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Blender is amazing for the 3D rendering it can do, and for the fact that it is free... But it is intimidating to people who don't learn it inside and out from a

Blender is amazing for the 3D rendering it can do, and for the fact that it is free... But it is intimidating to people who don't learn it inside and out from a production standpoint when they are doing a lot more than just importing simple objects. But I kind of wish they had a "Blender Light", without all the features and config options, and with a less complex UI... I've been using Panzoid to do certain things, but Panzoid can't do rigging on imported object files... I usually want to make animated videos in support of the music I release on my label, but right now doing so is either expensive or time consuming. I also don't want to put in film-studio effort or money into each music video release, because that is not a good business model, and my time is limited... The costs of being a creator are rising fast, only solid workflows will ensure survival.

capableweb 5y ago
> But I kind of wish they had a "Blender Light" Since Blender is open source, it would be possible for some other group to fork Blender and remove parts of the UI for users like you. I really wish the core team wouldn't focus their effort on this. Blender is a professional tool for professional users. Having to balance between "dumbing down" the UI for first time users and providing a user interface for power users makes it hard to please either one of them, so I'm happy Blender currently focuses on the pro users.
HelloNurse 5y ago
The added value of complex software like Blender is that it makes every task possible, reducing the risk of having to start over a project with better tools because easy to learn software with a constrained workflow and limited features was selected at first. 3D modeling and rendering is particularly suitable for this style of tool because there are many, many editing operations that can be applied to 3D models and many uses they can be put to. Simplified software is suitable for simple, throwaway needs where the risk of choosing wrong and the cost of changing tools are low: yesterday I had to split a PDF file for the first and presumably last time in my life and I just printed it to a file by page ranges, without bothering to select, install and learn to use a PDF editor like Acrobat. Mastering general, not "light" software is the only practical foundation for relatively professional "solid workflows" (as opposed to learning the basics of 3D modeling or something else with minimum accidental complexity); there might be a place for very advanced and/or very efficient but very specialized tools (e.g. MagicaVoxel, procedural generators of 3D models, Substance Painter) but only as an addition for equally specialized situations, not as an easy route.
jedimastert 5y ago
> But I kind of wish they had a "Blender Light", without all the features and config options, and with a less complex UI I get what you're talking about, sort of an "iMovie" to Blender's "Final Cut Pro". I think 2.80 actually did a ton of work in that regard, if you've seen it since then. It could definitely be simpler though, and with the UI programming the way it is I suspect it wouldn't take all that much internal change. Unfortunately, I think a lot of the reason it's as intimidating as it is is because the main aim for buy in for now is studios who favor the power user maximal interfaces of Cinema 4D and Maya and the like
wlesieutre 5y ago
You might be interested in the "Blender 101 (Application templates)" item in this roadmap: > Being able to configure Blender for personal workflows is a key Blender target, part of the 2.8 project. > To bring configuring even one step further, .blend files can be used to replace the standard startup file – creating ‘custom versions’ of Blender this way. These templates will allow to completely configure UI layouts, define custom keymaps and enable add-ons to run at startup. A smart Python scripter can design complete new applications this way, using vanilla Blender releases. As prototypes the team will release a couple of simple templates: a video-player review tool and the 100% dumbed down ‘Monkey Blender’. > A template used this way will be called “Blender Application Template” or just “Blender App”. Planning is to have this working as beta for Blender 3.1, after extensive testing and reviews by contributors and module teams. I think the bigger issue you're going to run into with "make Blender but simple" is that the subset of features that you want in a simplified blender is a different subset from what other people want. You want to do rigging on imported object files, but for somebody else rigging is a feature that would get cut out completely. They're just trying to model a doughnut and a coffee mug and do a still render of it, or at most animate the camera moving around the scene.

capableweb 5y ago

> But I kind of wish they had a "Blender Light" Since Blender is open source, it would be possible for some other group to fork Blender and remove parts of the UI for users like you. I really wish the core team wouldn't focus their effort on this. Blender is a professional tool for professional users. Having to balance between "dumbing down" the UI for first time users and providing a user interface for power users makes it hard to please either one of them, so I'm happy Blender currently focuses on the pro users.

HelloNurse 5y ago

The added value of complex software like Blender is that it makes every task possible, reducing the risk of having to start over a project with better tools because easy to learn software with a constrained workflow and limited features was selected at first. 3D modeling and rendering is particularly suitable for this style of tool because there are many, many editing operations that can be applied to 3D models and many uses they can be put to. Simplified software is suitable for simple, throwaway needs where the risk of choosing wrong and the cost of changing tools are low: yesterday I had to split a PDF file for the first and presumably last time in my life and I just printed it to a file by page ranges, without bothering to select, install and learn to use a PDF editor like Acrobat. Mastering general, not "light" software is the only practical foundation for relatively professional "solid workflows" (as opposed to learning the basics of 3D modeling or something else with minimum accidental complexity); there might be a place for very advanced and/or very efficient but very specialized tools (e.g. MagicaVoxel, procedural generators of 3D models, Substance Painter) but only as an addition for equally specialized situations, not as an easy route.

jedimastert 5y ago

> But I kind of wish they had a "Blender Light", without all the features and config options, and with a less complex UI I get what you're talking about, sort of an "iMovie" to Blender's "Final Cut Pro". I think 2.80 actually did a ton of work in that regard, if you've seen it since then. It could definitely be simpler though, and with the UI programming the way it is I suspect it wouldn't take all that much internal change. Unfortunately, I think a lot of the reason it's as intimidating as it is is because the main aim for buy in for now is studios who favor the power user maximal interfaces of Cinema 4D and Maya and the like

wlesieutre 5y ago

You might be interested in the "Blender 101 (Application templates)" item in this roadmap: > Being able to configure Blender for personal workflows is a key Blender target, part of the 2.8 project. > To bring configuring even one step further, .blend files can be used to replace the standard startup file – creating ‘custom versions’ of Blender this way. These templates will allow to completely configure UI layouts, define custom keymaps and enable add-ons to run at startup. A smart Python scripter can design complete new applications this way, using vanilla Blender releases. As prototypes the team will release a couple of simple templates: a video-player review tool and the 100% dumbed down ‘Monkey Blender’. > A template used this way will be called “Blender Application Template” or just “Blender App”. Planning is to have this working as beta for Blender 3.1, after extensive testing and reviews by contributors and module teams. I think the bigger issue you're going to run into with "make Blender but simple" is that the subset of features that you want in a simplified blender is a different subset from what other people want. You want to do rigging on imported object files, but for somebody else rigging is a feature that would get cut out completely. They're just trying to model a doughnut and a coffee mug and do a still render of it, or at most animate the camera moving around the scene.