What Are The Advantages Of Using A Program Like Blender?

When you decide that it’s time to pick up that new skill, and want to try and learn something creative, then your attention is drawn to the many different objects that are available to artists and general content creators alike. So amongst all the competition, why choose Blender and what advantages does it other.

Blender has many advantages as a learning tool for beginners over other applications including some listed below:

• Its open source software
• Blender is always free
• No registration or license key is required to use
• You can change the source code however you want
• There is always more than 1 way to perform a task in Blender
• You can import and export many different file formats
• Not only can you animate in 3D but 2D as well
• Almost every creative task can be performed using one software application

If you have to choose just one application or software that you plan to devote your time to learning this year, make it the one that allows you to learn almost anything that you want.

The Biggest Advantage To Using Blender Is…

There are many advantages to using Blender 3D over comparable software applications, but perhaps the most important one of all is the fact that Blender is, and always will be, free software. To obtain Blender, all you need to do is go to the homepage of the Blender website, select the blue button at the top to go to the download page, and then select another blue button to begin the download process.

This also highlights a couple of other major advantages that Blender has. For one, it is not a case of there being a free, lite version of Blender and then a paid version with all the key features. Any version of Blender that you wish to download is going to be free to access from the Blender website.

Second, Blender is an open source software, which has many connotations, but this means that your software made available must not have any barriers to its actual usage. When you download Blender, no login is required, and you don’t have to register any details at any point. You just download the software, open it up in your operating system, and start using it.

This is something that is becoming more popular in recent years, the appearance of creative software applications that are open source and free to begin using with little to no restrictions. However, few of these are able to compete with the sheer variety of tools on offer in Blender.

Completing A Task Multiple Ways In Blender

It could also be considered a disadvantage to a beginner, but another plus point to using Blender is the ability to perform the same task in multiple ways. This applies in many different scenarios too, thanks to the range of tools on offer to the end-user.

For example, say if you wanted to create a human character model in Blender. Well, there are many ways that you can go about creating your 3D model. One example is to use block modeling techniques to create a very low poly model that creates the general shape of the human, and then use edit tools like the loop cut and inset tools to reform the topology and add the required detail.

Another example workflow for creating your human character is to use the modifier system. You could choose to use the mirror modifier to half your workload so that whatever you do on one side of the model is reflected back to the other. or you could construct the base shape of the model using the skin modifier instead.

Want another alternative? well with geometry nodes you can create an object procedurally using the node system, allowing you to change any aspect of your model at any point.

The variety of workflows that you can choose from is thanks largely to the array of tools that are at your disposal working with Blender. This variety actually stretches to how you want to use the tools themselves.

For example, let’s take the extrude tool, which is a very common method for adding new geometry to change the models’ shape.

To access the extrude tool, you can go to the face menu in the header, or the mesh menu in the header, and select the extrude option. You will also see in these menus that you have various methods of extrusion to choose from.

Alternatively, you can access the same extrude tool by selecting the extrude icon on the tool shelf to activate the extrude tool.

And if you want a faster way to access the extrude tool you can even use the E key to extrude using the hotkey or Alt + E to open the extrude menu in the viewport.

So both in terms of the approaches that you can make to completing a certain task, and the number of ways to access your tools, Blender offers a lot of variety and flexibility.

Do Almost Everthing You Need To On A Single Application

Many applications are built to perform a specific type of task or a small selection of tasks that are similar to each other. With Blender 3D you have access to almost all the tools that you could require to create what you want in a single application.

For example, you can follow the entire workflow of creating a character model in Blender. With the grease pencil, you can create 2D concept art of your soon-to-be 3D model. Then you can begin the actual modeling stage of the project in the 3D viewport, able to create your model in a variety of ways.

You can use modeling methods in Blender to create the base shape, and then use the sculpting toolkit to create the finer details of your model. Then you can move on to the next stage of the project and add materials and textures to your character and the character clothes with blenders UV mapping tools and a superb node system for material application.

Then you can move onto the rigging stage of the process where you can prep your character to move in ways natural to humans and prep it for animation, which becomes the next step in the process where you can create animated motions for the character model.

And all of this you are able to do inside of Blender without the need for any other software. If you are following a pure animation workflow your entire project can easily be done in Blender without the need for any other software.

In fact, you can even edit the rendered animations that you created by using the applications video editing suite. Yes, it even has one of those! and you can add effects, filters, and overlays to your animations using Blenders node compositor.

This does not mean that Blender cannot do everything, however, and there are some things that are currently beyond its reach.

You cannot 3D print models for example directly from Blender, as it does not have built-in splicing software. Although it can be used to create the models used for 3D printing. Likewise, it cannot be used to create video games but can be used to create all the assets for those games.

That’s why we say Blender can do almost everything, as it can perform many tasks normally performed by various software and reduce the number of applications that you may need to learn.

Shape Blender How You Want With Access To The Source Code

The reason why Blender is referred to as open-source is that you have full access to the application, including the source code that is used to run the software. If you go to the download page of the blender website, you will be able to access a menu just below the blue download button.

In this menu, you can choose how to install your Blender software, including the operating system that you are downloading the software to as well as if you want to download from a third-party marketplace like steam. And on this list is the option to download the source code along with the Blender libraries.

If are a programmer, and are able to use Python script, then downloading the source code will allow you to change your downloaded version of Blender however you see fit.

This goes far beyond what you are able to do in the text editor in Blender itself, which is used to improve existing functionality through scripts that may also become add-ons in the future. With access to the source code, you can change anything that you want, from the UI to the way the node editor works, anything is possible.

Blender Is Compatible With Many Different File Formats

While Blender is capable of doing a lot of different things, it cannot do everything, and eventually, what you create in Blender you will want to use elsewhere, such as image renders for example.

Blender 3D is compatible with many different file types from image files to movie files, but perhaps most importantly file types that store 3D data.

The application needs to be able to not only export 3D file formats so that they can be used in other applications but also needs to be able to import them as well if you want to be able to use Blender to edit objects made elsewhere.

Coming file formats here for video game engines include the FBX and OBJ formats, which are commonly used to transfer video game assets from 3D applications to game engines.

If you are using Blender for 3D printing purposes then you will need to go with other formats more suitable to transfer the required data, including STL, OBJ, and the 3MF formats.

Blender also needs to be able to work with different image formats as well. It needs to be able to import files like PNG to use reference material for models, as well as using those files as image textures for created materials.

On the other hand, Blender needs to be able to export images as well that are rendered from the 3D scenes we design. This will also allow us to edit images using Blenders compositing node system.

Examples of image files that Blender is compatible with include PNG, JPG, and JPG 2000. One file format here that is very good for compositing is the Open EXR format, which can break images down into various layers like the alpha and diffuse channels, and gives you the ability to edit said channels.

As Blender is able to create animations as well, it also needs to be able to use different movie formats, again both for importing and exporting.

Blender is compatible with all the common file formats here including MP4 and AVI.

Being Able To Animate 3D And 2D Scenes, Then Edit Them

There are some applications that will allow you to create your own 3D animations and then render them inside of that application. There are also some examples where you can create 2D animations with certain applications. And then there is the software that allows you to edit your video content, trim clips, add filters, etc.

But there are very few options that allow you to do all of this in a single application, and Blender fits well into this extremely small category.

In Blender, it is possible to go through the entire animation process without requiring the use of any other applications, either for the concept stage, development stage, or even the rendering stage. And even after you have rendered your 3D or 2D animation you still have the ability to edit your render further in Blender using the video sequence editor and the compositor.

Thanks For Reading The Article

We appreciate you taking the time to read through the article and we hope that you found the information that you were looking for. We have compiled a list of articles that you may be interested in reading.

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• Do You Need To Learn Coding To Use Blender?
• What Is Blender 3D And Why Do People Use It?
• Should I Use Eevee Or Cycles For My Rendering?
• Where Does Blender Get All Their Money From?