As I move past my first semester at Fairleigh Dickinson University as an Animation major, I have begun to realize just how much power Blender packs as a 3D processing program. From physics simulations to compositing, this powerhouse, found at blender.org, is definitely the best starting point for low budget 3D artists. I am so grateful that I started out as a Blender artist, because it opened my eyes early on to just what is possible in the field of VFX in general. Just look at what I was able to do, completely within Blender using its fluid simulation, shaders and compositing program.

And that was over a year ago at the point of me writing this, before my formal training had begun. The bottom line is, Blender has it all. Last night, I realized that in order to get 3D camera tracking data into 3DS Max, one would have to use an external camera tracker. This came as no surprise, but of course, I immediately turned to Blender, which has one of the most detailed, efficient camera trackers I have dealt with. True, the likes of After Effects have long been hailed as standard sources of accurate matchmoving, but for a truly open source program, Blender packs a punch with the amount of computation it is able to complete on the matchmoving stage. I have had no problems camera tracking in the program, and I even prefer Blender’s camera tracker to the likes of Mocha or other planar motion trackers. I can get solid camera tracks with minimal frame shifting… even with very minimal human intervention in the process.

In the world of workflow, the most critical challenge for me is one of transition. I must learn to give up the glory, accessibility, and ease of open source software, and give in to the world of proprietary file formats, addons, and paid plugins to participate in my classes. As I advance through my base 3D modelling course here at FDU, my biggest challenge has been adjusting to the often clunky-by-comparison GUI of 3DS Max. It is true, though, that at the beginning of my tenure as a Blender user, I had just as much trouble navigating the Blender UI, if not more, but then again, I was only 14 at the time!

So the question remains: are proprietary programs such as 3DS Max dragging their feet when it comes to accessibility? Blender has been able to undergo massive overhauls as of late, especially with the new 2.79 release and the introduction of an entire new render engine. They move much, much faster than Autodesk in terms of improving their software. They have fewer constituents, fewer board meetings to slow down software rollouts, and in all, fewer obstacles to improvement. Is Autodesk too large to keep up? Is this a classic example of a top-heavy corporation falling out of touch with its user base? Are we coming to a new age of open source software as the standard bearer of professional animation? Or will proprietorship win out after all? I suppose we shall see.

I can tell you one thing: if I had started out learning VFX in 3DS Max instead of in Blender, there is no way I would have come this far. Blender is just more intuitive, more responsive, and more accessible to the learner, and later, as expansive as needed for the VFX sage. It has it all, and studios have even begun to use it in mainstream productions (here’s looking at you, Netflix’s “The Man in the High Castle”).

I can not only hope to live in a world of innovation and consistent movement forward… but I can also move forward myself. We must all, as artists, decide what tools will be in our metaphoric artist’s bags of VFX creation. Studios must begin to accept that there is more than one way to “skin a cat” so to speak (as horrible an expression as that is). Hopefully, at some point in the future, I will see a job posting that lists “proficiency in a 3D animation program” as a prerequisite, instead of “proficiency in 3DS Max“. Just as an artist can use crayons, pastels, oil paints or watercolors, we as VFX artists can do the same with our library of tools. It is about time the world realizes this: we are limited only by our imaginations… and by what tools our superiors require us to work with.