[jsgo]

Maybe this new UI change to Blender means it is high time I learn how to use it. Tried it before but couldn't get past left click not doing what I expect left clicking to do, but apparently things are more user friendly now.

The influx of money/talent from Epic and Ubisoft is great though. Blender was, from what I've seen from the outside, looked on affectionately as being a good tool, but maybe this leads to them being a consideration for primary tool (beyond just free) in the way the commercial tools have been.

[binthere]

Small survival kit for new 2.8 users (things you'll probably want to change/configure before use):

1. Set spacebar to "Search". A number of features either don't have keybinding anymore or it's hidden in an obscure menu. Search makes things easier like typing Spacebar > "Walk" > enter to WASD the scene (before it was just Shift-F).

2. Set "F" to focus (like any other 3D tool), in Blender it's still the Numpad . (dot)... never understood this decision. You probably want to change this.

3. Get used to the most used transform keybindings: Move (G), Rotate (R), Scale (S). You can type: `R, X, 45` if you want to Rotate in X 45 deg. This is one of the reasons I like to do basic modeling in Blender and not in Maya. If you need to bring the manipulator like in other 3D software tools, you can right click the manipulators on the left and add them to Quick Favorites (I prefer) or assign them new shortcuts.

Alternatively, you can just change your keyboard bindings to the "Industry compatible" preset in preferences, although I don't recommend this as you lose some of the good keybindings from blender.

[overgard]

I felt the same way and 2.8 has been a HUGE improvement for me. I have a commercial Maya subscription and I have to admit I almost like Blender better at this point. That's less a knock on Maya which is still great, just acknowledging that Blender has come a really long way.

My only small beef is I wish they'd use system dialog boxes for save/load, and texture painting still feels a little clunky.

[valine]

Blender's build in file browser is really nice once you get used to it. The thing I like most is that a lot of shortcuts you use when 3D modeling also work on files. Things like box selection, invert selection with 'ctrl I', and select all/deselect all with 'A' all work as expected.

[kuboa]

The file browser interface is one of my least favorite things about Blender too, but apparently they're working on a big "Assets" update (a brand new interface for browsing and managing not only files but any kind of asset, like Materials etc) which will come after the release of 2.8, so, fingers crossed.

[anchpop]

The UI is definitely much nicer now, and the release candidates are very stable. If you'd like to learn, I'd definitely recommend sticking to 2.80 tutorials and not trying to understand 2.79 tutorials. This series [0] is a decent starting point.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF1qEhBSfq4&list=PLa1F2ddGya...

[codedokode]

What confuses a novice with Blender is that it has so called "areas" (something like a tiled window manager) and it is very counter-intuitive. For example, when you try to resize an "area" you accidentally create a new one and it is very difficult to remove.

[Tade0]

Tried it before but couldn't get past left click not doing what I expect left clicking to do,

Same here, but while that turned out to be a hoop I could go through eventually, the seemingly random API changes from version to version and associated backwards incompatibility of user scripts were not.

[ginko]

It's the other way round for me. I knew my way around the old Blender haven't used it in a while though. Now I dread trying out the new version because it seems to have a completely changed and dumbed down interface.

[pixelbath]

It's not dumbed down at all. If you can get over the fact that a bunch of stuff has moved into icons and that a few keybindings have changed, it's still very much the same.

[pasabagi]

I think more than a few keybindings have changed. My muscle-memory is basically useless. I'm also not really sure about the whole icon thing - I doubt I'll be using them. Still, I'm quite happy to see the changes - despite using old blender enough that I have the muscle memory, I still had to look keyboard shortcuts up all the time, which is in my eyes a sign of bad design.

[thedaemon]

They broke about 99% of the keybindings, however you can use a 2.79 keybinding set. The new tools on the left are 100% useless to me, but I have been testing 2.8 for about a month or 2 now and have gotten used to it. Yes I still use RMB select. If you swap to LMB select the entire functionality of RMB select isn't copied over to LMB select, it a totally different thing. This is really annoying, but one of the few bad things about 2.8.

[pasabagi]

I was a bit worried about some of that missing functionality - just turned it back to RMB - and yeah, you're absolutely right. I thought stuff like alt-click not working was me just losing my mind. I wanted to learn the new stuff just because I don't want to end up bound to a bunch of input conventions that will end up depreciated - and I don't really care that much about LMB and RMB, or indeed any of the old blender UI, but I don't want to start using the tools on the left, since they are, as you say, useless. I'm more a 'select things, do an operation on them' kinda guy, so using a tool in edit mode (with a few exceptions) is kinda neither here nor there.

[pixelbath]

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 I've had with 2.8 so far is figuring out how the Eevee engine works.

[pasabagi]

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 the UI a lot. The orientation controls, and stuff starting with W were things I used to use a lot. I think when I get back into it, I'll spend a bit of time figuring it all out and learning the new conventions. I generally like the pie menu thing, and I like the move towards consistency (even if I think mnemonic keybindings are generally better), and Eevee is amazing for composing scenes (I used to hate trying to do lighting and having to wait for a half hour just to see the effect of moving a light a tiny bit).

[dtf]

  - 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't work

Shift-G does grouped selections, I think this is the same as in 2.79.

  - W doesn't open a menu any more.

The specials menu has gone, replaced by a context-sensitive menu (what a right click might pop up in most apps) So "Poke Faces" is here when faces are selected.

  - Shift-tab doesn't change vertex/face/line selection mode any more.

Ctrl-1, Ctrl-2, Ctrl-3.

[snu]

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...

[slezyr]

> Tried it before but couldn't get past left click not doing what I expect left clicking to do, but apparently things are more user friendly now.

Do not expect to master it by just clicking around. It's more like CAD you can do nothing without book/tutorials.

[Washuu]

Perhaps for Blender 2.7. With 2.8 I am able to accidentally/organically discover functionality that I was looking for. Tooltips are also vastly improved so that if I am unsure how to use a tool if gives at minimum the things I need to look it up.

[nudiustertian]

Fusion 360 really solved that problem with CAD, most of the features I was able to learn strictly by discovery

[corwin7]

OpenSCAD is much better for me than F-360, but then again I'm a coder.

[davnicwil]

Do you know of any good resources for learning Blender?