Blender 2.5 Alpha 0

pichuneke · 26 Nov 2009, 10:34

I prefer to wait for the first beta, or even the first official version. It will be Blender 2.6 in the middle of next year.

pilou · 26 Nov 2009, 10:53

Anim8or who makes quasi the "same" than 3Dmax is less than 2 Megas
Modeling Rendering Animation
Small is beautiful

remus · 26 Nov 2009, 12:22

For comparison, the SU free download is 36mb to blenders 18mb. Not bad in my book.

Theres a release log here if anyone wants to check out.

thomthom · 26 Nov 2009, 12:53

Ok. I managed to get into Edit Mode for the selected object. (Tab)
But how do you select a face?
I only seem to be able to select vertices (by right clicking)

hm... RTFM to be able to select a face?

Whaat · 26 Nov 2009, 13:53

@thomthom said:

Ok. I managed to get into Edit Mode for the selected object. (Tab)
But how do you select a face?
I only seem to be able to select vertices (by right clicking)

hm... RTFM to be able to select a face?

I've been starting to use Blender 2.49 a lot more lately. It was always completely frustrating trying to do anything but now I have finally learned enough to start to enjoy using it.

Here are a couple Blender 2.49 tips for SketchUp users (not sure if these all apply to 2.5):

Go to User Preferences (if you can find it ) and change the view rotation to 'Turntable' and select with to 'Left Mouse'
View orientation controls are all with the numeric keypad
press 'b' to Window Select
press 'g' to move, 'r' to rotate and 's' to scale an object, then press x,y,or z to constrain along axis
'tab' goes to edit mode (like double clicking on component in SketchUp)
hover your mouse over the UI buttons to find out what they do
Don't even think about getting into materials and material editing unless you RTFM (my biggest mistake)

Oh, and to select a face in edit mode, look for a series of buttons at the bottom of the window to switch between vertex, edge, and face select mode

thomthom · 26 Nov 2009, 14:08

@whaat said:

Oh, and to select a face in edit mode, look for a series of buttons at the bottom of the window to switch between vertex, edge, and face select mode

Ah hah! ahahaha!
Ok - so where's the inference? Or rather, how can I extrude to a given vector, like perpendicular to the face I have selected?

Also, is it correct that selecting is done by right clicking?
When I select faces it often selects faces behind the front one...

EarthMover · 26 Nov 2009, 14:13

Thomthom, try selecting four verticies of a box and hit the "E" key and choose extrude region. Also use "S" key for scale. Make an obscure rectangular shape by extruding & scaling multiple times, then while still in edit mode, assign a "subsurf" modifier to the mesh and take the levels up to 4 or 5. This is similar to SDS for su. Continue to modify the subsurf and affect the subdivided geometry. Notice the speed.

Also, to select, use the RMB. To add to selection, use Shift+RMB. To quad face loop select, ALT+RMB

"A" to deselect all.

That's about all I remember from the 5 hours of tutorials I watched a few weeks ago.

remus · 26 Nov 2009, 14:23

Thom, couple of tips to help when selecting faces: theres a little dot in the middle of each face, if you click near that its much more likely to select the face your going for. you can also occlude geometry (the SU equivalent of turning off transparency) by clicking the little button one along from the vertex/edge/face select buttons.

thomthom · 26 Nov 2009, 14:32

@earthmover said:

Thomthom, try selecting four verticies of a box and hit the "E" key and choose extrude region. Also use "S" key for scale.

@remus said:

Thom, couple of tips to help when selecting faces: theres a little dot in the middle of each face, if you click near that its much more likely to select the face your going for.

Aaah! Hey - I can build stuff! Thanks guys..

Can't seem to find the Undo though. Not does Ctrl+Z work...

EarthMover · 26 Nov 2009, 14:32

Michalis posted a link to some really good Blender tutorials in one of his early threads. The tutorials included the modeling of a frog. Anyone have a link? I can't seem to find the thread.

remus · 26 Nov 2009, 14:35

ctrl+z works for me...i wonder if it depends on whether your in edit mode or not?

EarthMover · 26 Nov 2009, 14:44

Undo might be broken in the 2.5 release. Ctrl Z works in 2.49. I use the portable version and it works great.

Also another good tip is the "K" key. Use it to knife or loop cut. Since there is no "pencil" tool in quad modeling programs, use the loop cut to divide a face in the appropriate sections and create windows and such. Boolean modifier also works well. Loop cut is also good to add some "weight" to an edge that will be subdivided.

Personally I'd rather use sketchup for architectural stuff any day of the week. Nothing beats the tape measure / line tool combo. For organic shapes, Blender is the best of the "FREE" apps.

Remus, how do you "box" select in Blender? (drag a selection window?)

pilou · 26 Nov 2009, 14:47

Some videos tutorial (for 2.5 and 2.49)

EarthMover · 26 Nov 2009, 15:04

THanks for the tutorial link Remus. Wow, 2.5 looks a lot like Modo.

EscapeArtist · 26 Nov 2009, 15:11

I was just going to start complaining that I'd started to figure out where everything was in the old Blender when I saw the new GUI open up. I looked around and started to find things much more easily (the old GUI was a PITA to figure out, I've been playing with Blender since 1.somethingorother and still haven't got it all right) and was turning that cube into the Venus de Milo in no time flat.

No, not really. But I do think the new layout is much better.

All these improvements and it makes me think that they're going to start charging for this stuff soon.

EDIT: OK, now I'm getting frustrated - where's my space-bar menu? My right/left click menu? My verticies/faces/edges selection? They moved them!

EDIT x 2: Figured it out. I'm loving this new setup! They got rid of the annoying movement selection, and now it extrudes on axis automatically! Fantastic!

EarthMover · 26 Nov 2009, 17:08

Found the tutorials I was referring to. Not specific for 2.5, but a really good run down about blender functionality. - http://www.gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html

Also found the box select option - "B" key - duh! Also tap B key twice to bring up circle select. Scroll wheel to change the size of the selection circle.