Hi all, I'm looking into some of the various 3d programs, and I admit I do not want to spend money on anything if I don't have to. ;) I've heard good things about Blender, and downloaded it, but I'm pretty stymied as to what does what. Luckily I did find the online tuts, etc (how nice to have them accessible from within the program!) but haven't really taken the time yet to go through them. Mainly because I'm not sure how much time is involved. How steep would you describe the learning curve? For a total noobie with 3d modeling. I'm not looking to become a guru overnight, just to reach a level of comfort with the program, pretty much knowing what to do when, and where to find all the buttons to get me there. Should I start with something simpler and work my way up to Blender? Or do you feel the tuts and such online are sufficient to get me into the program and using it with at least basic skill levels? Thzaks, judee

Attached Link: http://www.wings3d.com/index.orig.php

Hi,I'm just starting Blender too. About 2 weeks now. Before that I was using wings 3d. I don't plan to abandon wings either. For ease of learing and work flow you can't beat Wings3d. Having said that Blender is very powerful. And once you kinda of get the Blender mind set qoing the interface is not so confusing. And thereis a great deal of support in the way of tuts and forums for Blender. If your just starting with modeling you might want to try Wings 1st. It'll allow you to concentrate on your modelling skills and not learning a complicated interface. I'm telling you Wings has the easiest interface you've ever seen. The drawback is that it wont do super huge models and its just a modeller and Blender is a render and animation prog.

Hello, I'm another newbe in blender. After MAX and truespace I stopped in Maya, but I decided jumping to Linux. After knowing free software spirit and people who uses it, I tested blender and I think in it for serious works.
Interface is different, but learning curve is fast, render motor is fast, NLA is great, blender for Linux is fast and stable, and its performances are growing with each new version.
You don't need to spend hundreds of thousands of bucks, but buying the printed guide is good for you and for blender foundation (if you decide continue with it after testing).

Greetings to forum :)

I'd just go Blender. You get a great complete package. Which I'm assuming you want to render/texture/animate etc. But focus on one aspect of blender at a time, don't try learning everything or you get overwhelmed and then disappointed when it doesn't click. Get comfortable with one task before moving onto another. Brian

Thanks for all the great advice! Cybermonk, thank you for the suggeestions - I have played around with Wings some, mostly just following a tut on nano particles, had a blast with it - and it is very easy to understand. I will probably continue to play with it a bit, it's ease of use is a big plus. But as Brian mentioned, I am looking for the whole package (render and all) so I'm not sure I want to invest a lot of time into Wings, especially if the blender learning curve is pretty fast. Thanks for the info on that Vesper. Unusual I can handle, as long as it's fairly quick to learn. And yes, Vesper, I do believe getting the manual is a good idea once I know I will be continuing. I fully believe in supporting any companies efforts to offer good stable and free software. It is amazing these days to find that people like that still exist! Brian, good advice about learning one bit at a time - I do want to do it all, but the main thing is to take is slow and understand one part before working on the rest. Great advice all of you! I may not start this immediately as I have osme other projects to finish up, but I imagine I will be seening you areound these forums. Thanks for helping! judee

Jump straight into Blender, it's a fabulous package, it's free and it'll do everything you want by the sounds of it. Watch the video tutorials at blender.com and go through the other tutorials. The manual for sale is really good. Any 3D package worth learning will take some time but Blender is quick to get used to, so go for it.

Blender is a great application, but quirky, and the learning curve actually seems to vary a lot from person to person. It may actually be better that you're a total newbie at 3d modelling, rather than coming in with preconceptions from other programs so you're not thrown as much when blender does something in an unusual way. Wings is another great application, and it does what it does very well and intuitively. It does some things better than Blender (in my opinion, anyway)--which makes sense, since it's so specialized. Often I find myself taking models back and forth between the two programs when something is just easier to do in the other, don't forget that that's always an option :) As for the manual, I've found the printed one isn't much different from the online one, which is available for free. (http://download.blender.org/documentation/htmlI/ and http://download.blender.org/documentation/htmlII/ in case you haven't found them) Admittedly I just read through a few sections in the bookstore, so I may have missed something.

Yep, Wings and Blender work really well together. It's worth learning both. As for the manual, I'm a bit old fashioned maybe, and much prefer to be able to flick through a book, but I think it's the same as the online one.

Thanks for all the help! As for manuals - lol, I much prefer online, i can never read the print in the paper ones!

I tried both Wings and Blender and found that Wings was vastly easier - but that's just me. I also tried Anim8or, which I like for the ability it gives me to create a bowl, or wine glass with one simple wavy line and one click. Magic! I hear that Blender has now a new version just released with added menus... I think. Or was it a toolbar? Whatever it is it seems it makes using Blender a little easier for those of us who are keyboard shortcut challenged... me. All 3 are certainly worth a try.

IMO don't waste your time learning other software parallel with Blender, because you can make everything you want directly in Blender. Anim8or is very poor (no raytracing etc.; developed by a single man = 1 new version/10 years :))Wings is a very good modeler, but only a modeler and Blender is a powerful modeler too. The first days of learning Blender are a little hard, then you will like very much the interface and shortcuts.