September 10th, 2026 General Development Enabling individuals and small teams to create with free and open source technology has always been at the core of Blender’s mission. As the software has evolved, generalist users have been able to single-handedly complete incredible projects. When it comes to teamwork, however, meaningful improvements can still be made to productivity and collaboration. To address this properly, we want to rally everyone around a shared goal for the project: For the next two years, we want to focus on making Blender the tool that enables small independent studios to work on long-form projects, such as an animated feature film. Strategic Targets Blender has such a vast toolset that supporting a complete film pipeline has always been at its core. From the initial story beats and editorial, the asset creation pipeline, character animation, all the way to final rendering and compositing. This is one of Blender’s strongest assets, but it does come with the challenge of picking the most impactful projects to prioritize. Here is an initial list of projects we would like to focus on, which includes both wrapping up work that has been going for a while and introducing brand new features. This list comes from the experience of 20 years of Open Movies and from the work of the Blender Studio that gives us insight into the process of filmmaking. It also reflects conversations we’ve had with other studios to find the course of action that can make a real difference for long-form content creation. The initial list is up to further refinement: we are looking forward to hearing from more Blender-centric studios on priorities and other challenges we haven’t addressed . Dynamic Overrides This feature set aims at providing a simple and efficient way to override property values of any data-block, linked or local. It’s been worked on for several years , but still needs focus, rigorous testing, and more design to become a truly accessible feature. The Toil of Animation It is no secret that animation is an extremely laborious and time-consuming process. Many tools can be introduced to improve the animators’ workflow, allowing for quick iterations on creative choices. Example projects: Better, more powerful filtering tools for keys and curves Layered animations Better keys and curves editing Visualization tools: motion paths, onion skinning Rigging at Scale Building a more opinionated and complete rigging system will enable users with limited technical background to access rigging tools and build character setups that can deliver performances. This is the heart of the animation pipeline, and many tools, from easy meta-rig setup to advanced, modular, multi-character framework, are simply missing. Additionally, UI tools such as on-model gizmos or bone picker UIs could be investigated. Seamless Transitions from Board to Previs Editorial is at the center of the narrative content creation process. Blender’s VSE can act as a status tracking system across several stages of a project, from script breakdown and early beat boards, all the way to final delivery. Example projects: Story Tools Next: Board-to-Previs Edit as production tracking: visualize shot and sequence statuses, asset casting, inspired by Watchtower Collaborative Asset Creation The Blender Studio currently develops an Asset Pipeline add-on that allows artists to sync individual changes to the same asset file. We can already see the improvement it brings to collaborative workflows, but this concept still requires further refinement and robust implementation. Multiple artists working on the same character, especially facilitating round trips between modeling, rigging, and surfacing Shot management and assembly tools Polish, document and publish at large

Complexity Management This is a very broad topic, which covers many of the complex workflows and aspects of 3D content creation. The main challenge is to find a balance between providing deep and useful insights to artists about the data they are working with, and simple tools and interfaces that make them feel in complete control. Examples: Texture layers, painting, baking Lights, render passes spreadsheets Receiver-centric view on light linking Scene performance metrics File dependency / Dependency Graph visualization Structural Overview The Blender project is a complex structure with lots of layers of activities. Along with pursuing strategic goals, we allocate time to research, maintenance work in modules, and side quests: ongoing and potential projects that are not specific to the feature film target. Having a main goal doesn’t prevent those other projects from being worked on. But it should give focus to the project planning and community efforts. With the current team size and the current funding projections, it should be doable to have other projects running in parallel. But it would be a good exercise to look at this from the other perspective: Can we get more developers to collaborate together on the same tasks instead of chasing too many separate directions? This is also valid for community contributions: a clear picture will help to guide external contributions and to explain when no time can be dedicated to reviewing features not in the agenda. Beyond One Goal There are other goals aligning with the Blender mission that we consider important to explore next to the main strategic initiative. Just like side quests, they can become part of the agenda, as long as time and resources allow. Some of the potential goals that we consider: Blender adoption by game studios (from A to AAA, focusing on realtime asset creation tools, interoperability, etc.) Blender adoption in large-scale animation and VFX pipeline (interoperability, specialized workflows, etc.) Blender in the mechanical engineering industry (aerospace, automotive, industrial design in general) Blender Studio has been the force behind Blender’s content-driven development strategy for many years. From user testing and design validation to the main source of inspiration behind countless implemented features. Blender Studio is the archetype of the small independent team pursuing ambitious goals. The current ambitious goal of Blender Studio, the most ambitious one to date, is the feature film project OVERGROWN . The production will be made in Blender from start to finish, accompanied by dedicated documentation and tutorials that other filmmakers can apply to their own projects. The artist team will be working with daily builds of Blender, testing the tools while they are being developed. A challenge of this magnitude requires community support. There is an ongoing active campaign to make the Overgrown project a reality. We invite everyone to visit the project page, spread the word and help us shape the future of storytelling. OVERGROWN PROJECT PAGE Blender Foundation Blender Institute Logo & Trademark Code of Conduct Previous Versions Experimental Builds Tools & Pipeline One-time Donation