there doesn’t seem to be a specific section for this… but here seems like the best spot.
Blender is great, and I’m glad I found it, but it does have some problems for new users. I almost deleted it right after downloading it because it’s so complicated! So I have two ideas really: First, make a “beginners mode” that blender goes to by default on launching. What I’m invisioning is this: a simple, inviting, easy to use interface so people don’t delete blender right away like I almost did. Lets say it has a clearly marked menu to add the simple mesh shapes, and has only the bare essentials needed to make anything you want. So lets say they make a shape. Lets say this shape always appears in a certain spot so they don’t need to worry about the cursor. Then they are in edit mode, and they see the vertices. They can click on the vertices and move them, they can move the viewpoint, and also something else I’d like added to blender, regardless of having a beginner mode; being able to select at least 2 vertices, then choose an add vertice option. This will add another vertice, attached to all currently selected vertices. This allows for easier making of objects, starting with a simple shape. So anyways, back to the beginners mode. It will only have the 3D screen on, the buttons window won’t be needed for this. They will have object and edit mode, and they will be able to do simple operations like merging vertices or joining objects. This way they won’t delete blender because it will be easy for them to use. And now for a simpler idea: When in blender beginner mode, lets say they have access to an in-blender tutorial. There they can find out where to find more tutorials, the forum, and it will explain the basics of the beginner interface so they know what to do. But jsut to be safe, lets also say every time blender is launched automatically into beginner mode it automatically opens the interface tutorial so they don’t need to worry about finding it. Thanks for listening to the long and probably confusing idea!
It’s a good idea - but once you get used to the interface . . . there’s no going to anything else! I had the same problem initially, but now I wish all programs were just like Blender!
'bro you signed up 17 days ago & already logged 92 posts!
I honestly do not get what is so hard about the UI. everything seems to go where it should and the workflow is pretty fast for me. it was the first app I used though so maybe thats why.
From the Blender.org development site: Architecture
UI design decisions
- Since it’s an in-house tool, speed of usage had preference over ease of learning
I don’t think you’re going to get a beginner’s mode anytime soon.
I agree, but this would be useful if they want more users. Just something to keep people from deleting it because it looks too complicated. They need SOMETHING at least, maybe some link choices pop up to go to tutorials like noob to pro but they need something.
They need SOMETHING at least
I wholeheartedly agree. Something like a Help menu.
:eek: EEK!!! What’s that I see? There is a help menu and it says “Getting Started”, and the tooltip says “Help for new users”. And it has a link to the Manual, and Tutorials!
:mad:
OMG I’m so blind lol I totally missed that rofl thx for pointing that out.
Here’s two idea that i think can help avoiding the “first try then --> trash” syndrome (that i’ve also done).
-add the hotkeymap in the installation folder
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Reference/Hotkey_Map
-change the quickstart guide pdf by an html version .
(i’ve done that recently , but lost all the files while re-instaling windozzzzz)
Both being accessible in the help menu .
Peace :spin:.
once you get uset to the interface every other 3d app will feel slow in comparison
And you know this because you’ve used every other 3D app in the same sort of depth? This sort of hyperbole doesn’t really help.
Some newbie friendly tools are annoying to me. Like I accidently click the widget in object mode and the object moves on an axis instead of grabbing it, that’s why I always turn the widgets off.
I don’t see any issue with the UI either. Since computers are now more and more used by every day people they have become accustomed to easy to use programs that require little or no reading of the manual. 3D apps by their very nature are extremely complicated and powerful beasts. They are never designed (the good ones anyway) with this demographic in mind. I’ve used 3D apps since Imagine1.0 on the Amiga and all of them require a serious time investment to get anything good out of. Easy or beginners mode just should not even be considered, they just aren’t that type of app.
lipton_lover,
the whole interface issue has been lengthly debated and the cause of many a flame war, and I for one am staying with the “BLENDER’S INTERFACE ROCKS!!!” side of the conflict. Nonetheless, I did have lots of trouble when I was starting to use it, and though I see your point, I think that solution to the problem is not very viable.
I recently gave a small introductory lecture to Blender at the University I attend, and after the brief historic review, I started by opening and saying
so, first time you open Blender, you see this cube, this target thingy, you click your mouse and suddenly the cube is moving or rotating and you no longer know what your’re doing. You close Blender, uninstall, and go crying back to 3DMax
by then, some people were chuckling and nodding in recognition of their own experience. Then I gave my punchline
So, first rule of Blender: you select objects with the RIGHT mouse button
. Then I heard this general “ooooh” of understanding. It still amazes me how that little simple fact can be so counter intuitive to people who are used to right clicking, as I’m sure most of us are. But is very, very easy to understand that, not to mention that you CAN change it in the user preferences. What is probably very hard to do is add a different, temporary user interface and editing mode(this “beginner’s interface”), not to mention that it probably would keep people from getting to know Blender in depth, rather than encouraging them to do it.
What I think would be a nice compromise between a beginner’s fear of the interface and it’s apparent complicatedness(and I do mean “apparent”), would be to have some very handy, very basic, very conspicuous, very hard to pass beginners tutorial.
I’m thinking a video or set of videos, or a list of tips, that either pop up the first time you run Blender, or pop up every time you start Blender unless you explicitly ask for them not to show(like is usual in many software packages), or, maybe as a way not to annoy long time experienced users, they could be in the spot light on Blender.org, so the guy that goes there to download Blender couldn’t miss them, because, actually, there are a set of Basic tutorials on Blender.org, but they’re kinda easy to miss, and somewhat lengthy looking. A video version would be very nice.
So, in short, we don’t have to dumb down the interface, we have to smart up the user base. And that’s not patronizing or derogatory, I myself feel like I’ve been enlightened by Blender, and feel very grateful for it 
edit: Actually, there are basic video tutorials up there. But again, they’re not so much in the spotlight. They should really be. Honestly, I hardly ever go to blender.org, and I doubt many experienced users do. So the site should focus more on being welcoming to new users.
ummm… thanks for the support? :unsure: not sure which way you’re leaning exactly lol.
My idea of having a dummbed down interface for new users comes partly from the fact that I still think it would help, secondly because I love simplicity, and thirdly because sometimes I like the simplest of tools to get complicated jobs done, (such as adding simple shapes, simply moving and duplicating vertices, and painting the finished product).
I think some posts in this topic are very hard to read. Could those people start using new lines please?
And as for the interface, making art is hard. Let me ask you this: did you ever ask your pencil manufacturer to put an “easy or beginners-mode” on it? After all, it does not even come with a help-mode, and it won’t learn you to draw, right?
See, that’s where you are confused(in my humble opinion). Just because Blender isn’t simple to learn it doesn’t mean it isn’t simple to use. Ease of use for an experienced user to me is much more important that ease of learning for a beginner, and Blender IS very easy to use, once you’ve climbed past its learning curve.
And with each further upgrade to the documentation, and with each new experienced user willing to share his/hers techniques, it will get more and more easy to learn.
Documentation man. Documentation, documentation, documentation .
With the vertice selected, use the manipulator widget and just move the arrows in the xyz direction, or press G to GRAB the vert, move your mouse, and then click to drop it in place.
to add a vertice onto another one, simply select the vert and then click CTRL-LMB to add another vertice connected to that one. You can very quickly outline an edge just by control-clicking along the path.