Netflix Animation Studios Joins the Blender Development Fund as Corporate Patron (blender.org)

Brilliant. Some of the animations that are put as showcases on the Blender site are absolutely phenomenal. This one https://studio.blender.org/projects/spring/

particularly is my all time favorite.

I think especially since the UI overhaul in Blender 2.8 the project has been on a steep upwards trajectory. The software was always amazing, especially since it was free and open source, but the new UI and all subsequent improvements really put Blender on the map as a serious tool and not just an alternative for when you don't have money for the big players.

Very cool news.

Personally, I'd love to see some more focus on game-dev workflows. The game asset pipeline still feels janky: texture painting exists, but not great, and baking textures/previewing results or baking from high poly to low poly involves a lot of manual node fiddling and rewiring. Export/iterate/build/test cycles are also pretty painful still.

How does it compare to Maya these days?

<3 Blender is a treasure and must be protected.

I really like Blender and it's an amazing product, but I can't get over the standard Blender keymap. The "industry compatible" workflow is more sane, but then I have to translate tutorials from the Blender keymap to the industry compatible controls, and they're not always 1:1

How does that translate into real cash?

If someone is wondering who the Aras guy is https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@aras/115971315481385360

Anyone know why Netflix doesn’t respond to their job site? I applied to several positions where I’m an exact match, with a decade of VFX and another decade of internet company experience in LA. Never heard a single word in response from them, for years. Reqs stay open a long time as well. What are they doing? Are they ghost jobs? They don’t even respond with a “no” form letter. (Lately their site is broken at the verify email stage, pin post returns 403.)

We might see a transition of stable market toolware from subscription to open source yet

Blender's UX evolution (2.8+, asset browser, USD) shows FLOSS can compete when funded right, Netflix's €240k push helps. Curious if Animal Logic shared their hybrid Maya/Houdini/Blender pipeline details?

I wonder if devs leverage LLMs can catch up to the big boys in surprising speed. Netflix isn’t dumb

This is great, but they should give more. I would love to see million dollar donations from every major tech company. It's nothing to them, and Blender is fundamentally changing the way we make digital media.