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The Blenmodo Project

Renzatic
polycounter lvl 16
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Renzatic polycounter lvl 16
It all started when I watched a video showing off the new Bmesh features in Blender. "Hell", I thought, "Blender actually turning out to be a pretty decent little modeler". I figured it'd be a good time to download a copy, and try it out for myself.

And what do you know, I actually kinda like it. Cept for the keymap. I've been messing around with Modo for so long now, that I'm finding it hard to transition to anything else. Muscle memory is a cruel temptress and all.

So I thought, "Hell, I'll go ahead and remap all the keys". Yeah. Easier said that done. But I have managed to get a few in there without causing any huge conflicts. I'm starting to get used to it. Even made a nice, ugly candlestick. Then I thought, "Hell. I've changed all the keys, why don't I go for gusto, and change the colors too"?

So I did. And thus was born my goofy little Blenmodo Project.

Blenmodo.jpg

If you're interesting in trying it out, you can find them here...

Keymap
Theme

I make no promises that they'll work perfectly. This is built off a Bmesh enabled beta of Blender 2.62, so your computer explodes for any reason, I am not responsible. By downloading the files from the links above, you are agreeing not to sue.

The changes I've made to the keymap thus far are
Blenmodo Hotkey Shortcut

Camera Controls

Rotate -Alt+Left Mouse Button
Pan -Alt+Shift+Left Mouse Button
Smooth Zoom -Alt+Ctrl+Left Mouse Button
Zoom -Mouse Wheel

Manipulators

Translate Manipulator -W
Free Translate -Shift+W
Rotate Manipulator -R
Free Rotate -Shift+R
Scale Manipulator -T
Free Scale -Shift+T

UV Editor

Call Stitch/Align Menu -Q
Unwrap -U
Translate -W
Rotate -E
Scale -R
Place 3D Cursor -Middle Mouse Button
Pan -Right Mouse

Cut Tools

Loop Slice -Alt+C
Knife (To do) -C

Miscellaneous

Toggle Wireframe -F
Edge Bevel (To do) -B
Merge Menu -S
Extrude Menu -Z
Search Menu -M (Needs Changing)
Loop Select -Alt+Right Mouse Button
Ring Select -Ctrl+Right Mouse Button
Loop Select (To do) -Double Left Mouse Click
Toggle Quad View -Numpad 0
Call Element Menu -Ctrl+Spacebar
Lasso Tool -Click & Hold Right Mouse Button
Drop/Select All -Spacebar

Lasso Tool now acts just like it does in Modo. Rightclicking and lassoing your selection just selects new surfaces. Shift adds to a selection, and ctrl subtracts.

The to-do's are things I'm intending on adding once I either resolve a conflict, or figure out how to do so. The edge bevel and knife tools can only be accessed from the search menu at the moment. Once I figure out how to add the scripts to the hotkey menu, I'll post an update.

Also, if anyone here is comfortable with Blender, I do have a few questions to ask. Mainly how to get loop selections bound to a double mouseclick. I've set it up inside user preferences, but it only seems to work about 1/15th of the time. I've kept it to the Maya bindings for now.

Questions, criticisms, friendly advice, protips, or vague insults at my expense, feel free to post them below.

Replies

  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 14
    why the move towards blender, anyways, since modo's modeling tools are still way way better.
  • Renzatic
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    Renzatic polycounter lvl 16
    For a number of reasons. The main one for me is that Blender can handle alpha mapped textures worth half a damn. If I want to do low poly trees and foliage, I have to use it to see what I'm doing.

    Secondly, Bmesh, along with the much needed interface refresh, makes Blender an honestly decent editor, one that's almost up to par with the big, expensive packages. It still has a way to go before I'd consider it the most user friendly of the bunch. I wouldn't say the workflow is quite as smooth as Modos, for instance. But it's more than capable these days. And hey, it's free. Why not learn it?
  • respawnrt
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    respawnrt polycounter lvl 8
    Do you know if the default material can be changed ? I want to change the default values for spec, etc to make it more like the 3ds max one :p.I think the default one it's awful.
  • arrangemonk
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    arrangemonk polycounter lvl 17
    blenmodo sounds stupid, id go for blodo
  • Renzatic
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    Renzatic polycounter lvl 16
    What about Blenblodomo?

    I've made a small, small update which I've detailed up above. Next up, I'm gonna see if I can add expandable menus to the toolbar along the left.

    ...and still see if I can coerce Blender into double-clicking to select loops.
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 20
    passerby wrote: »
    why the move towards blender, anyways, since modo's modeling tools are still way way better.

    There are a ton of people out there completely used to one kind of keyset, but might have interest in blender, these kind of settings help bridge people over.
  • Renzatic
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    Renzatic polycounter lvl 16
    Yup. There are some things Blender does surprisingly, shockingly well. Being able to ease the transition between the two would make life easier for quite a few (some?) people. Least of all me.

    By the way, judging from your name and pixel art avatar, I'm guessing you're Eldron, right? :P
  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 14
    ya i was just saying that, since i know blender does a few things pretty dam well, but i find the hassle of trying to make it actually play nice in my workflow breaks eany benefits gained from blender.

    next to impossible to get animations in and out of blender with eveythign still intact, and very hard to keep my hard edges intact when moveing things in and out of blender.
  • r_fletch_r
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    r_fletch_r polycounter lvl 9
    respawnrt wrote: »
    Do you know if the default material can be changed ? I want to change the default values for spec, etc to make it more like the 3ds max one :p.I think the default one it's awful.

    start a new scene, make your changes and press CTRL-U. or atleast thats what it was 10 years ago :D

    you can use any scene as your default. its quite neat.
  • Snowfly
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    Snowfly polycounter lvl 20
    Nice effort :) If you get it polished enough maybe you could get it rolled in as an Input style preset.

    Definitely work on the default material next, the settings are on the System panel under user prefs-

    Here's a 3ds max-ish front-lit no specular setup for example...
    blendmat.jpg
  • Renzatic
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    Renzatic polycounter lvl 16
    Cool deal, Snowfly. I played with the materials, and came up with this...

    Default_Material.jpg

    Now I have to figure out how to export all my user settings together, instead of just the theme and keybindings. Which, by the way, I've updated above.
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 20
    Renzatic wrote: »
    By the way, judging from your name and pixel art avatar, I'm guessing you're Eldron, right? :P

    Yep, me from ttlg.
  • respawnrt
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    respawnrt polycounter lvl 8
    Got it , thanks all.
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