Skip to content

Developer

Projects
Docs
Blog
Forum
Builds

Initializing search

BLENDER.ORG
- Download
  
  Get the latest Blender, older versions, or experimental builds.
- What's New
  
  Stay up-to-date with the new features in the latest Blender releases.
LEARNING & RESOURCES
- Blender Studio
  
  Access production assets and knowledge from the open movies.
- Manual
  
  Documentation on the usage and features in Blender.
DEVELOPMENT
- Developers Blog
  
  Latest development updates, by Blender developers.
- Documentation
  
  Guidelines, release notes and development docs.
- Benchmark
  
  A platform to collect and share results of the Blender Benchmark.
- Blender Conference
  
  The yearly event that brings the community together.
DONATE
- Development Fund
  
  Support core development with a monthly contribution.
- One-time Donations
  
  Perform a single donation with more payment options available.

Home
Developer Handbook
Features
Compatibility
Release Notes
Summer of Code
Contribute Documentation

Blender Developer Documentation

projects.blender.org

Home
Developer Handbook
Developer Handbook
- New Developers
  New Developers
- Communication
  Communication
- Building Blender
  Building Blender
- Development Environments
  Development Environments
  - Xcode
  - Visual Studio
  - Visual Studio Code
  - QtCreator
  - Vim
  - Emacs
  - Sublime Text
- Contributing Code
  Contributing Code
- Organization
  Organization
  - Modules
  - Projects
- Guidelines
  Guidelines
  - C/C++ Style Guide
  - C/C++ Best Practices
  - Python Style Guide
  - GLSL Style Guide
  - Commit Messages
  - Release Notes Guide
  - License Headers
  - Code Quality Day
  - Blend File Compatibility
  - New Committers
  - Reverting Commits
  - Design
    
    Design
    
    Decision Tree
    
    Idea, Concept, Design
    
    Communication and Presentation
    
    Communication and Presentation
    
    UI Toolkit
    
    UI Toolkit
    
    Icons
    
    Examples
  - Extensions on blender.org
- Release Process
  Release Process
  - Release Cycle
  - Release Branch
    
    Release Branch
    
    Merge Playbook
  - LTS
  - Build
    Build
    
    Library Dependencies
    
    CentOS 7
    
    Rocky Linux 8
    
    macOS Libraries
  - Release Checklist
    
    Release Checklist
    
    Third Party Licenses
  - Stores
    Stores
    
    Snap
    
    Steam
    
    Windows
- Automated Tests
  Automated Tests
- Tooling
  Tooling
  - C/C++
    C/C++
    
    ClangFormat
    
    Address Sanitizer
    
    Valgrind
    
    GDB
    
    Clog: C/C++ Logging Library
    
    Doxygen
  - Python
    Python
    
    Profiling
    
    Tracing
    
    Py from C
  - Building
    Building
    
    BuildBot
    
    Unity Builds
    
    distcc
  - Utilities
    Utilities
    
    Blender Tools
    
    Git Bisect with Event Simulation
    
    tea
- Bug Reports
  Bug Reports
- Add-ons
  Add-ons
  - Guidelines
  - Add-on Meta Info
- Translating
  Translating
Features
Features
- Code Layout
- Core
  Core
  - BLI: Blender Library
    
    BLI: Blender Library
    
    Any
    
    Bits
    
    Containers
    
    CPP Type
    
    Disjoint-Set
    
    Functions
    
    Index Mask
    
    Index Range
    
    Span
    
    Strings
    
    Virtual Arrays
  - Blender Projects
  - Context
  - Dependency Graph
  - DNA
  - Implicit Sharing
  - RNA
  - Undo System
  - Datablocks
    
    Datablocks
    
    Embedded IDs
    
    ID Datablocks
    
    Main Data-Base
    
    Runtime IDs
    
    Management
    
    Management
    
    IDs and File Paths
    
    Relationships Between IDs
  - Overrides
    
    Overrides
    
    Library
    
    Library
    
    Functional Design Library Overrides
    
    Library Overrides and USD
  - Proposals
    
    Proposals
    
    Extensible Architecture Proposal
- Asset System
  Asset System
  - Fundamentals
    
    Fundamentals
    
    Architectural Overview
    
    From File Browser to Asset System
  - Backend
    
    Backend
    
    Asset Catalogs
    
    Asset Indexing
    
    Asset List API
  - User Interface
    User Interface
    
    Asset Browser
    
    Asset Shelf
  - Asset Editing
  - Asset Bundles
    
    Asset Bundles
    
    Guidelines
    
    Human Base Meshes Bundle
    
    Lighting Bundle
    
    Materials Bundle
  - Brush Assets
  - FAQ
- User Interface
  User Interface
  - Editors
  - Experimental Features
  - Icons
  - Internationalization and localization
  - Operators
  - Outliner
  - Preferences & Defaults
  - Screen
  - Interface Text Output
  - Window
  - Window Manager
  - Editors
  - Human interface guidelines
    
    Human interface guidelines
    
    Design Paradigms
    
    General Patterns
    
    General Patterns
    
    Best Practices
    
    Writing Style
    
    Layouts
    
    Accessibility
    
    Selection
    
    Icons
    
    Modal Interfaces
    
    Components
    
    Components
    
    Editors
    
    Dialogs
    
    Menus
    
    Sidebar Tabs
    
    Tooltips
    
    User Feedback
    
    User Feedback
    
    Reports
    
    Animations
    
    Glossary
  - Module
    
    Module
    
    Getting Involved as a Designer
    
    UI Workboard Notes
  - Views
    
    Views
    
    Grid Views
    
    Tree-Views
- Scene & Objects
  Scene & Objects
  - Attributes
  - Curve
  - Curves
  - Geometry Sets
  - Instances
  - Meshes
    Meshes
    
    Mesh
    
    BMesh
  - Point Cloud
  - Volume
  - Transform
  - I/O
    I/O
    
    Alembic
    
    USD
- Sculpt & Paint
  Sculpt & Paint
  - PBVH
- Geometry Nodes
  Geometry Nodes
- Animation & Rigging
  Animation & Rigging
  - Module
    
    Module
    
    Bigger Projects
    
    Weak Areas
  - Active keyframe
  - Animation System
    
    Animation System
    
    Animato
    
    Baklava
  - Armatures
    
    Armatures
    
    Bone Collections
  - B-Bone Vertex Mapping
  - Inverse Kinematics
  - NLA
  - Parenting
  - Tools
    Tools
    
    Pose library
  - Rigify
    
    Rigify
    
    Feature Set Package Structure
    
    Main Generator Engine
    
    Implementing a Rig
    
    UI Script Generator
    
    Skin System
    
    Utils
    Utils
    
    Bone Utilities
    
    Mechanism Utilities
    
    Naming Utilities
- Grease Pencil
  Grease Pencil
  - Architecture
  - Line Art
    Line Art
    
    Code Structure
    
    Desired Functionality
- Rendering
  Rendering
  - Cycles
    
    Cycles
    
    Design Goals
    
    Node Guidelines
    
    Source Layout
    
    Standalone
    
    Scene Graph
    Scene Graph
    
    Scene Graph
    
    BVH
    
    Device Abstraction
    Device Abstraction
    
    Devices
    
    Kernel Language
    
    Scheduling
    Scheduling
    
    Render Scheduling
    
    Kernel Scheduling
    
    Multi Device Scheduling
    
    Output
    Output
    
    Tiling and OpenEXR Cache
    
    Output and Display Drivers
    
    Algorithms
    Algorithms
    
    Sampling Patterns
    
    Units & Colors
    
    Light and Shadow Linking
    
    Outdated
    Outdated
    
    Threads
    
    Papers
    
    Optimization Ideas
    
    Network Render
    
    Volume Render
  - EEVEE
    
    EEVEE
    
    Classes
    Classes
    
    Views
    
    Modules
    Modules
    
    World
    
    Sphere Light-Probes
    
    Lookdev
    
    Pipeline
    
    Film
    
    Shadow
    
    Pipelines
    
    Pipelines
    
    Background
    
    Probe
    
    World
    
    Deferred
    
    Shadow
    
    Render Passes
  - Workbench
    
    Workbench
    
    Shadow
  - Compositor
    
    Compositor
    
    Realtime
    
    Realtime
    
    Realtime Compositor UX
  - Sequencer
  - Render Pipeline
    Render Pipeline
    
    Color Management
- GPU & Viewports
  GPU & Viewports
  - Overview
  - Overview (Legacy)
  - GLSL Cross Compilation
  - Abstractions
    Abstractions
    
    GPU Viewport
  - Viewports
    Viewports
    
    Color Management
    
    Image Engine
    
    Virtual Reality
    
    Virtual Reality
    
    OpenXR-SDK Dependency
  - Vulkan Backend
    
    Vulkan Backend
    
    Buffers
    
    Command Buffer
    
    Descriptor Sets
    
    Images
    
    Memory Management
    
    Pipelines
    
    Push Constants
    
    Shaders
    
    Swap Chain
    
    VKFramebuffer
    
    VKStateManager
    
    VKVertexBuffer
    
    Workarounds
  - Tools
    
    Tools
    
    RenderDoc
    
    Shader Builder
    
    Shader printf
- Extensions
  Extensions
  - Manifest Schema
    
    Manifest Schema
    
    1.0.0
  - Listing API
    
    Listing API
    
    v1
  - Moderation
    
    Moderation
    
    Canned Responses
    
    Guidelines
Compatibility
Release Notes
Release Notes
- 4.3 (alpha)
  4.3 (alpha)
  - Animation & Rigging
  - Compositor
  - Core
  - Cycles
  - EEVEE & Viewport
  - Extensions
  - Geometry Nodes
  - Grease Pencil
    
    Grease Pencil
    
    Migration Process
  - Modeling & UV
  - Pipeline, Assets & I/O
  - Python API & Text Editor
  - Rendering
  - Sculpt, Paint, Texture
  - User Interface
  - Video Sequencer
- 4.2 LTS
  4.2 LTS
  - Animation & Rigging
  - Color Management
  - Compositor
  - Core
  - Cycles
  - EEVEE
    
    EEVEE
    
    Migration Process
  - Extensions
  - Geometry Nodes
  - Import & Export
  - Modeling & UV
  - Physics
  - Python API
  - Sculpt
  - User Interface
  - Video Sequencer
- 4.1
  4.1
- 4.0
  4.0
  - Animation & Rigging
  - Geometry Nodes
  - Modeling
  - Sculpt & Paint
  - Shading & Texturing
  - Cycles
  - Color Management
  - Compositor & Sequencer
  - Import & Export
  - Core
  - User Interface
  - 3D Viewport
  - Node Editor
  - Keymap
  - Add-ons
  - Python API
  - Asset Bundles
  - Corrective Releases
  - Upgrading
    Upgrading
    
    Bone Collections & Colors
- 3.6 LTS
  3.6 LTS
- 3.5
  3.5
- 3.4
  3.4
- 3.3 LTS
  3.3 LTS
- 3.2
  3.2
- 3.1
  3.1
- 3.0
  3.0
- 2.93 LTS
  2.93 LTS
  - Animation & Rigging
  - Core
  - Cycles
  - Eevee
  - Geometry Nodes
  - Grease Pencil
  - Import & Export
  - Modeling
  - More Features
  - Physics
  - Sculpt
  - User Interface
  - VFX
  - Add-ons
  - Python API
- 2.92
  2.92
- 2.91
  2.91
  - Animation & Rigging
  - Eevee
  - Grease Pencil
  - Import & Export
  - Modeling
  - More Features
  - Physics
  - Sculpt
  - User Interface
  - Volumes
  - Add-ons
  - Python API
- 2.90
  2.90
- 2.83 LTS
  2.83 LTS
  - Animation
  - Cycles
  - Eevee
  - Grease Pencil
  - Modeling
  - Physics
  - Sculpt
  - User Interface
  - Virtual Reality
  - Volumes
  - More Features
  - Add-ons
  - Python API
- 2.82
  2.82
  - Cycles
  - Eevee
  - Grease Pencil
  - Import & Export
  - Modeling
  - Physics
  - Rigging
  - Sculpt
  - Textures
  - User Interface
  - Add-ons
  - Python API
  - Corrective Releases
    Corrective Releases
    
    2.82a
- 2.81
  2.81
  - Cycles
  - Eevee
  - Grease Pencil
  - Library Overrides
  - Rigging
  - Sculpt
  - Transform
  - User Interface
  - Viewport
  - More Features
  - Add-ons
  - Python API
  - Corrective Releases
    Corrective Releases
    
    2.81a
- 2.80
  2.80
  - User Interface
  - Tools
  - Animation
  - Cycles
  - Dependency Graph
  - EEEVEE
  - Grease Pencil
  - Import & Export
  - Layers
  - Modeling
  - Viewport
  - More Features
  - Removed features
  - Add-ons
  - Python API
    
    Python API
    
    Addons
    
    Animation
    
    Draw
    
    Mesh
    
    Modules
    
    Preferences
    
    Scene and Object
    
    Timer
    
    User Interface
    
    User Interface Design
- 2.79
  2.79
  - Alembic
  - Animation
  - Cycles
  - Grease Pencil
  - Index
  - Modelling
  - User Interface
  - More Features
  - Add-ons
  - Python API
  - Bugfixes
  - Corrective Releases
    Corrective Releases
    
    2.79a
    
    2.79b
- Release Archive
Summer of Code
Summer of Code
- Getting Started
- Project Ideas
- Application Template
- 2024
- Previous Years
  Previous Years
  - 2023
  - 2022
  - 2021
  - 2020
  - 2019
Contribute Documentation
Contribute Documentation

Extensions¶

Extensions Platform integration and design topics.

Manifest Schema
Listing API
Moderation

Download

What's New

Blender Studio

Manual

Developers Blog

Documentation

Benchmark

Blender Conference

Development Fund

One-time Donations

Extensions¶