Open source

Goo Engine

Our fork of Blender, built for 3D anime. It adds the shading, shadow and compositing control the anime look needs.

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Why a fork, not an add-on

Blender add-ons are written in Python. Blender's render logic is written in C. Changing how Blender renders means changing the C code, and that means a fork.

We weren't sure a small YouTube studio could keep a fork up to date. We built it anyway, and it was worth it. We use it every day, add features when a shot needs them, and keep it in step with Blender.

This shot would not be possible without Goo Engine.

Screenspace shadows hold their shape as the camera moves around her.

The Screenspace Info node and a test scene — The Screenspace Info node reads scene color and depth.

Screenspace shadow shapes in the viewport — The shadow shapes themselves are plain geometry.

Our most powerful feature

Screenspace Info

The Screenspace Info node lets a material read the scene's color and depth around it. That opens up effects Blender can't do on its own: rim lights and outlines from depth, refraction and distortion FX, soft edges where surfaces meet, and our screenspace shadows.

Screenspace shadows are shadow shapes built as geometry and drawn onto the surface behind them, never past the silhouette. They can follow the rig or the surface, and react to light through the Shader Info node.

Curvature · Cavity

Procedural highlights

The Curvature node finds edges, creases and the silhouette on the fly, so edge highlights and rim lights come from the geometry itself. Fully 3D, with no projection mapping and no painting. It's one of the features artists use most.

A stylized shader built on the Curvature node.

Every edge highlight on this train is procedural.

The Curvature node and three sets of cubes showing its outputs — Curvature, cavity and rim, all from one node.

Each light only touches the objects in its group.

Character lighting, kept separate from the scene.

The Shader Info node and the light groups panel.

Shader Info · Light groups

Shading you can direct

The Shader Info node reads diffuse shading, cast shadows, self shadows and ambient light inside your materials. Set shadow intensity and color, or calculate shadows as if the light came from somewhere else.

Light groups give each character or object its own set of lights, so a face can be lit for the drawing while the scene is lit for the mood. We built them for Goo Engine first. Blender now has the same idea as Light Linking in EEVEE Next, and we helped bring it in.

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Blender Conference 2022

Built for us, released for everyone

After two years of development, we released Goo Engine at Blender Conference 2022, open source. It has now become one of the leading solutions for stylized rendering.