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...five yeas ago when I first looked at Blender, it was primarily a modelling application. Now it's more a freeware version of 3DS
Modo used to be primarily a modelling application. It too has a lot of other features now.
About the only truly dedicated modelling programmes left: WIngs3D, Hexagon, and Silo (the first with a difficult to look at UI, and latter two being pretty much abandonware).
Seems the trend these days is going the full featured "all-in-one" application format route.
The UI is confusing because there's nothing to relate it to if you've never modeled. I started Blender, got scared and decided to go with with Hexagon, and Hexagons terrifying interface sent me to youtube and any and all documentation I could find to get started in that.
But once I started using Blender it's not nearly as impossible as people scared me into thinking it would be. It's actually pretty intuitive (but yes, there is room for improvement), especially when you need to repeat a function and it begins to recall what you dd and take out the steps to get there intuitively, without preventing you from doing something else if you change your mind, something a lot of software doesn't take into account. The UI is big because Blender is more or less a one stop app for all things 3D. It does what Hexagon does, what Modo does, what Maya & 3DStudio does, what After Effects does, but as already pointed out $19.99 vs. $0, $1,499.99 vs. $0 and $2,999.99 vs. $0 = loss of a few hours you could have spent watching thunder cats re-runs instead of watching a tutorial and spending some time learning a few key commands (SNARF!)
If you don't want to learn key commands then maybe that's the real factor in not wanting to learn Blender and that's a real reason I won't argue. Many get by just fine not using Key Commands in applications, but I've seen people with really amazing art portfolios come into job interviews (here and at my former employers) and when they point/click their way through a performance task one handed they don't get called back, (if you drag a deadline because your scrolling around in menus when you could have pressed "X" you will be burned as a witch) it's a two handed app in a world where hobbits (spell check did this to me when I tried to say hobbyists) like to use one hand and take the scenic route if possible, but pro's need both and Blender does demand you learn some of your keyboard shortcuts, I know the basic15 - 25% because I don't need to use them all to model, just some, so yes, you need that.
"out of the box" Blender's UI is very much a modeling (and rendering) interface, the other tools are there but not right in your face since for the most part you start by modeling. And I don't know a thing about python, and I don't have to know it to use Blender, but I could do things with it. I'm sure if I used the SDK I could create functionality in Daz Studio, but as many of us know we can use Studio without knowing it, same with Blender and python.
...I tried it again recently and found myself becoming a prime candidate for the Bald Wizards Club in RL.
I have to ask: what is this mysterious bald wizards club?
...actually when opened up, Blender's UI shows only the rendering options and animation timeline, things I don't need. Hexagon's shows the modelling tools which is what I do need. If Hexagon wasn't as unstable as an F-117 without it's Fly by Wire control system, I'd be using it.
Generally, hot key commands are an advanced tool. One learns the software through point and click. Blender has this backwards, forcing new users to memorise an extensive key map. One can't even use a pointing device to move the camera around the workspace. This is cumbersome.
In what is known as "productivity" software (spreadsheet, database, and word processing), I won't argue that hot keys are far more useful as one is also having to key in data and text. The less one has to move their hands from the keyboard to a pointing device the better. However these are often simpler and tend to be more self-explanatory, like [alt] E, (E.dit), C (C.opy). This makes the learning these shortcuts more intuitive.
In graphics applications using pointing device, be it a mouse, trackball or tablet, is more efficient as you are manipulating objects in a virtual workspace rather than keying in text or numerical data. A graphics application that is primarily keyboard driven is like a word processor that is primarily mouse driven (to include entry of text/data), cumbersome for the task that needs to be done.
As to keyboard shortcuts Blender appears to assign ones that have little or no relation to the operation being performed so again a keyboard map must be committed to memory if one doesn't want to keep looking up which key does what every time.
Some say scripting is the way to customise Blender's UI for you personal workflow. That's fine, if you already know Python. Not a lot of us do or have the minsdet to deal with it, so it becomes another difficult leaning curve piled on top of leaning the UI and the process of modelling. Three separate learning curves to handle what a user should be able to do in one?
Scripts can be equated to macros in productivity software which is an even more advanced tool than hot keys. I got along quite fine for seventeen years in MS Office without having to deal with writing any macros.
What it comes down to is what Ghastly mentioned, Blender has been kept cumbersome because a core of Blender users learned it years ago and feel that any change to streamline it's operations would compromise their workflow. This would be like forcing everyone who uses a computer to still work in Command Line mode because that's what a few of the "old guard" are still used to using (and yes, I come from those days as well as the days of punched cards/tape - talk about cumbersome). That is archaic thinking.
Hexagon's UI illustrates that both a pointer and hot key driven UI can coexist together, allowing those who approach modelling from a visual perspective (which is the major segment of the user community these days) to learn the software and eventually "graduate" to using the more advanced built in key commands. Blender could adopt a similar structure making it easier for the newcomer to learn while preserving what long time users are comfortable with.
The foundation "elite" just need to get off their high horses.
Murr? The entire left-hand "object tools" panel is modeling tools. It takes one click to go to vertex edit and expose the rest in the right-hand panel. (The symbol that looks like a triangle made from three verts.)
Not that I disagree with statements re: the Blender Foundation and its coding fixations.
I have to ask: what is this mysterious bald wizards club?
...you'll have to speak with Totte or Szark or Jaderail on that. Apparently the site is down.
I have to ask: what is this mysterious bald wizards club?
...you'll have to speak with Totte or Szark or Jaderail on that. Apparently the site is down.
I repeat what I said once before when someone asked this question
If you have to ask the price you can't afford it :coolgrin:
Interesting what you lot are talking about.
I too was scared off using Blender by a guy who insisted in trying to teach me to be mathematically literate - ain't gonna happen!
(the above statement might not be completely accurate but it's how I still feel about it) (he told me to go back to knitting - hated him for that, but at least I made him finish the tut!)
... however... I too have just downloaded the most recent release of Blender - 2.69 - and I've done those tuts you mentioned at the start of the thread.
Well... I've done 6 of 'em - I'm kinda mired in the one on UVMapping.
I want so much to learn UVMapping in Blender because it has tools and abilities that Wings3d - where I've been UVMapping for some years now - just doesn't have.
But this Williamson guy keeps doing things without either showing what he did, or doing them slowly enough for me to figure it out.
I am pleased to say that I too have noticed that it seems a little easier to navigate around the UI - not easy enough by a long chalk, but easier than it was.
Sad to hear there is a 'club' consisting of the coders who are resisting making it accessible to everyone. But not surprised.
I've been downloading loads of versions of the Keyboard shortcuts, some of which don't say which version they apply to, and others are for quite a few versions back.
If anyone hears of, or knows, or has a version for, 2.69 - do please let me know.
Are you able to learn from text tutorials? Maybe I'll do a UV one for Blender on my dA page.
How much is blender? Just kidding. lol
...you'll have to speak with Totte or Szark or Jaderail on that. Apparently the site is down.
I repeat what I said once before when someone asked this question
If you have to ask the price you can't afford it :coolgrin:
...but I've lost so much hair first trying to lean Blender (again) and then dealing with all the crashes in Hexagon.
How much is blender? Just kidding. lol
The part in the quote I meant was the BWC. :roll:
Um... possibly. Is that text - with pics? If yes, then absolutely!
So let me know when you post it...
Is there a crib sheet anywhere with basic manoeuvres on it?
I don't mean a Hotkeys List, maybe a menus list?
just things like: how to move the camera. Maybe how to NAME the camera? – so that you know which one you're in.
How to centre the view on the current object, (entire body) on a particular face on the current object, ditto edge and vert.
How to move a single vert in UV Editor mode, how to line up many verts in X or Y, how to ensure even distribution of verts along an edge, or row of edges (in X or Y)
How to rotate the map on the texture in the UVEditor view. (ditto scale it)
How to stitch edges together, ditto cut.
How to import a texture. (to go on a UV Map)
Basic stuff like that.
I just wondered...
There's the wiki, but it can take a bit to find the info you want because things aren't always named the way you would expect (also see: program created by and for coders). Here's that: http://wiki.blender.org/
1. You can move the camera as you would any other object: right-click to select it and then use g key, with or without an axis (g and x moves on x, etc.). Or you can right-click to select it and press ctrl+numpad 0 to view through the camera itself and move as usual. You can see a list of the "default" scene cameras in the "View" panel in object mode. It's just to the left of the dropdown that lets you switch modes in your main menu bar (the one that lies between the 3d window and the timeline if you haven't moved things around the way I do).
2. Cameras are named like anything else, in Object mode. Click the little orange square in the right-hand menu panel (the panel is just below scene view) and type a new name in the text box next to the orange square. Custom cameras will not appear in the View dialogue and have to be selected with right-click.
3. The fastest way to center on an element is to select that element, shift+s, and choose "cursor to selected." Then alt+home to center on the cursor. As far as I know Blender has no "center to selected" that does not involve the cursor. I don't know why the coders have this cursor fixation, but you will run into it a lot.
4. Right-click a vert in UV mode to select it, as in edit mode in the 3d window. Alt+right-click selects an entire edge loop of verts, and you can then hit W to straighten it. This is why you should never use triangulated geometry while you're working, only as a step just before export if you want things ultimately triangulated. Triangles have no good edge loops for selection.
5. As far as I know there's no way to "ensure even distribution" automatically. You can use live unwrap mode in your UV options, but you'd better know how to do seams before that's going to be very useful to you. (Select a row of verts in 3d window and ctrl+e+create seam to do that.)
6. Rotate and scale in the UV window are the same as in the 3d window. Select verts or ctrl+l to select an entire connected UV island and R key or S key. The only difference is that you can only grab on two axes instead of three.
7. You cannot stitch edges together automatically in Blender, as far as I know (I am EXTREMELY willing to be corrected if that feature has been added). You have to either merge them one by one (select two verts and alt+m) or create a row of faces between them (select the same number of verts on each edge and ctrl E + bridge edge loops). True in 3d window edit mode and UV window edit mode.
8. Make a cut by selecting verts in edit mode and pressing V. Bear in mind that it will cut past the ends of the selection, so select two verts less than you want the length of the cut to go. (Experiment and you'll see what I mean.)
9. The UV panel has a little menu at the bottom of it. You can use image--import image to add one here. I always keep a UV window split off the timeline at the bottom of the screen because I use that constantly whereas I only use the timeline for cloth simulation. To split off new panels right-click on the line between them and use "split area."
There is a good wikibook for Blender. here http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro#Table_of_Contents
About UV you can begin here and go on with next chapter : http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro/UV_Map_Basics
I really recommend reading the Blender Windowing System and 3D View Windows chapter for the UI system
Sidenote : there is no "club" of whatever I've read here which is complete nonsense. There is now a group of people responsible for UI design in the Blender Fondation and we'll see what's coming out of it
@SickleYield : I haven't seen any auto stitch feature in the latest version. There could be an addon somewhere but I didn't see it then
Yeah, the guy in the video didn't explain this, he just did it, without either showing or explaining what he was doing. Flummoxed me for a long time.
What? It doesn't have that either? Sheesh! But in the new features tour for 2.62 that guy that did the tut, was talking about a 'new' feature called 'stitch' where you select an 'island' and click on stitch and it does the whole thing automatically for you, and then you just select a vert here or there to deselect, so as to tidy up any wonkyness - it sounded good but of course he didn't show you how to do that or where to find any of this, so it was pretty useless really. Hey! Just like a manual, which is usually just a big advert telling you that you can do this and that, but not how to do it...
Really? Good heavens what a strange thing to do! Sounds completely counter intuative.
Yes, I've gotten used to this split screen thing. Menu at the bottom of the UV panel for image import? okay thanks.
One last Question:
I am not very dexterous with the mouse, but am much more so with the tablet and pen (I have a Wacom Intuos 3) is it possible to use the pen to move things about in Blender without things gyrating about wildly?
In Bryce I can move things very accurately with the Pen, but in Wings3d stuff just vanishes out of the view like magic... black magic.
1. Looks like you didn't select the camera using right-click, you told it to view through it as the active camera using the View controls. Just right-click on it in the 3d window. It is an orange outline, and that orange outline is what you move using the grab controls. You're getting views 2 through 4 because you're looking through, not at, that camera.
Yep. Custom cameras will vanish from the list. No, I don't know why.
4. Once you hit w in the UV window it will pop up a mini-dialog with a list of options, and this is where you choose an axis option (or you can just hit w-x or w-y if you don't want to wait).
5. I use live unwrap transform, with seams and pinning. Works fine. ;) And yes, seams should be first, but for some reason people sometimes seem resistant to that idea.
6. Tsk. That's why I don't care for video tutorials.
7. Wait, are we talking about a UV feature here? Sorry, I thought you were asking about stitching verts on the 3d geometry. I'm honestly confused about why that would be useful in the UV screen, since it is only split into islands to begin with where you deliberately put seams. Unless this is meant to be used with smartproject somehow?
(EDIT: Huh. Apparently that's exactly what it's for, for projections that split where you don't want them to.
Here: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.62/UV_Tools#Improved_Stitch_Tool )
8. "Intuitive" is to "Blender" as "eyelash viper" is to "rocket boots." I do not apologize, 'cause I didn't make it. I just use it.
Using a tablet: I have an Intuos as well. It works well, once you get used to navigating with the buttons on the stylus (I find that takes a bit of doing). For sculpting it's fantastic. My advice is, try it.
Thank you very much, that seems to have some interesting additional information.
Lol - eyelash viper - like it!
Haven't tried sculpting yet, I think I'll wait until I'm a bit more at ease with moving about in the view before trying that.
The reason for coming to Blender - well reasons I guess - are:
Firstly I want to UVMap this cube-like model, which I've UVMapped in Wings - but can't get it any better than this in Wings:
See Pic, showing 2 versions in Wings3d (2 top pics) and 2 cubes together, (2 bottom pics), one of the naked UnMapped Cube (Left) next to the textured UV'd cube (Right) in Blender render and Cycles render:
Question A): why isn't the cycles render showing the texture on the UV Mapped cube? when it's perfectly visible in the Blender Render?
Question B) Why is the Cycles render so dusty looking - can it be made clearer?
and secondly I hate to think of a program with such a scope of abilities that I'm not using - especially when it's free.
I've felt that some some time though and have just been continually put off by its unintuative inaccessability.
So now, some number of versions later on, I'm trying again. Things do seem a little easier...
On the TabletNPen - do you have to set it up to work with Blender? I mean I know I can select things etc in Blender with the pen, but for optimal performance - and hopefully to stop too much gyration?
Oh sorry! I didn't realize you wanted to move the camera while looking through it. Sure you can, but you have to use g or r plus axis just as if it were a mesh. (Blender distinguished between types of objects less than almost any program I've worked with.)
Another thing you can do is parent the camera to an empty for animating. An empty is just like a null in DAZ Studio, basically a placeholder. You add this using the Add menu at the top of the screen.
You select a vert or verts and press P in the UV window to pin them (alt+p unpins). This prevents them from moving when live unwrap is calculated and gives you more control over positioning islands when that mode is on. This is important because one of the best workflows is to UV map at low-rez, pin verts, then update the live unwrap at higher resolution. Blender is much more likely to warp a UV map inappropriately at high rez, so keeping the shape of the low rez map is very important.
I didn't do anything to set up my tablet in my brief test, I just plugged it right in and it worked. The pen's two buttons set themselves automatically to act on the viewport, but I assume that's configurable somewhere in Blender (no idea where, I'm still pretty comfortable using a mouse with it).
I don't render in Blender, just bake normals and ambient occlusion, so I can't help you with questions about Cycles in it.
Well yes, I can move the camera from outside the view through that camera - but it'll be a complete nightmare to get exactly the view I want through it. So do you mean to say that you cannot move cameras while viewing through them? That's silly. (stunned expression)
Just check the Lock Camera to View button in the n-panel.
then when you hope to adjust size of your camera frame, check off it.
and using middle mouse scroll.
I usually first adjust frame scale in view without cheking the option.
then check on Lock camera to view to move around in camera view.
Once check on the option , you can pan, shift + middle mouse button drugging.
middle mouse button drugging can rotate,
middle mouse button (scroll button) scroll = zoom in or out.
if you hope to zoom in out more precision, ctrl + middle mouse button dragging
up and down.
with this option, select something, then click numpad "." it auto frame in your view.
eg I hope to the object set in frame. select the object, by out liner.
then numpad "." I can keep object in frame easy.
And selecting camera, then adjust it, by keybord
can work too.
eg selecting camera, then numpad "0" go to camera view.
then, imput "R" "X" "X" "30"
first R=rotation, double X means, rotate by local X axis of selection(camera)
(you can see guide line) then imput rotate degree.
it rotate camera by camera x local , with correct degree as you hope.
or S Z Z 0.5 it can scale z axis of camera rocal with your pivot point.
if you choose 3d cursor as pivot point,, it can easy zoom in or out actuall distance from 3d cursor.
Ah, okay... Maybe I should post a separate question for this then...? maybe in one of the blender forums?
What does it all mean?
Just check the Lock Camera to View button in the n-panel.
That's brilliant, thank very much millighost.
Now, do you know anything about Cycles rendering? And why my UVMapped texture isn't showing up in Cycles? and why it's so dusty in this here 'Cycle' shed? ;-P
Lol!
???? WTF? Everything just vanished! Thank goodness for CtrlZ!
That was nasty!
it rotate camera by camera x local , with correct degree as you hope.
or S Z Z 0.5 it can scale z axis of camera rocal with your pivot point.
if you choose 3d cursor as pivot point,, it can easy zoom in or out actuall distance from 3d cursor.
Nope, my Blender doesn't understand all that - obviously. Possibly you might have missed out a few steps in your instructions? Because I'm certainly not getting the results you describe.
OK maybe I can never do advice for you to understand clear,,
but I say,, it all work for me.
1 change frame size in camera view,
if you select the option which milghost mentioned above,
"Lock camera to view"
you can not change frame size in the camera view easy.
but check off this option, you can chaneg size of frame, in view.
by middle mouse scrolling.
see my pic 1. now camera frame size is too small for the camera view.
I hope to large more the frame area, and fit to camera view window.
so that check off the Lock camera to View.
then scroll middle mouse button . it can change camera frame size in the view.
after decide the size in camera view, I check on the option.
2 zoom in out with " checking Lock camera to view."
simply middle mouse hoeel scroll it must be zoom in or out the object what you see now in your camera frame.
I call middle mouse button (it should be called wheel?) but not drug, I said, scroll the wheel@@;
3 numpad "." if you miss type or you use another setting for your keybord?
I have not changed these setting keep default.
it is not period in your main keybord. I said in numpad " ." right side of "0"
pic1 now my camera target figure.
I select lamp now. about blender, whenever you need to hover your mouse cursor on the window
which you change current status. so that kebord short cut work as you hope.
I hover cursol in 3D view.
then key numpad "."
you can see, camera change veiw, then set light in the frame.
. then select figure again, then hover your cursol in the camera window,
then key numpad "." again.
thistime camera auto set figure in the frame. (camera view)
(I go forward animation,, though now figure change poze,,)
then I forget to menton,, if you zoom in up more precisely,,
I said with ctrl key and middle mouse button (wheel) drug. up and down.
that means,, hold on your middle mouse wheel,, then drug,, (as you drug something by r button or l button)
with ctrl button.
It must zoom in up, with more narrow step than simply scroll.
but you need to the option "Lock camera to view"
it is useful,, when you hope to change frame size, ( mentioned frist reply) in camera view.
simply scroll up and down = zoom in out, or change frame size in camera view.
but with ctrl + middle mouse button drug up and down, it can be zoom in out, or change size more precisely.
which effect you get depend on, which you check on the option "lock camera to view" or not.
next,, I say select camera, then type R, X,X, 30 .
it must be rotate camera in the current camera rocal axis X 30 degree.
without you change your current pivot point style.
you see my pic. left window show current camera positon. and the arrow show it grobal axis.
now I select camera, then type R, X,
you can see guide red line. it is groval X axis of camera. so fit to red arrow.
then type X again. now guide red line change to camera rocal X axis.
then type 30. it must rotate camera in the rocal axis X 30
you may understand it turn camera upward or downward rotate.