Blenders new interface rocks
Community Forums/Developer Stations/Blenders new interface rocks
| ||
| I thought the old one was good in its own special way, but after using the new one for a few weeks, i conclude the new 2.5 Alpha** has an EXCELLENT interface! It hands down beats every other modeling interface i have used IMO. **(not the "stable" version incase you hae not seen it yet) Basically it is much easier to use, but it is still... blenderish for those of us that like that :) Works as good with dhead too :)  I did not like it at first because i couldnt figure out how to split and join the gui panels like before but that is not an issue (found out it is the lines in the top corner of each panel rather than right click on the split!) |
| ||
| Are most the of the features from 2.49 still in 2.5? I know they've done a lot of changes, and suspect not everything will in 2.5 from the get go. |
| ||
| They appear to be, most of it you could set up before with the old interface and a lot of patience (dragging the iface around) but this one has more vertical layouts for stuff than the old one (which is much better, esp on widescreen). Because it is alpha, i think some of the functionality is still to be added, I think the majority of it is simply the layout (the old default layout was cack, i never used it i always made my own). and they have added search bars to everything too which is a nice touch. The other thing i like is the docked type in transform fields (rather than the old shift-n floating one) |
| ||
| I can see you are enthusiastic about this but I'm not sure I agree about the 'best interface' for modeling - have you ever used XSI, when it comes to interfaces I've used Milkshape (simple interface, to the point that it's difficult to do some things with because of the lack of options), Blender (a long time ago - couldn't even create a cube the interface was so complex), Gamespace (ugh...what do all those buttons actually do), Anim8or (forgotten now, but it was awful too), and then came across XSI Foundation 5.0 - very intuitive interface, comprehensive documentation, although it does come at a price.. |
| ||
| Not XSI although I have heard it is very good, crossplatform, and powerfull (but very expensive :() I have in the past used MAX, Autocad and Truespace for professional reasons when i worked for an electronic prototyping company. I have also used for various jobs/lengths of time; Milkshape, Maya, lightwave, Fragmotion, AC3D, Hexagon, Wings, giles and a few others on a semi-pro/hobby basis. (I got started in imagine on the amiga and the old dos based 3ds on the PC, anyone remember those? waiting hours for a few shiny balls to render! :) The biggest thing i never liked about blender is the rendering output. It is a bit scrappy compared to the industry standard modellers (but i dont use it as a production renderer, just a modeller and animator and for this i find it very useable). The old interface was good when you got used to it but it was a sharp learning curve and this put a lot of people off. I think this new one will really help the kind of people that like to click endlessly before reading a tutorial (i'm a bit like that usually, but blender was so.. odd, i went for the tuts immediately :) |
| ||
| Id say Cinema 4d has the best interface IMHO. But yes blender needed changing badly will try again when they have a stable release out. |
| ||
| I agree with Pete. Cinema 4D's interface has got to be the coolest as you can practically change any part of the interface to suit your needs. I tried Blender 2.5 alpha and would have to agree that the interface has improved. |
| ||
| The new interface in Blender is really nice, I like it. Maybe once 2.5 gets out of alpha I'll become a Blender user. |
| ||
| 3dsmax modeling has changed a lot in the last couple of years and 2010 is very good. Especially the polygon tools which have come a long way. Before max 9 I'd say that max was stagnating. AS for blender I just don't have the patience for the interface, same with maya. At the end of the day different 3D apps suit different Artists just like some artists like pencil, or paster and drawing whilst others prefer oils, acrylics or watercolour. Oil and acrylics can look the same but feel completely different. It's that feel that ultimately leads to someone picking one app over another. I recently looked at 3d modeling on the mac and tried a ton of apps. The only one that came close to being pleasant to work with was SILO. In the end I decided that the mac wasn't for me simply because 3ds max is the killer app I can't do without. |
| ||
| I have XSI 7. For most modeling tasks XSI is awesome. But, it has its weak points like any 3D app. It's that feel that ultimately leads to someone picking one app over another. Sometimes, but not always. |
| ||
| Im thinking about getting another package because cinema4d doesnt have a any kind of export for games meshes. I use a plugin even for static meshes. its just not ment for games models anything made with the new animation system will not export at all. its a shame because UV editing and modeling are really easy and the animation system is much better after version 10 came out. |
| ||
| Any chance they added the ability to export transparent png's to 2.5? Currently you have to essentially switch off the smooth anti-aliased edge to get usable 2D game art. |
| ||
| Transparent .png save just fine in Blender 2.49b so my guess what isn't broken won't get fixed. What steps to you take to export your transparent pngs? |
| ||
| Never mind. I just googled it and found the answer but the feature must have been added in a later version. When I first discovered Blender before it went open source it definitely couldn't do it. I remember spending hours using the magic selector wand on my renders. I least I hope it couldn't do it because I remember spending hours using the magic selector wand on my renders!!! |
| ||
| hm does the b3d exporter work in 2.5? I just tried it and got errors, but I may just be doing it wrong. |
| ||
| The b3d exporter will work with Blender versions up to 2.49b only. Blender 2.5 is a total rewrite of the application including a new python api. This api is still a work in progress so serious development of python scripts cannot really be undertaken yet. Moreover, Blender 2.5 has switched to Python 3.1 adding another layer of incompability. The pyhon api will probably not be nailed down until the release of Blender 2.6 (the first scheduled stable release of the Blender rewrite). Until then Blender 2.5 is currently in alpha with plans to go to beta shortly. When the python api is settled someone will have to step up to the mark and either convert the existing .b3d exporter script to the latest python or develop a new one from scratch. The benefit this time is that hopefully it should be easier with the python api being designed to be much easier to access all Blender's internal gubbins. In short, Blender 2.49b will be on my desktop for the forseeable future. |
| ||
| ah okay. I think I'll remove 2.5 and revert to 2.49 then; the interface is ugly but at least it's useful to me. ADDITION: oh hell I just installed 2.49 and that doesn't work either. When I run the b3d exporter, it says "python script error, check console." What console? Also, there are just 3 import formats listed: vrml, dxf, and stl. Is that normal? I'm assuming there's supposed to be a longer list of file formats and for some reason Blender can't find the scripts. ADDITION2: whew now I've got all the included scripts working again. I had to delete the .blender/scripts directory I added when trying to use the b3d exporter with Blender 2.5; now to test again if the b3d exporter is working in 2.49 ADDITION3: Okay the exporter works, that's a relief. I had to open the script manually because I can't figure out where to put the script so that it shows up in Blender's export list, but that is a minor concern right now. |
| ||
 no comment |
   |