If you’re like me and are wondering what others in the community think the BF should do about Blender in 2013. I suggest that we all vote and see the result. At the same time, it may be useful to the BF (Blender Foundation).
Here’s the link: http://micropoll.com/t/KE57HZO1II
If your commenting here please do vote on the poll for it will be easier to see the results instead of counting all the posts here.
-TheElwolf
Just noticed I could have done a poll directly inside blenderartist. Sorry about that.
BF already stated 2013 will be only Blender development
Ton also invites people to think of post 2.6 projects. A special focus for 2.7x and 2.8x? Suggestion: in all of 2013, BF focus on Blender itself (no open movies!).
Well, it wasn’t an option but I think polishing existing features, adding smaller things, filling in gaps and bug-fixing. basically, nothing too huge but rather making better what we already have. E.g. viewport performance and so on.
Well, it wasn’t an option but I think polishing existing features, adding smaller things, filling in gaps and bug-fixing. basically, nothing too huge but rather making better what we already have. E.g. viewport performance and so on.
I think that would be a good option, perhaps for 2014? I mean Blender already has most major features, but focusing on refining them would be fantastic. EG: refining sculpting, texture paint, simulations, and general organization.
In Blender we have many things that are simply awesome, but entire thing could use a lot of polishing. Examples:
Ancient layer system
User Interface (it could take entire “project”)
Snapping tools (CAD software is ages in front of Blender, and yes - it makes work in 3d waaay faster)
Ability to re-load animation or movies into node system (there are ways you can use a walkaround to get this)
Bugs (what about dedicating entire version to bugs)
In a few years we will see an entire new generation of screens that are able to display 3d without any eyewear. Those screens will be used on everything. How can we get ready for that? And if we should?
Thats what I think as well. New features are great and all, but polishing up and perfecting exiting features is the best thing one could do before piling on more work (features). BF should do this as soon as possible in my opinion. After that I think they should focus on making Blender one of the best modeling applications around (since most cg professions need to do it one way or another), add better snapping capabilities, and then focus on the Blender Game Engine side of the Blender. The game industry brings in more annual revenue than the film, tv and music industries combined. Focusing on film only seems like a bad idea given the direction of digital entertainment as well as the demand. A huge push for real time rendering is key.
All of those are great! Though snapping and UI are probably the two most important things on your list that I 110% agree with. Snapping is such a major part of my workflow in Maya and to have that same capability or ease of workflow just doesnt help in the modeling side of things, especially for larger scenes.
Most of the things you are listing are GSoC projects atm. Once finished, BF should take a look at codes, polish them, test and merge, at least I hope so.
About post-Mango and 2013 development, i’m all for getting the main rendering features Cycles needs and than polishing/refinment/bug fixing at all.
I think Blender has the right foundations to be a killer app, now is a matter of getting these features to a really flowing, stable and polished condition. Unwrapping is a good example, i saw lot of user using other 3d packages but doing the unwrapping inside Blender, because of its good level. So my opinion is to bring, for example, texture painting/sculpting/simulations/scene management/viewport etc to THAT level.
Another really important thing, imho, is a proper fund raising campaign. I don’t know how well fund raising is going, (btw i’d like to know it), but the more fund you raise, the more talented people you can hire. Lets think about not having Campbell Barton, Brecht, Sergey, Thomas, Nicholas as developers…
I wonder, why the majority of this community doesn’t take a look on Nicholas Bishop’s excellent and innovating work?
We already have dynamic topology, just have a look on modo or C4D “new” implementations for sculpting. Everybody talks about these. ha ha we already have the best.
its not a feature but how about some documentation. A complete nicely written manual would go a long way…Forgive me if this is obivious to the sculptors out there but I only started out sculpting so here is an example. Switching brushes if you go to the manual it shows you can switch brushes through the letters ‘d’ ‘g’ etc its out dated because it still gives ‘t’ for flatten brush even though this toggles the toolbar. Only by some accident because this is not documented in the manual did I find out you could switch brushes by pressing 1,2,3 and shift 1 (11) shift 2(12). How many features remain unused because the are not documented.
That’s a simple silly example but I bet you the are some killer features in Blender that see no use because nobody knows the are there in the first place.
For me bug-fixing and documentation would be awesome.
I wonder, why the majority of this community doesn’t take a look on Nicholas Bishop’s excellent and innovating work?
I have been following it, and I have to say it is fantastic. What I mean is refining. Like having a better sculpting environment, general cleanup, and increasing the amount of polygons that can be comfortably handled at once.
But hey, keep it up. We are a couple of thousand blenderheads after all 