February 22, 2013 8:00 AM

by B. N. Reporter.

Blender 2.66 is finally here with amazing new features and huge improvements. Here are some examples what Blender 2.66 can do with the new features.

NATIVE HAIR RENDERING IN CYCLES RENDER ENGINE

Although the hair rendering in Blender internal was impressive enough, it required some considerable knowledge on the part of the user who had to learned to fake it to make it look real. But not any more. With a few simple setup you are already ready for convincing hairs and furs.

DYNAMIC TOPOLOGY SCULPTING

You can now sculpt your model without worrying about subdivision & basic topology. It grants artists greater freedom in artistic creativity.

You can download the new release at:

http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/

Go to the release log to find out how to use many of the new features at:

http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-266/

And some of the latest tutorials relevant to Blender 2.66 are:

1. BLENDERSUSHI / CYCLES: HAIR! (STRAND INFO NODE)
2. BLENDERGURU / HAIRS: HOW TO RENDER HAIR IN CYCLES
3. BLAZRAIDR / BULLET PHYSICS: DESTRUCTION INTRODUCTION WITH BLENDER BULLET PHYSICS
4. BLENDERCOOKE / OSL: INTRODUCTION TO OSL IN BLENDER CYCLES - PART 03
5. BLENDERCOOKIE / OSL: INTRODUCTION TO OSL IN BLENDER CYCLES - PART 02
6. BLENDERCOOKE / OSL: INTRODUCTION TO OSL IN BLENDER CYCLES - PART 01

Related links:

1. http://blender.org

2. http://blendernews.org/xe/index.php?mid=Tutorials

3. http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?264568-Dyntopo-tests&p=2201209&viewfull=1#post2201209

4. http://blendernews.org/xe/Feature_Articles/1378