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
Subject Datesort Views
Blender Retrospectives 2020 Blender Retrospective Feb 20, 2021 210968
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 Worthy of Your Note - for Animation & VFX file Jan 25, 2020 563050
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 Worthy of Your Note - for CG, Games & Viz file Jan 25, 2020 426158
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 file Jan 25, 2020 431901
Tutorials Top 15 Highest-Rated Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 file Jan 25, 2020 375797
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 for Blender 2.8 file Jan 23, 2019 344908
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 Worthy of Your Note - for CG, Games & Viz file Jan 23, 2019 684227
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 Worthy of Your Note - for Animation & VFX file Jan 23, 2019 408297
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 file Jan 23, 2019 344821
Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2018: Winners Annouced file Jan 02, 2019 381575
Blender Retrospectives 2018 Blender Retrospective file Jan 02, 2019 375959
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2017 file Jan 09, 2018 968904
Blender Retrospectives 2017 Blender Retrospective file Jan 01, 2018 696679
Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2017: Winners Annouced file Dec 26, 2017 550662
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials (Videos) Released in 2016 file Jan 16, 2017 765327
Blender Retrospectives 2016 Blender Retrospective file Dec 29, 2016 1060215
Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2015: Seven Winners Annouced file Jan 20, 2016 790469
Blender Retrospectives 2015 Blender Retrospective file Jan 12, 2016 762179
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2015 file Jun 26, 2015 805534
Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2014: Five Winners Annouced file Jan 02, 2015 813748
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2014 file Dec 11, 2014 852619
Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of November 11, 2013 file Nov 12, 2013 43021
Blender Whiz The Artist Behind 'Valour:' Chris Coppoletti file Nov 04, 2013 32126
Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of November 4, 2013 file Nov 04, 2013 33635
Suzanne Awards 2013 Suzanne Awards: The Nominees Are ... file Oct 28, 2013 43987
Suzanne Awards 2013 Suzanne Awards: The Winners & Nominees Are ... file Oct 28, 2013 39745
Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of October 28, 2013 file Oct 28, 2013 38019
Render of the Week 'Adamant and Bellicose' by Daniel Brown - the Winner of the Week of October 21, 2013 file Oct 22, 2013 48192
Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of October 21, 2013 file Oct 22, 2013 44754
Render of the Week 'Medieval Bedroom' by Vladimír Stáňa - the Winner of the Week of October 14, 2013 file Oct 14, 2013 39400
Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of October 14, 2013 file Oct 14, 2013 34311
Render of the Week 'Her Majesty's Zeppelins' by Gleb Alexandrov - the Winner of the Week of October 7, 2013 file Oct 07, 2013 51979
Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of October 7, 2013 file Oct 07, 2013 42966
Render of the Week 'Radical Rabbit 2.0' by Jakub Vondra - the Winner of the Week of September 30, 2013 file Sep 30, 2013 36909
Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of Sept. 30, 2013 file Sep 30, 2013 34822
Render of the Week 'Old District' by Nicolò Zubbini - the Winner of the Week of September 23, 2013 file Sep 23, 2013 38610
Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of September 23, 2013 file Sep 23, 2013 35471
Render of the Week 'Tyrannosaurus Rex Breakout' by Stephen Lund - the Winner of the Week of September 16, 2013 file Sep 16, 2013 40224
Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of Sept. 16, 2013 file Sep 16, 2013 38146
Render of the Week 'Steve' by Robert Chudy - the Winner of the Week of September 9, 2013 file Sep 09, 2013 39100
Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of September 9, 2013 file Sep 09, 2013 38387