About

The file we actually open.

anim_final_v2 leads with open-source tools for animation, 3D, VFX, and games, then the paid shelf around them, plus a short news desk and a job board. It is for working animators, technical artists, students, and anyone else who has shipped a shot under a filename they would not defend in dailies.

The name is the joke. anim_final_v2 is never final and rarely v2. The directory is meant to be plain: the license, the last release the project stated, what a paid tool cost on the day it was checked, and whether the vendor named the Blender version you have open.

The stance

AI for animators, without the hype. If a tool is useful in a pipeline, the desk will say so after someone has used it. If it is a demo reel with a login wall, the desk will say that too. Affiliate links do not get to edit the verdict. The AI policy and the affiliate disclosure are part of the site, not a footer afterthought.

Who is writing

Jason is building this. The sample posts carry that byline so the format has an author. They are not reports. The tool directory is a separate page check, not those posts.

What this version is

A static Astro site with a few on-demand routes, a Postgres schema, and scheduled jobs that know how to run and refuse to pretend they already did. Hosting is aimed at Cloudflare’s free plan. The database is aimed at Supabase’s free plan. The store, when it sells anything, hands the card form to Lemon Squeezy. The fixed cost of the plan is the domain.

The tool directory is a page check from 22 Oct 2026. Jobs, news, and the in-house store are still examples, and those pages say so. A yellow bar stays on the pages that are still placeholders.