Would it be legal to use Blender in any of the FIRST’s animation awards?
“Legal”, as in the rules of these awards will let us use Blender, or any other open-source/freeware 3D graphics program.
I don’t believe so. On the 2011 Autodesk Rules and Requirements PDF, it states on page 8 under Award Requirements – Content & Format:
- Submit a 30-second animation using Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya or Autodesk Softimage that meets the requirements listed below
Hope this helps,
-duke
P.S. The allowed animation softwares are better than Blender anyways 
…and they are free!
I disagree. Blender has a lot of very useful features including a game engine. Its used by many professional studios because it is cost effective and is very well designed for any part in the animation pipeline. Proprietary products offer many advantages but Blender is a open source rock when it comes to commerical use.
Also their licencing is way easier to set up and you can share it with anyone and not break the law.
Thanks
3DElizabeth:
I disagree. Blender has a lot of very useful features including a game engine. Its used by many professional studios because it is cost effective and is very well designed for any part in the animation pipeline. Proprietary products offer many advantages but Blender is a open source rock when it comes to commerical use.
Also their licencing is way easier to set up and you can share it with anyone and not break the law.
That was my thought too. The work flow in Blender is easier for me. I thought that the animation awards would allow us to use other programs to render 3d animation to use in the awards.
I mean… the main point of these awards is to help spread the word of the FIRST spirit and the proper industral saftey proceedures for all the future rookie teams to see, is it not???
I would suggest contacting FIRST and suggesting the program be added to the supported list. I myself love using Blender and find it quite easy to learn and to use. That is the beauty of FIRST, if you want something added, it could be quite easy to do so. Best of luck!
dShad:
I would suggest contacting FIRST and suggesting the program be added to the supported list.
Anyone knows the best way to ask FIRST about this?
I would guess that since Autodesk sponsors the animation awards, adding other programs is not likely to happen any time soon. Just saying. ::rtm::
cbale2000:
I would guess that since Autodesk sponsors the animation awards, adding other programs is not likely to happen any time soon.
Guess I’ll ask Autodesk about it too…
Maybe we should contact Blender also! If autodesk inventor and pro e can be a competition, then couldn’t blender have one also? It would be great because you can run it off of a thumbdrive or on linux. 
an open source animation contest would be awesome!
Is Pro-E going to be a competition, now?!
I thought it was? It’s separate from the Autodesk competition. Are you playing?
I haven’t heard of it until now. Do you have any links or information about it?
I first got into Blender when I saw Big Buck Bunny. I got interested and started trying it out. I had a computer science and some 3d imaging background so it was not a totally different world for me.
I cannot remember if it was from Blender itself or from some other site, but they provided a very good set of video tutorials to get you to learn the basics. It was basically going through the whole interface with a voice over of it.
With the rules that the award has right now, I think that Blender is a good program to learn some of the basic concepts and then use the Autodesk software to do the final copy on. It is a lot of work I guess but if you alreally started Blender then I would keep with it for a little while.
If you’re comfortable with Blender or other 3d program, then 3ds Max will seem alien & frustrating, at first. But if you keep at it you’ll start to like Max, and the interface will become more natural to use.
A few years ago I had a student that was pretty good with Inventor. He spent the first couple weeks complaining about how stupid 3ds Max was. As time went by he complained less and less, and eventually helped us win a regional animation award. The funny part was next year I heard him trying to tell a freshman animator to be patient.
Autodesk is hosting the competition so they of course require you to use their products. I think it’s great they’re donating 1-year licenses of very expensive professional software to all FRC teams.
As a bonus, if you go to a digital arts college or get a job in the multimedia industry, they’ll probably be using 3ds Max or Maya.
Good advice. No matter what program you use, keep at it. Your frustration level will eventually go down and the quality of your work will go up.
Also - don’t be shy about asking for help here and on Autodesk’s user forum “The Area”. You’ll find lots of people willing to help.
I use area all the time. It is really helpful.