Nice to see more professional commercial projects picking up Blender. It helps to see what are the things missing or suboptimal for "expert" users of the system.
Blender and OBS Studio are very good examples of FOSS software that are the best at what they do and can easily offer competition to even the commercial alternatives.
Most of all their design and UI language is consistent - something very rarely seen in FOSS software.
And they have incredible depth of features 90% of which are overkill for the casual user but the experts sure do appreciate them.
And the best part is the well-thought of extensibility and API story. Both of them have a very good community of plugins and extensions which add very useful features without feeling out of place.
I first learned 3D graphics on Lightwave 3D on Commodore Amiga ages ago, and since then have tried many other 3D applications, many of which (like Lightwave) cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
True Fact: Blender beats every single one of them hands down in every way that I can think of. :)
Blender has become so awesome in the latest versions. I think switching from other software is quite easy, even if some things work differently. It also has an industry standard preset for hotkeys...
I use it as an amateur, but there are really good tutorials that allow you to render high quality scenes in a day or two.
I use the occasional 3D model on a website, and the pipeline from our industry CAD software to the web with an short detour through Blender works flawlessly.
I have one big problem with Blender, and that's all the upgrades its been through.
As a result when you're trying to figure out how to do something you can't just google a youtube video because inevitably it'll be of a different version. So you'll see a guy telling you, "now click the little x button" etc.
Of course in your updated version the x button has long since been replaced by something else.
Blender has gone from being a tool professionals scoffed at to one that professionals are stressing over themselves to learn by binging tutorials. It is quite the sight, I remember in 2008 wanting to get into game development and being poopooed on forums from picking up blender and instead pirating maya instead. I obviously dropped the idea completely because of it.
Idk, I think there might be a larger lesson somewhere in there but regardless it's amazing to see the shift that has occurred.
Blender is a very good piece of software. The main problem I usually have with it is finding documentation. Although the official documentation is fairly good, Blender is a huge program, and it can be hard to find the info you need. Also the documentation is not always up-to-date.
If you're talking about the actual documentation as opposed to the API documentation, then I beg to differ. The Blender documentation is fairly up-to date with each release (stable) and in some cases even the alpha ones.
On the other hand, I found the API documentation to be lacking and I had to visit the Blender stack exchange multiple times to see any examples or the usage of most of the APIs.
Blender documentation is more useful once you know Blender well enough to even know what to look for, but in all honesty I've found that it's far more effective to just search your Blender question on YouTube and watch a video from BlenderGuru or CG Cookie or one of the many other fantastic tutorial creators out there. :)
Ditto. I use Blender at an amateur level from time to time and I feel that every time I want to do something that i know is possible and I look it up, the official documentation mentions menus or UI items that don't exist anymore so I have to figure it out myself.
It wasn't clear from the article whether or not the released their Shot Manger plugin as FOSS or kept it an internal tool. I found a plugin called "Shot Manager" but it seems to have been authored by an unrelated Australian company (although some of the features sound very similar).
I am not saying they are obligated to release their custom tools. It would just be very interesting if they did. I am not in this space at all other than my kids are learning Blender and love it.
Tangent:
Completely unrelated to this, I am truly hoping that a large company takes interest in KiCAD and helps push development to the "production ready" stage that Blender seems to have achieved. The EDA market is in serious need of a solid FOSS tool that isn't driven by the latest shinny thing companies go after.
To be clear, KiCAD is absolutely fantastic and I am looking forward to version 6.0. We are planning on migrating our work from Altium Designer to KiCAD, likely starting around the end of this year. I'm sick and tired of what has been happening with Altium and the other tools are just as bad or worse.
And something suitable for (non-EDA) CAD would be great. KiCad's surface area is small enough that its rough edges can be worked around. FreeCad's isn't.
An example of what a single person can achieve in Blender - the work of Ian Hubert. This is a split-screen comparison of a green screen shoot and the final video rendered using Blender. Seriously impressive:
I use blender and the blender python API to automatically generate 3D models from my customers engraving images.
It’s a great piece of software. Highly capable and the scripting interface is great. You can pop up a window that shows the python command for every action you are doing in the GUInso it’s easy to automate anything you can do manually.
One of the biggest problems I have with professional software (eg. Bitwig, Ableton Live, Sony Vegas) is that I lose interest in learning how they work after the initial learning curve. All of those programs have a featureset that can be fully explored and understood in a few weeks, or perhaps months for the more complicated stuff.
I have been using Blender for 6 years, and still have seen less than half of the features. It's not for lack of searching, but Blender's density is hugely under-appreciated in the industry. If you're a creative or artist in any capacity, Blender has features that you can take advantage of right away.
Familiar with NLEs? Hop into the video splicer and play around!
Comfortable mesh editing? Stay in the modelling view!
Wanna get your hands dirty? Sculpting is just a tab away!
Perhaps the most impressive part of Blender is that it's provided for free, in a tiny download, with a deeply caring userbase that maintains it. Here's to another decade of Blender releases!
This production on Blender was a great experience for us. We were able to integrate the application into our in-house pipeline and connect it to the other applications quite easily thanks to the strength of the Python API. In spite of some features that would need some maturity we had the confirmation that Blender is production ready and comes with tools that can really push up our way of working in terms of creativity.
Their comment just prior about what they saw as a lack of guides for workflows in a studio environment is worth noting, too, as they felt that could be expanded upon for helping Blender reach more. Though frankly the article isn't that long a read anyway.
Blender is insanely great, and honestly one of the best fully open source software projects out there. The only thing I wish from it is Apple M1 support. Personally, I’m just not sure I’m going to own a big desktop computer with an Nvidia gpu ever again.
It looks like M1 support was added in 2.93, released last month. It's not super-clear from the release notes (in fact, it's not explicitly mentioned at all), but the requirements are listed as requiring "macOS Version 10.13 or newer for Intel processors on supported hardware. Version 11.0 for Arm-based processors (Apple Silicon)." You can download binaries for "Apple Silicon" as well.
This would be a lot easier if MacOS supported a graphics API other than Metal. As it stands, I doubt many people are excited to reverse-engineer a nigh-undocumented iGPU to patch in support for features that it's overarching API doesn't support in the first place (eg. true RT, proper SIMD optimizations, etc.)
> This episode is named Rabbids Invasion: Mission to Mars and it will be released at the end of the summer on France Television and on Netflix worldwide in 2022
3-6 months between releases? I get that it's a licensing issue - France Television probably knows more people will watch it on Netflix than on their own network - but this is just asking for piracy.
It's entirely possible that the slowness is on Netflix's end, especially if they're doing the English dub themselves. They frequently take 6+ months to release English versions of anime they license.
[+] [-] hashhar|4 years ago|reply
Blender and OBS Studio are very good examples of FOSS software that are the best at what they do and can easily offer competition to even the commercial alternatives.
Most of all their design and UI language is consistent - something very rarely seen in FOSS software.
And they have incredible depth of features 90% of which are overkill for the casual user but the experts sure do appreciate them.
And the best part is the well-thought of extensibility and API story. Both of them have a very good community of plugins and extensions which add very useful features without feeling out of place.
[+] [-] blooalien|4 years ago|reply
True Fact: Blender beats every single one of them hands down in every way that I can think of. :)
[+] [-] raxxorrax|4 years ago|reply
I use it as an amateur, but there are really good tutorials that allow you to render high quality scenes in a day or two.
I use the occasional 3D model on a website, and the pipeline from our industry CAD software to the web with an short detour through Blender works flawlessly.
[+] [-] animal531|4 years ago|reply
As a result when you're trying to figure out how to do something you can't just google a youtube video because inevitably it'll be of a different version. So you'll see a guy telling you, "now click the little x button" etc.
Of course in your updated version the x button has long since been replaced by something else.
[+] [-] noobermin|4 years ago|reply
Idk, I think there might be a larger lesson somewhere in there but regardless it's amazing to see the shift that has occurred.
[+] [-] a1371|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aliasEli|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stoicjumbotron|4 years ago|reply
On the other hand, I found the API documentation to be lacking and I had to visit the Blender stack exchange multiple times to see any examples or the usage of most of the APIs.
[+] [-] mkl95|4 years ago|reply
Personally I usually end up using Youtube when I need to do something with Blender.
[+] [-] blooalien|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] prox|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] valine|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] whatever_dude|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robomartin|4 years ago|reply
I am not saying they are obligated to release their custom tools. It would just be very interesting if they did. I am not in this space at all other than my kids are learning Blender and love it.
Tangent: Completely unrelated to this, I am truly hoping that a large company takes interest in KiCAD and helps push development to the "production ready" stage that Blender seems to have achieved. The EDA market is in serious need of a solid FOSS tool that isn't driven by the latest shinny thing companies go after.
To be clear, KiCAD is absolutely fantastic and I am looking forward to version 6.0. We are planning on migrating our work from Altium Designer to KiCAD, likely starting around the end of this year. I'm sick and tired of what has been happening with Altium and the other tools are just as bad or worse.
[+] [-] the__alchemist|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] open-source-ux|4 years ago|reply
VFX Breakdown - Dynamo Dream Teaser:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFJ_THGj72U
If you prefer watching the teaser in full screen, it's here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG31WSioSxk
[+] [-] chrisseaton|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] doctoboggan|4 years ago|reply
I use blender and the blender python API to automatically generate 3D models from my customers engraving images.
It’s a great piece of software. Highly capable and the scripting interface is great. You can pop up a window that shows the python command for every action you are doing in the GUInso it’s easy to automate anything you can do manually.
[+] [-] syntaxing|4 years ago|reply
Also, can you point me towards how to see the python command for everything you do in the GUI?
[+] [-] 2fast4you|4 years ago|reply
Did you look at tools like OpenSCAD before choosing Blender?
[+] [-] smoldesu|4 years ago|reply
I have been using Blender for 6 years, and still have seen less than half of the features. It's not for lack of searching, but Blender's density is hugely under-appreciated in the industry. If you're a creative or artist in any capacity, Blender has features that you can take advantage of right away.
Familiar with NLEs? Hop into the video splicer and play around!
Comfortable mesh editing? Stay in the modelling view!
Wanna get your hands dirty? Sculpting is just a tab away!
Perhaps the most impressive part of Blender is that it's provided for free, in a tiny download, with a deeply caring userbase that maintains it. Here's to another decade of Blender releases!
[+] [-] mkr-hn|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chacha2|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marcodiego|4 years ago|reply
Conclusion
This production on Blender was a great experience for us. We were able to integrate the application into our in-house pipeline and connect it to the other applications quite easily thanks to the strength of the Python API. In spite of some features that would need some maturity we had the confirmation that Blender is production ready and comes with tools that can really push up our way of working in terms of creativity.
[+] [-] Springtime|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adammenges|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arp242|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smoldesu|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] slezyr|4 years ago|reply
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/cycles/gpu_...
[+] [-] TheNewAndy|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lvl100|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] comfyinnernet|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Popegaf|4 years ago|reply
> This episode is named Rabbids Invasion: Mission to Mars and it will be released at the end of the summer on France Television and on Netflix worldwide in 2022
3-6 months between releases? I get that it's a licensing issue - France Television probably knows more people will watch it on Netflix than on their own network - but this is just asking for piracy.
[+] [-] opencl|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Zababa|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] smoldesu|4 years ago|reply
If you're desperate enough for entertainment to pirate the... checks notes Rabbids Invasion: Mission to Mars special, I think you deserve to watch it.