Is Blender taking over the 3D industry?

Vishesh3008

I'm a bit worried about blender taking over the 3D modeling industry. I myself used Blender 2.79 when I started learning 3D but then, due to the gaming studios using Maya, I switched to it (I had another reason to switch as blender before V2.80, was not that popular)I've been using Maya for over 1.5 years now and since I stopped using Blender, It got tons of updates and is slowly getting very popular among 3D artists, especially modelers.
So I wonder , in future years, Will studios switch to blender from Maya? (I know it's a dumb question but I sometimes think about it much)
What you guys think?

oglu

If you ask me its taking over modeling departments. But other tools wont go away. There is a lot pipeline stuff coming in the next years. Everything around Maya and Houdini based on USD.

Im sure some Studios are doing the same with Blender. Its not that hard to switch to Blender if needed. Just use what gets the Job done. 

PolyHertz

Maya is still king when it comes to animation, while ZBrush, Substance Painter, and Marvelous Designer aren't going anywhere anytime soon. I do think 3DSMax is in quite a bit more danger though, as Blender is able to almost directly compete with its modeling tools and modifier stack, which are the main things that have kept it popular all these years.

zachagreg

I don't see why you're worried to be honest? All this stuff with Blender gaining traction is just bringing the weird Blender evangelists out of the word work. Giving them more of a reason to do the same thing they've been doing for years now, which is spouting uneducated mess about Blender vs. X,Y, and Z software. At the end of the day if it becomes more popular and takes over modeling, cool. If it doesn't also cool.

The reality of it is is that Blender is an awesome tool and can compete with Maya, Max, Modo, Cinema 4D, etc. Everyone should be happy that there is more room for creativity at a lower price point. Will Blender dethrone Autodesk? Not in the near future IMO. Maya, Max and so on are tied in with various pipelines around the world. Custom tools, scripts, inter-dependencies are involved, paid for, and still being produced as @oglu brings up with USD. Now if the modeling department doesn't have those interdependent factors then yea I see no reason to pay the cost of Autodesk over Blender.

The other reality is that these softwares are all tools. As someone who switched from Blender (highschool), to Maya(College), to Max (old job), to Maya(new job) learning the locations of tools and the nuances of the program takes a few days. Yea there will always be things I love about Max and ways that I wish the tools would change to fit Max but at the end of the day I need to use Maya and therefor will learn it and be comfortable with it.

I am maybe 6-8 hours into a little study to learn Maya again and have already started to develop muscle memory for the marking menus and have had only a couple of hiccups with learning the difference in a specific tool. Switching softs really isn't that difficult it's just uncomfortable for a few days because you feel dumb scrambling around to find things that you know very well in your other soft.

If it offers you an comfort your talents as a solid modeler matter more than the software you use.

sacboi

Now studios whether big or small will usually calibrate production which best fits their individual business model because at the end of the day profit return impacts continued viability as a vendor. Also there's no doubting Blender's versatility can be a primary draw for both pro and indie alike. A couple of friends use it at work as a secondary app with one dude thinking of writing/forking a custom suite of tools for colleagues in their day to day workload but really the app's straightforward extendibility means that scripting is pretty much open for anyone too leverage if they so choose.

Similarly aligned discussion raising further insights worth a read - https://polycount.com/discussion/162996/why-dont-big-film-studios-just-use-blender/p1

edit: 

and yeah, USD 'Universal Scene Description' file format, an application imo will be extremely relevant for the industry as a whole going forward: https://polycount.com/discussion/162996/why-dont-big-film-studios-just-use-blender/p3/#Comment_2712147  

kanga

zachagreg said:

...your talents as a solid modeler matter more than the software you use.

This sounds about right.

Vishesh3008

Thanks a lot guys for your response and opinions. I totally with you @zachagreg
It takes only a few days to adapt to new tools but thee 90% depends on pure talent and knowledge of 3D! 
It's just the matter of Muscle memory for shortcuts and menus but they eventually develops as well.

I'm now much comfortable with Maya and I'm gonna continue using it if things go right!

I really appreciate the time you guys put, clearing my doubts.
Thanks a lot.

Neox

it doesnt depend on talent. talent might help you in the beginning to pick things up. but in the end its dedication, work and study, stuff talent can not replace.

zachagreg

Neox said:

it doesnt depend on talent. talent might help you in the beginning to pick things up. but in the end its dedication, work and study, stuff talent can not replace.

Talents was meant as a colloquialism for learned/practiced abilities or current proficiency not natural aptitude. Sorry for not being more exact in my advice.

Neox

was more a reply to "thee 90% depends on pure talent" not your post
playing to ones talents certainly is something else than basing the majority of anything on talent.

zachagreg

Neox said:

was more a reply to "thee 90% depends on pure talent" not your post
playing to ones talents certainly is something else than basing the majority of anything on talent.

Ah I understand, thanks for the clarification and rightly so

Zack Maxwell

Vishesh3008 said:

I'm a bit worried about blender taking over the 3D modeling industry. I myself used Blender 2.79 when I started learning 3D but then, due to the gaming studios using Maya, I switched to it (I had another reason to switch as blender before V2.80, was not that popular)I've been using Maya for over 1.5 years now and since I stopped using Blender, It got tons of updates and is slowly getting very popular among 3D artists, especially modelers.
So I wonder , in future years, Will studios switch to blender from Maya? (I know it's a dumb question but I sometimes think about it much)
What you guys think?

They're too averse to adopting standard practices, development cycles are far too long due to it being free, and after so many years it still lacks any proper retopology or UV mapping tools.

People love it and praise it everywhere because it's free and it does do a lot of stuff better than Maya/Max (like not being a generally unstable #$%^ing mess). But it would really need to change a lot still to be a practical professional option.

Ruz

yes the retopo tools are not there yet for sure, very finicky and visually noisy as the back face culling  does not work on the wireframes

uv mappping is ok though?

Zack Maxwell

Ruz said:

yes the retopo tools are not there yet for sure, very finicky and visually noisy as the back face culling  does not work on the wireframes

uv mappping is ok though?

Cutting UVs works fine. But actually unwrapping and laying them out is jurassic era primitive.

Rangaros

I love Blender so much but I'm also realistic about it. As a modeling tool I think is where it really shines. It isn't going to replace substance painter, Zbrush, Mayas animation or anything like that. One of Blenders strengths is that it's free and very easy to just pick up and try out. Combining it with the other software that is industry standard makes it extremely powerful.

I see it taking a much needed path now of slowly adding things that will make it a very viable choice to be a part of a industry standard pipeline, such as a main modeling tool for some artists.

marks

No.