I was doing some research on the internet and came across an animated film called “Elephants Dream” which was produced with Blender an Open Source 3d Modeling/Animation program.
Project Orange
Elephants Dream was a co-production of Montevideo and Blender Foundation under the name of Project Orange. It was coordinated by the Blender Foundation. Six people from the Blender user/development community were selected to go to Amsterdam and work together making this short film, utilizing Open Source tools only.
Project Orange’s prime objective was to create an outstanding short film, and secondly to research efficient ways to increase the quality of Open Source projects in general.
Synopsis 
Elephants Dream is the story of two strange characters exploring a capricious and seemingly infinite machine. The elder, Proog, acts as a tour-guide and protector, happily showing off the sights and dangers of the machine to his initially curious but increasingly skeptical protege Emo. As their journey unfolds we discover signs that the machine is not all Proog thinks it is, and his guiding takes on a more desperate aspect.
Open Source
What I find interesting about this production, is that it was made using Open Source software which means the software is free, you don’t have to pay for it, you can add or contribute to the source code, but you don’t own it and you can’t sell it. The computers used in the production took advantage of Linux, which is an Open Source computer OS (Operating System).
If this animated film was produced using commercial software, it would have been far too expensive to make, considering the high technical and graphical (rendering detail) quality of this production. Licensing fees for commercial software which would also require a license fee for the operating system if it’s not Linux, is dictated by how many computers are used, how many people access the software etc. It is a budgetary and legal minefield.
Creative Commons License
With the Open Source concept in mind, Project Orange also contributed to the artistic community by allowing access and use of the actual production files under a Creative Commons license. Here is what the producers of Elephants Dream have to say about the production.
Elephants Dream is a story about communication and fiction, made purposefully open-ended as the world’s first 3D animated “Open movie”. The film itself is released under the Creative Commons license, along with the production files used to make it (roughly 7 Gigabytes of data). The software used to make the movie is the free/open source animation suite Blender, along with other open source software, thus allowing the movie to be remade, remixed and re-purposed.
Watch the movie - Elephants Dream
Elephants Dream is the story of two strange characters exploring a capricious and seemingly infinite machine. The elder, Proog, acts as a tour-guide and protector, happily showing off the sights and dangers of the machine to his initially curious but increasingly skeptical protege Emo. As their journey unfolds we discover signs that the machine is not all Proog thinks it is, and his guiding takes on a more desperate aspect.
Here are some videos explaining how the film was made:
References:
Elephant Dreams: http://orange.blender.org/
Elephant Dreams Videos and Production Files: http://orange.blender.org/download
Elephant Dreams Media Gallery: http://orange.blender.org/media-gallery
Creative Commons License: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/
Open Source: http://www.opensource.org/
Blender 3D Modeling and Animation suite: www.blender.org/
