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Interestingly that Rhino 3D is picking up users.

Does anyone know how the big 3 modellers compare? (I know a lot of game dev studios use Max and Maya.) Also, what about Blender?

While Maya is great for modeling, it's the animation and dynamics tools that really make it stand out. I don't know what apps are best positioned to take Maya's place in these areas. How do Blender's animation tools stand up to Maya's? Anyone tried Project:Messiah? Maybe this will be just the thing to push Softimage back into the spotlight...

Finally some innovation. It's still a long way from the type of distribution the movie Orange is using:
For details see http://orange.blender.org./
Raise capital, on the promise you ill deliver a great work. That's the way the world works, from your job interview down to that new razor you just bought.
DR.

My advice: give it another try. I tried Blender for the first time about 2 years ago and was baffled by the weird UI (and lacking features like raytracing)

Then I gave it another shot a year later, and it had improved a lot, to the point where I tried using it for some small projects. And now I'm hooked!

It's true that the interface is weird, say the first hour of using it or so, but it's also very customiseable. Free upgrades roughly every month, with new features and improvements. Recently with Google's Summer of Code projects. And don't forget the game engine!

To sum it up, Belnder is teh roxxorz!

Blender (http://www.blender.org/cms/Home.2.0.html) is totally free, as in open-source, no-strings-attached free.

3D Canvas (http://www.amabilis.com/products.htm) is a fun introductory 3d software for beginners.

Meanwhile, a good project like Blender scrapes and begs for a measly 500 bucks.

Meanwhile, a good project like Blender scrapes and begs for a measly 500 bucks.

and the next answer is that Blender has a pose mode.

Open Source software has often been acused of lacking in the graphical department. With the advent of more stable Inkscape 0.42.2 and user friendly Gimp 2.0 this has left us lacking only in the video department. Cinerella 2.0 was just released to close that gap. Coupled with alternatives such as diva , blender and others, what is linux and other Open Source operating systems still lacking?

Here are SOC projects done for Blender,

http://wiki.blender.org/bin/view.pl/Blenderdev/Sum merOfCode2005

We had some really awesome projects happen (fluid simulation, high quality boolean tools, improved nurbs, 'Verse network integration, animation constraints improvements, and a drawing tool, alas two projects - ODE integration, and a live tutorial didn't happen).

LetterRip

I use GIMP for spriting and some other stuff, and I must say, it does have a confusing interface. Once I was trying to isolate the two layers of a .gif and I had to accedentally open up the layers menu and copy them elsewhere to get them apart. GIMP isn't too bad though, if you want an interface to complain about take a look at Blender! http://www.blender.org/

don't let him get to bash.org for quite a few years yet, maybe show him Blender, and let him have fun creating stuff on his own. In a year or two give him an old computer and as a previous post said a linux distribution (gentoo is a little harsh for starters, even though I'm a big fan of it, but you can introduce him to Fedora first, then gentoo later). Have him discover what really goes on under the hood at his pace. Eventually he'll know a lot about it, probably more than you. And that's what's sad: the new generation is always going to catch on faster than us. But it's still important to give him the basics (I started on qbasic and win 3.11), so he'll learn from the ground up.

In your view what short comings would open source software such as Blender http://www.blender.org/ and the GIMP http://www.gimp.org/ need to overcome in order to be suitable to become part of the pipeline for developing high end game content as used in WoW?

LetterRip

Other apps that use windowed GL:
Max
VNS
Blender
Wings 3D
Solidworks
And those are just off the top of my head. ALL of them will take a massive performance hit from this maneuver by MicroShaft. Direct3D will still suck as an API, DirectX will still suck, and even worse, even though OpenGL will be supported, it'll be frozen at 1.4. There go all your shaders and anything nice you might want to use in OpenGL 2.0 except in a full-screen app (read: games. MS ain't dumb enough to alienate their gamers, but they may just force the professionals to *nix).
But hey, they're MS. Now be a good little consumer and bend over.

[QUOTE]Percentage figures like these are going to spell doom for torrents.[/QUOTE]

Legitimate distributors of trailers, demo reels, and animated shorts use bittorrent. I've likely uploaded and downloaded many gigabytes of completely legal bittorrents, for instance the new Blender Siggraph 2005 demo DVD.

http://blender.org/cms/fileadmin/movies/Siggraph_2 005_DVD.iso.torrent

LetterRip

Xfig is perfect for creating figures for publications in math. Gimp, of course, is also great. I don't use Blender even though I am a Blender Foundation Member but I may start using it in the future.

Painting, animating, and modeling tools are fun. I'd do a quick demo with Blender http://www.blender3d.com/cms/Home.2.0.html , perhaps do a quicky animation (of your logo or some such), or sculpting using the sculptmesh http://wiki.blender.org/bin/view.pl/Blenderdev/Scu lpMesh (shameless self promotion) plugin.

LetterRip

Does this program do anything that Blender 3D doesn't?

If not, why fragment the development pool available for 3D rendering programs by providing another program that does the same thing? Wouldn't the time and money apparently being invested into Aladdin's freedom be better spent improving the already-available free program?

But exactly what apps are these media pros using on BeOS?

IIRC, Blender started out on BeOS. Of course, that was years ago, and there isn't a current BeOS / Zeta port, but given what it currently runs under, perhaps it's not far off.

But exactly what apps are these media pros using on BeOS?

IIRC, Blender started out on BeOS. Of course, that was years ago, and there isn't a current BeOS / Zeta port, but given what it currently runs under, perhaps it's not far off.

People, Blender has a bug-tracker here. Knock yourselves out!

Try checking out the Project Orange. I'm not sure if any major studios are using blender, but I do know Spider Man 2 used Blender for a pre-visualization rendering...it worked rather well.

I'm just upset that the new HDRI code uses features only available in Yafray 0.0.8....which doesn't happen to be out yet. All my HDRI renders turned out like crap once I upgraded. But every other file sure is rendering a lot quicker. Thats a definate plus. And with new features coming quickly, I'm in monkey heaven.

Obviously by using Blender. http://www.blender.org/

Before you ditch blender, try some of the more recent builds,
build forum here:
http://www.blender.org/modules.php?op=modload&name =phpBB2&file=viewforum&f=18

Also, get a build of "Tuhopuu3", it is blenders evil brother testing branch ^_^

You can also find the full manual here:
http://download.blender.org/documentation/htmlI/

It does take some time to learn, but is very powerful. I am not going to compare it to max etc, it is whatever works best for you. Blenders animation tools are currently lacking somewhat, but expect a rewrite soon

Before you ditch blender, try some of the more recent builds,
build forum here:
http://www.blender.org/modules.php?op=modload&name =phpBB2&file=viewforum&f=18

Also, get a build of "Tuhopuu3", it is blenders evil brother testing branch ^_^

You can also find the full manual here:
http://download.blender.org/documentation/htmlI/

It does take some time to learn, but is very powerful. I am not going to compare it to max etc, it is whatever works best for you. Blenders animation tools are currently lacking somewhat, but expect a rewrite soon

Heh. As a full-time developer of the related technology, I'm glad the mention of Verse survived into the blurb!

Verse is a low-level data model, network protocol and programming API for dealing with distributed applications involving 3D graphics and audio. It is completely open and distributed under a BSD license so you can use it in any kind of application.

For details, see the top-level Uni-Verse site (toplevel page about the current research project). If you're a developer, perhaps heading directly to the Verse pages is more interesting. You could also check out the specification for the Verse core technology. Or why not just surf the CVS and read some code? :)

If you have questions, you could drop by #verse on FreeNode, or use the mailing list. More developers would certainly not hurt.

Heh. As a full-time developer of the related technology, I'm glad the mention of Verse survived into the blurb!

Verse is a low-level data model, network protocol and programming API for dealing with distributed applications involving 3D graphics and audio. It is completely open and distributed under a BSD license so you can use it in any kind of application.

For details, see the top-level Uni-Verse site (toplevel page about the current research project). If you're a developer, perhaps heading directly to the Verse pages is more interesting. You could also check out the specification for the Verse core technology. Or why not just surf the CVS and read some code? :)

If you have questions, you could drop by #verse on FreeNode, or use the mailing list. More developers would certainly not hurt.

Heh. As a full-time developer of the related technology, I'm glad the mention of Verse survived into the blurb!

Verse is a low-level data model, network protocol and programming API for dealing with distributed applications involving 3D graphics and audio. It is completely open and distributed under a BSD license so you can use it in any kind of application.

For details, see the top-level Uni-Verse site (toplevel page about the current research project). If you're a developer, perhaps heading directly to the Verse pages is more interesting. You could also check out the specification for the Verse core technology. Or why not just surf the CVS and read some code? :)

If you have questions, you could drop by #verse on FreeNode, or use the mailing list. More developers would certainly not hurt.

Heh. As a full-time developer of the related technology, I'm glad the mention of Verse survived into the blurb!

Verse is a low-level data model, network protocol and programming API for dealing with distributed applications involving 3D graphics and audio. It is completely open and distributed under a BSD license so you can use it in any kind of application.

For details, see the top-level Uni-Verse site (toplevel page about the current research project). If you're a developer, perhaps heading directly to the Verse pages is more interesting. You could also check out the specification for the Verse core technology. Or why not just surf the CVS and read some code? :)

If you have questions, you could drop by #verse on FreeNode, or use the mailing list. More developers would certainly not hurt.

I'm not sold on Open Source entertainment. I have my tastes, you have yours. I doubt that you'd appreciate my imposing my creative vision on your work, and I know that I would resist your attempts to impose upon mine. Collaboration in creativity leads to such wonderful dreck as sitcoms and "dramedys". Just say no.

I agree. Stories aren't things that can be put together piecemeal, and generally don't adapt well to the traditional open source paradigm. However, there are other ways that Free thinking can help this type of creative project.

There are some aspects of these projects that can be done piecemeal. Films typically have soundtracks, and most filmmakers aren't composers/singers/musicians as well. With shared work out there, filmmakers can build on top of the music that other people have put out there.

Taking video clips from a shared work can be useful as well. In many typical dramas and sitcoms, they show a little clip of the city the story is taking place in or a shot of the skyline. Most people don't have the resources to do that sort of thing, but if a video that incorporates such a clip has been shared, another creator can make there work better by leveraging off of work that has already been done.

The traditional open source methodology seems to be the focus of this article, however it seems that they have a core group working on the creative concept, though they say that others from the community will be involved as well. The collaboration of many people on the technical aspects of the film will work fabulously, but there are some things that just don't lend themselves to that way of working, and I think they realize that. I think the main benefit from shared crative works is being able to reuse bits of that content that suit new works, not the way people put them together. People have collaborated on creative works for a long time. The new development is that the product of that work will be able to be built upon by others.

I actually have a research project on this topic that I should be working on instead of reading Slashdot.

While this would be quite an accomplishment should it come to reality, and could set the establishment on its ear, I can't help but thinking from browsing through their site that it's still 'vaporware'. Just take a look at the Sponsors page. They're requesting 6 quality 3D Unix machines and a 10-system rendering cluster, among other things.

I wish them the best of luck in their endeavor.

No idea if you're affiliated to them or just promoting the site...

Nope, I am not affiliated but I in about 1999 when playing with blender (not affiliated to those either) in order to research ads had the idea that it would be nice to come up with a collaboratively rendered version of 2001 at the beginning of the new millenium.

and so far I know of only 3 that succeeded

Would you think along these lines if 3000+ had succeeded?

CC.

Why do you have to agree with that argument in order to like open source software when you aren't in it just for the price?

RMS's argument is completely ridiculous, no matter how right in certain areas. But sometimes open source just isn't there, or maybe it can't be. Saying that one should use inferior products if the disparity in quality is significant just because they are "Free" is what "doesn't make sense."

It's similar sorts of zealots who always say "it's open source, fix it yourself." So it's time to put up or shut up. Which hopefully won't be too hard, since if McVoy can do it, I'm sure there are tons of people who can put together something similar to BK with an open source license, though it does make one wonder, if that is true, why they haven't done it yet.

...take a look at this. [In Internet time it's kinda old, March 16.]

We are working on that problem, in our own little way.

If you are new to programming then don't program, as simple as that. Or in this case program as little as possible. So use Game blender http://www.blender.org/ download the blender game demos, and check them out. You can get up to speed in days, also the logic is scripted in python, which is easy to learn. You can get lots of help on the web, on IRC, irc.freenode.net, #gameblender and finally you can get lots of premade scripts/blender files for things like fps (first person shooter) motion etc.,
Keep it simple, it should be one level or two atmost.
Even things like shooting arrows at moving targets are fun, the arc of the arrow etc., teach you physics and for the player it takes time to learn, so they get hooked.
Have a goal, the user at the end needs to do something like rescue a princess or find treasure.
No OpenGL, SDL and C++. Period. That is simply impractical. You'll end up coding the engine and won't have time for art or game play planning.
If you really want to do something like that look at CrystalCore http://crystal.sourceforge.net/tikiwiki/tiki-index .php?page=Crystal+Core (#CrystalSpace on irc.freenode.net) or nebula device. But good luck on that.

The Single Biggest Advantage of Open Source software is that when the company/individual/team/whatever who is developing it no longer supports it well, it can be forked (FreeX86, and Blender are good examples).

Blender has been forked for that reason?

I know of three forks of blender:
The The official/original fork, that from the beginning has been "owned" by Ton and still, in part, is.
The Tuhopuu fork, that are are in the same control as the official fork, Tuhopuu is the "evil" tree, where the developers are allowed to experiment more.
Intrr's fork, instinctive-blender that he made because he simply wanted to be allowed to do whatever he wanted without interference. That fork is made only for his personal purposes and are not a competitor to the main fork.

In 2002 Ton decided that whe wanted to make Blender Open Source and the investors that owned Blender rights at the time agreed that it could be bought for 100,000EUR. The Blender Foundation Sucessfully collected the money and now Blender is GPL.

In no time has the responsible(mainly Ton) for the project lacked in handling the project for what I know.

More(and more accurate) Blender history.
[end flaming mode]

The Single Biggest Advantage of Open Source software is that when the company/individual/team/whatever who is developing it no longer supports it well, it can be forked (FreeX86, and Blender are good examples).

Blender has been forked for that reason?

I know of three forks of blender:
The The official/original fork, that from the beginning has been "owned" by Ton and still, in part, is.
The Tuhopuu fork, that are are in the same control as the official fork, Tuhopuu is the "evil" tree, where the developers are allowed to experiment more.
Intrr's fork, instinctive-blender that he made because he simply wanted to be allowed to do whatever he wanted without interference. That fork is made only for his personal purposes and are not a competitor to the main fork.

In 2002 Ton decided that whe wanted to make Blender Open Source and the investors that owned Blender rights at the time agreed that it could be bought for 100,000EUR. The Blender Foundation Sucessfully collected the money and now Blender is GPL.

In no time has the responsible(mainly Ton) for the project lacked in handling the project for what I know.

More(and more accurate) Blender history.
[end flaming mode]

The Single Biggest Advantage of Open Source software is that when the company/individual/team/whatever who is developing it no longer supports it well, it can be forked (FreeX86, and Blender are good examples).

Blender has been forked for that reason?

I know of three forks of blender:
The The official/original fork, that from the beginning has been "owned" by Ton and still, in part, is.
The Tuhopuu fork, that are are in the same control as the official fork, Tuhopuu is the "evil" tree, where the developers are allowed to experiment more.
Intrr's fork, instinctive-blender that he made because he simply wanted to be allowed to do whatever he wanted without interference. That fork is made only for his personal purposes and are not a competitor to the main fork.

In 2002 Ton decided that whe wanted to make Blender Open Source and the investors that owned Blender rights at the time agreed that it could be bought for 100,000EUR. The Blender Foundation Sucessfully collected the money and now Blender is GPL.

In no time has the responsible(mainly Ton) for the project lacked in handling the project for what I know.

More(and more accurate) Blender history.
[end flaming mode]

The Single Biggest Advantage of Open Source software is that when the company/individual/team/whatever who is developing it no longer supports it well, it can be forked (FreeX86, and Blender are good examples).

Blender has been forked for that reason?

I know of three forks of blender:
The The official/original fork, that from the beginning has been "owned" by Ton and still, in part, is.
The Tuhopuu fork, that are are in the same control as the official fork, Tuhopuu is the "evil" tree, where the developers are allowed to experiment more.
Intrr's fork, instinctive-blender that he made because he simply wanted to be allowed to do whatever he wanted without interference. That fork is made only for his personal purposes and are not a competitor to the main fork.

In 2002 Ton decided that whe wanted to make Blender Open Source and the investors that owned Blender rights at the time agreed that it could be bought for 100,000EUR. The Blender Foundation Sucessfully collected the money and now Blender is GPL.

In no time has the responsible(mainly Ton) for the project lacked in handling the project for what I know.

More(and more accurate) Blender history.
[end flaming mode]

The Single Biggest Advantage of Open Source software is that when the company/individual/team/whatever who is developing it no longer supports it well, it can be forked (FreeX86, and Blender are good examples).

Blender has been forked for that reason?

I know of three forks of blender:
The The official/original fork, that from the beginning has been "owned" by Ton and still, in part, is.
The Tuhopuu fork, that are are in the same control as the official fork, Tuhopuu is the "evil" tree, where the developers are allowed to experiment more.
Intrr's fork, instinctive-blender that he made because he simply wanted to be allowed to do whatever he wanted without interference. That fork is made only for his personal purposes and are not a competitor to the main fork.

In 2002 Ton decided that whe wanted to make Blender Open Source and the investors that owned Blender rights at the time agreed that it could be bought for 100,000EUR. The Blender Foundation Sucessfully collected the money and now Blender is GPL.

In no time has the responsible(mainly Ton) for the project lacked in handling the project for what I know.

More(and more accurate) Blender history.
[end flaming mode]

I use Gimp to do what most people do with Photoshop: General Image Manipulations.
I am not a Photographer or a full-time Graphics Designer (although I love hand-drawing and designing Logos)
What I don't like about Photoshop is not the software itself but the OS : modal windows.

Gimp (and most apps in Linux) - you have that freedom of floating dialog boxes instead of Modal-windows; so you can get under it.

The general averseness with Gimp is twofold:

1. People are way too accustomed to Photoshop and unlearning stuff is short of painful.
2. Gimp on Windows/Cygwin sucks sucks badly. And sadly that is Windows-users gain their first impressions of the software.

In Gimp if you are stuck - right click (navigate the menu from thereon to do almost anything).
Gimp is definitely better what it used to be (I abhored the 1.x versions), and not that sub-standard in comparison to Photoshop.
I don't deny however that Photoshop itself is an extremely professional state-of-the-art software and that in many fronts it still beats Gimp (as I keep hearing: CMYK / Pantone profiles).
But there is much more to Gimp than people are vaguely aware.

For me its refreshing and exciting the whole evolutionary (if not revolutionary) process. Sure many Linux-ported applications are still sub-par in contrast to Windows-only:

Photogenics, MainActor, QCad / LinuxCad

Some got the timing wrong and had to pull-out as Linux wasn't popular then: NetObjects Fusion for Linux and MusicMatch Jukebox.
Others were bullied by the Microsoft lobby: most notably games.
While others still support a Linux version to this date: Maya Complete and Mathematica (way too expensive I rather settle for the free Blender, Octave and Pov-Ray)

Which leads us to the Open Source:

The were have a vast library of resources just to cater for the Designer.
But sadly we got tired and old in learning new stuff.

I cannot comment on the world of Mac. Which should be more user-oriented than developer-oriented; a means to an end as you stated.

While Microsoft itself - is a damn pain in the arse. People are stucked with it for lock-in reasons including proprietory formats - that is how they bred so many software houses writing apps just for it.
Rebooting, desinfecting - recovering corrupted documents is a hassle any business and I could do without. And so .. I resist.

Use Mac / Use Linux / but using Microsoft = very unwise.

While there is not the same selection of software for Linux, the situation is improving all the time. I don't know about Flash, but having been required to evaluate tools in the game development industry I can assure you that GIMP + Maya is one of the most powerful 3D art combinations out there. You can build AAA level content with that pack.

In fact Blender can be useful too if you care to take the time to learn it and port it to your engine.

Just take a peek at some of the work posted on http://blender.org if you have any doubts about the capabilities of open source rendering software. If you care to argue, please include a link to some superior work that you have done.

XnView
InkScape
Blender
Wings3D

You *could* have done that with Blender already instead of waiting for a blob tool that's too inaccurate for those purposes.

Blender was used in Spiderman 2 to make quick previews, so it's getting there. Of course, when it is really there, it will still be hard to spread. Mozilla is nice, but MSIE still wins, and what is worse, it has been used for AOL when Mozilla could have been used. This is more than being capable, there is a lot of other details, including politics and PR.

I'm a programmer but having worked in the game industry for many years I grew to know a lot about game art, both on paper (concept sketches and paintings) and on the computer.

First, it's a skill that can be learned like any other. Sure, some people have a natural talent, and others don't (like me). There are also people who are natural programmers, and they will always be the best at it; but anyone can learn to program if they really want to.

I've ended up doing tons of stand-in art for games, and a lot of it ended up going into the final game, because it was Good Enough. Usually it was character animations and interface elements, basically the easy stuff, but still - it goes to show you that there isn't as much of a line between the artistically talented and someone who can just learn to work the tools.

Here's a few random tips from my many years of hanging around with really talented artists as well as my own tinkering:

Tools - I'm pleased to say that the OSS art tools you can get today for photo art and 3D are as good as or better than their commercial counterparts for many tasks. I've used Photoshop, Maya, 3D Studio Max (and the original 3D Studio, for that matter), and Lightwave in the course of my career, but I find that the Gimp (for 2D) and Blender (for 3D) are today better, or at least as good as, most of the commercial offerings. One thing about this may be that both of these programs are geared more towards programmers-become-artists than pure artists, which may be why I find them more intuative and powerful.

Color - Color is a huge element. Crappy shapes with a good color scheme actually look pretty good; nice shapes with a crappy color scheme always look bad. Typically you want to combine complimentary colors - purple and gold, for example - in a way that is pleasing to the eye. It can be tricky to get this right, but one trick you can do is use the color wheel in Gimp. Find the first color you are going to use, and then go to the exact opposite side - that's your complimentary color. Note that a muted color (tan, for example) should fill more, proportionately, of the image than its bright complimentary color (red, for example). When in doubt, go look at a nice-looking website and steal their colorscheme.

Compositing - You can do a LOT by compositing photographs and other existing graphic elements. For example I made the header image for this website by compositing shots I had taken in New Oreans, plus a couple photos from images.google.com eg, Stonehenge in the lower left corner). Using the Gimp's color adjustment tools, scale, resize, rotate, and opacity, you can collage together a bunch of unrelated images and end up with something that looks pretty cool.

Learn Blender - A great way to make a final image is to create a central element in 3D, and then paste it into an image and edit it up with the Gimp. That's how I did the graphics for this site, for example. Blender is surprisingly easy to learn; this excellent tutorial will have you up and running in no time. I was creating elements usable for compositing in my 2D images in a matter of hours after I started learning it. (Of course, I have a lot of experience using other modelers, so it may take a complete 3D novice longer.)

Last of all, I will suggest the tried-and-true method for self-teaching yourself almost anything: duplicate! Go find a piece of art that you think is attractive. Study it closely. Pick it apart. Now try to create your own version of the same thing using whatever tools you are trying to learn. The process of taking apart someone else's image will teach you a lot about the elements that experienced creators use.

First off, if you are wanting to teach, set aside time when you've learned the program to create some multimedia tutorials. Get camtasia studio and record tutorials, export them to flash. It's better and fast than writing a book with screenshots.

If you are wanting some linux movies, check out xvidcap.

It's a great idea to promote and use open source software. Some might say that those skills will have no marketability because the apps are open source and not industry standard. However, when teaching an art class and including computers, all you have to do is emphasize "Now this is free so you can use it at home. Photoshop is what most people in business use, but the same principles apply." Kids will remember that and they will pick up the right app if they are really interested in that field.

Save the money by using OSS and buy some really nice digital cameras for everyone to use. Have the kids go out and capture the world. They'll love it. Then bring the pictures into gimp, try different things from contrasts to layermasking, and painting. Create meaningful collages. If they learn the gimp, they'll pick up photoshop, and then freehand, etc. They'll be fine. I'd recommend gimp over photoshop elements any day.

Here are learning links I've found on blender. This is really a cool program to teach, but I know it will be difficult for some people to pick up. Teach them how to create a text object, write their name and render it with different light setups. Future filmmakers will really appreciate it I think.

http://www.bl3nder.com/tutorials/ http://www.ctr.co.at/swf/3ds_max_1_zb1_num_calc.ht m http://www.blenderama.com/index.php?id=276 http://www.vrotvrot.com/xoom/tutorials.html http://blendedmind.i8.com/tutorials.html#tutorials http://www.blender.org/modules/documentation/htmlI / http://www.tutorialguide.net/software/blender/ http://www.blender3d.com/cms/Tutorials.243.0.html http://www.tltsu.ru/archive/blender/BlenderTutoria lPart3_.pdf http://project-blender.onlinehome.de/ http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~mein/blender/ http://www.ingiebee.com/Blendermania/tutorial_list .html http://renderosity.com/ http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/0 4/30/217225 http://www.geocities.com/paulthepuzzles/aardvarks. html http://blender.excellentwhale.com/ http://www.selleri.org/Blender/ http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/index.html http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=11202 6#112026 http://vrotvrot.com/xoom/tutorials.html http://www.linuxgraphic.org/section3d/blender/page

The GPL doesn't somehow nullify copyright law.. taking someone elses work and passing it as your own is fraud. It's also copyright violation, and other things, depending on how things are done.

Well obviously. My point wasn't so much "Is this illegal" - It obviously is, but how common is it? If it's common, how often are people sued for the violation? How many people have succesfully been sued? Has jail time ever been given for an offense??

The novel idea doesn't work for me: If you write a novel, you're sending it to some publishers to be published, and then they and you are legally & financially in trouble if and when the lifted work's discovered. And they have teams of people at most publishers to both look out for, and address plagarism such as your example. Plus, readers of one style/author, are likely to recognize the style of the author. Would the average PC user ever think "Hey - This program I paid $50 for acts a lot like this one I downloaded for free! I wonder if the code's been stolen"? Probably not, I'm guessin'

In the computer business, 99% of the users out there have no idea how to write, read, or lift source code. I doubt that "Bob and Sue small business owner" have never heard of the GPL. They won't know that the software they're buying is lifted code. But in the same sense, would a GE, or a GM realize it if they purchased a six figure-costing CAD program that turned out to be hacked Blender code? I would hope so, but I don't know. Hence my question(s) about what happens in these cases.

Most of the responses so far seem to indicate "Not much of anything is done, but it should be!". Is this really what most GPL licensees & contributors can expect for their endeavors? Obviously the IBM's and other big business's contributing open source code have the financial clout to fight someone who they think's going after their code illegally, but there's a lot of independant OSS enthusiasts - What's being done for these people, and their contributions to the OSS world? What has been done? That's more the questions I was posing.

They are also a major sponsor of the Blender Foundation, IIRC providing rack space and bandwidth. Go XS4ALL!

I for one am a Magnatune customer and find that this is all music I need. Creative Commons doesn't mean it does suck. The fine folks over at Blender chose one Magnatune artist for their SIGGRAPH demo reel. The rest ain't shabby either.

Try Cargo Cult, Curl, Brad Sucks or their shoutcasts for starters.

If you chose to buy, you set the price. Money is evenly divided between artist and label. Download options include wav, flac, vorbis and mp3.

Sure, I still buy the odd CD. But I only do this after a concert right out of the hands of the performers. Prefer my media handsigned and not watermarked, thank you.

I haven't listened to the radio in years.