Why people use commercial game/animation/art tools when there are free alternatives?

[Xdqwerty]

i mean, there is free software to make games/animation/art

 

[SylverReZ]

title

Because if they work hard for it, they do deserve getting credit for the usage of their work.

 

[Scarlet]

generally i think they need to buy food and other things to facilitate living while creating those things

 

[JuanMena]

title

You tell us.
Why do I eat if at the end I'm going to shit my food?

 

[Xdqwerty]

i think i worded it wrong, Why do people invest money to make games/animations and art if the software for those things is free?

 

[WalterSlovotsky]

i think i worded it wrong, Why do people invest money to make games/animations and art if the software for those things is free?

Because you aren't paying just for the end product. You're paying for all of the talent, skill, effort, education and training that went into that person being able to produce those things in the first place.

 

[Clydefrosch]

because a persons time has value.
and not all software is free. the hardware to run the software costs money, the electricity to run it costs money, often you need more people with different skills to make something in a reasonable amount of time and those people simply might go somewhere else where they get more money.

 

[Scarlet]

i think i worded it wrong, Why do people invest money to make games/animations and art if the software for those things is free?

Are you trying to ask why the artist would invest money for software etc when there are often free options available?

If so it's usually because one tool or piece of software offers a specific thing the person wants, or may make something traditionally complicated much easier. There's pros and cons that come with each piece of software. Sometimes the free option is the best fit, sometimes not.

 

[Xdqwerty]

Are you trying to ask why the artist would invest money for software when there are often free options available?

yea

 

[CeeDee]

why do people buy food from the store when they can just go to a food bank

 

[Scarlet]

yea

This is one of those situations where just having your first post be "title" doesn't really work in your favour. A bit of extra detail would have avoided confusion. Might be wise to edit your OP just so people coming into the thread know what you're actually trying to ask.

 

[Xdqwerty]

This is one of those situations where just having your first post be "title" doesn't really work in your favour. A bit of extra detail would have avoided confusion. Might be wise to edit your OP just so people coming into the thread know what you're actually trying to ask.

ok i fixed it

 

[Ryccardo]

If so it's usually because one tool or piece of software offers a specific thing the person wants, or may make something traditionally complicated much easier. There's pros and cons that come with each piece of software. Sometimes the free option is the best fit, sometimes not.

Corollary: Microsoft and Adobe's best marketing is literally not caring if average joe pirates their stuff, they know amateurs learning stuff results in ex amateurs continuing to want their stuff (although nowadays they're trying hard to make it shit)

Corollary 2: Openoffice's best marketing to windows users was office 2007's ribbon

 

[Veho]

Edited the title for clarity.

Usually, commercial software is the "industry standard" and all the cool kids are doing it.

Like Ryccardo said, big companies tolerate pirated software for non-commercial use, because when one of those artists decides to go pro, they are more likely to buy a license than to switch to some unfamiliar free software.

This is why Microsoft, Adobe, Apple etc. donate stuff to schools, push to have the curriculum use their software and have free licenses for students. Once that student graduates they're more likely to continue using that software.

 

[FAST6191]

Various reasons.

Free software tends to be the Johnny come lately of the field, or if it is earlier it tends to be forked off as a paid closed thing and only when that achieves dominance does someone pick up and run with the older one.
Paid and closed tends to make for a budget as well which does support (being able to phone up someone that does this task for a living is better than having to have in house options either dedicated or hoping your IT guy does it as well as everything else). Depending upon the business then historically free software does not play nicely with business IT (network installs, network permissions and all the rest).
Creative fields also tend to evolve from needing a basically a supercomputer (kind of seeing it now with AI) to something mortals can use. As open source tends not to have a budget or indeed supercomputers (though there are notable exceptions) then you also have that to catch up on.

Schools tend to then get given software (and support) knowing that they will teach it and thus have the people go out into the world and both use it/demand it/expect it and companies might not care about $1000 a chair software if it is basically a rounding error and they can drop in and start working vs having to learn new software (which might not be as a capable, as stable or as supported both by the company and the world at large if you have to send it out for other work). Schools also get to say they teach industry standard software and techniques (while most creatives are less concerned with percentage in industry at 1 year from graduation than many others it is still a thing).

This all repeats for many years. The company that makes it gets big. At that point their last real competitor which maybe only hung on for this time, or a competitor seriously funds the open source aspect, or maybe a government that needs accountability that closed can not provide (though that is also tricky -- most major governments probably have windows source code and office source code if they want it for just those reasons), maybe gets donated to the open source world. Said now basically monopoly probably gets bloated, gets silly ideas like charging a yearly fee, stops listening to the little guys, a big company with only a tangential use (some people make websites in photoshop for instance) and supercomputer becomes nerd level gaming PC instead so said nerd (which maybe also did it for a living or as a minor hobby while at school, and possibly could make a youtube career using it) also wants in but $1000 a year is a bit steep and the open source eventually steps up.

 

[duwen]

Speaking as someone that works in print and design, there are 'industry standard' formats that are preferred;

Supply a pdf generated from something like Canva, and it will more than likely be rejected. Generate one from InDesign and it will (usually) pass all pre-flight checks.

If you're just doing stuff as a hobby or for personal enjoyment, then use whatever you want... but don't think for a second that anything you've learned from low end free/cheap tools will transition to a professional environment.

 

[cearp]

Believe it or not, sometimes a paid service/software/thing is better than the free alternative.
In those instances, some people are happy to pay to get the better thing.
If you live in Mozambique, no surprise that you/your office can't afford Photoshop.
If you live in Switzerland, it's probably a different story.

Sometimes you may rely a plugin that only works with the paid application.
Also a big thing is support - if you pay for a software, the company can often help you (or has a literal contract, and has to help you) with issues.

It's a bit like private school. Depending on where you are, your local government/free school may be fine, but not always!

 

[Vetusomaru]

i mean, there is free software to make games/animation/art

There's also piracy for commercial products.