See Blender 2.73’s new grease pencil tool in action

At first, Daniel M. Lara‘s For You looks like a charming little 2D short.

The one-minute animation, which shows a bored child being pacified with the offer of an iPad, has a scribbly, dashed-off line style that suggests it was done in Flash or a similar package.

It’s only when the action repeats from another camera view that you realise that it’s done in 3D – and only when Lara reveals the scene itself that it’s done in Blender.

Available in current test builds
In fact, the work was done using the updated grease pencil tool coming up in Blender 2.73, and available in current test builds.

The update makes pencil strokes editable, and supports separate fills, volumetric strokes (drawn as “screen-aligned discs”), and improved onion-skinning.

In true open-source spirit, Lara has made the scene file for the animation available to download. You can find the link on the Vimeo page, along with some information on using the grease pencil for yourself.

Other new features in Blender 2.73
Other new features in Blender 2.73 include a new fullscreen mode for viewing work free of UI elements, and updates to the Collada importer. You can read more in the (work in progress) online release notes.

Read more about the updated grease pencil tool in Blender 2.73