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.
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.
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.
DeeVad at Blenderartists recently posted a screen recording of a Speed Painting experimentation in Blender’s UV/Image Editor.
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.
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.
The most recent Peach blog post brings some great news to the Peach team. The team has been staring with wide eyes at the approaching headlights of the deadline. Many things have slowed the progress of animating. So the dream team comes in. Peach has hired some old faces to help out.
Development continues full speed ahead on 2.5. Thankfully keeping us informed some developers have been posting youtube videos of new additions/works in progress as they happen. We thank you for this.
*Note: These are early interface development videos. Consider them as such.*
There is a great review on the Apricot blog of a recent workshop that took place discussing the status and plans for the production. Continue reading
I can tell you this is an excellent DVD. I have seen much of it already and it goes into great detail. Jonathan does a good job of going through the process and giving plenty of step by step info on his workflow so you can easily follow along.
