Blender 2.5 announced to be released in October 2009
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 On August 3 at Siggraph 2009 the Blender Foundation, the organization behind the free and open source 3D creation suite Blender, unveiled the result of the Blender 2.5 project, a fully customizable interface layout system, with advanced access to
all tools and options Blender offers.
During an almost two year process of design, review, and artist feedback, the Blender team
has implemented a new core architecture for Blender. The key changes involve a high level
of configurability of the interface and the ways tools are used, and a further elaboration of
the original non-overlapping and non-blocking parallel working UI system.
All of the
interface elements in Blender are now defined using a scriptable layout engine, with scripted
access to all of the data Blender provides. Keyboard layouts for hot keys and user input can be changed on the fly, including definition of macros, and reapplying tools with adjusted settings.
Blender 2.50 also provides a upgraded animation system. Now every setting and option can
be animated via function curves, higher level actions, the non-linear animation mixer, or
scripting.
Blender Foundation is also preparing the third Open Movie project, "Durian", which will
explore epic action content in 4k digital cinema. Six artists and two developers will work in
the studio of Blender Institute, for a period of 6-8 months. A key goal of Durian is to ensure
that Blender 2.5 series is production ready.
The first of the official 2.5 versions will be released in October, during the 8th annual
Blender Conference in Amsterdam. The Blender team plans to give regular updates, with
the 2.5 project to be completed with the Durian film premiere in 2nd quarter 2010.
Links:
Blender 2.5 press release
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