Article submitted by Joel Davies. After a decline in entries, there has been much discussion on the BlenderArtists forums on how to improve the Animation Challenges to encourage more people to participate. Finally we can see the results of those discussions in the first improved Blender Animation Challenge.

Continue Reading 'The Blender Animation Challenge is back!' »

CGChallenge have announced their 23rd challenge, themed 'Steampunk Myths and Legends'.

Steampunk is the application of advanced steam age technology to a modern or science fiction setting.

This challenge asks you to render traditional myths and legends in the steampunk style using elements of gears, springs, brass and steam power. Re-imagine legendary characters from some of the world's most ancient stories, such as a steam-powered minotaur, or a Zeppelin-mounted Thor, hurling lightning bolts from the sky.

I could think of a few Blender artists that should enter straight away ;-) Go on then, make us proud!

Mal from CanDo Interactive is hosting a Blender game engine contest. The deadline is March 16th, and there's a nice lineup of prizes.

Continue Reading 'Game Engine Competition' »

The British band 'Hiding in Public' is inviting animators to create a music video for two of their new songs. The first prize is $1000 $2000, submission deadline is november 30th december 31st (prize and deadline updated after the band read some of the comments below - thanks guys!).

Continue Reading 'Contest: Create a music video for 'Hiding in Public'' »

Blendenzo teamed up with Clean3D to develop a short game for the Christian Developers Network Speedgame Contest of 2008. Its not very often that we get to see a neatly finished game in the BGE, so its one which is worth checking out.

Continue Reading 'Solomon's Treasure (BGE)' »

"Help the Boros reclaim their precious artefact and solve the mystery of the Starlight Isles. You will face unique and challenging puzzles that will require all your logic and reasoning skills; often there is not just one solution to the problem you face."

Here's the introduction of one of the most original Blender games I've seen so far. It was created by a team of only five people during the high-profile British 'Dare to be Digital' contest.

We talked to Graham Ranson to find out how he and his team used Blender.

Continue Reading 'Boro-Toro: Blender game a winner in British 'Dare to be Digital' contest' »

"Video game enthusiasts from the Midlands have taken part in a project to create their own video game from scratch in Birmingham."

Continue Reading 'Gamers get creative - Blender on the BBC, again!' »

For the last seven months I've been freelancing for a startup called Shapeways. Our mission is simple: we will make 3D printing (or 'rapid prototyping') accessible for everyone. Just upload your model as STL, Collada or X3D and we can produce it for you in a number of different materials.

Three of us have a history with Blender and used to work for Not a Number, so there's a lot of Blender work going on here in the office. It's a tough job ;-)

We're still in private beta, but I'll be giving away 500 invitations (more about that below).

Continue Reading 'Shapeways: 3D Printing for the Masses, Contest' »

Just like the earth spins around the sun, the Blender World Cup comes around once each year. And just like Global Warming, each year the competition is fiercer than ever.

This year the topic is wide open, and the freedom belongs to you the artists…. There is just one catch.

Continue Reading 'Blender World Cup 2008 kicks off!' »

Frank, a main character in the upcoming Apricot game, has been finalized. He's rigged, textured and ready for some much needed animations. So the Apricot team have released him to the community and are looking to see what crazy animations everyone can come up with.

Continue Reading 'Apricot Animation - Community Input' »

The second YafRay annual contest has started! If you use Blender 3d and YafRay, this is a great opportunity to put creativity creative energy into an interest project.

Continue Reading '2nd. YafRay Annual Contest' »

Sterling Roth [mexicoxican] started a challenge over at Blender Artists: what can you make with just 10 cuboid shapes? This very limiting rule is opening up a *lot* of creativity.

Continue Reading 'Weekend Fun: Cube Modeling Challenge' »

Can you code 24 hours non-stop? Hackontest is a new Google-sponsored 24-hour programming competition between different open source projects. Its goals are to enhance Free Software projects according to user needs and to make visible how enthusiastically open source software is being developed.

Continue Reading 'Hackontest is a new Google-sponsored' »

Recently reported, the Powua renderfarm is offering rendering time on their servers as prizes for their animation contest.

Continue Reading 'Last Chance for Submission into Powua Animation Contest' »

Here's an opportunity to win up to one full week of free rendering on the Powua renderfarm!

Continue Reading 'Animation Contest - winners receive free rendering time on the Powua renderfarm' »

The Blender Material Repository has its one-year anniversary coming up and they plan to celebrate it with a contest!

Continue Reading 'Blender Material Repository Anniversary, Contest' »

The granddaddy of all Blender contests, the Blender F1 Challenge, has entered its eighth round! If this is the first time you hear about it: this contest uses the term 'F1' very loosely: the ONLY design criterium required is that all entries must make use of an open-cockpit configuration common to contemporary Formula One cars. So far, the results have always been both surprising and inspiring.

Continue Reading 'Blender F1 Challenge 2008 Has Started' »

All the 2007 Suzanne Awards Nominations videos are now available for download from blender.org. Enjoy!