Hi all you hard core users, forum monkeys, forum newbies, gurus, groupies:
About a month and a half ago, I finished compiling an index of the Blender old site – it is available at www.princeton.edu/~mplough and will hopefully be moving to www.blender3d.org . The list is organized by category, and each category is available in alphabetical or date sorted format. However, those formats are useless for a list of tutorials geared toward newbies and intermediate users, so I want to compile a list of tutorials organized into a “learning path.” With a lot of input, I will be able to get an idea of the aggregate path that people follow, and organize the tutorials in a similar fashion.
You can post anything from short quips about what worked and what didn’t to a completely engineered and laid out list of tutorials; anything will be helpful. Also post if something didn’t work out – this will be indispensable for keeping me from going in the wrong direction.
Now that the new UI is out, things will change dramatically, so I expect this project to be a dynamic one. Again, I value your input regardless of your skill level.
Thank you in advance for all your help.
Matt
(for those of you who thought I was going to write an IK tutorial – I found out that I was doing it all wrong, so I will refrain from doing so until I know the right way)
Never attempt to defy gravity. Being realistic about your intentions for learning the software is the key. Learn how the software thinks, acts and crashes. Learn the software’s limits and understand its potentials. Apply universally understood concepts and techniques to get things to work.
Never try to recreate the wheel… unless you think like Einstein, Ton, Theeth, etc. Hehehe.
Learn as much as you can about the way other 3d software’s produce similar functions and apply these in Blender. Always plan out the process that you will apply to a project. Never work without a plan. Keep updated on new changes in Blender and other 3d/2d apps. You could be wasting your time on a task that has been improved by a new process.
Learn how your computer hardware operates, what stresses it, improves it, etc. The 386 is history, just to let you know.
Keep a close connection to online CG forums. If a 3d pro discusses some 3d shop talk from the media trenches that can be of interest to you, tune in to that info.
start with the interface, the basics thereof, I remember being VERY fustrated because every tutorial I found assumed I KNEW what the material button was and where is was, etc etc.
step by step hands on learning, that provides a result the user can be happy with. no one wants to do a tutorial that gives you knowledge, but nothing to show for it. You lose interest unless you get the feeling that you are DOING something, learning by doing. best method out there IMO
The castle tutorial - this explains EVERYTHING that i needed to start with. Fram there, hotkey list for me, and googling for specific things when i needed them