Blender Studio
  • Films
  • Training
  • Characters
  • Pipeline
  • Blog
  • Sign in
  • Join
  • BLENDER.ORG

    • Download

      Get the latest Blender, older versions, or experimental builds.

    • What's New

      Stay up-to-date with the new features in the latest Blender releases.

    LEARNING & RESOURCES

    • Blender Studio

      Access production assets and knowledge from the open movies.

    • Manual

      Documentation on the usage and features in Blender.

    DEVELOPMENT

    • Developers Blog

      Latest development updates, by Blender developers.

    • Documentation

      Guidelines, release notes and development docs.

    • Benchmark

      A platform to collect and share results of the Blender Benchmark.

    • Blender Conference

      The yearly event that brings the community together.

    DONATE

    • Development Fund

      Support core development with a monthly contribution.

    • One-time Donations

      Perform a single donation with more payment options available.

Films
Training
Blog
Pipeline and Tools
Characters
Search
Login
Join
19th Jan 2023 | Wing It!

Announcing "Pet Projects": a New Open Movie

Francesco Siddi
Francesco Siddi Producer
Report Problem

After devoting over one year of focus to the topic of realism with Charge, it’s now time to move in a new direction! Aiming at the holy grail of hyper-realism is not the only way to push the boundaries of what is possible with Blender. There are many more avenues to explore, many more workflows to cover. So what about a highly stylized, light-hearted animated episode?

Very early concept drawing by Rik and Vivien.
Very early concept drawing by Rik and Vivien.

This was the pitch presented to the Blender Studio team: let’s create something cartoony and serializable, so that the design language and animation style could be re-used consistently across multiple stories. This would be a good framework to go back to when the studio is in-between larger productions, and a useful foundation for artists to explore storytelling.

Concept art by Vivien.
Concept art by Vivien.

The first episode of Pet Projects is being directed by Rik Schutte, with art direction by Vivien Lulkowski, and story and editorial support by Hjalti Hjalmarsson, with the whole team at Blender Studio involved in the production.

Here is the idea: An uptight engineer gets an unwelcome visit from a enthusiastic wannabe-pilot, causing both of them to be launched into the air inside an out-of-control space shuttle. Or, as Ton mentioned once, "developers are cats, artists are dogs"!

Given the target size and pace of the project (around 2 minutes of duration, around 4 months production cycle), technical challenges will be limited, with more focus on workflows and documentation. Sharing production knowledge is one of the key goals of Blender Studio!

There is potential for more extensive Grease Pencil use. As a matter of fact, the team has already been using the Story Pencil add-on to board the first versions of the short!

A sneak peek at the storyboarding workflow by Rik.

After a couple of months of development, Pet Projects is currently in pre-production and the progress can be followed here on the Blender Studio website.

Early concepts by Rik.
Early concepts by Rik.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Francesco Siddi
Francesco Siddi Producer
Report Problem

Join to comment publicly.

17 comments

Rik Schutte
Rik Schutte Jan. 20th, 2023

second <3

Vivien Lulkowski
Vivien Lulkowski Jan. 19th, 2023

first

Jakub Steiner
Jakub Steiner Jan. 20th, 2023

Mean cats? I'm IN!

Al Sande
Al Sande Jan. 20th, 2023

Great news!  I always learn so much from the production lessons so it's good to hear there will be a focus on workflows and documentation in this one  - techniques I learned from previous films, especially Sprite Fright, have showed up in many of my projects since.  I'm particularly looking forward to learning new ways to integrate more grease pencil techniques into my 3d workflow...

Adam Earle
Adam Earle Jan. 20th, 2023

yep have to say that I am jealous of the people who are working on this one. I really do wish it was me.

Helge Maus
Helge Maus Jan. 20th, 2023

YES :-)

Matt Jordan
Matt Jordan Jan. 21st, 2023

So many great projects but this might be my favorite one yet. This is right down my alley.

shmuel lowenbraun
shmuel lowenbraun Jan. 22nd, 2023

nice!

yujiaxin
yujiaxin Jan. 22nd, 2023

adorable!

Pedro Chaves Martins
Pedro Chaves Martins Jan. 22nd, 2023

I liked it 😀

Michael Carella
Michael Carella Jan. 25th, 2023

This is going to be awesome, looks like it could have a 'Bad Guys' type of 2d/3d hybrid, would love to learn more about the process similiar to that. Either way, it'll be great.

Weston Jones
Weston Jones Jan. 25th, 2023

wow! beautiful as always. can't wait!

Leslie Solorzano
Leslie Solorzano Jan. 26th, 2023

Super exciting! I'll get my popcorn ready haha

Kreessan Exinor
Kreessan Exinor Jan. 28th, 2023

Super excited for this!!

Iván Rojo
Iván Rojo Jan. 29th, 2023

Awesome, I really like that style!!

Craig Wieland
Craig Wieland Feb. 4th, 2023

love it!

Larry James
Larry James March 18th, 2023

:-D

  • Films
  • Training
  • Blog
Pipeline and Tools
  • Cloud Rig
  • Blender Kitsu
  • Contact Sheet Add-on
  • Blender Purge
  • Blender Cloud Services
Characters
  • Cat
  • Dog
  • Chicken & Sets
  • Einar
Studio
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Remixing Music
  • blender.org

Blender Studio

The creators who share.

Facebook Logo Twitter Logo YouTube Logo
Loading...