As DCC, Blender is a complete visual effects pipeline from start to finish. It is much more than a 3D application. It has built into it a world-class production renderer, simulation tools, an animation toolset, a tracking system, a video editor, and even a full blown node based compositor. Keep in mind that Blender is also free and open source. Pretty amazing, right?
If you wanted to get more familiar with how the Blender pipeline looks working on visual effects, here is a great place to start. 3D artist Steve Lund (the CG Geek) offers a beginner’s look into working in Blender for visual effects.
Steve walks through how to import and track a shot, insert 3D elements into it, render it, and composite all the elements together into the final shot …and not once does he leave blender. There is a delicate balance between being bloated with tools and features and having a complete end-to-end workflow that can be used in production. Blender is the latter.
