Blender Introduces ‘Feature Quality’ 2D Animation Tools Within Its 3D Pipeline

Animation software maker Blender is showing off its upcoming Grease Pencil 2.0 tools through a new demo called Hero.

The Grease Pencil provides 2d animation tools within Blender’s free and open-source full-3d pipeline. For a clearer idea of what this means, take a look at the end credits of Hero which shows in-production scenes from the demo.

Blender has offered the Grease Pencil technology in its software for a number of years, but the new update will allow for “feature quality animation production” in Blender 2.8. The first beta of Blender 2.8 will be available in the second half of 2018.

The Hero project was produced out of Barcelona, Spain, helmed by Daniel Martinez Lara. It was funded through Blender’s subscription-service Blender Cloud.