Blender 4.1 stable is available now focusing on quality of life improvements, performance enhancements, and the introduction of new features aimed at streamlining the user experience. This version brings an array of advancements across geometry nodes, modifiers, and compositor efficiency, alongside rigging and animation upgrades.
The update introduces a Bake Node within Geometry Nodes, supporting both still frames and animations, including volume objects, with optimizations for smaller file sizes. A new “Menu Switch” node and several other geometry nodes have been added to facilitate more efficient and customizable workflows. The “Smooth by Angle” modifier replaces the mesh “Auto Smooth” option, allowing for sharper edge control without relying on the original mesh settings.
Cycles rendering sees notable improvements with GPU-accelerated OpenImageDenoise on supported hardware, enhancing denoising quality at interactive rates. This version also brings expanded support for AMD GPUs and a general improvement in Linux CPU rendering performance.
The compositor now supports additional nodes like Cryptomatte, Defocus, and Vector Blur, and introduces new functionalities for existing nodes to enhance precision and performance. Notable is the Kuwahara node, which now offers variable sizing and a high precision option for better results on high-resolution images.
In animation and rigging, Blender 4.1 makes keyframe insertion more intuitive and introduces hierarchical bone collections for improved organization and visibility control. The Graph Editor receives new operators for key segment scaling and an auto-lock feature for axis-specific key movement. The Video Sequencer also benefits from significant speed improvements and new image filtering options to ensure optimal editing performance.
Aligning with the VFX Reference Platform 2024, Blender 4.1 is ready for seamless integration into studio pipelines. Enhancements in USD support include the ability to export armatures and shape keys as USD skeletons and blend shapes, alongside improved import capabilities and script extendibility through Python.
For more information on Blender 4.1 and its features, visit www.blender.org.
