Blender 4.4 Released: Animation & Rigging Get a Major Overhaul

Blender, one of the world’s most popular open-source 3D creation tools, has just released its latest v4.4, which brings various refinements that significantly streamline workflow—particularly in animation, rigging, and compositing.

Perhaps the headline feature in Blender 4.4 is the Slotted Actions system, which changes how actions are stored and reused. Instead of forcing users to keep animation data for only one type of data-block (e.g., a single Mesh or Material) in a single Action, artists can now store multiple data-block types in the same file. This fresh design:

Introduces the concept of Slots, enabling you to animate several elements—Object transforms, Camera lenses, Shape Keys, or even Hook Empties—within one Action.
Automatically upgrades Actions from older .blend files into “slotted” ones, so no manual migration is required. Each old Action simply gains a “Legacy Slot” to preserve existing work.
Lets animators merge or separate animated data in the Action Editor. For instance, if you animate two or more objects that share the same Action, you can easily split or reorganize their respective channels.

Blender 4.4 open-source 3D creation suite

On the flexibility side, the Pose Library received a thoughtful update, too. Pose Assets now comfortably handle multiple armatures and can even be managed in external asset libraries, streamlining your workflow when collaborating across multiple projects or teams.

Not limited to animation, Blender’s Compositor also underwent a comprehensive overhaul aimed at boosting performance. The CPU compositor rewrites notably enhance speed, reduce memory consumption, and improve responsiveness, especially when adjusting node setups or working with the revamped Glare node.

Users now enjoy infinitely repeatable transformations and more accurate, fast Gaussian blurs without losing image quality.

On the hardware front, Blender 4.4 expands GPU rendering capabilities, including robust support for NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 50×0 (Blackwell series) and AMD’s RX 90×0 (RDNA4 series). Notably, AMD’s HIP RT rendering exits experimental status, promising a smoother experience by default starting with the next Blender update.

Additionally, users will notice a variety of small, meaningful improvements across the EEVEE & Viewport and User Interface:

User Experience refinements include a new default file name capitalization (“Untitled”), faster preview image rendering, updated tooltips, more refined color-picking workflows (particularly on macOS), and the capacity to copy/paste UVs with simple shortcuts like “Ctrl+C” and “Ctrl+V” in the UV Editor.
Overlays have been rewritten for consistency: Objects’ origins and wireframes behave more predictably when toggling X-Ray or Overlays.
Vulkan’s experimental backend receives another large performance update, improving stability while laying the groundwork for future rendering innovations.

Apart from the above-mentioned, Blender 4.4’s core improvements range from environment variable expansions to new video encoding options, with the most striking among them being:

Introducing H.265/HEVC as a render output codec provides a high-quality, high-compression alternative for more professional video pipelines.
DWAA/DWAB EXR compression now includes a quality parameter, making the .exr workflow more adaptable and storage-friendly.
Auto-saves and quit.blend files are now always saved compressed, helping to keep project files manageable in size.

Video editors can rejoice at the Sequencer’s improvement in 10-bit and 12-bit video support, enabling precise HDR editing. Color accuracy has also been refined to ensure consistent playback across different players, and text strips are vastly more flexible—users can edit text directly in the preview area, enable rounded background corners, and manage multi-line alignment.

Last but not least, it is also worth noting the changes made in several other areas, namely:

Geometry Nodes: The Triangulate Node is much faster; there is a new “Find in String” node, and the Subdivision Surface node sees “Limit Surface” support.
Grease Pencil: Longtime users will appreciate the restoration of essential operators from 4.2 LTS (like “Fixed,” “Sample,” and “Merge” simplify modes), better layering workflows, and the removal of hidden layers from evaluated data.
Modeling & UV: The addition of “Select Poles” (for 3-poles, 5-poles, etc.) and improved vertex/edge dissolve functionalities help polish the modeling pipeline.
Sculpt, Paint, Texture: A brand-new Plane brush type unifies Flatten, Fill, and Scrape brushes into one flexible tool, and cloth brushes now default to a more straightforward user experience.