Improving Blender - videos by Andre Price

[racoonart]

These are not directly related to Corona but very interesting videos non the less. For me, as a non blender user (never liked the UI), it really opened the eyes to some critical user interface design decisions which Corona had and still has to face in the future. Definitely worth watching!

Part 1

Part 2

[lacilaci]

Every time a new version of blender comes out, it makes me want to try it... Every time I open it, it makes me wanna kill someone!

[racoonart]

Yes, I wasted 3 hours today to get used to the most basic stuff - I still can't believe that this is not a really weird joke. I had to stop to get my blood pressure down.

[Ludvik Koutny]

Actually, compared to an incredible piece of crap called 3ds Max, i found blender interface a lot better than Max's one. It does not lag, and i can work in fullscreen (equivalent of 3ds Max expert mode) and yet have everything at my fingertips. Sure it could use improving, but at the moment, it is a lot better UI than what Max has for example.

Also, seen  both of these videos already about 5 days ago, and forced Keymaster to watch them as well.

This is how my blender UI looks so far, and i am quite happy with it :)



So yeah, i am all for improvement, especially in the areas that Andrew has shown. But blender UI, the way it is now, it already a lot better than UI of most autodesk products. It just has some steeper learning curve, and newbie-hostile defaults.

+ You can customize it a lot more than Max's... With very, very little python knowledge, one could make a clone of 3ds Max UI in Blender within a 2-3 days of work... Maybe i could try to do it... it is incredibly easy to make own panels in Blender.

[maru]

Every time a new version of blender comes out, it makes me want to try it... Every time I open it, it makes me wanna kill someone!

Same here! :) But I know most people have the same feeling when running Max for the first time.

[racoonart]

Rawalanche: Seems like that's a matter of taste after all ;) I don't hate the UI in common, but the weird way "simple" things work (or do not) - those things everyone tries to do at first - navigating, selecting (AAAARGHHH), move/rotate/scale

The thing I can't understand is the fact that blender ignores some of the most basic "no-brainer" conventions, like left click and the exit thing which is a real show stopper for many possible new users (me included). Sure, there may be a lot of things that blender can do better than max, maya or whatever, but most people trying out blender are pissed right at the first couple of minutes - that's not necessary - there are many other programs out there which I have tested and were a lot less pain in the ass.
There are a lot of things which always make me try blender another time... I totally love the python thing, I wish max had such an awesome scripting capability but I don't even get far enough to actually try some things out since I'm always completely pissed by the most basic functionality and the things that are simply not the way than the rest of the tools.

[maru]

With very, very little python knowledge, one could make a clone of 3ds Max UI in Blender within a 2-3 days of work... Maybe i could try to do it... it is incredibly easy to make own panels in Blender.

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?306867-BMax-Tools-or-how-I-left-3ds-Max-%29

[GRouslan]

Blender 2.69 is working with color management in the viewport now)

[lacilaci]

Yes, so... It's a little better now that I've customized some UI elements and shortcuts and some things are really stupidly easy to fix (like right or left click selections) LOL :D... But no corona, so...

[Ludvik Koutny]

Blender 2.69 is working with color management in the viewport now)

Yeah, but it uses tone mapping just to apply camera response curves, so now you can make your render look like instagram, but still misses the main point of tone mapping - burn reduction. Something like Reinhard.

[GRouslan]

I think burn is gone

[Ludvik Koutny]

I think burn is gone

Oh.. :O But why does it say gamma? Could you try with color textures, just to make sure it actually just reduces burn, and does not affect colors in any way? And why are shadows on the left tone mapped picture darker? Tone mapping used for burn reduction, such as reinhard, should always only compress highlights, but should not touch overall exposure of the image much...

[Juraj]

I am big fan of Blender too, and just many previously stated, the one who reads updates, but never quite gets to using it.
My reasons are similar to Deadclown's, it's just somehow feels unnatural. (but same way feels Zbrush to me..and no amount
of learning will curb this feelings, one can get used to it, but this uneasy feeling remains).

On other hand, no matter how much people hate Autodesk products, each one of them felt super natural to me, from AutoCad, to 3dsMax,
Mudbox,etc (each one being designed by different company originally, but well..).

It's simply matter of taste, there is too much overreacting at 3dsMax, funny how many emotions it stirs, a software..

Rawa's interface look nice, I like the  "fullscreen" argument, I never bothered by it as I use 27" screens, and I feel again "uneasy"
in expert mode (can't describe this, but even if I don't need to use anything from UI, I still want to see it....same in computer games),
but maybe I will look into optimalising it as well.

[racoonart]

So, here's the third part of the videos :)

My reasons are similar to Deadclown's, it's just somehow feels unnatural. (but same way feels Zbrush to me..and no amount
of learning will curb this feelings, one can get used to it, but this uneasy feeling remains).

Ha, yes, Zbrush is also one of those tools. I always wanted to learn it but never get used to it. Every time I need to stop learning (for a big job or something) I completely forget everything and need to start all over again...

[rafpug]

Hi DeadClowon

As open source is an excellent program.
Interesting these videos, as learning

A friend of mine Stuttgart using only open source software, including Blender ^ _ ^

Greats
Raf

[Utroll]

I always has been wondering if they wasn't people paid to make blender or other software have creepy interface and keep most potential users away from it. Not even autodesk could afford as much people as open source community can gather, and provide in a breathe what studio obtains from 10 dev and sell for thousands $$.. never understood.

But I remind I tried it in early 2000's and it was a nightmare, even zbrush RC1 was making more sense while total alienoïd.

[Volden]

So I`ve been working in Blender for a couple of months since last november and I have to say:

1. Blender has great modeling tools. Some of them are much better than Max one.
My latest WIP in Blender pic 8.jpg and 13.jpg. I`ll never started something complicated like this in Max, as well as the knitting patterns. In Max it`s too complicated to do that. In Blender - fast and intuitive.


2. Blender UI is more friendly than Max. Absolutely agreed with Ludvik.

3. You have in one compact, crossplatform package:
* As I mentioned above, powerful modeling tools
* Sculpting tools (Not as powerful as ZBrush, but look what it can do http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:ES/Ref/Release_Notes/2.66/Dynamic_Topology_Sculpting)
* Rigging tools:

at=0

* Texture painting tools:

* Camera tracking:

* Postwork, animation, video editing mode... A lot of features, I can`t say something about the rest, I dont` work with them yet.

4. And yes. It`s free.
And it`s not the main parameter for me.

Conclusion:
Blender is compact, multiplatform, intuitive and flexible software. And I feel that someday such UI as Modo`s or Blender`s one will rule CG world.

And I think that targeting Corona creation mostly for 3ds Max users it`s not the wisest solution. Today we can see a lot of modeling software, and many of them developing and grow. And Corona /in my opinion of course/ should be standalone application like Maxwell or Octane /my wet dreams :3/ - and no matter what modeling tool you use, you always can render everything with Corona.

All roads soft lead to Rome Corona.
Thanks for reading.