 The Dutch animation studio NeoGeo (not associated with the Neo Geo video game brand) started to develop Blender as an in-house application, and based on the timestamps for the first source files, January 2, 1994 is considered to be Blender's birthday.The version 1.00 was released in January 1995, with the primary author being company co-owner and software developer Ton Roosendaal.The name "Blender" was inspired by a song by the Swiss electronic band Yello, from the album "Baby" which NeoGeo used in its showreel.