Comments on: Essential Blender

By: dookie x

dookie x — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:01:07 +0000

thankyou for the book. I gets it for two weeks plus renewals at my public liberry, the the most beautifulaf in the US so far (dare?!?), in SeaWA. opened “Animateintg with Blender” first while waiting for the busbaktabike, it was on top inside the plastic bag, not raining, to read, and just to enjoy! I liked where you said “don’t bite off more than you can chew,. but how will you eat forever else” and other things after the potted plant above gave up a few extra drips. hadta cuddle a little closer and swab me wet page. (oh, just the book, sir/)
half librarian, I’m quite enamored by the “book with my name on it” kinda crap at my Most Beautiful Library Ever , and then they send me a forkin’ letter in the mail!, and then instead of the one book for me there’s two!! oh, goshness

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:21:49 +0000

Hello Roland,
Thank you so much for this book. It is a rarity to find such a resource that manages to be so entertaining, instructive and easy to follow. From the first page I feel like I am being guided by a knowledgeable, rather witty, friend. Witty without being annoying (another rarity). I have been creating art with computers for over 20 years for games, film, advertising etc. I have had to learn most of the 2d/3d packages out there at one time or another but have never found a guide equal to this. I actually look forward to working with it.
Thanks again. I’m looking forward to buying whatever you come up with next.
Michael
-Japan

By: admin

admin — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:12:13 +0000

I’ve not made an official announcement yet, but most likely I’m going to have a Beginner’s 2.5 book coming out early in 2010. No doubt the Foundation will be updating online docs as an ongoing project, and I may be working on something else with them in the near future as well. Larger project management (i.e. linking, appending, scene management) is more of an advanced topic, in my opinion. A lot of times beginners books become an exercise in what has to be cut more than anything else, just because you can’t sell a 700 page book to easily.

In the meantime, “Animating with Blender” — which you can find linked on Amazon in the sidebar — has a whole chapter on linking, groups, etc., specifically targeted at scene and project management.

By: mjordan

mjordan — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:54:49 +0000

I have already read this wonderful book. I’m wondering if you guys would like to update this magnificent work with a second edition specifically tailored for Blender 2.5, adding a chapter that explains linking, appending and scene management in general.

Please, please, please.

By: Andreas

Andreas — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:25:06 +0000

Hi, in the book “The Essential Blender” on chapter 11(Lighting discussion), page 289 I found a studio-setup. See at:http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/File:6.3._03.png
Unfortunetly this scene was not on the CD of the book. Where can I get this blend-file? I´m a beginner on blender. Thanks!

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 03:15:21 +0000

I purchased the book some time ago and really like it, but I have lost the disk. Is there any way to download or purchase the disk? I’ve seen that others have asked similar questions with no response. Any direction would be appreciated.

Thanks

By: Roland

Roland — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:11:15 +0000

Actually, the entire book is already in wiki format at:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Books/Essential_Blender

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:23:14 +0000

Kiernan said : “when doing the knee step, the left and right lower leg bones are duplicated instead, and when the knee bone is parented to the left leg controller, there is something like a feedback loop that sends the controller spinning out of control.”

You not only duplicate the bone but his constraints too. Remove them.
After that, don’t use the Locked Track, there are some new options to replace it in the IK Constraint.

By: Kiernan Holland

Kiernan Holland — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 07:27:25 +0000

Here is a precise example of what I’m talking about:

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.rar-extract.php

It’s the reason that PHP has been so widely adopted, that and version stability, but I think that could be fixed with the addition of a version spinner that shows comments relevant to a version of blender.

By: Kiernan Holland

Kiernan Holland — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 07:24:48 +0000

I think a better solution for this book would be to put it online, but put a comments area below every page or below a chapter.. To allow people to append comments to the pages about corrections.. See the online manual for PHP:

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/index.php

For any entry on the php manual, there is a comment section where people can help others when things are discovered to be wrong. It isn’t particularly fair to those, like me, who bought the book to realize that it is no longer relevant in areas, and since the development is ongoing, it is going to fall out of alignment with the release.. I mean, why would someone want to get the book if they know that it is no longer relevant.. Why not offer a online version that is actively being annotated by people who are using it to learn blender? BTW, I’d rather pay you ahead of time for the creation of the manual than to pay for the paper to produce it, better yet to have access to something online like what I described that actively being managed.