Essential Blender
May 23rd, 2007 by admin
The Essential Blender is the next official book from the Blender Foundation. It’s packed with almost 400 pages of tutorials and discussions that can help to get you up to speed with the most popular animation software in the world*. Although more advanced topics like scripting and simulation are touched on, the book focuses on teaching the basic skills needed to become familiar with this ever-evolving open source package.
For the complete 3D newcomer, there is a chapter to get you oriented in the world of 3D computer animation. For users already comfortable with the concepts, the book covers the interface, basic object manipulation and animation, mesh and sculpt modeling, character rigging and animation, shape animation, particles, lighting, materials and texturing, UV mapping and the spectacular node-based compositor.
It’s neither a comprehensive reference like the Blender 2.3 Guide, nor a complete “newbie tour.” Everyone, even old Blender hands, will learn something from this book.
I was the development and overall editor of the book, as well as being the lead author (about 60% of text). The book has sold really well during pre-order, and I can only hope that this success continues once the book actually lands in peoples’ laps.
If you’re on the fence about whether or not to buy this book — take my word for it! :)_ Buy it!
Of course, you can always ask your local library to acquire it, too, then borrow it to your heart’s content.
Hello Harkyman,
I’m really looking forward to the new book!
Hello,
I am interested in learning Blender this summer and I might buy the “Essential Blender” for that purpose. I would like to know if the book can be bought online in a US store or if it can only be bought from the Blender Foundation: being a student, I would be happy to save on the $13 shipping from Europe !
Thank you for your time and for your achievements in the Blender community,
Maxime Curioni
I’m a library supplier in Madrid and am trying to purchase a copy of the Essential Blender. How do I order it?
Thanks,
David
Solochek Libros, S.L.
I just got it – great, even-though the postman woke me up.
No, seriously I just got started with reading and trying. Love it!
Thank you!
Hi Roland,
I got the book and I’m enjoying it very much.
I would like to report that on chapter 4, page 86, the first paragraph additional information could be given to Gnome users. If you press Alt-RMB on Gnome (Metacity) the window menu will appear. Ubuntu users will experience this.
To change this default behavior it’s necessary to open the configuration editor (Applications > System Tools > Configuration Editor), and clear /apps/metacity/general/mouse_button_modifier.
Kind Regards,
Sergio
Hi Roland,
Also on page 89, 5th paragraph, it would be useful to say that PAGE-UP and PAGE-DOWN also change the radius of the proportional editing tool area of influence. Some people like me don’t have a scrolling wheel in the mouse.
Thanks,
Sergio
Is there a support forum for this book, I’m on page 84 and did the gz1 and gx1… but this moved the object center as well and now the mirror modifier is not working… as a fix I moved the 3d cursor to the right center position and clicked on “center cursor” in mesh menu.
Did I missed anything, did I do anything wrong?
Markus
Hi
I have been reading the book for the last week now and is helping to fill in some missing areas for me and there is one issue I have found with the DVD is that there is only one lighting example blend file in the folder called “Lighting” and this is the cracked pot sample, but the book mentions all the lighting examples should be on the DVD.
Is there somewhere I can download all the lighting examples like the “studio lighting” (using 3 x area lights, chrome ball and cylinder) as these seem to have been missed on the DVD.
many thanks for a great resource!
I found the page:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Books/Essential_Blender
Markus
The book is great. But the CD-ROM is maybe corrupted. I cannot find any of example files mentioned in the Chapter concerning lighting (Discussion part) from Mathias Pedersen. Can these files be downloaded somewhere?
Thank you
I picked up the hard copy of your book on amazon. Great, great. A very nice ambassador for Blender. Really understands the beginner, things as simple as resetting the 3d cursor, finding your work after a clumsy keystroke, all explained. The kind of troubles a beginner gets into. Easy to fix, but hard to find if you don’t already know. Just the right amount of repetition to make it stick without getting monotonous.
One trouble I have… modern publishing. I have managed to demolish the cdrom contained in the paperback volume which offers little protection. Any way to find these files out there, somewhere? I am stuck just past multires sculpting.
m really looking forward to the new blender essential book , any idea on how to ship it to africa
Comment mostly deleted by admin here. This isn’t a community website or book review area. I pay for it with my own time and money. If you bought the book from Amazon or the Blender e-shop and feel that it’s worthless, see if they’ll give you your money back. Feel free to review the book poorly over there. This is my house, though, so really, consider your words here as a guest. Don’t be rude. Sorry the book didn’t work for you. The tutorial site you linked I’ll let stand as some people might find it useful…
Tutorial site linked by commenter as an alternative to my horribly useless book: www.gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html
I found the book usefull, Allways we get a troll in our road …
Just ordered your book and am looking forward to it. Its a shame that there are some people out there that don’t have any manners.
I am sure that your book is going to be of great help.
Thank you for your efforts.
Bob
Bought it and love it.