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A mission statement for Blender could be described as "to get the best 3D graphics tool into the hands of artists all over the world, completely for free". Blender 3D is an open-source software, meaning that anybody can use it for any reason and can also contribute to improving it.
In this video I'll be guiding you through the Blender basics.
Before we open up Blender though, it might be helpful to know what its applications are. The world of 3D design is incredibly broad, it ranges from entertainment to VFX, Movies, video games, and animated films all the way to the industrial sector with 3D printing and scientific simulations. So there's even such a thing as an industrial blender.
Blender is pretty distinctive because it has a wide range of unique features built in. Its greatest strength in my opinion is 3D modeling. You can build things incredibly quickly using 3D mesh editing tools and combining those with blender key shortcuts. The result is a pretty fast workflow. The insane amount of hotkeys available has led people to create blender hotkey cheat sheet all over the internet. On the topic of how to model in Blender or better said, what to model, your imagination is the limit, you can do cartoon modeling, low poly, blender human models, hard surface modeling, etc.
You can sculpt characters in Blender and organic forms all the way from stylized animals to fully realistic human characters. There's also a wide range of rigging tools. Blender rigging can be used for building a structure of bones to get your character animation going, mouth movements animation, run cycle animation, etc.
UV unwrapping tools for texturing are also present. Those are helpful for creating your cg textures and shaders. Furthermore, Blender has a compositor where you can do some powerful compositing with its tools. You can also find simulation systems for liquid, smoke, wind, cloth and other fun things . There is also a Blender grease pencil, allowing for a 2D animation system that can be used right along the 3D tool for some sweet effects. So Blender drawing and Blender 2d animation is also quite robust. You can also count on a basic video editor and you can even write Python scripts directly in Blender.
Cycles, a path tracer that simulates light very realistically and Eevee which is a real-time render like you would find in a game engine.
Because Blender is so open-ended and flexible, if you're new to 3D, it's probably not like any other software you're used to, so it will take time to learn. Just give it time, you will get the hang of it. You don't have to be an expert to start making cool stuff, you can start doing that today.
One last thing.
This tasty Blender content is streamed here for free through our CG Cookie Youtube Channel and may contain advertisements. Rest assured, Blender tutorials offered through the paid Citizen membership are ad-free.
Happy Blending!
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