Hey Reader,

Zach here,

With some fresh news, inspirations, and resources from the 3D world.

The big news for today is the release of Blender 4.3 with some exciting new features.

We’ve also updated our handy Blender shortcut PDF to be compatible with this latest version. Our friends at ToAnimate announced a 30% Black Friday sale, and finally, I want to share a cool video summing up the Blender Conference 2024 experience from a non-Blender-user perspective.

Let’s dive in.
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​Blender 4.3 is out, and it’s awesome!​

​Blender 4.3 was released this Tuesday, and it comes with a massive list of new features and updates.

For me, the highlights of this version are:

Sculpting mode improvements (the performance is much faster and smoother) and the Brushes are now assets that can be easily shared between files and are available via a searchable brush shelf.

The new Grease Pencil 3.0 version - this is a backward compatibility-breaking change, but now Grease Pencil objects can interact with the Geometry Nodes, which opens up a whole new range of possibilities for 2D/3D mixing.

Finally, there’s light linking and render passes support for EEVEE, which makes it even more useful for production.

Many more big and small improvements across the board make this version a big step forward.

​Update! Blender 4.3 Shortcut PDF​

We’ve already updated our handy shortcut sheet to be compatible with the latest version, so you can easily navigate through the changes.

With the introduction of the Brush Asset shelf, some of the older shortcuts for brushes have changed, as well as some other minor changes across the board.

​You can download the PDF here​

​ToAnimate’s Black Friday 30 % off Sale​

If you want to take your Blender animation skills to the next level, ToAnimate has a great Black Friday 30% discount for all of their courses and assets from their store.

The discount code will work for the first 30 students who enroll, so you must make up your mind fast. The asset store discount will last till December 1st with no quantity limits though.

The courses are run by professional animators with experience in feature film productions, who are also really nice and fun people (I know this because they’ve helped us with the animations for the Master 3D Characters in Blender trailer).

​Check out the ToAnimate courses here​

30% Coupon Code: BF30

​Blender Conference 2024 experience - by a Houdini User​

Andrey Lebrov, 3D VFX artist working in Houdini, Cinema 4D, and Octane has come to this year’s Blender Conference and shares his thoughts and impressions in his vlog video.

It is interesting to see how a non-Blender-using CGI professional receives the enthusiasm and welcoming community vibes we share as Blender users attending this conference.

That’s all from me today, have an amazing week and till next time.

~Zach