I was just watching an overview of 3DCoat which has included something that’s quite clever. As more an more tools are added the application gets increasingly complex, like Blender. They’ve now included, within the splashscreen, options to jump directly to an appropriate workspace for specific tasks. I’m aware Blender has workspaces but this makes them instantly available and visible as soon as the application is started.
As Blender draws more and more diverse users into the fold I think this could go a long way to simplifying workflows… if a particular user is only coming to Blender for Motion Tracking why make them navigate through all the tools and windows. Any thoughts?
I think this is a great idea. I’ve talked with some friends who did a 6 month class at university working in Blender and they got surprised when I told them I edited my videos in Blender. They only thought it was used for modeling and nothing more.
Max, Maya, Houdini also have startup guides/videos and/or templates. I think it’s a must for such a complex program and will most defiantly help with adaptation. Should have a checkbox to disable it though
I can’t imagine it would be difficult does anyone know a developer they could ask? As cgstrive mentioned it could be disabled in options or simply have a “do not show again” box right in the splash screen.
This could go a long way to streamlining Blender for specific use cases and a much welcome helping hand for beginners… love Maya’s idea of linking to basics as well…cgcookie.com would likely do good business by having new users sent right to their door as well:) (when they watch the basics videos…I still don’t think it’s very obvious even at the top of blenderartist’s page.)
Having templates and videos at the ready could work as long as it’s done by way of instantiating a download from the internet (with the content hosted on the servers at Blender.org). The reason why is because I wouldn’t want to see a situation where a new Blender build off of the buildbot becomes a 2 gigabyte download zipped (with the exception of perhaps an optional all-in-one package on the official download page).
I like the tutorials splash screen(it can be links to youtube videos) though it’s a lot of work recording the tutorials.
as for task oriented I don’t like it.
when I open the software, I just want it to open(in rhino and autocad you choose a template and it’s annoying).
say I’m a new user, and I chose one of the tasks now what? I need to go to youtube to find a tutorial…
of course, I would never suggest that only links to online content… I was referring to the basics video that cgcookie.com already links to at the top of this page Although I don’t think that many people see it.
I like the original post about switching to workflow centric window layouts - this could come into play once the idea of workflow viewport modes comes, along the lines of the viewport work already started. Like for example, switching to Cameraa Tracking brings up one layout setup, and choosing Texture Paint brings up another with the draw mode and view shading already set to Texture/GLSL or whatever becomes the standard… this is a nice idea.
As valuable and useful as CGCookie’s tutorials are to Blender users, I’d still remain wary of linking to them from an official Blender release. Just like BlenderArtists.org is not the official user community for Blender (though it is arguably the largest), CGCookie is not the official documentation for Blender (though it is arguably some of the best). That separation is important.
Of course, the flip side to that is that someone would then have to produce official videos and keep them up to date. I’m not saying that folks from CGCookie (or any of the other commercial tutorial producers) shouldn’t make those videos, but I’d be concerned about the complications that could arise from choosing one specific provider of tutorials over others.
@fdfxd - partly agreed, mainly that it can be done better.
3dcoat was a bit overwhelming for me personally because most of these options do the same thing and you might end up confusing the user as if program is run in some mysterious mode (while it’s all the same.)
Blenders greatest problem by new users is inability to overcome UI and Navigation problems - Put it in plain view with best examples (+ also templates if needed and file size is not bloated). It will most certainly help in addressing this problem in least labor intensive way.
No, please… if you wanna be of help, create a helping page.
If it’s not a manual you’re willing to take on, your bad. But don’t blame it on others. This kind of stuff is IMO oriented toward closed proprietary sources. One cannot simply choose & learn for self but is guided by master and as the saying goes - everyone has one and two are a crowd. If it’s not you for self, continue idolizing, just don’t try to convince or persuade yours is better.
Something in the lines…
“I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” Voltaire
i also like this idea, it could be an immediate way to access the layouts, and so doesn’t seem like an incredibly hard thing to code. btw, the layouts themselves are also very handy, and i use them quite a lot now.
Yes but single-clicking into a particular editing layout from splash is way more likely to happen than the Foundation suddenly having someone available to produce official comprehensive video tutorials.
