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Cyrael polycounter lvl 10
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOfdboHvshg[/ame]


As usual I'm impressed with what the blender foundation has come up with..
not bad for a free program.

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  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    My argument against blender is this, just because you can paint a master piece in MS doesn't mean I'd want to. Blender just doesn't seem as artist friendly as the other apps out there, even if it is free.

    Cool trailer though.
  • Vrav
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    Vrav polycounter lvl 11
    It's getting there, ZacD. I know there's a lot of pessimism out there regarding Blender, but I will forever remain optimistic.
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    you guys.

    edit: The result of any artpiece will really be the result of the skillset of those who made it.

    So do not view sintel, or the previous foundation movies and games as quality roof of blender, its such a backwards retarded way of thinking.

    cup-o-rage.jpg
  • Cyrael
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    Cyrael polycounter lvl 10
    I agree its def. backwards, but seeing things like this and the previous two shorts give me hope for it someday.. I've only tried to use it once and it didn't exactly feel fleshed out. So I continue to hope that it'll improve upon its problems and fix them, thats the one major* upside to it being free and open source, it gets recursively better because the developers actually LISTEN to their audience.
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    That, I think the problem has been its zbrush'y way of doing things, meaning quite different, so users of other apps or such will never really catch on to that whole thing (although its changing.

    However the modelling tools and uv-editor has kicked ass for quite some time while I'm still waiting for the big apps to do something about their ca. 1994 uv-editors.

    I've been doing published game art for quite some years in blender now, so everytime I see someone say "It's not quite there yet" I just facepalm and wonder if I've been living in a dream world where my art never actually happened.

    It's all about the artist, and the blender community might have been lacking a bit in the grand master artist per user ratio, (except for belias, that guy works magic with the canvas)
  • Firebert
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    Firebert polycounter lvl 15
    eld wrote: »
    (except for belias, that guy works magic with the canvas)

    He who must not be named!!!!
  • Swizzle
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    Swizzle polycounter lvl 15
    ZacD wrote: »
    My argument against blender is this, just because you can paint a master piece in MS doesn't mean I'd want to. Blender just doesn't seem as artist friendly as the other apps out there, even if it is free.

    Cool trailer though.

    Agreed, though I tried out the alpha of 2.5 and the improvements are astounding. They're significantly improving the interface and they're actually adding customizable shortcuts after all this time, so things are looking good.
  • metalliandy
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    metalliandy interpolator
    I honestly feel that the tools and applications people use are increasingly irrelevant and its only good art that counts.

    Sintel will increase awareness for Blender and more people will think about using it, but i dont think the vast majority will really ever get over the stigma that it has had in the past.
    2.5 is definitely a step in the right direction though :)
  • PeterK
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    PeterK greentooth
    Small note before you read this post: The "Tone" is not directed at anyone; So please don't feel attacked, It's not my intention to belittle anyone, and since my comments are confined to a text medium, the humanity of what's said may be lost:

    I think a lot of people are living in a bubble with this "The application doesn't matter" nonsense.

    Obviously good art will present itself regardless, or in spite of, the tools. But that's completely irrelevant.

    Who are you making this art for? Are you just making "super zip bang awesome jee wizz" art to put on your site, or do you plan on doing anything useful with it in any reasonable timeframe?

    If the tools didn't matter, why wasn't everyone making amazing organic characters before zbrush came onto the scene? Why are so many places using motionbuilder for an animation advantage over the next guy?

    if the tools didn't matter, why aren't we all still just making models by creating points in space, then connecting them bit by bit like Steed did for strike commander back in those days?

    The tools do matter, the interface does matter, the work flow does matter.

    Come on already; Some people are good with and enjoy maya/XSI/MaX, others like Modo and the lot, but don't tell me just cuz they CAN all do the same basic things, that their given strengths and weaknesses somehow become moot.

    As a human being, you CAN do what anyone else can, the degree to which you do that thing is what makes you a sport star, a track star, a musical legend. Stop trying to make the use of applications a feel good politically correct ego massage.
  • DrunkShaman
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    DrunkShaman polycounter lvl 14
    ZacD wrote: »
    My argument against blender is this, just because you can paint a master piece in MS doesn't mean I'd want to. Blender just doesn't seem as artist friendly as the other apps out there, even if it is free.

    Cool trailer though.

    Yes! There is a user menual at Blenders.org that no one can understand amirite?

    EDIT: Agree with PeterK in most cases and somewhat disagree.
    Agreed: Indeed the good tools and its practices matters along with your style of work flow. Most of today's 3d modeling tools have made work a hell lot easier. Today they rely on such softwares as 3ds max/Maya/Motionbuilder/mudbox/etc, and the work in 3d has gone more realistic than before.

    Disagree, its not necessary to have a good tool to provide a good art, reason being. Final Fantasy spirits within was only realtime 3d movie that was released long before zbrush even existed and 3ds max/maya and other autodesk tools were at very low version. Same goes for Blizzard cinametics. So that proves that you dont really need all those softwares to produce a good art. (though it is more time consuming)
  • mathes
    I think it's great that Blender is improving so much. When I graduated 7 years ago, paying $3000 for Maya was tough pill to swallow. Now these newer kids have a nice alternative if they need a cheap program to complete some paid gigs.
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    PeterK, you are right, but the problem is, blender isn't "some free 3d program" that you dearly want to categorize along with wings3d, it has all the core tools that maya and max have, it has all the uvmapping tools that they have.

    It's a fully capable tool but people will be judging it as "not done" or "not just there" after they've had a hard time using it due to its interface.

    Trust me, its the same mentality in the blender community but pointed the other way.

    Blender has had its core tools at the same level as max and maya for quite some time now.

    But please tell me when in modelling and unwrapping or rendering how blender just isn't the tool for the job yet?
  • yiannisk
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    yiannisk polycounter lvl 7
    "Stop trying to make the use of applications a feel good politically correct ego massage."

    great stuff peterK!
    yiannisK, (awesome overall guy) is along the same lines only takes stance too. ::)

    i would love to post this everywhere, together with:

    "i'd be a frustrated carpenter if someone told me a hammer and a nailgun were both just tools for the same job (which is true)."... by ralusek. :)



    3dsmax and mudbox ftw!
    ...oh and Art academy on DSi XD


    never the less, truth is that blender guys are indeed trying too hard and they have managed to grow a lot since the first versions of blender although they just are not there yet. otherwise, trust me.. everyone loves an awesome free tool :) the last years they have greatly improved their interface too. And yeah this video is very nice. The beginning reminds me of the DAO video where they walk on the mountain ridge and Morrigan shows her skills.

    in fact the whole video gives me a dragon age meets disney feel :)
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    alright, I'm switching to maya.
  • oXYnary
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    oXYnary polycounter lvl 18
    For the people whom say its not there yet.

    Give concrete examples please. Otherwise Im calling shenanigans!
  • acc
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    acc polycounter lvl 18
    It's a fully capable tool but people will be judging it as "not done" or "not just there" after they've had a hard time using it due to its interface.
    A bad interface is not fully capable. Blender's stigma is because they took so damn long to understand this. Their community still hasn't.

    They'd be better off rebranding it as a new tool with a new name and a new interface. The name 'Blender' is synonymous with 'bad interface' even among people who have never touched it. That isn't going to change. Branding is important, sticking your head in the sand and pretending it isn't doesn't help anyone.

    Same goes for GIMP, while we're at it.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    the tool advancements matter the brand name doesn't. When someone says it's the craftsman not the tool they most certainly aren't including stone age tools in the computation.

    I've never put any serious work into learning blender, I don't have to. If I get hired by a blender based studio I'll spend a night getting used to the interface. As far as Blender's reputation, I have a gut reaction from seeing all the bad art that's made on it, Weta's blender ray gun contest has a gallery of entries that look like stuff from 15 years ago. It could just be the fact that it's free and there's a larger pool of noobs putting out bad models.
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    and zbrush.

    I've never said the interface is godsent, and I welcome the changes in 2.5, but that doesn't change the fact that when you learn the 2.4 "interface" hotkeys, you'll be working at a fast speed, and you're pretty much capable of creating the same things you could create in the autodesk apps.

    So there, fully capable, asspain to learn.
    I have a gut reaction from seeing all the bad art that's made on it, Weta's blender ray gun contest has a gallery of entries that look like stuff from 15 years ago. It could just be the fact that it's free and there's a larger pool of noobs putting out bad models.

    You're actually dead on.
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    So, I have been trying Blender every 6 months over the last few years, every time to get a feel of the 'much better features recently added' or to discover a 'new, rewritten interface' and whatnot. Every time the app felt like its been made by one person, for one person (I an just talking about modeling. The rest doesnt matter to me), as if there was no point in trying to attract a large audience of experienced 3D artists.

    I fully agree with Peter. The "app doesnt matter" talk really is BS, and most likely comes from users having no idea what more efficient workflows are about. (no offense!). A friend of mine just tried Topogun today after 2 years of saying loud and clear 'he didnt need it'. Now he understand what he missed and the time he wasted hehe :P

    SO, to settle all this ... where can I find a good Blender polygon modeling video, concise and to the point, showing good art, by a technically capable artist, and showing the use of a powerful toolset ? The reason why many of us dont have much faith in Blender is because afaik its nowhere to be found ... whereas the Bay Raitt Nendo/Mirai stuff is almost 10 years old and still kicks ass.

    Someone prove me wrong!

    Eld : thats one fine example here. Autodesk apps are not equal. Maya forces linear modeling down my throat, yet Max allows non-linear editing of models. Huge difference, overlooked by a vast majority of users stuck in old workflows.

    P
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
    ZacD wrote: »
    My argument against blender is this, just because you can paint a master piece in MS doesn't mean I'd want to. Blender just doesn't seem as artist friendly as the other apps out there, even if it is free.

    You can REALLY tell the guys who have never used Blender...or never made it past learning the interface. It's just the same as ALL the other tools. It's artist friendly to the max.

    Now that I think about it, I've never seen any art from you Zac...?
  • metalliandy
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    metalliandy interpolator
    When i said about tools being irrelevant, i meant it in a more as in all the core features are pretty much the same no matter which application you use.

    Obviously specialised tools are streamlined for certain pipelines but I wouldn't say that Max is better than Maya or ZBrush is better than Mudbox because its all down to personal preference and what people find most comfortable for them.
    For every person that finds a program to be awkward and unintuitive another feels the opposite way.

    I am far faster in Blender that i would be Max or Maya because i know the application that much more but i wouldn't decide not to use any program if i felt that it did the job better.

    I think part of the reason for Blenders interface being odd is due to the fact that it was designed as an in house only tool that was a primarily hotkey based application and as such the GUI was only used for very minor stuff like tweaking values etc.
    Unfortunately as the feature set began to grow the interface started to become a little cluttered as new additions were tacked on.

    @pior,
    Sebastian König does some pretty sweet stuff :)

    http://vimeo.com/2879397
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    pior wrote: »
    A friend of mine just tried Topogun today after 2 years of saying loud and clear 'he didnt need it'. Now he understand what he missed and the time he wasted hehe :P

    So what retopo program was he using? 3Dcoat?
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
    As far as Blender's reputation, I have a gut reaction from seeing all the bad art that's made on it, Weta's blender ray gun contest has a gallery of entries that look like stuff from 15 years ago. It could just be the fact that it's free and there's a larger pool of noobs putting out bad models.

    You're not wrong. And it's a damn shame.
  • Swizzle
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    Swizzle polycounter lvl 15
    It's just the same as ALL the other tools. It's artist friendly to the max.

    I'm neither a Blender apologist nor a Blender hater. I think they're doing some good stuff with their latest updates and I think they're on track to put out a really good piece of software. However, those statements are complete and absolute utter bullshit and here are a few reasons why:

    - In every 3D program I've used (Lightwave, Max, Maya, XSI, Modo, and several others) except for Blender, I've been able to get up to speed with modeling and texturing in the span of an afternoon of experimentation and a little bit of looking at tutorials.

    - In every 3D program I've used, the basic tools like select, move, scale and rotate are pretty consistent across the board and behave in pretty much the same way. Except in Blender, where there are multiple different options to rotate, select items, etc. and they all use different buttons or hotkeys.

    - In every 3D program I've used, the mouse and keyboard are used in the same way as any other computer program, except in Blender where you have completely non-standard ways of using the mouse and keyboard. (Right click to select? WTF?)

    Part of being artist friendly is following interface conventions that have been in place for over a decade because that's what people are familiar with, unless it makes things faster and easier for the user. The ribbon interface in Office 2007 is an example, though imperfect, of interface design that, while nonstandard, is eventually faster and easier to use in many cases than the previous stnadard design.

    Blender enthusiasts like to point to their pet program as being an example of this kind of decent interface design, but they fail to realize that it's bullshit brainwashing. That's why Blender's interface is getting such a massive overhaul at the moment.
  • Vrav
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    Vrav polycounter lvl 11
    I use Blender for a ton of stuff. That's really all I know about it. It has uses!
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    Pior, personally I can only point to my own portfolio, since I have no idea what goes on in the blender community nowdays, with exception for the obvious mudbox models, blender was the main tool I used for most of that, while not the best, it's all capable art, limited only by my own skillset so far.

    I'm hoping you'll be able to find some really good game art somewhere else out there though, that part of the blender community is really bare bones.
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    BTW, I am fine with non-standard, exotic interfaces ... as long as I can assign shortcuts easily. Silo is so great for that. All the menus have everything, in a clear linear presentation so that finding the Extrude tool and giving it a hotkey is a no-brainer. What the on screen GUI does, is something else.

    Regarding videos ... this timelapse is kinda misleading as there is quite a few popups flashing by, and maybe a lot of clicking and whatnot. I'd love to see a 1x version of that.

    I want to use and love Blender so bad actually. But every time it seems to disappoint. Yup, just like the Gimp or Inkscape. Great promises, but really they kinda suck!!

    BTW. If someone is, or knows, a skilled programmer able to use the Blender source code and bend it at will ... I would be more than happy to contribute to the design of a dedicated modeling program based on the Blender core, but with standard manipulation schemes and behavior. If Blender is open source, this should be doable, right ? A special branch dedicated to efficient modeling. Anyone interested ?

    (oh and Eld, great folio !! Your stuff should be part of the Blender splashscrens ... little things like that alone, could gather a lot of interest for the program!)
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    python ui in 2.5,


    And yeah, I'd use piorblender.
  • Cyrael
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    Cyrael polycounter lvl 10
    I was actually going to comment eld, that I feel like one of the things that gets people down is that there doesn't seem to be enough people like you contributing high quality stuff in order to turn peoples eyes (and misconceptions) - which is one of the reasons why I started the thread. It absolutely gets a bad rep because for every one piece of good works theres thousands of pieces of god awful crap. If more high quality artists started using it (which is what I think they try to get across with these shorts) then maybe it'll catch on, because I am also a firm believer in its the artist, not the tool, that makes something great.

    and pior, do it.
  • Synthesizer
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    Synthesizer polycounter lvl 11
    I'm in the same camp as Pior, I try out every new major Blender release, but there always seems to be one feature I can't live without that's broken, and never seems to be fixed.... There's always a large amount of cool, new, interesting features that Blender brings out, but it's never finalized or consolidated enough to be a serious modeling/3D package for me. Maybe a lot of that is I've been using Maya for something like 8 years, but I'd be super willing to switch tools if there was something better out there, but I'd rather wait for something that could replace my whole workflow, rather than something that fixes a few features I want. Not that I have much choice at work, but in my free time I want something that just works, I don't want to spend my free time doing workarounds trying to do something as simple as beveling or snapping.

    And Jonatan, your stuff would certainly be enough to sell me on Blender if I hadn't tried it before, keep pushing for it :) I'm sure one day Blender will fit enough people to compete on the mainstream.
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    Pior, thanks btw, the blender community is more into pre-rendered stuff though, gameart has taken the backseat :), and I do wish for people to get to the good stuff of blender easier, I've had an easy time since I've grown up with its shortcuts, I rarely have to touch the UI.

    Cyrael, I just don't wish to see it get the amateur stamp, while I still agree the ui is an unneeded hurdle, but it's getting its first major fix in 2.5.

    Simon, you know it, I'm always pushing for blender to become more readily available for more people to use, and I'm especially pushing for its gameart related side, People who come here from the blender communities usually grow way faster here than over there, that's one big problem with that community, very little outside blood, I would've been over there doing their thing if it weren't for polycount <3
  • metalliandy
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    metalliandy interpolator
    When BMesh is finished and finally gets integrated into the trunk it will open up and vastly improve the way in which modelling is handled within Blender.

    I heard somewhere that the next official 2.5 release is at the end of this month, after which there is a scheduled modelling focus on the development road map.
    http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-250/

    Should be cool to see what happens :)
  • Blaizer
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    Blaizer interpolator
    Tools are important of course, but not in all the aspects. As artists, we can do the same with tools like xsi, max or maya (with great features), and the proof is that i've worked with guys using the 3 main apps at the same time, and the results were showed by the artist, not the tool... that's something we all know.

    The main difference talking about modelling, is the way of doings things, the philosophy, maybe a little faster or a little slower, who cares?.

    Take me as example, I feel confortable working with modo while others not (i know too many modo haters).

    This said, i must say i don't like Blender, it's not a "tool by artists for artists" imho. And if you look for work, Blender won't be readed in the requisites. To learn/study a program takes too much time when you are customed to Max for example, and when i see a program like blender... err i say: "better to be used by their creators, it's a waste of time to learn this".

    If you like Blender, use it. But Nobody should sell a software as the "ultimate solution" or "something great" because some users did something cool. Why the heck great artists should use Blender? i don't understand that position, that's something that should be replied by the software, with features, perfomance and easy of use. Blender can't be considered a profesional solution right now. You have Gimp, free, and people prefer to use photoshop...

    Well, i also think it's the artist that makes the art, and not the tool, but, it's not the same to be working with tools than with TOOLS. Better tools always give you advantage. Too many studios are with Nuke now, and it's for something.

    I switched from Max to Modo because Max didn't give me what i needed. In Max, I was frustrated when i wanted to do complex subdiv works, and with modo i saw the light. I could say that it boosted me, because it gave me easiness for too many things. I adapted myself to its philosophy and i ended improving my workflow.

    BTW, don't use modo, you will get frustration :poly136:.

    Let's begin the blenderitis...

    my two cents.
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
    Swizzle wrote: »
    Blender enthusiasts like to point to their pet program as being an example of this kind of decent interface design, but they fail to realize that it's bullshit brainwashing. That's why Blender's interface is getting such a massive overhaul at the moment.

    In many ways I should have chosen a different username...to be honest I rarely get to play around with Blender anymore, I use both Maya and Max in my day to day.

    What you say is true, but is 's' for scale and 'r' for rotate such a big difference from 'e' for scale and 'r' for rotate? I agree with you about the right mouse button thing, but you can change that. These things should not be defeating you. You are many times the artist I am, and yet you seem to be rolling over at these trivial little issues. Sure, you have your tools that work how you want them, so why would you bother; I agree; but there are some really cool features in Blender, and some of them could speed up your workflow/ add a new dimension to your work (like easy simulated smoke for high-res stills etc) if you would see past non-issues like hitting 's' for scale instead of 'e'.
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    BHead, I think the point is that ... if whoever behind Blender really cared, he or she would make a special build available with a more standard behavior already. Like you say, its little things but why not making those right in the first place?

    It baffles me, it sounds so easy to do. With ultra popular apps like Max and Maya, the best thing the masterminds behind Blender could do to attract users is to simply give them an environment they would be familiar with. Thats one of the reason why Mudbox got successful - its authors understood that messing with the muscle memory and habits of their potential userbase wasnt worth it...

    Topogun got it right, Draster Switcher and Nex are built around that principle, same for Silo ... so why not ?
    Even tho that is, again, a very small thing ... knowing that such a core issue is not being taken care of doesnt give me much faith in Blender as a whole.
  • Muzzoid
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    Muzzoid polycounter lvl 10
    As somone who has been learning blender for about 2 weeks and really liking it i feel i should weigh in on the discussion a little.

    So far everything that ive heard about blender is an abstraction from what really is the case. Quite often ive heard the claim that everything is backwards, but so far that really is not the case. The only things strange is how they have a lot of hidden functionality. But if you sit in the blender irc and throw out a few questions when you get stuck you can learn the modelling in an afternoon. I would say after a week of modelling i am already up to 70% of the speed i can model in max.

    I do see alot of problems with the interface, but it isnt so much the core design more that you need to know a lot of the shortcuts from the get go. For example to select an element in an object it is mapped to the L key.

    I think the best way to look at blender is that its high level functionality is really well thought out and stable, and the low level stuff is a little lacking.

    Take the new rigging system for example, they designed it in a way that you can't easily fuck it up once its made, by having a rig as a single object, with the constraints inside it and having a toggleable edit and pose modes. Instead of where in max you just have a bunch of constraints on seperate objects.

    I'm still not completly sold on blender but what i have experienced with it is enough for me to actually recommend it to people over 3dsmax, provided that they dont need to learn the program to try and get a job.

    But all and all this is just my opinion so i'm going to make a speedmodelling video this afternoon to see if i cant seem to show that it isnt completly backwards ;).
  • jrs100000
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    jrs100000 polycounter lvl 8
    So many people wanting custom layouts, but nobody is willing to help fix it?

    http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=72757
  • jrs100000
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    jrs100000 polycounter lvl 8
    jrs100000 wrote: »
    So many people wanting custom layouts, but nobody is willing to help fix it?

    http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=72757

    If anyone is willing to submit something in that thread their work will be going strait to the developers and probably be included directly in the next Blender release as a drop down option for default control schemes.

    Edit: gah, quote is not edit :(
  • Richard Kain
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    Richard Kain polycounter lvl 18
    I've been using Blender almost exclusively for several years now. Granted, I haven't done nearly as much 3D modeling as I used to. (been hitting the coding and web design pretty hard) But whenever I do produce 3D work, I use Blender to do it.

    I won't say that its better than the big-name 3D packages. It probably doesn't have as many features, and it certainly doesn't have as much documentation. However, it is quite easily the best available option for hobbyist modelers who don't have $3000 to lay down for their software. And even if it doesn't have all the same features, it definitely has ENOUGH features. The current version of Blender has...

    Standard poly modeling
    Nurbs modeling
    Splines
    UV Mapping
    Object Animation
    Bone Animation
    Shape Animation
    Physics Simulation
    Fluids simulation
    Hair modeling (strands)
    Rendering
    Composited rendering
    Post rendering video processing
    Advanced Materials and Shaders
    Sculpting
    Normal Map Baking and Rendering
    Integrated Game Engine

    Yep, everything a growing modeler needs.

    One important thing to remember is that as an open-source project, Blender doesn't really HAVE to market itself strongly. It isn't actively attempting to compete with any of the big boys. As long as it maintains a devoted userbase, it can continue quite happily with its current pace of development. This thread title is a bit misleading. Efforts like Sindel are used as showpieces to show how useful Blender can be. But until more professional studios start adopting it, Autodesk has nothing to worry about.

    Still, you never know...
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    Blaizer wrote: »
    If you like Blender, use it. But Nobody should sell a software as the "ultimate solution" or "something great" because some users did something cool. Why the heck great artists should use Blender? i don't understand that position, that's something that should be replied by the software, with features, perfomance and easy of use. Blender can't be considered a profesional solution right now. You have Gimp, free, and people prefer to use photoshop...

    Nor would I consider maya, max or xsi the ultimate solutions, they're all applications that can be used for the same things, studios pick their solution according to what tools they want to use, and what tools their artists are used to.

    the main point however is that blender is the only free solution out of all those, and it's the only open solution out of all those, and thats a great thing considering it has been proven it can be used professionally and fast to do art, just like the other applications.


    jrs100000, I think people are just sleeping or away atm, they'll get back to it :)

    And Richard Kain, lets not forget, the things it actually does properly, Uv-mapping that actually uses the same tools as the main modelling interface, every application should be doing it like that, also, the origin of ROADKILL, and the mythological theory of having a 3d mouse pointer that you can do translations around.

    However, I do miss the uv-preservation that max has, that's something I'd want in blender.
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
    pior wrote: »
    BHead, I think the point is that ... if whoever behind Blender really cared, he or she would make a special build available with a more standard behavior already. Like you say, its little things but why not making those right in the first place?

    I completely agree. In the first version of the 2.5 splash screen I saw, you could select from a number of presets (whether they were hotkeys or UI changes I dunno) that included Max, Maya, XSI and believe Modo too. This should definitely be a part of the Blender splash screen. Also there were other options on it too, like opening the most recent file etc...don't know why this hasn't been implemented in the builds we have been given.
  • Muzzoid
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    Muzzoid polycounter lvl 10
    Afaik the default shortcut thing is due in 2.5 beta 2. Same for bmesh. So theoretically the next release should fix a fair amount of the problems that people have with it.
  • r_fletch_r
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    r_fletch_r polycounter lvl 9
    Sintel isnt really doing it for me, 12 year old girls beating up enormous warriors kinda breaks my suspension of disbeleif :). Thats not to down talk their work, some lovely stuff there.



    I think what they're doing right is exposing a hell of a lot of stuff to python. from what i've read every opeator is going to be exposed to the user interface with python. Seems like its going to be possible to kick out the blender foundation UI and replace it with something sane if your willing to invest the time.

    Good luck to em
  • Muzzoid
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    Muzzoid polycounter lvl 10
    you know the only problem with the ui is the dependency on shortcuts. The rest of the ui is very good imo.
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
    Muzz wrote: »
    Afaik the default shortcut thing is due in 2.5 beta 2. Same for bmesh. So theoretically the next release should fix a fair amount of the problems that people have with it.

    Not that more people will start using it then... some people will always have an excuse :P There are some who will just always find a reason not to use Blender.
  • Michael Knubben
    Pior: There's a thread on the blenderartists forum where someone is setting up trades between artists and coders, where an artist can do art for a coders project and the coder will code in return. If enough of us team up (I'd be interested in contributing to the design and doing assets to trade!) that could work. I've been interested in a solution like that for ages, and with Blender's entire UI being opened up to Python, it might actually be possible.

    Why don't you start a really rough outline on Google Docs and share it with me, and we'll see what we can knock up.

    Anyway, to Quote Ton, Blender's 'father': "blender is for blender users". I also think a lot of you underestimate the hatred hardcore Blender fundamentalists have towards ANYTHING to do with Max. If you even suggest something Max has, there will surely be someone who throws a tantrum over 'turning Blender into max', even if the suggestion is for something optional or even just the ability to customise things. Allowing for 'double-click' to be mapped (BY HAND; in the options) comes to mind, some idiots went ballistic over that one! Sure, these are the people who live on the blenderartist forums and eat, breathe and dream Blender (aka fundamentalist ' freetards') and there are plenty of 'normal' blender-users, but as you know, it's often the most crazy people that shout loudest.

    edit @blenderhead:

    What: silly excuses like ' almost every company I'd want to work at uses Max'?
    It's a reality for a lot of people, and you need to realise that companies aren't likely to switch to Blender; no matter how good it may be or become. They have their pipeline (with export scripts etc...) in which Max sits snuggly, and that's unlikely to change.
  • Entity
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    Entity polycounter lvl 18
    If tools didn't matter we'd still be modeling with Milkshape :)
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    Mightypea, application-use at companies never really was an issue for me, I could just sit down my first day, download blender and start modelling :)

    the more apps you know!
  • Mister Sentient
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    Mister Sentient polycounter lvl 18
    pior wrote: »
    Regarding videos ... this timelapse is kinda misleading as there is quite a few popups flashing by, and maybe a lot of clicking and whatnot. I'd love to see a 1x version of that.

    Not exactly a 1x version but has explanations of working method - http://vimeo.com/2945730
  • Zwebbie
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    Zwebbie polycounter lvl 18
    It is important to look at some of Blender's statements and goals, like the one MightyPea mentioned. Ton has also compared Blender to a piano; nobody can start playing Schubert on it after five minutes, but it's damn efficient nonetheless. In short, Blender is designed for people who dedicate themselves to the software. That means that if implementation allows experienced users to work faster, and the other implementation allows people to pick up the software easier, the developers will usually pick the first implementation. Over the years, they've come to the realisation that the two aren't always mutually exclusive, and 2.5 is an effort to make Blender more accessible. It doesn't actually change much at all if you're familiar with the software, in my experience.

    So realise that a lot of designs come from a workflow standpoint, not from an accessibility standpoint. Take, for example, the dreaded right-click select. It's not very friendly if you come from Max or Maya. It is pretty neat in that it dedicates a button to selecting. That's all it does, select stuff. You can't go wrong with it, you can't accidentally deselect (and you don't need empty space to deselect in), works in the UV editor too, RMB is just selectravaganza.
    Or take a look at the transforms. It was pretty hard for new users to do exact transforms, because they were hidden in some obscure panel (accessed by the N key). Experienced users could just use the hotkeys. Pressing s, x, 2 scales the model in the x-axis by 2. That's pretty fast, and I didn't need any UI in the screen to do that! 2.5 now has a last operator panel where you can change all that stuff too.
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