История Blender’а

In 1988, Ton Roosendaal co-founded the Dutch animation studio NeoGeo. NeoGeo quickly became the largest 3D animation studio in the Netherlands and one of the leading animation houses in Europe. NeoGeo created award-winning productions (European Corporate Video Awards 1993 and 1995) for large corporate clients such as the multinational electronics company Philips. Within NeoGeo, Ton was responsible for both art direction and internal software development. After careful deliberation, Ton decided that the current in-house 3D tool set for NeoGeo was too old and cumbersome to maintain, and needed to be rewritten from scratch. In 1995 this rewrite began and was destined to become the 3D software creation we all know as Blender. As NeoGeo continued to refine and improve Blender, it became apparent to Ton that Blender could be used as a tool for other artists outside of NeoGeo.

В 1998 году Тон решает основать новую компанию Not a Number (NaN), как дочернюю компанию NeoGeo, для дальнейшего продвижения и разработки Blender’a. В сердце NaN жило желание разрабатывать и распространять компактный, кросс-платформенный пакет 3D моделирования бесплатно. В то время это была революционная концепция, поскольку большинство коммерческих пакетов стоило несколько тысяч американских долларов. NaN надеялась сделать доступными инструменты профессионального уровня для 3D моделирования и анимации широкому кругу компьютерной публики. Деловая модель NaN строилась на обеспечении коммерческих продуктов и сервисов для Blender’a. В 1999 году NaN посещает свою первую конференцию SIGGRAPH, с целью представить Blender ещё более широкому кругу пользователей. Первая конференция Blender’а на SIGGRAPH 1999 года имела огромный успех и пробудила громадный интерес как у прессы, так и у посетителей. Blender стал хитом и его громадный потенциал был подтверждён!

Following the success of the SIGGRAPH conference in early 2000, NaN secured financing of €4.5M from venture capitalists. This large inflow of cash enabled NaN to rapidly expand its operations. Soon NaN boasted as many as 50 employees working around the world trying to improve and promote Blender. In the summer of 2000, Blender 2.0 was released. This version of Blender added the integration of a game engine to the 3D application. By the end of 2000, the number of users registered on the NaN website exceeded 250,000.

Unfortunately, NaN’s ambitions and opportunities did not match the company’s capabilities and the market realities of the time. This over-extension resulted in restarting NaN with new investor funding and a smaller company in April 2001. Six months later NaN’s first commercial software product, Blender Publisher was launched. This product was targeted at the emerging market of interactive web-based 3D media. Due to disappointing sales and the ongoing difficult economic climate, the new investors decided to shut down all NaN operations. The shutdown also included discontinuing the development of Blender. Although there were clearly shortcomings in the then current version of Blender, such as a complex internal software architecture, unfinished features and a non-standard way of providing the GUI, the enthusiastic support from the user community and customers who had purchased Blender Publisher in the past, meant that Ton could not justify leaving Blender to fade into insignificance. Since restarting a company with a sufficiently large team of developers was not feasible, Ton Roosendaal founded the non-profit organization, Blender Foundation, in March 2002.

The Blender Foundation’s primary goal was to find a way to continue developing and promoting Blender as a community-based open source project. In July 2002, Ton managed to get the NaN investors to agree to a unique Blender Foundation plan to attempt to release Blender as open source. The «Free Blender» campaign sought to raise €100,000 so that the Foundation could buy the rights to the Blender source code and intellectual property rights from the NaN investors and subsequently release Blender to the open source community. With an enthusiastic group of volunteers, among them several ex-NaN employees, a fundraising campaign was launched to «Free Blender». To everyone’s surprise and delight the campaign reached the €100,000 goal in only seven short weeks. On Sunday, October 13, 2002, Blender was released to the world under the terms of the GNU GPL. Blender development continues to this day, driven by a team of dedicated volunteers from around the world led by Blender’s original creator, Ton Roosendaal.

Версии/Значимые ревизии

Начало!

  • 1.00 – Январь 1994: Начата разработка Blender’a в анимационной студии NeoGeo.

  • 1.23 – Январь 1998: Версия SGI выложена в сеть, IrisGL.

  • 1.30 – Апрель 1998: Версия для Linux и FreeBSD, порт для OpenGL и X11.

  • 1.3x – Июнь 1998: Основана NaN.

  • 1.4x – Сентябрь 1998: Выпущены версии для Sun и Linux Alpha.

  • 1.50 – Ноябрь 1998: Опубликовано первое руководство пользователя.

  • 1.60 – April 1999: C-key (new features behind a lock, $95), Windows version released.

  • 1.6x – Июнь 1999: Выпущена версия для BeOS и PPC.

  • 1.80 – Июнь 2000: Конец «C-ключу», Blender снова полностью бесплатен.

  • 2.00 – Август 2000: Интерактивное 3D и движок реального времени.

  • 2.10 – Декабрь 2000: Новый движок, физика и Python.

  • 2.20 – Август 2001: Система анимации персонажей.

  • 2.21 – Октябрь 2001: Запуск Blender Publisher.

  • 2.2x – Декабрь 2001: Версия для macOS.

Blender становится программным продуктом с открытым исходным кодом

13 октября 2002:

Blender становится программным продуктом с открытым исходным кодом, 1-ая Конференция Blender.

2.25 – Октябрь 2002:

Blender Publisher становится свободно доступным. Также создаётся дерево исходных кодов экспериментальной версии Blender’а, площадка, на которой программисты могут оттачивать новые возможности.

2.26 – Февраль 2003:

Первый выпуск Blender’а с действительно полностью открытым исходным кодом.

2.27 – Май 2003:

Второй выпуск Blender’а с открытым исходным кодом.

2.28x – Июль 2003:

Первый выпуск в серии 2.28x.

2.30 – Октябрь 2003:

Предварительный просмотр пользовательского интерфейса версии 2.3x, представленной на второй конференции Blender.

2.31 – Декабрь 2003:

Обновление UI-проекта до стабильного состояния в серии 2.3x.

2.32 – Январь 2004:

A major overhaul of internal rendering capabilities.

2.33 – Апрель 2004:

Game Engine returns, ambient occlusion, new procedural textures.

2.34 – Август 2004:

Взаимодействие частиц, LSCM UV-развёртки, функциональная интеграция YafRay, взвешенные изгибы в подразделённых поверхностях, рамповые шейдеры (Ramp Shader), полноценное OSA и множество других улучшений.

2.35 – Ноябрь 2004:

Ещё одна версия, полная улучшений: крюки объекта, кривые деформации и кривые ослабления, дубликаторы частиц и многое другое.

2.36 – Декабрь 2004:

Более стабильная версия, большая часть работы остается за кадром, улучшены карты нормалей и смещений.

2.37 – Июнь 2005:

Инструменты трансформации и виджеты, мягкие тела, силовые поля, преломления, инкрементные подразделённые поверхности, прозрачные тени и многопоточная визуализация.

2.40 – December 2005:

Полностью переделана система скелетов, ключи форм, мех и частицы, жидкости и твёрдые тела.

2.41 – January 2006:

Lots of fixes, and some Game Engine features.

2.42 – July 2006:

The nodes release, Array modifier, vector blur, new physics engine, rendering, lip sync, and many other features. This was the release following Project Orange.

2.43 – February 2007:

Multiresolution meshes, multi-layer UV textures, multi-layer images and multi-pass rendering and baking, sculpting, retopology, multiple additional mattes, distort and filter nodes, modeling and animation improvements, better painting with multiple brushes, fluid particles, proxy objects, Sequencer rewrite, and post-production UV texturing.

2.44 – Май 2007:

Важные новости, наряду с двумя новыми модификаторами и возобновлением поддержки 64-битных ОС было добавлено подповерхностное рассеивание, которое симулирует рассеивание света под поверхностью органических и мягких объектов.

2.45 – Сентябрь 2007:

Серьёзные исправления, решены некоторые проблемы быстродействия.

2.46 – May 2008:

The Peach release was the result of a huge effort of over 70 developers providing enhancements to provide hair and fur, a new particle system, enhanced image browsing, cloth, a seamless and non-intrusive physics cache, rendering improvements in reflections, AO, and render baking, a Mesh Deform modifier for muscles and such, better animation support via armature tools and drawing, skinning, constraints and a colorful Action Editor, and much more. It contained the results of Project Peach.

2.47 – August 2008:

Выпуск с исправлением ошибок.

2.48 – Октябрь 2008:

The Apricot release, cool GLSL shaders, lights and GE improvements, snap, sky simulator, Shrinkwrap modifier, and Python editing improvements. This contained the results Project Apricot.

2.49 – June 2009:

Основанные на узлах текстуры, зарисовка скелета (получившая название Etch-a-Ton), улучшения булевых операций с полисетками, поддержка JPEG2000, проекционное рисование для прямой передачи изображения на модель, значительный каталог сценариев Python. Улучшения игрового движка включают видео-текстуры, теперь вы можете воспроизводить видео в игре, обновление до физического движка Bullet, купольная визуализация (рыбий глаз), плюс стало доступно ещё больше вызовов API игрового движка.

Blender 2.5x – Перекодирование!

2.5x – From 2009 to August 2011:

This series released four pre-version (from Alpha 0 in November 2009 to Beta in July 2010) and three stable versions (from 2.57 - April 2011 to 2.59 - August 2011). It was one of the most important development projects, with a total refactor of the software with new functions, redesign of the internal window manager and event/tool/data handling system, and new Python API. The final version of this project was Blender 2.59 in August 2011.

Видео: от Blender 1.60 до 2.50

Blender с 2.6x по 2.7x – Улучшения и стабилизация

2.60 – October 2011:

Internationalization of the UI, improvements in the animation system and the GE, vertex weight groups modifiers, 3D audio and video, and bug fixes.

2.61 – December 2011:

The Cycles renderer was added to the trunk, the camera tracker was added, dynamic paint for modifying textures with mesh contact/approximation, the Ocean modifier to simulate ocean and foam, new add-ons, bug fixes, and more extensions added for the Python API.

2.62 – February 2012:

The Carve library was added to improve boolean operations, support for object tracking was added, the Remesh modifier was added, many improvements in the GE, matrices and vectors in the Python API were improved, plus new add-ons, and many bug fixes.

2.63 – April 2012:

Bmesh was merged with the trunk, with full support for n-sided polygons, sculpt hiding, a panoramic camera for Cycles, mirror ball environment textures and float precision textures, render layer mask layers, ambient occlusion and viewport display of background images and render layers. New import and export add-ons were added, and 150 bug fixes.

2.64 – October 2012:

A mask editor was added, along with an improved motion tracker, OpenColorIO, Cycles improvements, Sequencer improvements, better mesh tools (Inset and Bevel were improved), new keying nodes, sculpt masking, Collada improvements, a new Skin modifier, a new compositing nodes back end, and the fixing of many bugs.

2.65 – December 2012:

Улучшения огня и дыма, анизотропный шейдер для Cycles, улучшения модификаторов, инструмент создания скосов теперь включает в себя скругление, новые дополнения и более 200 исправлений ошибок.

2.66 – February 2013:

Dynamic topology, rigid body simulation, improvements in UI and usability (including retina display support), Cycles now supports hair, the Bevel tool now supports individual vertex beveling, new Mesh Cache modifier and the new UV Warp modifier, new SPH particle fluid solver. More than 250 bug fixes.

2.67 – May 2013:

Freestyle was added, paint system improvements, subsurface scattering for Cycles, Ceres library in the motion tracker, new custom Python nodes, new mesh modeling tools, better support for UTF-8 text and improvements in Text editors, new add-ons for 3D printing, over 260 bug fixes.

2.68 – July 2013:

New and improved modeling tools, three new Cycles nodes, big improvements in the motion tracker, Python scripts and drivers are disabled by default when loading files for security reasons, and over 280 bug fixes.

2.69 – October 2013:

Ещё больше инструментов моделирования, Cycles улучшен во многих областях, к захвату движения добавлена трек-плоскость (плоскость отслеживания), улучшенная поддержка импорта/экспорта в FBX, а также исправлено более 270 ошибок.

2.70 – March 2014:

Cycles получает базовую поддержку визуализации объёмов на ЦП, улучшен захват движения, два новых модификатора моделирования, пользовательский интерфейс в некоторых местах стал более последовательным, исправлено более 560 ошибок.

2.71 – June 2014:

Deformation motion blur and fire/smoke support is added to Cycles, UI pop-ups are now draggable. There are performance optimizations for sculpting mode, new interpolation types for animation, many improvements to the GE, and over 400 bug fixes.

2.72 – October 2014:

Cycles gets volume and SSS support on the GPU, pie menus are added and tooltips greatly improved, the Intersection modeling tool is added, new Sun Beam node for the Compositor, Freestyle now works with Cycles, texture painting workflow is improved, and more than 220 bug fixes.

2.73 – January 2015:

Cycles gets improved volumetric support, major upgrade to Grease Pencil, Windows gets Input Method Editors (IMEs) and general improvements to painting, Freestyle, Sequencer and add-ons.

2.74 – March 2015:

Support for custom normals, viewport compositing and improvements to hair dynamics.

2.75 – July 2015:

Integrated stereo/multi-view pipeline, Corrective Smooth modifier and new developmental dependency graph.

2.76 – November 2015:

Поддержка OpenSubdiv от Pixar, увеличена производительность области просмотра и браузера файлов, узел авто-смещения (auto-offset) и эффект прокрутки текста в секвенсоре.

2.77 – March 2016:

OpenVDB support for caching of smoke/volumetric simulations, improved Cycles subsurface scattering, Grease Pencil stroke sculpting and improved workflow, and reworked library handling to manage missing and deleted data-blocks.

2.78 – September 2016:

Cycles support for spherical stereo images for VR, Grease Pencil works more similar to other 2D drawing software, Alembic import and export support, and improvements to Bendy Bones for easier and simpler rigging.

2.79 – September 2017:

New Cycles features: Denoising, Shadow catcher, and new Principled shader. Other improvements were made to Grease Pencil and Alembic. Support was also added for application templates.

Blender 2.8 – Revamped UI

2.80 – July 2019:

A totally redesigned UI for easier navigation; improved viewport, gizmos, and tools. With Eevee a new physically based real-time render engine was created. The Grease Pencil got a big overhaul and is now a full 2D drawing and animation system. Replacing the old layers, collections are a powerful way to organize objects. Other improvements: Cycles, Modeling, Animation, Import/Export, Dependency Graph.

2.80 – November 2019:

Revamped sculpting tools, Cycles OptiX accelerated rendering, denoising, many Eevee improvements, library overrides, UI improvements and much more.

2.80 – February 2020:

UDIM and USD support, Mantaflow for fluids and smoke simulation, AI denoising, Grease Pencil improvements, and much more.