 Blender has a very unusual interface, highly optimized for 3D graphics production.  This might be a bit confusing to a new user, but will prove its strength in the long run.  Blender was first conceived in December 1993 and born as a usable product in August 1994  Provides a broad spectrum of modeling, texturing, lighting, animation and video post- processing functionality in one package

 1988: The Dutch animation studio NeoGeo is cofounded by Ton Roosendaal.  1995: NeoGeo commences rewriting its in-house 3D software (to become Blender).  1998: Ton founds a new company, NaN (Not a Number), to further market and develop the 3D tools. NaN hopes to target commercial products and services with the software  2002 (early): After unsuccessful sales, NaN investors decide to shut down operations, including the 3D software  2002 (May): Ton initiates the nonprofit Blender Foundation in support of the large number of community enthusiasts

 2002 (July): Ton convinces NaN investors to agree on open sourcing Blender, provided the public community raise 100,000 euros. This goal is achieved in only seven weeks!  2002 (October 13): Blender is released under the GNU GPL. Development is continued under Ton and a worldwide team of volunteer developers  2005: Project Orange is launched by the Blender Foundation, creating the world’s first Open Movie, Elephants Dream, using Blender as the main tool, alongside other open source software  2007: Ton establishes the Blender Institute office and studio for ongoing Blender-based projects

 2008 (April): Project Peach is completed, resulting in the movie Big Buck Bunny  2008 (September): Project Apricot is completed, creating Yo Frankie!, an interactive game on the theme of the Big Buck Bunny movie.  2009 (July): Ton is awarded an honorary doctorate in technology by Leeds Metropolitan University  2010: Project Durian is completed, releasing the third Open Movie, Sintel, along with an ongoing rewrite of Blender from the ground up

 Fully integrated creation suite, offering a broad range of essential tools for the creation of 3D content, including modeling etc.  Cross platform ready to use for all versions of Windows (98, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, 7), Linux, OS X, FreeBSD, Irix, Sun and numerous other operating systems;  High quality 3D architecture enabling fast and efficient creation work-flow  More than 200,000 downloads of each release (users) worldwide  User community support by forums for questions, answers  Small executable size, easy distribution

 Blender is a 3D modeler, which can make characters for movies  Blender has powerful texturing tools for painting the surface of the models  Blender has powerful animation functions  Blender has its own rendering engine and can be thought of as a complete lighting studio for a film.  Unlike other 3D packages, Blender has its own compositing module, so movie “shots” can be mixed.  Besides all of this it also has a full-blown game creation suite

 A program is licensed under the GNU General Public License (the GPL): ◦ you have the right to use the program for any purpose; ◦ you have the right to modify the program, and have access to the source codes; ◦ you have the right to copy and distribute the program; ◦ you have the right to improve the program, and release your own versions.

 Operating Systems :Blender is available on a wide range of operating systems, including  Windows  Mac OS X  Linux  Irix  Solaris  etc…

 Question ?