Stephen Bain wrote:
On 8/11/07, Brianna Laugher brianna.laugher@gmail.com wrote:
What exactly does Blender do?
It's a pretty flexible 3D modelling program which can also do keyframe animation. See [[blender (software)]] on enwiki.
It is a 3D content creation suite (Similar to Maya, 3DS Max, Cinema 4D, Lightwave, Houdini, etc.) - that means modeling, texturing (can paint in 2D, 3D, use images, or node/procedural textures), animation (rigging, skinning, a host of sophisiticated character and keframe animation tools), rendering, particle tools, simulation tools (hair, fluids, physics, cloth and softbodies), rendering - it can also be used for 2D animation; and of course creation of 2D stills. It also has an integrated sequencer and compositor (movie editing and compositing); and an integrated game engine.
It has a fairly comprehensive import and export suite - supporting most major formats to some degree (standard 3D and 3D interchange formats such as Collada, FBX, OBJ, 3DS, DXF; assorted game formats; and other formats of interest such as VRML) also there are tools to export to flash and shockwave 3D format.
Is it the program you could use to make a Pixar animation film? (potentially)
Certainly among other capabilities - movies, game content, web animations, architectural renderings/previz, and content used in illustrations, also fairly decent CAD capabilities.
It is being used as the almost exclusive 3D tool for 'Plumiferos' a commercial feature animated film that should be out by the end of this year or so.
Does Commons accept Blender working/output files? If not, should we?
I believe the .blend format is a container type format similar to ogg. You put model, scene, texture etc information into the one file and it can be read by any version of Blender. I don't know if it can be read by any other programs.
Blenders own format isn't really appropriate for interchange - it is almost a direct memory dump to disk. However Blender, as noted above, exports to a large host of open formats.
LetterRip