Blender isn’t any greenhorn between 3D applications. And even reborn to version 2.5 has no any Library concept for materials, textures, sculpt brushes, paint brushes, postprocess common filters (like vinetting, film color tone, glowing . . . ) ect .
Is it possible that blender’s community has no needs to effectively use this software for so many years?
This is one of the biggest handicap that keeps blender miles back in full usability. Without Libraries (with clear preview, done in one style) it will never going to be effectively used software.
Is there any reason why blender has no libraries?
Blender as open source, with philosophy of sharing and
And please - “Appending” is not solution.
I know there is a preview list of added textures for brush and promissing Mackraken’s Material Library, but is it going to be enough?
Is not time for some complex solution?
Blender’s installer is 23 MB. 3DS Max is a 4GB DVD. Thanks to libraries. Blender allows libraries to be downloaded, and appended, (sorry) there are scripts that will synchonize with internet libraries for materials and stuff. Andrew Price gave a file that had a set of postprocessing presets (vignette, bleach, etc)
That being said, I too, would like to have some selection of presets, esp. for materials.
I don’t want to include 4GB lib to a core.
My problem is accesing to a “presets” and the fact there is no any official lib with basic materials like glass, metal, wood . . . textures with common patterns that you can use just by open the blender and drag&drop.
I know there is “Open Material Repository”, but go there and looked for simple things like glass is terrible - > search, download several of them, append, try who produce what . . . it is not productive way for elementary materials.
As I wrote this open sources sounds like they are primary focused to be shared.
But in this presets area is totaly mess. All of us have some pieces that we share on many places sometimes are not updated, sometimes are lost in a hell . . .
So like there is core of developers that decide what include and what doesn’t so the same has to be for general Libraries.
I hope in incoming Cycles time, it maybe moves things forward.
(That with Cycles will be possible to generate preview for Mackraken’s Library).
Anyway, I don’t speek about material only, but I’m asking you if it’s not time to think about concept that will cover all kind of presets (writen in the first post).
I don’t know any other app that doesn’t use library.
Maybe there is not necessary to download presents. In this internet time most of you are connected to a net for whole day, so there is option to have window in blender that can listed presets from server.
My main needs are open window with good preview icon and drag&drop.
(For now we can drag&drop images from file browser window (or from Finder ect.) for UV image material.)
If you’re talking about Blender having a better way of using libraries. Like appending, but with a file browser that displays more information on the assets and shows a thumbnail then I’d totally agree with that. The current system is quite good, but it needs a little more polish to make it user friendly.
However, if you’re talking about a large collection of content that you think should be made for everyone, well that’s another thing all together as someone needs to sit down and spend a lot of time creating assets.
Pre-sets for commercial applications can be made and released because they have someone who is PAID to do that work.
Now this means that you’ll either need to find a few talented people in the community who are willing to spend quite a lot of their spare time creating high-quality pre-sets and/ or find a way of financing it.
Personally I would love to see a Library associated with Blender. In fact that’s what I have been working toward with my Shipyard project. I also have two other projects underway that are similar to the Shipyard.
IMO I also think it’s wise to keep the blender download slim. I feel this way for three reasons;
Bandwidth costs money and Blender is a free download. The BF should not have to increase the cost associated with their operation just so that we can have some presets.
In many countries the internet still functions at dail-up or slower speeds. Increasing the download size would directly affect people found in these regions.
By including a preset model library in the download it would make the QA associated with each release completely ridiculous. This would only get worse with the size of the library, which is something that everyone (minus the QA people) would want to increase in size.
With these points in mind I think that this goal could be accomplished by using an online library like Blendswap.com.
From my perspective the Blender Library incorporation would be divided into 2 somewhat large tasks.
Incorporate a stripped down light weight internet browser into blender. this would be linked to a URL that hosts 4 sepererate repositories. These would respectively store materials, model geometry, particle systems, and animation/rigs. A good example of this would be Sketchup’s 3d warehouse, which can be browsed from within Sketchup or via your Internet browser
The next step would be to build an export system that only exports the data relevant to the repository that will store that item. For example it you have just completed a car model and wish to upload it to the Blender Library, you will only need to export model geometry (including modifiers), materials, and maybe some animation. My proposed method would be to export 3 separate files that would be static linked to each other. The first file would contain only the geometry and modifiers. The second file would contain only the materials and the third would contain the associated animation/rigging etc. By separating these items it would be possible to download and install only the things that you need, thus reducing file size and bandwidth costs.
A Blender Library would be beneficial in a number of ways. It would increase Blender’s viability for commercial work. It could also stand to be a source of income for the parties that develop, host, and model things for the Blender Library. This could be accomplished by displaying ads in the Blender Library browser, allowing subscriptions, and the ability to charge per download for premium work.
I’m sorry for the long post, but from my perspective this is one of the biggest things that limits Blender to a hobbyist’s tool. I’ve noticed that at least in the field of ArchiViz, which I have tried to make a living in. It’s almost impossible to compete with studios that have huge libraries of pre-modeled Max files that they just drag and drop into their scene. Time spent modeling and texturing is time that you have to try to bill for. Thus making the Blender modeler either work harder for less, or more expensive than the competition.
Instead of making a massive lib that would be downloaded with Blender, what if Blender had a material library path that you set that points to a folder of blend files. Inside each blend file is a single object and a single material so Blender will read through the folder and generate previews like shown above. Then when you see a material you like, you just add it to your scene and you’re good to go.
That way people can create materials and just pass them around. Blender remains a small download.
after months years of using blender i still dont undersand how to use appending . i use appending to import objects from other blender files. but i dont understand how to use this for materials.
for example. lets say i select an object and the material in the object. and then i append a material from a different file. why is it not automatic assigned to the material inside the object? why after i selected the material why do i need to do one extra step to select the imported material ?
Lets say we had an option in the “User Preferences -> File” section to just add the path to a material file.
And some nice browser interface like vklidu suggested to browse/preview it, and have it drag/drop-able on your objects for fast adding.
It would of course be perfect if you could make folders and add/delete materials from your library.
We could then share our material files and append materials from each others files to build our own personalized material libraries.
This would be awsome :yes:
im no coder but i know it is possible…
my mate is developing a imp/exp script for a game and he needed to set a path for some files… he added a new file path selector in the user prefs
I don’t have exact vision. I’m just thinking about way to easy pass stereotypic processes of creating or appending parts of project that I already did several times per day.
@Daniel8488:
I’m not sure if just ‘polishing’ of file browser is enough.
To use only file browser means store each pre-set in separate file.
Is it right way?
If I well understood Mackraen’s conccept, he store whole materials in blend file inside blender addon folder and part of this addon generate XML file with material list, for now there is only one way to get preview - press a button to generate preview in material panel.
It’s not the fastest way to choose material by names, but for now it§s the best tool for creating a library, sort materials or to use it in new file.
Mackraken is my Master for this month - his work is awsome and if 5stars is the highest price I want to give him Univers.
All the development of blender is running to code all modern tools {that is great} but without good acces to a pre-sets of sculpt textures, paint brushes,node groups of post-process compositing, simulations . . ect. -.it will be always waste of time.
I’m suprised there is not enough strong support for this theme.
Who is going to be creator and keeper?
If I will think about materials:
1 - first there has to be stabil system of creating material pre-sets
2 - automatic way of generating material icon
{it can be taken from preview panel, Luxrenders and Mitsuba can generate preview inside blender UI, so I hope cycles will do the same. Or if there is another automatic way, not special scene that needs ask user for render}
3 - use the same system as Material Repository - users pre-sets and rating. For final output there has to be someone who will take a look for hi rated pre-sets and choose some for final collection.
I think in range of classic materials there is not thousands variations, so it doesnt take life. Also it doesnt has to be a big collection, just common materials.
It seems like it would be smart to know exactly what things you would want to store in component format. That way it makes it less of a pipe dream and more of an attainable reality.
To tell you the truth thought I dont think we should push for this until Bmesh and Cycles make it into trunk. Blender is really going to undergo a dramatic metamorphoses at that point. After that we wouldnt have to worry too much about version compatibility.
One point that I forgot to include in my original post; It would be a good idea to allow people to build thier own Libraries and store them locally. These would be browsable via the above proposed browser. This way a studio could build their own Library of assets and host them internally on a LAN. Again increasing Blender’s viability as a commercial tool.
I’m interested to know what sort of things should be stored. Was the list incomplete?
We have the online material database for a long time. http://matrep.parastudios.de/
There is a script for 2.49 to import materials directly from the online database.
Unfortunately the site is not up to date and paratron is no more active in the blender comunity.
This was a very easy way to share materials like blendswap now is for models.
May one have an idea to reactivate such a system.
‘‘i want a library function in blender’’
‘’ i dont want 4GB lib with the blender installer’’
how,why and when ? he wants an option to save materials,… . he didnt say that he wants everything with blender. if you create a library it can be empty. but you can still save it.
Personally i think Blender should really have presets, but instead it should be an optional separate download.
I think blender should be able to export it’s assets in seperate files, not just .blend files for everything.
like, objects (With data, modifiers, etc) as .bobj, data - .bdat, materials - .bmat, etc… That should be very convenient.
Using .blend files should still be possible.
Thumbnails for all these files - Would definitely be awesome.
@Sleeper:have you check the link you posted? LetterRip stared this thread in 2009 by collecting materials and the last post is from the end of 2010 that no one knows what is a road map . . . I was asking for general library concept
‘‘i want a library function in blender’’
‘’ i dont want 4GB lib with the blender installer’’
how,why and when ? he wants an option to save materials,… . he didnt say that he wants everything with blender. if you create a library it can be empty. but you can still save it.
thats not oxymoronous… (is that a word??)
once a library is put together, i think it would be extremely easy to have a download link on blender.org: “If you want 4GB or downloadable presets, click here!” or whatever.
although many, myself included, probably prefer to make their own materials, etc., one can’t deny the benefit of having a comprehensive library. it could make things a lot easier for beginning users, or from users migrating from 3dsmax who are used to a library.
i think the best way to do this would be to make a complete list of what should be included in the library, and then do a “call for content” instead of saying, “i want to make a library for blender, please contribute what you can,” have a list: “okay, these are our targets of what to be included” and when the material is received, you can check it off the list. make a blender library blog or something where the progress can be seen by everyone…
and like i said before, once the library is complete, to include it as an optional download would be a cinch.
Yeah I know the age of that thread. You asked why Blender had no library concept. I was telling you there had been previous moves in that direction but they were on hold. Two years is not a long time to wait in Blender development.