Blender book for a n00b

[eheyl]

Hey all. I'm wanting to get into blender and I've got my eye on two books: Essential Blender and Intro to Character Animation. I was wondering if anyone owned one or both of these books and could give me some advice as to which would be best to get. I do want to create my own short film but I'm concerned that the intro to character animation is not a beginners book. I've also heard that the images in Essential Blender are of poor quality but can't seem to find a sample pdf to verify. I'd love some input.

Thanks
cypher

[Bubs]

no books. but I found loads of tutorials online. there is one called something like noob to pro.... it's pretty good.

Do you have previous 3D experience like in maya or max or other 3d programs?

if so you'll hate blender for the first week or so. if not you hate blender a little longer. :)

trust me once you learn it it's a fantastic piece of 3d software.

Personaly I'm still learning to use it but so far I'm getting to like it. its probably as good as maya or max or other. its not the software that does the work... its you. so no matter what you use if your work is awesome, then your work is awesome.

but I'm coming from a MAya background and I have to say that if you learn Blender first and then another 3d program you'll realize that blender interface is NOT industry standard. once learned its pretty intuitive.

but if you move to somehting else like maya or max, you'll be lost for a good long time.

but thats not important. once you know one 3d package the others are way easy to learn (weeks as opposed to months)


... oh yea! books...

Personally I recommend online tutorials. there are tons. and once you know the interface and tools you can "adapt" tutorials made for other software to blender. also blenderart magazine is a free pdf magazine http://www.blenderart.org/

IRC is a big help. the freenode server has #blenderqa which is a Q&A channel just log in ask a question and wait. there is a message at startup that gives you "rules" for the channel. also #blender is good. and for when you get better go to #smc a speed modeling channel. this is good for learning too. it will help you think on the fly about the tools you need to use for your project. don't be embarased about your stuff not being very good in this channel, it gets better. but You DO have to post your end result.

so yea... my 2 cents.

[Paul820]

I'm learning blender at the moment, it's a great program and very powerful. There is a link in my sig to the best introduction video tutorials for blender i have seen, over four hours worth in 4 tutorials. Here is another link to 13 hours of various other video tutorials: http://blendernewbies.blogspot.com/
The tutorials on both these site and very good quality, clear speech and you can see what they are pressing, not like others i have seen. There are loads of tutorials online as Bubs has already said so i don't know about books. Maybe those sites i have mentioned could help you get started.

[Crafty Kisses]

I'm learning blender at the moment, it's a great program and very powerful. There is a link in my sig to the best introduction video tutorials for blender i have seen, over four hours worth in 4 tutorials. Here is another link to 13 hours of various other video tutorials: http://blendernewbies.blogspot.com/
The tutorials on both these site and very good quality, clear speech and you can see what they are pressing, not like others i have seen. There are loads of tutorials online as Bubs has already said so i don't know about books. Maybe those sites i have mentioned could help you get started.
Yeah, that's a good one, maybe they're some e-books out there too.

[Bubs]

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro

this is the one i mentioned earlier. its a full wikibook. lot of good info. haven't read all of it but I used the texturing section to learn the basics.

[Crafty Kisses]

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro

this is the one i mentioned earlier. its a full wikibook. lot of good info. haven't read all of it but I used the texturing section to learn the basics.

Well, there ya go. :KS

[defis]

Awesome! great work you guys. How about we form a team for a short animated film from the Ubuntu community? That would be great!

[CreativeReach]

Awesome! great work you guys. How about we form a team for a short animated film from the Ubuntu community? That would be great!

If there is ever a team set up, I'll help.
I've used blender for awhile, i specialize in modeling, but can do much more.