Blender has definitely opened up a whole new realm of creative possibilities to an entire generation of content creators or like-minded creative individuals who may have never otherwise had the financial means to access such advanced technology. That's probably the most important contribution Blender has made to the world of animation and graphic art in general. In previous decades, only people who were pursuing a career in VFX or game creation, or people with a large disposable income and time on their hands were capable of accessing this type of powerful CG creation software.

Maya, 3dsmax, Softimage XSI, and to some extent Lightwave 3D and C4D were really the only players at the highest end of commercial CG software, and we all know the prices of most of those packages was extremely intimidating for many people. Nowadays, I hear Blender being mentioned by young people as the first name they think of when they think of 3D modeling or CG animation. Years ago, most young people couldn't even name a CG animation software offhand, and Photoshop might have been the only household name in digital art in general. Blender isn't quite a household name like Photoshop is, but I'm noticing it is becoming much more recognized than some of the huge high-end software names have ever been. Maya might have been the only other software in CG animation that came close to being a household name simply because people have heard it being mentioned in the extra features on the DVD or Blue Ray of their favorite movie blockbusters, but I think Blender has surpassed that in recent years.

Times have changed.

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