General discussion, what do you all think the best way to learn blender is?
thinking outside the box, i would say instead of watching tutorials, why not create them?
Discuss… 
I have watched some of my own tutorials to remember things.
Well, my idea is …definitely doing your own projects. Once U have got the basic knowledge of course. If u get stuck on the way, google for tuts.
Just watch Blender guru and Blender Cookie.
And do something yourself.
Eventally you get good at it. That’s just it. 
I think that for the first 6 months or so, jsut use the Internet. After that maybe get a book or 2, a paid sub to Blender Cookie even.
But most importantly, set goals. Stick to goals. Finish projects all the way through. Doing little projects helps build kills, as do Tutorials. But nothing is better for learning than proper application through a bigger project, where you can combine skills that you have gotten from everywhere else.
While i didn’t started modelling in Blender, i started by reading an online tutorial about the tool i was using while trying to follow manually what the tutorial was showing on my tool.
I learned a very lot this way, as manually practicing is an experience that will really give you the hang of modelling in the given application you use.
I’m sure doing the same in Blender, finding a good tutorial about modelling a character or whatever else, etc… and not just watching but trying to follow it in Blender yourself would give you a great amount of practice experience.
And from there it will become much easier as you would have learned to get the hang of Blender during that kind of session.
To find out what you want to learn. You can use Blender as sub-d modeller, as sculpting tool, as animation suite, to raytrace, as compositor, as video editor, you can use it for skinning, or to code py addons for pipelines, you can use it for texture painting/texture baking or dive into the game engine.
All those things are actually seperate jobs in the industry for the most part. Don’t fall for the illusion one can learn it all or master it all, one might even be completely untalanted for one or most of the tasks and ridiculously talented for another.
Because no one needs even more half baked tutorials teaching others wrong stuff or stuff wrong or half truths. There are enough already.
Self teaching does the job fairly well. Plus a little help from tutorials.
well, how they said the best way to learn a 3d software is use this in own works, many people learn with tutorials step by step but this consume many time, the tutorials and books are good how reference.
Maybe you could run Camstudio while using blender and every so often
stop and review the video to help try and improve or whatever.
The key thing to know about Blender is: “One hand on the keyboard, the other hand on the mouse.”
This means you will have to memorize quite a few keyboard shortcuts.
[1] Find and print out a cheat sheet of important keyboard shortcuts. Go here
http://www.cdschools.org/54223045235521/blank/browse.asp?A=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=55205
and print out “Basic Key Commands” for the version of Blender you are using.
[2] Attach the cheat sheet so it is right next to your monitor.
[3] Find a good Blender tutorial, for example http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Your_First_Animation/1.A_static_Gingerbread_Man
[4] Start Blender
[5] Perform the tutorial, frequently referring to the cheat sheet as required. Do other tutorials and try doing your own work.
For about a week, you will feel like you are pounding your head against the wall. But suddenly, one day, it will be easy. It is much like learning to ride a bicycle.
the best ways is by setting small achievable goals everyday… taking this one step of the time and not rushing learning. Making sure you can do the easy stuff and then move to less easy… see what I did there ? did not say “difficult” , I said “less easy” , big difference. Any other way is a waste of valuable time. Take this advice from a guy that has wasted loads of valuable time 
well i think this discussion has gone well I wasn’t actually asking for my self as i have my own method which is trial and error basically, thinking of something i want to make, and just, well…making it…and of course this forum is extremely helpful in that process.
Speaking from experience, If you watch a lot of tutorials especially from the same person you will miss out on other tools that you can use since each person has there own individual style of modelling, so it’s a good idea to watch tutorials from different sources.
For those who are comfortable with blender, I would also so say watch tutorials even if the user is using a different software, this allows you to see different modelling techniques and also you see new modelling tools which could recreate in blender with a few more steps. e.g. Edge Chamfer
Explore the blender interface. Even though blender is hotkey driven it does have menus where all the tools are stored so just click on it scroll down and play around with the tools on a simple mesh.
Admittedly of topic but while exploring the blender interface i discovered Fgons. Is it a temporary soloution to Ngons?
Start with: www.3dbuzz.com/
Blender Fundamentals - Drop 1
Download links1 - Introduction
2 - UI at a Glance
3 - Saving
4 - Default 3D View Navigation
5 - Custom 3D View Navigation
6 - Persective vs. Orthographic
7 - Numpad Navigation
8 - Toolbox
9 - Properties Panel
10 - Info Window
11 - Outliner
I think it’s best to start slowly… the first time I used blender I was very confused. then after a week of doing something else I somehow wanted to try blender again and then all I hadn’t understood before had become clear to me. So instead of forcing loads of tutorials on yourself you might just want to try around for some hours, then wait a while, and then try it again when you feel like it. Modeling is not cooking, you can’t just learn it by reading recipes! Once you’ve figured out the basic things for yourself, then you might consider diving into tutorials and using blender on an everyday basis.
Well, at least that’s my 2 cents
I have self-taught myself using blender-cookie (the coffee cup as my first finished project) blenderguru and google. I have never looked back since.
But there is a major learning-curve to blender. And it’s not for the weak and faint-of-heart.:yes:
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A 5th of jack helps
Truespace ,C4D r icon driven
Blender ,Lightwave ,XSI r hot key driven
hot key driven apps are just nightmare UI’s.
These are excellent. “Drop 2” is available too. (Here’s Drop 1 btw).
Also James Chronister’s “Blender Basics (4th Ed)” is excellent for Blender newbies. Each chapter has a youtube video to go with it that you can watch after working through the chapter, it’s very good concise training resource.