It's The Artist not the Tool.

Mario Maker by Albron

I made the decision a while ago not the steal software to further my creative journey. Some people may say that without the 'proper' software, one could never have a career in the creative industries. Whether it be in film, graphic design or photography, I have always believed that it is the skill of the artist and not the tools that the artist uses that is most important.

Some of the most popular animations were made before the creation of Adobe Flash. Some of the most well known movies were created without the use of industry standard editing and compositing software. Some of the greatest photographs were done without the help of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. 

So why can't someone who has the skill, use a free or Open Source program to create high quality art. Most people can't tell which program was used to create an image, or film or a piece of art. If you learn a particular software well enough, your high quality .jpeg, .png, .mov, .eps will be just as valuable as another persons file of the same quality.

With more and more people migrating to Blender 3D, it may soon be up there with the industry standard software that the big companies use. Take a look at some of Andrew Price's top picks by Blender artists for September. As always let me know your thoughts about using Blender or any other non-industry standard software for your workflow.