Did you ever get a CG job based on your Blender expertise only?

Did you ever apply and get a CG related job (especially in animation studios) with a good resume/portfolio but including only Blender based work, even though the job requirements are experience in commercial softwares?

I am curious about it because several job openings I’ve seen require experience on commercial software (Maya, 3ds Max and Z-Brush, to cite a few). But I believe that mastering CG is about mastering CG, and not just mastering a software.

I also understand that there is some circular breeding in the industry, with companies requiring expertise in a specific software and animation schools teaching that software for the students to enter the industry (and, of course, the software developers wanting both sides to pay for their software).

Never got a studio job, but I have earned some freelance work with my portfolio.

Not a studio job, but I did get a paid gig teaching kids how to use Blender.

Maybe not just because of Blender, but a lot of the work I’ve gotten has been due to people being impressed with work that was done in Blender (in addition to more mainstream packages). I don’t think most people who would be hiring a 3D artist care one way or another what software you’re using as long as you can deliver results.

I’ve gotten several projects specifically for Blender work. Mostly modeling and animation. One of my biggest gigs was for animation that needed to be done specifically in Blender because of a unique export script that had been written for Blender. It definitely happens, and it’s happening more and more from what I can see.

-David

I do architectural visualisation in Blender and people usually don’t even know what blender is. But they don’t care because I am freelancer. If I would like to work in an archivis studio they would want me to use 3ds.

Yeah. With freelancing I don’t think there will be an issue. The client wants just an image or movie file. But in production studios they will have their own pipeline and use specific software for each step of it.

Thank you for sharing your experience guys!

If you apply for the position, will the studio accept you and allow you a certain time to learn its software? Of course, there is no single answer to this. One studio may say yes, another may say no. Maybe your reel/portfolio is really good such that they may consider you and require you to train in their software ASAP. They cannot waste time (which means a lot of money for the studio) with someone that cannot use their tools, but these skills are transferable as long as the professional is willing to learn different softwares. I am just hoping that they also have a bit of the philosophy that it is about mastering the art of CG more than a specific software.

At the same time, I also think that if you really want to apply for a job in which they specifically require experience in a software, you should know a bit of that software so that you can tell then that you can use it (even if its just a trial version if you cannot afford to pay for it).