First off, apologies if this is in the wrong section, I’m assuming requests aren’t supposed to go in the tutorial section and this seemed like the next logical place to put this.
Does anyone know of a good all-round series of tutorial videos for modelling using Blender and GIMP/Photoshop? (ie. not “How to make X”, more “The skills you need to make anything”) I’m hoping to find something similar to a book called “Blender Master Class” by Ben Simonds, but in video form so that I can see everything that’s going on, and spoken explanations. (The book is great, but I got frustrated by about the 4th chapter when he started glossing over large chunks of the modelling process and my stuff ended up looking nothing remotely like his. That and I learn better from audio/video)
The book covers both modelling/sculpting/etc. in Blender and doing texture work with GIMP. Basically all the skills you need to make good models bar actually animating them.
Oh, and I don’t mind having to pay if it gets me high-quality stuff.
David Revoy has a really great tutorial he did for the Blender Foundation (he was art director for Sintel) on digital painting calledChaos & Evolutionwhich he has released as a monster 1 1/2 hour YouTube. But you might be more interested in his Blend and Paint video available at the Blender Store.
Of the tutorial series I know of, I’d recommend two: the course in blender by James Chronister, accessible at http://www.cdschools.org/Page/455, and a similar course geared towards slightly more advanced students prepared by Neil Hirsig, and offered through Tufts University, accessible at http://gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html.
I would further note that I own Simond’s book, and have recommended it highly to people. However, it is not the first book I would recommend that someone wanting to learn Blender should use. I consider Simond’s book to be geared towards intermediate users, those who have some command of Blender already, and are looking to advance their skills. For those getting started, I recommend books by two other authors: Roland Hess, and John Blain. If money is an object, John Blain’s An Introduction To Blender 3D - A Book For Beginners (2011), available as a free download from the Blender website, would be a good choice. It does use the current UI, though due to the age of the book, it is a bit dated. A somewhat more recent book covering much the same material is John Blain’s The Complete Guide to Blender Graphics : Computer Modeling and Animation. Roland Hess’ book, Blender Foundations is geared to a similar audience.
I should probably have mentioned that I’ve been using Blender for a few years now, I just feel that my knowledge has some rather massive holes in it because it’s mostly self-taught by just diving in and playing around with stuff. So tutorials of any particular skill level are happily received.