3D Animation Tip 1: How to learn Blender

A lot of people ask us what 3D software to use. Well...

There are three good software programs that do everything. Here they are in order of our preference, because this is the order of how easy they are to learn and use: 3DS Max, Maya, and Blender.

Blender is free; the other two are around $3K each.

So go to www.Blender.org to check it out. Our recommendation is to not try to do anything or you'll go nuts and get frustrated. Instead, just find the easiest tutorials and do those for a few weeks (redoing the tutorials on your own). Don't try to do anything outside of the tutorials until you're comfortable, having already done that exact thing in a tutorial.

So if the tutorial tells you to model a cup, then you do it once (or even twice). Then make your own cup from scratch that's a slightly different design. Then find one that tells you how to texture a cup. Then texture your own cup with a slightly different design.

Go back and forth from doing a tutorial to doing the same thing on your own. It is slow; but this way you'll learn the software without getting frustrated and giving up. Go into this expecting this process to take several months, maybe even a year.

Let us know if you are able to do it. We can also have you intern for us and learn that way (internships are unpaid and you work from home).

Thanks!

- TAE