Software » Animation 3D » Blender 2.90.1

Blender 2.90

Building on the success of the 2.8x series, Blender 2.90 continues to polish the user experience, introducing improvements to EEVEE, Cycles, sculpt, VR, animation, modeling, UV editing and so much more.

Released August 31st, 2020
THE SKY IS NOT THE LIMIT

Meet Nishita, a physically based texture built-in Cycles.

Animated Sky
Node Settings
Download this file and play!

GET IN MOTION

Motion blur in EEVEE has been completely rewritten from scratch, adding support for mesh deformation, hair, and sub-frame accumulation for better precision.

FASTER MOTION BLUR

Intel Embree is now used for ray tracing on the CPU. This significantly improves Cycles performance in scenes with motion blur.

Scenes with high geometric complexity also benefit on average.
Cycles Intel Embree

DENOISE EVERYWHERE

Blender 2.81 introduced Intel OpenImageDenoise in the compositor, in 2.90 you can use this denoiser interactively in the 3D viewport as well as for final renders.

Simply select OpenImageDenoise from the new Denoising panel.

It Won’t
Be Back
The new shadow terminator offset setting helps you to avoid shading artifacts with smooth normals on low-poly meshes.

Farewell blotchy shading!

RENDER MORE

NVIDIA RTX It's On
NVLink support for CUDA and OptiX. When enabled in the Cycles device preferences, GPUs connected with an NVLink bridge will share memory to support rendering bigger scenes.
OptiX is now available on all NVIDIA GPUs that support it, which is Maxwell or higher (GeForce 700, 800, 900, 1000 series).
MULTIRESOLUTION

It is now possible to select the subdivision level to sculpt on and switch between levels, with displacement information smoothly propagated between them.

UNSUBDIVIDE & REBUILD
The Multires Modifier can now rebuild lower subdivisions levels and extract its displacement. This can be used to import models from any subdivision based sculting software and rebuild all subdivisions levels to be editable inside the modifier. Read more.

Unsubdivide different meshes with triangles, ngons and non-manifold geometry.
All subdivision modes available in Multires
All subdivision modes available in Multires.
SUBDIVISION MODES
Multires can now create smooth, linear and simple subdivisions. This means that any subdivision type can be created at any time without changing the subdivision type of the modifier. Read more.

CLOTH FILTER

Simulate cloth on your mesh using four types of simulation.

Use Face Sets to limit the simulations.

BETTER POSE BRUSH

Next to Rotate/Twist, two new deformation modes were added to the pose brush!

SCALE /TRANSLATE

Quickly scale or translate your model without leaving Sculpt mode.

SQUASH & STRETCH

Scale the mesh while preserving volume or a Squash or Stretch effect.

THERE’S MORE
Topology Slide/Relax
The Topology Slide/Relax mode now has two more deformation modes for Slide: Pinch and Expand.

Clay Strips
Clay strips now has more predictable pressure/size and pressure/strength curves. Its deformation algorithm was modified to prevent geometry artifacts in large deformations.

Automasking
The Automasking system was redesigned, so brush will not have and start delay when automasking options are enabled in a high poly mesh.

Pen Pressure
Pen pressure modulation is now supported for the hardness property. The modulation can be inverted for achieving higher hardness with lower pressure.

Boundary
Now mesh boundaries are properly detected by the automasking system in both meshes and Multires levels. This means that the smooth brush does not longer automasks boundary vertices by default and its meshes and multires behavior now matches.

Face Set FK mode
The Pose Brush now has a Face Set FK mode, which deforms the mesh using the Face Sets to simulate an FK rig.

STEP UP YOUR MODELS

EXTRUDE MANIFOLD

This smart new tool automatically splits and removes adjacent faces when extruding inwards.

EDGE & VERTEX SLIDE SNAP

All the snapping options are now available while using edge or vertex slide!
BEVEL IMPROVEMENTS

Custom Profile Bezier Curves
The custom profile for the bevel modifier and tool now supports bezier curve handle types.

New Absolute Mode
The bevel tool and modifier have a new ‘Absolute’ mode for interpreting the ‘amount’ value. This mode is like Percent, but measures absolute distance along adjacent edges instead of a percentage.

Better Material/UV Split
The bevel tool and modifier use a new method to decide which material and UV values to use for the center polygons in odd-segment bevels. It should give more consistency in different parts of the model compared to the seemingly random choice made up til now.

EVEN MORE
Merge By Distance, Rip, Delete, Dissolve, Connect Path, Knife and Tris To Quads now correctly preserve custom normal vectors
Snap support for the Ruler tool
Snap to the intersection between constraint and geometry
OCEAN SPRAY

The ocean modifier now generates maps for spray direction!

Read more

BETTER UV

Automatically adjust UV and Vertex Colors while editing your mesh.

Find the new Correct Face Attributes and Keep Connected under the Options popover.
Pick Shortest Path
Pick Shortest Path: Fill Region
UV Rip
Hold down Ctrl and select UV components with left mouse to select the shortest path between the UV components.
OPENVDB FLUIDS

Smoke and liquids data will now be cached into a single .vdb cache file per frame. Read more.

CLOTH PRESSURE GRADIENT

Apply a pressure gradient emulating the weight of contained or surrounding fluid.

Read more

LOOKING GOOD

Blender 2.90 continues to refine the user interface principles established in 2.8x

NEW SEARCH
Ever wondered in which menu to find a certain operator? Wonder no more! The new search menu shows you that and more:

See the menu and its hotkey
Add the operator to Quick Favorites
Easily assign a new shortcut
Link to the Manual and Python API reference
EASY READING
Columns now feature headings! Combined with left-aligned checkboxes resulting in a more readable layout that takes even less space.

UI Checkboxes Alignment
Checkboxes can be aligned inline with labels and other widgets for a more compact layout.
MODIFIERS REDONE
Modifiers and other stacks now support drag and drop for reordering. Their layouts were completely rewritten to make use of subpanels and the current user interface guidelines.

Shift+D to Duplicate
Ctrl+A to Apply Modifier
X to Delete
A to toggle open/collapse panel
New Move to First and Move to Last buttons
This change also applies to Grease Pencil modifiers, visual effects, object and bone constraints.

STATS YOU WANT
Statistics 3D Viewport
Scene statistics are now available as an overlay in the 3D Viewport!

Statistics Status Bar
Customize the status bar to toggle individual stats, including the new Video Memory details.

MUCHO MORE
Auto-scroll view when dragging Outliner elements
Dragging panels now auto-scrolls the view
Support for bold and italics style fonts
New Instance Empty Size preference
Support for A-Z accelerator keys in pie menus
Extended Mac Alias usage
Local undo/redo support for Text fields
Updated operators interface for consistency
New Outliner Delete Hierarchy
Better grouping of Audio settings
Easier to resize areas
Support for Windows Shell Links
Search Operators (for developers)
NUKE DISTORTION

1. Original Plate
2. Undistorted
3. Composite
4. Distortion Re-applied

This new lens distortion model allows you to solve motion in Blender and do compositing in Nuke or Natron.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE
Initial Wayland Support
Frame Interpolation Speed Effect
Add-ons Improvements
Nuke Lens Distortion Model
Convert Mesh to Grease Pencil
Save as Shapekey
Ray Length for Baking
Data Duplication Improvements
Ocean Modifier Spray Direction Maps
Pass Depsgraph to Drivers
Apply Modifiers as Shape Keys in Linked Duplicates
Library Overrides Overhaul
About Dialogue
Shader Nodes Socket Improvements
VR Landmarks Improvements
Better Data Duplication
Proper Negative Scale Interpolation
Improved Drivers Functions

Photorealistic Rendering
Blender now features a powerful new unbiased rendering engine called Cycles that offers stunning ultra-realistic rendering.

The built-in Cycles rendering engine offers:

GPU & CPU rendering
Realtime viewport preview
HDR lighting support
Permissive License for linking with external software
Rendering in Blender with Cycles
Modeling in Blender
Fast Modeling
Blender’s comprehensive array of modeling tools make creating, transforming and editing your models a breeze.

Blender’s modeling tools include:

Keyboard shortcuts for a fast workflow
N-Gon support
Edge slide, collapse and dissolve
Grid and Bridge fill
Python scripting for custom tools and add-ons
Realistic Materials
With Blender’s new rendering engine the possibilities for materials are endless.

Key features are:

Complete Node Support for full customization
Physically accurate shaders like glass, translucency and SSS
Open Shading Language (OSL) support for coding unique shaders
Materials in Blender
Rigging in Blender
Fast Rigging
Transforming a model into a posable character has never been easier!

Blender offers an impressive set of rigging tools including:

Envelope, skeleton and automatic skinning
Easy weight painting
Mirror functionality
Bone layers and colored groups for organization
B-spline interpolated bones
Animation toolset
Whether it’s simple keyframing or complex walk-cycles, Blender allows artists to turn their still characters into impressive animations.

Blender’s animation feature set offers:

Automated walk-cycles along paths
Character animation pose editor
Non Linear Animation (NLA) for independent movements
IK forward/inverse kinematics for fast poses
Sound synchronization
rigging
Sculpting in Blender
Sculpting
Experience the joy of sculpting organic subjects using the built-in sculpting feature set of Blender.

Sculpting in Blender includes:

20 different brush types
Multi-res sculpting support
Dynamic Topology sculpting
Mirrored sculpting
Fast UV Unwrapping
Easily unwrap your mesh right inside Blender, and use image textures or paint your own directly onto the model.

Blender allows for:

Fast Cube, Cylinder, Sphere and Camera projections
Conformal and Angle Based unwrapping (with edge seams and vertex pinning)
Painting directly onto the mesh
Multiple UV layers
UV layout image exporting
UV Unwrapping in Blender
Compositing in Blender
Full Compositor
Blender comes with a fully fledged compositor built right in. That means no more exporting to third party programs, you can do it all without leaving the program.

The compositor comes with:

Impressive library of nodes for creating camera fx, color grading, vignettes and much more
Render-layer support
Full compositing with images and video files
Ability to render to multiLayer OpenEXR files
Multi-threaded
Amazing Simulations
Whether you need a crumbling building, rain, fire, smoke, fluid, cloth or full on destruction, Blender delivers great looking results.

Blender’s simulation tools include

Fluid – Realistic water and fluid simulations.
Smoke – Billowing smoke with flames and scene interaction.
Hair – Beautiful wafts of hair that blows in the wind and interacts with collisions.
Cloth – Amazingly realistic cloth simulations for clothing and environments
Rigid Body Physics – Makes any object destructable and collidable
Particles – For creating things like rain, sparks and shrapnel
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Blender Game Engine Screenshot
Game Creation
Included in Blender is a complete game engine, allowing you to create a fully featured 3d game right inside Blender.

The game engine includes:

Ability to port your models to any third-party game engine
Create or code your own game logic
Full Bullet Physics integration
Python scripting API for advanced control and AI
Support for all OpenGLTM dynamic lighting, toon shading, animated materials as well as Normal and Parallax Mapping
Playback of games inside Blender without compiling or preprocessing
3D spatial audio using OpenAL
Camera and Object tracking
Blender now includes production ready camera and object tracking. Allowing you to import raw footage, track the footage, mask areas and see the camera movements live in your 3d scene. Eliminating the need to switch between programs.

The Camera and Object Tracker includes:

Auto and manual tracking
Powerful camera reconstruction
Real-time preview of your tracked footage and 3d scene
Support for Planar tracking and Tripod solvers
Camera tracking in Blender
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Library of Extensions
With a large community of enthusiasts and developers, Blender comes loaded with a vast array of extensions that you can turn on or off easily.

Some existing extensions include:

Generators for trees, terrain, ivy and clouds.
Fracture Objects.
3D Printing Toolbox.
Rigify meta-rigging system.
Import and Export format support for AfterEffects, DirectX, Unreal Game Engine and more!
Plus many more that you can download here

Video Editing
Blender even comes with a built-in Video Editor.

The Video Editor allows you to perform basic actions like video cuts and splicing, as well as more complex tasks like video masking.

The Video Editor includes:

Live preview, luma waveform, chroma vectorscope and histogram displays
Audio mixing, syncing, scrubbing and waveform visualization
Up to 32 slots for adding video, images, audio, scenes, masks and effects
Speed control, adjustment layers, transitions, keyframes, filters and more.
caminandes_edit_final
Exporting in Blender
File Formats
Blender comes packed with import/export support for many different programs.

Including:

Image
JPEG, JPEG2000, PNG, TARGA, OpenEXR, DPX, Cineon, Radiance HDR, SGI Iris, TIFF
Video
AVI, MPEG and Quicktime (on OSX).
3D
Alembic, 3D Studio (3DS), COLLADA (DAE), Filmbox (FBX), Autodesk (DXF), Wavefront (OBJ), DirectX (x), Lightwave (LWO), Motion Capture (BVH), SVG, Stanford PLY, STL, VRML, VRML97, X3D.
Flexible Interface
Novice and advanced users will love the ability to customize their layout completely. From simply splitting their viewport, to fully customizing it with python scripting, blender works for you.

Blender’s interface also offers:

Consistency across all platforms
No disruptive pop-up windows
Crisp text (support for retina on OSX)