Is blender Good Enough if its free

[@flavio8430]

Started my recurring donation to Blender last month. Never felt so happy. Donating brings far more joy than buying.

[@blendereverything]

it feels amazing, i dont do the recurring one but just every few month

[@elizabethkirby1782]

This is interesting info (& motivating me to donate). Also, I love the eye candy

[@venkatk1921]

I agree with your perspective on Blender addons. As an addon developer (If I were an addon developer), I would pledge to donate at least 20% of my profits from Blender because it's fair to give back when earning through the platform.

[@blendereverything]

Thank u, it should be a symbiotic relationship, u scratch my back I scratch urs

[@CGDive]

"addon developers are probably earning more than the Blender developers". Lol, I think Ton suggested something to that effect. If we change that to "a handful of top addon developers...", it may be true. But the average addon dev probably earns from pizza money up to a minimal wage.

[@blendereverything]

but there like about 10 blender developers, vs more than 100 addon developers making good money

[@benveasey7474]

I agree with your Blender addons perspective. I disagree with Blender's upcoming competitors. IMO in the world of Archviz, having the ability to walk around a design is a huge bonus. For the next few years I would say that Unreal is Blender's main challenge (especially when it is bolstered with Twinmotion and Reality Capture). Beyond that, it seems like AIs that can add detail to a basic model/video are going to be a problem for Blender (and the other DCCs). If Blender begins to lose users due to Game Engines offering modeling, then will it be able to continue?

[@blendereverything]

I don't think blender is going to loose users to game engines any time soon, unreal engine forexample is bloated with alot of stuff that u need to wait like 5mins for it to start, and everything is just too many steps to do somethjng

[@benveasey7474]

@@blendereverything Until it comes to rendering of course! The rumor is that in about 2 releases they are believe that the animation will be as good as the DCCs...

[@kimberlyjacobsen4148]

Is air any good if it’s free?!

[@blendereverything]

i think you miss the point, the choice of software you use can break or make your carreer, there countless stories where artists picked up a program as there main app only for it to be discontinued, not saying this could happen to blender but remember wings 3d, modo, realflow the list goes on, yes blender is hear to stay but it does not hurt to double check

[@DaveTimperley]

The reason Autodesk owns most of the packages I knew when I was growing up, was that individually, these disparate dev teams couldn't sustain themselves as commercial products. Same thing for Modo, it couldn't sustain a decent income for the developers. The only reason Blender is still around, and not owned by Autodesk is that it is free (Houdini has survived as an individual by shear weight of uniqueness) When I was a kid, everyone had pirated software, cause that is the only way we could learn enough to get employed by someone who could afford to buy the software. Now days, kids can learn all the skills they need, totally legally cause Blender is open source. Everyone at Adobe expects a pay increase every year, so Adobe software is slowly pricing it's self out of existence, as it races just to keep up with the wage bills. I've noticed that some of these addons are getting a bit carried away with their pricing.

[@blendereverything]

i think most of the 3d apps that are around now can sustain themselves or are being bought out, like maxon now owns quite a few, autodesk owns like 10 different 3d apps, unity bought a few we are going to be left with fewer options but the ones that stay are likely to be around for awhile, yeah the addon pricing is getting crazier i agree

[@lusterjoker7876]

We have considerably quite some time(5-6 years?) until Blender got bought by some venture capitals. it's inevitable. All we need is to optimize and preserves the current and future Blender versions before it got turn into another Autodesk clones.

[@BartVeldhuizenNL]

This is false. For one, Blender is open source and cannot be made closed source again. Also, I know Ton personally and he will never allow this to happen.

[@lusterjoker7876]

@@BartVeldhuizenNL The first Point is proven moot based on any Popular Software that started as Open Source in the last decade which is now the peoples can only hopes that your Second Point hold true.

[@AsirisC]

Incorrect. Only about 1% or less donates to the Blender fund. This is why we're currently running 2% campaign. It's to raise the number of donators to at lest two percent to make sure Blender has a sustainable funding without relying on corporate sponshorship.

[@blendereverything]

oh, wow thats worse than i thought, i think the 2% thing is great, that large banner you see before downloading is what reminded me to donate again otherwise would just gone past the download button

[@DaniMartVTen]

Blender is knee capping itself. I'm a visual disability in Canada in legislated poverty, and it doesn't matter how free the software is if there's no affordable and dedicated hardware to utilize it. I want to make content for social media to earn online income, but I need Blender to let me, I need the governments of Canada and Ontario to let me. I presently don't have the financial right to work. Blender must create a laptop, touch pad, or keyboard computer, to facilitate the Blender software, and be low cost enough for entry level access.

[@blendereverything]

unfortunately i dont think they can afford that even if they wanted to, even paid software is not accessible everywhere, there are some ipad 3d programs but they are not as powerful

[@FlameForgedSoul]

With respect to your challenges, no. Hardware is nowhere within their remit, to say nothing of any obligation. Of all the things holding them back, not being a hardware manufacturer is absolutely not one of them.