Comments like these are really annoying me. I’m a part of the blender community since 2005. the community was once so humble and nice and today we have so many cocky people believing they’re the best out there. I use both C4D and blender. Blender is great for modeling but EVERYTHING is better in C4D when it comes to animation and rendering. Honestly, xParticles is absolutely amazing. It’s literally everything you can think of. Redshift beats cycles in every aspect except maybe the realtime preview. XPresso is awesome for doing mechanical riggings with your own control GUI and everything. And don’t even start on mograph. I really like blender, but there is a reason C4D comes with a pricetag and blender does not. Baking a high res pyro sim took me 20h to bake in blender and 20min to do in cinema, with better results in cinema.
Blender shows what Open Source can do. And Blender nowadays moved from a quirky nerd tool to a software that is capable of provide industry level features. Also thanks to a few big donators into the Blender foundation who all want a free and open, capable 3D modeling environment since it's cheaper to donate a few thousand dollars to Blender than paying a big bill of licenses every year.
Even if you never intend to use blender once, if you run a 3d company, chucking some money at blender is a good idea. The next generation of your people that come to work for you, need to get a start somehow, and 20k would mean a collapse in people trying 3d out.
Blender used to be stuck in the same trap most open source software is (think GIMP): a tool that, while powerful, was cumbersome and idiosyncratic, and pretty much aimed only at the kind of people who use vim. It was great to see how they were able to escape that trap, take the usability concerns seriously, and turn the software into a truly world class solution.
Blender is still a quirky nerd tool if you look under the hood. As soon as you dive deeper you see that blender is made by people with no industry/large scale production experience. The blender team cares more about features for individuals than having a reliable tool for large scale productions.
@@phy6geniuxYTcreations Yes! Tutorials, too. No disrespect to anybody teaching on UA-cam, and some are very exhaustive in their area, but I much prefer to pay for a course that I know is going to be very in-depth and well structured.
@@joechapman8208 I agree with you, I pay also for tutorials. First, as an educator myself, I know how hard it is to teach and create content. I'm not rich, so if I decide to pay for a course/tutorials, it means I need to learn it fast, with structure, and most of all, with quality. And paying for those resources help the person who created those educ materials to create more, tho totally expensive tutorials are still out of my reach. I like YT for things that I already knew, or things I need to improve more. For totally basics, if there are good free alternatives, I usually combine them with paid ones with quality. 😁
i don't use a lot of addons. mainly because i forget i have them, and then i end up doing stuff manually anyway lol... being quick and efficient with geometry nodes helps a lot too
just don't forget to at least donate 5 bucks a month to blender foundation to keep it alive when you have a decent income, a lot tend to forget that despite they make 2-5k USD a month
if you're a professional who's used to paying €2000+ for software yearly, the €25 monthly donation should be a breeze. And on top of then you get your company/artist name advertised on the blender website.
6:04 To link modifiers in Blender, select all objects and choose the one with the modifiers last. Press Ctrl+L to access the linking menu, allowing you to link various elements, not just modifiers. You can make the modifiers as single users from modifiers panel to apply specific value on a single object hope that helps😊
In the example at 5:52, I wanted to show how to control many objects in Blender with just one Bend Modifier, like in Cinema 4D, without having to copy the modifier to all objects.
@@CREVIS-CGI yes, after linking(copying) a modifier to other objects you can select all of them and with pressed alt button control their modifier parameters all at once. Yes, it is not as convinient like having a true linked modifier instances like you do in 3ds max, for example or grouping objects under a modifier like in C4D but still works and you don't need to merge objects
@@SlayerDUDE1993 In order to have the modifier results instanced, you can put the final meshes into a collection then right click the collection and Instance to Scene for a Collection Instance. A bit awkward but works. Copy Attributes Addon (comes with Blender but is disabled by default) allows for copying specific modifiers to the passive selected objects :)
For me it's not only the cost of other softwares, the creativity of the dev community plays a huge role in my decision to stick with blender, every week new and incredible add-ons get released and most of them are either free or have a very affordable price tag. It's very inspiring to see what they come up with and they're all very useful!
Exactly. I've been pushing open-source for decades. I can't tell you how many times I've had a piece of software or firmware and said "if only I had the source code I could improve this product 10x and it wouldn't cost the company profiting from that work anything except releasing their source!" But of course most don't and eventually they die because they lack the diversity of an open system.
I completely agree with you. The creativity and dedication of Blender's development community are truly remarkable. It’s inspiring to see how many high-quality and innovative add-ons are released on a regular basis, often for free or at very affordable prices. This openness and continuous improvement really set Blender apart from other software.
Lol, there is no competition. Blender is good for beginner and hobbyist, but it can't be as good as competitors. It have sculpting but it's worst that zbrush It have architecture add-ons, but it's worst even that SketchUp, no way with other archviz It have 3d printing but is not cad So blender is everything but nothing, jack of all trades master of none.
And this precisely why I ditched C4D two years ago. I get all the features I need for zero cost (though I have donated), and I've got some truly brilliant addons for a handful of dollars (I don't think I've paid for anything more than $100). And I know that no matter what I spend on addons or assets, it's nothing compared to the cost of C4D plus X-Particles plus Octane, which is what I was using. I hate what Maxon has become so voted with my wallet. Couldn't be happier.
@@ripmork It was pretty rapid. It all happened with the release of Blender 2.8, and once I'd made the decision to not begin renting C4D and Octane. The transition wasn't too bad, thanks to the latest versions of Blender - plus a few addons to replicate how I worked in C4D. Of course, there's a lot of good stuff in C4D that Blender doesn't have and which drives me nuts, but you gradually forget or sort workarounds, and now I think I'm doing stuff I could never have managed in C4D and Octane. All I need now is a Mac Studio M3 Ultra!
max is more expensive and you need all the admins like in blender. also isn’t the desire for all those addins to be native? I don’t see using 25 add ons being a good thing.
@@MrMadvillanIt's 25 add-ons which doesn't affect Blender's performance for under 1k, while you'd be paying 30k over the course of 10 years. You decide what's a "good" thing or not.
@@MrMadvillan It's been non-issue for me. Certainly no more hassle than any other DCC app that needs addons or plugins. I had at least that many in C4D.
KEEP THIS IN MIND!!!!! I think that everyone should know this= ACCORDING TO BLENDER LICENCE: Sharing or selling Blender add-ons (Python scripts) The GNU GPL license therefore requires that such scripts (if published) are being shared under a GPL compatible license. You are free to sell such scripts, but the sales then is restricted to the download service itself. Your customers will receive the script under the same license (GPL), with the same free conditions as everyone has for Blender. So most addons (all the ones that have no assets) are GNU GPL then you can say they are legally free to download from third party websites, its not considered piracy, that said its really nice to support addon developers
This is legally speaking incorrect AFAIK. The blender foundation could sue script developers who do not share their scripts under GNU GPL, and they might be able to force the developer to publish their script under a GNU GPL license, however if the script developer doesn't publish it under GNU GPL to the people who buy it from them, that still means that you have no rights to it. Basically just because they might be doing something illegal doesn't grant you the right to also do something illegal. The very idea btw that Blender's python API is integral enough to force the GNU GPL license to get attached is also not something I am 100% sure would hold up in court, but you are correct that this is the interpretation of the Blender Foundation.
You should keep it in mind that you are practically advocating piracy. Plug-ins & Add-ons are under no obligation to release their code under any such license, and to say that most are doing so is not good enough. The GNU GPL license only covers code that was previously released under that license. It does not give you the right to illegally download free copies of plug-ins just because they have some parts that are under GNU GPL. If I take some free scripts, and make a new addon, you have no right to distribute the parts that are new & not under GNU GPL.
@@memkiii The point is that the Blender Foundation claims that you *have* to release your script under a license compatible with GPL, as they claim that "Blender’s Python API is an integral part of the software, used to define the user interface or develop tools for example. The GNU GPL license therefore requires that such scripts (if published) are being shared under a GPL compatible license.". The point is that you would allegedly (if the Blender Foundation's claims would hold up in court) no right to distribute those new parts without licensing it under a GPL compatible license.
Wow, I am now glad I was never able to take the 3D classes at my community college. Cinema 4D was the only one they used and were allowed to use (according to the syllabus) and seeing the yearly non-educational breakdown was eye-opening.
It wouldn't have been a waste to learn. Nothing you learn is wasted! What if you find a job where the studio uses C4D? You would be able to use it without paying for it then.
The yearly non-educational pricing means nothing if you're a professional. It's a tax deductible business expense. Beyond that, all of these packages are essentially the same with different keybindings and names for things. The core concepts do not change. The software doesn't matter. The skills do.
this video was recommended to me by the UA-cam algorithm because I’ve been getting started learning blender over the past few weeks. I have absolutely no idea what’s being said here, nor do I understand most of the comments (which appear to be coming from extremely European-sounding users who obviously know way more about 3d modeling/rendering) stuff than I do. So, uh…bravo everyone I guess! I’m deeply lost in the bowels of UA-cam but I think you’re all doing a great job! And fck C4D or whatever it’s called! Get em!
@tweeeeeeex I'd say find something that is fun for you, audio visualisation for me for example, and find tutorials that have something close to what you imagined.
Octane and Cinema 4D are highly priced. I've been using Blender since version 2.8, and I'm glad I made the switch. After a year of using Cinema 4D, I noticed that the costs were somewhat exorbitant.
I agree, all these software makers act like their tool is the main character and you have to pay for that. But developers need so much software (that you'll never own) that they're basically paying off a small car monthly, they will never own. Personally I look at prices and ask myself: "can people in poor countries keep up with this?" , If the answer is no, I'm not sending my money to them. Support Open Source and keep the world a fair place.
Octane is one of the cheapest rendering engines out there. Very appropriately priced, and is leaps and bounds better the cycles both in quality and render time.
Hi, thanks for all info. In workflow difference topics it's not necessary to join objects, you only need to select multiple objects and the last active object , press Ctrl + L = Copy modifiers. Or the same way you only need to activate the Copy attributes menu addon (incorporated with blender) and type: Ctrl + C = Copy modifiers or Copy selected modifiers. Select all objects and press Alt on parameters for modify settings at same in all objects. Thanks for all... have a nice day
Great video, awesome points there, I did the switch from c4d to blender on the 2.8 mark, and boy I'm happy as a kite! The addons made my particular needs faster and easier, the blender route is more do almost everything yourself but I love that part too since I've learned so much making my own quirky solutions when problems arrived at the door. I did enjoy my time with c4d but I can't justify the costs as a freelancer.
@@c.n.5476 I'm not in the States, and as you may know as freelancers we have different level of clientele according to our market, and I don't wanted to take the Piracy route even that I live in an Island in the Caribbean! hahaha
@@dr.pixelsdo you have any advice for starting out as a freelancer? I have a bit of experience already, but I might like to try getting freelance work. Thanks 😀
it all depends on your location first, I did corporate animations and found a few entry level clients, after that, try to do a couple of personal projects aiming for the companies or type of gigs you want to get, I do several type of services that pay the bills but I don't promote them, since I don't want to be known for those, and if I get them fine I'll do them, but I promote the ones I want to get more and makes me happier. @@josephbrandenburg4373
I find that one of the biggest difficulties is to stay aware of all the additional tools and plugins in order to execute tasks in the most efficient way. With more and more indie devs contributing to what’s available in the blender market, it almost becomes a necessity to follow channels like yours and watch informative on a regular basis
Thank God they made a Blender! It opens the doors for so many people, what a blessing! I'm getting sick only by watching Cinema 4D prices... I remember back then (20 years ago) I loved 3D but there were only programs like 3DS max and it made me give up because of their high subscription plans. I'm so happy I found out about Blender (many years later) and my life changed, now I'm doing what I love - 3D, thank you, God! thank you, Blender
100% agree. When I was younger, I was interested in 3d. But mostly as just a hobby. So the pricing for other programs were far too much for me. But when I heard about Blender... I honestly couldn't download it fast enough. And it's only gotten better since.
Let me thank you for doing such an in-depth cost + effort analysis. I'm dabbling with both C4D and Blender and have been thinking deeply about which path to choose for the next 5-10 years. Want to really master one tool and your detailed video has definitely helped put things into perspective. Thanks again!
Idk man, here is my honest and best thought out advice: LEARN (and stay up to date with) BLENDER ANYWAY. Why do you need to master only ONE? That sounds like a (possibly future) horrible disaster of an idea. If you must be proficient in whatever softwares your career may require then DO IT, but... LEARN BLENDER ANYWAY! Make it part of your workflow. Save yourself the future headache, stress and frustration. If you're ever forced, or just choose, to transition away from software and applications that you've allowed yourself to become dependently familiar with for the next 5-10+ years, you will have a difficult time with seeing your skills transfer over to unfamiliar software... Besides, at the rate that Blender is growing & improving plus having the ability to customize Blender by integrating add-ons that you PERSONALLY find useful or necessary ANYTIME YOU WANT (..without waiting for the typical "hopefully we'll see something like this added in the next update!" but it never happens disappointment...) is a pretty powerful argument in itself. Good luck with whatever you decide to do though, and may your journey be successful!
@khhnator especially considering how Blender looked and functioned when it originally came out. I'm pretty sure they're here to stay. Even if they did stop, it's open source. People can continue to work on it, should the devs choose not to.
Hey man vfx artist and 3d artist here worked for many years in C4D to be more precise i worked for 6 years with C4D and then i switched to blender. Blender is amazing in every possible aspect as well some of the stuff you mentioned you can easily do in Blender. 3 Years now in blender and i never regret switching...
What's awesome now when I use Blender, is that if I want a certain "plug in," with functions I want or need, I can use ai chat to help me create the python scripts for it. The more complicated the more work it takes, but it's a heck of a lot better than if I tried to do it myself. It's awesome. Chat GPT has opened up a whole new world of customization to me.
Thanks. Great video and comparison; we nearly use the same C4D Plugins in our studio (but multiple). Nearly every year I find myself thinking about switching the whole studio to blender, but mostly we are so locked-in with our workflow, old projects, assets and proprietary software that its really hard to change course. But with the growing costs of C4D and its plugins - and blender getting better and better...it gets more difficult to justify not to switch.
@@jomo2483 depends on what stuff you make, character modeling, I wouldn't use it, for simple motion graphics, I wouldn't use it either. but for complex sims and stuff that hard to pullout with even Maya, then Houdini does it better.
@@jomo2483 you mean the 5k$ floating HoudiniFX we use for more complex simulation, thats even more expensive than C4D+Xparticles? In a video about $$ + (nearly) free? ...Really?
The longer you wait the more it will cost and the harder it will be to transition. Blender is FREE, what is there to WAIT for? Or to phrase it in a more business oriented mindset: When there is no cost, nor harm, in learning to become proficient with Blender while still using your familiar workflow in the meantime, why are you procrastinating with training in order to be able transition out of your costly workflow in the future? The sooner you accept that not only is Blender free to use & train on, but grants you the ability to integrate or build YOUR OWN custom tools and add-ons without waiting for updates or signing new EULAs & ToS agreements, the sooner you can start abandoning those ever-increasing costs... Find a way to integrate Blender into your current workflow, or dedicate a specific amount time per day or certain day per week strictly for training in using Blender, or some other idea that DOESN'T INCLUDE your future self saying "I wish we had done this sooner."
@Jadebones you're absolutely right. Time is the only critical factor atm. I'll try to wiggle some "free" time every week for the team to get up to speed in blender; starting next year. Thanks for the push ;)
One thing many people don't know: Performance is much better under Linux than under Windows. In some cases it is up to 50% faster. So going Linux increases performance which is similar to 1-2 generations of graphics hardware updates for free.
The biggest problem with Cinema 4D is that the boolean operators are very buggy when intersecting meshes, gaps and tears appear. Blender handles the same objects really well.
After learning Maya, Zbrush, Substance, Rizom, ect... at school I decided to switch to Blender + a few addons. I did the math and with what I'm saving I could buy a new overkill top of the line PC every year !
I feel like Blender is an amazing tool now and is on a trajectory of improvement and growth that i don't see with any commercial program. Though the competition and threat Blender brings will also be very beneficial for users of paid programs, because without that competition, big companies will only do the bare minimum for their customers and instead focus on maximizing the profits for their shareholders. Not in a thousand years will i ever go back to 3Ds max or any other subscription price model program - that was the main argument for me to switch away from 3dsMax and ditch all Adobe products that don't offer perpetual liscences.
I think it is worth considering a couple things: 1. Who this video is made for? And that would seem to primarily be people who are either starting, a career in, or already are an independent contractor making 3d animation. Or possibly making 3d animation as a hobby. People who are concerned about long-term costs over time, so not just initial costs, as well as ease of use and efficiency of different software options. 2. So what is the purpose of the prices listed in this video? Well, the video isn't about just right now, but what you can reasonably expect over the next ten years. And from this video the indicators seem to be an overall comparable software solutions (with a few key differences), of which Blender is very significantly cheaper. But no one can tell you what the costs will be over the next ten years, and I appreciate that this video doesn't try. That said, if the purpose of this video was just to compare these platforms as they stand today, or over the next year or so, I absolutely agree with you that a cost comparison at the end should have been there. But it does provide a majority of the information you would need to do this on your own. Except you would need to Google a few things like the subscription costs of Blender plugins mentioned, as the video just states very few of them have subscription costs, and if they do, they are very cheap. It is a natural response to treat content like it is made for you and your concerns, probably everyone is 'guilty' of this, myself included. I'm not criticizing you. I just hope to point out that sometimes it is a good thing to step back and think about what the point of a piece of content is, and even why it can make the content better when it is more focused on the point it is trying to make, rather than trying to provide the information that anyone who might watch it wants to know. Cheers!
This is why I switched to Houdini, no plugins needed at all, you just pay for Houdini and that's all which is $399 (indie version) for 2 years node-locked.
And here I'm using cracked Cinema 4D, houdini, and substance painter! I use Cinema 4D for everything except simulation, which I do with Houdini! Redshift is the only paid software on my list because there is no crack lol!
In the example at 5:52, I wanted to show how to control many objects in Blender with just one Bend Modifier, like in Cinema 4D, without having to copy the modifier to all objects.
@@theRPGmaster He wanted to and he did. people are probably telling him that you can copy the modifiers to other objects instead of joining them into a single one, but that doesn't give you the ability to control them from one single modifier. I guess you can create drivers and all, but that's still less convenient than C4D.
Tools like Blender are a lifesaver for people in developing countries. The astronomical cost of commercial software means either using cracks or finding a suitable cheaper alternative.
when i was 21 i thought blender was gonna topple most of the industry, im now 30 and good god blender is looking very intimidating for its competitors these days
Another cool thing about Blender is, for those not needing all that expensive movie production stuff, Blender is light & flexible enough to run on just about any computer.
Great video, but ending felt a little off. Would have been nice to see a final comparison between the two, and price difference, and maybe a pros/cons list. Basically just a summary conclusion.
It's a small cost for a $50+ M animation or live-action movie project, since they have built years of assets and C++ plugins with Maya. The problem is no C++ API in Blender
5:58 You can actually apply a modifier or any data type to multiple objects at once with the "Ctrl L" menu You don't have to combine them to one object. But thats the only small thing I think you missed. Also holding Alt while editing a value with multiple objects selected, links that value across all those objects. Very informative video, thank you!
In the example at 5:52, I wanted to show how to control many objects in Blender with just one Bend Modifier, like in Cinema 4D, without having to copy the modifier to all objects.
6:02 - not quite true - you can copy modfier from one object to other objects. Select a set of objects, then select the source object (the last selected object is the active object), then press Ctrl+L and select "Copy Modifiers". So you don't get instanced modifiers with shared values, but at least you can transfer modifiers with their values as often as you have to.
To have all the objects affected by changing a value in a modifier, you can Alt click on a parameter, key in a value, hit enter, and it'll affect all selected objects with the same modifier.
In the example at 5:52, I wanted to show how to control many objects in Blender with just one Bend Modifier, like in Cinema 4D, without having to copy the modifier to all objects.
Pros usually take into account the time they save by using commercial software vs open source like Blender, if C4D allows doing mograph animations faster than Blender, then it might make the cost of C4D and the plugins worth it, also, you get support with C4D, while with Blender you need to rely on the community, which might not be the best if you are on a tight schedule, that's one of the reasons big studios pay through the nose for software, because those softwares come with fast support!
I've never purchased a plugin or asset. Infact I had been using blender for more than 8 years before I realized you could buy plug-ins. I do wish to begin supporting plug-in makers by purchasing. But I have become so comfortable making what I need. I'm having trouble deciding which I want
This video works well as a list of highly valuable - sometimes essential - add-ons. It helps me to know what is available as robust time-saving solutions.
As a Cinema4d and Blender user the only thing I would add is an a render enigne like Octane. The biggest drawback of Cycles ist the suboptimal output of AOVs and Renderlayers. It can be optimized with addons and scripting but is still a pain in the ass.
I've been using blender for 10+ years and for what i needed (comercials presentations 3d printing etc) only recently i needed flip fluids for the rest the addons are maybe togeter 20$ , not counting where i gave developers some money because they deserved it. my top tool is i think volumetirc smooth. So you can do a lot for free, and once you understand the nodes, you can do a whole lot more for free as well. Most of all its such a complete package from video editing, to animations, to stills, 3d prints. retopo, uv, .. it seams endless.
for what it's worth you can get flip fluids for free technically if you spend some time to compile it yourself, if you have some basic knowledge it's pretty easy :)
Thanks for a good demonstration of the capabilities and costs for the Cinema 4D/Blender comparison. I'm interested in this because I want to pursue it as a hobby when I want to do something non-electronics.
I just make simple theatre sets for my puppets so I don't need many extensions or addons at all - I'm just super happy that blender is still free. If my channel takes off I'll be glad to make some annual donation to blender.
Really nice starter overview, can verrify this is a great list indeed - Would recommend sanctus library for procedural materials & traffiq for cars too
I might be in the minority, but my choice of C4D over Blender was heavily influenced by my professional environment a decade ago. At that time, the company I worked for struggled to appropriately value animation work, which made efficiency a top priority for me. This need for speed in project completion was what initially drew me to C4D. My experience with Blender back then was far from positive; its interface seemed unintuitive, as if it was designed on another planet. Fast forward to today, and it's evident that Blender has undergone significant improvements, particularly in terms of user-friendliness. However, having invested not just financially but also in terms of time and skill development in C4D, I'm hesitant to switch. My proficiency in C4D has not only been a substantial financial investment but has also enabled me to produce high-quality work at a rapid pace. Switching to Blender now feels like it might slow down my workflow, at least initially. The return on investment with C4D, both in terms of money and the ability to deliver exceptional work quickly, makes me question the practicality of transitioning to a different tool at this stage of my career.
I'm sticking with C4D thanks to its excellent interoperability between various systems, fields, volumes, simulations, mograph - it can all work together without any gymnastics.
yes, but the main difference is that no one forces you to buy addons, that is, the free program is also capable of this, you just need knowledge. and addons are purchased in order to speed up and simplify the process. This is the difference. I use a blender myself. and bought a couple of addons for about $300
in reality if you have clients that wants you to do things with a 4-7days deadline, there's no shortcuts if you stay with the default features of these DCC tools of how sometimes their workflow just stupidly cumbersome to work with... so you have to speedrun your way and use the add-ons for ease of life. but if you're a hobbyist who's only starting up or just a instagramer... most add-ons are kinda waste of money.
Other than Houdini, for every software you'd have to buy plugins. Maya, Max has soo many plugins people rely on. Considering maya is the industry standard for aniamtion, it doesn't even have a pose library buitl in. But the biggest difference with Blender plugins and other software plugins that they are fraction of the price and only one time payment. Not to mention, you can do most of stuffs the addons are doing by defualt, it would take a lot of time and clicks and skill.
As a Cinema 4D user, my biggest issue with Blender was never the fancy rendering stuff but very basic things: perhaps it's just a matter of getting used to it, but modelling feels a lot more difficult in Blender than in C4D. For instance, if I remember correctly in Blender there isn't a way to precisely set XYZ values for points (either position or scale), which seems like a bizarrely basic function to lack.
I barely use Blender but the plugins from Blender market can be amazing and I have paid for one. The costs are low enough to try them and because they are usually open source I can modify and added more options.
I absolutely agree - it's fantastic that Octane is available for free in Blender with support for one GPU. Octane is a great renderer, and this is an amazing opportunity for C4D artists who already use Octane and are transitioning to Blender. It doesn’t get much better than this! You can start working right away with the familiar Octane materials without having to spend too much time on Blender’s material system at the beginning. It’s practically a dream come true.
Thank you for the suggestion! Comparing multiple add-ons could indeed be quite challenging, as it would require purchasing many of them (even though some are available for free) to perform a thorough comparison. I might cover this topic gradually when I’m searching for specific tools and gain experience with different add-ons along the way. In general, comparing add-ons in detail takes a lot of time and experience with each tool, but I'll do my best to share insights when I can. Stay tuned!
Im not a blender user, but I really am getting sick and tired of being bled to death by subscriptions. Im stil a maya user, under the annual indie license, but Ive moved my animation and rendering to Unreal Engine, and my compositing to Davinci Resolve. I didnt know you could outright buy Substance painter, thats great to know. Now if I just had a pro level replacement for photoshop, id be set.
5:55 but u can actually add modifier to multiple objects just by clicking CTRL L --> Copy Modifiers (it copies modifier from main object selected to others ) lol
In the example at 5:52, I wanted to show how to control many objects in Blender with just one Bend Modifier, like in Cinema 4D, without having to copy the modifier to all objects.
The revolution against greedy corporations embracing subscription models is in full force. Give me Blender, Affinity Photo and Reaper over, C4D, Maya, Photoshop and Avid any day. I'm willing to pay a lot ONCE if it means that I own what I buy.
02:22 What do you need a "HDRI loading pluging" for? What does it do that simply selecting the file as the image for the environment material in the builtin editor doesn't already do?
Blender is so powerful now, some 3D artist who switch to it are surprised is free and addons are cheap compared to other 3D software, bigginers dont wanna spend money to add-ons till they know about work flow, if you dont really wanna spend you can learn Geo nodes, then earn money from making geo nodes in the future, i dunno to us experienced people in the industry(eho started in blender) donating to blender is more like a duty (like giving money to your parents) its for paying back for the things you learned and earned
You can copy modifiers to other mesh ibjects with a free addon which comes with blender. It's called "copy attributes". You then select the destination then the source, than do Ctrl c and pick from the menu what you want to copy over. If need something blender and simple Google will always show you a result. There is so much info for free about this software. I've also made quite a lot of addons, all for free
I don't buy anything, so I use Blender. There are very few things truly impossible without paying in Blender. Most of everything else, you'll find a long, convoluted tutorial to do it yourself if you don't want to buy... and following it creates a resource you can create and keep updated yourself AND improve your skills.
I envy you if you can manage that-I wish I could too. When I see a great plugin at such an affordable price, I find it hard to resist. And then there’s the thought of getting free updates, so why not? Whether I end up using the tool regularly is another story. You’re absolutely right, though. My favorite add-ons are definitely the little helpers that speed up the workflow and provide features I couldn’t implement myself. Could you create a custom bookmark manager or a tool that lets me open specific layouts in the viewport with buttons? That’s where I really see the value in investing in good add-ons.
REAL message about Blender: The addons listed by this gentleman in the video are a fad, NOT a necessity. You need absolutely NO addons in Blender, you can do anything directly with the tools in Blender. Addons are only for those who don't know all the features of Blender and have money to spare. The actual cost is 0.
While one could argue that they save time and needing to memorize so many shortcuts, I have addons I've tried but don't use regularly because it was just easier to do it "natively" than to try to navigate the addon's options. There are cases where it can save time, but don't feel pressured into buying addons.
It's not just Cinema 4D. All these big graphics-software developers have become so greedy that they are slowly pricing themselves out of the market. On my daughters advice, I tried out blender 3 and was amazed by the power of the software. I'm certain the day will come when it doesn't make any sense anymore to buy into one of the so called professional software packets when open source can do the same for a fraction of the price while at the same time supporting small free software developers.
Blender looks so cool and is evolving so rapidly!! I'm a Maya user since forever so for me, learning a new software that is not 200% better than Maya and is not as used as Maya in the industry, doesn't looks as attractive. But in some years who knows, it might get THAT much better than Maya and I'll jump to the Blender train.
whoah, the subscribe button lit up with a rainbow outline when you said subscribe at the end... pretty cool (also I liked and subbed, awesome elite video)
I'm making a game for Unreal, have used Blender for years, and do not plan to purchase any add-ons. I used to rely on several free add-ons, but now I only rarely use a couple.
I love this! I'm mainly a Houdini user professionally but need to get myself back into a more general purpose 3D software for some additional bits. I really can't fathom the idea of going back to Max, Maya or C4D, and have always had a soft spot for Blender. So seeing a guide like this of how to beef it up with a few quid is extremely helpful.
Thanks for a great comparison. Q: did you fully switch to Blender? And if so, how much time did it take you? I started learning Blender recently (it really is great, even without considering the huge price difference), but after working past 15+ years in Cinema 4D, doing anything inside it is like second nature, while in Blender I stumble around even most basic things :)
B3D can feel the same way, as you can probably imagine, after spending a few hundred hours in it. There's some things I can't get used to though. The way I lose focus of an area just because I moved my pointer out of the way, still drives me nuts. But one thing I love is that while they try to stay consistent with older versions' ways to do things, they're constantly evolving, optimizing the interface and features, as well as overhauling entire backends. They're not just milking an overaged bloated codebase for profit with minimal investments, but very methodically restructuring the entire system over time, as resources permit.
Hmm, at the end there, yes most updates are free. But aren't there be any development over the next 10 years? Or other better versions of the same plugs. Yes it's impossible to know, but there are more fees in the future too.
this is actually a really productive way to get hundreds of people correcting and teaching you stuff about blender
LOL that's exactly what the top comment is!
...as a side effect, saving you even more money.
Comments like these are really annoying me. I’m a part of the blender community since 2005. the community was once so humble and nice and today we have so many cocky people believing they’re the best out there.
I use both C4D and blender. Blender is great for modeling but EVERYTHING is better in C4D when it comes to animation and rendering. Honestly, xParticles is absolutely amazing. It’s literally everything you can think of. Redshift beats cycles in every aspect except maybe the realtime preview. XPresso is awesome for doing mechanical riggings with your own control GUI and everything. And don’t even start on mograph.
I really like blender, but there is a reason C4D comes with a pricetag and blender does not. Baking a high res pyro sim took me 20h to bake in blender and 20min to do in cinema, with better results in cinema.
So many times I wanted to correct him but then saw your comment. Well said!
holy...
Blender shows what Open Source can do. And Blender nowadays moved from a quirky nerd tool to a software that is capable of provide industry level features. Also thanks to a few big donators into the Blender foundation who all want a free and open, capable 3D modeling environment since it's cheaper to donate a few thousand dollars to Blender than paying a big bill of licenses every year.
blender is really life saver for many of us
Even if you never intend to use blender once, if you run a 3d company, chucking some money at blender is a good idea. The next generation of your people that come to work for you, need to get a start somehow, and 20k would mean a collapse in people trying 3d out.
Blender used to be stuck in the same trap most open source software is (think GIMP): a tool that, while powerful, was cumbersome and idiosyncratic, and pretty much aimed only at the kind of people who use vim. It was great to see how they were able to escape that trap, take the usability concerns seriously, and turn the software into a truly world class solution.
They didn't escape, they were dragged, kicking and screaming into the modern era by Andrew Price. All Hail the Donut.@@isodoublet
Blender is still a quirky nerd tool if you look under the hood. As soon as you dive deeper you see that blender is made by people with no industry/large scale production experience. The blender team cares more about features for individuals than having a reliable tool for large scale productions.
And there's me, thinking I spend too much at BlenderMarket
"I spend too much at Blendermarket."
Then I watched this. Oh, I spent a dime compared to the value I will get in the long run.
@@phy6geniuxYTcreations Yes! Tutorials, too. No disrespect to anybody teaching on UA-cam, and some are very exhaustive in their area, but I much prefer to pay for a course that I know is going to be very in-depth and well structured.
I don’t hold back on blender market especially if it’s something I’ll use atleast once
@@joechapman8208 I agree with you, I pay also for tutorials. First, as an educator myself, I know how hard it is to teach and create content. I'm not rich, so if I decide to pay for a course/tutorials, it means I need to learn it fast, with structure, and most of all, with quality. And paying for those resources help the person who created those educ materials to create more, tho totally expensive tutorials are still out of my reach.
I like YT for things that I already knew, or things I need to improve more. For totally basics, if there are good free alternatives, I usually combine them with paid ones with quality. 😁
i don't use a lot of addons. mainly because i forget i have them, and then i end up doing stuff manually anyway lol... being quick and efficient with geometry nodes helps a lot too
just don't forget to at least donate 5 bucks a month to blender foundation to keep it alive when you have a decent income, a lot tend to forget that despite they make 2-5k USD a month
if you're a professional who's used to paying €2000+ for software yearly, the €25 monthly donation should be a breeze. And on top of then you get your company/artist name advertised on the blender website.
@@DrTheRich plus its basically making sure you have a stream of employees as people are always downloading blender to try 3d.
when i make money, im going to donate 100 bucks a month to blender
6:04 To link modifiers in Blender, select all objects and choose the one with the modifiers last. Press Ctrl+L to access the linking menu, allowing you to link various elements, not just modifiers. You can make the modifiers as single users from modifiers panel to apply specific value on a single object hope that helps😊
I was coming to the comments to basically say the same thing😂
In the example at 5:52, I wanted to show how to control many objects in Blender with just one Bend Modifier, like in Cinema 4D, without having to copy the modifier to all objects.
@@CREVIS-CGI yes, after linking(copying) a modifier to other objects you can select all of them and with pressed alt button control their modifier parameters all at once. Yes, it is not as convinient like having a true linked modifier instances like you do in 3ds max, for example or grouping objects under a modifier like in C4D but still works and you don't need to merge objects
@@SlayerDUDE1993 In order to have the modifier results instanced, you can put the final meshes into a collection then right click the collection and Instance to Scene for a Collection Instance. A bit awkward but works. Copy Attributes Addon (comes with Blender but is disabled by default) allows for copying specific modifiers to the passive selected objects :)
And if you press alt while choosing the link modifiers option, that modifier becomes an instance so if you tweak one, all of them change.
I can’t wait to be financially comfortable to where I’ll be a blender monthly supporter. We get so much from them for very little
Awesome, dude! :)
True
just got a job and looking for contributing whatever i can to blender because blender got me that
For me it's not only the cost of other softwares, the creativity of the dev community plays a huge role in my decision to stick with blender, every week new and incredible add-ons get released and most of them are either free or have a very affordable price tag. It's very inspiring to see what they come up with and they're all very useful!
Exactly. There are so many affordable addons. Another reason I changed from C4D.
Exactly. I've been pushing open-source for decades. I can't tell you how many times I've had a piece of software or firmware and said "if only I had the source code I could improve this product 10x and it wouldn't cost the company profiting from that work anything except releasing their source!" But of course most don't and eventually they die because they lack the diversity of an open system.
People learn. Anything that is able to be edited by the public is popular. Everyone is learning from minecraft
I completely agree with you. The creativity and dedication of Blender's development community are truly remarkable. It’s inspiring to see how many high-quality and innovative add-ons are released on a regular basis, often for free or at very affordable prices. This openness and continuous improvement really set Blender apart from other software.
Select multiple objects and if you manipulate a dial while holding ALT it will apply to all objects. It would work for your bend modifier example.
for that to work with modifiers, all objects would have to have that modifier. Which can actually be copied with Ctrl+L
@@WeaselOnaStickBut if you want to copy a specific modifier, use the
dropdown menu > copy to selected
This will also copy its current parameters
@@GUMMY_MKIIwhat weasel suggested does the same thing u are saying, it will copy the values over as well with ctrl L
@@GUMMY_MKII you can also drag and drop modifiers in the outliner
Holy fuck whole tutorial in comment section
We need more people to do insight videos like this. Its the only way to stop predatory subscriptions and highlight enterprise level freeware.
Lol, there is no competition. Blender is good for beginner and hobbyist, but it can't be as good as competitors.
It have sculpting but it's worst that zbrush
It have architecture add-ons, but it's worst even that SketchUp, no way with other archviz
It have 3d printing but is not cad
So blender is everything but nothing, jack of all trades master of none.
@@serhiymedvedyev7140it’s also free and growing, without the decades and capital advantages of said competition.
And this precisely why I ditched C4D two years ago. I get all the features I need for zero cost (though I have donated), and I've got some truly brilliant addons for a handful of dollars (I don't think I've paid for anything more than $100). And I know that no matter what I spend on addons or assets, it's nothing compared to the cost of C4D plus X-Particles plus Octane, which is what I was using. I hate what Maxon has become so voted with my wallet. Couldn't be happier.
How long did it take you to make a switch? Was it gradual, or was it a cold turkey approach? Thanks for any info :)
@@ripmork It was pretty rapid. It all happened with the release of Blender 2.8, and once I'd made the decision to not begin renting C4D and Octane. The transition wasn't too bad, thanks to the latest versions of Blender - plus a few addons to replicate how I worked in C4D. Of course, there's a lot of good stuff in C4D that Blender doesn't have and which drives me nuts, but you gradually forget or sort workarounds, and now I think I'm doing stuff I could never have managed in C4D and Octane. All I need now is a Mac Studio M3 Ultra!
max is more expensive and you need all the admins like in blender. also isn’t the desire for all those addins to be native? I don’t see using 25 add ons being a good thing.
@@MrMadvillanIt's 25 add-ons which doesn't affect Blender's performance for under 1k, while you'd be paying 30k over the course of 10 years. You decide what's a "good" thing or not.
@@MrMadvillan It's been non-issue for me. Certainly no more hassle than any other DCC app that needs addons or plugins. I had at least that many in C4D.
KEEP THIS IN MIND!!!!! I think that everyone should know this=
ACCORDING TO BLENDER LICENCE:
Sharing or selling Blender add-ons (Python scripts)
The GNU GPL license therefore requires that such scripts (if published) are being shared under a GPL compatible license. You are free to sell such scripts, but the sales then is restricted to the download service itself. Your customers will receive the script under the same license (GPL), with the same free conditions as everyone has for Blender.
So most addons (all the ones that have no assets) are GNU GPL then you can say they are legally free to download from third party websites, its not considered piracy, that said its really nice to support addon developers
This is mind-blowing, thank you for sharing this less-known info!!!
This is legally speaking incorrect AFAIK. The blender foundation could sue script developers who do not share their scripts under GNU GPL, and they might be able to force the developer to publish their script under a GNU GPL license, however if the script developer doesn't publish it under GNU GPL to the people who buy it from them, that still means that you have no rights to it. Basically just because they might be doing something illegal doesn't grant you the right to also do something illegal. The very idea btw that Blender's python API is integral enough to force the GNU GPL license to get attached is also not something I am 100% sure would hold up in court, but you are correct that this is the interpretation of the Blender Foundation.
You should keep it in mind that you are practically advocating piracy. Plug-ins & Add-ons are under no obligation to release their code under any such license, and to say that most are doing so is not good enough. The GNU GPL license only covers code that was previously released under that license. It does not give you the right to illegally download free copies of plug-ins just because they have some parts that are under GNU GPL. If I take some free scripts, and make a new addon, you have no right to distribute the parts that are new & not under GNU GPL.
That only applies if the plugin scripts are GPL licensed, which they do not have to be.
@@memkiii The point is that the Blender Foundation claims that you *have* to release your script under a license compatible with GPL, as they claim that "Blender’s Python API is an integral part of the software, used to define the user interface or develop tools for example. The GNU GPL license therefore requires that such scripts (if published) are being shared under a GPL compatible license.". The point is that you would allegedly (if the Blender Foundation's claims would hold up in court) no right to distribute those new parts without licensing it under a GPL compatible license.
For the smoke sim at 7:13, you can use the "Adaptive Domain" setting to get much smoother playback and baking times.
Still no where near as fast as Embergen but until you want that Blender physics are fine.
Wow, I am now glad I was never able to take the 3D classes at my community college. Cinema 4D was the only one they used and were allowed to use (according to the syllabus) and seeing the yearly non-educational breakdown was eye-opening.
My college introduced the 3D course in Blender then moved to Maya for the later classes.
It wouldn't have been a waste to learn. Nothing you learn is wasted! What if you find a job where the studio uses C4D? You would be able to use it without paying for it then.
The yearly non-educational pricing means nothing if you're a professional. It's a tax deductible business expense.
Beyond that, all of these packages are essentially the same with different keybindings and names for things. The core concepts do not change. The software doesn't matter. The skills do.
this video was recommended to me by the UA-cam algorithm because I’ve been getting started learning blender over the past few weeks. I have absolutely no idea what’s being said here, nor do I understand most of the comments (which appear to be coming from extremely European-sounding users who obviously know way more about 3d modeling/rendering) stuff than I do. So, uh…bravo everyone I guess! I’m deeply lost in the bowels of UA-cam but I think you’re all doing a great job! And fck C4D or whatever it’s called! Get em!
Lol i thought you meant CAD but you mean cinema 4D. I was about to engage in schooling you but yeah fuck C4D!
@tweeeeeeex I'd say find something that is fun for you, audio visualisation for me for example, and find tutorials that have something close to what you imagined.
You suck ass judging by your comment
Octane and Cinema 4D are highly priced. I've been using Blender since version 2.8, and I'm glad I made the switch. After a year of using Cinema 4D, I noticed that the costs were somewhat exorbitant.
I agree, all these software makers act like their tool is the main character and you have to pay for that. But developers need so much software (that you'll never own) that they're basically paying off a small car monthly, they will never own. Personally I look at prices and ask myself: "can people in poor countries keep up with this?" , If the answer is no, I'm not sending my money to them. Support Open Source and keep the world a fair place.
Cycles Render, and its free
octane also has a free tier for blender (limited to 1 gpu).
@@xanzulscan it work for Eevee?
Octane is one of the cheapest rendering engines out there. Very appropriately priced, and is leaps and bounds better the cycles both in quality and render time.
Hi, thanks for all info. In workflow difference topics it's not necessary to join objects, you only need to select multiple objects and the last active object , press Ctrl + L = Copy modifiers. Or the same way you only need to activate the Copy attributes menu addon (incorporated with blender) and type: Ctrl + C = Copy modifiers or Copy selected modifiers. Select all objects and press Alt on parameters for modify settings at same in all objects. Thanks for all... have a nice day
Great video, awesome points there, I did the switch from c4d to blender on the 2.8 mark, and boy I'm happy as a kite! The addons made my particular needs faster and easier, the blender route is more do almost everything yourself but I love that part too since I've learned so much making my own quirky solutions when problems arrived at the door. I did enjoy my time with c4d but I can't justify the costs as a freelancer.
@@c.n.5476 I'm not in the States, and as you may know as freelancers we have different level of clientele according to our market, and I don't wanted to take the Piracy route even that I live in an Island in the Caribbean! hahaha
@@dr.pixelsdo you have any advice for starting out as a freelancer? I have a bit of experience already, but I might like to try getting freelance work.
Thanks 😀
it all depends on your location first, I did corporate animations and found a few entry level clients, after that, try to do a couple of personal projects aiming for the companies or type of gigs you want to get, I do several type of services that pay the bills but I don't promote them, since I don't want to be known for those, and if I get them fine I'll do them, but I promote the ones I want to get more and makes me happier. @@josephbrandenburg4373
I find that one of the biggest difficulties is to stay aware of all the additional tools and plugins in order to execute tasks in the most efficient way. With more and more indie devs contributing to what’s available in the blender market, it almost becomes a necessity to follow channels like yours and watch informative on a regular basis
This^ because I’m not gonna go reading the new beta and comparing the previous version especially when I don’t know nor use a lot of what gets updated
This was an excellent cost comparison
It feels extremely non-biased and the presentation was very clear and concise
Wow. Really like the breakdown. I just shifted from 3dsMax and Vray (After 15 odd Years) to Blender and Cycles. I am already sold.
V-Ray is still a much better and more versatile render engine vs Cycles .
Thank God they made a Blender!
It opens the doors for so many people, what a blessing!
I'm getting sick only by watching Cinema 4D prices...
I remember back then (20 years ago) I loved 3D but there were only programs like 3DS max and it made me give up because of their high subscription plans.
I'm so happy I found out about Blender (many years later) and my life changed, now I'm doing what I love - 3D, thank you, God! thank you, Blender
100% agree. When I was younger, I was interested in 3d. But mostly as just a hobby. So the pricing for other programs were far too much for me. But when I heard about Blender... I honestly couldn't download it fast enough. And it's only gotten better since.
Let me thank you for doing such an in-depth cost + effort analysis.
I'm dabbling with both C4D and Blender and have been thinking deeply about which path to choose for the next 5-10 years.
Want to really master one tool and your detailed video has definitely helped put things into perspective.
Thanks again!
Idk man, here is my honest and best thought out advice:
LEARN (and stay up to date with) BLENDER ANYWAY.
Why do you need to master only ONE? That sounds like a (possibly future) horrible disaster of an idea.
If you must be proficient in whatever softwares your career may require then DO IT, but...
LEARN BLENDER ANYWAY!
Make it part of your workflow.
Save yourself the future headache, stress and frustration.
If you're ever forced, or just choose, to transition away from software and applications that you've allowed yourself to become dependently familiar with for the next 5-10+ years, you will have a difficult time with seeing your skills transfer over to unfamiliar software...
Besides, at the rate that Blender is growing & improving plus having the ability to customize Blender by integrating add-ons that you PERSONALLY find useful or necessary ANYTIME YOU WANT (..without waiting for the typical "hopefully we'll see something like this added in the next update!" but it never happens disappointment...) is a pretty powerful argument in itself.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do though, and may your journey be successful!
i say is easier for Maxon go out of business or bought out by a bad company than the blender train to stop in the 10 years time frame
@khhnator especially considering how Blender looked and functioned when it originally came out. I'm pretty sure they're here to stay. Even if they did stop, it's open source. People can continue to work on it, should the devs choose not to.
Hey man vfx artist and 3d artist here worked for many years in C4D to be more precise i worked for 6 years with C4D and then i switched to blender. Blender is amazing in every possible aspect as well some of the stuff you mentioned you can easily do in Blender. 3 Years now in blender and i never regret switching...
I appreciate this a lot
What's awesome now when I use Blender, is that if I want a certain "plug in," with functions I want or need, I can use ai chat to help me create the python scripts for it. The more complicated the more work it takes, but it's a heck of a lot better than if I tried to do it myself. It's awesome. Chat GPT has opened up a whole new world of customization to me.
Thanks. Great video and comparison; we nearly use the same C4D Plugins in our studio (but multiple). Nearly every year I find myself thinking about switching the whole studio to blender, but mostly we are so locked-in with our workflow, old projects, assets and proprietary software that its really hard to change course. But with the growing costs of C4D and its plugins - and blender getting better and better...it gets more difficult to justify not to switch.
go houdini route. you won't need plugins
@@jomo2483 depends on what stuff you make, character modeling, I wouldn't use it, for simple motion graphics, I wouldn't use it either. but for complex sims and stuff that hard to pullout with even Maya, then Houdini does it better.
@@jomo2483 you mean the 5k$ floating HoudiniFX we use for more complex simulation, thats even more expensive than C4D+Xparticles? In a video about $$ + (nearly) free? ...Really?
The longer you wait the more it will cost and the harder it will be to transition.
Blender is FREE, what is there to WAIT for?
Or to phrase it in a more business oriented mindset:
When there is no cost, nor harm, in learning to become proficient with Blender while still using your familiar workflow in the meantime, why are you procrastinating with training in order to be able transition out of your costly workflow in the future?
The sooner you accept that not only is Blender free to use & train on, but grants you the ability to integrate or build YOUR OWN custom tools and add-ons without waiting for updates or signing new EULAs & ToS agreements, the sooner you can start abandoning those ever-increasing costs...
Find a way to integrate Blender into your current workflow, or dedicate a specific amount time per day or certain day per week strictly for training in using Blender, or some other idea that DOESN'T INCLUDE your future self saying "I wish we had done this sooner."
@Jadebones you're absolutely right. Time is the only critical factor atm. I'll try to wiggle some "free" time every week for the team to get up to speed in blender; starting next year. Thanks for the push ;)
this is the power of FOSS. The quality might be a bit worse or weird, but it's entirely free to use and incredibly cheap
One thing many people don't know: Performance is much better under Linux than under Windows. In some cases it is up to 50% faster. So going Linux increases performance which is similar to 1-2 generations of graphics hardware updates for free.
The biggest problem with Cinema 4D is that the boolean operators are very buggy when intersecting meshes, gaps and tears appear. Blender handles the same objects really well.
After learning Maya, Zbrush, Substance, Rizom, ect... at school I decided to switch to Blender + a few addons. I did the math and with what I'm saving I could buy a new overkill top of the line PC every year !
I feel like Blender is an amazing tool now and is on a trajectory of improvement and growth that i don't see with any commercial program. Though the competition and threat Blender brings will also be very beneficial for users of paid programs, because without that competition, big companies will only do the bare minimum for their customers and instead focus on maximizing the profits for their shareholders. Not in a thousand years will i ever go back to 3Ds max or any other subscription price model program - that was the main argument for me to switch away from 3dsMax and ditch all Adobe products that don't offer perpetual liscences.
Finally some one dare to make this, but it lacks showing all cost together side by side. Great stuff
I think it is worth considering a couple things:
1. Who this video is made for? And that would seem to primarily be people who are either starting, a career in, or already are an independent contractor making 3d animation. Or possibly making 3d animation as a hobby. People who are concerned about long-term costs over time, so not just initial costs, as well as ease of use and efficiency of different software options.
2. So what is the purpose of the prices listed in this video? Well, the video isn't about just right now, but what you can reasonably expect over the next ten years. And from this video the indicators seem to be an overall comparable software solutions (with a few key differences), of which Blender is very significantly cheaper. But no one can tell you what the costs will be over the next ten years, and I appreciate that this video doesn't try.
That said, if the purpose of this video was just to compare these platforms as they stand today, or over the next year or so, I absolutely agree with you that a cost comparison at the end should have been there. But it does provide a majority of the information you would need to do this on your own. Except you would need to Google a few things like the subscription costs of Blender plugins mentioned, as the video just states very few of them have subscription costs, and if they do, they are very cheap.
It is a natural response to treat content like it is made for you and your concerns, probably everyone is 'guilty' of this, myself included. I'm not criticizing you. I just hope to point out that sometimes it is a good thing to step back and think about what the point of a piece of content is, and even why it can make the content better when it is more focused on the point it is trying to make, rather than trying to provide the information that anyone who might watch it wants to know.
Cheers!
Those addons seem REALLY useful, thanks for making this list!
This is why I switched to Houdini, no plugins needed at all, you just pay for Houdini and that's all which is $399 (indie version) for 2 years node-locked.
And here I'm using cracked Cinema 4D, houdini, and substance painter! I use Cinema 4D for everything except simulation, which I do with Houdini! Redshift is the only paid software on my list because there is no crack lol!
In the example at 5:52, I wanted to show how to control many objects in Blender with just one Bend Modifier, like in Cinema 4D, without having to copy the modifier to all objects.
You wanted to, but you didn't?
@@theRPGmaster He wanted to and he did. people are probably telling him that you can copy the modifiers to other objects instead of joining them into a single one, but that doesn't give you the ability to control them from one single modifier. I guess you can create drivers and all, but that's still less convenient than C4D.
@@pardismackyou can control all from one easily. Just select all needed objects and tweak needed modifier properties with an “alt” key pressed
@@sylorgy I know about that, but having multiple modifiers decreases performance
Tools like Blender are a lifesaver for people in developing countries. The astronomical cost of commercial software means either using cracks or finding a suitable cheaper alternative.
when i was 21 i thought blender was gonna topple most of the industry, im now 30 and good god blender is looking very intimidating for its competitors these days
Another cool thing about Blender is, for those not needing all that expensive movie production stuff, Blender is light & flexible enough to run on just about any computer.
Great video, but ending felt a little off. Would have been nice to see a final comparison between the two, and price difference, and maybe a pros/cons list. Basically just a summary conclusion.
To think an animation studio may have to pay that $30,000 for every computer is insane and explains some things
It's a small cost for a $50+ M animation or live-action movie project, since they have built years of assets and C++ plugins with Maya. The problem is no C++ API in Blender
5:52 In Blender, the modifiers are named Visual Geometry in the data and you can transfer the data. So you can copy modifiers without merging objects
What a powerful and informative video. Thank you for all this effort! You said so much without blatantly saying it.
I think the eye-opener for me was when he said, "What do you have after 10 years? A plug-in."😳
@@miienekothat one hit hard.
5:58 You can actually apply a modifier or any data type to multiple objects at once with the "Ctrl L" menu You don't have to combine them to one object. But thats the only small thing I think you missed. Also holding Alt while editing a value with multiple objects selected, links that value across all those objects. Very informative video, thank you!
In the example at 5:52, I wanted to show how to control many objects in Blender with just one Bend Modifier, like in Cinema 4D, without having to copy the modifier to all objects.
6:02 - not quite true - you can copy modfier from one object to other objects. Select a set of objects, then select the source object (the last selected object is the active object), then press Ctrl+L and select "Copy Modifiers". So you don't get instanced modifiers with shared values, but at least you can transfer modifiers with their values as often as you have to.
To have all the objects affected by changing a value in a modifier, you can Alt click on a parameter, key in a value, hit enter, and it'll affect all selected objects with the same modifier.
@@ObscureHedgehog yes - that helps too, but it would be better if Blender had proper instanced modifiers.
You can use driver to control values of modifier from single place
In the example at 5:52, I wanted to show how to control many objects in Blender with just one Bend Modifier, like in Cinema 4D, without having to copy the modifier to all objects.
Pros usually take into account the time they save by using commercial software vs open source like Blender, if C4D allows doing mograph animations faster than Blender, then it might make the cost of C4D and the plugins worth it, also, you get support with C4D, while with Blender you need to rely on the community, which might not be the best if you are on a tight schedule, that's one of the reasons big studios pay through the nose for software, because those softwares come with fast support!
I've never purchased a plugin or asset. Infact I had been using blender for more than 8 years before I realized you could buy plug-ins. I do wish to begin supporting plug-in makers by purchasing. But I have become so comfortable making what I need. I'm having trouble deciding which I want
This video works well as a list of highly valuable - sometimes essential - add-ons. It helps me to know what is available as robust time-saving solutions.
As a Cinema4d and Blender user the only thing I would add is an a render enigne like Octane. The biggest drawback of Cycles ist the suboptimal output of AOVs and Renderlayers. It can be optimized with addons and scripting but is still a pain in the ass.
I've been using blender for 10+ years and for what i needed (comercials presentations 3d printing etc) only recently i needed flip fluids for the rest the addons are maybe togeter 20$ , not counting where i gave developers some money because they deserved it. my top tool is i think volumetirc smooth. So you can do a lot for free, and once you understand the nodes, you can do a whole lot more for free as well. Most of all its such a complete package from video editing, to animations, to stills, 3d prints. retopo, uv, .. it seams endless.
for what it's worth you can get flip fluids for free technically if you spend some time to compile it yourself, if you have some basic knowledge it's pretty easy :)
Thanks for a good demonstration of the capabilities and costs for the Cinema 4D/Blender comparison. I'm interested in this because I want to pursue it as a hobby when I want to do something non-electronics.
Thanks for this incredible deep dive 😅 I'm going to start donating to Blender for Xmas annually
Blender is amazing. Great for people like me who only do occasional 3D work, so can't justify the big $ commitment of the other programmes.
I just make simple theatre sets for my puppets so I don't need many extensions or addons at all - I'm just super happy that blender is still free. If my channel takes off I'll be glad to make some annual donation to blender.
Really nice starter overview, can verrify this is a great list indeed - Would recommend sanctus library for procedural materials & traffiq for cars too
I might be in the minority, but my choice of C4D over Blender was heavily influenced by my professional environment a decade ago. At that time, the company I worked for struggled to appropriately value animation work, which made efficiency a top priority for me. This need for speed in project completion was what initially drew me to C4D.
My experience with Blender back then was far from positive; its interface seemed unintuitive, as if it was designed on another planet.
Fast forward to today, and it's evident that Blender has undergone significant improvements, particularly in terms of user-friendliness. However, having invested not just financially but also in terms of time and skill development in C4D, I'm hesitant to switch. My proficiency in C4D has not only been a substantial financial investment but has also enabled me to produce high-quality work at a rapid pace.
Switching to Blender now feels like it might slow down my workflow, at least initially. The return on investment with C4D, both in terms of money and the ability to deliver exceptional work quickly, makes me question the practicality of transitioning to a different tool at this stage of my career.
I'm sticking with C4D thanks to its excellent interoperability between various systems, fields, volumes, simulations, mograph - it can all work together without any gymnastics.
Sun cost fallacy
Setback for sure only happens in the first year, after that, I do believe you'll get the same speed and quality like before but with lower expenses
yes, but the main difference is that no one forces you to buy addons, that is, the free program is also capable of this, you just need knowledge. and addons are purchased in order to speed up and simplify the process. This is the difference. I use a blender myself. and bought a couple of addons for about $300
in reality if you have clients that wants you to do things with a 4-7days deadline, there's no shortcuts if you stay with the default features of these DCC tools of how sometimes their workflow just stupidly cumbersome to work with... so you have to speedrun your way and use the add-ons for ease of life. but if you're a hobbyist who's only starting up or just a instagramer... most add-ons are kinda waste of money.
@@yasunakaikumi yes
5:08 there’s also a PSD-Layers add-on (no Affinity layers add-on yet, though)
Other than Houdini, for every software you'd have to buy plugins. Maya, Max has soo many plugins people rely on. Considering maya is the industry standard for aniamtion, it doesn't even have a pose library buitl in. But the biggest difference with Blender plugins and other software plugins that they are fraction of the price and only one time payment. Not to mention, you can do most of stuffs the addons are doing by defualt, it would take a lot of time and clicks and skill.
Bro no mentioning Physical starlight and atmosphere is criminal
Blender does have a way to apply modifiers to multiple objects without joining the objects together.
As a Cinema 4D user, my biggest issue with Blender was never the fancy rendering stuff but very basic things: perhaps it's just a matter of getting used to it, but modelling feels a lot more difficult in Blender than in C4D. For instance, if I remember correctly in Blender there isn't a way to precisely set XYZ values for points (either position or scale), which seems like a bizarrely basic function to lack.
extremely well-done video and kudos to the comparisons.
You can press ctrl L and copy modifiers from active to selected objects in Blender
I barely use Blender but the plugins from Blender market can be amazing and I have paid for one. The costs are low enough to try them and because they are usually open source I can modify and added more options.
remember you can grab octane free for Blender upto 1 gpu
I absolutely agree - it's fantastic that Octane is available for free in Blender with support for one GPU. Octane is a great renderer, and this is an amazing opportunity for C4D artists who already use Octane and are transitioning to Blender. It doesn’t get much better than this! You can start working right away with the familiar Octane materials without having to spend too much time on Blender’s material system at the beginning. It’s practically a dream come true.
Most of those addons can be downloaded for free from the creator's website.
It's 100% legal according to how blender is licensed
THUS PLEASE DONATE TO THE BLENDER FOUNDATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! $5, $10 -- $20 - WHATEVER YOU HAVE
agree
Great video!!. Can you make another video about comparing blender addons because there are many similarities
Thank you for the suggestion! Comparing multiple add-ons could indeed be quite challenging, as it would require purchasing many of them (even though some are available for free) to perform a thorough comparison. I might cover this topic gradually when I’m searching for specific tools and gain experience with different add-ons along the way. In general, comparing add-ons in detail takes a lot of time and experience with each tool, but I'll do my best to share insights when I can. Stay tuned!
Im not a blender user, but I really am getting sick and tired of being bled to death by subscriptions. Im stil a maya user, under the annual indie license, but Ive moved my animation and rendering to Unreal Engine, and my compositing to Davinci Resolve. I didnt know you could outright buy Substance painter, thats great to know. Now if I just had a pro level replacement for photoshop, id be set.
This is great information! Thanks for putting it all together.
You can use Synced modifiers a free add-on to sync modifiers with multiple different objects.
5:55 but u can actually add modifier to multiple objects just by clicking CTRL L --> Copy Modifiers (it copies modifier from main object selected to others ) lol
I was thinking about this lol...
In the example at 5:52, I wanted to show how to control many objects in Blender with just one Bend Modifier, like in Cinema 4D, without having to copy the modifier to all objects.
Ctrl-c>selected modifiers copies modifiers from active to selected objects. HDRI can be drag and dropped from the Asset Browser.
The revolution against greedy corporations embracing subscription models is in full force. Give me Blender, Affinity Photo and Reaper over, C4D, Maya, Photoshop and Avid any day. I'm willing to pay a lot ONCE if it means that I own what I buy.
6:00 ish - you can use Ctrl+L, copy modifiers also to copy modifiers from the active object to others in the selection, instead of joining the meshes
02:22 What do you need a "HDRI loading pluging" for? What does it do that simply selecting the file as the image for the environment material in the builtin editor doesn't already do?
Blender is so powerful now, some 3D artist who switch to it are surprised is free and addons are cheap compared to other 3D software, bigginers dont wanna spend money to add-ons till they know about work flow, if you dont really wanna spend you can learn Geo nodes, then earn money from making geo nodes in the future, i dunno to us experienced people in the industry(eho started in blender) donating to blender is more like a duty (like giving money to your parents) its for paying back for the things you learned and earned
You can copy modifiers to other mesh ibjects with a free addon which comes with blender. It's called "copy attributes". You then select the destination then the source, than do Ctrl c and pick from the menu what you want to copy over.
If need something blender and simple Google will always show you a result. There is so much info for free about this software.
I've also made quite a lot of addons, all for free
for transferring the modifiers in blender you press ctrl + L and then click link modifiers
I don't buy anything, so I use Blender. There are very few things truly impossible without paying in Blender. Most of everything else, you'll find a long, convoluted tutorial to do it yourself if you don't want to buy... and following it creates a resource you can create and keep updated yourself AND improve your skills.
I envy you if you can manage that-I wish I could too.
When I see a great plugin at such an affordable price, I find it hard to resist. And then there’s the thought of getting free updates, so why not?
Whether I end up using the tool regularly is another story. You’re absolutely right, though.
My favorite add-ons are definitely the little helpers that speed up the workflow and provide features I couldn’t implement myself.
Could you create a custom bookmark manager or a tool that lets me open specific layouts in the viewport with buttons?
That’s where I really see the value in investing in good add-ons.
Well this video is pure gold. Thanks!
REAL message about Blender: The addons listed by this gentleman in the video are a fad, NOT a necessity.
You need absolutely NO addons in Blender, you can do anything directly with the tools in Blender.
Addons are only for those who don't know all the features of Blender and have money to spare.
The actual cost is 0.
While one could argue that they save time and needing to memorize so many shortcuts, I have addons I've tried but don't use regularly because it was just easier to do it "natively" than to try to navigate the addon's options. There are cases where it can save time, but don't feel pressured into buying addons.
Wow thank you sooo much for sharing this with us !!!! Liked and Subscribed after first 10 seconds . Thank You!!!
It's not just Cinema 4D. All these big graphics-software developers have become so greedy that they are slowly pricing themselves out of the market. On my daughters advice, I tried out blender 3 and was amazed by the power of the software. I'm certain the day will come when it doesn't make any sense anymore to buy into one of the so called professional software packets when open source can do the same for a fraction of the price while at the same time supporting small free software developers.
You can transfer modifiers to target objects without combining them btw
Excellent breakdown
this was one really well made video!
Blender looks so cool and is evolving so rapidly!! I'm a Maya user since forever so for me, learning a new software that is not 200% better than Maya and is not as used as Maya in the industry, doesn't looks as attractive. But in some years who knows, it might get THAT much better than Maya and I'll jump to the Blender train.
whoah, the subscribe button lit up with a rainbow outline when you said subscribe at the end... pretty cool (also I liked and subbed, awesome elite video)
I'm making a game for Unreal, have used Blender for years, and do not plan to purchase any add-ons. I used to rely on several free add-ons, but now I only rarely use a couple.
Great job, thank you!
I love this! I'm mainly a Houdini user professionally but need to get myself back into a more general purpose 3D software for some additional bits. I really can't fathom the idea of going back to Max, Maya or C4D, and have always had a soft spot for Blender. So seeing a guide like this of how to beef it up with a few quid is extremely helpful.
You can link modifiers you dont have to join the just ctrl + l then link modifiers
Next time I model 8 layers of cloth I will think of this video 😂 thanks boss 🤙🏽🖤😎🕺
Thanks for the vid, it is informative in many ways. There is a player Houdini indie 299 for 2 years full version.
And that's why we love Blender
Open source is the future, the monopoly is coming to an end
@@brianmolele7264 I have been hearing that for 20 years, hopefully, though!
Thanks for a great comparison. Q: did you fully switch to Blender? And if so, how much time did it take you? I started learning Blender recently (it really is great, even without considering the huge price difference), but after working past 15+ years in Cinema 4D, doing anything inside it is like second nature, while in Blender I stumble around even most basic things :)
B3D can feel the same way, as you can probably imagine, after spending a few hundred hours in it. There's some things I can't get used to though. The way I lose focus of an area just because I moved my pointer out of the way, still drives me nuts. But one thing I love is that while they try to stay consistent with older versions' ways to do things, they're constantly evolving, optimizing the interface and features, as well as overhauling entire backends. They're not just milking an overaged bloated codebase for profit with minimal investments, but very methodically restructuring the entire system over time, as resources permit.
Blender is a blessing 🫡💐
Hmm, at the end there, yes most updates are free. But aren't there be any development over the next 10 years? Or other better versions of the same plugs. Yes it's impossible to know, but there are more fees in the future too.
Photographer 5 has been a god sent.