Apologies in advance for this rant (I’m having a bad day).
The new 2.30 release is excellent but reading various posts, I am getting frustrated with comments along the lines of “Now I can make Blender look like [Insert other software title here]”. The reason why the GUI can be arranged like other programs is because it is better than other programs. Constant comparisons with other software products really wind me up. I’d rather hear people moan about how they cant arrange [Insert other software title here]s GUI to look like Blender. I appreciate that different tools are for different jobs, and have no problem with people using tools other than Blender, but there is a principle at stake here.
Hm, I fear.
There is 1-2 things that make me fear.
For example the pull-down menus. For example setting materials, textures pull-down. In older version there is a mousecursor-relocation that is very good for fast work.
Now there is no mousecursor relocation… now this is like a standard windows-like pulldown menu that I hate…
I fear you will make my good old Blender to a windows-like application.
we must compere blender to other programs all the tine so we could make it better.
BS!! I’m not trashing you I’m just expressing my disdain for that perspective. If any need exists in this arena it is to improve function and workflow of Blender, not to make it better than others. Sure you can look at other apps and how they did it, but when you consider the UI, Blender was ORIGINAL, and users of other apps thought it strange or quirky. That’s because their comparison app was M$ windoze.
I think Blender is way ahead of the bunch in that respect.
Endi, I downloaded the new UI, but I kept 2.28c and always will. I love the old interface for certain things, and especially because it’s quicker to get around in if you have been using it for awhile. Then, there are things I like about 2.3,…for instance the knife tool. No need to give up your old Blender. You can have them both. [!]
I think, I never learn 3d without Blender. I hate the windows GUI… I can’t work with Maya, MAX etc… maybe LW…
But Blender! I love it!
So if you make a windows-like stupid GUI, I will get out from Blender scene and go to LW…
Don’t worry : making it Windows like would mean alot of work and there’s no interest for it anyway. It seems like most of the code in Blender is UI and as the developpers are just finishing cleaning it up I doubt that they’ll destroy their work.
i was thinking of going to lightwave but to be honest blender since it went open source is filling all the little gaps it had!
what i would love to see is automatic SCANLINE refraction i’m gonna look into it i think its deffinatly possible. I’m learning to program maybe in a year or more i’ll be good enough to implement it myself. (yeah right).
The thing I love about blender is that I can model much faster than other programs i’ve used. I think the main reason for this is that origionally blender almost forced you to learn all of the keyboard shortcuts, where as others are much more clicking.
I agree BMD, HAVING to use shortcuts has made things really fast in Blender. I hope new users can still pick up on that great workflow and not rely to much on menus.
just because they’re trying something new doesnt mean they’ll keep it, if the old GUI is clearly better, then they will go back to it. i think the new one is good, but i need to get used to it.
Maybe my opinion is not much “political correct”, but I feel I have to write this somewhere. In my opinion new UI is paradoxicaly step back.
For who is it? Me, like old fashioned Blendermaniac is new UI very confusing and slows me down. Fact that I still can use 2.28 is not argument-now there is awesome knife tool, in future new tools will appear too. Should I use old version along with new ones? That makes professional work, where time really matters, even harder.
So is it for beginners to ease them way to Blender? Now, most of beginners tutorials is useless-I know from my own experience as tutorial writer, that I got several mails per week asking, where button Intersect from one of my old tutorial went, now I can start my Blender series articles from start. Well, it is OK for me, I can get paid twice for them this way, but there is another think. When I get that golden rule of Blender “left hand on keyboard, right on mouse”, I incredibly speed up my work in other aplication like Photoshop- it becomes an habit.
Yes, there are keybort shortcuts in Blender now too, but will newcomers learn to use them? I don´t think so.
In conlusion Blender deliberatery take away one of his strongest points- speed of wokrflow.
From my point of view I really hope, that old UI will come back. Sorry, if I maky someone angry with this, but I can´t see it in another way
give the new GUI a try. Actually, Imust say that when you get used to it, it is muc faster. It takes a bit of organising, but if you set it up right, it’s way faster than the old GUI. You can have lots more on the screen and not lose precious real estate. The problem now is that users have to get used to the new GUI and that may take a while. I’ve been playing with the new GUI since the oct. 21 release and mind you, my work is much faster now.
Yes, there is the problem that many (most) tutorials will have to be rewritten, but it is all for the better.
To all:
Now the problem is that new users might not learn all of the hotkeys at first. Trust me, a fresh newbie, learning them was really frustrating and I often found myself looking for some commands in menus because I had forgotten the hotkeys. i think that all new tutorials should be written with a certain message to newbies, some notice that will encourage them to learn hotkeys although one can do without. I remember some tutorial series, which included all mentioned hotkeys in the end of the tutorial. That was good.
If you find all of the above BS, please just ignore me :).
I think the shortcuts were relatively easy to learn and they sure make modellingh faster. They are very predictable, ‘R’ is rotate and ‘S’ is scale for example compared to Maya where the keys to change mode are QWERTY so you just have to know and cant guess. Also, having the shortcuts next to the commands in the menus makes it a lot easier to learn.
Believe me, that I am trying to be objective as hard as I can. I have to write new review of new version release to today´s evening and still can´t find any good and relevant point of new UI, so I am feeling very frustrated because it is very hard for me after that three years of promoting Blender in Czech republic write as critique article as it will have to be
As a fresh newbie I was frustrated like you. When I was newbie, I had not acces to internet neither, so I had no tutorials neither. But when I got througt that, I was amazed how faster my work in all aplication I use went.
Yes, you can write new tutorials with that message, but don´t believe, that it will reach many of it´s readers
But as you say, I will give it a try, what else can I do? I don´t want to leave Blender, I still love this soft, but still hope that old guy or at least some of it´s principles will get back. At least there should be all buttons viewed at time, not only when you can really use it.
I think the new GUI is ok. Confused at first, I get used to it, now.
Because it’s customizable you can almost setup the buttons like in the old GUI. Some changes are of advantage for the work flow. I.e. the view properties and background image stuff.
Hotkeys are still there and if the tutorials further will be written for using hotkeys instead of menu usage, I see no problem for newbies getting used to them.
A problem I see is that someone has to write a good tut about the GUI and how to customize it to get maximum work flow.
Answering questions in the blender general section will be harder, because of different GUI settings.
In a few weeks we will know if there are really drawbacks compared to the old GUI. For now I’d think it’s the new and unknown what makes the new GUI “scary”.
The style of the new GUI is something different. Don’t like the new button design very much, but will get used to it.
It is always best to have both the menus and the shortcut buttons. That is the way basically all apps out there operate; the most common operations are mapped to shortcut keys and the rest are on the menus. Most of the time you can even configure what shortcut keys do what.
What haveing both really does for people is new users who are familar with the concepts but not with the application can start picking it up quickly without having to first try and memorize all of the shortcut keys.
It is always best to not force a person to work one way or another.
As for viewing all of the buttons at the same time this becomes incredibly impractical the more features are implemented. I remember with 1.8 that basically all of the buttons were displayed at any one time but everything was really crowed and smashed in. There was basically no room for expansion. There has to be a shift to context-sensative button palletts or you can’t expand.
Just remember it is something new and don’t be afraid of it. Things have to change somewhat in order for the application to evolve and improve.
