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Now that's fear. One wrong move and you're dead.

See Blender, the open source animation system. In the manual, the "Hotkeys Reference" extends from page 480 to page 505. There are so many hotkeys that they use combinations like SHIFT-PAGEDOWN and ALT-CTRL-T.

Now we'll hear complaints from Blender fans. OK, Blender fans, you're in mesh edit mode. What does ALT-CTL-RIGHTMOUSEBUTTON do? No looking at the manual. Only if you can answer that do you get to comment.

The myriads of hackers on KDE and GNOME applications. I'm particularly fond of Kate, KDE's text editor, which is also a component in many other KDE applications.

Ward Cunningham, the creator of the original wiki idea, and Clifford Adams, the maintainer of one of the first usable wiki engines, UsemodWiki.

Rusty Foster, Dries Buytaert and Rob Malda, who created Scoop, Drupal and Slash, respectively, three very powerful weblog engines I use every day.

Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis for starting the GIMP. Ton Rosendaal and the rest of the Blender team for proving that proprietary applications can become open source through distributed funding.

Anthony Jones, creator of iRATE, for exploring new ways to discover free music.

Dave Winer of UserLand for developing a simple content syndication format (now RSS 2.0), the MetaWeblog API and the XML-RPC protocol.

Keith Packard of HP for his many improvements to X.

Guido van Rossum for creating Python, Larry Wall for creating Perl and the many people involved in making PHP, and making it useful.

And of course, the many other people involved in all of these programs, and those who built the software infrastructure that made them possible.

Story-based games, especially, deserve to be presented in a final, polished form. For that reason, I would not expect it to be released early and often. There is also a question of artistic integrity. Game designers, amateur and professional alike, have strong ideas. Can they share authorship with some dude on the Internet?

Working as an Engineer as I, before my Technical Support specialist job, was a verry full-filling and difficult job. Engineers are the persons innovating new technology, while the pseudo-Engineers with MCSE certification are the persons implementing or slandering the fruits of your labors by holding false-authority. Can you imagine how much techology some corporations run through and have utterly destroyed because they didn't comprehend the profit increase (that means saving money too). It makes many people wonder how Microsoft profits with having the highest specialized Technical Support inter-company employment per capita for its Operating System and Application software against other companies whos products don't need many technical support agents because their product serves its purpose as stated on their retail box.

Studios are not going to just open source and give out all their code. Even if they did, they'd be huge and confusing to the open source world and nobody would know how to use it. We'd have another Netscape/Gecko/Mozilla thing.

If you want to have open source 3d tools (which there are already), you've got to work from the other end. Creating your own. Taking on the studios at their own game. Growing up between their toes.

If you're a graphics nerd, don't sit around pining like this, start using/hacking on blender and yafray. They are already seriously good and getting better by the day. If they don't meet your requirements yet, start using them and they soon will with all the extra attention. Besides, half the "really cool" stuff done/needed by 'professional' 3d artists are implemented in custom scripted things. Blender's fully python scriptable. Has been for a long time.

For those of us that can't afford to buy Maya (and no time to try), what does Maya do that Blender doesn't?

That's been the plan when they released blender. Don't know if it worked yet though...

So, are we having flamewars again about the Blender UI ? Knock on wood
if it doesn't happen.

Anyway, before people start bitching about it, please download the manual here(Vol 1)
and go through the tutorial of creating your first animation.

Once you get to know how things works, its logical, and a breeze to use.
Sort of learning the power of vi or emacs, it's right there, you just
don't see it at first, and you have to learn a few basics to get started

In case anyone's interested, Blender was used for pre-viz on action scenes in Spiderman 2.

http://www.blender.org/bf/spidey1.jpg

"Propietary", and I'm not trying to be flippant.

Well, yes, but proprietary is a very large umbrella term -- it can refer to everything from the Windows source code to the patents Apple holds on TrueType kerning. I meant a way of distinguishing between software that is free-as-in-beer to use and distribute, where source can be downloaded and learned from with no NDAs or registrations or anything being signed and the rest of the body of what we generally would call "non-Free", "non-OSI-compliant" software.

They would be wanting to use millions of man-hours of work without contributing back to the pool, and I don't think that's a reasonable position to adopt.

It is certainly less efficient, but not all software of this class is like the NPL, where the original author of the work gets special rights to improvements. Povray or xmame, for instance, have non-OSI-compliant licenses, but do not grant special rights to anyone. I guess that I can agree that it might be rather nice if everyone had intercompatible licenses, but I don't agree that the GPL is the "ultimate" license or that it's a good idea to try to force all GUI desktop software for the premier hobbyist OS to fall under a particular license (or pay a penalty fee for not doing so). I'm just not comfortable with it.

Povray's kind of a disappointment. I completely understand why they can't release it under an open license, and I certainly don't hold those reasons against them, but it's sad that the (best? only?) source-available raytracer still has so many strings attached. Here's to hoping that they can get it all resolved.

There are a number of GPL-compatible raytracers. It's not really all that hard to write a raytracer -- I did one for a class project once. YafRay is GPLed, CoolRay is GPLed, and Blender has an integrated raytracer (as well as other renderers).

Also, POV-Ray comes with documentation (fancy that!).

there is documentation, just not on the yafray pages ;) yafray docs

> Where's the pictures? I can't read manuals without pictures.

Here's an example of a manual with pictures: Blender documentation.

Hi, the posted link was wrong. That is the 2.28 guide. The 3.32 guide can be found at http://download.blender.org/documentation/htmlI/. If you browse the root directory of that, you will find the PDF document in either zip or tar format. Right now the server load is very heavy though, access is limited.

Your best bet for help is the Blender community at elYsiun.com, but be appropriate about questions. There is a knowledge base linked from there that you should consult along with the manual before posting questions.

• Mesh editing is cumbersome and utterly counter-intuitive. This is caused mostly by the focus on hotkeys rather than menus, and also by the lack of a manipulator of any kind. Once you learn the hotkeys, it's STILL a chore to model because the way that most of the tools work is so far from the way they work in nearly every other package.

• I, like a lot of people, prefer to model in one large window as opposed to several smaller ones

• No real undo

• What the hell is that stupid bullseye thing? It is completely useless/Why aren't object created at either the origin or where I click and drag, like every other package ever made ever? Just to be different?

• why the hell would I want to create an obect that's aligned with the screen? I don't want to have to change my damn screen position every time I need a new object

• Mesh editing is cumbersome and utterly counter-intuitive. This is caused mostly by the focus on hotkeys rather than menus, and also by the lack of a manipulator of any kind. Once you learn the hotkeys, it's STILL a chore to model because the way that most of the tools work is so far from the way they work in nearly every other package.

• I, like a lot of people, prefer to model in one large window as opposed to several smaller ones

• No real undo

• What the hell is that stupid bullseye thing? It is completely useless/Why aren't object created at either the origin or where I click and drag, like every other package ever made ever? Just to be different?

• why the hell would I want to create an obect that's aligned with the screen? I don't want to have to change my damn screen position every time I need a new object

www.blender.org is the developer's site (as opposed to www.blender3d.org the user's site) but they also meet in #blendercoders on freenode on Sundays at 4-6pm (CEST) - but there's generally a bunch of people in there anyway if you just drop in.

#blendercoders @ Freenode
And the Developer forums

I believe ODE is implemented, at least partially, in tuhopuu ("evil tree", the "testing grounds" version, where features are put and tested before being committed to the bf-blender tree), at least I saw it in the "Physics" selector last time I used it (which was a while ago, admittedly).

Check this thread on the test builds forum.

I haven't actaully tried it myself, maybe someone can back me up here?

Blender Book in html format.
It sure looks like the new interface to me...

http://download.blender.org/documentation/htmlI/x2 434.html

It needs GOOD DOCUMENTATION

Try the gingerbread man tutorial. I had a lot of fun going through that. It explains the interface very well, as well as provides a brief intro to modelling in general.

I do a lot of graphics work. I've also used a large number of the true graphics programs (3d, 2d, vector, etc... not MSPaint) out there at one point or another. In addition to this, I also do freelance development from time to time. It is the user interface alone that makes or breaks the program, in my opinion. Without a good interface, it doesn't matter what the rest of the code does.

Here are my remarks on a few of the ones I've used at one time or another:

Photoshop - Easy to use interface. Provides an easy introduction for those unfamiliar with the program and provides the power necessary for advanced users.

GraphicsConverter - Another easy to use interface. Though it lacks the power photoshop has, it makes up for it in the large number of image formats it can read and write.

Paint Shop Pro - I am not overly fond of this interface. For one, I think there are far too many icons used. Drowning out interface buttons and such with icons is very irritating for a novice user as they generally have to hover the mouse and wait for the tooltip to figure out what something is. Further, it has the "too much help" syndrome that seems a standard on windows. I much prefer that the help system be delegated to something else and not be built into the program.

Poser - This is definitely a unique interface, but it still provides simplicity for novice users and control for advanced users. The largest downside is that by not using default system-provided user interface widgets, some of the details you would expect are not there whereas they would be there if the system versions were used.

Bryce - Bryce is extremely easy to use. It was my first 3d program and is still one of my favorites due to its simplicity. I have yet to find another 3d program with an object placement system that I like more than bryce's.

Blender - Not a big fan. Though it is quite powerful, the learning curve is very steep. On Macs, the interface text is quite small in some places and hard to read. The interface is also a bit clunky. Sections are not as clearly divided as I would like.

Carrara - I have not used this one for some time (and as such, newer versions may be different than what I remember), but I found it quite user-friendly when I did. All tools were placed in a context-sensible place and it had the camera system that I liked from bryce.

The Gimp - I don't like it. The user interface is extremely clunky by my standards. Consolidating a number of the windows into one and reorganizing the tools would go a long way towards helping it. There is also the fact that I am used to my nice Aqua interface and it has the drab sharp bevels and general lack of detail that is natural to most x86 OS's under default configurations.

Illustrator - I do not use this program frequently, but being from adobe, it has a very similar interface to photoshop that makes it very easy to use.

Fireworks - I'm apathetic about this one. It provides no real functionality that I cannot get in a program whose interface I like better and has more stuff I can use.

Freehand - Pretty much the same as Fireworks. I've only mostly toyed with this one as I found Illustrator more appealing.

One other feature I like about photoshop is that it is extremely easy to do image versioning. When doing web designs, I will

That being said, I feel that any GUI application with a well-designed interface should be fairly intuitive and I should be able to get up to speed in a few minutes (I learn quickly). ...
My experiences with other peoples' work proves that The Gimp is capable and powerful. My experiences with my own work proves that The Gimp has a steep learning curve mostly due to its odd interface.

I think you're confusing "easy to learn" with "easy to use". An interface that is simple and intuitive can often get in the way of productivity. Often used functions that are easy to find may take several mouse clicks to use when a keyboard command, while not intuitive, would make it much easier to do the same thing. Blender is a great example of this. "Intuitive" is the last thing I would call the interface, but once you learn it it's incredibly productive. Whether or not Gimp falls into this category, I don't know as I'm not a graphic designer nor do I have much experience with either Photoshop or Gimp. But how easy it is to learn should not be the sole, or even primary, metric on judging an interface. For serious work, where someone is going to take the time to learn the application beyond the hobby user level, how easy it is to perform common tasks is going to trump easy to learn every time.

Why would I want to run win32 programs? I can't think of one Windows program that doesn't have a better equivalent for Linux.

OpenOffice, LaTeX + emacs, eclipse, blender, gimp, mozilla, maple, mathematica, ut2004, etc. What do _you_ need Windows for?

Is Ant better than SCONS?
http://ant.apache.org/
http://www.scons.org/

Seriously, I'm just curious. I've heard a lot more about SCONS than Ant. For instance Blender is switching over to a SCONS build system.

Don't forget Eskil Steenberg's Verse, the 3D package with quite possibly the coolest backdrope image ever. (I believe Eskil lives in Sweden.) The project received some money from the EU, so perhaps, one day, there will be Loq Airou released for Linux...

I'd really love to see this "freed" blender style. It may not rake up the support that blender did.

...gaming is next to be rearranged by OSS and ultracheap top quality stuff. As I said the other day.
Unless MS comes forward with DX9 and some good tools for Linux I don't see this taking off.

I'm just waiting for a game to use Blender as their native modelling app... I'd be able to use the UI threads on the forums to heat my house.

(Note: Personally, I love the Blender UI, (as do most people who are willing to spend the time to learn it properly). That doesn't make it any less intimidating to the first time user...)

Second question, how does linux do with a second monitor?

Like anything with Linux, the answer is, "it depends on your distro, your [insert hardware model here] and what version of [insert relevant software here] you're running".

does it take any further customization?

Heh. Would it be Linux if it didn't? :-)

Seriously, though, check out this HOWTO. The HOWTO's title is slightly misleading in that it covers dual head configuration in addition to Xinerama (which is lucky for us).

FYI, the Xinerama extension is what allows XFree86 to support the use of multiple monitors with one desktop (e.g., you can drag your windows from one monitor to another or have them span both, etc.). In the old days, you used to have a separate X session for each monitor. Most modern session managers (GNOME, KDE, etc.) now have good support for Xinerama, but you'll need a relatively new version of XFree86 (if you have a newer version of most distros, you should already have this).

It will also help if your monitors are relatively new. If they're not, you may have to do some Googling to get the proper modelines (search for "[your monitor model] xfree86 modeline"), but for most newer monitors, this should be an issue.

Another point of recommendation: if you want hardware 3d acceleration, try and make sure all of your cards support it. Otherwise the contents of your OpenGL app windows will not display on monitors without it. Not a show-stopper, but sometimes a little confusing/annoying when you're running Blender. :-)

That being said, I think that Verse is far too low level for the things it is designed to do. I think the Open Croquet project holds far more promise, both because it has a very well developed object-oriented model of virtual worlds (it's based on top of Squeak Smalltalk), and because the scheme it is using for networking has some very good ideas and promises to scale quite nicely (it is based on David Reed's PhD thesis, and it's pretty surprising it hasn't been "rediscovered" before). You can see an impressive (but now quite a bit out of date) video of Alan Kay and another Croquet developer (sorry, I forgot his name!) giving a presentation on the project. Unfortunately, the early demo of the project received a lot of negative attention from some quite ignorant people, and as a result the development of Open Croquet is not currently open to the general public (although if you don't mind becoming a Squeak developer you can certainly participate in it).

Now as to what I think of the funding. It's certainly a lot of money, but I don't entirely agree with the purpose. I think too much of it will be spent on implementation (not that it's a bad thing, as it's all Free Software), but I don't think that either Blender nor Verse foster enough research. Mostly they are doing what has already been done, and at that I don't think they are doing it particularly well.

God! You people! C!?! Assembly?!? WTF?!?

If he wants to learn how to create games, he needs to see how they're assembled. Hand-writing a console-mode checkers or tic-tac-toe in assembly isn't going to show him squat about how modern games are put together.

Give him this link, download the cheap (or free) version and have at it. Also download this and this so he can do things like create sprites and graphical models (free tutorials abound, use google).

Once he can get through a few 3dRad tutorials likethis one, he will be ready to tackle this book on game programming in C++.

Maybe a lot, but it's winter; what else is he gonna do besides stay inside watching tv?

...but again doesn't support animation.
Mm. As noted below, not a lot does wrt renderman, at least, not without paying lotsa dosh. I presume you've had a look thru' the RMR links page - there's a couple of possibilities there, but mostly alpha. The other thing to do would be to get in touch with the people who created this and this rather impressive animation and ask how they did it. You'll probably have to email the aqsis site maintainers to get their contact details.

Also, I forgot to link the brand new Renderman Academy. It's an ambitious project, but there's already a lot of good info there. Nothing on animation yet, unfortunately.

I mentioned Blender above - if you are willing to take on the task of learning to use it, you'll find a very powerful animation engine in there. There's a chap integrating renderman support directly into the main program, but that's apparently on hold until the middle of the year. In the meantime, there's a very adequate exporter called Blenderman (also see this). Of course, if what you're wanting is a directly programmable animation setup ala AL and SDL, this won't help.

Good luck with it - if you have any success, see if you can get it into a Slashback.

Have you seen Ayam? It's a neat little Renderman modeller that ties into Aqsis or (the now defunct) BMRT.

Actually, if you're really wanting a good fast 3d animation workflow, I'd recommend Blender. The learning curve is steep, but once you're into it, you can work fast and smooth. There's lot of support around, and the documentation can get you up and animating within half an hour.

Have you seen Ayam? It's a neat little Renderman modeller that ties into Aqsis or (the now defunct) BMRT.

Actually, if you're really wanting a good fast 3d animation workflow, I'd recommend Blender. The learning curve is steep, but once you're into it, you can work fast and smooth. There's lot of support around, and the documentation can get you up and animating within half an hour.

I guess it depends on how large and dedicated the wikipedia community is. From July 18th 2002 to September 7th 2002, the Blender Foundation raised 100k euros, so maybe $20k isn't that far-fetched.

First, the much maligned UI has undergone some fairly substantial redesign. It's retained most of the elements that freak the uniniated out, but has a bunch of changes that aren't as yet reflected in the online manual - a caveat you should be aware of if you're trying it out for the first time. I understand that the dead tree version this article's about has everything new in it.

Incidentally, the reason the interface is so unique is that Blender was originally an in-house tool, designed by a bunch who all knew how they wanted things to work, without reference to more traditional designs. Really, once you understand this and get used to it, it's as least good as any other graphics app interface out there.

Also, many new features are being introduced at the moment (raytracing, refraction, bevelling...), so the build you download today might do things a bit different to the one you got three weeks ago.

Finally, (a continual gotcha for Blender newbies), http://www.blender.org is the site for blender coding help and discussion. For help etc with the use of the program, go to http://www.elysiun.com and check the forums.

This might be interesting to some readers: I just read that DrQueue, free render queue management software, now has more integration with Blender. It also seems to have good integration with Maya, as well.

Any other good batch process managers out there, useful for rendering, compiling, or other heavy work? (I've heard of Condor which looks great except for a few serious restrictions on I/O)

reed

Copies of the 2.0 Blender book can still be fond in some shops or simply downloaded as a PDF (of course, this one doesn't cover armatures and has the 'old' interface) There is also a newer documentation project using the 2.0 guide as base but completely reworking the obsolete content. Of course, there is also a truckload of tutorials available on the Net

Since the move to Open Source, Blender has gotten, amongst others

• internationalisation
• way better meta ball implementation
• knife tool
• raytracer (reflections&shadows)
• completely reworked GUI (and still changing)
• a newer, better Python API and plenty of great scripts ( Fiber2, MakeHuman,Tesselate,...)

These are just my favorites. There is tons of other stuff as well.
In the coming weeks/months, we'll see

• Beast script (including card-based fur just like IceAge)
• better nurbs based on Nurbana
• integrated bevel tool (script-based bevel already exists.)
• Integrated REAL raytracer (YafRay)
• further tuning of the new GUI
• ???

Copies of the 2.0 Blender book can still be fond in some shops or simply downloaded as a PDF (of course, this one doesn't cover armatures and has the 'old' interface) There is also a newer documentation project using the 2.0 guide as base but completely reworking the obsolete content. Of course, there is also a truckload of tutorials available on the Net

Since the move to Open Source, Blender has gotten, amongst others

• internationalisation
• way better meta ball implementation
• knife tool
• raytracer (reflections&shadows)
• completely reworked GUI (and still changing)
• a newer, better Python API and plenty of great scripts ( Fiber2, MakeHuman,Tesselate,...)

These are just my favorites. There is tons of other stuff as well.
In the coming weeks/months, we'll see

• Beast script (including card-based fur just like IceAge)
• better nurbs based on Nurbana
• integrated bevel tool (script-based bevel already exists.)
• Integrated REAL raytracer (YafRay)
• further tuning of the new GUI
• ???

Copies of the 2.0 Blender book can still be fond in some shops or simply downloaded as a PDF (of course, this one doesn't cover armatures and has the 'old' interface) There is also a newer documentation project using the 2.0 guide as base but completely reworking the obsolete content. Of course, there is also a truckload of tutorials available on the Net

Since the move to Open Source, Blender has gotten, amongst others

• internationalisation
• way better meta ball implementation
• knife tool
• raytracer (reflections&shadows)
• completely reworked GUI (and still changing)
• a newer, better Python API and plenty of great scripts ( Fiber2, MakeHuman,Tesselate,...)

These are just my favorites. There is tons of other stuff as well.
In the coming weeks/months, we'll see

• Beast script (including card-based fur just like IceAge)
• better nurbs based on Nurbana
• integrated bevel tool (script-based bevel already exists.)
• Integrated REAL raytracer (YafRay)
• further tuning of the new GUI
• ???

Copies of the 2.0 Blender book can still be fond or simply downloaded as PDF (of course, this one doesn't cover armatures and has the 'old' interface) There is also a documentation project using the 2.0 guide as base but completely reworking the obsolete content.

Since the move to Open Source, Blender has gotten, amongst others

• internationalisation
• way better meta ball implementation
• knife tool
• raytracer (reflections&shadows)
• completely reworked GUI (and still changing)
• a newer, better Python API and a truckload of great scripts ( Fiber2, MakeHuman,Tesselate,...)

• Beast script (including card-based fur just like IceAge)
• better nurbs based on Nurbana
• integrated bevel tool (script-based bevel already exists.)
• Integrated REAL raytracer (YafRay)
• ???

Copies of the 2.0 Blender book can still be fond or simply downloaded as PDF (of course, this one doesn't cover armatures and has the 'old' interface) There is also a documentation project using the 2.0 guide as base but completely reworking the obsolete content.

Since the move to Open Source, Blender has gotten, amongst others

• internationalisation
• way better meta ball implementation
• knife tool
• raytracer (reflections&shadows)
• completely reworked GUI (and still changing)
• a newer, better Python API and a truckload of great scripts ( Fiber2, MakeHuman,Tesselate,...)

• Beast script (including card-based fur just like IceAge)
• better nurbs based on Nurbana
• integrated bevel tool (script-based bevel already exists.)
• Integrated REAL raytracer (YafRay)
• ???

Copies of the 2.0 Blender book can still be fond or simply downloaded as PDF (of course, this one doesn't cover armatures and has the 'old' interface) There is also a documentation project using the 2.0 guide as base but completely reworking the obsolete content.

Since the move to Open Source, Blender has gotten, amongst others

• internationalisation
• way better meta ball implementation
• knife tool
• raytracer (reflections&shadows)
• completely reworked GUI (and still changing)
• a newer, better Python API and a truckload of great scripts ( Fiber2, MakeHuman,Tesselate,...)

• Beast script (including card-based fur just like IceAge)
• better nurbs based on Nurbana
• integrated bevel tool (script-based bevel already exists.)
• Integrated REAL raytracer (YafRay)
• ???

AFAIK, it only works in Edit mode, but you can use it by either hitting the U key, or by hitting the spacebar and in the pop-up menu go to Edit, then Undo.

It's quite useful, and you can also set how many levels of Undo you want. You can also set it to auto save every so many minutes.

The Blender documentation is ongoing, but they are coming out with a new 2.3 manual in January. 600+ pages and Blender 2.31 on a CD, along with tutorials.

Check out blender.org for the main site and some useful overviews. To really hone your skills, visit Elysiun and browse the forums. They are all about Blender and have sections for animation, modelling contests, GameBlender (Blender 2.25), and an extensive artwork section. To me, Elysiun is a great place to learn about different aspects of modelling in Blender.

they still have a long way
Compare: www.whitehouse.gov
&
blender.org
Judge for yourself :)

It's implemented in this release for mesh editing so far. Read the release notes:

http://www.blender.org/docs/2.30_release/UndoDoc/U ndoDoc.html

Blender is open source at its best; highly polished, cross-platform.

Yes, it is.

It's a pity that this slashdot news story was not properly verified by the editors as Blender 2.3 is not yet released. The submitter was really referring to the recently released preview of Blender 2.3 which people will be finding it slightly buggy whilst now expecting it to be a final release.

This would be a shame because since Blender was bought by the community and became open source, it's development has accelerated and moved in a direction that, as with all open source software, is highly influenced by the needs of it's community.

One of the main criticisms of Blender was that it's power was masked by an unintuitive interface that was very inconsistent. Most features were designed to be activated by the keyboard, as opposed to through the GUI, and that confused most people new to Blender who were unfamiliar with the keyboard shortcuts.

So the Blender community set about a rethink of the user interface. The proposal is well thought out, well planned, and well documented. And from what I have seen of the 2.3 preview release, the final 2.3 release will be a brilliant piece of software.

Really, the commercial 3d development studio vendors should start getting worried.

Blender is open source at its best; highly polished, cross-platform.

Yes, it is.

It's a pity that this slashdot news story was not properly verified by the editors as Blender 2.3 is not yet released. The submitter was really referring to the recently released preview of Blender 2.3 which people will be finding it slightly buggy whilst now expecting it to be a final release.

This would be a shame because since Blender was bought by the community and became open source, it's development has accelerated and moved in a direction that, as with all open source software, is highly influenced by the needs of it's community.

One of the main criticisms of Blender was that it's power was masked by an unintuitive interface that was very inconsistent. Most features were designed to be activated by the keyboard, as opposed to through the GUI, and that confused most people new to Blender who were unfamiliar with the keyboard shortcuts.

So the Blender community set about a rethink of the user interface. The proposal is well thought out, well planned, and well documented. And from what I have seen of the 2.3 preview release, the final 2.3 release will be a brilliant piece of software.

Really, the commercial 3d development studio vendors should start getting worried.

The link is to a 2 year old verse site. The new releases can be found at: http://www.blender.org/modules/verse/