Lynda.com, a major tutorials website, have just added Blender to their program and released a 9-hour Blender video training by Roger Wickes.
From Lynda.com:
Blender is a powerful open-source tool for 2D and 3D graphics, full-on animation, compositing, and post-production. It is used to create movies and special effects, even in HD. In Blender Essential Training, Roger Wickes offers new Blender users a thorough explanation of its interface, tools, and features. He also demonstrates practical techniques and shows how to access the online and openndash;content resources of this amazing tool. Specific 3D techniques covered include navigating in 3D space, using cameras and lights, and rendering. Roger demonstrates how to rig, animate, and composite a character over live action. Exercise files accompany the course.
Roger is a certified Blender trainer and the videos look quite well-produced. To get an impression, check out the free samples in the table of contents (Quicktime required).
To access the full tutorial, you'll need to subscribe to Lynda.com for $25/month (discounts are available for longer subscriptions). The membership will also give you access to hundreds of other (although non-Blender) video trainings.
Link
36 Comments
Yes, Lynda.com is a good site for learning things. Especially if you learn better through actual verbal and visual instruction as opposed to text. I've been using their Photoshop tutorials to help me learn Paint Shop Pro.
And I haven't gotten through all of them yet, but the blender tutorials seem very well done.
community try to admit that blender is a powerful soft?
quite in late but AWESOME!
Fxxx it!!!
Who want's to have tuts for 2.49 when 2.5 is here this year????
All your CDs, DVDs and books you can throw in the garbage can then!!
Lynda isn't on track, are they??
@LightX
you are right.. but I think that, anyway will be a good thing..just for entry level training nothing change too much at all (meabe)
hang on, what's the problem with using 2.49 and the lynda.com tutorials at this moment in time? Is it such a problem to actually adjust to a new build & updated version? I don't think so.
I wish blender would release a training DVD, these guys will probably want $99 to $149 for a 9 hour training DVD. I would rather give the money to Ton and the blender team.
imho, if you are expecting some sort of new CG package from 2.50, you're going to be disappointed, i think. First, a beta might be available in several months, and maybe a stable release this year. Second, every script will need to be rewritten, and that will take some time after November first to get a stable API and then many months for all script authors to rewrite and test the scripts. So, maybe by first or second quarter of 2010 we might be back to having equivalent functionality that we have in 2.49.
Second, most of the work is simply re-writing the code, re-organizing and separating items, and no major functions are going to be removed. So, all the tools and techniques which I teach in the video training are going to be available and relevant when 2.5 is out. The hotkeys and such are probably going to be the same, by default, and any training will have to use a baseline install.
Third, if you wait to get good training on the next release, you'll always be waiting!
Wow, finally. I was wondering when they would release Blender.
(release Blender on the training site)
$25 a month?!! No way.
I'd be willing to pay a one time fee but not a monthly subscription that's out of the question.
Hey it's PAPASMURF! :) And looking very handsome too ;-)
The superb quality and amount of work that goes into the training at Lynda.com makes it worth the money. Plus you aren't limited to learning only one thing. The whole library they have is available to you! It's a great deal when you consider how much Gnomon charges for their training. I applaud Roger Wickes and Lynda.com for seeing the importance of professional Blender video training. And as Papasmurf said, you will always be waiting for training to catch up with the latest Blender release, because releases come so often.
Olaf, you aren't obligated to sign a long-term membership agreement. You can just sign up for one month, take the course, and then be done with it, which is equivalent to a one-time fee. It's just for that month, you can take as much training as you want, and watch the course over and over until you've got it down. During that month, as roofoo points out, you can also watch any of the other 40,500 video tutorials in over 600 courses they offer as well, for no additional charge. Yes, that's not a typo - forty thousand five hundred video tutorials.
Congratulations again to Roger, getting this stuff out! I know what a big job it was to create, so it's great to see the product released.
Lynda.com is a very well-regarded and widely known tutorial provider, and their having Blender materials will be a boost for the Blender community as a whole. Everybody who uses Blender, regardless of whether you plan to buy the training or not, should be appreciative of Roger's efforts on this.
By the way, for those of you who don't know, Roger has been a major contributor to the official Blender Wiki for a long time now, so many of you who are griping about the cost can console yourselves that you have already benefited from hours of his work for free.
Oh, and with regard to waiting until 2.5 comes out before learning Blender or creating training material, all I can say is I'm glad nobody took that advice two years ago:
http://www.blendernation.com/2007/03/31/244-250-development-roadmap/
I hope people realize that my point with that last post was not to cast doubt on the imminent release of 2.5 (it really is almost here, yes!), but just to point out the futility of always waiting for future releases to learn or train on a piece of software.
One small thing, if you want to download the example materials along with the videos (not necessary by any means) it's a $35/per month premium membership that you want. So ten more dollars gets you 2GB of training materials to go along wit the 9 hours of video on Blender.
>>$25 a month?!! No way. I'd be willing to pay a one time fee but not a monthly subscription that's out of the question.<<
Dude, creak open you wallet, pill the cobwebs out of the way and let whatever bugs may fly out escape, pull the $25 out and sign up. You'll be signing up to the best online training resource in the world, and it ain't just about blender either.
You can go over there and look around for free, no less (leave the cobwebs and bugs intact), so you can see what you're missing.
[$25 a month?!! No way. I'd be willing to pay a one time fee but not a monthly subscription that's out of the question.]
Dude, creak open you wallet, pill the cobwebs out of the way and let whatever bugs may fly out escape, pull the $25 out and sign up. You'll be signing up to the best online training resource in the world, and it ain't just about blender either.
You can go over there and look around for free, no less (leave the cobwebs and bugs intact), so you can see what you're missing.
lol at vidrazor2 :)
I've been waiting a long time for this! :-) I have a Lynda.com membership that's paid for by my job, and I've emailed Lynda.com a few times asking for Blender tutorials. It's finally here, and it's great so far!
Lynda.com has a lot of really great tutorials, and they've cover all the main programs that I wanted, except Blender (until now). They've got tutorials for Maya, 3Dsmax, After Effects, Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator... Even PHP, Ruby on Rails, and content management systems like Drupal and Joomla. I've even used to pay for it my self before my work paid for it.
I've watched Blender Tutorials a number of other places, but Roger's seem to cover a greater breadth of features and be a bit more thorough in the the important places. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested. Thanks Roger! Any chance on getting an advanced course there sometime too? :)
Thanks again Roger. I can't imagine learning 2.49 as not being beneficial to 2.5 when it does come. And you can have both versions on the computer until you learn the nuances of 2.5.
I'm reading Roger's book now from the Blender Foundation and I got to say I am very impressed. By far the best Blender book yet with lots of correctly sized pictures where you can make out every detail and IN COLOR. Great quality and at 466 pages it appears to cover lots of detail. I'm really enjoying it.
And now with Apple not going to support or update Shake, Blender may well become the main weapon in the FX studio's arsenal.
I hope to meet you in Atlanta Roger at the Linux Fest Sept. 19.
People that complain have never made a tutorial.
Blender Essential Training now on DVD!
I'm really glad they decided to press a DVD, as a lot of Blender users don't have the bandwidth, or get charged per connect time, so DVD is a very viable option for them to get content. You can order through Lynda. Thanks again everyone for your kind words.
$49.95
http://store.lynda.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=863
with: Roger Wickes
Blender is a powerful open-source tool for 2D and 3D graphics, full-on animation, compositing, and post-production. It is used to create movies and special effects, even in HD. In [lender Essential Training, Roger Wickes offers new Blender users a thorough explanation of its interface, tools, and features. He also demonstrates practical techniques and shows how to access the online and open-content resources of this amazing tool. Specific 3D techniques covered include navigating in 3D space, using cameras and lights, and rendering. Roger demonstrates how to rig, animate, and composite a character over live action. Exercise files accompany the course.
ISBN: 1-59671-543-X
UPC: 6-70557-02801-9
SKU: 02801
Duration: 10 Hours
On 2 DVD-ROMs
Includes Closed Captions[
Just tried to order the dvd from lynda.com.
I'm from the netherlands and they wanted to charge $83 for shipping !!!! (insane)
Needles to say I will not be buying the dvd.
Shippingcharges f.e. when ordering from amazon in the US are less than $6.
update:
I sent a mail to lynda.com asking about these ridiculous shippingcharges. I will post there response, if any.
I wanted to order the dvd at lynda.com, but when completing the order they wanted to charge $83 for shipping.
I'm hoping it's just a mistake on their website, so I sent them an email asking about that. If it's not a mistake, I can't see many dvd's being ordered from europe.
note: I posted this observation earlier, but somehow it was removed??
reply: Your were right, it was a cached version of the page.
Kardargo: it wasn't removed - both your comments are here. Maybe you were looking at a cached version of the page.
$83 sounds insane! Please let us know what their answer is.
Kardargo, I've also sent a query, because it is probably a bug in their e-store/shipping module.
Please send [email protected] your address and I will see what I can do.
The reply by Lynda.com regarding the shippingcharges.
Thank you for emailing us.
Our International shipping provider is UPS, as they provide the greatest guarantee of delivery. The rates are quoted directly from the UPS website and we do realize that the rates are not favorable for international deliveries. To address the needs of our European customers, we suggest you contact Amazon.com, which is an authorized reseller of lynda.com products for better shipping options.
We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.
Not favorable is a bit of an understatement.
I've searched Amazon.com for the essential trainging dvd, but it is not yet available on their site.
If it will ever come available remains a ? Since what was offered thru amazon was only a small selection of the training-dvd's available at lynda.com.
Just out of curiousity I went to the UPS-site and checked their shippingrates for an 11*9 inch envelop of appr. 250 grams (one dvd) and indeed, it came out at around $85.
greetings
Kardargo
US mail - Priority Mail® International Flat-Rate Envelope* is only $12.95 for 12 ounces.
I ship a lot of stuff over seas, UPS is very expensive, US Mail is the only way to go.
Kardargo, thanks for emailing me your address. I set up a web store for a friend and a direct quote from USPS to your location, Netherlands, is $30 shipping US mail Priority Mail International. If you Paypal [email protected] us$79.95 I will personally send you the DVD. If shipping is more than $5 less, I will give ya a refund (it changes frequently); if it's more I will eat it. Anyone else overseas who wants one sent USPS, let me know by any of my email addresses. I'm bringing up a personal site soon and should be able to handle this through my store. In the meantime, if anyone else overseas wants a copy, the shipping will be about the same anywhere (I just sent a copy of my book to Austrailia-also $30). Thanks for your patience, and for bringing this to my attention.
Kardargo, shipping to you was only $10 via USPS ground, so I've issued you a $20 refund, and you should get the DVD in two weeks. I already issued the Paypal refund, so that should be back in your account already. Thanks again for bringing this to my attention.
Anyone else overseas, I will be more than willing to do the same for you; just send $70 to me via paypal, and I will send it off USPS priority or ground, and give you a refund if it is less. Thanks again!
--Roger
Just got a message back from Papasmurf.
He will be sending me a copy of the DVD. In the end, shippingcharges were only around $10.
I again want to thank him for his great support in the matter.
To everybody else, i can only say that $60 is a steal for over 9 hours of training.
greetings
Kardargo
I'm impressed by your dedication, Roger!
No problem. I have 10 copies to sell, and will ship anywhere for less than 10 via USPS priority mail. Currently USPS has a great deal on shipping very light items in a standard box. Just go to http://www.paypal.com and send US$59 to [email protected] (when you do, enter your ship to info) and I'll get them right out to ya the next day!
886091 5559The planet are truly secret by having temperate garden which are typically beautiful, rrncluding a jungle that is undoubtedly undoubtedly profligate featuring so several systems by way of example the game courses, golf method and in addition private pools. Hotel reviews 326764