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Over the recent years, Blender has evolved into a powerful but complex software, with a growing, demanding user base and intricate technical dependencies. To keep it stable and reliable, development focuses on improving existing features, which makes experimenting with new ideas more difficult.
To support this crucial aspect of product development, the Blender Foundation is launching a new initiative: the Blender Lab, which will bring together designers, developers, and researchers to collaborate on challenging and forward-looking projects. It will begin with a limited number of projects, evaluated by the Blender Foundation with input from key Blender contributors. Over the course of 2026, more guidelines will be developed and shared.
A "lab activity" is a project that brings innovation to Blender, independent of official Blender releases, and is always public, visible here. On this page, ongoing projects are presented, sharing objectives, timeline, and participants. Intermediate builds for testing and feedback will be available there as well.
We don't have all the details yet, but the Blender Foundation has shared some examples of projects that qualify as lab activities, which include new ways to interact beyond mouse and keyboard (like tablet support, or VR/XR), volume rendering, and light transport methods.
Also, Blender 5.0 is just around the corner, arriving on November 18, 2025. Catch up with the latest features by clicking this link.
Learn how to submit a proposal for a Lab project here and subscribe to our Newsletter, join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.