The Blender Institute has just launched their latest open movie project, Gooseberry, from South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. Unlike the previous Blender Institute projects, this will be a feature length movie, requiring the participation of no less than 12 external renowned Blender studios.
The project will take about 18 months to complete. Combined with the much, much larger scale of this project this also means the financial demands are higher: for the initial campaign ('cloudfunding', as Ton likes to call it), the goal has been set to 10,000 supporters and a total amount of € 500,000.
The main promise of this campaign is that by signing up for monthly subscription to the Blender Cloud, you will get immediate access to all the Blender Institute's digital resources like training material and all assets from the previous open movies. During Gooseberry, the Cloud will be continously updated with new material, making you a front-row seat spectator or even 'virtual intern'.
Learn more about the campaign on the gooseberry.blender.org website right now and sign up for a membership or one-off donation! BlenderNation will be introducing all the studios and participants during the next few weeks. Stay tuned!
42 Comments
Joined! Let's do this :D
$65 (US higher when I get to OZ) to start with more a month. I just
wish I knew what all the "access to the data from previous Open Movies
and Workshop training videos" really entails. I've never bought any of
the previous blender movies and files so I don't know how "deep" I have
to be into blender to really get anything out of this.
Can you share what's on the inside since they haven't done a good job of sharing yet?
I just joined the Blender Cloud to support this effort and can tell you that login provides access to five instructional DVD online valued at €135 in the Blender store. So apparently, the cloud subscription value is not limited to Gooseberry.
Access to assets is spotty at the moment with HTML5 video not found errors. I'm guessing temporary teething pains.
Sure, here's what I can see:
Open Movies: Caminandes 2 , Sintel, Tears of Steel (movies,assets and all extras)
Training: Venom's lab 2 (characters), Blender for 3D Printing, Blenderella (character modelling), Humane Rigging,Track Match Blend (camera tracking)
Thanks for sharing! I've asked Ton and Francesco to update the available information. I like the €135 value approach :)
Thanks januz! Good to know.
I signed to Blender Cloud immediately: what a wonderful resource. Thanks again Blender Foundation!
Unfortunately I have a problem.
Maybe I'm wrong in doing something but, ... "Track Match Blend" online resource is not complete. "Overview "and "Videos" sections both do not list Chapter 2: Camera Tracking. Do you know why? Maybe not all DVDs contents as inclueded in cloud service?
Hey Andrea,
it's probably an oversight. It's best to contact them directly - they may not read each comment here.
Awesome! Enjoyed the trailer, it's looking quite good.
let's go
Yay, supported; I hope there's a download option for the videos in the future.......
Brilliant, thanks! I believe a download option is on the todo list, yes. After all, all their content is Open!
Awesome !
What's this about an 'exploitation window'? How loing will it last? Will Gooseberry be shown in movie theaters?
Yes, one of the ideas is to sell the movie to theaters for a limited time, before the full open content release. I'm not sure how long that window is exactly, I believe a few months.
This could be extremely profitable for both the Blender Foundation and the studios involved. I hope BF earns hundreds of millions so they can fund the further development of Blender!
I just joined. I'm a new user of blender but i'm very excited about the software and the project. Hopefully i'll be able to participate at some point and learn a lot. Very excited times.
Thank you!
Joined!
Brilliant, thanks!
Joined, as usual. If Blender can actually attract 10 000 donators at an average of € 50 each it will be quite a show of its strength.
So the Gooseberry website says "Donations starting at 175 euro will get a name mention on the website
and the film credit scroll. This includes a pre-paid Cloud Membership account as well." I read that as if you pay 175 euros you get cloud membership for the duration of the project (Better for me, as I am hoping from short term contract to short term contract, and whilst I can pay a large sum now I can't be sure I will be able to pay regular smaller sums in the future!). Anyway I did that and the system is not giving me access. Have I misinterpreted that or is that an issue with the system?
Good question Tom, I was thinking the same thing. I hope this gets resolved.
Hi Tom,
yes that includes a membership for the full duration of the project. It's probably a hickup somewhere. I'll forward this message to Francesco so he can fix it!
I stand corrected - apparently this one slipped through. See Ton's comment below!
Sorry, this was old text that accidentally slipped my attention. I fixed it. Donations are not including Cloud membership.
We decided to separate the Cloud Membership from the Pledges for mainly one reason:
- Pledged donations are tax free (Dutch VAT). Cloud membership not (its a product, so we have to pay 21% tax on it). We cannot combine donations with products...
We work hard to communicate things better on the site, difficult to combine with a busy SXSW crowd here!
No problem - is it possible for me to cancel then redo or convert the donation into a cloud subscription then? Who would I contact?
Mail me, [email protected], Francesco or me will be happy to correct things for you.
And: thanks for the support!
OK, I have a question. What is the roadmap as far as developing Blender? I thought that was the point of these open movie projects.
http://code.blender.org/index.php/2013/12/plans-for-2014-2015/
Thanks. I guess we'll get more info as the project begins.
I'm getting a tingly feeling in my nether regions telling me that Blender is on the verge of becoming a massive overnight success.
How much is it to participate in the movie?
Basically, for 10 euro per month you can get involved with everything we do. Participation will be possible too (modeling, animation, concepts, etc), but we need to figure out yet how to do this efficiently.
I hope those type of voluntary contributions will not be preserved to the paying crowd only
There would be lots of missed talent otherwise imho
How about a blendswap group for gooseberry?
I'm in. Let's make the movie.
It seems that the Blender cloud registration page is not using a secure webpage? I don't see https on the page where you are entering your email address and password. Why not?
Will anyone else be a little bit sad if the Gooseberry movie turns out to be more cartoon squidgy animal things? After ToS, I was hoping that the next project wouldn't be more BBB style stuff. The Blender movies need to *benefit* from being independent, in contrast to the big studios' repetitive formulaic content. A Blender movie needs to be *different*, rather than running along behind Pixar shouting "Look!, we can do that too!". I do hope that Gooseberry can innovate and not just imitate.
Just signed up to support. Been following Blender for a long time and dabbled a bit with it at times. But I am a music man at heart. Hope this movie gets the support it deserves. And I would love to get involved in the Soudtrack side of things if possible.
good to look a nice work in blender you guys or ROCKING. Move on......
Can anyone explain the difference between the Prepaid and Recurring options? I'm wanting to sign up but can't decide which to choose. I've noticed the Prepaid option allows you enter an amount of at least €45, but what if I increase this amount? Do I still pay €10 per month for the next 18 months? Can I pay the full amount here without having to pay per month? It'd be great if someone could clear this up so I can get onboard.