An interim update to Blender, version 2.49, has been released

Blender is quickly heading towards a major version 2.5 release but whilst this is in development a new minor update has been released. Even though this is considered a minor update it does have a load of goodies with screen shots to demonstrate. It's probably worth visiting the Blender 2.49 release page to see the updates as we just couldn't do it justice here.

CGenie post results of a recent community survey with Blender 3D coming out quite favourably

CGenie have posted the results of a recent survey comparing customer/user opinions with the likes of Houdini, Maya, Lightwave, 3DS Max and Blender. Blender does come out quite well compared to these other high end 3D applications in fact pretty much level with Houdini.

Project Aftershock - an interesting and cool looking multiplayer racing game created with Blender 3D

Here is a brief look at what looks to be a really nice looking game created with the game tools in Blender 3D.

The game title Project Aftershock is being developed by a group called Liquid Rock Games. From the intial screenshots it looks similar to Wipeout on the Playstation.

Create A Tornado with Lattice

A great tutorial on how to create a tornado in Blender 3D has been posted at Dark Scarab.

This tutorial should be easy enough for a beginner to follow as screenshots and key presses have also been included.

Blender 2.5 roadmap discussed in detail

As the Blender 3D 2.4x series gets nearer to 2.5 the roadmap for Blender 2.5 has been updated

The roadmap discusses changes and the phases involved. One of the big updates will be the total replacement of the 10 year old IrisGL and GLUT wrappers which will give the new interface plenty of scope for UI development.

25 Tutorials To Get You Started With Blender

LinuxHaxor.net have 25 excellent tutorials on getting started with Blender 3D. The tutorials range from complete novice, creating a realistic human body, special effects, creating a dolphin and toon shading.

Blender 3d Detailed Head Modeling Tutorial

Artist feature - Marcin Wodzynski for Blender 3D

Blender Nation have a great article featuring some great looking art created in Blender by Marcin Wodzynski.

Blender 2.48 has been released

A new release of Blender, version 2.48, is available. Again many more new features and enhancements have been added. Here is a break down of the announced changes:

• Real-time GLSL Materials
• Game Logic
• Bullet SoftBody
• Game Engine notes
• Colored shadows
• Shrinkwrap Modifier
• Simple Deform Modifier
• Grease Pencil
• Animation tools
• Sun, Sky, Atmosphere
• Sculpt mode improvements
• Python Editor
• Fluid Control
• Wind & Deflectors

Blender 2.48 has some truly great new features and they can all be viewed on the Blender 2.48 release notes

Blender 2.44 Released

Blender 2.44 has been released. This latest release adds 64 bit support, subsurface scattering, improved physics engine and a host of other feature improvements.

See the full blender release notes