Moving to Blender - Help for TS -> Blender (standard)

[Finis]

Many former trueSpacers are trying Blender. Blender is different and has a steep learning curve so that can be a difficult and frustrating experience. Let's use this thread help each other with that.

Everyone who used TS was smart enough and adaptable enough to learn it. We can only learn one program? I don't think so. I think TS folks can learn anything.

Other Options
- A fork of Blender called Blender for Artists is available due to the efforts of Tiles. It is easier for trueSpacers. You can find information about it on U3DA.
- Staying with trueSpace may be for you. Clintonman and Trueblue are maintaining and updating TS. Info. on that can also be found on U3DA.

This thread is for TS -> standard Blender. Let's make a similar one for TS -> Blender for Artists.

[Finis]

Blender is not trueSpace.

Learning a new program, or anything, is a matter of adaptability and attitude. Don't expect Blender to be like TS. It isn't.

Remember the movie Firefox where Clint Eastwood had to steal a thought controlled Russian fighter plane? The plane wouldn't respond to Russian-as-a-second-language pilots who thought in English. Eastwood could think in Russian so he was the man for the mission. Learn to think in Blender. Adaptability.

This isn't TS, I hate it, how do I make Blender become TS? That is not a attitude that will help. TS was great. Blender does suck in some ways. It also offers great CG power even close to the professional toys in some things. The price of that power is that it is more complicated, technical, and less artist friendly than TS.

Your creativity and artistic inspiration will return after you pass the difficult learning curve and can think in Blender.

[Finis]

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GROUPS IN BLENDER

I'll gather knowledge from this thread into posts like this one with all caps headers showing the subject.

Blender does not have groups that work like in TS. It has parenting and collections. These tools have uses and abilities much beyond groups. They can be used to create and manipulate "groups" but they won't work as conveniently as TS groups.

More about groups in this post later ...

[Draise]

Quick Instances addon can help you to "groups". Another little addon "parent to empty" also helps.

Collection Instances can be a great way to get a similar workflow.

Also... Bforartists may feel nicer than blender due to iconography and all the love from people who used truespce refining the GUI. Better tooltips everywhere and more toolshelves and customizability.

[Krowbarh]

Well, All the Best to those who wish to forge ahead on Blender...

I just dumped over 200 GB of Blender Garbage because I am tired of it...If you don't use it everyday then it seems you gotta RELEARN it again, and again, and again...

Course I do audio-music creation as well so I am spread thin but even the most unintuitive tracker is far easier to keep up with & faster to learn...

I DID however, keep the OLDER blender stuff...Everything 2.49b & down as I have a 2.49b special edition that's pretty cool & the older version much less to keep in the kopf...

IMHO I think Blender was engineered to be powerful & free but there must be some covenant that it also MUST BE made as unnatural to use as possible...I mean, after all this time not even a built-in help system....Probably for an experiment on mankind or a many-decades long cosmic joke to see if anyone will master it at all...

[Finis]

@Draise Lets have another thread like this one for Blender for Artists. You or Tiles or someone familiar with BFA should create and handle that one. Best not to mix BFA specific things with standard Blender to avoid confusion. Of course BFA folks might need the standard Blender info. here too.

[Draise]

Bforartists is blender at it's core so both work similar with add-ons and workflow. Bforartists adds tooltips, hotkey overlay, toolshelves and toolbars and iconography and other quality of life improvement to the UI. But it's still mostly blender workflows. Coming from truespace myself, it's a breath of fresh air compared to vanilla blender.

[trueBlue]

Bforartists is blender at it's core so both work similar with add-ons and workflow. Bforartists adds tooltips, hotkey overlay, toolshelves and toolbars and iconography and other quality of life improvement to the UI. But it's still mostly blender workflows. Coming from truespace myself, it's a breath of fresh air compared to vanilla blender.

Can you make widgets?