Just in time for the end of the year, the Blender Foundation is dropping a little bombshell onto the digital content creation table: Version 5.0 of the free 3D suite is now available. From a unified compositing system to innovations in internal color management, there is a lot for filmmakers to discover again. We will try to summarize these highlights.
Blender 5.0 is here: Milestone with numerous innovations for 3D, animation, and post-production
Blender is taking a big leap forward in terms of color management and now supports ACES 1.3 and 2.0 color pipelines. Furthermore, Blender 5.0 can now output directly to HDR displays and save images and videos in HDR formats and wide color gamuts such as Rec. 2020.
Blender 5.0 now supports mature color management
The Compositor and the Video Sequence Editor (VSE) are also intended to appeal to professional users in 5.0. The Asset Shelf in the Compositor allows pre-made node groups (e.g., for effects like vignetting, chromatic aberration, film grain, or sensor noise) to be dragged and dropped into the node tree.
Direct access to Node Groups
At the same time, the Compositor has now been integrated into the Video Sequencer. This allows each strip to be given its own node-based compositing pipeline. The pre-made effects from the Asset Shelf are also immediately available here. The sequencer is also now independent, so 3D scenes can be edited directly while the editing interface remains open.
The individual nodes have been standardized across systems where sensible. This means their operation and settings are now fundamentally the same in different parts of the application.
But of course, a lot has also happened in other areas such as 3D or animation, which we do not want to elaborate on here. Instead, we refer you to this very detailed video with all the news:
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