Blender, baby! (Some questions)
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Blender, like Max is a first generation 3D graphics system that carries the bagage of an overcomplex UI in order to access a massively powerful disjointed underlying graphics system. I speak as somebody that has spent the time and used this app for a short while. Just too complex and not worth the investment in time. The time cost in learning this app cannot be offset by the fact that it is free.
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Pretty clear verdict. Thank you all for your input.
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Just incase you never understood, I learned Maya faster than it took me to do the basic stuff with Blender.
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lol. Point taken. SU + Silo it is.
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Stinkie, please at least try it for a couple fo days before you dismiss it. Chances are youll be even more stalwart in your use of silo+SU, but in the unlikely event you actually get anywhere you may subsequently find somethign really useful.
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One alternative not mentioned is Truespace (now free). It has most of features included in XSI, C4D etc. including bones, animation, more complete modeling tools than Silo, plus a not half bad render engine. If you are interested take a look at their organic modeling videos. http://www.caligari.com/products/trueSpace/ts5/Courses/WorkspaceOrganicModeling1.asp?Cate=Training&Subcate=Fundamental
The interface is not inspiring but not nearly as daunting as Blender.
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why not take this thread up to the SKETCHUP DISCUSSIONS
i think it maybe be interesting enough, or not ?
there are more relevant threads on the Corner bar going on ?
is not it ?
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I dont really see why this thread should be in SU discussions, it doesnt really have anything to do with SU after all.
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and what about its fussion then ?
Blender, baby! (Some questions)
by stinkie on August 30th, 2008, 11:36 amIt's free, it's supposed to be very potent. How many of you have used it? How's it for archviz? Does it import SU models? If so, what's the workflow? Any downsides? How's the internal renderer? Can neanderthals like myself use it? Is there an obscure blender2maxwell plugin somewhere?
In short, what's your honest opinion on the use of the planet's most popular free 3d app for archviz modeling and rendering? What would be a viable SU+Blender workflow?
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Sorry for distractign from your thread stinkie.
Juan, dont forget the rest of the post. SU discusions is for talking about SU stuff, this post asked about blender.
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@remus said:
Stinkie, please at least try it for a couple fo days before you dismiss it. Chances are youll be even more stalwart in your use of silo+SU, but in the unlikely event you actually get anywhere you may subsequently find somethign really useful.
I'm not dismissing Blender. I'm gonna look further into it when I have the time. This looks like an interesting read:
@phil said:
One alternative not mentioned is Truespace (now free). It has most of features included in XSI, C4D etc. including bones, animation, more complete modeling tools than Silo, plus a not half bad render engine.
Looked into it already. Didn't appeal to me. I am not blown away by the renders it produces, either. Most of the stuff on the TS site is ... meh. I can do better with the engines I already have. (Me! Wo would've thought!)
@juanv.soler said:
why not take this thread up to the SKETCHUP DISCUSSIONS
i think it maybe be interesting enough, or not ?
there are more relevant threads on the Corner bar going on ?
is not it ?
)As Remus pointed out, this is hardly a SketchUp discussion. Not yet, at least.
@remus said:
Sorry for distractign from your thread stinkie.
Quite allright. Back on topic, shall we?
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I know Remus,
SU discusions is for talking about SU stuff and this post is asking about blender.
but as I saw a posibility of discussing its fussion, that is why I thought we could discuss it in the Stuff`ss if it is worth to debate
_hum
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Good link
http://www.blender3darchitect.com/Free MIT accredited blender course that I'm doing off and on when I have the time
http://ocw.tufts.edu/Course/28 -
Good old Blender.
Okay, On to the advice I can give you:
The UI is difficult, but you'll get used to it eventually. The SFX tools are handy, but similar to the rest of it, difficult to get into, but once your in, Plain Sailing. One of the features I really like is the Fluid Simulation, It's quite possible to mess around with it for hours without getting bored.
As for actually making models, I found it a bit tricky, Some Models(Like a simple car) could be made in minutes, But others can takes ages. I remember trying to make a basic blimp, and it took me 3 hours.
One of the other things that a lot of people are using blender for now is the game engine. It's very powerful if it's used correctly. What I would recommend is to have a look through the wiki for some tutorials, even if they don't really interest you, do them. Then I would head over to http://blenderartists.org/forum/ They are nice folks there, and are more than willing to help new users.
Also check out http://www.blendernation.com/ As they can have some very helpful articles.
And the final bit of advice, is have a read through: http://www.blenderart.org/issues/. They usually have some good short tutorials that are well written.
Just remember, my first blender model was this:
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and your last?
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It's on a USB Stick somewhere, It's of a Sail Boat. Quite nice looking.
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Blender should be treated with respect. The lucky ones are frightened off at the first encounter. For some it has a strange addictive attraction and whoever continues to play around with it may be in danger of becoming a "Blenderhead". You have been warned.
But seriously, imo it has ever-growing potential for archvis. New versions appear quite often and features expand constantly. v2.47 has excellent snapping tools which are quite a recent development. And the rendering capabilities are amazingly varied and excellent for most users.
There is a strong community of arch people using it now.
http://yorik.orgfree.com/tutorials/precisionmodelling-blender.html
http://blender-archi.tuxfamily.org/Main_Page
http://yorik.orgfree.com/tutorials/architecture-blender.html
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hi caddict, you should check these threads out.
project to adapt archiviz
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=128924
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=136325nurbs in blender
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=133844 -
Thanks, Stan! Great links.
Blender for architects is really taking off.
Seems to be mainly in Europe. I guess a lot of its appeal and importance is because it runs on linux systems. The linux people have been deprived for a long time!
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