I have just got a copy of Blender, does anyone use it here?and could you point me in the right direction for some tutorials etc, I am using a Mac, but I am sure that wont matter!!;)
cheers
J
There are tutorials on the blender website and there are also a couple of blender users at Rendus3D which I am sure would be glad to help. Hillrunner and Criss come to mind.
Inky take a look at Blender Underground, especially their video tutorials. They are the best videos i've found and really go into detail.
http://blenderunderground.com/
The video tutorials helped me a lot, but it's hard to listen if english is not your native language:
http://www.blender.org/education-help/video-tutorials/
Also there are several books on Blender, available from the blender.org e-shop page: http://www.blender3d.org/e-shop/ or Amazon, or even your local Borders if you're really in a hurry.
When I asked around, "Essential Blender" and "Bounce, Tumble, and Splash" seemed to be the most recommended ones. Both include disks with tutorials.
I believe if you buy direct from the blender.org site, the authors or the Blender Foundation get a little more of the proceeds.
theres also the wikibook
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro
thanks everybody...I will investigate and start experimenting...
cheers]
inky
There is so much documentation on Blender its a case of finding the right trees in the forest. For me the best hard copy book is The Essential Blender, followed by the recently published Blender For Dummies, both are available from Amazon; I'm still waiting for Blender For Those Who Need A Good Kick Up The You-Know-What. Also check out this excellent free pdf: Blender Basics Book 3rd Edition which you can find here: http://www.cdschools.org/54223045235521/blank/browse.asp?A=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=55205
John
Hey,
I use Blender. I love and hate it. If you have any questions, send me an email. I'll be glad to help.
thanks njeneb....much appreciated!
I tried Blender. HATED it. They say that once you learn the interface it's efficient, but I'd rather have an inefficient interface that's easy to learn than an efficient one that is almost unusable.
I understand what you're saying. In most "normal" software you can use the interface buttons and menus to perform functions and then later move onto shortcut keys to improve efficiency.
In Blender you really do need to know the shortcut keys pretty early on because a lot of the functionally is hidden away in different parts of the software and it's a non-intuitive interface at that. After using Blender for a few years I've got used to the shortcut keys and I've learnt where all the different options are located and it's quite nice to use now, but this is because I went through the slow torturous process of figuring out where everything is and how it works.
It's correct what the pros say I suppose in that it is quite an efficient process once you understand the software, the problem is getting there in the first place. For new users Blender has to be one of the most daunting bits of software around.
There is some good news though, Blender is having a big makeover. Version 2.5 is currently being developed and I have to say the new interface is a big improvement on what we have in 2.49. It's more user friendly in terms of the look with more icons and a more responsive interface, but there is also a nice search tool that you can bring up with the space bar.
It might be time to take another look at Blender with version 2.5, it really is a very powerful bit of software and the rate at which they keep adding new features seems to be increasing. If you can get past the steep learning curve you're going to end up with a nice bit of free software at your disposal.
I still love Blender and hate it a the same time. Lately my biggest problem with it is the lack of real scale. It need metric units, (can can convert most US measurements to metric in my head). The Blender Unit just does not cut it.
Quote from: njeneb on February 15, 2010, 07:47:13 AM
I still love Blender and hate it a the same time. Lately my biggest problem with it is the lack of real scale. It need metric units, (can can convert most US measurements to metric in my head). The Blender Unit just does not cut it.
Anim8or has that problem too, but I'm used to it.
Here is some stuff on youtube, a lot on smoke - you can see I just searched for ver. 2.5
HTH,
Glen
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=blender+2.5+tutorials&search_type=&aq=f (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=blender+2.5+tutorials&search_type=&aq=f)
Smoke is one of the new things in 2.5 so it's a hot topic at the moment.
Blender is calling me from Messiah Studio. I can vaguely here its voice, "Love me. I rock. Hurry. Learn me, before you die an old geezer."
Hey, did you hear that Blender will be moving to 2.5 Alpha 1 pretty soon? This means the GUI will be stable...onto other cool things. like modeling and animations!!
Particles and fluid are another couple of hot topics with Blender. Even professional animators have considered Blender as part of their set of tools.
Here's one of the water sims I did with Blender. I have done quite a few.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/njeneb/2860532667/
This one is my most popular item on Flickr. I have seen links to it from all over the world.
Have plans for a tutorial?
Quote from: njeneb on February 16, 2010, 07:49:05 AM
Here's one of the water sims I did with Blender. I have done quite a few.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/njeneb/2860532667/
This one is my most popular item on Flickr. I have seen links to it from all over the world.
It's not that hard to do. But I can put something together.
If you know of a link explaining it, like a tutorial, I'd be interested. No need to go to a lot of trouble.
Quote from: njeneb on February 16, 2010, 03:30:11 PM
It's not that hard to do. But I can put something together.
Try out this page from YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=blender+water+tutorial&search_type=&aq=1&oq=blender+wa
I've messed around with fluid as well, it's lots of fun. njeneb have you used the fluid control feature where you can take control of the fluid, pretty powerful stuff.
Here are a couple of Blender fluid animations I did with fluid control.
http://vimeo.com/1788541
http://vimeo.com/1730968
The splash onto the cube is neat. 8) I tried to make text melt into a puddle. I was then going to reverse the image sequence so the water formed the text. The high settings to get the correct detail went right through my memory limit.
I think I may try it again when I get a new computer. I have decided that 12 GB is necessary. That would be enough for Terragen 2 and Blender for a year or two. When you start getting 24 GB or 32 GB, the cost of the system rises dramatically. Plus, if I went for 24 GB+ I would want the high end I7 processor; most high cost.
Anyway, it's time to fix Ulco's roof.