I am Ton Roosendaal, chairman Blender Foundation. AMA!

Hey Mr. Roosendaal, really excited for this, been hitting F5 for like a few hours now. Anyway, do you see blender ever being one of the main softwares used by film companies? Will it ever come to be known by leading artists, in the ranks of like Maya or 3Ds max? Because some people regard Blender as an amateur software, and artists using it aren't really taken seriously sometimes, even though blender is like the best (for me at least). Continue being awesome please, keep upgrading blender forever (make cycles faster please). Thank you Mr. Roosendaal!

The people who look down on Blender are not going to be using it ever. But the younger generation that's been growing up with it now are getting big too!

It's really a perception this. It's not so common that a specialist tool like Blender (which is targeted at people who want to be producing 3d content as a profession) is free (gratis) and open source.

Read my 2013 Siggraph report about how Blender is being perceived positively by industry now: http://archive.blender.org/blenderorg/blender-foundation/press/siggraph-2013/index.html

Pagemaker became the goto DTP over Quark because they gave it away to schools for free and an entire generation grew up knowing how to use it. Can you do something similar with a Blender Foundation Education... thing?

One of the (many, I got too many) ideas I have is to make a 'Blender 101' - a simplified and easy configurable 3D tool people can use in classes (or for 3d printing, etc). We need to make sure Blender's Python integration gets finished completely first, which is well on our midterm roadmap. I hope we can experiment with this during the Gooseberry project.

What were the intentions with Blender when it first started to be developed?

We had enough money to buy 1 SGI in 1991 (costing 3 year salaries). Getting 3d software for it would cost a similar amount. So I took the challenge of developing own tools - and never stopped liking that.

I am doing this for over three hours already, will stop in 15 minutes. Thanks for the amazing experience!

Hello Ton! I'd like to share the fact that I am an Architect and discussed my master degree thesis using real time simulation models done in Blender with the Game Machine. This happened 10 years ago!

It was really nice to show the potential of that tool to all the public there and it's amazing what this software has become and can deliver.

Do you think there could be a way to make the use of Blender easier for Architectural modeling? Easy as in "Sketchup level" easy? That would be a godsend!

We always had and have a lot of architect users. They should keep speaking up to not get forgetten in software development! A good thing is that our Python API is getting very sophisticated, so people can make real high quality UIs and tools already. Did you see the 'fluid designer" for example?

http://www.blendernation.com/2014/03/12/fluid-designer-modifying-blenders-ui/

Are there any new features you can tell us about that will be implemented for the production of Gooseberry?

The biggest challenge is going to be to get our animation system and physics simulation system behave well. For cloth, fur, hair sims but also massive simulation.

Hi. I have worked on Blender to make animations for one of the most prestigious institutions of India. We made the ammonia fountain experiment. Having no prior animation knowledge, me and 2 others managed to make an amazing video. The software is amazing and I wish you and Blender the very best.

Edit: our little project is now in the 6th year with students pushing the boundaries of Blender each year.

Thanks! Can you share a link to this experiment here?

In my opinion, Blender's viewport is one of the weakest and oldest aspects of the program - are there any plans to A) speed it up, and B) have more control over what the animator sees in the viewport? I work in Maya every day, and the animators always insist we set up the character's shading so that they can see the skin textures, eye textures, clothing pattern etc. but without having to load all the textures in the entire scene.

There is a plan to rewrite the Blender viewport, a student has worked on it for two Google Summer of Codes already. There's a proposal to finish the work in this year's GSoC.

The only information I could find about it was really technical, but here you are anyway: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Jwilkins

Yep, and we really want this to be finished!

Hello Ton! If Gooseberry doesn't happen, will you still continue developing and exploring the possibilities of the Blender Cloud? Also, will the cloud data include books as well as DVDs?

Yep, Blender Cloud is there to stay. We already have more than enough subscribers to do amazing things. :) But not enough for a miracle!

diamonds, will it blend?

Set IoR to 2.419

Did you know that funding this would be such an ordeal when you made the choice?

Yes I knew it would be very hard.

Ton, This is how we feel about Blender. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1HaS8ZdjRM

Some people meditate, others get massages. I blend.

Hi Ton.

I really like Blender as a product, but I really like the community behind it as well. What is the most interesting use of Blender that has surprised you the most?

Good luck with Gooseberry, I hope you reach your goal.

The community (the users and developers) are Blender's best feature yes!

Most surprising use of Blender... eh, NASA shares all their models on their site standard as .blend :) Really I get amazed every day by what people do!

Blender's development is awesomely good. Got any tips for the GIMP?

What's Blender's most important new feature in one year, five years, ten years?

I can't speak for GIMP... I'm not active there. But what I like to emphasize here is that Blender really (honestly!) works a lot with artists on defining and designing the tools and UI. There's daily interaction of users and coders, all the time, in many places.

Where things go wrong is mostly when unfinished features (badly documented, or not self-explaining) make it in a release. Just because it's really hard to not do that - user demand can be very difficult to resist to. For experienced users such half-working tools are OK-ish, they just know how to find out themselves how it works. For new users or people coming from another 3d tool it's a real showstopper, too often.

Blender's new features: 1 year: animation dependency graph and physics 5-10 year: no idea :)

Is alembic support planned for blender in this years development cycle?

Yep. Important part of the Gooseberry animation film pipeline.

Hello. Have you ever gone through a phase with Blender that it almost wasn't possible to maintain it as a fee software? Could Blender get so big and powerful that your hand could be forced to make it a paid software?

Thanks for giving us Blender Ton.

This is how Blender started. It first was in-house software in the 90ies. Then in the 98-02 period I tried a business with it. That didn't work out, and that's why Blender became open source in 2002.

Having Blender open source is not something I've regretted for a second. Especially when I discovered that open source development actually is just like "making your own in-house software" again. Working with creative people, on big creative challenges, and support them with tools and technology, is just the most amazing thing ever.

Hello Ton.

Can you give us an update on OpenCL support for AMD hardware?

From what I have read, the problem is with AMD not Blender. But.... Blender have received a copy of the latest beta drivers from AMD and it "almost" works. AMD seem to be working on it now.

Right - big steps forward, but not there yet.

Will you extend the goosberry funding campaign to 30 more days I think that would be good enough to get it funded.

I'm not excluding this possiblity, but I would like to see evidence it works. The next 6 days will be important!

As for the PayPal refund deadline - I found out a little while ago that the 45 day deadline is for the client, for the merchant (us) there's a free refund possible up to 60 days.

Hi Ton sir, I think this has been asked before but still i would like to ask What about releasing the film in movie theatres.. any plans for that ?

Yes of course, that's the option we want to keep - and then make sure the makers benefit. (And cloud members :)

Just wondering, why choose Python to be integrated with Blender?

Haha, that's a legendary story now.

Back in 1998 when we were investigating this, I asked both Perl and Python forums what they would advise. The feedback on Perl forums were all fully convinced of themselves and were quite negative about others. The feedback from Python coders was well balanced, they clearly know other script languages well. So - I decided to go for the nicest people, not the best technology. (Choosing for people you never regret.)

Hey Ton, What's your favourite beer?

A local brewery around the corner makes "IJ Bier". Their best beer is "Natte", which is a 6.5% dark Belgian style "trappist".

[deleted]

Magnolia, PT Anderson.

Hi Ton, greetings from Venezuela, especially since Rabipelao Studio, a animation studio using Blender as philosophy. First wish you the best for the Gooseberry project, you have great faith that this will be a success and will be a big step for Blender. My question is directed to the area of texture painting, I wondered when we have the option to paint symmetrical in real time, simply with a change of key symmetric to asymmetric. I await your response and would like to give him a ride to our networks Rabipelao Studio, Greetings.

www.rabipelao.com / https://www.facebook.com/RabipelaoStudio / https://twitter.com/RabipelaoStudio

Hey that's awesome! Please keep in touch with us - don't ever hesitate to mail me, and join the Blender Network on www.blendernetwork.org

If you could get any of the larger other 3d software solutions out there (3ds max, maya, houdini, sketchup, cinema4d...) to donate their entire source code to blender (for analysis/integration), which one would you take and why?

Interesting question! I'd be flipping coins between Maya and Houdini.

How is the BGE nowadays any plans or projects that will also put it in more of a spotlight?

There's several BGE related projects submitted for google summer of code. Unfortunately their policy is to not leak about that. But it will be quite nice!

Aside of that - there's a huge discussion and proposal on code.bledner.org blog. Check the post with 2014-2015 in title.

Who made the Blender logo? Can we play around with a re-design? Would you consider using it if it turns out good?

A design studio in UK did - forgot name - but quite a bit art-directed by me. I'm a big fan of high quality graphics design and branding/styling. Anything that's world class I'll be happy to consider. (Yes, that implies that I consider the current logo a world class example of good logo design!)

Will Blender ever offer After Effects style compositing? An open-source alternative to AE is badly needed. Thanks for Blender. It is a great product!

There's several tools we badly need in our Compositor - especially to introduce a real 'canvas' where all the nodes/images locate in. And then allow to drag images around, scale/rotate. And then have it all interactive update, and... ;)

What's your view on the Blender Game Engine and would you ever think of having a new game project like 'Yo Frankie!'?

Thanks for the AMA!

I wrote a long post on code.blender.org about the GE future. But I'm not the (only) one who counts or decides... really, things only happen because they're possible and get enabled :)

Like for Gooseberry: there are over 30 companies (small studios) on my list who could be involved. Animation/film/advertisement/visualization is really Blender's strength - both based on professionals who use it as on developer attention and contributions we get.

For games - I know Blender is used a whole lot in the pipeline - for modeling, animation, layout or design. That's quite similar to doing things for animation or visualization. Most Blender game makers then export work to a specialist engine usually for a special platform even. That is really tough to do in open source. I have doubts we should even strive for it...

Do you have a favorite past time to unwind from all the pressures of leading these giant projects and the Blender Community? Or do you enjoy it all so much that you are happily enveloped in it?

I read a lot of books, have two newspapers even (i'm old!). I watch movies and series (Thrones fan!). I have a PS3 (played all Uncharted games twice) and a Wii and 3DS (Zelda!!!). Love going out for dinners and explore the international kitchen.

Hi Mr.Roosendaal , I'm excited for this AMA and want to thanks you for this.

Here's a little background before my question, I'm a Visual-Effects artist, I used to work freelance and now run my own shop in Paris. I use every industry tool that exists from Cinema4D to Maya and Max. I have, admittedly, been a Blender hater for long (being unable to use it for serious work didn't help) but will try and have a neutral view on it for this question.

My question is in two part :

1) Do you think the Open Sourceness of Blender, while being a strength, can also be a con because I do feel that developers that are necessary for features tend to not know a lot about UI design and are against change in that matter (you just have to look at the forum post by Blender power-users whenever this subject is brought up)

2) What is your opinion of Andrew Price's presentation on why the Blender UI is currently the one point that is holding it back in the industry and the solutions he brings up.

Again, I may not like the software but I respect your work and hope for it to be in a state where one day I and countless other could be regular users !

1) I wouldn't know why we couldn't do the same or better with UIs as other programs? Just matter of growing, budgets, attracting better people to work on it. You could also compare Blender to in-house software though. Ever checked on what tools people use in Pixar, Dreamworks, Rhythm&Hues?

2) Just check on Andrew's conclusions why he was mistaken?

But further - as french person you should like the "Vive la difference" slogan! We cannot all like the same, do the same, use the same software either.

Blender has single handily reshaped the 3D software market, the number and popularity of medium level tools bellow $250 has dropped massively in the last decade.

Do you see this as a positive or as a necessary consequence to Blenders success.

I agree we played a role, and I'm very sorry about that... the industry really needs diversity. Same reason why I'm so happy that there's still Modo, Houdini, Lightwave and C4D. They all rock.

What's your favorite book?

The book I've read most time = Ender's Game.

Will blender ever support DX11 and D3D? Also when will Blender integrate Open Subdiv 2.0? Thanks. :)

DirectX or Direct3D is for Microsoft systems only. I really prefer to devote ourselves to OpenGL, which benefits everyone. OpenSubdiv should be in a Blender release this summer - fingers crossed!

Do you have a list of stories you want to make films from or do you just invent them when you decide to make another one? Or does someone else entirely do that stuff?

For all previous projects I never did the story, but I did define a theme. Like "Funny and furry" or "fantasy with a girl hero" or "vfx scifi in amsterdam".

For gooseberry it is "Find out how to tell a story with 12 studios who should each be enabled to work in their own style - what they can do best."

hoe much does it cost to have a 2000 theater wide release?

Make a great movie first.

hi Ton, did you receive my beer donation specifically for you to enjoy?

Francesco just reminded me we have to go to drink that beer :)

If you couldn't call Blender "Blender" for what ever reason what would have called it?

I would not have accepted that whatever reason in the first place!

Hello Ton. Are there any plans to release Blender for the ChromeOS platform?

If you can tell me how? To my knowledge that would mean to make Blender entirely browser based...

I know that Blender Internal renderer is going to die soon, but I still use it for speed reasons. However, Cycles also has speed and consistency advantages over BI. Will some of the speedy BI features like buffer shadows or approximate ambient occlusion make it to Cycles?

Since realtime rendering is more and more realistic, would you consider a more robust realtime renderer ala Cryengine, UE4 or Marmoset Toolbag just for rendering purpose only? Blender GLSL view is also limited in certain aspects and I would like some cascade buffer shadows, better reflection maps, etc

Nah, Internal render is not going to die! We've just granted Tamito a dev fund contribution to work on Freestyle for example. A fast scanline render system will always have a use.

Next to that - there's a 2 year old project running to recode our viewport and drawing, which should allow it to become totally modern (opengl4, all the shaders you want etc).

Hey, thanks for doing this AMA, and thanks for what you did for the 3D community!

Even though Blender is of course popular for it's features for 3D modeling and animation, there is also support for editing pictures (Compositor + the ability to draw textures) and a nice video sequence editor in there. What was the thought process behind including those non-3D features, and are there plans to bring those to a similar level in terms of availble features as the 3D section has or even plans to incorporate other "Off-topic" areas into Blender?

It's pretty amazing how many things can be done with that one program.

I always wanted to have a well integrated tool for 3d creation, where you can do whatever you like instanteously, interactive and without stupid windows popping up with forms to fill in! It's the design idea behind blender from start - a bit why it's called that way :)

did you ever think of making blender a commercial software? wasn't money tempting enough? what is your grand philosophy regarding managing blender the way you've been doing?

thanks

Blender started as commercial software! But as open source it's much more fun to work on it.

My grand philosophy is always that I want to realize something creative-technical - with other people. A feature film would just be so cool!

Is the Blender Foundation looking to do any work on the Video Sequence Editor? I can use Blender for really all of my multimedia needs except for video editing, where it just falls short.

It's high on the list, but we have more on the list than developers can do :) One of the reasons to do a feature film is because I'm convinced we then get enough money and people to actually make such things happen. (And we need it ourselves even. You don't think we edit Gooseberry in AE or FCP?)

What is the best way to learn blender according to you?

Just try and see what happens! Sitting next to someone else is best to learn it. Second best: get one of the video tutorials on youtube. Check on what CGCookie, BlenderGuru and CGMasters do. And so on! A lot of good training is available nowadays.

What advice would you give to an aspiring graphic designer?

To learn that your work has the real value, not the result.

Become proficient and confident in creating work. That means: just do it a lot. All the time. Throw stuff away and don't look back. Only look forward to be working on the next thing. Because the real satisfaction is in the making :)

Any things you have a dire wish to put in the blender software, but requires a heavier investment of developers then typically used?

Using Gooseberry we can do a lot already.

But if you give me a couple of millions extra... I'd speed up the opengl/viewport project, finish the new interaction mode in Blender, get the android port finished, hire the awesomest ui coders ever. And start a Blender 3.0 too!

Can you give some examples of updates blender may get from project gooseberry?

How did the number 640,000 come about?

I’m assuming that the main character is moving between dimensions or something, but it’s a bit odd that he seems to be by himself. Does he have companions for the trip?

Ever been by /r/blender?

Why isn't popular options like kickstarter not being used for gooseberry?

The disadvantage of doing a teaser is that people try to interpret it too literally... it is really just and only a small teaser, done in spare time by people to present the project.

The number 640k usd is from 500k euro. The startup money to get our project running.

Blender on Android when?

I wished I know. We need coders for it - it's a specialist job.

Hey Ton, what's your take on Sintel being wrongly taken down last week from YouTube by Sony/Google? Did they get back to you explaining what happened?

No I never had any reaction or explanation. Probably their lawyers telling to sit still and don't move.

What's your preferred method for making coffee? I'm a French press kind of guy myself.

We have an espresso system here in office now. Really good stuff!

Thanks Ton for everything you've done for Blender and for your positively ambitious attitude in life, it's inspiring. The question: Are there any plans to implement promotional strategies for Blender in parallel with Open Movies? Strategies which would bring results in shorter times than big projects, like for instance videos describing Blender's features like the ones from Zbrush, or talk with educational institutions / universities to get Blender taught besides the actual industry standard softwares to avoid the "once got used discard the others" effect that happens today. Or other short term, easier to achieve promotional project?

Don't we have a lot of good video tutorials already? These DVDs gave us in the past years even more income than the movie crowdfundings. It's why Blender Institute decided to move all of that into the Blender Cloud - selling plastic with data is not really working anymore in these days.

How do you decide on the writers/directors for your open movies? Do you have accept unsolicited material or pitches from someone who wants to write or direct one of the open movies?

I keep an eye on talent publishing work all the time. They then get contacted and we check together if we're on the same frequency.

First of all, I'd like to voice my appreciation for such a great 3d modeling program, I find it extremely intuitive. After just about 2 weeks of watching tutorials, I already feel like I could potentially model anything if I just practice a bit more. I used 3ds max a bit about 15 years ago, but the difficulty at the time put me off 3d modeling until now. Blender has reinvigorated my interest towards modelling, and it's the first 3d program that has made me feel that the only thing restricting my success is my own imagination.

My only question would be, have you heard of anyone starting a successful 3d modelling career at an older age? I'm already 31, so I feel that people who've used the program since their early teens will always be ahead, no matter how much I try.

Thanks again for such a great program!

I started NeoGeo animation studio on age 29. Coded Blender's first lines aged 34. There's hope for you :)

Hi Ton Will the planned animation system improvements include improvements to the animation workflow/UI as well. The Transform properties and custom properties UI/interaction really need some love :p

Yeah I see what you mean - i really don't like it how we only add more buttons or options. Smarter solutions are really possible - will keep poking everyone to use brains and creativity here!

Hello Mr Roosendaal, just a quick few questions: 1. What are your favourite animated films 2. As a young aspiring film-maker hoping to one day make a animated film what tips can you give me to pursue this dream?

1. Toystory 3
2. Work, work, and work even harder. Dream and breath it.

In the unfortunate case that Project Gooseberry doesn't meet the donation target, would you consider scaling it down to maybe a 30 mins short film instead of scraping down the whole thing? It's would stil be a step up from the foundation's previous movies, and would still help boost the development of Blender forward.

In a way, you could say we already made it 25-30% - so doing something shorter is possible. We have a good 'plan B'. But let's wait a week before deciding it.

Do you expect that we'll ever see support for collaboration inside Blender?

Example: two people working on the same project, with changes from either of them showing up on both sides (the closest we have today is google docs for text). As you said, working alongside experienced user/artist (and not just watching) is the best way to learn...

The "Verse" project was doing this, it's still somewhere in maintenance even (try google). The main problem was always that it didn't work as well as you wished it would...

If Gooseberry won't be funded, do you plan to try again, probably smaller?

If we can't do Gooseberry we do something smaller - we have enough people on board for that already. But this is a topic to discuss when it's needed.

Hi, Ton! I would like to know if the money from Steam donations is directly pushed back into gamedev related feature creation or does it go into the Blender fund as a whole and used for other things too (like Gooseberry for example).

That's all going to developers who work on topics as being discussed and reviewed in the gamedev mailing list.

But that's of course not the only donations we get, Steam donations only are a small part (2%) of our income. We spend a whole lot more on development that benefit everyone, including game makers (and the game engine).

Has everyone forgotten about Tears of Steel? :)

Not me, it was a great project to work on! A great short film too with an amazing story and execution. I'm proud to have been working with Ian Hubert on it.

Do you ever see the ease of use in Blender improving? As a beginner I find it quite unintuitive unfortunately 😕

We do our best - see the note about "Blender 101" here.

But in general - I would really recommend you to sit next to an experienced artist and see what he/she does with it. That's so inspiring! Or get video training, or online classes.

Hi Ton! I'm no pro, but nonetheless I love Blender. What is your end-goal for Blender? Or where do you see it in a few years time? Thanks, and good luck with Gooseberry!!!

I don't have end-goals. I just think of ways how to run into troubles, and then how to get out of it.

[deleted]

Magnolia

Don't you think the Blender community and the Open Source community is extremely religious when it comes to defending open software, constantly bashing commercial products or even paid content created with Blender?

When it comes to the Blender community? Not at all.

I think we are quite an exceptional (weirdo) case within the Open Source community though. We work happily with Microsoft Windows and OS X developers. Having Blender cross platform is a feature we all cherish a lot. Over 80% of downloads (and users) is Windows!

My own backgroud is also not from "the open source world". I'm a designer, a maker. A creative person for whom open source just works great. As a means to do great things - like making a 3d tool, films, renders, games, etc.

Oh! Are you aware that blender's being used in high schools in QLD, Australia? I can't speak for anywhere else. What's your opinion on that?

Blender is being used in 100s if not 1000s of schools. That's awesome, and that's what open source is about.

I welcome teachers and educators to get involved - check blender.org!

Dear Ton, I am curious how much you are following development of other 3D software in terms of their latest tools updates? On example, what do you think about ZBrush Hard Surface capabilities like *Panel Loops and hard surface brushes in 3D Coat? For concept designs in terms of that have decimated all other software in that field. Most of the CG robots, mechs and androids now days are mostly modeled from scratch in these two. Especially if we are still exploring and finding the right base mesh form. I could not not to notice that Robo sheep in Project Gooseberry has started as sculpt mesh but whole concept was finished with more traditional modelling tools - approach because lot of these tools for hard'surface are currently missing in B3D.

I didn't see these features... but Zbrush is well known for being awesome!

What we would need is to get people making original & good quality design proposals for how to add new Blender modeling tools. It's OK if you get inspired by other tools. But try to not make Blender into a clone, OK?

Hi Ton - I was wondering what your dream feature for Blender would be. What would you create if you had the resources of Autodesk?

Honestly - I'd open source the whole bunch immediately there!

Well - OK - only to find out it's not possible because they don't have the rights to do that! I know Adesk has plenty of closed license deals with (external) contracters... and these too, and so on. Doing closed software is really a catch22. You can hardly ever get it open up.

So - with resources you mean; have 2 Billion USD per year? I really wouldn't know :) Sounds like a nightmare to also be responsible for 8,000 jobs or so.

How confidant are you that Gooseberry will achive its goal? For the record, I am hoping beyond hope that this happens :)

It's probable, and I will be giving everything for it the next week! It's not a gamble or a game or so... it's just statistics. Can we, or can we not find enough people who think doing an open source and open producton film is a good plan.

What's your favourite animated short and feature? Outside the Blender shorts, of course. :)

I don't just have one favorite... but for short films I'm a fan of Blur shorts (Gopher!) and Baginsky (Fallen Art). Feature animation film: Toy Story 3.

You seem to have more rabid fanboys than, say, maya, 3ds, etc. that show blender in a bad light it's almost like they resent getting something great for free! What are your thoughts on this group and how will you stop them tarnishing your professional reputation?

We have rabid haters too. I think that goes for anything that's popular?

Further - the rabid 3DMax fanboys are being thrown in jail by Autodesk if they come out - as pirated sw users. At least we have them openly :) I would just ignore it. If you see places where Blender fanboys spoil the fun, let me know? (or mail foundation at blender.org)

If money was no object. What would you do with Blender?

Make a feature animation movie.

Hi Ton; Second Life builder, here. I have really appreciated the improvements made to blender lately; building is much easier nowadays. Thank you for your efforts. I'm curious if you've worked with Linden Labs at helping improve the building process?

We have a very active second life community, Machinimatrix, they're even one of the biggest supporters of the Gooseberry project.

I'd love to be in connection with Linden Labs (or have them support the Blender community more actively).

I just wanted to say that I've been following/using blender since before the c-key and it's still one of the things I've admired most in my life.

Thanks :)

Dear Ton, Today i started spreading this graphic

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?333434-Project-Gooseberry-Coffee-Contribution

Encouraging people who can't afford a blender cloud subscription to make a small contribution (even as little as the price of a cup of coffee) to help Project Gooseberry. Do you think this is a good idea? and could you use your reach to get this message across to more people?

cool! If you can get 175 euro collected, I'll add that as a "BlenderArtists Coffee" credit :)

Hey Mr. Roosendaal! I've been using Blender since I was like 12 years old, and I just wanted to say that it aside from modeling and animation knowledge, it gave me "3D engine" in my mind where I could easily visualize geometry and shapes at school. Thanks for all your work!

That's great! I always remember what the great Ender said - the enemy's gate is down! :)

What is your favorite traditional Dutch food?

Fries with Mayonaise.

Good evening Mr Roosendaal,

How much would you say does the Gooseberry Project echoes within the Open Source and Open Content communities already? Are you already getting tangible support from their part?

I haven't heard enough echoes really, but I also didn't have time to listen everywhere! My strategy was to first work with our own community to really get the message told well and to get their support for it.

Would you rather fight a horse sized duck or 100 duck sized horses?

Such lovely creatures wouldn't dare to fight with me.

For years we have asked the union of after-photoshop-illustrator ... Blender can do that and more. With a specialized program interface or brother (2d animation, motion graphic). If he gives that and CMYK support, printing in Linux are complete.

Eh - that's a surprising direction I haven't given much thought of... maybe we should leave some computer graphics editing to other programs? ;)

I think the primary thing holding back the popularity of Blender with artists (and new users) is the dense and confusing UI. It seems like you're the primary proponent of keeping it from changing in part because Blender's functionality is so deeply tied to the UI itself.

Do you not agree that this is an issue? Or, do you think the UI cannot be improved?

Well, first off I don't think Blender is not popular - in contrary. It's huge!

But we cannot please everyone. If you compare Blender to sketchup, yes then we have a problem. But if you compare it to Maya - well, these users also complain all the time and will confirm it'll take a while to master this program.

Aside of that - I agree that the UI can be done much better. You should check how Blender evolved the past 10 years. You'd be shocked how it looked and worked in 2004! All of the improvements since then were supported by me, and I coded on half of that even. In that sense I don't feel I hold back anything... but what I do hold back is making Blender a tool for people who are not interested in becoming a 3d artist in the first place.