A new stable release of the open-source 3D software Blender 2.74 was released at the end of March with some new features and numerous improvements.

Blender 2.74 release highlights:

• Cycles got several precision, noise, speed, memory improvements, new Pointiness attribute.
• Viewport has new cool compositing features, outliner now manages orphan datablocks better.
• Modeling now allows custom normals, and transferring data layers between meshes!
• Massive improvements to hair dynamics and editing tools: a big step forward with more to come…
• A new tool “Cavity Mask” was added to sculpting/painting, along with other improvements.
• Great memory consumption optimization in Freestyle NPR stroke rendering.
• Grease pencil and Game engine improvements, and more…

Read the detailed changes at this page.

How to Install or Upgrade to Blender 2.74 in Ubuntu:

While Blender website provides a portable version for download, you can always install the latest release via these steps in another post (You may first remove the previous Blender installation).

There are some guys maintaining the most recent Blender release in PPAs. Below are some of them:

• Thomas Schiex’s PPA: https://launchpad.net/~thomas-schiex/+archive/ubuntu/blender
• hjmooses’s PPA: https://launchpad.net/~heyarje/+archive/ubuntu/blender-2.7

To add a PPA, run below command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository PPA_NAME_HERE

For example, running sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thomas-schiex/blender to add the Thomas Schiex’s PPA.

After adding a PPA, open Software Updater and upgrade Blender after checking for updates.

Blender, the popular 3D graphics and animation software, has reached the 2.73 release with numerous improvements, stabilization and bug fixes.

A major upgrade was given to the Grease Pencil tool, which inter alia brought the ability to edit and animate strokes. The first developments from the Gooseberry Project like a Sequencer Backdrop, Cycles viewport world background and others were added. Cycles got various improvements and speedups, as well as support for cameras inside volumes, the UI got a new ‘minimalistic’ fullscreenmode and Input Method Editor support for textbuttons (used for complex Chinese and Japanese character input), the Knife-tool was improved, Freestyle got a SVG exporter, and many more features which are worth checking out!

For the detailed changes in Blender 2.73, see the official release note.

How to Install Blender 2.73 in Ubuntu:

Blender download page provides the binary packages for GNU/Linux, while there’s no PPA contains the latest built of Blender packages you can follow this step by step how to guide to install Blender in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10 from the official package.

While Ubuntu repositories provide an old Blender version, you can always follow this tutorial to install the latest release from the official package. Tested in Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04 and it should work in Ubuntu 10.04 and higher.

Blender is a professional free and open-source 3D computer graphics software product used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D printed models, interactive 3D applications and video games.

So far the latest stable release is Blender 2.72b, which was released a week ago. See the new features in its website.

While Blender in Ubuntu Software Center is old and there’s no PPA repository that always provides the latest binaries, follow the steps below to install the latest release with new features and bug fixes:

1. Click the link below to bring up Ubuntu Software Center and click the install button to install the package libsdl1.2debian:

2. Download Blender for GNU/Linux from the official link below. You may first check your OS type, 32-bit or 64-bit, by clicking on “About This computer” from shutdown menu (top-right corner gear button).

www.blender.org/download/

3. – a). For single use – If you have only one user on the Ubuntu system, just extract the package to user Downloads folder and run the executable from the result folder:

3. – b). To make all users to be able to run the blender release, extract the package to /opt/ directory.

To do so, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal, run command below to open your Downloads folder as root/administrator:

gksudo nautilus ~/Downloads

Install gksu from Ubuntu Software Center if need. Type in your user password when it asks.

When the folder opens, do:

1. Right click on Blender package and select open with Archive Manager.
2. When Archive Manager opens, select Extract to computer -> /opt/

When done, you should see the blender folder under /opt/. For shot, I’ve rename it from “blender-2.72b-linux-glibc211-x86_64” to “blender”.

4. Create a launcher for Blender so that we can start it from the Unity Dash or App Menu.

Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal. When it opens, run command to create .desktop file and edit it with Gedit text editor:

gksudo gedit /usr/share/applications/blender-2.7.desktop

When the file opens, paste below into it and save.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Blender-2.7
Name[de]=Blender-2.7
Name[fr]=Blender-2.7
GenericName=3D modeller
GenericName[de]=3D Modellierer
GenericName[fr]=modeleur 3D
GenericName[ru]=Редактор 3D-моделей
Comment=Create and edit 3D models and animations
Comment[de]=Erstellen und Editieren von 3D Modellen und Animationen
Comment[fr]=Création et édition d'objets 3D et animations
Comment[ru]=Создание и редактирование трёхмерных моделей и анимаций
Exec=/opt/blender/blender
Icon=/opt/blender/icons/scalable/apps/blender.svg
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Graphics;3DGraphics;
StartupNotify=false
MimeType=application/x-blender;

Depends on step 3, you may replace path to Exec & Icon (words in red).

When done, you should be able to open Blender from the Unity Dash or App Menu. Enjoy!

Not clear enough? See the video: