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Blender 2.3 Manual Available For Order

Posted by timothy on from the message-from-tom dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Blender, the open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback, has been slowly improving towards the real professional solution level. Check out the current features and get wild about it! A new comprehensive manual version 2.3 has been under works and is shipping next week. Order one now and support the development of this great open source software! Pre-orders before December 31st get a discount."

19 comments

  1. Things worth noting about the new Blender by Thornae · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    --
    |>
    Here be Dragons
    1. Re:Things worth noting about the new Blender by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
      First, the much maligned UI has undergone some fairly substantial redesign. It's retained most of the elements that freak the uniniated out ...

      But it still freaks out the uninitiated? Last time I looked, it really made me cry for help. I don't know how much the situation has improved since then (that was about a year ago). Back then, (IIRC) it didn't even have undo. I just hope it has some kind of support for it now, or better yet, something like the modifier stack in 3DSMAX.

      Blender sure has been accumulating a lot of features lately, but is the UI anywhere near usable now? IMO the singlemost hardest part in 3D modeling software is exactly the UI: how do you map 3D object editing onto a 2D canvas. I don't care whether or not it has reflection and raytracing -- hell, what use do I have for those features if the UI makes it impossible to create any content that uses them.

      (Besides, I wouldn't say raytracing as a technical feat is anything to cheer about. Every amateur 3D programmer can whip up a toy raytracer in 2 days. Once the fat really is in the fire re: content (let's say, for example, a scene consisting of two million triangles), can really Blender handle it gracefully -- instead of just choking completely like most toy raytracers do?)

    2. Re:Things worth noting about the new Blender by aber · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Geez...

      Look, the UI _is usable_. Just because you don't know how to use it, and you didn't get it after spending some time randomly clicking around and looking for the "make nice 3D model" button, doesn't mean the interface is bad. It just requires training. And also, just because it doesn't look like anything you know, doesn't mean it's bad either. Perhaps if the first program you came across had been blender, you wouldn't get 3DSMAX's UI either.

      > Every amateur 3D programmer can whip up a toy raytracer in 2 days

      OK, so you think programming a raytracer is no big deal, but blender's UI is hard? I must be getting old, 'cause most of the UIs I know for programming are text based, and there are few more enigmatic UIs than an empty text file waiting for your code (not saying _that_ UI is bad, but I don't remember any pull down menu with "whip up raytracer" as an option... but than I use emacs, perhaps vi has that...).

      Screw the uninitiated, good tools are made for people who know how to use them. Blender's role is not to bring 3D modeling to all the world, but to be a professional quality 3D modeling tool. It should be easy to use, yes, IF YOU TOOK THE TIME TO LEARN IT. Making it easy for the guy who just downloaded it and doesn't want to go through the docs, that's secondary.

    3. Re:Things worth noting about the new Blender by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SOME raytracers have good UIs (incidentally, blender's is not that "original", being very reminiscent of the lots-of-tiny-buttons-and-multiple-screens school of amiga raytracing modellers.) Blender does not have a "good" UI, and I HAVE taken the time to learn it. Lightwave has a good UI. Realsoft has a good UI. Sodding AutoCAD has a good UI. Blender had a bad UI and now has a mediocre one. The core problem is lack of discoverability. It is possible to have just as efficient a UI as blender, yet NOT have it totally cryptic (a ploy to sell the printed manual, as I recall).

      .

    4. Re:Things worth noting about the new Blender by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny you should mention lightwave. The best way to describe the blender UI to a professional 3D artist is "bad ripoff of the already 'quirky' LightWave interface".

    5. Re:Things worth noting about the new Blender by quiot · · Score: 2, Informative
      Last time I looked, it really made me cry for help. I don't know how much the situation has improved since then (that was about a year ago).

      A lot. Blender's old UI was cryptic and daunting, almost requiring the manual for the simplest of models. Blender's new UI (as of 2.3) keeps the same feel and ideas but is simple to pick up. Every function is accesible through menus with keyboard shortcuts labeled at the side, so you can learn the functions at your own pace. Every button has tool tip text.

      Back then, (IIRC) it didn't even have undo. I just hope it has some kind of support for it now, or better yet, something like the modifier stack in 3DSMAX.

      Never used 3DSMAX, but undo (which was previously only available in a limited form) is now in there, with a list of actions akin to ms word and maybe what you describe.

      Blender's new UI is designed to fix the problems of the old, and I think it does so very nicely. I invite you to try it out, and see how the software has changed.

    6. Re:Things worth noting about the new Blender by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ripoff?

      You don't know Blender history do you?

    7. Re:Things worth noting about the new Blender by MinorHeadWound · · Score: 1

      It's not so much that the user interface was so difficult to use that I mind, but after a weekend of particularly intense modelling my hands strained and haven't been the same for two years. Is that Blender's fault, no. But here's my little moment to complain. :)

  2. Re:Blender by TheSunborn · · Score: 1, Insightful

    A shame the original authors of Blender made their 4. point "Out of cash" insted of profit!

  3. blender by tuggy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Kudos the the blender team!
    I use blender for some years now.. since version 1.x. Those were the days you need to buy a blender license to get access to some options like radiosity.

    Blender as improved in big steps til now... and the interface rocks! Just because its not the tradition 3/4 view like in 3DSMax it doesnt mean its bad. I love blender the way it is, and I love the blender community!

    Hope it will live much longer...

  4. packaging it now... by Daengbo · · Score: 1

    I'm writing up the .spec file for it right now so that I can get the RPM into the Thai apt repository for this stuff, and we'll be working on a Thai translation as soon as they sell their quota and release the book in free form.

    --
    Put identity in the browser.
  5. Blender business model by Andreas(R) · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    1. develop application with horrible user-interface.
    2. ???
    3. sell manual!

    1. Re:Blender business model by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      loloolL!L!L!!!!!!!!!11111111111

      j00 pwneed Blendr!!! loolo!LL!L!!!!ROFLOL!!!!11

    2. Re:Blender business model by EddWo · · Score: 1

      Beat you to it!

      --
      "Taligent is still pure vapor. Maybe they'll be the last who jumps up on Openstep... "
  6. No .3ds file support in Blender. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is the BIGGEST flaw in Blender. .3ds is the most used cross platform format, and for Blender to not support the importation of this format is like not including .txt support in a word processor. It's not like the format is a mystery, many commercial apps can read it, even many ultra specialized 'toy renderers' done by weekend coders (ex. Z-Modeler) can import it.