Netflix Animation Studios Joins the Blender Development Fund as Corporate Patron

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Reaction to Netflix Funding

  • Strong approval that a major studio is backing Blender; seen as validation of Blender’s professional viability.
  • Some argue the contribution level is meaningful but still small relative to what studios save on proprietary licenses; wish more big companies would donate six or seven figures.
  • Clarification that the corporate patron level is ~€240k/year, and that other large tech firms contribute less despite heavy reliance on Blender-driven content.

Blender’s Maturity and UI/UX Evolution

  • Many note a sharp upward trajectory since the 2.8 UI overhaul: Blender went from “weird free alternative” to serious industry tool.
  • Older UI was considered counterintuitive and hostile to conventions (right‑click select, scattered context controls). 2.8+ is credited with dramatically reducing rage‑quit friction.
  • Internal “open movies” are viewed as Blender’s secret sauce: artists and developers co‑located on real productions, surfacing practical issues and driving focused improvements.
  • There’s lingering friction around keymaps: “industry compatible” is nicer for some, but most tutorials assume the classic Blender keymap.

Open Source, UX, and Governance

  • Thread broadens into FOSS UX culture: many projects prioritize features over polish, get stuck in “death by a thousand papercuts,” and lack product/UX leadership.
  • Tension described between creators, users, and would‑be contributors; some projects are labeled “fenceware” (open license but closed to outside direction).
  • Debate over whether OSS UX is uniquely bad, with counterexamples (KiCad, Blender) and comparisons to widely disliked proprietary tools (Teams, Jira, etc.).
  • Noted scarcity of UX contributors in OSS and skepticism among some devs about the value of UX work.

CAD, FreeCAD, and Kernels

  • Several hope CAD will have a “Blender moment.” FreeCAD and KiCad are cited as on an upward path but still behind top commercial tools.
  • Discussion of CAD kernels like Open CASCADE as complex, math‑heavy cores, analogous to physics engines or LLVM, separate from UI.
  • FreeCAD’s long‑standing “topological naming” issues illustrate how deep structural problems plus unpaid labor make progress slow.

Ecosystem, Training, and Workflows

  • YouTube and free access are seen as crucial to Blender’s rise, especially for younger hobbyists who later become professionals.
  • Blender is praised but still seen as rough for game‑dev pipelines (baking, asset iteration).
  • Compared to Maya, Blender is considered competitive but still plugin‑dependent for some content workflows; both require substantial training time.