blender 2.5 brand new interface

[iamthwee]

So blender 2.5 has a brand new slick interface.

Enough to rival packages like modo and 3dmax.

Any blender users here. What are your initial thoughts?

http://www.blender.org/

[JasonHippy]

Hmmm, I took a quick look at 2.5 over the weekend (not spent too much time with it yet) and I have to admit I am almost completely lost ATM and not entirely impressed so far!

Other than Blender and Wings3D, I've not really used any other 3D modelling software; so I'm not really sure how it compares to other high-end packages (maya, max etc). But I'd only just about mastered where everything was with the older versions of Blender and finally managed to get my head around the workflow. So my main gripe with 2.5 so far is that I have to relearn how to access all of the functionality I require, 'cause the interface is waaaay different. But hopefully taking a look at the new documentation and having a bit of a play will resolve that issue.

Other than that, the only other gripe so far is, much as it looks pretty neat the way it animates between views (e.g. when you switch from top view to front view), personally I'd rather just go straight to the required view rather than having to wait for it to animate into position each time. I think that will get really annoying after a while. Hopefully there's an option to turn the animation off when changing views.

Ultimately, I think I need to spend a bit more time with 2.5 before I decide whether I like it or not, but at the moment I'm still very much in favour of the old interface.

Cheers for now,
Jas.

[JasonHippy]

Hmm, looks like there are only two Blender users here on Daniweb then!

After spending another weekend with 2.5 I have to say that it's growing on me. It's still annoying having to search for things in the new UI, but it turns out it's not so bad after all, things are beginning to make sense.

But I've found another niggle...I'm really not sure about the new toolbox menu.(The popup you get when you press space)

The old one had lots of grouped shortcuts to bits of common functionality (stuff you'd use really often when modelling/animating), so you'd just press space and then select the item you wanted from the popup menu.

The new version gives you a little panel which contains a massive linear list of every single bit of functionality in the program. There's also a little edit box which allows you to filter the list according to a keyword. So to see the shortcut link to the 'add cube' functionality you have to type 'add' (which lists all add operations, e.g. add camera, add particle system etc etc) or 'cube' (or 'add cube') which displays only 'add cube'.

The new toolbox popup has proved to be handy for locating bits of functionality that are still hidden somewhere in the unexplored/unfamiliar areas of the new UI, but at the same time it makes the process of quickly doing those common things that bit more awkward in that you'd have to type a keyword related to the action you wanted to perform. (you'd almost be quicker to just navigate the main menu system or the UI to find the functionality you wanted).

I can see that the new toolbox menu is much more powerful than the previous one, but having the most commonly used bits of functionality arranged into groups (as per the original toolbox) was also equally useful.
Perhaps they could use both of the toolbox popups. e.g. Restore the old version to the original shortcut (space) and then perhaps bind the new one to something like ctrl + space.

That way you've got one shortcut that brings you up the most common bits of functionality and another that will allow you to find any bit of functionality. Hmm, I might just go onto the blender forums and put my case forward.

Cheers for now,
Jas.

[iamthwee]

Yeah I kinda like the old interface. It took a long time to get used too.
Do you have any examples of work you've done using blender Jason?

Here are some of mine...

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=86235
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=109966
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=130718
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=92345

[JasonHippy]

Yeah I kinda like the old interface. It took a long time to get used too. Do you have any examples of work you've done using blender Jason?

Here are some of mine...

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=86235 http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=109966 http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=130718 http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=92345

Nice work..Especially with the glasses!

Even after several years, I'm still really learning blender. So most of my stuff has been tutorials and messing about with plugins and things. I also had a go (unsucessfully) at fixing the very buggy VRML2 import/export scripts. I have done a few other random bit's 'n bobs of my own...Most are embarrassingly bad though!

The banner image in the header of my personal website is about the only semi-decent rendering of mine that I can find. I'm quite proud of the skull model in it, I also did a few 3D versions of my previous bands logo, but other than that I've not really done masses.

Blender is something I tinker with on and off. I enjoy messing around with it, but I rarely seem to set out to do anything particularly productive/creative with it!

Most of my blender stuff is on one of my old hard-drives...I'll have to dig it out and take a look to see what I can find! If I can find anything semi-decent I'll post it!

I even bought the 'Blender for Dummies' book a while ago with the intention of working through it, to try to fill the gaps in my knowledge of Blender, but that hasn't happened yet either!
I've read it a few times, bloody good book. I just haven't had the time to sit down and work through the examples. Family, band, work and other projects always seem to get in the way!

hmm, I really want to improve my skills with Blender, but I just don't seem to get enough time to spend with it!
As I said, if I do manage to find anything semi-decent I'll post it!
Cheers for now,
Jas.

[ruleboy527]

Other than that, the only other gripe so far is, much as it looks pretty neat the way it animates between views (e.g. when you switch from top view to front view), personally I'd rather just go straight to the required view rather than having to wait for it to animate into position each time. I think that will get really annoying after a while. Hopefully there's an option to turn the animation off when changing views.

Hey, I know this is a little bit of an old post, but I wondered the same thing, and I found the solution.

In the interface tab of User Preferences, there is a slider called Smooth View. Change that to zero, and the view will change instantly like in the old versions.