I made a video essay! It's a love letter to 3d software crammed in between several hate notes about 3d software companies. Maybe it can be something you put on in the background while you do art. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4mdMMu-3fc
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I first cut my teeth on Softimage Mod Tool to work with the Source Engine. I knew exactly what was coming during the XSI section, and it was heartwrenching.
Aww - I'm so sorry. <3 People have been sharing their favorite parts about XSI, and some of them I either completely forgot about or never knew. It really was ahead of its time.
Maybe! Wasn't easy for me tho lol. But it's been awhile since I used Max so maybe the 2 have become similar. If you're looking to go from Max to Blender I always recommend this series from FlippedNormals - https://flippednormals.com/product/switching-to-blender-for-experienced-artists-9742 - It helped me a lot. Totally worth the price.
Just sat through the whole video. Not gonna lie kept my attention while I was doing texture work. Please keep up the good work and don't let the corpos hinder you.
This was a really good watch, thank you for putting it all together. Love your art style too! Very happy to find a twin peaks video on your channel after that also.
Of course! I love that it doesn’t going over the top to grab attention, just good, paced content. It gives an old-internet vibe as a result. I imagine the video took a quite while to put together?
Absolutely incredible video. As someone who's just been dabbling in 3D art in my free time, I could already relate to all of the struggles mentioned. I can't even begin to imagine how it must feel for people who have dedicated their lives to a craft just for their tools to vanish into thin air.
and they want to bring this sort of stuff to the physical world, they're always trying. Whenever something has a smartphone app, you're one cost saving, bankruptcy or aquisition away from having that thing become inert. The physical electronics are there, the programming is there...
Great video, and I hope you make many more! You have excellent pacing and I notice it!! I'm glad its blowing up too.
I got owned by the substance adobe buyout and it kind of made me quit 3d for almost four-five years. Thank you for showing the world how bad it is.
I just got done watching this with my roommate. We both got super invested- absolutely sucked in. And we laughed our asses off about the Mudbox comments. We hope to see more from you soon. 💛 10/10
This is like a gold speck in a truckload of gold but seeing someone actually remember that wikipedia is an encyclopedia that anyone can edit instead of just saying "wikipedia is wrong" is so refreshing.
this video was quite a journey, I am really impressed with your work! I interacted with the video in every way so that youtube knows to show it to more people, hope you'll continue!
This is such a refreshing high-quality video that captures a bit of my journey and feelings about creative software...
My home base is still 3ds Max. I even used the "Free" version of 3ds Max they made back in the day called Gmax.
I really wish there was an open source "Blender" of video-editing.
The predatory business practices around creative-software is so bad, but it's also so so easy to disrupt the in same way Blender disrupted the 3d software market!
I make open source After Effects plugins and try to empower anyone to be able to make them and it's already done a number in that space!
Thank you for the essay. It was one of the most meaningful things I've watched recently. I'm not a professional 3D artist but I studied Max and Maya and also had some fun with Macromedia Flash (and Dreamweaver, is it still a thing?). As a hobbyist, I don't know how I'd live without Blender.
I planned to make dinner while watching this, but actually ended up sitting down holding a mixing bowl and watching the whole thing in one go. And, please don't call yourself a failed artist!! I rewound several animated sections of this video, I loved watching them all! 🌟
Thanks for this part where they "revoke" the degrees in bussiness. These are not academic anymore, these have become a "exclusive club" and I'm afraid it is slowly turning into a pseudo-religious cult.
You can make some really cool stuff with free software, sux too but seriously try making an extension for blender with Cursor "make me an extension for blender that helps me create isometric shaders for bevvy" even if that is useless to you now or always; something useful will come to you out of it
yeah and so that took like 2-3 minutes (I'm tapped out for fast queries I use this too much) yeah this goes faster than this normally and already I have something that is relatively tangible.. there's probably some things you can do at this point "can you setup the isometric perspective for me plx"
that's why 3d Studio Max and Maya got ditched in favor of Blender(and other free and open source alternatives) not only using former 2 without pirating them can be very expensive, it's legal versions has subscription model that can drain user's wallets
"wow" - me who was just sipping coffee from a 90's softimage mug in an office that was acquired and then acquired and then acquired. I was not working for softimage at the time but I did visit the very same spot 30 years ago. And also am a victim of stopping animating when flash went blip.
and was making stupid off-scope sites like https://stupomatron.com that was sadly lost unless there's a copy on a cd somewhere in a closet - this video might give me the urge to make a new version with a FOSS toolset.
splines are fun, but it's more fun to walk around yelling "NURBS!"
stay cool :)
Thank you so much! It's an absolutely brutal thing to lose a piece of software, especially one as complex as 3d software. I'm finally comfortable in Blender though, even if it was a long journey.
What an incredible watch. You poured your heart and soul into this, and it felt hopeful to me. Please keep creating, keep inspiring others, you are amazing at what you do. 🙏
I watched your essay yesterday and I loved every last bit of it. You verbalized a lot of the stuff that resonated quietly within me. I do next to no graphic design now but I used to have fun with it as a kid, but money was a real problem and lots of open-source stuff was still at an early stage.
Thank you so much! I'm sorry to hear you weren't able to keep going with graphic design. There's a lot of free and low-cost alternatives now you could play with. Here's a link to that software list - https://github.com/KenneyNL/Adobe-Alternatives :)
Im so happy to randomly be recommended this video. Its so nicely made and really really informative. Great job. I've subbed for more. Main monitor content this was 😄
sadly this is a thing in the engineering space too :(
as of recent kicad has gotten a lot better for pcb making but for CAD theres not a lot of open source tools that match up to fusion360 or solidworks and its killing me knowing that i wont be able to afford the software im learning :(
This was brilliant. Truly. I grew up with the flash internet. Animated, 3d modelled, web programmed. I loved Flash and the Macromedia ecosystem of programs. Yet I've never loved Adobe for even a second. Fully on board with trying to elevate open-source alternatives and take the power back. Ty!
I cant overstate how much I appreciate the love and effort that was put in this video, this is so well crafted,its unbelievably good.Which is also peculiar because the treated subject create so much frustration and anger that Im left torn apart between incompatible emotions
Thank you for making this
I used to animate and make websites in Flash a lot as a kid and teenager, so that part of the video really spoke to me.
I feel really fortunate to have started my self-taught journey with Blender in 2016 and finding the same, but also different joy I had doing Flash stuff. All for free.
This is a masterpiece. I have never used any 3D software in my life, yet I watched every second with my eyes and ears pinned. I knew things were bad in the 3D software area, but it was shocking to see the prices and the monopoly at play. I already knew about Adobe but I didn't know about Autodesk.
I'm so glad to hear that! I struggled when writing it because if I got too technical, then it might bore/alienate people less familiar with 3d. But too simple and I'm boring people who know this stuff. Really glad to hear it was entertaining for you!
I see that the video has not reached the masses yet. I hope this changes soon since it was an engaging breakdown of the 3D software market and how it got there. I use free software as much as I can in my life and I try to share the spirit with my close ones.
sick video! my school uses maya but ive been pretty hard headed about using blender in my freetime and whenever possible because the pricing is just insane (also that token thing is just dumb 😭)
That's a smart plan! As long as the industry uses it, I get why schools teach it. But yeah, good idea to learn Blender if/when you won't have access to it. And thank you!
you reminded me to donate all the money i can to open-source / free projects i use on the daily. absolute banger of a video. what a sad corporate world we live in, hopefully blender and co will get better and better and prevail in the longrun.
Software reliance is such a pain frfr, Notion may be free but if it ever falls into subscription only orrr if it fails entirely I'll be set back by months (current estimate 4 months but it'll only grow with time)
Since I store all my story elements in a notion database 😭
This video randomly popped up on my YouTube recommendations and I was hooked instantly! I couldn't agree more especially since it's exactly how I feel about Clip Studio Paint lately. Keep up the amazing work!
I actually watched it full attention the entirety of it while having breakfast. Though I am not a 3D artist myself (just a longtime developer) I must say this video is phenomenal, heartbreaking, relatable, accurate, educational, harsh. Great job here thank you so much for your hard work.
This is what's wrong with the Software industry now. Wasn't the web supposed to be open in Free. (I know not free free) but it was suppose to be as Free as possible.
Just following up to say I just finished watching this. Such a well put together video that articulates alot of feelings I haven't been able to put into words myself.
So many points hit home too, as I started learning XSI during my masters only for it to be discontinued half way through the year 😅
Well, I'm even a software developer and guess what I wound up doing when I lost my computer graphics development job after 15 years! I wound up teaching Blender. Mostly because my boss was too cheep to buy Maya when I created 3D models. It was for military simulation software - that I also wrote.
currently watching this, love the vibes of this so far
the style and animation is amazing, i have this on my other monitor while i'm working but i'm having a hard time focusing because i keep glancing over at it
loved this video great work !! i sent it to one of my film professors because we had talked about how shitty a lot of these companies are previously, and he thought it was really well put together and informative !
if thats true, it worked pretty well.
i knew a lot who used it without license.
just One who had developped a big architect company abused and paid for a 100 000$ fine and avoid a trial.
finally not fine, he paid the licenses.
THIS VIDEO IS ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL AND I AM SO GLAD IT SHOWED UP IN MY FEED. Beautiful intersection of art, history, technology, anthropology, with so much more 'show' than 'tell' illustrating how profit incentives tend to muck everything up over time. Cheers.
I've been learning softwares like Maya, Zbrush and Painter for the past 3 years, so this video was a really needed opportunity to think about what's next, once my student licenses expire. Currently trying to get some practice into Blender, its hard breaking from Maya's workflow, but I'll keep trying
Also, since I forgot to give you appropriate praise in the above comment. This is a really interesting, depressing, and at the same time funny video. Super well done :)
Thank you so much! And yeah, it's such a depressing topic, so I tried really hard to be as constructive as possible. I'm glad you found it entertaining!
Thank you for this! I go on endlessly about this with other devs currently locked into Autodesk projects and we are all hoping for the opportunity to switch to something less predatory, something that doesn’t charge for endless updates that actively make the software worse
oh my god thank you SO much for this video. i'm less familiar with the autodesk space but my hatred for adobe runs so goddamn deep. this was a masterpiece through and through 💖✨
Just had this video in my feed and loved every second of it. I'm on the engineering side of game dev and don't have much familiarity with the tools artists use, but you explained things perfectly to my layman brain. Thank you for your hard work, and I can't wait to see what art you create next!
Really enjoyed your video. I grew up playing with 3d modelling, became a software dev at one of the companies mentioned and a customer of another.
As a profession reliant on so many open-source tools, it really reminded me of how much we take it for granted and how much I hate licensing practices.
Did you have to use plug in USB hardware authentication keys? I had to do that with one software package. (This package was not related to 3D art creation)
Hey, I loved this! It felt cathartic seeing someone express these frustrations after seeing the changes in the creative software industry over the years. Also, love your sense for visual storytelling!
Watched this yesterday after some artist friends shared it. Great points but also just very engaging and fun presentation. Really enjoyed your style. Thanks for your hard work :3
Amazing work! Pretty much every sentence made me think "Holy cow, that's *exactly* how I feel."
In my time in the industry, I've seen Blender go from a joke to a serious contender in animation pipelines. I hope we get to see that trend repeated in other disciplines.
Comments
I think I will remember your video for a long time ! Thank you for making it :)
I got owned by the substance adobe buyout and it kind of made me quit 3d for almost four-five years. Thank you for showing the world how bad it is.
My home base is still 3ds Max. I even used the "Free" version of 3ds Max they made back in the day called Gmax.
I really wish there was an open source "Blender" of video-editing.
I make open source After Effects plugins and try to empower anyone to be able to make them and it's already done a number in that space!
Also, thanks for reminding me that curveball exists! I played it back in the day and completely forgot about it.
splines are fun, but it's more fun to walk around yelling "NURBS!"
stay cool :)
This deserves to blow up and I hope the attention isn't too overwhelming when it inevitably does!
as of recent kicad has gotten a lot better for pcb making but for CAD theres not a lot of open source tools that match up to fusion360 or solidworks and its killing me knowing that i wont be able to afford the software im learning :(
Thank you for making this
I feel really fortunate to have started my self-taught journey with Blender in 2016 and finding the same, but also different joy I had doing Flash stuff. All for free.
I loved your chapter animations. Its crazy I almost forgot about the Steve Jobs letter about flash performance
Since I store all my story elements in a notion database 😭
So many points hit home too, as I started learning XSI during my masters only for it to be discontinued half way through the year 😅
the style and animation is amazing, i have this on my other monitor while i'm working but i'm having a hard time focusing because i keep glancing over at it
i knew a lot who used it without license.
just One who had developped a big architect company abused and paid for a 100 000$ fine and avoid a trial.
finally not fine, he paid the licenses.
I was talking to my son about "loyalty abuse". It's killing us.
Politicians are abuse their voters.
And in each case, the brand loyalty keeps the villains afloat.
I know monopoly practices are not the same, and there's a learning curve to starting over.
As a profession reliant on so many open-source tools, it really reminded me of how much we take it for granted and how much I hate licensing practices.
Now I have ideas.
I kind of hope that you start streaming or something so I can keep getting to experience your awesome personality... (He said selfishly.) Much love :)
In my time in the industry, I've seen Blender go from a joke to a serious contender in animation pipelines. I hope we get to see that trend repeated in other disciplines.
Music to my ears. 🤌✨