The benefits to Blender and community are obvious:

1. Comparison on tools between Blender and Maya

- think of this as another Blender project – but how can we learn from Maya's toolset and workflow using the same assets etc?

2. Promotion of Blender

- to artists using other tools – some will be likely to pick up Blender on the side and use for other projects – both personal and commerical;

3. Blender's Diplomatic Goodwill

- it doesn't hurt to become the friendly, neutral, stable 'nation'/application amongst many rival commercial tools – let's act diplomatically and let them enjoy our gift! (As long as attribution and Creative Commons are obeyed. Hence why it's good to have a community appointed Blender Diplomat for this sort of thing/relationship/cross-application project….whatever.)

Be smart to argue over how to maximise aims like the ones I've suggested above.

They would take everyone forward.

I hope the unnecessary arguments eg app wars, are over.

Just to throw this out there, I was a 3DS Max user; shelled out a good deal of change for the perpetual academic license which I still have but don'e use anymore in preference of blender.

One of the main reasons I but switched to blender was that it's development has been tremendous in the last few years and I feel much better about putting my money towards a community effort by supporting projects like Peach and Apricot instead of paying huge dollars to upgrade my version of 3DS Max every year to get new features.

I'd also like to say that not all the people at Autodesk are evil greedy bastards.

Years back I was looking for an animated short called The Cathedral and couldn't find it anywhere but some renders where on a 3DS max brochure and so I e-mailed Autodesk. 2days later I had a copy at my home. One of the guys at Autodesk burned me a copy and send to priority mail. He did not have to do that and I've talked with a couple of 3DS Max trainers as well and they seen like very nice people.

As has been pointed out before, software alone does not make you a great artists. And as most artists will tell you, they look for inspiration everywhere and anywhere and don't ignore it just because it was made with x or y. Art should be enjoyed and it should be fun to create. I guess I'm ranting now. I'll just end by saying I love blender and the community behind it and I can't wait to pre-order Durian!

Chill out you sound like you have an inferiority complex, If they think that they are better because of a program they use, then they are dumbasses and not worth caring about :). I however doubt they are thinking that. If they did they'd make their own content and announce how much better than bbb it is.

So far as maya being sub standard i dont think downloading a crack and deciding its crap after 2 days of frustration count as useful experience, anyone who uses maya for an extended period of time will realise just how powerfull it is, it may not be totally user friendly but then neither is blender. You need to get into the correct mind set with both of these apps.

I said that Maya is pathetic software because of my experience with it, and in some ways this project sounds (it just sounds like that and isn't true) like Maya users wants to prove that they are better but they must face it, there are better solutions by these days.

Anyway, this is very interesting, this is a lousy project and the authors are putting them self in a position where they can slip and fall or make huge glory.

I wish them to not fail their goals, don't surrender for pressure because there will be huge one, Never stop believing in what you do and be yourself.

I don't think that was the theme of the movie… If you recall, the big bunny beats up and tortures all the rodents. It's more a tit-for-tat theme, I would say. And in that sense I'd say people are following the theme of the movie pretty well, which is very unfortunate.

However, even though I don't agree with the few upset people, I can at least see where they're coming from. For a long time Blender has been shunned as a mere hobbiest app. So the Open Movie projects (BBB included) are more than just movies to the Blender community: they represent Blender itself, and serve as validation that it *is* a worthwhile and capable tool. In that way ED and BBB are downright iconic to much of the community. So when a sequel is created in another app, it sort of tarnishes that. The characters and setting no longer "belong" to Blender, so to speak.

And to be honest, I feel a little bit of that too. But I also recognize that the point of the movie was to be open, and not just to the blender community.

And regarding tools being just tools: from a purely practical non-emotional standpoint, sure. I totally agree.
However, I feel an emotional attachment to the small family-run bakery down the street, whereas I feel no such attachment to Safeway. Sure, it's "just" a store, and it's "just" bread, but that ignores the human element.
I'll always want to support the family-run bakery more than I'll want to support any nation-wide grocery chain. Even if the bread isn't as good.

I'm not suggesting that this human element is absent in all commercial 3D offerings. But when you see how people in the Blender community not only participate in and track Blender's development, but actually know the developers and interact with them, it's easy to see why people get so attached to Blender. And this is something that actually pre-dates Blender being open source: there has always been very little business/customer separation. It's all just people interacting and getting to know each other, and doing cool stuff. And people get attached to that. And I think that attachment is totally valid.

Ah, I've written too much already. I guess all I'm trying to say is that there really can be a lot more to a tool than just being a tool.