Why Blender?

This course is about teaching the fundamental aspects of working in 3D. To do this, we wanted to ensure that as many people as possible had access to these fun & useful skills.

To work in 3D, you'll need a 3D modelling or Animation suite. Which one you use depends on a number of things, including (But not limited to) Your computer, Peripherals available, the desired End Result & the amount you're willing to fork out for the software.

There are a number of free 3D modelling and animation suites available, which is great news for those new to the world of 3D.

-Blender

Blender is a free, open-source, cross platform complete 3D suite. In plain english, that means that Blender is free, can run on almost any type of computer- PC, Mac, Linux & many more. A number of movies & games have been created with Blender, and it's being continuously upgraded by the community.

Good points-

• Free!
• Continuously updated
• Can now compete favourably with the commercial 3D suites in terms of features
• Handles many different file types
• Works on almost every computer.

Not so great points-

• Interface- completely customisable, but can be daunting for new users. Luckily, you have us!
• Compatibility- Especially when working with some Mods (Modifying of games by the community), the software that will import your 3D model into the game will be for a specific 3D platform- often Autodesk 3Ds MAX. Check before you make a decision.

More information about Blender can be found here- http://www.blender.org/

Although we will be working with Blender primarily, the following platforms are now available for the community at no cost:

Caligari Truespace

Not long ago, Microsoft bought the rights to this platform, and decided to release it for free. How Kind of them! Particularly as TrueSpace was a major player in the commercial platforms.

Wings 3D-

A community favourite, Wings3D is a popular choice for some mods- particularly of community-created games. Although I can't speak for it's video rendering ability, it remains a leading player on the free 3D platforms.

We won't be discussing those much here, but in the interests of full disclosure we thought it best to mention them.

Without further ado, let's jump into Blender!

Blender can be downloaded here- http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/