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Blender for Mac OS X is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.

Blender offers a complete range of tools to thoroughly develop 3D animations and design. Its revolutionary, non-overlapping and non-blocking UI delivers unsurpassed workflow. The powerful built-in database system allows instances, scene management, and dynamic linking multiple project files. Anti-aliased fonts feature international translation support.

The modeling aspects of the program are various. A range of 3D object types including polygon meshes, NURBS surfaces, bezier and B-spline curves, metaballs, vector fonts (TrueType, PostScript, OpenType) are available.

The Blender Foundation and online developer community is proud to present Blender 2.57. This is the first stable release of the Blender 2.5 series, representing the culmination of many years of redesign and development work.

We name this version "Stable" not only because it's mostly feature complete, but especially thanks to the 1000s of fixes and feature updates we did since the 2.5 beta versions were published.

The next 2 months we will keep working on finishing a couple of left-over 2.5 targets and we expect to get feedback and bug reports from users to handle as well. If all goes well, the 2.58 version then can be the final release of the 2.5 series, with a massive amount of new projects to be added for an exciting cycle of 2.6x versions. Target is to release updates every 2 months this year.

Features:

Photorealistic Rendering

Blender now features a powerful new unbiased rendering engine called Cycles that offers stunning ultra-realistic rendering.

The built-in Cycles rendering engine offers:

* GPU & CPU rendering
* Realtime viewport preview
* HDR lighting support
* Permissive License for external software linking

Fast Modelling

Blender’s vast array of modeling tools make creating, transforming and editing your models a breeze.

Blender’s modeling tools include:

* Keyboard shortcuts for a fast workflow
* N-Gon support (B-Mesh)
* Edge slide, collapse and dissolve
* Grid and Bridge fill
* Python scripting for custom tools

Realistic Materials

With Blender’s new rendering engine the possibilities for materials are endless.

Key features are:

* Complete Node Support for full customization
* Physically accurate shaders like glass, translucency and SSS
* Open Shading Language (OSL) support for coding unique shaders

Fast Rigging

Transforming a model into a posable character has never been easier!

Blender offers an impressive set of rigging tools like:

* Envelope, skeleton and automatic skinning
* Easy weight painting
* Mirror functionality
* Bone layers and colored groups for organization
* B-spline interpolated bones

Animation toolset

Whether it’s simple keyframing or complex walk-cycles, Blender allows artists to turn their still characters into impressive animations.

Blender’s animation feature set offers:

* Automated walk-cycles along paths
* Character animation pose editor
* Non Linear Animation (NLA) for independent movements
* IK forward/inverse kinematics for fast poses
* Sound synchronization