If a person were to sitdown on a version and learn it, which is best?

'depends on what ya wanna do'

Guess I shoulda been more clear, modeling for poser?

Personally I would suggest 2.49 because most tutorials including books, videos and ebooks refere to or can be used directly with 2.49. 2.55beta is a major step up from the older version and several hotkeys etc have been changed dramatically, also there are very few (at this moment in time) tutorials refering to 2.55beta.

nod That makes total sense, the most 'positive' learning thus far has been in wings, but something about blender (animation, Lux, etc) has piqued my interest and it seems a more logical learn, since at my novice level getting 'imprinted' by software is right around the corner if it hasn't already happened...;-)

I really liked the carrara had the trackball bit like poser, but the 'room switching' totally, well, frustrated me, which led me back to wings and furthered the idea of keeping the modeling in the modeler, but maybe blender can indeed be the bridger

Thank you for responding!

  The great thing with blender is that it is forever expanding in a positive manner and there is no real limit to what you can do. It is also expandable with python plugins and the window setup can be totaly re-arranged to your needs wether it be modeling, texturing or animation and can also use poser files.

  I also have hexagon, bryce7pro and carrara7pro (and several others) and as yet I have not found anything in the other modellers that blender can't perform (though I too am still a new boy in the blender field "8 months").

I'd actually say the opposite, if you're just starting to learn.  I've found 2.5x quite different from earlier versions, and I think it's probably easier to learn if you don't have any old habits to break.  Plus the interface redesign is intended to be more user friendly.

Benny makes a good point about the tutorials, though.  They can in fact run side by side, so you could get both and use the old version to help you translate tutorials as you go...

I would agree with Holoedrain and say that if you are just starting it would be better to to use 2.5 as the interface is a lot cleaner and it is easier to find things than 2.49. I personally have moved to 2.5 exclusively now.

Most of the modeling tools are in place and with a couple of exceptions work as advertised on the packet, notable exceptions being the knife and bevel tools.

Bear in mind also that many of the newer tutorials seem now to focus on 2.5 exclusively. A couple of good sources are Blendercookie.com and Blenderguru.com. A viewing of some of those at blendercookie will give you a better idea of what to expect.

All versions though will run side by side, so if you get stuck, you can always revert to 2.49 to get the gist of things.

W.r.t. tutorials for 2.5, go to http://gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html and check especially the items under video tutorials.

You can have as many versions of Blender as you like, provided that you install them in different directories: e.g., I have 2.49b, 2.54 and 2.55 installed.

A last note: Blender interface exhibits a very strange behaviour if you are accustomed to Windows: the window receiving the input is the one where the mouse pointer is (you do not clic to activate it). E.g., if your mouse is in the properties panel, you can press the G key as much as you want, you will NEVER start the grab mode; you have to put the mouse pointer first inside the 3D view and then press the key (why this behaviour? X-Windows sh..., pardon, "peculiarity").

Bye!!!

A few years ago I tried Blender and hated it and went with Hexagon. Three weeks ago I thought I'd give 2.54 a try.... and I totally love it. 2.54 and now 2.55 are a lot easier to learn. Why learn an "old" version and then relearn the new version? I can heartily recomend  both the  free and paid for courses at blendercookie, they were enough to get me going and there are quite a few tutorials out there already for 2.5x.

Quote - A few years ago I tried Blender and hated it and went with Hexagon. Three weeks ago I thought I'd give 2.54 a try.... and I totally love it. 2.54 and now 2.55 are a lot easier to learn. Why learn an "old" version and then relearn the new version? I can heartily recomend  both the  free and paid for courses at blendercookie, they were enough to get me going and there are quite a few tutorials out there already for 2.5x.

Nearly exactly my story. Go Blender!!!!

"A few years ago I tried Blender and hated it and went with Hexagon. Three weeks ago I thought I'd give 2.54 a try.... and I totally love it. 2.54 and now 2.55 are a lot easier to learn. Why learn an "old" version and then relearn the new version? I can heartily recomend  both the  free and paid for courses at blendercookie, they were enough to get me going and there are quite a few tutorials out there already for 2.5x."

Almost the same here. I like Hexagon a lot -- it's a modeler than makes good sense and is the easiest modeler to learn I've ever used, but there's so much more to Blender: its UV unwrap tools are far superior, as are its painting, texturing, and sculpting capabilities. I believe that starting to model is difficult on any modeler, but after the basic concepts are learned, switching modelers is not so hard.

I used 2.49 for quite a while after 2.5 came out because 2.5 lacked certain tools and it seemed to be changing constantly, but 2.54 and 2.55 are pretty stable and complete with some nice advances. Plus, the interface is more consistent, and just -- slicker, more professional.

I haven't bought Blendercookie's Blender course tutorials, but if they're like the free tutorials they offer, they are likely a worthwhile investment. I have Blender Foundation's "The Essential Guide to Learning Blender 2.6," and that's a very good place to start, too.

Im still tinkering with 2.49b until the production ready version 2.6 comes out with Lux integated into it.

@wespose: Not sure what you mean by integrated, but you can use Lux rendering and materials from within 2.55 right now.

@**Aardvark_:**I went ahead and bought the two tutorial sets from blendercookie and have found them to be pretty good, plus they have just released the first of several updates free of charge. Does Blender Foundation's "The Essential Guide to Learning Blender 2.6," cover the Node Editor or stuff like retopology?

@tlc:

"The Essential Guide to Learning Blender 2.6" has about 25 pages on it. The book does a reasonable job of covering compositing using blur, alpha over, lighting effects, and vector blur among others, in other words, that ones that will be used 90% of the time, and it shows how to split them into rendering layers and recombine them. Not bad. It doesn't get into the lessor used nodes, though.

The master book for compositing is "Blender Compositing," which I also have. It's for 2.49, but doesn't really matter since the nodes in the Node Editor have changed very little. That book isn't just for the Node Editor, by the way. The author, Roger Wickes, takes a broad interpretation of the word compositing, or combining, so theres a great deal about perspective, and masking techniques. It's rather heavy duty, but so is the subject, and he uses several projects to demonstrate.

Retopology: I didn't see anything in the index in "The Essential Guide to Learning Blender 2.6" on retopo, but that's more of a tool than a subject, IMO. Blendercookie has a decent retopology tutorial here:

http://www.blendercookie.com/2010/08/30/retopology-and-normal/

thx Aardvark_ that's useful info as I am wary of buying 2.49 books when I'm trying to learn 2.5x. "Blender Compositing" sounds like a good one.

i suggest 2.55, too.  i haven't noticed any changed shortcut keys except adding something to the scene.  but i pretty much waited until 2.55, and i think they spent some time adding old key strokes.  there also seems to be a plethora of shortcut keys you can add using your perferences, if you really want to. 

also, the only shortcut keys i've found it necessary to remember were the ones to get around the scene (pan, rotate, etc.) and move objects.  other than that, i've always had no problem finding everything in menus and such. 

Luxrender support is there, but for some reason LuxBlend25 doesn't seem as full featured as LuxBlend for 2.49 yet.  it's better integrated and oh, so much nicer to use, but materials like glossytranslucent are missing from the one i downloaded just a week or so ago.

Yafaray support is not there yet, unfortunately.  it seems easier and quicker to use than Luxrender, so i'm hoping to use it as a workhorse, and go to Luxrender when i need a thoroughbred.