[gfxcomplex]

Kinda wondering why there is no blender category in the 3d Software area?

Do most people here think poorly of Blender?

[gfxcomplex]

As someone new to 3d blender it was a good choice for me because I didn't have to invest a large sum of money just so I can learn.

I will admit that their older UI has a bigger learning curve compared the their new UI. But with all the being said I think blender is making advancements and I'm sure there are people here who use it.

I really like this site and I really like blender and I would love to use this site for my community based learning but at the moment I don't have a proper place to post about blender here and I'm not really sure why.

[gfxcomplex]

any one?

[everythingfalls]

Hey gfxcomplex,

I like blender alot, its a mighty prog. but just mighty if you can handle it ^^
Its a cool idea to start a blender category, so we can learn from each other .

-max-

[RaulTavares]

I, for sure, am with you. I started using blender a few months ago. I wanted to learn a 3D software but it was not a valid choise to go for something that costs 3000+ and has to get renewed every year.
The only money I spent was on zbrush, because sortly after seeing the profit that these companies get from feeding on artists dreams and wishes of a career I switched to open source.
Don't forget that what makes a good software are the programmers. And those people are more often motivated by credit than by money. One day I will see all turned into open source. Seeing the end and fall of autodesk would really make my day...well, just a long dream, but never know.

Hope to see a category about blender.
Cheers

[Azium]

I'm gonna have to support the idea for a Blender category. RaulTavares raises an excellent point in how expensive 3D programs can be, and for young artists just starting they don't have that kind of cash to throw down. Plus, its a great program to actually see if the artist really wants to work in 3D, a sort of test program before they completely jump in head first. At several Portfolio Days I've been to I've seen some kids crank out some pretty banging stuff from Blender, along with ability to try out coding, texturing, rigging, ect.

Having no Blender category is like putting an entrance fee on a library.
People shouldn't have to pay to learn from a communal basis of knowledge.

[gfxcomplex]

Well my thoughts are that since blender is so much more then just a modeling program ("for example the blender game engine") that there will be more then enough conversation surrounding blender that it would find its self to be a useful category, and who knows maybe cghub will become the goto place for the blender artists of the world? That would be good too right?

If the mods like I could go on and on about all the positive things that a blender category would bring to cghubs if they like...

So maybe the community could help me with this.

Lets start by getting the obvious out the way.

1: Its free and supported by the community.

2: The current community is a great bunch of people, friendly and willing to help.

3: It supports open standards like .obj and also standards like .3ds

feel free to add to this is if you can..

[arttorney]

I finally got Blender up and running about a week ago. For Blender curious people, make sure your graphics card will be compatible since Blender doesn't get along with half-assed graphics cards. Also, do not get Python 2.7. Blender (version 2.4x) works with Python 2.6. Do your own research and read the date of my post, though, because Blender has an active development community. A year and a half from now the preferred Python version may have changed.

The game engine was of great interest for me to be sure, but for compositing and sculpting Blender seems also to be the one reasonable open alternative. I already found other FOSS alternatives for modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, and rendering.

Has anybody tried the Suicidator random city generating script?

[gfxcomplex]

What version of blender did you try arttorney?

I haven't had any problems with python needing to be this nor that in 2.5. About the video card I have tried blender on may mid level and low end Invidia cards with no problems at all.

I know 2.55 is still beta but from what I seen it looks to be more a release candidate then a beta. Also the UI has change so much from 2.49 to 2.5 that if your trying blender now for the first you should just start with the beta even if its not ready only because you will have to learn the UI all over again.

[arttorney]

I have to check. It was whatever was the newest stable release in early October this year- the Windows version. Python 2.7 was on the computer and blender would give me a "can't find Python" message. I downloaded Python 2.6 and then problem solved.

My Fedora linux machine was where I got "black squares in the screen" syndrome a couple of years ago, and found out it was from the graphics card. Perhaps they've fixed it lately.

[gfxcomplex]

I think your looking at 2.49 and yes its still a great version so much has changed in 2.5 that you will want to see the new UI.

Have a look here.
http://www.blender.org/development/r...nder-255-beta/

I think they even use python 3 in the new version though I'm not sure.
edit: I just found out that you must use py3k with the new 2.55 so yeah they are using the newer version of python.

Originally Posted by arttorney

I have to check. It was whatever was the newest stable release in early October this year- the Windows version. Python 2.7 was on the computer and blender would give me a "can't find Python" message. I downloaded Python 2.6 and then problem solved.

My Fedora linux machine was where I got "black squares in the screen" syndrome a couple of years ago, and found out it was from the graphics card. Perhaps they've fixed it lately.

[arttorney]

Anyway, I can probably check with somebody who has higher level administrator powers and see whether we can get a Blender subforum, or at least a general "free 3D program region." (I say free rather than "free open source" because there are several SketchUp folks on here as well, and while SketchUp remains proprietary, it is still one of those 3D tools that one can get a "free as in beer" version of.)

[gfxcomplex]

You the man.


also when I upload an image I dont see an option to say it was made with blender. Do you think you could pass a word on for that too?

Originally Posted by arttorney

Anyway, I can probably check with somebody who has higher level administrator powers and see whether we can get a Blender subforum, or at least a general "free 3D program region." (I say free rather than "free open source" because there are several SketchUp folks on here as well, and while SketchUp remains proprietary, it is still one of those 3D tools that one can get a "free as in beer" version of.)

[arttorney]

We'll see. I always do what you do and type it into the description. A lot of times I used three or four different programs that are all not in the pull-downs.

I guess having a category for it might help people to do specific searching. Have you thought about starting a Blender User Group? Never mind about starting the Blender User Group. Here it is. http://cghub.com/groups/view/203/ I didn't have a banner and group avatar image handy that was made in Blender but I am pretty sure that stuff can be edited in later. I installed some basic furnishings. Now all we need is some members.

[arttorney]

CGHub has made it so when you upload an image to your gallery made with Blender you have the ability to use the upload manager to say the image was made in Blender, just like you might do with Zbrush or Maya. I don't know when a specifically dedicated subforum might show up, so for now why not use that User Group I created and linked in my previous post. I made it look and act like a subforum by starting out threads about the usual topics, e.g. modeling, texturing, animation, etc. We are now Blender enabled.