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Blender Tests and Impressions


CApruzzese

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30 minutes ago, Chris Phillips said:

 

I have my Wacom pen's 3rd button set to 'Middle Click' while using Blender (and C4D) and find it works pretty well for the camera stuff. It still doesn't feel as good as moving the camera in Cinema 4D but its completely fine once you fix that muscle memory up.

 

I tend to grip my pen way at the bottom - away from the rocker switch for right/middle click. Might have to try and see if I can get over that.

 

My hands took quite a beating in my younger years, so most of the problem is me.

 

2 hours ago, FLima said:

Thanks for sharing your insight @Papa Lenny
I am so tempted to test Cycles X, but having just two normal gtx 1080...not sure how much improvement I would actualy see. 
But yeah, so many good reviews! 

 

There is also K-cycles X -  Even faster! Haven't tried it as it's paid and I'm just starting out in the world of Blender.

https://blendermarket.com/products/k-cycles

 

19 minutes ago, Cairyn said:

Try the 3Dconnexion Space Navigator/Mouse*. I have one, and it works fine in Blender so far (Windows at least). Set it to Turntable if you don't want the horizon to tilt. Moving the view with the left hand is such a relief.

 

* Not advertising - I just don't know any competitor...

 

I think I have one collecting dust in my box of tech!  Do you just have the 3d space mouse just set to orbit?  I'm in windows, switched from a mac a while back with the rise of GPU rendering and CUDA. 

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On 9/29/2021 at 7:19 AM, Papa Lenny said:

 

I tend to grip my pen way at the bottom - away from the rocker switch for right/middle click. Might have to try and see if I can get over that.

 

My hands took quite a beating in my younger years, so most of the problem is me.

 

 

 

Not sure what type of Wacom you have, but I've got a Pro Pen 2 which is pretty comfy to hold a little further up. I had a cheaper, non pro Intuos for a little while there and that pen was so flimsy and uncomfortable to hold. Murder on the hand after a long day.

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On 9/28/2021 at 11:19 PM, Papa Lenny said:

I think I have one collecting dust in my box of tech!  Do you just have the 3d space mouse just set to orbit?  I'm in windows, switched from a mac a while back with the rise of GPU rendering and CUDA. 

 

That's my setting for the SpaceNavigator:

image.png.dde05e28d0cd03170b498b74cb99ae9a.png

 

The thing has only two buttons so I haven't bothered much with adding special functionality there (although... with Blender navigation, it might make sense to put a Camera View toggle there...), but it seems this is possible at least.

 

If your 3Dmouse is old, you may need to have a look at newer drivers. I programmed a 3Dconnexion plugin for C4D, and it gave me trouble because C4D is using an obsolete protocol, while I am using the newest protocol - and they are fundamentally incompatible. -- I assume Blender will use the new protocol, so you may want to update.

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6 hours ago, Chris Phillips said:

 

Not sure what type of Wacom you have, but I've got a Pro Pen 2 which is pretty comfy to hold a little further up. I had a cheaper, non pro Intuos for a little while there and that pen was so flimsy and uncomfortable to hold. Murder on the hand after a long day.

 

Wacom intuos 3. I can afford a new one, but this one keeps chugging along and I'm used to it.

 

2 hours ago, Cairyn said:

 

That's my setting for the SpaceNavigator:

image.png.dde05e28d0cd03170b498b74cb99ae9a.png

 

The thing has only two buttons so I haven't bothered much with adding special functionality there (although... with Blender navigation, it might make sense to put a Camera View toggle there...), but it seems this is possible at least.

 

If your 3Dmouse is old, you may need to have a look at newer drivers. I programmed a 3Dconnexion plugin for C4D, and it gave me trouble because C4D is using an obsolete protocol, while I am using the newest protocol - and they are fundamentally incompatible. -- I assume Blender will use the new protocol, so you may want to update.

 

My 3dmouse is definitely old! Is it worth trying a new one?

Back to blender impressions, little things like the settings for a primitive disappearing after the initial creation is strange. Am i missing something, or does that little info panel that pops up disappear forever once you click off anything?

 

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19 minutes ago, Papa Lenny said:

My 3dmouse is definitely old! Is it worth trying a new one?

 

Try the old one first; if it's not working because of driver support or because the dead zone has become too large, you can always try a new one.

 

For me, it is an invaluable tool. But then, other people may feel different. Affinities are different ... I can't work with a tablet for example, mostly because of the weird "mouse button" handling. (I also prefer a trackball.)

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23 minutes ago, Papa Lenny said:

Back to blender impressions, little things like the settings for a primitive disappearing after the initial creation is strange. Am i missing something, or does that little info panel that pops up disappear forever once you click off anything?

 

Blender doesn't have parametric primitives. At the moment of creation, you can use the settings panel to refine your created object. Once you do something else, Blender finalizes the object and moves on - the panel disappears, and the object is fixed in its polygonal form. This is also true for many tools: you can change the effects and parameters but once you do something else, the tool will do its thing in a final form.

 

For a C4D user, the tool aspect is not a surprise as it works the same way in C4D (but differently from any CGI software that has interactive modifier stacks); the object aspect is more irritating as C4D supplies you with parametrics. Imagine the Blender way as creating a parametric object and immediately after that, polygonizing it.

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4 hours ago, Cairyn said:

Blender doesn't have parametric primitives. At the moment of creation, you can use the settings panel to refine your created object. Once you do something else, Blender finalizes the object and moves on - the panel disappears, and the object is fixed in its polygonal form.

 

Yes and no.

 

Yes, because the polygonal mesh primitives are destructive: once created, the base parameters can no longer be adjusted.

 

No, because the mesh primitives in the Geometry Nodes are parametric and non-destructive. Here is a simple example of three parametric primitives working together to create a new object:

 

image.png.9a5eba387477a36cffc78374061a4b36.png

 

4 hours ago, Cairyn said:

This is also true for many tools: you can change the effects and parameters but once you do something else, the tool will do its thing in a final form.

 

The opposite is also true: many tools are also non-destructive via the modifier stack or the geometry nodes.

 

Addons expand the scope as well:

- WonderMesh adds true parametric objects to Blender. They work the same as C4D's.

- Animation and Sverchok nodes allow for additional non-destructive workflows.

- hard surface modeling addon HardOps offers a non-destructive workflow.

 

https://github.com/WiresoulStudio/W_Mesh_28x/releases

(support this developer at https://blendermarket.com/products/wonder-mesh )

https://animation-nodes.com/

https://nortikin.github.io/sverchok/

https://blendermarket.com/products/hard-ops--boxcutter-ultimate-bundle

 

I have to say that I really enjoy having the Wmesh parametric objects in Blender in my workflow. I use them quite often, and it was one thing I missed from C4D.

 

Although now that I am learning Houdini, I've been using Blender's geometry nodes more and more as well lately.

 

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20 minutes ago, hvanderwegen said:

The opposite is also true: many tools are also non-destructive via the modifier stack or the geometry nodes.

 

As C4D user, I see the modifiers more like deformers, less like tools. Naturally, the concepts are not 100% the same. (So far, I have no clue how the internal implementation is.)

 

If you add geometry nodes, you probably add a ton more usability to your workflow. (But I think they have nothing to do with the settings dialog from the original question?) I'm waiting for the 3.0 release to go there though, as there were some conceptual changes lately, and I still have a lot to catch up in my 2.93...

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On 9/28/2021 at 2:19 PM, Papa Lenny said:

There is also K-cycles X -  Even faster! Haven't tried it as it's paid and I'm just starting out in the world of Blender.

 

K-CyclesX is great. CyclesX is already quite a bit faster in rendering compared to Cycles, and K-CyclesX even more so. It feels as if I got a new GPU.

 

It is also much more affordable than E-Cycles. Granted, E-Cycles does offer light groups.

 

On 9/28/2021 at 11:23 AM, FLima said:

I am so tempted to test Cycles X, but having just two normal gtx 1080...not sure how much improvement I would actually see. 

On my single 1080 it is a marked difference. In particular the rendered viewport flies compared to Cycles. It is absolutely brilliant for lookdev.

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2 minutes ago, hvanderwegen said:

 

K-CyclesX is great. CyclesX is already quite a bit faster in rendering compared to Cycles, and K-CyclesX even more so. It feels as if I got a new GPU.

 

It is also much more affordable than E-Cycles. Granted, E-Cycles does offer light groups.

 

On my single 1080 it is a marked difference. In particular the rendered viewport flies compared to Cycles. It is absolutely brilliant for lookdev.

That is interesting to know.
To be honest, my main issue is with light linking, so e-cycles provides that? 

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