Project London: Made with Blender

Project London movie is the triumph of community spirit, togetherness or whatever you call it over money. A team of online volunteers using free software, created the movie, Project London, with as many as 650 VFX shots! Isn't that awesome?

Project London Movie - The Background
Project London is an independent, no-budget, feature-length, live action movie with vivid, intense, and marrow-vibrating visual effects and animations created with the open source software Blender (and other traditional software) and 250 (or so) worldwide volunteers.

Despite featuring the same volume of digital effects work as its mainstream counterparts, the upcoming sci-fi thriller was post-produced by a small team of volunteers working remotely via the internet.

Even more surprisingly, the effects were created not in industry-standard tools such as Autodesk Maya or Softimage, but Blender: an open-source 3D animation package. Movie director and VFX supervisor Ian Hubert says, tapping into Blender’s large online community of volunteer artists had huge benefits for the movie. Read the full interview of Ian Hubert at Jasontv. It's good to see that, our beloved open source Blender is slowly gaining momentum. Watch the trailer.

Check out the an anime project solely made through Free and Open Source software click here.
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Morevna - An Open Source Anime Project Using Open Source Tools

Morevna is an open source anime project made using open source tools like Synfig, Blender, GIMP and Krita. Unlike Project London Movie, Morevna is not only created using free and open source tools, but Morevna anime will also be released and distributed as free content. This project definitely deserves a lot of appreciation.

About Morevna Project
The Morevna Project is a promising open source anime film project being made with Synfig, Blender, GIMP and Krita. Even though the project is a bit old, it is still undergoing rapid development and is very much alive and thriving.

The story behind Morevna project is based on the Russian fairy tale 'Marya Morevna'. It is completely reworked to futuristic high-tech twist with a large amount of technobabble, expounded in a style specific to anime genre, according to the website.

Goals Behind Morevna Project

• To create a full-lengthened anime movie, utilizing Open Source software only.

• Promotion of Open Source software and its ideology.

• Testing and improving existing Open Source products by giving appropriated feedback to developers and community.

• Validate Open Source tools as suitable for creation of professional good-looking animation.

• Provide content for other artists to learn from or to re-use, including documentation and tutorials.

Demo Video Showcasing The Latest Morevna Project Milestone



[via http://morevnaproject.org/]

Information on another project made using Blender can be found here.
Check out the list of must watch movies for programmers here.
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The Best Movies for Programmers

If you’ve done even a little programming then you’re also good at finding ways to waste time watching things vaguely related to it.  Admit it, you’ve spent at least a few hours watching videos about Android’s latest features or Chrome’s Internals even though you’ll never write a single line of code for either.  Don’t worry, I’m not going to list a bunch of technical talks.  We’re talking entertainment for after the work day.  The following movies are stimulating to watch for those with a programming oriented mind.  And you know what that means, softcore porn!

Welcome to Macintosh

Netflix Streaming? Yes
Apple documentary that does a great job tracking the reasons for its successes and failures. I wasn’t sure I’d like the movie after reading the description on Netflix, but once the interview with a grumpy and inebriated ex-Apple Engineer started I was sold.  Just gets better from there.

The IT Crowd

Netflix Streaming? Yes, series 1, 2, and 3.  4 is available on iTunes for ten bucks.
Lets face it, if you’ve done any programming at all then you’re also the go to IT person for your entire extended family.  Over Thanksgiving I’m sure everyone one of you spent at least a few hours exercising the Tech Support Cheat Sheet.  The main focus of this show quickly diverges from IT, but each episode still includes references to nerd popculture.

We Live in Public

Netflix Streaming? Yes
I can’t believe I had never heard of Pseudo.  If you haven’t, then make this the first movie you watch off this list.  You’ll be shocked that something like this existed in the late 90’s.  Also a bit of nudity sprinkled throughout, just for fun.

The Social Network

Netflix Streaming? No, not even out on DVD yet I’ll leave this description up to the awesome blogger, Mike Rundle:
“The Social Network was fucking awesome. Do not see it if you have an idea in your head because it’ll make you want to work on it 24/7.”

Hackers

Netflix Streaming? Yes
I had to include it, this one is sentimental for me.  It was the first movie I had seen that showed computer nerds in an enviable light and not as pariahs being put in lockers.  The brief sensual scene with Angelina Jolie made this a childhood favorite.

Pirates of Silicon Valley

Netflix Streaming? No, but you can watch it on Google Video.
Yea I can’t believe that’s still around either. I’ll admit it, I’m too young to have actually been paying attention when the events of this movie were actually taking place, it gives a nice synopsis of how Microsoft and Apple ended up where they were in the late 90’s.

Revolution OS

Netflix Streaming? Yes
Some nerd cred if you ever wind up trapped in the same room as an old Cobol sysadmin.

Office Space

Netflix Streaming? No
This one is last because I’d be really freaking surprised if you haven’t seen it.  It will help you better understand why that creep guy in your office covets his red stapler.

That’s it!  Please let me know if you have any other favorites that I did not list in the comments below.  I’ll watch them, and if I get enough suggestions I’ll post a second list in the future.

BTW, I can't believe they left out Primer.

Check out the list of Windows' failed rivals. Its longer than you think. Click here.
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