I have to confess I am one of those people who have downloaded various older versions of Blender in the past, fired it up and closed it down after looking at the interface.

I'm an oldie and I like to spend time modelling or practising my poor animation skills rather that struggling with a strange interface. I recently downloaded 2.4 and even opened it up but I still find myself modeling in XSI. 

Is it worth exploring Blender now or waiting for the new interface? I've been informed by friends over at CGTalk that the new interface will be so much mkore user friendly.

As far as I know, there's not going to be such a huge leap in UI that time spent now would be wasted, so I'd say go for it, once you get the hang of the one hand for the keyboard and one hand for the mouse it all becomes pretty usable......

I'd say it took me a month or so of 'hobby time' only to get the majority of key shortcuts etc down pat!

Attached Link: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Reference/Hotkey_Map

One of the things that turns me off on Blender is it's interface. I find it very confusing. Blender needs someone from the WIngs3D team to give them an hand with the ui....

There's a helpful beginner book about Blender in PDF format.

http://www.cdschools.org/cdhs/site/default.asp

Click "Academics" and then "Drafting Technology".

It clarified some basic problems for me. On the other hand, there's a lot of tutes in Blender's own site.

Thanks muchly.... and in PDF format....!!! Super....

However I hope the rumour Blender is making their UI more user friendly, is in fact true....

Quote - Blender needs someone from the WIngs3D team to give them an hand with the ui....

MWAHHAHAHAHAHA! 

I think of Wings on the same par as Blender. I've quite a few copies that I've downloaded and not used beyond the first "click" to find out what it does. 

I was told "right click everything in Wings" - so I clicked off.

XSI, Hash, Cinema4D all are more intuitive and descriptive. However thanks for the .pdf link. have downloaded that and going through it now.

Hash???? Never heard of it.... Link?

LOL, I've uninstalled my copy after the owner was rude to me on his forum. You can have my copy and serial number if you really want to explore it.

If you're serious about seeing it (or it's results) try looking at a guy called Victor Navone or google "Alien Song" - another big thing on the web from Hash was "the killer bean"

http://www.hash.com/gallery

Kenmo, Hash means Animation:Master software.

I understand execrable's attitude, I had several false starts with Blender. Now I'm finding it very usable, even superior to many commercial apps, but it does strain memory. Nobody can call it intuitive for beginner.

Wings is much more intuitive. But it is only modeler, not animation tool.

I just wonder, if execrable has access to XSI and C4D, why interest in Blender? For average user Blender probably is almost as powerful, but is it not hard to try to master so many apps?

I'm no youngster myself, and I find it very hard to work several apps on the same day.

(Just TRY to work in Shade, Blender and ZBrush one after another. You're quite genius if you do not make any keyboard errors...)

Maybe execrable has been trying different apps out, I did before choosing blender. 

after using Max at work for 6 years I moved to another job that doesn't need it any more, to upgrade the version I own personally (3.1) to current is $$$$, so I tried XSI, c4d and carrara as alternatives that would offer more modern lighting and material shaders, but then I just kind of fell into blender. It's been a few months now and I'm starting to get the hang of it, now if I can send the wife and kids away for a weekend I might get a decent scene finished....

Gog_CA1, we have similar background... My "history" is with old versions of C4D, LightWave and plethora of others. 

Ditto with wife and kid... :)

Quote - I just wonder, if execrable has access to XSI and C4D, why interest in Blender? For average user Blender probably is almost as powerful, but is it not hard to try to master so many apps? 

Oh I have played with lots of software right through from Autocad version 1 in 1990! (I worked as a software demonstrator for Evan & Sutherland when they tried to break into the Automotive industry) I have made my living working with software and what I've found is that some stand still and stagnate while others become more useable or successful and then again some others evolve. 
I work primarily with my hands as a modeler and have been trying all sorts of software to see when I as a modeler might "evolve" from real 3D to CGI-3D.

I guess the short answer is to keep myself current? Hope that explains. I do dabble with animation (badly) and so I like to keep a computer nearby even if it isn't the latest and newest.

execrable, there are a lot to learn from real life modeling for us CGI types...

But, to original subject, I think we will see some change, but I guess what exactly will be hard to predict. I guess the planning is not done yet... Maybe after some months, developer versions will show the direction.

I can really relate to what a lot of you guys are saying here. Those links here are a God send. Thank you guys for those.

It looks like I'm going to try again to figuring out how to use Blender 3D. Wish me luck. :)

Heh, mylemonblue, I'm at least a newbie with Blender and I do appreciate all the tutorials and other documentation. My first opinion about Blender was quite negative, but now I'm beginning to appreciate it more and more. There are problems, but also a lot of neat hidden functionality. 

Blender is very fast to use at least when poly counts are under million. Over that, I have problems, but it may be that a quad-core system might help. :) Too bad I need all my money to other things now...