Assets Incoming

Recently Blender seems to be moving forward at break neck pace. It’s almost impossible to keep up with all the cool things that are coming out. Though that makes it difficult to make and update tutorials it also brings exciting new possibilities. The main talking points (at least in the circles I frequent) are Cycles X and the fields version of geometry nodes. Both of these are game changing for Blender. Faster rendering and the ability to make incredible scenes very quickly with little experience are major steps forward for the working scientist that is new to 3D but wants to improve the quality of their figures, graphics or animations.

But more than these features the one that I think is going to have the biggest impact for the newest members of the Blender scientific community is the asset browser. It’s a very simple concept but the idea that you could have all your scientific models, materials and more accessible with a simple drag and drop into the viewport is a huge deal. It will make basic workflows much faster and it opens the door for more experienced members of the community to help beginners get to scene building without having to go through the fuss of modeling. I have a number of free assets, not so much materials, though that will change going forward, and it’s taking some time to convert them all into usable assets and to iron out some of the wrinkles. Still, this is an important moment for the Blender scientific community and as always it’s great fun to be part of it.