Linux for Designers

Blender 2.46 RC5 is available now!
Blender 2.46 final will available on May 17 or 18.
The Big Buck Bunny DVD will ship on May 20
Internet release of the Big Buck Bunny movie will be on 30 or 31 May.

JiriH has created a very cool squash and stretch ball rig demonstrating the animation features of Blender. The rig only works with Blender 2.46 RC and above. More details and Downloads at Blenderartists.org.

Blenderstorm opened his doors for saving and rating ideas of the development of Blender. If you are a Blender user it is now up to you add your ideas or vote for your wishes

The Peach project, that will show the 2nd open source movie soon, has published the first trailer



Sweet!

A first release of a SVG texture plugin for Blender is published. So you can map your Inkscape work directly on 3D objects in Blender. You can download the VecTex plugin at the Google code page. Like procedual textures all is 100% scalable - that means no more oversized textures for logo types and typos. It is a first public release so it's not 100% bug free.
Check out the demo video:
More about the VecTex 0.9 plugin can be read at Blenderartists.org.

Before Blender 2.50 will hit the streets the next version will be 2.46. That is now scheduled for April/ May this year and will be full of nice, new features besides the bugfixes and improvements like ever. Blender 2.46 will earn the required features of the open movie project Peach and bring that to the public:
* New Image File Browser
* Skinning Improvements
* Rendering Features (FSA, Zmask, Cubic shading)
* Mesh Deform Modifier
* Pole Target for IK
* Glossy Reflection/Refraction
* Raytraced Soft Shadows
* QMC Sampling
* Approximate Ambient Occlusion
* Weight paint visualization and Multi Modifier
* Render Baking and Normal Mapping
* Particles and Strands
* Constraint Improvements
* Armature Drawing Improvements
* Sequencer changes
* UV Editing
* Pose Libraries

Again a lot of features based on the open movie Peach project found there way to the SVN of Blender. Read all about the changes that are coming and take a look at the two new:
* Sequencer changes: blend abilities for strips
* UV Editing without Face/UV mode

Hamed Zaghaghi has developed Atmospheric Rendering features for Blender that are currently in reviewing for integration in the next Blender version. This includes sun/ sky lightning, location and aerial perspective.
More can be found at Blender.ir. Read my last post about upcoming render features too.

An example:

The Blender development and the Blender projects are quit agile these days. There is a list of upcoming features of Blender 2.5 and the Apricot game project is looking for developer and artists too.
The Blender gallery showing us again what's possible using Blender!

After Orange comes Peach - the next Blender Open Movie project.
With Apricot a Open Game Project will follow