NVIDIA Omniverse Unlocks Endless Creative Possibilities for Blender Artists

NVIDIA Omniverse, a real-time 3D design collaboration and virtual world simulation platform, is now available to millions of Blender artists using GeForce RTX and NVIDIA RTX GPUs.

Now artists, designers and creators can use multiple creative apps including Blender, simultaneously, to build 3D assets and scenes from their laptop or workstation in a single, seamless, ecosystem.

Omniverse is powered by the NVIDIA Studio platform giving all creators the apps, tools, Studio driver software, and Studio product hardware, to meet and exceed their creative ambitions.   

Omniverse Explained

NVIDIA Omniverse acts as a hub to interconnect your entire 3D workflow, replacing linear pipelines with live-sync creation.

Artists can collaborate in real time, either between their own multi-app workflows, or with a colleague working remotely in a different location, using different creative apps, to create physically accurate, photorealistic scenes.

Imagine for a moment, the incredible advantages at play.

• This eliminates having to upload and download files between creative apps, as well as sending large files, saving massive amounts of time and system memory.
• No more converting files or having to work in the same application as colleagues, Omniverse leverages a universal format, Pixar’s Universal Scene Description (USD), so as long as Omniverse supports the creative app or Connector, more on this later, you’re good.
• Collaboration with a fellow artist in real-time should spark more ideation and creative ideas, higher quality work completed faster.

NVIDIA Omniverse is as vast as it is powerful, there’s a lot to learn! Get an overview from environmental artist Jacob Norris in the video below. 

Connectors and Apps

Omniverse Connectors enable real-time collaboration in different apps simultaneously, linking popular creative software such as Blender, Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, Trimble SketchUp,  Epic Games Unreal Engine 4 and more to Omniverse with more continuously being built by NVIDIA and partners.

Connectors are like plugins. When an artist makes an edit in Unreal Engine, the changes are instantaneously reflected in Omniverse - and vice versa.

This tutorial covers how Connectors are used with Omniverse.

Omniverse Apps are a suite of useful tools that help accelerate creative workflows within the platform:

• Omniverse Create — accelerates advanced scene composition to interactively assemble, light, simulate, and render scenes in real-time.
• Omniverse View — enables designers and architects to collaboratively review 3D design projects in stunning photorealism.
• Omniverse Audio2Face — generates expressive facial animation from just an audio source—powered by AI and accelerated by Tensor Cores.
• Omniverse Machinima — enables RTX creators to remix and render animated stories using assets from video games with a suite of AI and RTX-powered tools.

A Better Blender

In addition to building Apps and Connectors, NVIDIA is also bringing major engineering acceleration to improving Universal Scene Description (USD), and helping build support for USD in major ecosystem tools such as Blender. With NVIDIA’s Blender 3.0 alpha release,  Blender specialists will see massive improvements in speed, efficiency, and utility with Omniverse.

See how NVIDIA artist Ashlee Martino-Tarr is able to edit animations, lights and colors, rendering in real-time with Blender and Omniverse Create. 

A Blender Connector is currently under development. 

Omniverse Expansion

 Recently debuted features unlock more creative possibilities:

• Omniverse Nucleus Cloud — enables one-click-to-collaborate shares of large Omniverse 3D scenes with one other artist across the globe, without transferring massive datasets, with artist changes reflected in the original file — think edits in a cloud sharing doc — but for 3D.
• Omniverse Machinima — is offering more free characters, objects and environments from leading game titles like Mechwarrior 5 and Shadow Warrior 3, plus Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord and Squad assets in the Machinima library. 
• Omniverse Audio2Face — added blendshape support and direct export to Epic’s MetaHuman Creator app.
• Leading 3D marketplaces including TurboSquid by Shutterstock, CGTrader, Sketchfab and Twinbru have released thousands of Omniverse-ready assets for creators, found directly in the Omniverse Launcher. 

Enter the Omniverse

The NVIDIA Omniverse platform and its apps are free and ready to download. 

Users must have an NVIDIA or GeForce RTX GPU or graphics card such as those powering NVIDIA Studio products, laptops and desktops specifically designed to speed up creative workflows. 

Get started by finding inspiration in the Omniverse gallery, and view extraordinary 3D creations, built on collaboration. 

Image courtesy of Jeremy Lightcap, created using NVIDIA Omniverse and Blender.

Visit the NVIDIA Studio YouTube channel for tutorials on getting started in Omniverse.

Once you’re in, access the Omniverse Showroom app. This enables nontechnical users to experience Omniverse tech demos and experiment with real-time physics and rendering technologies.

Stay up-to-date on all things NVIDIA Studio and Omniverse by subscribing to the Studio newsletter and following us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Discord and Twitch. 

And don’t forget to share your creations with #StudioShare and #MadeinOmniverse for a chance to be featured.