

Blender 2.57 released (first stable release with completely new UI) - cx01
http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-257/

======
schrototo
Found this on the site, thought it was rather interesting:

The Evolution of Blenders User Interface [PDF]
[http://download.blender.org/documentation/bc2008/evolution_o...](http://download.blender.org/documentation/bc2008/evolution_of_blenders_ui.pdf)

------
TillE
> Other improvements include a new file browser

Oh thank god. I want to tear my hair out whenever I use Blender just to view
or convert a file. The file browser is nearly unusable.

------
Ixiaus
I have to say, Blender has come a long way. Big kudos. Python scripting is a
major plus for me (Maya uses Python too).

~~~
foenix
I took a second look at Blender, and I have to agree with you 100%. I'm
astonished at how much python is incorporated into the “little things” like
help-text and api. And the scripting! And the keyframe interface!

Many kudos are in order.

------
zacharycohn
I used it for a few years about 10 years ago, and I loved it at the time - I
stopped largely because the software itself was just overwhelming. The new
interface looks promising, it's great to see Blender still being developed.

------
hybrid11
How does it compare to the commercial competitors (Maya, 3DS Max, Softimage)
in terms of features & usability?

~~~
djcapelis
This is a generally well respected feature comparison chart:
<http://wiki.cgsociety.org/index.php/Comparison_of_3d_tools>

Blender is generally feature rich, but has a fairly different UI than other
products. People vary on whether or not they find that a good thing, Blender
was originally built in an animation studio, for the most part, the interface
prioritized ease of use for the knowledgeable user over ease of use for the
new user whenever there was a conflict and sometimes neglected the latter
altogether.

The project has since put in a lot of work to try and make the interface a bit
easier to pick up without compromising on the speed with which current artists
who use Blender heavily rely on. The 2.5 series of releases is the latest
attempt at making this better.

~~~
Smerity
Very good point regarding the UI.

I find it quite annoying when people complain about Blender's UI. VIM's UI is
also not "new user" friendly but VIM's UI itself is very powerful.

Blender and VIM are made for speed with familiarity.

~~~
georgemcbay
I agree with you to an extent but one important difference between VIM and
Blender is that VIM tends to be the only tool a VIM user will use for editing
code/text while a 3D artist will often use half a dozen or more tools to
create a finished product (using focused tools in different areas of the
pipeline -- it is not uncommon to use a focused modeller, say, even though
technically you can model in Blender or Maya).

When you're using half a dozen tools and all of them either ship with or can
easily be configured to handle Maya-style camera/mouse movement and Blender
alone uses some wacky non-standard interface, it can really be jarring to
context-switch to the Blender UI even if you are already familar with it.

I believe this lack of following de facto standards (and prior to 2.5 having
no way to really configure to these standards) is a bigger factor in the
rejection of Blender's legacy UI than the fact that it is hard to use for a
beginner was.

------
fsniper
This is not the first release with new UI. 2.5 series all had this new UI.

~~~
teh
I am not sure if this means the python API is stable, too.

Quote:

    
    
        For the next 2.58 release the API will be completed
        with access to internal notifiers and events to track
        data changes or UI refreshes.

~~~
rtaycher
I thought 2.6 was suppose to be the stable release.

