Totally new here ....

Hello there.I am totally new here. I wish to join the DAVE school in Orlando ,Florida .Upon requesting David Ward refered me this open source web-site .According to him i have perceived this program software “Blender” to be a basic source of learning 3D animation and modeling . Though i have not used it till now.What i require now is to actually learn how to do 3D animation and modelling and make a short 3D film on this. Can anybody tell me if thats possible?I have heard about a book “Animating with Blender” .How do i get this book ?is it available for free on-line or would i need to purchase it on-line? And why would i actually need that book ?Can’t i discover that already while using Blender for making a short 3d animated film or cinematic? Anybody please?

Babar,

You have a long road to travel down before you will be ready to create a short film of any kind. Especially if you haven’t ever used a 3D package before. There are scores of lessons you need to learn, on top of the tools in the Blender program. A great place to start is the Blender wiki, or blendercookie.com . Blender is a fantastic tool, but just like any other tool it will at first be frustrating and confusing in the hands of a novice. I wish you good luck in continuing your 3D education.

Goodluck , never quit ,Youtube has tutorails

Ok can any body guide me as to how to start using the manual for Blender given in the Blender wiki ?Should i first read and understand the entire thing or first install blender and then understand it according to the manual?What would be a best way to start?Any guidance ?any body?please

load blender ,do wiki 1 chapterr at a time.

The best way to learn is to do. Install Blender, pick something you think is simple in your head and do that. The first tutorial I ever did in Blender was the snowman tutorial from blender.org. Then I did the beach scene tutorial. Those got me going enough to start learning what I needed to do more complex scenes and ideas. You’re never going to stop learning new ways to do things in 3D. That’s why it’s such an awesome field.

This is a book for a high school course in Blender:
http://www.cdschools.org/54223045235521/blank/browse.asp?A=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=55205

This is a collage course in computer graphics using blender:
http://gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html

Great places to start.

Good luck,

aljo

Ok ihave downloaded Blender and installed it.But i didnt understand the interface at all.I was confused between what part the manual/tutorial that i accessed on the web site was talking about and what i was seeing on the screen .I need to know which buttons or menu’s to start off with in Blender .Can nay body help me with that?

Blender version 2.5
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.5/Manual

I actually downloaded Blender 2.57B version.Does the manual link on the web site also conform to this exact version?

no it doesn’t(one of the irksome idiosyncracies of that website). try clicking on the link above that RorrKonn has provided that’s the correct manual.

afterand only after you go through the getting started portion, start on the http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro#Table_of_Contents. again from the beginning. a lot of it is for 2.4x but we wikibookians are trying to edit it as much as possible so that you shouldn’t have too much trouble about finding how certain things are implemented differently in 2.5x. go through the whole of it, in the meanwhile learn everything they teach in your course . that will set you off pretty well. then , well, start by making small animations. any problem you come up against, ask here. there are also tutorials and training dvds galore on the net,just try googling for blender tutorials. You have a long way to go before you are ready to make a short film of any kind SO BEST OF LUCK AND DON’T GIVE UP.

by the way blender is many things, but it iscertainly not basic. I have seen lots of people on different websites making the same mistake ,that “blender is free so it must be something cheap and easy”. Please remember , all ye who see this thread , that cheap and easy don’t always go together. certainly not here.

should i un-install the Blender 2.57B version and install Blender 2.5 instead?If so where would i find it to install?A link or so would help:).In other words which version of Blender should i be using as a complete beginner?

Blender 2.57b is the current version so use the one you have already installed.

But Richard do the manuals and/or tutorials available on the web site conform to the 2.57B version .As Hash says above that the Manual for version 2.5 does not conform to the current version. So should i still go ahead with the current version ?Provided i don’t get confused about what im trying to follow in the manual and what i am actually seeing on screen using the current version.So what do you suggest?

You can keep Blender 2.57b. That’s fine. I have not visited the wiki lately so I don’t know how much is updated. But take up the advice given so far.

A great idea is to do as many tutorials in 2.5* as you can.

Search for Blender Guru and Blender Cookie. They have lots of tutorials.

Also check this out:

http://presticproductions.blogspot.com/2010/11/ultimate-tutorial-for-ultimate-beginner.html

You are just getting confused with version 2.49 that has a completely different interface. All of the 2.5x versions are pretty much the same.

You could also install version 2.49 and go over the old manual which is more complete and then simply work to covert the information to the new version one but that’d be more work.

Just stick with 2.5 and do some tutorials to get rolling.

Is 2.5* the same thing as Blender 2.5?

It seems the web site only has the current version available to download and install .Where can i get the 2.5 version?Any link or something to get the 2.5 version only ?