Normally we would wait for the October CVS report we will post at the end of the month, but this item was too cool to keep quiet. Ton recently committed a new type of shadow buffer to the CVS that takes advantage of some very interesting new methods to give Blender greater functionality.

Continue Reading 'Blender Gets Irregular Shadow Buffers' »

When modeling an organic figure such as the human head and one that is going to have animated deformations via bones and or shape keys, it is important to understand some basics in mesh construction such as edgeloops , triangles VS quads, and poles. Gaurav Nawani has pointed us to an extensive tutorial / discussion on topology at SubDivisionModeling.com

Continue Reading 'Topology Tutorial & Discussion, Edgeloops, Poles!' »

Well, the title says it all, Elephants Dream (ED) has been nominated for the 3D Shorts category. The announcement can be seen at the official website and the competition is harder then one might think.

Continue Reading 'Animatu: Elephants Dream Selected For The Competition' »

As Blender continues to grow, so does the community. One way to make new users (and even casual visitors) feel more welcomed is to recognize the problems they may have in translating their experiences with other 3D applications to the Blender experience. It can be a very frustrating experience that can often cause potential new "converts" to simply give up.

Well, we can't just sit back and let that happen, can we?

Continue Reading 'Blender welcomes Lightwave Users' »

For those not coming to the Blender Conference 2006, the next best thing is to have it recorded. Even if you are coming, I'm sure that with so much things being presented at the same time you will miss something you would like to see.

This is where Filipp Lepalaan comes to the rescue.

Continue Reading 'Blender Conference 2006: What to Tape ?' »

BlenderNation writer Daniel LaBarge recently had a chance to sit down and talk with Sandra Gilbert (DreamsGate) of BlenderArt Magazine to discuss her interests in Blender and a retrospective on the magazine which she manages. The interview covers everything from her beginning in Blender to what suggestions she offer for others interested in producing a digital magazine.

Continue Reading 'A Sandra Gilbert Interview' »

In case you haven't noticed, Club Silo, the Arcade Racer Game being done by Luma using the Blender Game Engine has been updated to version 1.1, adding some major improvements to it.

Continue Reading 'Club Silo - Updated to version 1.1' »

We've recently reported on the The Webcut Internet Film Fest that will begin on October 12th, 2006.  Since the post, we've found out that three Blender films have made the cut and will be presented.

Continue Reading 'Webcuts Streaming Internet Film Fest' »

Here are four short items about recent appearance of Blender in the international media: articles and tutorials in a Japanese, German and Dutch magazines and Blender as HD Demo material for video compression software.

Continue Reading 'Quicklinks - Blender in the Media' »

I was pleasantly surprised by an email that I received from Shigeto Maeda. Those of you who have been around for a few years will remember him; Shigeto created the most wonderful art of organic and technical objects. He also produced the book 'Ka-ra: Shigeto Maeda's Blender Art Works' for Not a Number. He is now a teacher at Tokyo Kasei University and for this he has published a number of video tutorials.

Continue Reading 'Video Tutorials: Blender Class in Tokyo, Japan' »

If you haven't noticed, the Blender Conference 2006 Program is already online and I must say that this seems to be one of the best so far.

It will be my third Conference and believe me when I say, it will be one heck of a weekend !

Continue Reading 'Blender Conference 2006 Program Online' »

Since the 5th of October, a new book about Blender by Olivier Saraja is available in France: "La 3D libre avec Blender" (which translates to "Free 3D with Blender"). It is around 356 pages, featuring some color plates by well known artists of the community (Stefan Zsolt, Robertt, Harkyman…).

Continue Reading 'New French Blender Book Released' »

Wondering what your favorite 3D package is cooking for the next release ?

Then read on as I try to sum all the major additions to the CVS and what developers have been doing since 2.42a has been released.

Continue Reading 'September CVS Report: What Has Changed Since 2.42a' »

I stumbled upon a game project called 'Me and My Airship' by Joel Moktar on the BlenderArtists forums. The graphics and animation were amazing. I contacted Joel to learn more about his project. Here is his report.

Continue Reading 'Me and My Airship' »

Alvaro F. Celis wrote to us pointing out some basic videotutorials for a Blender to Kerkythea export and subsequent rendering.

Continue Reading 'Basic Blender to Kerkythea videotutorials' »