3DTotal.com videotutorials: Get Into Blender

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introduction-to-blender3DTotal.com features a series of 4 videotutorials that are a great introduction to Blender. Highly recommended for new users!

Pawel  wrote:

It’s not that often that you see Blender related stuff on 3dtotal.com, a site which I check regularly for artwork, and just as I was going to ignore another tutorial which I believed to be for 3dsmax, I realized it was in fact a video introduction to Blender, hosted on their site. To be more precise, a series of videos, by Jason Welsh.

All videos are in Quicktime format and each page contains a download link as well. If you’re having trouble playing these files, try the free and open source player VLC.

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    • http://volantknave.deviantart.com Volant

      Really interesting to see someone used to other packages do a video tutorial on Blender.

      Someone just starting out will get hell with the object centers after the fourth video though… Ehehe

    • julli

      @Volant:
      Yes, you’re right! Navigation in Blender is even for a CG-professional a neckbreaking experience!
      Still waiting for better things in 2.5!!

    • http://www.bchynds.com BrianH

      Even though I’ve been using Blender since it was released open source, I felt the urge to watch the video’s. It’s VERY interesting to see a new user’s perspective to the Blender’s User Interface. Some comments:

      Menu’s and Views Video:
      - I wonder if he realizes he can drag the top window down to access the User Preferences instead of changing the Buttons Window.
      - He should have made a new “Screen” (yes, that’s what they’re called ;) before saving the view. He just made a duplicate of the existing Screen. He kind of played it off as if Blender messed up his screen views, but the narrator completely messed up to begin with.

      Navigation Video:
      - Alt+LMB (Left Mouse Button) is actually an alternative to rotating around a 3D View for those who don’t have a MMB (Middle Mouse Button).
      - Pan = Shift+MMB
      - Zoom = CTRL+MMB or MMB Scroll Wheel
      - Moving is done by using the G Key. You can constrain movement along a specific access by pressing the key that corresponds to the axis you want, after the G Key. i.e. To constrain movement on the Y Axis, you would press the G Key then the Y Key. He explains “moving” by only using the widgets.
      - Pressing the L Key simply means to select all “Linked” geometry.
      - He should really understand that by moving geometry in Edit Mode is NOT the same as in Object Mode. In Edit Mode, you are moving the model’s geometry WITHOUT moving the object’s center.

      The video’s give a strong impression that he’s practically learning the interface on the fly and hasn’t done much research into it. Improper terminology (or lack thereof) makes matters even worse. It’s an “okay” attempt, but anyone with a decent amount of experience will get a good laugh. I’d highly recommend writing a script and reading from it. Yes, I totally agree that Blender is very “sweet” and “cool”, but it’s very awkward to hear this when describing a tool in the UI. I guess maybe my criticism is somewhat harsh, and I don’t mean to mock or disrespect the videos in any way. It’s nice to see that users are taking a hard look at Blender as being a competitor to commercial applications. I look forward to seeing more video’s, and hopefully we can see some more advanced modeling and animation videos.

    • Gundam Pilot

      These are not very good, there are a lot of mistakes in them.

      I would recommend the http://blenderunderground.com/ ones instead.

    • Gryphon

      @BrianH:
      I don’t think your comment sounded especially harsh, but it’s way too easy to misinterpret someone’s tone through text. And seeing as each of the things you listed were things I understood about Blender within a couple of months of deciding to learn to use it, I’m a little surprised that anyone confident enough to make tutorial videos would be missing so much of that basic information. Still, this is likely a valuable look at the perspective non-blender CG artists have when they make the switch. I don’t want to say these particular issues need more documentation… maybe we just need to encourage people who come from other software backgrounds to study Blender from the ground up?

      @Gundam Pilot:
      Yours does come across as being slightly harsh (though again, it’s easy to misread intent through text). “Not very good” seems an awfully objective way to describe something which, by its nature, has to be a little subjective. I’m sure these videos will be helpful to someone. And the more sources of information new users have to draw from, the better.

    • Pawel

      I pointed to the tutorials and I’m wondering now – since the tutorials don’t seem be as good (and backed by experience) as a lot of the tutorials on community sites – if it wouldn’t make sense to send some good introductory tutorials to sites such as 3dtotal, since a lot of “general 3d community” go there, so that people unfamiliar with Blender get a good idea of the software. Of course, people REALLY interested in Blender don’t search on those sites, but look for community-related ones, however there are a lot of people who have heard of Blender and their first direct contact with it will be through those general sites. So it would be nice to give them a first class experience :)

    • Juli

      Oh man! Every time beginners tutorials!
      It’s always like “click on the face here and then …”!
      I want to see tuts from the professionals (from Disney, Pixar or Sony!)!
      I want to learn from them!

    • Pawel

      @Juli
      Problem is, those professionals typically don’t (yet) use Blender :)
      But there are lots of advanced tutorials around, if you care to look. Check out the BlenderNation links

    • Rose

      I have been learning Blender in skips and starts over the past 5 years and have just come back to it after several months. I liked the focus of these 4 tutorials. The author did not try to cover everything at once. It was good to learn on a simple box (Gingerbread man…frustration beyond belief before one has an understanding of the controls). Thanks to the additional writers for pointing out some items that were missed.

      I don’t know if it is “The Best” but it has given me some hope at learning Blender again.

      Rose