1. Overview of 2014 coding results for blender:
Texturing tools:
• Redesign the user interaction system for texture painting. Add direct support for blender's
material system – automatic detection for available textures and UV layers for painting,
operators for quick layer addition
• Stroke mode support: Curved and line strokes for paint systems (texturing – sculpting),
anchored and drag-dot strokes for texturing
• Color palette system for painting.
• Masking tools (brushes, textured brushes, cavity masking), gradient support
• HSL support for color wheels
• Sculpting while keeping tessellation of mesh homogeneous
Full notes at
blender 2.72 release notes page
blende 2.71 release notes page

2. User Interface
• Pie menus – radial
menus for quick access
to tools. Added python
support for user menu
scripting as well as C
backend for support of
core UI code.
• Widget system backend
(still work in progress)
For details:
Pie menus manual for blender 2.72
Real Time Display
• Speed optimizations for sculpting systems – full support for masking and matcap display
• Better support for the node material system, implement missing real time display
functionality for cycles renderer node system.
• Implementation of
• Compositing system for the 3D viewport – support real time ambient occlusion and depth of
field filters
More information at:
Viewport compositing manual
World Background for blender 2.73

3. Sequencer Tools
• Slip tool – allows non destructively changing position of movie files within a movie edit
without changing the strip position
• Image Backdrop of edited result to save screen space
• Snapping transformation tools for movie strips
• Threaded loading of waveforms for non-blocking user interaction
• Support for faster undo operations