Blender, one of the world’s most popular open-source 3D creation tools, has just released its latest 4.5 LTS release, packed with enhancements spanning animation, compositing, rendering, and user interface improvements.
In animation and rigging, the new version introduces notable quality-of-life enhancements. Artists now have greater flexibility, as bone viewport display modes can be overridden per bone, and snapping settings in the Drivers Editor can be toggled independently from other animation editors.
Animators will appreciate new features like the “Duplicate Shape Key” operator and “Update from Objects,” which simplify complex workflows.
Vertex Groups in edit mode also received thoughtful improvements—auto-normalization now automatically adjusts vertex weights, streamlining weight management. Additionally, pose mode selection gains four new “Select Grouped” options (Children, Immediate Children, Parents, and Siblings), aligning it closely with edit mode.
The compositor receives substantial updates, welcoming several new nodes, including Vector Math, Float Curve, and the Blackbody node, which are directly aligned with their shader node counterparts. Users can now leverage the powerful Image Info and Image Coordinates nodes for precise compositing tasks.
Texture nodes, popular in Geometry and Shader Nodes—such as Voronoi, Noise, and Gradient—are now fully integrated into the compositor, enhancing creative possibilities.
Cycles rendering continues to improve with adaptive subdivision, enhanced bump mapping for preserving details, and even the ability to implement custom cameras using Open Shading Language. Notably, GPU rendering improvements are arriving, although Blender has identified stability issues with AMD and Intel GPUs, with fixes aimed for in future patches.
EEVEE also sees exciting developments, particularly with the new Vulkan backend becoming production-ready, which matches OpenGL in feature parity and significantly improves performance. This update enhances shadow handling and reduces visual artifacts through improved depth buffer algorithms.
In the Geometry Nodes domain, the latest release introduces powerful new nodes for mesh editing, including Set Mesh Normal for smoother geometry transitions, as well as a robust suite of import nodes for external data formats such as OBJ, STL, and CSV. Grease Pencil integration further matures with new nodes specifically designed to efficiently manipulate depth, color, and softness attributes.
Lastly, Blender 4.5 also prioritizes usability, introducing horizontal scrolling support, streamlined menus, and enhanced pen tablet functionality for improved ergonomics. The Asset Browser receives several handy improvements, including screenshot-based asset previews, enhanced drag-and-drop functionality, and compact horizontal list views.
For more information, see the release notes. Blender 4.5 LTS (maintained until July 2027) is freely available for Windows, macOS, and Linux from the project’s downloads page.
