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Project Mango kick-off

35
By on 3D News, Mango

The next Open Movie project by the Blender Institute, Project Mango, is now officially open! Director Ian Hubert (of Project London fame) will be director of the project, which focuses on visual effects (hence the cool sci-fi header on the Mango blog). Two other team members are also already known: Jeremy Davidson (Sintel character animation) and Sebastian Koenig (leading Blender trainer and Tomato tracker wizard extraordinaire). They're still looking for new team members.

Link

About the Author

Avatar image for Bart Veldhuizen
Bart Veldhuizen

I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Head of Community at Sketchfab.

35 Comments

  2. X on

    The team, the project, the concept, sponsors, wow... look at the technical targets on the blog! Everythings looks so great! And we have to wait almost a year for the 3-5 minutes film? I think i should fishing alot on a lake to improve my patience :)

    Reply
  3. W on

    Here we go again! Very excited. I look forward to a lot of high expectations, thus a lot of pressure on the team - but I know they'll be up to it! God bless ya all.

    Reply
  4. kram1032 on

    yay, that's awesome :D
    I hope, the trend of open movie projects getting better every time continues like it did 'till now.

    Apparently it will be quite a bit shorter than Sintel... Although Sintel started short too... :)

    Reply
  13. Ghoti on

    awesome It's gonna be sci-fi. I dislike fantasy and all the open movies have being that, with the exception of the really abstract one (whose name escapes me at the moment)

    Reply
  14. r0ug3r on

    wow!! ian hubert, i really like your project london, glad u will be heading mango.. its sci fi time!! keep it up guys... cheers to blender and developers!!

    Reply
  15. PhysicsGuy on

    That's funny, just a few days ago some people here commented that Sebastian should be in project Mango.
    With Sebastian on the creative side and Sergey on the technical side, I'm sure the tracking will get a big boost
    during Mango!

    Reply
  17. rorkimaru on

    This has live action segments right? Is there any news on how they're planning on casting for those? Actors who dabble in blender such as myself are bound to be very interested! I know I'd love a shot at an audition to be part of something like this!

    Reply
  23. Grogro... on

    One of their main goal, each year (or so) by producing a movie (BBB, Dorian..) is to prove the industry that *Blender* can be use more and more for pro product. So my guess is... no, it will not be a B-movie although short as it may be.

    I also predict it will be more than 3-4 minutes long.(at least 10 minutes... what say you) :)

    -TheElwolf

    Reply
  25. Jan on

    Despite all the respect I owe to Ian, Ton made a mistake by choosing the film director without making first a public call and validation by a vote from the community.

    Reply
  26. CorsairX on

    Really excited to hear about this one. I'm actually hoping that they don't go for anything to story heavy and concentrate on the visuals, visuals being what Blender is ultimately all about. Much as I enjoyed Sintel, I think it would have been a better movie if it has stuck to it's original premise of no-story, all-action.

    @Jan, why do you think it was a mistake? In a production like this, subject to tight timelines and lots of work with light resources, you need someone who can hit the ground running - Ian's familiarity with both the tools and the type of project will give him a big leg up. I don't really see what the validation of the community will bring to the production.

    Reply
  27. Andrew Price on

    @Jan
    Completely disagree.
    Directors are like CEOs. The only way to get to their position is by proving to the world that you can do it first. It's not the sort of thing you advertise on Craigslist.

    Reply
  28. mainframe_0 on

    Yup, the so called community have no voice at all! Do not let the community vote on anything! This would bring democracy, and this is worst thing that can happen!!!

    Reply
  29. Blendnmix on

    @AndrewPrice
    Perfect, the same idea apply to "gurus".
    "After your 8 long years of experience"...w-wait a minute!
    You are more or less 24, you have never produced a short/movie even close to average student short and of course you never worked in the industry but HEY you are a master!

    You valid the choice because Ian uses the same marketing/advertising tricks than you.

    Stop trying to be "CoOl", looking for making a "network", flooding community websites, try to stay away from the "Fame 2.0"!

    Reply
  31. rorkimaru on

    @Blendnmix Blender Guru is a fantastic resource site. Its the quality of the content that got it popular, not its flashy designs. I'd bet you've used the site yourself. Also, in art young minds are keen and given the technical nature of using blender its often the case that young minds are more adept at handling the software. Many blender users are self taut and they began learning in their teens. You shouldn't put this experience down. Kids can be the most dedicated students when its something that interests them.

    @mainframe_0 Don't throw the word democracy around when it has no place. You're cheapening the very principals of the word. Blender is open source but it is maintained and kept as one of the leading examples of open source software by the fantastic work of the blender foundation which is a company, the company producing this film.

    @Jan While I agree in a way that open applications would have been good the fact remains that they are on a tight schedule and need proven workers. If they're holding a public vote then time needs to be given to allow applicants and then to hold the votes. There is also the issue with having a gargantuan interview board most of whom are not qualified to correctly judge the applicants. I work in media and I still wouldn't consider myself qualified for choosing the job. Now think of all the 14 year olds working on their Halo inspired games on the forums. Do you think they'll be doing anything but diluting the quality of the votes?

    Furthermore, we've all heard of Project London. Its the largest film of this vein to have been made with the relevant software. Ian Hubert is one of the most experienced members of the community in regards to directing a live action/cg film. He is probably the most experienced. He is also the most known. Its highly unlikely that, regardless of the number of applicants, anyone else would have been chosen for the job no matter what the selection method is.

    Blender's community has long struck me as one of level headed, helpful and compassionate people who welcome young enthusiasts with open arms. Lets not dive into a flame war over false entitlement and pointless rage. The foundation and their open movies and game have not steered us wrong yet. They've funded fantastic and rapid improvements in professional level software which we get the privileged of using for free. Have faith in their methods and keep the name of the community good.

    Reply

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