(by 8 people)
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
- 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
Blender Wiki
Use Blender to Make Sculpties
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!
I think it showcases Blender's potential quite well.
Elephants Dream
Elephants Dream is a computer-generated movie made using open source applications that premiered on March 24, 2006. Beginning production in September, 2005, it was developed under the name Orange by a team of seven artists and animators from around the world. It was originally known as Machina, before being changed to Elephants Dream to more closely match the storyline.
Runtime: 9:55
269927 views
10 Comments:
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 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
The Official Blender 2.3 Guide: Free 3D Creation Suite for Modeling, Animation, and Rendering
Avg. Customer Rating: 
Amazon Price: (as of 07/26/2008)
List Price: $49.95
Used Price: $19.81
The Official Blender 2.0 Guide w/CD (Miscellaneous)
Avg. Customer Rating: 
Amazon Price: (as of 07/26/2008)
List Price: $49.99
Used Price: $20.20
Introducing Character Animation with Blender
Avg. Customer Rating: 
Amazon Price: $26.39 (as of 07/26/2008)
List Price: $39.99
Used Price: $21.69
Usually ships in 24 hours
The Official Blender GameKit: Interactive 3D for Artists
Avg. Customer Rating: 
Amazon Price: (as of 07/26/2008)
List Price: $34.95
Used Price: $9.82
Inspired 3D Short Film Production (Inspired)
Avg. Customer Rating:
Amazon Price: $37.79 (as of 07/26/2008)
List Price: $59.99
Used Price: $23.95
Usually ships in 24 hours
Blender: the T-Shirt
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.)
May i point you to the machinimatrix blog about "blender for sculpties" tutorials ? we got 4 fresh videos covering creation/texturing/precise sculpting. see http://blog.machinimatrix.org
Posted July 02, 2008
i like this opensource tool
Posted April 10, 2008
|
lizthefair
What a great product! I've featured your lens on my Switch to Open Source Software lens! Posted October 10, 2007 |
|
vikifriend
Check out Gamebryo ... www.emergent.net ... its a runtime 3D engine - not free but Oblivion was made using it. Posted July 17, 2007 |
|
rms
Very interesting lens! 5* Posted July 14, 2007 |
