Blender 2.69 (the Release Candidate) is expected later this week, and the Google Summer of Code is finished.
Ton Roosendaal writes:
Hi all,
Here are the notes from today's meeting in irc.freenode.net #blendercoders.
1) Upcoming 2.69 release
- Showstopper bug for opening multiple windows, a commit will get rewinded. (Brecht van Lommel will handle it).
- Planning: we move to BCon5 now, and create the tagged release branch tomorrow. After that branch was successfully created we will notify everyone here we're back in BCon1 again.
- Reminder: for this release, we will make a full 2.69 version (tagged, splashed, with correct version, etc) and make that available as "Release Candidate" first. Fixes reported on the release candidate get fixed in *both* trunk and the released branch. That gives some overhead, but we expect it will do fine.
- Logs in progress.
2) Google Summer of Code
- 12 of 15 students were accepted on their final evaluation. (two didn't make midterm, one student gave up after midterm). Reports on result for GSoC will follow soon.
- The LoD (for game engine) GSoC project was reviewed, and with small changes can go to trunk next week.
- Note: every GSoC student can now propose their work for reviews now, or inclusion in trunk. Keep in touch with the mentors too!
3) Other projects
- Sjoerd de Vries proposes to have the Hive add-on as release target for one of the 2.7x versions.
- Meeting ended with UI discussions - but no actions were defined other than we can work on (re)defining) good common grounds first and then just solve the differences in a practical way. The next weeks and especially Blender Conference can be used for it.
Thanks,
-Ton-
3 Comments
I thought of perhaps a compromise on UI that could both appeal to existing users as well as improve the workflow of the program. On the opening splash page, and prominently displayed in the header, have a drop menu of UI configurations, default being the current Classic blender. The additional options could be task oriented UIs, like Model & Texture, Animation & Rigging, Compositing & FX. Loading these UIs would load presets, panel configurations and perhaps custom (coded in the UI) tools conducive to the task. Importantly, Blender makes these UIs save'able and share'able.
What this allows for is community building of the user interface. The core group can maintain the classic Blender experience, but then studios or enthusiasts could start working together to build their own interfaces fitting their interests. Additionally, these schemes fitted to tasks could be 100 times better than Maya shelves, in that users could truly rework the environment, not just some buttons, to fit what they're doing.
This achieves the best of all goals. You don't disenfranchise existing users, and if you make the UI schemes an obvious and prominent feature, you can create environments that are easier to learn and use for newcomers.
Additional to the UI discussion, I want to posit one more thing. Blender does not need to adopt other program's keys or clone their functions. It should however try to address usability with understanding of the different types of artists out there. Without adopting other program's keys, Blender could still make many improvements that make features easier to understand, better organized and consistently accessible.
To understand what I mean, consider the following.
Many of us in our lifetime will become impaired through injury, sickness or the effects of advanced aging. If you were to suffer loss of a limb, could you continue to use Blender with just the use of a mouse? If you were to suffer mild senility, are the functions and tools organized in an unconfusing way? If your eyesight were to worsen to a state that makes reading difficult, does Blender deploy enough iconography or larger fonts that you could still navigate?
These same problems that would make Blender as it is unusable to people with these problems also hinder learners. There are people who gravitate to icons. There are people who are frustrated by scattered features. There are people who prefer to use the mouse primarily. There may be arguments as to why hotkeys are more efficient, but the program should still be designed with the varying aptitudes and disabilities of its potential user base as well.
Blender already has different UI layout for different tasks.
Maybe , instead of making a special UI or set of hotkeys for new users,
That can lead to confusion when following a tutorial, if everybody has different presets of blender.
making a special splash screen for new users, with some tutorials that help you to catch the basics of what you want to do. Basic UI concept / A quick model / a quick rig / a quick animation.
These are already in the wiki in fact, but maybe it can be done so you can start doing something in a very short time.
Actually everything in the splash screen is at the same level , and there is much of information, maybe a big "new to blender ?" link will help.