I was looking through some of the wonderful entries over in the 2.49 splash screen contest thread and it got me thinking…
As much as I love the quirky and fun-loving splash screens that come with Blender, I sometimes wish I could either turn them off or add a custom one of my own. The reason for this is because I am trying to use Blender for serious business. If I’m talking to a possible client or business associate and I want to show them something I’m working on, I will fire up Blender. Now the Blender interface itself is very professional, but you always have to click past the splash screen which, depending on the version, might have anything from wacky game characters to space ships.
Let me reiterate: Personally, I love seeing the creative stuff on the splash screens. It’s just hard to convince engineers and architects that I’m using the best application for their work when it looks like I’m doing my scenes in an application for games or creative graphics.
What is your work? Cause whatever kind of serious business it is, people should understand that any 3D software will be used for a wide range of reasons. 3DS is used for everything from serious architectural visualizations to funny TV cartoons. And anyway, people shouldn’t judge the software based on the splash (even though it usually should be a good representation of what the software can do) And, most of the big boy software companies now opt for those abstract light effect splashes that never really represent at all what the software can do. Just my opinion.
Ah, it’s good to see that replacing the splash screen is possible. I have not spent time learning to build Blender (time is not something I have a whole lot of) but I may give it a go in order to change the splash.
As for other people judging the software, I’ll say again that it isn’t me that has to be convinced. I know that Blender is more than capable of doing what I do. But you can’t argue the fact that first impressions, even with software, counts. You could be the best 3D artist, accountant, architect, or whatever on the planet. But if you walk into a job interview in sweats and a wacky T-shirt you won’t be taken as seriously as if you were dressed professionally.
Do I agree with the people who judge Blender incorrectly based on the splash screen? Of course not. But I still have to deal with the implications.
Compiling Blender isn’t much of an option for most users. It would be nice if there was just a standard jpeg in the Blender folder that you could replace for your own custom splash screen.
