Movies made with Blender: 20 years of cinema

Animatics and previsualisation for storyboarding

Probably the first documented Hollywood milestone. Blender was used for animatics and previz, not for the final visual effects. The accurate phrasing is 'Blender was already used in the production of Spider-Man 2 in 2004', not 'Spider-Man 2 was made with Blender'.

All visual effects produced in Blender by Digital Graphics

Historically one of the strongest cases. The Belgian studio Digital Graphics produced the entire visual effects work of this 35mm feature with Blender on Linux. It is regularly presented as the first 35mm feature film whose VFX were all made with Blender. Digital Graphics is a little-known branch of Blender cinema history, also credited on The Masque of the Red Death (3D animation and special effects) and other French/Belgian productions.

Part of the 2D/3D effects made with Blender

An important step into prestigious international animation. Digital Graphics used Blender for a share of the 2D and 3D effects of Tomm Moore's film, which went on to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Not a 'Blender movie' in the sense of Flow, but Blender is genuinely part of its pipeline.

Modelling, animation, lighting and rendering in Blender on Linux

Historically major and almost forgotten. This Argentinian feature used Blender for its 3D models, animation, lighting and rendering, with an open-source toolchain running on Linux. It is generally considered the first commercial feature film fully animated with Blender.

Animation produced at Tangent Animation with Blender

Co-produced in part by Tangent Animation in Canada, with the animation produced in Blender on a reported budget of around $8.5 million. It matters because Tangent then pushed the Blender pipeline much further.

Tangent pipeline described as effectively 100% Blender

Probably the first real modern demonstration of Blender on a large CG feature. Jeff Bell of Tangent described their pipeline as 'effectively 100% Blender', with a handful of extra applications for specific departments. Not 'we modelled a few props in Blender': Blender was the heart of the production pipeline. One of the five essential films in Blender history.

3D sets and characters, animation and cameras in Blender before 2D treatment

Fascinating because Blender is used in a completely different way. Jérémy Clapin modelled the sets in 3D, kept the characters simple, animated them in CG, set the cameras and staged everything in Blender, then built the final drawn render on top. It enabled camera moves that are very hard to achieve in classic 2D production. The result: Critics' Week Grand Prize in Cannes, the Annecy Cristal, two Césars and an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature. Blender is invisible on screen yet fundamental to the making of the film.

Blender in the hybrid 2D/3D pipeline, notably the Wolfvision sequences

The team built environments in 3D with Quill and Blender to lock cameras and movement, then redrew the images in pencil and charcoal to keep the handcrafted look. A great lesson for beginners: Blender does not necessarily mean a final 3D render.

Blender used by the small core VFX team on some effects and CG elements

An Oscar-winning live-action film with close to 500 VFX shots, a huge share of them handled by an extremely small core team. Zak Stoltz started using Blender on this film and used it for particle effects, with other CG elements composited in After Effects. So not 'Everything Everywhere was made with Blender', but 'even the VFX team of Everything Everywhere All at Once brought Blender into their workflow'.

Production pipeline built around Blender, notably EEVEE

Probably Blender's best ambassador today. Gints Zilbalodis previously worked in Maya and switched to Blender around 2019, after his first feature Away, drawn in by EEVEE and real-time work. So Away is not a Blender film, contrary to what many assume. On Flow, Blender became central to the production, and the film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and the César for Best Animated Film.