A thought experiment: is this a scenario where you would gladly move on from Blender?

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
1

Take this scenario for instance, one that’s unlikely, but say it does occur.

You have made some awesome work using Blender, you show your work around various websites and real-world venues. Now assume that your work gets noticed by someone from Autodesk and they are really impressed with what you are capable of.

Say that this guy from Autodesk would like to offer a great deal under the claim to help you reach your fullest potential. He has decided that if you were to make a truly fantastic image in the fullest of your abilities, the company will offer you a free copy of all their software with a lifetime of free upgrades, this being under the assumption that if you take the deal, you will start using their software more rather than Blender.

Now with Blender’s price-point advantage gone, would you take the deal, will you decide that this image to be made to get the deal will be the last you will ever do with Blender, will you decide to leave BA for good in exchange for a new online home at their AREA forums?

As for whether I would make that decision, if they actually decided to address all of the longstanding complaints about their software, it might be a plausible idea to at least do some work in their software if I was offered the deal, besides, it may be years before Cycles is able to have the same functionality as Mental Ray.

However, then again, I’m used to Blender, Blender has an impressive rate of development, and a lot of the old weaknesses from rendering to the game engine are being addressed. (on top of the fact that none of Autodesk’s software has a built in game engine and thus not something you get in such a deal). You also do not have to wait until a release to use the latest Blender features assuming you are aware that the inclusion of new stuff leads to things not being quite as stable or bug-free.

For me, there would be a lot of things to consider, I’d say I’d probably lean towards staying with Blender, though I would gladly take the deal and see about trying the new software I would now have as a result.:eyebrowlift:

Again, this scenario is only hypothetical and thus is unlikely to occur, it’s more in the lines of being a thought experiment than anything else, just seeing how many here would continue to entrust themselves to supporting Blender and the Open Source paradigm if such an offer to obtain commercial software came about.

2

I am currently using the student versions of 3ds max and maya and they are both horrible, maya is way worse then blender and 3ds max is the same, I would stick to blender.

3

I also have the student versions, but I am too used to blender. When I finally get a better computer I will use Maya more so that I can learn it in case it is required for a future job. That being said, I would still play with blender, and use it for hobbies. Also I might switch between programs and mabie model in blender, then rig in Maya, and then animate in motion builder.

Is that fair?

4

Given what I’ve read here and on other forums, if it was Autodesk or Newtek making the offer, the answer would be NO.

Now if it was Luxology or SideFX making the offer… I gotta say, I might jump ships and change…

Don’t hate me for this,
Randy

5

In this highly improbable situation i’d probably still stick with Blender. I’m in it as much for the open philosophy as i am for the free stuff.

6

People learn Blender to explore their own creative potential. People learn Maya to one day become expendable peons in someone else’s big business.

The student (read: castrated) versions of industry software are intended to lock your talent to their respective vendors. When you’re no longer a “student,” the only way you can afford them is to use them professionally, which 99% of the time means working in someone else’s big company. But hey, if you make it into the film industry, I’ll be sure to applaud when I see your glorious 2 seconds of animation in the latest summer B-movie.

I understand if people don’t mind the work environment of the industry, I just wish they would pay less attention to what Blender can do and more attention to what it represents. For what little my art is worth, at least it still belongs to me.

7

The student (read: castrated) versions of industry software are intended to lock your talent to their respective vendors.

Hahaha, OK I can see that.

When you’re no longer a “student,” the only way you can afford them is to use them professionally, which 99% of the time means working in someone else’s big company.

Well yes. Why would you use it as a student and not want to get into a large company that gives a steady paying and reliable job?

I just wish they would pay less attention to what Blender can do and more attention to what it represents.

For sure, I think that is a great point

8

I would only switch if someone made a better program then Blender. Something that has all the modeling tools I need, a kick ass render engine, node based drivers and modifiers (no constraints, I prefer node based drivers), cool GUI, etc…

But for now Blender > Everything else. And the only reason why I would ever use 3ds max or maya is to learn it for a future job.

9

I have all Microsoft and Autodesk Software as you say;
Im on Linux, with Blender, Gimp, Inkscape, Vim, Python, HTML5, FreeCAD, VLC and a lo0o0o0ong list of awesome software.

Libre software gives you overkill Skills over the years…,
now im Linux Admin, pay nearly twice than Win Admin, and Python/HTML5 Coder pay nearly twice than MS VisualBasic coder.

10

Very well-said. Exactly my feelings.
I subbed your YouTube channel. Indie all the way. It’s been a very long time since I gave a crap about a hollywood film.

11

Frankly, that depends on your goal. Since the price point advantage is gone, the best option is to look at the best of both worlds. Also you can still use Blender from time to time.

Both software are proven in production environment. Most of the commercial software are not suited for small team studio, and the ones that do are not many (and Autodesk has the habit of promoting Maya or 3DS Max above any other software).

Personally, I would choose a combination of Softimage and Blender any time of the day over any other software. Houdini is about twice more expensive than Softimage, and they just released version 12 which is in the first phase of using a totally revamped core system to take advantage of OpenCL. Probably some two three/years to go before they can compete head to head with Softimage in animation tools, just like Softimage is still a long way to go to fight head to head with Houdini in vfx department (shaders, ICE and others).

I’m just hoping that Blender would optimize the workflow of different tools by consolidating the short cut keys and workflow. Also hoping that Blender would focus more on in depth and complete feature implementations instead of cramming other new features in it. Having said that, I have to say that even in its current state, Blender is more than capable to stand up to Autodesk’s 3DS Max.

That’s just my (less than) 0.02 cents.

12

i havent’t watched a “hollywood movie” in a longtime
(the last one i saw was the last airbender, only because i like the cartoon,
and even for this one i waited for it to come out on netflix)

I never saw “Avatar” and refuse to watch it.(because of the political slant in the movie)
If i choose to watch a movie its to be entertained, not to be indoctrinated by liberal bs.

13

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

14

I’m too hooked on the indie aspect of blender and open source. also autodesk doesn’t have brecht.

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2a4yzfacv1qgkzcm.gif

15

I don’t have any feelings one way of the other about Autodesk. I love Softimage. Mudbox feels right at home as a sculpt app. Maya to me has a nice interface and general workflow. I can do without Mental Ray and would probably chose Vray as a render solution.

As for the unlikely scenario, the only reason I would refuse would be because I would not want someone else dictating my choice of tools under any circumstances.

As for the more likely scenario, if I had the money to burn, would I spend it on Audodesk software? And use it as my main solution? At this time, in heartbeat. Without question.

In the mean time Blender is in a class of its own and so many things about it are so easy and logical it is just stupid bad ass. The developers are one talented group of people.

The last 2 years have brought lots of cool things. Hope there will be more.

16

I would use Maya – just to get experience for the resume. To be able to say that you use (or can use) Maya is pretty much a necessity for professional work (I mean mid to large studios).

17

What an interesting question because it brings a lot of things to mind.

I wanted to write a wall of text about all the things I would consider, but I decided to keep it short.

One of the problems with blender is that blender usually lives up to the “stigma”, jack of all trades, master of none.
This mostly has to do with blender trying to have as much features as it can but it there is a limit to how much blender can handle AND what the devs can handle. Bigger companies develop specialiced software for those certain needs. What I mean is that blender won’t easily beat Adobe Premiere pro or sony vegas, it also won’t beat mudbox or zbrush when it comes to sculpting.

That’s just because of the nature of blender and how it is being developped. However that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Every 2 months there is an update that improves blender in a form or shape. Some time ago we got the basic form of cycles and it’s now being improved with every update. Bmesh in 2.63 will be amazing, I’m using the dev build and I don’t want to go back to 2.62 ever again. (Bmesh is subtle at first, but will make your moddeling life SO much easier).

Blender appears to be catching up with the industry and that’s amazing in itself.

Would I choose the other software or blender?
I honestly don’t know. I do know that I’d try it out and see which one works best for me. Knowing other software only adds to your knowledge and resume. I’d probably end up using them both.

Damnit this was still a pretty long post. (shorter than I had before though)

18

Honestly the only real reasons to switch software fall under a few categories:

A) The client you are working with needs the final file in a particular closed format (can’t easily retrain people to just pull things in as obj and hook everything in, and other programs may read things differently than the one you’re using like normal maps in some cases).

B) The software you are using currently doesn’t have a feature that you are in desperate need of and can’t spend a lot of time figuring out workarounds that won’t interrupt productivity (and extend deadlines).

C) The work pipeline at a job you take requires the ability to quickly pass files back and forth, and the program you are using doesn’t play well with the particular file type (say for FBX files, since Blender doesn’t have an importer yet and it’s a common file type for games).

Granted I’m no professional, so I’m just making guesses.

Though, none of these mean you have to shift your ‘entire’ workflow into another program. You just defer the important parts of your pipeline to the program that has the functionality you need at the appropriate time. A free commercial license is still handy if you have to convert to a closed file type though.

Now if the “condition” of receiving the free software was to give up your old one, that would just be silly.

19

Thanks guys for correcting the omission and bringing Softimage into this conversation, since it’s many people’s favorite Autodesk general 3D software out of the 3 that they sell.