Blender’s Amazing 2D/3D Grease Pencil Tool Is Now Available — And Completely Free

The Blender Foundation released yesterday the first version of its highly-anticipated Blender 2.80 beta.

The 2.80 beta is packed with new features, including a complete revamp of the user interface, a new viewport, and a new physically-based realtime renderer, but one of the most exciting additions is the 2d drawing tool Grease Pencil.

We’ve written at length before about what this tool actually does. As you can see in the demo video below, it really evolves the discussion about what is 2d animation and what is 3d animation nowadays.

Using cg animation to create a 2d look is nothing new, but typically the effect has been achieved by creating a traditional cg production and then adding non-photorealistic rendering techniques on top to give it a hand-drawn feel. In the case of Blender’s tool, the production can now be rooted in actual 2d drawing techniques, while still taking full advantage of the technical possibilities of cg animation.

As always, the greatest thing about Blender is that it doesn’t cost a penny to use because of its open-source structure. To get your copy of the software, go to the Blender website.

Below is a rundown of some of the new features in Blender 2.80: