It's freehand as in hold LMB and drag the cut across the mesh. Up until now, you could only do straight lines between LMB clicks.
You still need actual geometry to cut through, so you can't draw a circle on a bare face. However if the face is full of edges in the middle, freehand will cut and change stroke direction when meeting an edge.
Blender really has gotten some nice improvements recently. I like the matcaps now highlighting inverted faces - that's awesome for my somewhat unusual workflow right now (I'm taking former Quake 3 based levels and converting them to mesh, and the map compiler's OBJ export generates some horrible stuff.) So yay for the improved matcaps.
Regarding pie menus, I'm still on the fence if I like them better compared to the - by now ingrained - key combos. There is also currently a weird mix of pie menus and old style menus.
The fly mode (aka noclip) is a relief when doing environments, too. It used to be really unintuitive to move around a level. So yay again.
Just as a side note : there is absolutely no need to rely on the exotic (and quite honestly, poorly thought out and optimized) default key bindings. They only make sense to whoever wrote them, and they try way too hard to accommodate for all tools and features. Every workflow is different - just design your own optimized keymap folks, and you wont need any of the pie menus or anything of that sort.
The way I see it, Blender now just needs an easy to use menu editor so that users can make their own non-pie, "dumb" menus, without the need to learn Python, just like Zbrush. I am confident that this will come sooner or later.
Honestly, I tried the Pie menus for a whole month and I couldn't find any benefits over my hotkey workflow. Quite the contrary. They slowed me down eventually. So I don't see what the fuzz is about them. But whatever floats your boat.
Maybe it's for people who have a hard time to get used to a hotkey centric workflow and/or who coming from Maya.
Anyway, Blender is really coming along nicely. Yeah it has it's rough edges. But which 3d suite hasn't?
All in all it is one of the most well rounded packages as a whole IMO.
Btw. I find the thread title misleading. The times where Blender was trying to compete are definitely over.
I would say that now Autodesk and The Foundry trying hard to compete with Blender in the indie market with their watered down software (Maya LT, Modo Indie) where Blender has a strong stance among individuals and smaller studios. No wonder Epic supports Blender now. It's a huge user base and a lucrative market.
Totally agree Ruka. I personally came to Blender after getting more and more frustrated with Autodesk apps (pricing, poor stability, ridiculous Maya LT limitations, and so on), so I finally set some time aside to get into the app at the end of last year. I came out blown away buy the feature set : on many fronts it is indeed years ahead of the curve.
However there are still issues with the program which need to be addressed (lack of progress bars on slow operations, very exotic default input scheme, and most importantly, a huuuuge problem with the way the BlenderArtists forum when it comes to new user registration). These are of course small things compared to the impressive feature set, but I think these issues need to be addressed at some point.
Anyways, can't wait to try the latest version. The way this app integrates everything into on package makes me excited about even the most mundane tasks. Pretty awesome stuff.
Anyways, can't wait to try the latest version. The way this app integrates everything into on package makes me excited about even the most mundane tasks. Pretty awesome stuff.
Not to sound like a wet diaper or anything, but I know this feeling all too well. I think a lot of people who pick up blender in earnest start to feel that way, in part because its not secretive and annualized like other software packages. BUT, it will wear off after awhile... especially when some feature is only half implemented or dropped at the last minute because of philosophical reasons... While I think that annoying occurrence may be dwindling, one has be cautiously optimistic.
Of course the best way to make sure the best results happen and it becomes ideal is to get involved with the development process in one way or another. The more "big names" or just any professional name, the better. There was a point where the Blender users would openly mock the professionals, they would say things like "the pros have their software, us hobbyist have ours, we dont want to be anything like them" or "their expectations/needs are not ours". They really cant say that anymore, and the more pros start popping on over there and showcasing Blender in ways that are up there with the other software, the sooner that kind of talk can go away for good.
In the meantime, Modo has been leaving me super happy. Money well spent, super friendly business model to boot. Blender will always be the perpetual fall back.
It's true that some of blenders art looks old and cheaply done. But that's mostly because its available to a larger audience, including rookies. Regarding modelling and rendering, I find cycles really smooth and easy to use. It provides great results if the user knows what hes doing, and if you don't like the renderer, you could always install a third party one. There are some much needed tools that blender lacks, but I'm sure they'll make up for it soon enough.
Just a quick note to let you know Mesh Data Transfer tool is in master since yesterday. It works in Object mode, and allows to transfer e.g. weights (vgroups), vcols, UVs (and other, probably less useful things like sharpness/smoothness of edges/faces, etc.). Shape Keys are not yet supported (but should be in near future).
Most useful mapping methods currently are 'Topology' (if source and destination are exact same topology), 'Nearest Interpolated' and 'Raycast Interpolated'.
That step was needed before I finalize custom normals, btw, because current 'copy normals' modifier will likely be merged into new transfer data one.
Totally agree Ruka. I personally came to Blender after getting more and more frustrated with Autodesk apps (pricing, poor stability, ridiculous Maya LT limitations, and so on), so I finally set some time aside to get into the app at the end of last year. I came out blown away buy the feature set : on many fronts it is indeed years ahead of the curve.
However there are still issues with the program which need to be addressed (lack of progress bars on slow operations, very exotic default input scheme, and most importantly, a huuuuge problem with the way the BlenderArtists forum when it comes to new user registration). These are of course small things compared to the impressive feature set, but I think these issues need to be addressed at some point.
Anyways, can't wait to try the latest version. The way this app integrates everything into on package makes me excited about even the most mundane tasks. Pretty awesome stuff.
Always nice to see that more and more professionals recognize Blender as a viable tool. Some people still have the mindset "Free=Trash" and ignore Blender with a passion and for no reason.
I also don't get the mentality "Oh Blender didn't worked like I expected so it landed in my trash bin after 2 minutes".
Hands down, the default inputs in Blender are exotic like you said. But that can be changed real quick. Some patience and interest to grapple with Blender and you will realize fast, that Blender is pretty powerful. It's like Zbrush in that department.
And I also don't even see the reason, why someone should wait for a official keymap. You can change literally everything in Blender by yourself, within minutes.
There are still some things I miss in Blender like custom normals. But people like Mont are already tackling that. And you get tons of useful Add-ons like multi edit, F2, UV square, Rigify and that repot tool in the video above.
All in all I'm very happy with Blender, the minor issues aside. And seeing what is coming this year makes me even more happier Good times ahead.
This is something I love about Blender as well. You know what they have in the works and a clear roadmap. And sometimes, someone comes out of nowhere and surprises the user with a new tool/function (Cycles Hair, Molecular Add-on etc.)
Not to forget the support. If you report an issue, or bug you get fast responses. Often in minutes. And some of those bugs get fixed in hours, or days. No need to wait months for a patch.
Blender customization is pretty incredible. It took me a few days, but I was able to port every single one of my mouse and keyboard customizations from Silo.
Awesome video Iron. It's kinda funny really, Blender has such a bad rep (and understandably so, as it originates in how obscure and backwards the program is by default) that it ends up overshadowing the quality of its features.
I cannot Blame anyone for not taking the time to try it tho - it takes weeks to learn its quirks and to get it all up and running, not to mention that most of the tutorials/guides are written by Blender fans who for some reason swear by the default shortcuts.
And on top of that, while the BlanderArtists community can be very helpful, it takes quite a bit of getting used to. I was just told yesterday by a user that he/she didn't want a bug I just described to be fixed, because that particular issue that I wanted to investigate with the help of other users didn't affect that one person, and who knows, fixing the bug could "maybe break something else". Not exactly the most encouraging kind of response ! Now of course it's a very isolated case, but it sure was pretty funny to see
i'm keeping my eyes peeled on blender as well. intend to do a personal project in it sometime this year actually to get a real feel for it. i agree that autodesk's development progress seems not the way forward and being stuck with forced rentals a plain bad idea for the customer.
my current concerns with blender are performance (i always give the new versions a spin on my macbook pro and it doesn't take a very complex model to make the viewport stutter really), (lack of?) user-editable implicit mesh triangulation and vertex normal editing capabilities.
i've not warmed up to the interface as of yet. it seems overloaded with yet another flavour of tiny icons and so flexible that i always manage to drag the wrong widget and produce yet another panel out of thin air. annoying. is there the possibility to use icon themes and lock the window placement down somehow?
Thomas : I would actually recommend you to not tackle a personal project too early, but rather, dedicate some time to just learning the UI system and the core (and again, sometimes exotic) principles of the program. The UI system is actually very clever, but it has the very, very big flaw of not having any user error prevention built-in, which indeeds causes windows to flood the screen pretty fast
This was all I needed to be up to speed for a basic test project, but assimilating the information, taking notes, and watching the Gumroad vid multiple times required quite a few hours.
If you have a week off and some time on your end, that would be the way I would recommend you to go at it.
Awesome video Iron. It's kinda funny really, Blender has such a bad rep (and understandably so, as it originates in how obscure and backwards the program is by default) that it ends up overshadowing the quality of its features.
I cannot Blame anyone for not taking the time to try it tho - it takes weeks to learn its quirks and to get it all up and running, not to mention that most of the tutorials/guides are written by Blender fans who for some reason swear by the default shortcuts.
And on top of that, while the BlanderArtists community can be very helpful, it takes quite a bit of getting used to. I was just told yesterday by a user that he/she didn't want a bug I just described to be fixed, because that particular issue that I wanted to investigate with the help of other users didn't affect that one person, and who knows, fixing the bug could "maybe break something else". Not exactly the most encouraging kind of response ! Now of course it's a very isolated case, but it sure was pretty funny to see
I agree with that. You won't become a master in Blender within a cozy afternoon. It takes some time. And more time than migrate from, let's say Max to Maya, because of the different workflow.
The thing you described with Blender Artists is something I've also seen some times.
The issue with BA is, that it has some really stubborn diehard Blender fans. They feel pretty special, like the Linux , or Apple crowd did in the past. And they don't want change at all. But they are the minority fortunately. And as more mainstream Blender becomes, as more professional the community gets. The thing with the bug for example is ridiculous.
I also have to admit that I rarely visit Blender artists. Only for some news and official threads.
Regarding the video, you've posted about the Maya Style viewport without conflicts.
If you go with that, you still get one conflict in weight painting mode, because you use the left mouse-button by default to paint the weight. I changed it to shift+left mouse to paint.
Thomas : I would actually recommend you to not tackle a personal project too early, but rather, dedicate some time to just learning the UI system and the core (and again, sometimes exotic) principles of the program. The UI system is actually very clever, but it has the very, very big flaw of not having any user error prevention built-in, which indeeds causes windows to flood the screen pretty fast
This was all I needed to be up to speed for a basic test project, but assimilating the information, taking notes, and watching the Gumroad vid multiple times required quite a few hours.
If you have a week off and some time on your end, that would be the way I would recommend you to go at it.
Could you check if something "funny" happens, while using Maya navigation keys with the Knife tool enable? Like you can't rotate or dolly.
Sonic : I use the knife tool a lot in my workflow and have not noticed any issue so far, but I will double check tonight and report. One thing to keep in mind is that I am not using the Maya "preset" from the splash screen and the user preferences, as it breaks too many things unrelated to viewport nav. I set up custom navigation manually, as described in the above video.
From the perspective of someone who grew up with Blender, the interface has improved by leaps and bounds...
I can see how it would be more difficult for someone who's been a life long Max or Maya user. The thing is, any new software is going to require some effort in order to get up to speed. That's kinda normal.
And yes, custom vertex normals are probably THE major thing Blender is still missing. But it is being worked on and it'll eventually arrive, just as split normals did.
Modelling-wise, although I've got limited experience, it seems to be able to do all the stuff that I see in the hard surface threads on Polycount.
I'm not sure if Blender's sculpt mode is anywhere as good as Zbrush, but I've seen people do pretty complex stuff with it and there are ways to duplicate certain Zbrush brushes. I don't know why Blender doesn't try to emulate those by default, but perhaps it's just a case of more people requesting them.
The sculpt mode has been hard for me to get to grips with, so perhaps I'm getting a taste of what Blender is like for everybody else... you just get a bunch of buttons and a lot of checkboxes etc, and then you have to do some trial and error. It could be better documented perhaps by playing some pre-recorded instructional animation (macro?) when the user requests one. Not sure how hard that would be to implement.
KDITD : I find that the sculpting mode is actually a pretty good common ground between the Zbrush and Mudbox paradigms, and in some cases it can be more intuitive than both. For instance, having instantaneous control on the profile curve of the brush is awesome, and neither Zbrush and Mudbox are offer such a fluid workflow in that regard.
The problem is performance (there is no way to go as high as with dedicated sculpting programs) and some refresh bugs. For instance, he normals of sculpted objects do not always update until one gets out and back into sculpt mode, which gives the impression that a sculpting stroke has not registered even though it has.
Also, Dyntopo still needs a polygon reduction brush, but I am sure it will come.
What you can do if you don't want to use that setup, is try it out then hack up what you like of it and create your own. It could give you an idea and some pointers on how to do some of that stuff.
Edit:
Updated the setup today. Now with Retopo MT Addon included.
Note to anyone that might be using this, I update every now and then. At the end of that initial post is a changelog.
Sonic : I use the knife tool a lot in my workflow and have not noticed any issue so far, but I will double check tonight and report. One thing to keep in mind is that I am not using the Maya "preset" from the splash screen and the user preferences, as it breaks too many things unrelated to viewport nav. I set up custom navigation manually, as described in the above video.
Ruka : thanks for the tip !
I should have been more specific, I'm using the configuration explained in that same video, but this, after experimenting with the new 2.73 I remember that happened before by manually changing the key configuration to Maya style.
If I'm the only one experiencing this, I think it's not only a key conflict but a problem on my end.
I changed Dolly to Zoom, because that's the correct Blender operation.
What you can do if you don't want to use that setup, is try it out then hack up what you like of it and create your own. It could give you an idea and some pointers on how to do some of that stuff.
Edit:
Updated the setup today. Now with Retopo MT Addon included.
Note to anyone that might be using this, I update every now and then. At the end of that initial post is a changelog.
[quote=SonicBlue;2225734
I have to test your configuration better, as for now, the 2.72 is giving me some problems:
This by RMB and selecting Loopcut, is it intended?
[/quote]
That is part of the Wazou RMB Pie.
I guess he made the operator do that. If you change the Smoothness back to Zero (you will find that setting at the bottom of the Tool Panel (T), or using RMB Pie + swipe UP (F6)- and you get those same settings as a floating window), it will behave as if you invoked loopcut with CTRL+R
... CTRL + R, or using MMB > Cut > Loop Cut and Slide (rRMB addon from PLyczkowski)
I know it all sounds crazy, but try them all out ... it'll give you a sense what's all there. Different avenues to get you places
My goal was to include as many addons that would help new users get grips with Blender. Kind of keep it stacked, so new users can find whatever workflow suites them.
For instance I don't use the rRMB addon, that's included exclusively for new users (I've also remapped it to MMB, as I prefer Wazou RMB Pie remain on RMB).
Edit 2:
Regarding that behavior in the Loop Cut that's part of the Wazou RMB Pie, I guess he wanted a quick alternate option to insert loops that preserve surface curvature.
I'm assuming he uses hotkey (CTRL + R) for a regular loopcut, and then reverts to the one in his RMB Pie when he wants to preserve subD surface curvature (so he doesn't need to bring up the operator and tweak it to Smoothness:1)
That is part of the Wazou RMB Pie.
I guess he made the operator do that. If you change the Smoothness back to Zero (you will find that setting at the bottom of the Tool Panel (T), or using RMB Pie + swipe UP (F6)- and you get those same settings as a floating window), it will behave as if you invoked loopcut with CTRL+R
... CTRL + R, or using MMB > Cut > Loop Cut and Slide (rRMB addon from PLyczkowski)
I know it all sounds crazy, but try them all out ... it'll give you a sense what's all there. Different avenues to get you places
My goal was to include as many addons that would help new users get grips with Blender. Kind of keep it stacked, so new users can find whatever workflow suites them.
For instance I don't use the rRMB addon, that's included exclusively for new users (I've also remapped it to MMB, as I prefer Wazou RMB Pie remain on RMB).
Thanks!
This is to show how I know Blender
Your configuration, is very useful, as it have almost all the changes I wanted to do, already done, but I'd have to invest more time in it, as I wanted to create my personal set of shortcuts and menus, if possible.
I tried to change the 2D view behaviour in my configuration, but nothing. it doesn't zoom, nor pans, those are the moments of "why did I have to go crazy changing Blender if I have my software that already works?"
Edit 2:
Regarding that behavior in the Loop Cut that's part of the Wazou RMB Pie, I guess he wanted a quick alternate option to insert loops that preserve surface curvature.
I'm assuming he uses hotkey (CTRL + R) for a regular loopcut, and then reverts to the one in his RMB Pie when he wants to preserve subD surface curvature (so he doesn't need to bring up the operator and tweak it to Smoothness:1)
Thanks again.
I noticed that in fact, the CTRL+R worked, and have the smoothness on the default 0.000
Edit:
Solved the 2D view problem, I had to change Image--->View Pan and Zoom.
On Blender's sculpting performance, you can actually work at a very high polycount... at one point I was painting on a sphere @100 million polys, but it requires toggling a few settings and the multi-rez modifier. Once you go dynotopo its gone.
From what I hear, the guy who was behind the sculpting features came back to work on it some more so... hopefully we can see something come from that.
Have you figured out a good way to deal with multires glitches? I haven't used multires in awhile but when I did I had problems with spikes in a few places if I went down a few levels, sculpted some, then went back up.
Not really but I also have no need/desire to use it much, from what I have seen and some of BA's sculptors can attest, the Blender multi-rez is still functional but still not really well designed. I agree with the ones that say it needs a complete redesign. Blender's priorities and its developers are a bit all over the place, though I have a feeling if their sheep film needs a better multi-rez they will find a way to make it happen.
Ok guys, after playing with the sowftware today, I was really cahrmed to see that on start up window, you could select to interact with the same interactions and shortkeys of Maya, it facilitates the readaptation.
Any tip where I could find some good begineer tutorials?
Hello Blond - I would highly recommend you to not use that preset, but rather, follow the video below. There is a big flaw in these "navigation presets" in the sense they not only change the navigation keys (good thing) but also change other parts of the program (bad thing).
Let’s start a new thread about assets and filebrowser work! So, details are in this blog post, but in a few words you can find here experimental builds of work done so far in the filebrowser, as preliminary step for assets project. As usual, any testing and feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Dearest Bastien, this is entirely unrelated to the file browser, but I've noticed lately that images take a rather long time to load in Blender compared to other programs. Loading an 8192x4096 .hdr panorama takes twenty seconds on my machine, even if the file has been cached in memory, while loading the same image into Photoshop takes five seconds. Do you have any hints for where I might start in the Blender source to ameliorate this? Cheers, Spencer
@JedTheKrampus: have you watched the system monitor for cpu usage accross different cpu cores when doing your comparison? If this is a multithreading issue then it might not be easy to fix.
Also: is anyone else experiencing that undo no longer works in 2.73 for simply moving an object? I switched back to 2.72 right away because of this. I'm sure it will be sorted out soon if this is a bug that occurs for everyone.
In Blender the CPU uses one core for the bulk of the loading process, but it spikes up to all cores very briefly at the very end. In Photoshop the CPU uses approximately one core as well, so it looks the issue should be mostly rectifiable with a single thread.
Blond, that's not what I meant - I am saying that if you want to use the Maya-style navigation in Blender (which is what I personally do), you shouldn't use the Maya "preset" from the splash screen or the User Preferences menu, because it causes issues. Instead, look at the video I linked, which will walk you through the steps of setting it all up without conflicts.
@Martin_H Undo works as previously in 2.73. Maybe you disabled it in UserPreferences somehow?
@JedTheKrampus Most of image handling happens in 'imbuf' dir in Blender sources. But it could also be that you load your HDR in a texture (in this case, you also have to create the texture data, the OGL preview, etc.)? And color management may also add some process time. Cannot really help more here, not a specialist of this area.
Lets start a new thread about assets and filebrowser work! So, details are in this blog post, but in a few words you can find here experimental builds of work done so far in the filebrowser, as preliminary step for assets project. As usual, any testing and feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Bastien
I haven't tested the build yet, but it sounds like a pretty good start. However if I could make a request for a filebrowser feature it would be to make an actual default preset operator (just named default or whatever) that you could overwrite the settings of. If you were to open a new instance of Blender it would just read the settings from this (user modified) operator preset upon import or export. There is already an option to reset the settings to the factory defaults so I can't really see any downsides to this suggestion.
Adding this functionality would save a few clicks every time you export or import something (for the first time since opening Blender). However the biggest advantage to this (for me) would be that there no longer is any chance to forget to select 'Selection Only' and have Blender lock up for several minutes or just outright crash. So if you don't like the first suggestion could you please make 'Selection Only' checked by default. I've wanted this for some time and I've seen others here who have wanted this to be a default setting as well.
Some similar functionality would also be good for applying a default (listed and user-modifiable) material as well to new models, but that's probably a discussion for another time.
Also, on an unrelated note, are you finished with the vertex normal baking now?
Replies
You still need actual geometry to cut through, so you can't draw a circle on a bare face. However if the face is full of edges in the middle, freehand will cut and change stroke direction when meeting an edge.
Regarding pie menus, I'm still on the fence if I like them better compared to the - by now ingrained - key combos. There is also currently a weird mix of pie menus and old style menus.
The fly mode (aka noclip) is a relief when doing environments, too. It used to be really unintuitive to move around a level. So yay again.
On a side note, If only Blender had the polish Modo had with modeling, UV and Retopology, I would probably use it more.
The way I see it, Blender now just needs an easy to use menu editor so that users can make their own non-pie, "dumb" menus, without the need to learn Python, just like Zbrush. I am confident that this will come sooner or later.
Maybe it's for people who have a hard time to get used to a hotkey centric workflow and/or who coming from Maya.
Anyway, Blender is really coming along nicely. Yeah it has it's rough edges. But which 3d suite hasn't?
All in all it is one of the most well rounded packages as a whole IMO.
Btw. I find the thread title misleading. The times where Blender was trying to compete are definitely over.
I would say that now Autodesk and The Foundry trying hard to compete with Blender in the indie market with their watered down software (Maya LT, Modo Indie) where Blender has a strong stance among individuals and smaller studios. No wonder Epic supports Blender now. It's a huge user base and a lucrative market.
However there are still issues with the program which need to be addressed (lack of progress bars on slow operations, very exotic default input scheme, and most importantly, a huuuuge problem with the way the BlenderArtists forum when it comes to new user registration). These are of course small things compared to the impressive feature set, but I think these issues need to be addressed at some point.
Anyways, can't wait to try the latest version. The way this app integrates everything into on package makes me excited about even the most mundane tasks. Pretty awesome stuff.
http://www.cryengine.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=315&t=128479
Not to sound like a wet diaper or anything, but I know this feeling all too well. I think a lot of people who pick up blender in earnest start to feel that way, in part because its not secretive and annualized like other software packages. BUT, it will wear off after awhile... especially when some feature is only half implemented or dropped at the last minute because of philosophical reasons... While I think that annoying occurrence may be dwindling, one has be cautiously optimistic.
Of course the best way to make sure the best results happen and it becomes ideal is to get involved with the development process in one way or another. The more "big names" or just any professional name, the better. There was a point where the Blender users would openly mock the professionals, they would say things like "the pros have their software, us hobbyist have ours, we dont want to be anything like them" or "their expectations/needs are not ours". They really cant say that anymore, and the more pros start popping on over there and showcasing Blender in ways that are up there with the other software, the sooner that kind of talk can go away for good.
In the meantime, Modo has been leaving me super happy. Money well spent, super friendly business model to boot. Blender will always be the perpetual fall back.
[ame]
Seems a bit slow right now but i'm sure they have plans to optimize the tool.
Most useful mapping methods currently are 'Topology' (if source and destination are exact same topology), 'Nearest Interpolated' and 'Raycast Interpolated'.
That step was needed before I finalize custom normals, btw, because current 'copy normals' modifier will likely be merged into new transfer data one.
Always nice to see that more and more professionals recognize Blender as a viable tool. Some people still have the mindset "Free=Trash" and ignore Blender with a passion and for no reason.
I also don't get the mentality "Oh Blender didn't worked like I expected so it landed in my trash bin after 2 minutes".
Hands down, the default inputs in Blender are exotic like you said. But that can be changed real quick. Some patience and interest to grapple with Blender and you will realize fast, that Blender is pretty powerful. It's like Zbrush in that department.
And I also don't even see the reason, why someone should wait for a official keymap. You can change literally everything in Blender by yourself, within minutes.
There are still some things I miss in Blender like custom normals. But people like Mont are already tackling that. And you get tons of useful Add-ons like multi edit, F2, UV square, Rigify and that repot tool in the video above.
All in all I'm very happy with Blender, the minor issues aside. And seeing what is coming this year makes me even more happier
This is something I love about Blender as well. You know what they have in the works and a clear roadmap. And sometimes, someone comes out of nowhere and surprises the user with a new tool/function (Cycles Hair, Molecular Add-on etc.)
Not to forget the support. If you report an issue, or bug you get fast responses. Often in minutes. And some of those bugs get fixed in hours, or days. No need to wait months for a patch.
I made a short video trying one of Vitaly Bulgarov's models in Blender:
[ame]
I haven't updated to 2.73 yet but can't wait to try out the new knife tool!
I cannot Blame anyone for not taking the time to try it tho - it takes weeks to learn its quirks and to get it all up and running, not to mention that most of the tutorials/guides are written by Blender fans who for some reason swear by the default shortcuts.
And on top of that, while the BlanderArtists community can be very helpful, it takes quite a bit of getting used to. I was just told yesterday by a user that he/she didn't want a bug I just described to be fixed, because that particular issue that I wanted to investigate with the help of other users didn't affect that one person, and who knows, fixing the bug could "maybe break something else". Not exactly the most encouraging kind of response ! Now of course it's a very isolated case, but it sure was pretty funny to see
my current concerns with blender are performance (i always give the new versions a spin on my macbook pro and it doesn't take a very complex model to make the viewport stutter really), (lack of?) user-editable implicit mesh triangulation and vertex normal editing capabilities.
i've not warmed up to the interface as of yet. it seems overloaded with yet another flavour of tiny icons and so flexible that i always manage to drag the wrong widget and produce yet another panel out of thin air. annoying. is there the possibility to use icon themes and lock the window placement down somehow?
The one intro/guide I followed was this :
https://gumroad.com/masterxeon1001
With the help of this :
[ame]
This was all I needed to be up to speed for a basic test project, but assimilating the information, taking notes, and watching the Gumroad vid multiple times required quite a few hours.
If you have a week off and some time on your end, that would be the way I would recommend you to go at it.
I agree with that. You won't become a master in Blender within a cozy afternoon. It takes some time. And more time than migrate from, let's say Max to Maya, because of the different workflow.
The thing you described with Blender Artists is something I've also seen some times.
The issue with BA is, that it has some really stubborn diehard Blender fans. They feel pretty special, like the Linux , or Apple crowd did in the past. And they don't want change at all. But they are the minority fortunately. And as more mainstream Blender becomes, as more professional the community gets. The thing with the bug for example is ridiculous.
I also have to admit that I rarely visit Blender artists. Only for some news and official threads.
Regarding the video, you've posted about the Maya Style viewport without conflicts.
If you go with that, you still get one conflict in weight painting mode, because you use the left mouse-button by default to paint the weight. I changed it to shift+left mouse to paint.
Could you check if something "funny" happens, while using Maya navigation keys with the Knife tool enable? Like you can't rotate or dolly.
Ruka : thanks for the tip !
I can see how it would be more difficult for someone who's been a life long Max or Maya user. The thing is, any new software is going to require some effort in order to get up to speed. That's kinda normal.
And yes, custom vertex normals are probably THE major thing Blender is still missing. But it is being worked on and it'll eventually arrive, just as split normals did.
Modelling-wise, although I've got limited experience, it seems to be able to do all the stuff that I see in the hard surface threads on Polycount.
I'm not sure if Blender's sculpt mode is anywhere as good as Zbrush, but I've seen people do pretty complex stuff with it and there are ways to duplicate certain Zbrush brushes. I don't know why Blender doesn't try to emulate those by default, but perhaps it's just a case of more people requesting them.
[ame]
The sculpt mode has been hard for me to get to grips with, so perhaps I'm getting a taste of what Blender is like for everybody else... you just get a bunch of buttons and a lot of checkboxes etc, and then you have to do some trial and error. It could be better documented perhaps by playing some pre-recorded instructional animation (macro?) when the user requests one. Not sure how hard that would be to implement.
Then again, there are youtube tutorials...
The problem is performance (there is no way to go as high as with dedicated sculpting programs) and some refresh bugs. For instance, he normals of sculpted objects do not always update until one gets out and back into sculpt mode, which gives the impression that a sculpting stroke has not registered even though it has.
Also, Dyntopo still needs a polygon reduction brush, but I am sure it will come.
It's there
You can grab any brush, for instance the regular Draw Brush, drop the Strength and AutoSmooth to Zero, and switch to Collapse Edges.
If you have issues with geo on a certain spot, using Subdivide Collapse option will be best to fix.
That's also what I often use on seams after using Booleans.
I think there is one, but it doesn't have a preset (Brush -> Sculpt Tool -> Simplify). Collapse Edges flat-D mentioned works better I think.
This is true.
Even manually setting up Maya Navigation as Pior noted can lead to the knife tool being stuck in the screen when invoked.
To set this up there are some settings within the knife tool that you need to set to pass through the Maya style navigation.
Check out the 2 expanded entries that pass through maya ALT navigation.
I had made a Maya/Silo type of setup for Blender, that emulates some of the selections and navigation (+ a lot more), did you try that?
http://www.blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?352666-Input-Custom-Blender-Setup-Silo-Maya-esque
What you can do if you don't want to use that setup, is try it out then hack up what you like of it and create your own. It could give you an idea and some pointers on how to do some of that stuff.
Edit:
Updated the setup today. Now with Retopo MT Addon included.
Note to anyone that might be using this, I update every now and then. At the end of that initial post is a changelog.
Also for anyone who hasen't seen Retopo MT yet, AMAZING addon by pitiwazou and Pixivore.
http://www.blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?355154-Addon-Retopo-MT
I should have been more specific, I'm using the configuration explained in that same video, but this, after experimenting with the new 2.73 I remember that happened before by manually changing the key configuration to Maya style.
If I'm the only one experiencing this, I think it's not only a key conflict but a problem on my end.
I changed Dolly to Zoom, because that's the correct Blender operation.
Thanks, I'll change that in my configuration, also I noticed that you have to change the 2D view too, or you get the standard Blender controls.
I have to test your configuration better, as for now, the 2.72 is giving me some problems:
This by RMB and selecting Loopcut, is it intended?
Edit:
Sorry for the double post.
I have to test your configuration better, as for now, the 2.72 is giving me some problems:
This by RMB and selecting Loopcut, is it intended?
[/quote]
That is part of the Wazou RMB Pie.
I guess he made the operator do that. If you change the Smoothness back to Zero (you will find that setting at the bottom of the Tool Panel (T), or using RMB Pie + swipe UP (F6)- and you get those same settings as a floating window), it will behave as if you invoked loopcut with CTRL+R
... CTRL + R, or using MMB > Cut > Loop Cut and Slide (rRMB addon from PLyczkowski)
I know it all sounds crazy, but try them all out ... it'll give you a sense what's all there. Different avenues to get you places
My goal was to include as many addons that would help new users get grips with Blender. Kind of keep it stacked, so new users can find whatever workflow suites them.
For instance I don't use the rRMB addon, that's included exclusively for new users (I've also remapped it to MMB, as I prefer Wazou RMB Pie remain on RMB).
Edit:
BTW why not update to latest version?
Grab all the latest (daily) versions here:
https://builder.blender.org/download/
Edit 2:
Regarding that behavior in the Loop Cut that's part of the Wazou RMB Pie, I guess he wanted a quick alternate option to insert loops that preserve surface curvature.
I'm assuming he uses hotkey (CTRL + R) for a regular loopcut, and then reverts to the one in his RMB Pie when he wants to preserve subD surface curvature (so he doesn't need to bring up the operator and tweak it to Smoothness:1)
Thanks!
This is to show how I know Blender
Your configuration, is very useful, as it have almost all the changes I wanted to do, already done, but I'd have to invest more time in it, as I wanted to create my personal set of shortcuts and menus, if possible.
I tried to change the 2D view behaviour in my configuration, but nothing. it doesn't zoom, nor pans, those are the moments of "why did I have to go crazy changing Blender if I have my software that already works?"
Thanks again.
I noticed that in fact, the CTRL+R worked, and have the smoothness on the default 0.000
Edit:
Solved the 2D view problem, I had to change Image--->View Pan and Zoom.
From what I hear, the guy who was behind the sculpting features came back to work on it some more so... hopefully we can see something come from that.
Any tip where I could find some good begineer tutorials?
Instead, do this :
[ame]
Let’s start a new thread about assets and filebrowser work! So, details are in this blog post, but in a few words you can find here experimental builds of work done so far in the filebrowser, as preliminary step for assets project. As usual, any testing and feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Bastien
http://www.twitch.tv/unrealengine/b/610672383
Also: is anyone else experiencing that undo no longer works in 2.73 for simply moving an object? I switched back to 2.72 right away because of this. I'm sure it will be sorted out soon if this is a bug that occurs for everyone.
@JedTheKrampus Most of image handling happens in 'imbuf' dir in Blender sources. But it could also be that you load your HDR in a texture (in this case, you also have to create the texture data, the OGL preview, etc.)? And color management may also add some process time. Cannot really help more here, not a specialist of this area.
Adding this functionality would save a few clicks every time you export or import something (for the first time since opening Blender). However the biggest advantage to this (for me) would be that there no longer is any chance to forget to select 'Selection Only' and have Blender lock up for several minutes or just outright crash. So if you don't like the first suggestion could you please make 'Selection Only' checked by default. I've wanted this for some time and I've seen others here who have wanted this to be a default setting as well.
Some similar functionality would also be good for applying a default (listed and user-modifiable) material as well to new models, but that's probably a discussion for another time.
Also, on an unrelated note, are you finished with the vertex normal baking now?