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Posted by pixel designs:

I recently made an image with blender, I still need to do some corrections which I left out,
but here is the link to an explanation as well as the link to the image:
http://www.blender.nl/ne ws-blender/shw_item.ws?di_id=36099
If you feel that you want to skip the explanation then here is the link to the image:
http://www.quakeclan.ne t/fallenones/render/kitchenstuff.jpg

No raytracing was used in this image, and it was totally done within blender,
there are better examples out there on the web, for instance, check out Randall Rickert's works:
http://www.rickert-digital.com/
Also, please check out Hiroshi Saito's works:
http://www.dims.or.jp/blender/blender _jp.html
An old NaN production:
diditdoneit.mpg
xype:
http://www.xype.com/

There is also extensive FREE documentation on blender, especially on NaN's ftp, for example:
Blender basics, like, how to tackle the interface

One shouldn't forget that there is lots of tutorials out there too,
there is a blender links site that links to most of them:
http://www.redrival.com/rash/links.htm

Posted by pixel designs:

I recently made an image with blender, I still need to do some corrections which I left out,
but here is the link to an explanation as well as the link to the image:
http://www.blender.nl/ne ws-blender/shw_item.ws?di_id=36099
If you feel that you want to skip the explanation then here is the link to the image:
http://www.quakeclan.ne t/fallenones/render/kitchenstuff.jpg

No raytracing was used in this image, and it was totally done within blender,
there are better examples out there on the web, for instance, check out Randall Rickert's works:
http://www.rickert-digital.com/
Also, please check out Hiroshi Saito's works:
http://www.dims.or.jp/blender/blender _jp.html
An old NaN production:
diditdoneit.mpg
xype:
http://www.xype.com/

There is also extensive FREE documentation on blender, especially on NaN's ftp, for example:
Blender basics, like, how to tackle the interface

One shouldn't forget that there is lots of tutorials out there too,
there is a blender links site that links to most of them:
http://www.redrival.com/rash/links.htm

Posted by pixel designs:

I recently made an image with blender, I still need to do some corrections which I left out,
but here is the link to an explanation as well as the link to the image:
http://www.blender.nl/ne ws-blender/shw_item.ws?di_id=36099
If you feel that you want to skip the explanation then here is the link to the image:
http://www.quakeclan.ne t/fallenones/render/kitchenstuff.jpg

No raytracing was used in this image, and it was totally done within blender,
there are better examples out there on the web, for instance, check out Randall Rickert's works:
http://www.rickert-digital.com/
Also, please check out Hiroshi Saito's works:
http://www.dims.or.jp/blender/blender _jp.html
An old NaN production:
diditdoneit.mpg
xype:
http://www.xype.com/

There is also extensive FREE documentation on blender, especially on NaN's ftp, for example:
Blender basics, like, how to tackle the interface

One shouldn't forget that there is lots of tutorials out there too,
there is a blender links site that links to most of them:
http://www.redrival.com/rash/links.htm

Posted by pixel designs:

I recently made an image with blender, I still need to do some corrections which I left out,
but here is the link to an explanation as well as the link to the image:
http://www.blender.nl/ne ws-blender/shw_item.ws?di_id=36099
If you feel that you want to skip the explanation then here is the link to the image:
http://www.quakeclan.ne t/fallenones/render/kitchenstuff.jpg

No raytracing was used in this image, and it was totally done within blender,
there are better examples out there on the web, for instance, check out Randall Rickert's works:
http://www.rickert-digital.com/
Also, please check out Hiroshi Saito's works:
http://www.dims.or.jp/blender/blender _jp.html
An old NaN production:
diditdoneit.mpg
xype:
http://www.xype.com/

There is also extensive FREE documentation on blender, especially on NaN's ftp, for example:
Blender basics, like, how to tackle the interface

One shouldn't forget that there is lots of tutorials out there too,
there is a blender links site that links to most of them:
http://www.redrival.com/rash/links.htm

See the partial list of blender features

Because this is "free enough" for people who don't care about freedom, there will not be enough real demand for a good, GPL or even BSD licensed 3D app

Blender is already a professional quality 3D modelling and animation package. They are committed to making the best quality product possible while keeping it free of charge to their users. Also you should note that the founder has promised to relicense Blender under the GPL if the company should fail. The evidence so far shows that the developers have not fallen into any of the traps/evils of closed-source software: so we are getting the best of both worlds-- although coders cannot submit patches at the moment, the Python API is open and the developers responsive to suggestion. If that situation ever changes, we've got the main man's guarantee that we'll see the code.

And hey, now that Blender doesn't have the C-key anymore, they'll need the income from the manual sales, anyway =)

BTW, here's an intro page for Blender, with some nifty screen caps and basic info on what blender is, etc.

Argh! Damnit, when I tried posting this non-anonymously, I got

There was an unknown error in the submission.

Thank you very much Mr. Slashcode, may I have another?

Far from being just "for Linux" as the article suggests, Blender is available on Irix, Solaris, FreeBSD x86, Linux x86, Linux Alpha, Linux PPC, BeOS x86, and of course Windows 95/98/NT.

The web site, should you choose to read it, has all kinds of tutorials and manuals. Very awesome especially since it is free.

Far from being just "for Linux" as the article suggests, Blender is available on Irix, Solaris, FreeBSD x86, Linux x86, Linux Alpha, Linux PPC, BeOS x86, and of course Windows 95/98/NT.

The web site, should you choose to read it, has all kinds of tutorials and manuals. Very awesome especially since it is free.

There already is a Win32 version, along with BeOS, Solaris, etc. This looks pretty cool.. cross platform, free and all...

There already is a Win32 version, along with BeOS, Solaris, etc. This looks pretty cool.. cross platform, free and all...

There already is a Win32 version, along with BeOS, Solaris, etc. This looks pretty cool.. cross platform, free and all...

There already is a Win32 version, along with BeOS, Solaris, etc. This looks pretty cool.. cross platform, free and all...

Don't forget about Blender for BeOS (amongst several others)! This is a great professional quality modeller/renderer/sequencer. And on June 21st, it goes completely free (no source code, but come on... it is awesome). And Blender 2.0 (a.k.a. GameBlender) coming out at SIGGRAPH time next month, as far as I know NaN is probably going to continue to port Blender to BeOS. I'll have to check with them to confirm that though. -ictatha

At the WorldForge project, a large MMORPG project with over 50 members, we have found that the biggest barrier to creating games with a competitive look and feel is creating the media. Getting coders is not too hard, though we are always on the lookout for new recruits, but finding talented artists, particularly animators, who have time to contribute to an Open Source project can be really tough.

This might be a problem for commercial software (like Blender), or for free software not GPL-compatible.

But it can be downloaded for zero price with no restrictions on its use. The money people - including myself - have paid for manuals and keys has gone back into the development of the program. I believe the Blender team were at E3 showing off version 2.0 which is touted to be a game development modelling system.

The team have not ruled out GPL'ed source in the future but right now it makes no sense to them given the way they manage their source tree. If they don't release the source so what? There are plenty of GPL'ed modellers out there for anyone to download and improve. It's just that the quality of Blender and the enthusiasm of its user base gives it more than enough momentum right now.

I thought that the program was very solid, but lacking in features. There were lots of things listed in the menus and interface that just didn't work. The interface was innovative, but like most 3D programs, not flexible.

I just sent an email to the webmaster@moonlight3d.org informing them about this "Ask Slashdot" article. Maybe they will have something to say...

In the meantime check out some of the other 3D modelling, rendering, and animation available for Linux: blender, AC3D, etc. For more, look on freshmeat.

Movies are not sofware. You cannot make them with $1000-pieces of consumer hardware and pure brainpower.

False.

Movies, like software, are just information. The reason they *seem* different is that we have a rich set of tools for allowing a small set of people to create a vast piece of software. Making movies by shooting physical actors on analog film in the depths of a real jungle is the modern equivalent of girls running around rewiring a "computer" to perform the next ballistic trajectory calculation.

We are already seeing the beginnings of the next stage of movie-making. See recent Ask Slashdot's about cheap video-editing software/hardware. Tools like blender (soon to be freed, yay!) make content creation all that much easier and cheaper as well. Unless you are over 90 already, you will live to see the day that movies created by individuals and downloaded from the Internet are considered mainstream. Count on it.
--

I got myself a SGI O2 last summer and thought,
now I'm going to do some serious 3D!
But as I booted up my O2 it struck me,
I do not have any software for IRIX!!!
What am I going to do???
I did what I usually do when I want answers:
I browsed the net. I wanted a freeware software that was availible for IRIX. Sorry to say, I mostly found crappy broken links to windows proggies. But I didn't give up! I searched a bit longer and found the highlight of the net:
http://www.blender.nl

I checked the page and decided to try blender.
At first, the interface kinda scared me since I was a Windows(ACK!) user before, but after a little while, it struck me how logical and good it was! It was SUPER!
And now I'm using blender all the time in my work!
And if I ever stumble across a problem, it is just to ask someone about it. I just enter blenders own IRC channel and ask the people there... And get answers instantly. It is not only the proggie thats free, it also has free support =
That GUI is wonderful!

//Macke

I spent 25 years 'working up' to be an animator. When I finally got all the hardware I needed, I was out of money and the commercial animation packages were beyond my reach.

Then a miracle happened, I read about Blender (a FREE struct visualizer) on Slashdot and (smile) my life was changed forever! (p.s. tnx /. ~@~)

Here are a few links to check out:

Blender User Links - (located on the Blender pages)

Related Blender Links - (short form - non graphical)

(fwiw) I agree with the previous comments!

Blender. This program simply blows me away, and it's interface is simply the most addictive thing since caffeine. You can get it at www.blender.nl, it works for IRIX, Linux, and Windows (most definitely not in my order of favorites =) ) and although it is not opensource, it's free! Now, time to describe the GUI!

Everything you'd ever wish for is customizable. You can set different window placement configurations and save them either in the current file (everything setting-wise is saved in the files, along with a default in your home directory [or wherever]) or set as the default. So you can have frame (they aren't windows, everything in Blender is flattened to prevent anything from being covered up when working) placements for using the sequencer, modelling, texturing, setting IPOs, and more, and set up configurations mixing different frames into one. You can have, say, a modelling / scene frame next to the IPO frame for watching object animation in two ways. You can have the hierarchy frame along with a separate frame for the Material Buttons, plus the normal buttons frame at the bottom. You can even have multiple modelling/scene windows for viewing your scene from another perspective.

Onto the actual widgets and all! Many things are in pulldown menus, which contain a whole good list of names of objects, etc while still taking up very little area. There are also menus (special weird one, it either pops down from a button or just appears when you press space), toggle buttons, and a special kind of input widget (Dunno its name, but it's cool!). It is like a slider, but without a handle, and you can enter text directly into it or drag it one way or the other, or click on one side or the other to move it slowly. All in all, the widgets just rock. And the entire interface was custom made from the ground up, entirely using OpenGL (PORTABLE).

I don't know what to say about keyboard shortcuts... they blow my mind (ooh yeah)! There's a shortcut for nearly everything, and after using Blender for just a little while you get hooked. You'll start trying to use b to borderselect in gimp, F1 to load, F2 to save. G moves stuff, RIGHT? Resizing doesn't work with s? ACK! Then you'll go back to the comfort of Blender and bask in the GUI.

The file load / save frames (more like whole window or something, they cover up the workspace but that's about it) are very customizable and and you can choose to have the directories displayed however and when choosing textures and the sort, thumbnails show exactly what is what. It's grrrrrrrrrrreat!

Well, I guess that's the end of my talk on Blender. I believe wholeheartedly that it has one of the best GUIs ever and deserves this award. If you haven't, please check it out, it's probably the best 3D suite (and does nonlinear sequencing, but no sound) for Linux available. Also, keep watching it, as when 2.0 comes around it will amaze everyone (even I, and I've heard most of the features already!) =)

Ack! I forgot! The new C-key features include Python scripting, and Blender now has an interface to allow Python to use OpenGL commands. This allows scripters to make custom GUIs for their scripts and even in-script object viewers! It's awesome! You can use the Blender widgets (like the cool slider-thingy) within the scripts to allow, say, a script that generates a gear with a certain number of user-inputted teeth. I think this script is already a reality!

Well, I've ranted on enough about my favorite program ever! Please check it out, and possibly check out my website (hopefully it will work, CI|Host is still having some problems) at http://www.cybercoment.com/deadmonkey/ for more info and some of my work.

Thanks!
DeadMonkey

------------------------------------------------ ----------------
Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey...
www.stampede.org

Blender. This program simply blows me away, and it's interface is simply the most addictive thing since caffeine. You can get it at www.blender.nl, it works for IRIX, Linux, and Windows (most definitely not in my order of favorites =) ) and although it is not opensource, it's free! Now, time to describe the GUI!

Everything you'd ever wish for is customizable. You can set different window placement configurations and save them either in the current file (everything setting-wise is saved in the files, along with a default in your home directory [or wherever]) or set as the default. So you can have frame (they aren't windows, everything in Blender is flattened to prevent anything from being covered up when working) placements for using the sequencer, modelling, texturing, setting IPOs, and more, and set up configurations mixing different frames into one. You can have, say, a modelling / scene frame next to the IPO frame for watching object animation in two ways. You can have the hierarchy frame along with a separate frame for the Material Buttons, plus the normal buttons frame at the bottom. You can even have multiple modelling/scene windows for viewing your scene from another perspective.

Onto the actual widgets and all! Many things are in pulldown menus, which contain a whole good list of names of objects, etc while still taking up very little area. There are also menus (special weird one, it either pops down from a button or just appears when you press space), toggle buttons, and a special kind of input widget (Dunno its name, but it's cool!). It is like a slider, but without a handle, and you can enter text directly into it or drag it one way or the other, or click on one side or the other to move it slowly. All in all, the widgets just rock. And the entire interface was custom made from the ground up, entirely using OpenGL (PORTABLE).

I don't know what to say about keyboard shortcuts... they blow my mind (ooh yeah)! There's a shortcut for nearly everything, and after using Blender for just a little while you get hooked. You'll start trying to use b to borderselect in gimp, F1 to load, F2 to save. G moves stuff, RIGHT? Resizing doesn't work with s? ACK! Then you'll go back to the comfort of Blender and bask in the GUI.

The file load / save frames (more like whole window or something, they cover up the workspace but that's about it) are very customizable and and you can choose to have the directories displayed however and when choosing textures and the sort, thumbnails show exactly what is what. It's grrrrrrrrrrreat!

Well, I guess that's the end of my talk on Blender. I believe wholeheartedly that it has one of the best GUIs ever and deserves this award. If you haven't, please check it out, it's probably the best 3D suite (and does nonlinear sequencing, but no sound) for Linux available. Also, keep watching it, as when 2.0 comes around it will amaze everyone (even I, and I've heard most of the features already!) =)

Ack! I forgot! The new C-key features include Python scripting, and Blender now has an interface to allow Python to use OpenGL commands. This allows scripters to make custom GUIs for their scripts and even in-script object viewers! It's awesome! You can use the Blender widgets (like the cool slider-thingy) within the scripts to allow, say, a script that generates a gear with a certain number of user-inputted teeth. I think this script is already a reality!

Well, I've ranted on enough about my favorite program ever! Please check it out, and possibly check out my website (hopefully it will work, CI|Host is still having some problems) at http://www.cybercoment.com/deadmonkey/ for more info and some of my work.

Thanks!
DeadMonkey

------------------------------------------------ ----------------
Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey...
www.stampede.org

There's another one called Blender. It's not open source, but there are plugins available that folks are writing for it that allow for quite a bit of customization. Might do good until a decent O/S modeller comes out.

It depends on your application. Just download Blender and try viewing the moderatly complex example scenes...

Blender. Not as nice, but freeware with additional features available and being constantly added for low cost (about US$100 for a registration key), multiplatform, and waiting for you to go help make it a better program by getting involved.

Now for my little rant...

I think this is something that society will quickly learn. Information wants to be free. People play music because they LIKE to. Same with movies, same with computer games. Right now, capitalism is stifling the best and the brightest, making them more likely to try profiteering. But sooner or later, this will come to an end.

Who knows where this'll go, but given some of the recent breakthroughs in fusion and nanotech, I'd say we'll eventually end up with an OpenSource nanoassembler powered by fusion capable of self-replication (some assembly required). Yes, it's sci-fi now. But for how long... We can no longer simply dismiss the possibility. If tangible things were free, what would that mean?

Think about it.

Just released is the Beos version of Blender. If you are running version 4.5 on x86 you can find it here:

It's a great program... however, it's not "one guy" doing it and deciding not to release the source code. It's the in-house rendering software for an animation studio in the Netherlands (I think.) I forget which studio, but go to http://www.blender.nl and they have a link to the studio's page. Some of the shit they have there is BAD ASS.