Comments on: Completely Lost in Blender

By: Crusoe

Crusoe — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 02:23:00 +0000

Give us ASSIGNABLE HOTKEYS NOW! We need some configuration, some tweaking, the ability to dock/undock, and custom buttons/macros!

I tried blender, gave up, and then started Using SILO. I'll use blender to rig, to maybe even render, but to start boxmodeling, Silo blows blender out of the water. Heck, even ZBrushes non-standard UI is easier. Blender has a lot of awesome features, but no easy way for newbies to use them. It's the EMACS, the DOS WordPerfect of the 3D modeling app world.

Please, make the UI easier for newbies. Allow user-assignable keys and macros. :P

By: Felix Kütt

Felix Kütt — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 09:45:45 +0000

the first time i opened blender my first thought was that hmm how to rotate the view, then i thought that naah left click must select some thing, so i tried the mmd and it worked, yay i was sooo happy! well, ill wish her good luck with the learning, and no blenders gui IS easy, and wery beautiful, what i cant stand are 3ds max, well maya i can somewhat stand, and xsi is more like: "ok so this is it, and that is that, ok fine, ill go back to blender now!"

By: epat

epat — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 21:59:42 +0000

I remember my first try with blender – back in the days of 2.14; now I don't want to go off on any sob stories or anything but I remember finding b@rt's cave tutorial somewhere on the net – that's the very thing that got me started and also the first time I'd ever felt I'd achieved anything; so there you are! – epat.

By: luckybreak

luckybreak — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 16:05:34 +0000

…ah… rest of my post got itself lost.

Anyway I recall broken had some plans for the UI, I look forward to seeing them, and if new users take to them…
…The only way i learnt Blender was through the books….
…and honestly…will take my hat off and happily munch it the day blender is intuitive to new users…

By: luckybreak

luckybreak — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 15:47:58 +0000

Crissis:
"I turned away from blender because I wanted that first glance at the system and it behaved counter-intuitively"
There in is the rub. Most people do and understandbly Blender gets the (incorrect) stygma of a poor UI.

Who knows though Crissis, if someone had pointed you to a link of a…
—>>"Slightly redundant but behaves like you expect fork"

By: Jasper

Jasper — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 05:37:47 +0000

When explaining somebody how to start with Blender.
Say: it's easy like ABC !?

First tell about the Tab-button (to know difference between object/edit mode is essential!)
Then explain:
A the A-button (select/deselect the dots…)
B the B-button (how to select…tap once or tap twice)
C the C-button ( Center so don't get lost in space)
D the D-button (Different views of the cube)
E the E-button (Extrude what you select!)
F the F-button (you make a strange Face when in object mode?)
G the Grab button

Space to add new shapes.

The num-pad doing the viewports is also very easy for newbies to understand. And then……..direct them to the Blenderwiki and do the cookieman tutorial!

Don't forget to tell to save your work because…

You see it's as easy as the ABC; it took me years to read and write.
Working with Blender since version 2.36 and still not knowing all the buttons……. :)

By: Terry's wife

Terry's wife — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 21:02:40 +0000

Terry has been forcibly removed from the keyboard.
Sorry for the inconvenience.

-Read Free software magazine
^_^

By: Kernon

Kernon — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 20:33:16 +0000

"Get real. It’s a story about someone’s learning process. It’s not “excuses”. You guys read so much into this it’s funny. I guess every time you admit to having trouble it’s an “excuse” and every time you have difficulty you have to have someone to blame, and so you figure that’s what everyone else is doing, too. It never occurs to you that someone might just choose to be HONEST."

I wouldn't exactly call it a "learning process" when you approach Blender like it's a 3D pinata. Where if you swing at it enough times, you're liable to bang something out of it. I don't think anyone's taking anything out of her post that isn't there. And the blaming is actually coming from her, not from "us guys".

3D graphics are a lot more complicated than the average person realizes, no matter what software they're using. To make her blog more HONEST and relevant, she should try to create her desired graphic in other applications as well and then present the details of her successes and/or shortcomings. Now that would actually be something worth following…

Cheers!

By: Kernon

Kernon — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 20:10:31 +0000

LOL! Well, when I started Blender sure, I had dreams of doing all sorts of things. But, I had enough sense to know that I couldn't start at the end of a learning process. I knew, as I suppose most people do, that I would have to take things one step at a time.

"I bet you’ve NEVER had this experience, right? You’re always a good little boy who does what he’s told, right?"
NO, I'm not always a "good little boy". However, I do always make it my practice to have reference materials readily available when I'm trying to learn new things in Blender. It saves a tremendous amount of time and frustration (it also helps eliminate the dreaded Blogs Gone Wild effect that we're seeing here).

"Get real"
I am real…I think. (EMO…E-EMO……don't you ever get tired of this?…)

"It’s a story about someone’s learning process."
Well, I never thought about it in that light before. I'll have to go back and watch the film again…you are talking about Elephants Dream right? …i'm sorry, your posts are so long my mind tends to wander. ;)

Anywho, I contend with you Terry in the name of fun (sort of). So, no hard feelings, huh? Happy Blendering!

Somehow I knew you would approve of the neutering. :))

By: Terry Hancock

Terry Hancock — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 18:08:55 +0000

"""
She wanted to create a 3D portrait of herself similar to the graphics seen in “Ghost in the Shell”. Have you seen that movie and the level of the graphics it contains? Is it even remotely reasonable for a beginner to have those expectations and then, upon failing, blame it on the software’s interface?…
"""

Uh-huh, and I'll bet you started learning Blender because you wanted to make cubes and spheres, right?

Come on, everybody starts because they see a really cool picture and they want to learn how. Don't be dense. The GiTS reference is there precisely *because* it's unrealistic goal. Sheesh.

"""
She stated that she had read through a few tutorials. It’s clear that her reading through the tutorials and her attempts at using Blender happened at two separate times. Who here thinks that’s a good idea? What IS a good idea is to actually go through a tutorial WHILE using Blender…duh.
"""

Well, duh, you are just SOOO smart, aren't you. I bet you've NEVER had this experience, right? You're always a good little boy who does what he's told, right? Uh-huh, rriii–gght.

Get real. It's a story about someone's learning process. It's not "excuses". You guys read so much into this it's funny. I guess every time you admit to having trouble it's an "excuse" and every time you have difficulty you have to have someone to blame, and so you figure that's what everyone else is doing, too. It never occurs to you that someone might just choose to be HONEST.

"""
Anyway, according to Terry, most opinions here are symptoms of the excessive male macho. So, I guess I’ll go off and quietly neuter myself for being such a bad boy…bad Kernon, BAD Kernon, sit… sit… good boy.
"""

Sounds like a plan. ;-D

Anyway, I happen to know there are two more installments in this blog series, so I'm really wondering what you're going to think of the rest of it. ;-D