Project Angelo & Team Vismaya is happy to announce the release of “Vismaya Tools” which is a parallel interface with options like Autodesk Maya with known terminologies which will be useful for users migrating from Autodesk Maya to Blender. It has similar functionalities like what was seen in Maya for most of the options and we are adding little more in the mean time.[INDENT=7] [/INDENT]
***The Vismaya Story
Actually the project was started in order to tweak Blender to look and function more or less like Autodesk Maya. We almost completed two phases. These features were added
Toolshelf Bar (as Space Type)
Create Production Folder
Mesh Menu
Edit Mesh Menu
Pie Menus (Derived)
Layer Management (as Spacetype)
File Save Confirmation
Tool Shelf Visual Icons
Freeze Transformations
Reset Transformations
Select/Show/Hide Objects by Type
Although we implemented all these by diving into the Blender Source Code, later our R&D report said that we should tweak blender to the utmost. Many things like Object Edit feedbacks are not working in different spacetypes, the way blender handles Materials and Textures etc., What we decided was a fork of Blender. But later we understood to achieve what we have in mind it will take enormous time and heap of resources and yes huge money which all we don’t have now.
So we thought we would release whatever we did as addons for the Blender Community especially for the Migating users from Maya.
If we can have the support of the community then we are ready to take off with a new proposal and a complete hack of Blender – a new user friendly, sophisticated 3D Software.[INDENT=4][/INDENT]
Vismaya Tools bundle
The “Vismaya Tools” panel can be installed as an addon. The panel contains the main options which Maya users are looking for in Blender. Easy Buttons, Easy known Options with Familiar Terminologies.
I’m considering Blender as a replacement for our aging Maya 2010 licenses at work, and something like this helps immensely in bringing our maya-users up to speed! Especially interns who are trained only in Maya will hopefully find this a nice way to transition into using Blender.
There’s a radial menu addon, have you considered making your own radial menu layouts to make the transition even smoother?
Also, list a way to donate in this topic and on the download page! Even if people only donate a few dollars, it’s a nice way to give back.
Thank you! Nice IDEA. Blender was software - hunting with scrollbars for text buttons. Completely crazy concept.
At present is Blender consumable for Maya users. Maybe for other guys also. Thank you!
Thank you all for positive response. Mightypea we have already implemented radial pie menus in our Blender Fork. Unfortunately we were not able to add them with this addon. We already implemented tool-shelves like Maya. Still diving deep into the code. Take a look at this
We are developing a complete proposal likely to have community supporters like you to make Blender more better. While core blender developers will concentrate on core. Thanks. We are taking note of everything required.
Are you aware of the Preselect work being done by EWOCprojects? You might find it interesting, as Maya has pre-selection highlighting as well
Here’s a link to the windows build, but there are other builds on graphicall.org as well: http://graphicall.org/1080
edit: the movable manipulator is also something that Maya users are familiar with, as it’s like the ‘d’ hotkey.
As a Blender user, this offers nothing new. This is just another AddOn layer on top of the Blender core that will fall out of scope and break when the developers change the API. (which happens almost every release)
Why does everyone spend so much time trying to make Blender like other software instead of making art with Blender?
It is like trying to make the piano into a guitar instead of just learning to play the piano…
Are you genuinely curious, or are you being a wet blanket simply because you enjoy being negative?
If the former: it can function like training wheels. If we were to convert to Blender at work as our main application, having a transitional interface can help people get used to the way things work slowly, without losing weeks or months of productivity.
It can also help someone who’s new to Blender in figuring out what’s on offer in terms of tools and such. He’d be able to accurately guage whether the required tools and functions are there, without making the investment of ‘just learning blender’ to do so.
‘as a blender user’, it’s blindingly obvious that this is not for you.
This looks really nice, I hope that you will receive enough donations to be able to make the complete fork a reality. I am eager to try it out even though I don’t typically use Maya
Anyway I take this in positive sense Atom. We’re not trying to make a piano into a guitar instead trying to play the same notes even if the instruments are different coz’ the ultimatum is Music ie., in this case the art. We try to ease the use for migrators thats it. I believe it will be useful for them. For long time Blender users its not a necessity.
We felt the need of a set of tools like this because our interns were beginners and especially they know only Maya. Morever We strongly believe TECHNIQUES ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN TOOLS ITSELF.
We are already trying to implement the feature but in core. Think we will achieve that soon and I also visited your suggestions post and taking note of it. Do you mind if I take some of your valuable suggestions from your google doc and try to implement that in Vismaya Core???
@bkjernistad - nice that you found our addon working flawlessly. We just dragged the panel up to the top. You can just do it yourself. No techie work in that. :yes:
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