Re: How does it compare?

Thanks, Paolo! Glad to hear that. I'm afraid I've become a bit cynical (and with the prices of some software and hardware, it's not hard to see why). In 2008, I had the funds to get a Mac Pro along with Final Cut Studio, Shake, and then CS4 Production Premium. Surely a nice suite, but the one thing I thought was still out of my reach was CGI. Unless "Big Buck Bunny" used a few extra apps, or a ton more horsepower to achieve it's look, I'd say that isn't a problem now. I'm not expecting to produce a "Wall*E", or "Up" by myself, but I can get in the neighborhood of some of the early Pixar shorts I'll be happy.

I doubt that Blender being freely available is destined to flood the market with too many creators. It still takes talent and skills not instantly acquired to make something with it. And frankly, it took a while for me to even hear about Blender, and I've been I've been watching Cow tutorials and reading video related magazines for quite a while, so it's not like everyone even knows about it.

As soon as I had it running, I went to Creative Cow to see what they had on it. Your tutorials have been quite helpful in getting started, and I'm glad to see I'm just in time for #7! There's certainly a lot to learn for what I'm looking to do, and you've helped get that going in the right direction.

Thanks again