Blender is moving in the wrong direction

Archive User Feedback
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After using blender professionally for nearly 10 years and getting many of my friends and co-workers to start using blender over Maya and Max, its kind of embarrassing to now have to switch to an Autodesk ecosystem. I honestly never thought this day would come but after being so excited for 2.8 trying the daily builds for months now and only seeing everything I loved about blender stripped away I can’t help but ask why bother using blender anymore?

As a professional, I can afford to invest in my tools. I own Marmoset, Max, Maya, Fusion 360, Photoshop, Substance and tons of other miscellaneous programs but Blender was at the heart of my workflow. I used Blender not because it was free but because it provided the fastest and most fun workflow even if its tools were sometimes lacking.

Right-click to select allowed us to avoid the selection issues that arise from having one button perform two very different functions. Right-Click to select was something blender was known for. What advantage does left clicking provide? It just means widgets now can block you from selecting objects behind them or even worse causing you to accidentally move things around when trying to select. Right click also allowed you to cancel actions which was very useful. The fact that Blender abandoned something that was not only unique to it but actually fixed a really annoying and common problem in literally every other 3D software says a lot about the direction Blender is moving.

Merging verts is something you do a lot when modeling but now you can’t do that when edges or faces are selected. Why? This worked before just fine. In 10 years I’ve never once had an issue with that. Having to switch back to vert mode just to merge is slowing down an efficient workflow for no reason. This is an issue with the W menu in 2.7x mode.

Tab should toggle object/edit mode while holding down tab in object mode should bring up a pie menu to switch between sculpting, weight painting, and so on. Holding down tab in edit mode should allow you to switch selection modes (vert, edge, face). Holding tab down at the moment just induces a seizure as it rapidly switches between modes. Its a missed opportunity.

Z should be a wireframe toggle and holding it down should give you a pie menu for other shading modes.
The way everything is set up right now is a mess and interferes with other vital tools such as being able to use the number keys for changing views if you don’t have a numpad.

Why is transform a tool now? The transform widget should have just been a toggleable overlay rather than a tool. Having to keep selecting it over and over again whenever I switch tools is yet another small time waster added to Blender that doesn’t seem to sever any purpose other than to make blender less fun to use.

A fast workflow over 15 years in the making gets thrown out the window, along with its veteran users, for a far less efficient workflow so that blender can be a shitty clone of better 3D tools instead of the unique tool that it previously was. And we still can’t get things we have been complaining about for years fixed like how menus that get cut off by the screen can’t remember your previous selection if you move your mouse even the tiniest bit leading to misclicks and undos all the time.

Blender had a great workflow out of the box and needed only a few minor tweaks. If I wanted to go through 100s of keybinding settings and make sure my setup doesn’t conflict with other settings or tools then why shouldn’t I just switch to Autodesk products? I’d have to do the same thing in Maya or Max but I would have access to far better tools and better integration to things like Unreal Engine which I use every single day. If Blender isn’t hotkey driven and keeps making existing efficient workflows needlessly slower and more cumbersome then why should anyone use it professionally anymore?

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Nope, Blender is moving in the right direction. It’s much much better now. :slight_smile:

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Maybe you should use the preferences to return the 2.79 layout. Much has changed but as the same way things Change, Blender still free to choose your own workflow. Blender os not moving on wrong direction, by the opposite, now for new users Blender is more faster and intuitive Than before, we just fell the old workflow and shortcut keys better. But the direction. Blender is now straight to the highest point ever. And i’m not talking about eevee.

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Can you provide a bit more of an explanation for why you think that because I’m not seeing how its better. Sure, they added shiny new toys like eevee thats blown all the new users away but the rest of us have had Marmoset for years now and eevee isn’t worth sacrificing a good workflow for.

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People that keep saying “you can just change it in the settings” are missing the point. You can do that in Maya too. Blenders default was fast and worked great with little to no changes. Now you have to remap everything, make sure you don’t overwrite other important keys, and the default workflow just isn’t as fast. Things that took 1 key before now require multiple clicks or added pie menus.

If blender is moving in the direction of being more like other programs at the expense of established efficient workflows then thats not a good thing.

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But think about dude, fell some empathy.
Blender now is thinking on new users, they are conquering more people. The fact that you can choose the same old workflow since 2.75 breaks everything you say. If you want to use Maya again, your choice, but man your complaining.about the new Blender hás no.sense.
And this os not the first change.
I’m a old Blender user, everything changed tio after 2.56 (i think) to the knowly actual workflow. I’ve took a little to get used. But won that battle before and still just see upgrades on right way . Nothing.wrong.but of course, it’s my opinion.

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There are so much more features that makes Blender better. The New way to grease pencil, the 3d coat link (yeah now exist) New shaders, cycles upgraded and so much more.

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All of those things have existed in other packages for ages. I’m glad blender is catching up but if it comes at the cost of efficiency then why not just use the other industry standard tools rather than bending over backward to make blender work.

I don’t mind blender changing. Hell. I suggested a few useful changes they can make that would make things faster and use the pie menus the development team seems to love so much.

We were all new users once, some of us when blender was still in its infancy and was a pain to use. If we managed to learn it and use it then why can’t new users today when its far better than it was back then. Why throw old users under the bus to attract a few extra new users that are only going to really care that its free to use.

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Hey man!

I’ve been using Blender as a pro for 6 years or so, I’m with you on the loving the efficiency end of things. Definitely felt some frustration hitting z to toggle wireframe, and the tab change is a little frustrating as well.

Not sure I’m understanding though. The pie menus are frustrating because I’ve used them a few times, once I get used to it I can only see that being more efficient. Merging verts works just fine in edge and face mode. Maybe there’s a missed opportunity with tab, but that’s not a downside, just a missed upside. Transform being a tool isn’t a problem because hot keys… using the old transform widget was less efficient to begin with. I haven’t really seen a whole lot change toward being less efficient… maybe I’m missing something though.

As for the rest of it, using the 2.7x/switching some prefs in the settings doesn’t seem any harder than what you’d be doing anyway what with installing boxcutter and such. Right click select works the same as always… just hit that button and you’re good to go. Whether or not it should be default I guess is arguable, but I like that they’re thinking of development for tablets… nothing wrong there. I use a tablet every day all day… I’m definitely gonna give left click select a go, though I’m not sure how long I’ll last haha.

even then though, we’re still in beta haha. Beta is the time for things like key shortcuts to change… heck the left click select change was just made last week. I definitely feel your frustration, but I feel like it’s a little early to throw it under the bus.

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I agree somewhat but I’m going to hold off on my opinions until the full release to see what they do. I do agree that Eevee was bit gimmicky, when I think raw performance is the better long term investment. I’m pretty sure the Blender devs know this and I hope they get around making sure that blender is better optimized than 2.79 when 2.81 rolls around. Being able to handle more verts will make both sculpting and animation easier. I don’t know what goes under the hood in texture painting but I hope they optimize that as well because it’s painful to use it when you have a decently sized texture that you need for realism.

Right now the two types of programs that people use to outsource tasks to is a texture painting software(substance, quixel) and sculpting software (Zbrush) and that’s not a coincidence. Both tasks, sculpting and texture painting is weak in blender.

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The only real reason why you call eevee “shity tool” and compare it to U4 and Unity, is either you paid developers’ fund high but haven’t gotten the results, or it’s time to upgrade your gtx card.
How is it not good to do archviz? All videos are out there. Just popped eyes yesterday on the Blender conference I presented when I covered realtime.

You wanna go back to a locked army of well paid coders, go ahead. B3D .28 just landed. Wait until mid Feb 2019 for full stable (1st release).

Right click button is still there.
Eevee is the best thing it has happened to a 3dcc app. So much, that Cinema is running after its steps. I ain’t explaining…you seem to know this field.

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Finally, someone that actually addresses the points I’ve made rather than taking my critisism of blender as a personal attack!

I don’t mind pie menus. The issue is they are replacing toggles which are quicker rather than adding to functionality to them. What I mean by this is that its quicker to press z once and go into wireframe which is something you will do a million times when modeling. It only takes a single click to do. Now you have to press z, move your mouse, and then click to do what you could do before with 1 click. You will never use those other shading modes as often as you use wireframe so clicking and holding for a few extra milliseconds (which you should be able to change the length of the hold in the settings anyways since that functionality already exists).Over time these extra clicks add up and it just makes the stuff you were doing before harder to do for no added benefit.

Hotkeys for transforming are great when you need very precise movement but sometimes I just want to grab something and drag it where it needs to be. Doing that with the hotkey just doesn’t feel right. Its not a major change but still don’t see why it wasn’t just an overlay.

Switching to 2.7x doesn’t even work properly. Try this yourself. Switch to the 2.7x mode, add a cube, select and edge in edge mode and press 2 to get the menu for merging verts. The option is gone. You have to use the new Ctrl + V. If I have to use the new shorcuts then why even have a 2.7x mode. Its like this for a lot of features. Also how long are they going to support 2.7x mode before they drop it so they don’t have to maintain 2 different workflow styles.

Also tools being sticky as they are now is just messy. Before you would use a tool and when you are done with it then it would just go away and wouldn’t interfere with anything else. Now left click is used to select, manipulate your selection, and use various tools that stick around long after you actually need them so it becomes easy to reuse a tool you didn’t want or you have to keep going back and changing the tool to select or transform. Its just messy for no reason.

As for your comments about tablets. I’m glad blender is supporting them especially with the awesome changes to grease pencil but I don’t think they should be the default setting since most people use a mouse. I am a fan of the fact that its now super easy to change which mouse button you use to select specifically because of useful it might be for people using tablets even though I wouldn’t personally touch that option with a ten foot pole.

Yes, its still beta but it does show the direction blender is heading. My clients aren’t going to wait for me to get used to a new workflow or to make changes to my workflow every time a new version of blender comes out that only enforces these new changes. As a result I have to react early. If it looks like I will have to make workflow changes in the future I start preparing right away.I wouldn’t say I’m throwing 2.8 under the bus. If I did that I wouldn’t be here expressing my views so that changes might be made. I’m still holding out hope but I’m also updating my maya subscription just in case.

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Its beta so this is the time to voice your opinions. Its going to be a bit too late to say anything once all of this gets cemented and becomes the base for all future updates.

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I agree but with blender they change things up on the fly not with other software where they cement things a lot harder.

I gave your posts a like because I think there should be some dissenting and diverse opinions regardless of whether or not they are valid. I’ve noticed people in the Blender community tend to be a little conformist.

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Eevee isn’t a shitty tool on its own. Its great and I’m happy blender has a real time render engine and PBR support. However, when you compare it to whats out there already its nothing special. Unreal allows me way more control and functionality because its a full game engine. Marmoset allows me to get amazing renders and I can post a 3D turntable online for my clients to see and interact with the models.

Eevee on the other hand is still in its infancy while these other tools have been mature for a long time already. I liked when blender was disruptive and was introducing new ways of working and creating tools that maya would later create its own versions of. Thats why I don’t like this trend of following what other programs are doing at the expense of a solid, fast workflow.

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People are passionate about this program. Hell, so am I. I built my life around it. I don’t know if I would even have followed my dream of working in the game industry if blender didn’t exist. It is weird that people will conform to a program that for years chose not to conform to industry trends. Right-click to select would drive my Maya friends crazy but eventually they saw the light and now can never go back lol

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“Now you have to remap everything, make sure you don’t overwrite other important keys,”
You don’t have to do it manually… There is a key-config preset
https://postimg.cc/S2t79GMd

“and the default workflow just isn’t as fast.”
I disagree… I’m using blender since 2004 and i feel that 2.8 has the fastest workflow.

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Too bad that 2.7x mode doesn’t work properly. And how long before they drop it altogether?

Also having to do more clicks for stuff that took you 1 click to do before isn’t faster. It takes you longer now to get into wireframe mode than it did before because you have to perform 3 actions instead of 1. It is objectively slower.

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2.7x preset works properly for me: Z switches between Solid and Wireframe, Tab switches between Edit Mode and Object Mode… :confused:

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Try pressing w to access the merge options while in edge select mode. Its like that for a bunch of other tools. Options are just missing or not working properly.

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