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Qbertino writes: "Not a Number, producer of Blender, the Linux community's favorite professional 3D Package (get it for free) has released the beta of their 3D Web Plugin for Netscape 6.1 / Mozilla on Linux/Unix. It offers full integration of Blender's realtime 3D enviroment based applications into the browser's enviroment. Including OpenGL acceleration and all. Check out the Demos. Feedback on the beta-release is welcome and kindly requested on the Blender Community Discussion Board."

Qbertino writes: "Not a Number, producer of Blender, the Linux community's favorite professional 3D Package (get it for free) has released the beta of their 3D Web Plugin for Netscape 6.1 / Mozilla on Linux/Unix. It offers full integration of Blender's realtime 3D enviroment based applications into the browser's enviroment. Including OpenGL acceleration and all. Check out the Demos. Feedback on the beta-release is welcome and kindly requested on the Blender Community Discussion Board."

Craig Maloney wrote this review of a book intended to remove some of the confusion from the powerful, free 3D modelling program Blender. Blender is fun to play with, and has been used to create some amazing 3D graphics, but it's not exactly intuitive. Just figuring out what some of the major buttons do was a triumph for me, but I haven't touched it in a few years -- I'd like to try Blender again, but with a book like this one at the ready to supplement the user interface.

The Blender Book author Carsten Wartmann pages 311 publisher No Starch Press rating 8.5 reviewer Craig Maloney ISBN 1-886411-44-1 summary One of the best books around to learn how to use Blender, the free 3D modelling and animation suite from Not A Number.

What it's about This book was originally published in German as "Das Blender Buch." I was a little wary of picking it up simply because it is a translation of the original. Thankfully, I didn't have to worry, as this translation is very fluid and natural. The topics themselves, however, might be a little dense for the first-time reader and may require several re-readings to get the full meaning.

Blender is a free (as in beer) 3D modelling and animation software package. It was developed internally by Not-A-Number (NaN) for their studio work, but was later released to the general public. Blender is very powerful, and likewise very complex. The Blender Book is a gentle introduction for anyone who is interested not only in getting the most out of Blender, but also for anyone who is curious about 3D graphics.

Chapter by chapter The book starts off with a general overview of what Blender is, how to get it, and why you would want it in the first place. It then gives a very thorough, non-mathematical synopsis of color, 3D graphics, and animation techniques. Chapter 3 begins the Blender-specific topics with a quick overview of the blender interface, culminating in a simple keyframe animation. Chapter 4 introduces the basics of the Blender interface, with descriptions of the different mouse and keyboard functions that Blender uses. Chapter 5 delves into actually modelling objects in Blender, and Chapters 6 and 7 discuss materials and lighting. Chapters 8 deals with path animation, keyframe animation, interpolation curves (IPO curves), and vertex keys. Chapter 9 is a whole chapter about Inverse Kinematics (IKAs), which have been rather troubling for some Blender users. The chapter begins with tutorials for animating a robot arm, and ends with a skeleton animation of a bottle. Chapter 10 discusses particle animation, animating not only a camp fire, but also a rocket with a smoke trail, and a school of fish.

The last sections of the book deal with putting all these concepts together. Chapter 11 introduces the sequence editor, which allows the user to integrate clips with a pretty sophisticated post-production system. The example described in this chapter is a video titling sequence for a beach vacation in Indonesia. Chapter 12 discusses Python scripting in Blender, and how to use it for your animations and as a function plotter. Chapter 13 is the big reward: rendering. Naturally rendering has been discussed before this point, but this chapter contains all the neat tricks which Blender can do with the final rendering. Chapters 14 and 15 are full-scale, top-to-bottom animation and modelling tutorials, which are very useful for both beginners and experts to see how Blender manages to take a project from concept to completion.

The appendices are very well thought out, including a keyboard reference, tips and tricks, command line arguments, a Blender/Python API reference (Overview of Blender Modules), installation instructions, a glossary, and a listing of what's included on the CD. The index is also quite useful, allowing me on several occasions to find information rather quickly.

The pages of the book are very well laid out, with a 10-page full-color insert for those images that need the added benefit of color. The CD-ROM includes the 1.8 version of Blender (an older version, since as of this review Blender is now up to 2.12), and all the .blend files used in creating the animations. It also includes a gallery of the finished animations.

The upshot I have very few gripes with this book after reading it. The Blender Book was published before the program's 2.x series came out. While little in Blender's human interface has changed, it would be nice to have had an addendum for the changes from 1.8 to 2.x. Also, it would have been nice to have this book in full color, but the cost in doing such would have made this book prohibitively expensive.

The Blender Book is a book that I would give (and have given) to any aspiring 3D artist looking to use Blender. With its rich tutorials and its clear explanations of difficult concepts, The Blender Book is the perfect companion for teaching budding and intermediate 3D artists about this exciting and powerful tool.

Chapter Listing:

1. Introduction
2. Basics of 3D Graphics
3. Quick Start
4. Blender Basics
5. Modeling Tutorials
6. Material Tutorials
7. Light, Shadows, and World Tutorials
8. Keyframe, Path, Lattice, and Vertex Key Animation Tutorials
9. Inverse Kinematics Tutorials
10. Getting Small: Particle Animation Tutorials
11. The Final Cut: Postproduction
12. Python Tutorials
13. The Big Reward: Rendering
14. Laser Tutorial
15. Animating a Torpedo Through A School of Fish

1. Keyboard Commands
2. Tips, Tricks, and Useful Programs
3. Command Line Arguments
4. Overview of Blender Modules
5. Installing Blender
6. Glossary
7. What's on the CD?

• Index

You can purchase this book at Fatbrain.

Blenderlover writes: "The full Blender 3D animation & game creation/playback suite runs on a Compaq iPaq now! Here's what Not a Number (the creators of Blender) write on their website : One of the biggest suprises at the GDC was the demonstration of Blender running on a Win CE PDA (personal digital assistant). Prepared as a demonstration of the portability of the Blender code, the full creation suite was shown running on the 200 Mhz, 32 Mb iPAQ system. With a textured game demo playback of 3-4 frames per second, without CPU optimization, it was another confirmation of the power of NaN technology to shape next generation digital media. Mobile and PDA 3D gaming is arriving! There's a wicked video showing Blender on the iPaq" Why not the Linux version on an iPaq properly equipped? ;) This strikes me as a less-than-ideal development tool for Blender (which screams out for a 36" monitor just to hold the widgets!), but a cool accomplishment anyhow.

Qbertino writes: "A guy that calls himself "matrixnan" introduced this project on NANs Blender homepage. It's gonna be a GPLd 3D GUI for Linux using Blender as construction kit. Blender is a professional freeware 3D Animation/Modelling/Applicationkonstruction kit that features Python as Plugin language (Plugins are a big deal in the 3D business). Coding of the Project uses/will use Python, C and C++. Unlike the 3Dsia project it sticks more closely to the 3rd person perpective of the classical Desktop and avoids going to deep into VR and the acompanied problems. It uses NANs reference grade 3D construcion kit and seems to be on its way quite well - and thus will probably see usability quite soon. Also take a look at some serious eye candy - the screens." I'm a little more skeptical about time frames for actually being able to run this thing, but there are lots of interesting ideas to think about.

Qbertino writes: "A guy that calls himself "matrixnan" introduced this project on NANs Blender homepage. It's gonna be a GPLd 3D GUI for Linux using Blender as construction kit. Blender is a professional freeware 3D Animation/Modelling/Applicationkonstruction kit that features Python as Plugin language (Plugins are a big deal in the 3D business). Coding of the Project uses/will use Python, C and C++. Unlike the 3Dsia project it sticks more closely to the 3rd person perpective of the classical Desktop and avoids going to deep into VR and the acompanied problems. It uses NANs reference grade 3D construcion kit and seems to be on its way quite well - and thus will probably see usability quite soon. Also take a look at some serious eye candy - the screens." I'm a little more skeptical about time frames for actually being able to run this thing, but there are lots of interesting ideas to think about.

Qbertino writes: "A guy that calls himself "matrixnan" introduced this project on NANs Blender homepage. It's gonna be a GPLd 3D GUI for Linux using Blender as construction kit. Blender is a professional freeware 3D Animation/Modelling/Applicationkonstruction kit that features Python as Plugin language (Plugins are a big deal in the 3D business). Coding of the Project uses/will use Python, C and C++. Unlike the 3Dsia project it sticks more closely to the 3rd person perpective of the classical Desktop and avoids going to deep into VR and the acompanied problems. It uses NANs reference grade 3D construcion kit and seems to be on its way quite well - and thus will probably see usability quite soon. Also take a look at some serious eye candy - the screens." I'm a little more skeptical about time frames for actually being able to run this thing, but there are lots of interesting ideas to think about.

Dynedain asks: "Let's suppose that an architecture fraternity suddenly has the opportunity of obtaining a handful or two of old SGI Indigos for little or no cost. What do they do with them? Obvious answer: set up a render farm for their digital projects. Now the question is HOW? We have the ability to network these machines (via TCP/IP on a 10bT network) and a few of us have experience w/ UNIX flavors. We've even been playing with Blender, but it seems to lack network rendering support. Considering we are relative newbies, the limitations of the Indigo (1Gb HD, 96 MB RAM, IRIX 5.3), and the fact that we have no money to spend on licensing, what solutions are available for implementing a 3D render farm with DXF support? Do we cluster? Or do we run network scripts?"

xype writes "I just got a mail from NaN (the company developing Blender) that the new 1.8 release is out now - and it's freeware, without any "optional features one needs to pay for"! B@rt of NaN also gets into detail about NaN's plans around opensourcing parts of Blender." For those in the dark, Blender is a 3D Modeling/Rendering application for Linux [Update by nik: And FreeBSD (freebsd.org hosts the US mirror), and SGI, and Sun, and others]. Its not 3D Studio, but it'll do a lot of the same stuff.

James Hills sent us the following report from the E3 Expo. Not exactly read-em-and weep, but James has pinpointed some of the highlights (and lowlights) of the current position of Linux in the gaming world. (Read more.)

This year's Electronic Entertainment Expo was a great disappointment. Not just to see the state of the PC gaming industry in the ongoing PC vs. Console war, but to see that Linux was even less prominent at this show than it was at Game Developer Conference just a few months ago. Two things can be garnered from this observation. The first is that, as Linux users know, the power of Linux comes from the people, not from the marketing guy in the corner office. GDC was a show for the programmers, artists, designers and tools manufacturers. E3 on the other hand is a show for the marketing and public-relations representatives to vie with their peers for coveted media attention. The second thing is that Linux gaming has gone nearly as far as it will go without increasing the number of Linux users who will buy Linux games.

This is not meant to be a gloom-and-doom piece, but rather a summary of where Linux gaming is today, and to point out a few of the more interesting Linux gaming products represented at the show. Several important issues still need to be resolved for Linux to be supported by mainstream companies. Today, the biggest obstacle is really threefold: It's to convince marketing people that 1. there is a market of Linux users who use the OS for more than just servers, 2. that the market is large enough to support first rate games, and 3. that the publishers can make money supporting Linux, or their developers can gain great enough non-monetary benefits to justify the expense of developing for and supporting multiple platforms.

While talking with marketing representatives from mainstream companies like Red Storm, Hasbro, and EA, each representative was familiar with what Linux was, but did not expect that they would be supporting the OS in the foreseeable future. However, nearly every developer I talked to was interested in supporting Linux. For the next year, it is important that we as a community not forget that while vast market share has been gained in the server world, the desktop is still an enigma for most marketing people. Many of these marketing people simply don't understand why anyone would use Linux on the desktop instead of Windows. The tend to share the often-correct assumption that "the Linux users all have Windows anyhow."

Only a handful of developers at the show actually promoted the fact that they supported Linux. Of these, none that I saw actually demonstrated their games running on it. However, when asked about their experience developing a game for multiple platforms, all said that it was a very positive experience. In fact, the result according to one was significantly improved code. This may be the way games come to Linux; as the standard Windows-based PC platform slowly erodes because of the ever increasing power of consoles, the Macintosh and Linux platforms have recently gained market share in the PC arena. If game developers begin designing their games for multiple platforms then Linux will be a great beneficiary, as will the quality of the code itself.

The availability of development tools and engines supporting Linux is something that I first noticed at GDC in March, and was well in evidence at E3 as well. Many 3D engines now promote the fact that they support Linux; one that stuck out as special was GameBlender, a 3D game development tool and engine from Netherlands-based Not A Number (NaN). The company is building a large community of developers. GameBlender's user-base is also growing rapidly; currently the number of registered users is upwards of 65,000, with more than 250,000 downloads to date. GameBlender incorporates a complete 3D-creation package with game design and game playback, allowing anyone to author and publish interactive 3D worlds and real-time interactive 3D animations. Unique to GameBlender is support for Linux on PPC, Alpha and x86 among other OS's The GameBlender User Conference recently held in Amsterdam illustrates the company's commitment to the community. For the event, NaN sponsored 24 developers from around the world who gathered to work with GameBlender on new projects. This engine, unlike many others available today, is not first-person-shooter specific, nor is it priced in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. GameBlender is aimed at the end user and games as diverse as mech combat, flight sims and racing games are already in production. A free demo can currently be downloaded from the Blender Web site, and the full version is planned for release at Siggraph 2000 in New Orleans this summer.

Also shown was the much-anticipated X-Box competitor from Indrema. The New York-based company is promising to change the way we think about entertainment on Linux and also to solve of the issues that game developers encounter while trying to support Linux. They plan to provide support for developers as well as a stable target platform for developers. This helps solve the issue of fragmentation that currently exists because there are so many 'standards' without support for things like sound and graphics under Linux. The company appears dedicated to open source and will be supporting OpenAL, Mesa 3D, and OpenStream for video and multimedia control. However the device will not support the standard X Window System. Instead, Indrema has developed Xtrema, a system claimed to be compatible with the X Window system components necessary to support the DRI. Therefore, existing X Window applications will be able to support Xtrema with little or no modification.

No demonstration model or screenshots of the interface were available at the show however, and no specifics available on what developers would be supporting the platform. The product is exciting nonetheless, and I look forward to a Linux-based console. They promise to unveil the first generation product in the July or August but not necessarily at Linux World Expo. The L600 will contain a PIII-600, 64 megs of RAM, a hard drive, and an upgradeable, next-generation GPU developed by nVidia. At launch, Indrema expects to have web browsing, e-mail, mp3 and DVD playback as well as at least one game title included and ready to go out of the box. The output from the device is for HDTV and standard TVs but no monitor out is planned. This is an entertainment console, not a PC. At an expected $299 MSRP, this may be the gift of choice for the geek on your holiday shopping list. I can't think of anyone who doesn't need a mp3, DVD player, and console so they can play their favorite Linux games.

Over the past year Linux has come a great distance, but it has long way to go before first-tier developers and publishers support it. Neverwinter Nights, a tremendous title that was demonstrated at the show, may be the first AAA game to support Linux out of the box. It was shown in a private booth in the back of the basement of the main hall but I am convinced it was just because they wanted to keep the secret to themselves. This title promises to take the world of the Dungeons and Dragons universe and allow gamers to develop their own adventures and share them with other gamers online. While the title is still at least a year from release, this product is amazing and deserves an entire article to itself. The developer, BioWare, is supporting several platforms with the product, including Windows. Not only is the game going to have a significant online potential, but also the developers are promising a well developed single-player game as well. Everything from the beautiful game engine to the attitude of the developers and their track record of having developed such complex titles as Baldur's Gate promotes optimism about it.

Overall, E3 this year was disappointing for Linux gamers. The enthusiasm so evident at Linux Expos, at user groups and among developers has not trickled up to the marketing people. Until it does, it doubtful that Linux will have a steady stream of first-class games like Windows does. Linux as a platform has reached the threshold where any developer who wishes to support Linux can do so fairly easily; now it is a matter of us developing the user base so that marketing people can be convinced to develop more games for us. I don't fault the evil marketing people for not supporting Linux today. In fact I am excited to hear mainstream developers remark to me, 'Wow, a lot of people are asking me about Linux,' as several did when I asked them about their plans for the platform. Over the next year, as more new developers such as Vicarious Visions and Bioware, join Loki in developing for the Linux platform, we need to remember to support them, so that they continue to make that decision for future products.

The future is still bright for Linux gaming, though. Linux is an operating system that has only recently come into the radar screen of mainstream companies. As such, there is a significant deficit of proven marketing statistics and developers with proven track records. To a great extent, it is up to us as Linux gamers to vote with our dollars, pounds, pesos, francs and deutsche marks and buy the Linux games that are available. At the same time, we must strive to increase the sheer number of Linux users in the desktop arena. Until publishers feel there is a market for Linux games then most likely there will continue to be a deficit of high quality Linux game titles.

James Hills sent us the following report from the E3 Expo. Not exactly read-em-and weep, but James has pinpointed some of the highlights (and lowlights) of the current position of Linux in the gaming world. (Read more.)

This year's Electronic Entertainment Expo was a great disappointment. Not just to see the state of the PC gaming industry in the ongoing PC vs. Console war, but to see that Linux was even less prominent at this show than it was at Game Developer Conference just a few months ago. Two things can be garnered from this observation. The first is that, as Linux users know, the power of Linux comes from the people, not from the marketing guy in the corner office. GDC was a show for the programmers, artists, designers and tools manufacturers. E3 on the other hand is a show for the marketing and public-relations representatives to vie with their peers for coveted media attention. The second thing is that Linux gaming has gone nearly as far as it will go without increasing the number of Linux users who will buy Linux games.

This is not meant to be a gloom-and-doom piece, but rather a summary of where Linux gaming is today, and to point out a few of the more interesting Linux gaming products represented at the show. Several important issues still need to be resolved for Linux to be supported by mainstream companies. Today, the biggest obstacle is really threefold: It's to convince marketing people that 1. there is a market of Linux users who use the OS for more than just servers, 2. that the market is large enough to support first rate games, and 3. that the publishers can make money supporting Linux, or their developers can gain great enough non-monetary benefits to justify the expense of developing for and supporting multiple platforms.

While talking with marketing representatives from mainstream companies like Red Storm, Hasbro, and EA, each representative was familiar with what Linux was, but did not expect that they would be supporting the OS in the foreseeable future. However, nearly every developer I talked to was interested in supporting Linux. For the next year, it is important that we as a community not forget that while vast market share has been gained in the server world, the desktop is still an enigma for most marketing people. Many of these marketing people simply don't understand why anyone would use Linux on the desktop instead of Windows. The tend to share the often-correct assumption that "the Linux users all have Windows anyhow."

Only a handful of developers at the show actually promoted the fact that they supported Linux. Of these, none that I saw actually demonstrated their games running on it. However, when asked about their experience developing a game for multiple platforms, all said that it was a very positive experience. In fact, the result according to one was significantly improved code. This may be the way games come to Linux; as the standard Windows-based PC platform slowly erodes because of the ever increasing power of consoles, the Macintosh and Linux platforms have recently gained market share in the PC arena. If game developers begin designing their games for multiple platforms then Linux will be a great beneficiary, as will the quality of the code itself.

The availability of development tools and engines supporting Linux is something that I first noticed at GDC in March, and was well in evidence at E3 as well. Many 3D engines now promote the fact that they support Linux; one that stuck out as special was GameBlender, a 3D game development tool and engine from Netherlands-based Not A Number (NaN). The company is building a large community of developers. GameBlender's user-base is also growing rapidly; currently the number of registered users is upwards of 65,000, with more than 250,000 downloads to date. GameBlender incorporates a complete 3D-creation package with game design and game playback, allowing anyone to author and publish interactive 3D worlds and real-time interactive 3D animations. Unique to GameBlender is support for Linux on PPC, Alpha and x86 among other OS's The GameBlender User Conference recently held in Amsterdam illustrates the company's commitment to the community. For the event, NaN sponsored 24 developers from around the world who gathered to work with GameBlender on new projects. This engine, unlike many others available today, is not first-person-shooter specific, nor is it priced in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. GameBlender is aimed at the end user and games as diverse as mech combat, flight sims and racing games are already in production. A free demo can currently be downloaded from the Blender Web site, and the full version is planned for release at Siggraph 2000 in New Orleans this summer.

Also shown was the much-anticipated X-Box competitor from Indrema. The New York-based company is promising to change the way we think about entertainment on Linux and also to solve of the issues that game developers encounter while trying to support Linux. They plan to provide support for developers as well as a stable target platform for developers. This helps solve the issue of fragmentation that currently exists because there are so many 'standards' without support for things like sound and graphics under Linux. The company appears dedicated to open source and will be supporting OpenAL, Mesa 3D, and OpenStream for video and multimedia control. However the device will not support the standard X Window System. Instead, Indrema has developed Xtrema, a system claimed to be compatible with the X Window system components necessary to support the DRI. Therefore, existing X Window applications will be able to support Xtrema with little or no modification.

No demonstration model or screenshots of the interface were available at the show however, and no specifics available on what developers would be supporting the platform. The product is exciting nonetheless, and I look forward to a Linux-based console. They promise to unveil the first generation product in the July or August but not necessarily at Linux World Expo. The L600 will contain a PIII-600, 64 megs of RAM, a hard drive, and an upgradeable, next-generation GPU developed by nVidia. At launch, Indrema expects to have web browsing, e-mail, mp3 and DVD playback as well as at least one game title included and ready to go out of the box. The output from the device is for HDTV and standard TVs but no monitor out is planned. This is an entertainment console, not a PC. At an expected $299 MSRP, this may be the gift of choice for the geek on your holiday shopping list. I can't think of anyone who doesn't need a mp3, DVD player, and console so they can play their favorite Linux games.

Over the past year Linux has come a great distance, but it has long way to go before first-tier developers and publishers support it. Neverwinter Nights, a tremendous title that was demonstrated at the show, may be the first AAA game to support Linux out of the box. It was shown in a private booth in the back of the basement of the main hall but I am convinced it was just because they wanted to keep the secret to themselves. This title promises to take the world of the Dungeons and Dragons universe and allow gamers to develop their own adventures and share them with other gamers online. While the title is still at least a year from release, this product is amazing and deserves an entire article to itself. The developer, BioWare, is supporting several platforms with the product, including Windows. Not only is the game going to have a significant online potential, but also the developers are promising a well developed single-player game as well. Everything from the beautiful game engine to the attitude of the developers and their track record of having developed such complex titles as Baldur's Gate promotes optimism about it.

Overall, E3 this year was disappointing for Linux gamers. The enthusiasm so evident at Linux Expos, at user groups and among developers has not trickled up to the marketing people. Until it does, it doubtful that Linux will have a steady stream of first-class games like Windows does. Linux as a platform has reached the threshold where any developer who wishes to support Linux can do so fairly easily; now it is a matter of us developing the user base so that marketing people can be convinced to develop more games for us. I don't fault the evil marketing people for not supporting Linux today. In fact I am excited to hear mainstream developers remark to me, 'Wow, a lot of people are asking me about Linux,' as several did when I asked them about their plans for the platform. Over the next year, as more new developers such as Vicarious Visions and Bioware, join Loki in developing for the Linux platform, we need to remember to support them, so that they continue to make that decision for future products.

The future is still bright for Linux gaming, though. Linux is an operating system that has only recently come into the radar screen of mainstream companies. As such, there is a significant deficit of proven marketing statistics and developers with proven track records. To a great extent, it is up to us as Linux gamers to vote with our dollars, pounds, pesos, francs and deutsche marks and buy the Linux games that are available. At the same time, we must strive to increase the sheer number of Linux users in the desktop arena. Until publishers feel there is a market for Linux games then most likely there will continue to be a deficit of high quality Linux game titles.

mrlament writes "As I'm sure many others did, I just recieved this note from the Blender people. Click below to read the full note-the basic summary is that they are going to be going the shareware route, but will it will remain freely distributed and functional. A Windows Port has been done, surprisingly easily, but that will not be free. " - The Key Decision: the commercial side of Blender

Don't panic! ;-) Blender remains freely distributed and functional as it used to be. However, the famous disabled features and most new development will be unlocked for paying customers only: the Key holders. NaN guarantees bug fixes and feature refinements for keyless users equally to Key holders. The decision to sell software Keys to active Blender users is a necessary condition to guarantee development towards the 1.8 release of Blender, the "Complete Blender". The Complete Key will be sold for the humble price of Euro 95, approx. USD 100.

More about this news. - Windows version?

Don't panic 2! ;-) Porting to Windows went surprisingly smooth, so in april this version will be published as well. Blender for Windows won't be freeware... To be able to write files, Windows users will have to pay for Blender. Within short terms, there will be no 'complete' version for Windows.

- Manuals

The current printed manual is valid for the entire 1.x series, for all platforms and including the Complete Blender. As announced before, manual sales are satisfying, but not sufficient to finance continious Blender development. To please manual buyers, they get a Euro 10 discount at a Key purchase.

The Slashdot review caused a big leap in the manual sales. We are out of stock until april 2. Check out the Book Review.

This book is the a great introduction for 3D newbies and a great resource for any 3D artist who would like to become intimately familiar with Blender. The book is is a work of art by itself and I highly recommend it. Read below for the full review. Blender v1.5 Manual author Ton Roosendaal pages publisher Not a Number rating 9/10 reviewer Del Simmons ISBN 90-76519-01-3 summary A great book for Linux fans who want to get started with 3D graphics or for 3D artists who want to get to know Blender better. A wealth of information for experts and newbies alike, put together like a work of art itself.

I have always been interested in 3D modeling and rendering but never took the time to learn the interface for any of the popular modellers. I wanted to play around with animation without spending a bundle on software. And most importantly, I wanted a sophisticated product that ran on my Linux box. So I was thrilled when I first came across Blender. Blender is a professional modelling and animation environment. As with any sophisticated 3D program, the interface can at first seem rather complex. This book was the key to unlocking the power of the Blender interface for me.

Ton really gives you what you need to get started. In Part 1 he describes how to install Blender for Linux, FreeBSD or SGI and then jumps right in to a description of the Object Hierarchy of the data structures and then a hands on tutorial of basic editing commands. Luckily he has made the install very easy, so all you need to do is download, uncompress and set one environment variable. You have to love that.

In the Basic Editing section you will find information on all the standard 3D operations. You'll learn how to move, rotate and scale objects within your scene. How to apply materials and textures to your objects. You'll also be taught how to save and load your data files. If you're already an experienced 3D artist then this will be a handy chapter for learning how to translate these basic functions into the Blender way of doing things. Blender's interface is definately unique in many ways and might take a small amount of getting used to. Once you familiarize yourself with the basic functions, though, I think you'll find it to be a very efficient interface for design work. If you're a newbie like me, then this section also serves as a nice introduction to these basic modelling concepts as well.

The second section of the book is called "Do it yourself" and is where the real power of Blender starts to become apparent to the reader. Topics covered inlude things such as View Modes and Presets working with Layers, 3D View Maipulation and many other useful items. This section also contains a Coffeecup Tutorial and a Flying Logo Tutorial that gave me a true sense of accomplishment when I finished. For an experienced artist, these might be laughable but I really enjoyed doing them and it taught me alot about Blender and 3D in general.

Flying Logo Tutorial Results ~ 69K

In part three you really start to get into the guts of the application and you can really tell that Ton was involved heavily in the development of this application. He conveys an understanding of not only design of the application but also why it was designed that way. He goes into detail about the data structure that Blender uses and explains the relationships between Objects, ObData and Materials. He also goes into a much more complete discussion of the interface of the program and the structure of the many available menus. This is a section that makes you glad that this book was written by someone who understands what goes on under Blender's hood.

Part four goes into a higher level of detail in discussing diferent types of objects including The Mesh, Curves and Surfaces, including Bezier, Nurbs and how to model with curves. He also covers Metaballs, Font usage, Lattice usage. I really enjoyed this section because it allowed me to start creating scenes that didn't look like diagrams out of a geometry textbook. (Spheres and cubes get old real quick!). Again, this section will be a valuable reference for experienced artist, and it also serves as a great introduction to these concepts to us newbies.

In the next few sections of the book there are chapters on Animation and using Ika's to create skeletons for your objects, enabling complicated motion in animation sequences. He also covers some Special Animation Techniques including the use of Motion Paths, and Object Tracking. This section allows you to bring your objects to life. After reading these sections I was able to create this humble creation. I thought it was pretty good for someone with literally three evenings reading this manual and no previous 3D experience at all. Please keep the flames to a minimum. :-)

Del's Flower Fly-by

• Small version (200x150) ~ 344K
• Large version (400x300) ~ 1MB

The rest of the book is an incredible Reference to every option, every menu and every button in Blender. I can't see any rock that Ton has left unturned when documenting Blender's interface. Since he was so heavily involved in the development, he definately knows what features are available.

The last thing I want to make sure you know about this book is that it is a work of art itself. It is beatifully decorated with artwork on almost every page and the design of the book is such that reading it is really a pleasure. I commend Ton and his team on a job well done and I highly recommed this title for anyone interested in Blender specifically or for someone who would like to get started with 3D design.

Purchase this book at the Blender Shop and help support the continued development of this incredible program.

This book is the a great introduction for 3D newbies and a great resource for any 3D artist who would like to become intimately familiar with Blender. The book is is a work of art by itself and I highly recommend it. Read below for the full review. Blender v1.5 Manual author Ton Roosendaal pages publisher Not a Number rating 9/10 reviewer Del Simmons ISBN 90-76519-01-3 summary A great book for Linux fans who want to get started with 3D graphics or for 3D artists who want to get to know Blender better. A wealth of information for experts and newbies alike, put together like a work of art itself.

I have always been interested in 3D modeling and rendering but never took the time to learn the interface for any of the popular modellers. I wanted to play around with animation without spending a bundle on software. And most importantly, I wanted a sophisticated product that ran on my Linux box. So I was thrilled when I first came across Blender. Blender is a professional modelling and animation environment. As with any sophisticated 3D program, the interface can at first seem rather complex. This book was the key to unlocking the power of the Blender interface for me.

Ton really gives you what you need to get started. In Part 1 he describes how to install Blender for Linux, FreeBSD or SGI and then jumps right in to a description of the Object Hierarchy of the data structures and then a hands on tutorial of basic editing commands. Luckily he has made the install very easy, so all you need to do is download, uncompress and set one environment variable. You have to love that.

In the Basic Editing section you will find information on all the standard 3D operations. You'll learn how to move, rotate and scale objects within your scene. How to apply materials and textures to your objects. You'll also be taught how to save and load your data files. If you're already an experienced 3D artist then this will be a handy chapter for learning how to translate these basic functions into the Blender way of doing things. Blender's interface is definately unique in many ways and might take a small amount of getting used to. Once you familiarize yourself with the basic functions, though, I think you'll find it to be a very efficient interface for design work. If you're a newbie like me, then this section also serves as a nice introduction to these basic modelling concepts as well.

The second section of the book is called "Do it yourself" and is where the real power of Blender starts to become apparent to the reader. Topics covered inlude things such as View Modes and Presets working with Layers, 3D View Maipulation and many other useful items. This section also contains a Coffeecup Tutorial and a Flying Logo Tutorial that gave me a true sense of accomplishment when I finished. For an experienced artist, these might be laughable but I really enjoyed doing them and it taught me alot about Blender and 3D in general.

Flying Logo Tutorial Results ~ 69K

In part three you really start to get into the guts of the application and you can really tell that Ton was involved heavily in the development of this application. He conveys an understanding of not only design of the application but also why it was designed that way. He goes into detail about the data structure that Blender uses and explains the relationships between Objects, ObData and Materials. He also goes into a much more complete discussion of the interface of the program and the structure of the many available menus. This is a section that makes you glad that this book was written by someone who understands what goes on under Blender's hood.

Part four goes into a higher level of detail in discussing diferent types of objects including The Mesh, Curves and Surfaces, including Bezier, Nurbs and how to model with curves. He also covers Metaballs, Font usage, Lattice usage. I really enjoyed this section because it allowed me to start creating scenes that didn't look like diagrams out of a geometry textbook. (Spheres and cubes get old real quick!). Again, this section will be a valuable reference for experienced artist, and it also serves as a great introduction to these concepts to us newbies.

In the next few sections of the book there are chapters on Animation and using Ika's to create skeletons for your objects, enabling complicated motion in animation sequences. He also covers some Special Animation Techniques including the use of Motion Paths, and Object Tracking. This section allows you to bring your objects to life. After reading these sections I was able to create this humble creation. I thought it was pretty good for someone with literally three evenings reading this manual and no previous 3D experience at all. Please keep the flames to a minimum. :-)

Del's Flower Fly-by

• Small version (200x150) ~ 344K
• Large version (400x300) ~ 1MB

The rest of the book is an incredible Reference to every option, every menu and every button in Blender. I can't see any rock that Ton has left unturned when documenting Blender's interface. Since he was so heavily involved in the development, he definately knows what features are available.

The last thing I want to make sure you know about this book is that it is a work of art itself. It is beatifully decorated with artwork on almost every page and the design of the book is such that reading it is really a pleasure. I commend Ton and his team on a job well done and I highly recommed this title for anyone interested in Blender specifically or for someone who would like to get started with 3D design.

Purchase this book at the Blender Shop and help support the continued development of this incredible program.

you are an official BeOS developer. Ton Roosendaal, author of Blender writes: "I've posted the first official BeOS release of Blender today at the web. Unfortunately almost nobody can use it because Be refuses to publish the necessary OpenGL library for it. All official developers have that library, but I'm not allowed to distribute it. I finished porting to BeOS already 6 weeks ago. Several bugs were fixed in the R4.0 OpenGL library during the porting process. Blender doesn't run at all with the original buggy 4.0 library, so I asked permission to distribute Blender with the fixed OpenGL lib for beta testing. Be decided it would be better to wait for March 12, when the BeOS R4.1 would be out. Last tuesday I received a (not official) message 4.1 won't be out until the 3rd week of April. I'm not very happy with this, as you can understand." Today's been busy so I have not had the time to contact Be. However I know they monitor /. Perhaps they'd like to comment?

you are an official BeOS developer. Ton Roosendaal, author of Blender writes: "I've posted the first official BeOS release of Blender today at the web. Unfortunately almost nobody can use it because Be refuses to publish the necessary OpenGL library for it. All official developers have that library, but I'm not allowed to distribute it. I finished porting to BeOS already 6 weeks ago. Several bugs were fixed in the R4.0 OpenGL library during the porting process. Blender doesn't run at all with the original buggy 4.0 library, so I asked permission to distribute Blender with the fixed OpenGL lib for beta testing. Be decided it would be better to wait for March 12, when the BeOS R4.1 would be out. Last tuesday I received a (not official) message 4.1 won't be out until the 3rd week of April. I'm not very happy with this, as you can understand." Today's been busy so I have not had the time to contact Be. However I know they monitor /. Perhaps they'd like to comment?

Stray Light writes "The second Absolut Blender Contest has officially started. A great opportunity for 3D artists to show what they can do. Animations are accepted this time around as well as stills like before. Prizes will once again probably be the Blender T-Shirts. Hope to see the entries coming in soon! " We're actually supposed to be reviewing the Blender Manual soon, so keep your eyes peeled for it. In related news Blender 1.56 is out.

Stray Light writes "The second Absolut Blender Contest has officially started. A great opportunity for 3D artists to show what they can do. Animations are accepted this time around as well as stills like before. Prizes will once again probably be the Blender T-Shirts. Hope to see the entries coming in soon! " We're actually supposed to be reviewing the Blender Manual soon, so keep your eyes peeled for it. In related news Blender 1.56 is out.

Blender 1.5 has been released, to accompany the book that Not A Number just published... expect a review of the book on slashdot soon, given that two of us have received a copy of it.

Tom Roosendaal wrote in to say " This is the moment of truth! Is the free Unix community capable of supporting a company that released free software? The Blender V1.5 manual pre-ordering started today, shipment will start end of october. The version of Blender described in the manual will be made available at our web site, free of charge." Ton has spun off a company to market Blender, and possibly make it GPL. Ed: I hope he can make money off the manual and establish that it is possible for small companies to produce free software and live off secondary sources of revenue.