first of all, I want to say, I’m not a professional of 3d, I haven’t got paid for anything 3d related yet.
Having that out of the way, I just wanted to say, that I started in this world by studying what would be an associate degree in the US. I learned how to use Maya 2015 (it’s been a bit, yeah), and honestly, just in the performance aspect, Blender it’s way better. The autodesk software would crash at any given moment, the more advanced the project, the more frequent the crashes (for example, a half way modeled creature, could cause a crash every 10-15 min). Secondly, the files size. I’ve seen full projects (the Red Autumn Forest by Robin Tran comes to mind) 104.2 mb. Just the character in that scene, made in Maya, would take about 500 mb, at best, it blows my mind. Third, the intuitive UI, it’s just easy, there’s no better way to say it. Not having to do about 50 steps just to attach a simple armature to a mesh it’s refreshing, and really motivates to keep working on projects, even if it’s just for your book, or you just want to mess around a bit. And to finish it all, just the amazing community that grows around Blender. Just lurking on this forum and a few youtube tutorials for a few months, I’ve got to the level I was on maya, when I used it for over 8 hours daily, for 2 years.
Sorry for the rant, just wanted to thank you all, and get this frustration and happiness out of my chest.
Cheers!