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...If you participate in 'Blender Battles', which you should if you're interested in blender.

And don't forget the elysiun forums, which are in invaluable source of blender knowledge, and... Also another place where you can put up your dukes in some friendly blender competition.

While I'm at it, don't forget #smc (stands for "speed modeling competitions") on freenode.

There is also a way cool zbrush like sculpting available as an add on script, see this post for details.

http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=56101

LetterRip

First off, if you are wanting to teach, set aside time when you've learned the program to create some multimedia tutorials. Get camtasia studio and record tutorials, export them to flash. It's better and fast than writing a book with screenshots.

If you are wanting some linux movies, check out xvidcap.

It's a great idea to promote and use open source software. Some might say that those skills will have no marketability because the apps are open source and not industry standard. However, when teaching an art class and including computers, all you have to do is emphasize "Now this is free so you can use it at home. Photoshop is what most people in business use, but the same principles apply." Kids will remember that and they will pick up the right app if they are really interested in that field.

Save the money by using OSS and buy some really nice digital cameras for everyone to use. Have the kids go out and capture the world. They'll love it. Then bring the pictures into gimp, try different things from contrasts to layermasking, and painting. Create meaningful collages. If they learn the gimp, they'll pick up photoshop, and then freehand, etc. They'll be fine. I'd recommend gimp over photoshop elements any day.

Here are learning links I've found on blender. This is really a cool program to teach, but I know it will be difficult for some people to pick up. Teach them how to create a text object, write their name and render it with different light setups. Future filmmakers will really appreciate it I think.

http://www.bl3nder.com/tutorials/ http://www.ctr.co.at/swf/3ds_max_1_zb1_num_calc.ht m http://www.blenderama.com/index.php?id=276 http://www.vrotvrot.com/xoom/tutorials.html http://blendedmind.i8.com/tutorials.html#tutorials http://www.blender.org/modules/documentation/htmlI / http://www.tutorialguide.net/software/blender/ http://www.blender3d.com/cms/Tutorials.243.0.html http://www.tltsu.ru/archive/blender/BlenderTutoria lPart3_.pdf http://project-blender.onlinehome.de/ http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~mein/blender/ http://www.ingiebee.com/Blendermania/tutorial_list .html http://renderosity.com/ http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/0 4/30/217225 http://www.geocities.com/paulthepuzzles/aardvarks. html http://blender.excellentwhale.com/ http://www.selleri.org/Blender/ http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/index.html http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=11202 6#112026 http://vrotvrot.com/xoom/tutorials.html http://www.linuxgraphic.org/section3d/blender/page

Yes it is a great interface. It takes practice, like anything worth learning. I have used blender to build two projects (works in progress) Superman and female mesh. Open source program open source docs open development comunity People need to stop bashing Blender. It's one of Open sources big success stories.

Yes it is a great interface. It takes practice, like anything worth learning. I have used blender to build two projects (works in progress) Superman and female mesh. Open source program open source docs open development comunity People need to stop bashing Blender. It's one of Open sources big success stories.

The Blender UI is no longer that difficult, just different to 3DS or your other favourite 3D editor. I'd be surprised if your comment applies to the most recent version unless by "a bit" you mean 5 minutes.

If you go through the blender3d.org tutorials then get back on the "cumbersome" UI.


Agreed. Admittedly, my first two experiences with Blender lead to me throwing in the towel. However, I once read an encouraging post on a message board somewhere (hey, I think it was /.) that basically said "if you haven't worked through the basic tutorials, then you don't have room to discuss the UI" ... hence, I revisited Blender once again, and lo and behold, I saw the light.

Also, I'd like to mention (as others have already) that the Elysiun Forums are a great place to learn about Blender along-side other Blenderheads!

-Vizionary

A good place to start would be to look at the Elysiun forums. It's a great place to learn the ropes. A lot of the works in the demo reel were created by people who regularly hang out there, and some of the works were first displayed there. Check it out.

...but again doesn't support animation.
Mm. As noted below, not a lot does wrt renderman, at least, not without paying lotsa dosh. I presume you've had a look thru' the RMR links page - there's a couple of possibilities there, but mostly alpha. The other thing to do would be to get in touch with the people who created this and this rather impressive animation and ask how they did it. You'll probably have to email the aqsis site maintainers to get their contact details.

Also, I forgot to link the brand new Renderman Academy. It's an ambitious project, but there's already a lot of good info there. Nothing on animation yet, unfortunately.

I mentioned Blender above - if you are willing to take on the task of learning to use it, you'll find a very powerful animation engine in there. There's a chap integrating renderman support directly into the main program, but that's apparently on hold until the middle of the year. In the meantime, there's a very adequate exporter called Blenderman (also see this). Of course, if what you're wanting is a directly programmable animation setup ala AL and SDL, this won't help.

Good luck with it - if you have any success, see if you can get it into a Slashback.

...but again doesn't support animation.
Mm. As noted below, not a lot does wrt renderman, at least, not without paying lotsa dosh. I presume you've had a look thru' the RMR links page - there's a couple of possibilities there, but mostly alpha. The other thing to do would be to get in touch with the people who created this and this rather impressive animation and ask how they did it. You'll probably have to email the aqsis site maintainers to get their contact details.

Also, I forgot to link the brand new Renderman Academy. It's an ambitious project, but there's already a lot of good info there. Nothing on animation yet, unfortunately.

I mentioned Blender above - if you are willing to take on the task of learning to use it, you'll find a very powerful animation engine in there. There's a chap integrating renderman support directly into the main program, but that's apparently on hold until the middle of the year. In the meantime, there's a very adequate exporter called Blenderman (also see this). Of course, if what you're wanting is a directly programmable animation setup ala AL and SDL, this won't help.

Good luck with it - if you have any success, see if you can get it into a Slashback.

Have you seen Ayam? It's a neat little Renderman modeller that ties into Aqsis or (the now defunct) BMRT.

Actually, if you're really wanting a good fast 3d animation workflow, I'd recommend Blender. The learning curve is steep, but once you're into it, you can work fast and smooth. There's lot of support around, and the documentation can get you up and animating within half an hour.

First, the much maligned UI has undergone some fairly substantial redesign. It's retained most of the elements that freak the uniniated out, but has a bunch of changes that aren't as yet reflected in the online manual - a caveat you should be aware of if you're trying it out for the first time. I understand that the dead tree version this article's about has everything new in it.

Incidentally, the reason the interface is so unique is that Blender was originally an in-house tool, designed by a bunch who all knew how they wanted things to work, without reference to more traditional designs. Really, once you understand this and get used to it, it's as least good as any other graphics app interface out there.

Also, many new features are being introduced at the moment (raytracing, refraction, bevelling...), so the build you download today might do things a bit different to the one you got three weeks ago.

Finally, (a continual gotcha for Blender newbies), http://www.blender.org is the site for blender coding help and discussion. For help etc with the use of the program, go to http://www.elysiun.com and check the forums.

AFAIK, it only works in Edit mode, but you can use it by either hitting the U key, or by hitting the spacebar and in the pop-up menu go to Edit, then Undo.

It's quite useful, and you can also set how many levels of Undo you want. You can also set it to auto save every so many minutes.

The Blender documentation is ongoing, but they are coming out with a new 2.3 manual in January. 600+ pages and Blender 2.31 on a CD, along with tutorials.

Check out blender.org for the main site and some useful overviews. To really hone your skills, visit Elysiun and browse the forums. They are all about Blender and have sections for animation, modelling contests, GameBlender (Blender 2.25), and an extensive artwork section. To me, Elysiun is a great place to learn about different aspects of modelling in Blender.

here

Having used Blender since something like 1.8 I would say that everything past 2.26 has been a minor update, but this is a very good step in the right direction. I love Blender. Open source projects often fail, but Blender will still rule the amature 3d market. The cool thing is, though, that recent Blender work is rivaling the Big Boys (3ds Max, Maya). For some great artwork and examples visit elysiun.com and check out the forums.

Here are a couple of animations
Stuff by EnV
and
Mindfields by @ndy
Would have been real nice if the Blender guys had put links in the news page. Check out the forums at elysiun for the quality of work that some of the Blender artists are producing. Also check out what Landis is doing.

Cheers from a happy but untalented Blenderhead.
Zambuka

Here are a couple of animations
Stuff by EnV
and
Mindfields by @ndy
Would have been real nice if the Blender guys had put links in the news page. Check out the forums at elysiun for the quality of work that some of the Blender artists are producing. Also check out what Landis is doing.

Cheers from a happy but untalented Blenderhead.
Zambuka

Here are a couple of animations
Stuff by EnV
and
Mindfields by @ndy
Would have been real nice if the Blender guys had put links in the news page. Check out the forums at elysiun for the quality of work that some of the Blender artists are producing. Also check out what Landis is doing.

Cheers from a happy but untalented Blenderhead.
Zambuka

Check out this thread which has a screen capture of an alpha version of the new Blender 2.3 UI.

Damn.. That link should be www.elysiun.com not elyiun.

Because Confucius say "Choice is good."

I point you to http://www.wings3d.com my friend it seams you have been missing out. Far superior modeller to Blender.

Yeah, I have heard of Wings3D. I haven't tried it yet, though - probably because it was written in some obscure language I had never even heard of and I couldn't find prebuilt binaries. =)

The gallery looks pretty nice, though. Looks like it may have something that's as nice as Blender's s-mesh + proportional editing...

I also heard of Ayam, which seemed nice, but finding the "Requires Some Intimate Knowledge Of Renderman, Your Renderer and Available Shaders" sticker on the manual cover isn't always reassuring. As I mentioned elsewhere, I'm a modeling guy, not someone with very good grasp on stuff behind the scenes - I can understand sliders ("This is a material that looks like plastic, use this widget to control shininess"), but not the raw reality ("Pick this somewhat well named shader called 'plastic' and define values for these n vaguely named parameters that are probably defined in a Book somewhere, go look it up").

However will be the first with decent animation capabilities.

Yeah, something none of the other renderers have: Excellent animation stuff.

If you interested in what Blender can do (as I was), check out the galleries.

I was pleasantly surprised. I'm sure you will be too. :)

Actually, just seeing the galleries makes me what to donate some money.

If you interested in what Blender can do (as I was), check out the galleries.

I was pleasantly surprised. I'm sure you will be too. :)

Actually, just seeing the galleries makes me what to donate some money.

From the website : Blender is a cross plaform 3D creation suite, allowing fully integrated modeling, animation, rendering, post production and interactive 3D creation and playback. We are in the process of bringing back the old Blender product website. For the time being check www.elysiun.com for more info.

Blender is in the process of becoming open source, and would make an awesome tool for game modeling. Blender had a built in game engine and modeling tools.

Visit Blender3d or elYsiun and help open the source on this program. It could become THE gaming modeller for Linux.