As Blender users we sometimes seam to live under the idea that Blender is an underdog in 3d software.
But might we be wrong on that ?.
Might it be in fact the most used, as by user base
Most blogged about
Most YouTube videos by users
Most free models
Most tutorials YouTube/web
Most downloaded
And most active forums
I dont know where to get numbers to these questions, but if we are largest it would be a nice fun fact.
But it’s best you don’t start one of these ‘Underdog’ discussions as they always seem to turn into a keyboard war.
Basically put, Blender being an open source platform means there’s far more social collaboration than other packages. That’s just a direct inheritance to the design of the platform. So it’ll always appear that Blender’s community is bigger because there’s more motivation for people to speak out about whatever… However it’s no bigger or smaller necessarily.
@Netroxen: I care, if the software I use does not have a good following, it tends to phase out of existence…it is just the way of things…but I see your point…
most people do not use blender due to it being popular…that is just silly… @Razorblade: I don’t think anyone thinks of blender as an underdog. Most people are also aware that blender is also used by a lot of larger studios as well…maybe not for 100% of the pipeline but there are numerous articles that show or state it was used for this or that…sometimes it is just an artist has the freedom to use whatever software they want in a studio…as long as it can output formats the rest of the studio can use in their pipeline. These are just things I have read around the net, I do not work for a big studio, or any studio for that matter…like most people I have my computer in my home…actually in my dinning room tbh, even when I am working on a game or just tinkering :).
Largest community? Probably the one where newbies can find themself more confortable, grow… and most likely leave.
3D printing matter: I think there are not magic superduper 3D printing software, so probably use blender is the most wallet friendly choice considering price/requirements factor.
Underdog matter: A mix of ignorance by people and management.
Not much people knows blender, there are also some stereotypes about it. Some people abandon it at a certain point because of need. And Blender’s development/fund rising is designed to survive, not to compete.
The question is how relevant for anything if it would have the largest user base, how you count users, what aspects you examine, etc.
Blender could be a number one choice for people who wanna start 3D and do not want to pirate apps.
Same for 3D printing.
I’m pretty sure that Blender is very popular for hobbiists who don’t want to spend too much for their hobby.
To get valuable data there is a need to define more factors; cgarchitects used to make surveys for archviz guys (as an example).
I don’t know the latest data, but 3ds Max + VRay were mainly used for archviz by the most of the professional archviz users (who get payment for their tasks).
What I wanna say that there is a massive need for specifications.
Review numbers are not really relevant is many cases, but there is no question that could implicate trends in this case.
It worth to read Blender comments anyway to check how ‘serious’ the user base is generally speaking, but I’m very grateful that some of them will stay with Blender and helps making it better and better.
I’m not really sure if we know the full extent as to the size of the community because the obvious areas to look (such as this forum) only accounts for a small fraction of Blender’s total userbase.
I would think that at the least, the raw user statistics would get a boost from the fact that Blender is free, so people who otherwise can’t afford to start a hobby making 3D art (or are too young to be entrusted with the purchase of commercial software) can actually do so.
Blender is pretty huge :D, although it is pretty rare in the pro industry. 99% of my co workers from my freelance jobs use Max or Maya. Still, it is capable of keeping up with the pro programs ;).
This is like saying Windows has the largest user base in operating systems. The reason why Blender has it is simply that it’s the only of its kind, there is no other free 3D program like Blender, not even close.
