Blender Goes Open Source

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.

Users Manual

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope the instructions on using it go open source too, man I tried it a few times made some nice images but couldn't for the life of me figure out how to render it... Used a few of the tutorials but they assumed I already knew what I was doing.

Reasonable Interface?! Have you used Blender?

[BRock97]

"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!

reasonable interface?

[Rev. DeFiLEZ]

did you perhaps go through the tutorial? the blender interface is amazing for its job, i wouldnt put it on a file manager but for 3d is rocks, oh and by the way, if you use a mouse in blender for more then selecting and move/rotate/transform you are using the interface wrong.

i REALLY REALLY hated the interface when i started but over the span of a week i learned to love it, its great.

sorry for being so defensive but why is an editor for a "news outlet" commenting on the interface? thats like a tour de france winner bashing cars for having a steering wheel instead of handle bars

stick to what you know.

Re:Reasonable Interface?! Have you used Blender?

[spencerogden]

I haven't used Blender, but to say the interface is intuitive after using Blender for a length of time makes zero sense. Almost any programs interface is easy if you use it for a long period of time, that doesn't make the interface good, and it certainly doesn't make it intuitive.

It would seem to me that "the learning curve is steep" and "the interface is extremely intuitive" are two very contradictory remarks.

Blender is the vi of 3D modelling applications....

[Cryptnotic]

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.

Re:Reasonable Interface?! Have you used Blender?

[gte910h]

Blender is NOT intuitive. It is GREAT to use once you have trained yourself. Pico is intuitive. Vi is great to use once you have trained yourself.

Re:Reasonable Interface?! Have you used Blender?

[Russ Steffen]

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.

Re:Time to open your wallets?

[great throwdini]

$95,000 USD is fairly cheap to move all of Blender's IP into GPL. Ton's proposal [blender3d.com] for the Foundation didn't explicitly state (unless I missed it) how the group would obtain the starting cash.

Perhaps they are hoping for an angel investor [slashdot.org] of their own?

Re:reasonable interface?

[tyler_larson]

did you perhaps go through the tutorial? the blender interface is amazing for its job

Even vi's interface is easy once you've learned how it works. It took me three days to figure out how to select an object in Blender. Compare that to the mere 2 hours it took me to figure out how to select text in vi.

Anyone can make a functional interface, but a good interface is one that is easy to both learn and use.

I don't think that blender's interface is deficient as far as features are concerned, but I do think it could be greatly improved. The tutorial only does so much.

Re:to understand the interface, buy the blender bo

[symbolic]

Many posts regarding the interface describe it as "good once you get to know it." The challenge for any good interface designer isn't to just throw together bunches of related buttons and sliders, but to hopefully make their use, as well as the process required to learn them, as easy as practically possible. There are several instances where Blender could use some real improvement in this regard. Few if any software apps are so good that it cannot be improved, and Blender is no exception.

Reasonable interface?

[Gordonjcp]

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.