Introduction

Welcome to Blender For Dummies, 2nd Edition, your introduction to one of the most well-known free programs for creating 3D computer graphics. With Blender, you can create characters, props, environments, and nearly anything else your imagination can generate. You can then take those creations and use them in Blender to tell a story in an animation, entertain people in a video game, or add a special effect to some video footage. And with the most recent updates to Blender's user interface, many of these tasks are even easier for beginners to get started with. They still haven't quite designed a way for Blender to give you a foot massage if you've had a bad day, but in all seriousness, it's difficult to imagine a task in computer animation that you can't do with Blender. And just think: The developers of Blender have included all these features in a roughly 22MB package you can download for free. Crazy!

Blender sits at a very unique position in the world of 3D computer graphics. In the past, to get into 3D modeling and animation, you had only a few options, and most of them were too expensive, too limiting, or — ahem — too illegal for people just trying to see what this whole 3D thing was all about. Blender circumvents all those issues because it's free. A world full of developers and users constantly contribute to, adding enhancements and improvements at a mind-boggling pace. In the relatively short period of time since the first edition of this book hit shelves, Blender has had enough changes that, superficially, it barely resembles the program I wrote about just two years ago. Fortunately, under the hood, it still looks and behaves like the Blender we love — just better.

Of course, 3D computer graphics is a complex topic, and all software of this type is dense with buttons, options, settings, and unique ways of working. Perhaps more than any other program like it, Blender carries a pretty heavy reputation for being difficult to understand. Blender isn't typically viewed as software for beginners. But, if I've done my job right, this book will help simplify things. Blender For Dummies, 2nd Edition is not just a book on using Blender. Sure, I explain why things in Blender work in their peculiar Blenderish ways, but I also make a point to explain core principles of 3D computer graphics as they are relevant. There's no use in being able to find a button if you're not really sure what it does or how it works. My hope is that with this combined knowledge, you can actually take advantage of Blender's unique traits to create your own high-quality 3D art as quickly and efficiently as possible. Perhaps you can even become as addicted to it as I am!