The TRUTH About Blender Addons...

This video goes both ways. I work as a hard surface model/render artist as a student job and initially couldn't afford any addons either. I worked in a company that already had a C4D license but I told them I only know how to use blender as I couldn't get c4d at home. (Should have gotten the hint)

Recently a coworker joined who also knew his way around blender and I realised that he uses a LOT of addons. My company was quite happy with his performance and I realised that though I took the "correct" approach not wasting company money on external addons and proving that I could do everything myself, in the end he was giving them more timely results and was more productive in the end. He bought the company a bunch of asset packs during the black friday sale and I'm so grateful.

Now I'm trying to get my company to buy hops/boxcutter so I can speed up my shit too. 😂😂 I'll probably use no addons for my own projects until I'm sure I am a vanilla blender sage. Then I'll afford myself the luxury of the finer tools, till then I'm investing my money in good courses ;)

Blender is FREE 3D software— which is amazing and was basically laughed at by all the people who had insane blood money to pay other companies. The fact that you only pay for features when and if you need them is AWESOME.

it is very good to have addons like flip fluids and other ones like that as the Improve your workflow unless your just starting

Time is more important than money

Blender is a free software and that's one of the main things that attracts people to it. Most Blender users are hobbyists or new to the 3D world. Guys, don't buy any addons. Hone your skills first and only after months, when you get familiar with Blender and the environment, and know what's difficult, and what takes time, then think about buying addons.

What are the best add-ons for rendering?

I aint no hater. Thanks for the awsome video. I am just beginning Blender and I really appreciate this advice. I will take this advice and buy addons after I get better at Blender.

I Agree... I don't personally have money for all the addons... but I hustle for money to buy the most important ones. Then it safe's time and effort at the end.

yep the botaniq point slaps wayyy too hard loool. Actually ai has completely untangled the elitist idea about "doing everything myself" i desperately clinged to. This is because i really admire ppl like ian hubert, his diy stuff on here really sells you that dream that if u do things that way one day you might be like him nd get all the love nd admiration, what i failed to come to terms with is that, i just dont think that way, it worked for ian cause thats an intrinsic part of his process. At the end of the day. no one really gives a shit if you bought models from a kitbash set, is the image interesting thats it

I used to use pro or semi pro 3D software. I've kept tabs on blender for about 7 years. Blender had a hard interface, but yes it was free and way back it had a decent toolkit.

Blender was private donation supported, but it's problem is that for many years now it has done nothing to really update it's free toolset and it's not from lack of donater support, blender organization is turning Blender into pay to play platform.

Blender is evolving into many free up-front apps, that are deliberately released in a crippled rarely upgraded toolset like something from 2003, that requires lots of unnecessary run around to get satisfactory results, and you would need to pay up quite a bit of money for a free software to do what you could just pay for with say Maya.

Blender might be reaching point where buying ala carte add ons to make VFX as good as Maya or Houdini, but it's cheaper to buy in bulk and might get more for your money going back to paid commercial software.

Blender could help if they just went commercial too and had a $1200 pro version with bells and whistles instead of buying 20 piecemeal add-ons.

yeah, I know what you mean; I have no problems paying for add-ons; I will purchase them if they will speed up workflow(hard ops, box cutter, quad-remesher, etc.) Recently I purchased 3D-coat (a really underrated piece of software) because I really liked its features and how it complements Blender; I got a lot of criticism about doing that because I actually paid $400 for it; Which is a lot of money, but I really love it; almost as much as I love Blender.

Great video!
When I saw the thumbnail of this video in my feed, I was pretty concerned that you would be bashing people using add-ons lol :P
Fortunately it wasn't the case after watching this video.
I'll be doing Freelance work doing 3D Product Visualization & I need all the help I can, to get the results I want especially when dealing with tight deadlines.


You also earned a sub from me as well! :)

...btw DaVinci Resolve is better solution for montage, this soft is more faster than Premiere Pro and its free.

I’m here for the comments lol

If a tool isn't allowing one to work quickly and efficiently, either they don't understand how to properly use the tool or it's a poor tool. If it's the former, one needs more training, so go do that. If it's the latter, either modify the tool, if it's reasonable to do so, or find a better tool. It might be good to know how to do something the hard way, and it might be beneficial to do that process once for perspective. However, if it takes hundreds of steps and an entire day to do, whereas an addon can do it in 5 seconds, the addon is superior. One can certainly dig a swimming pool by hand, taking days of back-breaking labor to do it, but wouldn't it be easier to use an excavator and be done in a couple of hours?! No one is walking around bragging about digging a swimming pool by hand. It's the same mentality whether one is digging a swimming pool by hand, or doing a laborious task in Blender by hand. Both are nonsensical when a better option exists. Work smarter, not harder!

IM TRIGGERED AND I HATE YOU

There is actually a third group of people.
Like you said you get the ones that do use addons and swear by them. You get the group that hate addons and refuse to use them, but you also get the group that, know addons will help so much and want to use them, but simply cannot afford to get them.
Someone just starting out as a freelancer in most cases would love to get a bunch of addons to make work easier and look nicer, but as they are just starting out and are not getting paid for work yet, they cannot afford to to buy addons.
Its the old catch 22 situation. You need addons to make your work better so you get paid, but you dont get paid so you cant use that money to buy addons.

Ok I have question about Kitops and MeshMachine/Decal Machine , don't they do the same thing? I've seen Kitops can put decals and Mesh machine can put plug inserts? you recommend both, can you explain the different between them? I know Mesh Machine does more than just add plugs of course.

i love addons, i cannot afford them because MXN but once someone got me HOps and Boxcutter i was able to start pumping hard surface models in no time

Addons that i can afford :D

thanks for advice i don't have money to buy addons but i can try free and experiment.

One of my friends that is an architect thinks I should use SketchUp or other industry standard tools instead of using Blender because of reasons like you presented in your video. For me, price matters, also freedom to use a tool however I want. I do use free and payed add-ons every time I use Blender and it is really worth it. But I'm not sure I agree about the tree part. I mean, a person could use Daz Studio and build a whole scene with pre-made things, or the same in Blender. Maybe generate a lot of things with different tools. If something is just an extra to make the work pop, sure it would be good to generate it instead of taking forever modeling it.

Give me money and i can "tolerate" and agree with you too :)))

Even after being a hobbyist and bought add-ons worth 1200 dollars + ...but I have only one case against blender add-ons ..
1. Whimsical development roadmaps as most developers are not making add-ons for a living , rather they are just users who come across a trick that is not easy to do in vanilla ,compile it in python and sell .
2. Deaddons - as they have no liability whatsosoever , they just lose interest and stop support or development ,which is anyways tough to keep up with blenders dev speed.
3. They may promise a lifetime free update of a tool then suddenly make a version 2 of it and u feel stupid that your product is useless now.

I don't speak of all Dev's here .

Why don't you use Maya/Cinema instead of blender?

Like - without this tool mentality, 3d ends today. With invention of text2video models - it`ll be more effective to prompt stuff, and it`ll happen sooner than later.

I'm using add-ons even though I'm only a hobbyist with a really tiny budget. This investment save so much time....

Can you do a short video of the addons you use and the purpose of each addon. Hardops, box cutter, mesh machine, decal machine, machine tools, anything else?

Big fan of your content!
Purchased game assets creation courses on your website, tons of information. Thanks for your work!
Studying different approaches all the time to have versatility and speed. Zbrush definitely has it's benefits and is capable of doing things blender isn't.
But I've recently come across the video "Weapon Light - Hard Surface In ZBrush" and couldnt get rid of the thought that it's much easier in blender with hardobxutter. Could you pls make a video with creating smth similar or the maybe the same weapon light with time consumed comparison?

This is so true, I'm once one of those people who refuse to use addons even the free once and take pride on my work that took me months to make, everything changed when I took on freelance jobs where I absolutely need to finish a project as fast and efficient as possible,
I think it's ok to not use addons when you're still starting or learning the software, but treating addons as some sort of an evil cash grabbing entity that making you a less of an artist is the wrong mentality, addons or even buying assets and materials are absolutely essential for an effective and efficient workflow.
If the addon you like seems expensive just wait for sales that's what I do.

I have been saying the very same thing to my co workers yet they say y pay for it when they can do it for free
.....
And tbh i liked it you pointed it out but some ppl just don't understand ....

Excellent points. I am a commercial animator/ illustrator. When I am working on client deadlines, time is money. i am constantly on the lookout for tools that will free my creativity and time. I recently switched to BforArtists as my primary 3D software. It is a fork of blender. Being a full time commercial artist I prefer to stay away from subscription software but I have no problem buying perpetual equivalents. SO I have no problem buying add ones, plug ins, and software that will make my job easier and more efficient.

honestly I needed to hear this. I felt guilty or like I was cheating if I didn't create everything from scratch, and while I don't mind spending money (hardops, boxcutter, etc.) i found myself hesitant to use kitbash or generators. but thinking about it it just makes sense to.

I think the same thing can be said about paid courses/Tutorials. It’s not just the workflow or how to model a certain thing, it’s the ability to learn from them and translate that into something else you might be working on either at the time or in the future.

This also applies to hiring someone or subcontracting someone to help with a project. If I have a deadline and I know I can’t model a car or something else in that timeframe, but I know someone that can, I subcontract and get the project done. There is always someone that specializes in a certain genre of 3D, be it organic modeling, hard surface modeling, lighting and scene setup, texturing, animation etc..

Yes it’s great to do it all yourself if the time and budget allows, but let’s face it most projects have unrealistic deadlines if you’re doing it all yourself. Especially in todays market. The more time you spend the more money you have to ask for, if I can save 10 hours and still get the job done for the same amount of money, why wouldn’t I do that? By using addons, a paid course to learn how to do something or hiring a subcontractor to do part of it is just good business.

Bam!! This message was hot, fiery and on point. I’ve been grabbing paid addons and shaders for awhile now. Definitely saved a ton of time. My recent purchase Grid Modeller and Mesh Copier is my dream workflow.

Mesh Copier alone just might actually let me publish my game before my whole head is grey. Haha!

This argument sounds exactly as the case of AI and artists.

A lot of people want appreciation for the work they do, but the reality we live gives more relevance to the results than the process.

Of course we can appreciate the details of handcrafting, but technology gives us tools that make our life easier in order to focus on what we matter.

I am 100 % agree with this video and this tendency. Otherwise, saying no to new tools means rejecting progress.

Mostly I agree, but if your employee is using free software and you think a payed one increases productivity, the employer covers the cost, shouldn't be out of pocket.. but that's how it is where i live don't know you

nice!

As a friend of Blender because mostly its free, I'm friend of free addons. They are made by people like blender devs and their motivation is to help first. Of course those who use a lot of their time developping commercial ones deserve a certain price for their job. But à lot of "little" addons are so useful and although free, bu very well designed. And some of them are underrated because the equivalent ones are paid ones , example luxcore or charmorph are free (i have no profit in them ) . So there is not a choice between 2 possibilities : "paid and good" OR "bad and free".. NOR any hate in my words. Just to be fair i prefer not paid ones because just if you search enough you find those underrated but excellent ones that help you make, as you sais, the job done

I love addons

Thoughts about those who want to learn blender for the first time? Should we learn vanilla first, then begin learning addons, or what?
Also is there a way to learn about specific addons?

I didnt realize this was a hot take. Im in complete agreement! Everything is cost vs. Time!

There is something I disagree with you about video editors. I work in a fablab. We have a room where my colleagues teach how to use a video editor. Courses are free and we promote free softwares because we take into consideration the fact that not everybody can buy Adobe softwares

The flip side is getting an addon before learning how to do it the hard way. The problems that can cause deserves it’s own video.

I think the most problematic thing about Blender non-addons users is the fact that the software itself is free. That could make them think that they don't need to pay for anything because they can achieve it "for free".

The only thing i refuse to use are booleans. Other than that i do my shit mostly on max but i used blender a few times and some add ons are just life savers. So i can only say thanks to the people who created them specially if they are free.

100% bro

Josh you are a legend. Well said

Its just that the people who use addon can't actually learn the process if they using them without knowing the process. And about the addon charges they should charge cause it's their creativity and their effort that they put on to make it and reduced the time required for other creators to start from scratch.

So people think that others should spend a bunch of their time and energy making a plug-in only to give it away?