Speaking about pipeline,I also miss the way Maya works.
The current limitations in blender is the lack of user customization,users don’t give any contribution to the program,they simple use the program,and stop.
A node based system allow users to do what is needed to a certain amount.
Yes,for big changes you have to write custom nodes,but for simple stuff you can do yourself,in blender now it’s impossible,because the node system now is too simple and can’t see outside its scope(if you do texture,you can’t use render variables,if you do shading,you can’t use compositing functions).
Even if I agree with cessen about the node flow,for now I still prefer Maya for that:).
About nodes,I think developers could give a look at Houdini,it’s free for non commercial work,so it can be a great inspiration for Blender,it’s the best 3d program ever done
EDIT:
There is also another reason why a more powerfull node system could be cool.
Look at the patch tracker,you can see that there are shader stuff,bug fixes and so on.
Sometimes happens that the work people do is rejected,and it’s a pity.
For example I remember that 2/3 years ago someone made a shader for anisotropy shading,that shader is still better that what we have now.
With nodes these things don’t happen.
I love those mockups, controls like that would make Blender ever so much easier to learn and use (after all, who has ever learned everything?) and seem to be targeted more at professionals than at blender geeks who want every bit of configurability they can get (not a bad thing). Of course, William would have to be the one to say who they actually were targeted at 
.
eek, any talk of using maya for node layout inspiration should be nipped in the bud, and i say this as a TD that’s been driving maya fulltime for several years. look at houdini, nuke, xsi ice for node systems done right.
and thats what everybody else said. 
anyway’s I like what cessen described.
if only a supper coding monkey would emerge from the heavens,
(of witch ever religion) and actually implement that. 
oh well, time will tell, as to what will or will not come.
I would love to shift-d Raul and Ton!
I would love to shift-d Raul and Ton!
That can’t happen in a shift-s
Quoted for agreement. Maya’s node system is too limiting and weird (as I outlined in my previous post).
And as someone who has used Maya professionally for around 2 years, I am a firm believer that Maya has the worst UI in the world, and that except in rare cases it should never be looked at for UI inspiration. Blender’s current node interface is great. I cannot fathom people actually putting effort into changing it to replicate Maya’s inferior node interface.
The UI for Maya’s node system is really bad and it is one of the main reasons why I’m not crazy about Maya’s node system either. However, I do think it works fairly well when making materials, but, like I said in my previous post, it starts to break down when you use it for other things outside of the materials system.
The biggest benefit Maya’s node system had for me was it made coding stuff for Maya a breeze.
People should understand that maya is a old application,so there are field where it’s not at the top.
But it’s solid.
For me Blender should try to learn from Houdini,I dream an open source application where the user can do what he wants,where technical creativity can be used without being frustrated(it’s only a dream,I know that will never happen)
Actually , no… maya is one of the new guys in the block. Technically was released in 1998 but it was not until 2000 it started to threaten the dominance of already established lightwave and softimage. It supposed to have learned from the mistakes of the already established and old 3d studio. Maya was sucussful because it implemented first some advanced features like hair simulation etc but other than that it was always a pretty problematic software in terms of usability. Of course in 2000 there were already many small 3d apps very easy to use, like truespace, strata, amapi etc and were quite popular as well.
So actually age has nothing to do with May unfriendliness.
However Maya has always been in the cutting edge together with HOUDINI , untill it was acquired by Autodesk.
But all this are history, what counts now is Blender , Blender seems to be one of the most rapidly developed 3d apps in the moment together with Zbrush , Modo etc. I do not think that Blender users need to apologize to Maya or 3d studio max user or anyone else, now we can proud that we use one of the strongest software in the market and that is what it counts.
What it counts is to love and enjoy your tools , if you do you will be motivated , if you are motivated then nothing will ever stop you.
I love XSI but will never want to see Blender look and behave like XSI, I want Blender to have its own personality as most apps do. We should not encourage people coming from other apps be lazy in Blender , they must learn that Blender deserves the time they will invest learning it. Sometimes the hard way is the best way.
Who cares about Maya? Eff Autodesk and XSI and Houdini and their subscriptions and registering to download the free version and its watermarks, charging $2000 more for hair and whatnot, who cares? Blender 2.5 could be a huge rift in the grand scheme, and it is looking better every day! GOOOOO DEVS!
I feel that the thread is being hijacked away from its original focus.
Quoted for agreement. Can we get this thread back on topic please 
Yeah!!!
GO BLENDER DEVS!!! 2.5 is gonna be AWESOME!!!
Great Work!!!
Don’t mind me asking, but about what percent of completion (of the final product) have the devs reached so far?
Hard to say without a clear picture of what the first 2.5 release will contain.
Martin
Will lighting change for this new interface? Can textures drive more aspects of a light?
Sorry, but I have to say: I completely disagree. Won’t derail the thread again by explaining, but I had to say it.
Back on topic:
I have been following the development with much excitement, and with the results from WinterCamp… I can’t express my happiness enough!
Thank you, thank you, thank you Blender devs!!! You are so cool!
The new interface is finally arriving. I’m loving the new object mode.
Ugh, the embossed text is impossible to read…