Project Orange, the first Open Movie, started in September 2005 and premiered end of March 2006. The ambitions and targets for Orange were set very high, the character animation system had to be fully recoded, the rendering system needed a lot of upgrades, and most of all: a node-based Compositor was required.

Elephants Dream was co-produced with the Netherlands Media Art Institute, who challenged the team to explore an abstract concept and storyline. This 10 minute short shows two people who explore a strange mechanical world, with each an entire own perception on what's actually there. The emotional ending shows once more the violent impact of mixing reality and fantasy.

Watch it on youtube here.

Project Peach, the second Open Movie, started in October 2007 and premiered April 2008. Target this time was to create good hair/fur editing and rendering, more advanced support for cartoonish characters, and solve complexity in rendering outdoors environments with grass, trees and leaves.

Big Buck Bunny was the first project in the Blender Institute Amsterdam. This 10 minute movie has been made inspired by the best cartoon tradition. A giant rabbit finds his happy sunny morning walk being disturbed by three rascal rodents. In a comical grand finale he gets even with them.

Watch it on youtube here.

Project Apricot, the Open Game, started February 2008 and published the game in September 2008. This time the target was to improve Blender as a tool in the game creation pipeline, using a level editor to the external engine Crystal Space. During the project also game creation and prototyping in Blender itself was added as a target.

Yo Frankie! was also executed in the Amsterdam studio of the Blender Institute. The game was delivered in both Blender Engine as in Crystal Space. The player controls evil rodent Frankie, who explores the forest seeking for other animals to harass.