Blender. The word brings to mind a machine designed to massacre anything thrown in till it’s nothing but pulp, ground into this formless state by the unkind caress of whirling and uncaring blades. It’s a fitting name then, for a 3d modelling program known equally for its nonexistent price tag as it is for its wretched interface.
Madness?! THIS. IS. BLENDER!
Actually, I take that back. It’s not so much a wretched interface as it is one that does not care about your ability to understand it. Even among experienced modelers, Blender has an almost stand-offish aura, a reputation for being difficult to wrap ones head around. Yet many swear by it, and insist that once you do get past that initial barrier, it’s a marvelous environment. Personally, I fall somewhere in the middle; it took me -years- to make even the simplest object in Blender, despite having worked with 3d since middle school. Yet since last year, it’s been my go-to package for all my production needs. Of course, getting my bearings at all took ages, and happened by accident. An old associate of mine was actually trying to teach me the ropes of Maya Lite (I had until then used 3D Studio Max and some other smaller packages). While I liked some elements of that programs UI, I just couldn’t stand how unresponsive it felt. Meanwhile, I had been giving Blender another shot, and so decided to try and use the ‘Maya Style’ UI. Things improved dramatically.
Still, even with the Maya controls in place, there was (and continues to be) a lot of mystery in Blenders rather byzantine interface. The good news is that there are a ton of great tutorials available. The bad news; a lot of them dance around the actual issues, or end up not really going into some of the more basic things, especially concerning game development needs.
Way of the Mixie
With that in mind, the following three links should be helpful for anyone looking to get into Blender. I came by the first two while trying to figure out the UI, the third some time after. Hopefully they will be as helpful to you folks as they were to me.
1. Blender Guru
Blender Guru’s videos seem geared towards not just Blender beginners, but those new to 3d modelling as a whole. That’s not a bad thing though, even if you are an experienced 3d artist. The videos on his channel will cover everything from laying out the mesh in Blender to material handling and more. It’s an excellent reference, especially if you’re mainly using Blender to get into game development.
2. Greg K (Maya to Blender video)
Essentially a guy coming from where I started (tried to use Blender before, couldn’t get into it). The difference; he seemed to crack the code far sooner than I did. As the title suggests, the video is primarily aimed at Maya users. His video is probably better than Blender Guru’s for those of you who don’t need a crash course in the basics, and just need to figure out the UI.
3. Blendercraft Creations (Blender to Unity in 4 Easy Steps)
I didn’t actually find this tutorial till I was already well on my way with Blender, but it came up the other day. Barring the awful and loud music in the background, the tutorial is actually perfect for those of you specifically looking to use Blender in your Unity projects. As with Blender Guru, it covers mostly basic stuff, but again, it’s a good step-by-step to turn to if Unity is at the end of your workflow.
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