Blender 4 Isn't Here

But here's everything new it's going to have

The Blend.

Become a better Blender artist in 5 minutes each week.

By Samuel Sullins

The Blend

Blender 4.0 is coming out this November.

If you read last week’s Blend, you know how to get the beta version before it’s officially released.

That’s cool, of course.

But what can it actually do?

*note: this post include a VIDEO!

Today’s Technique

There’s a lot of tiny but useful features in Blender 4.

Here’s the highlights:

  • Loops (repeat blocks) in Geometry Nodes

  • When you press Shift + A to add something you can just start typing to search the menu

  • They changed the font

  • The Snapping menu gives “Align rotation to target” for all types of snapping

  • The new color management, AgX, does bright emissive lights more realistically than the current setup (Filmic)

  • You can navigate the viewport while moving, rotating, or scaling objects—as long as you hold down Alt

  • The Voronoi texture has been granted 3 new controls for adding multiple layers of noise

  • There’s a new “save incremental” you can use to save multiple versions of a project as you work on it

  • Node tools lets you build your own Edit Mode tools with Geometry Nodes

  • And my personal favorite: the Add Modifier menu has been organized like a normal menu.

I would write a huge detailed explanation of all this, but it’d take all night. If you’re curious for details, here’s a brand-new video where I show how to use all these features (and a few more cool ones).

I labeled the different sections so you can just skip to the parts you like.

Really Random Render

Today you get another Jona Dinges piece.

An entire creepy seer guy done in low poly. The most impressive part is that Jona actually made cloth.

The cloth alone is very impressive.

My favorite thing about this render is the detail. It’s all clearly low poly, but the raven, necklace, and stick add a lot of character while staying simple.

The red rim lighting is also a great touch. It reinforces our impression that this guy is up to no good.

Samuel’s Selections

  • Blender Studios is starting concept & development for for the next Blender Open Movie, Project Gold

  • This video explains node tools really well

  • CG Geek shows a simple way to model grass

Can't think what to blend?

That’s a bummer. You should think harder. See if there’s any inspiration in your garage or something. I don’t want to think of anything for you.

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