Hello all,
My girl is showing an interest in playing with graphics in general and would like to explore anime. I can barely manipulate a jpg or png to resize it so I am not much help here. However, as a subscriber to LXer I read the recent write-up on blender and it seems to be something she might want to learn. She is pretty sharp (she can already edit an /etc/fstab file for pete sake) so I would like your input on this and any guidance you may give.
thanx
helios
Since anime is a style of 2D drawing, she should study that first.
Try http://www.howtodrawmanga.com/tutorial/tutorial.html as a little example.
It’s important to understand that before going to 3D to get the proportions down and whatnot in my opinion
Blender is definately the right software if she wants to make Anime, in 3D. The program itself though, takes a lot of dedication and practice if you want to get to the level you’re aiming for. Don’t expect your daughter to start pumping out perfect anime style artwork from the get-go.
I would say, if she just wants to learn to create anime then get her involved in the GIMP. If she already uses the GIMP or another image manipulation program and she wants to move to 3D then by all means use Blender.
Just my thoughts 
btw, welcome to Elysiun.
If she’s interested in graphics and anime then OpenCanvas will certainly interest her, although is not 3D. Take a look here:
OpenCanvas an easy to learn drawing program that can save everything you draw in an eventfile which can be playedback like a movie. On the community site of openCanvas are a lot of anime eventfiles which are very educative.
(note: with the free version you can only playback eventfiles of version 1; you can do a search for eventfiles of this version on the opencanvas site)
Thank you for your responses. I should own stock in Georgia Pacific because of Amanda’s use of drawing paper. I was not suprised to find every link ya’ll provided already bookmarked in her firefox browser. I will purchase her a full version of opencanvas as well. She also left me a note a while back saying that the gimp did not let her do what she wanted to do…I’m not suprised and yes, I am being a bit of a doting dad. I have spent some time going through the forums and am happy to note that the extreme majority of posts and topics are in a language and attitude in which I would feel comfortable letting a child peruse. Thank you for your help and guidance. She will use my account to post and if all goes well, she can open her own. That will be “mandamouse”.
Thanx you guys
helios
Anime styled shaders have been proven to be possible in blender. If he wants to use blender then he can go ahead.
Did you even read the thread?! %|
Does someone have the link to aner’s tute?
While you’re at it show her Gentoo Linux, that is, if you haven’t already. 
kargath64: here you go
i think that Blender is a perfectly viable way to create anime…
but dont expect much from it too quickly
it takes a lot of dedication to master this program
Regards,
~Delta
OK. Helios, follow the link Delta posted. This gives an idea of the closest Blender gets to ‘anime’ style (in terms of shading). Since your daughter is already h4x0r1ng Linux, she could easily handle Blender. Just make sure you download the 30MB PDF help file, and follow the tutorials that are around. (Link is on www.blender.org).
Cel-shading is my preferred technique, but it is relatively rare around here though.
Not much to say that hasn’t been said, blender is great for making anime. In fact, I recently saw a gundam somebody modeled in blender and ended up making an image that looked straight out of the show.
solmax has probably the best and most sound (but also the a resource-hungry) method for cel shading…
Regards,
~Delta
I also have an 11 year old daughter. She is more into writing now, although she has done some website work.
Most of the people here can be polite and keep the language to PG. Sometimes the off-topic threads go a bit far. Any nudity should be mentioned in the subject line, but what is posted is far from porn.
If she does create an account and introduces herself, that will give the moderators and regular participants a chance to look out for her and make sure she doesn’t get mistreated.
Who said his daughter used linux? Firefox and the gimp are both ported to windows. If she does though, I congradulate her! 
I got into linux around that age too. (10 or 11)
i think georgia pacific has been shut down. also, blender can be very useful for making anime, because you can use it to make a ‘manequin’ from primatives, with an armature,… then you don’t have to be an expert comic book artist to get your pose and proportions right every time. shading too. actually, i am a pretty good comic book artist, and i often use blender for that purpose, and especially for setting up complex urban scenes, or scenes with difficult perspective.
pff, windows linux, he should get her a mac!
Anyways, Glad to see you feel that this forum is suited for her to visit aswell. I know pretty much all sections are pretty friendly though off-topic can be a bit too much at times. though that’s why it’s off-topic!
Anyways your girl sounds smart so she’ll probably get the hang of Blender, we’ve surely had alot of young people around here. Though I can’t remeber an 11 year old girl, but someone like Weirdhat (moderator here) started when he was I believe 12.
Like mentioned above a 2D drawing program may be better suited for getting the hang of Anime art, but as you’ve mentioned she’s been using those already! Other than that Blender is a great tool for 3D modeling and animation, and of course you can always render in a anime like shading.
Timothy
Who said his daughter used linux?
Didnt he say that she can edit an fstab? Thats linux if Im not mistaken