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
No. Subject Author Viewssort Votes Date Last Update
Notice Blender Retrospectives 2020 Blender Retrospective 211173   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 563311   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 426412   Jan 25, 2020 Mar 24, 2020 10:13
Notice Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 file 432170   Jan 25, 2020 Mar 24, 2020 10:15
Notice Tutorials Top 15 Highest-Rated Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 file 376069   Jan 25, 2020 Mar 24, 2020 10:12
Notice Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 for Blender 2.8 file 345237   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 684535   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 408622   Jan 23, 2019 Jan 23, 2019 15:48
Notice Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 file 345143   Jan 23, 2019 Jan 25, 2019 10:33
Notice Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2018: Winners Annouced file 381881   Jan 02, 2019 Jan 02, 2019 13:20
Notice Blender Retrospectives 2018 Blender Retrospective file 376269   Jan 02, 2019 Jan 02, 2019 13:42
Notice Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2017 file 969206   Jan 09, 2018 Jan 25, 2019 23:35
Notice Blender Retrospectives 2017 Blender Retrospective file Admin 697001   Jan 01, 2018 Jan 09, 2018 04:55
Notice Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2017: Winners Annouced file 550977   Dec 26, 2017 Jan 09, 2018 04:55
Notice Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials (Videos) Released in 2016 file 765615   Jan 16, 2017 Jan 16, 2017 05:18
Notice Blender Retrospectives 2016 Blender Retrospective file 1060534   Dec 29, 2016 Feb 01, 2017 10:28
Notice Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2015: Seven Winners Annouced file 790769   Jan 20, 2016 Feb 02, 2016 03:35
Notice Blender Retrospectives 2015 Blender Retrospective file 762500   Jan 12, 2016 Feb 20, 2016 22:40
Notice Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2015 file 805855   Jun 26, 2015 Jan 01, 2016 05:33
Notice Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2014: Five Winners Annouced file 814058   Jan 02, 2015 Jan 02, 2015 16:04
Notice Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2014 file 852932   Dec 11, 2014 Jan 24, 2015 21:31
788 Render of the Week 'Blue Submarine n6' by Max Puliero - the Winner of the Week of July 28, 2013 file 41351   Jul 29, 2013 Jul 29, 2013 20:35
 
787 Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of January 21, 2013 file 41244   Jan 21, 2013 Jan 21, 2013 22:55
 
786 Render of the Week 'In the Arms of Morpheus' by Enrico Cerica - the Winner of the Week of June 8, 2015 file 41194   Jun 09, 2015 Jun 09, 2015 23:33
 
785 Render of the Week 'Realistic Dragonfly' by Manuel Peter - the Winner of the Week of March 24, 2014 file 41146   Mar 25, 2014 Mar 25, 2014 01:10
 
784 Blender Features Food and Blender - the Possibilities file 41067   Jul 02, 2012 Jul 03, 2012 02:27
 
783 Render of the Week 'All My Loving' by Raphael Bétemps - Winner for the Week of January 14, 2013 file 40944   Jan 14, 2013 Jan 14, 2013 23:32
 
782 Render of the Week 'Fish Detective' by Kamil 'mookie' Kuklo - the Winner of the Week of April 21 2014 file 40940   Apr 21, 2014 Apr 21, 2014 10:51
 
781 Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of January 26, 2015 file 40816   Jan 28, 2015 Feb 24, 2015 23:40
 
780 Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of July 9, 2018 file 40809   Jul 11, 2018 Jul 11, 2018 01:58
 
779 Render of the Week 'Double Dutch' by Richard Borrett - the Winner of the Week of May 20, 2013 file 40729   May 21, 2013 May 21, 2013 09:29
 
778 Render of the Week ' The Day Our Creators Abandoned Us' by Christoph Becker - the Winner of the Week of August 12, 2013 file 40582   Aug 12, 2013 Aug 12, 2013 22:46
 
777 Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of July 7, 2014 file 40489   Jul 08, 2014 Jul 08, 2014 19:38
 
776 Render of the Week 'Industrial Loft Corner' by Enrico Cerica - the Winner of the Week of February 16, 2015 file 40476   Feb 18, 2015 Feb 18, 2015 03:59
 
775 Production Focus PRODUCTION FOCUS: REVERSION file 40425   Jun 25, 2012 Jun 26, 2012 12:48
 
774 Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of June 3, 2013 file 40425   Jun 03, 2013 Jun 03, 2013 19:55
 
773 Render of the Week 'Dark Silver Straight Sword' by Wing Wai Sze - the Winner of the Week of January 19, 2015 file 40276   Jan 21, 2015 Jan 21, 2015 04:15
 
772 Render of the Week 'Tyrannosaurus Rex Breakout' by Stephen Lund - the Winner of the Week of September 16, 2013 file 40232   Sep 16, 2013 Sep 16, 2013 16:40
 
771 Render of the Week 'The Brushes' by Gleb Alexandrov - the Winner of the Week of December 2, 2013 file 40224   Dec 02, 2013 Dec 02, 2013 15:54
 
770 Render of the Week 'Big City Sensory Overstimulation' by Gleb Alexandrov - the Winner of the Week of September 14, 2015 file 40137   Sep 15, 2015 Sep 15, 2015 20:52
 
769 Render of the Week 'Fear' by Reynante Martinez - the Winner of the Week of November 24, 2014 file 40115   Nov 25, 2014 Nov 25, 2014 18:13