For those who love Blender...

[Boone]

OMG, I'm so damn happy, I wanted to make sure anyone here who uses Blender knows too - although just an Alpha, the fabled Blender 2.5 was released TODAY!

Okay, for the rest of you wondering what is so special about this release of Blender...well, its the one to finally allow the user to change it's keyboard shortcuts - something every "professional" application has as standard, and has stopped a lot of artists from using it as the defaults are very frustrating...

For example, to select the three main manipulators in most other apps, you would press W, E and R. Simple, as they are the most used keys in any of the apps.  But in Blender you had to do a combo of Ctrl + Alt and either S, R or G.  Game of twister, no?

But anyway! Here is a link for all who interested...

http://www.blender.org/download/get-25-alpha/

[Bad Sector]

Actually i tried to do Blender's combos in all other 3D apps i've tried. And since they fail, i get frustrated . Although if you think about them for a moment, you'll realize they make sense (well the most common of them at least): g for grab, s for scale, r for rotate, e for extrude, b for box selection, c for circle selection (in new version), etc.

Blender 2.5's ability to change keys is minimal to what /else/ this new release has. Its probably the biggest change on the program since 1994 when it was still a bunch of ideas in Ton's mind .

The new version has a brand new awesome UI (which is fully controlled with Python), a redesigned event system based on a concept of context+operators which can be applied using shortcuts, buttons, scripts, etc, multiple window support (which enables users of more than one screens to take advantage of their extra screen - there is actually a premade layout which contains almost every object property for just this reason), a new awesome Python console, help for everything, a revamped and *much* improved file window and my favourite: being able to search for operations and other actions: just press space, type a part of the name and enter. Do you want to repeat the action? Shift+R. Do you use action frequently? Put it in your toolbar just as easy.

The new version is a HUGE step towards usability. I'm using 2.5 since some months now and i can't go back to 2.49. It crashes a bit (although it improved since the nightlies) but the experience improvement it provides is worth it. Besides, it autosaves almost every minute, so its not like you'll lose much if it crashes .

[Boone]

I can see the logic of how Blender does things, but for a user of both Maya(well, not so much now) and Silo, its a real headache adjusting - especially when switching between them, back and forth.  But the rest of the application is very well designed.

Using Silo along with Blender, I'm now in the process of designing a simple Myst-style game, and I'm looking forward to putting 2.5(A) to the test.  Remapping Blender so far has been messy, but I'm getting there so I hope to be able to switch between Silo and Blender with more ease this time round.  LOL, it was a real joy to finally use Maya & Silo's ALT+mouse combos to navigate around blender!