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Introduction
Welcome to Blender For Dummies, 4th 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. And it's not just about creating objects. You can set them in motion, too. Tell a story in an animation, walk people through a world of your own creation, or add a special effect to some video footage. It's all possible. 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 package you can download for free and run on nearly any computer. Crazy!
Blender sits at a very unique position in the world of 3D computer graphics. In the distant 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. And not just zero-cost free, but freedom Free. Blender is open source. A world full of developers and users regularly contribute code and documentation, adding enhancements and improvements at a mind-boggling pace.
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 has carried a pretty heavy reputation for being difficult to understand. Blender wasn’t typically viewed as software for beginners. But, with the updates in the release of Blender 2.80 and if I’ve done my job right, this book will help get you started at a sprint. Blender For Dummies, 4th 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!
About This Book
Blender is an extremely complex program used for the even more complex task of producing high-quality 3D models and animations. As such, I can’t cover every single feature and button in Blender. For a more comprehensive manual, refer to the excellent online documentation available through Blender’s website at https://docs.blender.org/manual.
Because I want to bring you up to speed on working in 3D space with Blender so that you can start bringing your ideas to life as soon as possible, I focus on introducing you to the fundamental “Blender way” of working. Not only do I show you how something is done in Blender, but I also often take the time to explain why things are done a certain way. This approach should hopefully put you on the fast track to making awesome work, and also allow you to figure out new parts of Blender on your own when you come across them.
Throughout the book, I refer to the Blender community. Blender’s user community is probably one of its most valuable assets. It really is a feature all its own, and I would be remiss to neglect to mention it. Not only do many members of the community create great work, but they also write new code for Blender, write and edit documentation, and help each other improve. And understand that when I make reference to the Blender community, I include you in that community as well. As of right now, you are a Blenderhead — a fellow Blender user and, therefore, a member of the Blender community.
Blender is a truly cross-platform program, running on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. Fortunately, not much in Blender differs from one platform to another. However, for the few differences, I’ll be sure to point them out for you.
Foolish Assumptions
I’ve written this book for two sorts of beginners: people who are completely new to the world of 3D, and people who know a thing or two about 3D, but are completely new to Blender.
Because of the various types of beginners this book addresses, I tend to err on the side of explaining too much rather than too little. If you’re someone who is already familiar with another 3D computer graphics program, such as Maya, 3DS Max, Modo, or even an earlier version of Blender, you can probably skip a number of these explanations. Likewise, if you’re a complete newbie, you may notice that I occasionally compare a feature in Blender to one in another package. However, that comparison is mostly for the benefit of these other users. I write so that you can understand a concept without having to know any of these other programs.
I do, however, make the assumption that you have at least a basic understanding of your computer. I assume that you know how to use a mouse, and I highly recommend that you use a mouse with at least two buttons and a scroll wheel. You can use Blender with a one- or two-button mouse or even a laptop trackpad, and I provide workarounds for the unfortunate souls in that grim state (cough