A new version of the Kerkythea rendering software was released this week. There are a lot of new features and tools, which can improve the work of any Blender user that uses Kerkythea for rendering.

Continue Reading 'Kerkythea 2008 Echo released' »

How about a collection of video timelapses demonstrating sculpting in Blender? Sure! Good for inspiration and fun to watch. Let us know if you've come across any and link them in the comments. We'll add them to the post. Enjoy!

Continue Reading 'Sculpting timelapse collection' »

With the new particle system coming out likely in the coming Peach release, we all probably want to learn more about how it works. So I've put together a collection of links to learn the new system. If you come across any resources yourself, let us know and we'll add them to the list.

Continue Reading 'New particle system learning resources' »

Roland Hess (aka harkyman), editor and lead author for “The Essential Blender” and creator of the BlenderPeople crowd simulation project, has been busy with yet another promising project…“The Beast”.

Continue Reading '"The Beast" - animated short/book project by Roland Hess' »

Remember that training DVD we talked about? Well not only is it now shipping. But Montage Studio also has made it, and the previous modeling a female head DVD available in downloadable versions.

*warning mild nudity*

For more information read the blog post on Montage Studio.

(Chicago, IL) - ACM SIGGRAPH announced a final reminder for the entry deadline of 30 January for jury content to be considered for the 2008 Computer Animation Festival. This deadline represents the date that online entry forms must be submitted. The deadline for material upload is 27 February.

Continue Reading 'SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival Entry Deadline Nears' »

A Blender artist called Alejandro Vasquez, AKA Alexv, has published a short, but interesting tutorial, showing how to successfully import a model from SketchUp to Blender.

Continue Reading 'From SketchUp to Blender' »

In a previous article we spotlighted changes made to diffuse shading. The latest news is that Zmask rendering has been implemented and it now gives us the capability to create some complex composites.

Continue Reading 'Zmask Rendering' »

Nimbus is an experimental cloud generator system. Its far from complete and states that its still under development. The interesting thing is the python script for Blender that could make creating cloud shapes with particles more easily.

Continue Reading 'Nimbus cloud rendering engine' »

It looks like I'll be spending next Friday at the Blender Institute in Amsterdam! I'll have time to see how everyone is doing, taste the atmosphere in the team and see the current state of the project. I'm also going to do short interviews with the team members and YOU can tell me what to ask them!

Continue Reading 'Community Interview: Peach Team' »

A very nice toon/ink look using composite nodes has been posted by blenditall at Blenderartists.

Continue Reading 'Cartoon/ink node setup' »

An interesting tutorial utilizing softbody dynamics to help automatically simulate the motion of a chain moving has been posted over on Blenderartists. It even includes a .blend file for experimenting.

Its a good read and a fun .blend file to play with. I wonder if this could be simplified more by using the new mesh deform modifier. Post your tests, ideas and experiments!

Apricot is edging towards the start of the project sometime next week. They are pushing towards a goal of 1000 DVD's sold. They are at 500+ now. And come next week your name will not be credited on the DVD. Don't miss the chance to be eternally famous! Or even better, don't miss the chance to support Blender development. Want faster realtime previews? Improved export? An external plugin interface? Help support the project because those are some of the things being looked at for improvement by the Apricot team.

Continue Reading 'Last chance to get credits on the Apricot DVD Project' »

Recently we posted about Jonathan's new DVD for sale. But we also want to point you out to some great timelapses available for viewing on his website. Find them here.

I personally really enjoyed watching the stylized head.

Even though recently Tangent space normal map baking was added as a feature to the next version of Blender. This functionality is only available in special builds. I know many use only the official 2.45 build for production purposes. With that in mind you'd be without Tangent space normal map baking. Its possible you missed a solution provided at Blenderartists.

Continue Reading 'Tangent space baking via Nodes' »

Another great video by Chris from welcometochrisworld.com! I just wish it didn't always end up with this stupid grin on my face after watching his work ;-)

Continue Reading 'Video: Volumetric Light in Blender' »

On the Peach blog, Brecht introduced a new method of Ambient Occlusion called Approximate Ambient Occlusion. At the time of the post it was not available in the SVN, so in turn not available for use by the masses. But that has changed you can now find builds on graphicall.

Continue Reading 'Ambient Occlusion in SVN' »

Sacha recently wrote an amusing post on the Peach blog. Written as a 'letter' for his mother, its a great read. Sacha even introduces a new and amusing Peach character.

Continue Reading 'New Peach Character' »