Netflix Donates €240,000 to Blender

In the biggest crossover between Blender and the film industry since Gints Zilbalodis' Flow, the Blender Foundation has announced that Netflix Animation Studios has donated €240,000 to the developer of the renowned 3D software, joining the Blender Development Fund as a Corporate Patron.

According to the team, the contribution will go toward general Blender core development to "continuously improve content creation tools for individuals and teams working in media and entertainment-related workflows." As the fund's highest tier, Blender's Corporate Patron status provides Netflix with the opportunity to more closely track what donation contributions are allocated to, alongside other top donors such as Epic Games, Wacom, Pico, and Bolt Graphics.

As out-of-the-blue unexpected as this collaboration may seem at first glance, it becomes far less surprising when considering that the aforementioned 2024 fantasy adventure film made history last March as the first international submission to win the Academy Award in the Best Animated Feature category.

Made with Blender Eevee and a range of plug-ins such as GeoScatter, FLIP Fluids, Baga Pie, and others, Flow showed many that, in the right hands, free 3D software is indeed capable of competing with – and outperforming – so-called "industry-standard" tools, making Netflix's interest in Blender more than understandable. If you'd like to learn more about the production process behind Flow, we highly recommend checking out Zilbalodis' breakdowns here and here.

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