I’ve been seeing posts here and there from people stating they’re new to Blender. Let’s hear your story.
Welcome to Blender!
I first tried 2.49, back than I was working in game development and a colleague started using it more and more often. Left click select, navigation in general and UI threw me off, felt like it’d be more intuitive if I was left handed. Gave it a try with 2.5 and maya viewport presets but since I was using maya on a daily basis I didn’t see a good reason to switch. Tried it once-twice a year since then, but only really sticking with it for the last 6 months or so. I am using it however on a daily basis in vfx production since then.
Started in 2004 with 3ds max as a freelancer, started working in production in 2005 using maya (had to use xsi and 3dcoat for a while as well), but it was mostly maya and zbrush for me, substance painter on and off when freelancing on the side. Swapped maya for blender in 80% of the cases now, vfx pipelines being built around maya there are situations I do have to use it, but it’s mostly for publishing my work though.
It’d be unfair to request features like zbrush or substance have - obviously it’d be nice to get a couple of them and I think it’ll get there over time. My work being quite specific I mostly miss a good system for shape keys, I’m doing facial shapes most of my time and doing inbetween or corrective shapes is quite convoluted at the moment.
Well, I’ve been using Blender for a bit now, moved from Lightwave 9.6.
I first looked at Blender, as I am sure many did, in 2.49 days, ye gods what a nightmare, I tried several times and gave up.
I looked again at around 2.6, what a difference, I spent a day or so just doing the basics, getting a feel for it, very soon, I realised it had the edge over LW in terms of modelling. I find it to be be pretty much everything I want. There are only one or two “native” tools of LW I would like in Blender and an LWCAD clone or port would be welcome, otherwise, it ticks all the boxes ofr me personally.
The only other software I use now is substance painter, which makes texturing a breeze.
I started using Blender way back when its user-interface was “simply awful.” But, even then, I was amazed at what it could do – and this became my introduction to 3D graphics.
Like each and every software product, it has its strengths and its weaknesses, its omissions and “to-dos,” but it has transformed itself from its earliest days, particularly in the realm of user interface. Also, since it is being championed by a *Foundation" (and people …) who seriously care about it, it has become a “poster child” for cooperative, open-source software development. I’m still excited to watch it grow, and to use it.
Today, Blender is a “professional computer graphics and(!) video production system.”
Did you try Blender in the past? If so, what made you change your mind?
I tried it many years ago, I don’t remember the version number. TBF, I did not give it a fair chance back then because I was horrified by the UI and couldn’t even figure out the most basic things. Instead I got this weird 3d cursor (which I understand better now that I am familiar with Modo’s workplane).
What other software are/were you using?
I used pretty much every 3D software before Blender (excluding XSI). I used Max & Modo professionally in the games inudstry for several years. And also learned Maya, Zbrush, Lightwave, and some others as a Student. I just love trying out different tools and software and staying up to date with the industry. Modo was my most recent tool of choice, I own a personal license and it has been my big love for many years.
I am giving Blender another try now since 3D is no longer my main job (switched to a UI/UX/Management role). But I still enjoy doing 3D and some indie game dev as a hobby.
Does Blender do what you need, or are things missing?
I do mostly low poly game assets, so the tools are definitely more than sufficient. It is more about having a comfortable workflow.
What I still struggle with the most is the snapping and changing the “working pivot”. I can work around it, but it seems quite tedious. Maybe I am doing it wrong but I have heard the same thing from other people as well.
One thing I did change was the move/rotate/scale hotkeys. I love hotkeys, but I had trouble hitting the right axis hotkey, so eventually I changed the hotkeys to give me the gizmo by default so I don’t have to guess the axis again. I will probably change more hotkeys in the future, but I want to become more familiar with the defaults first (there should be a warning when overwriting an existing hotkey).
The texture baking felt pretty awkward. But I assume there must be some addons to improve this.
That said, there are also a lot of cool features and addons in blender that I am very excited to try out in the future.
Everything else seems fine so far, although I have barely scratched the surface.