The other day took place 97th ceremony of the world’s main film award — «Oscar-2025». Quite unexpectedly, «Flow» became the best animated film, beating the hits «Inside Out 2» and «Wild Robot». Thus, the Latvian authors proved that it is possible to create decent animated films even without the big budgets of world-famous studios. Moreover, this beautifully animated movie, which tells the mystical story of a dark gray cat and its companions, was created entirely in the free 3D editor Blender.
This program is included in the lists of the best free animation software. But how can you create such a powerful animated movie with free software? Screenwriter and director Gints Zilbalodis shared his experience.
The Latvian director told us that he started working on «Flow» back in 2019 and chose Blender because of the real-time EEVEE rendering engine. The speed of rendering and even just opening files quickly helped «save a lot of time and nerves for». Additionally, the flexibility of Blender’s settings greatly simplified the process.
In 2021, Gintz engaged horn specialists and developers to create custom scripts that optimized the workflow. He designed the initial scenes, and the design team detailed them by adding vegetation, props, and environmental elements. Concept artists designed architectural objects, and other team members created tools for the work.
Water became one of the key elements of the movie. It was created by Martins Upitis, who developed a special Blender addon for water effects, and Konstantijns Visnevskis worked on smaller simulations, such as splashes. He also explored stylized fur and feather techniques while working on shaders.
A breakthrough moment was the addition of Belgian and French producers Take Five and Sacrableu Productions in 2022. They helped develop new tools and horns to improve character animation.
When it comes to learning Blender, Gintz says he did a lot of online learning, while Constantijns was involved in writing scripts. He also notes that most animators get used to Blender in just a week, but the learning process never stops.
«I still feel like there are a lot of things I don’t know about Blender or other programs», Gintz adds. «And with such long projects, sometimes you forget things you learned five years ago».
During his work, he gradually updated Blender from 2.8 alpha to 3.3, and at the final stage of lighting, he switched to version 4.6.
«Before each update, we tested the files for problems», he says. «Some things broke, but overall the workflow remained stable».
The team used various additional plugins, including:
Gintz thanked Blender while receiving the award:
«Any kid now has the tools to make Oscar-winning movies»»», he said. «It’s not a compromise – Blender is as good as any other software and we will use it for my next movie».