Advertisement

You're blocking ads, which pay for BlenderNation. Read about other ways to support us.

Epic Games supports Blender Foundation with $1.2 million Epic MegaGrant

50

This just in: Epic Games will be supporting the Blender Foundation with a donation of $1.2 MILLION DOLLARS, to be delivered over a period of three years.

July 15, 2019 (Cary, NC) – Epic Games, as part of the company’s $100 million Epic MegaGrants program, is awarding the Blender Foundation $1.2 million in cash to further the success of Blender, the free and open source 3D creation suite that supports the full range of tools empowering artists to create 3D graphics, animation, special effects or games.

The Epic MegaGrants initiative is designed to assist game developers, enterprise professionals, media and entertainment creators, students, educators, and tool developers doing outstanding work with Unreal Engine or enhancing open-source capabilities for the 3D graphics community.

The Epic MegaGrant will be delivered incrementally over the next three years and will contribute to Blender’s Professionalizing Blender Development Initiative.

“Having Epic Games on board is a major milestone for Blender,” said Blender Foundation founder and chairman Ton Roosendaal. “Thanks to the grant we will make a significant investment in our project organization to improve on-boarding, coordination and best practices for code quality. As a result, we expect more contributors from the industry to join our projects.”

“Open tools, libraries and platforms are critical to the future of the digital content ecosystem,” said Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games. “Blender is an enduring resource within the artistic community, and we aim to ensure its advancement to the benefit of all creators.”

For more information about Epic MegaGrants, visit unrealengine.com/en-US/megagrants.

Note that this does not give Epic Games control over Blender's roadmap; Ton Roosendaal comments on Twitter:

The MegaGrant is a true grant, with as only requirement that we really spend it on improving Blender. With Epic Games I've agreed on investing it specifically in the quality of our software development projects. Sounds boring, but it's essential for the future!

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.

50 Comments

  1. Rombout Versluijs on

    Wow thats massive! Hopefully they can use more developers now.I guess. This is a MASSIVE boost to the monthly fundings

  2. Although I don't understand the implications, meaning and ramifications of spending it on the quality of the software development projects, I'm happy for blender.

    Could someone explain the current state of development projects, what would be done to improve them, and the implications for the future?

  3. In the beginning I thought meh... they're just trying to bridge the two and it could only interest those working with UE. But it wasn't until after reading to the end that I realized this is huge! Wondering if the dev fund gets any boost once 2.8 is finally released. Big props to Epic Games anyway!

  4. Thank you, Epic Games for supporting Blender!

    Rogue anecdote to follow. I was this close to buying C4D last year, but decided to stick with Blender. I've used C4D before, and it is top notch, but the Blender community is what made me stay. Thank you all!

    • Being that Epic owns the Unreal engine, I don't see their motivation to contribute to anything specific to Unity. On the other hand, I don't think these funds will be for anything Unreal specific, so should be just as useful for any other engine.

  5. I hope that epic really has no other purpose. At present, epic's evaluation isn't very good. In the community search of reddit and so on, you can know that epic has taken the user's computer information without authorization.

  6. What a well-deserved boost for Blender. I love working with Blender 2.79 and I am looking forward to learning much more with Blender 2.8. I am still amazed and grateful that it is free for people like me! Your generosity is being returned and the incredible programme that is Blender is well and truly being recognised.

    • I'm glad that once I started with Blender, not with greedy ones, and I'm glad that Blender have success :)

  7. Thiago Cavalcante Carvalho on

    So ... where are you arguing about it? What improvements is the community currently discussing? There is a whole market to use machine learning in 3D software with Python like Blender. There is a great need for constant review on HUD and interface to improve workflow and UX. The program needs improvements in various areas such as texture, materials, and paint; such as the Substance Painter and Designer. As well as effects and damage and physical materials like Houndini. And animations like Cascaduer (emphasis here), Maya, Houdini, Cinema 4D, and 3D Studio Max. Including improvements to the rig system and skining with more modern techniques. Improvements in Cycles and Eevee. In the new Grease pencil and its 2D areas. In the sculpt mode (Z-Brush). Several addons that could be included as retopology, muscle system, and lighter simulations for fluids, sediment and damage. An audio area such as a sound mixer, instrument synthesizer, effects and voice, composer, robotic voice, or at least a 3D sound rendering based on sound materials. Tools to allow the program to be used in areas beyond art, such as science, such as engineering, architecture, physics, medicine, forence area, behavior, perhaps even chemistry and pedagogy. Or even think about new concepts. Or create a new short or long film based on more investment to be able to have even more funds / resources for even more improvements.

    • Thiago Cavalcante Carvalho on

      And I still forgot things like a CAD mode, a means to create big scenarios more easily using things like painting, carving, labs, fabricating, and positioning assets. And in fact what I think is even more important: what would be the concept of Blender 101, for the creation of labs, prefabs, assets, and other procedural generators to help accelerate and facilitate the creation of professional material in Blender. And remembering that these are thoughts of possible areas to receive investments and improvements in the program, not someone really thinking that EVERYTHING should be done at the same time.

      • Rombout Versluijs on

        Well a couple of your points are be worked and will be better. There is BLender 2020, which is specifically for animations i believe. There is being worked on sculpting and painting. Also there is work being done on a proper asset manager.

        Concerning the paint specific options it would be nice, but im not sure Blender will do this as there are specific software out there which make that their core value. WHy invent the wheel again?

    • Thiago Cavalcante Carvalho on

      How can we pay close attention to comments made entirely upon a tone that is clearly offensive, is not it? I'll have to keep the comment from the guy ROMBOUT VERSLUIJS and tell him: thanks for the answer and show that you're already working on it all. I'm still in my quest to improve as a programmer and start improving Blender with my bare hands. But until then, I know at least that the community is eager to discuss and talk about everything I've written.

  8. And why should you write all this... you wrote? Ha ha ... You spend time to wrote this... I do not understand people like you. I wrote my comment because I really like this program and I am pleased with this success. This program suits me, and I am going to use it in my project, so please... Stay where you are, without commenting, just use what suits you. Do not waste your time, ha ha.

Leave A Reply

To add a profile picture to your message, register your email address with Gravatar.com. To protect your email address, create an account on BlenderNation and log in when posting a message.

Advertisement

×