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 Date Viewssort
Blender Retrospectives 2020 Blender Retrospective Feb 20, 2021 210930
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 Worthy of Your Note - for Animation & VFX file Jan 25, 2020 563002
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 Worthy of Your Note - for CG, Games & Viz file Jan 25, 2020 426132
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 file Jan 25, 2020 431865
Tutorials Top 15 Highest-Rated Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 file Jan 25, 2020 375766
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 for Blender 2.8 file Jan 23, 2019 344860
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 Worthy of Your Note - for CG, Games & Viz file Jan 23, 2019 684162
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 Worthy of Your Note - for Animation & VFX file Jan 23, 2019 408256
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 file Jan 23, 2019 344779
Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2018: Winners Annouced file Jan 02, 2019 381535
Blender Retrospectives 2018 Blender Retrospective file Jan 02, 2019 375920
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2017 file Jan 09, 2018 968852
Blender Retrospectives 2017 Blender Retrospective file Jan 01, 2018 696642
Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2017: Winners Annouced file Dec 26, 2017 550617
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials (Videos) Released in 2016 file Jan 16, 2017 765287
Blender Retrospectives 2016 Blender Retrospective file Dec 29, 2016 1060169
Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2015: Seven Winners Annouced file Jan 20, 2016 790435
Blender Retrospectives 2015 Blender Retrospective file Jan 12, 2016 762142
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2015 file Jun 26, 2015 805489
Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2014: Five Winners Annouced file Jan 02, 2015 813704
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2014 file Dec 11, 2014 852577
Render of the Week 'Chilean Pools' by Alessandro Cordeiro - the Winner of the Week of July 20, 2015 file Jul 21, 2015 45752
Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of April 15, 2013 file Apr 16, 2013 45745
Blender Whiz The Artist Behind 'My Steampunk World:' Quentin Le Duff file Jul 07, 2015 45603
Render of the Week 'Who's Shoe' by Max Radons - Winner for the Week of September 3, 2012 file Sep 03, 2012 45547
Render of the Week 'Canada to Send First Pug into Space!' by Josiah Swaim - the Winner of the Week of February 9, 2015 file Feb 11, 2015 45519
Render of the Week 'Colorful Sparrow' by Fabian D'Abundo - the Winner of the Week of December 15, 2014 file Dec 17, 2014 45403
Render of the Week 'Asian hornet Vespa Velutina' by Damien Monteillard - Winner for the Week of April 1, 2013 file Apr 02, 2013 45311
Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of April 1, 2013 file Apr 01, 2013 45273
Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of August 13, 2012 file Aug 13, 2012 45174
Render of the Week 'Snail' by Maciej Stokowiec - Winner for the Week of September 10, 2012 file Sep 10, 2012 45136
Render of the Week 'The Holiday Emu' by Tyler Aschenbrenner - Winner for the Week of January 21, 2013 file Jan 21, 2013 45105
Render of the Week 'River Side' by Enrico Cerica - the Winner of the Week of January 13, 2014 file Jan 13, 2014 44856
Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of October 21, 2013 file Oct 22, 2013 44754
Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of February 4, 2013 file Feb 05, 2013 44474
Render of the Week 'The Most Beautiful Beach' by Matej Hudak - the Winner of the Week of November 5, 2012 file Nov 05, 2012 44372
Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of November 19, 2012 file Nov 19, 2012 44293
Suzanne Awards 2013 Suzanne Awards: The Nominees Are ... file Oct 28, 2013 43987
Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of March 25, 2013 file Mar 25, 2013 43967
Render of the Week 'Family Vila Interior' by Attila Balough - Winner for the Week of February 11, 2013 file Feb 12, 2013 43896
Tutorials Best Tutorials for Trained Artists Starting Up with Blender? file Apr 16, 2012 43700