Gooseberry and the Blender Cloud

I haven't written about Blender in a while, and this is the perfect time to talk about what's going on with my favorite open-source CG program. In fact, they're currently gearing up for the next open film code-named project Gooseberry. For those who don't know, the Blender foundation pushes development of its software by creating an open project, meaning a project released under the creative commons license, which allows anyone to reuse assets from the film in ways consistent with the specific license. The projects are usually funded in part by the foundation itself, and part by sponsors, but also with donations and pre-orders of the film. But in the words of every action movie cliche' "This time it's personal!" Well, not really, but it is different. The Gooseberry project is intended to be a feature-length animated film done by studios around the world in collaboration. This will require more money, and a place where shared assets, information, and probably a lot of other things will need to be housed.

Enter the Blender Cloud. This is a new service proposed to be a creative hub for not only the Gooseberry project, but future and community projects as well. It has a base infrastructure that contains all the previous open movies, including all assets and extras. It also houses all of the Blender Foundation's training DVDs, made available to members, and according to Ton Rosendaal, the founder and CEO of the foundation, will grow to allow others to house their personal and community projects in the future.

Not only that, but as usual, Blender will undergo major enhancements to it's asset management and VFX pipeline functionality. After all, they're recruiting diverse professional studios from around the world for this project, so Blender should scale to the challenge. I really like that.

All of these reasons led me to sign up for the cloud. And I think others interested in the capabilities I mentioned above should consider it, too. Yes, Blender is free. But for it to grow, it does needs support.

Now, don't think you have to jump right into the cloud, and pay $12 per month. There are other avenues of support as well, many don't require any cash unless they reach their goal. But even $1 donation can help.

For more information head over to the main page of the Gooseberry project, and the FAQ. And don't forget to check out Blender itself. If you haven't seen it for a while, you will be surprised.

How do I learn Blender? Check out Blender Cookie

Now that Blender 2.57 has been released -- a stable/production-worthy version completely re-written from the ground up -- more people are considering it for their projects.

I have been tinkering with it for years, and am now using it for Crawler,  so I had planned to write an article about how I learned this amazing (and free) piece of software, but it looks like Blender Cookie beat me to it. They just posted the Blender Community Starters Guide, a comprehensive guide to the who, what, where, when, and why of learning Blender. Of course I recommend Blender Cookie itself as a good starting place for training. They have free streaming video tutorials covering most topics you need to get started, and plenty more for advanced users. They also have exclusive content for a modest fee. If after visiting their site, as well as the others on the list, you still don't know what Blender's all about, maybe you should consider another line of work (or hobby).  ;)

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• Blender 2.5: Blend File Preview (mostly3d.wordpress.com)


• New version of Blender released, learning curve no longer a brick wall (thenextweb.com)

Blender 2.57 Released

The Blender Foundation just released the first stable release in about 2 years. 2.57 is a complete re-design from the ground up, and addresses many of the issues that have kept mainstream CG artists away. There's a whole new interface (the largest complaint in the past was how confusing and non-friendly the interface was), and nearly every feature has been greatly improved. There's also additional features like volumetric rendering, approximate indirect lighting, and many others. There are still a few things missing from this version (like BMesh), but Ton Roosendaal stated that they're going to try to release new versions every couple of months for the rest of the year. Good times!

The link to the latest version is here.

Related articles

• Rebranding Blender (talesfromthecellar.com)


• Sintel, 4k edition (and why it's useful) (creativecommons.org)


• 2 new Blender Foundation Training DVDs (dreamsgate.wordpress.com)


• Blender 3D: Noob to Pro, free ebook (en.wikibooks.org)