[HN Gopher] Blender 3.5
___________________________________________________________________
Blender 3.5
Author : emadabdulrahim
Score : 195 points
Date : 2023-03-29 16:43 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.blender.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.blender.org)
| lovehashbrowns wrote:
| One of my favorite projects ever. I'm having a ton of fun
| learning blender and I can't wait to get to the point where I can
| start learning hair modeling.
| ftxbro wrote:
| me: wondering if it has gpt integration
|
| blender: HAIR
| CyberDildonics wrote:
| You thought an open source 3D animation program would have
| sophisticated text generation as a feature?
| KineticLensman wrote:
| I know what you mean, but prompt driven object construction
| could be useful
| cornstalks wrote:
| You mean like this?
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35320571
| ftxbro wrote:
| obviously ridiculous to think blender would have gpt
| integration https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35320571
| master-lincoln wrote:
| Blender has support to programmatically generate and
| manipulate 3d objects. Of course it could be handy for some
| users if those programs can be written by a tool that has
| natural language as input. And as you pointed out there a
| plugins doing that. But I would agree it's obviously
| ridiculous to think Blender would integrate some third
| party commercial non-free API into it's core.
| CyberDildonics wrote:
| You thought in two days they would integrate a commercial
| plugin that uses a closed commercial API that just
| generates commands and then put in a major release?
| sebzim4500 wrote:
| I've seen videos of GPT integration into blender that make it
| look quite useful, so it's not a crazy idea.
| joering2 wrote:
| no, but if you watched presentation you mostly fiddling with
| numerical values for how the hair would be constructed. not a
| hard stretch to imagine GPT learning how to fiddle with that
| and create its own characters by - yes - generating text
| values / numerical values that Blender understand.
| rhtgrg wrote:
| Looks like GPT is the new 'blockchain', except it's the
| unwashed masses calling for it rather than VCs (I suppose the
| latter have learned some hard lessons recently).
|
| Who am I kidding, VCs will be VCs.
| nickstinemates wrote:
| VC twitter and linkedin are awash with GPT.
| marban wrote:
| So is HN TBF.
| sebzim4500 wrote:
| I don't know about that. I think it is fully plausible that
| products like Blender will get LLM integration over the next
| few years. Already this looks quite useful and it's made by
| one guy in a week.
|
| https://github.com/gd3kr/BlenderGPT
| ftxbro wrote:
| Hi, it looks like you are commenting on my username: ftxbro.
| Thanks for noticing!
|
| After lurking I made this account only to post a joking-not-
| joking explanation of why Alameda had the weirdly specific
| credit limit $65,355,999,994 with FTX and why I thought it
| could be a funny off-by-almost-1000x bug/typo/mishap
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34473811 but I think
| almost no one read my comment because I posted it so late
| after the thread had scrolled off the front page :(
|
| EDIT: wait did you call me an unwashed mass? usually the
| unwashed masses call me an elitist!
| master-lincoln wrote:
| Why would an open source 3d software integrate a commercial
| third party API that is not free, especially when the API is
| about text generation?
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| Text includes parameter and API automation
| [deleted]
| douglee650 wrote:
| Ok, native Metal 3d viewport is ++++. Tested on a Macbook Pro M1
| 32 core 62gb ram Ventura.
|
| - In Properties > Render Properties > Cycles => set device to
| "GPU Compute"
|
| - In Preferences > System set Render Devices to Apple M1*, GPU
| Backend to "Metal"
|
| - If you have a scene open it will black out for a few, mine was
| about 20 sec
|
| Very much faster and better
| antoineMoPa wrote:
| > With great power comes great complex-ability, so Blender now
| includes hair assets to make your life easier.
|
| That's a good lesson is software/product design. As things get
| featureful/complicated, it's nice to provide carefully chosen
| defaults and samples to help people get started.
| jzer0cool wrote:
| Anyone know the performance on M1 Mac, 16GB ram for use creating
| only simple model s? I do not plan on creating thousands of
| objects for a scene and wondering if it is suitable machine for
| learning and where it might start to lag.
| preommr wrote:
| The vector displacement maps for sculpting look amazing.
|
| Kind of surprised they didn't lead with that instead of focusing
| so much on the hair.
| thomascgalvin wrote:
| I only follow this stuff casually, but IIRC hair is notoriously
| difficult to render realistically without massive computing
| power. It doesn't surprise me that this would be called out as
| a leading feature.
| ccity88 wrote:
| Blender is what I point to when people tell me open source is
| doomed for failure. There isn't anything that comes remotely
| close in terms of features and ubiquitous support, and its free.
| Honestly the best example of open source done right.
| [deleted]
| CreepGin wrote:
| Also a reminder of how tenacious you gotta be in order to have
| "open source done right". Remember Blender is almost 30 years
| old.
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/07/21/good-software-
| take...
|
| good-software-takes-ten-years-get-used-to-it
|
| Linux, Firefox, Chrome disproved "open source failures"
| twenty (and over) years ago. Nice to have another app in the
| mix.
| capableweb wrote:
| And on the brink of not existing at a couple of times in its
| history, reinforcing how tenacious you have to be :) Huge
| Kudos to Ton who've been through hell and back for Blender to
| end up what it is today.
| thomastjeffery wrote:
| Every Blender release is _exciting_ to read about.
|
| How many other software projects can you say that for?
| mordae wrote:
| Godot.
|
| Also PostgreSQL and KiCad major versions.
| whateveracct wrote:
| Glasgow Haskell Compiler!
| asutekku wrote:
| Unreal Engine
| pier25 wrote:
| Not even commercial ones!
| OoooooooO wrote:
| Dolphin comes to mind.
| lostgame wrote:
| Actually _immediately_ thought of Dolphin with this comment.
| The Dolphin team 's dedication to having fantastic write-up
| that match every release is commendable as hell. Phenomenal
| software, as well. :)
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| This is an impressive project, but I was hoping the UX
| standardization would continue. Seems to have slowed? I've
| started using it this month due to hearing things had been
| improved, but what did I find?
|
| - Window always opens maximized, which I _never_ want. Couldn 't
| find a way to change it. (A common arrogance of media apps.)
|
| - F11 key doesn't toggle fullscreen. To its credit I was able to
| change this. Defaults are important however.
|
| - When in full screen the top left menu doesn't extend to the
| edge of the screen. So you can't easily hit it without slowing
| down. I first learned about Fitt's Law in the 90s, not exactly
| new:
|
| https://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html
|
| Is this a lack of interest? Or special-snowflake syndrome?
|
| Another quibble with media apps is that they want to use their
| own special hotkeys for zooming, panning etc, but I never want
| them to be _different_ from my browser and /or web maps, which
| are used every single day. Option doesn't seem to exist to change
| them in a group to standards. Probably could do individually, but
| don't yet have time, and risk conflicts.
|
| To be a good desktop citizen these things still need to be
| addressed. Looks like they have profiles now so non-standardisms
| could be moved to the classic profile.
| bitbang wrote:
| You keep using that word "standard". I do not think it means
| what you think it means.
| dividuum wrote:
| I hope this doesn't sound negative, but I'm curious about the
| converging feature set of modeling software like blender and game
| engines like Unreal. From my total amateur point of view it seems
| game engines slowly get all those nice modeling features and
| visual fidelity, while also being able render all it in real
| time. How can modeling software compete with that? Vastly better
| tools for modelling?
| fassssst wrote:
| Blender also renders in real time. It's useful outside games, I
| like just drawing in it. It's like a way more powerful
| Illustrator.
| [deleted]
| asutekku wrote:
| Unreal's modeling tools are fine for blocking out stuff but you
| still want to do proper modeling in an actual modeling software
| because of the modifiers & tools that make the process so much
| simpler and less cumbersome
| capableweb wrote:
| The workflow difference starts to matter more than actual
| features, where for me the workflow for modelling in Blender is
| miles ahead than what you get in something like Unreal Engine.
|
| Secondary and more technical, not everything has to or can be
| real-time rendered, and for that Blender is probably still king
| of the two, where Unreal Engine is optimized for real-time.
|
| There are things you can only do in Blender, and vice-versa, so
| what the right tool is will as always depend on the job.
| MayeulC wrote:
| Yes, blender is mainly a modeling tool. You can plug it into
| many different renderers (technically, including an Unreal
| engine game where you exported your models). Epic subsidising
| it should hint at it not being a competitor :)
|
| There are other niche tools in a creative pipeline, like
| Substance Painter for texturing and applying surface shaders.
| Blender has image and material edition capabilities, but they
| are more entry-level than competitors to Substance and
| GIMP/Photoshop.I think there's a niche for a lot more tools,
| including "AI" stable diffusion-like tools.
|
| Also, blender used to have its own "Blender Game" engine.
| Reitet00 wrote:
| Blender looks better and better!
|
| I was wondering... Is there a good book teaching Blender
| fundamentals covering more recent versions?
| rwl4 wrote:
| The fastest way to get started is to watch Blender Guru's
| excellent beginner donut series.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjEaoINr3zgFX8ZsChQVQ...
| Reitet00 wrote:
| I've been half way through this tutorial once and it indeed
| is fantastic. I'm not sure if it applies to recent versions
| of Blender though.
| creativenolo wrote:
| I commented elsewhere so I sound like I am trying to push it.
| This book does it. I speak passionately about this because
| video tutorials just don't do it for me. And you asked for a
| book but the other comment is a video. When you google Blender
| books it's mostly people asking and people answering with
| videos references : https://www.blendersecrets.org/book
| Reitet00 wrote:
| Greatly appreciate it! I don't know why but book format is
| the one I like best, maybe it's a mix of learning at my own
| speed and at the same time something tangible that I can mark
| in various ways.
|
| Thanks!
| koch wrote:
| What's blender
| jeron wrote:
| 3D computer graphics software
| mandmandam wrote:
| It's the best example of how open source software can reach
| industry standard - and possibly above, in some ways.
|
| It's 3d software used for movies, engineering, and even game
| creation.
|
| You might find this link helpful -
| https://www.blender.org/about/
| jcelerier wrote:
| > It's the best example of how open source software can reach
| industry standard - and possibly above, in some ways.
|
| it started as closed source industry software though, that's
| different than a lot of OSS out there
| detuur wrote:
| [flagged]
| lars_francke wrote:
| It's become a ritual for me: Get excited by the Blender release
| notes on HN, try to find good beginner resources, play around
| with it for an hour, give up.
|
| This is not a negative comment about Blender. I'm not their
| target audience I guess. I just _want_ to learn it but I can't
| really find good resources that start at 0.
|
| There are some Youtube channels out there but videos have never
| been a good way of learning for me. It's tough keeping material
| up to date with a fast moving project.
|
| I enjoy these threads every time!
| krisoft wrote:
| What kinda thing would you want to make?
|
| Blender can do so many things. I personally use it to draw
| pretty things to be 3d printed, and then cast out of metal. But
| there are people who use it to composite things into live
| action footage, people who make game assets, and a lot more.
| lars_francke wrote:
| I'm mostly interested in a 3D printing suite as well.
|
| I've been using SolidEdge for a few years and Fusion and also
| tried FreeCad but the latter also never really clicked for
| me.
|
| I'm trying to find an open source solution - I understand
| that SolidEdge etc. are parametric and Blender is not. But I
| at least wanted to get good enough in Blender to make simple
| things (mostly functional, not pretty as in your case).
| ravenstine wrote:
| My 3D printing needs are not seriously complicated, so I've
| found that OpenSCAD to be the best solution for me. Because
| I'm a programmer, a workflow focused on programmatically
| generating geometry is very intuitive. Everything else I've
| tried is too cluttered and complicated for what I want to
| do. It's weak when it comes to organic geometry, but most
| of what I make isn't organic-looking. If I needed to make
| something more organic, I'd probably make the base model in
| OpenSCAD first and then bring it into Zbrush.
| BanazirGalbasi wrote:
| I've done some basics with OpenSCAD and it does well, but
| as soon as I want to do anything that isn't just a bunch
| of extruded polygons I run into trouble. Also the lack of
| chamfer and fillet functions is frustrating, even though
| I know I can use a custom function someone else wrote I
| don't like not understanding the math behind the code.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I'm a noob but have learned Blender->3D-print. I can report
| that it works well enough for me.
|
| WIP: https://www.therpf.com/forums/threads/scratch-built-
| space-tu...
| phkahler wrote:
| Try solvespace. There is also the CAD sketcher addon for
| blender, but that's big software compared to solvespace.
| gabereiser wrote:
| To reiterate what others have said, one doesn't just "learn
| blender", it's way too complicated a software with too many
| parts for different roles/jobs. Instead focus on a goal. Have a
| project in mind and pursue the learnings to complete the
| project. Start small like "I want to model and render a small
| room" to get the feel for sculpting and modeling, materials and
| lighting.
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| Exact same way I "learned" audacity.
| actionfromafar wrote:
| But ... if audacity is like notepad, blender is like vim.
| gabereiser wrote:
| Or neovim with an emacs plugin called cycles...
| ElSinchi wrote:
| So.... How do I exit blender?
| lars_francke wrote:
| You are correct. I did elaborate on that in another thread.
|
| I did come in with a concrete project when I first started
| looking at this years ago. I'm interested in creating models
| for 3D Printing.
|
| Unfortunately, even with this limited scope I found it hard
| to get started. But again: I'm not blaming anyone. I know
| that I'm using a professional tool as an amateur who does not
| even have enough time to skill himself up for something that
| is possible in this tool but not its primary use-case.
|
| Mostly, my comment was meant as a fun/light story about how
| much I like thos release notes and how they get me to spend a
| whole evening on Blender every time they pop up.
| hollander wrote:
| I'm with you. For me it's also about motivation, and getting
| past that point where you can do basic things, and then learn
| by doing. I'm on a Mac, but I do have a big monitor with a wide
| keyboard, so I could give that a try.
|
| Udemy has some good courses for which you never should pay more
| than $20 and they always have offers. It's not about time, but
| it's about getting yourself motivated to do that course day
| after day.
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| I'd recommend a highly-rated book if you are starting from 0.
| lars_francke wrote:
| Do you happen to have a recommendation? Books have the unfair
| disadvantage that they are out-of-date the moment they hit
| the printer.
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| I don't but would pick the highest-rated books from
| versions 3.x or 3.2x.+ because interfaces changed.
|
| Blender and similar programs have been around for decades
| however. Learn one and you learn them all to some degree.
| Personally learned Maya and 3DSMax back in the day and so
| Blender basics were pretty understandable once they
| improved standardization of the UI.
| ehvatum wrote:
| I recommend starting right out of the gate with a modest
| project goal in mind, such as something neat to 3d print, or a
| simulation of interesting gears turning.
|
| The period where you feel like you're progressing the least and
| struggling the most is actually when you're learning fastest.
| jolexxa wrote:
| hey me too!! The video that finally helped me get going was
| this one from Imphenzia on YT: https://youtu.be/1jHUY3qoBu8
|
| all his other stuff is great, like building and rigging a low-
| poly character. Instead of having to follow tutorials and make
| stuff I didn't want to, he shows you how to use the tools to
| make what's in your imagination!
| Claude_Shannon wrote:
| Check this, his vids were the best for me (and then his stuff
| on ArtStation, but paid :| )
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2U0MiZSV9A
| lars_francke wrote:
| Thank you! I'm happy to pay for good content. I'll take a
| look.
|
| In fact, If I could make a targeted donation towards Blender
| that only goes towards funding documentation I'd be up for
| that as well.
| notRobot wrote:
| You should write to them and ask! I'm sure lots of people
| will appreciate that, it seems like a worthy cause.
| lars_francke wrote:
| You know what, that's a good idea. I did send an email
| just now.
|
| We have the concept of "targeted donations" over at the
| Apache Software Foundation. I did actually check their
| about page (https://fund.blender.org/about/) where they
| mention that 5-8% of the funds go into "making
| development projects visible and accessible in general"
| and one part of that is docs.
| notRobot wrote:
| Hope it works out! :)
| Claude_Shannon wrote:
| I'd be willing to vouch for his courses on ArtStation; he
| was explaining his line of thought well.
|
| My issue with most of paid tutorials is that it's hard to
| know if it will be worth it - 40 USD is not a lot to most
| of you I pressume, but I'm a Pole and a student, so that is
| suddenly a way bigger sum of money.
| yurymik wrote:
| Did you try https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIoXOplUvAw ?
| lars_francke wrote:
| I did, yeah. Didn't work for me:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35360962
| punyearthling wrote:
| Polygon Runway has a good intro tutorial. But like you, I'm in
| a similar boat. Play around with it for a couple hours and
| can't get back into it even when I really want to. I think it's
| a matter of building a good habit.
| evanwalsh wrote:
| For anyone just getting started, no video tutorials really
| clicked for me until I found Grant Abbitt's:
| https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLn3ukorJv4vuU3ILv3g3x...
|
| Obviously no guarantees of instant savantism, but never say
| never!!
| CobrastanJorji wrote:
| Grant Abbitt's the best. His Udemy course "Complete Blender
| Creator: Learn 3D Modelling for Beginners" is really great
| for a complete novice. It's a really well thought out style
| of "repeat after me, now let's do it again and I'll give you
| a bit less guidance, now here's the thing again and you try
| it on your own, okay now I'll walk through it." Very
| intentional, very well done, broad introduction to many
| tools.
|
| He also has some short free videos of the same style: "here's
| a simple shape, produce it on your own, now I'll show you how
| I would've done it."
|
| Of course, it's on Udemy, so the price rapidly vacillates
| between $10 and $190 according to no system knowable to man,
| but when it's on the cheap end it's a great deal.
| lars_francke wrote:
| Thank you both for that recommendation. I'll be sure to
| look at his courses when the next Blender release comes out
| ;-)
| CobrastanJorji wrote:
| It's a fun week or two of evening activities. Gives you
| that "oooo, my thing looks like the picture on the box"
| tutorial rush.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I kind of did the same. The hours may have added up though -- I
| finally started grokking it a bit.
|
| Actually, what finally worked was to have a very specific
| (small) project in mind. For me it was to figure out how to
| model a plastic storage bin. I struggled for days on that one
| -- making all the rookie mistakes.
|
| Having now done several follow-on projects in Blender I think I
| could go back and create that plastic storage bin in less than
| an hour.
|
| It's going to just take time. But having a small, achievable
| goal/project in mind will give you the excuse to get there.
| weaksauce wrote:
| the blender doughnut project video series is a pretty good
| intro to them and your complexity can go up quite a bit
| lars_francke wrote:
| I did the first five or so videos and that didn't work for
| me. I know, that others have different opinions here but it
| was too much "do this, then do that, then this" for me and
| too little explanation why.
| botdan wrote:
| He's acknowledged some of the short-comings of the most
| recent iteration of the doughnut tutorial on twitter
| before. Blender 4.0 should be coming out later this year
| and he's stated he'll be releasing a new version then:
| https://twitter.com/andrewpprice/status/1631529825717604353
| smcleod wrote:
| You're not alone. I think it's a problem with all 3D modelling
| and CAD software as well - it's all amazing - but it's all
| really quite horrible to use.
|
| Just think how easy it is to do simple things like cutting and
| pasting selections in 2D (even with any number of layers) with
| tools like Photoshop, Pixelmator Pro and GIMP - now you try
| doing that in Blender or Fusion 360 and you'll quickly find
| that not only is not at all intuitive - it's a bloody
| nightmare.
| agumonkey wrote:
| not every piece of software sticks, blender post 2.8 is an
| amazing achievement, but he'll never get me the way Maya does
| ulnarkressty wrote:
| Yep, same here. I remember years ago playing around with the
| student version of 3DS Max, was able to create and animate
| quite complex scenes for my school presentations in minutes,
| everything was very intuitive and stable. Trying to use Blender
| feels like I'm wrestling with the interface most of the time,
| while not being entirely sure what's going on the rest of the
| time.
|
| Got to admit overall it looks better and better. Wish they took
| some time to redesign the interface properly, not just
| 'improve' it. The current one is still mostly looks and feels
| like 2.x
| douglee650 wrote:
| The UI "dead-ends" a lot, where you get into a state where,
| "why is the wireframe not showing?", or, "why aren't the
| transform gizmos displaying and why is my screen now one single
| screen with no UI?" Especially Macbook Pro, where you don't
| have a numpad.
|
| One way to get through this is to save a startup file, and just
| keep going back to it. I wish there was a "reset UI to default
| startup file state while preserving current file"
| TOMDM wrote:
| What you're asking for was added as an option when loading
| files, though I can't remember when.
|
| Steps are:
|
| Step 1: Save your blender project
|
| Step 2: File --> New --> General
|
| Step 3: File --> Open (find your messed up blender project)
|
| Step 4: Go to the cog (settings) in the top right
|
| Step 5: Uncheck 'Load UI'
|
| Step 6: Load your blender project
|
| It will then have default UI
|
| I only remembered this was possible, not how to do it. The
| steps above are copied from this persons lovely succinct
| video tutorial on how to do it.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKJLOIy7OFE
| douglee650 wrote:
| Oh dang -- nice! I wish this was available when I was a few
| steps back. I tried multiple times but 2.5 when they fixed
| the UI was when it finally became actually usable. It's
| sooo good. I mean, compared to buying 3DS Max, or Maya, et
| al
| mejutoco wrote:
| I can recommend this paid course on skillshare. I know the
| author and he is super professional. A really dedicated person
| doing a short film and sharing everything in a course.
|
| https://www.skillshare.com/en/classes/Filmmaking-with-Blende...
| mrguyorama wrote:
| Do you want to render photorealistic images or make models for
| a video game engine or....
|
| It's really helpful to have a goal or project in mind,
| something extremely small. The classic for photoreal is the
| donut, just a donut on a plate.
|
| For game models, I made some low poly missiles and a small
| cityscape that looks like trash but now I know how to use
| blender.
| creativenolo wrote:
| I like books and lots of little nougats of information you can
| piece together: like how you can learn code or an SDK. So for
| me, this book has been great:
| https://www.blendersecrets.org/book
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| I hope grease pencil gains full exportability to use assets in
| games / RealityKit on iOS
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(page generated 2023-03-29 23:02 UTC)