hvanderwegen

Blender 2.8 beta is out! https://www.blender.org/2-8/ And a quick introduction video.

That would be a far too restrictive output resolution and not in tune with the times. Compare Houdini Indie, taken from their FAQ: If MAXON is ever going to contemplate an 'Indie' version (which I highly doubt, because they don't seem to understand that market very well if at all, and they would collide head on with the combined walls of Blender and Houdini to overcome!) they will have to match that. I agree. It hated having to give up Cinema4D at the time, and moving to other software (Lightwave back then), just because as a freelancer with a limited number of 3d related jobs I couldn't afford MAXON's upkeep anymore. The transition to Lightwave was very, very painful for me, even though many other Lightwave users insist(ed) that it is easy to learn and use, my experience was a very different one. Mind, I was familiar with Lightwave since Amiga times... But Lightwave never clicked with me the same way C4D and Blender did, or even Houdini. MAXON instilled a certain feeling of animosity in me at the time when they got rid of the possibility to upgrade from a lower version to the newest at the time, because I had expected to return to C4D at some point. With Lightwave languishing, and the frustrating Modeler<->Layout separation, and destructive modeling made me try out Blender 2.4 series, as well as a short stint with Modo. While Blender was crude compared to C4D at the time, its workflow clicked with me, and I never looked back. Houdini Indie makes for a nice combo with it. I recall MAXON's free .v5 releases, which generated a LOT of goodwill with C4D users. MAXON got rid of those, of course. I still think up till this day that that is a mistake. Looking back this last decade, I now realize that leaving Cinema4D, while painful, proved to be the best course of action for myself personally (and in no uncertain terms financially!!!). As a designer, 3d is only a small part of my work, and as a 3d hobbyist Blender plus Houdini is a great alternative (with free ProRender access and free updates when released! ) Aside from the high costs of upkeep, I feel C4d's current line-up makes no sense any longer. They really need to look into that. But that's been discussed before. Anyway, times are a-changing, and MAXON better keep up.

I feel your pain. Cinema4D's upkeep is a tough one to swallow if you are a hobbyist or even a generalist freelancer. I had to opt out years ago, but I do still use the old version for some things (such as Xfrog) every once in a while. But I just couldn't justify the high costs to keep up, and C4D kept lagging behind in certain areas which required yet more costly plugins to fill the gaps. Arguably C4D is one of the most expensive 3d packages out there (that is, if you want/need the full Studio). It's a shame, because at the time I loved working in C4D (still do: at my work place they have both Modo and C4D, which I both use at times), and I would have probably still been a C4D home user up till this day if it had been more affordable. But MAXON kept increasing the upkeep, and I went back to Lightwave back then for a while, and then a short stint in Modo. Currently my main apps are Blender and Houdini Indie, which serve me well, and are rather inexpensive. With Blender 2.8 on the horizon the future looks VERY bright (and still inexpensive - I do support the Blender Foudation with a monthly donation).

@3DKiwi That looks brilliant. Is this based on that car tutorial?

Just found this one: a remake of the intro used for Hilda (animated series) with Blender's Grease Pencil. Looks nice.

A historic moment in Blender development: starting today left-mouse selection is now fully implemented! No more usability conflicts. Even a nice start-up dialog with the choice between left and right click select. A few new Eevee demos for your viewing pleasure. The new development demo: ...and just to show that Eevee isn't just about scifi scenes: Artists around the world are getting into Blender's new Grease Pencil, and discovering innovative uses for it: sketch shapes in 3d space, export to Photoshop for finishing. Grease Pencil is in use for pre-production in feature movie creation as well. Also, today the new ProRender 1.8 is released for Blender, Max, and Maya. Blender's ProRender render viewport works very smooth now. @vanderleden the Blender team is currently tackling low-end Intel and lower end Nvidia and AMD cards for Eevee to run on those. Remember, Blender 2.8 is still in alpha.

Time does not stand still, and those who rest on their laurels are left behind. In the meantime the Blender foundation just introduced their own Cinebench variant, and it includes GPU rendering benchmarks and production-level benchmark data to test your hardware. Results can be shared online which are presented with nice graphs and all. OpenCL, CUDA, and CPU rendering can be tested, although OpenGL testing is not (which hardly anyone doing benchmarks is interested in). The tool and page are in beta right now. https://opendata.blender.org/ Devs at MAXON: if you take too long with releasing a new version of Cinebench, before you know it all benchmark testing will no longer include your branded benchmark tests, and instead use this alternative, because it includes CUDA and OpenCL GPU rendering benchmarks. Similar to the BodyPaint debacle, you will lose that niche. Please take heed. You've already waited too long.

2) Yes, must be, because the physical renderer is exposed to nodes for now, while ProRender does not support nodes yet.

I understand that. It's easier to deal with C4D tightly integrated classic renderer and code base first. More convenient, easier. Less scary. I understand all that. Better be conservative in your thinking rather than risking scaring existing classic C4D renderer users away. It's also plain silly and back-ward thinking. It means that ProRender's development and integration is to be regarded as a beta version even in R20. ProRender users are treated as second-class citizens now in R20, just as they were in R19. That is somewhat understandable in R19, and somewhat unacceptable within the scope of this new release, because a PBR based render engine such as ProRender just SCREAMS for a node-based material system! Can't wrap my head around that. I'd have expected the devs to push the modern render technology first, and get up to speed with the competition. Compare Lightwave and Blender: both made a clean break with their older renderers (with LIghtwave throwing away the old one altogether which was, granted, perhaps a step too far), and their users switched quite quickly, even with Cycles not being quite production ready in the first year, and Lightwave's new render engine still rough around the edges. But Cinema4D's approach is kinda like it wants to hold on to the past, and is reluctant to embrace the future. C4D finally, FINALLY introduces nodal materials, yet they don't work with the MODERN render engine that was implemented in the previous version! I just don't understand that line of thinking. It's like holding candy in front of your users, and then snatch it away. In the meantime C4D is left with an aging renderer that just can't produce the same level of quality renders as ProRender and other modern renderers yet STILL gets the candy first, and not having material nodes for ProRender is stifling users from properly transitioning to ProRender. Which only solidifies the general feeling that an external render option is going to be preferable even over ProRender in C4D. So weird. Perhaps I am beginning to understand why Newtek decided to rip out the old render engine: in with the new, out with the old. Look forward, don't look back. Sorry for my rant, but I was really looking forward to see ProRender's potential fulfilled in R20, but look at it now. No node-based materials? Instead, the old render engine got them? How does that make sense? So I suppose ProRender users will have to wait another 14 months for material nodes to be made available to them. Sorry for my rant. I think this is a nice release otherwise.

Agreed, that's what I am thinking as well. Get rid of Prime, put BodyPaint in all editions (including sculpting), combine Visualize and Broadcast into one edition for $1999, and keep Studio. At this point I think all those editions are hurting sales and confusing customers, similar to the modules situation years ago. Simplify, simplify. Good to hear that ProRender is available in the Broadcast and Visualize as well. Very odd that nodal materials aren't available for ProRender (yet). I thought ProRender is supposed to be the new render engine, and now it seems that the old renderer was given nodal materials first? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me, because it feels as if ProRender is sort-of second guessed by management. ProRender is the new kid on the block, so I'd have expected it to have nodal materials; instead, the OLD renderer got nodal materials, not the other way around? Which could mean more users will stick to using the older render engine for years to come. Not sure, but the development roadmap sometimes makes little sense to me.

Also a bit weird: according to this thread: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=47&t=1509908 ProRender users cannot use node-based materials yet? True or not?

Yes, noticed that as well. If that is true, it's a rather sad state of affairs - in particular seeing that Maya, Blender, and Max get a fully featured ProRender for... free. I really think MAXON's management is making a mistake with this: if it were integrated in all the other editions it would draw some interest, and more importantly, more C4D users would take ProRender more seriously as an rendering alternative. But if it's only made available to Studio users? Really? What is the point? You either push your new render engine to ALL your users, or you risk having your beautiful new render engine adopted by a small percentage of users. Open it up to everyone. It's not as if ProRender is a unique key feature: all the rival applications already sport more advanced render engines at this point. AND have free access to ProRender. Reserving it to your "elite" users is merely petty attitude, and in my opinion indefensible. That said, I can't see this being true! ESPECIALLY the Visualize edition would benefit from ProRender. If it IS true, and it is not a mistake, then I am dumbfounded by that decision. It makes no sense at all the way I see it, and is just plain silly.

I suppose a nice release for motion graphics artists and CAD users. Nodes were LOOOONG overdue, so not really a new feature in my view, and ProRender users in other packages have had those render options for a longer time now as well. I didn't see the denoiser option for ProRender? Did that make it into this release? Otherwise, quite a few long standing issues and missing features that I assumed would be tackled in this release still haven't seen even a glance of attention, it seems? Odd. Anyway, good to see nodes finally introduced. One thing I am wondering about, though: what's the point of Prime anymore? MAXON even dares to mention "UV editing" as a Prime feature - that's grabbing at straws, isn't it? Perhaps it would be a good idea to merge Broadcast and Visualize into one, call it "Foundation" and keep "Studio". Then put a price tag of $1999 on "Foundation".

Now this is interesting to anyone doing retopology jobs. It's friggin' amazing.

And Blender, of course. A superb off-line perpetual license with full access to the latest betas (with full access to the original source code) and a one-in-all version (no silly "premium" or "entry-level" versions with various pricing to deal with). The one-time entry fee is quite acceptable as well. No serial number or activation necessary. And no dongles either. Best license scheme ever! ...sorry, couldn't resist. Very sorry to hear - wishing for a best health and a speedy recovery for you.

Real-time volumetric MandelBulbs in Eevee. Plus tutorial. Looks magical.

My suggestion would be to wait for the upcoming 2.8 release with its GUI overhaul. V2.8 is going to be a game changer. Eevee by itself will change the way we approach rendering with (near) real-time rendering. The new viewport's performance is excellent, and on par with the best 3d apps out there with render quality options. The beta is expected in week 2 of August next month. Learn more about the upcoming release here: https://www.blender.org/2-8/

Nope, rendering is absolutely free in Blender. As are various other render engines, such as AMD's ProRender, which is also completely free to download and install in Blender, unlike ProRender in Cinema4D. Climbingair is correct in stating that the Blender Foundation offers a Cloud subscription which gives access to extras such as a library of HDRI images, textures, a wide range of tutorials, full simplified access to all the Blender Foundation's open movies and the production files, and much more. For example, you also get an add-on to integrate production management software ("Attract") which allows you to manage your 3d productions with shot management for example, and with a team of people, if needed. Your Blender settings can be synced across devices as well via the cloud subscription. Perhaps what you were told is that Flamenco is part of that same subscription service? Flamenco is a render manager/computing infrastructure managing tool developed and used by the Blender Foundation for their latest open movies. But to be clear, you can set up as many render nodes as you like with Blender, of course. Flamenco is more of a dedicated server-based render manager for more complex projects.

Blender's community and the developers seem to have a zest to it like never before. Hardly a day goes by without some interesting new plugin or news item - it's incredible to watch, and during this summer it was hard to keep track of all the new developments. And with the new GUI overhaul 2.8 is receiving I think traction will only grow and grow. They have an official news channel "Blender Live Today" now with a likeable and enthusiastic guy, which I think is a great idea. They've been broadcasting the entire Summer.

New Eevee demos: New Disney Zootopia hair shader implementation, which is also available in the latest 2.79 builds. And the new version of Blender's 2d animation tools are about to be merged in time for the August V2.8 beta release. For those who aren't aware of the new 2d animation Grease Pencil, the Blender Foundation produced a 2d short animation to develop the 2d animation tools to "production ready" level. "HERO" showcases the 2d animation tool set and its capabilities quite nicely. There's is nothing equivalent on the market today: 2d and 3d animation tools are completely and seamlessly integrated. More info about these 2d animation developments here: https://code.blender.org/2018/07/grease-pencil-status-update/ https://code.blender.org/2017/12/drawing-2d-animation-in-blender-2-8/

Tangent Animation's newest feature animation, "Next Gen", is the studio's second animated film. Rendered 100% using Blender Cycles, according to a source at the studio (it seems this film was also produced using Blender). https://www.weibo.com/tv/v/e843ea96a612b86d41927e3cf3aab574?fid=1034:e843ea96a612b86d41927e3cf3aab574 Interestingly enough Netflix paid 30 million to pick it up for Western audiences: https://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/why-did-netflix-pay-30-million-at-cannes-for-the-chinese-animated-film-next-gen-158348.html Tangent Animation's first animated feature (also done in Blender) was "Ozzy": https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5770430/ "Next Gen" looks and feels much more advanced than their first film.

Check out the current state of Eevee in the upcoming v2.8 version (this Summer / Autum) Amazing. The hardware specs are nothing out of the ordinary: D18-0105 - i7-8700K / 16GB / 500GB SSD + 1TB HDD / gtx1080 / Win 10 Remember, this is real-time viewport stuff! Check out 2:56 where real-time refraction is demonstrated.

@3D-Pangel Blender underwent a complete rewrite in its 2.5 cycle, and that initially wasn't that stable. Tools at that time were flaky, but the entire reason for that was that 2.49 did not support n-gons - which changed with that rewrite. The old internal raytracer then was replaced with Cycles, and several years were spent on making it as robust as it is now (similar situation compared to C4D's ProRender right now). The GUI was improved quite a lot as well, but a number of the 2.5 GUI targets weren't reached, and work on it saved for later. For example, layers are pretty limited compared to other software, and the outliner can't compare to the one in Cinema4d. And my main pet peeve: the more tools are added via plugins, the more convoluted the GUI becomes, because it is not (yet) possible to easily create workspaces with custom tool sets (which is one of the strengths of C4D's interface). Blender V2.8's GUI is being reworked, and one of the things I really like are collections: the concept of layers is taken to the next level, and objects, lights, cameras, etc. can be easily grouped and sub-grouped using "collections". These can work as layers, or as an outliner, or both, and it simplifies scene organization a lot. The old layer system in Blender is quite limited (no more than 20 layers, no sub-layers, etc.), so I am looking forward to this. The collections will be hooked into the render layer system as well. Otherwise, Blender already offers quite nice scene management tools, and I miss some of these in C4D. Give and take, I guess. No 3d app is perfect. The other thing I am looking forward to in V2.8 is Eevee: real-time opengl rendering that is meant to replace the old Blender internal raytracer. Eevee is a bit of a game-changer, and it already works quite well, although V2.8 is still in alpha (meant to be released later this year). Google "Blender Eevee" on Youtube to see what I mean. I am very excited about this development. Anyway, I wish MAXON would be a bit more open in regards to its roadmap. Having access to public alpha and beta versions and an open roadmap are two things that made me switch for most of my work to Blender years ago. MAXON's secrecy can be stifling, if you ask me. Although I realize open source institute and a commercial company like MAXON can't be compared, really. Still, a bit more openness would be nice. Interestingly enough Newtek released a new version of Lightwave last January, and they decided to replace the old raytracer (which was still REALLY good) completely with a new CPU-only path tracer as well, similar to MAXON. It is a half-successful endeavour so far: Lightwave was always quite artist-friendly, and nice render results were easily obtainable. That changed in this new version. The GUI is confusing, the default settings resulting in long render times, and being CPU only means the user's hardware options are limited. More troublesome is that, in contrast with both Blender and Cinema4D, they ripped out the old render engine completely. That is a big mistake, in my opinion. Old scenes won't render the same anymore, if at all. Anyway, 2018 is revving up to be another interesting year for 3d applications. Real-time rendering is now already used (Star Wars, for example), and we may see the end of slow render engines for most of our work.

@3D-Pangel Agree with everything, except for you comment about Blender's instability. In my years of working with 3d software, the two that stood out for their robust stability were Cinema4D and Blender. Houdini is doing pretty good so far as well, but I haven't really gone very deep yet in it. Lightwave is/was rather crash-prone. Blender V2.8 is going to simplify and streamline the GUI. Even a Blender 101 for beginners is being worked on. MAXON and other 3d app vendors should take note, if they haven't already done so. For example, one of Blender's modeling disadvantages is that it is not possible to edit multiple objects. That is now being worked on, and already solved - the other day a demo was uploaded how this issue is going to be past tense in 2.8. And widgets will make things much easier as well.

I can only compare to Blender. ProRender in Blender is nicely integrated, easy to use, and is reliable. Hardware acceleration works very well, and a library of common preset materials makes it very quick to set up scenes. Denoiser is built-in. All in all, works just fine. When I compared the C4D version a while ago, I was struck by how shoddy C4D's implementation of ProRender was/is compared. I found ProRender in Blender to be much easier to use and setup. Having said all this, C4D's ProRender integration should be much better in V20. I regard V19 as a public alpha/beta version.