Declarative Systems in Geometry Nodes May 2nd, 2025 General Development Jacques Lucke html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd" Currently, one of our primary goals for Geometry Nodes is to get to a point where we can build high level and easy to use node group assets for physics simulations. Our general approach was described briefly last year. The goal of this document is to go into a bit more detail. For the examples below I’ll use a particle simulation because it’s the easiest, but the same applies to many other simulation types like hair, cloth and fluids. Two Different Views There are two different ways to look at a particle simulation: Declarative view: Describe the intended behavior of the particles by combining various existing behaviors like emitters, forces, colliders, surface attachment and more. Imperative view: Describe the computation steps to simulate the particles. Such steps are for example “integrate forces”, “update positions”, “find collision points”, etc. Both are totally valid views at a particle simulation, but depending on what you’re trying to achieve exactly, one view is more practical than the other. Most particle simulations can be described using a combination of various behaviors in which case the declarative view is more practical, but when you’re building a particle system from scratch or have custom needs, the imperative approach works better because it has more flexibility at the cost of dealing with low-level details. Current State Geometry Nodes is already quite decent at building particle systems using the imperative approach. Obviously, there are various missing built-in features to really be able to tackle any kind of simulation, but the overall structure is there. Building particle systems using the declarative approach by combining a set of behaviors is much harder, because it requires creating node groups that describe a certain behavior which are passed to a “solver” which performs the actual computations in the right order. Goal We are working towards various core features (bundles, closures, lists) that together will allow building declarative systems. The image below shows how individual behaviors could be encapsulated by node groups. All behaviors have the same type which allows easily combining them to form higher level behaviors. Also note that the order in which they are passed to the particle solver is largely irrelevant. This approach to building particle solvers allows someone to focus on building the actual solver that exposes a specific interface while anyone else can just build and combine behaviors for that solver without worrying too much about how it works internally. Since all behavior node groups have a very similar structure (various inputs, one behavior output), we can also build a higher level UI for managing them. For example, if the Particle Solver node group is used as modifier, the UI could look like in the following mockup. Note that each panel corresponds to one behavior and that an arbitrary number of behaviors can be added. The individual behaviors would be node group assets coming from an asset library. Of course one always has more flexibility in the node editor, but this kind of UI should be capable of solving the most common needs without requiring the node editor at all. Lastly, this approach of using declarative systems also simplifies creating add-ons that have a custom high level UI for some node tree. That’s because it’s way easier to write code that merges a few behaviors together automatically, than it is to edit potentially deeply nested node groups. Beyond Simulations As mentioned, this behavior-based approach works well for all kinds of physics simulations. However, using declarative systems also makes sense in other cases where the user thinks more about the what and not the how. One example for such a system is Line Art. A potential Line Art node is supposed to generate curves based on various features (e.g. silhouette, non-occluded edges and intersections). Here again, the user does not really care about how the curves are computed exactly, but only what kind of curves are expected. One could build node groups describing the different kind of curves, pass these to the Line Art node which then outputs all the requested curves. Something similar could be done for landscape generation, where behaviors encapsulate terrain features or asset scattering rules. There is always a bit of a trade-off when choosing between the imperative and declarative approach, but for high level tools used by potentially millions of people, the declarative approach is often better because it significantly reduces the cognitive load at the cost of a little less flexibility. How do Bundles and Closures fit in? Bundles and closures currently an experimental feature. They have many interesting uses on their own, but the primary reason for why we are working on them is to allow building these declarative systems. You can check out the pull request for more details, but in short a Bundle allows passing multiple values along using a single link and a Closure allows passing around functions that can be evaluated anywhere. Each individual behavior will generally be encapsulated as a bundle. The exact structure of that bundle is determined by the solver that uses the behavior. For example, a very basic mesh particle emitter could look like in the image below. Note that the Type in the bundle will be used by the solver to figure out what kind of behavior this is. The solver will call the Emit callback to actually create the new particles. The inputs and outputs of the callback are also determined by the particle solver. Closures are a fundamental feature to make this whole system work, while at the same time being a fairly niche feature that most people will not have to know about. Most people will just use systems that heavily rely on closures under the hood to be able to provide a good high level user interface. Feedback can be posted in the corresponding forum thread.

Reinforcing the Blender Trademark Guidelines April 18th, 2025 News Francesco Siddi html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd" As Blender grows in popularity, the amount of products and projects using “Blender” as part of their name is growing as well. While there are some short-term benefits in incorporating the “Blender” name in a product, there are often unintended consequences when it reaches a wider audience. For example: An extension becomes popular and starts charging a fee to download. Using Blender as part of the brand could imply a relationship or endorsement from the Blender project.  A community website or service starts being considered official or affiliated to the project, because it contains the Blender name in it. In reality, the project is fully independent. With the introduction of the Blender Extensions platform, branding issues become more obvious, as add-ons that have “Blender” in their name could appear right inside the software, creating confusion.  As general branding guidelines for products or services, we recommend third parties to avoid using the name “Blender”, especially not as the start of the name. Blender Foundation wishes to distinguish official products or services that way. For example: Blender Conference, Blender Extensions, Blender ID. This explained in detail in the Trademark Policy page. While we understand that using the name “Blender” in a product will give quick recognition and short term benefits, it is also common sense that in the mid and long term developing a unique own brand for products will always be more beneficial. It allows you to trademark it, promote it, and expand it beyond Blender itself. Besides that, brand diversity in the Blender ecosystem is highly desirable, as it reflects the amount of independent business happening around Blender. This is what happened with Blender Market. At the time (15 years ago), the idea of creating a commercial Blender-focused marketplace was truly pioneering, and that initiative was welcomed and supported by Blender Foundation. Initially, it was helpful for the market to bear Blender’s name as it helped with discoverability. Today, not so much, as it often gets mistaken for Blender’s actual marketplace.  Blender does not have plans to create an add-on marketplace, but rather focus on the free extensions platform, so it becomes important to set a distinction between the two. Last year, Autotroph (the organization behind Blender Market) announced the decision to rebrand the marketplace to “Superhive”, in an effort to align with the Blender trademark policies. The rebrand is now in place, and this is something that Blender Foundation highly appreciates.  Existing and new products featuring the Blender name are encouraged to follow Blender Market’s steps. We understand that websites and products using the name Blender already for a long time, will not find it practical or desirable to rename.  Blender Foundation does not intend to seek legal or public action in cases of such trademark violations. However, Blender Foundation does reserve the right to not advertise confusingly named Blender products on the extensions platform. For more information, blender.org/about/trademark-policy.

Blender 4.4 ReleaseMarch 18th, 2025Press ReleasesPablo Vazquez html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Blender Foundation and the online developer community proudly present Blender 4.4!Splash artwork: Flow Dream Well Studio, Sacrebleu Productions, Take FiveImage licensed under CC-BY-SA https://flow.movie/Featuring artwork from Flow, the Oscar-winning film entirely made in Blender. Read the user story with director Gints Zilbalodis.Showcase ReelWhats NewBlender 4.4 focuses on stability, with over 700 issues tackled through the Winter of Quality. Read more on the Code blog.Major improvements include a new way to pack multiple data-block animations into one Action using Slots, a full CPU rewrite for the Compositor, Grease Pencil stabilization and feature parity, Video Sequencer text editing improvements, and, as always, better performance and a more refined user interface to enhance the user experience.Watch the video summary on Blenders YouTube channel.Explore the release notes for an in-depth look at whats new!Thank you!This work is made possible thanks to the outstanding contributions of the Blender community, and the support of the over 7300 individuals and 35 organizations contributing to theBlender Development Fund.Happy Blending!The Blender TeamMarch 18th, 2025Support the Future of BlenderDonate to Blender by joining the Development Fund to support the Blender Foundations work on core development, maintenance, and new releases. Donate to Blender

Blender at GDC 2025March 11th, 2025EventsFrancesco Siddi html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"A small delegation of the Blender team (Dalai Felinto and Francesco Siddi) is going to attend theGame Developers Conference GDC in San Francisco on 17-21 March, with the main goal to connect with individuals and teams using Blender to create interactive content.This year we are also organizing a Blender Meetup event (Birds of a Feather-style), focused on connecting producers, developers, TDs and artists working in studios where Blender is part of the pipeline. The goal is to share ongoing Blender development, Blender Studio pipeline insights, and give visibility to teams who wish to share their experience using Blender in production.This time we go for an informal setting on Tuesday, 18 March at 10:00AM at the Yerba Buena Gardens (in front of the Moscone conference center). Look for the Blender flag, bring your own coffee and see you there!If you want to connect besides the event, reach out to francesco at blender.org.

html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"During the 20242025 winter (northern hemisphere), Blender developers focused on quality and stability. This blog post offers an overview of the work accomplished.BugfixesBetween December 1 and January 31, 2025, more than 500 reported issues were fixed.High severity bugs since January 1st 2025Here is a per-module breakdown of the fixed reports:Animation & Rigging: 24Asset System: 6Core: 10Grease Pencil: 82Modeling: 33Nodes & Physics: 71Pipeline & IO: 9Python API: 3Render & Cycles: 37Sculpt, Paint & Texture: 31User Interface: 82VFX & Video: 40Viewport & EEVEE: 76Additionally, many old reports have been double-checked and either fixed or closed (for example, if the issue could not be reproduced in a recent Blender version). Issues that were not reported by users were also addressed.Module Work OverviewIn addition to fixing bugs, developers also spent time tackling technical debt, updating documentation, and stabilizing certain areas of the code. Lets take a look at the reports from each module.Animation & RiggingMultiple bugs have been closed (either fixed or re-investigated and closed).Pose Library:Added support for slotted actions, including multi-object poses.Added support for pushing to the pose library.New tools for slotted actions have been implemented.Switching assigned actions is now smoother.Library Overrides for slotted actions have improved.Code documentation is much better, APIs have been polished, and the new animation system is generally easier to work with for future development.CompositorThe CPU compositor rewrite has been completed, aiming to improve maintainability by unifying the CPU and GPU compositors. In the process: Tens of thousands of lines of code were removed. Performance of many operations was improved. The behavior of CPU and GPU devices was unified.The main benefit of this rewrite is that future development of the compositor will be faster and easier.Grease PencilThe focus was on stabilization following the significant Grease Pencil v3 changes introduced in Blender 4.3. A total of 91 bug fixes were committed, 86 of which were high-severity bugs, many addressing regressions.ModelingThe focus was on fixing crashes and older unresolved bugs. 17 issues were addressed, including several long-standing bugs and 8 crashes. In total, 74 issues were closed.Nodes & PhysicsThe team kicked off the quality project by developing a tool to categorize all module issues and split them into batches. This tool made the project feel far less daunting, as they were only tackling 20 issues per day instead of 700.The focus was on addressing reports for active projects (rather than end-of-life features like the particle system or inactive areas such as the cloth modifier). In total, they closed about 150 issues and resolved several long-standing, frustrating problems.They also made time for some important refactors, including:Reducing the number of changes required to add a new node.Starting a replacement for the CustomData system.Implementing various smaller improvements.Render & CyclesThe team improved test coverage, fixed around 40 bugs, and cleaned up the code to better align with modern C++ standards.Sculpt, Texture & PaintThe team focused on bug fixes, as well as improving testing and documentation.IssuesClosed 25 high severity reports.Followed up on issues tagged with Need Information from DevelopersClosed 57 additional issues (Design, To Do, and Bugs).Created a tracking issue for Sculpt/Paint undo problems.Testing & DocumentationAdded a BVH building unit test.Work is ongoing for a sculpt stroke + render test.Added a technical documentation overview for mesh painting.USD (Universal Scene Description)The team focused on a variety of tasks, including adding additional test coverage, completing partially implemented features, and upgrading the user manual.They also investigated, fixed, and prototyped performance improvements for USD import, which were also useful in determining some other areas of Blender that should be improved.User InterfaceThey focused on reducing the number of UI issues to a more manageable state. Out of more than 1000 open issues, 275 were closed.Viewport & EEVEEThe team migrated overlay, selection, and image engine to the new drawing manager API. This migration fixes known and long-standing issues with overlays, and it paves the way for future optimizations, including removal of a global lock/freeze.The team also focused on improving test cases, fixing high-severity issues, and better platform support.Video Sequence EditorThe team focused on bug reports, code cleanups, and refactors:The Sequence -> Strip rename in the codebase (and to some extent the Python API) to make the code less confusing.All movie read/write-related C++ code is now in imbuf/movie, with clearer naming and improved structure.The code for VSE effects and modifiers was cleaned up and modernized to align more with C++ standards, resulting in a slight performance boost.Retiming code received fixes, cleanups, and improved developer documentation.Several UI interactions were polished for better usability.Future Quality ProjectsAfter a year of exciting new features like EEVEE-Next and Grease Pencil v3, the Blender Winter of Quality was the perfect opportunity to tackle loose ends and enhance stability.While quality is always a core focus of new development and part of the daily work of module teams, having a dedicated period to focus solely on it was great. As a result, future quality projects are being considered, and feedback is currently being gathered to learn about the experience for developers and identify areas for improvement in the future.Support the Future of BlenderDonate to Blender by joining the Development Fund to support the Blender Foundations work on core development, maintenance, and new releases. Donate to Blender

Making Flow Interview with director Gints ZilbalodisJanuary 22nd, 2025User StoriesFrancesco Siddi html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Flow, the animated feature film following the mystical journey of a dark grey cat and his companions, is the manifestation of Blenders mission, where a small, independent team with a limited budget is able to create a story that moves audiences worldwide, and achieve recognition with over 60 awards, including a Golden Globe for Best Animation and two Oscar nominations.In this interview, Gints Zilbalodis, writer and director (and more!) of the film, shares how Blender was instrumental in the creation of the film.Gints: Ive done animation, all kinds of animation. I started doing hand drawn, 2D, digital animation. But after making a few shorts, I realized that Im not good at drawing, and I switched to 3D because I could model things, and move the camera. And so at first, I used Maya, which was taught at our school at that time.After finishing my first feature Away, I decided to switch to Blender in 2019, mainly because of EEVEE. I started using the 2.8 beta or even alpha release. It took a while to learn some of the stuff, but it was actually pretty straightforward. Many of the animators in Flow took less than a week to switch to Blender.EEVEE was interesting to me because, even my first feature Away, it was all playblasted, which is not like proper rendering, rather its like previews.I was excited to find that workflow in Blender, but in a more advanced way that gave me greater control. Speed is really important to menot just in rendering but also in working with files, setting up lighting, and creating the overall look. I like to work on multiple aspects at the same time; for example, when setting up the camera, I also need lights in place because lighting influences camera placement and how the scene looks. Thats why EEVEE was so appealing to me.I briefly experimented with some game engines, but at least back then, it was really difficult to figure out a workflow for making films in them.And Blender was ideal: it had all the tools I needed.The entire project took about five and a half years. In the first year, I was writing the script, learning Blender, and looking for funding as Dream Well Studio. That was in 2019.In 2020, we secured some funding, and I moved into a co-working studio space with other artists and developers who were using Blender. Thats where I connected with Mrti Uptis and Konstantns Vievskis.Mrti was one of the first people I approachednot specifically for water simulation, but just to see how he could contribute. However, it quickly became clear that he had a deep expertise in water, unlike anyone else.We were fortunate that, in the early stages, it was just me, so the pandemic didnt affect us much. By the time we moved into full production in 2023, things had stabilized.I created a short pilot for Flow about a minute and a half long where I went through the entire workflow. It was technically basic, but it was useful to test the process. That led to our first teaser, which I never showed publicly. Later, we made another, entirely new teaser, which we used for pitching.In 2021, we started hiring concept artists and building the team. We brought in riggers and developers to create custom scripts that helped streamline the workflow while I was working on the animatic.The Latvian studio was relatively small, it all fit in one room. In total, we had around 15 to 20 people, but at any given time, there were usually only three to five people working, since different teams handled pre-production and post-production.We had a set-dressing team. I would design the initial scene in previz, and they would refine it by adding more plants, props, and environmental details. Concept artists sketched out buildings and figured out their construction, incorporating storytelling elements into the environments.Other team members focused on developing tools. Water was a huge part of the film, but only two people handled all the water effects. Mrti had already been researching water simulations and posting his findings on YouTube, but he hadnt yet put everything together. He eventually developed a Blender add-on for water effects.Meanwhile, Konstantns handled smaller simulations, such as splashes. He also researched techniques for stylized fur and feathers, working on shaders. In addition to that, he did rigging, and character modeling along with other team members.In 2022, Belgian and French co-producers Take Five and Sacrableu Productions joined the project to work on sound, character animation and additional aspects of the film. Expanding the team with experienced character and pipeline TDs, as well as animators working in a well-structured process, was essential to handle the complexity required by the film. This was a truly international coproduction.The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard selection in 2024.How did you learn Blender?I learned a lot online, but it was great to have someone with more experience next to me (Konstantns). He did a lot of rigging and was much more technical than me, so I could ask him for advice. Sometimes, I needed something specific in the animatic, like the deer moving in a spiral, and he would write a script to automate it. This was before Geometry Nodes.I cant write scripts myself, so having someone in the studio to help was invaluable. But learning never really stops. I still feel like theres so much I dont know about Blender or anything else. And with these long projects, you sometimes forget things you learned five years ago.Flow was made entirely with Blender and rendered with EEVEE. Each frame took from about 0.5 10 seconds to render in 4k. We didnt use a renderfarm. The final render was done on my PC. There was no compositing, all the colors were tweaked and adjusted using shaders.How does the previz process work?When creating the previz or animatic, I just try to get things done as quickly as possible. This approach helps me explore ideas efficiently. Im not great at drawing, so previz works better for me. Its faster, and I like to move the camera a lot. Sometimes, I roughly sketch out a building, but its often very basic.I then hand these files over to a concept artist. Many environmental concept artists use Blender as well, so they can import my files. While they usually rebuild everything from scratch, my files at least provide the correct proportions. Sometimes, they paint over my models, but in other cases, they design everything directly in 3D.When they send the files back, I ask them to leave assets in place rather than moving them to the center of the scene. That way, I can easily import everything back, and it aligns perfectly.The animation teams in France and Belgium brought a great deal of organization to the process. They developed further tools and rigs to deliver character animation, they had to optimize the scenes, removing everything except the assets the characters interacted with and cleaning them up thoroughly. However, I didnt use these optimized assets directly, I would import their animations back into my heavier scenes.For lighting, it was just me. We had other people handling different tasks, but I was solely responsible for lighting. This setup made things easier.Since I handled a lot of tasks myself, it was simpler to work with large files where everything was imported. In each file, I made extensive adjustments to assets. For example, when setting up lighting, I tweaked materials for the assets in each shot, making them slightly lighter or darker to get the right look. I know this could be done with library overrides, but I was also working across different computers: my desktop PC and my MacBook.Switching between operating systems sometimes caused issues with linked assets, even when using relative file paths. To avoid breaking links, I found it easier to keep everything within the file itself. Some of the smaller scenes were around 300 MB compressed, while a few of the largest ones reached nearly 2 GB compressed.Maybe I could have figured out a better way to link assets, but during production, speed was the priority. The production timeline required me to move fast, so I opted for the most efficient workflow rather than experimenting with alternatives.Learn more about the animation of Flow in this Blender Conference presentation by Animation Supervisor Lo Silly-Plissier.A glimpse into the water surface system used in Flow.As an early adopter of Blender 2.8, did you upgrade as new releases became available?I started with Blender 2.8 alpha while it was still in development, and I was constantly updating things. I think when the team joined, we were using 2.9 or maybe 3.0.With each major version, we decided to update since there were only a few of us at the time, and we werent sharing files. That made it safer because everyone was working on their own files independently, without links. The last version we used was 3.6. EEVEE definitely improved over time, but it wasnt just EEVEE. Geometry Nodes and other features made upgrading worthwhile.Of course, before each update, we ran a lot of tests, opening different files to check for issues. Some things did break, but overall, our workflow remained stable.Early on, when the team was small, updating wasnt a big deal. But once all the animators started in 2023, they worked in 3.3 and stuck with it throughout production. After they finished animation and I moved on to lighting, I imported everything into 3.6, which wasnt a problem.Which add-ons were part of your workflow?We used a few. One of them was GeoScatter, a popular scattering add-on for distributing plants and other environmental elements. We also used Animation Layers, not for character animation, but for the camera, specifically to create handheld, shaky camera movements.I created separate layers for a standstill shot, for walking in place, and for running. This allowed me to mix and adjust them as needed. I believe some add-ons have been developed since then specifically for this kind of workflow. To generate camera motion, I also tested VirtuCamera. I experimented with recording live camera movements by walking around, but I found it too imprecise. Instead, I preferred keyframing and layering different types of motion.For fluid simulations, we sometimes combined different techniques, starting with large-scale waves using Cell Fluids and then adding details with FLIP Fluids.Other tools we used included Bagapie Vegetation Generator, Bagapie Rain Generator, and Copy Global Transform.What I love is how fast the files open. It might seem like a small thing, but it actually saves a lot of time and frustration.EEVEE is great. Also, I love how customizable everything is. I created a lot of custom keyboard shortcuts, which worked really well when I was working alone. However, once we started working in the studio, it caused some issues, especially when I had to demonstrate something on someone elses computer. But we figured it out.I also love the amount of resources available online. There are so many tutorials and tools, and I can quickly find answers to almost anything.What could improve in Blender for indie filmmakers?Well, there were some challenges with using Blender, but we solved them.Sometimes things werent clear at first, but once you actually put your mind into it, you can figure it out. Thats often the case with Blender: you encounter obstacles, but with enough effort, you find a way through.What Id love to see and I think its already happening is more focus on NPR (non-photorealistic rendering) workflows, which is great. Further improvements to interactive and real-time rendering would also be a huge benefit.I havent worked much in Blender over the past six months, but Im already working on my next project, and I plan to use Blender for it.Final thoughts?Ive never worked in a big studio, so I dont really know exactly how they operate. But I think that if youre working on a smaller indie-scale project, you shouldnt try to copy what big studios do. Instead, you should develop a workflow that best suits you and your smaller team.In our case, we didnt rely heavily on concept art. We modeled the characters directly in 3D and found ways to skip certain steps. Many of us wore multiple hats, figuring out how to streamline tasks rather than having separate departments for everything.For me, its also easier to handle the camera and lighting simultaneously rather than treating them as separate stages. Having a smaller team made the process more flexible and efficient.When developing my first feature, I structured the story around elements that were relatively easy to animate. I avoided large crowds and complex effects because, in the end, most viewers dont think about how difficult something was to create. I think its valuable for filmmakers to collaborate with tool developers early on to understand which things are challenging and which are easy. This can actually spark creative ideas rather than feeling like a limitation.Storytelling offers infinite possibilities, but sometimes constraints can be beneficial. For example, deciding to use only four characters and a handful of locations can lead to stronger creative choices. Some of my favorite films take this approach. They dont need an epic scope to be powerful.That said, I think a certain level of naivety is necessary when starting a project. If I had known how difficult it would be, I might never have started. But because I didnt fully grasp the challenges ahead, I just dove in and figured things out along the way.

Projects to Look Forward to 2025January 13th, 2025Development, NewsDalai Felinto html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Planning session 2025.One of the long-standing traditions of the Blender project is to start the year announcing what to be expected in the coming period. It gets artists excited (and developers anxious) to think of everything that will be soon possible.Are we going to see new features, or a focus on stability? Improvement in long-standing areas, or investment in new tech?Last year the focus was on finishing up long-standing projects, and that was a success! All the projects announced for Q1-2024 are now available in the latest release.Projects to Look Forward to 20242025 started with the Winter of Quality project, aiming at stability and documentation of all areas of Blender. We can now shift focus to start (and finish!) brand-new projects.Some of them are regular module work, and projects previously agreed on. While others are development targets for the Blender Studio upcoming open projects, which helps with direction (and testing) in the traditional Blender fashion.The proposed projects for this year are organized into the following areas:Node SystemsIntegrate the node-systems across different workflows.Better integration across node trees will allow node groups to be shared between different types of node systems, like Geometry Nodes and the compositor.Hair dynamics represents a major milestone: Geometry Nodes is set to reach feature parity with the legacy particle hair system. This will be the first step towards replacing the existing high-level simulation systems.Node-based image/texture Data-blocks will introduce procedural texture generation (think texture nodes 2.0), possible thanks to the GPU compositor development.Make productions more accessible for small and medium-sized studios.Project Setup, meaning project-wide variables and environments, will provide a unified way to share settings and properties across multiple .blend files within a single production. This will make asset management and shot creation more efficient and ensure consistency throughout the pipeline.Online Remote Assets will allow artists to access resources directly from online libraries such as third-party, community-curated content and various stores. This feature will also help remote productions that need their own asset libraries. This is the next step for the Extension Platform.Overrides will be simplified and re-iterated upon to provide an intuitive way to define properties dynamically for specific contexts, such as files, scenes, or collections. These improvements will reduce the need for external tools to handle override conflicts, making production pipelines smoother and more reliable.PerformanceBring more responsiveness into asset creation.While improving performance is an on-going effort, there are two areas in particular that currently are blocking for some productions requirements.EEVEE material shader compilation is currently a blocking operation for certain production requirements, especially during look development with heavy assets. The focus will be on enabling parallel compilation, investigating issues with the shader cache, and optimizing material compilation in complex production scenes.Shape Keys are another area requiring attention, particularly for character pipelines that rely on multiple shape keys for finer details and adjustment layers. The current storage system significantly impacts scalability. The plan is to modernize their storage, transitioning it to a more generic attribute systemsimilar to the approach used for UVsand implement sparse storage, ensuring that only the parts of a shape key that differ are stored.SculptingNon-destructive sculpting with layers, and better keyboard-less workflow.Multires propagation spikes remain a critical issue. These occur when changes to lower subdivision levels are not properly reflected in higher levels, leading to infamous artifacts. Fixing this problem is a priority to ensure the multires modifier works reliably in production.Sculpting Layers are a natural next step now that sculpting mode can handle more data, thanks to last years performance improvements. Adding support for mixing multiple layers will enable higher levels of detail and deforming layers essential for animation workflows, giving artists greater control and flexibility.Tablet pen support is important for workflows like sculpting, painting, and 2D animation. While the mouse can often be replaced by a pen, Blenders heavy reliance on keyboard input makes it cumbersome to use. Even more so for display tablets and, in the future, portable devices. The initial focus will be on supporting touch inputs, with basic gestures for navigation, undo, and redo.Storyboarding and basic camera editing from the VSE (video sequence editor).Sequence data-block.Quick access to Grease Pencil drawing for the active scene strip.Edit/animate scene strip camera from VSE.Storyboarding tools (e.g., easy of use to create new scene strips).Editorial and Storyboarding are key to film production. Inspired by the Storypencil add-on, and with Grease Pencil 3.0 complete, some of the team is now shifting the focus to editorial tools. The goal is to create a seamless workflow for storyboarding, combining sketching, timing, and editing to help artists bring their stories to life efficiently.On-going ProjectsThere is on-going maintenance and development in the modules. Here are a few of the areas being worked on.Rendering (Cycles, NPR, ).Vulkan (including a presentation at Vulkanised 2025).UV syncing and other improvements.HDR support in all the editors.Layered Animation.USD and game interoperability via glTF.Blender 5.0 backward incompatible changes.Other module work.ReleasesWhile projects dont target specific releases, Blender Foundation follows the cadence of 3 releases a year. The planned releases for 2025 and their initial dates are:Blender 4.4 (March) will be focused on stability and polishing.Blender 4.5 LTS (July) to wrap up the Blender 4 series.Blender 5.0 (November), to kickstart a new development cycle.On top of this, LTS release updates are expected throughout the year:Blender 3.6 LTS until June 2025.Blender 4.2 LTS until July 2026.Blender 4.5 LTS until July 2027.In 2024 there were 24 LTS releases among Blender 3.3 LTS, 3.6 LTS and 4.2 LTS.Blender ConferenceIn other news, the date for the traditional Blender Conference in Amsterdam moved to September this year. Learn more.Make this PossibleAll of this progress is made possible thanks to the donations and ongoing community involvement and contributions.The ambitious plans for 2025 reflect the growing scope of Blender, but they are also limited by the current resources available. While Blender is a community-driven project, much of the work is carried out by developers employed by Blender Institute or working with development grants.Further, some of the targets outlined here may need to be delayed or put on hold if the development team gets too busy managing ongoing maintenance or dealing with unforeseen delays.The same applies to certain development goals that have been proposed over the years, such as Blender Apps and Layered Textures, which are not feasible with the current team size. Support the Future of BlenderDonate to Blender by joining the Development Fund to support the Blender Foundations work on core development, maintenance, and new releases. Donate to BlenderTo follow new developments keep an eye on theBlender Developers Blog.On behalf of everyone, I hope we have a great 2025, and happy Blending!Dalai FelintoHead of Product, Blender

Layered Animation Workshop 2024January 3rd, 2025Animation/Rigging, General Developmentdr. Sybren html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Just before Blender Conference 2025, the Animation & Rigging module held a day-long workshop to discuss layered actions should work in Blender. In this post, well share the outcomes of that workshop.For more context on this topic, please visit Animation 2025: Progress & Planning.Joining in the workshop were Brad Clark, Christoph Lendenfeld, Dorothee Ditrich, Falk David, Lukas Tnne, Marion Stalke, Nate Rupsis, Nathan Vegdahl, Nika Kutsniashvili, Pierrick Picaut, Raymond Luc, Rik Schutte, and Sybren Stvel.Workshop FocusA single day isnt long enough to come up with a full design, so we tried to focus on topics that we could make real progress on within a day, and which would help orient the project. With that in mind, we structured the workshop into two parts:Part 1: decide which use cases and supporting workflows we should target in the initial minimal version of layered actions, and also what features we need to support in service of that. The focus here was on determining a minimal set of features that we can feasibly develop in a reasonable time frame, while still being a useful initial version.Part 2: discuss some of the trickier UI/UX questions raised by the features we decided on, and how they should work in practice.So, without further delay, here is what we discussed at the workshop.Use Cases and WorkflowsWe identified four broad categories of use cases/workflows for animation layers:Creating new animations from scratch via layers. For example, animating a base layer of a character walking and then an additional layer for finer details in the motion, like shivering.Adjusting existing animations. For example, adjusting mocap data non-destructively, or fixing an intersecting hand in someone elses (or your own!) messy animation.Organizing animation data. For example, putting a characters facial animation on one layer and their body animation on another, or storing backups of previous animation stages (blocking, splining, etc.) in disabled layers for reference.Incorporating non-keyframe data. This might be things like simulation layers, layers that bring in motion from cache files, layers that define animation-level constraints, etc.Of these categories, we decided to leave #4 out of the initial version of layered actions. There are a lot of unknowns and potentially hard problems to solve with many of the use cases in that category, and just generally its not the primary reason people want animation layers.We decided that the remaining three categories are all reasonable to accomodate in an initial minimal viable product (MVP) as long as we stick to the basics rather than trying to get fancy.Intitial Feature SetFrom the above use cases, we narrowed down what we thought a reasonable minimal feature set would be. Additional features can always be added later, so the focus of this was on the minimum features needed for it to be useful. We of course want additional features down the line.Here is a list of what we thought we couldnt be without:Layers can be named.Layers can be given a color.Layers can be selected, and there is an active layer.Layers can be reordered.Layers can be added, deleted, and duplicated.Layers can be locked.Layers can be muted/disabled.Layers can be soloed (multiple layers can be soloed simultaneously).Each Layer has a blend mode. For initial release, these will be replace (similar to alpha-over in compositing software) and combine (conceptually an add mode, except data-type aware so that rotations rotate, scales scale, etc.).Layers have animatable influence / weight.Layers can be baked down together with the layers below them, as a way of merging layers togther. For the initial version this will just be a dumb per-frame bake.Layers are contained within, and owned by, an Action. Each Action has its own set of layers.These features may seem quite basic. Thats because they are quite basic, and thats the point. Its a small, basic set of features that are manageable to tackle in an initial Minimal Viable Product (MVP). Additional features (like layer groups, smart baking, time warping, etc.) can wait for after the MVP is completed and in peoples hands.We dont want people to have to wait for all of the fancy features to be done before they can use the system at all. And when we get feedback, we want a simple system we can easily adjust.Where/How Do You Manage Layers?There will be a separate editor for managing layers, and for selecting the active layer within an Action. Maybe this will even start out as a panel in the Action editor for the simplest of implementations.At first, the other animation editors are only going to show data from the active layer.This is just a start to get something simple in the hands of animators as soon as possible. With a more tangible layered workflow in Blender, it will be easier to design the necessary improvements to the UI/UX.Where Do Keys Go?When working with multiple layers, it is not immediately obvious where keys should go when you press the I button to key something. Below is the flow diagram we came up with.Lets talk through the above flow diagram:If there are no layers yet, create one and use that to store the keys.If there is only one layer, use that to store the keys.With multiple layers, there is a choice depending on whether the Available (name to be improved) checkbox is checked.Unchecked: keys should always go to the active layer. Blender ensures that there is always a layer active (if there are no layers see above).Checked: keys should go to the layer that already animates whatever youre keying now. See below.How many layers are already animating this property?none use the active layer (*)one layer use thatmore than one layer: is one of those the active layer? If so, use it, otherwise use the topmost, unlocked layer.(*): The flow diagram also goes into a choice for auto-keying vs. explicit keying. We hope that with this text the rest of the diagram is also clear.That Available checkbox will likely be a user preference, as it is expected that itll be a personal choice and reflect more how you animate than what file youre working in.How Does Blending Work?Blending the animation from different layers together is a fundamental aspect of layered animation, but is also surprisingly tricky to get right. It also impacts how certain other features should work.So how does blending work? was an important question to answer. Below are our answers to that, as well as to the further questions that it raises.What blend modes are there, and how do they work?The initial Minimal Viable Product (MVP) will have just two blend modes: replace and combine. Other blend modes may be added in the future if there are real use cases for them, but for the MVP we will just have these two:Replace is like alpha over, overriding the animated values of the layers below. Changing the layers influence between 0-100% blends between the values of the layers below and the values of the current layer.Combine is conceptually like add, accumulating on top of the animated values of the layers below. For most properties this is a literal mathematical add, but for some properties (such as scale and quaternion rotation) that either isnt really what you want or isnt even sensical. In those latter cases the most appropriate accumulation operation is used instead (e.g. multiply for scale and quaternion multiplication for quaternion rotations). Changing the layers influence between 0-100% blends between the values of the layers below and the accumulated result of those values with the current layer.For both blend modes, layers only affect properties that they animate: if a property is not animated on a layer then its value is simply passed through untouched.What happens when there is no value on the layers below?For replace layers with less-than-100% influence and combine layers with any influence, there has to be something below for the layer to blend with. But what if the layer is the bottom layer? Or what if it animates a property that isnt animated on any of the layers below it? What does it blend with?We considered two alternatives:Not blending: if there is nothing to blend with, dont blend at all and just replace at 100% regardless of the layers actual blend mode and influence.Blend to default: use the propertys default value as the value below to blend with. This means blending to zero for location, one for scale, etc. Effectively, this means bones blend to their rest pose, and objects blend to their delta transform (which is often also zero, so then they blend to the origin, parent, etc.).Neither solution is perfect, each having less-than-ideal behavior in at least some situations.Not blending means that the effective influence of a layer can be 100% even when actually set to 0% or an extremely small percentage. Moreover, that effective influence can be different for different animated properties depending on what is and isnt animated on the layers below, which could be confusing. It could also frustrate certain workflows, such as temporarily muting other layers to tweak the current layers animation in isolation: if the current layers influence is small, then muting the layers below it would effectively jump its influence to 100%, exaggerating its actual effect on the animation.On the other hand, blend to default also has issues. The default values for properties often arent useful/meaningful, so blending with them is likely to be pretty useless in many cases. For example, unparented objects would typically blend to the world origin.In the end we settled on blend to default. Its behavior is more predictable and less disruptive, and the user can work around useless default values if needed by keying useful values on a base layer.What happens when you mute a layer?Muting a layer will affect blending as if you removed the layer entirely. Note that for animated properties that are not on any layers below, this is specifically different from setting the layers influence to zero; that would blend to default, while muting the layer stops animating the property altogether.Terminology note: we may want to call this disable rather than mute. To be decided.Inserting and editing keys on middle layersWhen you have multiple layers, you will often want to insert keys on one of the middle layers. When this happens, the value of that key must be determined.We decided that the inserted value should be whatever value makes the final mix of all layers together produce the current pose. In practice this is almost always what is wanted: any other behavior would mean that inserting a key with the current pose may actually change the pose itself, which would be quite surprising! Accomplishing this means that the keyframing code needs to account for and reverse the effects of the other layers when determining the value to key. This is a bit like crazy space in mesh edit mode, which allows you to directly adjust the deformed positions of vertices.However, just like crazy space, this isnt always the behavior you want. Occasionally you want to specify the exact value to key, regardless of the effects of other layers. For the initial MVP you will be able to more-or-less accomplish this by soloing the layer before posing and keying, but in the future we want to explore approaches to accomplish this more directly.There are also operations other than key insertion that may be useful to do with this crazy space behavior. For example, perhaps you want to add a layer and use it to smooth out the final mixed animation. If the smooth operator in the graph editor only sees the f-curves of a single layer in isolation, this wont work. Instead, it will need to (optionally) perform the smoothing on the final mixed values and then back-propagate those smoothed values, accounting for the effects of the other layers. For the MVP we likely wont be implementing this; there are some subtle and non-obvious details that may be challenging to get right. But it is something we want to support in the future.Finally, there are of course cases where the crazy space keying behavior is impossible. For example, if there is a replace layer with 100% influence above the layer youre keying on: no matter what value you insert a key with, it cannot affect the final mixed pose. We discussed a few alternatives for what should happen in such cases, but ultimately decided that for the MVP we should keep it simple: Blender will simply reject keying and issue an error. After this system is built, we can experiment with other approaches and see what actually works best in practice.Wrapping UpWere extremely happy with how the workshop went, and we believe this is a solid direction for layered actions. Nevertheless, this is not the end of the design process. There is still a lot that needs to be figured out. Moreover, we could only accommodate a limited number of people at the workshop, and we want feedback and ideas from wider community as well. The best way to get involved is to join our weekly module meeting, and we look forward to seeing you there!

The Future of OverridesDecember 13th, 2024Code Design, General DevelopmentDalai Felinto html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"In December 2024, a workshop was held at the Blender HQ in Amsterdam to discuss the use of overrides in production environments.The workshop was attended by Andy Goralczyk and Simon Thommes from Blender Studio, while Bastien Montagne, Sergey Sharybin, and Dalai Felinto attended on behalf of the development team.Left to right: Simon, Sergey, Bastien, Andy, Dalai (photo) at the Blender HQ in Amsterdam.The main topics discussed were the pain points of the existing (library) overrides system, its limitations, and potential improvements for future productions.Overrides in productionsThe existing Library Overrides system is very powerful. However, with great power comes great responsibility complexity.The system was designed to replace the old proxy system and support multiple instances of the same character within a scene. Its most extensive use case was the Sprite Fright project, which involved animating numerous Sprite characters, all overridden from the same blendfile.Sprite Fright CC-BY Blender Studio.Although the initial plan appeared solid, the systems design introduced the need for active maintenance. Files would frequently go out of sync, requiring Blender to resync linked librariestaking minutes each time a file containing modified linked rig was opened.This led to name collisions in production files and the need for a custom script to reopen and resave all interlinked files daily, to keep relationships in sync.Meanwhile, Blender Studio developed an add-on to handle shot-based non-character overrides (e.g., light tweaks). This simpler approach was very functional and could handle a wide range of use cases more efficiently compared to Library Overrides.After completing enough projects using this pipeline (Sprite Fright, Charge, Wing It!, Gold, and smaller productions), it is time to improve Blenders approach to overrides.Leave the complexity out for 99% casesThe main feedback was that, in most scenarios where overrides are needed, a simple solution should suffice. To put it differently:I want to link a character and animate it [but]in 99% of cases we dont need the complexity of overrides.For the rare instances where artists require full control over a hierarchy, the existing Library Overrides system will still be available. In that sense, Library Overrides are here to stay. However, both rigged character animations and individual properties (e.g., Light power) should be overridable in a more streamlined way.(Dynamic) OverridesThe proposed solution introduces a new type of override (codename: Dynamic Overrides), which can operate on linked or local data. When working with linked data, a Library Override can still be created when necessary, but now it can be done without overriding the entire hierarchy.Key-points:Flexible Storage: Dynamic Overrides can be stored in various places, such as scenes or collections, giving users full control over their location.Linkable: Depending on where they are stored, Dynamic Overrides can also be linked.Granular Control:Overrides can apply to specific properties rather than entire hierarchies.The system allows for individual adjustments (i.e., a single property).ID Pointers Support: Can replace/override ID pointers.Remappable: They can be swapped when broken paths are found.Enhanced Usability:Dynamic Overrides take over most of the current Library Overrides interface, providing a streamlined experience.Library Overrides will still be necessary for specific features like modifiers and viewport interactions for now.Co-Existence with Library Overrides:Linked rigged characters will first get a Library Override for the rig, without any hierarchy.Followed by a Dynamic Override to remap usages of the linked armature to the local library overridden rig.This re-creates the proxy system experience with a more robust implementation.Library Overrides Hierarchy still available:Library Overrides hierarchies remain available for the rare (1%) complex use cases.Dynamic Overrides can be converted into Library Overrides when a full hierarchy is required.Overrides data-blockA new data-block type, Override, would be introduced. Initially, this will be used by the Scene ID, making the overrides globally applicable within a single scene.In the future, this data-block could be applied more specifically to collections and other contexts. This would allow different versions of the same material or object to coexist, each with distinct properties based on their contexts overrides.Overrides ID Data-block data structure design.There are three types of override rules which are being considered:ID Remap: Designed for animation of linked rigged characters.RNAPath: Focused on overriding individual properties.Filter: A mechanism to apply RNAPath changes to multiple data-blocks simultaneously, rather than just one.User InterfaceBelow are mockups showcasing possible integrations for overrides in the user interface.Creating overridesAn override can be added via the context menu or by using the O shortcut.Context Menu: Add Override and Remove Override options.Where to view Overrides?Properties Editor: Overrides can be identified by their override-specific color.Overrides Panel: A dedicated panel listing all overrides will be available.Initially, this list will only appear at the scene level. In the future, it will be accessible in other locations where overrides can be stored (e.g., Collections).Advanced SetupFor more complex setups, the overrides data-block can be linked from a different file. This allows for creating a hierarchical set of override rules that can be stacked and reused across multiple contexts.Short term alternativesBefore this project can fully begin, a few steps will be taken to speed up background blend-files processing:Option to skip dependency graph building in background mode.Option to skip Library Override re-sync in background mode.Expose some blend-file libraries dependency information in the Python API.These improvements will help with the Blender Studio pipeline, which relies on daily project-wide resyncs to minimize override conflicts. A script is used to open all files that link any edited files and save them, ensuring that override resyncs do not accumulate over time.MilestonesOverride ID Data-blockAnimation support for overriden properties.Filter for overrides (wildcard RNA properties).Non-global overrides (context-based overrides).Good-to-have targets:Viewport interaction (gizmos).Modifiers, constraints, (requires design, could be targeted for 5.0).Closing thoughtsThe concept of dynamic overrides is not new, but it has now been refined to a point where the team feels it is ready for development.This maturation period was also crucial for Library Overrides to be battle-tested and for the use cases of dynamic overrides to become more clearly defined. This will enable both types of overrides to be used in combination, leveraging the strengths of each to achieve the best of both worlds.Next stepsOverrides will be one of the main targets for 2025. The exact timeline will depend on the Blender Studio project lineup and the availability of the development team.Once an initial prototype is ready for testing, a thread will be created on the Developer Forum for studios and individual artists to share their feedback.Support the Future of BlenderDonate to Blender by joining the Development Fund to support the Blender Foundations work on core development, maintenance, and new releases. Donate to Blender

Blender 4.3 ReleaseNovember 19th, 2024Press ReleasesPablo Vazquez html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Join the 2% Just 2 percent of users donating can help bring in more developers to keep Blender the best 3D software out there. Free for everyone, forever! Blender Foundation and the online developers community are proud to present Blender 4.3!Blender 4.3 splash artwork by Blender StudioWhats NewBlender 4.3 builds on the feature-packed 4.2 LTS with improvements to existing tools, performance enhancements, and the foundations that will shape the years to come.Some highlights:EEVEE: Light & Shadow LinkingRendering: Metallic BSDF, and new Gabor Noise texture.Compositor: Support for EEVEE passes, new White Point Color Balance, and more.Grease Pencil: Complete rewrite to support Layer Groups, Geometry Nodes, better erase tool, gradients, and much more.Geometry Nodes: For Each Zone, Gizmos, Bakes can be packed now, new nodes and UI improvements.Sculpt: Major refactor under the hood to improve performance.UV: New Minimum Stretch (SLIM) unwrapping method.Modeling: Bevel modifier can now use custom attributes.Brush Assets: All brushes are now assets, to be shared easily between projects.USD: Support for exporting Point Clouds.glTF: Draco mesh compression for importing, better export of UDIM tiles, quaternions and matrix attributes. Plus loads of bug fixes.And so much more!Watch the video summary on Blenders YouTube channel.And many more features and fixes await youexplore the release notes for an in-depth look at whats new!Thank you!This work is made possible thanks to the outstanding contributions of the Blender community, and the support of the over 4800 individuals and 35 organizations contributing to theBlender Development Fund.Happy Blending!The Blender TeamNovember 19th, 2024Support the Future of BlenderDonate to Blender by joining the Development Fund to support the Blender Foundations work on core development, maintenance, and new releases. Donate to Blender

Blender Foundations 2024 FundraiserNovember 18th, 2024Press ReleasesFrancesco Siddi html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"AMSTERDAM, Netherlands The Blender Foundation today announced its latest fundraising campaign. This campaign, themed Join the 2 percent, aims to substantially increase the amount of incoming donations to support the continued development and maintenance of the beloved free and open-source 3D creation software.Blender is free for everyone. However, developing and maintaining the project is not without cost. These costs are solely covered by donations from thousands of individuals and several corporations. While having a good relationship with corporations is important, individual donations from users are crucial, as they allow Blender to remain an independent community project with development focus on end-user benefits.Blender is massively popular: 20 million downloads were registered in 2023. Understandably, most people are not in the position to financially support the project, but its reasonable to estimate that around 2% of the users have benefited from Blender in one way or another. Its to these people that the Foundation wishes to reach out: join the 2% of users that donate to Blender and keep it free for everyone!About the Blender FoundationThe Blender Foundation is a public benefit organization with the mission to provide everyone access to the worlds best 3D CG technology as free/open source tools, by facilitating and supporting the projects at blender.org. Blender is being used by millions of artists, designers, filmmakers, and professionals worldwide. The foundation is committed to ensuring that Blender remains a powerful, free and open-source tool for creative expression and innovation.Contact:Ton Roosendaal, Blender Foundation[emailprotected]