The Blender Animation & Rigging module team recently unveiled their latest progress and future plans.
The presentation, began with “The Dream,” a vision for Blender’s future in animation. This vision includes an integrated Animation data-block for related characters or objects, facilitating easier management of complex animations. Additionally, the team expressed a desire to introduce rigging nodes, bone pickers for a more efficient workflow, and various advanced tools like custom bone axes and editable motion paths.
In “The Concrete” section, the team reviewed several significant enhancements already incorporated into Blender. Notable improvements include a faster graph editor, the replacement of armature layers with more versatile bone collections, and numerous workflow upgrades such as camera-relative motion paths and improved keying workflows. The highlight of this section was the introduction of Project Baklava, a new initiative focusing on layered and multi-ID animation, which represents a fundamental shift in how Blender will handle animation in the future.
The final segment, “The Management,” discussed the strategic approach towards achieving these ambitious goals. The main objective is to advance Blender’s animation and rigging systems for the coming decade, with Project Baklava being a central component of this strategy. The development plan involves a phased approach, starting with the implementation of multi-ID animation, followed by the potential addition of other features.
Read the official summary on the Blender website.
