The idea is to place the cursor where one wants the center of interest of the camera to be, and then focus the camera on the cursor. This is very useful to me, because while most 3D programs do have the option to frame on the current selection of components or objects (automatically or not), there are always situations when the center of what is being selected does not match with what one wants to look at. This unorthodox use of the 3D cursor completely solves this issue for me, and helped me get rid of the dizzyness I am usually experiencing when working in other 3D environments.
Has anyone noticed serious slow downs when using the file browser in the most recent version?.
It doesn't matter what I do, Exporting, saving, loading ad-dons. It seems the file browser is really slow and can take anywhere from 20 seconds to 5 minutes to open up and Blender hangs for the entire time.
It doesn't always happen, usually 50% of the time. I'm using an older version as a fix for now, it's just annoying.
Just not sure if it's my PC not cooperating with the recent versions or a bug with Blender itself.
not a blender expert yet but that sounds more like a filemanager problem. offline network drive in the bookmarks causing a timeout or similar issue. does it happen when you relocate the entire prefs folder and have blender recreate a fresh one?
is it just me, or did they make the vertex slide tool worse in the last build (2.74.5)
i'm really having trouble to select the correct edge i want to slide on, worked way better in an older version
also, now when i have two edge in the exact same place, i cannot select both of them with alt+shift+click
now it deselects the first edgeloop instead of selecting the second one
is it just me, or did they make the vertex slide tool worse in the last build (2.74.5)
i'm really having trouble to select the correct edge i want to slide on, worked way better in an older version
It looks like the dotted line that extends from the vertex doesn't lock the correct edge it uses to slide. If you try to spin it around, you'll see that it have some delay in following the pointer, like Lazy Mouse in Zbrush.
As a guy who used the Node utility tools to rig inside of Maya, I'm only waiting for them to implement the Rigging Nodes inside of the node editor, so that flexible rig can be made by artists too and not just Python programmers..
Please tell me theres a better way to do retopology than shrinkwrap and face snapping with basic modeling tools? Not having a good time with this, extrusion snapping is very unreliable and I've been cleaning it up with shrinkwrap, a lot of relaxing, and by grabbing individual verts to snap them back to the surface.
It's painfully slow, I feel like I may as well just retopo in zbrush at this rate
Also don't forget about the button for face snapping on the bottom bar that lets you snap more than one point at once to the surface. It's really handy with extrusions of multiple points, but you do have to make sure you only are extruding on the front side of the surface otherwise you'll get funky faces that go from one side of your model to the other.
Please tell me theres a better way to do retopology than shrinkwrap and face snapping with basic modeling tools? Not having a good time with this, extrusion snapping is very unreliable and I've been cleaning it up with shrinkwrap, a lot of relaxing, and by grabbing individual verts to snap them back to the surface.
It's painfully slow, I feel like I may as well just retopo in zbrush at this rate
Haha Dude
retopolgy is quick and easy in Blender. Follow this vid and you'll be all set.
Hi guys, I wanna learn Blender because it's look promising and awesome right now ( I'm Max user ) but don't know where to start, any suggest for me ? ( I already watch all the basic tuts from blender cookie). Thanks
Things like these are the precise reason why I now have more trust in Blender than in any other 3D app. Granted, the program doesn't come with official "support" - but seing the dedication and careful future-proof development getting into it (directly from the Blender Fundation as well as from third party developpers) is really quite something. Great stuff.
Do you guys use Blender's default navigation? Does it offer much advantage? Middle mouse navigation is really difficult to pull off with tablet. I found quite a few posts teaching how to set up left mouse navigation but would that limit what one can do in Blender much?
DW : I personally do not use the default navigation because if find it to be counter intuitive and not worth rewiring myself to, especially since I use other 3D environment alongside Blender (3DCoat, Topogun, Mudbox, and so on). Still, the one thing you have to keep in mind is that using the Maya "preset" (from the splash screen or the preferences) not only enables Maya-style navigation but also changes the behavior of the program in other areas, which is definitely something you want to avoid.
So, if you want a more standard navigation scheme, follow this :
That being said you need to keep two things in mind :
- Do not attempt any of this before being familiar with the program as the whole after following tutorials for about a week or so, so that you develop a solid understanding of the way Blender operates.
- Always take advice coming from Blender "fans" with a grain of salt. Quite a few users tend to be very defensive about the idea of changing the default behavior of the program in any way, and that's something to keep in mind when posting questions on Blenderartists for instance. But once you get past that, you will find a ton of very useful information there.
Thank you Pior. If possible I'd love to set up navigation similar to Modo or Zbrush where every thing are based on left click. I found that to be the easiest to use with tablet.
My post still needs to be approved on blenderartists. Not very helpful because my thread already fell a couple pages by the time my reply appeared lol.
Yeah, the Blenderartists system was actually a big issue for me too.
Regarding tablet use : the Maya navigation scheme is completely tablet-friendly as long as you setup your rocker buttons appropriately (middle and right). I can't help much regarding left-click driven navigation, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear that it is possible ... But still, I wouldn't recommend to attempt it before being confortable with the basics of the program - using a regular mouse and the not-so-intuitive default navigation scheme. One thing at a time
Hi. This might have been asked before, but I couldn't find anything.
I'm currently a modo user and I'm looking to switch. A few questions:
- How's the import/export of OBJs and/or FBXs in blender? I have to use Max at work and need to be able to move objects back and forth with material id's and UV's intact.
- Is there a modo style "workplane" in blender? = can you temporarily change the coordinate system to match arbitrary geometry in blender?
- I do a lot of scripting/macros in modo to make stuff easier. How's the scripting documentation for blender?
- The only thing that I still really like in modo is the modelling. Does modelling in blender have any glaring omissions or weird things that can't be worked around?
The default Blender navigation is easy to get used to, my Pen is set to have the bottom button as MMB and the other one as RMB. With the clicking of the pen on the tablet as LMB you have all your mouse buttons on your hand.
I use this configuration with all the applications.
Is there a modo style "workplane" in blender? = can you temporarily change the coordinate system to match arbitrary geometry in blender?
You can have multiple custom 'Transform Orientations' saved to be used.
For example align the view to a face or any geometry, save the orientation, then
you're able to use it the same way as any other (Global, Normal, etc.)
- How's the import/export of OBJs and/or FBXs in blender? I have to use Max at work and need to be able to move objects back and forth with material id's and UV's intact.
- I do a lot of scripting/macros in modo to make stuff easier. How's the scripting documentation for blender?
- The only thing that I still really like in modo is the modelling. Does modelling in blender have any glaring omissions or weird things that can't be worked around?
Thanks!
-OBJ zero problems, export FBX to others softwares no problems so far, I don't really know about importing because mostof the time I do stuff in Blender.
-in Blender no macros sorry, there was some addons, but I didn't really have a look into it.
-splines are not good, but fortunately there is non-manifold workflow that allows to model with edges and then convert to spline.
-If you get used to the modifier stack, and discover some superuseful features like the "solidify" modifier or the "bevel" modifier is really hard to go back and model without that.
Blender doesn't have quite as good scripting documentation as Modo and the API gets broken much more frequently but it has got a few things going for it that make it pretty easy to script. The API documentation is available here, so go ahead and take a look.
One thing that you'll be using in the process of scripting Blender is the Python console. It has an autocomplete function which can be handy. Usually when I'm writing scripts I will test out a few function calls in the Python console to make sure that what I'm doing will work.
Another thing that makes scripting easy in Blender is that hovering over most operator buttons will give you a tooltip with information about the operator.
So for example, if I wanted to use a script to lock the scaling of the object on the X and Z axes, I would first mouse over the button to do that in the UI to find the name of the operator or property I need to change. Then, I would go to the Python console and use it to figure out how to use Python to lock the scale. I don't know exactly how the data is laid out for this, so I use educated (and occasionally uneducated) guesses to figure out what needs to be done.
Eventually I figure out that I need to pass Python an ordered triple of Boolean values that determine whether scaling is locked for any particular axis. So now I can go over to Vim where I'm writing my script and put something like that line of code in it and have a reasonable expectation of it working correctly.
The last thing that Blender has going for it over Modo is that the entire source code of the program is available. It has some dark corners here and there, but having source code access means that you can run a debugger on any part of the program you want and extend it using C if you wish. If you ever want to know exactly what an operator does, the source code is where you'll want to look if the documentation doesn't tell you what you need to know.
This is an obvious point, but besides the documentation, having a nice library of example scripts for you to study is essential in learning the tricks and patterns that people use.
Blender recently got a fix for fly mode with tablets - the view would spin uncontrollably, which is now no longer the case. Shift-F navigation through a large environment or the like with a wacom tablet is now possible and very nice.
frmdbl, MmAaXx, JedTheKrampus, Kryzon: I've tried blender a few times, but my brain has been hardwired to Lightwave then modo and I couldn't get past the UI, but I guess it's time to make an effort. I like the idea of open source, it would feel better to write scripts for the blender community instead. And I never use splines, so that's no big deal. Thanks!
Is there a blender tutorial mega thread? If not can we create one where members post links to blender tutorials. We can sort them by things such as Character modelling, environment modelling, texturing, rigging etc. Also free vs paid.
I've thought about that as well, but the thread author would have to keep maintaining the first post with the al the links so people don't have to read the whole thread.
Some categories like "tutorials for people new to 3d" and "migrating to blender from [other]" would be nice as well.
I could do that. I know there are sub forums for game engines are there also subforums for modelling software and under that blender? Or is their a tutorial subforum where we could make a blender section? Someone who knows mods have them read this please.
Blender Foundation and the blender.org developer community are proud to present the official Blender 2.75 release. The main highlights of this release are:
Blender now supports a fully integrated Multi-View and Stereo 3D pipeline
Cycles has much awaited initial support for AMD GPUs, and a new Light Portals feature.
UI now allows font previews in the file browser. High quality options for viewport depth of field were added
Modeling has a new Corrective Smooth modifier.
The Decimate modifier was improved significantly. 3D viewport painting now supports symmetry and the distribution of Dynamic Topology was improved
Video Sequence Editor: Placeholders can now replace missing frames of image sequences
Game Engine now allows smoother LOD transitions, and supports mist attributes animation
And: 100s of bug fixes and smaller feature improvements.
Replies
Thanks! I actually didn't see the "Start/End cap" and I only thought it was Array/Curve was limited to one a simple mesh (pipes)
Like for exmaple, to make a chain.
Also,a way to extrude a geo or edges along a curve?
Those were pretty simple in Maya.
array modifier and on top of that a curve modifier
you can also make a profile, convert that to a curve and use it as a "bevel object" on another curve
[ame]
The idea is to place the cursor where one wants the center of interest of the camera to be, and then focus the camera on the cursor. This is very useful to me, because while most 3D programs do have the option to frame on the current selection of components or objects (automatically or not), there are always situations when the center of what is being selected does not match with what one wants to look at. This unorthodox use of the 3D cursor completely solves this issue for me, and helped me get rid of the dizzyness I am usually experiencing when working in other 3D environments.
I hope this makes sense !
It doesn't matter what I do, Exporting, saving, loading ad-dons. It seems the file browser is really slow and can take anywhere from 20 seconds to 5 minutes to open up and Blender hangs for the entire time.
It doesn't always happen, usually 50% of the time. I'm using an older version as a fix for now, it's just annoying.
Just not sure if it's my PC not cooperating with the recent versions or a bug with Blender itself.
i'm really having trouble to select the correct edge i want to slide on, worked way better in an older version
also, now when i have two edge in the exact same place, i cannot select both of them with alt+shift+click
now it deselects the first edgeloop instead of selecting the second one
same problem here... gonna report this bug!
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?371788-Add-on-v1-4-MeasureIt-measurement-tools
It's painfully slow, I feel like I may as well just retopo in zbrush at this rate
Haha Dude
retopolgy is quick and easy in Blender. Follow this vid and you'll be all set.
[ame]
I really liked this series by xrg when I started learning Blender.
BTW
new vertex normal editor addon
https://www.blend4web.com/en/article/131
So, if you want a more standard navigation scheme, follow this :
[ame]
That being said you need to keep two things in mind :
- Do not attempt any of this before being familiar with the program as the whole after following tutorials for about a week or so, so that you develop a solid understanding of the way Blender operates.
- Always take advice coming from Blender "fans" with a grain of salt. Quite a few users tend to be very defensive about the idea of changing the default behavior of the program in any way, and that's something to keep in mind when posting questions on Blenderartists for instance. But once you get past that, you will find a ton of very useful information there.
Good luck !
My post still needs to be approved on blenderartists. Not very helpful because my thread already fell a couple pages by the time my reply appeared lol.
Regarding tablet use : the Maya navigation scheme is completely tablet-friendly as long as you setup your rocker buttons appropriately (middle and right). I can't help much regarding left-click driven navigation, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear that it is possible ... But still, I wouldn't recommend to attempt it before being confortable with the basics of the program - using a regular mouse and the not-so-intuitive default navigation scheme. One thing at a time
That actually sounds really smart :O
I'm currently a modo user and I'm looking to switch. A few questions:
- How's the import/export of OBJs and/or FBXs in blender? I have to use Max at work and need to be able to move objects back and forth with material id's and UV's intact.
- Is there a modo style "workplane" in blender? = can you temporarily change the coordinate system to match arbitrary geometry in blender?
- I do a lot of scripting/macros in modo to make stuff easier. How's the scripting documentation for blender?
- The only thing that I still really like in modo is the modelling. Does modelling in blender have any glaring omissions or weird things that can't be worked around?
Thanks!
I use this configuration with all the applications.
You can have multiple custom 'Transform Orientations' saved to be used.
For example align the view to a face or any geometry, save the orientation, then
you're able to use it the same way as any other (Global, Normal, etc.)
-OBJ zero problems, export FBX to others softwares no problems so far, I don't really know about importing because mostof the time I do stuff in Blender.
-in Blender no macros sorry, there was some addons, but I didn't really have a look into it.
-splines are not good, but fortunately there is non-manifold workflow that allows to model with edges and then convert to spline.
-If you get used to the modifier stack, and discover some superuseful features like the "solidify" modifier or the "bevel" modifier is really hard to go back and model without that.
cheers.
One thing that you'll be using in the process of scripting Blender is the Python console. It has an autocomplete function which can be handy. Usually when I'm writing scripts I will test out a few function calls in the Python console to make sure that what I'm doing will work.
Another thing that makes scripting easy in Blender is that hovering over most operator buttons will give you a tooltip with information about the operator.
So for example, if I wanted to use a script to lock the scaling of the object on the X and Z axes, I would first mouse over the button to do that in the UI to find the name of the operator or property I need to change. Then, I would go to the Python console and use it to figure out how to use Python to lock the scale. I don't know exactly how the data is laid out for this, so I use educated (and occasionally uneducated) guesses to figure out what needs to be done.
Eventually I figure out that I need to pass Python an ordered triple of Boolean values that determine whether scaling is locked for any particular axis. So now I can go over to Vim where I'm writing my script and put something like that line of code in it and have a reasonable expectation of it working correctly.
The last thing that Blender has going for it over Modo is that the entire source code of the program is available. It has some dark corners here and there, but having source code access means that you can run a debugger on any part of the program you want and extend it using C if you wish. If you ever want to know exactly what an operator does, the source code is where you'll want to look if the documentation doesn't tell you what you need to know.
Blender comes with a lot of scripts in the add-ons folder:
http://www.blender.org/manual/extensions/python/add_ons.html
Thank you, Blender devs! :thumbup:
Simply a must have!
[ame]
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?374697-Addon-Cycles-Multi-Tile-UDIM-non-destructive-painting
Some categories like "tutorials for people new to 3d" and "migrating to blender from [other]" would be nice as well.
Wouldn't be possible to add a Blender tutorial section on the Polycount Wiki instead?
And before posting a link to a tutorial, to at least watch it to confirm the quality.
Ya I would prefer a list on polycount itself. I could watch through them I aint got shit to do.
http://www.blender.org/features/2-75/