Look at the neat icon I made for signature!
It’s less satisfying by it’s Blending than by the GIF looks almost correct!
I Blend since a few weeks seriously. That logo was my first complete work (very stirring…)
And you, how were you first steps with Blender/CGI?
What where your first satisfactions/discouragements?
I like your icon very nice looking adaption of yin yang
Paradox
I started in CG, really, with a little program called Kashmir. This was basically a watered-down version of Terragen (I found Terragen not long after). Then, separately, I found Artifice’s Design Workshop Lite and tried combining these two programs. It was hard (and involved photoshop! lol). Then, I discovered Blender through the Ter2Blend script (well, I just heard the name). Around Dec. 2001, I saw it in a package of Mandrake Linux and it piqued my interest. My first piece of CG ever was a “house” - made it from a cone atop a cylinder with clouds for a backbuffer. The color scheme was abominable ! It still was, though, my first CG.
I started out in 2D. a program called KoalaPainter, in commodore c64. my best picture from those times, was “shadowlords” from ultima 5. 
my first 3d program was “3d studio” on DOS platform and one cad program I got somewhere… then later came povray. but on those days, I didn’t really do anything serious with them… I was more into 2d…
.b
Oh yes… 3DS4 working in DOS, with it’s holy 3 “workshops”. It was fun. A friend gave me a “copy” years ago. All I made was a landscape with monoliths and a vase. I lost my files before the flower.
Since that I sought for getting back any 3d prog. Then I ran into Blender, distributed on a Computer Arts (magazine) CD. I installed it perhaps one or two years ago, but never went seriously into it. Strange?
Beholding how the soft and the community was evolving, I finally bought Blender 2.0 Guide 5 month ago, and did some stuff. Then I discouraged because of many things (when you follow a tut but don’t get the same result, ya know?). But since 1 month and a half I blend on and on, and finally got results!!
wow I’m kinda telling my life! 
Well, I started by downloading a demo version of Bryce 5.0 and got hooked immediately. Not that I could do anything in it, I just thought it was cool.
I actually stumbled on Blender totally by accident. I was doing a web search for graphics apps and there was www.blender.nl, (<- for those of you that remeber 
), and I immediately downloaded Ver. 1.8 and started with some tutes. I have now been hooked on Blender since then. I am playing a bit with Lightwave 7 right now, but I can honestly say, that Blender is one of the easiest apps out there.
BgDM
I searched for a replacement for 3dsmax, since I no longer had access to it, and found Blender. I was used to Max and hated Blender’s use of hot keys. But after some persistance, I found Blender to be easier to model in. Now, I like Blender better because of the hotkey usage. I know Max has hotkeys, but you didn’t have to learn them to use the prog.
Ok, here is my story.
I saw a cinematic for a game on the internet. I don’t remember what game it was but I thought it was cool (maybe it was a movie, I don’t remember), and I decided I wanted to be a modeler for a living. So I opened the phone book and called the first 3d modeling and animation company I saw and asked them if they did internships. Luckily they said yes and I went down for an interview. (Later one of my friends called ALL the local companies except for the one I called and they all said they never do internships, so I was very lucky). I had an interview where I showed some of my art and drawings, and started as an intern a week later. I would convert models from one program to another and fix things up on the meshes. After about 5 months of interning High School graduation came along. At this point I didn’t know what I was going to do. I couldn’t be an intern anymore because I had to get a job. So I started looking around and I decided to join the army. A few days before I was suppose to go in for a physical and all that stuff my boss at the internship called me in and asked me what my future plans were, I told him. He asked me what I thought about working for him full time as a set and prop modeler. I thought this was great. So the day after I graduated I went to work as a full time modeler, and that is where I am today. I design all the props and sets for an animated show. I didn’t make anything at home because I don’t own a version of the program we use at work. So two weeks ago I saw a post about blender on cgtalk. I decided to check it out and now I use it for my home program. I am still a noob to blender but not to 3d modeling. But I figure I will learn blender soon enough.
Well thats it!! Good Day!!
i searched a program to make some 3d. in an article in c’t (german computer
mag) there was a report about 3d progs. but only pov-ray was free.
so i began in '97 or '98 with pov-ray. later i searched a graphical way to model. …s-patch and moray…
i’ve heard of blender in the german linux-magazin where carsten wrote an
article about scripting with python in blender. then 1.80 was the latest
version. and since then i’m playing around with blender…
sideeffect: python! learned it to script blender. now i’m a python fan.
florian
Me? Umm…
It’s a funny story how I started. I got my own computer for Christmas in 1990 with ugly big speakers.
I immediately got hooked to the computer because I liked how it acted(?). My dad got the internet access with a new computer (my first cd-rom computer). I watched Star Trek and Star Wars. They made me wonder how they did the special effect so I researched on the internet and I accidently got on Blender.nl when it had C-key (can’t remember what version it was). That time, I was 13 years old. I tried to use it without reading any tutorials and I got very frustrated. I gave up and deleted the program. I soon forgot completely about it.
Again after watching newer movies with special effect like “Toy Story” (don’t make fun of me because I watched that movie!)… I searched for a free 3d program. I came crossed with Pov Ray… couldn’t understand how to use it at all since it was a script version program so I researched again. I accidently went to Blender.nl again when I was 15 years old (End of June 2000) without realizing that I already tried that program. I downloaded the program and then I realized, “Hey! I touched that before and it’s evil!” Then I realized… if I came to this website again… it must be a sign. I then determined to learn how to use Blender and beat that evil Blender forever. Cube acting like borg cubes full with halos and particles were my first pictures… good memory.
I’m glad that blender showed me the world of 3D… because I’m going to be 3D modeller, etc. for Hollywood (animation/ special effect).
I found blender on http://freespace.volitionwatch.com! Now you will ask: How the hell can you find a 3d prog on a freespace site? so I will tell you.
2 year ago (I think…it can be like 1 year and a half) I was a really big fan of the game freespace:the great war and freespace2 (they are space sim) and someday I saw a tutotial on that site that tell you how to put a ship into fs. In the tut they tell you to download blender so I download it. After a few week I ran into a prob…I had not paint shop pro and you need it to convert texture in the good color depth etc. so I stop using blender for about a year (I think…it could be 6 month) but one year ago I decide to begin to learn the prog more and from that day I blend approximatly each day of the week…this is a drug for me! :o
Freespace 2 Rocks.
(And Blender 2 )
hey jesterking,
I am making a mod with other guy so go check out the site at:
http://mysite.iptic.com/xwarrior/blackoceans.html
About a 3 years ago i started playing with the demos bryce and vue and about a year later and a half later I found that Rhino and played around abit and then I moved to blender because I wanted to learn more about 3d animation and modeling. It was free and powerful. And I use it to this day!!!
I was on TheForce.net, and looked at software on CGI for their fan films. (Do remember that, back then, I liked the Star Wars series. Oh, and a “fan film” is a film made by fans of Star Wars.) I saw 3D Studio Max, and Lightwave, and this Blender. Since it said that it was free, I downloaded 1.80 (there was 2.04, but I wasn’t interested in games yet) later that day. Next day, used it, got totally confused, and ignored it. Thankfully, I didn’t delete it.
Later, after finding Blendermania’s tutorials, I learned the ropes of Blender. My first picture (that I can remember) is this weird creature. It didn’t look very good, though: The wings didn’t look the same, everything was vertex painted (I couldn’t figure out how to get multiple materials then), and worst of all, everything has that blocky look to it (this was before I learned about Set Smooth). My first better render was one of the Titan. (You know, “Titan AE,” has anyone seen that? I wish I knew where that tape was!) it still looked blocky, but back then I thought that was pretty good. I don’t remember what my first extremely good render was (one that used Set Smooth).
I got into Blender thanks to the RTS game, Age Of Empires. In fact, thats how I got started in all graphics. I became interested in modding, and decided to make my own graphical mod for AoE. I used Blender and Paint Shop Pro. Since then, I have gotten quite interested, and pretty good at digital art/graphics/CG.
started about 4 years ago…I bought a magazine called PCFORMAT, it came with a cd on the cover. It had impulse’s IMAGINE 4.0 (dos).
Thought nothing of it at first, but then as intro’s for videogames and short flicks got better I got more interest. So i hooked up Imagine 4.0 and got with the basics of modeling/CG. My first achievement? A still image of a whole-body chromed ninja…guy…er…blocking a wave blast from a beast-man…sadly, that was years ago, and i have lost the image…
game creation got me going, not in blender, but me n my friend adam(mxopivypx) were trying to make a game in Click N Create… we wanted some good looking graphics so we dled povray…the furthest we got was creating swords and steps leading to a door(stupid text editor!)… then addy found moray, with its delicous visual layout of the scene…thats where things started to take off… then we went on a search for less restricted programs… he came across blender, we dled it then deleted it…waaaaaay too many buttons ;)…a few more months with a mix of povray/moray/and spatch before we dled blender again, then we stuck with it! woot!
-chris
I started in 2D with Photoshop and such but my first 3D prog was version 1 of Extreme 3D. It was terrible but I could model and animate. At the same time I tried beta versions of a new prog called Rhino (which were free at the time). I liked Rhino but I couldn’t animate with it then McNeel and Associates had the gall to charge MONEY for the first real release so I started looking for a different 3D app. I found Blender because someone had written a letter in a local computer newspaper that there were no decent 3D apps for Linux to which someone replied with a mention of Blender (thank you to whoever that soul was). I checked it out the next day (version 1.5). A week later I ordered a CKey and manual. The rest is history. I am rendering a 10000x5556 poster as I type this!!