As you may know, Bassam Kurdali's excellent ManCandy FAQ DVD is published (like everything else the Blender Institute produces) under a Creative Commons license. Among other things, this means you're free to distribute or download it. Some people did this and the reactions were, well, not good. I talked to Bassam to find out how he felt about us offering download links.

Continue Reading 'Watch the ManCandy DVD Streaming or on BitTorrent' »

While you can't see the movie yet, you can now at least put a bunny-sized poster over your bed! Just grab the new press kit from the Peach site. Oh, and you'll need a bunny-sized printer as well, I guess ;-)

Watch it online below, watch the HD streaming version here, or download a high-resolution version from the Peach site.

Awesome! I keep getting goosebumps :) Excellent job guys, good luck with the last bits!!

The Apricot team have posted some SWEET new screenshots on their blog.

Continue Reading 'Apricot Early Screenshots' »

If you're feeling a bit down today and are looking for a "pick me up", then you need a dose of Nathan, who gives us a spirited tour of the Blender institute.

Continue Reading 'The Happy Blender Institute Tour' »

I'd kind of decided to stop singing songs of praise for Elephants Dream, but this is a story I think I should share with you: Elephants Dream made it into '3D World's greatest independent animated 3D shorts: 1997 to 2007'.

Continue Reading 'Elephants Dream in 3D World Magazine's 'Indie 50'' »

Peach have just announced the premiere of Big Buck Bunny: Thursday the 10th of April in Studio/K in Amsterdam. It looks like it's gonna be a fantasic evening - not only will you get to see BBB on the big screen, there will also a party with DJ afterwards, all sponsored by Creative Commons Netherlands!

The evening (screening+party) is free to attend for everyone; if you want the VIP treatment (first screening, champagne, a meal and hugs from the entire team or, well, at least from Nathan) you can get a VIP ticket from the Blender e-shop for €30.

Other cool news is that with the help of Filmmore, BBB will be transfered to three copies of 35mm film including digital audio.

Read the full announcement on the Peach Blog.

Brecht and Campbell were interviewed for over 30 minutes on this week's FLOSS Weekly podcast. FLOSS Weekly is a very popular show - this news item was submitted by 5 people, a record!

Did you check out the Apricot Blog lately? If you didn`t, you should take a look at a small massive list of features, requested for the project.

Continue Reading 'Apricot: *Massive* Feature Request List' »

A while ago I had the chance of getting my hands on the ManCandy FAQ DVD, made by Bassam Kurdali. This is the first title of the "Open Movie Workshop" series, produced by Blender Foundation.

After watching about 7 hours of videos I have to say: this is a must have if you are serious about making rigging and animating with Blender.

Continue Reading 'Review: The ManCandy FAQ DVD' »

When I was at the Blender Institute a few weeks ago, we didn't only talk about Peach, Apricot and Durian, but Ton and I also talked about the future of Blender. What are the major changes that are planned for Blender 2.50, and what will happen to Blender in the five years after that?

Continue Reading 'The Future of Blender' »

Ton's keynote at the Berlinale movie festival is now online. They use a *horrible* flash player (no pause, or scratch functions), and for some people it won't work. Still, it you get it to work it's worth your 20 minutes!

The video also contains 30 seconds of Peach - unedited, unfinished sound and with errors in the animation, but still. The Blender Institute has decided NOT to publish this separately and, to be honest, I'm very disappointed by that. The visitors of the Berlinale get to see movie material before we, the community who (partially) financed this project, do.

Update: *ahem* I think we err, killed their streaming server already. Please try again later ;-)

Update 2: I elaborated on my feelings below, in the comments.

Continue Reading 'Ton's Berlinale Keynote Now Online' »

The Apricot project has started! The Blender Institute's second Open Content project, a game collaboration with the Crystal Space game engine, was started last week. The team, with members from Poland, Canada, Spain, Australia, USA and Germany gathered for their first workshops.

Continue Reading 'Apricot Kicked Off' »

Two weeks ago I visited the Blender Institute in Amsterdam, where I had a chance to talk to the members of the Peach team (and a member of Apricot as well!). I taped my conversations with them and for the next week, we'll publish one interview each day. Today the eighth and final part: Brecht van Lommel, Technical Director.

Continue Reading 'Peach Interviews: Brecht van Lommel' »

Two weeks ago I visited the Blender Institute in Amsterdam, where I had a chance to talk to the members of the Peach team (and a member of Apricot as well!). I taped my conversations with them and for the next week, we'll publish one interview each day. Today part seven: Campbell Barton, Technical Director.

Continue Reading 'Peach Interviews: Campbell Barton' »

Last week I visited the Blender Institute in Amsterdam, where I had a chance to talk to the members of the Peach team (and a member of Apricot as well!). I taped my conversations with them and for the next week, we'll publish one interview each day. Today part six: Andy Goralczyk, Art Director.

Continue Reading 'Peach Interviews: Andy Goralczyk' »

Last week I visited the Blender Institute in Amsterdam, where I had a chance to talk to the members of the Peach team (and a member of Apricot as well!). I taped my conversations with them and for the next week, we'll publish one interview each day. Today part five: Enrico Valenza, Lead Artist.

Continue Reading 'Peach Interviews: Enrico Valenza' »

Ton Roosendaal, Producer for the Blender Institute and Lead Developer of Blender, has been invited to speak next Tuesday, Februari 12th at the prestigious German movie festival, Berlinale. His lecture is titled "Free for everyone: Open Movies, Open Games" and is from 15.20 - 15.45. More info.