Another big milestone is reached. There are the first binaries available for Bforartists. Version 0.1. It is the initial release, the move from Blender to Bforartists. So the main changes are of course the logos and the branding, and that everything works together with the new name. But there are already some first changes in the UI.

The Factory Settings theme is now the blueish theme that can be found in the UI design document. And there are already a few changes at the standard settings too. Including the important change of the default selection method from RMB to LMB. For all changes see the Release Note

One step further in the roadmap. The last week was spent at some research to define the short time goals. Lots to read. Unfortunately it seems that i am a bit too late to the show. The old issues, suggestions and user wishes are hard to find nowadays.

The thread at the Blender Artist page about the absurdest absurdities issues brought up some good points. But Blender storm, a feedback page which had a huge collection of user wishes and ideas, is gone. Wayback machine was of no big help here. And the Phabricator page, that gots installed as a tracker not long ago, is super hard to navigate. And doesn't go back really for long. Seems that quite some things from the before Phabricator era are lost.

The Wiki has a new tutorial in the developer section. Installing and building with Microsoft Visual Studio and CMake

It can be found here: http://www.bforartists.de/wiki/buildwinvscmake

The next milestone is reached. The repository is ready and up. You can find it here: https://github.com/Bforartists/Bforartists

Please work with the branch Bfora_Master. The trunk is nothing else than the Blender version that i have used to change it to Bforartists.

All needed changes are done to separate Bforartists from Blender. All Blender graphics and icons are replaced by Bforartists graphics and icons. The links in Bforartists leads not longer to Blender. And we have a bforartists.exe now.

Bforartists needs YOU!

I have started a really big software project here. And this project has reached the point to call for help. The point  to ask for volunteers, to organize the pipeline, and the point to start the development.

What is Bforartists?

Bforartists is a fork of the popluar open source 3d software Blender. And is, similar to Blender, of course also open source and under the GPL V3 license.

A Blender fork? R u MAD?

No! I know exactly what i am doing

No development without a development goal. One of the main goals for Bforartists is the rewrite of the graphical UI. The concept already exists. It will be QT based. It will centralize the places for tools and settings. And we will change quite a few more things while rewriting the graphical UI.

You can find the two existing pdf's below so that you can see what awaits you here. The first document describes in detail what to change. And even more important what the benefits of the changes are. The second document is currently more a draft, a list of all UI elements with a first basic dark colour scheme. Both documents will most probably change here and there while developing the prototype. And may change again when implementing it into Bforartists.

This is the currently planned roadmap for the next weeks and months. The farer away means of course the fewer detail. We are currently in the initial funding stage. Find volunteers, start to organize, create a first working release version ...

Initial release:

We need of course first an initial release, with own icons and own name. We don't want to break copyrights. So that's the first goal, to port the whole project from Blender to Bforartists. I am already working at this problem.

Hunt for more helping hands:

Why this Blender fork?

The short answer is: because it is more than time that somebody fixes the cruel Blender UI! The UI dilemma already has lasted for too long. And i simply don't see the currently responsible staff being able to do that. Even after their recent announcement to have a break for one year and finally tackle the UI issue. It's still the same people responsible with still the same odd ideas about UI / UX design. The same people who didn't manage to create a good UI in the past 13 years. So chances are very small that they manage it this time.

Hello friends,

This is it, we are live.

So what is Bforartists? In short: Bforartists is a project to create a Blender fork with a much better UI and usability. And with the goal to fix all those crazy UI / UX design issues from the past. Like the almighty RMB select issue, which has stopped generations of wanabee Blender users right in the first five seconds.