Blender Studio

The creators who share.
Spring

Blender Studio is the creative counterpart of the free/open source Blender project. Established in the Netherlands in 2007 by producer and computer graphics pioneer Ton Roosendaal, the studio has released highly successful Open Movie Projects, including Big Buck Bunny, Sintel, the Caminandes series and award-winning shorts Cosmos Laundromat and Spring.


The studio is being funded by members of the studio.blender.org website. This keeps the team independent, enabling them to challenge themselves with creative-technical targets to help Blender users and developers.

Open Movies

Sprite Fright
2021 Sprite Fright

Blender Studio’s 13th open movie is an 80’s-inspired horror comedy, set in Britain: When a group of rowdy teenagers trek into an isolated forest, they discover peaceful mushroom creatures that turn out to be an unexpected force of nature.

Watch the film on YouTube

Blender Studio

Coffee Run
2020 Coffee Run

Coffee Run was directed by Hjalti Hjalmarsson and produced by the team at Blender Animation Studio. Fueled by caffeine, a young woman runs through the bittersweet memories of her past relationship.

Watch the film on YouTube

Blender Studio

Spring
2019 Spring

Spring is the story of a shepherd girl and her dog, who face ancient spirits in order to continue the cycle of life. This poetic and visually stunning short film was written and directed by Andy Goralczyk, inspired by his childhood in the mountains of Germany.

Watch the film on YouTube

Blender Studio

Hero
2018 Hero

Hero is a showcase for the updated Grease Pencil tools in Blender 2.80. Grease Pencil means 2D animation tools within a full 3D pipeline.

Watch the film on YouTube

Blender Studio

Daily Dweebs
2017 Daily Dweebs

The Daily Dweebs is a pilot episode of an animated series revolving around the pet Dixey and his shenanigans in 1950’s American suburbia.

The title is referencing amongst other things “the everyday silliness” that the characters constantly find themselves in.

Watch the film on YouTube

Production Website
Blender Studio

Agent 327: Operation Barbershop
2017 Agent 327: Operation Barbershop

Agent 327 is investigating a clue that leads him to a barbershop in Amsterdam. Little he knows that he is being tailed by mercenary Boris Kloris…

This three-minute teaser for a full-length animated feature is based on Dutch artist Martin Lodewijk’s classic comics series Agent 327. The Blender Animation Studio is currently developing the story and seeks for funding to bring this adventurous comedy animation film to an international audience.

Watch the film on YouTube

Production Website
Blender Studio

Caminandes 3: Llamigos
2016 Caminandes 3: Llamigos

The third episode of the Caminandes series is about Koro the Llama and a pesky but very cute penguin.

Production started in November 2015, release was in January 2016.

Watch the film on YouTube.

Website
CC-BY Blender Studio

Glass Half
2015 Glass Half

Two amateur art critics meet in a gallery and argue passionately about the pieces they see, until finally they find a piece on which they can agree…

The characters are 3d animated and have been rendered in real-time using OpenGL shaders.

Watch the film on YouTube.

CC-BY Blender Studio

Cosmos Laundromat
2015 Cosmos Laundromat

Project Gooseberry is the pilot project for a feature film, to be realized in episodes made by a number of different studios who can work each in their own style. This ‘first cycle’ is also intended to be watched as a short film.

Cosmos Laundromat is an absurdist love story – the story of Franck the sheep, who gets the opportunity to live any life he wants.

Watch the film on YouTube.

Website
CC-BY Blender Studio

Caminandes 2: Gran Dillama
2013 Caminandes 2: Gran Dillama

The second episode of the Caminandes series was realized in the studio of Blender Institute as well.

In this episode, Koro the Llama finds himself blocked away from the best food ever. And as we know by now, nothing can stop a Llama!

Watch the film on YouTube.

Website
CC-BY Blender Studio

Caminandes 1:  Llama Drama
2013 Caminandes 1: Llama Drama

The first episode of the Caminandes series. In this episode, Koro the Llama is trying to cross the road but faces drama when stepping foot onto the road.

Watch the film on YouTube

Website

Tears of Steel
2012 Tears of Steel

Project Mango was the Blender Foundation’s fourth movie. Production took place from March 2012 to October 2012 in the Blender Institute’s studio in Amsterdam. The targets were VFX compositing (green screens) and realistic renders with Cycles.

Thanks to crowdfunding and support from the Netherlands Film Fund, a week of filming with a professional camera/light/sound crew was possible.

The Blender Institute team then worked four months on realizing the VFX for the film. Improvements were made to Blender’s motion tracker, camera solver, masking, Cycles, and color grading.

Additional funding by cinegrid.nl made it possible to re-render and deliver the whole film in 4k resolution. This version was released in April 2013.

Watch the film on YouTube

Website
CC-BY Blender Studio

Sintel
2010 Sintel

Project Durian was the Blender Institute’s third movie. The movie started production in September 2009 and was premiered at the Netherlands Film Festival at the end of September 2010. With a much larger team and bigger budget, the targets were very ambitious, resulting in a 15 minute short film that has found much acclaim on the web; story telling and editing were top priorities for the team.

Development targets mainly focused on getting the Blender 2.5x series more stable and usable, improving the sculpting tools, efficient detail rendering and global illumination.

Watch the film on YouTube

Website
CC-BY Blender Studio

Big Buck Bunny
2008 Big Buck Bunny

Project Peach was the Blender Foundation’s second open movie. The movie started production in October 2007 and premiered April 2008. The targets this time were to create good hair/fur editing and rendering, more advanced support for cartoon characters, and improve performance with complex outdoors environments with grass, trees and leaves.

Big Buck Bunny was the first project created in the Blender Institute‘s studio in Amsterdam. A giant, gentle rabbit finds his happy morning walk being disturbed by rodents who kill his two favorite butterflies. In rage, he sets up a masterful plan to avenge the deaths of the butterflies.

Watch the film on YouTube

Website
CC-BY Blender Studio

Elephants Dream
2006 Elephants Dream

Project Orange was the Blender Foundation’s first open movie. The movie started production in September 2005 and was premiered at the end of March 2006. The ambitions and targets for Orange were set very high; the character animation system had to be fully recoded, the rendering system needed a lot of upgrades, and most of all: a node-based compositor was required.

Elephants Dream was co-produced with the Netherlands Media Art Institute, who challenged the team to explore an abstract concept and storyline. This 10 minute short shows two people who explore a strange mechanical world, with each an entire own perception on what’s actually there. The emotional ending shows once more the violent impact of mixing reality and fantasy.

Watch the film on YouTube

Website
CC-BY Blender Studio

Open Games

Yo Frankie!
2008 Yo Frankie!

The production of Project Apricot, an open game, started in February 2008 and was published in September 2008. This time, the target was to improve Blender as a tool in the game creation pipeline, using Blender as a level editor for the Crystal Space game engine. Game creation and prototyping in Blender were also important targets.

Yo Frankie! was also created in the Amsterdam studio of the Blender Institute. The game was delivered in versions for both the Blender Game Engine and for Crystal Space. The player controls Frankie, one of Big Buck Bunny’s tormentors, and runs around the forest looking for animals to harass.

You can download and play the full game from the Yo Frankie website.

yofrankie.org