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I used to do a lot of 3d in the 90s so I'm extremely familiar with 3d modeling concepts. One day I decided to give blender a go after many years of hiatus and

by pcurve 7y ago

I used to do a lot of 3d in the 90s so I'm extremely familiar with 3d modeling concepts. One day I decided to give blender a go after many years of hiatus and oh boy was it difficult to use even after looking up documentation. Nothing like maxon cinema 4d. Is blender built on preexisting 3d app UI convention? Or is it its own animal?

Jonnax 7y ago
They've done a redesign of the UI with this version. I'd say it's a bit easier to grasp for someone new.
container 7y ago
When exactly did you try it? It has changed significantly at least a few times in the last 10 years.
klodolph 7y ago
Blender dates back to the 1990s but it is its own animal, more or less. For documentation I would recommend going through the tutorials first, rather than trying to figure things out and searching for what you need. It reminds me a little bit of Vim in the sense that you switch between different modes a lot, and that's not exactly friendly if you're not used to it. That said, I've never been proficient at 3D, other than a couple of level editors, so all 3D tools are hard for me to use. With my mediocre background and armed with tutorials, I didn't find it time-consuming to do some basic things like creating a mesh (lots of techniques to pick up here), creating a UV map, and baking a light map.
- cameronbrown 7y ago
  I've struggled with Blender so much that I do all my modelling with Unity's Probuilder[0] which I can get away with because I've got a low poly game. Super convenient. [0]https://unity3d.com/unity/features/worldbuilding/probuilder https://unity3d.com/unity/features/worldbuilding/probuilder
  - klodolph 7y ago
    Probuilder is actually at the top of my list of tools to try out other than Blender, since it seems to be specialized to create models with the level of complexity that I feel confident delivering. Thanks for the recommendation. That said, I'm often working with an engine other than Unity, so I'm not sure how much Probuilder is an option.
  - mrguyorama 7y ago
    Wow that reminds me of oldschool google sketchup. Too bad that's not a great tool anymore
    - cameronbrown 7y ago
      Yep. That's exactly what it feels like to use.
- mrec 7y ago
  When I tried Blender a few years back there were lots of tutorials, but they were all in video format. For some people that's great; for some people that's useless. Has there been any improvement here? Even aside from personal learning preferences, I suspect trying to learn a complex UI from a video is going to be a struggle if you're working on a single screen.
nine_k 7y ago
It may be difficult to grasp initially. I did not find it too hard to use afterwards, though; it becomes reasonably logical. I did not do animation, though, only 3D-modelling and architectural scenes.
bananaoomarang 7y ago
This release is a pretty significant UI overhaul, as was 2.6 from memory but that was a good few years back. Probably worth giving it another shot with 2.8!
- pcurve 7y ago
  Awesome. I tried it about 18 months ago do I will definitely give it another go!
  - wlesieutre 7y ago
    One major change in 2.8 is that it defaults to left-click for selection. At least from my experience, right-click selection was the big thing that made Blender feel very alien to pick up. You could change it before, but defaults matter a lot for new users. EDIT: I just tested it and I might be misinformed on this. Either it's still RMB selection or I have an old config that it loaded. EDIT2: Load factory settings put me on LBM select. Yay!
    - pcurve 7y ago
      I'm liking the new UI a lot better. The old one reminded me of Lightwave 3d, which I struggled with.
- Topgamer7 7y ago
  You were close, pretty sure it was 2.5
- Causality1 7y ago
  That in particular was my issue when I gave up learning to use Blender. There are tons and tons of tutorials, but Blender hits a big "randomize" button for its UI every time it updates. Nothing is ever where the tutorials tell you to find it. It likely isn't even grouped under the same menu heading anymore.
  - wlesieutre 7y ago
inflatableDodo 7y ago
I find blender to be one of the tools that is built to be fast, rather than friendly. It defaults to a minimal state and assumes you know how you want to set it up. Two things that will help you a lot is firstly, to go into preferences and enable pretty much every plugin that doesn't have an exclamation mark next to it and secondly, print out all the keyboard shortcuts and tape them to the sides of your screen.
erklik 7y ago
Blender is very much like vim. Hard as hell to start, but once you know your way around, its very very efficient.

by pcurve 7y ago

Jonnax 7y ago

They've done a redesign of the UI with this version. I'd say it's a bit easier to grasp for someone new.

container 7y ago

When exactly did you try it? It has changed significantly at least a few times in the last 10 years.

klodolph 7y ago

Blender dates back to the 1990s but it is its own animal, more or less. For documentation I would recommend going through the tutorials first, rather than trying to figure things out and searching for what you need. It reminds me a little bit of Vim in the sense that you switch between different modes a lot, and that's not exactly friendly if you're not used to it. That said, I've never been proficient at 3D, other than a couple of level editors, so all 3D tools are hard for me to use. With my mediocre background and armed with tutorials, I didn't find it time-consuming to do some basic things like creating a mesh (lots of techniques to pick up here), creating a UV map, and baking a light map.

cameronbrown 7y ago
I've struggled with Blender so much that I do all my modelling with Unity's Probuilder[0] which I can get away with because I've got a low poly game. Super convenient. [0]https://unity3d.com/unity/features/worldbuilding/probuilder https://unity3d.com/unity/features/worldbuilding/probuilder
- klodolph 7y ago
  Probuilder is actually at the top of my list of tools to try out other than Blender, since it seems to be specialized to create models with the level of complexity that I feel confident delivering. Thanks for the recommendation. That said, I'm often working with an engine other than Unity, so I'm not sure how much Probuilder is an option.
- mrguyorama 7y ago
  Wow that reminds me of oldschool google sketchup. Too bad that's not a great tool anymore
  - cameronbrown 7y ago
    Yep. That's exactly what it feels like to use.
mrec 7y ago
When I tried Blender a few years back there were lots of tutorials, but they were all in video format. For some people that's great; for some people that's useless. Has there been any improvement here? Even aside from personal learning preferences, I suspect trying to learn a complex UI from a video is going to be a struggle if you're working on a single screen.

nine_k 7y ago

It may be difficult to grasp initially. I did not find it too hard to use afterwards, though; it becomes reasonably logical. I did not do animation, though, only 3D-modelling and architectural scenes.

bananaoomarang 7y ago

This release is a pretty significant UI overhaul, as was 2.6 from memory but that was a good few years back. Probably worth giving it another shot with 2.8!

pcurve 7y ago
Awesome. I tried it about 18 months ago do I will definitely give it another go!
- wlesieutre 7y ago
  One major change in 2.8 is that it defaults to left-click for selection. At least from my experience, right-click selection was the big thing that made Blender feel very alien to pick up. You could change it before, but defaults matter a lot for new users. EDIT: I just tested it and I might be misinformed on this. Either it's still RMB selection or I have an old config that it loaded. EDIT2: Load factory settings put me on LBM select. Yay!
  - pcurve 7y ago
    I'm liking the new UI a lot better. The old one reminded me of Lightwave 3d, which I struggled with.
Topgamer7 7y ago
You were close, pretty sure it was 2.5
Causality1 7y ago
That in particular was my issue when I gave up learning to use Blender. There are tons and tons of tutorials, but Blender hits a big "randomize" button for its UI every time it updates. Nothing is ever where the tutorials tell you to find it. It likely isn't even grouped under the same menu heading anymore.
- wlesieutre 7y ago

inflatableDodo 7y ago

I find blender to be one of the tools that is built to be fast, rather than friendly. It defaults to a minimal state and assumes you know how you want to set it up. Two things that will help you a lot is firstly, to go into preferences and enable pretty much every plugin that doesn't have an exclamation mark next to it and secondly, print out all the keyboard shortcuts and tape them to the sides of your screen.

erklik 7y ago

Blender is very much like vim. Hard as hell to start, but once you know your way around, its very very efficient.