Quicklinks – Blender in the Media
Here’s our regular overview of Blender in the printed media. This time we have en editorial comment in a British magazine, a very cool looking tutorial in a Chinese mag and appearances in German, Italian and American magazines.
A slightly less inspiring piece of press coverage in Feb 2007’s issue of Digit magazine (UK) – the editor’s reply to why they didn’t cover Blender in a 3D suite roundup:
“While Blender is a top-notch suite for enthusiasts and creatives whose main job isn’t on professional 3D, it’s not a tool for the majority of professional 3D artists – as 3DS Max, Cinema 4D, LightWave, Maya and Softimage|XSI are. Our feature was focused on tools for 3D pros, who require features, plug-ins, collaborative tools and a level of support only found in these commercial applications.”
Don’t worry – I did write a reply.
Alessandro Ardolino wrote:
Since number 52 (august/september 2006) the popular Italian CG magazine “Computer Grafica Tecniche & Applicazioni” – CGT&A – has a fixed Blender section. Now is out the number 54 with a preview of Blender 2.43.
tonkv wrote:
An Blender article written by deathblood appeared in the Chinese magazine CGWorld. Here are some scans.
Joe Schrand wrote:
Home Theater Magazine has published an article in their April edition entitled “Through the Roof!” The article mainly focuses on the build of the theater, audio isolation, etc. However it also features a blender render done by Render Reality, LLC, mentioning how the room was conceptualized in 3D before the build. The image was modeled and rendered with Blender. This is the render shown in the magazine.
Several other views of the room were rendered as well as the lobby of the room. Some of these other renders can be seen in the gallery on www.renderreality.com. Images of the theater can be seen here.
LayBack wrote:
I just read an article in the german Linux Magazin 05/07. It is about Maya 8.5
compared to Blender. Most of the text is about the simulation features of Maya
(Cloth, Hair, Fur, Water, Fire/Smoke).The issue is available on the 5th of April. Have a look here.
The first one kinda makes me mad.
@Chit
Oh well his loss when he wastes thousands of dollars on buying max =P
@cubedude04
righty right!
I am sure, this guy doesn’t know about ther real power of blender!
Skip the bla,bla,bla!
Blender have show all it capability what it do and it very simple to use.
I had done beautiful work for a none profit Spanish newspaper.
Blender is being recognize by the professional artists! for example
pepe animation school. Just because something come in life for free doesn’t
mean it cheap!Bla,Bla,Blaaa!
I think that the author in the UK magazine did not even run blender. He doesn’t know what he is loosing. Greetings for all blender fans and users :)
Ps: I would like to read the reply :)
@ Cubedude04
I don’t think he has ever used Blender. :(
@ Chit
I think that guy does not get it. Its not the 3d tool that makes you a pro. Its the level of knowledge you have.
It is kind of funny, in the 3D world, free things are still seen by many people as not trustworthy. Many magazines and sites simply disregard them and prefer to show great faith in the big “saint” programs like max, maya, etc… The same politics as Microsoft does with linux, more or less. Don’t you think it is a bit “dangerous” to be so conservative when you see how thing are evolving today?
i dont think he even knows its open source :D (it is, right? lol)
kinda like my friends and “GIMP”. they think just because its free and open source, its not as superior as photoshop.
@ Yorik
Exactly. :)
@ Tikki
Ditto LOL!!
People think programs like max and maya are better just because they are being charged for it and there for it must be good. Sooner or later people need to learn that the power of a program shouldn’t be judged by its sticker price. Plug-ins and features? Don’t worry the blender community is sailing its ship at a steady rate toward putting maya, 3ds max and other non open source software out of business!
The cover of that particular issue of Digit was created… in blender.
See this previous blendernation article, re: pokedstudio?
digit 3d magazine is behind the times tsk tsk
I’m always amazed to see how infuriated people can become when people write something negative about Blender. In this case, an editor writes:
“Our feature was focused on tools for 3D pros, who require features, plug-ins, collaborative tools and a level of support only found in these commercial applications.”
Any chance that he could be right on some points and that we could learn something here? I am tempted to contact this guy and ask him to elaborate on this and see how we can use his insights to our advantage. At this moment I’m reluctant to do so though because I don’t want to see such a post being flamed down.
Here’s a thought: the better and more mature Blender becomes, the more often it will be included in reviews such as these and the more often we WILL receive criticism. Sometimes these comments will be wrong, sometimes they’ll be correct. Sometimes they’ll be from people who don’t know what they’re talking about, and sometimes they’ll be from industry professionals. I think that the trick is to assess the value of these comments and decide if we as a community should act on them (in several ways: do we need better code, documentation or maybe better ways of spreading the word?). Just dismissing them straight away without any further thought might throw away some great opportunities to improve Blender.
Wow, it feels good to rant every now and then ;-)
@Bart, good point. Why do a lot of the pros choose programs like maya or 3ds max? Is it because the company they work for has been using it for a long time? (Like Pixar) Or do they have other reasons. Or does it just need time? Maybe an interview with some pro that uses 3ds max or maya would be nice. I mean what can other programs do that blender can’t? What are blenders weaknesses and what are its strengths? And what are the things that would make people choose other programs over blender? I’ll find out as soon as I can get this page to load: http://wiki.cgsociety.org/index.php/Comparison_of_3d_tools
Criticism is more useful than praise.
It would be excellent to actually get an extremely in-depth review on Blender from someone who test such programs for a living. Whats it advantages & disadvantages what made the interface easy to pick up and what was very difficult to find in the interface. Performance wise how well does it cope under strain.
You know a very hard hitting review that leaves no stone untouched.
It’s great to hear praise but that doesn’t improve a program, yet criticism does. :)
I think when people try to pin Blender down as not being a professional tool they forget that 3D graphic renderings, though reaching ever more levels of realistic looks, are becoming less popular because they are infecting more and more parts of the motion graphics/TV and film industries. In order to make things interesting, people need to look outside of even the “cutting edge” of technology if they want to be on the “bleeding edge” of it. Blender, by not being such a jerky community about what’s important and what’s not to the program’s features ends up being the best choice for you and me.
Maya, and 3DS MAX, and all the rest are very similar in their force to be in the spotlight, and grows into softness to the users.
Blender is like Tai Chi. It begins with softness, and grows into force.
Issue 90 and 91 of 3DWorld magazine will carry blender material – two q+a/tutorial things- the one in 90 is a half page one, but the one in 91 will be the main full length one, with lotsa steps and pictures. I’ve also noticed more cgtalkers recommending blender to new users, etc.
Damn. Who dared to say that blender is not a professional 3D tool.
Chinese picture is so simple, and it doesnt show any wonderful feature of blender.
Damn yellow press
As for the reason why people use certain programs, I think a lot of it has to do with reputation. If you want to work in Hollywood, you “learn Maya.” Working in news, I’ve noticed that a lot of people use Cinema 4D.
Surprisingly (for me, at least), many of these people I’ve run into that use these programs aren’t the world’s most computer literate, so they wouldn’t necessarily think to try and use any other program than what they’ve been told to use.
Blender users, it seems, tend to be more “bleeding edge.” They’re more comfortable with experimenting…and that’s a great thing. It’s us early adopters that are bold enough to try and set a new trend, and if Blender is as great as we think it is, other people will find out someday.
But, certainly, don’t expect the more expensive 3D programs to sit back idly and just let Blender take over. They have a fairly lucrative business model to protect. I mean, if someone is willing to fork over $8000 for Maya Unlimited, Autodesk is certainly not going to let people switch to Blender without a fight.
On the other hand, programs like Maya are great for a reason and there’s probably still much that Blender can learn from them, like Bart stated. The roadmap to Blender 2.50 sounds like it’s going in the right direction, though.
“Blender, by not being such a jerky community about what’s important and what’s not to the program’s features ends up being the best choice for you and me.”
I dunno, I think there have been a few examples of jerky community in these comments alone.
If you want a honest review of Blender strenghts and weakness, by someone that has extensive experiencie and “live 3d”, I guesss, that the best choice is that guy from Pepeland.com
You’ll have the right and humble answer – with the talent of that guy, he could leave Spain long time ago. That means something…
In the german linux magazine it was critizised that there would be no complete and up-to-date documentation – which is obviously wrong.
I’ve already written a letter to the editor and they will print it in the next magazine.
Regards
i totally agree with the opinions on the upper part…
the first one definately doesn´t know the power and about the features of blender!