I was watching the Blender confrence video and two talkers discused how they started using Blender. I thought it was interesting and I thought it would be cool to talk more about it here.
Blender 2.40 I started using Blender becuse I needed fluid animation for a shot, and Lightwave did not have what I needed. After that I started using it more and more, until it was all I used.
I think there will be alot of others who have a similar story/start version, as the fluid system was at the time only available to the big studios and Blender essentially brought it to the masses and then made it a stadard feature of major packages.
Around 2.43 I think - I was working in web development and needed to animate/render a 3D logo for a client. I didn’t really touch it again until I saw Big Buck Bunny and I was like “Wait, you can do that with that free little program I popped out a logo in?” It was like 10MB download, and it launched faster than notepad - without knowing much about it you expect it to have a featureset along the lines of Wings3D, not the entire 3D pipeline.
also around 2.4x whatever version was 2 years ago in november.
I started using it because i had a hobby of creating things in 3d max, after taking an animation course at school. One day one of my friends found out my secret OBSESSION (it is an obsession, trust me) with animation and told me about blender. that night, i downloaded blender and started trying to use it.
Now i use blender every day, from the time i get off work, to the time that i go to bed, its all i do(i get off around 10 each night, and stay up til 2 or 3) I love blender, and I love using it. Thanks for the great tool Ton, and thanks for the thousands of useful tuts community
I started using blender because it provided (almost) everything that is needed to develop a game. In addition, very few pieces of software have a build-in game engine. I first started using blender after a friend recommended it.
Blender 2.55 Alpha. I wanted to make aircraft models to use with FS2004 so I got 2.49 and ran away because the interface was so tricky. I eventually tried the 2.5 alpha, liked it, and here I am!
I’ve always been curious about 3d animations and vfx. I learned about blender from my 2d animation teacher. When I heard it was free I was like it must be crap but what do I have to lose. from the day I downloaded blender I’ve been using it everyday. Thank you to all the people who made blender what it is today.
I started in 2007, I can’t remember which build was available at the time though, I started because I was curious about cgi after watching I don’t know how many making of’s of big budget films and a modeling video from the game “Paraworld” finally pushed me to try and learn.
Since I had no access to any 3d program, I was initially going to buy lightwave (which would have been very pricey) until a friend called me “crazy” (and he was right) and told me about Blender 3d, once I started using blender, I never felt the need to use any other 3d program.
The 2.5 update was probably the best thing to happen to Blender, sure it was VERY unstable at first (the crashes were so annoying I stayed in 2.49 until 2.55 came out) but it introduced key customization, add-ons, smoke and most importantly a SEARCH tool (I would be so lost if it wasn’t for this brilliant tool).
Blender is an awesome program and deserves more recognition.
Never noticed, but then I have just got here so I probably missed it anyway.
I have always liked the idea of making 3D images and Blender always appealed to me because it has so many features . I must say,though, that the first version I downloaded was 2.49 and I just hated the UI so I uninstalled it. I tried it twice and got rid of it twice!
But then I read in a computer mag that Blender had been updated and had been given a completely new UI so as soon as I got home I downloaded it to try it out and have not looked back. It was at version 2.57 at the time.
Well done to all the developers for the update, and thanks very much.
Around 2.43 I think - I was working in web development and needed to animate/render a 3D logo for a client. I didn’t really touch it again until I saw Big Buck Bunny and I was like “Wait, you can do that with that free little program I popped out a logo in?” It was like 10MB download, and it launched faster than notepad - without knowing much about it you expect it to have a featureset along the lines of Wings3D, not the entire 3D pipeline.
From version 2.34… in 2007 I used it for modelling only… I was working primarely in 3ds max and Cinema 4d, but for personal projects used blender more and more. Now in 80% of situations blender is my main tool
I’ve been using Blender since v.2.2x, early 2000s (01 or 02) when it was still closed source, and owned by NotANumber. I’d already been doing 3D for a good 6 years or so, and had used Max, Lightwave, Truespace, Alias/Wavefront and then Maya; as well as most of the other free offerings such as POVRay, etc … I was absolutely AMAZED that such a feature-packed program fit on a 3.5" floppy (1.4 megs I think?) and ran so quickly and cleanly.
I never looked back … tho I have mostly given up on animation and moved on to still images for art prints.
I was very sad when NaN closed down, and Blender seemingly disappeared. and then THRILLED when the Blender Foundation started up and Blender became open source, with no need to pay to unlock the more advanced features, and the development has been SPEEDY ever since then. Fastest dev cycle of any software I’ve seen or used.
Beautiful. Just Beautiful!!!
So a MASSIVE thanks to the Blender Foundation, and NaN for developing Blender in the first place!! KUDOS!!!
I started using Blender as it is free, 3D modeling software as we all know is costly and Blender give anyone looking to enter into the field the ability to do so, the only hindrance that I saw was the lack of organized training courses. This however has greatly changed, the explosion of Blender training that is now available make Blender an very simple choice for anyone coming into the field.
I was introduced to blender around version 2.48; it was not until version 2.53 or 2.54 that blender has been an integral part of my workflow.
I had an early version of Blender in my Mac for a long time, it might’ve been 2.3, don’t know. However, I started working seriously with it around mid-2008. What version was it back then? Can’t remember…
As for the why, to make car models for racing games, why else?
What Version:
2.57, I was looking for VooDoo (a motion tracker on youtube) and I accidentally came across Blender, downloaded it, and never stopped using it (I have never motion tracked, I only make games). The reason I was searching for VooDoo? I was making movies with VFX and it sounded cool :P. Why?:
It was kind-of an accident, I learnt you could make games (on BlenderCookie) and then I made a few, Now I’m still making them roughly 6 months later (Check my sig for more.)
I’ve been using Blender since 2.49b, i came across it because i want to make a computer game and i don’t want to pay so much for a 3D-Visualization Program to make the 3D-Models for my Game with the UDK Game Engine.
(Sorry, my English isn’t very well, I try to improve my language skills)
i was actually looking forward to a game making tool too.
i first used visual basic, then switched to game maker. Later i got the 2.43 version and was stuck for a long time.
Then found out that it can make games as well. so i use blender and it’s free too :D.
I searched for a tool to do 3D-animation and because Povray looked very mathematical with it’s output pictures, Blender was much more appealing. Had a bit of trouble with it first, but after the juicy Blender tutorials I ordered the 1.8 manual and everything was fine.
And YES, I loved the original NaN user interface. Somehow this interface was in tune with what I found usable, very unlike most interfaces. And partly unlike the 2.6 interface. Good old times.
(Check my sig for more.)