When I started producing animation professionally, the market’s choice was clear: Adobe, Autodesk, expensive plugins, yearly renewals. Those who didn’t use these tools weren’t taken seriously. The credential belonged to the licenses, not the work.
I did differently.
For over 20 years I have worked exclusively with free software — not out of financial limitation, but out of conviction. A tool you don’t control can be taken from you at any moment: a policy change, a subscription that doubles in price, a server that goes down. When that happens, your pipeline stops. Your project stops. Your creative autonomy depends on a decision made on another continent.
With free software, the pipeline is mine. Every update is a choice, not an imposition. Every tool can be studied, modified, taught.
What I use
Blender for 3D animation, modeling, rigging and VFX. Krita for concept art, storyboard and digital painting. Inkscape for vectors and motion graphics assets. Kdenlive for editing and post-production. GIMP for image treatment. Everything running on my own infrastructure — local server, VPS, no dependency on proprietary cloud.
This is not a list of poor substitutes. These are the same tools with which I produced award-winning animations at international festivals and delivered projects for clients in over 15 countries.
Free software is not a concession to what exists. It is a stance on who should have control over the creative process.
Sovereignty doesn’t start in the edit. It starts in the choice of tool.