Blender description
Open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering which also features a game engine

Blender is an open source software for 3D modeling, rendering, animation, post-production, interactive creation and playback. Available for Windows, Linux, Irix, Sun Solaris, FreeBSD or Mac OS X.

Modeling
· A range of 3D object types including polygon meshes, NURBS surfaces, bezier and B-spline curves, metaballs, vector fonts (TrueType, PostScript, OpenType)
· 'Smooth proxy' style catmull-clark subdivision surfaces
· Boolean mesh functions
· Editing functions such as extrude, bevel, cut, spin, screw, warp, subdivide, noise, smooth Soft selection editing tools for organic modeling
· Python scripting access for custom tools

Animation
· Armature (skeleton) deformation with forward/inverse kinematics, auto skinning and interactive 3D paint for vertex weighting
· Non-linear animation mixer with automated walkcycles along paths
· Constraint system
· Vertex key framing for morphing, with controlling sliders
· Character animation pose editor
· Animatable lattice deformation
· 'Ipo' system integrates both motion curve and traditional key-frame editing
· Audio playback, mixing and editing support for sound synchronisation
· Python scripting access for custom and procedural animation effects

Realtime 3D/game creation
· Graphical editor for defining interactive behavior without programming
· Collision detection and dynamics simulation
· Python scripting API for sophisticated control and AI, fully defined advanced game logic
· Supports all OpenGL lighting modes, including transparencies, Animated and reflection-mapped textures
· Playback of games and interactive 3D content without compiling or preprocessing
· Audio, using the fmod toolkit
· Multi-layering of Scenes for overlay interfaces

Rendering
· Very fast inbuilt raytracer
· Integral support for the famous Yafray render engine
· Oversampling, motion blur, post-production effects, fields, non-square pixels
· Environment maps, halos, lens flares, fog
· Various surface shaders such as Lambert, Phong, Oren-nayar, Blinn, Toon
· Edge rendering for toon shading
· Procedural Textures
· Ambient Occlusion
· Radiosity solver
· Export scripts available for external renderers such as Renderman (RIB), Povray, Virtualight
· UV texture editor with various mesh unwrap modes

Interface
· Flexible user configurable window layout
· Powerful object-oriented data system
· Anti-aliased fonts with international translation support
· Windows for animation curves/keys, schematic scene diagram, non-linear video sequence editing, character animation action editor, non-linear animation mixer, image/UV editing, file/image selection and file management
· Inbuilt text editor for annotations and editing Python scripts
· Consistent interface across multiple platforms

Files
· Save all scene data in a single .blend file
· .blend format supports compression, digital signatures, encryption, forwards/backwards compatibility and can be used as a library to link to from other .blend files
· Read / Write TGA, JPG, PNG, Iris, SGI Movie, IFF, AVI and Quicktime GIF, TIFF, PSD, MOV (Windows and Mac OS X)
· Native import and export for DXF, Inventor and VRML files, with python scripts available for many other 3D formats
· Create stand-alone executables containing interactive 3D content or play back with the 3d web browser plugin