The skin modifier which is new in Blender 2.64 has been added to the modifier compendium. The skin modifier can be used to easily create base-meshes for sculpting or to create abstract or cartoonish figures.

In this Tutorial Frederik Steinmetz demonstrates two elegant ways to stylize renderings using the new double edge mask node. Additionally he shows how to use node groups in order to keep your compositing nice and organised.

In this tutorial you will learn how to install the Blender to Octane exporter by yoyos. Frederik Steinmetz will guide you through the process and help you to avoid the  most common pitfalls that still exist, due to the beta status of both the exporter and Octane.

This is Blenderdiplom's way of saying: have some nice winter holidays. In this tutorial Frederik Steinmetz will demonstrate how to set up a beautiful macro scene consisting of a few frost-covered plants with a nice backlighting effect. It's rendered in Cycles with a little compositing. Enjoy!

Maybe you have notivced a lot of development on BlenderDiplom.com lately. I have joined in to present my latest tutorials on this site as well. You might have seen the praying mantis series and have a lot of questions, or need / have updates on the technology. Then join in on the first blenderdiplom live question and answer session ever. It will be held Sunday December 18. at 17:00h (that's 5pm for Americans) UTC + 1 (Germany).

The second effect of Nion's second reel shows a big drum of smoke growing dangerously bigger and bigger - a nice, simple and very educational effect I chose for my second tutorial of his grand effect reels!