Blender for Mac

2.92.0

2.92.0

See all Versions

It is a special 3d model for my journal but don't know how to use it but it is very surprising and I really like it though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tremendously awesome free 3D package that does a huge amount of stuff at a pro level. Using it to produce photorealistic renders of product prototypes and a few abstract animation pieces, I am aware I have just barely scratched the surface of what it can do.

What to tell about the program if it's required to google how to close internal window.

Astonishing free 3D modeler. Incredible in deep editing, physics, animated layer bump mapping, animation editor, hardware render support, .. This has about the same functionality as very expensive comparable apps. It has to be said, the learning curve is very very very steep but the award you get from it is awesome. Thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing this for free ! Top notch 3D modeling tool.

Very pro oriented 3D modeller for free that includes physics, water/fire emulation, particle animations and many more. Top notch Has an incredible steep learning curve though.

Its free. Its powerful. Its difficult to use. In short - AWESOME. :)

Don't know hoe to download the app anyone know how 2? ( Reply )

I have just write this to say, How do u even download this app? i tryed to watch youtube but it got no info on how so how? ( please someone reply )

Massive powerfull 3D app. But has a very steep learning curve. For free a steal if you are willing to put a lot of time (read: trail and error) into it.

D/l link for newest version is here: http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/

that is nice, I like free one!

This 3d package is absolutely fantastic. I come from a Maya/Lightwave/Modo background and recently switched to Blender. Unfortunately Blender has a pretty steep learning curve, but so does any other complex software. If you want to learn how to create Digital Art, Blender is the way to go! For some excellent tutorials using Blender, visit: www.cgcookie.com

http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/ ^ 32-bit, 64-bit and PowerPC standalone builds...

Impressive app very comparable with Lightwave! In fact, it 'steals' a lot of features. The pivot editing is superb ! Has a steep learning curve but I guess all comparable apps too. You cannot go wrong with Blender. Free all the way.

Why is version 2.60 not available on MacUpdate?

Best free 3d app EVER.

http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/ According to the info on the site there's a; 32/64-bit, 32-bit and 64-bit versions available for download. THIS is the link for the 64-bit only version; http://mirror.cs.umn.edu/blender.org/release/Blender2.57/blender-2.57-OSX_10.5_x86_64.zip

2.56 is a beta. 2.49 is still the latest stable.

Fairly capable. It can produce some nice work. For free, this is very good as a surface modeler & it has it own animation built in. They have not finished the import-export options in the 2.56a beta version, so it could be a problem moving to & from solid modelers. Stable versions didn't play well with up-to-date Illustrator files. The interface is like none other - violates everything you'd be used to doing, which makes for a long learning curve if you've used any other 3d application! Don't expect to be proficient in a week or month. Maybe several. The 2.5x version is moving to a different paradigm from the 2.49 stable version, but doesn't feel Mac-like in the least. In fact, it resembles a decade old 3d CAD program in its complex & slightly convoluted panels. 3d modelers all use their own keyboard shortcuts to whirl & twirl & zoom vs pan & rotate. You can change these. It really needs some rudimentary human models & clothing such as Poser or some of the other modelers use & would be useful to people immediately, then. Blender models are oriented toward quad meshes. That makes getting models made in other applications a problem, because a number of those use triangles. Getting human body models from MakeHuman don't work well for several reasons. Same is true in porting from Poser. If you are a longtime Illustrator user, the implementation of bezier curves in Blender may drive you batty.

I have to stick up for this app. For something that is free, this program is AMAZING. The toolset can rival that of Max or 4D, and it is constantly getting better. This goes in the folder of amazing free software next to Gimp and Inkscape.

It's 64-bit, too! MacUpdate makes the 64-bit version the default download. Oddly enough, Blender's download page lists the 64-bit version as being compatible with the Core Duo CPU and 10.5- neither of which is 64-bit (only the Core2Duo with 10.6 minimum offers 64-bit computing on the Mac) while the 32-bit Intel version is for 10.4 systems. I've a feeling whoever wrote out the specs on Blender.org's download page is not familiar with Mac hardware/software. ANYWAY enjoy and thanks for the update, MacUpdate!

Just a quick add-on to what I have previously said, none of the 2.4x series work well with a MacBook with an GMA950 graphics card. If you have one of these cards, its best to just wait, or try one of the test builds of Blender 2.5. The official release date of 2.5 is currently unknown, but it's expected to be released sometime this October.

Is anybody else having trouble downloading the PPC version. I've gone to the blender site and can't find the link, has anyone had better luck finding it?

I am doing an updated review since it has been a long time since 2005 when I last posted about Blender. With the last builds of 2.48 and the current 2.49RC series I have come a long way with Blender in a short time. Thanks to the improvements that have been added and many short tutorial videos I've been able to learn quickly the basics of rigging my models from Wings. I am now learning some python and playing around with the Blender Game Engine for some prototyping. Besides tutorial videos two things seemed to change in regard to Blender since my last review. 1. The community doesn't seem as hostile as they were when I originally tried Blender with the 2.3 and early 2.4 releases. Asking a question got a lot of responses like "Go through the entire Noob-to-Pro book before you ask anything." Now there are many people who can link you to a video or point you in the right direction for how to accomplish something when it needs to be done using different tools than you may be used to. 2. I had to go back and look at Imagine 1.0 and 2.0 from my Amiga days and remember just what it was then do some modeling. I personally was taking too many things for granted with respect to user interface paradigms. Once I remembered how things used to work it was easier to just "let go" and learn this tool without regard to the operating system or "UI best practices" that are all over OS X. I never did get 2.48 running well on a MacBook with GMA950 integrated graphics. The special builds were too slow to overcome OpenGL problems with the Intel driver. Now I have a MacBook Pro and everything is awesome. I still think Wings has better modeling tools for the most part that can simplify quite a few tasks greatly but I am getting more used to thinking with Blender's toolset in mind. Blender however brings so much more than Wings though that I can't give it up now that I am comfortable with it. It really is a great program that you can't beat for the cost.

I am going to start off by saying, this is the best 3d modeling/animating/rendering program I have ever used. It may not be he easiest program ever, but if you stick with it and read a couple of online tutorials, you'll get the hand of it pretty quickly. I am also going to say that the versions 2.4x WILL NOT work on a MacBook with a GMA950 integrated graphics card. I know from experience that only Blender 2.5 with an updated triple buffer will work properly. Some say that the interface is clunky and that the key-strokes are also hap-hazardly put into Blender. This is not the case, and if one tries to actually put a bit of time into Blender, it will grow on you. All in all, I find Blender to be one truly amazing program, and in my eyes, the best valued 3d program out there. So, blend on!

I have been using this app for years. It is not the easiest to learn, hence the claim of it being "user-hostile", if that is accurate anyway. The coding is far from perfect, but there is nothing malicious about this open source program. The community surrounding this app is supportive and I applaud the efforts of blender developers. The last few releases have seen great progress!

Why on Earth are you criticizing Blender just because you don't know what the installer for Yafray (a different, separate piece of software) has placed on your system? If you are so paranoid about what Yafray (not Blender) has installed on your system, and cannot even figure out how to email the Yafray team without removing the "NO SPAM" portion of their addresses, then perhaps you should not have bothered to download Blender.

I keep hearing people raving (well no not hearing... I know noone who uses it personally; I read about it) which is why I'm as curious as the next guy. Anyway up to this version I could hardly be certain I'd be able to launch it twice in a row, it seemed extremely fickle to say the least. Then now this version launches fine but the interface is so slow to repsond to any clicks, no beyonfd slow... I cannot imagine why ?!? I've got a good G4 1.33 Ghz, 768 of RAM. What king of machine does one need to run this thing ??? Or is the Mac OS badly supported ? And all the ravers are on Linux ? I've tried many 3D apps, but I'll stick to my paying faves: Carrara and Cinema 4D. I lauch : they obey my commands LOL

If you're interested in Blender, then check out BlenderNation.com for daily Blender news.

I have toyed with Blender from awhile... its been great... but this version won't start up. I am running OS X 10.4.4 do I need to update something else?

This may very well be the most powerful piece of free software on the planet, but its interface is so backwards and awkward that you may never get through it. With 2.34 I picked up the $50 Blender book and sat down with it for a couple hours a day for over a week. I had used 3D Studio a couple times at an friends who is an artist and that was a steep learning curve... this is crazy. I know they say that the user interface was designed to be efficient once you learn it, but would it be so bad to have options for a learning mode? Sure it might be less efficient working with menus rather than confusing and obscure hotkeys, but it would allow learners to find out what the program offers and learn the hotkeys for the menu functions as they need them. If you have problems using Blender and want something easy and free, check out Wings 3D... its free, cross platform, has lots of good support on its forums and is a true pleasure to use. Its not nearly as powerful as Blender, but then I didn't need to sit down and work for two years to learn it. Nor did I have to throw out everything I have ever come to expect from how programs work. (I actually had a response to questions about the Blender interface answered with "After two years of working with it you will really begin to understand the program and respect it." Sorry, I don't have two years.

Pretty powerful toolset for a free application. Interface not very Mac-like due to the open source, cross platform nature of the program. As a result fairly steep learning curve / difficult to find common 3D tool types. Reminds me of Z-Brush in the way that any view can be displayed in any panel, etc. I also find Z-Brush to be less than intuitive because of its quirky interface, ICYW. : )

I still cant believe this app is free. I'm a total noob at modelling (just started a week or so ago) and I've made some ok renders. If you're confused with it at first keep at it! The learning curve is VERY steep but in the long run it is definately worth your time.

Art of Illusion (a java app for OS X, Linux and Windows) is easier to use.

In professional 3D animation, it is often neccessary to be able to have a "universal man" and make him fatter or skinnier, taller or shorter, etc... that an animation with many characters might be able to be done in a year or two rather than ten. You can try the same kind of thing with Blender with the "Make Human" tool that has a pre-alpha 2.0 release for Windows and Mac available at http://projects.blender.org/frs/?group_id=16

According to http://www.blender.org/ , blender 2.35a still has a number of bug reports and other issues being reported, that 2.36 is planning to add no new features, but rather fix everything they've heard is working incorrectly. blender 2.36 "may" be out as early as next week. (-=` **Heres the candidate change list** ("release candidates" means they'll aim to fix all mentioned, hopefully all the right people needed will be present and kindly do the detective code work.. aka.. debugging) 2.36 release candidates - Critical bug! Deformed mesh didnt give correct 'orco' (original texture coordinates) anymore on render, - 3D Window: using SHIFT + hotkeys to set layers in Layer menu (MKEY) only accepted last hotkey with using "OK" button. - 3D Window: the "Render this view" option (OpenGL preview render) sometimes crashed in shaded mode and/or with Armatures. - IpoWindow (animation curves); NKEY panel "XMin" and "Xmax" buttons didn't work proper on large changes (>100 frames). Mesh editmode: - "Separate loose parts", crash on empty mesh (with no verts) - ALT+B loop select could go haywire on certain cases - Hide/Reveil damaged FGon flags - Oops Window (not Outliner) didn't show Lamp textures nor Material Ipos - correctly - Tools: Join Meshes (CTRL+J) now accepts Vertex Groups to be joined properly - EditMode undo: converting Curve to Mesh, entering editmode, and invoke an "undo" crashed. - Global undo; buttons sending redraw events gave extra undo push called "Make single user or local". - Global undo: crash solved in large changes of Lattice resolution button. - Added several undo pushes where it was missing - MetaBalls: using particles to duplicate Metas caused crash on adding new Meta Object - Curve Deform, Windows only, deformation was flat (2D) in default settings - Appending data from other files accidentally cleared current Scene ScriptLinks - Appending data in PoseMode crashed Blender Render: - solved several cases of unitialized variables, causing black scanlines or other render errors. Windows only. - with multipe 3D windows in a Screen, with one having its own layers "unlocked" and set different, caused wrong render results. Now it only renders Local View or local layer settings with F12 hotkey and mouse in the specific window. - Invoking render in Mesh EditMode gave wrong texture coordinates on Subdivision Surface - Transparent raytracing didn't make specular transparent - Crash fix on render cyclic Nurbs Surface with Cube mapping - Sun Solaris: error in refreshing buttons in frontbuffer (on highlight) has been defined to be a bug in Sun OpenGL. Is reported, Sun engineers work on it. Game engine: - fix for stereo window creation in Unix X11 - fix for forces with new timing system - fix for using Python delattr() or 'del Obj.Attr' - Alpha sort now works for linked (ALT+D) objects - uses Polytope collision now for faster mesh intersection tests - Mouse over sensor does work now for ortho cameras. Yafray: - Crash fix caused by improper check if plugin was loaded - Closed Nurbs surface crashed on render - Added nearly full support for Blender's procedural textures, with the exception of 'envmap', 'magic', and 'plugin' modes. The stucci texture also is not exact match, since it cannot be fully emulated in yafray because of implementation issues. It will work best for low turbulence values - Import: DXF Polyline import fix, for Cinema4D files (among others). - UI: Option to switch left/right mouse didn't work for floating panels. It then still selected stuff behind the button. - UI: Added code to disable "Emulate 3 button mouse" when "Left mouse select" option is chosen. This can't work together unfortunately... because of 1 button mouse owners. - Python: - crash fixed with Meshes having edge data - crash fixed with unlinking Text block being in use by ScriptLink - OSX: crash solved for using audio in Engine. NEW: - Fixed selection of Objects in Solid draw mode. Selection was just always not what you wanted, the rules for wireframe (cycling) can't be used then. New rule is; - it always selects the frontmost visible item (wires too), unless: - frontmost is active/selected already, then it picks the 2nd - mouse didnt move 2 pixels while selecting, then it starts cycling - Mesh EditMode: Removed co-planar restriction for creating FGons. These now can span an entire tube. - AO render; "Use sky" or "Use tex" now also take option "Use distances" into account, so you can control shades of AO better. - Render: static animated particle systems now allow to be animated with Material and Texture ipos. Only shows in render. - Render: Material option "Ztransp" now can be reflected in raytraced mirror. - Render: Unified Render now supports Gaussian filter sampling - Global undo: using number buttons gives better Undo push names (check ALT+U menu) - Game engine: Objects without texture faces now render in their assigned Material colors, and with lighted faces. This shows with ALT+Z textured view mode too. - Added more cases to update "Shaded View" on changes with buttons or tools. - Lasso Select now works in UV FaceSelect and Edit Mode Curve, Surface, Lattice. Missing still: MBall and Armature Edit Mode. ------- long list ain't it? Well, 2.35 was a huge feature update, it only makes sense that many little bugs now need to be squashed.

blender 2.35a is the current version as I write this. It is available at http://www.blender3d.org/. There were significant changes from 2.34 to 2.35, so much so, that there was problems getting them all to work smoothly. 2.35a was released a few days after 2.35, fixing the glitches in all the new available features. Remember these days, blender most certainly has global undo feature, as well as internal ability to work with Yafray .7, so you don't need to open up a new application for the ray tracing software. As well, Make Human 2.0 pre-alpha is linked through http://www.blender.org/ . This program allows the professional ability to make a human and modify their features, just as professionals need to in 3D animation. Remember it is "pre-alpha" though. blender 2.35a does want a bit more processor is some things, like it's photo viewer. This new version however is impressive in it's massive functionality... and so you might consider buying the 2.3 blender manual and 2.3 blender game manual(bn.com walmart.com amazon.com) to get about 1500 pages of not-so-light reading out of the way. As always, blender has maintained a very small size, which is amazingly impressive when considering it's power now. The only feature that seem to be missing to me from the 2.35a version for osx is the import/export functionality of Cinema4D, Maya, and 3DSmax. I have requested that these features be added, but was told that the right person needs to contribute to the programming in order for these import/export specifics to come to be. Why should I buy a book about 2.3 when 2.35a is supposed to be so different? Because 2.35a has all the same functionality 2.3 did and a whole lot more. If you get books on it, you'll learn how to effectively use the program, rather then just playing with the program, as well as learn 3D animation principles that are important to all 3D animation applications. ~good luck to you all, and happy rendering~ by the way, don't forget links like http://www.gimp.org/ (photoshop clone through x11) and http://www.openoffice.org/ (ms office clone through x11) and http://www.wings3d.com/ (not as powerful as blender, but much easier to learn) and http://kde.opendarwin.org/ (kde native osx project, pre-alpha)

I added this as a comment to the review below, but I thought it was interesting enough to be shown here as well: Did you read the release logs? As of this version, Blender DOES have a full undo system ;-) http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Blender_2_35.482.0.html

It is VERY full-featured, and like most high-end 3D apps, it *does* have a very steep learning curve. However, it will NEVER be part of my set of 3D tools untill they add UNDO. I mean, HELLOOOOOO, what's the point of having a particle system, and lots of high-end functionality, while some of the *BASICS* gets totally neglected?!!

w00t global undo!!! This program is like vi. Powerful, but the key bindings are a bugger. Get yourself a good cheat sheet and an afternoon to do some tutorials and it's not a problem getting used to it. Oh and you gotta have a 3 button mouse, no laptops allowed :-/

I was very looking forward to trying Blender after reading about it, and hearing about it for a long time. My initial feeling with Blender is that it's UI is a mess, i can barely read the buttons the font is so tiny. After that shock it seems almost impossible to get any serious modelling done. Other than crudely pulling vertices about with it's irritating 'sticky' edit mode I couldn't seem to get stuck into making anything at all. Compare that to Lightwave or Maya. It's surface editing is horrible thanks to the tiny buttons. There seems to be a bug where part of the pull down menu gets cut off too so you can't see the options sometimes. Hitting quit does not prompt you to save the file either. Blender appears to fall into the trap that a lot of open source software falls into, where developers turn their back on the accepted norms of UI design and don't look at how the commerical products implement their solutions. I never understood why open source has to mean 'not very good' , but until they can get to grips with the GUI, Blender is strictly a work in progress for diehard testers.

I am not new to 3D aplications (Maya, 3ds Max) and Blender is one of my all time favorites. I have been using them all for about 5 years now and there isn't much blender can't do that the other $4k plus progams can. If free is good for you and you want quality then blender is the way to go. And for the guy who couldn't make 1 box on top of the other. Move your mouse of the grit - hit space bar - pic mesh, then cube. Do that again, then hit G for Grab, move it where you want. R is for rotate. S is for scale. Tab is for edit. Right click for select. NOT TO TOUGH!

I've been using blender since version 2.0 (was free but not opensource in those days). The number of features for a free software is impressive; Unlike other reviewers, I think Blender UI is good, even if it became more complex as the number of feature increased. I mean of course, you can't launch a 3D software for the first time and hope you'll be able to learn it just using it. I bought the manual (former version of the current one) which is really helpful. Anyway, I guess an evoluated 3D software is just too complex to be intuitive. Yet, there are simpler interfaces than the one of Blender. On the other hand, when you get used to the interface (one hand on the keyboard, the other on the mouse"), you become very efficient, and that is what we want from a "professionnal" tool.

Great feature set. However, you get into trouble trying to access these. Like most 3D software the UI is hardly bearable and is in most cases counter intuitive. In all other cases it is unusable, because it offers you to do something and produces different things when selected. Wierd to say the least. An example: Any ill logical use of drag and click and scroll with selected and deselected objects produces unpredictable movement of camera, grid orientation, view and size. Since these are the basic tools for any 3D app their function and usage represent a basic means for the usefullness of the entire featureset usually. What can I say but that it fails in every aspect. The use of view settings, mouse interaction and orientation of all aspects of object views have to be obvious, easy, in accordance to the basic principles of 3D object handling in the real world and be represented by obvious visual feedback. This app neglects all this. So the access to the promising looking features is wierd, ill logical, blocked, hidden or impossible. That is a pity. I used a dozen or so 3D apps for manufacturing STL objects and must say I had hoped for something that would be at least a usable viewer on the Mac platform. It is not. Sorry.

I am NOT new to 3D animation (http://homepage.mac.com/gmadigan), and this is without a doubt the World's Worst Interface! They even admit it and attempt to justify it by saying that this was originally an in-house application. Regardless of its origins, I spent 2 hours trying to put 1 cube on top of another. I was unable to do it. What good is a mountain of features if you can't get to the mountain? This ap is NOT for public use, but only for those that have played with Blender since the v0.0.1 days and have a grasp of their counter-intuitive user interface. I think I could have placed 2 cubes together much easier and faster using Unix coding while drunk.

Essential to reduce colours to thousands (otherwise crashes at startup). This 3D package might have it all, but it lacks a Mac interface and with that ease of use. Don't use this if you're new to 3D...

Lower your screen depth to "thousands of colors" to avoid the crash on startup bug.

It crashes on startup :(

Anyone know if there are any plans to allow you to get a vector path from Illustrator into Blender using ANY export / import combination?

This is great 3D software that is just getting better!

Whoot!!! yes raytracing thank you ton and all the developers!!! this is one great 3d app!!