Maybe this could be handled by the future internal tutorial recorder (I believe there will be one). The final video file could save the keys pressed (like captions text, or any appropriate format), but not the exact key, instead its meaning (or operator). And when the user plays the tutorial, those key presses would be translated to the user’s actual keymap, and showed on screen while playing the video (captions like) .
personally i think all this UI talk is pointless, yes there is some space who cares, you can scale the buttons or even drag them around. I don’t like the emboss feature either, i’ll have a chat with broken about that.
also the default keymap will be the same as 2.48a but future tutorials will have to start using menues
you can still use 3dview in fullscreen and not be bothered with buttons window as i showed in my last tour, the little hidden area that pops out, the settings for the last run op will be in there
also i thought this was a cheerleading thread (GO CODERS!!!) now its degenerated into the millions of other UI bashing threads. so please lets get back on topic 
I was thinking about solution for max-maya people. Maybe instead of different sets of shortcuts Blender should have “Max-Maya Beginer beginer mode” where when you try to use shortcut from one of aplications mentioned above you get information how it is done in Blender(Standard text information ) .Customization is a good thing but like somebody said before it may create chaos where one tutorial will use one shortcut for editing and second completly different.
It may lead to situation where we will have something like “MaxBlender tutorials” , “MayaBlender tutorials” and of course standard Blender tutorials, and that would be unplesanst and, in fact, very harmful(in my opinion).
Hope this post will make into the forum(The last one didn’t but because I hate spam I understand that there are problems with security ^__^).
Whoooar… interface looks yummy!
Congrats devs, keep up the good work! I may do a few mockups myself sometime… see what i can come up with
I agree with mfoxdogg There are other blender interface threads with a ton of opinions on them. (IMO)It would be considerate if ew kept a little more “general” in it’s focus on the overall developments on Blender 2.5. Thank to all the Devs!!!
Hello! New Blender user, long time Max and Maya user and delighted to see the changes coming for 2.5.
Now that the niceties are out of the way…lets get serious.
I am very impressed by the similarities between Maya and Blender, and at the same time confused about one perticular behavior that i hope will be addressed in the next version. The complete lack of warning or option to save the curent work to a file in case of: 1 some noob (me) thinks its ok to close the command line window (purely out of shear habbit and Maya use) or 2: a condition has arisen were the aplication has or is about to become unstable and must shut down (from prolonged modeling sessions in Max).
I must admit that that behavior had me pulling the little of what is left of my hair more than a few times.
As far as the UI shortcuts and Keys are concerned, they are not as hard to figure out as one might think (from a long time Blender hater like me, yes , i admit, i went to the dark side a long time ago LOL).
The reason i was force…suckere…invited to joint the Blender user community is the need to debug and comment on the only realy stable and propper exporter for my favorite game The Movies. As a long time Moder it was much to my surprise and delight that all these years behind the Max and Maya wheels were coming together in a package that mimicked some of the more usefull features of both.
Confusing at first, but realy easy to pick up, i got modeling at a good clip, discovering the in’s and out’s and later finding out about the next version’s ui adaptability left me somewhat at a loss.
Would i change anything, or everything in the current layout?
There are a few areas i wouldn’t mind being able to change, just for the sake of personnal confort, like the qwer keyboard shortcuts( im a lousy typist and i just find not moving my fingers across the keyboard that much more pleasing), a bit more right button options in the menu, maybe more contextual (like Max). Maybe a prefered tools layout in said right button menu. Anything that keeps me from having to look at the keyboard would certainly be a time saver for me.
Originally Posted by <b>UglyMike</b> [](http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?p=1334054#post1334054) <i>However, I'm not in favor of including keymaps in Blender. If we do that, there will be no baseline for tutorials anymore.</i>
Originally Posted by mfoxdogg
also the default keymap will be the same as 2.48a but future tutorials will have to start using menues
the way this is handled in tutorials for other programs with customizable hotkeys is the tutorial uses the default hotkey convention, and if you’ve changed a hotkey you should know it and adjust accordingly. very simple.
The new UI is looking pretty slick! Obviously it will be refined more, but its a pretty exciting start- I can’t wait to play with it!
As a side note, man oh man the devs must go crazy sometimes. All I have to say is, keep doing what you are doing, we will adapt. But, I’m claiming the rights to “The Blender Tutorial Riots of 2009.”
C’mon guys, don’t you think if someone has a custom UI in a tutorial they would mention it, or even use the default? I’ve referenced Maya tutorials for Blender, I’m sure most of us have- no big deal.
hear, hear!
w00t @ dev’s. 
go coders!!!
Are we about to get UI animation?
http://lists.blender.org/pipermail/bf-taskforce25/2009-March/000420.html
It looks pretty slick and modern to me.
The mailing list also has links to a number of things on the wiki.
I hope that every single thing that William proposes/designs, makes it into 2.5. This guy is untouchable. 
It’s like Christmas morning, every single day. What an exciting time to be part of the Blender community.
It’s like Christmas morning, every single day. What an exciting time to be part of the Blender community.
Lol… True.
Hear hear again! Furthermore, if all the tools ( eventually the interface ) get a python-based command, they would lend themselves perfectly to tutorials. The tutorials could have the interface set up in any way, but as long as the key python commands are there, the user could copy/paste them. Anyone who’s used the ubuntu forums/tutorials knows what I mean. Even OS X has them.
I dont know if this would be at all possible, but…Would it be possible to write some sort of application (maybe a Firefox plugin?) that reads the users b.blend file and automatically displays the correct hotkey when browsing compatible tutorials?
For example, if your reading through the wiki and it says to press the ‘e’ key, that would actually be written in the wiki as [extrude] and then localy changed to ‘e’ or any other letter based on the b.blend file stored on the viewing computer.
If no plugin was installed or no b.blend file found it would simply display based on the default settings.
that would indeed be possible if keysets are saved seperatly, but the reader would need to be developed by the community
Wouldn’t the simplest thing be to advise tutorial writers to write tutorials using the default key map, am sure for the reader changing the key map will be a mouse click away, e.g work in maya preset for your own work than switch to default to follow a tutorial. Plus even if the writer uses their own preset key map it won’t be that hard to translate into your prefered keymap. 80% of the tutorials I follow are written for other programs.
Cheer!! 
Just wanted to add my voice to this thread after reading some of the feedback from winter camp.
Blender 2.5 is looking to be a major evolutionary step. It seems that all the decent stuff is being kept and everything that needs work is being updated in a considered and thoughtful way.
Much respect and thanks to all involved in developing Blender both in the past and currently.
The code refactor is amazing to see in progress for a novice coder such as myself. My favourite tutorials are those that show how much work goes on in the background and how to manage the unexpected (to a novice) complexity that simply isn’t usually recognised by the end user. The great communication between community and developers harnesses the best that complete tutorials have to offer.
There is just so much involved in considering the implementation of something so taken for granted as the UI. The mockups and demos look great so far. Yes, there are some issues of clarity that need to be considered, but for the most part there appears to have been great strides in improving both the clarity of display and the usability of Blender. The deep rooted concept of allowing the user maximum freedom to choose their workflow is being moved forewards greatly, it seems. Customizable panels, self-configuring button windows, menu access to tools and the ubiquitous Blender tooltips are all being improved.
I see that there will be issues when moving from other software to Blender, but isn’t this always the case with all software? Customizable keymaps should resolve some of these issues, but conflicts will inevitably be caused when modifying a keymap for such a richly featured application as Blender. I can see a proliferation of keymaps being released by members of the community and there will no doubt be a large discussion as the various merits and pitfalls of each.
I think the key is to have a sensible, functional keymap as default that existing Blender users will feel at home with but to allow a decent way to represent clashes that may arise when defining a custom keymap, such as highlighting functions/tools that become unbound to keys after setting their hotkey to another function etc. Blender can already display the hotkey key bindings, and 2.5 will enable multiple windows to be displayed. If the keymap displayed both the default and custom settings it could be placed in it’s own window for fast reference when following tutorials. A key search function within the keymap window/area/region that can search by mode (pose, object, edit), key, target (mesh, vertex, fcurve) or operator/tool name would perhaps enhance the lookup of a particular hotkey.
I’ve just thought that maybe it would be helpful to provide a reference facility to enable people to set up a “dummy” keymap. By this, I mean that the default Blender keymap could be used in Blender, but by using the keymap search facility a user could enter a hotkey that they are familiar with from another application, and that is stored in their dummy keymap, so the corresponding hotkey or key combination for Blender default would be displayed. A facility such as this might greatly simplify and speed up the move from another application to Blender.
I’m about to start waffling since I’m thinking on the fly now so I’ll stop. 
Lots of sugestions on “the keymap problem”… All over engineered and surely un-necesary (in my opinion, obviously)
A good tutorial should surely be about the techniques and “operations”… The keyboard shortcut is only so prevalent in blender tutorials because historically so much stuff couldn’t be accessed any other way.
“use the Bevel tool” is much better than saying hit “CTRL F, 2”.
I’ve used loads of different 3d software over the years, most of it has had customisable short cuts for years…
I’ve never had a problem following a tutorial because of custom key shortcuts in an app…
EXCEPT when that app doesn’t support custom keymaps (z-brush being a particularly hard example with all it’s reliance on the order you press and release keys )