CG Community Survey
The 2009 CG Community Survey at the CGenie website has some very interesting results regarding Blender and its comparison to other 3D software packages and communities.
The survey covers statistics taken from 2022 responses, covering the following popular 3D programs:
- Blender
- 3Ds Max
- Maya
- Houdini
- XSI
- Cinema4D
- Modo
- Lightwave
The results are quite interesting! The whole article is a worthwhile read, check it out at this page.
Fantastic results!! Congratulations Blender Community! :)
Congrats to all of us , we are Blender !!!!
Congrats to all of us ! we are blender !!!!
Victory! Blender FOREVER!
I knew Blender was amazing software, but I didn’t realise QUITE how good it was! Just look at those sour comments about Maya!
+++ BLENDER LEADS THE WAY +++
I don’t like this review. It seems very much focused on commercial software. Blender is only mentioned in passing.
It’s funny, look at all the negative and derogatory comments about maya and Max, but then look at the percentage of users they have! Based on the comments along, one would think that everyone uses Houdini and Blender!
look at these:
“Maya: I’m forced to use this software to make a living but I resent it every minute.”
“3ds Max: I spent too much time learning this software to completely shift but the software has a high number of problems (with simple scenes) and they don\’t add the features that people request. Instead they add stuff they “think” people want. Look at Rhino for a program that really works the way its customers want.”
their summary says that Houdini and Blender lead the way, both deserve it i think. Go Blender!
I, too, am forced to use Maya for class and I resent it every minute.
This review is less about actual comparison between the applications and more about the users’ attitudes towards them. Everybody loves blender, so it’s no wonder that it comes out on top.
Hopefully this will wake up Autodesk a bit – competition is definitely a healthy thing. Maya 7.0 drove me nuts, and that’s why I’m a Blender user!
Its funny Z-brush wasn’t on there…
I’m sure these results will bring some more users into the Blender camp, and may even make some companies take a good long look at our favorite piece of software!
frequency of upgrades = Houdini…..??????
I don’t think so! People need to educate themselves….seriously. I guess the blender user still wins in the end.
That’s awesome. It’s worth noting that I’m going to resent to death any piece of software that ties me to a sucky operating system.. If Autodesk treats 3dsmax like they treat autocad, screw it.
And that’s just a snapshot of Blender right now. The scores were pretty amazing. I checked out Houdini for LInux and the base package is $1600 U.S. For that much money, I can build a 4-way render farm with new hardware, and use Blender, GIMP, DrQueue, MakeHuman, (soon to be *seriously* upgraded) , and Verse for free. Finally, Blender is the 3d app of choice for computer science guys who write next-gen code. Check out the touch-screen stuff being done in Helsinki.
I use Blender and Maya.
Although it might not be completely fair on the other applications. The results are not level — they only got about 100 blender users versus around 850 3ds Max users.
The “support” question kind of surprised me, considering the other companies have full-fledged support programs for studios (which I think might be a big issue for studios adopting blender).
Wow. Just wow.
I can only imagine how the 2010 update of this report will look, after the world has seen Blender 2.5.
MD
Hmm… pretty interesting stuff.
This survey seemed a bit selective, it was all about updates and support. Not really a general CG survey. What about things like satisfaction with modeling tools, rendering, UV mapping, etc?
But it was still a fantastic survey, I really liked seeing it. Well laid-out, nice looking, and easy to understand.
And I was shocked at how good a rating Blender got. I wonder who took this survey? Was it predominantly Blender users?
Well, results certainly looked awesome! “I am a big fan of the company that makes this software.” – that was definitely a spot Blender excels at :-)
Thanks to the guy who made the survey, those who took it, and AD-Edge for posting!
Throughout this survey, it seems that the most satisfied people are using the least common pieces of software.
In the “overall” section, the top programs are Blender, Houdini, Modo and C4D, which are only used by 18% of total users.
Although I’m very satisfied with Blender, I can’t help myself from thinking that if it was (when it be…) “the” industry standard, many artists would be angry with it. Artists are very strange people.
Coolness. :) Nice article, good job on the post thumbnail, Alex. :D Cheers!
And the forecast for next update is a nice calm afternoon of Blender with a great chance for pwn.
I have spent quite some time re-learning Max and I have to say that compared to Blender, every action takes at least two more mouse clicks… If you take this to the typical work day it is pretty obvious that workflow in Blender is much more efficient… ’nuff said!
If studios just spent the money they used to purchase 3D software, for tutorials and development for blender…. that would probably fuel a development storm that the 3D software industry has never seen before. Autodesk and other competitors would see the rapid increase of features and usability of blender(freeware) therefore they would be forced to be worth the money spent on them to stay the industry standard. Blender will eventually win because of the open source effect where as a greater support grows… the amount of devs grows.
It may even be intelligent for those that don’t even use blender at the moment to donate to the foundation to fuel competition for other commercial packages so quality goes up and prices come down as a whole
If blender devs work for free and develop awesome things… think of what they could do full-time :D
@RH2
“If blender devs work for free and develop awesome things… think of what they could do full-time”
Any full time job is a job and therefore a burden. People tend to be more ambitious about hobbies and things they do in there free time. Things they decide how, when and in what depth they do. I don’t know if this is true for the blender developers in particular.
Well their awesome anyway :D
The silver lining is that in this economic crisis, opensource software will prove more popular for obvious reasons. And Blender stands alone in the CG category.
I knew it yet, and now I saw I’m not alone : Blender rules.
I hope more and more studios will use it in the next years.
Its why I continually use blender over every other 3d app around! Blender is unique, and its why Ton is my hero. No other F/OSS app has this level of support and function.
Yippe Yipppe ye ye
Blender Blender Rule Rule
There should be a competition where the contestants can only use a certain 3D app for a still or animation… It would be interesting to see which app is capable of turning out the best results.
Yeah, this is quite a neat review. Autodesk is definitely on a rather stagnant development path right now. Although I don’t want to be anti-blender here, I like the new CORE system that came out with Lightwave.
I also think Modo is pretty neat too (from the little I’ve seen of it)
Definitely like Blender though
I’ll have to show this to all the poor Maya students in the lab… :(
Dont Under stimate the power of Blender!
Pa_Furijaz
Blender é illimitato…….
Looks like many people have software they dont like , except for Blender users… well if you look at the results and the “software covered”.
I just love blender and I can wait the photon future :D
Blender rules the World!
that was a great news for the Blender Community! congratulations Blender.
Well ofc it would turn out like that, I didn’t exepct anything less from blender :D
I’m glad I play Blender class. Autodesk can’t nerf me!
Sweet, another boost for Blender, although I shouldn’t be surprised :D.
What DID surprise me was that Houdini came pretty close, I always thought Maya was the best.
You know, I do have to hand it to Houdini. I can’t expect them to be free like Blender, but they have both a free version that’s watermarked and a $99 non-watermarked version for “personal projects and learning.” That seems very oddly accessible, considering how most software has more expensive educational versions where you’re flat out of luck if you’re not in university, if you want to be legit.
It’s a tortoise and the hare situation. Autodesk/3ds/maya got arrogant and decided since people “had” to use their software they would neglect their product and userbase. As a result, others, such as Blender, are catching up fast. The real difference, I believe will be when blender gets popular enough to gain the lead. Unlike Autodesk, there is no profit motive, and thus no reason to neglect the userbase (since the userbase itself is what drives Blender’s development). IMO, once Blender takes the lead, it’ll stay there.
It’s odd. 3DS Max and Maya are used by the majority, but rank lower in user satisfaction. It looks like the situation is starting to change.
It’s great to see how people is waking up to the fact that there are alternatives like Blender and other commercial packages that have a fair deal with their users and provide good value for the money, technical feedback and community.
I really have hope to see the day when the old “if you want to be in the industry you have to use this” argument will be no more. :-)