[Bf-committers] Current state of Blender's user experience (Ton Roosendaal)

[David Ballesteros]

Hi,

I'm one of those unemployed semi-profesional(worked for more than 6 years
on a studio) that used other 3D Apps. LightWave and Modo in my case.

I couldn't believe I saw this written by you Tom:

> The most avid haters are typically the unemployed freeloaders, self
proclaimed professionals
> (the "I used every 3d program out there in the past 20 years" people) and
other people who
> never paid a dime for Maya or Max."

I own my licenses of LW (4.0 to 2015) and Modo (601 to 901), paid with my
work or my savings, and I found that comment slightly offensive.

Don't you think that users coming from other applications can't add some
value and insight to Blender? Really?

The last two weeks I've been learning Blender (not modified, not even the
shortcuts) and there are things I like, others not so much.

The famous Right Click Select debate is one, if you're working
simultaneously with other 3D app and Blender, it really reduces
productivity by a high margin (and I know it can be changed on preferences
but doesn't works on all the cases).

I'm trying Blender for character rigging and animation. I know is superior
in that aspect than Modo. And guess what I found, Blender doesn't have Soft
IK on it's IK Solver (on a branch that I've found mentioned in youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmjUjm4FPak. Not sure if that has gone into
Master at some point, but I couldn't find anything sure about it.

LightWave has a powerful IK Solver since LW 9.0, with SoftIK and Stretch IK
supported. If I'm not wrong Blender neither has one. Modo for sure doesn't
have it.

I had a look to that document you added.I liked some things I read and saw,
but other I was like What? Three icon  near the Translation, Rotation,
Coordinates? That for example for me is only prettify something that right
now is really clean and intuitive in blender. I will read on total detail
the document, and make my suggestions if I found any.

With the help of people from IRC I even managed to compile Blender with VS
2015 Community.
At some point I will like to contribute with code.But I hope it will not be
rejected simply because I'm one of those "other" users.

> There's also still a fair bit of contempt for anything free/open source
software in many (also > professional) circles.

Curiusly Linux doesn't suffer from that I wonder why.

Funny you mentioned the nimblecollective. There is a video I'm sure you
know from Jason Schleifer modifying Blender shortcuts to put them in synch
on a very logical way. On 2.77a I've looked on the Preferences Input, and
looks has been sorted out. So a pro somehow influenced Blender? ;)

I hope in the same way you ask to everyone to have an open mind about
Blender, you will have an open mind about the "aliens" from other 3D Apps
landing on Blender land.

And for the record I don't hate Blender. But ther eis a lot of space for
improvement.

Cheers,
David


> Message: 4
> Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2016 10:50:02 +0200
> From: Ton Roosendaal <ton at blender.org>
> Subject: Re: [Bf-committers] Current state of Blender's user
>         experience
> To: bf-blender developers <bf-committers at blender.org>
> Message-ID: <4B893B01-FEAF-479D-BDB3-83CCE09635E6 at blender.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> Hi Daniel,
>
> Blender always had a share of haters and negative feedback since the early
> days.
>
> The most avid haters are typically the unemployed freeloaders, self
> proclaimed professionals (the "I used every 3d program out there in the
> past 20 years" people) and other people who never paid a dime for Maya or
> Max. There's also still a fair bit of contempt for anything free/open
> source software in many (also professional) circles.
>
> The positive side is very impressive too. For example, you can find
> Blender recommended on the Pixar website, and Nimble Collective (former
> Dreamworks animators) invests heavily in promoting and supporting Blender:
> http://www.nimblecollective.com/
>
> Given the fact we make Blender in an open project for less than 1% of the
> budget Autodesk spends on Maya or Max alone is something we can only be
> incredibly proud of. We can always do better (as Piotr points out) but I
> would suggest to keep a relaxed and healthy mind - not waste time to please
> the haters, but to keep supporting our existing and growing user base and
> to closely work with the top talents out there who want to be positively
> involved.
>
> -Ton-
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
> Ton Roosendaal  -  ton at blender.org   -   www.blender.org
> Chairman Blender Foundation, Producer Blender Institute/Studio
> Entrepotdok 57A  -  1018AD Amsterdam  -  The Netherlands
>