Halls will like this

[Cayle]

I’ve been learning Blender lately; mostly because it’s the most powerful modeling tool in my budget. This means that a couple of weekends and a few nights now have been spent on YouTube, watching tutorials, working along and often rewatching and rewatching them. It has been paying off. I’ve got a good workflow now for creating normal maps and can practically do it in my sleep. Animation and rigging is coming much slower.

When I first started, I would feel the urge to scream whenever the tut host would say something along the lines of “the keyboard shortcuts are better”; I AM NOT MEMORIZING KEYBOARD COMMANDS 1980’S STYLE IN ORDER TO GET STARTED. So I’d find the menu and use that instead. Usually, it was not too difficult as long as I was observant. Somewhere along the way, I’d repeat a command often enough that it would make sense to memorize that particular keyboard command; e.g. to be able to spin off half a dozen copies of a mesh into different layers to make a LOD set in a few seconds.

Then it happened…

I opened a model in Shaper, which follows everyone else’s UI conventions for modelers… and got really, really annoyed that its UI was just wrong! I mean, I can’t even toggle selection with the A key. What idiot disables A key selection toggle?

[hallsofvallhalla]

haha love all the "Hall's" titles

I agree, Shaper has some serious missing functions. You should have seen it before I was a tester and sent them several emails on issues. Shaper is only good for one thing. Importing and exporting DTS. That's it! Milkshape takes the cake on anything else Shaper can do.

I just hate everything about blender. The UI is horrible and I also have no interest in using keyboard shortcuts for everything. I do not need a modeling program enough for that.

To be honest Milkshape handles 90% of my needs. Most game engines have so much influence and editing features for models now that you dont need a huge modeling package anymore.

[Cayle]

I just find it funny that I used to HATE hearing about how great keyboard shortcuts are and still prefer to learn new functionality via the menues, but am starting to turn into clack, clack, clack guy.

[JakWabit]

haha love all the "Hall's" titles

I agree, Shaper has some serious missing functions. You should have seen it before I was a tester and sent them several emails on issues. Shaper is only good for one thing. Importing and exporting DTS. That's it! Milkshape takes the cake on anything else Shaper can do.

I just hate everything about blender. The UI is horrible and I also have no interest in using keyboard shortcuts for everything. I do not need a modeling program enough for that.

To be honest Milkshape handles 90% of my needs. Most game engines have so much influence and editing features for models now that you dont need a huge modeling package anymore.

What's wrong with blender? I was just wondering because I use it too and I really have no complaints except that my old graphics card can't handle GLSL.

[Cayle]

Blender has an unconventional UI and none of your usual assumptions or motor-memory are valid. It does not work like other modeling programs and feels like a port from a foreign OS; and feels this way on every OS(though to be fair, cntrl-z and cntrl-y work in 2.49b and that was not the case in early versions of Blender). Generally, this provokes a hostile reaction.

There are two parts to usability. The first is the one everyone knows; that the use of something is obvious and natural. The other is that someone who has taken the time to get to know the UI will be able to work more comfortably and faster. The Blender Foundation makes no bones about viewing usability only through the lens of the latter and does not care about the former, which makes getting started with Blender a bit like trying to sleep with a porcupine in your sleeping bag.

[JakWabit]

Thanks for clearing that up Cayle. Blender is the only modeling program I have experience in, mainly because it's free. I'll have to try some other modeling apps. Do you know of any good ones I can try?

[Noctrine]

Reminds me of QNX, in the before time.

But yes, halls have you tried 2.5 yet?

[Cayle]

Thanks for clearing that up Cayle. Blender is the only modeling program I have experience in, mainly because it's free. I'll have to try some other modeling apps. Do you know of any good ones I can try?

If you know your way around Blender, there is no real reason to go anywhere else, unless someone buys you a copy of max, maya or perhaps XSI. Blender is powerful and in constant development. Yes, it does lag the high end engines in terms of features, but not by long. Its only issue is an unconventional UI that is not very new user friendly; though I hear that is changing with 2.5

[SpiritWebb]

I have used Blender, Maya, Anim8or and Max, and prefer Blender...but that's just me.

[hallsofvallhalla]

I also stared with Max, Milkshape, ect.. so Blender is wwacked for me. No I haven't try 2.5 but I will check it out.