I think the opening post is just flame bait spoken in very rude manner as if OP didn’t think anybody should be using Blender and that can only happen because some people don’t know better.
Blender can simply match what the multiple thousand dollar software has to offer. It’s pretty much the same thing Ubuntu and GIMP are offering with their products. Open source or not, it’s free and will never become proprietary or commercial thanks to GPL.
I have no need to look beyond Blender and consider investing huge amount of money in the software. I don’t think any rational startup indie game developer or graphics designer or other kind of artist should buy huge costly licences before having any serious income. I personally believe these products will kill Autodesk and they will even kill Microsoft (as they are today). As soon as people break out of the pattern that is being spoon-fed to them by some of the giant corporations of IT.
Blender is on par with the super expensive software and it costs nothing so why would someone NOT use Blender, at least give it a chance?
Obviously, your choice of tools depends, perhaps mostly, on “what your client is using and/or expects.” If you are “a cog in a production wheel for a bigger studio” who is using “Maya X.YZ.ZY” or what-have-you, and what you’re expected to deliver is a model-file, then of course, that’s precisely what you are going to use. (Not just “that tool,” but “that version.” Your $$contract$$ says so.)
If there’s a particular technique that a particular commercial piece of software “does best,” then, once again, you simply license it and use it … the license simply being part of your “cost of goods sold” (and not a terribly big one, at that). No, people in the business don’t “put up with second-best because it is ‘free’,” because that’s clearly a false economy. It is folly to skimp on what you do for a living…
On the other hand, if you have free choice, then Blender just happens to be a verygood choice … and getting better all the time, because, as a cooperatively-developed (i.e. “open source”) piece of software, a world-wide community of very smart people are not only using it, but improving it. All the time.
The status-quo today is that Blender really is, today, “a professional-grade tool.” The stuff that you get from Blender isn’t “second fiddle.” (If it ever was, then …) “Not anymore.”
I just started using Blender this past summer (I looked at it a few years ago and well… that’s another thread). I use it for fun and a distraction from real world life (some drink beer, some play video games,… I play with Blender, but also fish - but that’s a different thread). I have used 3DSMax back at version 5 and 6, but had bought a student version which was only $100 or something - Blender is free. I don’t know of any other free OS X of software that can produce renderings and simulations like Blender… for free. Since software development is my real job, the python support is also appealing.
I’m curious why do you guys use Blender?
It affords the most tools for production in a single package, and has an awesome community that is the backbone of its development
Is it just because it’s free and have you tried anything else?
I have tried other software, and have not liked everything I found - and price range also had something to do with it. By the time I knew what other software cost, I already knew Blender well enough to figure I was already learning a good thing.
Does Blender being open source actually matter to you? Yes, it does
And last how long have you used Blender? Have you been here since 2.4.x or before?
Since 2.26 when I started dabbling, I thought I was in heaven with 2.36 lol, then 2.42…
I think “kasoah” was giving an example to explain what was wanted to ask. “Blender or xxxxxx”, in a similar way to for example “Android or iPhone”.
But I agree with “Kheetor” and perhaps the thread and the questions could have been raised in a better way for not to give rise to misinterpretation.
you mean you never tried the Dreamworks studio app for android? you should give it a go, it turns your smartphone into a full 3d studio pipeline and uses wifi to turn any other smartphone into the vicinity into a mobile renderfarm.
I don’t own nor will I ever own a smartphone. If I want to make a call I’ll use a $20 cell phone. If I want to use a computer, I’ll use one of the ones scattered around my house. Got no use for novelty items. Other than my stuffed spider monkey that hangs from my ceiling fan. But no I had never heard of Dreamweaver being used like that. Dreamweaver is used to make websites. Sheesh there is so much I don’t know about everything.
Using since 1.8 because of it’s price.
I was using other free tools, like Strata3D and Pov-ray but Blender could do so much more than Strata3D and Pov-ray was just a pain to use.
I use Blender because it helps me make strawberry and blueberry smoothies, oh you mean the other Blender, right?^^ Haha. I use Blender because it’s free, and gives me pretty much everything you can get from a $3,000 program like Maya.
I have tried all of the other software and I do not like them. They are either too bloated, or too complicated, or too expensive, or too heavy to install that your OS is crippled, or too boring to use 5 different software.
Blender on the other hand, is minimalistic, is practical, is tightly packed to about 200MB of fun (as BrentNewton said). That means that it simply works.
Everybody might say that X sucks, or Y sucks about Blender and I half-agree with them, no one can say that “you can’t produce any content with it”. Everybody knows that Blender Institute has successfully created lots of movies (Elephant’s Dream, Big Buck Bunny, Sintel, etc), not to count lots of thousands of other artists that create amazing stuff with it.
For me this practical proof of concept is exactly what I need. A psychological boost to keep using Blender.
I’ve been using it since 2.12 which puts the start around 2000/2001. Now I’m using it for 13 years, a third of my life and I’m too old to wanna switch. I still have the spiral bound manual, cool design btw. Oh, and I’m a blender conference addict. Another reason not to switch.
I’ve looked at it a few times in the past, but just couldn’t get to grips with it, plus, as a Lightwave user, it needed to be something special to lure me from LW. Now, I find myself redundant and “too old” to get a job in my industry, over 35? forget it, (alas I’m over 50 :p).
So now, no more LW upgrade money, it was a luxury as 3D is purely a fun hobby, so again I turn to Blender to see if I can get anything out of it. Early days yet, but it’s stayed installed a lot longer than previous times, still, it has to provide me with something Lightwave cannot and interface wise, it’s so far removed I find it cumbersome. Still, some of that is “unlearning” LW rather than learning Blender.
I am impressed with it’s development and support to keep an eye on it and even if I don’t have it become my “main” app, there are things it does which can complement LW, though I have to say, I’m loving the look of the cycles renderer.
