DIGIPENDENCE - declare yours!

Blender (Wikipedia) is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.

Downloads are available for Windows (32-bit - 2000/XP/Vista, 64-bit - Vista), Linux (x86-32, x86-64), Mac OS X, Solaris and Irix. Check this official page for manuals and documentation in many languages. Someone has updated and corrected the original single page QuickStart PDF. The new version is two pages; the person who made it says that “covers less material but [is] more in-depth.”

Besides 3D still artwork, Blender can be used to make films and even games. Blender’s back story is very interesting, and well worth a read. It was originally a commercial product before being going open source and getting released under a GNU General Public License.

The Blender Community is large and vibrant. And not just in English. New users are welcomed. There are many free tutorials - PDFs, videos - available as well. Books, DVDs and other merchandise can be purchased from the Blender eShop. Buying items from the site is a way to show support and say thank you for the awesome free software. There is even an annual conference. The upcoming one will be the 8th, and it will be held in Amsterdam, October 23-25th.

While there are a great many 3rd-party ones to choose from, some of the best video tutorials are by Neal Hirsig. His course is posted on the Tufts University’s Open CourseWare site and is available free of charge under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License to anyone with an internet connection. When first offered in 2006, the course was entitled “Three-Dimensional Modeling, Animation and Rendering Using Blender 3D Software“. While that course is still avaliable, it was updated in the Spring of 2008 and is now a 68 hour course called “Blender 3D Design“.

One of my favourite Blender resources is BlenderArt Magazine. It’s published on a bi-monthly schedule, and so far, there are 21 PDF issues available, along with supporting project files. I will continue to document them in my ‘Books Worth Reading‘ category. Additional free books can be found at WikiBooks. The “Noob to Pro” series is a favourite of many. Check the menu on the left hand side for a link to generate a PDF version.

Here are some of the top 3rd-party Blender resources:

• BlenderArtists - "BlenderArtists.org is the most popular community site dedicated to the free, open-source 3D animation program Blender. On the site, users of the program can discuss their artwork, ask questions and find resources such as textures and tutorials."
• BlenderNation - "BlenderNation Links is the central repository for Blender Tutorials, Models, Rigs, Scripts and Materials."
• Blender Newbies - "BlenderNewbies is a resource for learning Blender 3D. There are Blender 3D video tutorials, PDFs, tests, tools, and .blend files."
• Blender Underground - "Your one stop shop for learning how to use the world’s premier open source 3D modeling and animation package."
• CGTalk's Blender Forum - "CGTalk is the world's largest online forum for digital artists! CGTalk is the official forum for The CGSociety (Computer Graphics Society)"
• Blenducation - "the mission of this website is to provide a live, high quality learning experience for anyone wishing to learn or develop the skills and techniques required for creating 3D art, design and animation."

Here are a few pictures from the current Gallery. Also be sure to check out the Archive.