I have not done 3d stuff extensively for years now...
The current iteration of Blender looks amazing. How does it compare to commercial 3D tools from Autodesk?
The current iteration of Blender looks amazing. How does it compare to commercial 3D tools from Autodesk?
It trails behind the leading edge in many regards, but if you're not pushing the limits it's actually really great. If you don't need that 20% you won't even notice.
Blender can do almost anything Maya can do, but it can often take longer or a ton more fussing because of a lack of tools. It's like using a really great IDE for coding versus being stuck with vi. Both get the job done, but your workflow might be easier in one.
For example, Maya can do a lot of things for animation with driven keys but Blender's equivalent is really weak. It "works" but it's quite clunky.
Blender, Maya, 3ds Max, they all can do the same things in the end.
Maya does a few things that are great that Blender should totally steal, and one of them is having really easy driven keys.
But seriously: don't let the price fool you. This is production ready software.
There is also a lot of professional support available like training by certified trainers.