To get started in Blender it helps to just switch the right/left mouse
button configuration in Blender's user preferences.
This makes you select with left again as most interfaces work. The thing
with the default mouse button setting (selecting with RMB)
is that some functions in Blender make good use with this setting (Like
selecting something that lays/overlaps under the gizmo....this only
works using the default setting).
I usualy set:
User Preferences/Interface/Display Tab (Check this if not already checked)
-Global Scene
User Preferences/Interface/View Manipulation Tab (Check this if not
already checked):
-Cursor Depth
-Auto Depth
-Zoom to Mouse Position
-Rotate around selection
-Auto Perspective
User Preferences/Input (Check this if not already checked)
-Select with Left
Orbit Style: Turntable
-Zoom Style: Dolly Vertical
Hope this helps to get started. btw, the little circle that appears when
right clicking (if you set up LMB selection) is the 3D-Cursor,
meaning that every new Object will be created at the 3D-Cursor
Position....To reset this bugger to XYZ 0,0,0 just press Shift+C (This
also aligns the Perspective View for you....)
Have fun with Blender, it's awesome. I use 3DS since R2 for DOS and went
through all versions to 3DS MAX 2013, in between I added XSI/Softimage
and loved it. Now I just do not want to feed the dragon anymore and bet
on Blender and Rhino. Softimage will still be the swiss army knife for
difficult
projects but I see the future unleashed in Open Software. Since Blender
allows python scripting and let you see the c++ source it is also a good
alternative to set up a nice pipeline for small companies.
Keep on rocking, it is a sad time what happens in the CG industry but we
gotta shape up and define our
future ourselves. Those big companies can either go with us or pfff, I
don't care......
Daniel
On 10.03.2014 14:26, Nicolas Esposito wrote:
I just saw the 2.7 release and man, they really improved since the
last time I tried it!
I'm also trying to see which software to use next to Softimage, and
for now the choices are Maya, Modo and Houdini, but Blender, seeing
how they improved everything and being open source, has always
intrigued me
I'll be honest, the most annoying thing is the navigation, I found it
really awkward...I know that the keys could be remapped, but I would
like to know if its possible to remap everything similar to the Soft
layout, that would be nice ;)
The features are really nice and the community is very active, so I
really hope that this software will continue to be developed for a
long time....unless AD buys them :-D
2014-03-10 14:08 GMT+01:00 Dan Yargici <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>>:
I started to write this post at the end of last summer and it sat
unfinished in my Drafts folder, so I've just corrected a couple of
things and I'm throwing it out there as is....
DAN
I've recently (well, on and off over the last year or so and more
frequently of late) started learning Blender and trying to
integrate it into my workflow/toolset and far from being painful,
I have found it to be quite a refreshing experience.
I'm working on the premise that it's something I will always have
at my disposal wherever I happen to be working due to it being
free and on all platforms. As I don't work in large shops with
rigid pipelines it's not really an issue in circumstances where
the asset or shot can be worked on in isolation and it's in these
situations that I've tried to incorporate it into my work.
The obvious cost implications of working with a 'foreign' piece of
software in a company, and the time required to get the myriad
license systems out there working will not gain you fans in the
IT/Tech/Engineering department. As Blender is free and easy to
install (if you don't want to you can just extract and run it - I
run it off my USB stick) you can also soften the blow with regard
to company politics.
Things as a Softimage user I like - here are some examples:
* Sculpting - it works well for simple to moderately detailed
sculpts. There are a wide range of sculpting tools available (all
the usual suspects - inflate, crease, smooth etc...) and you can
use all the tools for 'regular' modelling also. With the recent
introduction of dynamic topology, it also became much more powerful.
* Texture paint - not exactly rocket speed in all circumstances
but I've been happily painting 4k textures on moderately detailed
meshes using procedurals, stencils and regular brushes for a
couple of weeks and hit very few snags. They are planning to
merge in some improvements in 2.71.
* Procedural Textures - can be used by everything, you can use
them to texture, paint, mask, sculpt, filter particle emissions.
Whatever you like.
* Rendering - Blender comes with two renderers - 'Blender
Internal' and 'Cycles'. Blender Internal is the older legacy
renderer and Cycles is the GPU accelerated (CPU also supported)
renderer being actively developed going forward. I won't write a
ton about it, you can read a little more here
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.61/Cycles
There are also a ton of alternative 3rd Party renderers. Even
Vray recently announced official Blender support. Blender has a
node-based Render-Tree like interface.
* Smoke simulation - fairly well rounded and featured, with
minimal issues and constantly being improved. Support for
wavelet/FFT high resolution detailing, adaptive domains, the
ability to advect the simulation with particles (and vice versa),
and much more. VERY fast to render if you use Blender's internal
renderer (however with the rather huge caveat of the lack of
motion blur). Cycles integration expected soon-ish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYNr0ZtyD1c
* Dynamic paint - same concept as Helge's pixel particles, but
without the particles, and fast. Really well implemented IMO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcWXFtnh2bk
* Modelling tools - While I'll always prefer modelling in
Softimage, some of the modelling tools in Blender are great and
there are some that are really well-suited for re-topology.
Soft's Alt-pivot is great, while Blender has the same idea (well,
it's pretty much the basis of operation in Blender), it's pretty
clunkily implemented in comparison.
* Interface/GUI - It feels quick, slick, modern and adaptable next
to Softimage's tacky, rounded, cheap-looking abomination of a
'look' (I've never liked it, in case you didn't guess :))
* Camera Tracking - Blender has a pretty solid, basic and fast
camera tracker. Not a serious replacement for the competitors but
usable even in it's current state. A lot of developments expected
soon.
* Compositor - Blender has a fairly feature-rich compositor.
Probably as useful as the FXTree, not a replacement for Nuke
obviously...
* Development - there is so much buzz around development for
Blender, and you get to have a chance to see and influence it all.
Here you see a post from a developer at Pixar who wants to
integrate OpenSubdiv support in his spare time!
http://www.blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?319079-Advice-for-test-OpenSubdiv-integration
Another thing I personally appreciate is that they're not against
throwing out the old to bring in the new. This is something I
feel Softimage has been too rigid on. I understand and appreciate
the reasons and what the guarantee of feature retention means to
some, but in the case of Softimage, I'd argue that it's not always
been a benefit for the user base as a whole. Especially with
regard to the way I use the software personally. Just my opinion.
Anyway, there's plenty more but I'll leave it there. The point
I'm trying to make is that I think everyone, whatever they intend
to use as their 'main' workhorse package, should support Blender,
and by that I also mean financially. I've committed to donating 5
dollars a month and I'm sure I'll up that in the future as I
exploit more and more of it's features. If they can make this
much happen with what they receive now, imagine what they'd manage
with some decent support.
You can visit these sites to see more of it's capabilities.
http://www.blenderartists.org/
http://cgcookie.com/blender/
