Not surprising people use crack copies of maya and 3DS, but modeling in blender isn’t horrible. You can model polygons and it’s freeware. Where as autodesk programs seem costly.
I don’t enjoy how I don’t have as much control modeling effective geometry as in earlier trial versions of both of the industry standard programs. But at least it’s opensource software.
What do you experienced modelers think?
If it works. It works. Perhaps it mostly depends on what program you are comfortable with. I think opensource is great for those of us who want very little production cost.
I have seven years of experience with Max, four years experience with Maya, and just started using Blender a few weeks ago.
Blender is more than capable of creating whatever you need to make your game assets. I’ve been focusing on using the Sculpt mode and baking normal maps and I’m really happy with it.
The biggest problem with Blender is a lack of organized and clear tutorials. In general, there is a lack of organization around Blender. I have spent more time googling for info with Blender than any other program I have used. This would be very frustrating for someone who just wants to sit down and crank out some models.
It’s annoying to have to sit through a ten minute Youtube video by some mumble-mouthed kid just to find out what button to press so that a simple feature will work correctly.
Max and Maya are great but Blender is kicking ass for me and I plan to keep using it.
I have used maya as well as max (I’m a registered autodesk student which means i get access to pretty much all their software) and I prefer blender.
And if you are worried about the capabilities of blender, just look at some screenshots of stuff made with blender! Will you ever get to that level? Maybe but it will definitely take you years of practice. I can safely say that blender is good enough for me haha.
I’m a big fan of these guys. And from what I understand they are moving toward more low-poly workflow tutorials that involve Unity! http://cgcookie.com/blender/
You could say that blender has a sort of an accquired taste for some people. Generally people complained about not understanding Blender’s hotkeys and it’s complex interface, but once you’re hooked on blender, you’re hooked on for life. I’ve started out Blender for 3 years and that is the only 3D Modelling software I’ll use, I tried 3D max for 3 months recently, but I got tired of certain limitations the in terms of Flexibility and Control, Blender has these capabilities.
It can be hard and daunting when you’re trying out the basics, but in time you’ll learn to master it.
100% agree. using shortcuts is definitely daunting at first but once you master the important once you notice how your workflow improves so much.
Exactly. You always have your left hand on the keyboard for S/R/G/W/F/Space and right hand on mouse for manipulation. When the occasion arises that some operation you need to do isn’t handled by a left hand hotkey, use the space menu to bring it up. From then on space will default to that option until you pick something else. So repetitive actions that aren’t left hand hotkeys become space+click operations. So your left hand rarely has to move and your mouse is always kept on target and not hunting all over the screen for menu items or to manipulate rotation gizmos, etc. And of course you can remap anything you like if the default doesn’t suit you for some reason. I have a really hard time using the big time packages like 3DS and Maya. A lot of it is just lack of familiarity, but a large portion is that Blender really does have a very efficient workflow once you learn it.
waits for Tiles to jump in with “Blender doesn’t have n-gons so it’s unusable”
jumps in
I love the new UI in 2.5. No need to remember 300+ hotkeys anymore 
I love blender!
You just gotta get used to it and you can make all the stuff you can make in maya and 3ds max in pretty much the same ammount of time.
I don’t like texturing in blender though :L
YES. That is the big ********* problem I have in Blender. It is a very tedious process with its looonnnggg Tex interface. 3D Max wins in that catergory.
Hmm, how are you guys doing texturing in Blender? Maybe you’re just doing it wrong, I don’t find it any more tedious than other packages really.
Blender use here, to be honest, I despise the new 2.5 interface, so im still using 2.49, its one thing I wish I didn’t do because i feel like im missing out on 2.5 features. but if I can use 2.49 better then I dont see why I dont keep using it 
Because the old line is not longer developed.
Blender is actually one of the best tools in texturing.
Blender is the best open-source software of all time.
I don’t know why everyone complains about why its so hard. the new GUI almost eliminates the need for hotkeys. Also, all the complex menus, buttons and options and tools are really only scarcely used if you think about it. I only use a few hot keys and creative capacity for modeling I’m serious, I can create great looking animations, textures, and models without fiddling too much. And as stated above, it is so flexible!! being open source and all.
I second that. But that doesn`t mean that Blender is the best software ever. When Blender would be commercial then i would put it in the lower middleware area.
Well. Because it simply is. 3D is hard in general, because it is so much. And Blender is a special case when it comes to usabilitiy. It adds to that. The new ui has solved a lot here. But it was one of the hardest to use softwares in the past. It had one of the steepest learning curves ever up to 2.49. That`s in the heads. And there are more than enough relics left that needs a fix to be state of the art. The material system for example. And even with the new ui there are more than enough areas left where Blender could be much more intuitive and user friendly.
Far from considering us good modelers, we certainly prefer Blender to other 3D editing programs.
It’s strong points are:
You can really see the difference in ‘mentailty’ when you need to get back to the other programs and work on something you initially developed there. From the mouse behaviors, to the interfaces.
Point being: Blender has a decently steep learning curve, but it’s really worth the time.
Such an old man attitude 
Charlie give it a try to 2.6 and you aren’t going to regret it. I was in the same situation as you are, mad about the big changes in interface, but after a couple of tutorials I made peace with it
Blender is an amazing tool both for pro and newbies. And people are creating awesome tools for Blender, just look at this http://www.bsurfaces.info/
Our workflow is completely reliant on Blender so when a new artist joins our team it takes them a week or two to adapt. To help with the transition we make sure that our blender guru is on standby for any queries during the transitional phase - specifically to make up for the lack of adequate documentation. We have the guys go through the blender cookie tutorials, they seem to serve as a good starting point.
All the assets in our latest title (A Day In The Woods) were created using blender 2.5x
Our TD makes daily builds available to our team, and the changes get assimilated as they come out - we can’t wait for BMesh to come in though!