Blender Lab: An open space for experimentation and research

With Blender’s massive growth, stability and reliability are now key priorities.

But to stay modern and innovative, here comes Blender Lab 🧪

An open space for experimentation and research, where anyone can help shape Blender’s future.

Here are the first projects 👇

Touch & Pen ✍️

A project to make Blender simple and enjoyable to use on touchscreens and stylus devices.

From iPad to Android tablets: bringing a smooth, intuitive creative experience to Blender.

VR & XR 🥽

A project bringing immersive creation to Blender.

From virtual layout to location scouting, build, explore, and present your scenes directly in VR and AR, shaping the next frontier of 3D interaction.

Volume Rendering ☁️

A project to make volumetric rendering (smoke, fog, clouds, skin…) more accurate, automatic, and GPU-friendly.

The goal: less manual tweaking, more realism and performance for production-ready results.

Light Transport 💡

A project exploring new light transport algorithms to achieve more realistic, efficient rendering.

From complex reflections to caustics and interior lighting, paving the way for the next generation of Cycles.

USD Authoring 🗃️

A project to expand Blender’s native USD (Universal Scene Description) capabilities.

The goal: seamless reading, writing, and editing of USD files, making Blender a stronger link in professional production pipelines.

Artificial Intelligence 🤖

A project connecting Blender with AI systems through the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Allowing natural-language interaction, “Add a cube, subdivide it 3×, apply a glass shader”, opening the door to a new era of creative automation.

Blender Lab is Blender’s new open R&D space: a playground for innovation, collaboration, and bold experimentation.

Where developers, designers, and researchers come together to imagine what Blender could become next.

👉 blender.org/news/introducing-blender-lab