Currently Blender 2.5 looks like this

[handlebar]

Thanks TheAnimal and Venomgfx, great to see what's happening.

[metalliandy]

WOW!

2.5 is going to blow the the whole shebang wide open :D

[danielHinton]

that actually looks pretty good. Almost enough to tempt me away from cinema...Now all we have to do is:

A - wait for 2.5 to be made available
B - start recreating ICE in Blender...but better. :hmm:

Dan

[ctguitars]

Hi Guys,

If in trouble trying to view this EVEN WITH XVID Installed go download VLC Player if you do not already have it:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

All is fine then
Aidan

[fktt]

Inazuma from BA.Org was nice enough to upload it to vimeo:
http://vimeo.com/4775781

Marcus, you might want to update the first post with this link. ;)

[TheANIMAL]

Thanks Felix, i'll update it now.

[kernond]

Well, that's just damn impressive! Wow.

It'll take a little bit getting used to, but it will be worth it. I hope the current panels are still in early development, though. Currently, they're like paragraphs of text with no punctuations and no initial caps. There needs to be more visual cues, zoning, and hierarchy for the mind to easily navigate.

For example, this is much easier on the eyes and mind:
http://images.gamedev.net/features/reviews/modo202/1-modo-interface.jpg

Awesome progress, though.

[Bao2]

Well, that's just damn impressive! Wow.

It'll take a little bit getting used to, but it will be worth it. I hope the current panels are still in early development, though. Currently, they're like paragraphs of text with no punctuations and no initial caps. There needs to be more visual cues, zoning, and hierarchy for the mind to easily navigate.

For example, this is much easier on the eyes and mind:


Awesome progress, though.

I have read in Blender site that one of the goals of the 2.5 is much more easy to implement skins so we will see plenty of skins and create ours.

I think 2.5 is going to be out in June or first of July. I just can't wait.

[Shenan]

I think 2.5 is going to be out in June or first of July. I just can't wait.
No, there's no date given so far, definitely nothing that soon. They just released 2.49 yesterday! They are hoping to have maybe a beta or at least a solid enough demo of 2.5 for Siggraph in August. I've heard that realistically it could MAYBE be released either at the end of this year, or early next year, but there are no official release dates yet. This is a major upgrade with a lot of the program being rewritten, and a lot of major fundamental changes.

[BUZZFX]

Well, that's just damn impressive! Wow.

It'll take a little bit getting used to, but it will be worth it. I hope the current panels are still in early development, though. Currently, they're like paragraphs of text with no punctuations and no initial caps. There needs to be more visual cues, zoning, and hierarchy for the mind to easily navigate.

For example, this is much easier on the eyes and mind:
http://images.gamedev.net/features/reviews/modo202/1-modo-interface.jpg
Awesome progress, though.

Hey the only reason I haven't gotten into Blender is the UI is not to my liking, but if the UI were more like Modo or Cinema 4D, then it would be a lot more intuitive.

Is this the current 2.5 UI (see link below) Thanks :)

http://blenderlabrat.blogspot.com/2009/05/25-tour-6.html

[handlebar]

Please keep this thread on track and not post screenshots of other apps, it's about blender and the great work the devs are doing, everything else is subjective.

[BUZZFX]

Yes, but keep in mind it's still being worked on and being changed, so not set in stone yet.

OK, that's all I wanted to know. Thanks :)

[Shenan]

Is this the current 2.5 UI (see link below) Thanks :)

http://blenderlabrat.blogspot.com/2009/05/25-tour-6.html
Yes, but keep in mind it's still being worked on and being changed, so not set in stone yet.

[Sinner-Badboy]

wow ... dying to get my hands dirty with 2.5 blender ...

[truenovice]

I am on the brink of purchasing Messiah and maybe Silo and after seeing this video ...I must admit it makes me want to wait. I have been dabbling with blender exclusively the past few years (I won't claim to be an expert) and after a few so-so upgrades decided to explore alternatives.

I must say the interface shown in the video looks ...."inviting" ...unlike what we've seen the past few years.

One of the main problem I had with blender was with the modeling tool. The knife tool in particular would manufacture triangles (where other software don't) ..despite the fact that blender can't handle them.

Does anybody know whether or not this has been addressed in 2.5?

One site i visited proclaimed 2.5 can handle n'gons .... I am just trying to validate that here. Although personally I would rather try to maintain quads during my modeling, so I would prefer if Blender knife tool behave like most other tool set out there and didn't generate triangles when a cut is made.

[CGIPadawan]

What's that?

I can use EDIT MODE during ALT+A? Looks cool but... WHY?

And is this supposed to mean that if I rotate something in a Frame number Greater than 1 it "Auto-KeyFrames"?

To Truenovice: Not sure what your experience is with Cut and Modelling, but I find Blender modelling to be superior to the likes of XSI. The Cut tool, in my experience, refuses to engage unless it can always produce quads, or if the surface to be cut are all quads.

[fktt]

One of the main problem I had with blender was with the modeling tool. The knife tool in particular would manufacture triangles (where other software don't) ..despite the fact that blender can't handle them.

blender can handle triangular polygon's just fine,
its the n-sided polygons we have problems with,
as you note in the later part of your post.
(just noting so that anyone new reading this wouldn't become confused)

Does anybody know whether or not this has been addressed in 2.5?

That is more of a 'no' than maybe, although the support for nGons might get done in time, we shall have to wait and see,
although if you really want to support the 'BMesh' structure development you can find a donation link at the BMesh dev blog:
http://bmeshblender.wordpress.com/


editos:
eek, too late. :p

[FreakyDude]

ngon support is allready in bmesh. It's kinda a side effect of the new Bmesh system, but bmesh in itself is not yet finished. 90% of it is, but the last 10% and checking for errors/inconsistencies etc takes the most time, and the developer/developers (it used to be a one man show, but now there are two people working on bmesh) work on it in their own free time, which is rather limited for both of them.
It will be done, but it'll be done when it's done.

[blaize]

Bmesh has a very good chance of getting done in time of 2.5!
implementation is mainly done by one guy (Joeedh) and he is very positive about progress.
i personally hope/expect to see build of bmesh appear in a month or so.
ofcourse further work will be needed, but things are going really well and will surely solve the N-gons problems.


on a side note, Genscher and ideasman_42 are currently testing a new boolean library and things are looking good!
the following complex boolean action took less then 5 seconds (using a hacked together python script to quickly link it to blender)
http://www.graphicall.org/ftp/ideasman42/carve_text.png
there are still a few small errors (with quads and such) but those will be fixed.
a different developer showed great interest in implementing this into Blender this summer.

so things are looking sunny!

[Liquidape]

What's that?
I can use EDIT MODE during ALT+A? Looks cool but... WHY?


A couple interesting use cases that I have picked up from other places:
1. apply animated wave modifier and play the animation, adjust the size of the waves while they are animating.

2. Animate a model spinning on the z-axis, like a potters wheel. Then enter sculpt mode and use it like a potters wheel to literally spin pots or cylindrical shapes. Like so:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6svHOgZGwnU

2a. Add dual touch support that I hear is on the horizon and you could literally have both your hands on your screen pushing and pulling a pot. Sounds cool to me.

3. I'm sure only creativity is the boundary here. Any other cool ideas?

[CGIPadawan]

Okay, those are definitely a few interesting ideas! :)

The Pottery thing definitely sounds like it can help achieve nice results for "cylindricals"...

It does seem to have very very very specific purposes.... Personally I haven't been a big user of sculpt mode, but this can be useful like you said. :)

[K. Scott Gant]

Where are the nightly builds for 2.5 Blender? I mean, this is an open-source project with no one person or company actually "owning" it right? So surely we all can download the latest build of it to try out, even though I'm sure it's not all that stable yet.

anyone know where to get nightly builds of 2.5?

EDIT: found them over at http://www.graphicall.org/builds/

[reynante]

Thanks for posting. I'll dig into it right now. I can't believe I missed some of the 2.5 UI tours. ^_^

Mmmmmm! My hands are getting shaky due to too much excitement of what 2.5 has to offer. Mmmmm! ^_^

-Reyn

[jackred]

I'm not really sure if I were ready for the 2.5 if the UI is gonna have lots of modifications :|
I'm now used to the actual Blender UI, and I like it like it is now :/

It's gonna be really hard to learn how to use the new Interface, especially with all these millions of videos tuts out there made for the old Blender UI

[TheANIMAL]

I'm not really sure if I were ready for the 2.5 if the UI is gonna have lots of modifications :|
I'm now used to the actual Blender UI, and I like it like it is now :/

It's gonna be really hard to learn how to use the new Interface, especially with all these millions of videos tuts out there made for the old Blender UI

Not really, not by comparason form moving from a program like 3dsmax or maya to blender.

The majority of the controls will stay the same, its just that some buttons are going to be replaced by checker boxes, other buttons will be replaced by clearer buttons, control panels will be better layed out and everything will animatable and editable.

[truenovice]

blender can handle triangular polygon's just fine,
its the n-sided polygons we have problems with,
as you note in the later part of your post.
(just noting so that anyone new reading this wouldn't become confused)



That is more of a 'no' than maybe, although the support for nGons might get done in time, we shall have to wait and see,
although if you really want to support the 'BMesh' structure development you can find a donation link at the BMesh dev blog:
http://bmeshblender.wordpress.com/


editos:
eek, too late. :p


FKTT

Just a follow up on your response regarding triangles. Are you saying while modeling, when blender generates these triangles I should just ignore them and continue (and maybe try to use the tri to quad tool in the end to reduce them).

I am asking because triangles create creases in my modeling ...(when subsurf)..and as they accumulate makes the mesh unwieldly and confusing.

[venomgfx]

Time for an update!

Currently Blender 2.5 looks like this:

Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/5137477

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE59xch_1oA
(seems this is still being processed, better use Vimeo)

The video is recorded at 1280x800, so enable HD and Fullscreen!, also so you can read some annotations I made there for you to follow what I'm actually doing.

[fktt]

fktt

Just a follow up on your response regarding triangles. Are you saying while modeling, when blender generates these triangles I should just ignore them and continue (and maybe try to use the tri to quad tool in the end to reduce them).

It is an option, but it should be obvious that only triangles that tend to be of planar nature convert well to quads.
Mind you that should be the case with pretty much any app.

As for what I mean is that to some newbie the way you stated it,
it could easily seem as if blender doesn't support triangles at all. :)

If I have 2 triangles side-by-side that I want to convert to faces,
then I just convert them trough the use of f-key.
If its any kind of even number =/> 4 I tend to just use Alt-J.

I am asking because triangles create creases in my modeling ...(when subsurf)..and as they accumulate makes the mesh unwieldly and confusing.

Tris and N-gons are fine even in subsurf meshes as long as you know how they subdivide,
and what kind of face/edge loops they create after the subdivision.

heres a little example image I've used in the past:
http://gallery.mudpuddle.co.nz/v/fktt/ImgTips/subd-tri.jpg.html
(the site doesn't allow direct linking to image)


edit:
Venom, as a new thread please! so people will notice (and yeah, that was awesome!) :D

[Ian Jones]

:D

Awesome... been so excited about these changes.

[TheANIMAL]

Time for an update!

Currently Blender 2.5 looks like this:

Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/5137477

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE59xch_1oA
(seems this is still being processed, better use Vimeo)

The video is recorded at 1280x800, so enable HD and Fullscreen!, also so you can read some annotations I made there for you to follow what I'm actually doing.

I have updated the first post.

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