Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/05/18/impressive-cgi-of-pool-balls-m.html
…
2 Likes
Blender is an awesome suite of 3d tools. I highly recommend to anybody who’s interested in 3D to grab a copy and go forth and create. Free software that is on par with the best.
3 Likes
this is just an excuse to show off my cg timelapse:
i will say that blender is free and has a great renderer (cycles is available for c4d) but the interface is awful and i found it unusable.
2 Likes
What devilry is here? A nice 3D toolset like this that is: free/open source, has support for my aging 10.6.8 Mac, in only a 460MB footprint? All this and Roger Ailes is dead?
I 'member using Crystal TOPAS in the early '90s – required jacked hardware (TARGA board!), had a software protection fob you had to keep plugged into the LPT port (which took me about 45 minutes to defeat, but anyway), and cost $10k.
2 Likes
with costs for Autodesk Maya rising from $50/month (paid yearly) to $125/month I’ve been thinking more about Blender.
1 Like
That lego video pays exquisite attention to the detail of the shapes, yet completely ignores the actual, official color pallette. The end result looks more like a candy than the toy. Harumph!
Let me put a good word in for Sidefx Houdini. For anyone with a programmer mindset, it is phenomenal. I’ve been using it on and off again since version 3 back in 2000. There’s a free version, Apprentice, but it is watermarked and limited in render size. The Indie version though is, I think, fully featured and only a couple hundred bucks (though again limited to non-commercial work). For tinkering or training yourself up, that’s good value. Houdini is a marketable skill if you want to go spend long stressful hours in a VFX studio for relatively little pay and no job security 
3 Likes
maya won’t love you the way cinema4d will love you. join us.
2 Likes
I use Blender a lot for designing and rendering public art proposals. I’ve come to quite like it… though I still can’t quite recommend it, not without caveats. The learning curve is fucking intense. But, hell, it’s free!
1 Like
Blender used to be proprietary, but when its owner company went bankrupt its creators organized what we would call today a crowdfunding in order to set it free. I’m not sure there’s an earlier example.
1 Like
I could not agree more.
Blender’s flaws are related to a mild case of open sourcitus. I liken it to learning a language where not all of the verbs conjugate the same. For me, it are worth the effort.
4 Likes
Blender + Shapeways = Custom Parts for Model Railroad. 
I’ve already made the switch
Every couple of months, I download the latest Blender and try to run the BMW benchmark with OpenCL on my Mac. And it hasn’t worked so far…
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
