Video showing basic sculpting in Blender. Not tried it myself yet but the tools are looking pretty good. http://www.blendernation.com/2011/06/08/basic-sculpting-in-blender-2-5/#more-21048
@Computron: Barring any large show stoppers, 2-3 months. It's slated for 2.63. As is, it's mostly stable, but some of the tools still need a bit of work before primetime (including the bevel and knife tools).
GSOC proposals accepted: http://code.blender.org/index.php/2011/04/google-summer-of-code-2011-blender-summer-of-polish-2/ Hopefully they integrate some of the stuff that was done last summer during the feature freeze as well.
I've not tried it so I don't know how well it works, but you could try: http://tidalkraken.deviantart.com/art/Mender-maya-for-blender-BLENDER-2-6-ONLY-360834749?q=gallery%3Atidalkraken&qo=0
I don't know about this discussion to change the widget, but the philosophy to achieve a 2 axis action is simple in Blender, you just hit G/R/S... then Shift (maintained)+x/y/z for the axis you want to eliminate.
I think many of the improvements and new features in Blender come from publicly available sources such as white papers so generally Patents are not really an issue. For example, the Approximate Ambient Occlusion came from Nvidias GPU Gems 2
You forgot maya, I guess I like learning new programs ;) Used max for 2 years, the other programs I did not use for as long, I was mostly testing out what app I liked the most back then :)
Agreed. Best alternative to industry standard tools you can get for free. Every new build is like Christmas morning and development moves much faster than Max or Maya. There must be a new version every 2-3 months with a panoply of new features.
Muzz, In 2.49 in 3d window, go to spacebar menu -> select -> non-manifold or with shift+ctrl+alt+M In 2.50go to the 3d window's header, select -> non-manifold while the shortcut is the same. It will select parts of the mesh where an edge is shared by more than 2 faces.
ahh well thanks for looking into it:D edit: I was using this for a while before, then I couldn't get it working, bu t I just saw theres a new update for it, http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?267414-Pie-Menus-(2-66)-Update-01-09-13