Among the different things out there, Blender definitely is one that has at least as much, if not actually more potential at eventually becoming a fair XSI alternative.
Cause, at least performance-wise (for heavy deformed geo) someone here mentioned that it was not so great,
and perhaps we didn't test the same things, but I tried having quite high poly mesh deformed by a rig, saved and imported a few times, and playback, moving points etc.. was was actually very good ! (20fps with 56 heavy deformes chars.)
And the interface is generally very slick and modern with in-viewport contols for operators and things, and it seems like it could very well be (if not already) an entire production solution on it's own, (3D, Comp Editing, ...) while continuously making great strides in each of these fields.
Otherwise, one of blender's roadmap points mentionned splitting defaults or ways certain things work.
which I found funny because I remember commenting on exactly that lol
(to satify both traditional blender users, while allowing for some flexibility to change things)
So lets try that again ;p
Apart these really great advancements (arguably passing Modo in terms of rate)
that makes you wonder why people pay 4k for say 3DSMax
... I would hope that they would do what would involve making their own "humanization" efforts.
But, generally, it looks to me that they not only need to 'humanize' it, but to 'industrialize' it as well,
perhaps by making the most complex scenes as possible and adressing what may prevent good (production) performance, or flowing workflows.
I haven't investigated deeply, but first thing that jumped to my attention was the outliner.. which is almost more of a 'scene outline viewer' .
We should be able to batch select from there and reparent (and reorder and/or reorganize) on the fly in somewhat standard ways (shift-select range.. ctrl-click toggle single item selections ... )
... and What is currently (multi-)selected is not at-all clear.
- A good number people seem to first thing, switch right and left buttons.
(default is selecting with right click, and I would vouch for one of the defaults to be like that)
-If they take anything from soft, I would hope it would be the concept of 'Groups' or somehow adding measn to apply common properties to many elements, select them (while perhpas moving away from the 20 unamed layer system)
and also means to batch change settings.
-more advanced render output options .. (I guess the wish for Soft passes goes for any app)
And there are a number of things that are tricky or finnicky, like you can't easily simply duplicate a rig for example.
Perhaps literaly sitting (even if done remotely) with select users (unaware of blender)
(i think ideally either Soft or C4d users with good production experience, and ideally while using it for real productions)
to iron out all the, not the 'show', but the -flow- stoppers
and the many little thing things that you "can't do" (or "can't easily do")
which are very-much still *very* prominent IMO.
That, I would say even -Way- before concentrating on the newest (perhaps more flashy even if useful) things.
Otherwise, What is your 'beef' with Blender? or what area(s) in your opinion would need work for it to be more on par with 'the best' of them, then perhaps we could post it on their forums
Which I think would be quite valuable feedback with alot of wheght coming from users that have been there with one of the inhenrently most 'humanized' while capable things out there ;)
And perhaps at some point, maybe sooner than others, would it become an excellent general purpose VFX app (friendly yet powerful to the likes of XSI or Premo), and/or generally more seriously considered than it is today.
(I would find it to be a pity if they used the 'biggest' (or the most pushed) DCC's as reference points when it comes to *usability*)
