Yorik sent us a tutorial recently on the process he went through creating trees, using nGPlant, for eventual rendering in Blender. And he even has a number of tree models ready and available for download in the .blend file format for use in Blender. Find them here.

Continue Reading 'Tree modeling and setup tutorial' »

Kerkythea Echo has been released. If you haven't heard of Kerkythea its a flexible and powerful free rendering engine now capable of ray tracing, Photon Mapping and Metropolis Light Transport.

Continue Reading 'Kerkythea Echo Has Been Released' »

That is right. A developer is working on a muscle simulation system for Blender. Its currently in pre-pre-development. But the developer seems pretty steady at working on it. Continue Reading 'Flex Them Muscles' »

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' »

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.

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' »

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' »

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' »

DeeVad at Blenderartists recently posted a screen recording of a Speed Painting experimentation in Blender's UV/Image Editor.

Continue Reading 'UV/Image Editor Experimentation - Speed painting' »

Blender Underground has been posting their experiences working through Tony Mullen's "Introducing Character Animation with Blender". Its an excellent read that starts here. In addition, recently a detailed Spring Rig tutorial has been posted there that came about while answering a question from the forums. Find it here.

Continue Reading 'Making a Spring Rig in Blender (and more)' »

Discovered by Len at Blenderartists. See post here. It seems some new things have been periodically posted in the Peach Media Gallery.

Update??: I don't recall seeing these. Little .ogg videos of some animation tests. Its possible these aren't new, but even if there aren't, someone could have missed them.

Please keep in mind Sago has clarified that this test is an early try and doesn't represent the current state.

Continue Reading 'Peach Media Gallery updates' »