Nintendo is working with the Blender Foundation and Studio Lumikuu to release a stereoscopic version of Big Buck Bunny for the 3DS!
From Nintendo's press release:
26th April 2012 - The groundbreaking open source movie Big Buck Bunny is coming to Nintendo Video as part of a special partnership with the award-winning Blender Foundation: the organisation behind the open source 3D content creation suite used to make the movie. European viewers will be able to watch the film in stereoscopic 3D, when it launches in three mini-instalments on Nintendo Video beginning 2nd May.
Big Buck Bunny is one of the Blender Foundation’s best-known characters. The film follows the adventures of this lovable rabbit, as he seeks revenge on a trio of mischievous woodland creatures who have disrupted his peaceful daily routine. The ten minute movie is inspired by the best cartoon traditions and pays homage to the exciting and suspenseful plots of classic animations.
The movie is currently being recreated in stereoscopic 3D by Studio Lumikuu in Finland, in cooperation with the Blender Foundation. Big Buck Bunny has received millions of online views since its release in 2008 - its popularity largely due to the detailed visuals, comical plot and characters. The film has also been warmly received by the huge Blender 3D community which contains around 300,000 members.
Laurent Fischer, managing director of PR and marketing, Nintendo of Europe, said: "We are proud to be working with the Blender Foundation to bring the adventures of Big Buck Bunny to you as Nintendo Video content. The stereoscopic 3D technology really helps to bring the characters to life on screen. Make sure you continue to check Nintendo Video on your Nintendo 3DS for further instalments of Big Buck and his friends.”
Ton Roosendaal, the Chairman of the Blender Foundation, said: "As a Nintendo and Zelda fan I'm thrilled to see our work come to life on the Nintendo 3DS. Lumikuu have done a fantastic job, watching it in 3D was like seeing our own film for the first time again!”
The first of three Big Buck Bunny 3D instalments launches on 2nd May exclusively for Nintendo Video - put the date in your diary now!
Link
41 Comments
Waiting to see this
But... it's not even April 1st today!
Exact same thought here.
:D
Love to see a game come to the 3DS based on the movie.
It's only a video, but it'll be a 3D video available to people with a 3DS.
Sounded indeed like a April fools joke :P Good job on this, really really impressive =D
check this Nathan it's not a joke http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/04/big_buck_bunny_joins_nintendo_video_in_europe
Yeah - maybe Bart meant to post this on April 1st.
Nobody clicked through to the actual link? It's quite legit.
First Sega uses Blender to make shaders in Virtua Tennis 4, now Nintendo is putting BBB on the 3DS? Methinks that with big companies looking at Blender and all the indie games that use it, Blender is making some serious headway into the game industry!
In related news, BBB is making an appearance on the BBC news site again today :) -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17857189 ( the embedded video )
I posted that one to Bart but it's certainly overshadowed by the Nintendo news. BBB seems to be getting everywhere these days. I just hope BF and Lumikuu recieve some much needed funding from the big N for this.
BBB on the BBC? Wow, what a BBD...
Wow, now this is cool. Cant wait to watch BBB in 3D on my 3DS :)
Err, what do they mean by "...three instalments" ? BBB part I, II and III or... O_O
No, they're just splitting the movie up into like 3 minutes each
This would be great if they decided to make it a series with full time animators at the Blender institution.
I already did this 2 years ago!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhLJcnwjBaA
do you still have the separate clips for each side?
No, I don't have the frames any longer.
My work flow: (1) used blender to dump the stills then I found (2) a gimp script to make the 3d effect, then i wrote a (3) script that looped and converted all 48000 or so frames to 3d -it took almost a week to render...
Wow! This is great! I wish the best for the project! :)
That is the best piece of news for ,the whole week .
OUCH ! talk about a cherry-pie 2.63 is out . It is time to be thankful now .
Too bad you can't get a 3D version if you don't have a 3DS. Would have loved a 1080p 60fps 3D version for my computer :D
The content is there, you could render it yourself. ;D
Quite literally you CAN take part in rendering it yourself, and quite easily too. As Julius points out at some point in this thread, the news release completely failed to mention the point that the movie is being rendered on an opensource online renderfarm where people contribute spare CPU cycles to make it possible. When it's done (probably around xmas 2012) it will not just be 1080p but a stunning 4k, 60fps, 3D, HDR and free as in CC-BY.
Does the CC licence allow them to keep the 3d version nintendo only or will we see a CC licenced 3d version?
Come on!, Sintel is waaay better than BBB!
Let's have Sintel in Nintendo 3DS!
they r both good in their own ways and cant really be compared.
BBB is more family/kid friendly and loveable...so quite ideal for Nintendo
if Sintel would be more suited for the PS
Awesome! Nintendo and Blender--two great loves of mine coming together!
OMG O-O I can't believe, is very important for blender, and I will love to see BBB on my 3Ds
Hey guys. Just to clarify on the matter as the N press release was unfortunately released before we saw it. Bart I'm hoping you will pick up on this post and update the post accordingly. The third section of the press release should have in fact said the following:
--The movie is currently being produced in stereoscopic 3D by Studio Lumikuu in Finland, in cooperation with the Blender Foundation. The actual conversion process has been done by Danish expert Janus Bager Kristensen and rendered by a large community of volunteers on the free and collaborative rendering platform burp.renderfarming.net. Big Buck Bunny has received millions of online views since its release in 2008 - its popularity largely due to the detailed visuals, comical plot and characters. The film has also been warmly received by the huge Blender 3D community which contains around 300,000 members.--So while the final production is indeed being handled through Studio Lumikuu, the credit for the final 3D conversion is almost entirely (99%) that of Janus Bager Kristensen. This is very important as Janus has been working hard on the conversion for the past year or so and a big part of the renders used in this release have been performed by the hundreds of volunteers over a burp.renderfarming.net (our own Renderfarm.fi's sister "development" web service).Now that I've set the book straight on that, I'm hoping everybody will enjoy this release as much as we will. I have to say it does look pretty amazing on the little device. Personally I can't wait to see what the "special partnership" between BF and Nintendo might mean for the future .. :)Yours,Julius TuomistoProducer, Studio LumikuuRenderfarm.fi / http://www.renderfarm.fi
Hi Julius,
please mail me a proper formatted version, this one got screwed up. I'll update the post asap.
Cheers,
Bart
I really would like to express my concerns too about the license and if we will get to see this in another device other than nintendo 3ds
(my htc evo 3d can't wait for this...)
No...way... :D :D I've been a huge Zelda/Nintendo fan for years, in fact it very probably led me to Blender, so seeing this... :D Definitely going to be checking the Nintendo Video channel a lot more often!
Quick message for Ton - So, you're the creator of Blender *and* a Zelda fan too? You just got over 9000% more awesome ;) (...did you add in those Zelda remixes at last year's Blender Conference? I went nuts when I heard 'em playing in the background on the Live Stream :D)
If I recall, Ton actually mentioned this a few times before ;)
Big Buck Bunny is the same quality like a Pixar or DreamWorks movie. Realy a very good movie. In deed I doubt people can point it is not a Pixar product without read the final credits! It is my favorite Blender movie.
I hope nintendo will donate an amount of money to Blender foundation.
Wait, it says Nintendo of Europe. Will this be available to people in the US as well?
Next Sintel! Next Sintel!
Love Nintendo and Blender too :D this is great!!!!