metalliandy, Dim: It was actually just triangulation that had me confused. I didn't expected it to work on just one face I'd selected, so I'd never tried. So thanks. (:
this is a moot point now but there were always 'layers' with texture paint you just had to switch which texture was the main one in the uv window, that was 2.49 in 2.5x series you could easily switch between which material or texture you were working on easily and you can and could always set blending modes for all of these. also you could even have them assigned to different uv's
it was ghetto, not streamlined and the new way im sure is better. but you *could*
Yay! My days of single-layer 3D painting are soon to be over!
...when 2.58 comes out. I hate 2.57's UI, not because I can't 'get used to it', but it sucks for 4:3 screens and you still can't remove the left panel. It's pretty amusing that the basic ability to join UI panes was added late around 2.56.
Right now I crudely make layers by duplicating the mesh and setting it to a different texture with 0.0 alpha
First thought was it looks a lot like octane render, then I discovered he had worked there before, great that blender gets a new render engine it deserves it.
Hi the author of Bmesh will be mentoring the retopology tool proposal, and the work will be done on the bmesh branch.
I'll be mentoring two students - Jason, who last year improved our sculpt tools (and will be working on sculpt and paint tools this year), and Ryakiotakis (who will work on paint, some uv tools and some weight paint tools).
I'll keep you updated as things progress. Hopefully towards the end of GSoC some of the students will start threads for feedback in the various art forums including here at polycount.
I've never really understood why Blender has been bashed in the past for its UI. I've always thought it was by far the best looking UI in a 3D package I've seen. Other programs, namely 3DS, are so convoluted with text and icons that really just look awful. I can't even bare to look at it. I suppose Blender looks a little more professional than it used to, but it would pain me to say it's preferable. I've found that the keyboard shortcuts in Blender, and the usage of the 3D cursor are just so incredibly useful. I can navigate the program so much faster than I can any other. Even though I personally wouldn't change them, I think the best thing about the interface updates to 2.5 has been customizable shortcuts.
About the only post I've seen here that I agree with is that the vast majority of Blender users are noobs, and post all of their nooby productions online. It's hard to find good blender work online if you don't know where to look, and it's forever been stained by the noobstorm.
Has anyone tried Maratis yet? I've been thinking of giving it a try, and I know it's designed to be used with Blender. It looks like it might be a pretty sweet way to produce some simple games, and it is easily one of the most cost-effective ways of getting games on your iThings. (iOS)
pardon me but where's the bevel tool in blender? The basic modeling tools are pretty limited.. IMHO.. or is there hidden access? Im using maya navigation btw, the default one is a lil odd to work with.
The bevel tool isnt available in 2.5 yet, though they are working on fixing it.
I think the plan is to implement a bevel in the short term and then rewrite it for BMesh when that eventually gets released.
There is a bevel in the modifiers though, but its based upon things like edge weight and global angles of the object (all or nothing bevelled)
In what way do you find the modelling tools to be limited? (apart from the bevel :P)
Yeah I don't think BMesh is ever coming out... the coder is just going to keep ransoming it out. Hopefully the institute put bevel in there themselves, then we'll be good to go.
Haven't watched them yet but they might be of help to some people who are just starting out. These seem to be just the beginning of a series of tutorials though.
Haven't watched them yet but they might be of help to some people who are just starting out. These seem to be just the beginning of a series of tutorials though.
The bevel tool isnt available in 2.5 yet, though they are working on fixing it.
I think the plan is to implement a bevel in the short term and then rewrite it for BMesh when that eventually gets released.
There is a bevel in the modifiers though, but its based upon things like edge weight and global angles of the object (all or nothing bevelled)
In what way do you find the modelling tools to be limited? (apart from the bevel :P)
Some of the buttons are hardly visible in the programs, this is kinda confusing for those who just learnt blender. Some tools have to be accessed thru keyboard shortcut. ctrl+tab isnt intuitive, I know it gets the job done, but if you're modeler, you wont' be using left fingers to press that shortcut everytime. It's just ergonomically wrong.
Some of the buttons are hardly visible in the programs, this is kinda confusing for those who just learnt blender. Some tools have to be accessed thru keyboard shortcut. ctrl+tab isnt intuitive, I know it gets the job done, but if you're modeler, you wont' be using left fingers to press that shortcut everytime. It's just ergonomically wrong.
Hmm. That's not Blenders tools being limited, its just that you are not used to the shortcuts
Everything in Blender can be accessed via menus or buttons afaik. In your example Weight paint or mesh select mode (Ctrl+Tab and depending on context) can be found in the Mode dropdown or on the mesh mode buttons next to the Transform orientation options, which are both on the 3D View footer.
If you are looking for modelling tools, your best bet is to search the Mesh Tools panel, the Mesh menu or the Special menu (W Key) and often the shortcuts are listed along side the command in the menus.
When using Blender, my fingers are always hovering over the LHS of my keyboard as with those keys (Tab, Shift, Ctrl, Alt, \, Z, A, E, W, R, S, D, X, C, V, B, G) you can pretty much do everything you need
My Thumb is usually swapping between Alt and Space.
I use blender, its actually the only 3D modelling package I use (I use zBrush but thats only sculpting things I have made in blender)
The only problem I have with it is that its renders are crap when compared to other modelling packages. I've been looking for ways to make the renders look better or some kind of external renderer.
I use blender, its actually the only 3D modelling package I use (I use zBrush but thats only sculpting things I have made in blender)
The only problem I have with it is that its renders are crap when compared to other modelling packages. I've been looking for ways to make the renders look better or some kind of external renderer.
Have you tried the build with Luxrender? www.graphicall.org has all the various builds.
Not exactly. There is a spacebar menu (activated with an included add on) that is similar, but they are very different packages, and Blender has a different workflow and UI paradigm.
dejawolf: Could you expand on what you said a bit? Do you mean you have a quad menu in Blender that you've modified?(the spacebar menu already creates primitives...) Are you saying quad menus are just generally useful, or specifically in Blender (or Max)?
I use Quad Menu's because they're the easiest to manage, press a key combo, pop up a floating menu and insert as many things are you need under it.
For example: Under Ctrl + R I have all my render and special shader settings nick-nacks, while under Ctrl + X I have a more streamlined version of Max's connect, loop, etc command, so it's all a matter of making things quicker select.
So I'm guessing Space Bar + Letter will get me where I need to be?
Not exactly, but what you're describing is kind of the way Blender works by default. So for example, edge operators are found at ctrl+e, face at ctrl+f, and verts at ctrl+v. W is your general specials, shift+a adds primatives, etc.
Apart from that is the Dynamic Spacebar Menu which changes based on context.
Honestly though, you'll get the most out of Blender by not using menus at all. The program is designed to be very hotkey driven, and you will be MUCH faster if you learn those keys and use them. Blender can be an incredibly fast modeler, but you definitely can't treat it like Max or Maya and use the same workflow. It is very different from both of them.
I had to download a script for that for Max...this makes finding stuff alot easier, thanks, much appreciated.
Yes, it's very nice and if you enable the included plugin: Dynamic Spacebar Menu, you can access all the most common mesh editing tools by hitting the spacebar. Although, like Dim said, it's hotkey driven and you'll work much faster if you take that workflow than the point and click method that max and maya use. I moved to this from Max and I shudder to think of using Max at all anymore. Thankfully, I only have a student license of Max.
You get very hotkey centric after using blender for awhile too, I find myself trying to delete items in other software by pressing X lol! But it's sooo much faster than clicking buttons every time you want to change from move to rotate, to scale, to scale on normals, loop cut, or to edge slide. The selection tools can be a bit foreign at first too. You right click to select and if you hold alt as well, it will select the loop it's connected to. I can't imagine myself using any other software package for modeling, but it can do compositing, sculpting, and it's also a game engine. If they could integrate GIMP into blender, it'd be a one stop game artist's tool for free!
Ok, enough of me bragging about my favorite 3D tool...
I first tried Blender a year ago when I knew nothing about 3d. It was an unpleasant experience.
I just downloaded 2.57 now and woah it looks pretty sexy.
I'm considering learning it for three things: animation, sculpting and painting. (been planning on purchasing a modo 501 license when I get paid from my current project so everything else is covered) Anybody here use those features regularly?
No they're not, they can do shortcuts. It's just that the click and point options are much more open if a user wishes. They do have shortcuts, it's just that Blender is Shortcut intensive from the get-go.
Also, don't take my opinion on this, but personally, every Autodesk product has horrible shortcuts. If they expect me to keep on pressing Ctrl and Alt while stretching my hands to the 1, 2 and 3 numbers while executing Q, E, R, they'll have to pay for my wanking wrist if they want me to keep on using their products, that is why many users fall back to custom hotkeys and even scripts to speed up workflow, although again...Autodesk products have horrible issues when a user brings their own Menu's and GUP's to another workstation...gah.
Let me put it this way, for 3DS Max, when a user starts, it pretty simple to understand that you need to click on the Material Editor, then click on the Diffuse Map, then click on the Slot, then click in the Bitmap option, then select the texture and confirm. It took me about a day tops to learn everything about Max's Material Editor and after that, learn the shortcut.
In Blender...well...lets just say it took me about a day to learn HOW to get to the editor, this was as of version 2.49, this most likely improved stuff and made it more user friendly, and while from the looks of it everything still isn't available menu wise, the use of a Search function helps newbies come to terms with tools till they learn the stuff more in depth.
@Super Happy Cow: I agree with you about the shortcuts, but there's definitely some inconsistency in Blender too (some weird shortcuts like ctrl+alt+shift+c, and some inconsistent things like unwrapping in the 3D view with u, but unwrapping in the UV editor with e, or using ctrl+shift+tab in the 3D view, but not being able to use it in the UV editor). I agree with you that it's definitely better, but let's not whitewash it :P
@greevar: I'm not sure I completely agree with you. Certainly, ngons definitely tend to produce messier meshes if you aren't careful (some of the meshes I deal with at work are horribly mangled), but using ngons in a lot of cases is really fast compared to not having them, particularly when dealing with any arbitrary forms or geometry. Also, on my highpoly meshes I'd kill for ngons since my cleanliness matters little in many cases.
im starting to like blender for animation and and i like the tools it has for exporting to source engine.
but lack of ngon support and lack of a few tools really kills it for using it as a modeler. I dont leave many ngons or tris in final models but some techniques i use require that i temporally have a ngon to make certain shapes. a key example of this would be chamfering a vertex to make a hole in the mesh.
but i do have to say for some simple skeleton animation for games i like blender more than Maya.
and the defualt keys arnt bad but i made some changes like switching nav controls over to a alt+rmb,mmb,lmb set and adding in the double click edge loop selection. and double click mesh selection.
though i wish there was a way to get animations between blender and maya the scale and rotation is messed up if i use collada and the skinning is messed up if i use fbx.
Replies
2.57a is out guys, with 100 fixes
http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/
it was ghetto, not streamlined and the new way im sure is better. but you *could*
http://code.blender.org/index.php/2011/04/modernizing-shading-and-rendering/
w00t!
Will be fun to see what I turns out like
Hopefully they integrate some of the stuff that was done last summer during the feature freeze as well.
I'll be mentoring two students - Jason, who last year improved our sculpt tools (and will be working on sculpt and paint tools this year), and Ryakiotakis (who will work on paint, some uv tools and some weight paint tools).
I'll keep you updated as things progress. Hopefully towards the end of GSoC some of the students will start threads for feedback in the various art forums including here at polycount.
About the only post I've seen here that I agree with is that the vast majority of Blender users are noobs, and post all of their nooby productions online. It's hard to find good blender work online if you don't know where to look, and it's forever been stained by the noobstorm.
http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/
it just seems to be 'ok, exported' right now
I think the plan is to implement a bevel in the short term and then rewrite it for BMesh when that eventually gets released.
There is a bevel in the modifiers though, but its based upon things like edge weight and global angles of the object (all or nothing bevelled)
In what way do you find the modelling tools to be limited? (apart from the bevel :P)
http://graphicall.org/130
Haven't watched them yet but they might be of help to some people who are just starting out. These seem to be just the beginning of a series of tutorials though.
http://www.blendercookie.com/getting-started-with-blender/
This is where I learned to blend.
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?217800-NEW-interactive-quot-inset-extrude-quot-addon
http://vimeo.com/23468100
I had the same reaction
Some of the buttons are hardly visible in the programs, this is kinda confusing for those who just learnt blender. Some tools have to be accessed thru keyboard shortcut. ctrl+tab isnt intuitive, I know it gets the job done, but if you're modeler, you wont' be using left fingers to press that shortcut everytime. It's just ergonomically wrong.
Hmm. That's not Blenders tools being limited, its just that you are not used to the shortcuts
Everything in Blender can be accessed via menus or buttons afaik. In your example Weight paint or mesh select mode (Ctrl+Tab and depending on context) can be found in the Mode dropdown or on the mesh mode buttons next to the Transform orientation options, which are both on the 3D View footer.
If you are looking for modelling tools, your best bet is to search the Mesh Tools panel, the Mesh menu or the Special menu (W Key) and often the shortcuts are listed along side the command in the menus.
When using Blender, my fingers are always hovering over the LHS of my keyboard as with those keys (Tab, Shift, Ctrl, Alt, \, Z, A, E, W, R, S, D, X, C, V, B, G) you can pretty much do everything you need
My Thumb is usually swapping between Alt and Space.
Hope that helps
If I could only do one click baking instead of having to play the animation through, however... that'd be nice.
Trying to create a 8 frame looped fire with it is hard.
The only problem I have with it is that its renders are crap when compared to other modelling packages. I've been looking for ways to make the renders look better or some kind of external renderer.
Have you tried the build with Luxrender? www.graphicall.org has all the various builds.
Well, did you research and study lightning and composition first ?
http://vimeo.com/24806860
For example: Under Ctrl + R I have all my render and special shader settings nick-nacks, while under Ctrl + X I have a more streamlined version of Max's connect, loop, etc command, so it's all a matter of making things quicker select.
So I'm guessing Space Bar + Letter will get me where I need to be?
Apart from that is the Dynamic Spacebar Menu which changes based on context.
Honestly though, you'll get the most out of Blender by not using menus at all. The program is designed to be very hotkey driven, and you will be MUCH faster if you learn those keys and use them. Blender can be an incredibly fast modeler, but you definitely can't treat it like Max or Maya and use the same workflow. It is very different from both of them.
...
...
...
You can do a Search in Blender?!
http://www.blendernation.com/2011/06/08/basic-sculpting-in-blender-2-5/#more-21048
I had to download a script for that for Max...this makes finding stuff alot easier, thanks, much appreciated.
Yes, it's very nice and if you enable the included plugin: Dynamic Spacebar Menu, you can access all the most common mesh editing tools by hitting the spacebar. Although, like Dim said, it's hotkey driven and you'll work much faster if you take that workflow than the point and click method that max and maya use. I moved to this from Max and I shudder to think of using Max at all anymore. Thankfully, I only have a student license of Max.
You get very hotkey centric after using blender for awhile too, I find myself trying to delete items in other software by pressing X lol! But it's sooo much faster than clicking buttons every time you want to change from move to rotate, to scale, to scale on normals, loop cut, or to edge slide. The selection tools can be a bit foreign at first too. You right click to select and if you hold alt as well, it will select the loop it's connected to. I can't imagine myself using any other software package for modeling, but it can do compositing, sculpting, and it's also a game engine. If they could integrate GIMP into blender, it'd be a one stop game artist's tool for free!
Ok, enough of me bragging about my favorite 3D tool...
I just downloaded 2.57 now and woah it looks pretty sexy.
I'm considering learning it for three things: animation, sculpting and painting. (been planning on purchasing a modo 501 license when I get paid from my current project so everything else is covered) Anybody here use those features regularly?
it seems so .. slow ? also i thought max and maya had shortcut keys for everything just like blender
Also, don't take my opinion on this, but personally, every Autodesk product has horrible shortcuts. If they expect me to keep on pressing Ctrl and Alt while stretching my hands to the 1, 2 and 3 numbers while executing Q, E, R, they'll have to pay for my wanking wrist if they want me to keep on using their products, that is why many users fall back to custom hotkeys and even scripts to speed up workflow, although again...Autodesk products have horrible issues when a user brings their own Menu's and GUP's to another workstation...gah.
Let me put it this way, for 3DS Max, when a user starts, it pretty simple to understand that you need to click on the Material Editor, then click on the Diffuse Map, then click on the Slot, then click in the Bitmap option, then select the texture and confirm. It took me about a day tops to learn everything about Max's Material Editor and after that, learn the shortcut.
In Blender...well...lets just say it took me about a day to learn HOW to get to the editor, this was as of version 2.49, this most likely improved stuff and made it more user friendly, and while from the looks of it everything still isn't available menu wise, the use of a Search function helps newbies come to terms with tools till they learn the stuff more in depth.
I don't find it restrictive that it lacks bmesh or ngons. Quite the contrary, I find it helps me maintain proper topology.
@greevar: I'm not sure I completely agree with you. Certainly, ngons definitely tend to produce messier meshes if you aren't careful (some of the meshes I deal with at work are horribly mangled), but using ngons in a lot of cases is really fast compared to not having them, particularly when dealing with any arbitrary forms or geometry. Also, on my highpoly meshes I'd kill for ngons since my cleanliness matters little in many cases.
but lack of ngon support and lack of a few tools really kills it for using it as a modeler. I dont leave many ngons or tris in final models but some techniques i use require that i temporally have a ngon to make certain shapes. a key example of this would be chamfering a vertex to make a hole in the mesh.
but i do have to say for some simple skeleton animation for games i like blender more than Maya.
and the defualt keys arnt bad but i made some changes like switching nav controls over to a alt+rmb,mmb,lmb set and adding in the double click edge loop selection. and double click mesh selection.
though i wish there was a way to get animations between blender and maya the scale and rotation is messed up if i use collada and the skinning is messed up if i use fbx.