“Open Source 3D creation. Free to use for any purpose, forever” — Say, what?

The Ub Iwerks Awards for 2019 was just awarded to the creators of one of the “Creative Tools for the Mind” our kids use. Named after one of the creators of Mickey Mouse, the Ub Iwerks award is given to honor individuals or companies for technical achievements that make a significant impact on the art and industry of animation.

Past recipients of this award include Dr. Ed Catmull for his breakthrough technologies at Pixar, Scott Johnston for his innovative work in Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Digital Domain, Inc. for their groundbreaking innovations in Titanic, and Eric Daniels for the development of the 'Deep Canvas' process for Walt Disney's Tarzan.

This year the award was given to none other than Ton Roosendaal, the genius creator of Blender. The amazing community of Blender developers, artists and users — crossing the age gamut — made this 3D creation suite what it is. Since its inception in the 90s, Blender has grown to become a standard in the 3D animation industry — and that is thanks in large part to the leader of the “Blender tribe” — Ton.

BLENDER 2.8 = 3D MODELING + 3D PRINTING + 2D & 3D ANIMATION + VR + AR

…Imagine that our kids can learn from 3D modeling to 3D printing and even 2D and 3D animation, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality without paying anything for the software. Even if a beginner can easily found his way through Blender (especially the last version Blender 2.8), more and more big animation studio use it among their tools. Artists, engineers, scientists, schools and many others use it as well. If it is good for them, it is good for our kids.

Parents —  the vision we share of a world with proactive, open minded and creative kids has just received one of it’s biggest rewards! Have a great day!