Netflix Animation Studios Joins the Blender Development Fund as Corporate Patron • Hacker News Board

Re: Netflix Animation Studios Joins the Blender Development Fund as Corporate Patron

#11

Post by haunter » Fri, Jan 30, 2026, 1:14 PM UTC

BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #3

I think especially since the UI overhaul in Blender 2.8 the project has been on a steep upwards trajectory. The software was always amazing, especially since it was free and open source, but the new UI and all subsequent improvements really put Blender on the map as a serious tool and not just an alternative for when you don't have money for the big players.

>I think especially since the UI overhaul in Blender 2.8 the project has been on a steep upwards trajectory.

100% agreed. I know a lot of people don't like that but sometimes I feel that FOSS projects are intentionally sabotaging themselves by ignoring industry standard options/conventions and instead they are following open source ideas just to be different. UI/UX is the main symptom of that. Blender could move forward and wish others could too.

Krita is another example of a good project

CAD is the next frontier where we need a "Blender moment"

Re: Netflix Animation Studios Joins the Blender Development Fund as Corporate Patron

#12

Post by luma » Fri, Jan 30, 2026, 1:18 PM UTC

BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #3

I think especially since the UI overhaul in Blender 2.8 the project has been on a steep upwards trajectory. The software was always amazing, especially since it was free and open source, but the new UI and all subsequent improvements really put Blender on the map as a serious tool and not just an alternative for when you don't have money for the big players.

The Blender project is the model I hope FreeCAD can eventually follow. Like digital animation, the 3D digital design field has a pretty rough selection of tools and the UI on all of them leaves a lot to be desired. FreeCAD has been on an upward trajectory in the past couple years as more people lean into the project out of frustration over increasingly hostile pricing from the commercial solutions. KiCAD has seen incredible advances since CERN started pouring resources into it, I'm sure Netflix money is going to help Blender. Now to get some large engineering shop to consider FreeCAD as their exit path to Siemens/et al...

Re: Netflix Animation Studios Joins the Blender Development Fund as Corporate Patron

#13

Post by BadBadJellyBean » Fri, Jan 30, 2026, 1:26 PM UTC

haunter wrote: post #11

BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #3

I think especially since the UI overhaul in Blender 2.8 the project has been on a steep upwards trajectory. The software was always amazing, especially since it was free and open source, but the new UI and all subsequent improvements really put Blender on the map as a serious tool and not just an alternative for when you don't have money for the big players.

>I think especially since the UI overhaul in Blender 2.8 the project has been on a steep upwards trajectory. 100% agreed. I know a lot of people don't like that but sometimes I feel that FOSS projects are intentionally sabotaging themselves by ignoring industry standard options/conventions and instead they are following open source ideas just to be different. UI/UX is the main symptom of that. Blender could move forw…

We have to keep in mind though that many open source projects started as something that someone wanted and then made. It probably worked just like that person wanted and then it grew. Maybe it is because they weren't too versed in UI/UX design.

Another thing is that many classic open source projects don't have a "I want to grow my user base" mindset. Why would they. It's not like they get paid.

Big overhauls also always have the risk of alienating current users. I learned Blender on the pre 2.8 UI and because I use it rarely I still sometimes struggle with the new shortcuts.

Blender clearly benefited from the change but the real spirit of open source is: you don't like it then help fix it.

Re: Netflix Animation Studios Joins the Blender Development Fund as Corporate Patron

#14

Post by crote » Fri, Jan 30, 2026, 1:26 PM UTC

BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #3

I think especially since the UI overhaul in Blender 2.8 the project has been on a steep upwards trajectory. The software was always amazing, especially since it was free and open source, but the new UI and all subsequent improvements really put Blender on the map as a serious tool and not just an alternative for when you don't have money for the big players.

It's a self-reinforcing loop. Once a FLOSS tool becomes good enough, it'll start to attract professional users, who are willing to invest in it, which makes it even better. And it is quite hard for commercial players to compete with free.

But FLOSS software is mainly made by developers. Who like writing new flashy features, but are awful at UX, and making sure all the small kinks are worked out.

So most FLOSS software gets stuck in a "death by a thousand papercuts" scenario, where it has enough features to technically be usable but it is painful enough to use that no professional would ever adopt it.

Blender got out of it. I really hope more projects will follow their example.

Re: Netflix Animation Studios Joins the Blender Development Fund as Corporate Patron

#15

Post by chuckadams » Fri, Jan 30, 2026, 1:30 PM UTC

BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #3

I think especially since the UI overhaul in Blender 2.8 the project has been on a steep upwards trajectory. The software was always amazing, especially since it was free and open source, but the new UI and all subsequent improvements really put Blender on the map as a serious tool and not just an alternative for when you don't have money for the big players.

I remember when Blender first forked from NeoGeo's old code: it was clunky, alien and just plain weird. But even then the slashdot crowd was remarking about how snappy the UI was, once they figured out how to use it.

Re: Netflix Animation Studios Joins the Blender Development Fund as Corporate Patron

#16

Post by syntaxing » Fri, Jan 30, 2026, 1:40 PM UTC

luma wrote: post #12

BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #3

I think especially since the UI overhaul in Blender 2.8 the project has been on a steep upwards trajectory. The software was always amazing, especially since it was free and open source, but the new UI and all subsequent improvements really put Blender on the map as a serious tool and not just an alternative for when you don't have money for the big players.

The Blender project is the model I hope FreeCAD can eventually follow. Like digital animation, the 3D digital design field has a pretty rough selection of tools and the UI on all of them leaves a lot to be desired. FreeCAD has been on an upward trajectory in the past couple years as more people lean into the project out of frustration over increasingly hostile pricing from the commercial solutions. KiCAD has seen inc…

Unfortunately it’ll be a lot harder for CAD because of all of the other lock in like PLM/ERP integration. A good PLM is half the product. I know a good amount of companies that do not use solidworks because their PLM is absolutely crappy (but I haven’t been a MechE for a couple years now so things could have changed)

Re: Netflix Animation Studios Joins the Blender Development Fund as Corporate Patron

#17

Post by raincole » Fri, Jan 30, 2026, 1:45 PM UTC

BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #3

I think especially since the UI overhaul in Blender 2.8 the project has been on a steep upwards trajectory. The software was always amazing, especially since it was free and open source, but the new UI and all subsequent improvements really put Blender on the map as a serious tool and not just an alternative for when you don't have money for the big players.

It might sound weird, but I think the key factor is the rise of Youtube.

There is unbelievable amount of Blender content on Youtube. Like, probably more than all the other DCCs (Maya, 3DsMax, Houdini, Modo, etc...) combined[0]. It's beyond the DCC for hobbyists. I've seen people who think it's the only DCC. A few years ago, I met an 2D artist who started integrating 3D workflow and he genuinely didn't know the existence of Maya.

[0] I have no data to back this up. It's just my guess.

Re: Netflix Animation Studios Joins the Blender Development Fund as Corporate Patron

#18

Post by jandrese » Fri, Jan 30, 2026, 1:50 PM UTC

BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #3

I think especially since the UI overhaul in Blender 2.8 the project has been on a steep upwards trajectory. The software was always amazing, especially since it was free and open source, but the new UI and all subsequent improvements really put Blender on the map as a serious tool and not just an alternative for when you don't have money for the big players.

To be fair animated 3D modeling is a complex task so the UI can only get so simple. Even commercial tools require training and have challenging interfaces.

Another example is Gimp. People like to bag on it for having a terrible interface, but when they say Photoshop is so much better I have to wonder what magical version they are using. For me the differences between the two are marginal, but that may be because I learned how to use Gimp first and have to hunt around Photoshop's interface more.

Re: Netflix Animation Studios Joins the Blender Development Fund as Corporate Patron

#19

Post by Jedd » Fri, Jan 30, 2026, 1:50 PM UTC

crote wrote: post #14

BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #3

I think especially since the UI overhaul in Blender 2.8 the project has been on a steep upwards trajectory. The software was always amazing, especially since it was free and open source, but the new UI and all subsequent improvements really put Blender on the map as a serious tool and not just an alternative for when you don't have money for the big players.

It's a self-reinforcing loop. Once a FLOSS tool becomes good enough , it'll start to attract professional users, who are willing to invest in it, which makes it even better. And it is quite hard for commercial players to compete with free. But FLOSS software is mainly made by developers. Who like writing new flashy features, but are awful at UX, and making sure all the small kinks are worked out. So most FLOSS softwa…

> but are awful at UX

This is such a weird trope.

For those of us who've used microsoft teams, jira, servicenow, salesforce, or basically any insanely popular (in the commercial if not upvote sense) products, it's unclear what is being compared to with these tired claims.

Re: Netflix Animation Studios Joins the Blender Development Fund as Corporate Patron

#20

Post by dimgl » Fri, Jan 30, 2026, 1:52 PM UTC

I really like Blender and it's an amazing product, but I can't get over the standard Blender keymap. The "industry compatible" workflow is more sane, but then I have to translate tutorials from the Blender keymap to the industry compatible controls, and they're not always 1:1