Blend and Paint by David Revoy and Character Modeling by Angela Guenette

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
1

Are these two newer DVD’s open source like most of the other blender.org training?

If so, is there an iso image or file torrent somewhere for these?

Also, before people get their panties in a bunch over asking for a download that is perfectly legal to download for free, I have bought DVD’s from the blender foundation, as well as a book.
I just like to view things first before making a purchase AND it takes like 5 weeks for stuff to ship to me here in the US so I usually just download the stuff, watch some, then buy the DVD if I think it was good.

2

I’m pretty sure that those DVDs are not open source at the moment, although they have a track record of making some of their content open source later on. But the whole idea behind the series is to generate money for the open movie projects and Blender Foundation aside from creating good training material. There’s video previews you can watch on the Blender Foundation Youtube channel that will show you an example of what the DVD’s include if you want to see beforehand.

3

If you look on the blender e-shop page for both these items it says their contents are released under creative commons.

4

Oh it appears you’re right! My mistake.

5

They are open source CC licensed, but I personally like to give it a bit of time before sharing so that they get sales at the beginning. (If they are like the stats for games, 80% of sales happens in the first two weeks of release) The artists have to put food on the table and I don’t want to jeopardize that. I also don’t want to put a bad taste in their mouth so they will keep sharing knowledge with us. I think that I, and the artists releasing these DVD’s don’t have a problem sharing after 6 months or a year, but right off the bat might be a bit of a blow (or it would be to me). Some input from Blender Open Artists would be nice!

6

Personally I’m still waiting to see the rest of the Durian files go online although we have probably missed the boat for them being of use to anyone. Mainly due to the files being made with the now defunct/discontinued/outdated etc Render Branch. Which is a shame really, because I picked up a lot of what I know through the Elephants Dream files and I was looking forward to being part of something that shared knowledge in the same way.

I get that a lot of people purchased the Durian disks and that’s great. I also purchased the ED disks as well as a bunch of the other Open Project related disks. But if someone just wanted to grab Proog for example and have a look regardless of what machine they were at the option was and still is there. http://video.blendertestbuilds.de/download.blender.org/ED/DVD1/production/lib/

Another practical example is this one: http://vimeo.com/1184944 I uploaded Nathan’s BBB tut for the world to have a look at and it still gets views daily 3 years on, with one comment calling it “One of the hottest rigging videos on the free air thank you.”

But yes, as someone who made a living from one of the Open Movie projects I get that sales are needed. After some money is raised though I’m all for spreading the info everywhere. Haven’t personally made a training dvd as such though.

7

Well, this is why I’ve never asked before. There seems to be some sort of hair across ass lack of logic behind the way these products are released. Personally, I don’t buy right away because, quite frankly, while some of the DVD’s are good, and some of the books are good, some are absolutely garbage.
I’m sorry if that offends, but as a case example, I got the Blender gamekit book, and it was 80% copies of stuff already on the internet, a whole bunch of outdated material (and this was when the second edition was just released), and one chapter, the “pinball” chapter that is quite literally 4 pages of useless information for a game that didn’t even run from the provided disk .blends.

Surprisingly, I’ve never seen a single person mention this anywhere on this forum or in any of the “reviews”. Mostly, I think it’s the “this was made with a free program that you are supporting by purchasing this inferior book, so anything we make, even if you pay for it, and no matter how bad it is, you should be grateful for.”

Don’t get me wrong, Blender is a great program, and free, and I pretty much sell it to anyone I come across. I also think a lot of the training put out, free and paid, is quite good, but I also feel there’s a large lack of objectivity when it comes to these products, simply because of the “free and open, but not really” approach.

Plus, if the Blender Foundation wants to avoid people posting the iso, then just don’t make it open source and send CnD letters to those that violate the commercial license. Why make everything open source? There really is no need to. You could release the product free later on anyway. Just because the program is open source, doesn’t mean the training needs to be. I’d like that better than the “well it’s open source…but the artist needs to eat, and it’s for a good cause” pitch.

Really, just make a decision to sell something, and then make it good and build up a reputation for making good training.
But I think that’s the issue, if you release open source you can always fall back to “well it’s free you know, you didn’t HAVE to pay for it”…A way to try to deflect accountability for the final product. This way the “sensitive producer” or “fans” can sit back and point fingers and call people ungrateful for expressing their honest opinion, because after all they’re not “really” a customer, even if in total they spend more in a year for training and books than they would have spent on a commercial alternative 3D program.

As far as the samples go, samples seldom show what the content really entails, certainly not the depth of it, and the samples chosen are at the discretion of the author, so obviously aren’t going to show the potentially bad parts that I will be none too excited to watch after spending $40-$50 and waiting 4 weeks for it to come in the mail.

So, on that note, this hasn’t motivated me to buy, but I’m sure no one cares, because no one is “really” a customer who buys something, everything is just a donation after all…
I’ll wait, but by then I may consider the product obsolete, and not pay at all.

In summary, if the products are good, you shouldn’t have to worry about trying to manipulate the iso release with a guilt trip, because some of us, probably many of us, who use the program regularly, genuinely WANT to pay, just not blindly.

8

Wow! nice summation - long form. It’s hard to quantify the value of any part of Blender - be it tutorial, product, or user contributed. In the Blender community, it’s all free. Making sense of it will cost you - time, if nothing else. :slight_smile:

PS - you seem to have a genuine interest in using Blender. This may be a bad time to “learn” since there are so many changes in progress. Follow the “News”, “WIP”, or similar forums, to see where things are for development and usage.

9

It depends on the buyer’s attitude- personally I feel as though buying from the e-shop is a donation to the Blender Foundation first, the product is a nice side benefit. How many other open source projects give you that? Not only do you continue to get new, better software, but you get a physical resource- you may not learn all that you want from it but chances are you will learn some new tricks anyway. So, some of us are not seeing it as paying blindly, but as contributing to something great while still getting a bonus out of it.

Edit: This being said, thinking about the Blender DVDs I’ve purchased, most have been pretty good, the Mancandy FAQ being excellent. I never checked out the Gamekit though. The problem is that Blender for 2 years now is going through big changes, it’s only realistic to understand that things will break often during a major rewrite.

10

@achrystie - Well seeing as your long but logical post came after mine I feel I better clarify. I totally agree with “if it’s Creative Commons, just make it available to download.” The main reason I didn’t upload Durian files myself is that Australian broadband is still largely pay per GB bandwitdth (like the plan I’m using now) so I wouldn’t make an ideal initial seed for a 4 dvd box set torrent.

From the look of things, someone under the user of ‘jachristie79’ at http://www.legittorrents.info already did upload the torrent a while back. Thanks if that’s you! :slight_smile: No offense intended if it’s not. Glad someone did.

11

It’s not me, just some long lost internet relative I guess…strange coincidence though.
Thanks for the link. :smiley:

Edit: The link refers to the Sintel DVD’s, which isn’t what I was looking for, but thanks anyway. :slight_smile:

12

Mancandy FAQ was awesome. It’s definitely an example of what I’d feel good about spending my money on.

Btw, I’m not learning Blender. I know Blender very well, which is part of the reason it’s hard for me to justify purchasing training. I just thought these videos may be more of a general “artists insight” into process. I like to buy those types of videos because they offer good information, regardless of your level of understanding of the program. This is inherently what I’m trying to determine. Of course if the videos are well produced, I still may buy them because I DO like to support Blender. In fact I generally try to spend “around” $100 per year on Blender related stuff, I would just like to get something of quality, to me, for my money in return. Which brings me to my point about being obsolete, it’s not so much the program changing, it’s more of a “well I already bought these two other things this year” sort of deal.

13

You can download Blend&Paint from torrent if you want. The license it is C&C so it is not restricted to be shared. But the size it is big like 4 GB and if your connection it is slow etc you can end waiting 1 month for it.

It is not ilegal to be shared.

It is a form of donation when you buy from BF.

14

This is kind of OT, and probably overly cautious, but am I correct in assuming it is kosher to give my Blender Foundation DVDs to my local library?

Actually here’s kind of an interesting concept- distribute Blender DVDs to local libraries, wait 2 or 3 years, start a Blender meetup group, start a studio :stuck_out_tongue:

15

Hey achrystie, I don’t know if you already found the dvds, but I found the blend and paint at demonoid.me: http://www.demonoid.me/files/details/2629903/17588412/ you should be able the torrent file, if not give me a shout, 'cause I still have it on my computer :slight_smile:

16

Thanks for the link, seems to be working.

17

yeah thanks for this!? this is good, i watched a little explanation on youtube about the blend and paint, and it seemed good, so after i download this, as soon as my check comes in this week I supposed Ill go ahead and buy a hard copy too :smiley:

18

I like the idea of downloading and then buying. Gives me a preview and then I can send my support if I learn something new or if it inspires me. Anyone seen the Character Modeling DVD anywhere? Would like to see how it compares to the Blendercookie character series. It’s always inspiring to watch others work.

19

It is insanely cool by BF to let people share all their stuff freely, it makes me want to support them all the more (if that is even possible) :smiley:

20

i finished the blend and paint thing, using my mouse…its officially very useful! I will be buying later on this week :smiley: