Bart Kevelham

Over the years I’ve looked into many different open source applications and libraries. And as some of my friends my recall I have been heard swearing at some of them on multiple occasions because they simply do not do what it says on the box or are in a horribly unusable state which is only apparent after spending too much time on them. But there are some great open source initiatives that really stick out. Blender is one of them.

Being a 3d content creation suite, the capabilities it has and the opportunities it provides – and for free – are absolutely amazing. But besides providing this great and ever evolving as well as improving application, the foundation that’s at the base of this project has developed an open movie called Elephants Dream. And what’s even better, they’re doing it again. The Peach project has been in progress now for several months and the end is getting near. Some of the content previews we’ve seen so far are amazing and make me look forward to the final movie. But to me as a developer one of the most interesting aspects is that all technical developments made for this movie are immediately available in the SVN repository of Blender.

Ton Roosendaal, chairman of the Blender Foundation, has given an interesting speech on Blender, the Peach project and open content in general at the Berlinale. And you can get a sneak preview of the upcoming movie as well.

One of the great aspects of a project like Blender is that it could provide a great platform for the dissemination of CG research results. There are some examples of this in Nils Thuerey’s LBM fluid simulation which is now part of Blender as well as Bruno Levy’s LSCM which drives a part of Blender’s UV unwrapping capabilities. In stead of (just) creating your own little library that stays hidden in some drawer you could actually let it be of some use to others. Might be a nice idea if I ever have something worth contributing… Who knows, de wonderen zijn de wereld nog niet uit.