This is standard if you begin to learn a new tool. But after really working on a lot of models and projects it will turn around to 90% hotkeys. And believe me: It is much fun if I can work that way in Lightwave. I rarely have to move my mouse away from my object and I just work, no matter if I do sizing, rotating or extending the geometry it just happens with the same speed as my brain thinks about it.

It would be a big show stopper if I had to go into several menus or pressing any buttons.

If you watch some modelling-tutorials then you will realize that most of the professionals never click any button. They just model and you have to guess how they activated this function. But fortunately they often tell you what hotkey they pressed.

This is how you work if you really work with a tool. You will be more and more efficient. And to be honest: If someone writes a lot in a word processor he / she does just the same: forgetting about menus - using hotkeys.

What I didn't say in my original post is that I have to actually teach 3D modelling to novice students. I teach programming and I have been asked to look at Games Design. This is why I have been busy asking loads of questions etc etc. I DO like Blender in some ways, but I think teaching it would be tricky. I mean those menus at the bottom look quite intimidating and the whole interface is something that is not too quick to aquire. By contrast, I have very quickly picked up how to use Wings3D. We will use Blender, but not initially. The students will be actually be given a choice. Initial teaching could be with Wings3D, its so easy to use. I have contacted Calagari (Truespace folks) to see if we could use Truespace 7 on college PCs. Again, we could use several packages. The students will not become pro-modellers but they do need to be able to build models and animate them in a game.

Thanks

sorry for the thread hijack but



really? for me, when I downloaded the zbrush demo i was up and running and sculpting my hi poly models in a matter of minutes, of course I dont know the intimate details, but I know enough of what is need for game design.

Wouldn't call myself a beginner at trueSpace after ten years and hundrets of modeled, textured, riggend, animated and rendered sprites and characters



That would drive me crazy too. And does with the Blender button menu.

And here comes customization in handy. I have all my most used buttons laid out besides the workspace. Just a short mouse movement and one mouse click. No searching in sub menus. Ways faster than releasing the mouse, looking away from the screen, look which key to press, pressing the hotkey, then grabbing the mouse again. Ways faster. And my neck doesn't hurt in the evening

The good thing at trueSpace is that you can do both. You can use buttons with icons or text, and you can use hotkeys. And you can highly customize the windows and toolbars layout, you can set it up to your favourite useage.



I overread the underlying line that says that non hotkey users are always non professional and go on with ...

Mmh, modeling tutorials in hotkey driven interfaces rarely have mouse clicks involved :P

Pros looks for their own special workflow. They test around for the fastest way and best solution permanently. Customized workflow is mainly based at own experience, rarely if a tool is cool or a workflow uncool.

"Professional", hmm. That's one of the biggest misunderstandings here i guess. 3DGS is mainly a hobbytool. Blender is mainly a hobbytool. trueSpace is mainly a hobbytool. This here is a big hobby scene. There are surely pros around here like you too. But most are hobbyists.

I use a tool as a tool. When it does the job it's good enough. Blender doesn't do the job for me. I battle more with the UI than anything else. trueSpace does the job. That easy

But if you ever get to the position where you buy the systems and maintain the networks and OS I think you would be better with Blender on linux machines. Its a much more affordable way to go. Considering you can buy or build systems for around $400.00 that run blender fine, why pay an additional $200 for a windows OS on top of that...but I dont know you or your systems, Im just throwing that out there. You can also set up a small render network with Blender. (Or a very large network for that matter)

If you are teaching people then you need to consider the future also. Blender is in the middle of a constant software lifecycle whereas Wings 3d seems to have become stagnant and Truespace I dont know much about, but I seriously question why they would all of a sudden give it away for free.

Blender development seems to have no end in sight, and more and more people are getting interested in it. Its very important that you pick software that has a healthy development cycle.

You get used to the interface, just like anything else.

Easy story. Caligari is now part of Microsoft. And trueSpace became the official 3D software to create content for Virtual Earth. TS 7.6 is in the middle of transition to the new architecture, which will be finished with TS8.

@Tiles: The important thing is that YOU can work with Caligari's GUI. If you feel comfortable with... it's ok. The only thing i dont like are the too colorful buttons. I like Lightwave's grey-style much more.

But there is one important thing you have to keep in mind: The features and the costs. If you have only a small amount of "available" applications, the UI moves more and more to the background.

Example: A user has not enough money to buy 3ds max, maya, lightwave and so on. trueSpace and Blender are free. He likes Caligari's UI much more but he needs the import/export-capabilities of Blender. What's his choice?

What i want to say is: The UI is not a important aspect. It's only a question of learning.

Fortunately i had the money to buy Lightwave. Otherwise i would learn Blender. No matter if i like Blender's UI or not.

Work in TS, export to Blender, then export to the needed format. That's what i mainly use Blender for. Yes, i know. Animation is a very special chapter. Which hopefully will be solved in the very near future when the SDK is out.

Or wait for the SDK to become available. A thing of a few weeks. They are at polishing at the moment. Then write your own or wait a bit more for the im- and exporters to appear. And they will appear. I know that a plugin is in development that can im- and export FBX for example.



My whole experience teaches me the opposite. An edgeloop is an edgeloop, no matter in which 3D software. Functionality is functionality. It's the UI that makes the difference. You can fascinate lots of users with a good one. You can scare lots of users away with a bad UI though. Counts for applications. And counts even more for games

If I was to be given a choice of tools, including commercial tools then I would probably go for Cinema4d as the interface is very nice as is the overall workflow.

I currently use 3dsmax but that is because I have to as this is what we are using at University.

If I were to choose between Truespace and Blender then i would probably go down the Blender route as I wouldn't be too sure as to what Microsoft will do with TS in the future. I personally think the UI on both applications could be greatly improved.