Talk:Blender

"Although XSI is the Valve-recommended program for modelling, many will find Blender to have an easier learning curve." - Oh crap. And I thought Blender was supposed to be user-hostile - I think I might continue in my abortive attempts at learning how to use it (current time-period: six years) if XSI is that ... different. :-) -- Cargo Cult 14:52, 4 Jul 2005 (PDT)

I couldn't get the hang of XSI at all, but I spose that's because I knew Blender before I tried it. XSI just seems a little untidy and illogical, but then again I probably gave up too early. Of course, Blender is good for making static non-animated props, but anything more complicated (bones and animation) and you'll need XSI to create the SMDs. I advise you give XSI a shot (the tutorials are really good) first though. -- Johnsto 15:14, 4 Jul 2005 (PDT)

I hope this article to become neutral and fair. It's a place to introduce about blender, not a place to attack other programs. I think "Many will find it..." is overstatement. In my experience both XSI and blender have own logical ways that new users have to learn. N-neko

That's why it says "many", not "most".

I tried XSI as well and gave up. Control paradigm feels too unintuitive to me. I've also been hearing bad things about the UI in Blender, but I guess I'll give that a try too. --Campaignjunkie 17:38, 31 Jul 2005 (PDT)

.smd Exporter - by Pelle Johnsen

I'd like to try out all the exporters but this link doesn't work. My googling efforts didn't show any alternative adress. Anyone knows about this exporter?

Installing scripts

Would you believe it, but nowhere I've looked on the internet can I find information on how to install Python scripts into Blender. There's plenty written on how amazing the feature is and how many scripts there are...but nothing at all on how to use it! Presumably someone out there has managed it - how? --TomEdwards 03:12, 9 Jul 2008 (PDT)

I found a descent guide a few weeks back when I was looking for some tutorials on Blender here:

Blender 3D: Noob to Pro - Advanced Tutorials - Python Scripting

There's a full mini-tutorial there on making and installing a sample Python exporter script.--Brandished 17:18, 9 Jul 2008 (PDT)

SMD Importer Problem

When you import an SMD with Jon Moen Drange's importer plugin it doesn't import the bone rolls properly and turns your models into a big cluster of nigh-unfixableness. Any ideas? --Dvondrake 00:36, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

I'm working on an exporter that does import them, but I'm pretty sure Jon's does too. Have you tried setting Transform Orientation to 'Normal'? --TomEdwards 10:09, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

Blender 2.5

Blender 2.5 (Latest is Beta 2.53) has a completely redesigned UI along with various improvements (particularly to the sculpting system), and is far superior to previous 2.4 versions, and in all honesty is far superior to XSI. But that's not the point, the point is that the SMD Importer/Exporter listed here is way outdated and in no way works with the latest Blender. Google results in an only partially functional SMD Importer, no working exporters. Someone with Python experience needs to write a new one for Blender 2.53. (And should probably wait for the final version of 2.5 to be released first). But until then I've had success creating the mesh in Blender, exporting it to .obj then importing and rigging it in XSI. --Evil Police 14:37, 31 Jul 2010 (PDT)

Voila! --TomEdwards 09:51, 1 August 2010 (UTC)