David Ward started a fun thread on Twitter yesterday by asking when you started using Blender:
I started using Blender with version 2.43. What version did YOU start with? @BlenderNation @BlenderNetwork @BlenderCookie #blender #3d
— David Ward (@ddub_74012) April 23, 2014
I've been around since the stone age :) What was your first Blender version?
I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Head of Community at Sketchfab.
39 Comments
My first version was 2.26. It was downloaded out of desperation because I wanted a way to earn money whilst unable to go out to work due to illness. Eventually I did start to earn money with it and I still do, so Blender has helped me do something many people with my medical problems cannot do.
I started on version 2.49, just because it looked really cool, and i had absolutely NO knowlage of 3D. Been with it ever since.
I started with 2.49b because because I was really impressed with the sculpting tools. I had been a 3D Max and Maya user before then, now I'm 100% blender.
I started using since August 2013. I cannot model a cube for my life yet. But still at it atleast an hour a day. Hopefully I will get better. I am confused with nodes in cycles and currently trying to figure it out.
The first time I tried Blender was in 2003 or so. I opened it, just saw that strange rectangle, couldn't find a way to do anything with it and then deinstalled blender as quickly as possible and learned cinema4D.
four years later I downloaded Blender again and finally started to love it :)
I started using since August 2013. I cannot model a cube for my life yet. But still at it atleast an hour a day. Hopefully I will get better. I am confused with nodes in cycles and currently trying to figure it out. And oh I first used blender version 2.69.
I started with dinosaur 2.37 :)
While I have nothing to show for it, in all these years, I started using Blender intermittently, since it was still owned by NaN. Not sure what year it was, but it was at least a year before NaN went under. It was pretty great then, but it is absolutely incredible now and the future looks bright!!
It helps to remember...
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.4/Manual/Introduction/History
Are you me? I could have stolen your post word for word.
I still haven't given up on actually finishing a project some time!
I started with blender in year 1999 as the first windows version 1.6 came out. But i was disappointed very soon, because you had to pay for all new cool features. Later in 2000, as Blender became freeware, i came back to him and use it until now.
My first tutorial was "Build the Castle" by Bart Veldhuizen. And Blender's homepage was http://www.blender.nl :)
I first encountered blender in 2001. I was handed a demo CD at E3 and tucked it in my bag of swag. When I got home, I watched the awesome demo videos that came with it and was so excited to start using it. Then I opened it, and there was a pink square. and if i pushed tab yellow dots appeared on the corners... It took me a couple years to come back around but I'll never forget how confused I was at first.
I started just after the elimination of the C key. I use Blender almost every day for various things. It has become the primary workhorse in my graphics stable.
1.72 in 2000, back in the C-key days. :) Got my first copy on a computer magazine CD, it had BeOS and a few programs with it, one of them being this quirky little program Blender... started it, couldn't do anything (clicking around didn't help), but a few months later I found the blender website and some tutorials (from Iceman) and finally got into it. Haven't stopped using it since.
I started on version 2.49 but, when I opened for the first time blender and tried to do something without the manual, I closed it! In my mind I said "what? What a mess is this?"... two month later I've tried again, this time with the manual, and I fell in love.
the first version was 2.49, i used it for a day and it was too complicated for me back then, i moved to sketchup, and then to 3ds max, and finally i moved back to blender 2.68 and now i'm using only completely open source stuff
2000 or 2001 - I think the 2.10 version because I vaguely remember character animation being added with the next version and having a second go at being horribly confused again:-P I think I remember getting a particle system to set some text on fire. Truth of the matter is I didn't come back to it properly until shortly before Elephants Dream appeared - I think 2.41, and other than various traitorous acts involving Maya have been with it ever since;-)
i started with 2.68 a
My first was 2.49b. I ran it on an old iMac G3 on Mac OS 10.4. I had to use 16-bit color mode to make the interface responsive. Today I'm astounded that I was able to learn Blender on such a slow computer.
I remember when 2.5 came out, I was a little weirded out by the new interface, and didn't like some of the changes. But then I realized that all tutorials were now using it, so I embraced it. Then I sorta lost interest until the 2.6 release, when I picked it back up and fell in love with Cycles and to some extent the motion tracker. Now I just need my new motherboard to arrive so I can complete my first build, and have my first computer ever to be actually made for Blender.
2.49b. I was about 14, maybe 15 and wanted to dip my toes in making games. Barely touched the game engine since I started though... :p
I stepped into Blender by accident in 2003 (I don't remember which version) and fell in love with the thing at first sigh ! Literally a life changing experience : 5 years later I gave up my IT career and started freelancing as a CG artist using Blender, and I've been using it everyday since to make a living. I ought to thank once more Ton, the BF, and all the devs and artists that helped me getting there, without even knowing me ! Blender really is a unique piece of software because of its great community, and the most amazing is that it may only be the begining ...
I started like 15 times (starting with 2.49). The fact that it is free and that people are making amazing stuff with it drew me back so many times. After a while i noticed that I prefer modleing in blender over other software that i was "fluent" in.
So it didn't "grab" me and it didn't "click", but blender slowly but steadily grew on me. Now I use it at work besides maya, and coleagues are starting to use it for different things too.
First installed way back in 2001. Couldn't make heads or tails of it and promptly uninstalled. Fooled around with something called 3D Canvas for a while. Again came back in 2005 with 2.38 (with the carrot on the plate splash screen) and have been at it ever since.
2.66 was the first version I downloaded. I really wanted to make a Redwall animation. I never succeeded, but succeeded in different things!
It was version 1.8, I believe. Back in the c-key days :)
I discovered Blender while searching forums, trying to learn Synfig, just about the time 2.61 was released. I didn't even consider trying to do anything without first looking for tutorials. I can't imagine what I would have tried to do without some sort of guidance. Maybe I'm a little different than most, but I rarely expect to know how to use a new program the first time I open it. I guess this is as good a time as any to thank all of you who have been gracious enough to share your knowledge with the rest of the world.
well I remember opening up 2.46 in 2008 and seeing a couple of tutorials and Elephants dream I was truly amazed that something less the 10mb could produce something so professional looking
Beeing a Starcraft hot-key fan I immediately fell in love with the different hot-keys of Blender
Definitely its strongest suit
(using Unity3D for school right now and missing my g s r and x y z pluss 1 3 7 0)
had to download 2.46 now and try it out again for old times sake.
I think it was in 2001? Just after NaN shut down but before the opensource drive, 2.25. Still needed the key but the download link was right next to the installer download lol. Took 8 hours to download on 56k then I didn't leave my chair for 12 more hours when I had a semi-functional "game". Tinkered with it off and on until after animation school then started using it professionally at my first animation job in 2008. Still making a living using Blender!
I first had heard of blender after Elephants Dream, 2.48 ish I think, and had a look at it then. I'm a late comer though, I only actually started using it seriously at 2.57. 2.59 had my still favourite splash screen!
Version 2.5 alpha when I started. Luckily I never had to use the old UI, It was a mess when I tried playing around with some of the older versions I downloaded later on and tried the release back when their logo was this old yellow highly compressed abstract mess and I have to say blender has come a long way from the NaN days. blender gave me a great start in the 3D field since I came from Sketchup back when It was still google (I believe I left at version 6 when I first tried blender) and In that period of time I have learned soo much as I started experimenting with new things and I look back at some of my old stuff and ask what the heck am I doing. I almost quit using blender when I started I was one of the people that left-clicked expecting something to happen, but when I gave it another go I realized that that was the 'major' learning curve that people say blender has is almost nothing. and I'm glad I gave It another go because it lead to soo many open doors. I watched it evolve over the years and saw that the development activity is incredible and the community is so involved and invested that Its exciting to feel like your a part of that community. (anyway I came back to try a version of sketchup years later and it still hasn't changed or improved except the lack of the word "google" in front of it which if you ask me is a huge improvement.)
2.34, maybe sooner, but I don't remember those splash screens.
Fall of 2000, so around 1.80 more or less,
Started with Blender 2.46, then had to start again from scratch with 2.5, as i couldn't transition to it easily.
Just forced myself off 2.4x, and never looked back.
2.5 was a new beginning for Blender, then Cycles render engine was added. I would not have believed how awesome Blender is now in comparison to what it was only 4 years ago!
I started on Blender 2.46, then had to force myself on to 2.5 and re-learn what I already knew.
2.5 was a new beginning for Blender, then Cycles render engine was added, I would not have believed how awesome it is now , if someone tried to tell me 4 years ago! Amazing.
2.4 , landed from Povray website :)
blender 2.68 i used 3ds max for 5 years got some cool results, but because of new work i learned blender, i was surprised because it was so easy to adopt 3ds max interface and now i think it's better than 3ds max. before i taught i would never use blender. one thing i do miss is ''symmetry modifier'' helps a lot automatic vertex merge on symmetry axes, on any scale or depth ..
I can remember testing out version 2.26 or something like that.. but it wasn't until 2.4x i started using it more. I was also using max at that time, but the concept of opensource 3D was intriguing, so at version 2.73 i made a clean switch. Never regret it since.
It was version 1.80 for Windows, between 1999 and 2000. I saw it first running on a Silicon Graphics in 99, but not sure about the version. I use to walk with a floppy disk with Blender inside!!
My first version was 2.49a. I wanna say October 2009, but not sure. no 3d experience, but I had been into movie cg special effects sense I was little, loved watching the behind the scenes. When someone I knew heard me talking abut wanting to learn cg he suggested Blender to me, as he had seen a lot of it on the web, plus that it's "free".