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I have been doing 3D for about a decade and a half You have a lot of inertia to overcome. That's 15 years of muscle memory and expectations built using differe

I have been doing 3D for about a decade and a half You have a lot of inertia to overcome. That's 15 years of muscle memory and expectations built using different UIs, different paradigms, and different ideas to achieve the same result. You need to factor the fact you're going to be thinking "But I could do that much more easily in <thing I've used for more than a decade>!" a lot. It's possible that you won't ever overcome those thoughts. Forgetting is a lot harder than learning, and while Blender is pretty amazing it definitely isn't so much farther ahead than the competition it's necessarily worth the effort. Blender's main benefits are that it's fully integrated (it does everything!), and that it's free. If you already have a successful workflow for 3D then maybe it just isn't the app for you.

archerx 5y ago
If blender is so great why can I jump between many different 3D programs without much friction, why was I able to learn other 3D apps a long the way without much friction? I have been trying to use Blender since at least 2003 and each time it refused to stick and was happy to stop using it. Sure it does everything but excels at nothing.
- poulpy123 5y ago
  Many people are using blender so maybe it's you and not the software?
  - dagmx 5y ago
    Prior to Blender 2.6, Blender used to really go out of its way to be different in every way. With blender 2.7 and 2.8 they made lots of concessions to have more familiar interfaces. The thing is, most every other 3D app uses the industry standard control scheme. Blender is different. That means switching between Maya , Houdini, Max etc is fairly easy on your muscle memory. Pulling up Blender is a very rough context switch. 2.8 made it a lot better, but using the Maya keymap makes working in the Blender way kind of tricky, so you're still stuck in this weird hybrid. Blenders great, but it definitely isn't as easy to switch between apps.
- Topgamer7 5y ago
  Blender is exceptional for the price. That's always been the way its been. You aren't buying into just the software, you're buying into a community, and development that strives towards innovation and creating new tools for its customers. You can find excellent free resources to get started, and people to work with. I've been working with blender on a hobby level since 2004, I learned 3d modelling, animation, texturing, rigging, video editing, nodes, uv editing; all through free online resources. I participated in community forums, community modelling competitions, irc discussions. If a 12 year old in 2004 learned it, I think the problem doesn't quite lie in the software UX. If it has to excel in one thing, it's its community.
- tinus_hn 5y ago
  It really excels in allowing everyone to do 3D modeling and rendering for free, legally. Perhaps you can afford a license to all these ‘different 3D programs’ you are jumping between but not everyone can or wants to.
- aceazzameen 5y ago
  I can relate with you. It's been quite difficult for me to unlearn old afforfances and learn Blender. Because Blender is free and quite capable at what it does, it's training a whole new generation on how to use 3D software. And people are producing work expertly and quickly with it. Because of this and being open source, Blender is going to be the future. You and me, we just need to spend more time with it and unlearn what we previously learned.
danShumway 5y ago
> You have a lot of inertia to overcome. That's 15 years of muscle memory and expectations built using different UIs, different paradigms, and different ideas to achieve the same result. You need to factor the fact you're going to be thinking "But I could do that much more easily in <thing I've used for more than a decade>!" a lot. It's possible that you won't ever overcome those thoughts. The irony being that this situation basically is baby duck syndrome, GP is complaining that a "proper" interface is whatever they were initially taught in college. It reminds me a lot of people's reactions to Vim/Emacs. "I've used tons of text editing interfaces, and none of them had this weird modal crap." Nah, you were just taught text editing in Word, and every text editor you've used since then imitates Word. Which is actually fine, I tell people who look at Vim that they don't need to use Vim. If GP doesn't like Blender, they can just not use it. "I'm used to a different set of UX paradigms" is a completely valid consideration for what tools you use. It only becomes baby duck syndrome when they start saying that every other paradigm is objectively wrong because they don't have >10 years of muscle memory using it.

archerx 5y ago

If blender is so great why can I jump between many different 3D programs without much friction, why was I able to learn other 3D apps a long the way without much friction? I have been trying to use Blender since at least 2003 and each time it refused to stick and was happy to stop using it. Sure it does everything but excels at nothing.

poulpy123 5y ago
Many people are using blender so maybe it's you and not the software?
- dagmx 5y ago
  Prior to Blender 2.6, Blender used to really go out of its way to be different in every way. With blender 2.7 and 2.8 they made lots of concessions to have more familiar interfaces. The thing is, most every other 3D app uses the industry standard control scheme. Blender is different. That means switching between Maya , Houdini, Max etc is fairly easy on your muscle memory. Pulling up Blender is a very rough context switch. 2.8 made it a lot better, but using the Maya keymap makes working in the Blender way kind of tricky, so you're still stuck in this weird hybrid. Blenders great, but it definitely isn't as easy to switch between apps.
Topgamer7 5y ago
Blender is exceptional for the price. That's always been the way its been. You aren't buying into just the software, you're buying into a community, and development that strives towards innovation and creating new tools for its customers. You can find excellent free resources to get started, and people to work with. I've been working with blender on a hobby level since 2004, I learned 3d modelling, animation, texturing, rigging, video editing, nodes, uv editing; all through free online resources. I participated in community forums, community modelling competitions, irc discussions. If a 12 year old in 2004 learned it, I think the problem doesn't quite lie in the software UX. If it has to excel in one thing, it's its community.
tinus_hn 5y ago
It really excels in allowing everyone to do 3D modeling and rendering for free, legally. Perhaps you can afford a license to all these ‘different 3D programs’ you are jumping between but not everyone can or wants to.
aceazzameen 5y ago
I can relate with you. It's been quite difficult for me to unlearn old afforfances and learn Blender. Because Blender is free and quite capable at what it does, it's training a whole new generation on how to use 3D software. And people are producing work expertly and quickly with it. Because of this and being open source, Blender is going to be the future. You and me, we just need to spend more time with it and unlearn what we previously learned.

danShumway 5y ago

> You have a lot of inertia to overcome. That's 15 years of muscle memory and expectations built using different UIs, different paradigms, and different ideas to achieve the same result. You need to factor the fact you're going to be thinking "But I could do that much more easily in <thing I've used for more than a decade>!" a lot. It's possible that you won't ever overcome those thoughts. The irony being that this situation basically is baby duck syndrome, GP is complaining that a "proper" interface is whatever they were initially taught in college. It reminds me a lot of people's reactions to Vim/Emacs. "I've used tons of text editing interfaces, and none of them had this weird modal crap." Nah, you were just taught text editing in Word, and every text editor you've used since then imitates Word. Which is actually fine, I tell people who look at Vim that they don't need to use Vim. If GP doesn't like Blender, they can just not use it. "I'm used to a different set of UX paradigms" is a completely valid consideration for what tools you use. It only becomes baby duck syndrome when they start saying that every other paradigm is objectively wrong because they don't have >10 years of muscle memory using it.