Blender 2.4 released

Gmanx

The new release of Blender is out:

http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Blender_2_40.598.0.html

There's a list of features on that page - which is pretty impressive for a 'free' app. If only it came bundled with a comprehensive manual

System

There are always resources such as this: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro

I also found the old blender book in a bargain bin somewhere, and that seems to be a good resource, especially for learning the interface.

I give it another five seconds before someone posts something akin to "omg lol BLENDER NOOBS HAX? hurhurr"

Gmanx

lol

Yeah, the 'noob to pro' resource is invaluable, along with the rest of the new wiki content. Animation is my main focus just now, and while I've been loosely following development in 2.4, I've had to use 2.37 for my rigs (stability and all that) but the animation system has been completely re-designed. D'oh! *cue lots of thread combing for me over xmas*.

Mongrelman

www.blender3d.org is a good site, has tutorials and video tutorials amongst other things. Definitely worth checking out.

arshlevon

Holy Crap! the new version of blender has more features than max!
HAHAHAHAH

ElysiumGX

I downloaded this new release, but am still completely stuck in the interface. I've been watching Blender for years now, and it's impressive how far it's developed.

With apps like Maya, XSI, Wings, I can usually find everything I'm looking for quickly. With Max, you'll have to really dig into it to find the neat stuff. But with Blender, at first glance, I'm not even sure where to begin. Now there is plenty of instruction, so I'm sure I'll get it if I follow along. I'm guessing hotkeys are very useful. I have no reason to use Blender, but it's just awesome what the developers have done with it, while other companies make high priced releases with very little improvements. Lots of cool stuff coming from C4D and Modo as well. The future of 3D is going to be fun.

Mongrelman

What I find makes Blender much more friendly is setup the UI like a typical app.

Use the middle mouse button to click on the edges seperating viewports/button windows etc. So you merge the buttons window at the bottom with the viewport above. Then middle click on one of the borders and choose 'split' then drag the line to near the centre of the screen and click. Do this again so you end up with 3 columns. Click the box in the corner of one of the side columns and choose 'buttons' and then right click in the window and choose 'vertical'. Then split the 2 remaining columns horizontally and align them how you want.

Put numlock on and in the top left viewport press 7 on the numpad (top view). In the bottom left press 1, bottom right press 3 and top right press 5 (pressing 5 again cycles between orthographic and perspective). Then press ctrl+u and save the layout.

This leaves you with a typical 4-viewport layout with the buttons window down a side (right side for me). You can then cycle to the different tool areas by moving the cursor over the buttons window and using the 'F' keys. I leave mine one F9 for the editing tools, but other sections include animating (F7), rendering options(F10), materials (F5 and F6) and I can't remember the others.

KDR_11k

Choose "3-Materials" from the SCR pulldown at the top, you only need to split the bottom view once and you have your 4 viewport setup. If you resize your buttons window you have to place the cursor in it and press Home (for default view) to zoom them up to the window size. The button menu takes the same view controls as the UV window.

Personally I'm using the default setup (sometimes I put the button window on the right to have a more square-like view), since you can just press one or two keys to get the various views you want you can have larger editing views.

Gmanx

Since I'm now Blender exclusive I've let myself become accustomed to the default interface. I found that tutorials could be hard to follow if I had customised the interface too much - probably the only downside to having such a malleable system. It's the various 'hair' and 'fur' solutions which have me itching to experiment over the holidays. After spending frustrated months with Maya 6's 'hair', blender seems to achieve the same (or better) with a far simpler process. (Maybe Maya 7 has good hair - I wouldn't know).

Rick Stirling

I downloaded it to have a play, and I really couldn't get to grips with it all - it does have a lot of features, but just isn't very intuitive. I not a fan of applications that take up half the screen with options and buttons - it's less of an art package and more like a flight simulator.

That being said, it is powerful, it has a load of features, and it is FREE. I would recommend it to someone who wants a free all in one package, but for a free modelling package I'd recommend Wings. For a paid cheap modeller it'd be Silo, and for a paid cheap full package XSI.

KDR_11k

The buttons don't take up more space than they do in any other app if you orient them vertically.

P.S.: look what you made me do with your "flight simulator" comment... Press P to start, cursor keys, X and C to control and space to climb...

CheapAlert

heh finally. I've been using 2.37a for almost a year now
I hate the splash screen for some reason though.

Rick Stirling

[ QUOTE ]
The buttons don't take up more space than they do in any other app if you orient them vertically.



[/ QUOTE ]

Silo

KDR_11k

Cheapy: I've been using CVS builds for quite some time now. Some features you just don't want to leave behind after you've used them a few times.

Michael Knubben

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The buttons don't take up more space than they do in any other app if you orient them vertically.



[/ QUOTE ]

Silo

[/ QUOTE ]

While i love Silo, this is a case of 'apples and oranges', really. Blender isn't a pure modeller, so you need to compare it to max and maya (etc...), not Silo, Wings3d or Modo (allthough Modo seems to have more features than the former two)
I still haven't gotten to grips with the program, but i've been looking at the animation stuff, and i'm going to force myself to acustom myself to the program.

Rick Stirling

Ah, but hte point is that Silo doesn't display ALL the buttons at once, it lets you cycle through pages of them.

CheapAlert

Well, same goes for Blender! Buttons are seperated in tabs too

however, the "basic action" buttons are on your keyboard. Who needs to click a button to move anymore? That's part of the beauty that is Blender, not needing to access the GUI so much when building a mesh.

System

I wouldn't say the beauty of Blender is anywhere to be found in building a mesh, hehe. Does Blender still ask you to confirm every goddamned thing you do? If not, that's a step in the right direction, because that sort of defeats the use of shortcuts. I think i'll give that hotkey changing scripts a go.
Which scripts does everyone use? I had a go with the meshsculpt script, and that was allright...

HonkyPunch

Yes!
Now to dick around with fur shading shit!
hehehehe