Download: https://www.blender.org/download/

Release Page: https://www.blender.org/download/releases/5-2/

Release Notes: https://developer.blender.org/docs/release_notes/5.2/

Feature Overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4OXlrxqIx0

Showcase Reel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arrO44cCp88

The Blender Studio is currently aiming to produce its first feature-length open movie, Overgrown, and to make this possible, Blender is attempting to reach a total of 7,000 Blender Studio subscriptions by the start of September. If you would like to support this project, you can do so at the following link: https://studio.blender.org/welcome/

For more than twenty years, the Blender studio has produced open movie projects as a means of putting Blender to the test, and helping guide Blender's development. These are production-quality films whose assets, workflows, and documentation are made available to Blender Studio subscribers, allowing members of the community to learn from the Blender's Studio's own experience tackling these animation projects.

So far, all of Blender's open movies have been short films, but with Overgrown, the Blender studio is trying to change that, setting its sights on a much more ambitious project.

You can learn more about Overgrown at the following links:

https://studio.blender.org/blog/overgrown-announcement/

https://studio.blender.org/projects/overgrown/

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wv93lN5ixj8

If you would like to help fund Blender's continued development: https://fund.blender.org/

Congratulations to /u/Sushi_Slushy for winning May's contest with their entry Deepwaters.

You can see last month's results and other entries here.

Theme

This month's theme will be warped. Think about objects being stretched, twisted, bent, and distorted. Perhaps it was heat that caused it, perhaps it was a sudden impact, or perhaps it simply grew that way. It might be a gnarly knot in the branches of a tree, a neglected structure left exposed to the elements, the mangled remains produced by some misfortune. There's certainly more abstract ways to take the prompt, but we're aiming for more physical interpretations this time around. With that in mind, comes show us your warped creations in this month's contest.

Making a Submission.

Entries will be posts on r/Blender that meet the following criteria: * The post should be made before the end of July 31st UTC+00:00 * Countdown to submissions closing * The post should be a render, animation, or other artwork which you made for this contest using Blender as your primary tool. * The post should contain supporting images/text or a top-level comment with the following content: * One of the following methods of proving that the artwork was made using Blender: * A link to the .blend file for the project, ideally including external assets or links to where external assets were sourced from. * A set of three images which may be clay renders, viewport renders, wireframe renders, or simply screenshots of the project open in Blender. Some variety is encouraged. * A screen recording of you manipulating, navigating, or otherwise interacting with the scene. * An explanation of all work that was done outside of Blender, outside the time frame of the contest, or by other artists. * (Optional) The theme you would like next month's contest to have if you win. If you do not include this, then the theme will be chosen from the runner-ups. * Once you have submitted your post to the subreddit, leave a comment down below linking to it * You are also encouraged to share details of your process with the community.

Note: You don't have to reference the contest in the post title and indeed, it's not necessary to frame the submissions differently than any other post meant to showcase an artwork.

Winning

The winner will receive the flair Contest Winner: 2026 July and their post will be added to the subreddit's wiki under the Contest Winners list. The winner will also have the chosen theme selected for next month's contest, should they include one with their submission.

When the contest ends, the results will be edited into this post and the 1st place winner will be congratulated in the announcement for next month's contest.

The winner will be awarded $100 USD.