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Blender 2.57 Released — and It's Easy To Use!
An anonymous reader writes "Past Blender releases, as capable as they were, had learning curves somewhere between straight up and down and 90 degrees. The release of Blender 2.57 changes all that. No longer are simple features 'non discoverable.' It has more or less a completely redesigned user interface that is clean, sensible and newbie friendly (hey, I'm using it!). It has a handy tab interface for Actions/Properties such as Render, Scene, World and Object etc. Plus, it's fast and CPU friendly. I'm running the official Blender standalone binary on Fedora 14, with 2GB RAM , Radeon X1300 (free drivers) and a cheap CPU Intel duel e2200. No more more slow GUI, no more 100% unexplained CPU, just great stuff. Kudos to all who made this possible."
I've been eagerly awaiting the UI update for awhile now. It's a serious improvement, and my thanks to everyone that keeps the Blender project useful and up-to-date!
Now if only we could get those same folks to take a look at the GIMP!
Well... it may be easy to use, but does it blend? ...oh, wait...nevermind
Karma: Excellent. 15 moderator points expire sometime.
"Easy to use"? Last time I used Blender, it was so unfriendly and hard that I thought it should have the "L" taken out of the name...
;)
Perhaps it really is now "easy to use". I doubt it. Many moons ago I downloaded Blender to give it a shot. I installed it, messed about for a while and was totally lost. Nothing made sense in it; I could barely figure out what I was supposed to be looking at or how to draw the simplest object. I gave up cursing the UI as completely impossible and arcane.
Some time later I decided to try it again. This time I didn't even try to figure it out, I just read the Complete Newbie tutorial and did exactly what it told me to do. All of a sudden Blender made sense and seemed quick and easy to use.
So, my recommendation is not to treat Blender like other packages, where you can figure it out by clicking around for a few minutes. You're a newbie. Do the tutorial. It will definitely save you a lot of annoyance.
Igor Presnyakov stole my hat
Yeah, "a cheap CPU Intel duel e2200".
But I thought it was an Intel/AMD duel?
a cheap CPU Intel duel e2200"
What that really is: two cores at 20 paces.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It has changed a lot, but remains unintuitive. There's a lot of online documentation but a newcomer needs a crash course to use it.
It was not only a re-design of the gui, that's just a sub product. They have redone all the underlying api to improve animation capabilities and facilitate extensions and adding of new features. Check the release log http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-257/
I think the original poster over states things, while certainly a lot easier to use and learn. There is still definitely a learning curve and a few counter intuitive hotkey and mouse button choices.
Blender is not that hard to use, it just has a lot of features so there is a lot to learn. If you want a more intuitive way to work with 3D, might I suggest play dough?
What's with the recent phenomenon of anonymous supposed newbies posting release announcements for software, claiming it's easy to use and posting all sorts of information about how well it runs on their systems? Why doesn't someone with some real knowledge post the release announcement? Should I personally be announcing the 2012 General Motors line-up?
Has anyone made a PPA of this for Ubuntu 10.10? Or should I wait for 11.04 before looking for a PPA?
1st of all: Blenders UI has been OpenGL accelerated from day one. It has allways been one of the fastest GUIs in existance. Way faster and more responsive than any other 3D Tool UI anyway. The GP is talking bullshit on this one.
2nd: Blender has never been particularly difficult to use for any 3D Kit with a simular set of features. In fact, it's UI design (non-overlapping, customizable, document/task based configuration, etc.) has served as a benchmark for quite a few recent creative tool UIs in the industry (Modo 3D, latest CS releases by Adobe, etc.)
3rd: The UI has been updated, yes. But it's more an evolution than a complete redo, from a user standpoint anyway imho. Simply because Blenders UI has allready been pretty good for quite some time now. ... Allthough the arcitecture actually is a complete redo. Python driven, new Icons and new panels. However "OMG I'M USING IT! IT FINALLY WORKS!" is way overboard, exaggerated nonsense. Blender has been a kick-ass pro-level 3D Tool for approx. 7 years now. And yes, that also goes for its usability. Anybody not familiar with other professional 3D Toolkits and the learning whoes associated with this field, please stay out of this on this issue. Thanks.
4th: There is no mention of the new tools and features, which are actually worth mentioning. F.E. a particle system that rivals that of Lightwave (the industry leader in this field) with particle path editing and other goodies, Smoke and Volumetrics rendering, NLA with an extra new NLA UI, etc. This has Blender closing in on competing programms even further and will shake up the industry once again. ... Can't wait till they finally get full Renderman compatibility. That will kick some serious shit. ... Anyway, Kudos to the Blender team for this great release.
As for the GP: Mostly Rubbish or stuff that no one wants to hear. "OMG I'm running Blender on XYZ with 2 Gigs of RAM. UNBELIEVALBE!" ... Idiot.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
I tried the beta, the UI is(or rather 'can be') very Maya-ish. They actually have a 'Maya' mode. All in all, the ability to jump in has greatly improved.
Just a disclaimer, I royally HATED the old UI and was sick of people jumping down people's throats for saying how utterly inaccessible it was. Yet now I have to say they did a really good job. Windows can be broken off or split, everything and the kitchen sink isn't all crammed into the lower half of the screen and the shortcuts actually can be set up to make sense..
It's quite hard to use this new version on 5:4. not to mention it's still buggy even with the simple Buttons bar suddenly getting stuck at a large size, working around by having to make a new window layout.
perhaps if beta-testers weren't such whiny yesmen this would've been something.
p.s. 2.49 forever. 2.5 is made for those Maya/3dsmax whiny pro retards that refuse to learn the great Blender workflow that is now shattered.
As a "novice" Blender user (by "Novice" I mean I have only been working with it for a couple of years) - I will say Blender is the most complicated program I have every used in my life. I have always attributed it complexity, and counterintuitiveness to its unfathomable complexity and clusterf*ckery of features and options. As I'm glad to see a bit of an overhaul to make things easier - I am completely dreading having to re-learn it all. I guess on the flipside, I don't really know it all - hopefully it will be easier to learn this time around!
If something has a "steep" learning curve, you learn it quickly.
The X axis is _almost_ always time in graphs so a steep learning curve = quick to learn.
If it is hard to learn, it has a long slow learning curve. :)
No you didn't.
is it that confusing to use a piece of software if it doesn't have a full screen title bar and gray background behind the WIP?
On classic Mac apps with floating tool palettes, the tool palettes would hide when the user clicks to focus away from the application and reappear when the user focuses back. It's confusing to use an SDI app with floating tool palettes if the palettes don't automatically hide and unhide in this way and even more confusing if the palettes don't raise themselves above inactive apps' windows.
When I hear "steep learning curve" as it is used colloquially, I think of effort on Y and mastery on X, just like economics graphs put price on Y and quantity on X.
I would be happy if the new version is going to fix the mindbogglingly confusing GUI that Blender has. The version migration from 2.56?? to 2.57 is not exactly very suggestive for fundamental user interface improvements. If it actually would be then somebody really missed out on a great opportunity to create a, say, 3.0 release? People use Blender in spite, not because, of its user interface. Amazing!
given an OBJ file with an existing UV map how exactly would i with the new Blender actually paint on the OBJ??
lets say you have test.obj and test.png to work with
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
At the level of complexity expected from Blender, who cares if it's easy to use? The important question is if there's documentation, if it's easy to integrate with other tools (their COLLADA support is lacking), and if it's easy to develop into a pipeline. In the real world, you might not use the "render" action all the time, so who cares if it's right there in front of you?
--
Stay tuned for some shock and awe coming right up after this messages!
The interface is still horrible. They should learn from Microsoft how to do user friendly interface. Just try to import someone else theme. It's beyond ridiculous.
JAM
In case any of the Ubuntu people are reading this, please get a package made ASAP.
And while we're on the subject, SBCL 1.0.40.0 is no longer the latest version. Why am I still not seeing v1.0.47.0 in Ubuntu package manager? Get cracking!
I'm amazed no one has talked about this. It wasn't in the previous versions (2.49s).
It's really useful to test and develop different scripts that will save your life. Specially to make your custom import output scripts.
The overall UI change might look hard to old users but it's not that big of a hassle to accommodate and it actually looks more user friendly and still very customizable.
"Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world. " - Asimov.
I don't get it. I have never found Blender difficult to use. Did it eschew conventions of windows programs? Maybe. But EVERY 3d application has a learning curve, and I didn't find the curve on Blender any more difficult than other applications. And face it, many of the tasks you can use blender for cannot be distilled down beyond a certain level.
Current releases still seem to be accessible from here: http://download.blender.org/release/Blender2.57/
I've put serious learning time in on at least 5 different general-purpose 3D graphics packages, including Blender. Blender is, hands-down, the hardest to learn and use of any I've tried. It even beat out a hoary old beast from the late 90's I had to use for a course, which was chosen purely because it was ancient and therefore cheap.
There are those that use the excuse, "It's professional grade, and pros don't cry about difficult to use tools." Well, sorry, but that only flies when there are no alternatives. If there's only one tool that does Thing X and the tool sucks, well, a pro will grit his teeth and use it anyway. That's not the case in 3D modeling / animation / rendering software. We have an embarrassment of choices, and they span a wide range of cost, power, and ease of use. Unless "freeeeee" is your only important criterion, there are usually better options than Blender, at least as of 2.4x.
I will certainly be playing with this new 2.5 version. Maybe they're right. Maybe they've completely fixed it all, and I can get off the Cinema4D, modo and SketchUp upgrade treadmills.
where can I find a real documentation?
I mean if you are at ground-level and climbing 90 degrees is straight up or down... maybe 45 degrees? just a nitpick like the spelling/gramer nazis.
Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
ITs optional. You can go back to multi window mode if you like it that way!
From the page
"You won’t be forced to use it, if you don’t like single window! "
There : you have the best of both worlds
My Aurora : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91ZsGwJYyg
FB : https://www.facebook.com/TanveersPhotography
The thing about even the old interface is that while it's hard to learn it's pretty quick to use once you're there. I hope the new one remains as quick to use.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Ease of Use in a 3D program is Google Sketchup. No it doesn't do everything Blender does and it doesn't even try. But for a non-toy 3D creation program it does very well. Even Wings wouldn't be that easy.
I'm glad I could quickly change this to the left mouse button, but of course most of the course attendees were trained to bend their brains and the instructor always got confused when he came to help me at my place.
The former I can only attribute to the fact that it's an open source app with a user base that got used to certain behaviors and therefore enforces to keep them.
I'm thinking a gaming keyboard like the Logitech G15 w/LCD would be perfect for a keyboard heavy program like Blender? Throw in a good Wacom with the Express Keys and one has it made.
Define what's harder to use. Is it harder to use if you take longer to finish your work or harder to use if you haven't got some selection button on a GUI?
Blender was easy to use in the sense that you could complete work much quicker and with less strain (shifting from keyboard to mouse) than with, say 3DStudio Max. However, since 3DStudioMax required much more mouse manipulation, it seems easier, since your demand is obviously supplied by moving the mouse pointer to the menu item.
I searched for blender 2.5 ppa or blender 2.57 ppa, but most of the results I found were either A. for Ubuntu 11.04 prereleases (I'm still on 10.10) or B. having an old version (2.56 or older) of Blender and no commitment to update.
The "defacto standard" that gimp follows predates both it and photoshop. Cut and paste between multiple windows instead of the MSDOS low resolution way photoshop was restricted on a PC. Actually wasn't photoshop a multiple window program on the Mac before it was ported to the Microsoft environment?
I'm almost willing to bet Microsoft will "invent" *nix style virtual desktops for Windows 8 or 9 just so that MS Office gets another radical GUI change and has to be purchased again. The gimp style workflow will make more sense to if you spend a bit of time in that sort of environment.
Back to blender - need CMake 2.8 or higher to compile the thing so I'll give up compiling it on RHEL5 for the night (binary needs glibc2.7 so need to roll my own). Unfortunately big expensive toys in the workplace need old libraries/distros because a lot of *nix based commercial software seems to be five years out of date on release.
Since this is Slashdot and I love being pedantic (and redundant, too, I guess), I just had to point out that a steep learning curve means something is easy to learn. Learning curves describe mastery over time; a learning curve that is straight up and down implies instant mastery. The learning curve for Blender, on the other hand, would be better described as a barely noticeable incline -- one that wouldn't wind your average Slashdotter out for a stroll. Well, on second thought...
Blender released with a simple interface? That's almost as rich as the Camelot project. Well, you certainly saved the best for last!
Great sites for tutorials on Blender:
www.BlenderCookie.com
www.BlenderDiplom.com
www.BlendTuts.com
www.BlenderGuru.com
www.BenAmend.com
www.BlenderNerd.com
if it changed that much, wouldn't it be more reasonable to call it 3.0 instead?
factor 966971: 966971
I guess this has been stated above already but anyways... The old UI at least for me was perfectly fine. It might've been very hard to get into (honestly I opened the tutorials even before opening the program itself so that didn't really apply to me in full effect I guess), but once I got used to it it felt extremely clean and fast and that, in my opinion, matters most in that kind of applications. Multiple and highly customizable views, lots of shortcut-only actions... you get it. As for the new one, let's just say that I might give it a third try once I get a 1900x1200 screen. I was able to use 2.4x on resolutions as low as 1024x768 perfectly fine. And yeah, that's about it for the interface :)
'more or less completely'....?
I lost interest in Blender when they took out the Naughty Nurse from the samples.
Have they been slashdotted? All the so-called mirrors I have found so far point back to them.
Does anyone have a link to a working mirror or a torrent?
I tried the beta, the UI is(or rather 'can be') very Maya-ish. They actually have a 'Maya' mode. All in all, the ability to jump in has greatly improved.
Speaking as someone from a Maya shop who would love to add more tools to the toolbox, this is really good to hear.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Why doesn't someone with some real knowledge post the release announcement?
Because they're lazy and prefer to bitch and moan in the comments?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Blender's provider is currently under DDOS attack: http://www.blendernation.com/2011/04/15/blender-org-down-dos-attack/
If you don't want to wait until situation resolves, add following lines to hosts.txt:
82.94.213.220 www.blender.org
82.94.213.221 download.blender.org
is "intel duel" some competition between intelligence agencies ? or is that an internally-competing new product from a company called intel ?
Rich
Yes, I was just jumping on the "defacto standard" bit but you do have a point that it is not what necessarily came first but what is ubiquitous. Anyway gimp is fairly similar to the way it was in 1996 because it is more usable that way if you have a lot of desktop space, and it acts in a similar way to XV (multiple windows) which had it's last official release in 1994 FFS and is still being used. A lot of people found this way of doing things useful for a long time despite it upsetting people that come from a single desktop environment.
Gimp on a 15 inch monitor on WinXP is a real pain with all those windows taking up space but I've got users on Win7 on dual screens that use it as their screen capture and crop program of choice. The Win7 behaviour of grouping the application window tabs in the taskbar makes it less of a pain to have an application that opens a lot of windows.
To sum up, the application is now more usable because the way Microsoft manages open windows has improved. I disagree about the container window point - as an example what happens in just about every MS Windows application when you choose to print something? People are used to some things being in different windows.
Anyway, blender has a VERY different interface which doesn't pop up so many windows to gimp anyway. The interface is confusing but there is no GUI based 3D drawing program that does not have a confusing interface merely due to the number of options and the requirement to present it all in 2D. With AutoCAD even in 2D after you've used it a bit it's often easier to use it's command line than the GUI options - "tan to" then clicking is a lot easier than moving the mouse away from the start point, up to menus then back to the arc and clicking again. In a drawing environment selecting the actions by keyboard lets you use the mouse to draw or select items instead of having to move it away from what you are working on, so in a well designed program the GUI controls don't matter as much after a while anyway.
I just want to say: Slashdotters, WE TOLD YOU SO. We developers told you there were reasons we couldn't fix the UI, that it would take a huge refactor. Well, we've done the huge refactor. It took several years, but we've done it! Ha! Take that, trolls!