Q&A: Tom Musgrove Discusses Blender Development
Tom Musgrove was interviewed by Computer World recently. Its an interesting read.
Tom answers the following questions:
What sort of niche does Blender fill in the market for 3-D modeling/rendering tools?
What types of work is it generally used for?
Do you see it as superior to commercial alternatives for certain industries or applications?
How big is the user base?
Besides Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, Blender is also available for several platforms that one doesn’t always see supported in open-source software products: Solaris, FreeBSD and Irix. The Irix support seems natural, considering the SGI connection, but why is it important to maintain Solaris and FreeBSD versions?
As discussed earlier, there have been some complaints about the Blender interface. Some users think it’s a mild distraction that’s to be expected, considering the sophisticated functionality of Blender. Others say the interface is confusing and counterintuitive. More than a few describe it in much harsher terms. What do you think of users’ assessments of the Blender UI?
What are Blender developers doing about it?
What are the 3-D tools or Web sites that you use?
What are some of the most exciting technologies, platforms and trends you see in the 3-D market?
Check out the interview here.
That was a good interview and it was nice to hear about development progress. It made the tools API refactor seem pretty far away though. I thought all the questions were handled very well.
It’s kind of weird to use my other 3D software packages and notice Tom in those communities, acting as competitive analyst or chief promotional officer or whatever you want to call it. It makes me feel like I should resist Blender more, or pick sides, when I’m actually very comfortable with Blender along with the other applications I use. I don’t think Blender really needs to compete, but I guess there are people who want to feel like it does.
Nice article. As always, LetterRip’s an eloquent spokesman for Blender!
@Steven, I don’t think the article mentioned this, but version 2.50 is most likely to be the next version released, and based on my limited knowledge, you can probably to expect to see it early 2008.
@Tony, correct I believe the general consensus is that the 2.50 release will come after Peach is finished. Whether thats accurate I have no clue.
Hi all,
Ton plans to start the tool API refactor in a couple of weeks or so, and has set asside a large chunk of time to work on it.
The current plan is not to have a ‘true’ release till after Peach (or at least towards the end of it), although we might do a ‘tech preview release’ sooner than that.
LetterRip
Steven,
“It’s kind of weird to use my other 3D software packages and notice Tom in those communities, acting as competitive analyst or chief promotional officer or whatever you want to call it.”
The other communities I participate in tends to be on a cooperative basis, as noted in the interview.
“It makes me feel like I should resist Blender more, or pick sides, when I’m actually very comfortable with Blender along with the other applications I use. I don’t think Blender really needs to compete, but I guess there are people who want to feel like it does.”
The ‘competitive analysis’ is to evaluate in what ways we can better serve our existing users. To better anticipate current users needs and how to serve them. A big part of that is in understanding how other software meets the needs of their users. While it is desireable for other users to adopt Blender, our primary interest is in best serving our current user base.
LetterRip
Very good interview. Enjoyed reading it. Looking forward to 2.5 :)
Thanks for the replies- I’ll be interested to see the tools refactor, since I’ve used Blender long enough to feel comfortable.
>The other communities I participate in tends to be on a cooperative basis, as noted in the interview.
Thank you for the clarification, and thanks for the work you do.
nice! thanks Tom! :)