When I first tried Blender, I thought it was simply awful. Even very simple stuff we tried to import, using relatively common file formats, completely broke. So fast forward several years later. Okay, its better. A lot of those kinks are worked out on imports, or so Ive seen so far. I have nothing against FOSS - in fact there are a couple of projects I love, love, love.

We've decided to take the plunge and start offering some content in Blender format, much as we do for Vue, Bryce, Shade 3D and Poser / DS. Is there really a content market? I know there's the all-you-can-eat type market out there - I mean people who are interested enough (or have work needs) to actually jump into paid for content. I am seeing a lot of good Blender renders out there, but I haven't yet seen a professional ecosystem yet.

Im not name calling here - Id just like some honest feedback. We just shipped our first product supporting Blender and I have no real numbers yet to say anything substantial in regards to numbers, feedback, etc.

Hello chikako

I can not speak for anyone else but I know that most content in standard formats like OBJ 3DS max and FBX can usually be imported into the Blender with some tweaking here and there. I think one of the most common wishes from many who are new to Blender is wishing to learn a work flow that they can learn to use Blender with Poser & Daz Studio so that they can release either free or potential market content themselves. I have seen a couple of Blender tutorials being sold in market place that I will reserve my opinion on but Project base learning is how I have come to learn how to use Blender. I do not know if this is something you might want to consider but I would be very willing to pay for product that contributes to my further learning of Blender. Not sure this has answered your question but thought I would share my 2 cents

Thanks

I do not know if this is something you might want to consider but I would be very willing to pay for product that contributes to my further learning of Blender. Not sure this has answered your question but thought I would share my 2 cents

That's interesting. So not necessarily just a model, or a tutorial but something that's a hybrid type product?

Yes I think many would appreciate the ability to learning and having something they can start using in their own renders to make them feel more confident that yes Blender can be used as any other software package to create the same things that can be done in Shade Vue 3Ds Max and so forth. Blender has so much potential but I feel that at times the workflow from Blender to Poser and Daz is what has kept many Blender users from venturing or taking their talent further. Personally I would be very happy and proud to support my fellow Blender users as a customer if they chose to venture in to marketing products they made with Blender in the stores here at Renderosity and we have some very talented artist in our Blender community here 

 thought I knew that name ;-) had a play with shade a few yrs ago, was impressed and nearly bought the newer one but I fell in a blender and took me a couple of yrs to get out and about in other proggys rofl

don't really know what sells well but I'd guess ~clothing morphs props in that order 

 opps the selling bit is for poser (misread Q)

the ONLY thing I would buy for blender is python scripts anything else I can make myself 

Hello chikako

I can not speak for anyone else but I know that most content in standard formats like OBJ 3DS max and FBX can usually be imported into the Blender with some tweaking here and there. I think one of the most common wishes from many who are new to Blender is wishing to learn a work flow that they can learn to use Blender with Poser & Daz Studio so that they can release either free or potential market content themselves. I have seen a couple of Blender tutorials being sold in market place that I will reserve my opinion on but Project base learning is how I have come to learn how to use Blender. I do not know if this is something you might want to consider but I would be very willing to pay for product that contributes to my further learning of Blender. Not sure this has answered your question but thought I would share my 2 cents

Thanks

Just to be clear, the .3DS file format isn't associated with 3dsmax anymore.  The native 3dsmax file format is .max.  3DS is a very old file format from back in the 3DS DOS days, and isn't supported by 3dsmax any more efficiently than it is by any other application.  As far as paying for Blender tutorials, I think that's a horrible idea.  The whole concept of Blender is free and open source, so why should the knowledge of learning it be reserved to paying customers?  That's almost an oxymoron.

 cgcookie charges for some of there tuts ( as a monthly membership)

then theres this  https://cgcookiemarkets.com/blender/ 

 cgcookie charges for some of there tuts ( as a monthly membership)

then theres this  https://cgcookiemarkets.com/blender/ 

Yeah, I know that paying for Blender addons and tuts isn't a new concept, and it's been out there for a long time.  Can't say I totally agree with it, but I can understand charging for addons to the software.  I am, however, against charging for tutorials of an application where the entire philosophy behind it is open source and free. I've been a long-time 3dsmax user, and had been learning Blender for over a year now, because of the absorbant cost of Max, and the way AD doesn't seem to care about the independent artist.  One thing which attracted me to Blender was the sense of freedom and community assiciated around it.  Something not every other application can boast.  However, I quickly became disillusioned when I realized the hipocrisy of some of the people behind the application.  Speaking in general terms, people get the software for free, probably learned to use it for free, then turn around and ask others to pay for the very thing they inherited themselves.  Paying for access to a resource which may have collected a vast amount of quality tutelage, saving people time and effort, is one thing.  I'm against charging for individual, singular tutorials just because you want to make a quick buck because you don't know any other way to make money using the software you paid nothing for.  Just my opinion.

"Personally I would be very happy and proud to support my fellow Blender users as a customer if they chose to venture in to marketing products they made with Blender in the stores here at Renderosity and we have some very talented artist in our Blender community here"

There are probably more artists than you think who are using Blender to create content for sale here in the Marketplace.  Blender is what I use to make the models that I sell.  Advertising what software was used to make a Poser/DAZ product is not something that is done and is not really relevant to a customer, just so long as it works, as advertised, in the program they are purchasing it for.

Yes Blender is free learning is not always free when I first start learning to model which I still consider myself an amateur novice and did not start learning how to model with Blender since at that time it was still 2.49 which I could not get my head around I learned using Hexagon by yes purchasing some tutorials to get me around the fundamentals. When development for Hexagon ceased found Silo which was reasonably priced for a hobbyist to explore and again purchased tutorials to learn how to use the software. Now Blender has come a long way since 2.49 and there is a multitude of tutorials for learning it much of it free but content specific to either Poser or Daz Studio there is little if not any at all. The question put forth by chikako made me answer that the type of product I would look for or consider supporting as a customer would be something like a tutorial describing the work flow between Blender to Poser or Daz. If chikako chooses to create such a product why curtail him the choice of what he finally decides is his. I expressed what I would find of interest and be willing to pay for.

 where getting a long way from the OP's Q lol

@Lobo the blender/poser route is quite easy, will admit my first few goes took some head scratching but now I have my grids set I know (more or less) how big to make props rarely now do I have to tweak in poser by more then 10%, clothing is built around the doll so that's no worries. Importing from poser can be awkward first time  but once you know about vertex order/polygroups that's also easypeasy ! moving textures from one t'other is tricky and can be a pita but even with a tut it will still be a pita

{no offence intended m8 but after 40 odd yrs in engineering an electronics using cad/cam and matlab the only thing that gets me stumped is the curves on "the girl" rofl, get her in a dance routine with soft body applied and you'd get lumps in your pc screen ;-) 

good addons(plugins/woteva) I would buy but even then because of the nature of blender lots of addsons have been made free and if enough peeps like them they end up in trunk so if a addon is a paid for item it will never get in trunk and when trunk gets an update then you have paid for something that wont work UNTILL the creator fixes it

@chickaco ~ make a few simple things and bang them out as freebies, just to get your name known then its down to you ;-) I have seen your stuff when I was in shade/meshbox forums its good stuff, heck I think it was a tut of yours for shade when I made my first GOOD shoes that taught me how to do it in hex or blender god bless nurbs

Hedheld makes the best points heree.  Personally, I would never ever pay for a tutorial.  Chances are, the information to do what you want to know how to do in Blender is out there somewhere, for free.  It's up to you to ask questions in forums, and do some intelligent googling to find it.  Heck, I've learned how to do some things in Blender just by following tutorials for different software too, so the answers are out there.  I would pay only for a service maybe that put all the most professional tutorials, the really advanced stuff, into one single location and charged a membership.  So long as the information there was updated with new stuff often, I'd pay for that.  I'd never pay for just random tuts on how to do this or that, because that info is out there, sometimes you just have to ask.

Sharing information seems to be alive a well, and I have a lot more respect and willing to support people who share information for free, and then maybe charge for their high quality works.  Ok, sorry for carrying off topic, that was just an interesting deviation in the thread, and I wanted to share my two cents.

We shipped a Blender version of our Christmas Village 2014, and a couple more products in the loop will be available for Blender users.  I guess we will see how it goes.

The market for Blender stuff is a bit nascent, but I could see the need for it. I know most people expect freebies because the software itself is free, but that content doesn't always come into existance without some cost (mostly in terms of time spent) to the creator.

As for tutorials, I seek out the free stuff. But I could see where the pay-for ones have their value. In that case it's all about presentation. Sure that information may be out there at no cost, but the tutorials for sale should put in the effort to make things much more clear and concise. (Try to make it look professional or out of a textbook.) I know I've made my own free tutorials, but since nobody's paying, I'm not too worried about making them pretty. Now if somebody were asking for money and was being as lazy as I am and doing things "freestyle", then no, it's not going to be worth it. That money paid should cover rehersals so the trail and error isn't as much a factor, and post production editing.

This also goes for actual 3D content. If somebody's paying for a .blend, it ought to be fully featured. Not just a 3D model, but materials, textures, rigs/drivers/script, some documentation. And perhaps a few extra goodies like a few alternate textures or included pose sets for NLA or what have ya. All those things take time and effort to make work well and look good, so of course it's ok to ask somebody to pay for that.

been busy so missed this till now

yes there is a viable market for items made in blender if you have the abilities to make them usable in other softwares

as for paying for tutorials

if you intend to sell products the cost of those tutorials as well some supplies can be used as a tax deduction in areas(check with your preparer if in US)

i use blender 2.49b still to create designs for clients that want custom parts made for equipment, cars, and motorcycles so that they know what it will look like when done

i personally am a highpoly modeller which tends to crash most poser and studio systems but i dont sell or give that stuff away

i like the photo real look

ok it wont let me add a pic?

I've Been Using Poser since Poser 4, I make animated movies with Poser. But some of the things I see done in Blender it is excellent. I am wanting to make a ship sail in an ocean. Blender can make a very convincing ocean. I have a sail boat that I would like to sail in it that I have been using in Poser so it floats naturally with the boat sinking to it's natural waterline against the boat with animated charatures on the boat. That would be great to be able to do.

I guess I can import  the boat into Blender, but animating the people would be the problem. I would be then hoping to able to do my final Render within Blender so I could get the natural ocean flow in relation with the animated  boat with the charactures so the scene would look natural. Render speed between Blender, and Poser I'm not sure of the difference between the two. I can't imagine importing Blenders ocean into Poser. I don't know if Poser could handle that whole scene. So I am thinking of Doing everything within Blender using Poser Content when that becomes possible, At that time, I can make props that may be needed all within Blender. That is the way I want to fly. I am so impressed with Blender, from the early stages when it started. (I was so abstract to figure out then) and now. It is a great program with unlimited possabilitys. 

 blender can do that ;-) I've seen the tut but its NOT easy, think it involves using drivers I don't do animations much so not tried it yet

think this one of the better tuts but theres quite a few so watch try and try again lol  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11F1NRpqrzY

don't forget you can add wind to dynamic sails and poser collada export sorta works but I would think theres a lot of tweaking to do