Virgilio Vasconcelos has recently compared the render speed of the current version of Blender (2.49) with the latest 2.5 build (svn revision 23930). The render optimizations are thanks to Jaguarandi and his Google summer of code 2009 project.  The results are very impressive!

Continue Reading 'Render Speed Comparison (2.49b VS 2.5)' »

Chris Want reports on the impressive improvements in Blender's ray tracer by André Susano Pinto.

Continue Reading 'Google Summer of Code: Faster Ray Tracing' »

Article submitted by Chris Want. Student Jingyuan Huang (aka yukishiro) has been working hard on her Google Summer of Code project "Blender Light Paint using Spherical Harmonics", an interactive tool for artists to create, modify, and preview image-based lighting environments specified by HDR light probe images.

Continue Reading 'GSoC Light Paint, Stage 1' »

The GSOC 2009 has been announced and with some exciting improvements for Blender. It looks like that if all goes well we may be seeing some significant speed enhancements.

A BIG thank you to Google for supporting Blender again!

Continue Reading 'Blender – Google Summer of Code 2009' »

Here is a report on Google Summer of Code Summit from Kent Mein.  Go ahead and read what he has to say

Continue Reading 'Google Summer of Code Summit – report from Kent Mein' »

It seems like SoC 2008 may add another extra feature to the Blender internal renderer. It`s because UncleZeiv, from the Lightcuts project, is working on a way to add indirect illumination to Blender!

Continue Reading 'Indirect lighting with Blender internal renderer' »

(Submitted by Chris Want) How do you ensure that your Suzanne heads stay fresh and crispy for longer? If André Susano Pinto has his way, it will be done using his Shrinkwrap modifier! André (aka jaguarandi) is developing this modifier as part of his Google Summer of Code project. Alright, maybe this modifier won't keep your Suzanne heads fresh, but it is particularly suited for shaping clothing for models, among other applications.

Continue Reading 'Summer of Code Shrinkwrap Modifier Project' »

(Submitted by Chris Want) This summer the Blender text editor is getting some love, thanks to the 2008 Google Summer of Code program. Student Ian Thompson (aka quorn) is working on a project to improve Blender's python editing capabilities, which is based on a system of 'text plugins'.

Continue Reading 'Summer of Code Python Editor Project' »

All the SoC 2008 projects are really cool, but a lot of people are expecting the integration o Freestyle with Blender for a long time, and now that Maxime Curioni is working on the integration, the expectations are increasing.

Continue Reading 'Freestyle integration with Blender: first tests' »

"This year, we experimented with the program timeline providing one
week for students to discuss project ideas with their mentors and then
a single week to submit applications. We have heard feedback from the
community that it would be beneficial to provide more time for
students to submit their applications, so we've done just that.

Continue Reading 'Google Summer of Code, Deadline Extended to April 7, 2008' »