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This is beautiful. Despite what critics say about Blender3D, I am constantly amazed at what can be done with this piece of open source software. The learning

This is beautiful. Despite what critics say about Blender3D, I am constantly amazed at what can be done with this piece of open source software. The learning curve can be more difficult at the beginning but it is one of those systems where once I get used to the commands, I can express myself efficiently in the rich UI environment it offers.

astrodust 10y ago
The learning curve is difficult in any 3D application and Blender is no exception. It's challenging to learn, but a very capable application in the right hands. I don't get the hate for Blender. It can use RenderMan, it supports Python scripting. It's just different from what people are used to.
- pfranz 10y ago
  I haven't really seen the hate for Blender--just indifference. I can see dissuading someone from investing time in learning Blender if they want to work in the commercial VFX/Animation industry because it's just not used.
  - buovjaga 10y ago
    It is used by some studios (and other companies) and they are investing back: https://opensource.com/article/16/11/blender-enthusiasts-gather-15th-annual-conference https://opensource.com/article/16/11/blender-enthusiasts-gat... "For the next year at least, Blender is going to have 10 additional full-time paid developers. Some of those developers will be paid by the Blender Foundation or Blender Institute, sponsored with contributions from AMD, Aleph Objects, and the Nimble Collective. More importantly, developers are being hired by production studios that use Blender, such as Tangent Animation and MAD Entertainment. These developers work on Blender for in-house productions, but their changes get submitted as patches for the version of Blender that we all get to use. This is a far more sustainable development model than sponsored grants and has been incredibly successful in other open source communities. It's only now starting to catch on in the realm of open source creative tools."
    - Ericson2314 10y ago
      Wow, real investment desktop free software for advanced users. I don't even use blender and I'm thrilled.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  > It's just different from what people are used to. It's probably just this. You have the same with Vim and Emacs, and tiling window managers - they're different from what people are commonly used to, therefore hated. Even though the paradigms employed in those applications make you many times more efficient in using them. It seems that a lot of people - even many professionals - have allergy for learning. They feel they've learned enough when they first discovered how to operate computer (yes, every single one of us had to learn that at some point), and they hate being forced to learn further, regardless of how much benefits it brings.
  - Pica_soO 10y ago
    That allergy is called limited time. You might bump into it, once you venture outside of university/ rich daddys attic. Every time somebody reinvents the wheel, to save a click- and breaks my workflow, that might seem very reasonable for those who either have lots of money/time - and or already did that investment. Well, i dont, i have things to create, places to be. If you re-invent a scissor, that only trained experts can use, because its basically two razor-blades taped to the thumb and forefinger- you accomplished all you have dreamed off. You reduced weight, you allowed for more precise use - and the likes of me will still call you out for missing the obvious. PS: The Miyazaki tribute is absolutely gorgeous. Im not trying to claim, that blender cant be a excellent tool once you have sunken the cost. Its just that retraining for absolutely no reason..
    - TeMPOraL 10y ago
      > That allergy is called limited time. You might bump into it, once you venture outside of university/ rich daddys attic. That may be one of the causes, but the allergy I talk about is internalized myopia. Time is limited, yes, but it's worth to sacrifice some of it for learning in order to significantly improve your efficiency at using the rest of the time. > If you re-invent a scissor, that only trained experts can use, because its basically two razor-blades taped to the thumb and forefinger- you accomplished all you have dreamed off. You reduced weight, you allowed for more precise use - and the likes of me will still call you out for missing the obvious. And I'll still be calling you misguided, if such scissors after few days of training will allow those "trained experts" to outperform regular scissor-wielders by factor of 2. Or even factor of 1.2 - it'll pay for itself pretty quickly. This approach that every tool should be made for the lowest common denominator, so that people can master them in 5 seconds of use, is IMO stupid. I understand that software designed by that may sell better, but for the tools professionals choose themselves - do people really think they've learned everything humans can learn the moment they leave high school?
jordache 10y ago
i wonder if blender is the gimp equivalent in the 3d world.. gimp is just horrible.
- yoklov 10y ago
  If Photoshop was Maya, Blender would be much better than GIMP. IMO Blender is still worse than Maya (but not by that much), although Maya is also substantially worse than Photoshop -- to make a bit of an apples to oranges comparison.
  - jordache 10y ago
    I have been out of the 3D scene for a while now.. I remember Maya was the knees bees, on par with Softimage.. Is it no longer the case?
    - geoka9 10y ago
      Maya has always been the gold standard for animation. Modeling, not so much. Softimage has been discontinued by Autodesk. After all we've seen from Autodesk (buying out and discontinuing the competition and forcing the customers to migrate to subscription licenses) I think it's unwise to ignore Blender if you are serious about 3D.
      - jordache 10y ago
        Oh man it's discontinued!? http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/53bca41869bedd8b0d0082ca-1427-989/jurassic-park-softimage.png http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/53bca41869bedd8b0d0... Who else used to get a hard-on from seeing the footage of jurassic park animations in Softimage? I remember building up a machine with a Glint card back in the late 90s just to be able to fire up Softimage..

astrodust 10y ago

The learning curve is difficult in any 3D application and Blender is no exception. It's challenging to learn, but a very capable application in the right hands. I don't get the hate for Blender. It can use RenderMan, it supports Python scripting. It's just different from what people are used to.

pfranz 10y ago
I haven't really seen the hate for Blender--just indifference. I can see dissuading someone from investing time in learning Blender if they want to work in the commercial VFX/Animation industry because it's just not used.
- buovjaga 10y ago
  It is used by some studios (and other companies) and they are investing back: https://opensource.com/article/16/11/blender-enthusiasts-gather-15th-annual-conference https://opensource.com/article/16/11/blender-enthusiasts-gat... "For the next year at least, Blender is going to have 10 additional full-time paid developers. Some of those developers will be paid by the Blender Foundation or Blender Institute, sponsored with contributions from AMD, Aleph Objects, and the Nimble Collective. More importantly, developers are being hired by production studios that use Blender, such as Tangent Animation and MAD Entertainment. These developers work on Blender for in-house productions, but their changes get submitted as patches for the version of Blender that we all get to use. This is a far more sustainable development model than sponsored grants and has been incredibly successful in other open source communities. It's only now starting to catch on in the realm of open source creative tools."
  - Ericson2314 10y ago
    Wow, real investment desktop free software for advanced users. I don't even use blender and I'm thrilled.
TeMPOraL 10y ago
> It's just different from what people are used to. It's probably just this. You have the same with Vim and Emacs, and tiling window managers - they're different from what people are commonly used to, therefore hated. Even though the paradigms employed in those applications make you many times more efficient in using them. It seems that a lot of people - even many professionals - have allergy for learning. They feel they've learned enough when they first discovered how to operate computer (yes, every single one of us had to learn that at some point), and they hate being forced to learn further, regardless of how much benefits it brings.
- Pica_soO 10y ago
  That allergy is called limited time. You might bump into it, once you venture outside of university/ rich daddys attic. Every time somebody reinvents the wheel, to save a click- and breaks my workflow, that might seem very reasonable for those who either have lots of money/time - and or already did that investment. Well, i dont, i have things to create, places to be. If you re-invent a scissor, that only trained experts can use, because its basically two razor-blades taped to the thumb and forefinger- you accomplished all you have dreamed off. You reduced weight, you allowed for more precise use - and the likes of me will still call you out for missing the obvious. PS: The Miyazaki tribute is absolutely gorgeous. Im not trying to claim, that blender cant be a excellent tool once you have sunken the cost. Its just that retraining for absolutely no reason..
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    > That allergy is called limited time. You might bump into it, once you venture outside of university/ rich daddys attic. That may be one of the causes, but the allergy I talk about is internalized myopia. Time is limited, yes, but it's worth to sacrifice some of it for learning in order to significantly improve your efficiency at using the rest of the time. > If you re-invent a scissor, that only trained experts can use, because its basically two razor-blades taped to the thumb and forefinger- you accomplished all you have dreamed off. You reduced weight, you allowed for more precise use - and the likes of me will still call you out for missing the obvious. And I'll still be calling you misguided, if such scissors after few days of training will allow those "trained experts" to outperform regular scissor-wielders by factor of 2. Or even factor of 1.2 - it'll pay for itself pretty quickly. This approach that every tool should be made for the lowest common denominator, so that people can master them in 5 seconds of use, is IMO stupid. I understand that software designed by that may sell better, but for the tools professionals choose themselves - do people really think they've learned everything humans can learn the moment they leave high school?

jordache 10y ago

i wonder if blender is the gimp equivalent in the 3d world.. gimp is just horrible.

yoklov 10y ago
If Photoshop was Maya, Blender would be much better than GIMP. IMO Blender is still worse than Maya (but not by that much), although Maya is also substantially worse than Photoshop -- to make a bit of an apples to oranges comparison.
- jordache 10y ago
  I have been out of the 3D scene for a while now.. I remember Maya was the knees bees, on par with Softimage.. Is it no longer the case?
  - geoka9 10y ago
    Maya has always been the gold standard for animation. Modeling, not so much. Softimage has been discontinued by Autodesk. After all we've seen from Autodesk (buying out and discontinuing the competition and forcing the customers to migrate to subscription licenses) I think it's unwise to ignore Blender if you are serious about 3D.
    - jordache 10y ago
      Oh man it's discontinued!? http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/53bca41869bedd8b0d0082ca-1427-989/jurassic-park-softimage.png http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/53bca41869bedd8b0d0... Who else used to get a hard-on from seeing the footage of jurassic park animations in Softimage? I remember building up a machine with a Glint card back in the late 90s just to be able to fire up Softimage..