Settle in.

Blender 4.1 is a solid release with quality of life improvements and performance enhancements all across the board.
Download Blender 4.1 Watch Recap Video
Blender 4.1 Splash by Lynxsdesign

Released March 26th, 2024

Show & Tell

Round-up of what’s new, in detail.

New features overview by Jonathan Lampel from CGCookie
GEOMETRY NODES

BAKING NEWS

Save and load data from inside node groups so that its inputs don’t have to be recomputed, allowing for performant geometries without losing the procedural workflow.

Bake Node - Geometry Nodes

Both still frames and animations are supported, as well as volume objects, and it has been optimized to deliver small file sizes.

Baked frame-range is displayed on top of the node, and as a cache line in the Timeline.

Additionally, baking (also simulations) no longer loses materials, and doesn’t get lost after undo.

Watch Video
Read Manual
NEW NODE

SWITCHEROO

The Menu Switch node allows creating custom “enum” menus to allow switching between options in the group interface.

Items in Menu Switch node become a dropdown menu in the modifier.
Items in Menu Switch node become a dropdown menu in the modifier.
Read Manual

NEW GEOMETRY NODES

Index Switch
Index Switch

Outputs one of its inputs depending on an index value. Only the input that is passed through the node is computed.
Musgrave
Musgrave

The Musgrave texture node was replaced by the Noise Texture node, which includes all the same functionality.
Split to Instances
Split to Instances

Splits up geometry elements into Instances, based on a Group ID.
Sort Elements
Sort Elements

Rearranges geometry elements by changing their indices.
Rotate Rotation
Rotate Rotation

Applies an additional rotation amount to a rotation value.
Active Camera
Active Camera

Outputs the scene’s current active camera.
NEW MODIFIER

Smooth by Angle

The mesh “Auto Smooth” option has been replaced by a modifier node group asset.

This means geometry nodes now has the ability to set edge sharpness and create split normals without the need for an “original” mesh with the auto smooth option.

For more information on the impact to modeling, see the Modeling release notes.

Read Manual
Python API
Smooth by Angle - Geometry Nodes
Smooth by Angle node group asset to replace the behavior of the Auto Smooth mesh option.

MORE GEOMETRY NODES

CYCLES

INSTANT CLARITY

OpenImageDenoise is now GPU accelerated on supported hardware, making high quality denoising available at interactive rates in the 3D viewport.

It is enabled automatically when using GPU rendering in the 3D viewport and for final renders.

Read more
  • CPU (Intel i9-13900K)
  • GPU (NVIDIA RTX 3090)
  • GPU (Intel Arc A770)
  • CPU (Apple M2 Ultra)
  • GPU (Apple M2 Ultra 76 cores)
  • Denoise time in seconds (lower is better)
  • Unit: seconds

PLUS

COMPOSITOR

PRETTY, FAST.

The viewport compositor now supports Cryptomatte, Defocus, Vector Blur and Keying Screen, completing support for all nodes with the exception of Render Layers passes (other than Image, Alpha, Depth).

Kuwahara Node
Kuwahara node

A new Size input to the Kuwahara node was added to allow variable sizing.

Additionally, a new High Precision option was added to the node in the Classic mode, which produces more accurate results for high resolution and high dynamic range images.

Read Manual

A new size property was added to the Pixelate node, which allows the node to be used without being surrounded by scale-down and scale-up nodes.

Read Manual
Pixelate Node
Pixelate node
Compositor precision option

A new option was added to the Performance panel to allow choosing between Full or Automatic precision.

Automatic uses half precision for the viewport and interactive compositing, while Full uses full precision for both viewport and render.

Half precision runs faster with less memory usage, albeit with reduced precision and value ranges.

Read Manual

MORE COMPOSITOR

KEY TO SUCCESS

Blender 4.1 introduces a new way for inserting animation keyframes, for a simpler and more intuitive workflow.

Bone Collections panel in Blender 4.1
Bone Collections panel showing hierarchical relationships in Blender 4.1
RIGGING
HIERARCHY
MATTERS

Bone collections are now hierarchical. The collections are shown in a tree instead of a flat list, where they can be rearranged and nested via drag-and-drop.

Visibility is determined by the bone collection itself, and its ancestors: a bone collection is only visible when its parent elements are visible. Bone collections can also be ‘solo‘ed now.

Read Manual

SELECT & PAINT

A new selection mode allows to easily switch bones without leaving Weight Paint mode.

It’s available when you enter Weight Paint mode on a mesh while its armature is selected, and can be accessed via the Bone icon in the header or by pressing the hotkey “3“.

Read Manual
New bone selection mode in Weight Paint mode.
Motion Paths baked from the camera view

WYSIWYG

Motion Paths can now be generated in screen space from the camera view. Making it much easier for animators to see how arcs will look in the final piece.

Read Manual
GRAPH EDITOR

CLICK & SLIDE

Adjust keys with ease with these new slide operations.

NEW OPERATOR Scale from Neighbor

Scale the selected key segments from either their left or right neighbor key. Press D to switch the reference key from one end to the other.
Auto-Lock
WORKFLOW Auto-Lock

Add an option to automatically lock key movement to either the X or Y axis. This can be found under View » Auto-Lock Axis.
Expose
USER INTERFACE Expose

Add option to right click menu on animated properties to view the FCurve that animates it. For this to work the object/node has to be selected.

BAKE OFF

A new operator has been added to the Graph Editor to bake channels, with options to:

  • Specify a frame range to bake.
  • Define the distance between keys (e.g. in 2s)
  • Remove keys outside the range.
  • Define the interpolation type.
  • Bake modifiers.

Find it under Channel » Bake Channels in the Graph Editor.

Read Manual
Bake Channels operator in Graph Editor

MORE ANIMATION & RIGGING GOODIES

MAKING WAVES

The Video Sequencer is now faster than ever, sporting sleek scopes and improved image filtering for a smoother editing experience.

Chroma Vectorscope

This scope now preserves the aspect ratio, and a “skin tone” line has been added. RGB -> YUV conversion is done with standard BT709 coefficients.
Histogram

This mode now displays labels to make it more clear when working with EXR files, and drawing is done on the GPU so it’s more efficient.
Luma Waveform
Luma Waveform

The Luma Waveform has been updated to display more detail, label indicators, and more efficient to compute.
Luma Waveform Separated Colors
Luma Waveform Separated Colors

The “RGB parade” version of the Luma Waveform is now easier on the eyes with less saturated colors, and it is also faster.

Audio waveform previews are now displayed by default.

Waveforms are now enabled by default

AUTO NICE

Image/movie filtering when scaling/rotating strips has been greatly improved.

Strips now automatically use to the most appropriate filter based on scaling factors:

  • Nearest: When there is no scale/rotation and positions are in integers.
  • Cubic Mitchel: When scaling up by more than 2x.
  • Box: When scaling down by more than 2x.
  • Bilinear: Fallback if no other rule applies.
Read more
Video Sequencer Filtering in Blender 4.1

CUT TO
THE CHASE

From effects to final export, everything feels much faster across the board.

PLUS

Still from Agent 327: view of Amsterdam.

INDUSTRY READY

Blender 4.1 is fully aligned with the VFX Reference Platform 2024, making it easier to integrate in studio pipelines.

VFX Platform 2024
Pixar USD
USD

IN MOTION

Blender 4.1 can now export armatures and shape keys as USD skeletons and blend shapes.

Additionally, support has been added to import scene graph instancing and point instancing.

Importing USD can now be extended with Python scripts through hooks. See the USDHook API documentation for details and example code.

Read more

MORE USD

Wing It! Open Movie

BENCHMARK IT

Share and compare your computer’s score with openly accessible benchmarks provided by the Blender community.

Download Blender Benchmark

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE

User Interface
EEVEE & Viewport
  • Reflection Cubemap renamed to Sphere
  • Reflection Plane renamed to Plane
  • Irradiance Grid renamed to Volume

Plus hundreds of bug fixes, code cleanups and refactors to make Blender more stable and easier to contribute to.

Corrective releases: Blender 4.1.1 was released on April 16th 2024 addressing 58 critical issues. Updating is highly recommended.

Blender 4.1 Splash artwork by Lynxsdesign

GET THE ARTWORK

Blender splash artwork source files are available for you to play with, not only for Blender 4.1 but for previous versions as well.

Download Splash File (276MB)
Blender 4.1 Splash by Lynxsdesign
Blender 4.1 splash by Lynxsdesign

CREDITS

List of developers that contributed to Blender 4.1

Splash artwork by Lynxsdesign. Features recap video by Jonathan Lampel from CGCookie. Page layout and design by Pablo Vazquez. Additional help by Blender Studio, Blender Institute and the Blender community.

Huge thanks to everyone involved ❤️

The Blender team. March, 2024

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