Blender may be one of the most successful and best run Artistic/Media projects in Open Source.<p>It manages to pack a lot of power in a very small package. And the Open Movie/Open Game projects help to drive the direction of the Application with concrete goals. Personally I think it's one of the media production suites out there for the hobbyist. The power + price (free) can't be beat for the non-professional.
I used to work for Hollywood visual effects. Over the span of many years I have tried almost all the software out there and I find Blender very powerful but my personal favorite is a software named Houdini* (not free but you do get apprentice version).
The core methodology Houdini is built on is for creating procedural systems for everything which i think is of more relevance for this community.
Do check it out, I am sure members of this community can put it to use for the things not even their creators would have imagined.<p>*<a href="http://www.sidefx.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.sidefx.com/</a>
Feel free to downvote me but the title is quite misleading as I was expecting a developer introduction to 3D to be heavier on code and show what's behind the hood.<p>For example, the tutorial starts by creating box, I'd love see the equivalent using code. Same goes for adding vertices, moving vertices.<p>Cheers!
With all the complaints with Blenders UI I've never understood why more people haven't developed plugins that offer a UI alternative. I wanted a simpler UI for Maya so I wrote my own : <a href="https://github.com/shawnfratis/Scrimshaw-MEL-Mini-GUI-for-Maya" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/shawnfratis/Scrimshaw-MEL-Mini-GUI-for-Ma...</a> . It's not perfect but it works for my uses. I'd think a program as open as Blender would lend itself to something like that.
...Blender it is for adult people<p>I do not care to be difficult or easy. If I like, I learn. I do not stop interface.<p>I like many programming interfaces, but I'm especially grateful to Blender.<p>- It is a program made by 3D artists for 3D artists.
- It is totally dynamic.
- I've got a steady flow of work.
- (Shorcuts) memory exercises. At 36 he is appreciated.
- It is a professional program.
- To use it you have to think. If not, use c4d, max, maya, blah, blah.
- Jump from 3ds max Blender is not fair. Blender is vulgarly stable.<p>It had been years since I felt emotion, learning a program.<p>Blender can improve. I hope he does. It is on track.
Lots of talk about modeling in this thread - how's Blender for other applications these days?<p>In particular, how's its animation capability (both UI and features-wise)? Does it have decent importers and exporters for industry-standard formats (I'm thinking FBX and Alembic)? Can it handle mocap data well? Does it have any 3D paint / texturing tools yet?<p>I'd love to move away from Autodesk if it's possible!