Blender iPad Pro App in Development with Apple Pencil Support

[MacRumors]

Blender has revealed it is developing a native iPad version of its popular open source 3D creation suite, complete with a fully-featured multitouch interface tailored to artists who rely on tablets.

Mockup showing Blender on iPad Pro​

According to the Blender development team, the idea is to bring the full power of Blender to popular tablet devices without compromises, starting with the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil Pro. From the blog post announcement:

This requires adapting to platform-specific paradigms, but also to offer more task-oriented user interfaces with reduced information density. This will be achieved by extending existing input methods, and improving workspaces and application templates, running on top of a regular Blender build.

The first version will reportedly focus on sculpting and basic object manipulation, with hopes of bringing tools like the Grease Pencil and storyboarding to the iPad later.

The team's current mockups show a single-window workflow that prioritizes screen real estate and quick access to tools via floating UI elements and contextual overlays. Menus are collapsed by default, and the usual Tool Settings header has been replaced with floating panels tailored to pen input.

Notably, this isn't a simplified mobile version of the app. "There is no specific intention of simplifying or tailoring Blender to appeal to an audience that might not be familiar with Blender or 3D," the team explains. Instead, the goal is to implement new core features in Blender while designing a custom application template tailored for devices like the iPad.

"The audience is 'Blender users'," the developers emphasize. "There is no distinction between desktop or tablet users, the same way mouse/keyboard and graphic tablet users are treated equally."

No release date has been announced, but Blender says a live tech demo will be shown at SIGGRAPH 2025 in Vancouver, with follow-up discussions and design workshops planned for Blender HQ and the Blender Conference later in 2025.

After iPad Pro development has reached the app release stage, Blender is expected to make an appearance on other touch-based input devices including the Microsoft Surface, Huawei MatePad, and Wacom MovinkPad. Some of the work being done for tablets will also benefit the desktop version, such as a Quick Favorites editor and a Helper overlay with curated shortcuts.

It's a bold plan for the open-source 3D software, which has previously been limited to desktop platforms. The latest Blender build can be downloaded for free from the Blender website, for both Intel and Apple silicon Macs.

Article Link: Blender iPad Pro App in Development with Apple Pencil Support

 

[SoldOnApple]

So it won't work on the M2 iPad Air?

 

[arkitect]

Now this is great news. 👍
I hope they can work with the inherent flaws limitations of iPad OS to make a smooth workflow.

 

[Celtic-moniker]

So it won't work on the M2 iPad Air?

Curious about this myself. My M1 iMac has no problems powering the desktop version, but it's not on the base memory size.

 

[NightFox]

As an Autodesk Fusion 360 user who's been meaning to also learn Blender for a while, I think this might give me the push I need.

 

[555gallardo]

This is the news I’ve been waiting for since the M1 iPad made it’s debut. YES!

 

[nottorp]

Curious about this myself. My M1 iMac has no problems powering the desktop version, but it's not on the base memory size.

If Apple is involved in this port, you should feel lucky they allow you to run it on the least expensive iPad Pro

 

[stiligFox]

Oh this is exciting! I’m literally just now trying to figure out sculpting and Blender 3D in general and coming from Fusion 360, it’s been a huge learning curve. This would be fantastic!

 

[yellowbunny]

Yeyyyyy so good!

 

[tazinlwfl]

Crazy how everyone was saying this wouldn’t happen, this is exactly what I expected after Maxon announced zbrush. Figured Blender wasn’t far behind. More and more of my workflow apps are starting to make similar moves.

 

[Ctrlos]

Good stuff!

Now if I can get Autodesk to port Fusion 360....

 

[iPadified]

Great! I have been saying it for years - we need larger screen iPads!!!

 

[adib]

This is an interesting turn of events since the Blender team has not been adopting the macOS native menu bar since the release of modern macOS. I wonder what made the change of heart?

 

[jayducharme]

This is amazing. I used to teach Blender and I remember when the app used to bring Mac Pros to their knees.

 

[tubular]

Fantastic news!

 

[HaHaRich!]

Very cool. I wonder if the iPad branch is getting any Vision Pro polish, since iPad apps can be enabled to run on AVP 🤔

 

[iPadified]

So it won't work on the M2 iPad Air?

8Gb RAM should be enough for smaller scenes and compute capacity should be fine (cycles render will be slow but OK). See no reason why it would not run on M2 iPad Air.

 

[nt5672]

Can wait for Apple to buy/hire the Blender developers and force it's development into the Apple *&^%hole.

 

[bradman83]

So it won't work on the M2 iPad Air?

Curious about this myself. My M1 iMac has no problems powering the desktop version, but it's not on the base memory size.

The actual announcement says it was tested on an iPad Pro but it does not say it will only run on iPad Pros. They specifically use just “iPad” as an example of the platforms the new Blender interface is intended to support.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Can wait for Apple to buy/hire the Blender developers and force it's development into the Apple *&^%hole.

One, Blender is open source, there’s nothing to “buy”. Second, Blender is Ton Roosendaal‘s baby. He’s been nurturing it for years, growing it from obscurity into the mainstream product it is today. I don’t think he’s about to give it away.

 

[hovscorpion12]

We're definitely getting a supercharged M5 iPad Pro. Blender recommends 32GB of RAM. They're doing a beta demo in Aug.

I'm so ready for the fall. SUPERCHARGED M5 iPad Pro here we come.

iPadOS 16
M5
up to 32GB of RAM
Up to 4TB
Redesigned vapor chamber chassis for instant cooling
BEAST

(Will cost eye watering $3,500+)

 

[hovscorpion12]

If you look at Blender on the M4 MacBook Air base [10-Core CPU/8-Core GPU], you can imagine how well the M4 iPad Pro may perform.

 

[beltzak]

Very weird feeling about the news. Blender has been neglecting Sculpting a long long time, the development of that module was completely stagnated since Pablo Dobarro left due to discrepancies with other module developers. He could not progress because of ties in the code between the different modules.

They also neglected pretty big Intel-AMD Apple hardware with huge regression in render times in Blender 4.0 and above. They dropped support of Metal in Blender 4.3 in AMD GPUs in Apple hardware “due to Apple’s fault” but Redshft3D and Octane X haven’t had such issues.

Also I feel that macOS version has a lot of Bugs against the Windows, Linux version’s. I may be wrong but that’s what I have being experiencing from 2020 to 2024 when I left fed up of such issues.

Now they announce a version for iPad? Maybe the last half and year have changed for better. That would be very good news.

Tom Roosendal shouldn’t have left Apple hardware convinced by the younger generation developers who love Linux and show way less love for Apple lol.

 

[nathan_reilly]

Others have said it but, plz, bring real functionality to the Fusion app. If Blender adds to some movement (even momentum?) in this direction, I will be quite happy.

 

[rp2011]

This sounds awesome, but just highlights my biggest problem with the iPad Pro with only 8GB standard unless you splurge for the overpriced 1TB iPad Pro.

Also highlights another gripe of folks griping about why the iPad is so powerful, or so thin and light when "NOBODY even asked for that". That nonsense doesn't help innovation.

Anyhow, Blender on the iPad Pro would be amazing with more memory. The new M4 chip with raytracing makes working with Blender and other GPU intensive graphic tasks far more enjoyable and useful. Apple is on the right track with the iPad Pro, I think the standard iPad Pro should come standard with 24GB of memory and the upgraded models with 48.
I just wish the whiners would just stick with the basic iPad and quit whining about why "NOBODY" asks for a better iPad Pro.

ALSO: Blender is free open source app that needs as much help for it's development as it can get. Adding iPad or optimized Metal support or any Mac support to Blender is costly. I hope Apple is generously donating to the Blender foundation as it is not just the right thing to do, but mutually beneficial.