MADE FOR EVERYONE
Imagine that you’ve invested many thousands of euros and decades of your life developing software that creates worlds. Modelling, rigging, 3D animation, 2D animation, simulation, rendering, compositing, motion tracking, and video editing. In short, everything an artist needs. How much would you charge for this software? Think about it. Maybe you’d like a villa in Palo Alto? Or an office by Norman Foster? Or even a McLaren F1? Maybe you want to drive your McLaren F1 from your villa in Palo Alto to your office by Norman Foster? No judgement: billions of people want some variation of this life. Besides, you’ve made sacrifices. You help creative people make beautiful things. You deserve it.
But, practically, villas aren’t cheap. You’ll need money and lots of it. How about charging people for a monthly or annual subscription? Or a one-off licence? Or payment for commercial usage? How about nothing? How about the software is free to download and free to use for anyone anywhere for whatever purpose, forever and ever?
How about you’re happy if somebody makes a whole feature film with your program and you get zilch in return? In which case, the obvious question is, ‘why?’
BLENDER BEGINS
At well over six feet, Ton Roosendaal is an unlikely David to the CG industry’s Goliaths. Ton doesn’t have a Stanford MBA, nor is he an ArtCenter alumnus. In fact, Roosendaal originally wanted to be an architect. “That changed when I met a guy in a bar,” he says. “He told me about
