Spring
#This video popped up on my YouTube recommendations.
A new Blender movie. With everything made using Blender, Krita, Inkscape and GIMP. Holy fuck……
Blender on Steam
#Yes, you read right. Blender is now available on Steam. And of course, its free.
3D or not 3D
#See how you fare
Blender at TED: How animations can help scientists test a hypothesis | BlenderNation
#Blender at TED: How animations can help scientists test a hypothesis | BlenderNation.
Krum - an action RPG made in Blender GE | BlenderNation
#The last time I mentioned Krum was over a year and a half ago. The game has progressed a lot since them!Hey guys, I've made a new trailer video for my game KRUM.It’s a cartoon-ish style, third-person, role-playing game. KRUM has medieval settings, with some fantasy elements…yeah well, actually it’s just a brutal melee game with advanced combat tactics.
And most important about it - the game it self is using Blender GE and Python 2.62. and all its assets and animations are made in Blender.
7 Ways to Get Rid of Fireflies Once and For All | Blender Guru
#7 Ways to Get Rid of Fireflies Once and For All | Blender Guru.
Fedora & Ubuntu
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I dug out my Wacom Bamboo Graphics Tablet and plugged it into my Ubuntu Studio installation, but frustratingly, I cannot seem to emulate a wheel scroll, which I need for my work in Blender. Sure I can use the keypad +/-, but that isn’t the way I’m supposed to work.
I might switch over to Fedora later this week and see if that is any better. Or maybe even put Linux Mint back on. I know that both have gone through new versions since I last used them. Fedora was at Schroedinger’s Cat / Version 19 and Linux Mint was at Maya / Version 13 last time I used it.
Now may be a good time to start looking at other distributions. openSUSE seems appealing, but it has caused me problems with restoring from CloneZilla images in the past, especially cross-operating system.
Project Gooseberry - A Letter from Ton & Francesco
#Received this today:
The Gooseberry crowd-funding campaign is over!
Unfortunately we didn't get enough funding in to make a feature length movie. We do have a lot of support though - over 4500 people donated or subscribed. That's more than enough to start working on the Pilot of the film.
You can read a lot more about it here: http://gooseberry.blender.org/campaign-wrap-up-the-pilot/
In a later email you will be contacted about refunds, cancellations, or activations of pledges. We won't do anything without your explicit approval. Just give us a bit of time to handle it well.
Please read the following carefully, one of the cases applies yours.
1) PayPal and Bank pledges If you paid us already you will be contacted today or tomorrow. You then can decide whether you prefer a refund or if want to support the film project after all.
2) Credit card pledges If you have pledged using a Credit Card, no charges have happened yet. We will contact you early next week with an option to cancel the pledge, or to activate it. We will not charge any card without your permission.
3) Cloud pledges If you promised to join Blender Cloud if we made our target, you will get contacted next week too.
4) Active Cloud Subscriptions If you already joined Blender Cloud, you will get contacted next week with our plans for further development of Blender Cloud, and how the Pilot project will fit in. We hope you stay on board, but a subscription can be cancelled any time.
You can contact us any time with questions. We do our best to handle emails within a day!
Thanks,
The Blender Cloud team: - Ton Roosendaal - Francesco Siddi
Related articles
Gooseberry Targets not met, new Plan Announced | BlenderNation
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The Blender Institute has stopped the Gooseberry campaign now that it’s clear that the updated target of 5,000 supporters cannot be met. Ton presents a slimmed down version of the project which will still lead to substantial improvements of Blender. Of course, each supporter gets the choice to keep his pledge in place or to withdraw it now.
Related articles
Sintel Restored on YouTube Editorial | BlenderNation
#It looks like the message came through – as of 9am this morning (CET), Sintel is available on YouTube again. In case you missed it, there was an outcry on the internet this weekend as it was pulled by Sony after alleged copyright infringement.
To put things into perspective, these YouTube takedowns are massively automated. Software scans all the uploaded media and flags any material where they detect copyrighted material. Large corporations such as Sony have enough traction with YouTube that they can then also automatically take down these media (smaller companies have to manually submit a DMCA takedown notice).
So is there still a problem? You bet there is – we’re lucky to have a huge and vocal community behind us, that spread this story over the web in a couple of hours. The story was featured on Cartoon Brew, Boing Boing, Slashdot and Reddit (which nuked the BlenderNation server for a few hours). This helped revert the takedown. If you’re a small publisher however, you will find it nearly impossible to talk to anyone and get your video back up. These automated takedowns can destroy your project and leave you powerless.
Boing Boing hits the nail on the head with their comment:
While it’s probably a mistake, because this is so brain-meltingly obviously wrong, it’s also a very stark example of how sloppy, over-broad, and consequence-free enforcement of copyright can damage culture.
I don’t think there was any intent behind this particular takedown – just an unfair, unaccountable system. I’m glad we got Sintel back.
‘Gather the Gems!’, Made with Blender, is Free for 3 days | BlenderNation
#Endre Barath is a Blender artist who works for the independent game studio Alpha-Tauri Interactive in Hungary (see some of Endre’s work here on BlenderNation). They use Blender for all their game assets, and for the next three days they’re offering their top game ‘Gather the Gems!’ for free. The offer is valid through March 30.
‘Gather the Gems!’, Made with Blender, is Free for 3 days | BlenderNation.
The Gooseberry Project
#Sintel, Big Buck Bunny and Tears of Steel on Wuaki
#Wuaki is a streaming service like Netflix, Love Film and Amazon Prime. I found it when I was clicking through the apps on my Panasonic Viera TV, and found that the three Blender-made short films were all there. You can also access them on the web interface. Oh, and they’re free to rent and watch, so you can’t get better than that.
miku | Blend Swap
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Why do you use Blender? (Survey) | Blender Guru
#There has been a lot of talk recently of improving the UI of Blender. Andrew Price of Blender Guru has put up a survey of the Blender user-base . You can find it at the link below.
New Blender UI Proposal | Blender Guru
#Andrew Price writes about proposed changes to the Blender UI
11 Second Challenge
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Hatsune Miku v3 | Blend Swap
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blender.org - Blender 2.68
#Blender V2.68 is now out
Blender Modelling Basics Series
#Rocz3D has done a pretty comprehensive series on Blender Modelling on Vimeo. You can access them on the Vimeo site or via Rocz3D’s channel here.
Blender V2.68RC1 Available For Download
#Details here: Dev:Ref/Release Notes/2.68 - BlenderWiki.
Lighting in Blender
#Couple of important tips when doing lighting in Blender, taken from the current book I’m reading:
- The wrong lighting will ruin a shot, regardless of how fantastic your modelling and surfacing.
- If you can light a scene effectively without any custom surfacing, you know you have done it right. If you can convey the mood and setting of the scene properly through the lightning alone, then your job is almost done.
- Do your lighting first, and make it good.
BlenderArt Magazine Issue 41 Imagine The Possibilities
#Dev:Ref/Release Notes/2.67a - BlenderWiki
#Blender V2.67a released. Go download :)
Blender Training
#My, my, my, it’s been such a long time since I did anything on Blender, and it’s been a long time since I was reading off my Kindle app. Well, I’m going to pick up again, and although the books I have are primarily based on Blender 2.4x, at least I can use them to learn the basics.
I have a lot of material to cover either way…
