add-ons/ucupaint/?utm_source=blender-4.5.7-lts

Here are some of the features:

  • Stack images, vertex attributes, generated textures, or many other types into layers and masks.
  • All Ucupaint nodes are contained inside a single node group and can be connected to any other nodes.
  • Channels in Ucupaint are flexible, add or remove them based on your needs.
  • You can add modifiers like a color ramp or math operation for quick adjustments.
  • Works well with multiple objects using the same material.
  • Decal support
  • Ability to load images from asset browser or file browser
  • UDIM is detected automatically based on UV islands.
  • Bake final channel images and easily arrange them so most exporters can read them.
  • Dedicated alpha channel for flexible transparency workflow
  • Bake AO, multires, other object’s normal, and more.
  • You can add drivers or keyframes to most Ucupaint inputs.
  • Support realtime displacement and even vector displacement map.
  • Preview mode to check your layers or channel colors.
  • Pack baked channel results into a single image using a custom bake target (useful for creating ORM texture or DirectX normal).
  • And so much more.

If you want to learn more about the features and workflows:

https://www.youtube.com/@ucupumar/videos

Version 2.4.5 was released yesterday, which, in addition to some bug fixes, now offers the option to paint custom Normals directly. A frequently used technique, especially for anime-styled characters.

Have fun painting in Blender

Helge

Image from „Horripilant - A game by Pas Game“
5. March 2026

Godot Engine 4.7 Dev 2

5. March 2026 By admin

Only recently, at the end of January 2026, the new stable version Godot 4.6 was released.

With this release and the first bugfix patch shortly afterwards in mid-February, the development of Godot 4.7 is now progressing in great strides.

Today the second Godot 4.7 Dev2 was released.

So if you want to look into the future and directly dive into some new features, you can find builds for the various platforms here:

👉 https://godotengine.org/download/archive/4.7-dev2/

Some of the highlights so far:

  • Add support for copy/paste of section/category properties
  • Use monospaced font for code names in UI
  • Collapse groups in animation track editor
  • Support HDR output for Apple
  • Add a scene painter tool for 2D
  • Bult-in VirtualJoystick for mobile games (Joypad controls)
  • Drawable Textures
  • Enable Path3D collider snapping
  • and much more

Image from „Horripilant – A game by Pas Game“

Godot Game Development courses with Helge Maus / pixeltrain
2. March 2026

Game Development courses with Godot Engine

2. March 2026 By admin

My next 🇩🇪 German-language online trainings (2-days, small groups, live) for Game Development with the free and open-source Godot Engine are online. Again in collaboration with the Visualisierungs-Akademie Schweiz GmbH.

I will accompany you from the first steps in Godot Engine to the expert level 🧑‍🎓 :

Godot Grundlagen (Godot Fundamentals)
📅 23. + 24. April 2026

Godot Einführung in 3D Games (Godot Advanced)
📅 18. + 19. Juni 2026

Entwickeln in Godot mit C# (Godot Expertkurs C#)
📅 26. + 27. März 2026
📅 16. + 17. Juli 2026

More information:
👉 https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/de/kurse?software=b5127f5b-7ff2-429e-8559-954209ea4a50

I’m looking forward to seeing you 🤓

PS: If you are looking for the same topics in 🇬🇧 English, please write me a DM to info(at)pixeltrain.net for getting the next dates.

#GameDevelopment #GameDev #IndieDev #GodotEngine

Road to Vostok - Game made with Godot Engine
1. February 2026

Road to Vostok – Early Access Trailer is out!

1. February 2026 By admin

In July 2024, I first wrote about the game “Road to Vostok,” which was in development at the time, on my Patreon page.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/godot-engine-to-107308034?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

What’s special about this game for me isn’t necessarily the survival thriller genre, but rather its origins as a Unity game and its subsequent transition to the Godot Engine. The developer log, which is very well documented, demonstrates that even projects of this size can be handled by the free and open-source Godot engine.

Starting in April 2007, this game will be available as Early Access on Steam (a demo for Windows is already available there):

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1963610/Road_to_Vostok/

Road to Vostok is a hardcore single-player survival game set in a post-apocalyptic border zone between Finland and Russia. Survive, loot, plan, and prepare to cross the border into Vostok, a permadeath zone where one mistake can end it all.

Congratulations to the developers!

Here’s the link to the trailer: https://youtu.be/OTFgTRsz43Q?si=UT_cw2eYJytTQXg6

Projects like this motivate me to create my own worlds in Godot, in 2d or 3d. For beginners and advanced programmers.

If you’d like to learn more about Godot and Game Development, you can find my German-language online courses here: https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/

I offer also English-language courses through the pixeltrain Academy: https://www.pixeltrain.net/pixeltrains-academy/

I look forward to seeing you there!

Helge

Material Maker 1.5
19. January 2026

Material Maker 1.5 has been released

19. January 2026 By admin

The new release of Material Maker 1.5 has been released and is available for download:

👉 https://rodzilla.itch.io/material-maker/devlog/1312764/material-maker-15

Anyone looking for a free open-source solution for procedurally creating materials, textures, sprite sheets, etc. should definitely check out Material Maker.

More info like that on my Patreon:
👉 https://kurzlinks.de/3p4w

Have fun!

Helge

9. January 2026

Let’s talk about 2026

9. January 2026 By admin

Hi folks,
Today is my first work day in the new year, so it’s time to write my traditional years review on my (free) Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/lets-talk-about-147466572?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

I wish you all a healthy, successful and creative year 2026.
The world needs more real (indie) artists and art than ever.

Ci vediamo, Helge Maus

P.S. For my upcoming Blender and Godot trainings, please look at pixeltrain Academy | Blender for Production | Godot Game Development for Indies

Krita 5.2.14 was released!
11. December 2025

Krita 5.2.14 release!

11. December 2025 By admin

Good news for all you digital painters: Krita 5.2.14 has been released.

Krita is for me the best digital painting application on the desktop and it’s free and open-source! I use if for making game assets, drafts and also animated characters for games.

This version is (almost) entirely a bug fix release and concludes the Krita 5.2 series.
The focus now shifts towards Krita versions 5.3 and 6.0 in the next year 🙂

As mentioned, this version primarily focuses on bug fixes, but the color picker has also been improved. Nice!

More information can be found here:
https://krita.org/en/posts/2025/krita-5.2.14-released/

Have fun!

Helge

P.S. You can also read me Post on my (free) Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/krita-5-2-14-145607603?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Helge Maus - Senior Trainer & Mentor 3d | animation | game art | game dev
5. December 2025

Blender Modeling Course in December 2025

5. December 2025 By admin

The year is slowly coming to an end, and with it, our Blender training calendar for this year.

My last Blender Modeling course (2 days) in collaboration with Visualisierungs-Akademie Schweiz will take place online on December 18th and 19th. This is a german course.

Here’s the link to the course:
👉 https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/de/kurs/blender-modelingkurs/ff1b0321-e948-41c1-bca6-1c23651e75ea

If you’d like to learn Blender or Godot online in English, check out the pixeltrain Academy website:
👉 https://www.pixeltrain.net/pixeltrains-academy/

Have a amazing weekend! 🙂

Helge