Blender Institute formally acts as the working company of Blender Foundation.
To keep the Foundation lean and a safe place for Blender, almost all activities of the Foundation are being conducted by the Blender Institute. That includes office rent, daily administration, general management, HR services, Blender Store, Blender Conference organization, event participation (SIGGRAPH, Annecy, etc), operational support for blender.org, managing Development Fund grants, software research projects, workshops, meetings, and so on.
Read more about the way how the Blender organization facilitates the Blender open source community on this code.blender.org blog post.
These operational and development expenses are covered by the Blender Foundation, income from donations and the Development Fund. Next to that, the Blender Store generates additional income by selling goodies and the tickets for the annual Blender Conference.
In rare cases Blender Institute will accept a co-development agreement with third parties; to work on specific Blender features that fit in the blender.org road map but don’t have high priority or strict deadline. Such agreements, as opposed to Development Fund memberships, have a milestone planning and clear deliverables. Only projects that involve 3 or more months of work will be taken in consideration.
Can I come visit?
Yes! During office hours (between 10-18h), visitors are welcome for a quick 5-minute tour. Try to avoid lunch time (13-13:30h). Just keep in mind the team will be busy so visits have to be limited in time.
If you want to bring us something; no alcoholic drinks or candy please, simply bring the ugliest (touristic) fridge magnet from your hometown!
Get directions in Google Maps or OpenStreetMap.
Blender Institute B.V.
Buikslotermeerplein 161
1025 ET Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Board: Ton Roosendaal, Francesco Siddi.
Administration: Anja Vugts-Verstappen
Chamber of Commerce: 34276786
Tax (VAT/BTW): NL818152011B01
EORI: NL818152011
Bank: ING Bank
Bijlmerdreef 109
1102 BW Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
Account #: 52 96 212
IBAN: NL22 INGB 0005296212
BIC/Swift code: INGB NL2A
PayPal: ton(at)blender(dot)org
Contact: institute(at)blender(dot)org
History
In 2007 Blender Foundation chairman Ton Roosendaal established the “Blender Institute” following the overwhelming success of “Elephants Dream”, the world’s first open movie project. This became the permanent office and studio to more efficiently organize the Blender Foundation goals, to bring core Blender developers and top Blender artists together.
Since 2006, Blender has realized several open projects. This creative work is possible thanks to the Blender Studio (formerly Blender Cloud) platform – for content (short films, training) and in the past by providing cloud services (production and render management).
In 2020, the Blender Institute’s studio activities have been split off into a separate company; Blender Studio. Here new short films are developed and activities continue to develop a complete free and open source pipeline for independent production of feature animation films.
Blender currently employs over 20 full time employees, and 12 freelancers remotely. The building in Amsterdam houses offices for administration, developers, a store, a render farm and test lab, space for workshops/sprints and Blender Studio where artists work on animation film productions.