Sign In
Sign in
English

  FrontBannersRetrospective2018.jpg    


January 1, 2019 9:00 AM

 

by Editor in Chief

 

What was the biggest Blender news in 2018--especially for professional users of Blender? Here are some of the top 10 Blender news from 2018. Please remember hobbyist-grade news or well-known facts--such as the use of Blender in product and arch viz--may have been omitted. 

BR1710.jpg

  

Goodbye Blender Internal


As of April 19, 2018, Blender Internal got officially removed from Blender 2.8.

Related link: 
https://blender.community/c/today/jlcbbc/
BR1709.jpg

  

9. YouTube Blocked Blender Videos Worldwide


During June 2018, The scarist things happened to worldwide Blender users, 
with Blender Foundation's official channel being blocked for more than three days.
While the channel got normalized a few days later, 
no one seems to have been told why it happened or if it can happen again..
Related link: 
1. https://blender.community/c/today/Tqcbbc/
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6ecEv7lOzg

BR1708.jpg  


8. Blenderartists.org under New Management


Blenderartists.org moved to a new site with Bart Veldhuizen in charge.


Related link: 

https://www.blender.org/press/blender-top-15-highlights-of-2018


BR1707.jpg

  

7. Grease Pencil Perfected as a 2D Animation Tool


With--HERO – Blender Grease Pencil Showcase--released, 
Blender's Grease Pencil has evolved to become a perfect 2D animation tool.

Related links: 
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKmSdY56VtY&t=23s
2. https://www.blender.org/press/blender-top-15-highlights-of-2018

BR1706.jpg  

6. Blender's Use Expanded Beyond Animations, Films


From creating Drone choreography to fixing multi-million dollar jet fighter, Blender's use has been expanded to various fields.
Not to be overlooked is its conventional usage: creating animations and films.
Related link: 
1. https://www.blendernation.com/2018/12/23/drone-show-choreography-in-blender
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc41jrMpH_o
3. https://hackaday.com/2018/08/23/marines-3d-print-part-to-repair-multi-million-dollar-fighter
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luHmXHEpF7w
5. https://www.soft8soft.com/experience-insight-nasas-new-interactive/
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3S8RMXi2A07. 
8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ambpl0AGTfI
9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sASB3BE26MQ
10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwLhFoyyvQ0
11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdlGR5JdGPY
BR1705.jpg

 

5. Industry's Recognition for Blender 


Blender Foundation got accepted as the first open source foundation member of Academy Software Foundation (ASWF) and won
several notable awards this year as well
Related link: 
1. https://www.aswf.io/sony-pictures-entertainment-sony-pictures-imageworks-and-warner-bros-join-academy-software-foundation-at-the-linux-foundation
2. https://www.webbyawards.com/winners/2018/film-video/general/animation/agent-327-operation-barbershop
3. https://www.blendernation.com/2018/12/04/ton-will-receive-prestigious-ub-iwerks-award-for-technical-achievement

BR1704_.jpg

 

4. The success of Blender Specific Paid Tutorials


Aidy Burrows & Gleb Alexandrov's Hard Surface Modeling in Blender tutorials earned over $28,000.00 US dollars
within 20 hours after its initial released in 2018 and still counting.  
That is a great reason for other talented artists to take Blender more seriously and to market their skills and tools through Blender.
And apparently, others have already joined in.
Related link: 
1. https://blender.community/c/today/zxcbbc/
2. https://blendermarket.com/products/hard-surface-modeling-in-blender
BR1703.jpg

 

3. Blender-specific Third Party Add-ons


As was last year, new and irresistible features are continuing to be added to Blender by means of third-party add-ons.
Related link: 
1. https://www.kit-ops.com/story
2. https://remingtongraphics.net/tools/d-noise/
3. https://www.metinseven.nl/blog/an1g/blender-3d-auto-retopology-add-ons
4. https://www.cgchan.com/static/doc/scenecity/1.2/getting_started.html
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PEsSpz2LZA
6. http://renderhjs.net/textools/blender/
7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT6NBLv7w_Q
8. https://blender.community/c/today/T5cbbc/optix-ai-denoiser

BR1702.jpg 

2. Use in Feature Films & VFX 

NexGEN--a sci-fi feature animation---produced by Tangent Animation has set a milestone for Blender as a feature animation tool.
Reportedly, the movie was made almost entirely in Blender and was purchased by Netflix for worldwide distribution.
Blender was also known to be used in the production of other feature movies released in 2018 as a part of the pipeline.
Related link: 
1. https://www.blender.org/press/blender-top-15-highlights-of-2018
2. https://3dcinetv.com/netflix-nextgen-blender-review
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRtzMIxbmcQ
4. https://blenderartists.org/t/spiderman-into-the-spider-verse-concept-art/1138581  
5. https://www.blendernation.com/2018/05/22/making-of-kaali-movie-cgi-shots
6. https://blender.community/c/today/kjcbbc/
7. https://blenderartists.org/t/chevrolet-stock-car-40-years
BR1701.jpg

  

1. Blender 2.8 Evee Demos


First introduced in late 2017, Blender Evee--the built-in real-time render engine for Blender 2.8--continued to evolve so as to
 threaten Unity or the Unreal Engine as a real-time renderer for films and arch-viz. 
With Evee evolving toward a certain level of perfection, more stunning Evee demos created by talented artists are likely
to come in 2019 as well.
Related link: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hGSDD9-Tkc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij-99hlCcCc
https://www.blendernation.com/2018/11/06/free-procedural-cloud-system-for-eevee-real-time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxrwx7nmS5A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ0mPrNdZbA
http://www.creativeshrimp.com/30-blender-eevee-demos.html

Related Links:

1. 2017 Blender Retrospective

2. 2016 Blender Retrospective 

List of Articles
No. Subject Author Views Votes Date Last Update
Notice Blender Retrospectives 2020 Blender Retrospective 210949   Feb 20, 2021 Feb 21, 2021 01:20
Notice Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 Worthy of Your Note - for Animation & VFX file 563030   Jan 25, 2020 Mar 24, 2020 10:13
Notice Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 Worthy of Your Note - for CG, Games & Viz file 426143   Jan 25, 2020 Mar 24, 2020 10:13
Notice Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 file 431880   Jan 25, 2020 Mar 24, 2020 10:15
Notice Tutorials Top 15 Highest-Rated Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 file 375784   Jan 25, 2020 Mar 24, 2020 10:12
Notice Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 for Blender 2.8 file 344880   Jan 23, 2019 Jan 23, 2019 23:35
Notice Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 Worthy of Your Note - for CG, Games & Viz file 684192   Jan 23, 2019 Jan 25, 2019 23:34
Notice Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 Worthy of Your Note - for Animation & VFX file 408279   Jan 23, 2019 Jan 23, 2019 15:48
Notice Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 file 344798   Jan 23, 2019 Jan 25, 2019 10:33
Notice Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2018: Winners Annouced file 381558   Jan 02, 2019 Jan 02, 2019 13:20
Notice Blender Retrospectives 2018 Blender Retrospective file Admin 375941   Jan 02, 2019 Jan 02, 2019 13:42
Notice Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2017 file 968888   Jan 09, 2018 Jan 25, 2019 23:35
Notice Blender Retrospectives 2017 Blender Retrospective file 696660   Jan 01, 2018 Jan 09, 2018 04:55
Notice Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2017: Winners Annouced file 550639   Dec 26, 2017 Jan 09, 2018 04:55
Notice Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials (Videos) Released in 2016 file 765308   Jan 16, 2017 Jan 16, 2017 05:18
Notice Blender Retrospectives 2016 Blender Retrospective file 1060196   Dec 29, 2016 Feb 01, 2017 10:28
Notice Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2015: Seven Winners Annouced file 790450   Jan 20, 2016 Feb 02, 2016 03:35
Notice Blender Retrospectives 2015 Blender Retrospective file 762160   Jan 12, 2016 Feb 20, 2016 22:40
Notice Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2015 file 805512   Jun 26, 2015 Jan 01, 2016 05:33
Notice Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2014: Five Winners Annouced file 813722   Jan 02, 2015 Jan 02, 2015 16:04
Notice Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2014 file 852598   Dec 11, 2014 Jan 24, 2015 21:31
748 Render of the Week 'Spruce - Backyard House' by Paweł Pęcherzewski - the Winner of the Week of December 2, 2019 file 11507   Dec 08, 2019 Dec 15, 2019 02:33
 
747 Render of the Week 'RX Unit' by Nicodemus Mattisson - the Winner of the Week of December 9, 2019 file 10531   Dec 15, 2019 Dec 15, 2019 02:33
 
746 Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of December 2, 2019 file 9783   Dec 08, 2019 Dec 08, 2019 02:49
 
745 Render of the Week 'Courage' by Daniel Vesterbæk Jensen - the Winner of the Week of November 25, 2019 file 13590   Dec 01, 2019 Dec 01, 2019 02:35
 
744 Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of November 25, 2019 file 10136   Dec 01, 2019 Dec 01, 2019 02:21
 
743 Render of the Week 'Halloween-o-forest' by Sanidhya Kabeer- the Winner of the Week of November 18, 2019 file 10489   Nov 24, 2019 Nov 24, 2019 02:01
 
742 Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of November 18, 2019 file 10364   Nov 24, 2019 Nov 24, 2019 01:35
 
741 Render of the Week 'Sungoori Gaga' by Kim Chul Min - the Winner of the Week of November 11, 2019 file 10577   Nov 16, 2019 Nov 16, 2019 04:52
 
740 Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of November 11, 2019 file 10541   Nov 16, 2019 Nov 16, 2019 04:34
 
739 Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of November 4, 2019 file 10632   Nov 10, 2019 Nov 10, 2019 02:39
 
738 Render of the Week 'Alien Homage' by Andy Walsh - the Winner of the Week of November 4, 2019 file 10664   Nov 10, 2019 Nov 10, 2019 02:38
 
737 Render of the Week '3D Castle Set Extension' by Jasper Schubert - the Winner of the Week of October 28, 2019 file 14661   Nov 03, 2019 Nov 03, 2019 04:34
 
736 Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of October 28, 2019 file 10521   Nov 03, 2019 Nov 03, 2019 04:20
 
735 Render of the Week 'URAN-1 in Space' by Gesy Bekeyei - the Winner of the Week of October 21, 2019 file 10849   Oct 27, 2019 Oct 27, 2019 00:48
 
734 Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of October 21, 2019 file 10706   Oct 27, 2019 Oct 27, 2019 00:21
 
733 Render of the Week 'Lake among the Dunes' by Paweł Pęcherzewski - the Winner of the Week of October 14, 2019 file 11255   Oct 20, 2019 Oct 20, 2019 06:03
 
732 Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of October 14, 2019 file 13907   Oct 20, 2019 Oct 20, 2019 05:52
 
731 Render of the Week 'Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver' by Helmut Stark - the Winner of the Week of October 7, 2019 file 10654   Oct 12, 2019 Oct 12, 2019 10:37
 
730 Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of October 7, 2019 file 10209   Oct 12, 2019 Oct 12, 2019 00:53
 
729 Render of the Week 'Moss-Imp' by Michi Brandstetter Lagunovich - the Winner of the Week of September 30, 2019 file 9763   Oct 06, 2019 Oct 06, 2019 02:28