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Ubisoft joins Blender Development Fund to support open-source animation

news.ubisoft.com

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Re: Ubisoft joins Blender Development Fund to support open-source animation

#71

Post by snu »

pasabagi wrote: post #44
pixelbath wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you use Blender differently than I do, but all modeling shortcut keys are still mostly the same and work the same way they used to. I don't use the left-side icons either (I'm not really used to that in a Blender workflow), but aside from using F3 to search for commands instead of space bar, I've been using the same modeling shortcuts from 2.79. Left click took about a week to get used to, but the only problem…

Well, I noticed a whole bunch last time I started it up. Granted, I haven't had much time to use blender recently, but: - The orientation controls - poke faces (Alt-p) doesn't exist - the selection behaviour (A doesn't seem to deselect any more) - shift-G doesn't work - W doesn't open a menu any more. - Shift-tab doesn't change vertex/face/line selection mode any more. Enough changed that I ended up clicking around t…

What orientation controls? The numpad still behaves exactly the same as it did in 2.79.

The shortcut for poke faces seems to be removed. There have been a few irritating removals, definitely.

By default A selects, double-A deselects. You can revert it to the original behavior in the preferences under the keymaps tab.

The specials menu is now essentially the context menus, they can be opened with right click in left-click mode, or W in right-click mode.

Shift-tab used to toggle snapping and it still does...

Re: Ubisoft joins Blender Development Fund to support open-source animation

#72

Post by gmueckl »

Ralfp wrote: post #33
bluedino wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this is 'good' for the users of the software, isn't it 'bad' for the software industry? Community funded projects will never match the salaries that companies like AutoDesk pay their developers.

Ton Roosendaal (Blender creator) estimated in 2018 interview that 3D software market is very small, and pulled up Autodesk's (3DsMax/Maya, etc) business results from that time, which amounted to 25000 - 30000 yearly licenses. He also claimed that Maya has "maybe 20" developers behind with things being similar for other products. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJEWOTZnFeg (jump to 1h mark)

Ton is underestimating the market considerably, but he's still right in that it's a tiny market. But what he misses is the fact that Autodesk isn't developing its DCC tools for profit. They are for prestige, that is, supported by image marketing rather than sales. So the dev headcount is probably too low as well.

Re: Ubisoft joins Blender Development Fund to support open-source animation

#73

Post by gmueckl »

pixelbath wrote: post #17
bluedino wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this is 'good' for the users of the software, isn't it 'bad' for the software industry? Community funded projects will never match the salaries that companies like AutoDesk pay their developers.

It's not a zero-sum game; multiple software that performs the same function can co-exist, and should co-exist. If Autodesk is feeling a pinch on their bottom line because of a free software product, the burden is on them to make a better product; they've certainly had the runway to do so in the past 30 years of building products and acquiring other similar products.

The market is weird and it's currently a zero sum game at best. DCC tools are in this weird little market that has extremely few paying (and mostly cash-strapped) customers, but the software itself is ridiculously complex. IIRC, Maya was estimated at ~5 mio. lines of code when version 1 or 2 was released, and it has gotten much, much more complex since. My understanding is that not all companies selling these programs are in the market for profit. If that goes away, it's likely that everybody loses.

Re: Ubisoft joins Blender Development Fund to support open-source animation

#74

Post by gmueckl »

raphaelj wrote: post #24
noobermin wrote: post #22

I'll go ahead and say the quiet part loud, if Blender can create a low cost alternative to Maya and the rest especially for entry and beginning level modelers and animators, this is a great thing.

Isn't it already the case? Blender is somehow popular with indie developers.

I'll counter as devil's advocate here and state that blender is only popular because it's the cheapest option, not because it's actually good. Commercial offerings are still ahead by a lot, especially in usability (the most important aspect for creative tools), but so is their price tag. And the indie developer is a pretty poor idealistic fellow without a production budget from which to afford luxuries like proper tools.

Re: Ubisoft joins Blender Development Fund to support open-source animation

#75

Post by pasabagi »

snu wrote: post #71
pasabagi wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I noticed a whole bunch last time I started it up. Granted, I haven't had much time to use blender recently, but: - The orientation controls - poke faces (Alt-p) doesn't exist - the selection behaviour (A doesn't seem to deselect any more) - shift-G doesn't work - W doesn't open a menu any more. - Shift-tab doesn't change vertex/face/line selection mode any more. Enough changed that I ended up clicking around t…

What orientation controls? The numpad still behaves exactly the same as it did in 2.79. The shortcut for poke faces seems to be removed. There have been a few irritating removals, definitely. By default A selects, double-A deselects. You can revert it to the original behavior in the preferences under the keymaps tab. The specials menu is now essentially the context menus, they can be opened with right click in left-c…

I meant the transform orientation controls. I tend to switch transform orientation all the time.

Anyway, about the shift-tab thing - I mixed it up. It's ctrl-tab I meant.

Re: Ubisoft joins Blender Development Fund to support open-source animation

#76

Post by pasabagi »

dtf wrote: post #70
pasabagi wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I noticed a whole bunch last time I started it up. Granted, I haven't had much time to use blender recently, but: - The orientation controls - poke faces (Alt-p) doesn't exist - the selection behaviour (A doesn't seem to deselect any more) - shift-G doesn't work - W doesn't open a menu any more. - Shift-tab doesn't change vertex/face/line selection mode any more. Enough changed that I ended up clicking around t…

- poke faces (Alt-p) doesn't exist It's in the Face menu, so either select the 'Face' menu dropdown from the viewport header menus, or press Ctrl-F, or press W (context menu) while you have some faces selected. You can also just right click on the "Poke Faces" menu item, click "Assign Shortcut" and press Alt-P. - the selection behaviour (A doesn't seem to deselect any more) Alt-A clears the selection. - shift-G doesn…

Well, I feel a little embarrassed now - since you're right, my post was inaccurate. The problem with muscle memory is it's hard to put into text. All I was trying to say is, last time I used blender, I felt a bit like I had three less fingers. Obviously, the functionality is all still there. I even think that a lot of the stuff should change - it's just not the case that only a few of the keybindings changed. It seems to me that a lot of the most-used ones have changed.

Re: Ubisoft joins Blender Development Fund to support open-source animation

#77

Post by gambiting »

WorldMaker wrote: post #39
babuskov wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any 2D game basically, and some assets for 3D games as well. For examples of 2D games with great graphics, take a look at: Mark of The Ninja, Hollow Knight, Limbo, Stardew Valley, Rayman Legends.

The amount of hand-drawn animation that went into Cuphead is a marvel. There a bunch of really interesting examples just using Ubisoft's UbiArt framework such as Rayman Legends, Child of Light, and Valiant Hearts. Speaking of Ubisoft and open source, Ubisoft originally announced UbiArt as an engine/framework intended to be open sourced. It's a shame that Ubisoft never followed up on that promise. Supposedly it hasn't…

As far as I know it's still used for Just Dance series. It definitely was when I worked on JD2016 and I don't think the engine was changed after that. And yes, in my (personal) opinion UbiArt was extremely difficult to use compared to some other engines within Ubisoft nowadays.

And yes, speaking of Ubisoft and open source - Sharpmake is a build management solution used by a lot of projects within Ubisoft and it was open sourced some time ago. Worth having a look.

Re: Ubisoft joins Blender Development Fund to support open-source animation

#78

Post by snu »

pasabagi wrote: post #75
snu wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What orientation controls? The numpad still behaves exactly the same as it did in 2.79. The shortcut for poke faces seems to be removed. There have been a few irritating removals, definitely. By default A selects, double-A deselects. You can revert it to the original behavior in the preferences under the keymaps tab. The specials menu is now essentially the context menus, they can be opened with right click in left-c…

I meant the transform orientation controls. I tend to switch transform orientation all the time. Anyway, about the shift-tab thing - I mixed it up. It's ctrl-tab I meant.

Ah, I actually didn't know about the ctrl-tab shortcut in 2.79, tho the ctrl-1,2,3 seems nice now. And the transform orientation, you mean the alt-space in 2.79? Another bad one removed... tho looks like the shortcut is unused in 2.8, so it could be set.

Re: Ubisoft joins Blender Development Fund to support open-source animation

#79

Post by electricslpnsld »

knd775 wrote: post #50
sangnoir wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blender is replacing an in-house tool, not software licensed from Autodesk. You might have missed the following section from the article "We decided to transform a workflow centered on in-house software to a more agile development environment supported by open source and inner source solutions. This way, our research and development and pipeline teams could focus their energy on bringing innovative ideas to the table…

This still feels like a warning to Autodesk. They are replacing what they already can with Blender, and investing the money required to get it to where it needs to be in order to fit their other workflows.

I don’t think Autodesk cares! Pixar bailed on Maya and Autodesk still put Maya on life support (and laid off the Maya R&D team). If arguably the biggest actor in the animation game doesn’t get Autodesk’s attention, why would Ubisoft?
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