I'm not exactly an expert when it comes to 3D modeling; my personal focus is more towards traditional illustrations and graphics. Brande H has much more experience with these things, so I've asked her to help write a blog entry concerning her experience with the free 3D modeling program Blender. She also runs her own blog detailing the specifics of learning 3D modeling.
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My experience with an older version of Blender, 2.3 to be exact, was easy for me. I never worked with a 3D software before so for me, this was an exciting time to learn. Plus I was inspired to look into Blender after I saw the animated shorts and Elephants Dream (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFQxRd0isAQ&feature=player_embedded) was such awe-inspiring to see created from a free to use software. Granted I was not a professional, I thought it was done quite well. At first when I started the program, everything looked intimidating because there were so many buttons and I did not understand what all parts of the interface did. However, I was determined to learn and figure out how to create something in this software. I didn't even understand any of the words or buttons found on the panels, such as subdivide. I learned about shortcut keys and what the mouse allowed me to do through a mix of experimentation and using the Blender website. I picked up on the basic camera view hotkeys instantly, which were on the num-pad, and a few of the simple shortcut keys, such as extrusion which was the E-key, to create polygonal models. I then shortly began understanding what certain words meant and what they did, like vertices were points and edges were lines and faces were the filled in grey spots between edges. I remember I googled up some tutorials on creating a 3D model of a human face. At that time, there were not quite a lot of tutorials for blender, so I took tutorials for Maya and converted the actions to work with Blender. It took me about one week with two to three hours per day working on this finished piece of work, my 3D model female head (http://coolacu.deviantart.com/art/3d-Model-Head-66156144?q=gallery%3Acoolacu%2F5996563&qo=34). I am quite proud of it. I planned on modeling a female body, and began doing a roughly created model. The body did not look that great, so I began looking up tutorials or tips on how other people created their human bodies. Then life issues arose halfway through my project and I have not touched Blender since.
Recently, however, Sintel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRsGyueVLvQ) was released in 2010 and I fell in love all over again with Blender. I was excited to see just how much the program has changed on what it could accomplish. It inspired me to want to do my own projects. I started reading up on the Blender website and there was talk on a completely new Blender being launched in 2011 that dealt with a new interface change among other features. In 2013, I picked up the software again and was shocked at how much of a change they created to the free software. It appeared less intimidating and had almost a similar look to Maya in my opinion. Now the user can customize layouts to their own desire and save them for future usages. There is even a Maya preset option when the program is launched. Of course, due to the changes, I felt like I had to relearn the program all over again to some degree. There were still common shortcut keys like the num-pad numbers dealing with camera views. There were other changes though, such as using subdivide is done in a different way now than what it was in the older version I was use to. I feel like this software is a lot more user friendly to newer users than what it use to be. Yeah, the interface and shortcuts may appear intimidating at first, but every program will have that feeling. It just takes time and dedication to learn something in order to feel comfortable using it. Granted Blender may not be for everyone, it is definitely something everyone should at least try. I personally think it is a pioneering software that is not given enough credit to. Plus there are so many tutorials now from how to work with the interface, to how to create a model, to how to animate, etc. It is so much more easier to learn Blender today, than what it was five years ago. I am actually using Blender for my projects and I plan on posting all my projects for others to see in hopes that others will find the software interesting enough to try out. Please take a look at this amazing software and give it a chance to shine. There is so much it can do if given the chance.
