As far as I understand, Durian is almost done, the devs are heading home.
There are only a few render errors and colour corrections left to do, as I read.
What will they do during this month and half?
Isn’t it like a week at most of work?
Can someone explain what is left to do? 
Thanks.
I thought the stable release will be mid October
the beta isnt stable yet. at least in linux when I press Files-> User Preferences
Blender will exit ^^
I think that is why it will take a while
also there are still some missing tools, function and so on
The real battle starts from here, I think 
Print DVD covers, printing DVD labels, etc I guess. and not to mention SIGGRAPH that’s now I think. major thing there.
Well, basically there’s just a lot of renders that still need work. Little tweaks all over the place. Minor animation fixes still. Also, there’s some sound design and music polishing that still needs doing.
Plus, getting this film in 4K and getting the DVD in shape are major, time-consuming tasks!
–Colin
From http://durian.blender.org/news/premiere-netherlands-film-festival/
In the August/September period the DVD authoring will also begin, and the 4k rendering could start even. Around the official premiere the DVDs should go to print, and we intend to put the film online right after the festival as well.
Then there is also Siggraph 2010 to attend, Blender 2.5 to work on and perhaps gasp people involved with the project might even take a day or two of vacation(+ the soundtrack for the movie needs to be finished as well). So, many things left to do, one week is not enough to finish it all.
yep, althought we know of them by a computer, devs are humans, and probably like/need vacation!
Don’t forget, there is only about 12 minutes of footage but there are 4 DVDs!!
That is a lot of material to collect, inventorize, check, clean up, slice toghether etc etc
There is the standard film, probably some variations, making of documentaries, tutorials, blends, blends, blends!
All that takes a lot of time to nicely package. Only after that can the real DVD prinitng start.
So, while the film is indeed 99% finished, the ‘product’ certainly is not…
The main reason why the short isn’t released yet is that they made a deal with the dutch film festival to have that festival as it’s the official premier. And I guess the dvd will take some work too, to get it properly finished.
Also consider some basic math…
Sintel is about 12 minutes long. At 24 fps, that 17,280 frames. They’re rendering this movie at 4K (that’s 4096 pixels wide). Let’s say each frame averages about an hour to render… on a single machine, that would take 720 days just to render. That’s nearly 2 years. Even if you split that amongst 30 machines and you assume that makes render times 30x faster (it doesn’t), it would still take 24 days to render. And that’s also assuming that there aren’t any tweaks/fixes to be made
Patience is advised.
all the bleeeeeends droool! I want them. would be nice with some recorded artist talking about the work, how to use it etc. what went smooth, want didn’t. etc.
I just don’t want the 12 minutes of, x60 x25 images, I want to learn something along the way also
It’s an excellent way to find out how a production is run and what goes in to it, but I think the learning DVD’s are better for teaching and hopefully some of the artists and perhaps even developers involved with do some more Blender Foundation DVD workshops. Covering Lighting, texturing, rendering, compositing, Animation, python programming, sculpting etcetera, all of these would be excellent.
I was about starting a new thread about “What comes after Durian”, but I guess this is suitable thread for discuss even the theme:
What Comes After Durian?
Mango…
or maybe they are going to still be developing blender. the python api isn’t even finished as far as i am aware. mesh tools were put on hold because if bmesh, then bmesh was put on hold for the movie. remember it is the blender institute…not the durian institute. getting the render, sculpting, and other branches into the trunk…there is plenty of work left. just because durian is finished wont mean blender is.
After Durian:
Ton plans to not start a new open movie until he did at least half a year of code work to finish all leftover 2.5 design issues and stability topics.
From the dev meeting minutes
Randy
Mango is next, blending 3d cgi w/ real footage and focus on compositing. I guess they have to tackle 3d tracking then, (oh joy! if that mlib or what it’s called gets done, 3d tracking for blender)
The sequencer will be the area which should receive the most amount of work.
Durian, Mango… What’s next? Coconut?
It seems that Ton likes tropical fruits. 
When you place the names on a map from the locations the fruits come from there is no telling what name is next. I’d vote “Pawpaw” after mango.
Just check out possible names:
…except coconuts aren’t even vaguely orange. 