Oliver Villar [Oliver Villar] - Learning Blender: A Hands-On Guide to Creating 3D Animated Character= s, Second Edition

Blender is OSS that provides one of the most complete 3D-graphics creation suites. It includes tools for modeling, texturing, shading, rigging, animation, compositing, rendering, video editing, interactive content creation (Game Engine), and more. Since the development of version 2.50, which introduced a completely new user interface (UI), Blenders user base has grown significantly, and more professionals have started using it. It has reached animation studios and has been used for some purposes in top movie productions such as Life of Pi, Spider-Man 2, and Red Riding Hood, and in 2016, it was used to animate and compose a creature in Warcraft.

Its principal target audience is professional, freelance 3D artists and small studios, and Blender works very well for their needs. It still isnt widely used by big studios for several reasons. Larger studios typically have long-established software, and the commercial software they use often has impressive third-party plug-ins that have been developed over years for specific uses in production. Blender is still growing and lacks a lot of third-party support, but despite being relatively new to the professional landscape (initially, it was used mainly by hobbyists), it is overcoming those problems, and big productions have begun to use it for processes such as modeling and UV unwrappingtwo areas in which Blender is particularly efficient.

Blender is known for being very different from other software, and thats why some people are hesitant to use it (although, as mentioned before, things have been vastly improved since version 2.50). It doesnt follow a lot of the same standards that other 3D software has been using for decades, and this is usually an issue for new users. Thats also the charm of Blender; once you experience it, it is very possible that youll love it because it is so different! Initially, you may find that a lot of features and techniques are difficult to understand, but once you learn the basics, it begins to seem very intuitive and sensible.

Blender, because it is open-source, doesnt need to sell licenses, so it can bypass the way other software works and go for something new and unique. In the words of Ton Roosendaal (Blender Foundations chairman and the creator of Blender), I would never look up to average; I want to lift up the average. Its not following conventions, its following a vision.

Blenders development is funded primarily through voluntary donations from users. This should give you an idea of how a lot of people find it so useful that they donate to its continued development even when they can use it for free. This can be difficult to understand for people who use only commercial software, but its something you often find with OSS: People are more willing to contribute voluntarily because its free.

Popular OSS such as Blender can have lots of contributors and grow quite fast. This is very good for users because they get new features and tools periodically. It has a down side, though: Its difficult to stay abreast of everything new and be aware of updates to the latest versions. Also, instructional material has a short lifespan. Although this material can be used for years because general features and workflow remain the same, some options, buttons, icons, and tools will be replaced, improved, changed, or removed.