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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/
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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

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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


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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

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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
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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

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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
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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

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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
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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 

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567 Render of the Week Render of the Year 2017 - All Candidates Listed file 17142   Dec 11, 2017 Dec 11, 2017 14:12
 
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565 Render of the Week 'Mabel in the Wind' by Nikita Krutov - the Winner of the Week of November 27, 2017 file 16783   Dec 03, 2017 Dec 03, 2017 00:59
 
564 Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of November 27, 2017 file 15936   Dec 02, 2017 Dec 02, 2017 22:21
 
563 Suzanne Awards 2017 Suzanne Awards: The Winners and Nominees Are ... file 14623   Nov 18, 2017 Nov 25, 2017 02:05
 
562 Render of the Week 'Daenerys Targaryen' by Sardushkin Maxim - the Winner of the Week of November 20, 2017 file 34968   Nov 25, 2017 Nov 25, 2017 01:57
 
561 Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of November 20, 2017 file 16602   Nov 25, 2017 Nov 25, 2017 01:20
 
560 Render of the Week 'Cathedral of Clermont Ferrand, France' by Wayne Loxley - the Winner of the Week of November 13, 2017 file 20398   Nov 17, 2017 Nov 17, 2017 21:57
 
559 Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of November 13, 2017 file 17119   Nov 17, 2017 Nov 17, 2017 21:33
 
558 Render of the Week 'Corridor' by Ramon Scortanu - the Winner of the Week of November 6, 2017 file 18793   Nov 11, 2017 Nov 11, 2017 03:13
 
557 Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of November 6, 2017 file 18567   Nov 11, 2017 Nov 11, 2017 02:50
 
556 Render of the Week 'Wildlife' by Nick Brunner - the Winner of the Week of October 30, 2017 file 18435   Nov 04, 2017 Nov 04, 2017 03:33
 
555 Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of October 30, 2017 file 18557   Nov 04, 2017 Nov 04, 2017 03:21
 
554 Render of the Week 'Hellcat' by Bogdan Korsunov - the Winner of the Week of October 23, 2017 file 20515   Oct 28, 2017 Oct 28, 2017 02:41
 
553 Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of October 23, 2017 file 19837   Oct 28, 2017 Oct 28, 2017 02:29
 
552 Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of October 16, 2017 file 21478   Oct 21, 2017 Oct 21, 2017 01:41
 
551 Render of the Week 'The Allied Guest House' by Rigved Wankhade - the Winner of the Week of October 16, 2017 file 19706   Oct 21, 2017 Oct 21, 2017 01:33
 
550 Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of October 9, 2017 file 19779   Oct 13, 2017 Oct 14, 2017 00:53
 
549 Render of the Week 'Forest Environment' by Maciej Stok - the Winner of the Week of October 9, 2017 file 20301   Oct 13, 2017 Oct 13, 2017 04:03