Can anyone recommend some good tutorials and exercises to get used to the features of Blender? I can navigate the 3D window just fine and I know how to layout the screens & such, but I can’t find any tutorials consistent with the latest release of Blender. Can anyone recommend any sites, tuts or reading to someone who’s REALLY wanting to get into this? Any help would be appreciated.
http://www.blender.org/modules/documentation/htmlI/c1192.html
You can do this tut about 30 minutes… it took me much longer than that when I started blender about 2 months ago. But it’s straightforward and easy to understand. good luck!
Yeah, it is 30+30 minutes 
Stefano
Thanks a lot for that tutorial, it’s VERY easy to follow. Does that documentation area just cover the basics or does it get pretty in-depth about the more advanced features as well? I haven’t dared look ahead in it, for fear of being too daunted by the scope of it all.
How’s it coming along for you after 2 months with it? I’d love to see some stuff.
DOnt you think this is very hard for beginner in this program ??? 
yeah, it can be a bit confusing, but it’s getting a lot better.
Especially from the large numbers of tutorials avaliable.
Have a look at the tutorial list on blender3d.org, especially at the Getting Started section - my favorites being Building a Castle and Texturing a Castle
Blender is a professional program that is available to non-professionals because it’s Open Source. But being Open Source and freely available does NOT mean that it is simple so if you want to use a professional program you need to put in some study and perseverence. I’m just learning Blender myself and yes, it takes time and effort but I’m sure it’s worth it 
It’s absolutely worth sticking it out, and I say that as a fresh-faced newbie to Blender. My biggest problem is getting frustrated with myself for having incredibly lofty ambitions for the low skill-level I’m currently sitting at.
I was the same as jts01 when I was a newb.
Hi,
A newb here. I DL’d blender 2.33 a month or so back and have been working to understand the layout & interface and think I now have a basic understanding.
I DL’d the “stage” tutorial and was able to follow the instructions etc to get a sphere moving around…and have been successful on a few other things I’ve tried (creating some images and animating camera moves).
I tried the Gingerbread Man a while back and thought I’d give it a go again after reading this thread just now.
I keep experienceing a problem though. I’m able to follow the instructions up to the 2nd page when it says to “subdivide” the cube.
I have the cube vertices selected and I’m in edit mode but when I click on subdivide and the number changes from 1 to 2…nothing happens.
I’ve tried clcking around on different buttons etc but since I’m not sure what I’m doing I’m kinda just flailing around.
I’m stumped at how to get past this point. What am I doing wrong??
Any help is appreciated!!
Hi,
there are two times subdivide available. One time for rendering/viewing and one time for modelling. Go to the “mesh tools” section instead of the “mesh” section. There you’ll find “subdivide” in the upper row of buttons.
All the best, FRitz
FRitz,
Yes you’re right I was looking under Mesh only…shesh…so simple but I wasn’t able to see it.
My 1st post here…and such a quick responce!! I think I’m really gonna like this place!
Thank you!
If you press W while in edit mode it brings up a context menu of operations you can perform on the selected vertices. Subdivide is at the top of the list.
The list is:
Subdivide
Subdivide Fractal
Subdivide Smooth
Merge
Remove Doubles
Hide
Reveal
Select swap
Flip Normals
Smooth
Bevel
You can use number keys with these menus. For example, press [W] and then [6], and it performs the ‘Hide’ method on all selected verts because it is the 6th item in the list. One of Blender’s strengths are its hotkeys for everything. There are even some features that you can only access through hotkeys (Like keyframing for animation with [i]).
Thank you Rip!
I have a lot to learn…so I’m soaking it all in!
That’ll all be a good to know.
Thanks again for the tips!
I sure hope not! Hopefully by now, 99% of Blender’s functionality should also be represented (and easily explorable) within the menus. Your example is located at:
Object -> Insert Keyframe