With a potential ZA hobbying competition coming up I wanted to 'compile' some bits/components/body parts into some bespoke STALKERS. I have 3D files from Anvil and other sources and wanted to put them all together into a single model for printing, rather than printing out lots of bits and gluing them up.
With this in mind I decided (for reasons not entirely clear) to download the latest Blender software and have another crack at learning that. I had dabbled with it some... 4... 5 years ago maybe. At the time I was already heavily ensconced in Sketchup and had all the processes and hot keys for that in 'muscle memory'. Safe to say that Sketchup and Blender are ENTIRELY different beasts and I found learning a parallel set of processes/keys very frustrating - so I finished off the projects with Sketchup and ditched Blender.
With years to fade that Sketchup brain-programming I've found (re)learning Blender to be far from the chore that it was previously.
Opinions follow... (where opinions only reflect the software in the context that i use them. I've seen awesome end results from both)
Sketchup is quite... basic. Which is not to say you can't produce nice/suitable results but it's imo... entry level software. If you want to quickly map up a model of your backyard with lots of straight lines and some token furniture to see how it looks and get some distances and perspective, it can be super-quick and super-effective. I'd probably use the term 'light architectural' to describe it.
I had a crack with another software that I can't remember the name of (TBA [ed: Tinkercad !]) in ther interim where you had to build up different adjacent 'layers', just placing object on object, layer on layer... that was god-awful, though I'm sure I didn't have all the tricks and knacks to operate it 'correctly'.
By comparison Blender is pretty hardcore, and while Sketchup (entirely for example) might have 100 features, Blender has 1000 - including animation, in-depth mesh editing and sculpting (which I think wasn't in there last time i looked at it). It's orders of magnitude more powerful and tbh like most software, you're probably only going to be interested in using < 10% of that functionality. Because of all this functionality there is A LOT of hotkeys, key combos, menus, mouse techinques... it really requires effort and study to dig the functionality YOU want out of it.
So why did I bother?
Partially out of curiosity. Partially because even when i Sketchup-ing I believed it had the functionality I wanted for 3D modelling, but I was already in a Sketchup headspace.
Even with some hours in the driver seat I think it's probably harder to make a comparable quick-and-easy 'backyard sketch' with Blender. You can undoubtedly get a similar/same result but it's trickier... or there's more involved somehow.
Anyway i got some results and will be firing up the printer later today when it warms up a bit - we're just 2 or 3 days from the start of (damned) winter.
Manoeuvring and transforming the individual objects around Blender is becoming more natural, the sculpting mode is very handy, and I did some basic mesh editing/fixing of the models. I'm wouldn't say that Sketchup is bad (it isn't) but Blender definitely offers more scope for 3D modelling such as I'm doing. If you're looking to get into 3D modelling seriously and have used neither, then I'd probably start with Blender rather than start learning Sketchup 'habits'.
So that was something fun to keep the brain busy. However...
Multiple softwares... multiple ways...
I do find it annoying that there is so much variance in software, for example even just looking at an object. For example the windows 3d builder vs blender vs photon slicer ALL have different mouse button functionality for pan/rotating/zooming in their environments.
Yeah, you (re)remember before long which ones they use, but it's annoying. Anyway enough whining.
Update - More models...
The hobby challenge is actually for a full crew, so 2 extra models required. Scientists this time...
Despite being scientists they still have hardware and are classed as Veterans so they've probably been out into the zone dozens of times and can handle themselves just fine in the field. Obviously they're not independents like the actual Stalkers, slugging it out day by day just to survive. They also presumably have government or corporate backing equating to perhaps better kit, avoiding malnutrition and gut worm.
Scientist 1 is techiest/nerdiest of the new models, classed as a Researcher, and will be the crew's anomaly specialist. There are new character classes which have specific abilities/skills/stats and so on.
Until next time...
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