Blender thoughts required

Blender now has a rock solid .b3d exporter (thanks to Diego aka GaNDaLF) and in my opinion is the perfect partner with blitz for media generation. New developments already in svn branches of Blender include automatic armature creation and skinning using heat bone techniques which automatically rig and weight a mesh to an armature and in my tests produce fantastic results for models imported into blitz.

So, get involved, forget about pirate copies of 3D Studio Max, and maybe even support the Blender Foundation by pre-purchasing a DVD of the film or game.

Blender is an open-source, free, 3D modeling/animation/rendering package available for download from http://www.blender.org/. The good news is that it works very well, even on less-powerful machines. The bad news is that if you've ever done a project in some commercial environment like Maya or 3Ds Max®, the GUI is going to be utterly alien to you. It's not that there's anything wrong with Blender's interface, it's just that it's...different. Different from just about everything else. Way different.

In fact, many people now using Maya who would like to migrate to Blender are deterred from doing so (I heard their complaints myself, at SIGGRAPH) by the necessity of learning a software interface that's so utterly unlike everything they've trained themselves for years to handle. My own feeling is that this "do your own thing" approach is hurting widespread acceptance of Blender in the worldwide animation and modeling community.

And certainly, the GUI has been improved to the extent of providing click-buttons for many functions that once required a fistful of keystroke combinations. And the coming release of Blender V2.5 is said to have a much more user-configurable GUI, one that users will be able to reassemble into something more comfortable to them. But persuading the Blender programmers to make even these concessions hasn't been easy. In the frosty words of Ton Roosendaal, the lead developer of Blender, "Blender isn't for Maya users — Blender is for Blender users." So much for reaching out to the masses.

Interesting that Maya users (Maya costs 1800 UK Pounds upwards) would want to move to Blender. *Rhetorical question* Why would they even consider it? Because of it's immense power, that's why.

Blender downloads last year circa 1.8 million.

Why mess about with an application to suit a small minority?

If there's something you don't like about it then you're free to change the code as you like. If you haven't got coding skills join the community and put forward suggestions for it's improvement.

Well, that's one possible conclusion. I reckon that the "Maya costs upwards of £1800" bit has more to do with the desire to switch than you might think.

Sorry, I'm not very good at inventing snappy, concise definitions...

We both know what happens when people suggest replacing the GUI. The fanboys and developers close ranks, adopting a bizarrely aggressive siege menntality. Criticising the GUI is akin to blasphemy, and the only opportunity that the blender community provides is the chance to voice a suggestion that will ultimately be ignored if it is incompatible with the blinkered interests of the hardcore.

If they find Blender to be user-unfriendly and ugly, they simply won't use it.

are you really sure about this statement, or its just your excitement talking trough ya??

So, what you can visually expect from the new UI (as everyone likes to call it) is:
- Reworked buttons window and buttons naming
- Shortcut keys remapping (so you can change the shortcut to something like Max or Maya)
- Even more flexible Window system (headers available also on the sides and not just top and bottom, and more)
- Drag and Drop support
- Support for more devices (possibly dual mouse setups and the likes)
- Faster UI

What you can expect in terms of development:
- Better code
- No more duplicate code
- Better Python Integration
- Visual code separated from the functional code
- Easier way to write more ui goodies

What you will not get with the new UI:
- Interface like any other 3D application
- Way of work like any other 3D application

Everyone should understand that Blender has its own workflow and the User Interface reflects that. And this workflow won't change anytime soon, since it is one of the best things Blender has, one that makes you really fast when you know the tool.

So, if you want to learn Blender, start now, cause it won't have any dramatic user interface changes in the near future.

Though blender's ui makes more sense to me than say lightwave, I find the charges of lazyness leveled against people who want to use a different ui unproductive.

If any one of you have ever wondered why people think Blender users are arrogant and elitist, there's one of the reasons right there.

Does it still have the same sucky interface?

I hope that I'm wrong about Blender, because it would be nice to have a decent free alternative to commercial 3d modelling applications.

One of the things someone needs to do is round-up all the tutorials in one place.

I have to ask- how many people on this forum actually know what they're talking about when it comes to 3D? How many have a great deal of exposure to different 3D programs, and have used them in a professional (not indie game related, unless you've worked full-time as a 3D artist) context? I'm not trying to sound insulting, but since everyone on these boards has an opinion about Blender and it versus everything else... I'm left wondering if there's anyone here who has credentials (or weight behind what they're talking about), or whether it's just casual users throwing opinions around without anything behind them.

I just don't get the "this software would be awful if you had to pay to use it, but since it's FREE, it's great!" logic that many people seem to employ. It represents defective reasoning. I mean, Hepatitis B is free too. Does this make it good? .