3D软件的低潮。。接下来使用者会把眼光都投向小软件”Blender“。。

自从去年XSI把自己卖给了Autodesk后..我的天空又多了一块乌云。。和很多的3d application使用者和我一样那样。。我们都觉得这圈子近乎于被monopoly了。。因为市场上最有影响的三维三大巨头Maya,Max,Xsi都在他手里了。。。还有什么竞争可言呢。。
在这圈子的人都了解市场上又有一定的能抗衡的软件竞争才会一直开发出更新且更实用的软件，不想竟这几年Autodesk的老牌软件3dMax那样只为了每年能赚取User 的Subscription fees(800-900Sgd)而每年出一个他x的敷衍烂配件，根本都没打算要好好地写一个好软件，而却大多数的新功能都是跟那些第三厂写的完善时跟他们买下来不加于改良直接方进去的。。。如果真的不是情势所逼。。我他x的就把这些软件丢到垃圾桶去！

当我们处于沮丧的时候，我们把目光投向那些还没被吃掉的/或很有可能接下来被吃掉的软件公司。。如Modo,Cinema4d,Lightwave,Silo,Vray,Zbrush,Houdini,....还有那个免费的Blender.

其中Blender追尾瞩目，他最近就风光了。。因为多了一票向我们这些AA族（Anti-Autodesk）当然目光很容易的照在它的身上了。。。。为什么？以下几点。。。

Interface

• Revolutionary non-overlapping and non-blocking UI delivers unsurpassed workflow
• Flexible and fully configurable window layout with as many screen setups as you prefer
• Undo support on all levels
• Anti-aliased fonts with international translation support
• Any window space can be easily switched to any window type (curve editor, NLA, 3D view etc)
  
• Built-in text editor for annotations and editing Python scripts
• Graphical user interface for Python scripts
• Custom themes
• Consistent interface across all platforms

Modeling

• A range of 3D object types including polygon meshes, NURBS surfaces, bezier and B-spline curves, metaballs, vector fonts (TrueType, PostScript, OpenType)
• Very fast Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces with optimal iso-lines display and sharpness editing
• Full multiresolution sculpting capabilities with 2D bitmap/3D procedural brushes (Paint, Smooth, Pinch, Inflate, Grab) supporting symmetry
• Modifier stack deformers such as Lattice, Curve, Armature or Displace
• Mirror modifier with middle vertices clipping and automatic deletion of inner faces
• Non destructive real time Boolean and Array modifiers
• Mesh modeling based on vertex, edge and/or face selection
• Smooth soft selection editing tools for organic modeling
• Python scripting access for custom tools

Rendering

• Very fast inbuilt raytracer
• Oversampling, motion blur, post-production effects, fields, non-square pixels
• Tile-based and fully threaded
• Render layers and passes
• Render baking to UV maps and object to object baking (full render, ambient occlusion, normals, textures)
• Render engine tightly integrated with the node compositor
• Halo, lens flares and fog effects
• Vector motion-blur post-process effect (using node compositor)
• Realistic defocus (DOF) post-process effect (using node compositor)
• Edge rendering for toon shading
• Interactive preview rendering panel in any 3d view
• Ambient Occlusion
• Radiosity solver
• Integral support for the Yafray render engine
• Export scripts available for external renderers such as Renderman (RIB), Povray, Virtualight, lux render, Indigo, V-Ray

Imaging and Compositing

• Compositor tightly integrated and aligned with the rendering pipeline
• MultiLayer OpenEXR files allow to store and reuse raw renderlayer and passes data
• Complete list of composite node filters, convertors, color and vector operators and mixers including Chroma Key, Blur, RGB Curves, Z Combine, Color Ramp, Gamma Correct
• Preview panel to define the portion of interest. A composite then only happens on this part
• Threaded and memory efficient (up to 8 processors)
• Near realtime sequencer can edit hours of video
• Waveform and U/V scatter plots
• Open and write many audio & video file formats using ffmpeg
• Can render using frameserver-support directly into foreign applications
• Supports float images as well as regular 8 bits images
• Curves tool allows you to create a mapping from the float range to a displayable result (for HDR images)

Files

• Save all scene data in a single .blend file, even images, sounds or fonts can be packed for easy transportation
• Powerful built-in database system allowing instances, scene management, and dynamic linking multiple project files
• .blend format supports compression, digital signatures, encryption, forwards/backwards compatibility and can be used as a library to link to from other .blend files
• Read and write support for many other 2D and 3D formats
• 2D
  TGA, JPG, PNG, OpenEXR, DPX, Cineon, Radiance HDR, Iris, SGI Movie, IFF, AVI and Quicktime GIF, TIFF, PSD, MOV (Windows and Mac OS X)
• 3D
  3D Studio, AC3D, COLLADA, FBX Export, DXF, Wavefront OBJ, DEC Object File Format, DirectX, Lightwave, MD2, Motion Capture, Nendo, OpenFlight, PLY, Pro Engineer, Radiosity, Raw Triangle, Softimage, STL, TrueSpace, VideoScape, VRML, VRML97, X3D Extensible 3D, xfig export。

Supported Platforms

• Windows 2000, XP, Vista
• Mac OS X (PPC and Intel)
• Linux (i386)
• Linux (PPC)
• FreeBSD 5.4 (i386)
• SGI Irix 6.5
• Sun Solaris 2.8 (sparc)

Animation

• Armature (skeleton) deformation with forward/inverse kinematics with pole target support
• Auto IK allows posing FK chains easily
• Non-linear animation editor for mixing individual actions created in Action editor
• Automated walkcycles along paths
• Animated constraint system
• Vertex key framing for morphing, with controlling sliders
• Edit and create new blendshapes from existing targets
• Character animation pose editor
• 'Ipo' system integrates both motion curve and traditional key-frame editing
• Audio playback, mixing and editing support for sound synchronisation
• Timeline offers fast acces to many playback functions, autokey, help markers
• Python scripting access for custom and procedural animation effects

UV Unwrapping

• Conformal and Angle Based unwrapping methods
• Interactive transform of UV maps by vertex pinning
• Proportional falloff editing of UV maps for smooth transformations
• Seam based unwrapping
• Cube, Cylinder, Sphere, View projections
• Catmull-Clark subdivition of UVs for less distortion
• Minimize stretch tool allows to reduce area distortion
• Multiple UV layers

Physics and Particles

• Particle system can be atached to any mesh object. Control methods include weight painting, textures, curve guides, wind and vortex effects. Particles can be deflected by moving geometry
• Hair strands can be created by a static particle system, supporting all particle control methods
• Fluid simulator with fully animated inflow, outflow, obstacle and fluid objects. Gravity and viscosity settings can also be animated. Supports vector blur and is integrated with the particle system
• Realtime soft body solver integrated in mesh, lattice, curve and text objects. Supports collision detection and particle field effects like Wind or Vortex, soft bodys can also be baked for faster playback/rendering
• Game engine rigid body physics can be easily baked into animation curves

Realtime 3D/Game Creation

• Graphical logic editor for defining interactive behavior without programming
• Collision detection and dynamics simulation now support Bullet Physics Library. Bullet is an open source collision detection and rigid body dynamics library developed for Play Station 3
• Shape types: Convex polyhedron, box, sphere, cone, cylinder, capsule, compound, and static triangle mesh with auto deactivation mode
• Discrete collision detection for RigidBody simulation
• Support for in-game activation of dynamic constraints
• Full support for vehicle dynamics, including spring reactions, stiffness, damping, tyre friction etc
• Python scripting API for sophisticated control and AI, fully defined advanced game logic
• Support all OpenGL^TM lighting modes, including transparencies, Animated and reflection-mapped textures
• Support for multimaterials, multitexture and texture blending modes, per-pixel lighting, dynamic lighting, mapping modes, GLSL vertexPaint texture blending, toon shading, animated materials, support for Normal Maping and Parallax Mapping
• Playback of games and interactive 3D content without compiling or preprocessing
• Audio, using the SDL toolkit
• Multi-layering of Scenes for overlay interfaces

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看完几个以上的功能介绍后有几个工具我觉得是比其他大型软件厉害的。。。


Interface-
到现在还是很多人认为这个使他的死穴。。但当你真的融入了它的操作系统后你会觉得他真的在上面画了很长的时间来做到简化而快捷。。此时此刻的我其实还没习惯。。
那那为什么我会说这是他的优势呢？。。很简单。。你去哪里找一个。。功能比大部分的大型软件多，但操作系统跟界面却可以简化比任何一个大型软件来的简单的软件呢。。？ 还有我到现在都还是不明白为什么他的installer可以只保持在9mb左右..还有开机到操作的时间只需要5秒左右。。。这两点有点不可思议（3DMax需要大概1-2分钟进入操作界面，然后installer大概是1个gig 左右）。。 *Compositing tools-
他是我看多为一会将Compositing tools intergrade进入3的software的。。其他的软件发展商："才没那么笨，"分拆开来我又可以买一个几千块的软件了hehe"


*Sculpting tools-

他是除了XSI外另外一个真的有诚意想把这项功能放进软件内的。。其他的软件开发商呢。。还是那句。："才没那么笨，分拆开来我又可以买一个几千块的软件了hehe"


Open source Platform-
有着开放式的source code 能让支持者给他script出很多不同的功能，这点也是让他在段期间能从小小的业余软件晋升到现在这个差不多能和业界老大抗衡可能的地位的关键所在。


看完以上的资料后如果你不是行内人，你会奇怪的问。。哦这软件那么功能齐全要卖多少钱啊？。。。。：不用钱。。是免费噢！！听好！是 “免费”！！