I´m glad to present to you: “Changing Blender´s UI” video training. Visual representation trough icons in a software can be a matter of life and death. There´s an entire career path dedicated to sort out the best way users can interact with software called UIX Design. Most of the decisions -if not all- will be made through an ICON identifying what function the program will process. So, in these videos we will show you how you can get the most out of Blender´s UI through code, scripts, parsers and vector graphics. I teamed up with Jeff Segor who has a career developing code and applications dedicated to the best of interactions between users and software. Together we will present the advantages of changing blender´s UI.
On part one of the video series we will install the necessary software to connect to Blender´s live repository servers so we can get updated code. Once we download all source code we will need to get dependencies (which are separate updated packs that keep the libraries of the software running smoothly), we will compile a solution to create a Blender deploy and install application. Once we reach that point, we can start customizing the software.
For the example on the second part of the video, I used an addon called Creaprym to add a custom mesh Trex onto the SHIFT+A (add) menu of Blender. The purpose is to assign a “newly created icon” within the code and represent it on the GUI without errors. I will show you how you can edit an icon on Illustrator, port it to Inkscape and finally intergrate it into Blender´s Visual Studio project and deploy it as a full application.
The third section of the videos will show you how to correctly include a “math-only” type of geometry into Blender´s code, followed by an example on how to use a java parser to get a “translation” from wireframes-to-code to visual represent the complex model mesh we would personally like to use on Blender. These videos require you to have Python, Visual Studio, Inkscape, CYGwin64, CMake correctly installed and declared in PATH variable in your Window´s system paths.
The last section will show you how you can add a button on Blender´s native UI to create a primitive on the 3D view. This is not an addon solution, but rather a code-deep installation of the function, so Blender will be hardwired to that button and you can design your own Blender version for your studio or for the community, from the learned steps.
Motivation for Blender 2.8
I´m really glad to present to you these two links with Blender 2.8 developers who are interested in people joining them to create new icons for the next release of Blender (you need to register), so you can participate. Maybe you have the next great UI idea for Blender? Get the “Change Blender´s UI” training videos and find out how you can also contribute to the success of the software and user interaction.
You also get a 2 pack bonus with the series:
FriedShrimp.blend – Which you can use freely in any project. If you want to use it commercially please write a thanks note to: vfx@3dcinetv.com
XSIMOD Theme – Which is a Blender theme based on Softimage color schemes for the UI. This will hint you on how well it worked.
Thanks for reading this post. Don´t forget to subscribe to my www.youtube/user/activemotionpictures channel to support me, I´d really like to create more cool content for Blender. I need 1k subscribers so my channel won´t get closed. If you liked this article, please share on your nets. Everyone I know customizes what they use everyday of their lives. Why not customize your 3D software today?
One thought on “Blender Training – Changing Blender´s UI”
Great work!