Hi James.
Blender, like many other FOSS (Free or Open Source Software) programs is completely free. Not only you are not required to pay for it but the source code of the program is available to anyone. That is the meaning of OSS. There is no catch, there is no watermark, you are free to use Blender for commercial use. If that makes you shake your head in disbelief :), think that Ton Rosendaal, the main developer and head of the Blender Foundation, actually raised about $100,000 in 2002 to pay for the right of the code from the original owner, a Dutch company called "Not a Number". So, Blender is actually a $100,000 donation to the world.
How does it compare to Maya? I cannot give you a feature-by-feature list but the two applications overlap for a great part. Blender has actually features that are missing from Maya, like symmetrical modeling, the ability to model one half of your object and have Blender generate the symmetrical half in real time.
UV Mapping is also better than in Maya, in fact several Maya users export their models from Maya to Blender, UV map them and then re-import them in Maya.
It's not always a matter of features. Maya is very well established in the pipeline of big studios and VFX houses. It's hard for *any* application to take that market because it would force the users to upset a crucial part of their workflow. Unless an application has something to offer that others lack, like what ZBrush has done, adoption is tricky.
But for us, the small, indipendent artists and studios, Blender is a perfect fit. It's very capable, it's fast, portable, well supported and it has more features than most MoGraph artists will ever use.
If it seems impossible that such power comes for free think that what we are using now, the Internet, also runs mostly on FOSS. TCP/IP is an open standard, the webserver that the COW uses, Apache, is OSS, the OS that runs the server, Linux, is also OSS, the browser that I'm using, Firefox, is OSS, most email in the world is managed by Sendmail or Postfix, both OSS. Google itself runs on a highly customised version of the premiere FOOS OS: Linux.
It's safe to say that without FOSS the Internet as we know it would not exist.
There is no "loophole", Blender is a majestic gift to the community, and the best part is that it keeps on going and getting better :)
Happy Blendering.
--
Paolo Ciccone
Pret-A-3D
http://www.preta3d.com
http://www.paolociccone.com
