27 Inspiring Blender Animations That Will Make Your Jaw Drop
It's inspiration time! If you follow my Facebook page then you'll know that I like to post little snippets of inspiration that I find on the net. But it's not always created by Blender users. "Do you know any good animations created with Blender?"
It's a question that I get asked a lot, because let's face it: we all want to know if Blender has what it takes to compete with the big boys.
Well, I've been hanging out in the Blender community for the last 8 years and so I've encountered quite a lot of blender animatons. You'd be surprised at the quality of blender animations out there.
So in lieu of a tutorial this week, I've put together the ultimate blender inspiration post: A list of the most inspiring Blender Animations. Some of these you may have seen, some you haven't, but I hope that it can inspire you to get out there and create your own animation with Blender.
In no particular order, let's begin with...
1. Memory
Director Junichi Yamamoto won Best Short Film at the 2009 Suzanne Awards for this attention grabbing short film about a robot in a post apocolyptic world.
2. BMW 3 Promo
Mike Pan modelled, lit and rendered a BMW for this conceptial advertisement using Blender 2.5.
3. Transformation
Andre B used Blender and AutoCAD to demonstrate the beauty of mechanical transformation in this beautiful short film.
4. Mindfields
When Andy Goralczyk created this short film way back in 2003 it became a milestone achievement for Blender. Up until then animations produced with Blender were rather basic, but in just 5 minutes Andy demonstrated grass rendering, deserts, character animation and meteor explosions. Way to break the mold Andy!
5. Kajimba
Red Cartel (formerly known as Promotion Studios) created this animated film project aimed at the Adult comedy market. It gained lots of attention for the Sydney based studio, who then went on to create TV adverts for Bridgestone Tires.
6. Evolution
Alex Glawion won Best Design at the 2009 Suzanne Awards for this moving short film about evolution.
7. Old Key
A personal favourite of mine that showcases pposts, fluid simulation and very realistic rendering. The music alone is enough make me hit replay :)
8. Bounce to space
Pablo Vazquez somehow managed to give a bouncy ball personality in this humourous short film. He received a nomination for Best Character animation at the 2009 Suzanne Awards and later went on to work on Sintel.
9. Omega - Teaser Trailer
Andy Goralczyk used a unique combination of stop motion and CG, to pull us into this post apocolyptic world of robots and trash formations. Omega is still a work in progress, but you can follow the progress on his blog here.
10. Esign
Chris Larkee created this abstract animation way back in 2005, winning Best Design at the Suzanne Awards.
11. Overheated
David Ward created this hilarious spoof of Pixar's Cars about a grumpy car stuck in the sun.
12. The Cup
The students at Pepe-Shcool-Land created this hilarious short film in just three months using Blender. They received a well earned nomination for Best Short film at the recent 2010 Suzanne Awards.
13. Dikta - Goodbye
Miðstræti studio was contacted by the Icelandish band Dikta to create a music video for their popular song. The band gave complete artist license to the studio who pulled through to create a unique styled animation about a world made of paper.
14. Stop
Eoin Duffy won Best Design at the 2007 Suzanne Awards for this attention grabbing music video. It's a perfect example of why visuals aren't everything when it comes to creating a powerful video.
15. Chicken Chair
Bassam Kurdali created this iconic short film way back in 2003, and has stood the test of time with it's brilliant character animation.
16. Lighthouse
Red Cartel created this short film for American insurance firm Liberty Mutual as a series of online short film around the theme 'responsibility'. It is regarded by many as one of the finest Blender's animations to date.
17. Project London: Benny's Fuel and Repair
Project London is an independant, feature length, live action movie that uses blender for all it's VFX work. It's still a work in progress but you can follow their progress here.
18. Lista
Pawel Lyczkowski created this unique stop motion styled animation and won Best Short Film at the recent 2010 Suzanne Awards. Well deserved!
19. Suite Noire
Matray created this high impact opening for a TV show. Apparently the client deemed the intro "inappropriate" and it was never aired. I have no idea what the show was about but if I saw this intro I'd be hooked!
20. A Glimpse of Light
Alex Glawion created this super slick animation and received a nomination for Best Design at the 2009 Suzanne Awards. As with most of Alex's work, the music and visuals go hand in hand to create a beautiful work of art.
21. Tape-à-l'oeil
Jason-Sean Guillemette created this artist short film about the topic 'Cinema & Me'. The lighting, compositing and rendering are all top notch.
22. John el esquizofrénico Music Video
MoxStudios put an incredible amount of work into this catchy music video. It won Best Design at the 2010 Suzanne Awards.
23. Babioles Trailer
Matray composited this cute CG characted onto live backplates for the TV show pilot, Babioles.
24. Taste Lab
Chris Burton created this humourous short film about two rival professors in a race to create the ultimate drink. For his hard work, Chris received a nomination for Best Short film at the 2010 Suzanne Awards.
25. Klaas Vaak (TV intro)
Red Cartel created another amazing piece of work for the opening of the dutch TV show called Klaas Vaak (if you're easily scared don't watch past :32).
26. HapiLoli
Japanese artist Tomo, proves that anime styled animation is 100% possible using blender in this cute animation of a girl dancing. Be sure to check out his followup video: ルイズ／恋愛サーキュレーション
27. Death Grind
Endre Barath created this thought provoking short about the effect that television has on our minds. He received a nomination for Best Short Film at the 2009 Suzanne Awards.
Honourable Mentions
Some of these videos are more 'tests' than animations, but they are still powerful enough to deserve a mention.
- Japanese Camera Mapping by JuL J
- Blender car game test by Mike Pan
- Dynamic Paint + Indirect Lighting = Awesomeness by miikah
- Massive Blender fluid simulation by Mike Pan
That concludes this list of inspiring Blender animations! I deliberately left out Sintel, Big Buck Bunny and Elephants Dream as I wanted to focus on the lesser known independantly produced animations :)
Which animation was your favourite? Did I miss an animation? Write your comment below!