Durian Project Announced!
It’s finally here! The Blender Foundation’s next open movie, the Durian Project, has been announced and it’s looking awesome. Check out the Durian Project now!
Yes, it’s about time! The third open movie project had been lined up to start much sooner, but more urgent work (Blender 2.5 coding) forced it into the future. After all, it’s the purpose of the team here in Amsterdam to test and improve the 2.5x versions significantly!
Now we intend to start up September 1, delivering a result around March/April 2010. Durian is an Asian fruit, ugly and smelly but delicious. That’s a perfect code name for a movie project aimed at adolescents mostly; with an epic fantasy theme with lots of action, monsters and a girl hero!
Fantastic, i can’t wait!!!
Hurray for epic action !
I can’t wait to see what it will add to Blender ! (mostly because I do a lot of girl heroins too *wink*)
Really excited about this :)
“Durian is an Asian fruit, ugly and smelly but delicious. That’s a perfect code name for a movie project aimed at adolescents mostly”
:D because teens are ugly and smelly but delicious?
And why should action and fine women be a teenagers “chasse gardée”?
Screw the teens. Adults love action too :D
This pose interesting questions though, as it might be the first time a Blender movie will display blood splatter, gore and partial nudity…
Rated M or rated T?
I’d prefer a rated M. It leaves the movie open for more interesting scene and story.
If it’s rated T, they might as well do a new cartoon instead of a realist movie :/
Wait and see… (I know… I rant and the project just started… :D)
Awesome!
Cool. Personally I’d love to see a material mask like (Zmask) something along the lines of 3DSmax’s video post glow added in. For all I know they’re already in there somewhere, but if not I can dream.
While I’m not a huge fan of some of the new anime I do like the old stuff, so it should be pretty cool. Of course I’ve loved ED and BBB and the advances they brought so I can’t wait.
Just wish I had 1/4 the skill the folks who work on these movies do.
Let’s hope it will be comparable to Onimusha :)
Although I doubt it.
Definitely going to preorder or maybe even sponsor this. It looks cool.
oh no!
sounds cool
shiny armors, humongous weapons, dragons…
can’t wait for the movie
can’t wait for the trailer
better saving money for the dvd right now
WWWooooooWWWWW
Sweeeet!! Each Blender project seems to get better and more ambitious. Can’t wait!
Omg, at last blender will challange realistic fantasy style movie…
I just cant wait to see the outcome
Great News!
If the Hero is a Girl in this new Movie Project Durian!
I Hope she is Cool and Sexy like the Girl from the old Game “Heavy Metal FAKK 2”!
unbelievable!!! this is going to be killer… and i can’t wait to see if i can contribute something other than money to the project in some small way.
there go my heroes–the Blender team!
cheers
brian
Yipeeeeeee!!!!
Best of luck to the team!!!! Going to save up for the DVD now!!
Oh Yahhhhhh! This is going to be great!
First I was like hmm… Fantasy?
Then I saw the sketch, and I remembered, THIS is the BLENDER team we are talking about! It HAS to be cool! If done well, which it of course will be with that team behind it, it could be something truly inspirational! I’ll definitely be following this one. I’d really like to buy the dvd too!
se ve genial el arte…
espero pronto salgan los avances del proyecto…
y ya estoy cruzando los dedos para que este sea en un estilo anime (^3^)
saludos…
http://digg.com/tech_news/Durian_Project_Announced_Blender_Foundation_s_next_movie
Finally!
I can see all Final Fantasy, Onimusha, Anime, etc etc etc fans circling around the Durian Project (what a cool name by the way).
Let’s see how this project evolves, it sounds almost unreal that an official Blender project will have… swords, violence and a girl hero! This is an interesting twist… including more realistic characters (if they do), and hopefully another great addition to Blender’s portfolio of open movies!
… Think of something… maybe along the lines of the two Final Fantasy movies?
Hmmm… interesting…
Neat, that means that after the 2.50 release we’ll be treated to even more interesting stuff :) I’m not a fan of this particular genre, but all those holywood-esque effects and action scenes involved should definately push blender’s capabilities to a new level.
I’m reading the description:
“Since we don’t have to suffer a traditional commercial production method, the team who will execute Durian will get a near unsurpassed freedom in creating it.”
What a distance from such production! You are exactly reusing the same “commercial” codes here.
Girl as main character with certainly big tits fighting dragons and orcs!
I know it’s a technical demo of 6 minutes or less, but please!
IMHO, you should wait to form the team before fixing any aspects.
Soooo cool, I hope seeing there muscle system :D
Martin Lodewijk is on board!! How in blazes could Ton pulled that one of? This just can’t go wrong.
I think we can trust the Blender people to not make this sleazy and cheesy. Looks like it’ll be great. I am definitely looking forward to all of the improvements this will bring to Blender, especially the compositing!
Well I have to say WOOOOT!??!?!!!??!! While I expected Durian to be announced around this time and that it will be as advertised Banor totally forgot to plug in the most amazing news: Martin Lodewijk!!! You know, the guy who wrote many stories for Don Lawrence’s Storm !!!
WOO! Lets hope they pepper the story with a little sci-fi as well :D
woooooooohooooo!
Looking forward to the 10th of July, pre order time!
Hahah now that just made my day right thur!
Given the the leet skills of the Blender Foundation crew. I predict this will be nothing short of amazing!
Great ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡, i was waiting other open movie, he has luck as manga style, am excited ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡
Wow,they got Colin Levy?!
I’m a big fan of his work – Suburban plight = 5 stars from me!
http://www.colinlevy.com/blog/
with him on board and along with the other cool artists , this project is destined for awesomeness ! :D
I didn’t even know another one was overdue! Looking forward to this (and all the blogs and development updates we always get). Will be pre-ordering again for the 3rd time.
Just incredible.. I’ll pre-order many copies of the DVD as gifts just to support the project..
When does the preorder start? :)
Love the concept art :)
:)
Love these open movies!
I’d love to see a look like this:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/131594.html
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/26535.html
would be a motivation for the guy intergrating the Freestyle renderer.
One preorder is mine!
I’ve been interested to see what the Blender Foundation would do next…
This looks great!!! Go BLENDER!!!!!
I don’t know what to think because on one hand: Everything the Blender team does turns to gold, so there is serious potential for a fantasy/epic.
On the other hand, what would this mean for the type of person that goes a bit less for the action/adventure CG animation and more for the Pixaresque motif of B.B.B. and philosophical inquiries of E.D.? I can’t really see myself liking a teen-stylized slash-n-gash fantasy (at this point).
And now I wait with perplexed curiousity…
just a big, ugly, smelly and delicious:
Woooooooooohooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!
I think the worst thing the blender foundation could do right now is lower their standards to make things that would only appeal to perverts. Imagine how low blenders reputation would plumet in the professional world if the girl was a half-naked, ridiculously hot warrior.
I know at least one person who would be very dissapointed if the blender foundation lowered its standards to match other commercial animation programs.
go team!
this is going to be awesome….
Sounds like it might be a job for freestyle…?
One must remember that these shorts have one goal above any others–> to devellop and test Blender in a true production environment. Altho the story of a short movie can make it more ‘appealing’, the main goal here is to showcase what blender ‘can’ do…and it ain’t a ‘scenario writing software’.
That said, I’m sure that with the team onboard, there won’t be any scenario problem!
@iyup
Well, since the point is to push blender, and the technical targets are:
* High detail multi-res modeling (sculpting) and render (micropolygons?)
* Fire/smoke/volumetrics & explosions
* Compositing using tiles/regions, so it becomes resolution independent
* Crowd/massive simulation (fix animation system to allow duplicates)
* Improve library system for managing complex projects
* Deliver in 4k digital cinema (depending agreement with sponsor)
* Make the Blender 2.5x series fully production ready.
and oh, just about EVERY one of those things are present in the “professional world” this seems like a very logical path. Also, have a look at the art there again.
Just curious who you think the majority of the user base is? Perverts? There are plenty of young women who like to see powerful attractive women in heroic roles instead of shown as empty headed bimbos. What’s better is that spotlighting that very aspect of the project gives those women/girls the little nudge they need to jump into the program so they can tell their story.
Another thing now that I’m thinking about it, just wait until the cosplayers get word/see it and take the Durian lead’s costume for a spin. You’ve now introduced a tool to a crowd who might not have any idea it was out there.
With Martin Lodewijk on board we can expect a very nice treatment of this concept! Btw, smart move too of Ton, since now with Martin it’ll be easier to get different sponsors and subsidy in Holland.
Go Durian!!
Wow! :)
Probably a very good idea too – as this movie would fit perfectly into an RPG game environment,
Blender’s new game-engine improvements fits an RPG game like a glove.
ah.. I wish I had heard the announce for the Concept artist position before.
Any info about online application (remote work)?
Nice project, good luck to the team :)
Be still my beating heart……
=P
Hmm time to brush off resume and portfolio and update it a bit;) At least with regards to trying to help out with audio as I already use open source software for that.
Seablade
So, with humans in the picture, are they going to be going for the uncanny valley effect?
@Kukanani
I lol’d. I had the same reaction. My wife had to tell me to be quiet about it. =D
@iyup
I myself am not a big fan of the genre, either, but with the list of technical goals they’ve set, I’m quite excited about the project.
With regard to the perverts thing, epic/fantasy is a valid genre that appeals to a wide cross section of society, not just perverts.
And as for lowering Blender’s image in the professional community, Virtually every other 3D package out there (especially the high end software) is used for the fantasy genre, and it doesn’t reflect poorly on their image.
I would have to say that this project more than any of the others has the potential to have spin offs made with the assets it creates. Along with sci-fi, epic/fantasy has some of the most loyal fans who create lots of homage images and animations. Even if the Blender Foundation doesn’t do another open game project based on this one, I imagine there are enough fans out there to do the job themselves.
Just my two cents.
For some reason I had the impression that Durian was going to be a hybrid live-action/animation film. Though with 2.5 in the wings, it probably makes sense to focus on the core 3D animation features rather than extras like camera tracking. Looking forward to the project! I will definitely be purchasing a DVD (or three).
this is going to be awesome….
@Spammagnet – You’re thinking of the next one, Project Mango.
@Clay – If you check the post it says that they’ll post an announcement about “online help” (collaboration) later.
@Sleeper – I knew I had read that somewhere. Thanks!
I am personally a fan of the fantasy genre but what I don’t like is the all too common hot female fighters with completely useless “bikini armor.”
So what I am trying to say is that this movie should be targeted to teens but apropriate for all ages.
So, my question is this: Will the resources used to make this movie be released to the public the same way that the resources to Big Buck Bunny were? As a fan of this genre (and also someone with a significant interest in freely-licensed art) I’d love to see some of this work used in, say, an open source game.
sleeper >
Thank you, but I was talking about the “Concept Artist” position.
I don’t think that they would need another concept artist later, they already have one and it’s surely enough.
That’s what I meant.