News from Germany: authoring company Imagion completed work on the Blu-ray version of Big Buck Bunny! They’ve created a stunning HDTV (1080p 24fps) version of our movie based on the original HDR frames of the movie. The master has been sent to the factory for duplication last friday. This will take about 4 weeks, so we expect the discs here end of july. Visit the Blender e-shop to purchase a copy!

Although it’s a closed format still, Blu-ray is most likely going to be the HDTV film disc format of the next decade. So, even when it was only for archiving reasons, it’s important to have BBB on this format available as well. Not to mention that the HD version of BBB is simply breathtaking to watch.

As bonus, apart from the extras copied from the video dvd, Imagion agreed to add Elephants Dream on the disc as well!

-Ton-

We’ve collected several mirrors worldwide for a stable and - hopefully fast - hosting of the BBB movies. You can download the files in four different flavours, which will nicely work for all common video players and OSes.
The download section also has Vimeo and Youtube links for streaming video.
Lastly, mirrors with the DVD ROM studio files are also being added now!

Have fun watching! And, thanks again for the great feedback and ongoing support. It has been a great ride for everyone here, and I definitely look forward to the next open movie… which - as promised - will not start before the Blender 2.5 project is in usable state. Most likely that’s end of 2008, early 2009.

Lastly: don’t stop buying the DVD! Revenues will be used as startup financing for the next Open Movie, and hopefully I can afford to send the full Peach team to Siggraph…

-Ton-

We have shipped everything to Europe and rest of world last tuesday, May 20th. Some close Europe countries might arrive already this week friday or saturday. Dutch orders are being shipped today, and arrive friday. (Well, there’s rumours the Dutch Mail will strike…)

So, we hope almost everyone can their own home-cinema premiere during the next 10 days. In the mean time we’ll build a large network of http mirrors, torrents, and streams to make sure we can do the public movie launch on May 30 or 31st. Keep tuned!

In anticipation of the DVDs, we’ve upgraded the gallery with a couple of final frames from the movie. Also check the press section for a great story about BBB in today’s Netherlands largest quality news paper.

Finally: please mark in the Frappr map below when you get the DVD. Makes it a review of our shipping company as well. :)

http://www.frappr.com/?a=constellation_map&mapid=137440549214

Today we found some DVD’s (around 2500) outside the door of the Blender Institute. So we had the idea to just bring them inside and start packing them, get them ready for shipment. All I can say is pretty awesome.

Many thanks to Anne and Anja from the e-shop, some guys from the Apricot team and Martin Poirier (theeth) who are working hard to get the dvd’s out as fast as possible…… oh, and Ton too.

Peach out,

Sacha

We’re doing the last bits on the dvd set… encoding and authoring a video DVD and collecting and testing all files for the DVD-ROM is just a bit too much work to be really fun… especially for people suffering post-BBB fatigue! :)

Even after about 6-8 manweeks of work on this DVD we could easily add another four or so. Nevertheless, we should now finish! Here’s a quick shortlist of what you can expect, at least:

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Yesterday morning, the talkshow producer from “De Wereld Draait Door” (DWDD, or “The world revolves”) phoned me if we were interested to be guest in the monday show. Surprise!
It especially was good news for our project and for Blender because the show is very well known in the Netherlands. It’s prime-time from 19.30 and 20.30, broadcasted on the quality public TV channel. Usually it hosts a varied mix of entertainment and information. Items typically don’t last more than 5-10 minutes. About half to a million people watch it daily.

The nice thing was also that the studio is literally around the corner, a few minutes walk away from the Blender Institute. So, we were there in time, got our make-up, drinks as much you wanted and excellent dinner. As groupies we could get Margreet, Campbell and William in.

Apart from getting surrounded by the obligatory Dutch tv celebs (the show host, a famous radio DJ, a political commentator, some actors), it was interesting to see how smooth and well organized it all went. For a daily show that already runs a couple of years quite logical though!

On the moment supreme it all went so fast that I’m still surprised a bit… it was overwhelming to suddenly have the talkshow host and cameras turning to you, and firing the first question to Sacha while you expected a movie fragment to be shown. You also clearly feel that the program makers are in extremely tight control, you’re merely a puppet that acts when they want you to say something… and please don’t be boring!

If you click on the image above you can watch the interview with subtitles on BlenderNation.

Thanks!

-Ton-

Here’s the first major newspaper article about the premiere. It’s the #1 newspaper here in Amsterdam, with mostly Amsterdam related topics. You can find most of this also on their website here:

“Big Buck schudt filmwereld op”
(”Big Buck shakes the movie world”)

The images:

First clipping is from page 8, right-bottom corner.
Second clipping is in the weekend supplement.

Note that they consider the “gratis” aspect most interesting! But, the “free software” concept is pretty well covered in the text.

Other news: currently the dvds are being authored… end of april it should be at the printer’s still. Expected release is May 15. But… you know how it goes when you announce dates! Let’s try at least. ;)

-Ton-

In the past years I’ve been asked a couple of times by companies to make the original renders if Elephants Dream available. They sent me a usb hard disk, and I just copied all of the OpenEXR files over. That made us think (great idea Campbell!) to just put a entire copy of our studio backup in the e-shop, on a 250 GB usb disk. Everything! All Creative Commons of course.

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Now the first reports from the premiere get posted (check videos on Blendernation) almost everyone now is banging on our doors to get the film as well! So… here’s some answers about what do now and what the intended schedule is.

• People who pre-ordered the DVD were our investors!

This is an important aspect we should never forget. We were able to make BBB thanks to the generosity and confidence we received from people who ordered and paid for the DVD set. The deal we made was that they would get the dvds first, and only after that the files get released (which will go automatic, because the dvds are “CC-by”, open content).

• You can still help us by purchasing a DVD!

To be able to wrap up the project and continue work in the Blender Institute and get ready for a new open films we depend on DVD sales still. This is a special hint for everyone who’s screaming for the downloads btw! :)

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Recently I realized that we never really made a complete Blender Institute tour after this project started. Sure, there was Ton’s first round trip waaaay back, but we needed something new, shiny and classy like this to show you how great this place actually is! Luckily Nathan, our master of rigging, animating and hugging, agreed to improvise a very sincere and pertinent guided VIP tour through the marvels of our beloved work- and living- space.

Welcome to the Blender Institute!

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