[TrevorJ]

Price point may be another important factor. 2D Design apps like Photoshop are not as pricy as the 3D counterparts, last time I checked. Hence there's more motivation to find an alternative to Maya, Max for the hobbyist then there is to replace photoshop.

[bobthepanda]

And now that Photoshop/CC have been creeping up in price you have other contenders like Affinity which are decent at much lower price points.

[pzone]

These days Maya and Max are the same price as Photoshop - $250/y vs $20/mo. Incidentally Houdini is also about the same, $279/y.

[webmaven]

> These days Maya and Max are the same price as Photoshop - $250/y vs $20/mo. Incidentally Houdini is also about the same, $279/y.

As I recall, pricing of 3D modeling/animation/rendering suites was much steeper when Blender started gathering momentum.

[Checks pricing]

Umm, it looks like the price is still quite high (Maya and Max are each $1.6k/y). Where are you getting that figure from?