Well yeah,
I’m not one of those yelling to replace the entire default keymap with IC keymap,
I think when come to keymapping, it should leave more freedom and harmony to let the users choose what ever they want to use,
therefore, I think co-exist is the best solution on there own track.
I already using it for a long while,
I even make a side by side comparison google sheet with all the function and hotkeys see what’s missing in IC then create a temporary one
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You can’t buy it, but a lot of people still use ‘old’ versions because Softimage (XSI) is one of best ‘tools’ there is.
Yes, Vitaliy Bulgarov is one of the most famous XSI user.
Yup. XSI is like Blender + Maya + Houdini in one.
PS. IMHO: XSI’s workflow / approach would be great for Blender. It’s easy, intuitive and logical. You want to unwrap a model? Select a model and apply unwrap. You want subdivide a model? Select a model and press Subdivide. You want to split an edge? Select a model, press ‘Split Edge Tool’ then click where you want to split the edge(s). You want to change ‘common’ parameters of multiple objects, materials, etc.? No problem. You want to change default parameters of all operators? No problem. You want to create a custom button? No problem. Macros? Yes. Custom Menu? Yes. You want to create a custom script and assign it to a custom button on a custom shelve without leaving XSI? Yes, you can do it either.
I think you’ve got the idea.
This sounds like expandability.
XSI has it all. Flexibility, user and artist friendliness, expendability and more important - easy, intuitive and logical workflow and approach to modeling and other things. All of the necessary tools available to you at once. And because you can create custom shelves with custom buttons, you don’t have to remember 2500 keyboard shortcuts like in Blender and all of the modes where those shortcuts used. You just push one button in any ‘mode’ and active the tool you need.
You don’t have to remember shortcuts to learn Blender.
You have to remember shortcuts to outperform competitors on the market.
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You have to remember shortcuts to learn Blender. The whole Blender’s pipeline was build around that. At least that’s what some developers has told me.
And no, you don’t have to remember shortcuts to outperform competitors on the market.
How do you know?
Did you tried to challenge Blender approach?
The goal of learning shortcuts is to reach two-handed aproach instead of single-handed one, which is easier to learn, but way slower to use.
It has been already proven for a couple of decades.
So when you learn Blender, you learn the fastest approach right from the begining - that is the point of learning Blender.
Every software has bevel and extrude, in modern graphics era it is important how fast you perform them during deadlines.
It is a certain step in every professional modeller’s evolution - when you stop using GUI in order to bypass GUI speed limitation level and reach physical body speed limitation level.
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Perhaps you are exaggerating a bit about the number of keyboard shortcuts one should learn? You can access the features through the menus, pie menus or panels. Also with a couple of keyboard shortcuts you remember you can open important menus where you will find most of the features you will need (In Edit mode for example: Ctrl+V, Ctrl+E, Ctrl+F, W, 1,2,3). In addition, all of them are accessible from the Search feature. And you can personalize them with Quick Favorites.
Perhaps it is true that Blender workflow is based on shortcuts, and it is the reason why many choose Blender. But I don’t think it’s true that you have to learn 2500 shortcuts in order to learn how to use Blender.
The real problem with Blender would be if it didn’t have a good workflow at all. But Blender has it and it is the one based on keyboard shortcuts.
Who would not want Blender to have the many good things that it has, but also to have the best of all the other apps. But realistically, there are no resources to make this possible. There are decisions to be made and in this regard Blender has chosen workflow based shortcuts as its fastest and best method.
Yes, I did. I worked on the same environment in XSI and Blender just to compare two different workflows. In my case Blender lost. Not because of its tools (they are great), but because of the way those tool are executed. And this whole keyboard f**kery with the context dependent shortcuts was (and still is) quite annoying and frustrating to say the least.
What you learn is not the fastest approach, it’s just Blender’s approach. And those useless contests that you’ve mentioned in other topic doesn’t prove anything.
Many of the modeling, texturing and other related operations can be performed much faster or the more efficient way in XSI and other tools. I’ve mentioned a few of those above, but here is another one - negative scale. In XSI it works exactly the way you’d expect it to work with no unwanted consequences. In Blender, on the other hand, it has a very serious unwanted consequence - it inverts normals. You won’t see that until you apply transformations. And after that you have to fix the normals. But if you use negative scale and you don’t know about this issue or forget to fix it, then you are in for a very unpleasant surprise. So much speeeed, so much efficiency. Yay!
WUT? I’ve seen a number of professional modellers at work and ALL of them used GUI as a part of their workflow. You know why? Because moving your mouse 1cm up and clicking is FASTER than pressing some key combinations like let’s say Ctrl + H on the keyboard.
Not sure what exactly do you mean.
The approach you are not familiar with didn’t worked for you, and the official contest between professionals, including AAA game modellers doesn’t prove anything.
Also you said that moving mouse with precise aiming to GUI and moving it back to model is faster than not moving mouse.
It is quite suspicious.
Even Bulgarov use hotkeys to achieve an appropriate performance level. Right in XSI:
I said pros use GUI as a part of their workflow. Do you understand the meaning of the word ‘part’? Shortcuts is a great thing, but hotkeys in combination with GUI is even better and faster.
My point is that this whole Blender’s hotkeys oriented approach is a good things for some and a source of constant pain and stress for the others.
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Such a pain is caused by relearning.
Learning process - when you squeeze instructions from the “brain” to the “spinal cord”, converting knowledge into motor skills - is always painful, regardless of the field of study.
The point of Blender approach is to learn the fastest and versatile approach from the very beginning, to feel that pain just once, avoiding the need to completely retrain motor skills to meet industry speed requirements.
For me it was not that hard to relearn from max to blender, because I retrained my motor skills to hotkeys approach during working in max, to meet overall industry speed requirements - which was quite painful.
That’s the reason our company hire Blender users - they are incredibly fast and versatile modellers by default because they did not know other paths except the most efficient while learning.
Being close-minded like you won’t help Blender (or you) win more people over.
That explains a lot. I’ve used 3Ds Max for some years and it had (maybe still have) the ‘slowest’ workflow / approach on the market.
PS. Just for fun: Clicks to create a 10m cube that has 3x5x8 subdivisions and switch to the object mode.
XSI: LMB → 10 → 3 → 5 → 8 → LMB
Blender: Q → LMB → 10 → F → TAB → Ctrl + R → MW (3) → LMB → Ctrl + R → MW (5) → LMB → Ctrl + R → MW (8) → LMB → TAB
Did I miss anything?
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Can you, please, say that to all those 3dsmax users who learned it as the only program and think that its approach is actually the best because it is an industry standard? Do you think they will believe you?
Relevance.
Saving seconds when creating a cube is handy, but not relevant.
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As it turned out, that old joke about Blender that posted above hit home much closer than I’d thought. I’ve always felt that working in Blender (IS keymap with Gizmo) was kind of like working ‘backward’ and moving objects in the ‘wrong direction’ in a way… and now I know why:
That image is missing other software, I wonder why…
Anyway, coordinate system discussion is kinda off topic to shortcuts.
While idea of industry keymap is good in theory, I’ve seen a lot complains from new users that it ends up being a hindrance since they can’t follow blender tutorials because it changes too much. So some kind of hybrid keymap (just the selection, navigation and qwer, rest of shortcuts is blender) could be a good solution.
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Because I don’t have other 3D software. I’ve tested everything I have and here are the results:
Gizmo orientation:
Maya: Forward
XSI: Forward
Unreal Engine: Forward
Cryengine: Forward
Blender Backward
This backward orientation is very confusing and makes it really hard to use the gizmo.
Yes, but no. Gizmo is a part of the Industry standard layout.