Momma, I'm comming home...

General Forums Off-topic Chat
1

Heya Blenderheads,

I started using blender around 2000 and used it for a few years, t’was me first 3D program like a lot of people.

In 2004 I went to the Vancouver Film School where I was taught XSI, and then I moved on to Maya when working at EA Sports on some of their games. After EA I got a job teaching guitar at a music store and have been doing that for the last 4 years.

So I took this summer off to get back into 3D, was using XSI again since VFS drilled it into me so well… hehe :slight_smile: I was working on a Toon Vampire girl and went to look for some reference and found some pics of Sintel, so I decided to take another look at Blender and it blew my freaking mind!!!

I can’t believe how far it has come tool wise and the sexy new 2.5 interface, and so many other things. I’ve spent the last week checking out the new features (read a years worth of Blendernation posts the other day) and catching up on the program. I’ve been messing around in it a bit and getting used to it again. I literally got tears of joy and excitement at what I have seen Blender become.

I’ve now decided to fully switch back to Blender and re-learn it and tackle the new features. I had a very strong passion for Blender when I started 3D and that passion has been reignited!!!

I also wanted to mention that the new sculpting tool works amazingly well on my old clunker, a single core 2.8gHz with 2 gig ram and a Nvidia FX 5700 AGP. Yet I can still sculpt a sphere with 2million pollys where mudbox and zbrush could barely run on it.

I think that a lot more people who have worked with the other commercial apps professionally are going to start switching as well once they try out the new Blender. It’s the most promising and sweetest 3D app out there right now, and it improves so fast. My hat is off to everyone who has developed it over the years since I have used it, what you all have done is amazing. And to Ton as well, for still carrying the torch and working so hard to see Blender get the recognition it deserves.

So, after a long and drawn out explanation, my basic point is I’m back to Blender!!! :slight_smile:

Blend on, and Blend well!!!

PS: I hope some of me old elysiun friends are still around… would love to catch up!!!

2

Allow me to be the first to welcome you back… I sort of became a moderator while you were gone. You never know I guess.

I was actually thinking of you a few days ago, because I was thinking of ending a post with “Blend on and blend well.” (I finally didn’t… that phrase is yours alone to use.)

I still remember that Star Trek project we worked on back in the day… good times, good times.

3

PP!!!

Wow dude, very awesome to see you again!!! :slight_smile: For sure working on the game engine stuff way back in the day was a blast, good times!!! I can’t wait to get into some new projects in Blender.

'Grats on Moder’ation…hood… I see you still have the same avatar too, I recognized it right away. You can use “Blend on, and Blend well” too, I don’t mind. Things are getting pretty exciting for blender these days, and to switch back is a no-brainer.

I guess I’ll see you around the forums, what have you been working on lately? Would love to see some of your more recent work. Have a good one PP, will see you around the forums!!! :slight_smile:

Blend on, and Blend well!!!

4

Welcome back on and back well!!!

5

Lots of things have changed over the years, you notice the forum is now called Blenderartists and uses the Vbulletin forum software that has allowed for things like WYSIWYG editing of posts.

And if you like external rendering, you’ll be amazed of the capability that Blender 2.5 has to integrate such a renderer with Python.

I may have caught a little of the year you left here when being here under my first username (could you guess?)

6

Cyborg Dragon…and welcome back, I hope Blender can be accepted as a app that can be used in the industry soon.:slight_smile:

7

hehe… Cyborg Dragon by any chance… :slight_smile:

For sure, both blender and the forums have changed quite a bit, though I kinda miss the old gray and orange of elysiun, those were the days…

Thanks for the WB Vali, it feels good to be back into Blender. As far as it being used in the industry, I think it’s more used than we know, it’s just that a lot of companies don’t say that they are using it. When I worked at EA, some of the artists there were using Blender for the LSCM tool, I even attended a class there on how to use it (there is a lot of internal training courses there all the time). But I don’t think they have ever used it “officially” as a software app for the company, but they do use tons of different programs for different features. But hopefully the day will come when companies will make it their main app just because its so adaptable to the individuals needs.

One day soon maybe, the 2.5 series is amazing and the recent projects like Sintel and BBB are doing a great job of showing how good it can be. Makes me want to start an animation studio!!! :slight_smile:

Blend on, and Blend well!!!

8

That wasn’t my first username, my first username was a completely different account and definitely before 2006.

9

Hmmm, can’t say that I remember off hand, do I get a hint? Or just let me know what your old nic was, now I’m curious… hehe :slight_smile:

10

Heh. Mebbe it’s just me, but I think the days of “aww, but nobody uses Blender!” are long gone now.

(It makes about as much sense as saying, “nobody uses Apache server because, y’know, it’s open source.”)

“Welcome back, stranger. You missed a lot.”

But, old ways and practices don’t go away easy when you have built a multi-year pipeline of big projects around them. You don’t necessarily want to admit that professional software engineers are building, and giving away(!), something that actually has the capacity to eat your lunch. You get upset, say “when people throw clothes on top of your head” . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrVRr6APITk . . . :evilgrin:

I mean that “all in fun,” of course, but also seriously. Blender has engaged its warp-drive in recent years. Even though existing studio projects might not “switch to” it, for reasons that have more to do with “change itself,” there is no doubt in my mind that Blender has become a very dominant player alongside all the others. (And when I read on other forums how “first I use tool-X, then I use tool-Y then tool-Z to do this, just like we’ve done for the last Q years,” I know what the single most important characteristic of Blender is (besides its being a single, slender executable that runs identically on everything).

11

It was one of the United States, and a number <20. He was notorious.

12

A state of USA beginning with “K” and ending with “S” I’m guessing. Can you give more hints please ?

13

Hmmm, I give up. I can’t guess what your old nic was, Definitely let me know so I know who I’m talking to. :slight_smile:

Blend on, and blend well!!!

14

The middle of the name had “ansa”.

15

He’s alive… AALIIIIVEEEE </creepy voice> welcome back man. Seems like you have been busy over the years!

16

Goofster!!!

Haha, how’s it going man? :slight_smile:

Thanks for the WB, yeah, the last few years have been pretty crazy. Though I’m kind of settled now, just about to go into me fifth year teaching guitar. I gotta make more time for 3D and other hobbies though, always seems one fully takes over and I let the others go.

But. I just started me first character in Blender in years, and it feels pretty good to be back into it. I doubt I will use XSI much any more and just focus on Blender as me main app. Grats to you too on your Administratorship, seems like most of me old friends here wound up Mods or Admin type position.

I wonder if BGDM, theeth, Scottishpig, Hos, and tons others I’ve not seen for ages are still around. I hope everyone that I knew back in the day is still kickin butt in Blender. Hope you are as well Goofster!!! :slight_smile:

17

theeth is still here. The others you mention I’ve not seen recently.
The answer to the Ace Dragon Trivia Question is Kansas_15, if you’re still curious.

18

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=140045

19

Hey, welcome back to Blender, I’m a bit newer to it all, so there is no way you know me, but I’m a regular now, on everyday almost, so maybe we will bump into each other once in a while, besides, any friend of PlantPerson is a friend of mine, thanks PlantPerson, your the best!(Still don’t know what your name means though.)

20

Thanks you for the post.