Blender Demo Reel Released

James Cho writes "The Blender demo reel has been released, showcasing some of the best artwork made with what has become the most powerful open source 3d content creation software. It will be later shown at SIGGRAPH 2004, the premier international computer graphics exhibiton and conference."

Comments

Interface

[Television Set]

Blender is one tough program to master. I've meddled with it a bit, but I found the interface cumbersome.

Re:Interface

[Deusy]

Blender is one tough program to master. I've meddled with it a bit, but I found the interface cumbersome.

Ergo, a large focus of the development since becoming open source has been to make the UI more intuitive and consistent.

The Blender UI is no longer that difficult, just different to 3DS or your other favourite 3D editor. I'd be surprised if your comment applies to the most recent version unless by "a bit" you mean 5 minutes.

If you go through the the blender3d.org tutorials then get back on the "cumbersome" UI.

Re:Interface

[FunkyChild]

But I think the main Blender developers are too attached to the whole RMB for cursor positioning/LMB for selection thing to ever change that.

Blender 2.34, due to be released in the next week or so, contains a user preference to choose between LMB or RMB for selection.

--> http://mke3.net/blender/interface/interaction/mous esel_pref.png

Re:Interface

[Mr.Zong]

For 3d modeling (not animating mind you), might i recommend http://www.wings3d.com/. Wings 3d has pretty much the best GUI i've ever had the pleasure of using. It's learning curve is really only about a half hour, and you can do some amazing modeling with it. Also open source.

Re:mirror

[caino59]

siggraph_movie.avi

someone want to set it up as a torrent?

direct link and mirror

[yruf]

use the direct link which is mentioned on the blender.org page.

if this doesn't work, try my very own mirror (which hopefully doesn't die within the next seconds...)

--
[adv]
schoene Klamotten fuer Ilmenauer und andere nette Leute

Re:Your Opinions Please?

[TheQwe]

Thanks to blender's python interface, you can write import/export scripts for just about any format. This guy has written the exporter you're looking for... along with an OBJ exporter, quake2 md2, quake3 md3, and doom3.

Re:Amazing

[barista]

A good place to start would be to look at the Elysiun forums. It's a great place to learn the ropes. A lot of the works in the demo reel were created by people who regularly hang out there, and some of the works were first displayed there. Check it out.

403

[chocolatetrumpet]

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /siggraph_movie.avi.torrent on this server. :-(

Just me?

Re:This is probably the right time to ask

[Rxke]

I just started dabbling(sp?) with Blender, and the tutorials are a great help to get you up to speed real quick.
If they have basic understandig about how to work with a computer (saving files, using the mouse etc.) I think, if you can get them over the initial learning curve, it might be very rewarding.
Download the blender tutorials, they're esp. made to use in a classroom enviro (but you can do it on your own, of course) they cover the very basics, and get more complex during following 'sittings' you advance from basic things to stunning stuff (for kids, at least)

I suggest you take the 'course' yourself first, the basics take less than an hour.
Then make something simple in Blender, to show the kids. Like the house example in the tutorial for instance... Then you ask them if they'd like to give it a try, etc etc...

A scanner or cheap digital camera could come in handy, for digitizing their hand-drawn artwork, so they can use it as textures, backgrounds etc.

Kids have an amazing fantasy, and if they'd be able to put their ideas into 3D, you may be quite impressed. And other people might be too.
Originality is a big asset. And if they learn the skills young, they may grow up as real virtuoso's in their area.

Try it. It's free. You can't lose, that's the beauty of open sourse. Even kids in poor orphanages can use it, to make a better future for themselves. That's one good reason to make the fine people that contribute to this project happy.