Blender is everywhere, you can see more and more users switching to Blender everyday. With this in mind the Animatu organization decided to ask the Blender Foundation for some Blender representation at the event, but there’s more.
As you may know, Elephants Dream was released under a Creative Commons license. This license encourages you to do anything you want with all the files (including the audio and video), as long as you give proper credit to the creators. Some people have picked up on this and have started making remixes of the movie.
You may have heard about the new DVD formats that are coming your way. Whether it’s blu-ray or HD DVD, they are capable of storing much larger amounts of information on a disc tha the current DVDs. Because of their large storage capacity you can use them to store HD content. Not many movies have been released on this format, and not a single one of them was of European origin. Until now, that is. Michael Becker from Skywalk Mastering GmbH / Imagion AG has produced an “Elephants Dream” HD DVD.
I don’t make a habit out of reporting on other sites who report on Blender, but this is more than averagely cool: multiple people have reported that an article on Elephants Dream has appeared in (drumroll) The Wall Street Journal!
The following video interview was made by the Netherlands National News Agency. I think Ton says some interesting things in there about the movie that I hadn’t thought of before. It’s also a nice chance to get a peek at his workplace where all his Blender work takes place! The interview is in Dutch so I wrote a translation; it shouldn’t be too hard to follow.
Joeri was kind enough to post smaller versions of 3 great videos showcasing the making of “Elephants Dream.” See some of the Blender Masters in action! (DivX required)
Ton confirms on the Elephants Dream website that the total number of downloads has now passed 500,000. Because not all the numbers from the mirrors are in yet, he estimates that the real number may be as high as 1,000,000.
We have seen many comments of people who are planning to organize Blender user meetings where people can see the movie, discuss it and in general have a good time.
Some of the members of the Orange Team have been spotted hanging out in a chatroom on IRC. If you’d like to meet them and have a chat, then this is your chance!
Wikipedia has a neat entry with a list of firsts and major advancements in computer generated imaging since the 1970s in film and television. It’s a nice look at the past 33 years and seeing how far we’ve come. You might also be interested in the latest “first” that the entry describes.
