The Complete Guide to Blender Graphics, Second Edition: Computer Modeling and Animation 2nd Edition

I made the mistake of renting this book. I will go as far as I can go before the end of the rental period but I do plan on buying the paperback version. I use it along with the recommended videos & the free course that those videos are a part of.There is a lot of great and useful information. The best part is that I am finally learning Blender! It's a struggle at times since Blender is constantly being updated so a few things aren't the same. But that is fine. That is part of what I like about this book, the course and videos (these are a little outdated but still useful). If you are doing the course too like I am you will soon realize that the videos are slightly outdated but I realized that the students comments are worth looking into if you need help. You can always ask the teacher of this free course for help.I have no experience in 2d nor 3d so this is a fun challenge.While this book is not a hands on book I have a tendency to replicate the moves and find out where the shortcut keys are at. I do this with the videos too. The best part is when the information is still there the next day & it's great when you see your finished product, even if it's something simple like the beveled cube, which is the first thing I replicated from the videos.My recommendation? Buy the paperback version. Study it, watch the videos, join the free course (http://gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html). And the textbook that is recommended in this free course? This book. That's how I heard about this great book.

Very informative, especially from the perspective of a beginner. It covers quite a bit of Blender in a way that evens out the ever-so-steep learning curve that's typically associated with Blender. My largest criticism of the book is that it spends a little too much time dealing with the Blender Internal rendering engine and not quite enough time dealing with the Cycles rendering engine. Cycles has a learning curve in and of itself, but I'd rather deal with the learning curve than have a bunch of information that isn't particularly useful in real world applications these days.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to start learning Blender. The author has a very elegant and clear writing style with some humor. But what impressed me the most about this book is a very generous amount of screenshot images. Often times, these images have comments, labels, arrows, or circles to further clarify what the images are showing. I was also impressed that the author managed to keep most of these images on the same page as the text describing the images.When I saw "Blender Version 2.70" at the top left corner of the cover, I thought this book was all about 2.70, which I had just downloaded when I bought the book. But after receiving the book, I realized it was "INTRODUCING Blender Version 2.70", and the book was mostly about pre-2.70 version. That was a bit of a disappointment until I realized almost all the screenshot images were the same or close to 2.70. The current version is 2.73a (as of Feb 2015), and I can't really comment about it because I'm still using 2.70. But it shouldn't matter if you are starting out.I also wish the author discussed more about the cycles engine and how to use nodes. And perhaps less about creating movies (Chapter 21) because it is a long time before a beginner like me gets to that point.Nevertheless, I still give this book 5 starts because it was very easy to follow, and fun to try out the examples.

If a 3D program does not come naturally to you, but you have a fierce desire to learn it, this is the book. Blender is a powerful but extremely complex program that you can really get hopelessy lost in. Fortunately because it is open source, there are a huge number of tutorials to get you started. Some of them are great, some of them move way too fast and omit details getting you stuck trying to figure out what you did wrong. A few weeks ago I had purchased "Blender Master Class" but quickly gave up on it because although it was branded a beginner book, it glossed over learning how to use the tools and jumped into modeling 3 very complex models. I do plan to come back to this book at some point but only after I gain more experience. John Bain's book is exactly the opposite. It assumes you know NOTHING and holds you hand as he explains all the details of each element of Blender. 3D is not easy but he makes it simple to follow. As I progress through the book, I get more and more comfortable with 3D modeling. FYI: I am a 69 year old Graphic Designer with 25 years in programs like Photoshop and Illustrator. There's not much I can't do in 2D but 3D was a stretch for an old guy. Thanks John, you really smoothed the path.

The Complete Guide to Blender Graphics, Second Edition: Computer Modeling and AnimationI am already learning so much from this book (armature and UV mapping). It is well organized and easy to read. The perfect guide for the absolute beginner wishing to dig deeper into Blender. Despite the aforementioned, it paces itself well before covering more seemingly advanced topics. I can't wait to indulge myself further. I'll be keeping this. I'm confident its techniques will stay effective for years (and updates) to come.Don't buy it expecting to automatically become a Blender master. It is has the thickness of a textbook and is riddled with material. The reader must be willing to read, reread, study, and apply the material. Practice perfects efficiency. It definitely compliments online tutorials which may not go as in depth, be poorly edited/organized, or may lack proper pacing. It comes with links to online material and practice projects to help aid newcomers. This will definitely help you get up to speed as long as you're willing to learn. Good luck to fellow Blender learners!

A great asset when studying the Blender program. Quite a lot of information, necessary for 3-D programing.