Since the release of Blender 2.80, more so with the Long Term Support (LTS) versions of the application, there’s been an uptick in reports the various creative industries are adopting Blender into their production pipelines.
While generally lauded as a good thing (it is) for Blenders branding and presence, it being seen as a competent and competitive choice for studios to make, for the broader community the increased presence is something of a promise of false hope.
Although there no hard data to verify this (studios are incredibly secretive of their processes), anecdotally it appears a majority of this support is not from within the community itself, the overt hiring of capable individuals versed in Blenders idiosyncrasies, but rather the (re)training of existing industry experienced artists that have established portfolios
Or to put this another way; all those corporate sponsors of Blender aren’t specifically for the community-at-large’s benefit, especially when considering the university-to-credentialed employee pathway is still hooked into the major players, Max, Maya, et al.
While this remains in place, ostensibly at the expense of degreed courses that focus entirely on, or significantly catering to, Blender 3D, industry adoption isn’t the hope of a real future for Blender and its ostensibly uncredentialled userbase should be looking for, who aught instead look to break free and go their own way, as many are doing with great success, especially in regions where licensing ‘the bigs’ is difficult and costly.
Vive la independence!