Oscar-winning animated film 'Flow' created entirely with free and open-source software Blender
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It was a strong year for Best Animated Feature Oscar nominations, and an underdog triumphed. At the 97th annual Academy Awards at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles last night, Flow beat competition from Pixar's Inside Out 2, DreamWorks' The Wild Robot and Aardman's Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.
Gints Zilbalodis tale about a cat in a flooded world missed out on the Oscar for Best International Feature Film but still became Latvia's first Oscar win. And it was surely also the first Oscar winner to be made entirely in the free 3D modelling software Blender, cementing the open-source program's place among the best animation software.
Flow was one of our highlights of Annecy 2024, and it still seems incredible that it was made by a small team using Blender alone. It was rendered in EEVEE, Blender's realtime render engine.
Gints thanked Blender when accepting the award. Speaking to press afterwards, he said: "Any kid now has tools that are used to make now Academy Award-winning films, so I think we're going to see all kinds of exciting films being made from kids who might not have had a chance to do this before.
wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 11:47 last edited byBut the thumbnail, isn't that just the album cover from Nirvana's Nevermind?
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wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 12:17 last edited by
Magnetized needle and a steady hand.
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It was a strong year for Best Animated Feature Oscar nominations, and an underdog triumphed. At the 97th annual Academy Awards at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles last night, Flow beat competition from Pixar's Inside Out 2, DreamWorks' The Wild Robot and Aardman's Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.
Gints Zilbalodis tale about a cat in a flooded world missed out on the Oscar for Best International Feature Film but still became Latvia's first Oscar win. And it was surely also the first Oscar winner to be made entirely in the free 3D modelling software Blender, cementing the open-source program's place among the best animation software.
Flow was one of our highlights of Annecy 2024, and it still seems incredible that it was made by a small team using Blender alone. It was rendered in EEVEE, Blender's realtime render engine.
Gints thanked Blender when accepting the award. Speaking to press afterwards, he said: "Any kid now has tools that are used to make now Academy Award-winning films, so I think we're going to see all kinds of exciting films being made from kids who might not have had a chance to do this before.
wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 12:23 last edited byRendered in EEVEE? Really? Wow! Considering you get so much more optical fidelity with Cycles it's really astonishing they've used EEVEE.
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Well-deserved win! Watched this in the cinema a few weeks back. What immediately struck me about the beautiful art style is that it felt more like what you’d expect from a labor-of-love indie game than from a dreamworks/pixar studio – and it was incredibly refreshing! Also, for a movie where water plays a big role, the fluid rendering was absolutely breathtaking. I could almost smell the warm plastic air of a GPU giving its all.
wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 12:25 last edited byit felt more like what you’d expect from a labor-of-love indie game
I thought that too. It was like a long cutscene and I loved it.
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without much depth
How much "depth" do you expect to get out a group of animals acting "mostly" natural and without a single line of human dialog? With those limitations, I think it excelled. There were even a couple tearjerker moments, for me at least.
wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 12:36 last edited byNot having dialogue has nothing to do with. While the animals can only be so complex (if acting "naturally"), the storytelling is not limited to just that. They could've probably told more about the world with the elements and places the animals found. The animation was pretty crappy at some points too. The dog for example was not very well done.
Regardless of all of this, I'm not saying it should have been different, I only wanted to express that this movie is not worthy of an oscar when compared to something like Memoir Of A Snail, imo.
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But the thumbnail, isn't that just the album cover from Nirvana's Nevermind?
wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 12:37 last edited byWith a huge drippin hog
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Rendered in EEVEE? Really? Wow! Considering you get so much more optical fidelity with Cycles it's really astonishing they've used EEVEE.
wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 12:37 last edited byThe creator favoured speedy feedback on everything. And it's not like you can't make things look gorgeous in EEVEE, why go for fidelity when you can make things look nice.
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Blender used to have a games engine built into it. It was actually kinda fun but shit, they axed it once Unity became king.
wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 13:20 last edited byYou think I'm going to believe you? A deceptacon? Haha. Nice try.
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It was a strong year for Best Animated Feature Oscar nominations, and an underdog triumphed. At the 97th annual Academy Awards at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles last night, Flow beat competition from Pixar's Inside Out 2, DreamWorks' The Wild Robot and Aardman's Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.
Gints Zilbalodis tale about a cat in a flooded world missed out on the Oscar for Best International Feature Film but still became Latvia's first Oscar win. And it was surely also the first Oscar winner to be made entirely in the free 3D modelling software Blender, cementing the open-source program's place among the best animation software.
Flow was one of our highlights of Annecy 2024, and it still seems incredible that it was made by a small team using Blender alone. It was rendered in EEVEE, Blender's realtime render engine.
Gints thanked Blender when accepting the award. Speaking to press afterwards, he said: "Any kid now has tools that are used to make now Academy Award-winning films, so I think we're going to see all kinds of exciting films being made from kids who might not have had a chance to do this before.
wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 13:39 last edited byAnd it's European!
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The movie was really well done. It's a simpler animation style so don't expect Pixar level stuff, but the story and art direction are great.
wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 13:45 last edited byPixar-style animation needs to die already. It's like Corporate Memphis at this point.
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Incredible to see how far blender has come. I remember using it over ten years when I was trying to get off pirated software (3ds max), while it's still recognisable the capability has exploded
wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 13:45 last edited byCouldn't touch it 5 years ago. Now its daily life for me.
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I liked the movie, but my (small) kids cried a lot during and after the movie.
wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 13:48 last edited byWanna watch it with my 6 and 9 year olds soon. Is it that sad?! I skipped through it and it looked nice.
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It was a strong year for Best Animated Feature Oscar nominations, and an underdog triumphed. At the 97th annual Academy Awards at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles last night, Flow beat competition from Pixar's Inside Out 2, DreamWorks' The Wild Robot and Aardman's Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.
Gints Zilbalodis tale about a cat in a flooded world missed out on the Oscar for Best International Feature Film but still became Latvia's first Oscar win. And it was surely also the first Oscar winner to be made entirely in the free 3D modelling software Blender, cementing the open-source program's place among the best animation software.
Flow was one of our highlights of Annecy 2024, and it still seems incredible that it was made by a small team using Blender alone. It was rendered in EEVEE, Blender's realtime render engine.
Gints thanked Blender when accepting the award. Speaking to press afterwards, he said: "Any kid now has tools that are used to make now Academy Award-winning films, so I think we're going to see all kinds of exciting films being made from kids who might not have had a chance to do this before.
wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 13:48 last edited byI’m planning to watch this one, got told it’s quite good.
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Going into debt running Tumbleweed.
wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 13:51 last edited byIf you pay per package, you get shaken down whenever GCC is updated.
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Whenever I download a new version of Blender I typically throw them $10 - $15.
Just like with other open source software I use, I give it a shot and if I like it I'll throw them $10 - $15 each time I update.
wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 13:54 last edited byMore than 99% of users including me
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Reminder that Blender is struggling with funding right now. https://topicroomsvfx.com/news/the-price-of-free-blenders-funding-crisis/
Make sure to leave it a few bucks if you use it. https://fund.blender.org/
wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 13:56 last edited byI didn't hear they're struggling? Its not like they can get more money and instantly increase the scope and just toss stuff on, people compare them to for profit companies who need to make a profit for investors, the amount of money they have would obv be less
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It's a simpler animation style so don't expect Pixar level stuff
One of the things you learn in art school is that if you aim for something like realism (or Pixar, in this case), but you fail to get there, people will notice and critique you for it. If you aim for a style you can do well, on the other hand, nobody will care that you didn't do Realism (or Pixar).
Up and coming artists in any genre would do well to remember that it's okay not to be Pixar or Capcom or whatever. Sometimes working within your limitations can inspire truly creative works.
wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 13:56 last edited byExactly. When I play indie games, I go for simpler art style because it feels so much more cohesive.
That really bugs me in newer Pokémon games, the Pokémon don't seem to fit well into the world. I'd much rather have old school Pokémon than inconsistent art direction.
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Wanna watch it with my 6 and 9 year olds soon. Is it that sad?! I skipped through it and it looked nice.
wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 13:58 last edited byIt's not sad, but there's a lot of anxiety inducing moments.
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But the thumbnail, isn't that just the album cover from Nirvana's Nevermind?
wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 14:11 last edited byIf you remove the fishes, replece the cat with a baby, and add a dollar on a fishing hook, it's literally the same.
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Rendered in EEVEE? Really? Wow! Considering you get so much more optical fidelity with Cycles it's really astonishing they've used EEVEE.
wrote on 6 Mar 2025, 15:57 last edited byFYI EEVEE now supports ray tracing so lighting can be much better than before with much less hassle.