I have to wonder aloud sometimes, when I'm using my beloved Blender, how other companies like Autodesk and Maxxon survive with Blender in the world.  I mean, I know everyone has their preferences, and some apps are good at certain things, while others at other things, but the more I see just what I can do with Blender, and how powerful the software really is, it makes mne wonder how Maya or Cinema4D or 3dsmax can survive still?  Especially when they are charging THOUSANDS of dollars for things that Blender does just as good for FREE?

The reason I'm making a thread about this is because I just got a spam email from a company who were offering classes and tutorials in 3dsmax and Maya, and making it seem like if you want a job in the CG industry, these are the softwares you need to know, and use.  So I went to look at Maya, and saw it costs $5000 or some such crazy nonsense!  That got me mad, because looking at the feature list, I didn't see one single item there that couldn't be done also in Blender, for free!  Why on earth would 3D studios use these expensive softwares when something like Blender is out there?  Imagine the cost of operations, and how much money the FX industry could be saving if they all just switched to Blender!  Imagine how quickly the production of Blender would progress if every studio out there were using it in production, and giving their input and suggestions on how to improve it!  How could it be that Blender hasn't put others out of business yet?

The only software I've seen that's way different than Blender, and maybe more powerful, is Zbrush.  That thing looks like it's lightyears ahead in what it can do, but that's about it.  The others out there don't seem like they offer anything we don't have in Blender, and it boggles my mind that they can still sell their wares for such prices!

Ok, rant off.  Just wondering how Blender hasn't put most of these guys out of business yet, and how they could still have the nerve to charge sooo much for their products when a free alternative is out there.