Blender Sightings

Bart · August 10, 2009

More Blender (well, actually Big Buck Bunny) sightings.

johnwind wrote:

This was actually sighted when I came across this site which introduce a programÂ called Tahoe-LAFS, the firstÂ cloud storage system with provider-independent security. Best of all, itsÂ licensed under GPLv2. This clip was found on one of their developer blog at madeÂ a demo on Codecon.

Author Bart

I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Community Lead at n8n.

18 responses

oma

10 August 2009 at 19:44

i don’t know if this one has been posted yet
http://www.globalmediaservices.net/watch/

blndrusr

10 August 2009 at 22:59

More sightings of BBB are cool, but I’ve said (posted) it before:

Perhaps it’s time to either:

a) create a Blender Foundation Project video based around a Blender mascot character eg Suzanne or a new character that integrates the Blender logo eg as hair(?) – so that in the sighted videos – it is obvious that Blender was used.
(The story could be a tribute to the birth and growth – ‘coming of age’ of Blender – show its mascot grow using more sophisticated tools as it grows from the NaN years to now);

b) integrate the Blender logo into Blender 2.5 as a central and indispensable (user can’t customise it out/away) icon eg for switching between window types (3D view, script, etc). This way, any sighting of the Blender UI will have the Blender logo in it;

c) or failing that… rename Blender to BBB eg ‘Blender B????? B????’ ! =)

But of course, more sightings of BBB are still a great tribute to Blender. It still blows me away just how common/popular they are – it’s awesome.!

Have fun with my ideas – they are for the long-term ‘branding’ of Blender, though perhaps not option c! ;-)

Then perhaps we will have more sightings of Blender someday too. :D

blndrusr

RNS

11 August 2009 at 01:03

free of blender material use for commercial is becoming propagandize by anyone who have an agenda
to sell.little they know that the blend community have it watch dogs to loose upon who trespass. I would like to see Hitler at youtube bitch about blender use.

Tynach

11 August 2009 at 02:59

blndrusr, Blender is not proprietary software. It is meant to not SHOVE in your face that you are using Blender instead of Maya or Max. It is Free and Open Source, meaning that it is free of those silly little unchangeable things. It’s what is so good about Blender.

greenboy

11 August 2009 at 03:14

Also since blender is open source if someone decided to put those silly little unchangeable things in, it would be possible for others to take those silly little things out. Or even put in their own silly little things.

And on a sighting related note; it’s good to see blender and open movies getting used out in the “wild”. Free advertising is a good thing indeed.

Jonathan Merritt

11 August 2009 at 03:50

LOL… yes, these are increasingly “BBB sightings” rather than strictly “Blender sightings”. It would be nice to hear more reports of people using Blender itself, rather than using BBB simply as open content to demo a piece of hardware or software that has virtually nothing to do with Blender. Many of those pages don’t mention Blender in any obvious way, so the “free advertising” benefit is not particularly clear to me. Of course, any kind of exposure can’t hurt, so… go BBB! :-)

I know it’s more work, but how about doing some interviews with people who are more actively using and promoting Blender *itself*? The bf-robots guys and the Collada people come to mind at the moment.

blndrusr

11 August 2009 at 04:41

Tynach – I hope you aren’t offended everytime the Blender splash screen is rendered – LOL!

Or when you read ‘Blender’ at the top of the app, or see the blender url below this.

greenboy – how often do you or anyone delve into the code of an app and replace a button icon?

Sure, in some trivial applications, where themeing is a huge component of the app, for example a php web app, this is common – but not in a multimedia app.

And, I am well aware of the fact that Blender is open source, but unlike a lot of zealots, having worked with a lot open source over many years, I have seen that the ones with good internal (not just external eg community) marketing, which includes branding – including inside the application, tend to grow better and survive longer.

I see no harm in the ‘silly’ intent of software authors to have their brand visible inside the software, so that others know where it came from, who developed it, and ultimately letting this ‘silly’ branding do the marketing for them once the app has been downloaded – or as with (and not with) BBB sightings – during demos of the software.

If the word ‘Blender’ appears at the top of the Blender app, the Blender URL http://www.blender.org appears in the GUI below this, there should be few objections to having a graphical representation of the Blender brand inside the app eg using the Blender logo as a button icon ie for the Window Type switcher button thingy.

And as I’ve written before, if people are likely to customise Blender via the GUI (not hacking it) to make Blender 2.5+ look Maya-ish etc, then there would be no harm in branding the inside of the application, as I have suggested with the Blender logo as a button, just as the top of the application has been branded as ‘Blender’.

It’s doubtful that most users will not hack this out or even know how to. And as I’ve implied, it could be a code object that isn’t accesisble to be customised via the Blender GUI. So, in most demos it would be visible.

This may help Blender demos on smaller devices be more recognisabiy done in Blender, as often an icon is more legible than text.

And, Tynach if you aren’t aware that you are using Blender not Maya or another app, then perhaps you should wait for 2.5 so that you can make it look more like the app you want – not Blender.

To many now the Blender GUI is very recognisably different from Maya etc, but this may well change in future version of Blender as it becomes more customisable.

Why not help future versions retain some of their identity with a tiny amount of internal branding eg one button icon???

Is that offensive to someone who is a total open source zealot? Unlikely! :D

Many of us who have been using Blender since the NaN days probably don’t mind being reminded by a tiny icon that we are using the awesome app that Blender continues to be.

And we wouldn’t mind this being more recognisable to others.

Jonathan makes a very good point. It’s great to have sightings, but often the source isn’t attributing BBB to Blender, and so the advertising potential is lost but for an ‘ambient marketing effect’, which is only good for the converted (those who know of BBB and Blender already).

And this is why I suggeted option a) above – or at the least – put a cameo of Suzanne wearing a Blender wig or something in the next Blender Foundation Open Project video – something that is identifiably Blender.

There may even be no harm having a Blender subtitle advertising bar at the bottom – that pops up every so often unless the demo-er has purchased the DVD. This is probably not the right idea but perhaps on the right track.

Or put out shorter version of projects specifically for demo purposes – showing the details of the project eg App Used: Blender, Colour Range, etc in a corner of the video.

Or just have the Blender logo and name in the top right corner of all videos released by the Blender Foundation – much like TV stations do.

It’s a small ‘price’ to pay for something that most people haven’t financially or otherwise contributed to. And like the TV experience, the viewer forgets about the logo after a short amount of time.

But it would be visible to all that a demo is done in Blender.

With a little imaginative thinking applied to marketing Blender – not just making cool stuff with it – the Blender app can continue to improve without ‘selling out’ but by, for example, appropriately tagging videos and subtely branding the app.

Though zealots may disagree.

Muki KeyOot

11 August 2009 at 07:41

C’mon, I don’t think any of us didn’t see this coming.

The moment the Blender foundation made a short film that looked commercial class (Elephant’s Dream really had a far more “arthouse” feel), it was clear that everyone and their dog was gonna be all over that thing for demos of video playback, encoding, decoding, acceleration, manipulation etc. technology. If it’s freely available for those purposes, nobody in their right mind is gonna bother licensing some clip from Hollywood when they can just download, convert, and display BBB.

I mean, that’s the nature of the beast. Lord knows if someone codes up an OpenCL renderer for Blender, Ati and Nvidia will be tripping over themselves to see who can render BBB faster ;)

granny_biggins

11 August 2009 at 09:23

@blndusr

All of your ideas are useless. You’re missing one vital point:

We are not blender ‘customers’, we are the blender community.

Haven’t you noticed that virtually every animation available which was made in blender is labelled as such by the creator? We don’t need gimmicky space-hogging widgets in the GUI to publicize blender, we do it ourselves out of love for blender. We certainly don’t need our animations to be crippled by suzanne’s head.

If any of your ideas made it into blender upstream (which they won’t, the blender devs love blender too much to kill it) then I would upload a build to graphicall called ‘blender less-annoying edition’. Such a build would become more popular than one with those monstrous additions.

A scrolling advert ticker? Are you serious or just a very efficient troll?

blndrusr

11 August 2009 at 10:13

granny_biggins – it is you who is more like a troll – stomping on any ideas.

I suggested the ideas to get discussion going on how to help make Blender sightings show that Blender was used.

Not for people like you who already know Blender made the demo.

For potential new users.

The ticker ideas was just a joke to provoke ideas – not squash them as you are attempting.

I prefer the last idea I suggested – of a small Blender logo in the top right corner of Blender project videos.

TV channels do it often so that viewers remember the brand.

As I wrote – it’s a small price to pay for something free considering the majority of the ‘community’ contributes very little to the Blender foundation.

And as for having a Blender logo as a button icon inside Blender, for example, as the window switcher button icon – are you seriously against this?

You sound like the type of person/troll who would be against the Blender app splash screen, the name ‘Blender’ appearing at the top of the app, and the http://www.blender.org url appearing inside the app currently.

Or perhaps the Blender logo hurts your eyes now?

Or is it that any of the icons in Blender hurt your eyes?

What is the ‘visual harm’ of having just 1 of the existing icons in Blender be swapped for the Blender icon and not customisable by users from 2.5?

The benefit is – it could help more users identify Blender in demos and thus help Blender get more donations etc… and ultimately survive.

A small price to pay for software that you normally pay nothing for.

Of course, you are heroically welcome to strip all button icons from 2.49 and upload this to graphicall.

I’m sure it would be uber popular!

blndrusr

11 August 2009 at 10:36

Perhaps there could be 2 renders of Blender video projects.

1. The free downloadable version would have a top right Blender logo/name ‘stamp’;

2. DVDs (pre)sold would have no top ‘stamp’.

Of course, it would be up to the community to enforce commercial demo makers to user the video version with the Blender logo/name ‘stamp’ in the top right corner of their demo.

But I’m sure I’ll just be called a troll for suggesting a way of pushing the Blender ‘brand’ into sightings… or encouraging the … ‘We are not blender ‘customers’, we are the blender community’ – ‘members’ to contribute to the Foundation and development of Blender by pre-ordering a DVD or buying it later.

Whatever – I’m just suggesting ideas to what Jonathan, possibly Muki, and likely many readers understand to be a possibly problem or at least a wasted opportunity – the lack of attribution to Blender in these sightings.

Feel free to be a troll, zealot, niave whatever, and squash these ideas.

It’s people like you who would have originally been against the:

1. splash screen;
2. Name ‘Blender’ in the top of the app;
3. The http://www.blender.org URL under the name and in the app;
4. Even visual iconic buttons in Blender now.
5. And possibly Blender in the subtitle and credits of the videos.

I’m trying to be constructive. Not all my ideas are perfect – some are designed to provoke better ideas from others.

But there seems no harm in:

6. Having a top right corner Blender logo/name in at least some of the Foundation Video project renders;
7. Swapping 1 buttons icon in Blender for the Blender logo.

Each idea would help make Blender sightings more identifiably sightings of Blender – to those like me who have been using it for years and to potential users.

Sorry if I seem to have resorted to insults somewhere, but I was taken aback by the level of immaturity/troll/zealot like responses to a few ideas.

Blender is only getting better because its developers are listening to the community more.

I remember a time when people argued for Blender to first load up with a light and camera – or was the argument for Blender to load up with a cube and isometric view not a plane and orthographic view?

Just so a few ‘noobs’ could find Blender easier to pick up.

Been a long time here, since NaN days, and seen many good ideas shot down by trolls and zealots, but eventually some of those ideas have got into Blender.

Some day, the community will start to match the maturity of Blenders functionality.

In the meantime, the zealots and trolls continue to scare away new ideas, people, and possible financial contributions that could make Blender better sooner.

greenboy

11 August 2009 at 18:43

@blndrusr – I have delved into code and done changes to work around certain limitations of open source software, but of course most people using OS software aren’t developers and would have no clue how to remove something that annoys them….well except maybe stop using the product.

However, I’m thinking that you might want to add a thread to a blender forum. That would be easier to track then posting comments here. Of course your ideas might be pounded to a bloody pulp even more than here.

You might also want to think about adding an enhancement request or posting a patch. That would allow the developers working on blender to have a chance to see what you want.

blndrusr

11 August 2009 at 23:06

Thanks greenboy!

I’ll lick my wounds and perhaps try your advice soon.

Wish me luck!