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Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

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Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#141

Post by Arcanum-XIII »

greggman wrote: post #131
JeremyHerrman wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in 2011 if you googled "blender is ", you get these autocompleted options: blender is slow blender is too hard blender is hard to use I know this because I was so frustrated as a newcomer and took a screenshot that I still have today. Now if you google "blender is " today, you get these: blender is hard blender is damaged blender is confusing blender is free blender is slow In 2013 Andrew Price led an effort to…

Blender definitely has a non-standard UI. There are settings that make it more "standard". You can set it to "Maya" mode for example. But, pretty much all 3D software is hard to use and takes several weeks to understand. I spent at least 3 weeks on both Maya and 3DSMax just going through the manual a chapter at a time and working through the tutorials back in the day. There's just too much to do in current 3D softwar…

First time I tried to do anything with Maya it was hard as hell. Then it get easier and easier and... then I was able to move to 3D Studio, or XSI, or even Softimage 3D (maybe not the deepest nurbs setting ok). They mostly all work the same, except for some outliers (because they go another direction, like in ZBrush, if it can even be compared), and after all that, you have Blender. It's not just strange : it's often backward, borderline, annoying. A bit like Gimp is not working like Photoshop, or Corel Draw, or... it's Gimp. Some people love it, Lots don't.

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#142

Post by fsloth »

marshray wrote: post #102
rayiner wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What passes for innovative in your universe? Fancy JSON file format? AutoCAD web app?

Fusion 360 is becoming a small revolution among my makerspace.

Which features of Fusion would you consider the most important for your usage? Why is it gaining traction?

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#143

Post by dagw »

CyberDildonics wrote: post #88
Animats wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

XSI was originally from Softimage. Softimage sold out to Microsoft, which had no idea what to do with a high-end product other than to make it run on Windows NT. That ended SGI's reign in Hollywood; between 1998 and 2001, studios moved off SGI onto PCs with lots of memory and graphics cards that rapidly got cheaper. Microsoft sold Softimage to Avid. Avid wanted Softimage because they also had a good non-linear editor…

> That ended SGI's reign in Hollywood; Big studios didn't convert to NT, they converted to Linux. SGI ended their own reign by not being able to compete with Nvidia and AMD/Intel. Even now all those studios use csh since that was the default shell that came with Irix.

I was working in the industry at the time, and my feeling was that while a few big studios went with Linux the vast majority of studios (especially among the smaller studios) went with NT.

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#144

Post by sangnoir »

JeremyHerrman wrote: post #101
isaiahg wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> notably a lack of UI refinement That's a common misconception. Blender's UI is extremely simple and innovative.

Back in 2011 if you googled "blender is ", you get these autocompleted options: blender is slow blender is too hard blender is hard to use I know this because I was so frustrated as a newcomer and took a screenshot that I still have today. Now if you google "blender is " today, you get these: blender is hard blender is damaged blender is confusing blender is free blender is slow In 2013 Andrew Price led an effort to…

>Now if you google "blender is " today, you get these

Sorry, that's not what I'm getting, I'm getting

Blender is free

Blender is slow

Blender is better than maya

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#145

Post by CyberDildonics »

dagw wrote: post #143
CyberDildonics wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That ended SGI's reign in Hollywood; Big studios didn't convert to NT, they converted to Linux. SGI ended their own reign by not being able to compete with Nvidia and AMD/Intel. Even now all those studios use csh since that was the default shell that came with Irix.

I was working in the industry at the time, and my feeling was that while a few big studios went with Linux the vast majority of studios (especially among the smaller studios) went with NT.

Every big studio and the majority of medium studios converted to Linux once Houdini and Maya were ported. At the time the industry was dominated by five big American studios and 3-5 big London studios, all of which went the Linux route, not the NT route. Maybe you worked on multiple small studios that jumped on windows, but that wasn't the norm nor was windows the driving force is providing a smooth path from Irix.

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#146

Post by CyberDildonics »

antod wrote: post #127
CyberDildonics wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That ended SGI's reign in Hollywood; Big studios didn't convert to NT, they converted to Linux. SGI ended their own reign by not being able to compete with Nvidia and AMD/Intel. Even now all those studios use csh since that was the default shell that came with Irix.

There was a short lived start of a shift to NT in the 90s before Linux became established/respected enough to squash that idea. Even SGI itself tried not to get left behind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_Visual_Workstation

SGI made a few NT computers as an attempt to sell PCs which of course didn't work out due to not offering much except for a name an inflated price. Linux was coming around at the time, but SGI wouldn't have been an early adopter of Linux by any means since Irix was one of the jewels of the company, and helping adoption of Linux would have helped people transition to commodity PCs.

NT was a part of the transition for much smaller groups or individuals since they could buy a dual processor pentium II/pro and put a decent amount of RAM in them along with an Oxygen card that would accelerate OpenGL.

Large studios had a huge amount of infrastructure built up in pipeline scripts and workflow, proprietary software that might have used POSIX APIs and GUI libraries that weren't on windows, and big network file systems that tied things together.

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#147

Post by wlesieutre »

return0 wrote: post #119
PeCaN wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blender's UI is like Vim. If you don't put the time in to learn it, it makes no sense, but if you do it's the most efficient thing ever.

It is not like vim at all. Vim is predictable and has consistency in the way keybindings work. Once you understand that escape mode exists, you 're already there. Blender is a chaos of multiple window panes, buttons and options in unpredictable places, UI messages all over, inconsistent behavior of tools, and an ever-confusing window splitting mechanism. I write faster with vim. I doubt anyone builds faster with blen…

> I doubt anyone builds faster with blender.

I've spend a healthy amount of time in 3ds Max, AutoCAD, and blender. In my opinion:

• 3ds is most discoverable / easiest to learn

• AutoCAD is most precise (owing to its object snaps and UCS controls)

• blender is the fastest to build in

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#148

Post by DiThi »

frik wrote: post #136
DiThi wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current UI of Blender is fairly good. It is difficult because 3D is difficult. You can remap the keys to resemble other 3D packages and UI concepts. If you try to make it any easier than that, you're removing useful features. Also, you haven't used ZBrush, do you? At least in Blender the names of things always made sense (object, mesh, scene...). The equivalents in ZBrush are the weirdest things.

> It is difficult because 3D is difficult That's an urban myth. The other 3D packages (most of them more featurefull) adhere to common UI conventions and guidelines. Like what happens with a left mouse click, what with a right mouse button - all mimics Win95 UI guideline. The other 3D package mentioned are therefore easy to use without reading a manual or tutorial. Everyone who used one of those programs can easily s…

For many years there was an option to swap the mouse buttons. And it seems you can copy and paste now with ctrl C and V. What are other difficulties?

I tried to use both 3DS max and Blender (the old one which had mouse gestures and a few menus) without reading a manual when I was young. Guess what? I found out how to transform things, select vertices/edges/faces, move them around...

Yes, I had to read the manual to do more serious things, but that's no different than 3DS Max.

Also, part of the reason other apps seem easier is that they add unnecessary features in menus and buttons. For example I saw a release of 3DS max where one of the new things were extending the selection in some way. You could always do that with Blender by combining two more basic features (hide what you don't want to select, then select and extend). I think 3DS is the cluttered one.

Blender has many problems, but the UI itself is not one. Default controls are bad, I admit.

edit: I also admit it's not intuitive to open/save files of other types (having to select the appropriate option in import/export).

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#149

Post by DiThi »

return0 wrote: post #119
PeCaN wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blender's UI is like Vim. If you don't put the time in to learn it, it makes no sense, but if you do it's the most efficient thing ever.

It is not like vim at all. Vim is predictable and has consistency in the way keybindings work. Once you understand that escape mode exists, you 're already there. Blender is a chaos of multiple window panes, buttons and options in unpredictable places, UI messages all over, inconsistent behavior of tools, and an ever-confusing window splitting mechanism. I write faster with vim. I doubt anyone builds faster with blen…

For box modelling and poly by poly modelling, Blender is the fastest of all applications I've tried.

Blender is weird but predictable too. For example the keys GRS (grab, rotate, scale) works in different areas (3D, UV, animation, NLA, video editor) where it makes sense (in some there's no rotation). The UI overhaul of 2.5x moved stuff in a more logical order. If you understand the concept of "data blocks" and "users", you'll understand most of Blender.

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#150

Post by marshray »

fsloth wrote: post #142
marshray wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fusion 360 is becoming a small revolution among my makerspace.

Which features of Fusion would you consider the most important for your usage? Why is it gaining traction?

It allows people who are familiar with 3D printing to learn how to use the CNC machines without a big investment in single-purpose machining software.
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