Sign In
Sign in
English

  BlenderRetrospective2017.jpg    


January 1, 2018 9:00 AM

 

by Editor in Chief

 

What was the biggest Blender news in 2017--especially for professional users of Blender? Here are some of the top 10 Blender news from 2016. 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

  

10. Experimental & Third-Party Custom Blender Builds


Talented artists and specialists continued to develop amazing task-specific custom Blender builds. Among them are Fracture Modifier and Mantaflow.

Related link: 
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aOiiiiDSds
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m6hiHfYyz4
3. https://blender.community/c/today/vZbbbc/mantaflow-builds-available-on-sebbas-github-win64
4. BlenderNews.org http://graphicall.org/1199
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFREDHkAMZU
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i17Wod4k-o4&feature=youtu.be
BR1709.jpg

  

9. AMD and Nvidia Battle over Speed for Blender Cycles


AMD seems to have an upper hand in lower-end cards while Nvidia has it in its high-end cards.
Related link: 
1. https://code.blender.org/2017/11/cycles-benchmarks-nvidia-update/
2. https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Source/Render/Cycles/OpenCL
3. https://pro.radeon.com/en/software/prorender/
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SoNUeAPtgk 

BR1708.jpg   


8. Massive Exodus of General 3D Forum Visitors
to a Blender-related Forum

An interesting phenomenon has been confirmed in 2017. The number of daily users of Blenderartists.org now almost doubles that of a world-renounced general 3D forum site--cgtalk.com. "It used to be the other way around just a few years ago," says a frequent visitor of both sites. Check it out yourself. It might reflect increased popularity of Blender at least among hobbyists, freelancers, and small studios. It's a phenomenon major players in the industry cannot afford to ignore.
Some have already made the move. Last year, Maxon has made Cycles available in C4D. This year, AMD has become an official sponsor for Blender Conference and worked closely with Blender developers to make Cycles work in AMD graphic cards. And AXYZ has added export option for Blender in its 2017 version of ANIMA

Related link: 

1. http://forums.cgsociety.org/

2. https://blenderartists.org/forum/index.php

3. https://www.blender.org/conference/2017/news/announcing-blender-conference-2017-sponsors

4. http://cgpress.org/archives/cycles-coming-to-cinema-4d.html

5. http://blendernews.org/xe/Feature_Articles/13294

6. https://www.blender.org/press/industry-support-for-blender/


BR1707.jpg

  

7. Blender Noted for Industrial Use


2017 saw a Blend4Web-powered project won a Red Dot Award. And a jewelry brand "Caviar", a Russian-Italian company specializing in bespoke iPhones, Samsungs, have designed 3D-constructor of mobile phones. 
Moreover, Softsynth UIs of music industry's major players such as KORG turned out to have been made using Blender.

Related links: 
1. https://www.blendernation.com/2017/11/11/phone-configurator-made-blend4web/
2. https://www.blend4web.com/en/community/article/357/
3. https://yandex.com/everest/
4. http://blendernews.org/xe/Feature_Articles/13612

BR1706.jpg   

6. Blender Conference 2017


Held on 27~29 October, this year's Blender Conference turned out to be most informative ever. Please check out the recorded sessions on official youtube channel

Related link: 
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa1F2ddGya_9XER0wnFS6Mgnp3T-hgSZO
BR1705.jpg

 

5. New Short Films Released by Blender Animation Studio 


"Agent 327" was released with good reviews. "The Daily Dweebs"--a pilot episode--also successfully demonstrated Blender's capabilities.
Related link: 
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN0zPOpADL4
2. https://cloud.blender.org/p/agent-327/blog/gold-award-at-the-aeaf-festival
3. https://cloud.blender.org/p/agent-327/blog/more-festival-selections-klik-and-siggraph-asia
4. https://cloud.blender.org/p/agent-327/blog/agent-327-selected-for-stash126
5. https://cloud.blender.org/p/agent-327/blog/festivals-update-tmmf-himpff-nafa-spark
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJnKaAtBPhA
7. https://www.dailydweebs.com/

BR1704_.jpg

 

4. Use of Blender for Films & VFX


With Barnstorm VFX nominated for VES award for their outstanding work on the TV series “The Man in the High Castle,” Blender has been noted by industry experts and have been used in impressive projects.
Related link: 
1. https://www.blender.org/user-stories/visual-effects-for-the-man-in-the-high-castle/
2. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-one-dutchman-changed-world-david-andrade/
3. https://www.blender.org/user-stories/title-design-from-wonder-woman-to-xxx/
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QiBJB0-okA
5. https://vimeo.com/202027380
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmCmpb3UGg4&t=2m52s
7. https://www.artstation.com/artwork/LXAGA
BR1703.jpg

 

3. Blender-specific Third Party Add-ons and Products


Growing number of third-party add-ons and products are making Blender more attractive than ever--sometimes even irresistible.
Among them are Animation Nodes, Boxcutter, and Hardops.

Related link: 
1. https://www.blendermarket.com/
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB8R_xPpaSc
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U7U-4ar91w

BR1702.jpg 

2. Blender 2.79 Released 

Among new features that will have a profound impact on real production includes Denoiser, Filmic Blender, and improved
Grease Pencil. 
Not to be overlooked are many new built-in add-ons to be explored

Related link: 
1. https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.79
2. https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.79/Add-ons
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuGYwZX35u4
BR1701.jpg

  

1. Real-time Rendering in Blender Evee


Evee--Blender's new production-quality realtime rendering capability became the hottest Blender news in 2017. 
Even before its official release in Blender 2.8 and with limited features, "early-adapters" have released stunning results.
You too can test it yourself with the latest test builds released by Blender Foundation.

Related link: 
https://code.blender.org/2017/12/blender-2-8-xmas-report/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWSBYZ6bd7U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3H3G_YwU_I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LydQVCj8ICg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmZVpc9sJOM&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAVjwXEjDdo

List of Articles
Subject Date Viewssort
Blender Retrospectives 2020 Blender Retrospective Feb 20, 2021 211010
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 Worthy of Your Note - for Animation & VFX file Jan 25, 2020 563115
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 Worthy of Your Note - for CG, Games & Viz file Jan 25, 2020 426221
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 file Jan 25, 2020 431962
Tutorials Top 15 Highest-Rated Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 file Jan 25, 2020 375862
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 for Blender 2.8 file Jan 23, 2019 344995
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 Worthy of Your Note - for CG, Games & Viz file Jan 23, 2019 684300
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 Worthy of Your Note - for Animation & VFX file Jan 23, 2019 408386
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 file Jan 23, 2019 344906
Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2018: Winners Annouced file Jan 02, 2019 381645
Blender Retrospectives 2018 Blender Retrospective file Jan 02, 2019 376050
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2017 file Jan 09, 2018 968984
Blender Retrospectives 2017 Blender Retrospective file Jan 01, 2018 696768
Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2017: Winners Annouced file Dec 26, 2017 550733
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials (Videos) Released in 2016 file Jan 16, 2017 765395
Blender Retrospectives 2016 Blender Retrospective file Dec 29, 2016 1060294
Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2015: Seven Winners Annouced file Jan 20, 2016 790554
Blender Retrospectives 2015 Blender Retrospective file Jan 12, 2016 762261
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2015 file Jun 26, 2015 805609
Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2014: Five Winners Annouced file Jan 02, 2015 813830
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2014 file Dec 11, 2014 852704
Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of June 10, 2019 file Jun 15, 2019 10468
Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of March 4, 2019 file Mar 06, 2019 10430
Render of the Week 'The Roborimp Explorations' by Leonardo Braz - the Winner of the Week of August 6, 2018 file Aug 07, 2018 10423
Render of the Week 'Calico Cat' by team VFX Grace - the Winner of the Week of February 21, 2022 Feb 27, 2022 10406
Render of the Week 'Mary Jane Watson sculpt' by Veer Chidar - the Winner of the Week of April 7, 2020 file Apr 07, 2020 10375
Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of November 18, 2019 file Nov 24, 2019 10369
Render of the Week 'Lava Castle' by Sangil Yu - the Winners of the Week of February 18, 2019 file Feb 20, 2019 10358
Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of February 18, 2019 file Feb 20, 2019 10350
Render of the Week 'Hydra' by Alan Owen - the Winner of the Week of June 17, 2019 file Jun 22, 2019 10336
Render of the Week 'Hansel and Gretel' by Théo Coeugniet - the Winner of the Week of June 1, 2020 file Jun 02, 2020 10334
Render of the Week 'Skelfie' by Metin Seven - the Winner of the Week of May 18, 2020 file May 20, 2020 10326
Render of the Week 'British Sailing Ship' by Juan Pablo Fuentes - the Winner of the Week of May 4th, 2020 file May 05, 2020 10321
Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of August 30, 2019 file Oct 06, 2019 10313
Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of April 8, 2019 file Apr 10, 2019 10312
Render of the Week 'LTX' by Nika Zautashvili - the Winner of the Week of July 27, 2020 file Jul 31, 2020 10312
Render of the Week 'Train Station in Japan' by Joe Siu - the Winner of the Week of September 23, 2019 file Sep 28, 2019 10310
Render of the Week 'Retired Unit' by Carlos Andrés Sosa - the Winner of the Week of December 17, 2018 file Dec 19, 2018 10303
Render of the Week 'The Hungry Blood-thief' by Colin Behrens & Svenja Strobel - the Winner of the Week of September 9, 2019 file Sep 15, 2019 10301
Render of the Week 'Baghdad' by Mostafa Samir - the Winner of the Week of July 15, 2019 file Jul 20, 2019 10271
Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of May 27, 2019 file May 30, 2019 10265