This is (a release candidate for) a huge milestone in Blender's history. So much has been improved, that some, including myself, have speculated why they didn't choose to make it a 3.0 release.<p>Aside from the fantastic new features geared towards existing users, which are described in detail & with pictures in the OP, this release also makes Blender a lot more user-friendly for those who haven't used it before. 3D software almost necessarily has a steep learning curve for new users, as you have to learn not only how to use a new program, but also how 3D content creation itself works. But in this release the developers and designers have made an effort to get rid of the biggest "gotchas" that many new users complained about when using previous versions of Blender.<p>If you've wanted to get into 3D content creation before, there's never been a better time!
I've been using Blender 2.80 as a daily tool since it hit alpha, having started in the industry with the pre-release of Maya beta 4 in 1996.<p>I'm tempted to start with a snarky comment like "only 19 years to get left-mouse select?" or "Microsoft shipped a Linux kernel before Blender got left-mouse select" but the fact is 2.80 is a huge UI improvement.<p>At this point, the UI is merely a bit odd, as opposed to inconceivably terrible. If you are a hobbyist or have only occasional need for 3D editing, Blender should absolutely be your go-to tool today. At this point it's no harder to learn and not significantly quirkier than Maya or 3ds Max, it's just different.<p>When the last major Blender UI update came out (something like 2.64? I can't remember) I recall saying "one more round of UI improvement like this and I'd consider starting my next studio pipeline around Blender rather than Maya." That was about 6 years ago. Today I'd consider building a studio pipeline around it but probably decide against, though one more round of improvement like 2.80 and I'd definitely start a studio on Blender over Maya which hasn't advanced significantly in more than ten years. 2025 FTW!<p>I haven't pulled down the RC yet (I'm still on the most recent beta) so this might have changed in RC but if you are considering shifting from your 3D editor of choice to Blender, you'll want to know that parenting relationships are still needlessly buried but accessible[0].<p>[0] <a href="https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/127105/the-outliner-doesnt-show-parent-child-relations-in-blender-2-8?rq=1" rel="nofollow">https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/127105/the-outli...</a>
Blender is an incredible achievement for the open source community. It is an extraordinarily capable bit of software and 2.80 brings so many huge changes and refinements.<p>While it still remains a complex bit of software it is not has difficult as its reputation would suggest and 2.80 makes a lot of concessions to making the UI more familiar to newbies.
The new renderer, Eevee, is brilliant and fast and is only one of the many great improvements to what was already one of my favourite bits of software.<p>Some of the best open-source desktop software that there is.
I'm totally looking forward to the work that has gone into UI improvements. My prior attempts at using Blender left me puzzled, and I figured it was kindof the vi of 3D modelling eg. made for full-time as opposed to casual work. Though my son told me it isn't difficult if you know the basics. Anyway, I'm used to SketchUp and have a couple of models (no animations), so is there a way to import .skp files? Years ago, I used SketchUp Pro's Collada export with some success, but since SketchUp has changed to a browser-based free version (ugh), it looks like I'll need to use an old SketchUp install.
> left click select as the new default<p>This is a huge improvement for new users. Right click was very un-intuitive when coming from other applications.<p>Congrats to the Blender team on this release.
So glad to see 2.8 getting closer to release. I recently used blender for a project, had a problem with the new gltf exporter, luckily it was so easy to fix that even I could create a patch and a pull request, which was reviewed and accepted within a day. Now THATS open source!
No more "just learn them 100 shortcuts you newbie". It was incredibly annoying advice for casual user, who has simply forgotten everything everytime they need to do some 3D-modelling.
It has a real-time physically based renderer now: <a href="https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Reference/Release_Notes/2.80/EEVEE" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Reference/Release_Notes/2.80/E...</a>
The hardest thing for me in blender so far has been uv coords. Sometimes I seem to be editing them, but they don't change, sometimes the ui for it seems to be gone. Sometimes they don't seem to apply. Sometimes the material seems to get lost.<p>It's been an incredible festival of mis-design, so far.<p>So, I hope that has improved.
It has been a long wait.<p>I'm still not quite used to the new UI, but I generally trust the Blender foundation that most changes are to the better (and many of them can be reversed through settings).
Oh wow, the UI has changed significantly which is a huge milestone. Back in the days any mention of the UI being awkward would typically just result in people telling you "you just aren't smart enough to use it" which basically just let people to roll with Maya instead.
This is great news tempered by the fact that this is the first version since the NaN buyout that I'll not be able to run without buying new hardware. I saw many similar lamentations in the various fora, usually met with "It's 2019 etc etc." And so it goes.
Talk about amazing, free software! Thanks to everyone that worked so hard on this!<p>Such helpful Blender communities on YouTube sharing tutorials that can help you achieve any effect, build any model, rig any character, motion track and composite any video!
This new release of Blender sounds awesome! How can I learn Blender effectively?<p>I've tried in the past but got frustrated quickly with the low quality or with how out of date the videos were. I don't mind paying for quality.
The first thing I'm going to check is how to close a "window" if they haven't put a simple X in the top right, I'll be disappointed.