Bigger (and more expensive) isn't better

While discussing my work thus far on the Panda Puppet system earlier this week, a colleague who I respect and love dearly scoffed at the notion that you could build a decent, high-end digital puppetry system using a free open source program that has a relatively tiny 7 mb installer.

"You need Motionbuilder," he told me. "You need Maya. Don't waste your time on this open source stuff." So we had to agree to disagree, but to underscore my position that bigger (and more expensive) isn't better I direct you to the story of the spoon and the jackhammer.

Note that the point of the story isn't that the spoon is the easier tool to use, just that it's ultimately the better one.