Why use Blender?
In the early days we programmed robot movements using graphs (like IPO curves) to generate robot movements – it was difficult and not at all intuitive, Try animating a character in FK only with no image of what your doing on screen to get a feel for how hard this is. We couldn’t really do it ‘off line’ at all which meant having a real robot hooked up to see what you where doing. With a background in 3D animation I knew there where easier ways, but we didn’t want to get into using a closed source licensed application. First because we couldn’t extend the code for our special purpose, very easily, second because we wanted to include the programming software for our users at no cost. And Third because we couldn’t justify the time and expense to write the application from scratch. About three years ago a friend showed me a Blender animation project, and I realised immediately that we had the answer to our dreams. It has taken some years and a fair bit of learning to perfect the RoboThespia
