Blender is a 3D modeling application used by thousands of home-based artists around the world who learn the software to create their own 3D projects, image renders, and even full animations from the comfort of their own homes. But can we learn Blender to use it for more professional workflows?
When using Blender, we are not only able to use software for our own personal projects, but we can also use it for professional ones as well. This is because blender has a full professional-level suite of tools and features for us to access.
If you want to use blender as a free alternative to the likes of Maya and 3ds Max for professional projects, the software will allow you to perform your tasks to the same level as in the other applications.
Is Blender Good For Professional Use?
The main reason why Blender is considered to be more of a hobbyist program than a professional one is because of its accessibility. Blender is free to download and begin using, no matter who you are and where you are in the world.
Because of this, there are a lot of new 3D artists who want to learn blender for their projects; however, this is merely an assumption that Blender is not powerful enough to act as a professional tool in an industry such as 3D game design or animation.
Blender has a full suite of modeling tools that can be used to create 3D model assets and even entire scenes.
This one application allows you to create your models using various workflows. For example, in Blender, you can follow basic polygonal modeling workflows where you create an object and then edit it using tools such as the extrude, inset, and bevel tools.
Alternatively, you can go with a more creative style of modeling by using the sculpting toolkit in Blender, which has a wide variety of brushes and masks, allowing you to construct highly detailed mesh objects.
On the other hand, you could take on an entirely procedural workflow in the form of geometry nodes, a node-based system that allows you to make changes in a non-destructive manner. This gives you the freedom to create an infinite number of objects just by changing a few parameters.
Can You Get A Job With Blender?
Blender is not hobbyist software that can be used professionally, it is professional grade software that can be used as a hobby.
It has all of the tools and features that you would expect a professional grade application to have and so it is entirely possible to gain employment by demonstrating your abilities using an application like Blender.
You can gain employment by demonstrating your abilities with this software, but the best way to do that is to create a portfolio of assets, objects, and scenes that you created using Blender 3D.
You will find that there are a lot of start-up companies in industries such as game design and 3D animation looking for Blender artists to employ.
Also, you can become a freelancer, attaining work from clients to complete specific projects using the software.
Blender is still used in other industries such as 3D printing, architecture, construction, and manufacturing. However, it is more used on the periphery as a side tool, and you will need to demonstrate knowledge of multiple applications if you want to move into these kinds of industries.
It is also not used as much at the top end of these various industries that already have applications built within their pipelines.
For example, most game design studios will use Maya to create 3D models that will eventually be imported to their game engines.
Why Is Blender Not Considered An Industry Standard, And Why This Matters?
This highlights one of the core issues that blender has when it comes to whether or not a 3D artist will choose Blender over another application.
In most cases and scenarios, Blender is not the top choice for a given task. For example, it is not the number one choice for creating 3D animations as there are other options like Maya that might be considered more preferable.
Likewise, Blender is also a video editing software, but many options are superior to Blender when it comes to editing video content. For example, you have the likes of Adobe premiere pro and Davinci Resolve to use for these kinds of workflows.
In other words, Blender is not an industry-standard in any specific industry or field. Most of the top developers and companies in these industries will seek new employees who know the industry standard applications rather than alternative options like Blender.
But despite this, the fact that Blender is not considered an industry standard isn’t as important as an issue as you might think.
Many employers are flexible in that if you can demonstrate your ability to create what they want you to create, then you are demonstrating the ability to adapt to use the software that they want, even if that software isn’t Blender.
That’s not to say they wouldn’t prefer someone who already has experience with the software they use, but using Blender will not blacklist you from any specific job.
As previously mentioned, if you go a little bit further down the chain of certain industries, you will find that blender is the choice for newer and smaller companies, as it can be integrated into their own pipelines more easily and offers a free, less expensive, alternative to the Autodesk applications.
It is therefore advised that you learn Blender if that is the software that you want to use but keep in mind that at some point, you may need to transition to another software if you find a job that you really want and that job requires you to learn something over than Blender.
Thanks For Reading The Article
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