Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Blender 2.43 Is Out
The newest stable version of Blender, version 2.43, was released over the weekend.
If you aren't familiar with it, Blender is an open-source (meaning 100% FREE) 3D modeling / animation / rendering package. I am consistently impressed with the quality and professionalism of the product. Yes, people complain that its interface is... well, less than intuitive, but I've gotten used to it. And some artists are doing some incredible work with it.
You can get the latest version of Blender HERE. And if you happen to be a Torque user, there's a new converter that supports it (I tried it tonight, it works!) available via multiple links in THIS THREAD.- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:03 AM (Permalink)
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I went from hating the interface to merely being confused by it, then through on to not minding it, and I'm now firmly in the prefer it camp.
Like most things, repeated exposure and necessity rasp off the burrs quite nicely.
Like most things, repeated exposure and necessity rasp off the burrs quite nicely.
I got into it much like corvus. Now I hate anything else because I can't edit as fast as I can with blender. The one hand on the keyboard one hand on the mouse control is spectacular, and the flexibility of the UI is impressive.
You know, for a while there I was feeling like I was somehow suffering because - as a programmer who tinkers with 3D modeling - I couldn't justify the cost of 3DS Max or something. But with each release I find that's really not the case. I mean, you don't get quite the support in terms of plug-ins, but it's really a powerful, powerful too.
I think its the Max users who suffer. Fortunately I was not familiar with any other 3d modelling software when I first tried Blender, so the interface didn't strike me as being either good or bad - in my opinion having familiarity with other software is the only reason to see Blender's interface as 'unintuitive'. Subsequently trying to use Max after learning Blender was a nightmare.
As stated the (spectacular) one-hand-keyboard/one-hand-mouse arrangement is probably the most efficient way possible for a human to manipulate 3d scenes on a computer.
About not quite getting the support in terms of plug-ins, very good functionality for scripting is certainly available so I'm guessing you mean that there are just not as many ready-made plugins to download? I think this is just a matter of the user-base still being small.
As stated the (spectacular) one-hand-keyboard/one-hand-mouse arrangement is probably the most efficient way possible for a human to manipulate 3d scenes on a computer.
About not quite getting the support in terms of plug-ins, very good functionality for scripting is certainly available so I'm guessing you mean that there are just not as many ready-made plugins to download? I think this is just a matter of the user-base still being small.
Yep, Chris, I was referring to ready-made plugins. I am THRILLED with the fact that Blender uses Python for all its plug-in needs... no custom scripting language!
Last night I was doing more animating. You know, I keep forgetting that Apocalypse Cow really began as an exercise for me to learn Torque, Blender, and other tools. I get so hung up on what needs to get done that I forget that my purpose in doing it all was to learn.
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Last night I was doing more animating. You know, I keep forgetting that Apocalypse Cow really began as an exercise for me to learn Torque, Blender, and other tools. I get so hung up on what needs to get done that I forget that my purpose in doing it all was to learn.
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