A Link to the Future

Blender 4.0 represents a major leap for rendering, creating tools, and more to take your Freedom to Create to new heights.
Download Blender Watch Reel
Blender 4.0 splash artwork by Gaku Tada

Blender Foundation and the online developers community proudly present Blender 4.0!

Released November 14th, 2023

Show-off

See how the community is pushing the Freedom to Create.

Show & Tell

Round-up of what’s new, in detail.

New features overview by Jonathan Lampel

by Gaku Tada

Principled BSDF in Blender 4.0
SHADING

BEAUTIFUL
BY DEFAULT

Meet the new Principled BSDF. More energy conserving, more efficient, and more flexible. Beautifully easy.

Layers of the Principled BSDF in Blender 4.0

The order of the different layers has been adjusted to allow for more flexibility when mixing between them.

PRINCIPLED BSDF

COAT

The coat layer is placed on top of all base layers, including the emission layer. This can be used e.g. to simulate emissive textures behind glass like a phone screen.

Coat tint and IOR inputs were added, so that it can be used for more than a white clearcoat like a tinted car paint coating.

Coat in Principled BSDF in Blender 4.0
Read Manual for Coat
Blender 3.6 Blender 3.6
Blender 4.0 Blender 4.0

Example showing Coat weight at 1.0, above emissive mesh.

PRINCIPLED BSDF

SHEEN

Sheen uses a new microfiber shading model, sitting on top of all layers.

Weight

Sheen Weight from 0.0 to 1.0

Roughness

Sheen Roughness from 0.0 to 1.0

Tint

Sheen Tint from white to green.

Sheen 0.0 Sheen 0.0
Sheen 1.0 Sheen 1.0

Example showing the Sheen layer over a glossy surface.

Traditionally, sheen has been used for fuzzy cloth, but now it can also be used for dust on arbitrary materials.

Sheen in Principled BSDF in Blender 4.0
Read Manual for Sheen

MORE PRINCIPLED BSDF

Read more about Principled BSDF
Blender 4.0 AgX
COLOR MANAGEMENT

MORE THAN
MEETS THE EYE

A new view transform has been added: AgX, providing better color handling in over-exposed areas compared to Filmic.

AgX AgX
Filmic Filmic

Bright colors go towards white, similar to real cameras.

The following example demonstrates the improvement AgX makes in handling saturation, an area where Filmic struggles. The image contains three fully metallic, fully saturated spheres lit only by the environment.

AgX (punchy)

View Transform AgX, using look “Punchy”.

AgX

View Transform AgX, no look applied (same as “Base Contrast”).

Filmic

View Transform FIlmic, no look applied (same as “Medium Contrast”).

Standard

View Transform Standard, no look applied (same as “Medium Contrast”).

Community Videos

AgX vs Filmic - Realistic Renders in Blender 4.0
AgX vs Filmic – Realistic Renders in Blender 4.0

by Bouncing Rays
AgX in Blender 4.0. It's coming, are you ready?
AgX in Blender 4.0. It’s coming, are you ready?

by Christopher 3D
AgX color profile, a better color management
AgX color profile, a better color management

by Wenbo Zhao
Voronoi Texture in Blender 4.0
TEXTURES

DETAIL TO INFINITY
AND BEYOND

The Voronoi Texture node has support for fractal noise.
Unlimited procedural detail in a single texture.

Voronoi Texture in Blender 4.0

The Voronoi Texture node now features three new inputs:

  • Detail: the number of layers to compute.
  • Roughness: how much influence the higher layers have on the final output.
  • Lacunarity: the factor on which each successive layer is scaled with.

Additionally a “Normalize” property was added, which remaps the Distance and Color outputs to a 0.0 – 1.0 range.

Read Manual

MORE RENDERING

CYCLES

THE MISSING LINK

The long awaited Light Linking feature is here. Lights (and other emissive objects) can be set to affect only specific elements in the scene. Additionally, Shadow Linking gives control over which objects acts as shadow blockers for a light.

Light Linking Off Light Linking Off
Light Linking On Light Linking On

In the example above, Light Linking is setup in a way that the blue rim light and front-facing sun light only affects the character’s skin, ignoring the eyes and environment.

Light & Shadow Linking UI

EASY AS
DRAG & DROP

Setting up is easy: select a light or emissive object, drag and drop objects or collections you’d want the light to affect, from the Outliner into the Light Linking panel under Shading.

If you wish to exclude certain elements, add them to that list and click on the checkbox on the right.

Same process applies to Shadow Linking.

Read Manual
CYCLES

GUIDE AND SHINE

Path Guiding now works on glossy surfaces in addition to diffuse surfaces. This can significantly reduce noise on glossy surfaces, and find otherwise missing glossy light paths.

Diffuse only Diffuse only
Glossy Glossy

Comparison between diffuse-only and the new glossy path guiding. Both renders took the same time.

MORE CYCLES

DIY TOOLS

Geometry Nodes can now be run as regular operators using Node Tools, an accessible way to expand Blender and customize tools without requiring Python.

Introduction to Node Tools by Simon Thommes

New Tools-specific Nodes

3D Cursor
3D Cursor

Get access to the 3D cursor location and rotation.
Selection & Set Selection
Selection & Set Selection

Edit mode selection is accessible and controllable with the Selection and Set Selection nodes.
Face Set & Set Face Set
Face Set & Set Face Set

Sculpt face sets are accessible as well with the Face Set and Set Face Set nodes.

What the community is already creating with Geometry Nodes Node Tools

#GeometryNodes on X
on Mastodon
Geometry Nodes - Node Tools blog post

Read the Node Tools announcement by the developers on code.blender.org

Read announcement
Repeat In - Geometry Nodes

Repeat Zones allow running nodes many times in a loop for an arbitrary number of times.

Read Manual
Repeat Output - Geometry Nodes

Geometry Nodes Repeat Zone work by the community

Rotation socket - Geometry Nodes

Simpler Rotations

A new rotation socket is introduced along with eight new nodes for simpler processing.

Read Manual
Rotation to Euler - Geometry Nodes
Euler to Rotation - Geometry Nodes
Rotation to Axis Angle - Geometry Nodes
Axis Angle to Rotation - Geometry Nodes
Invert Rotation - Geometry Nodes
Rotation to Quaternion - Geometry Nodes
Quaternion to Rotation - Geometry Nodes
Rotate Vector - Geometry Nodes

MORE GEOMETRY NODES

Geometry Nodes Volumes, Gizmos & More

THE FUTURE UNTANGLED

What's next for Geometry Nodes? Read about the latest workshop on code.blender.org

Geometry Nodes Workshop: November 2023
by Gaku Tada

by Gaku Tada

MODELING

OH SNAP

Several improvements have been done to snapping's user interface and functionality.

The Snapping popover has been restructured:

  • Snap With was moved to the top.
  • Align Rotation to Target and Backface Culling were moved closer to the snap targets.
  • Snap With, Target Selection and Align Rotation to Target are no longer hidden by varying the mode and options.
  • Project Individual Elements has been replaced with the Face Project option.
  • Face Nearest has been moved to stick together with the Face Project option.

Additionally, bones now support snapping with "Align Rotation to Target".

Read Manual
New Snap options in Blender 4.0

AT A GLANCE

The cursor now dynamically changes shape as you hover over the mesh, to see at a glance which type of snapping is being used.

The symbols used to indicate are:

  • Snap symbol square for Vertex
  • Snap symbol hourglass for Edge
  • Snap symbol circle for Face
  • Snap symbol triangle for Midpoint
  • Snap symbol perpendicular for Perpendicular snapping
ALL YOUR BASE
ARE BELONG TO YOU

You can now set a Snap Base (or "initial") point on the fly while transforming objects. Quickly move, rotate, or scale elements without changing their origin or setting the 3D Cursor.

In the video above the pillow is moved to the couch first using regular snapping (which by default uses the object's origin). In the second attempt, Snap Base is used to set the snapping point to the bottom of the pillow.

How: while transforming, press B, click to set where to snap from, where to snap to, done!

Combine it with transform, rotate, scale, axis constraints, you name it!

In this example the shelf is moved in object mode to align with the top of the fridge, then scaled in edit mode to align with the shelf underneath. Finally the pot is moved to the top of the shelf, using its base for snapping, even though the object's origin is in the lid.

Read Manual

THE SEARCH IS NOT OVER

Find what you're looking in Blender 4.0 with these new additions to search on menus.

Search inside the Add Object menu.

TYPE TO SEARCH

All Add menus can be searched instantly by typing. Speeding up workflow like never before.

This includes:

Other menus can be searched by pressing spacebar.

MORE MODIFIERS

The Add Modifier menu got a major upgrade:

  • New shortcut: Shift+A
  • Supports type-to-search.
  • Includes custom modifiers made with Geometry Nodes.
Search inside the Add Modifier menu.
Search inside the File menu.

WORKS ANYWHERE

Press Spacebar to search inside any menu (and sub-menu).

For example, you can mouse hover the File menu, and type a file format you'd like to import or export. Or hover the "Open Recent" sub-menu to search for recently opened files.

IT REMEMBERS

Recenty searched items will be listed first, and disappear as you start typing to make room for relevant results.

These results are saved in your Preferences and shared across blend files.

Blender 4.0 Search Recent
Recently searched items are listed first

MORE ON USER INTERFACE

MEET YOUR NEW TYPE

Blender's UI now features Inter, a typeface carefully designed for computer screens.

Blender 4.0 UI Font Inter

FONT SIZE
DOESN’T MATTER

Regardless of the size of your screen, Blender will look tack sharp.

A new preference allows you to set subpixel anti-alising for even more control over hinting.

Blender 4.0 UI Font Inter

MORE ON TEXT RENDERING

STREAMLINED KEYMAP

A few new shortcuts have been added, while some have been adjusted for usability and consistency across modes.

Bone Collections in Blender 4.0
RIGGING
BONE
COLLECTIONS

The concept of Collections, first introduced for objects in Blender 2.80, is now available for Armature Bones.

  • Replaces bone groups and layers.
  • No longer limited to 32 layers.
  • Colors can now be set per bone.
  • New collections can be added to linked armatures via Library Overrides.
  • Layers and bone groups get converted into Bone Collections automatically.
  • Accessible in all modes via the API.
Read Manual
GRAPH EDITOR

CLICK & SLIDE

Adjust keys with ease with these new slide operations.

Blend to Ease

Blend the selected keys from their current position to either an ease in or an ease out curve.
Blend Offset

Move the selected keyframes as a block so the first/last key align with the key before/after the selection.
Shear Keys

Shear the keys based on the position of the keyframe selection ends.
Scale Average

Scale selected key values by their combined average.
Push Pull

Exaggerate or minimize the value of the selected keys.
Time Offset

Shift the value of selected keys in time.

MORE ANIMATION & RIGGING GOODIES

Code Blog Animation Workshop

AWESOMENESS STRAIGHT AHEAD

The animation module is full speed with the "Animation 2025 project". Read about the latest workshop on code.blender.org

Animation Workshop: June 2023
Pixar USD
USD

HYDRA
STORM

Storm is a realtime renderer part of USD. When enabling the add-on, it can be chosen as an alternative to Cycles, EEVEE or Workbench.

In production pipelines where Blender outputs USD files, it provides a preview of how the scene will be exported to other applications.

Read more

MORE USD

ASSET LIBRARIES

COME PREPARED

The Human Base Meshes bundle got an update with new assets, improved topology, and several fixes. Get a head start on your sculpts.

Human Base Meshes Bundle v1.1
Download Asset Bundle
Read more
Still from Agent 327: view of Amsterdam.

INDUSTRY READY

Blender 4.0 is fully aligned with the VFX Reference Platform 2023, making it easier to integrate in studio pipelines.

VFX Platform 2023

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE

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

Corrective releases: Blender 4.0.1 was released on November 17th 2023 addressing 11 critical issues. While Blender 4.0.2 was released on December 5th 2023, addressing 41 issues.
Updating is highly recommended.

Blender 4.0 splash artwork by Gaku Tada

GET THE ARTWORK

Blender splash artwork source files are available for you to play with, not only for Blender 4.0 but for previous versions as well.

Download Splash File (32MB)
Blender 4.0 splash artwork by Gaku Tada
Artwork by Gaku Tada

CREDITS

List of developers that contributed to Blender 4.0

Splash artwork by Gaku Tada

Features recap video by Jonathan Lampel from CG Cookie. Features reel video edited by Francesco Siddi and Haru Legouge. Node Tools video by Simon Thommes. Repeat Zone flower by MiRA. Coat demo by Alex Treviño. Sheen, Color Management, and Voronoi demo using assets from Poly Haven. Light Linking demo by Daniel Bystedt. Path Guiding demo by Fernando Alcala and LRosario using assets from Blendswap. Snap Base demo file by Flavio Della Tommasa. Keymap video by Julien Kaspar. 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. November, 2023

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