Kinda confused here…when have I ever said that Blender isn’t a capable software?
I always spoke about “industry standard” which is what the OP was asking about (BTW…I wonder if that guy is even checking this thread or if he just decided to drop a bomb and take off running?) which Blender isn’t at the moment.
Circling back to the bit about OpenSubDiv and how it is a major blocker for Blender’s adoption, this latest reported benchmark of a dense model is definitely something everyone wanted to hear.
Soft Selection Movement:
2.93 - Doesn’t even work/never even starts to move. Keeps lagging out for a long while.
3.0 - maybe 5-10 FPS, but can somewhat interactively move the mesh/verts!!
So with 2.93 LTS, even Daz’s software could easily beat Blender in OSD since some models give you a score of 
(ie. locked up software that needs to be killed in the task manager). Since frames are actually being registered with the patch, I guess the performance improvement is 
The image of the model is in this post.
Or it might have been some other active users sockpuppet. I wouldn’t rule it out.
Yah… maybe. Sometime we here play “social games”, someone or couple dudes throw “bomb” and laugh when people start to argue about something frivolous.
The biggest ‘hurdle’ here is pipelines.
Every large studio has built entire workflows & custom tools around a handful of applications.
Some tools became standards for intermediate transfers, like Alembic, VDB, and now Pixar is pushing with USD and more.
Weta just released their tools to the world to speed up your projects. For Maya and Houdini…
Yes, Blender -in theory- could replace some of these applications, but also realize that dedicated applications that only do one thing will always perform better, than in a application that also has a similar feature. Sculpting, comping, editing/grading come in mind here.
For smaller studios the move would be less dramatic. Have a look at Blender Bob’s video on their pipeline with Blender. (and some Houdini… and Nuke… and…)
I think we all can agree on how much Blender has grown since 2.8x, and what is coming with 3.x
Will it be enough to dazzle the VFX world? No.
Will it be enough to get more attention? For sure.
And pick the right tool for the 3D job. That might be Maya, Houdini, 3dsmax, cinema4d or something else.
Don’t try to shoehorn your project into an application that will make you workaround stuff that is easily done in two clicks in another 3d application.
Just don’t be a fanboy and ignore the real world. There’s enough people like that on CGTalk to last a lifetime… 
Most of the replies to this thread are comparing Blender to Maya in the context of big animation studios etc. I do not know anything about that.
However please note that almost almost anyone looking for Autodesk and Photoshop skills is likely in the Architecture or Architectural Rendering business. In that regard (unless Blender some day decides to try and compete) the answer is almost 99% likely to be never. Couple of reasons for that:
First only the very biggest firms (say one in a hundred) have so much work that they can afford to hire a full time non-architect renderer. Freelancers or Rendering firms (big rendering firms usually based in China) can work in Blender to do large projects. Very small firms also hire small one person or small firm freelance renderers but those renderers typically need a 3D model already done by the Architect in order to keep the fee low and be able to crank it out in a few days max; client deadlines are always too short. Even medium to medium large cities can only support a few freelancers per city.
Medium to medium large Architecture firms therefore find it more cost effective to have their Architect Designers do the 3D model in the architectural 3D software they will use to complete the construction documents, I.E. Autodesk or Revit. Alternatively they may design the project first in super simple SketchUp and then render it with simple to learn $$$$Lumion or cheaper $Enscape or $Twinmotion etc. etc. etc.
I love what Blender can do that neither SketchUp or Revit can do (though Revit is improving and bigger firms combine it with Rhino for tesselations etc.) but I could not recommend it to an Architecture firm unless the Architect (college degree in Architecture) designer /renderer already knows Blender because the learning curve is simply too steep. More to the point Blender is not Architectural firm friendly, for example UV Unwrapping textures is far too laborious compared to any of the rendering softwares they use where you can paint drop any surface of any element and the textures remain the same scale without any unwrapping required. The advantages of unwrapping in any exterior rendering are non-existent.
I’m at a AAA game studio, and we have a ton of people using Blender now, and have shipped game assets with it.
I used to be 100% 3DS Max,and now am almost 100% Blender, or as much as possible/same with other guys on my team.
We are forced to use 3DS Max for some pipeline stuff, but I can use blender for almost my entire workflow now.
I do use Headus UV / other addons or tools with Blender, since some areas are very lacking yet. Mainly UV editing. But yeah, we have probably 10-20 people using blender now in our studio, or maybe more.
Also another bigger studio in the area has multiple people using blender for AAA games as well, and Facebook are using it now/etc.
Yeah … if you’re doing a job, you’ve got a “Jerry Reed problem.” (“Eastbound and Down” – Smokey and the Bandit) “You’ve got a long way to go, and a short time to get there.” Decide what’s the best tool for the job, and if it costs money just factor that into your bid.
If you’re afraid of starting in Blender and then not finding a job in a bigger studio, don’t be. DCCs are easy, learning the art of 3D/CGI is what takes time. 
I’ll will say this: I didn’t know Jack about 3D two and a half years ago, but I downloaded 2.8 one day and found a tut were I set Susan on fire and I’ve been hooked ever since.
Now two years later with all the skills I’ve learned in Blender, I feel I can 100% transfer to any 3D DCC out there and have it down within days or a week. Just need to find the correct buttons or download whatever add-on makes the app usable.
You know why? Cause keyframes are keyframes, graph editors are graph editors, modeling…, UV…, materials, etc. etc.
See you in Houdini…come on in, the water’s fine! 
Been playing with the “student” version of Houdini off and on for the past year. I’ll admit it’s not a typical 3D DCC, with everything being about nodes, but it’s definitely not rocket surgery 
. If a studio needed me to, I could learn it just like I learned Blender.
It doesn’t really align with what I’m creating lately, but I would like to use it for destruction effects sometime in the future.
I know it may sound like heretic, but last time I tried something in Houdini I was having an better result with cloth from Blender (in my situation). Also didn’t dive to deep with it cause I got the result I needed in Blender.
You’re talking about the Blender guru tutorial 
I definitely disagree. There are helpful insights
Was his the fire Susan tutorial?
I used to work in a video game company, and clearly the pipeline was flexible enough to allow artists to use whatever tools they wanted to. But that was mainly because the pipeline was really light: You just had to pickup whatever assets you needed on the NAS, do your stuff and export back to the NAS for the UE4-integrator-guy to pickup. That was it. In such pipeline, you can do whatever you want, use any software you like, any script, even make your own. As long as you are efficient and export a valid FBX, nobody cares.
Since then I saw how things are done in bigger companies and in other areas like feature films and series, it is really different. The pipeline is a huge structure set in stone. With entire isolated departments, dozens of different softwares, version controls, RW securities, quality checks, international communications, … And everything you do involves dozens of people, before and after you, and their respective hierarchies.
In such context, you simply CAN’T use your preferred software. Not even scripts. Everything must go through several departments to check if the software or code can do the needed job, is safe for use, will not break anything somewhere else, will not leak sensitive info, is compatible with the pipeline, is maintainable, etc.
If your new tool is approved, a safe checked version is stocked somewhere, you can use only that one. A documentation must be made for everyone to learn, and people must do the actual learning. All this takes hours and hours of Work Time for many people and might negatively impact ProductionS in many departments.
In other words: Nobody will even consider a new tool if he doesn’t represent a clear gain.
I can’t detail because of NDA, but I already know without asking: Blender doesn’t fulfills the core technical needs yet, so it would not be accepted in many big production’s established pipeline.
I work at a studio that has 700-1000 employees. Our game/engine has been in production for 5-10 years, so it’s pretty set in stone, you could say, but they still let us use Blender/etc.
We have to go back to Max like I said, but we can still use Blender/Maya/Max/Zbrush/Mudbox/etc to do our 3D. For the most part, whatever makes our job easier/faster.
I send my Blender geo into 3DS Max and save the working file/submit to P4, but i also upload the blender file and also export/upload FBX for my high/low with Toolbag files/etc, so people have SOME version they can use.
Alot of people use Zbrush for most of their work too.
Edit: But yeah, Naughty Dog or some places are heavily Maya, so not sure about them.
Depends on the company.
This one is at the end of the first video in the making a donut playlist
Yes I guess it depends on how strict the studio is with the pipeline.
Also I think some areas are more flexible, typically in texturing and modeling usually have fewer restrictions as long as it’s a known solution and outputs the desired format. In other departments like animation, crowds, SFX, lighting, that’s another story. I guess it’s the same for devs, source code is the same no matter the text editor/IDE.
ok for your answer, but it’s like, everything is under control and under the surface it’s not.
a new dev around this questions cool.
what simple things? they are so many. modelings tools for instance. and more simple things again, like default settings and keys. since William Reynish, default keys are a total non sense. and people has just accepted that, not easily but accepted.
I select with left clic, unselect with right, and drag box with right too. I use select tool as the default one. and of course, I deactivate click on nothing. if not you are using G to move and if you miss a vertex, hop selection lost. I know some people modeling, they are still under 2.7. but when they are updates, if you are under 2.7, this is not updated well.
so I modify blender default keys, but this is hours and hours.
some menus has been erased but still in blender. as Alt+C, Ctrl+Shift+Alt+C and so on…and in the same time, they told they wanted to reduce the amount of shortcuts…I could find some example entire days, when coding and trying to do own tools. Some things are much better of course…
did you ever tried design spark, a software of 2015 free, this is totally smooth and intuitive around modelling and snapping. with some simple, but super intuitive and efficient tools. and a working plane to change the referential, like in Modo (with much more advanced options).
snap is still waiting for real improvements in Blender…
