Why is Blender having to ask for Help? — Transcript

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1. 0:00At last Blender Conference, Ton
2. 0:01Roosendaal announced one of the biggest
3. 0:03decisions in Blender's history.
4. 0:05>> I am willing to announce that I will
5. 0:07step down as Blender Foundation chairman
6. 0:10and Blender CEO by the end of the year.
7. 0:12And let Francesco and his team take the
8. 0:15helm of the Blender project at the
9. 0:17beginning of 2016.
10. 0:19>> And so a few weeks go by and I see this
11. 0:22email in my inbox from Francesco Siddi,
12. 0:25the CEO of Blender. So I send back an
13. 0:28email. We we send emails back and forth.
14. 0:30And it turns out he's starting a new
15. 0:32campaign. And he reached out to me and a
16. 0:34few other creators trying to raise funds
17. 0:36[music] for Blender. Which left me
18. 0:37wondering, why? Is this something just
19. 0:40horrific that's happening for Blender?
20. 0:42Or is this just
21. 0:43>> [music]
22. 0:43>> some new management change or direction
23. 0:45that they're going in? What's actually
24. 0:46going on here?
25. 0:48But luckily for me, I had direct access
26. 0:50[music] to the CEO. So I just asked him
27. 0:52for some clarification. And as it turns
28. 0:54out, the answer is both yes and no. So
29. 0:57don't worry, Blender isn't going
30. 0:58bankrupt. We're not losing it. But it
31. 1:00needs our help now.
32. 1:02Probably more than ever before. The root
33. 1:03of the problem and the reason Francesco
34. 1:05reached out to me is because Blender is
35. 1:07run on donations, which is great in
36. 1:09theory. But less than half a percent of
37. 1:13its users actually donate. [music]
38. 1:15While other open-source programs, like
39. 1:17Thunderbird for instance, get
40. 1:18proportionally six times the support. So
41. 1:20for instance, [music] in 2023, Blender
42. 1:23was downloaded 20 million times and had
43. 1:26at minimum between two [music] and four
44. 1:28million active monthly users.
45. 1:30But it only had 10,200 donors. The
46. 1:34actual number of users is likely much
47. 1:36higher, but the donations just don't
48. 1:38match. This turns what is already a bad
49. 1:40donation ratio into something just
50. 1:43downright horrible. I'm not trying to
51. 1:44just doom or gloom or fear-monger. This
52. 1:47is something that's been going on for
53. 1:48years. Nothing is new here.
54. 1:50But why are Blender's numbers so low?
55. 1:52Well, Blender was first released in
56. 1:541994.
57. 1:56And it was Ton's dream to create a free
58. 1:59program that would allow people to bring
59. 2:01their imagination to life. But he just
60. 2:03didn't have enough money. So, after he
61. 2:05had exhausted his personal funds, he
62. 2:07slowly began to sell off shares of
63. 2:09Blender stock to be able to pay for its
64. 2:11continued development. But this created
65. 2:13a big problem because in 2002, he wanted
66. 2:16to release the software as open source
67. 2:19and fulfill this dream he had of giving
68. 2:21everybody a free tool to create whatever
69. 2:23they could imagine.
70. 2:25But of course, his investors didn't want
71. 2:27to do [music] that and he only owned a
72. 2:2810% of the company. His solution was a
73. 2:31Hail Mary to create the Blender
74. 2:33Foundation, which aimed to raise
75. 2:35$100,000
76. 2:36to buy back Blender from the investors.
77. 2:38After this goal was achieved, Blender
78. 2:39was released as the open source
79. 2:41community focused program that we all
80. 2:43know and love today.
81. 2:45But because Ton was more focused on his
82. 2:47dream than [music] on profit, Blender
83. 2:49never really asked for money until
84. 2:52recently. Of course, they encouraged
85. 2:54people to donate, but it was subtly
86. 2:56placed at the bottom of their site. It
87. 2:57seems like Blender is in the best place
88. 2:59it's ever been. Donations are at an
89. 3:01all-time high and Ton's keynote address,
90. 3:03he showed that donations are going up
91. 3:05every single year, which brings us to
92. 3:08the reason [music] why Francesco reached
93. 3:09out to me. Blender is on the brink of
94. 3:12breaking into the industry. [music] We
95. 3:13saw it with Flow, the animated film that
96. 3:15won the Oscar was made entirely in
97. 3:17Blender. We saw it with How to Train
98. 3:19Your Dragon when Framestore's Stefan
99. 3:21Mayr showed that Blender was an integral
100. 3:23part of the dragon creation process. We
101. 3:25even saw it more recently in the
102. 3:27Backrooms movie with Kane Parsons using
103. 3:29Blender for all the visual effects.
104. 3:30Blender may not be the industry
105. 3:33standard, [music]
106. 3:34but it's on the brink. Ton put it this
107. 3:36way.
108. 3:37>> But more than if you also got thing
109. 3:38important in Blender if you want to
110. 3:40continue our growth.
111. 3:41>> Looking at it through this lens, it
112. 3:43makes sense why Blender has recently
113. 3:45started focusing on money so much.
114. 3:47They're in competition with Maya,
115. 3:48Houdini, Cinema 4D, these giant [music]
116. 3:51tech companies that are entrenched in
117. 3:53the industry and have been part of the
118. 3:54pipeline for years. And in 2023, Blender
119. 3:58earned a little bit over $3 million
120. 4:00while Autodesk earned $5 billion.
121. 4:02Blender is trying to grow [music] to
122. 4:04become a free tool that brings
123. 4:06industry-level capabilities to everyone.
124. 4:08[music] And to accomplish this, they are
125. 4:10turning to the community.
126. 4:12>> Blender might not be the best software.
127. 4:14I might not have the best technology or
128. 4:16the best organization or the best
129. 4:18leadership in place, but we do have the
130. 4:22best
131. 4:23community, right?
132. 4:25>> This year, they are specifically [music]
133. 4:26asking for our help to bring Blender to
134. 4:28the forefront of the industry and along
135. 4:31with it all of those who have invested
136. 4:32so much time and energy into learning
137. 4:34it. And the best way to do that is, of
138. 4:36course, to donate. This year, Blender is
139. 4:39asking for $5. [music] If Blender has
140. 4:41provided you with $5 worth of value this
141. 4:44year, I would highly encourage you to
142. 4:46donate. But what can you do aside from
143. 4:48donate? Well, you've already helped in a
144. 4:49small way just by watching this video.
145. 4:51When the yearly Blender survey came out,
146. 4:5342% of people said that they do not
147. 4:56donate to Blender because they cannot
148. 4:58afford it. I want to make this video a
149. 5:00resource for those people. So, for every
150. 5:03view on this video, I'm going to donate
151. 5:041/10 [music] of a cent to the Blender
152. 5:06fund, which is $1 for every thousand
153. 5:08views. I know it's not much, but this is
154. 5:10the best way I'm able to give back. Uh
155. 5:12and if this becomes my most popular
156. 5:14video, I'll have donated a little bit
157. 5:16over $1,200. And that donation is made
158. 5:18possible by the sponsor of today's
159. 5:20video, Skillshare. We'll get to them in
160. 5:21a minute. But selfishly, I would love it
161. 5:23if you hit the like button, share,
162. 5:25subscribe, all those things that will
163. 5:26help boost this video. But
164. 5:28realistically, you can do more than a
165. 5:30tenth of a cent. [music] The best thing
166. 5:31you can do is to donate yourself. If
167. 5:34you've ever made any money off of
168. 5:35Blender, consider giving a small portion
169. 5:37of it back. But even if you are in the
170. 5:39group that can't afford to donate,
171. 5:40leveraging your influence online and in
172. 5:42person, helping other people to become
173. 5:44aware that this is an issue is a huge
174. 5:46help. I personally don't have the
175. 5:47ability to donate a whole lot myself,
176. 5:49but last year I made a fundraising video
177. 5:51similar to this one and through the
178. 5:53views on that video, I was able to
179. 5:54donate over $500. But that's nothing
180. 5:57compared to what you donated. From that
181. 5:59one video, Blender raised over $113,000,
182. 6:04which directly contributed to these
183. 6:06improvements that we've seen in the last
184. 6:07year, to the roll out of Vulcan, to
185. 6:09these new simulation nodes that came in
186. 6:105.2 and all these other groundbreaking
187. 6:13features that are on the horizon. So, if
188. 6:14you think that because you can't donate
189. 6:16a lot yourself that you're useless,
190. 6:17that's just wrong. So, thank you for
191. 6:19that. But now, let's look forward to the
192. 6:22future. What [music] is Blender building
193. 6:24towards right now that your donation
194. 6:27would directly help bring to fruition?
195. 6:29Well, first, full support for physics
196. 6:31nodes. This is something that the
197. 6:33community has wanted for years and Ton
198. 6:36announced their development in his
199. 6:37keynote. I did an interview with Harry
200. 6:39Blend, who was one of the leading
201. 6:40experts on geometry nodes last year. As
202. 6:43we were discussing simulation nodes, he
203. 6:44said this.
204. 6:45>> Well, it's public knowledge that the
205. 6:47next iteration of geometry node
206. 6:48simulations is being actively worked
207. 6:50[music] on at the moment. They're
208. 6:52focusing on developing ways to enable
209. 6:54the creation of powerful simulation
210. 6:56assets that are easy to use on the front
211. 6:59end. Hair simulation specifically is
212. 7:02getting a lot of love.
213. 7:03>> We've already started to see this come
214. 7:04to fruition in Blender 5.2 with the new
215. 7:07cloth and hair systems. But these tools
216. 7:09still need a lot of work to bring them
217. 7:11up to industry grade Houdini level
218. 7:13stuff. And if you're serious about
219. 7:15learning Blender and capitalizing on
220. 7:17some of these changes, that's where
221. 7:18today's [music] sponsor Skillshare comes
222. 7:20in. And there are two main reasons why I
223. 7:21wanted to partner with them for this
224. 7:23video. First, they really helped me to
225. 7:25fund this video so I can donate to the
226. 7:27Blender Fund. But secondly, there are a
227. 7:29lot of individually great [music]
228. 7:31tutorials on YouTube. But what ends up
229. 7:33happening is you're bouncing from random
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234. 7:43[music] is structured and each lesson is
235. 7:45cohesive and builds on the last, which
236. 7:47means you'll end up learning way faster.
237. 7:49There are tons of classes that teach
238. 7:51Blender, but I personally always wanted
239. 7:53to learn After Effects. So, I've been
240. 7:54going through this class by Jordy
241. 7:55Vandeput. It's high quality and shows
242. 7:57exactly what I need to do without
243. 7:59[music] needless fluff. And even if you
244. 8:01don't care about learning Blender, since
245. 8:03Skillshare is the largest online
246. 8:04learning platform, you can learn any
247. 8:06creative skill. They have literally
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251. 8:13if you only care about Blender, there
252. 8:15are over 700 classes that span every
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254. 8:21my link in the description or scan the
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256. 8:25trial of Skillshare. So, there's
257. 8:27literally no risk. If it's not a good
258. 8:28fit, you can cancel anytime. But, now
259. 8:30let's get back to the video. But, next
260. 8:32are Blender's story tools. Blender is
261. 8:34working on integrating them into the
262. 8:35video sequencer, which would allow for
263. 8:37much faster storyboarding and really
264. 8:39expedite the planning process. This is
265. 8:41also another way Blender is slowly
266. 8:43creeping into the industry. If it
267. 8:45becomes the leading software for
268. 8:46storyboards and development, then as
269. 8:48more people learn it for that purpose,
270. 8:50it'll make the transition to the other
271. 8:51tools even smoother. But, this [music]
272. 8:53isn't the only addition that's planned
273. 8:55for the video sequencer. Blender has now
274. 8:56integrated the compositor into the
275. 8:59sequencer, which brings it much more in
276. 9:01line with something like DaVinci Resolve
277. 9:03or other industry-grade color grading
278. 9:05applications. Now,
279. 9:07this next one would be very
280. 9:09controversial.
281. 9:10But, based on the survey at the
282. 9:12beginning of the year, it seems like
283. 9:14Blender has hinted that there is a
284. 9:15possibility of some kind of AI
285. 9:17integration in its future. Now, at the
286. 9:192024 Blender Conference, Francesco
287. 9:21already hinted at the fact they're
288. 9:23working on some kind of AI integration.
289. 9:26The exact scope of what they're doing,
290. 9:27we don't yet know. But, if you're
291. 9:29worried about AI and all the
292. 9:30implications involved in it, I wouldn't
293. 9:33necessarily be. Blender caught a lot of
294. 9:35flak when they first announced this
295. 9:37because of all the animosity towards AI.
296. 9:39>> [snorts]
297. 9:39>> But they've been using AI in their
298. 9:41denoising algorithms for years. AI is in
299. 9:43a lot of ways the bane of artists, but
300. 9:46it's also a very pregnant term. Whenever
301. 9:49you're using AI in the right way, it's
302. 9:51not necessarily a bad thing. Generative
303. 9:53AI is its own thing. What Blender is
304. 9:55talking about with their AI integration
305. 9:57seems to indicate that they are planning
306. 9:59on integrating it in a way that helps
307. 10:01artists create their own work rather
308. 10:03than doing it for them. And another
309. 10:04announcement from 2024 still has yet to
310. 10:07come to light or all the new
311. 10:08improvements to the modeling systems
312. 10:10inside of
313. 10:10>> [music]
314. 10:10>> Blender. Specifically nerves, SDF, and
315. 10:12Gaussian splatting. And if you want to
316. 10:13learn more about those systems, you can
317. 10:15watch this video right here. Thank you
318. 10:17for watching.