The thread that answers the question, "I just downloaded Blender, now what?"

I'd like to get the suggestions that people keep posting all compiled here in a handy-dandy list so people can find them easily :)

I'll start!

• the manual
• also, release notes - if it's not in the manual yet or the interface is very different than the one in the manual, it may be new and described in recent release notes (it may be better to ask here for help, though, it's not an easy way to find things)
• Blender Noob to Pro
• Video tutorials are the best thing ever.  There are some on the blender.org site, and there's a list at the bottom of the Noob to Pro wikibook

Great idea, HaloedRain... I consider the link below a pretty decent starting point myself. Wished it had been around when I was starting:
http://blenderunderground.com/

I second Blenderunderground. Also a good resource for various things blender is :-
http://www.cgtutorials.com/c3/Blender/top/1

Video tuts from beginner upwards including the interface.

The browser toolbar available at Blender Newbies is probably the single best Blender resource available, RSS feeds to all the main Blender sites and static links to a multitude of resources. I don't often endorse toolbar add-ons but this is an exception, I definitely recommend it to anyone that uses Blender whether a newbie or an experienced user.

blendernewbies.blogspot.com/

One of the few sites not covered by the toolbar that I also recommend is Blender 3d Club, contains very well written tutorials covering various subjects.

www.blender3dclub.com/

Okay, I found the button for inserting links however mine appear grey. Where do I change that to a more visible color? The links work but might be difficult for some people to see.

Ignore last question of previous post....doesn't make sense that I had to change my default white color for text to white but it worked.....shrug.

lisarichie: They're grey if you've been there before, white if you haven't, and they turn yellow when you hover over them or click on them.  Other people who hadn't been to that link would see it as white.  Changing it to white means it will always be white no matter what.

Well, the text is certainly brighter... signs of a brighter future for Blender3D, hun?

Blender video tutorials and game creation video tutorials can be purchased cheap at CartoonSmart.

More video tutorials: blendercast.sagedread.com

It's a collection of tutorials that can be found elsewhere into one place, I think.

For my two cents, I'd like to add Blenducation (http://blenducation.org/wordpress/). It offers live classes on topics related to Blender.

Awesome stuff. I'd like to add http://www.assistcg.com/index.php/tutorials.html to the list of tutorials. There you can find tuts on texture's creation.

Especially I liked this one :D (work with deflector and force fields)
http://www.assistcg.com/index.php/component/content/article/52.html

Worthy of it's own spot the HOTKEY MAP

wiki.blender.org/index.php/Reference/Hotkey_Map

and cgcookie blender section

www.cgcookie.com/articles/blender

Ever wanted to read the wiki manual off line?
Well here's a PDF form of the wiki manual to download, thanks to the hard work from Marco Ardito.

http://www.letworyinteractive.com/b/2009/02/

Archives of earlier versions are to the left.

Due to several requests I'm sticking the links for the introductory Simple modeling in Blender tutorial here.

http://www.4shared.com/file/33921586/2c9f1710/Simple_Modeling_in_Blender_-_Part_1.html

http://www.4shared.com/file/33921619/6fa40f91/Simple_Modeling_in_Blender_-_Part_2.html

But? Is there a blender for dummies yet? Regular ones such as me? :P

Quote - But? Is there a blender for dummies yet? Regular ones such as me? :P

There actually is a Blender for Dummies. Search for it on Amazon or anywhere that Blender books are sold.

Great.. a book made just for me.. :)

By the way thanks to you above with the video tutorial links, they are very helpful :)

Is it possible to create a map for export with an obj from blender?

I mean of course it can export .obj plus the .mtl one, but I have discovered that most other 3D apps happily import the .obj but will not read the .mtl file and reference by a ,png etc map for color..

Poser for one is an app that I use that requires maps.

Sorry if this is the wrong place, was not sure to ask here or start a new thread..thanks :)

You have to create the UV map to use textures.

If you simply want to export diffuse colors then assign the different material zones, color them as you like and this information will export to Poser in the .mtl file, UV mapping is not absolutely necessary in this instance.

Poser handles materials a bit differently than Blender so you'll have to adjust things a bit to get comparable results, the colors transfer fine though.

hmm sunds detailed, lisa..is there a tutorial about this anywhere?

The problem I have is it is a terrain..pretty flat.. so it don't seem to help much making a map..should I flip it so it is facing forward then try to uv it?

I didn't think Poser would read .mtl

A terrain should be straight forward to map.

Split your viewport and set one window to UV view, leave the other in 3d view, if you haven't already set up multiple windows.

Use your Numpad keys - 1,3, or 7 - to get a straight on view of your terrain. RMB to select it and press the Numpad to frame the terrain view, zoom to comfortably fill the viewport.

to change to edit mode and with the cursor in the 3d viewport press key.

Choose the Project from View  Bounds option.

In the UV viewport select all and scale in slightly to fit within the UV area. It's easier to texture if you leave a little space around the edges.

Save your .blend file and export the terrain obj using the default settings.

In the UV viewport select UVs>scripts>Save UV face layout and type in the desired size of your texture map.

Default is 1024x1024 but you'll probably want something a bit bigger, try to stay with binary multiples, 2048, 4096, etc for your sizes.

Save the UV map, open it in your image editor of choice and fit the texture to the UV map.

Save the resulting texture map.

Import the obj into Poser and apply the texture map you created.

Thank you so much, lisa

I''m off to give this a shot now :)

Another wiki manual for offline reading...

http://www.zebulon.nl/blender/44-blender-wiki-manual-e-book

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Further on the topic of interaction between Poser and Blender -
I still don't understand it.  I want to export a pair of pants (it already fits the model) from Poser to Blender, work on it and export back to Poser.
BUT it seems Blender won't import obj files from Poser. tho Wings does.
So: How on earth does one get a Poser obj file into Blender and back again??
I am aware of the size differences.

Blender imports Wavefront obj files, which is what Poser obj files are.

How?

In Blender File>Import>Wavefront(.obj) brings up the browser dialog for importing OBJ files.

Click the triangle to the left of the second input field and navigate to the file location.

Select the OBJ file for import then click the Import a Wavefront Object button in the upper right corner.

This opens a import parameters dialog that allows you to customize the attributes of the imported OBJ.

For example in 2.49 you have the option of selecting Poly Groups which imports OBJ groups as vertex groups, you may find this useful.

(If you are on a Windows machine you can select the OBJ file with the middle mouse button and skip directly to the import parameters dialog.)

Thank you, I tried it and it works.
You see, I need to import a pair of pants and change it to a dresslike garment such as people used in biblical times.
However, the imported obj won't change to edit mode so that I can work on it.
I realize it's a stupid question, but - once again, how???

Select the item you wish to edit, and toggle into edit mode with the TAB key.

There are some great Blender tutorials further up this thread on Blender basics.

Thank you, Robyn.   Actually, I know that.  But the imported obj does not respond to tab.  I will export from Poser to a temp file and import from there.
BTW, how does one make a cylinder hollow?  Or give an extruded circle a thick edge?

Are you you using the RMB select to make the object the active selection prior to TAB?

The highlight will turn from a dark pink to light pink on selection in Object mode to indicate that the part is active.

There are several ways to make a hollow cylinder. The following is my usual method:

In Object mode press SPACE>Add>Mesh>Circle

TAB to Edit mode

Press E to extrude and without moving the mouse press ENTER

Press S then either visually scale or enter a number for precision.

Press A twice to select all vertices

Change to a side view using the appropriate NUMPAD key (Press the NUMPAD decimal to frame the active selection in the viewport.)

Press E and left click Regions in the dialog box

Press the X,Y, or Z to constrain the extrusion to the pertinent axis

Visually move the extrusion amount or enter a number.

Not entirely sure exactly what you mean on the question on adding thickness to the edge of a circle.

If you mean along the tangent axis then switch to a side view and extrude the necessary amount, in effect creating a short open ended cylinder.

If you mean in a planar view then use the section method outlined above for creating the wall thickness of the hollow cylinder.

Thanks, will try that.   The tut "Noob to Pro"  makes a goblet with cubes and it works well, but I wanted to do it with a circle and a cylinder as well.

With Wings, no problem, the top of the cylinder is solid face and one uses the "intrude"
facilty.  But I want to get to know Blender as well.

For something like that you'll want to try out the Spin function.

Split your 3d view into two windows.

With the cursor in one screen press NUMPAD 7   (top view)

With the cursor in the second 3d viewport press NUMPAD 1 (front view)

In front view press SPACE>ADD>MESH>PLANE

TAB into Edit mode and delete the vertexes.

Starting on the Z Axis (vertical blue line in front view) place vertexes using CTRL+LMB to create the profile of the goblet ending back at the Z axis.

Under Mesh Tools tab change the Degr. field to 360.

Press the Spin button then left click with the cursor in the top view pane. The profile you created will revolve around the cursor a full 360 degrees creating 9 divisions in the revolved mesh. (The number of divisions can be altered just keeping it simple and using mostly defaults for illustration.)

You will note that the 9th instance is highlighted. You will want to ALT+SHIFT+RMB near one of the selected vertexes to select the original instance also then under Mesh tools click the Rem Doubles button.

Select all the vertexes and press the set smooth button. You will also probably want to use the subdivide modifier.

I have bought the three Cartoonsmart basic blender tutorials. They are not expensive but once you have worked through them and did everything along as you go you will be able to use Blender fairly well. Further tutorials of a more advanced ratio will be more easy to grasp and can then be mastered easy.

I did the tutorials with a book besides me and I have written down some notes and Blender all of a sudden started to make some sense. It is not so difficult. Once you have mastered these three tutorials everything makes some sense. It is really easier than Gmax, which is a scaled down version of GMax.

You can take the easier way out to try to figure everything out without buying these tutorials and you may still get there, but it will take so much longer and so much more difficult. With these tutorials you just go along and pause when you need to and you can rewind some and do everything over and over until you get it.

These tutorials are worth every cent of the money I paid and I am sure with the Version 2.50 of Blender coming next year, it is going to kick some other commercial programs under the butt. And the program is still free.

Look at this link to see how Blender compare to other programs:
http://www.tdt3d.be/articles_viewer.php?art_id=99

**New PDF wiki manual updated (since 20090129)

http://www.archive.org/details/BlenderPdfWikiManualUnofficial20090902

**

Resurrecting from the archive.

Whoops, I totally forgot to make a reminder to bump this again, thanks :)

Over 50 Youtube Tutorials from cganim8or

Many good tutorials here...by Derrick Sesson
Direct link to the list of tutorials is here:

http://www.youtube.com/cganim8or#g/c/3F4C5FF0451A92D9

Enjoy.

These 152 video tutorials also have been a great help...
Neal's Library
http://www.screencast.com/users/Neal/folders/Flash

...more from Neal Hirsig.
Blender 3D Design Course

http://www.gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html

Has PDF tutorials and more...enjoy.

Some more to add to the list.
http://blender-tuts.com
http://blender3dvideos.blogspot.com
http://www.blendercookie.com
Check them out some great stuff there.

Came across a series of 43 python tutorials...very helpful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mf0h3HphEA

Enjoy.

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