After several months of development, version 2.80 of Blender has arrived, This version is highly anticipated by the community and brings important changes to the software. The gray interface of version 2.79 gives way to a darker, simpler and classier interface. In fact, the software has a dark theme and now has new (more modern) icons. But that doesn't stop there, because there were also interface changes.
For those who still they are unaware of Blender, they should know that this is a multiplatform program, dedicated especially to modeling, lighting, rendering, animation and creation of graphics three-dimensional. Also of digital composition using the procedural technique of nodes, video editing, sculpture (includes dynamic topology) and digital painting.
In Blender, in addition, video games can be developed since it has an internal game engine. The program was initially distributed free of charge, but without the source code, with a manual available for sale, although it later became free software.
Currently it is compatible with all versions of Windows, Mac OS X, GNU / Linux (Including Android), Solaris, FreeBSD and IRIX
Main news in Blender 2.80
As we mentioned, the interface received changes from which we can find that the shortcuts have been modified so that the most used tools are more accessible.
The left mouse button is used to select. Therefore, Blender can be easily used with the touchpad or with a stylus. Cambien has access to a redesigned context menu and favorites menu to store your favorite commands.
Blender 2.80 offers templates that cover generic cases (3D modeling, animation ...), specific cases for 2D animation, sculpture, visual effects or even video editing.
This new version comes with a new rendering engine called Eevee. It is an engine based on physical representation that has the particularity of managing both the visualization of the scene in the editor and the representation of the scene for the final product.
As expected, Eevee handles reflections and refractions in screen space, volumes, subsurface scattering, soft and contact shadows, depth of field, camera blur… In short, you have an experience: what you see is what you get.
The rendering model of the materials used in Blender is the same as that of most video game engines.
Therefore, you will not be disappointed when importing your models. Additionally, materials created in Eevee are created by reusing Cycles nodes (the lightning casting engine). So you can use Eevee as a preview of your Cycles scene.
The 2D animation tool (Grease Pencil) is now a complete drawing and animation systemn. Objects produced with Grease Pencil are natively integrated into Blender, allowing you to reuse the other functions of the software to manipulate them.
Of the other changes that can be highlighted we can find:
- Workspaces accessible through tabs. So you can have your space for modeling, another for sculpture, etc.
- A status bar with statistics about the scene
- Menus that appear as needed (popover). Just hold down the mouse button to see it appear;
- The scene can be optimally displayed for the current job
- New gadgets have been created.
- Editing multiple objects
- Text enhancement
- GlTF, WebM, COLLADA, Alembic support
The Cycles rendering engine also has new features:
- Cryptocurrency
- BSDF Hair
- Volume shading
- the random dispersion of the subsoil of the walk;
- CPU, GPU, OpenCL and CUDA performance improvements.
Download and install Blender 2.80
Installation of Blender 2.80 They can do it quite simply, just have the support to install the Snap packages on your distro.
And you just have to open a terminal to run the following command:
sudo snap install blender --classic
If you don't have to resort to downloading the application directly from your website the link is this.