The Most Important Blender Features in the Last 20 Years

Summary

Blender’s evolution over the years has been driven by its open movie projects, each introducing groundbreaking features that shaped the software’s development. From advanced character animation and rendering tools to real-time VFX and procedural workflows, these projects tested and refined Blender’s capabilities. Highlights include Cycles for photorealistic rendering, the grease pencil for 2D animation in 3D, and Geometry Nodes for procedural asset creation. Each open movie pushed Blender’s limits, proving that open-source tools could compete with industry standards, making Blender a powerful choice for both indie creators and large studios alike.

Takeaways

• 😀 Blender's development over 20 years was shaped by 'open projects' that tested and refined its features.
• 😀 Blender's first open movie, 'Elephants Dream', showcased the need for advanced post-processing, hair and fur rendering, and a complete character animation system overhaul.
• 😀 'Big Buck Bunny' introduced significant improvements to Blender's particle system, UV mapping, hair rendering, and the addition of ambient occlusion for better lighting.
• 😀 Blender's game engine update for a spin-off of 'Big Buck Bunny' modernized graphics, physics, and interactivity, proving Blender's versatility in game development.
• 😀 'Sintel' was a milestone project that introduced a complete UI redesign and significant enhancements in animation, sculpting, and realistic smoke and fire simulation.
• 😀 'Tears of Steel' demonstrated Blender's capability for live-action integration, with features like camera and motion tracking, rotoscoping, and the Cycles render engine for photorealistic VFX.
• 😀 'Cosmos Laundromat' drove major developments in hair and fur rendering, viewport improvements, and production management tools like Flamingo and Tract.
• 😀 'Agent 327: Operation Barbershop' showcased Blender's ability to handle complex character animation and high-quality action sequences, introducing new interactive viewport tools and a principled BSDF shader.
• 😀 'Hero' pushed Blender's 'Grease Pencil' tool to its limits, enabling 2D animation in a 3D environment and highlighting Blender's flexibility for traditional animation workflows.
• 😀 'Spring' demonstrated Blender 2.8's power with Eevee real-time rendering, a polished UI, and enhanced Grease Pencil tools, offering a smoother, more cinematic production process.
• 😀 'Coffee Run' illustrated Blender's speed and new simulation tools, using Eevee to create stylized, quick-turnaround animations and emphasizing its usefulness for indie creators.
• 😀 'Sprite Fright' demonstrated the power of Blender's geometry nodes for procedural workflows, showcasing faster rendering, asset management, and viewport denoising improvements in Cycles.

Q & A

How did Blender's development evolve over the years?

Blender's development evolved through a series of open projects over 20 years, with features and tools being tested and refined on real-world projects like animated shorts and video games.

What was Blender's first open movie, and how did it impact the software?

Blender's first open movie was a dark and surreal short that tested the software to its limits. It led to the addition of key features like an integrated node-based compositor, hair and fur rendering capabilities, and a complete rewrite of the character animation system.

What improvements did Blender make with the release of 'Big Buck Bunny' in 2008?

Big Buck Bunny introduced significant technical improvements, including an enhanced particle system for effects like falling leaves and bunny fur, better UV wrapping, new shading techniques, and an early ambient occlusion feature for global lighting.

How did the 'Big Buck Bunny' game project contribute to Blender's development?

The game project modernized Blender's game engine by adding support for programmable GLSL shaders, improving physics engine integration, and enhancing the general viewport. Although the game engine was later retired, it proved Blender could handle interactive 3D content.

What were the major updates Blender received during the production of 'Sintel'?

During the production of 'Sintel', Blender received a complete UI overhaul with the 2.5 update, a new animation system, and improvements to particles, sculpting, shading, and the render pipeline. A new smoke simulation system was also introduced.

What unique features were developed for the 'Tears of Steel' project?

The 'Tears of Steel' project introduced a camera and motion tracking system, advanced rotoscoping and masking tools, and a better green screen keying system. Additionally, Blender's new Cycles render engine was used for photorealistic lighting and shading.

How did 'Cosmos Laundromat' (Project Gooseberry) push Blender's capabilities?

The 'Cosmos Laundromat' project improved Blender's hair and fur simulation, 3D viewport effects like ambient occlusion and depth of field, and sculpting tools. It also introduced an updated dependency graph for more reliable animation performance and new pipelines for production management.

What was the significance of 'Agent 327: Operation Barbershop' in Blender's development?

Agent 327 demonstrated Blender's capability for high-quality action-comedy animation. It showcased improvements like a new character rigging system, better animation tools, the addition of Pixar’s Open Subdiv, and enhanced rendering through the Cycles engine.

What innovation did 'Hero' bring to Blender's animation tools?

'Hero' demonstrated Blender's revamped Grease Pencil tool for 2D animation inside a 3D environment. This allowed for traditional hand-drawn animation within a 3D pipeline, marking a significant step for Blender’s 2D animation capabilities.

How did the 'Spring' project highlight Blender 2.8's new features?

'Spring' showcased Blender 2.8's new real-time rendering engine, Eevee, which enabled faster look development and scene previews. It also demonstrated the new UI, the use of multi-object editing, and the upgraded Rigify system for character animation.