The Blender Foundation releases Blender 2.67
The Blender Foundation has released Blender 2.67, incorporating the Freestyle non-photorealistic renderer into the open-source 3D package, and adding a new toolkit for exporting models for 3D printing.
NPR rendering with Freestyle
The headline news this time is the integration of Freestyle. Available as a standalone tool for some years, the renderer is capable of quite a range of results, from anime-style toon rendering to blueprints and diagrams.
As yet, there are still some limitations with the integration. (The online documentation notes that it it is only available for the Blender internal renderer, and does not work with the panoramic camera).
However, the release should still improve workflow, and help bring a useful tool to a wider audience.
Other new tools
Of the other new features, we wrote about the 3D printing toolset last month, so won’t cover it again here. The Cycles renderer gets a new subsurface scattering shader, and the 3D painting system has been updated, including a new stencil mapping mode. There are also updates to the motion tracking and compositing tools.
While many long-term users will already be familiar with Freestyle, Blender 2.67 is still a sizeable update, and all the more impressive given that, as ever, it comes just over two months after the previous release.
Read a full feature list for Blender 2.67