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Improving Blender – Part 2: Going Deeper

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Following up from Part 1, in this video we discuss the 4 remaining principles of usability: Feedback, Recover from Errors, Simplicity & Goal Oriented. Join the discussion on Blender Guru: http://www.blenderguru.com/fixing-blender-part-2-going-deeper/
UPDATE: Watch my conclusive presentation at the Blender Conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aIA2LaB2Iw

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47 responses to “Improving Blender – Part 2: Going Deeper”

  6. Seeing this video now after so much time has passed, much has changed but much is still the same, often times changes that require the developers to only change one default setting.
    I must also say that I am excited and anxious at the same time of Blender 2.8. It is promised to be the "UI overhaul", Blender is supposed to become the task related software it always should have been, foundations of how the program works are being re-thought. But as an advanced Blender user I am also fearing the need to re-learn Blender. At this point in time there are very few settings in Blender I do not understand and I am perfectly adapted to it's user-interface. It being re-designed might be very appealing to new users and beginners, but at the same time it might require veterans to re-learn what they have been used to for many years without actually drawing much of a benefit from it.

  9. I think it would be nice if you could have preferences to remap all the keys to your own specifications. Out of this, I'm sure many people would come up with AWESOME mappings that would be optimal. Also if there was a layout manager where you can place window sections where you wanted and save them into position as well. That way if you were working on sculpting or animation you could open the windows where you want and switch to the perspective that you saved off. I'm a software engineer and Eclipse (a Java editor) does this which makes it very flexible.

  10. I would gladly give up all these usability features for some decent documentation. The blenders docs are almost useless and I've wasted so many hours randomly searching the Internet and YouTube for tiny bits of information. I've learned many programming languages, many musical instruments, audio engineering, construction, computer repair, and many other skills – blender is by far the most annoying and difficult thing I've ever learned. I've been on the edge of designing my own 3D software from scratch for months now – it might just be easier.

  11. Speaking of usability, You mention taking the survey yet, I can not find it. Should it not be one of the links below the video? I tried the link for your website and was promptly greeted with a page which laid out everything covered in the video. Also a cursory search of that page yielded no further clues as to where this elusive survey was contained.

    I do love your tutorials, although when you veer off on one of your tangents as I am trying to follow along, I sometimes find I must go back a few steps in order to get back on track. Yes I am a noob, but very much love creating my own thing in Blender, and need what I learn from you in your tutorials even if I am simply "painting by numbers". I do learn a lot.

    Thank you for your time and effort, and for all you have and are giving to the community.

    ~Spyder__

  12. Translating means moving in general mathematics; it's not just Blender. If the math terms of translation, rotation, and scaling don't work, then maybe move, turn, and size would be better.

  15. Thanks again, Andrew. Very good points. Having watched the response to this/these videos, I still think that you have the right idea, but manpower, and time, may be the only things holding it up. Lets hope time and manpower catch up. 🙂

  25. I agree fervently with everything you said, except I cackled loudly around the 23 minute mark because, as a math and programming nerd, I actually sympathize with all those obscure names and appreciate their meaning. One thing that may be important: Euler (as in, the angles, named after the mathematician) is pronounced like "oiler," as in, 'one who applies oil.' Oiler. Not "yoo-ler," which is the seemingly phonetic and natural pronunciation.

  27. I always uses the "show python tooltips" because I came from an "good" modelling program (3dsmax). The issue is that Blender is some kind of cult or secret society and so the user have to use alien keysettings…retarded stuff like confirm enter to save or anything else which is very suitable for bad ui design…

    But if you want to add buttons you have to use phyton…for example I have added an Attach and Detach Button in Blender or the Target Weld Button because nobody (seriously) can use Blender.-

    and a button for contraints..convert to curve etc. and the maya add primities with the retarded toolbar

  29. Again, as in the previous video, I agree with most of these thing. Bumping up the text size makes a huge difference. Also, he's dead right about the vocabulary. When I see words that sound very technical, I tend to think one of two things: 1. Since I don't know what it is, it must be only for advanced professionals (and how am I to become advanced if I don't use things?) 2. If I touch this, I'm likely to break whatever work I've done in ways that I don't understand and can't fix.

  30. Hey Blender Guru, you really made me think about Blenders User Interface after these videos. I got up and changed a lot of things around in my blender system from the normal default. I'm still new to blender but from that video and others tutorials I have watched I noticed what you were saying. I want to use blender for motion graphics but there aren't too many tutorials on that and certain thing I wanna learn but I don't see tutorials on it so it makes it really a really hard learning curve and learning it on your own can be a good and bad thing. Took me a long time to find a tutorial video on the video editor in blender and as we know blender is a bit complicated until you know what certain buttons do. Any suggestions as far as motion graphics go for blender this would be really helpful.

  31. Typical responses "haha, you should know to press the right button", "haha, you should know when to save your project", "haha, you should know the meaning of different values", "haha, you should know your shortcuts", "haha, you should know how long the render takes". And so on.

    And finally "it's done that way by purpose" (fixes disabled by default in configuration).

  32. Hello Andrew. I have some problems with Blender 2.60-2.75.

    1. Sometimes when i press CTRL Z, the undo action isn't available. But it would work if I press CTRL Y.

    2. Creating Video Games is much more difficult than before. Other Objects are not able to move by themselves, but the good news is I can still control the player. I haven't test the Armature in Blender Game.

    3. Before I used demos of the add-ons you created, some add-ons that came with Blender was not working correcting. When i use one (The Cloud Generator for Example) doesn't show clouds in the Blender Render Mode.

    I am currently searching for the problem, and i'm even running test on every rendering mode on Blender. If there any solution to at least 1 of the 3 problems, I would be comfortable with it. If you couldn't see this comment, I will sent the same words to you by Gmail.

  33. You seem to avoid comparison with other big 3D softwares. Would that make Blender developers not take your advices into account ? How much Blender needs to be independent in order for it not to have trouble with Autodesk or any other ?

  36. Andrew, thanks for your initiative and start a conversation about some really annoying  things about blender that even do many of us just assume that because blender is free, we just have to put up with it. No offense to anyone, I greatly appreciate all the effort of the programers and all the people involve in making Blender. Simplification is the answer!! — Also, I would add a suggestion, I would love to see happening to the interface. It would be tremendously helpful for new user specially, to have the ability to detached window or panels and be able to move them to a second monitor and have the functions in one monitor and the main window interface in another one or a combination of windows giving you a more open working area. It would make your user experience more simple by reducing the time trying to look in the multiple menus by having them open in a separate monitor as you work in different tasks.

    The software sketch up is one good example of simplicity in its interface. Of course, it is not as robust as blender, but consider why it has become so popular even with its limitations, so much that it has become a standard in some industries.

  37. I use Maya but recently learned Blender for a job and I immediately took a liking to it. I'm really impressed with all the things it can do, especially its basic ZBrushing tools. That said, the fact that a first time user basically has to Google how to select objects really got me. In the initial tutorial I watched on Blender Cookie, the very first thing it had me do was swap the right and left mouse buttons! I now realize why I was never bothered by Blender's interface: I got over being pissed off at useability back when I learned Maya for the first time, and then again with ZBrush. Now that I know how many 3d functions work, it's simply a matter of discovering where they are in Blender, so it's not that big a deal anymore!

    3d modeling programs are large complicated bits of software, and they always seem to be created by adding required features whenever they are needed, with interface being an afterthought. Have you used ZBrush? Here's its file menu from left to right: Alpha, Brush, Color, Document, Draw, Edit, FILE, Layer… etc. So Blender isn't the only one with plenty of minor interface annoyances! Your videos just summed up the entire first-time user experience for 3d software in general!

    TLDR: This isn't a Blender specific problem. Crappy interfaces are what I expect to find when I open any 3d modeling tool! 🙂

  40. I believe the Blender Developers should keep the current terminology such as "Translate". As it might not mean much to a new user. But I see it as the raw meaning of the action you are applying when you use it.
    Replacements such as move could also be misleading.
    But I did notice they put "move" in the tool-tip for Translate which I think is perfect.

  41. how can i make an animate movie at home with Blender. I m using blender from last 3 year. I m expert in blender rendering but cycle rendering is very difficult for me. plz give any solution. is it possible that i use blender render as making animate movie. What is the proceder of a mking of an animated movie.

  43. Basically I am a software Developer, information in this video is really helpful to keep my software projects up to mark, but I don't understand why these silly lapses left in blender as far as I think (I have not seen the code) approach of development of blender may not be Object Oriented(this I believe due to lack of consistency)

  44. You are performing a very valuable service to the Blender community, Mr. Price. Thank you. Your videos are always rich in usable information and this series is even more so. I am surprised I did not find one thing on which to disagree.

    I love Blender and was happy with the great improvements starting with 2.5. I think the functionality, when combined with the scripting ability, allows an artist who is also an advanced tech user to achieve some fantastic results. This is quite something when you compare the cost of Blender to something as costly as Maya (and forget the professional studio software that requires a twenty grand workstation at a minimum). With a good approach, an artist can produce models and movies with Blender on par with professional studios. But to do that in Blender, even with the 2.5+ improvements,  requires a good level of technical expertise few users will have. You can see this in the many screams for help from new users when visiting any forums focused around Blender. Experienced users will snicker at the novices who "clearly can't read" and some users, it is true, are diving into a deep pool before learning to swim. But MS Office would not be as successful as it is today if it placed the same burden on someone just trying to get a job done as Blender does. All the bells and whistles are there in Blender, or at least most of the important ones, but their use in so many places requires a Ph.D in several disciplines to understand that I would not be surprised if half of all new users quit Blender in the first few months or less.

    Some of that is due to the fact that the official documentation, although much better now, has never been very good nor very clear. You and others I consider Blender masters, and who have produced some excellent tutorial videos, have even expressed confusion about the function of certain parameters in Blender. Please remind developers that a tool is only useful if its purpose is clear — why code for a new parameter set if you cannot clearly explain their use to a general audience?  Perhaps you could include that in your recommendations as well. I think Wiki may have run its course and perhaps something as challenging as Blender needs another tool for documentation.

    Thanks for all you've done to keep Blender on track. I believe it is a tool with a great future despite the flaws. Perhaps the Blender Foundation should consider a tier pricing scheme — base free, higher functionality layers at some small cost.

  45. I have worked with Maya for about three years now, and I decided to begin with Blender. I learned the basics in less than 3 days, and I keep learning many new things every day. However, as you mentioned many times in this course, it was very difficult to navigate on my own when I first opened Blender, I had to watch numerous tutorials to just create and modify basic shapes! And the hardest part being that Maya and Blender have completely different hotkeys and interface, it almost put me off Blender quick, but I pushed my self into thinking that it's worth the fuss and time of learning everything from scratch. And, now being a stable Blender user, I still get lost many times with the navigation, the buttons, the icons etc. With Maya, I never had that problem, because it had the proper icons in the proper place, with the proper tool-tips, and I was frustrated that a software so amazing and great such as Blender lacks in the most basic thing for beginners (like me), which is the user interface and navigation system.

    Great course, as always, Andrew! Really made me think of the Blender interface in a different way. 

  46. Translate = Move = Grab = Drag
    Terms used too in manuals and video tutorials…. press G to grab, press G to move, press G to translate, remember the key is "G" not T for translate or M for move

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