http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7QiiFiAj5k&feature=youtu.be
Here's an overview of some Blender work that made it into the popular Mythbusters TV series!
Dave Timperley writes:
A bit of a Blender spotting. I worked on the Mythbusters TV show for six months and managed to squeeze a bit o Blender into the show.
Thanks.
Dave T
I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Head of Community at Sketchfab.
24 Comments
Awesome watch this show all the Time. oh and first
Haha, two things I really like!
whoa, i remember watching some of these shows and wondering if it would be hard to do it in blender.
Its possible, i guess :)
Nice. I love that show.
"managed to squeeze a bit o Blender into the show"
would be cool to know what was done in blender exactly?
Press play on the video to find out.
LoL...
I'll bet there are still people who look at it and say it wouldn't be good enough for "legitimately professional work"... as if a basic-cable show still wasn't enough.
I think when they say professional they mean for theater movies. I sure hope Project London makes it big.
My 3D anim. teacher keeps saying: "show me somewhere where Blender was used extensively."
and "oh, yeah, so all these professionals are using a $5,000 program when a free program is just as good?"
I think Blender is good enough, it just is not as popular-yet.
No offense, but I would say that your teacher is a douche when he judges Blender based on that only instead of take a close look what Blender actually is capable of.
It is funny. I know a lot Autodesk User who tried Blender extensively and loved it. The people who think Blender is just crap never tried it or they looked into it for 5 minutes and closed it because it doesn't work as their software.
They persuade themselves repeatedly that Blender must be crap since they paid ten thousands of dollars for Maya/Max, Realflow, FumeFX, Nuke, etc. while Blender is a tiny free programm :)
I'm actually having the exact opposite problem, where in the world of 3D(jobs), you need experience with Autodesk or another one of the big ones. I'm used to blender and it's awesomeness, so it's hard to go to one that does basically the same thing(sometimes more, sometimes less functions), with the exception that its $5k more.
Same here, I work professionally with Blender and earn my keep (and have done so for years). Our company finally got the dough to pay for "professional" software, and we went with 3dstudio max.
Blargh...still crashes, still buggy, still not very good. And I used to use 3dstudio max before I started with blender years ago, now I've used blender for years and been away from 3dstudio max for a long time, and we were to use 3dstudio max again, and I started using it.... blargh...puke...more bad words etc...
After 20 days I couldn't stand it (and I am VERY fast when it comes to 3d software as I've been into 3D for over 12 years), so take it from me....you're not missing out.
Extensive use example: All Ott Planetarium productions since 2006. We use Blender exclusively (and we're starting to get good at it). :)
I think the single biggest obstacle for users of commercial software is the whole "select with RMB" thing. More than one person I know has flipped out over that.
Then I just tell them they can easily change it in user prefs. And they say, "oh."
I use Blender professionally ( I convinced the studio where I work to switch from Maya to Blender for animation, and now rigging is so much simpler), but out of the box Maya, Max, etc... well they are better and more rounded packs with more features and reasonable renderers. Even though I hate Mental Ray it is still a viable work horse of many industries. Things like Vector displacement with division only at render time is super nice.
Problem is that most of that stuff is used at a very high level and at that high a level most vanilla program's features are not used. ILM does not use Maya in a conventional sense. Nor Pixar. They all mod the crap out of their software to the point where sometimes you can't recognize it, because it does things that out of the box software can't. Porting all of those scripts and plugins would cost those companies WAY more then paying for Houdini or Maya or Max. That is why you don't see Blender used more in huge productions.
The roll of Blender, I think, will stay in TV productions for a while longer. Blender, like Lightwave and Cinema 4D, is FAST at doing what it does and for TV you don't need as many new features. Those are the pieces of software that I think need to be most scared now and not Autodesk ones..... Yet.
I meant if it was used for everything showed there or only a part, e.g. modeling/animation.
I hope the piercing in the tongue of the lady is also a product of Blender.
Really nice work.
Could you please put together a tutoria?
Think about that...
The animating textures build would probably have been nice back then.
I think people don't give enough credit to software like Maya. It has "alot" of features. Lot's of features that save lots of time.
Maya, 3dstudio Max, Blender...they all have a lot of various features, it's all up to you what to enjoy, if a particular program works for you, good for you - enjoy it, and let others enjoy theirs as well. You never know...people switch from one program to the other all the time, I do to...as I work with 2D & 3D for a living, most of my life.
The interesting thing is, I don't love Blender because it's free - I love Blender because of the community, coders and innovative minds alike, and it happens to be a very useful tool, just like the other tools available on the marked, it has it's place on my toolbench.
Of course Maya has a lot features. Some are really neat stuff like Paint Effects. And it is still more advanced than Blender in some areas. No doubt. But Blender is almost there. And for some parts Blender has already more/better features. Stuff which you have to pay extra if you own Maya. It is not just the exorbitant price tag which let me stay away from Autodesk stuff. It is the greed of that company itself. Their aggressive behavior on this particular market. They bought any major competition...Did you know that Autodesk constantly spy out your computer if you installed their products? Yes they do! Did you ever read their Licence Agreement from the beginning to the end? You should.Besides that, Maya and especially 3DsMax are not really stable. At least not as stable as I would expect from a $3500 software.
And I agree with Krusty here. Blender has a awesome community, with a lots free resources and open minded and talented people.
One day, I will donate as much as Maya costs. That's for sure :)
The real point is not that if Blender be actually better than 3ds/Maya or whatever. This is a matter of taste.
When you enter a production pipeline, though, chances are you are requested to use the software shared in the firm, and this is 90% of cases Autodesk stuff. Moreover, Autodesk file formats are proprietary and you cannot open them in Blender (or LW, or Modo), and not every art director feels happy dealing with .obj or .fbx.
Add to all this that Vray (for 3ds or Maya!) is commonly judged to be the best guy render around.
I use Blender for all my personal work and I am perfectly comfortable with it, but when I collaborate I rarely can avoid to use my knowledge of 3ds/Maya/Vray/Mental.
Maybe the shortages of current times will have at least one positive effect: make the people at the head of production lines realize that Blender can actually replace any 3D software, and at better advantage at that.
@krusty42 I share your feeling about Blender, and subscribe your last paragraph word by word.