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Blender Goes Open Source

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the put-a-frog-in-a-blender dept.

Christoffer Green writes " This morning, the NaN shareholders have reached an agreement on the conditions for a new future for Blender. In general it means that the Blender Foundation can execute it plans, to continue developement as an open source project." Perhaps some ambitious soul will bolt a reasonable interface onto the 3D app.

4 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. Reasonable Interface?! Have you used Blender? by BRock97 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Perhaps some ambitious soul will bolt a reasonable interface onto the 3D app."

    Maybe if you have ever used Blender for any length of time, you would realize that the interface is extremely intuitive and easy to use. In fact, after having learned the full interface, I had a full blown introduction to my home movies completed in three hours.

    I would be the first to admit that the learning curve is steep, but once you are there, the program is a breeze to use.

    Now that I am off of my soapbox, I am pumped by this announcement. There is a huge community out there that has been gunning for this, and now that it is done, it can only go up!

    --

    Bryan R.
    The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, or $12.50 as seen on eBay.....
  2. Blender is the vi of 3D modelling applications.... by Cryptnotic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Blender is the vi of 3D modelling applications. Like vi, Blender uses lots of single-keystroke commands. Blender is a modal editor (use TAB to switch modes between object editing and scene editing). The interface is based on the concept of having one hand on the keyboard and one hand on the mouse, with most of the work being done by the keyboard hand.

    I just wonder how the open source people are going to be able to come up with the 100000 Euro that the property holders want for the Blender source code.

    --
    My other first post is car post.
  3. Re:Reasonable Interface?! Have you used Blender? by Russ+Steffen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Easy-to-learn and Easy-to-use are two very different concepts, but they are often confused. Take, for example, the controls of a modern fighter jet - it takes over a year of intensive training, and hundreds upon hundreds of hours of practice to learn to use the system effectively, but once learned using it becomes second nature. It's easy-to-use not easy-to-learn.

    Blender is like that too - it's a highly specialized program that requires some intellectual investment from the user, and rewards the user by being functional and flexable.

  4. Reasonable interface? by Gordonjcp · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Blender's interface is only complicated because it controls a complicated program. All the controls have got to be easy to get at, instead of hidden under many levels of menus.

    It's like buying a JCB and complaining that you don't know what all the levers do. It's harder to drive than a car with cruise control and automatic gears, but then again it's designed to do a lot of things. And you need to *work* to learn how to use it.

    Not everything in life is just a couple of mouse-clicks away.