Is Blender worth the investment?

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
1

I hope that this isn’t too sensitive a topic, and I really hope that it doesn’t become too controversial. I’m asking this because I am feeling like I’m at a crossroads.

First of all, a little background. I am entering my third year in a five-year BFA program in animation at the University of Montana. We’re just starting to get into Maya and C4D next semester. My career goal is technical art, lighting, shading and VFX (particle system, simulation, etc). I will be seeking an internship with a number of larger studios upon graduation, pending on what my portfolio ends up looking like.

I’ve been using Blender for quite a while, but have only recently been serious about it. I like Blender, it’s a comfortable workspace and the workflow is extremely efficient - even if it’s handling of very large files … well … isn’t. I’ll probably continue to use Blender as modeller, simply because it is just SO efficient. (Though, MODO looks really promising, too)

However, I am starting to question if focusing so much time on Blender is a good idea or not, especially when there is so much to learn in Maya, and because Maya is a required skill-set for so many studios - let alone Houdini, PRMan, Nuke, and all the other tools I feel pressured to learn.

I guess my question is if the tools I am learning in Blender will translate to other applications? If the concepts behind them will apply, especially in the areas of shading and simulation? I can learn a new system easy enough, but learning entirely new concepts is much more difficult. I know I’ll be using less and less Blender as my education continues. But should I write-off blender completely for now and focus instead on Maya?

2

Learn Maya while you are a student. It takes some time to learn a good workflow with a software of that complexity and you probably won’t have much time for that while working.

3

Seems a no brainer to me: NOW you got the possebillity to learn maya / c4d the effordless way possible since they got teached to you and additionally you get a license cheap / for no money. Things wich are harder to archive at later stages.

You can always return to blender later or co-use it with other programs.

Don’t make it a binary choice

4

For modelling, I would continue using Blender. You are already comfortable with the package and I’m sure you can import your models into Maya and C4D with little effort. This way, you don’t have to worry about learning the modelling tools(so much, anyway) in Maya or C4D, allowing you to focus on what you really want to use them for.

Have a word with your program instructor if its okay to add Blender into the program pipeline.

5

More programs is better now you’re a student, and it looks better on your C.V.

Even better, see how far your can push the best of all programs: Modeling in blender, animation in Maya, motiongraphics in CD4, fx in houdini. If your aim is technical art, being able to not just show that you can make good art, but that you can make your tools work together and do your bidding will make for a good portefolio piece :slight_smile:

6

Hello Shawn,

As a interviewer, i will not consider too much of what kind of software you used before, i will be look their result of work.
(I have interviewed many many student and preofressional…)
few thing you have to know :

  1. Which type of industry you going to join? Game? VFX? Feature film? ( i will say maya is feature in this industry, but some studio still working on 3ds Max… )
  2. master one of the program, the theory all the same. (if you are maya user when you using Max you will look for the same feature of maya)
  3. Which carrier you are going for? Animator? 3D artist? FX artist? Compositor?

try to ask those question above i may help you out
Thanks
Cyrus

7

This may not answer your question exactly, but my advice is learn everything you can, whether it be software, technique, theory, etc…

8

I think more than anything I feel so overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I need to learn in order to be competitive. I feel like I have a good foundation, but at the same time I keep seeing these wonder-kids on this forum who are like 14 and are miles ahead of where I am from a technical point of view. I’m 33, so I feel like I’m a bit late in the game, circumstances prevented me from starting “on time” and I’ve been in the graphic arts profession for a number of years. I’m really nervous that I lack the ‘right stuff’ - but then again, I look at the student demo reels over at MPC Acadamy, and start to think “oh, I can start to see myself doing that”.

It’s this total roller coaster of “I’LL NEVER MAKE IT” to “Oh yeah! I’m THE BOMB!” and everything in-between. I’ve been told that this kind of anxiety is pretty typical for someone who sees the “light at the end of the BFA tunnel”.

I’d like to be involved with the higher-end studios, MPC, Sony, Illumination/Universal, Disney/Pixar. I like the idea of working with a large team so I can focus on detailed work. I am interested in motion picture and advertising. I know I have a long way to go, but that is the direction I want to take.

I am interested in VFX, Shading and Lighting as well as compositing. I am not especially good at character animation. I hope that this isn’t going to end up being a career killer for me.

9

Deff. Agree, but there’s only so much time it the day!

10

I´m currently in the process of learning Blender myself for my own personal project, but that´s something I do for myself first and foremost, and not something I expect to make money off.

I´m not a professional, and I´m not people that would interview you for a work, but my answer would be to make sure your learning Blender doesn´t interfere with learning Maya and C4D, if they are going to be the tools you will make a living off of, but do learn features of Blender that will speed up your workflow within a pipeline of tools, for instance modeling and UV-mapping where Blender is traditionally strong.

11

Don’t play favorite when it comes to software. If you have access, use it.

12

Hey Shawn,

Then just master VFX. focus on that and learn everything releted to VFX. But i will say VFX is the harder one to master
So you need to handle those kind of software below :

  • After Effect
  • Nuke
  • Houdini
  • Realflow
  • Maya/3dmax (depend on com[any)

Regards
Cyrus

13

Cool. I’ll have to get Houdini. I’ve been very curious about it. I’ll d/l the Apprentice edition and see if I want to invest in Indie/Engine. My school doesn’t teach it AFAIK, so I’d have to pay for it out of pocket.

ETA - Realflow looks good too. Even if I can’t get my program to support it, the PLE version is very affordable and non-restricted.

14

No joke, your best bet is to switch majors. 3D is an awful industry to be in, especially in the US and it’s only going to get worse. It’s entirely over-saturated, overly outsourced (aka. US studios open up shop in Singapore, China, India and the jobs never come back to the States and the work is imported back tax free) (even though 1/3rd of all major 3D products *movies, *games,are sold in the US). While they aren’t out-sourcing/offshoring the jobs to help lower salaries, they are busy importing and creating H1B visa holders in the US just to do 3D Animation/VFX work. The salary went from $90,000 starting salary circa 1999-2000 and it’s down to $25-40,000 as of right now (and that doesn’t account for the fact that $100 in 1999-2000 was worth more like the equivalent to $150 today), and that’s only if you can find a job (that’s a worse salary than working at UPS btw)-the hours are atrocious and there is no job stability. Get out now. That’s good advice, go switch majors to a career with a future.

Your school is incredibly irresponsible for not bringing this up to you when you were registering, but they are either getting loan $, scholarship $ or cold hard cash, all the same to them at the end of the day.

Further automation (scanning - motion capture) is right around the corner in 3D, honestly, just get out while you can. I’m not telling you to stop doing art/loving 3D, but don’t waste your time/money at school for it, it might be fun, but it’s not going to pay off.

Serious advice aside, Houdini is a bit niche, but ‘traditionally’ if you got good at it, there isn’t a lot of competition for the scattered decent jobs and gigs you could get as a Houdini/FX artist (mostly water, fire, physics stuff and a bit of Rigging/Animation). Maya is still the industry staple, Max would be 2nd (mostly it dominates gaming) and Blender is gaining ground (but commercially it would be unwise currently, to recommend Blender to someone looking to become an employee with their knowledge/training.). The Houdini software is also a bit dated today, their interface is in need of a major overhaul and I don’t think that will happen anytime soon, it’s very clunky when compared to more modern, nodal based systems, but it is the only creature of it’s kind (fully modular 3D workflow/VFX beast).

15

Well, having been in the computer-software field “in general” for … uhh … many decades now :slight_smile: … I might be able to offer a few bits of sage-advice. (Maybe.)

The hardware is already obsolete … no matter what it is … but the goal remains unchanged:
Computers, when I began, were the size of breadboxes, which was quite an advancement over “the size of refrigerators.” Yet, we ran the core business functions of a University using them, and did a damn good job of it. Today, the same University runs the same business functions using altogether different hardware and software … yet, the modus operandi is almost unchanged.

The goal of CG is: “a visualization,” “a game,” “a commercial,” “a movie.” A work product.
… and if the folks who wanted the work done could commission a parakeet to do it, they would. Of course they would. Hardware manufacturers are busy designing new hardware (“GPUs” and the like), even as software developers strive to use the hardware that they have more-efficiently, but they both serve a client who really wants to sell “copies and popcorn.” Remember that.

If you love it, stay in. If you don’t, then you’d be much better off skipping college and driving a truck.
A truck-driver in the USA these days can make $60,000 a year to start, with no student loans. S/he doesn’t even need a college degree. If you want money, drive a truck. But if you are still jazzed at what imagery a digital computer can be coaxed to produce, and at what can be done with those images … stay in. (Or, as in my case, if you are still jazzed by the fact that silicon chips can be coaxed to do useful things for human beings … if you still l-o-v-e to do it (feel free, “call me crazy”) … stay in.

16

One thing good to remember if you play with Blender, you can learn big boys stuff at the same time with it: external render engines.

17

If you think the only use of 3D computer graphics is in the various segments of the entertainment industry, you’re thinking too narrowly. 3D, in and of itself, is not an industry.

18

In your situation, yes, absolutely learn Maya. Blender will always be here. Well we like to think it will. But the thing is if you are studying to get into the industry in the areas you have mentioned, you’ll need to learn the apps that are being used.

Yes many of the skills you learn with translate. But to get a job you need to hit the ground running with the software they expect you to know. You’ll get a 3 year free license of any of the Autodesk apps. And now is the time to take advantage of that.

At any point in the future you can use Blender. Keep up with it on the side. And many things you learn in Maya will transfer back the other way too.

But in general, now. Focus on tools you will need to get work at a studio or other business that uses the “mainstream” tools.

And yes. This will be a highly controversial thread.

But focus on your goals. That is what is important.

19

And yes. This will be a highly controversial thread.

Well, until the first ‘Well, blender is not good enough for proffesional work’, or ‘Hey, why isn’t blender used in the industry more’ falls, it won’t be. Noone here is telling him not to go for the oppertunity to learn the other packages, after all.

But maybe can we all agree that the controversial statements are offtopic(because it actually has nothing to do with whether he, as an aspiring proffesional, should learn Maya) and call a mod to stop it?

20

One can dream :wink: