About Blender

Blender is a free and open source 3D graphics program. It is hard to summarize everything you can do with it. At a minimum, if you want to make 3D models of objects and animate them, and you are on a tight budget, then Blender is the tool for you. In fact even if you have a big budget, Blender may well be the tool for you too.

MakeSweet is not affiliated with Blender or the Blender Foundation in any way, we are just happy users.

Key Blender resources

	blender.org, home of Blender and the Blender Foundation. Get the software here.
	BlenderNation, a good source for Blender news, events, and all the latest.
	Blender Artist Forums, a hub of the Blender community.

Other resources

• BlenderNewbies, a good source of video tutorials for beginners.
• Blender Art Magazine, a regularly released magazine containing tutorials and tips
• Video tutorials, an indispensible way to start wrapping your head around the Blender user interface. The interface is excellent, but very different to anything you'll have seen before, so it is important to invest some time learning about it from tutorials rather than trying to play around with it on your own.
• Blenducation has live classes and video tutorials.

Getting started with Blender

• Make sure you have a three-button mouse (a clickable scrollbar on your mouse works too). If your mouse just has two buttons, you need to make a trip to the store. Trust me on this one. Using Blender is like playing an orchestra on your keyboard and mouse, and you need to have all the necessary instruments.
• Download Blender from blender.org and install it.
• Do not just try running it and fooling around with the controls like you might other programs. You will get nowhere.
• Read the Blender User Interface Tutorial. Don't just skim it, read it and try it out. If you get confused with something, don't worry, just skip it and move on.
• Watch some of the getting started videos: Interface Concept, 3D Viewport, and Vital Functions. Again, if you get confused with something, skip it.
• Start dipping into the Noob to Pro wikibook. This is an excellent resource. Read as much as you have patience for, then skip to the beginner tutorials. I recommend the Modeling a Simple Person example. If you get stuck, skip.
• Repeat the last three steps until enlightment starts to dawn. Then start working towards your particular interests by selecting and following relevant tutorials and manuals.

Done! Easy :-)

Seriously, Blender is one of the best community-supported programs we've ever seen, so for any problem you have help will often be just a quick google search away.

Getting models, materials, ideas...

• Blender Open Material Repository, a nice interface to a growing collection of free materials for Blender. (at time of writing, site is temporarily down and moved to an alternate site)
• Blender Model Repository, a collection of free models for Blender.

We use Blender here at MakeSweet to implement the Picture Mixer. If you find a design you like there, just click on the “About this design” link and you can download it and use it as a starting point for your own experiments in Blender. If you make anything interesting, be sure and let us know. Enjoy!