Start Using Blender 3D Creation Suite

Ranked #1,785 in Arts & Design, #24,022 overall

Blender is a 3D design program, fit to compete with the best of them, such as Maya and 3ds Max, but infinitely better on one aspect - it's completely free.

That's why it's also very suitable to make sculpties in Second Life: if you want to make money selling virtual objects, it's better business to use a free program to produce them.

So you just download Blender and start. Here's how. 

P.S. I created the illustration for this page on my second day of Blender. I'd never used any other 3D program before. Which means - any newbie can do it, too.

P.S.2  If you can't, or won't, study from just online tutorials, you can  download a free Blender ebook here. It's a classroom tutorial book by James Chronister. You can get the same book in parts or chapters, also some other cool Blender tools and resources, here.

Blender 3D Tutorials Online

Learning 3D animation on the internet

There's lots and lots of Blender tutorials, but not very many beginner tutorials, or at least they're a bit hard to find among all those rocket-science-level ones. This is the list of what I've found so far.
Blender Quick Start
If you just downloaded Blender and never tried your hand at any 3D graphics, start here.
"Noob to Pro" Beginner Tutorials
A very, very good starter's tutorial, in Wiki format. My personal favorite so far. No instant results, but very good, slow, careful, methodical explaining of what you see and what is happening, and what means what.
Tip: for instant results, press F12 - a picture will appear in a separate window. That button is used for rendering. As you learn to do things, the picture in this window changes. I got this from another tutorial.
Tutorial Syntax
This is where you begin your studies: learning to understand the tutorials.
Somewhere else there is that Golden Rule of Blender: 1 hand on the keyboard, 1 hand on the mouse.
Buttons, shortcuts etc are very important so learn to recognize them.
Essential for laptop users, no-middle-mouse-button users, single-button-mouse users, no-mouse users and all noobs in general.
David Jarvis Blender Tutorial
A very clear, short and helpful tutorial, producing an instant result - a colored cube. Just what every newbie wants.
Sculpted Prims
Most well-known and widely used Blender sculptie tutorial, by Amanda Levitsky.
Sculpted Prims
Another link for the same Amanda Levitsky's tutorial, if you're having problems with the first one.
Blender to Sculptie Tutorial
Extremely helpful for Second Life users (making sculpties with Blender is all the rage in SL these days) but useful to other beginners too.
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Blender (Almost)
This is one blogger's account on their experience in using Blender specifically to create sculpties.
Complete with newbie advice, pictures (making a cool martini glass out of a ball) and a long discussion by other Blender/SL users.

Blender Video Tutorials on Youtube

Super3boy has the basics in his videos and the three Dragonrose tutorials are clear, useful and cute!
Super3boy's First Blender Tutorial
by super3boy | video info

1,580 ratings | 468,021 views
curated content from YouTube

Blender Wiki

Look here for the complete documentation of Blender in wiki format.
If you're totally new to this, I suggest you read the page on Blender in the usual Wikipedia first.

Use Blender to Make Sculpties

This article describes very well why you should use a free 3D design program such as Blender to make sculpties in Second Life.
Lots of people are making money in Second Life now, and you could do it too, using free products for it.
Don't spend a fortune on Maya - and no need to steal it, too.
Blender is also the answer to the guys who were protesting against sculpties, as the reason of their protest was that Maya costs too much. Blender does not.
You can find sculpties FAQ here.

You can make this with Blender, too!

This is a 3D animation made using Blender by some serious 3D artists.
I think it showcases Blender's potential quite well.
Elephants Dream
by tobi12321 | video info

2,228 ratings | 770,331 views
curated content from YouTube

Blender 3D Animation Tutorials

How to make animations using Blender

User Guide: Animation
This is an animation tutorial from the Blender documentation project that was written for an older version of Blender. Still, it's good to learn about keys and what to do with them, before you proceed, because in the next tutorial those things are not explained.
Noob to Pro: Basic Animation
After you've learned about keys, proceed with this tutorial. It goes on from basic to not-so-basic animation and is actually pretty good.

Blender Resources

Blender has over 800,000 users and many online learning, sharing, experimenting, etc resources. Enjoy.
Blender Artists Forums
Excellent place for people who use Blender.
Blender Art Magazine
It's a free, downloadable magazine for Blender artists.
BlenderNation
Blender news and events.
free factory
A very artistic Blender blog.
Blender User Community
All or most of Blender links and resources.

Blender books on Amazon

This is where you look if you want a real thick printed paper book.
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Blender: the T-Shirt

Want them all to see you're using Blender?
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Well, what do you think?

Was this page helpful? I'll keep updating it as I learn to use Blender!
(You don't need to register to post your opinion here.)

  • GeeeeOhhhh Apr 30, 2012 @ 2:47 pm | delete
    Awesome lens! I use IllusionMage and it's pretty easy to setup some 3D animations. Check out my lens to learn more about it. http://www.squidoo.com/illusionmage-easy-3d-animation-software-program
  • Arijit Apr 16, 2012 @ 2:17 pm | delete
    Three cheers for BLENDER! such a nice software for everyone. Guys take steps to promote it to a large scale.. who are blaming on it just spend some time to learn it then you will get what can you do on this! blender surely beat the commercial 3d products! best of luck blender!
  • Searat24 Jan 12, 2012 @ 1:15 pm | delete
    I love blender!! I'm a newbie in SL and Blender but it's so easy. I can't believe people are complaining about the speed of it and the memory. I only have a 1GB memory on my computer and it runs fine even with my 4 mmorpg games I have running on it at any one time. My only problem is I have the newest version and can't fined many good beginner tutorials. But you know that seams normal even for the other free 3d software.
  • yoga2009 Nov 8, 2009 @ 12:44 am | delete
    It's amazing what sort of ideas one can come up with when on holiday, that can make
    you a very rich person :)

    Blender Tips click here for free
  • Shadow Jan 22, 2010 @ 4:15 am | delete
    Yeah just read the bit about releasing your work as source only then its free :)

    No one does it but it is in the documentation that comes with!!

    Thanks but no thank, I'll stick to something industry proven for me that is 3ds Max.
  • Load More

More Animations Made Using Blender - on Youtube

Blender 3D art
by UTMadMan | video info

672 ratings | 333,125 views
curated content from YouTube
Feeling creative? Create a Lens!