Forgive me if it already has one. I'm a blender n00b, and I find that its current interface is hard to use. A skinnable interface would easily allow n00bs like me to use a less complex version, while pros would still be able to have all the features they want. Also, if someone could make a skin that makes it behave like Maya... I love that interface (I've used Maya PLE), but I like the open-sourceness (and hence freeness) of blender...

You will always have problems adapting from one software to another because of the interface. I don't believe blender needs a new interface really... just needs to be cleaned up a bit. Once your used to blenders interface you can move quite a bit faster than in any others. I've still not got the hang of Maya but I like blenders interface over Max and Lightwave... though it looks like it borrows heavily from lightwave its quite a bit different. I would just suggest you plug away at it... that all thats really gonna get you used to it. Having a skinnable interface, in my opinion, would only slow the interface down. Maybe in version 3.... who knows... just my opinion.

Pyro wrote:

A skinnable interface would easily allow n00bs like me to use a less complex version, while pros would still be able to have all the features they want. Also, if someone could make a skin that makes it behave like Maya... I love that interface (I've used Maya PLE), but I like the open-sourceness (and hence freeness) of blender...

Unfortunately what you seem to be talking about is a lot more than 'skins'. Skins are just that - a veneer. You can change what buttons look like, where they are, etc. but interface is about a lot more than how it looks. There are fundamental philosophies and styles that are in the Blender interface which can't be changed to something else, just by applying a 'skin'. With a bit of hacking, you can probably make the Blender screen look like Maya, but it definitely won't work like Maya (which is what interfaces are all about - human/computer interaction).

My personal opinion is that 'skins' are a copout way of attempting to solve interface problems - interface design is about psychology, ergonomics, information design and many other things than just visual appearances, that shape the way people interact with things. These things require lots of thought, which is generally neglected in the design of skins, whose authors usually only care about copying something else (even though it doesn't work the same way) or making something that looks cool. That's my rant anyway I'd just hate to see Blender end up like all those media players with flashy GUIs but totally ignore UI guidelines and human factors.