{"id":3177,"date":"2023-09-21T16:44:50","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T16:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/machine-learning\/2023\/09\/21\/into-the-omniverse-blender-4-0-alpha-release-sets-stage-for-new-era-of-openusd-artistry\/"},"modified":"2023-09-21T16:44:50","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T16:44:50","slug":"into-the-omniverse-blender-4-0-alpha-release-sets-stage-for-new-era-of-openusd-artistry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/machine-learning\/2023\/09\/21\/into-the-omniverse-blender-4-0-alpha-release-sets-stage-for-new-era-of-openusd-artistry\/","title":{"rendered":"Into the Omniverse: Blender 4.0 Alpha Release Sets Stage for New Era of OpenUSD Artistry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Editor\u2019s note: This post is part of <\/i>Into the Omniverse<\/i><\/a>, a series focused on how artists, developers and enterprises can transform their workflows using the latest advances in <\/i>OpenUSD<\/i><\/a> and <\/i>NVIDIA Omniverse<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

For seasoned 3D artists and budding digital creation enthusiasts alike, an alpha<\/a> version of the popular 3D software Blender is elevating creative journeys.<\/p>\n

With the update\u2019s features for intricate shader network creation and enhanced asset-export capabilities, the development community using Blender and the Universal Scene Description<\/a> framework, aka OpenUSD, is helping to evolve the 3D landscape.<\/p>\n

NVIDIA engineers play a key role in enhancing the OpenUSD capabilities of Blender which also brings enhancements for use with NVIDIA Omniverse<\/a>, a development platform for connecting and building OpenUSD-based tools and applications.<\/p>\n

A Universal Upgrade for Blender Workflows<\/b><\/h2>\n

With Blender 4.0 Alpha, 3D creators across industries and enterprises can access optimized OpenUSD workflows for various use cases.<\/p>\n

For example, Emily Boehmer<\/a>, a design intern at BMW Group\u2019s Technology Office in Munich, is using the combined power of Omniverse, Blender and Adobe Substance 3D Painter to create realistic, OpenUSD-based assets to train computer vision AI models.<\/p>\n

Boehmer worked with her team to create assets for use with SORDI.ai<\/a>, an AI dataset published by BMW Group that contains over 800,000 photorealistic images.<\/p>\n

\"\"A clip of an industrial crate virtually \u201caging.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

USD helped optimize Boehmer\u2019s workflow. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see USD support for both Blender and Substance 3D Painter,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I create 3D assets using USD, I can be confident that they\u2019ll look and behave as I expect them to in the scenes that they\u2019ll be placed in because I can add physical properties to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australian animator Marko Matosevic<\/a> is also harnessing the combined power of Blender, Omniverse and USD in his 3D workflows.<\/p>\n

Matosevic began creating tutorials for his YouTube channel, Markom3D<\/a>, to help artists of all levels. He now shares his vast 3D knowledge with over 77,000 subscribers.<\/p>\n

Most recently, Matosevic created a 3D spaceship in Blender<\/a> that he later enhanced in Omniverse through virtual reality<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Individual creators aren\u2019t the only ones seeing success with Blender and USD. Multimedia entertainment studio Moment Factory<\/a> creates OpenUSD-based digital twins<\/a> to simulate their immersive events \u2014 including live performances, multimedia shows and interactive installations \u2014 in Omniverse with USD before deploying them in the real world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/i>Moment Factory\u2019s interactive installation at InfoComm 2023.<\/i><\/p>\n

Team members can work in the digital twin at the same time, including designers using Blender to create and render eye-catching beauty shots to share their creative vision with customers.<\/p>\n

See how Moment Factory uses Omniverse, Blender and USD to bring their immersive events to life in their recent livestream<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These 3D workflow enhancements are available to all. Blender users and USD creators<\/a>, including Boehmer, showcased their unique 3D pipeline on this recent Omniverse community livestream:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

New Features Deliver Elevated 3D Experience<\/b><\/h2>\n

The latest USD improvements in Blender are the result of collaboration among many contributors, including AMD, Apple, Unity and NVIDIA, enabled by the Blender Foundation.<\/p>\n

For example, hair object support \u2014 which improves USD import and export capabilities for digital hair \u2014 was added by a Unity software engineer. And a new Python IO callback system \u2014 which lets technical artists use Python to access USD application programming interfaces \u2014 was developed by a software engineer at NVIDIA, with support from others at Apple and AMD.<\/p>\n

NVIDIA engineers are continuing to work on other USD contributions to include in future Blender updates.<\/p>\n

Coming soon, the Blender 4.0 Alpha 201.0 Omniverse Connector<\/a> will offer new features for USD and Omniverse users, including:<\/p>\n