[Tim Ellis]

http://www.blender.org/development/rele ... ender-243/


True mesh displacement mapping.
Retopo. Preserve mesh shape whilst changing topology.
Two perspective rendering.
Render passes.
Multi resolution mesh display.
and much much more.

Not bad for a totally free product.

Tim.

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3DSMax and Maya layout and icons!:- http://www.blendernation.com/2007/04/16 ... ith-icons/


Maya to Blender hotkey translator:- http://www.blendernation.com/2006/10/03 ... ranslator/


Lightwave to Blender hotkey translator:-
http://blendernewbies.blogspot.com/2006 ... troke.html


Blender hotkey list:-
http://allhotkeys.com/blender-3d-hotkeys.html


User interface standard proposal for Blender, with documentation regarding why Blender looks and works as it does:-
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/UserI ... dsProposal
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Blender to Maxwell scale scene:- http://www.4shared.com/file/6366911/54a ... scale.html

This .Blend file includes a simple cube, which when exported as an .OBJ file, will measure 1meter x 1meter x 1meter, when imported into Maxwell Studio. The grid is also set up for accurate real world scale modeling, with 1 grid unit equal to 1m.

Quick Blender to Maxwell workflow:-

Model and UV map in Blender, rotate model 90' along the X axis and export as an .obj.
My .OBJ export choices for optimum intergration with Maxwell render:-

If the 'Normals' button is not pressed, it will not be possible to export any mesh smoothing applied to your objects. This can be useful for un-smoothed clay renders, but not for beauty renders.

Selecting 'Material Groups' instead of 'Objects', will retain objects as seperate entities when imported into Maxwell Studio. If you assign materials in Blender before export, the material names are added to the opbject names when exported.
This is very useful for assigning MXMs (Maxwell materials), to the correct mesh objects.

You can use .3DS, .LWO and other mesh formats if you prefer them to .OBJ.

The two most important factors with Blender and Maxwell are:-

1>. Scale. - Maxwell will not give correct lighting solutions and incorrect DOF, if the scene scale is wrong.

2>. Converting your mesh to triangular faces before export. - If you don't triangulate your mesh objects before export, Maxwell Studio will have display issues and will leave holes in your mesh. Re-export from Blender with the 'Triangulate' button pressed, or CTRL+T in edit mode.


Blender materials will not import into Maxwell. Only the names of your Blender materials will be used. All material work, including primitive UV mapping if needed, can be done once your model has been imported into Maxwell Studio.


Camera lens tutorial:- http://www.free-webspace.biz/sonix/Maxw ... orial.html

For hotkey list use the Help menu in Blender and select 'Hotkey and mouse action reference.'

Tim.

[JCAddy]

not bad at all!

[Fernando Tella]

Great news Tim. Thx a lot!

I'm learning a bit of blender right now. Probably I'll be asking for help in the near future

[Maximus3D]

Wow indeed that's a great update of Blender. Gotta try it out asap.

/ Max

[sandykoufax]

Thanks Tim for the info.

and your blender tutorial in the maxwell area mag. is really wonderful.

[Xlars]

Sounds fantastic .. only problem I have with Blender is the interface (same problem I have with Zbrush) .. but that is just me

[Thomas An.]

Sounds fantastic .. only problem I have with Blender is the interface (same problem I have with Zbrush) .. but that is just me

Me too

[KRZ]

blender needs a GUI fork!!!
such a shame a great project like this suffers from the typical "i dont care bout industry-workflow" disease.

[DrMerman]

It says on the website that they are trying to separate the code for the UI, from the main code. New interface is on it's way! Which I am REALLY looking forward to

[michaelplogue]

I had downloaded Blender a couple of weeks ago, just to try it out. I'm afraid I have to agree with Thomas An in this thread:

http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... ntelligent

It is definitely not an intuitive interface. Usually I like to just start playing around with new programs without looking at the manual. That's pretty much impossible with Blender. My frustration level really went sky-high trying to figure this program out.

I will, however, download the new version and give it another try. I just hope I can find the patience to figure it out.......

[tom]

For the ones who dislike I need to say that, I love Blender GUI

i dont care bout industry-workflow

Excellent comment me neither!

[tokiop]

Hey Tim !

Blender really looks good, what do you think about it's possible limitations production-wise?

Such free and open platform is really attractive !

[Leonardo]

No to mention it runs on Linux!

Unfortunatelly, I couldn't figure out how to do anything by just opening the program

Perhasp I should give it another try!

[KRZ]

hehe "fuck the system...wenigstens ein bischen"...

nothing wrong with that...democrazy should deal with it

i just dont understand why there is a necessarity(?) to make things different in a time where there are allready established things...especially for basic things like the viewport navigation. (for me thats just the try to found new prisons to keep customers locked with their unique workflow)..as a user i dont have a benefit at all. luckly most of the bigger suites give options to change to established settings now.

[tom]

Unfortunatelly, I couldn't figure out how to do anything by just opening the program

It's very easy It works like Studio. The first key is the icon on the top-left of every customizable window and the contents of windows are already there. Divide the screen like you need and assign necessary panels. It already comes with a very useful setup. You have different panels for editing, animating, materializing etc. Play with it in your free times. Don't forget to drag the panels, it makes me feel like in 2010

i just dont understand why there is a necessarity(?) to make things different in a time where there are allready established things...

It's like I don't understand why there are applications in hundreds of megabytes while there are equivalents or betters in a few megabytes and platform independent. Standards come from popular demands but in other hand you need to improve them. You can't use same standards for billion years. Blender is using a correct terminology and it has a known window workflow, it's not new UI-wise. XSI has a very similar window type while Maya, Max and C4D don't. In the end, you're free to discard it but it's already free and Blender wouldn't mind it. No?