Microsoft joins Blender Dev Fund.

[Bullit]

https://cgpress.org/archives/microsoft- ... und-2.html

Microsoft makes use of Blender to generate synthetic 3D models and images of humans that can be used to train AI models. For researchers, having access to high quality free/opensource 3D software has proven to be of great benefit for scientific projects. You can check some of their work here.

https://www.blender.org/press/microsoft ... ment-fund/

[jonmoore]

Blender has a bigger development team than many commercial DCC's these days! I think it's safe to say that Max and Maya aren't threatened by Blender, and much the same can be said for C4D and Houdini as they each have distinctive audiences. But Modo looks increasingly fragile as it only excels at modelling (asset creation) workflows. With the wealth of addons for Blender it's a decent hard surface modelling addon to go alongside the likes of C4D and Houdini (which both have weaknesses here). Why pay a premium price for Modo when Blender provides so much at no cost at all. Even the klutzy UX/UI stuff in Blender is far more refined these days!