Autodesk has been listening to feedback lately. They opened a special section of the website for it and keep welcoming everyone to submit to it.
Blurymind: They opened that years ago. They’ve been implementing some of it, but far too slowly for my liking.
And still, Max 2009 is the fastest and stablest version. That’s software from early 2008.
Maya has great updates and I am a long time Maya. But to honestly break it down Blender is a great tool and almost surprising when you jump in and see what it has to offer.
Whats holding Blender back from professionals is there is no real marketing voice and focus. Blender has enough to wow many pro users but the problem is Blender’s marketing campaign is not very strong. To over come this Blender foundation should not do there own marketing anymore and hire a firm or specialist to pinpoint only the strong points of blender and getting it into the heart of the masses.
The specialist will also have to limit the amount or type of work that can easily be seen when typing blender in the search engine. No offense though the software is capable of doing great things there are a lot of bad artwork out there that represents Blender as only a hobbyist tool. You and any sites that represent Blender have to be mindful of the brand and not let just anything come through as a top piece. Doing this will make Blender look like the tool itself only produce good work and will also force its users to make better work as well by giving them a benchmark to reach.
Also you need the specialist to focus in and find what makes Blender great and get professional video editors and graphic artist to emphasize those qualities through strategic video demos that only focus on those key features like the ones on the first page and also have them clearly visible on Blenders main site not to mention constantly updating your key demo reels. The Bifrost demo I think was great, but a good example of this working is the Foundry’s push for Modo. Specific renders all beautifully rendered, edited and straight to the point.
I took some classes on this and have been on the other side of the spectrum as a Maya pro and whenever I saw something on Blender I literally skipped it. It just did not look like it was worth my time. One day I had some time to try it out and was amazed by it and have kept on with it. Blender has plenty of capability and in my opinion only needs more procedural animation tools, but that doesn’t stop them from looking professional. Remember perception is everything and when professional artist and programmers notice the tool they will add more to it.
OUTKKAST are you sure you aren’t an Andrew Price avatar? 
I’m working in a animated film company. We’re using Maya for the 3D and Nuke for the compositing.
Maya is a great tool, everyone will agree I suppose, that’s not the point. But I was wondering something because we’re using a lot a in-house tools or other plugins for Maya. For example, the fur is made with Yeti (it’s not from Autodesk), the rendering is done in Arnold (not Maya either), even the light linking is not the one of Maya but a script done by one of the TD. The scene creation and the way to manage the assets is done with in-house software. And a lot of other stuff, I don’t know how everything works.
What I mean is that Maya is the main software used but we don’t use it so much in the way that it’s more like a big container.
I think the strength of Maya is not Maya in itself (the specific features) but what you can do with the software. I’m sure if all the TD’s of our company make usefull tools for Blender (or any other 3d software), would make Blender a very competitive software.
That’s just my opinion, maybe I’m wrong. Maya’s new features are cool but I’m not sure if one of them will be used out of the box.
I strongly quote what you said. I also work in a studio where we use maya, and the only nice things I find about maya are the in house tools.
And, as I said before, I also believe that with the proper “make up” blender could easily fill any gap could still be there with soft such as maya.
Hi ,
I’m a new blender user (coming from maya), if i can give my advice , bring alembic cache format in blender will make a lot of Pro more interested in it.
A lot of us use multiple softwares , using alembic to "exchange " between softwares
Hahhahahaha! @ 3pointEdit. No I swear this is pure OUTKKAST. I share some of his views and have had similar bouts in proving that Blender was more than capable of the tasks. In digital tutors I have been on the forums trying to get answers on why will they not add Blender Tutorials. There answer was that there are not enough professional users or users in general and that it was not used in productions.
That was upsetting to me that Autodesk saturated so much of the industry, but then as people spoke on different forums I realized that there was a fundamental problem of awareness. People kept saying things like the program is confusing, its a hobbyist tool, its just a starter program and then you need to move on to the big boys like Autodesk to get a real job or to make anything that looks good. Just needs better marketing and I think Project Gooseberry may add to this.
Actually, those people were right. It is a chicken and egg thing. If you watch or read the making off, sometimes effect are distributed among many vfx houses. To be compatible, you need to follow the established ones - therefore AD products. Also I think most Digital Tutor customer are large companies that purchase for their employees - and they due to business reason uses AD product. And when it come to plug-ins, the same problem too. For example Vue only support the main app (maya, max etc) and vue was important scenery tool.
It’s not about awareness, its about lock in, and the fact it has been used for years. Just ask any IT person in banking about COBOL and AS-400.
THIS.
Remember reyes plug-ins? Its cool stuff like that that force people to use software that actually support them. When I was studying college more than 14 years ago (hence Reyes plug in reference) the availability of plug-in is more important than the software. Automatic lip syncing, cartoon render, etc saves time and help create business. Sadly, I never started my own vfx company and it stay a weekend hobby. But that’s the point. more plugins for maya, people buy maya. more people buy maya, more plug-ins for maya.
@fablefox- I understand Digital Tutors position and do not question them. Just know that if professionals are not using this program it is because they fill it is not useable or second rate. Which after switching from Maya I have seen the opposite, the program is very capable and is growing everyday. Digital tutors and other education institutions serve as a source of marketing and awareness themselves and that’s why I even brought it up.
I have to disagree Awareness and Marketing is everything. You will not sell anything without it. What do you mean by AD Products? If you mean ADs of your products then that is the samething as marketing and awareness. If you mean ADD products then whats the point if no one knows you even have them. To be honest with you Blender has enough in addons to already compete. You can have all the plugins in the world but if people don’t know who you are or what you can do for them then no one will use or buy it. It’s Business 101, Care for your Brand and let your market know you exist and are worthy.
-When you think of buying a drawing tablet do you say any pen tablet will do.
-I need some really good running shoes, I am going to payless or the fleamarket to get a no name brand
-I need a graphics card so that I can do pro 3d work. Maybe I should find a no name card or just pick anything other than Nvidia or AMD
People buy what they know or have seen to be proven or stable.
On another note, for the showreels I think blender has so much to show that they would do better to separate their demoreel into chunks. For instance A modeling reel, vfx, animation etc… to show the features of the tools and even some cool visuals. It is more consumable that way. Autodesk and the Foundry do a good job of this.
Also the cool toys/pluggins typically are funded (not free) so they have good publicity and exciting demo art. This drives customers and awareness. Which in turn sends people to the supported 3D app. Blender has some really exceptional talent but far fewer than those bigger established companies. Who uses them (the studios and) hundreds of art school grads falling over themselves to be seen.
I use Blender exclusively but used Maya as well. On the surface they might look similar - when however you get deeper into details you will see where Blender lacks a lot compared to Maya. This ranges from plug-ins to practical power to simply the texturing and render engine options Maya has.
But well Maya has different resources to use Blender does not and not everybody really also needs Maya.
I am very fine with Blender and I use it for professional design work.
You cannot stress enough the plugin issue.
Look at SketchUp: by itself it is an underpowered modeler without any real rendering capability and a very limited tool set. But with the hundreds of actively maintained plugins army that surrounds it it is a juggernaut which is the industry standard in the architectural field and in other fields (e.g. woodworking).
Come on, Blender 2.70 has zBrush-like scuplting… and not even a basic greeble plugin!
Damn that GUI is really ugly. That video does show why I dont’t prefer nodes to coding, what a mess. Viewport , I try to be impressed but I can’t. Unreal 4 demos are far more impressive.
But you got me curious, I will give Maya a serious try.
I am not saying that blender is more powerful. But for the price Maya is asking, not impressed at all.
PS: I am downloading Maya, trial, seems it still offers Maya 2014 , looks like 2015 is not officially released yet.
Yeah I still use Maya at times, but don’t be fooled Maya has its downfalls aswell. Not until 2013 and 2014 releases have they started making drastic improvements to functionality and features. The modeling workflow I think is better in Blender but Maya has cleaned that up recently. Also Autodesk consumes so as they are getting rid of XSI I am sure you will see more of those features being implemented.
The best move Autodesk made for maya as far as plugins go is allowing for the use of python in there scripting language. Before this they never had this many plugins being made although mel scripting was very good, but your right. They have money, a great looking and functional interface and commercial 3rd party support. Unless Blender can seduce professional Artist and professional developers to give it a try then we may never see the full potential of blender.
Blender has everything it needs to compete but with out major industry or major productions it will be hard to pin point what is lacking the most. I will say though it is easy for us to judge, but Lately for the past 2 years I have seen Blender in magazines and on many professional 3d sites when good features or tutorials are released and they had a good reception at Siggraph. I also find that less of my peers cringe when they hear Blender and start to ask more questions, so something is at-least happening out there
We should not forget why Maya became as popular it did even from the first version was the number 1 3d app out there. Features, tons of them, and well integrated. Even though it was the most expensive 3d app, people bought it because it was that good. Autodesk knew it could not compete with that, this is why they made an offer that Alias could not refuse.
Maya success is an undisputed example that if you make a great application people will buy it.
But agree that blender does not need to be the best of the best, its already free , costs nothing , that means its accessible to anyone. So blender is already at a very good position. And it does not have to compete with Maya, or 3ds max or whatever. If it gets the job done, if its useful people will use it.
Blender is already very useful, and I think its great that we see how Maya improves to be an inspiration for blender improvement. But in the end of the day, blender is a great application too, does not offer as much as Maya does, but then does not cost 4000 . Its free and it can be used for making great graphics without big compromises.
The only way you can seduce artists is keep improving and I know blender will continue doing that.
If anyone has any impressive viewport demos for Maya , please do post them, I love real time rendering.
This is a misconception about being free outweighing being solid/featureful/robust/well supported.
Sure, ~$4200 price tag is heavy, but it well worth it for a business that brings money.
Currently I am in a predicament where I need Python coder to update/improve my production add-on, and I can not find a single one. Paid, not free. Last year I had a need in Python coder, and I sent requests to a few reputable studios who advertise that they provide solutions for Blender users. The price tag they put on improving existing add-on was such as I could simply buy MAX or Maya and that would solve all of my troubles (except I would have to learn Maya or brush up on MAX).
Sometimes I wish Blender cost $400 - $1000, or had a subscription, and provided quality support and services regardless of what next open movie is aiming for.
Actually there is a lot with Maya that is outdated or annoying. Take a look at how outdated and feature lacking the NURBS tools are.
But interface good or bad at the end the functionality is what people click to and Maya is extremely capable to be adjusted and massaged into your needed workflow.
When I worked with the Maya modeler I felt it was pretty awesome - today I feel Blender is much quicker at that.
While I must say the options the node editor for materials gives you is still somewhat more advanced.
But I feel Blender arrives at a point now where it serves many average needs very well.
I’m not denying what your saying here, because Blender has a lot of holes that can be debilitating when your in production. However, the thing that always frustrates me is how people will overlook blender because it’s not capable of doing everything that maya, Max, Mudbox, ZBrush, Mari and Nuke can do COMBINED! Talk about being set up to fail…
I do agree that $3500 is not a large price to pay for tools that work, but the grass is not always greener on the other side, regardless of price. You will pay $3500, and then realize that your chosen app will be missing some important production feature and then you will have to buy Max, or Houdini to fill that void. Or pays developer vast sums of money to custom write a tool for you.
There is a reason almost NO vfx houses only use ONE tool. There’s a reason why alembic and opensubdiv have generated so much excitement in the vfx community.
Blender can’t do it all. But neither can anyone else. The best way to approach blender is to look at it’s toolset and see what tools you want to use for your production and integrate it into the rest of your arsenal.
We are a Maya house that uses blender to fill in a lot of the holes that riddle maya. Why is it so bad for things to be the other way around?