hopefully not being to contentious about this, I can’t help but wonder what exactly other mainstream programs have over our modest little program blender. I’ve only dabbled in maya, which ticked me off because all of the familiar hotkeys were mia, but I was just wondering what difference three grand makes.
I only know by reading articles, since I only used blender so far… I read comparisons between maya and 3ds max, etc.
From my noob point of view, blender is not a “little program”, but well, to sum it up, many say the renderer sucks compared to others, no n-gons supported yet (in development) and also some simulations missing… but consider that for autodesk, there might be at least some dozen developers working fulltime, while with blender, only 4 or 5.
I think that the software is not that important, but the skills you have as a CG artist. When you start, I think you have more much than you need. I read Maya is the most difficult to learn, so companies look for people who could use it, because it means that you can learn any other 3d application.
By my estimation, I would say that about 80 to 99 percent of your time spent as a 3D artist is spent mastering the craft. Just a range that is flexible depending on your work ethic. But I’d say if your true goal was to master your craft it would be well over 95 percent. If you also keep well up on revisions of your program or learn new apps as you go along, I’d say that percent could drop.
I draw these rough figures from personal experience. For example it takes me about 1 month full time or better to read and understand a program (such as Blender with as much as there is to learn) from the start and finish from a manual. This includes experimentation as I go along. Not just reading. It also would include tutorials but not too much there. After I have read the entire manual and understood where everything is, what it does, how to access and use it in a very fundamental way, the rest of the time is spent applying that knowledge to the learning of my craft. That would be in terms of actual production practice, doing some tutorials but mainly getting more practical experience. That includes forgetting about 1/4th of it, having to go back. Learning things at a forum that I was not able to pick up or missed from the manual and so on.
Between other jobs and other things over the last 5 years, I have probably spent about 3 years in production and 3 months learning 2 programs give or take not including the tidbits and so on from tutorials and forums. I don’t know what that works out to percentage wise I am just tossing out a number because it sounds right lol!. But keeping in mind my skill set is still a work in progress. So I may know where a button is and what it does. Or I may know about the general area of surfacing, but how proficient am I at that and lighting? That depends on how well I can demonstrate my ability. That takes practice and learning other areas of art and the general science of 3D.
So I figure about another year ahead to be a more or less master generalist in all areas realistically. That is at my pace. And I don’t mean a complete master, that is a life long goal. But you know, proficient in all areas and able to function and produce professional-quality work.
So math aside. Point is, the program you learn is a tool yes. But the time to master it compared to mastering the craft itself is very small indeed.
There is a job market issue here. And there is no way to debate that of all the major programs you can learn probably head to toe between Maya and 3D Max as the ones I see in Job listings more than any other. And I think 3D Max is a little heavier on the game side.
That is just a reality. That does not knock Blender. However Blender has a long way to go before it can compete realistically in that market as a tool. The combo of Maya, Sofimage, Mudbox and Motion Builder for about 6.5 grand (as a package) would put the best tools available to you as an artist in my opinion today. There are certainly other options and one could have preferences. LightWave is a great one because many shops use it for the fact that you get unlimited rendering nodes and the fact that it is fast and easy and renders great stuff. It usually fits into a pipeline with other apps.
So if you had the money to spend would you go and buy any of those other programs or use Blender?
If your goal was to work at the better jobs around, and keep working for a long time, then at some point on of these programs would have to fit into your budget if you want to work as a freelance artist for hire to larger studio projects. If you work at a shop it is likely they’ll have purchased the software - which is why they need you to know it. Also it fits into their pipeline and way of working. In either case you’ll need to integrate with what they do. In some cases you can do so with Blender. In others, not.
Blender is a great all around program. It can do a little of what all of the other programs can do to greater or lesser success. Some areas perhaps better but most of them I’d say it does fairly well comparatively as far as ease and overall functionality.
All said and done, it is less that 1 percent of the equation. You will spend most of your time just getting good enough to get a job. At that point it does not matter. You can learn a new app from start to finish in a relatively short period of time compared to the time to spend mastering the craft. And no matter what program you use to do that those skills transfer over to any app. And Blender is pretty good at most stuff and is not so well developed in others. It also has a sort of appeal that attracts users over other software for various reasons. And to your point, will it be any hindrance to use Blender over another app? A little sure. Because there are some areas not fully developed yet. That is an honest look. Perhaps Blender is better more intuitive and logical in some areas on the other hand. It is a trade off.
If I was starting out in 3D I’d save my money and use Blender just to see how I find myself even getting along with it.
If you want to be a hobbyist or work for hire in situations where the app is not an issue. Hands down Blender until you get better and grow out of it. Maybe you’ll never change.
But to realistically integrate into the workforce outside you’ll likely find that you’ll want to learn another app. Most of them have 30 day free trial periods. That is enough time to master it to the degree that you can transfer over the skill set from Blender. But not enough time to master much of 3D really.
The economical approach is to master Blender first and then take it from there and see how you do and what work you find yourself wanting to do. You may never give up Blender entirely, but the other apps may be something you only have to add to your tool set.
Three grand basically buys you the industry-standard 3D program, excellent technical support and tons of resources. Maya is pretty much the standard 3D program when it comes to making films. Most of the movies you see today use Maya in one capacity or the other.
Maya is an excellent program for what it does because it is customizable to any working pipeline or studio environment.
But as far as non-open source software there are a lot of other packages that you could consider: 3ds Max, Houdini, Cinema 4D, Lightwave. All of which have made their mark on the film and 3d industries.
Whether or not Maya is a good choice for you depends on your career goals and where you are aspiring to work. If you want to go for Lucasfilm or WETA, then your best bet is to learn Maya. If you want to go into games and game design then 3ds Max may be the program for you.
The one advantage that Blender has over Maya and the other mainstream programs is that it can do anything Maya and the others can do if you are willing to to sit down and learn it. Basically, all you need really is Blender and some working knowledge of Python and you will be ready to go. Plus Blender is open-source and free. Blender also has a good community for support. If you are willing to take the time to search you can find a Blender tutorial on almost anything. If there isn’t a tutorial, then I am almost certain that you can find someone within the Blender community that knows how to do what you want to do.
All in all, it doesn’t matter what 3d program you use, just make a kick ass demo reel that will impress the big guys and that will get your foot in the door. A lot of employers will train you on different software packages if you have a good, solid working knowledge of 3d.
Blender can realistically compete against the mainstream 3d programs like Maya and Max as evidenced by the open source movies released by the Blender Foundation: Sintel, Big Buck Bunny, and Elephant’s Dream. If you doubt this then go look at some of the work that people in this forum are doing. It is as good as the work by the people who use Maya and Max.
Personally, if I had the money to spend on a high-end non-open source program I would go with either Cinema 4D or Lightwave.
In my opinion the biggest weakness of Blender is it’s lack of CAD and Engineering tools, but then again Blender is not striving to be a CAD or engineering program.
Just realize that Blender has it’s own community and Maya has it’s own community and both communities provide tremendous support for their users.
It comes down to whether or not you have the $4000 for Maya. If you do then you can definitely have the best of both worlds: Mainstream 3d (Maya, Max, etc.) and open-source (Blender).
Coming from a guy who has used 3dsmax and switched to Blender a few years ago, i have to say that there is not much of a difference.
- Sure, Ngons are ok but i don’t use them much and they’re not crucial for good modelling (keeping it as quads-only as possible is always the best you can do). Bmesh will help improve the cut tools etc., bevel and their behavior, but i don’t care that much about the Ngons themselves.
- The renderers are better, but that’s because they’re external. MentalRay was integrated into Max and almost every other Autodesk software out there, Max’s actual scanline renderer has been remained the same since version 7.5. Blender has alternatives for those such as Yafaray and Luxrender, which do a good job. Would be very nice if Blender Internal could do all that out of the box but you can always rely on external renderers.