Basic Modeling
Background Information
Blender, not to be confused with the kitchen appliance, is a free, open-source, 3D computer graphics and modeling software tool set. The software can run on a wide variety of operating systems, including macOS, Windows, and various Linux distributions.
Development for Blender started in 1995 as a rewrite of the in-house 3D tool set used by the Dutch animation studio NeoGeo, no relation to the game console. As Blender continued to be refined and improved, it became apparent to the programmer and co-founder of NeoGeo, Ton Roosendaal, that Blender could become a tool for other artists to create and model their own 3D projects.
Since its initial launch, Blender has grown significantly to allow for other applications outside of animation. Specifically, for designing and prototyping 3D printed parts and tools.
Technical Requirements
General Information
- Origonal Author: Ton Roosendaal
- Developers: Blender Foundation and Blender Community
- Licensing: GPL-2.0 or Later
- Software Family: 3D Computer Graphics Software
- Initial Release Date: January 2, 1994
- Latest Release Date: December 17, 2024
Availability Information
- Languages: Multilingual (36 Languages)
- Operating Systems:
- MacOS
- Windows
- Linux
- IRIX
- BSD
- Haiku
System Information
- Working State: Current
- Source Model: Open Source
- Programming Language:
- C++
- Python
- Size: 294 MiB - 934 MiB
Blender Version Milestones
| Date | Version Number | Key Event |
|---|---|---|
| January 1994 | 1.00 | Blender begins development under the NeoGeo animation studio. |
| January 1998 | 1.23 | SGI version published on the web, IrisGL. |
| April 1998 | 1.30 | Linux and FreeBSD version, port to OpenGL and X11. |
| June 1998 | 1.3x | Not a Number (NaN) is founded as a spin-off of NeoGeo to market and further develop Blender. |
| September 1998 | 1.4x | Sun and Linux Alpha version is released. |
| November 1998 | 1.50 | Blender's first user manual is published |
| April 1999 | 1.60 | C-key, Windows version released |
| June 1999 | 1.6x | BeOS and PPC version released |
| June 2000 | 1.80 | End of C-key, Blender becomes full freeware again. |
| August 2000 | 2.00 | Interactive 3D and real-time engine implemented. |
| December 2000 | 2.10 | New engine, physics, and Python implemented |
| August 2001 | 2.20 | Character animation system implemented |
| October 2001 | 2.21 | Blender publishes launcher |
| December 2001 | 2.2x | MacOS Version becomes available. |
| October 2002 | 2.25 | Blender goes open source, and Blender publisher becomes freely available. |
| February 2003 | 2.26 | First truly open source version of Blender releases. |
| May 2003 | 2.27 | The second open source version of Blender releases. |
| July 2003 | 2.28x | First of the 2/28 series releases. |
| October 2003 | 2.30 | Preview release of the 2.3x UI makeover presented at the 2nd Blender Conference. |
| December 2003 | 2.31 | An upgrade to stable 2.3x UI project becomes avalable. |
| January 2004 | 2.31 | A major overhaul of internal rendering capabilities is implemented to Blender. |
| April 2004 | 2.33 | Game Engine returns to Blender, with ambient occlusin, and new procedual texture features. |
| August 2004 | 2.34 | Particle interactions, LSCM UV mapping, functional YafRay integration, weighted creases in subdivision surfaces, ramp shaders, full OSA, and more features implemented. |
| November 2004 | 2.35 | Object hooks, curve deforms and curve tapers, particle duplicators implemented. |
| December 2004 | 2.36 | A stabilization version released, normal and displacement mapping improvements added. |
| June 2005 | 2.36 | Transformation tools and widgets, soft bodies, force fields, deflections, incremental subdivision surfaces, transparent shadows, and multi-threaded rendering. |
| December 2005 | 2.40 | Full rework of armature system, shape keys, fur with particles, fluids, and rigid bodies. |
| January 2006 | 2.41 | Bug fixes implemented, and new Game Engine features added. |
| July 2006 | 2.42 | The nodes release, Array modifier, vector blur, new physics engine, rendering, lip sync, and many other features added. |
| February 2007 | 2.43 | 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. |
| May 2007 | 2.44 | Two new modifiers added, and development of the 64-bit OS was started back up. Subsurface scattering, which simulates light scattering beneath the surface of organic and soft objects implemented. |
| September 2007 | 2.45 | Bugs and performance issues fixed |
| May 2008 | 2.46 | Known as the Peach release. Hair, fur and a new particle system added. 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. |
| August 2008 | 2.47 | Bug fixes implemented |
| October 2008 | 2.48 | Known as the Apricot release. GLSL shaders, lights and GE improvements, snap, sky simulator, Shrinkwrap modifier, and Python editing improvements. |
| June 2009 | 2.49 | Node-based textures, armature sketching, Boolean mesh operation improvements, JPEG2000 support, projection painting for direct transfer of images to models, and a significant Python script catalog. GE enhancements included video textures, where you can play movies in-game, upgrades to the Bullet physics engine, dome rendering, and more API GE calls made available. |
| From 2009 to August 2011” | 2.5x | 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. |
| October 2011 | 2.60 | Internationalization of the UI, improvements in the animation system and the GE, vertex weight groups modifiers, 3D audio and video, and bug fixes. |
| December 2011 | 2.61 | 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. |
| Febuary 2012 | 2.62 | Carve library added to improve Boolean operations, along with support for object tracking, Remesh modifier added, improvments to GE matrices and vectors in the Python API improved, plus new add-ons. |
| April 2012 | 2.63 | 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. |
| October 2013 | 2.64 | 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 backend, and the fixing of many bugs. |
| December 2012 | 2.65 | Fire and smoke improvements, anisotropic shader for Cycles, modifier improvements, the Bevel tool now includes rounding, new add-ons, and over 200 bug fixes. |
| February 2013 | 2.66 | 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. |
| May 2013 | 2.67 | 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. |
| July 2013 | 2.68 | 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. |
| October 2013 | 2.69 | Even more modeling tools, Cycles improved in many areas, plane tracking is added to the motion tracker, better support for FBX import/export, and over 270 bugs fixed. |
| March 2014 | 2.70 | Cycles gets basic volumetric support on the CPU, more improvements to the motion tracker, two new modeling modifiers, some UI consistency improvements, and more than 560 bug fixes. |
| June 2014 | 2.17 | 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. |
| October 2014 | 2.72 | 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. |
| January 2015 | 2.73 | 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. |
| March 2015 | 2.74 | Support for custom normals, viewport compositing and improvements to hair dynamics. |
| July 2015 | 2.75 | Integrated stereo/multi-view pipeline, Smooth Corrective modifier and new developmental dependency graph. |
| November 2015 | 2.76 | Pixar OpenSubdiv support, Viewport and File Browser performance boost, node auto-offset, and a text effect strip for the Sequencer. |
| March 2016 | 2.77 | 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. |
| September 2016 | 2.78 | 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. |
| September 2017 | 2.79 | 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. |
| July 2019 | 2.80 | Revamped 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. |
| November 2019 | 2.81 | Revamped sculpting tools, Cycles OptiX accelerated rendering, denoising, many EEVEE improvements, library overrides, UI improvements. |
| Febuary 2020 | 2.82 | UDIM and USD support, Mantaflow for fluids and smoke simulation, AI denoising, Grease Pencil improvements. |
| June 2020 | 2.83 | 3D Viewport virtual reality scene inspection, new volume object type, Cycles adaptive sampling, Cycles viewport denoising, sculpting improvements. |
| August 2020 | 2.90 | Improved sky texture, EEVEE motion blur, sculpting improvements, revamped modifier UI, improved modeling tools, and faster motion blur in Cycles. |
| November 2020 | 2.91 | Outliner improvements, property search, improved mesh Boolean operations, animation curves, volume object and display improvements, and more refined sculpting tools. |
| February 2021 | 2.92 | Geometry nodes, primitive add tool, sculpting improvements, Grease Pencil curve editing, Cycles Color Attribute baking, APIC fluid simulations, Video Sequencer improvements. |
| June 2021 | 2.93 | New geometry nodes, sculpting improvements, Grease Pencil Line Art modifier along with other improvements, an improved DOF for the EEVEE render engine, redesigned Cryptomatte workflow. |
| December 2021 | 3.0 | Asset Browser added, Cycles X, EEVEE Attributes, New geometry nodes, animation update, Grease Pencil line art improvements, pose library, Open Image Denoising 2-8x faster, additional support for AMD on linux. |
| March 2022 | 3.1 | Major point clouds improvements, Cycles Apple Metal GPU support, Subdivision GPU support, image editor handles larger images, Major performance gains for geometry nodes, context aware search for geometry nodes. |
| June 2022 | 3.2 | Light groups for Cycles, true Shadow caustics, volume motion blur, GLTF improvements, AMD GPU Rendering on Linux, painting in sculpt mode, WEBp image support. |
| September 2022 | 3.3 LTS | New hair object, procedural UV nodes, line art shadow and contour, Intel GPU rendering support via oneAPI, and improvements to library overrides. |
| December 2022 | 3.4 | Cycles path guiding, sculpting auto masking improvements, even more geometry nodes, UV Editing improvements and Wayland support on Linux. |
| March 2023 | 3.5 | New generative hair assets, vector displacement maps for sculpting, viewport compositor, and Cycle’s light trees. |
| June 2023 | 3.6 LTS | Bug fixes and |
| November 2023 | 4.0 | Major overhaul for rendering and creaton tools. |
| March 2024 | 4.1 | Quality of life improvements and performance enhancements. |
| July 2024 | 4.2 LTS | New EEVEE, better Cycles and online extensions. |
| November 2024 | 4.3 | Brush assets, faster sculpting, a overhauled Grease Pencil, and more. |
| March 2025 | 4.4 (Beta) | Increased minimum driver versions for AMD and Intel GPU rendering, improved edge and vertex crease processing for consistinsty with OpenSubdiv. |