Blender 4.0’s splash screen art, created by Gaku Tada.
The Blender Foundation recently launched Blender 4.0, a significant update to the open-source 3D application. Blender 4.0 is the first release of a new two-year cycle, including a range of compatibility-breaking features.
The update includes fundamental changes, such as creating custom tools with Geometry Nodes, rewrites of the Principled BSDF and Principled Hair BSDF shaders, support for Hydra render delegates, and light and shadow linking in the Cycles renderer.
We have selected the top significant changes in the latest software update. These changes include exciting features like greenscreen keying in the Viewport Compositor. We have also outlined updates to the interface and other essential toolsets, such as 3D modeling, texturing, animation, and video editing.
Blender 4.0 comes with an exciting feature known as Node Tools, which allows artists to create their own custom tools using Geometry Nodes without writing any Python code. These custom tools can be accessed from menus, just like Blender’s standard tools. Although the ultimate goal of the Node Tools project is to provide the ability to replicate any standard Edit Mode operator using nodes, it is still a work in progress.
Blender 4.0 overhauls both the Principled BSDF and Principled Hair BSDF shaders. The image above shows the hair shader’s new Huang model (right) and existing Chiang model (left).
Blender, like many other 3D applications, includes shaders that are based on the principled approach developed at Walt Disney Animation Studios in the 2010s. This approach is designed to make it easier for artists to recreate a wide range of real-world materials, using a small set of intuitive parameters instead of focusing solely on physical accuracy.
Blender 4.0 features a revamped Principled BSDF shader, with a new layer arrangement. The Coat layer, which is used to mimic surface coatings like varnish, now sits above the emissive layer. This makes it easier to recreate objects like phone or monitor screens, where a surface coating covers a light-emitting surface.
The Sheen layer, traditionally used for cloth, now sits on top of the Coat layer, and features a new microfiber shading model. This makes it possible to recreate surface dust. You can see a diagram of the new material layers in the online manual, and more details on the other changes to the Principled BSDF node in the release notes.
The Principled Hair BSDF shader has also been updated. Its new shading model, named the Huang model after its developer, Weizhen Huang, is based on a 2022 research paper. Unlike the existing model, which is still available and has been renamed the Chiang model, the Huang model supports elliptical cross-sections for hairs, recreating human hair more accurately. Both have their own merits: the new Huang model generates nicer reflections when hair is viewed against the light, but hair may look flat when viewed up close; and render times are higher when using lower roughness values.
Light linking in Cycles makes it possible to add rim lighting to a render of the monkey object (main image), without having the rim light affect the shadow on the wall behind (below right).
Blender’s main production render engine, Cycles, has received a much-awaited update in the form of light linking. This new feature allows for more artistic control over scene lighting by enabling the user to set light sources, such as conventional lights and emissive materials, to affect only specific objects in a given scene. Additionally, the implementation supports shadow linking, which enables the user to control which objects in the scene act as shadow blockers for a light source. These changes will provide users with greater control and flexibility when it comes to lighting their scenes in Blender.
Pixar’s RenderMan for Blender add-on. Support for Hydra delegates in Blender 4.0 should make it easier for other third-party developers to integrate their renderers with Blender.
Bonus ‘feature’: updates to the Blender interface and keymaps
Blender 4.0 has several changes to its user interface, including better designs for the tree views, Color Picker, and File Browser previews. One of the most noticeable changes is the new font called Inter, which is specifically designed to be read on computer screens. It is one of the Google Fonts, and it should look sharp even on very small text.
Furthermore, the update makes interface search much easier. The Add menus can be searched instantly by typing, and you can hit the [Space] bar to search in any other menu or submenu.
Blender has updated its keymaps, which includes an industry-compatible keymap that enables users to easily switch keyboard shortcuts to ones more familiar to users of other 3D applications. These keymaps have also been updated to future-proof them for new features in the sculpting, painting and Grease Pencil toolsets.
Other changes: a quick summary of what else is new in the core toolsets
Blender 4.0 has brought updates to most of its core toolsets, in addition to the major changes in the 3D modeling toolset. The snapping system used for transforming geometry within a scene has been overhauled. The Geometry Nodes now support repeat zones, and eight new rotation nodes have been added. For texturing, the Noise Texture and Voronoi Texture nodes have new options.
The rigging and animation toolset have a new system of bone collections that replaces bone groups and layers. The Graph Editor has new slider operations and a Butterworth smoothing filter for mocap data. Metal is now the only supported backend for rendering on macOS. MetalRT GPU-accelerated ray tracing is enabled by default when rendering on Apple’s new M3 processors. The color management toolset has a new AgX view transform that replaces the existing Filmic transform as the default in new files. There are new options for HDR displays on macOS.
The Sequencer in the video editing toolset gets a new workflow for retiming strips interactively. Blender 4.0 is now fully compliant with the VFX Reference Platform. The Blender Foundation has reversed its decision to stop following the spec last year. Blender 4.0 is a compatibility-breaking release, with breaking changes to rigs, animations, and the Python API. .blend files saved from Blender 4.0 are incompatible with Blender 3.5 and older, although they can be converted by opening them in Blender 3.6, then re-exporting them.
System requirements
Blender 4.0 is available for Windows 8.1+, macOS 10.15+ (macOS 11.0 on Apple Silicon Macs) and glibc 2.28+ Linux. It’s a free download.
