Jonathan Williamson has just posted a overview video of 2.5 so far, demonstrating some of the changes we're seeing coming to the next big release and redesign of Blender.

Continue Reading 'Blender 2.5 Overview Video' »

Pildanovak has developed a very useful composite node which can make bas-reliefs out of regular 3d models. Originally bas-reliefs can be seen throughout the art history but are very difficult to make by hand (be it in real-life or 3d).

Continue Reading 'Bas-relief node in Blender' »

Bobby Beck,  CEO of Animation Mentor will conducting a Webinar interview with Disney Producer Don Hahn

"Don Hahn recently edited a two-book compilation of Disney icon Walt Stanchfield's  drawings and teachings. Hear how Walt Stanchfield mentored a generation of influential animators in the industry."

Continue Reading 'Animation Webinar with Bobby Beck & Don Hahn, July 14th' »

A few weeks ago I reviewed the DAVID 3D scanner for Shapeways. I tested it on the Suzanne statue that I won a couple of years back and was quite happy with the results (model download included ;-)

Of course, I had to return the unit so I was wondering: is anyone aware of a free (as in speech) setup to achieve similar results?

I used to think we shouldn't post Blender sightings on BN anymore, but they just keep coming! I guess people just really like them, so here goes - we'll collect them and post compilations every now and then. Enjoy! :)

Continue Reading 'Blender Sightings' »

Pepe-School-Land students are doing some awesome modeling and animation in Blender as evidenced by these videos. The demo reel has a mixture of work done in Blender and other programs and is well worth watching. A Blender icon will appear in the lower left hand corner of the demo  to designate work completed in Blender.

Continue Reading 'Pepe-School-Land Student Demo Reel' »

You might have seen this in Ben Dansie's Durian application demo reel (after being selected as one of the final Durian team members), but he has recently come up with a very cool way to make flames and fire using Blender.

Continue Reading 'Ben Dansie's Flame Test' »

OpenArtist is a new Linux distribution. It's based on Ubuntu but completely tricked out on graphics - and Blender software.

Continue Reading 'New Linux distro for artists: openArtist' »

The 4th Animarte - International Animation Festival is receiving submissions until September 30, 2009. Animarte is open to animated and mixed media shorts with a duration of 15 minutes or less. There is no entry or registration fee and all animation techniques are accepted.

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Jeremiah W. has created a  video for the skinit.com 60 second commercial contest. He used Blender to render and animate the 3D models, as well as some other elements. The actual electronic models were purchased on the web, "as my skills and patience did no allow for the quality that I could buy ;-) (plus I got them at a really good price)". All of the texturing, animation, lighting, and rendering were done in Blender.

Continue Reading 'Skinit.com Commercial Made with Blender 3D' »

Anfeo  shows us how he sculpts the likeness of a character from the ABC TV's show Lost, Benjamin Linus.  This is a two hour sculpting video broken down into a four part series.

Continue Reading 'Sculpting in Blender' »

'The Secret of Kells' has won the audience award on the Annecy '09 film festival. Parts of this movie have been produced in Blender by the Belgian studio Digital Graphics, who we also know from 'Friday or another day' and 'The Mask of the Red Death'. Congratulations guys!

Continue Reading ''The Secret of Kells' Wins Audience Award at Annecy '09' »

ZanQdo writes:

I'd like to proclame a new record of number of polygons ever rendered in Blender: 1.15 billion tris with blurry reflections. Rendertime 23 min, Mem 200 mb

Can anyone top that?

After a little over one month of downtime, Planet Blender is back! Congrats, Nathan! :)

Continue Reading 'Planet Blender back online!' »

We had numerous reports of a product called '3DMagix' which is just a rebranded version of Blender that sells for $47.

For all the Googlers who are looking for 3DMagix: Blender is free, open source software. So save your money, and download Blender for free - it's completely legal!

Continue Reading '3DMagix: re-branding and selling the free software Blender' »

We haven't reported any Blender sightings for a while, but I find that it still amuses me to see Blender screenshots in strange places. So for today: Blender on the homepage of Eizo, supplier of professional computer monitors.

If you're looking for information on creating Flash content with Blender, you should check out Dennis Ippel's weblog. He recently got published in the Flash&Flex Developer's Magazine

Continue Reading 'Blender to Flash workflow article in Flash&Flex Developer's Magazine' »

Six issues of BlenderArt Magazine have been translated to Spanish. Wonderful community work!

Continue Reading 'Spanish translations of BlenderArt Magazine' »