Finally, after days of packing and packing "The Essential Blender" book is on its way to everyone who ordered one. Over 1500 books are traveling all over the world now. And this week or next week you can expect your book in your own mailbox. We wish you good fun with it and many creative hours.
Anja & Anne,
the packing team of
Blender e-shop
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.
56 Comments
I got my copy yesterday (the perks of living in The Netherlands!). I've used blender now for about 6-7 years, and thought I knew how to do most things. The first few chapters although very basic, still contained stuff I didn't know. The latter chapters on modelling, animation, nodes and lighting are a goldmine. Great book, and definitely worth the price!
I wish I had preordered one but it's kinda hard when you don't have a credit card... I'll be getting one of thoughs prepaid visa cards so I can order stuff from blender's e shop and I need to get a new fl inverter for my laptop.
Great! And thanks to the 'packing team'.
is there possible that one day we could see this book in french?
or is there already a book like that in french?
thank you a lot to the blender's e-shop team!
(sorry for my bad english...)
I echo the thoughts of the others, eventhough I have yet to receive it...:)
FAB - Your English is just fine, better than some who have English as a first language...
P.S. FAB the second word should be it...;)
Hooray!
I'm getting really excited now, especially after psychot's "mini review".
Thanks a lot of course also to the Anja and Anne, it looks like that was a lot of work!
Can't wait to get my book!
I won't believe my eyes the moment the postman will hand it to me.. :P
Got my copy yesterday. It looks great. Hopefully the book can pursuade me to finally get my hands on blender, as I have it installed on my pc for ages, but I can't find the time to dive into it.
Hope I'll find the time though, as my last experience with a 3d package was Imagine on the Amiga...
Neat! Looks like you both will be very busy having all of them being packed in the box and sent to a person over the world... imagine... 1500 books... I hope you have somebody to help you with that as well?
If not, wow! I have a high respect for you then. Nice pictures! :D
I got mine yesterday, my daughter was a bit upset that I bought a present for myself and not one for her. She can have the book, but before she can use it it will probably be hopelessly outdated.
I think it's written very funny and a pleasure to read. The pictures are a bit, hmm... gray. I think it could have used at least one supporting color. Tony Mullen's book is 100 pages more (25% !) for about the same price, and cheap writers so I wonder why there was no budget for it. O well, my own marker pen will now draw even more attention.
Maybe 34 euro is a bit steap for a B&W book ( Introducing Maya 8: 3D for Beginners is about 22 euro for 480 pages at amazone. At cybex it's also 34 euro, unless you are an instructor, then you can get one for free. ) At 3dtotal.com you can get a fullcolor book for that price (20euro 180 pages).
A must-have for all new users. Clear and Fun to read.
I'm sure that will be my response on the forum for a while.
Ooooh! Good news! Anyone in the UK got theirs yet? I have been eagerly awaiting for this book for months. Thanks to everyone involved.
Anja and Anne always here to give a hand.....thank you very much, ladies!!
Awesome news! I'm looking forward to receiving my copy.
Nice, i live in Canada so i dont know how much time it will take but definitivly its going to worth the wait! During that time i can do something in PHP =P
Great news, I'm sure all the hard work is appreciated by those who eagerly await the next installment of this much anticipated publication.
I'm sure it's not going to take too long to get the UK and I'm hoping it's not going to be too long a wait for those further a-field. :)
It right here on my desk now. For those in the Netherlands/Belgium that don't have a creditcard you can order it at http://www.comcol.nl
Yep, got mine yesterday too. (I'm from Rotterdam). Was among the first who ordered. A job well done, ladies! Pixel-perfect delivery! ;-). And a fine book too!
Joeri why are you advertising books about the m-word in this space? Sacrilege!! ;).
Is it just me or is that Ton in the main picture loading the palettes onto the truck? :)
brian: It doesn't look like it to me.
Good job Roland, Anja, Anne, and all the other contributors! It'll be great to finally have it in your hands.
@matt: I didn't really think it was. Was more playing with the idea that he really does everything.
oh there i can see my book :) hmmmmm
come on i need it fastttttt
Jippie, got mine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The sound of my letterbox was never so sweeeeeeeet.
gr.
sven
@matt: No, Ton has not drive the books to the shipping company.
We have packing all books most of the time ourself. Ton has also help us on day. The other days we have only packing and packing books. And trudge boxes full of books.
Anja
Just ordered my copy last night. Darn the USD for being so weak against the Euro!
I got mine this morning, i live in Germany. The book looks very nice, but i have to agree with some here that the pictures are very dark, that's a bit disappointing....Maybe Blender foundation could also offer in the future a colour version of the book, i wouldn't mind paying a bit extra for some colour. AND i don not mind paying this money for this book, i'm sure it will be a lot of fun to read it, and the most important thing, the money goes to support the foundation. Thanks for the book and most of all thanks for a great software!
It was this morning arrived, just in time cause my mother who opens the door so early has just to gone to the hospital so no one can open the door so early in day next time. Appendicities aaargh!!
I can't wait till mine arrives. I'm in the states so it probably won't be for several days yet. I'm sure it will be worth the wait. :)
Mine arrived today too!
Anja and Anne, many thanks for the hard work that made the book arrive so fast to my home!
Now looking forward to a looong evening enjoying the book :)
Mine arrived today morning!
I havent had enough time to check everything but the first peek showed me that this book is worth every cent!
Absolute beginners who are not used to the Blender interface will be disappointed for the first part, because there are no pictured step-by-step explanations for every single detail, but if someone is willing to learn Blender, then he/she will still be able to perform all exercises by reading the text.
The only suggestion for the next book: please do it in full colors ;)
Thanks to everyone who made this book possible.
book arrived in germany/bavaria too GREAT
thx for another great blender reference book :D
Maybe tomorrow for the UK? Re gfx, will the original colour images be downloadable?
dek -- that's not a bad idea. I'll figure out the best way to make that happen.
Can't wait until my book hits Australia !
It's here! Yes some of the images are difficult to make out so HARKYMAN, in my best Cpt Piccard voice: "Make it so" :-)
Quick glance through, looks thorough although only a little mention of Python and no mention of the GE at all. I can sort-of understand these omissions as there are a lot of new features in Blender and they naturally take precedence. But I also hope they will be covered in casual reader format (maybe in a pdf?) at some point in the future. Having not used Blender for a while and left behind somewhat with the pace of development, I really do think this book is "essential" to catching up on all these new goodies. Well done!
PS: One very disappointing thing: my previous book/s had a signed message from Ton (fanboy that I am) so I'm afraid there's no option but to return this one ;-)
It arrived in my danish mailbox today :)
Yay, I'm at work at the moment but it's arrived at home according to my wife! Yay! That was fast!
Many thanks! Can't wait to get home!
Brilliant, got it yesterday!
dek: I think previous books probably sold much fewer copies, making it feasible for Ton to sign pre-orders. If he'd been doing that for this one, we'd have to push our next release back a month or two. :)
harkyman, just joking :-)))
Yeeeeeessss, got my book today!! Guess I'll be a magnificent blenderhead (blendernerd?) at the end of the summer ;D
I'm in the USA (Cincinnati, Ohio, to be specific) and hope it gets here soon! Any US residents get theirs yet?
I saw that someone in California got theirs today!
Arrived to Israel :-)
Anja, Thanks for the help
I received my copy today, I love it. Its an easy read and setup nicely. I don't mind the b&w pics, a color insert would have been a great addition though. This book was worth every penny and then some. Hope to see more advanced books from the Blender Foundation in the future. Keep up the great work.
Gotit yesterday, in country Australia. Third of way through. It's bloody useful for a slow old bastard like me. Keeps reminding me of things I should be doing and (good for the confidence), things I already know. Still a learning curve ahead but a bit less steep with this hard copy to refer to.
Thank you all
Nolan
happily got it in thailand yesterday,
but the included disc is cd-rom not dvd-rom?
Still waiting for it in Latvia :(
I got mine today in Sherbrooke (Québec, Canada). The box is damaged but the book inside is in fine condition and it looks good. I'll begin to read it this week end !
Got mine 2 days ago (Jun 26) in Kansas, USA. Read the first two chapters. Pretty good so far, and for the first time, when I read through the introductory chapters I actually already remembered most of what was said. Maybe in a few years I'll actually be able to make something worthwhile.
I'm NEW to Blender. I'm intrested in the book but due to forex & online ordering, short comings, it's not easy for me to get the BOOK.
Anybody interested in exchanging a SEYCHELLES coffee table book for ESSENTIAL BLENDER.
Both come out to about the same price.
Mersi davans
Got mine yesterday, I'm from Slovenia.
I miss chapter about Video Sequence Editor, also python scripting is barely mentioned :(
Although Official2.3 guide is not up-to date (I've purchased as downloadable CD with pdf included) I find it more detailed comparing this book.
Somehow, I'm little disappointed, Essential Blender book should cover all Blender aspects at least in some basic form!
If you want to get a full picture of Blender's capabilities , "Introducing Character Animation with Blender" is a must as well.
Anyhow I want to support Blender development in the future as well, thus I ordered the book ;)
.::PiPi::.
OK, when I've been reading Ton's foreword from the book, it is obvious that this book is part of series of book that might come in the future. This is great news! Anyway, I would like to see one "Blender Bible" book covering it all, in depth. In such case the price is not important for me, I would definitely purchase it.
Hope, we'll see the next book concentrating on other topics soon.
.::PiPi::.
easy great read - the series thing sounds great -please please a PDF version asap !
Would be cool if people that have the book could download updates based on blender revisions so if 2.5 has something new they could be incorporated into a PDF update.
he! harkyman
i'm waiting for downloadable color pics in the books ;)
hope there will be downloadable every video tutorials for each chapters
it's great for me to remind all reading of the book.
regret that nothing above filled in cd-rom of this book.
sorry for my english, hope you understand what i want.
still waiting for it :|
yeeehaaaa!!! Finally I've got it too ;) Thanks a lot