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There are actually better apps than Maya for modelling / UVing, but for animation / rigging / skinning / techanim it's the benchmark. Blender's got most of the

by berkut 12y ago

There are actually better apps than Maya for modelling / UVing, but for animation / rigging / skinning / techanim it's the benchmark. Blender's got most of the functionality in theory, but it's really not well architected / designed in terms of workflow - a bit like old Nokia Nxx phones - they had all the features, but they weren't user-friendly for many things.

geoka9 12y ago
Blender has made a lot of strides in the past few years. Have you tried it recently? My last encounter with blender was in 2008 and it was rather painful. I gave it another try several months ago and got my socks blown off. I've since rebuilt my workflow around blender and there's no going back.
- erikano 12y ago
  Blender is pretty good. I've only used it a few times but I agree that the UI seems to have improved quite a bit. I did find the interface modes a bit confusing at first (and I say that as someone whos primary text editor has been Vim for the last 5-6 years). With so much functionality, where to find the things you are looking for can be a bit difficult. I think doing as you did and rebuilding your workflow around the tool is probably the best way to get productive.
  - geoka9 12y ago
    > With so much functionality, where to find the things you are looking for can be a bit difficult. I've yet to see a 3D program where it's easy (except, maybe Google Sketchup). They are complicated beasts, so new users should expect a learning curve. In my experience, though, Blender gets easier once you master the basics (while most other packages let you do a "hello world" type project easily, but mire you down with their "friendly" UI for more advanced stuff). Another important thing that sets Blender apart WRT learning curve, is the abundance of good tutorials and help (it's even got its own stack exchange site[1] - incredibly helpful!). [1] http://blender.stackexchange.com http://blender.stackexchange.com
- berkut 12y ago
  Yeah, I regularly try it (both with its native keybindings and with it's Maya emulation mode), and it has got better. But it's still painful doing many things in a fluid / connected way, and generally it just doesn't scale for assets. E.g. I tried to import the .obj (because the FBX support is pretty crap and there's no .abc support) of a fairly small model I had of a voxellated (shape made out of cubes) shape, which consisted of around 300,000 primitives (all cubes), and blender took over 6 hours to import it. Maya, Houdini (and 3D apps I've written) opened it in seconds.
CyberDildonics 12y ago
This is the real answer. It's all the same math underneath, you essentially pay for an interface.

by berkut 12y ago

geoka9 12y ago

Blender has made a lot of strides in the past few years. Have you tried it recently? My last encounter with blender was in 2008 and it was rather painful. I gave it another try several months ago and got my socks blown off. I've since rebuilt my workflow around blender and there's no going back.

erikano 12y ago
Blender is pretty good. I've only used it a few times but I agree that the UI seems to have improved quite a bit. I did find the interface modes a bit confusing at first (and I say that as someone whos primary text editor has been Vim for the last 5-6 years). With so much functionality, where to find the things you are looking for can be a bit difficult. I think doing as you did and rebuilding your workflow around the tool is probably the best way to get productive.
- geoka9 12y ago
  > With so much functionality, where to find the things you are looking for can be a bit difficult. I've yet to see a 3D program where it's easy (except, maybe Google Sketchup). They are complicated beasts, so new users should expect a learning curve. In my experience, though, Blender gets easier once you master the basics (while most other packages let you do a "hello world" type project easily, but mire you down with their "friendly" UI for more advanced stuff). Another important thing that sets Blender apart WRT learning curve, is the abundance of good tutorials and help (it's even got its own stack exchange site[1] - incredibly helpful!). [1] http://blender.stackexchange.com http://blender.stackexchange.com
berkut 12y ago
Yeah, I regularly try it (both with its native keybindings and with it's Maya emulation mode), and it has got better. But it's still painful doing many things in a fluid / connected way, and generally it just doesn't scale for assets. E.g. I tried to import the .obj (because the FBX support is pretty crap and there's no .abc support) of a fairly small model I had of a voxellated (shape made out of cubes) shape, which consisted of around 300,000 primitives (all cubes), and blender took over 6 hours to import it. Maya, Houdini (and 3D apps I've written) opened it in seconds.

CyberDildonics 12y ago

This is the real answer. It's all the same math underneath, you essentially pay for an interface.