Lets start a new thread about assets and filebrowser work! So, details are in this blog post, but in a few words you can find here experimental builds of work done so far in the filebrowser, as preliminary step for assets project. As usual, any testing and feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Bastien
I haven't tested the build yet, but it sounds like a pretty good start. However if I could make a request for a filebrowser feature it would be to make an actual default preset operator (just named default or whatever) that you could overwrite the settings of. If you were to open a new instance of Blender it would just read the settings from this (user modified) operator preset upon import or export. There is already an option to reset the settings to the factory defaults so I can't really see any downsides to this suggestion.
Adding this functionality would save a few clicks every time you export or import something (for the first time since opening Blender). However the biggest advantage to this (for me) would be that there no longer is any chance to forget to select 'Selection Only' and have Blender lock up for several minutes or just outright crash. So if you don't like the first suggestion could you please make 'Selection Only' checked by default. I've wanted this for some time and I've seen others here who have wanted this to be a default setting as well.
Some similar functionality would also be good for applying a default (listed and user-modifiable) material as well to new models, but that's probably a discussion for another time.
Also, on an unrelated note, are you finished with the vertex normal baking now?
Eeeh, that export thing is quite orthogonal issue. Each impotr/export operator has to handle this itself, does not have anything to see with filebrowser actually. Also, if you export, and then re-export in the same session, settings should be kept afaik?
(Side note: thinking of FBX addon, adding presets here would for sure be useful, adding that on my TODO).
As for normals, I’m not working on baking, but on split normals & custom normals. Custom ones are still in work (mostly done though), have to change a bit modifiers to use newly added transferdata feature to also copy custom normals (from one mesh to another). After that, should be ready for final review round. So it could be ready for 2.74, more likely for 2.75.
Looks like our bottleneck is in calls to OpenColorIO, so it does have to do with color management. I will have to build that from source to further track down the problem.
Anyone come across a good tutorial for learning the sculpting workflow? Also alittle confused by the tablet navigation, do I just need to emulate 3 button mouse?
Anyone come across a good tutorial for learning the sculpting workflow? Also alittle confused by the tablet navigation, do I just need to emulate 3 button mouse?
For the Tablet, I use it, and I don't need the 3 mouse button emulation, if you are using the default Blender navigation key configuration, assign to one of your Pen buttons the MMB
This works with Default and Maya key configurations.
For the Tablet, I use it, and I don't need the 3 mouse button emulation, if you are using the default Blender navigation key configuration, assign to one of your Pen buttons the MMB
This works with Default and Maya key configurations.
This should (hopefully) be the final 'initial' version going to master (for 2.74 with a bit of luck, otherwise for 2.75). It uses DataTransfer code to copy normals from one object to another, and a single modifier to set normals (either on a spheroid base, or pointing towards an object).
Not edit in EditMode for now (there is an issue re selection a loop [face corner] - design decision mostly), but one can set custom normals from py script (FBX importer featured in the builds does that to read normals).
Thanks Bastien, i'm currently test it on the Guilty Gear Xrd models and it works quite well :
I don't understand the "Track object" though.
And if we use a vertex groups, it seems that the left over vertex don't take into account the base value of auto smooth.
I've tested the custom normals for a bit as well, and they seem to work well for the purpose I tried (foliage). Really looking forward to seeing the finished product, good work Bastien!
I tried the custom normals build and have the same experience as MightyPea, everything works as it should. It's also simpler to use than the previous build, that one had me a bit confused with the various normals options found in mesh properties.
For using outside of Blender, are custom normals available automatically to an exporter or does the exporter need to be updated?
Anyone know what's happening with SSAO in the viewport? I got an old build with it and it's surprisingly useful for some stuff but can't find any more info.
edit: oh never mind, I just worked out it's in the gooseberry branch
This might be of interest for those of you looking to get into Blender, or those wanting to use Blender on a Surface Pro:
Looks good.
I must admit i have deinstalled blender yesterday.
I dont understand the "logic" from blender. Its like you have a gas pedal but when you give full gas its the command for open the trunk. Maya tools are not the best or lacking many features but the "logic" is good. When im in the tab for Polygon Modelling nearly all options i see can be used.
I still haven't got any luck with finding out about... Searching but so far have not found any solution regarding this:
[...]
Does anyone know?
It's a bit tricky in some cases, but everything can be hotkeyed.
Here's how to do it for this addon:
First, make sure "Python Tooltips" are enabled. Found here.
Then, find the tool you want to assign a hotkey to and hold the mouse cursor over it. With python tooltips enabled, you'll see the name of the python command used to call the tool. Should look like this. This is what we need to make the hotkey.
Now go to User Preferences -> Input and find the category where you want the hotkey to be usable. In this case, 3D View, then either 3D View (Global) (hotkey can be called in all modes in the 3D view), Object Mode or Sculpt Mode.
Expand the category and scroll down to the bottom. Click "Add New". Then type in the python command from earlier, except the "bpy.ops" part and the parentheses at the end. (Important. Won't work otherwise.)
Blender is horrible for me. First a Tool palette at the left side, then a Mesh Menü at the bottom and at the right side the deformer menü. Everything can be used to changes the Polygons in a simple Mesh. I dont know what reason exist to spread the menüs all over the Interface.
The 3d cursor is nice but at the stage of simple Polygon modelling not needed, the same with object and edit mode. For complex scene layouts etc. .. okay but for simple tasks overkill and you cant switch it off.
The feedback is not so good. Report Error: Modifier is disabled. Skip apply. And what is wrong? The same with the lack of interactive viewport feedback.
I came from Maya and yes it has is flaws but i liked the "logic" much more than the blender way. Whats the difference between select two faces or a edge for smoothing? Smoothing is a matter of normals so in Maya i can smooth in the two ways in blender only with selected faces.
well, blender is only really fast if you know the hotkeys, i agree that some stuff is not that well arranged, but once you get used to the hotkeys it certainly is faster and easier to model with than maya
honestly, i really never used the mesh menu on the bottom because you can access everything with simple shortcuts
w - specials menu
strg + e -menu for edge operations
strg + f -menu for face operations
strg + v -menu for vertex operations
and tab to switch between object & edit mode
( strg + tab to switch between face, edge & vertex selection)
its like 15 shortcuts in total for efficient modelling
if starting out with blender i would recommend to enable dynamic spacebar menu under the addons tab
with that, after pressing space, you will get a menu where you can find almost everything
and i really dont see any problem with object and edit mode.
in object mode you select the object you want to edit and enter editmode
i would say its rather more cenvient than maya where you leave your current edit when you accidentally click on another mesh, maybe thats just preference
I will agree that the 3d cursor is pretty useless if you only know how to set it with LMB. It comes in super handy when you need to rotate or scale from a particular spot, though. Let's say that I want to put my rotation pivot at a particular vertex. In Maya you would press E to get the rotation tool, then hold D and V to move the pivot snapping to vertices, then click the manipulator and drag it to a vertex. In Blender to do the same thing, you would go into Edit Mode with Tab, select a vertex, press Shift+S to bring up the snapping menu, select "Cursor to selected", go to the pivot point menu on the bottom bar, change it from median point to 3D Cursor, select the stuff you wanted to rotate, and rotate it.
At a first glance it might seem a little more complicated to do in Blender, but the Blender way gives you a little bit more flexibility compared to the Maya way, at least as far as my admittedly limited Maya knowledge goes. For example, in Blender you can use the 3D cursor to set the pivot to be the middle of any set of vertices, or exactly in the middle of an edge, just by selecting lots of vertices and snapping the cursor to them. In Maya this sort of circle would never exist because edges without faces aren't allowed, but here it is in Blender and I can snap the cursor to the middle of the circle and rotate around it quite easily.
This means you can make fun shapes like this:
I don't even know if it's possible to snap the pivot to the middle of a circle without using a script in Maya, so you lose some flexibility that you would have in Blender (unless there's some feature I'm missing in Maya, which there probably is because I don't use it much.) You can eyeball the pivot point in Maya but you'll lose some precision. The 3D cursor is basically Modo's workplane and action center in one handy package, and it's actually quite simple once you figure out how to use it.
I honestly don't use the tool palette much except for marking hard and soft edges and for marking UV seams. When you know the names and hotkeys for everything and you have the spacebar menu there's honestly not much point to it.
If you're learning Blender, instead of going onto a forum and ranting about how Blender sucks because you can't figure out how to use it and all the buttons are in a different place, figure out what it is that you want Blender to do that you could have done in Maya, and then go onto the forum and ask how to do that particular thing. You'll get answers, I promise.
Hey, time to updates about custom normals, since they are in master since this afternoon.
Btw, if someone has a nice model using them and is OK to share images of it (or even better, a small demo video), it would be great to add to 2.74 release notes! @Yadoob, your manga character would be a nice illustration eg.
Yeah the 3d-cursor is indispensable, I used to hate it and still have it disabled on left mouse click, but I seriously can't imagine my workflow without it.
I never understand these complaints about blender's UI, I used Max way back in the day, but came back into 3d-modeling with blender and find everything extremely logical. I can only imagine Maya and Max mess people up far more than blender is itself messed up.
Jed, that is a great explanation of why the 3DCursor is, in fact, awesome, and not the spawn of Mephistopheles that many people think it is. I've gotten quite used to it and miss having it when I have to go another application.
Not really going to say much about Blender's UI except that it's never kept me from being productive, nor have I found it so atrocious or bad that I didn't want to use the program. But that's just me and maybe other people have other needs that aren't being met. Of course, all things can be improved, and there have been some really great discussions and a lot of work by others in an ongoing effort to simplify, consistent-ify and generally awesome-ify, Blender's UI. I suspect it will always be a moving target.
Off the top of my head, I can't think of a single application, outside of maybe XSI, that didn't seem like a bewildering mess when I first started to use it. Zbrush was perhaps the worst offender (and this was back in the ZB 2 days of yesteryear). After struggling with it for a while, though I got the hang of things and eventually started to like it. I still hear complaints about Zbrush's UI, but it doesn't keep people from cranking out awesome stuff.
And this video just taught me about the Spin tool, which looks absolutely fantastic ! Great stuff.
On a side note : I also personally use the 3d cursor for navigation, as it allows me to focus on and rotate around a very precise point in space which makes for a very pleasant navigation experience. Most 3D programs tend to give me some kind of uneasy feeling because they never quite zoom where I want (and understandably so - there is no way for a 3D program to guess what I am looking at), and the 3D cursor totally solves this problem.
Haha, your own work always looks flawed eh - xrg? It shows the purpose well though and brings me back time and time again.
It certainly has flaws that make me cringe, heh. It's more that it doesn't have narration so I get similar questions posted in the comments all the time. Kind of a good sign it's a bad video if a large amount of people watch it and then ask what I did.
Jed : it's actually very simple, I use right click to place the 3D Cursor in the space of the scene, and with "Cursor Depth" enabled in User Preferences/Interface/View Manipulation, it goes exactly where I tell it to.
From there I have a key assigned to 3D view-Center View to Cursor (I use alt-F, as my hand is pretty much always near these keys). It allows me to navigate much more precisely than in any other 3D app, and I'd go as far as saying that this has been a game changer for me. No more dizzyness !
Just learned you can snap verts/edges/faces to anything on the screen while locked to an axis. Can't believe I never figured that out, but incredibly useful.
For what it's worth, here is a short clip showing what I mean about Cursor Depth and Center to Cursor. The whole point is that it allows me to precisely reach parts of the mesh that I want to observe without any unexpected shift in the camera center of rotation. And it works in object mode too, which by nature wouldn't allow for focusing on a given vertex or face. Navigating with that kind of precision would be impossible without defining a precise target point in space, and that's precisely what the 3D cursor is great at.
In practice I basically right click where I want the cursor to be, and then focus on it using a keyboard shortcut. It seems like a small detail, but for me it has been a game changer, making the whole experience better and eradicating any trace of motion sickness.
Someone can tell me how to set proper smooth groups in Blender so I can export them? I tried to use "Mark sharp" method, and every time I open this file in Marmoset Toolbag 2 looks like 1 smooth group ...
Damn ... I wish Blender had smooth group like 3DS Max.
There is no need for a modifier for smoothing (starting with version 2.46?). In the mesh tab, select auto smooth and set the angle to 180 degrees. This will cause your sharp edges to show up and export properly without the need to actually split vertices with the edge split modifier.
Replies
Adding this functionality would save a few clicks every time you export or import something (for the first time since opening Blender). However the biggest advantage to this (for me) would be that there no longer is any chance to forget to select 'Selection Only' and have Blender lock up for several minutes or just outright crash. So if you don't like the first suggestion could you please make 'Selection Only' checked by default. I've wanted this for some time and I've seen others here who have wanted this to be a default setting as well.
Some similar functionality would also be good for applying a default (listed and user-modifiable) material as well to new models, but that's probably a discussion for another time.
Also, on an unrelated note, are you finished with the vertex normal baking now?
(Side note: thinking of FBX addon, adding presets here would for sure be useful, adding that on my TODO).
As for normals, I’m not working on baking, but on split normals & custom normals. Custom ones are still in work (mostly done though), have to change a bit modifiers to use newly added transferdata feature to also copy custom normals (from one mesh to another). After that, should be ready for final review round. So it could be ready for 2.74, more likely for 2.75.
Huh? It just says "Blender Mega Thread"?
[ame]
Part 1/4 from Massimiliano Puliero
[ame]
I didn't watched all the video, but it's in real time.
and this:
https://gumroad.com/l/VHMCw
For the Tablet, I use it, and I don't need the 3 mouse button emulation, if you are using the default Blender navigation key configuration, assign to one of your Pen buttons the MMB
This works with Default and Maya key configurations.
Yup - this is all I need to do. Works a treat.
Quick note to say that I made an updated build of custom normals, as usual here: http://download.blender.org/ftp/mont29/
This should (hopefully) be the final 'initial' version going to master (for 2.74 with a bit of luck, otherwise for 2.75). It uses DataTransfer code to copy normals from one object to another, and a single modifier to set normals (either on a spheroid base, or pointing towards an object).
Not edit in EditMode for now (there is an issue re selection a loop [face corner] - design decision mostly), but one can set custom normals from py script (FBX importer featured in the builds does that to read normals).
As usual, the more testing, the better!
I don't understand the "Track object" though.
And if we use a vertex groups, it seems that the left over vertex don't take into account the base value of auto smooth.
Awesome, a "must see" for sure ! Thanks for sharing !
Track Object means normals will point toward this object.
The other stuff re vgroups I’ll have to check.
hopw you like!
ENG SUBS!
[ame]
For using outside of Blender, are custom normals available automatically to an exporter or does the exporter need to be updated?
and also be sure to check the -Tangent Space- option.
edit: oh never mind, I just worked out it's in the gooseberry branch
[ame]
Looks good.
I must admit i have deinstalled blender yesterday.
I dont understand the "logic" from blender. Its like you have a gas pedal but when you give full gas its the command for open the trunk. Maya tools are not the best or lacking many features but the "logic" is good. When im in the tab for Polygon Modelling nearly all options i see can be used.
Awesome... I was just wondering the other day if it would be possible to get anything done in blender on a 10" tablet.
Every time i found something inside Blender and be happy the software punch me in the face. :poly127:
what happened?
It's a bit tricky in some cases, but everything can be hotkeyed.
Here's how to do it for this addon:
First, make sure "Python Tooltips" are enabled. Found here.
Then, find the tool you want to assign a hotkey to and hold the mouse cursor over it. With python tooltips enabled, you'll see the name of the python command used to call the tool. Should look like this. This is what we need to make the hotkey.
Now go to User Preferences -> Input and find the category where you want the hotkey to be usable. In this case, 3D View, then either 3D View (Global) (hotkey can be called in all modes in the 3D view), Object Mode or Sculpt Mode.
Expand the category and scroll down to the bottom. Click "Add New". Then type in the python command from earlier, except the "bpy.ops" part and the parentheses at the end. (Important. Won't work otherwise.)
Next, pick a key to use, and you're done!
Should look something like this.
Perhaps this addon can help you around your problem. It gives you a panel in 3d view with different presets for Solid OpenGL mode.
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?346612-The-most-efficient-OpenGL-Lights-panel-%28with-presets-system%29
Blender is horrible for me. First a Tool palette at the left side, then a Mesh Menü at the bottom and at the right side the deformer menü. Everything can be used to changes the Polygons in a simple Mesh. I dont know what reason exist to spread the menüs all over the Interface.
The 3d cursor is nice but at the stage of simple Polygon modelling not needed, the same with object and edit mode. For complex scene layouts etc. .. okay but for simple tasks overkill and you cant switch it off.
The feedback is not so good. Report Error: Modifier is disabled. Skip apply. And what is wrong? The same with the lack of interactive viewport feedback.
I came from Maya and yes it has is flaws but i liked the "logic" much more than the blender way. Whats the difference between select two faces or a edge for smoothing? Smoothing is a matter of normals so in Maya i can smooth in the two ways in blender only with selected faces.
For me its simply not friendly.
honestly, i really never used the mesh menu on the bottom because you can access everything with simple shortcuts
w - specials menu
strg + e -menu for edge operations
strg + f -menu for face operations
strg + v -menu for vertex operations
and tab to switch between object & edit mode
( strg + tab to switch between face, edge & vertex selection)
its like 15 shortcuts in total for efficient modelling
if starting out with blender i would recommend to enable dynamic spacebar menu under the addons tab
with that, after pressing space, you will get a menu where you can find almost everything
and i really dont see any problem with object and edit mode.
in object mode you select the object you want to edit and enter editmode
i would say its rather more cenvient than maya where you leave your current edit when you accidentally click on another mesh, maybe thats just preference
At a first glance it might seem a little more complicated to do in Blender, but the Blender way gives you a little bit more flexibility compared to the Maya way, at least as far as my admittedly limited Maya knowledge goes. For example, in Blender you can use the 3D cursor to set the pivot to be the middle of any set of vertices, or exactly in the middle of an edge, just by selecting lots of vertices and snapping the cursor to them. In Maya this sort of circle would never exist because edges without faces aren't allowed, but here it is in Blender and I can snap the cursor to the middle of the circle and rotate around it quite easily.
This means you can make fun shapes like this:
I don't even know if it's possible to snap the pivot to the middle of a circle without using a script in Maya, so you lose some flexibility that you would have in Blender (unless there's some feature I'm missing in Maya, which there probably is because I don't use it much.) You can eyeball the pivot point in Maya but you'll lose some precision. The 3D cursor is basically Modo's workplane and action center in one handy package, and it's actually quite simple once you figure out how to use it.
I honestly don't use the tool palette much except for marking hard and soft edges and for marking UV seams. When you know the names and hotkeys for everything and you have the spacebar menu there's honestly not much point to it.
If you're learning Blender, instead of going onto a forum and ranting about how Blender sucks because you can't figure out how to use it and all the buttons are in a different place, figure out what it is that you want Blender to do that you could have done in Maya, and then go onto the forum and ask how to do that particular thing. You'll get answers, I promise.
Btw, if someone has a nice model using them and is OK to share images of it (or even better, a small demo video), it would be great to add to 2.74 release notes! @Yadoob, your manga character would be a nice illustration eg.
I never understand these complaints about blender's UI, I used Max way back in the day, but came back into 3d-modeling with blender and find everything extremely logical. I can only imagine Maya and Max mess people up far more than blender is itself messed up.
Ptex's coming ! http://youtu.be/rkTWFcV509k?t=51m16s (still on "don't crash " developement ^^)
Jed, that is a great explanation of why the 3DCursor is, in fact, awesome, and not the spawn of Mephistopheles that many people think it is. I've gotten quite used to it and miss having it when I have to go another application.
Not really going to say much about Blender's UI except that it's never kept me from being productive, nor have I found it so atrocious or bad that I didn't want to use the program. But that's just me and maybe other people have other needs that aren't being met. Of course, all things can be improved, and there have been some really great discussions and a lot of work by others in an ongoing effort to simplify, consistent-ify and generally awesome-ify, Blender's UI. I suspect it will always be a moving target.
Off the top of my head, I can't think of a single application, outside of maybe XSI, that didn't seem like a bewildering mess when I first started to use it. Zbrush was perhaps the worst offender (and this was back in the ZB 2 days of yesteryear). After struggling with it for a while, though I got the hang of things and eventually started to like it. I still hear complaints about Zbrush's UI, but it doesn't keep people from cranking out awesome stuff.
[ame]
On a side note : I also personally use the 3d cursor for navigation, as it allows me to focus on and rotate around a very precise point in space which makes for a very pleasant navigation experience. Most 3D programs tend to give me some kind of uneasy feeling because they never quite zoom where I want (and understandably so - there is no way for a 3D program to guess what I am looking at), and the 3D cursor totally solves this problem.
It certainly has flaws that make me cringe, heh. It's more that it doesn't have narration so I get similar questions posted in the comments all the time. Kind of a good sign it's a bad video if a large amount of people watch it and then ask what I did.
From there I have a key assigned to 3D view-Center View to Cursor (I use alt-F, as my hand is pretty much always near these keys). It allows me to navigate much more precisely than in any other 3D app, and I'd go as far as saying that this has been a game changer for me. No more dizzyness !
Hey, mont29, just want to say thanks for working on this. Been playing with it a little bit and I like what I see. Great feature to have.
/newb
[ame]
In practice I basically right click where I want the cursor to be, and then focus on it using a keyboard shortcut. It seems like a small detail, but for me it has been a game changer, making the whole experience better and eradicating any trace of motion sickness.
Damn ... I wish Blender had smooth group like 3DS Max.