I’ve been away from Blender these past couple of weeks due to work. While I was away, a new version of Blender has come out, Blender 2.73. I skimmed through the list of new features; seems like a minor update. But still, pretty exciting. Quick iterations such as this one is something that sets open source products apart. With commercial products, a lot of company bureacracy would have to hurdled before a new version can be released.
I’ve been using Maya lately and I can’t help but point out the many similarities between Maya and Blender.
Terms like Bevel, Outliner and Subdivide are same terms used in Maya. Blender’s node graph is also not that different from Maya’s hypershade. What’s cool though, in my opinion, is that Blender took all of these cool things that other applications have and took them to the next level. The super flexible UI panels, for example, is something Maya and Max can only oogle at. Another thing that Blender triumphs over its commercial counterparts is UVmapping. The automatic unwrap feature is, hands down, one of the best I’ve ever used. I’m pretty sure there’s a lot more of other cool features out there that I haven’t discovered yet. So… more to come!
Adventures with Blender 