Ethan Luo (aka congcong009) written the first Chinese Blender book. It counts over 600 pages and sells for 89 RMB which is about $13.
Ehtan writes:
Hi All Blenderheads!
After 17months hard writing I’m happy to announce that my first or we could say the world first Chinese Blender book got published finally by the China HZbook Publisher! Bravo! The release day is 15th May but I decide to collect some data for the sale situation from the latest 2 weeks first, so that's why I just let you know now. Sorry for the delay great news.
For short to introduce this book:
No matter whether you are a new learner for Blender or have supported Blender for years, this book will serve to help in learning and upgrading one’s knowledge with regards to Blender. The book will be unique in the sense that apart from covering all the basic functionalities of Blender topic-wise, it also contains 4 large-scale project tutorials.
In the basic section, I will try to explain every feature. It will be supported by coverage of background principle such as arithmetic. This is because I believe one may need to understand the entire workflow. Modeling, texturing, lighting, shading and modifiers will be explained in this section.
The next section will cover advanced topics and areas, inclusive of rendering, node, compositing, simulation, animation, python basic and BGE function. This section also contains some small example projects after the initial detailed walk through.
In the final section of the book, I will cover projects involving car modeling, character, rig design and walking cycle animation workflow as well as interior with Yafaray for big projects.
From what I have seen, a lot of Blender tutorial and documentation treat individual topics as separate entities, and never discuss the complete workflow of dealing with a large-scale project. So I would love to present everything from my experience in this section to help you complete your own project.
Next for the sale update:
The book is processed based on V2.56 but could be able to follow the new coming versions, and I try to cover most of the basic points for beginners and some projects ideas for senior advanced users. The final pages of the book are 16 Chapters with 300K words 664 pages and 1500 screenshots full price for RMB#89 ( around 13$ / 1RMB=0.154$ ). It sound this is cheap in dollar but actually it is already very expensive in China (Normally the average book price for book in China is 40RMB,). Well although it is costly, but we got a very good sale records. For the first one week we make the sale records to 1600! Now it already crosses over 1900 for the first month. Grate news for Blender lovers in China!
And almost all the online store provided a 5 stars for the remarks. I also got many appreciate emails and nice comments feedback to just tell me: they love it! And it make onboard the popular sale billboard to 4th only use 2weeks, this is very awesome. I didn’t know there are so many people would like to learn it and it got spread so fast! Even some foreigners in China had send me the emails asking if there’s any possible to get an English version, well unfortunately not available yet.
And just few days ago, I was told that some people already began to make the illegal scan copy book for sale! Well I don’t know I should be happy or upset, but my friend told me those people will only choose the best sale book to make pirate copy, so you should consider that they agree that your book is great! So somehow kind of a good news to help me to introduce Blender in China now.
The book is printed in black & white which could not provide the best quality picture as a fact of the price. So my publisher is working on the color ebook version. Will be released later. Meanwhile they will provide all the download of color pictures.
Well the above data are just for the first few weeks, so I’m not sure how it will be in the coming June. But let’s see what it can be in the market to make Blender more famous and Chinese user happy than before!
I also want to take this opportunity to appreciate all the team who worked for this book:
Contact: Mr Li Kun
Editors: Mr Yang Fuchuan, Miss Chen Jiayuan, Mrs Wang Yuchan, Miss Zeng Shan, Mr Fan Huaming
BlenderCN community and all the good friends
And my lovely family!Hope you guys will enjoy reading and happy blending!
Cheers!
Ethan Luo/congcong009
Links
If you want more information, Sim Pern Chong has already published a glowing review!
12 Comments
Work on a English version that I'll be happy to buy it. Because you know, my Chinese isn't that good :D.
This is good news.
China has a massive and growing CGI and Gaming industry as well as an increasing number of hobbyists.
I expect to see great things coming from China in the near future.
特地穿上马甲来支持CC！
This is a milestone of Chinese Blender Artists
Well, congratulations to Ethan on the early success of your book, I suppose it is a good sign for your popularity if your book is already being pirated!
Hi Bart,
I think you made a mistake. It's me who wrote the review ... not Rozmiarek.. LOL...
@Sim: oops! Fixed :)
Congratulations, Ethan! Now Blender's comunity will expand even more :)
Wonderful! :D Now more of our jobs will go to China.. I mean why should someone pay me $40 an hour, when they can pay someone in China $8 a DAY.. lol
Congrats, Ethan! I know you've put a lot of hard work into it. :)
Thanks guys! If you can read Chinese I hope you would enjoy it! :)
Regarding the English version, I think it's really out of my capability and sorry for my really bad English. :) If anyone could help me to translate, I will be appreciate!
@Whoaa, I really have no idea of the payment for Chinese artist here too. :)
@colin thanks man, you got my email?
@ Whoaa
You are very wrong.
Wages in China and especially Shanghai are increasing rapidly.
The days of paying someone 8 dollars a day, ended about ten years ago in Shanghai.
China has changed more in the last decade than Europe has in the last 25 years or the US in the last 50 years and the rate of change is accelerating, not slowing down.
Shanghai is now a city with twice as many skyscrapers as New York, a Maglev and building another maglev to Beijing.
In the last year China built more high speed railways, more fibre optic cable, more solar panels, more wind turbines, more homes, more bridges, more roadways and more skyscrapers than the rest of the entire planet combined.
A suggestion. Don't listen to the people in the media or those you meet on the internet. Literally book a flight and go and see for yourself. You will not believe your eyes.
If you goto Shanghai don't find out which building is biggest in Shanghai until you go there. It changes every month or two, literally.
Enjoy the Maglev ride from the airport to the city:)
Nemesis is Right.
Our CG Workers in China can not get so much money.
Nemesis说得对。
在中国，CG民工是廉价劳动力，很难赚到钱。