Blender 2.40 Released

  / by Matt

blender-2.40-splashWell, if you’re wondering why our blog is so slow right now, look no further than to blender.org, where the latest version of our favourite 3D software has just been released to the world. It’s been immensely popular, linked all around the web, and the server is jittering on the floor in convulsions and pleading for sweet mercy.

Many of the great new features we’ve been requesting and talking about here over the last months are included, amongst the character animation rewrite, fluid dynamics system, particle system upgrades and hair rendering, the modifier stack, mesh and UV editing, rigid body dynamics via the game engine, and heaps more. Special thanks to everyone involved for making this possible, and wait till you see what’s in store for 2.41 ;)

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27 Responses to “Blender 2.40 Released”

  1. tom said on 23 Dec, 2005:

    Terrific!!! Thanks to Ton and the orange-Team for this new release! I´am sure this will take Blender to a higher level!!


  2. Vassilios Boucer said on 23 Dec, 2005:

    – THANKS.. (Millions) to Ton and the Orange Team, and all Coders (SOC) and all the others for this Amazing New Blender 2.40 Version!!!!
    So ..When the Winter of Code Starts (WOC) Google??

    Great Work!

    and all the Best for the “Elephants Dream” Short 3D Animated Film!

    seeYA

    Vassilios Boucer


  3. Kernon said on 23 Dec, 2005:

    Tremendous! Thanks Ton and Company! Now…where do I even begin… :o)


  4. Davide said on 23 Dec, 2005:

    hehehe, here it is our chirstmas present :D

    happy christmas and happy new year, to all the coders (specialy Ton), to the orange team and to all the blemder community.

    :D


  5. rubbleman said on 23 Dec, 2005:

    Thank you very much everyone who contributed to this.
    This is a great Christmas present for us.
    If next year is as good as this one has been for Blender we will be very happy indeed.Watch out big commercial programs!
    Happy holidays to you Blenderheads :o)
    BTW not too much eating and boozing this time of year you young Orange guys we need you sharp for some more excellent work ;o)


  6. Myster_EE said on 24 Dec, 2005:

    Boo Yaa! Thank you Blender Team!


  7. BArrYZ said on 24 Dec, 2005:

    Many many many thanks!

    This release is unbelievable!!

    A lot of incredible new features!

    Thanks! :-DDDDDDDD


  8. Auteuro said on 24 Dec, 2005:

    This to me is the most exciting Blender release ever. So many things I’ve wished for are in there now. Congratulations to Ton and all the hard working folks who made it happen.


  9. Hai said on 24 Dec, 2005:

    Excellent job, I was really looking forward to this release. Blender is better than ever!


  10. FastEddy said on 24 Dec, 2005:

    Great Work!
    It’s a real xmas present. ;-)


  11. NnEo0 said on 24 Dec, 2005:

    i’m from Arequipa in Peru ins south America. my english not is so good, but treatment to understand something, i want know if in the DVD have a support of language in mi case mi language is the spanish…
    your work is good congratulations…
    i want know in what distribution linux are working…


  12. Jiri said on 24 Dec, 2005:

    Thank very much to all of you who have been involved in coding etc.

    The new release is one of most appreciated gifts of this Christmass.

    Jiri


  13. Charlie said on 24 Dec, 2005:

    Many thanks and appreciation to all those that contributed in any way or from to the success of Blender. It is one of the best pieces of software on the net and a testomonial as to what can be achieved when ones heart is in it.

    To everybody A Merry Christmas and a Happy NewYear

    Charlie Brown


  14. kaeru said on 24 Dec, 2005:

    A great great thanks to Ton and the Blender team for their gift of christmas.
    These men are so …..
    No word for that , just great .

    Merry Christmas everybody.


  15. Rui Campos said on 24 Dec, 2005:

    Merry Christmas to the Orange Team, Ton, the whole Dev Team and to all people helping Blender grow.

    And Merry Christmas to all reading this Blog.

    Cheerz,

    — Rui —


  16. Calvin said on 25 Dec, 2005:

    Great work everyone involved!
    And have a Merry Christmas everyone!


  17. Lee said on 25 Dec, 2005:

    Great stuff, huh? :)

    So, on a related note… how different is the Orange release of blender from 2.40? Is it still worth checking out, and if so, where can I download it (as linux/ppc, or as source)?


  18. Bassam said on 25 Dec, 2005:

    Well, the orange branch contains a few new features – and probably a bit more instability. Things like groups (which are incredibly useful to us) Armature layers, Custom bone drawtypes, some more features for shapes, the beginnings of the nodal editor (which doesn’t do anything yet, but will be used at first for materials and compositing), etc.
    Since checking it out is as simple as doing a cvs checkout and build, or downloading from the testing builds forum, sure it’s worth it :) I wouldn’t recommend subjecting any “production” files to it so heavily, as you may run into some difficulties, though it’s getting more and more stable as we progress. At the studio, we always have Ton to go to if a file breaks, so we feel a bit more confident. But we have lost a bit of work, especially when the groups feature was more new.


  19. Wim said on 25 Dec, 2005:

    Thanks to Ton, Orange and all the fantastic programmers out there!!!
    …and ofcourse a Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!


  20. Krung said on 26 Dec, 2005:

    Thank to everyone who make and support it. Is it possible to publish 2.40 manual like 2.30 in the near future? I wait for it.


  21. Jarod said on 27 Dec, 2005:

    big thanks to all Blender developers, testers and publishers and last but not least the Orangeteam! Great work! keep it on!
    Merry christmas and happy holidays…

    Jarod


  22. 20to30 said on 28 Dec, 2005:

    Yeah, it’s ok. UI is still unatractive in some areas(no viewport object picking), but it’s ok. Will improve for sure. Anyway designing skill is more improtant in this case, since blender has functionality for fine content creation(however, lack of N-gons is still a very bad thing).


  23. sukiyakikid said on 29 Dec, 2005:

    I am absolutely impressed with the features implimented in this 2.40 release, and it gave me an idea, but I wanted to know first what the community thought about the possiblity of online courses for blender.

    I was thinking that this may in fact work to the benefit of BF in more than one way, that is, If BF were able to set up a website dedicated to providing online courses ( not tutorials, but hands on stuff ) from the absolute basics thru to advanced topics for more experianced users, at a reasonable registration cost, Of course I know that blender is a non profit organization, so the costs would only be used to cover the cost of the web site, the materials and time spent designing and developing the courses, and anything left over for the further development purposes of blender and the course system.

    As this would be an extremely time consuming project, such as is the development of the software, the maintainers would need to be supported for their work.

    I as one am unable to program websites, or even use blender well enough to be of any benefit to anyone. And that is what gave me the idea! I have read multiple tutorials from various websites and they are all well written, but if there was a course dedicated to blender use then I would definately be prepared to pay for one such course.

    I don’t mean to compare with anyone, because blender is a very independant software, but 3d buzz offers great courses for the various commercial software out there, and thousands of people are making great use of them, and I thought if there was a similar course system for blender, one possibly with certificates upon completion, how many more people including professionals would actually sign up and encourage them to consider incorperating blender in their tool set of applications for professional use.

    Just a thought, but, what do you guys think?


  24. Kernon said on 2 Jan, 2006:

    I second the idea for courses (similar to the 3dbuzz format, using screencasts). There’s a lot of info online but, we really need something that’s really organized and consistent in its completeness and presentation style. With all of the new features and even more not too far into the future (v2.41), it’s really starting to get out of hand for newbies and even intermediate users like myself. Sometimes it’s hard to even know where to begin when wanting to learn some new facet of Blender and, all the searching and scouring of the internet chews up more time than I have available. I’m confident though, that this will be addressed soon enough. I wouldn’t have a problem subscribing to such a resource.


  25. Chris said on 4 Jan, 2006:

    I’m an 11 year old kid, and I find blender pretty cool. The only thing u need to fix is, I can’t do The subserfing stuff.

    +Chris


  26. john le camion said on 4 Jan, 2006:

    J’ai decouvert Blender il y a 1 an, juste avant Noël, j’ai trouvé que c’était un bon cadeau. Bien heureux d’avoir deux Joyeux Noël de suite! Thanks!


  27. Rob said on 31 Jan, 2006:

    LeeeBlah!!!!!!!!!!! All your mates were chatting about you last night, all agreed it’s unreal where you’re at. We’re all really happy for you.
    btw Terry says he’s found a celica for you (if you’re saving that is)


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