Frog in a….

….blender. Its the punchline to a bad joke, and certainly not something I would counsel. However, this post is about a different type of blender altogether.

Blender is a free open-source 3D design and animation package, offering similar power and functionality of professional products such as 3ds Max and Maya (these packages are used in the film and tv industries – think of any Pixar film!). I have used the cut-down versions of both these packages (Gmax and Maya Personal Learning Edition respectively), more just playing around than with any real project in mind, and so I look forward to having a play with Blender. It is supposed to be more user friendly, however I guess you still need some artistic skill!!

Blender has had exposure on the BBC Click programme and support/awareness for it is growing. By the looks of it there are some impressive movies out there already. Also in the Blender community, Super3Boy has done a load of excellent tutorial videos which are available on YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/user/super3boy – so no excuses really!

Hop-fully I’ll be able to squeeze the last drops of performance out of my wheezing computer to run Blender, and if so I’ll report back later, possibly with a picture of a (still intact) frog…. So if you really wanted to see Monsters Inc 2, or the return of The Incredibles, then now you can have a go at making your own version – just don’t confuse your NURBS with your Beziér splines and check those knot vectors offer full continuity over the parametric surfaces…….

Si