A book to learn Blender from

[Marianne Little]

I have tried Blender tutorials on Youtube. I mislike them greatly. I think I am a person who learn better from books.

When I watch tutorials and have to switch back and forth from the video and Blender... I get so frustrated. I have tried lots of tutorials. Many for dummies. The donut. I have very, very little progress, and I have problems with attending SL classes. So classes is not an option. for now.

I need a book about Blender. Can you recommend me the book that is relevant for Second Life creating? It is many who advertise about makings scenes and very detailed things.

So many books describe how to learn to make "Architechtural enviroments" and "3D charachters". I think this isn't what I am looking for. I want to make static objects, unwrap and texture them properly.

 

[OptimoMaximo]

2 hours ago, Marianne Little said:

I need a book about Blender. Can you recommend me the book that is relevant for Second Life creating

There simply aren't any that specifically target SL asset creation. My suggestion is to indeed get a book and learn from that, I personally prefer that approach as well. The benefit and understanding I got from books outweigh videos by thousand fold in my opinion.

With that said, at the time I was first learning, the blender foundation website had the shop section, and from there I got the book that really enlightened me and opened my mind to a whole new level. It was "Blender for dummies", based on blender 2.3 😂 jeez I'm old...

Anyway, I think that's no longer published, but one thing is sure: learn the basics of the software, even if not relevant to the niche you're aiming to. You'll adapt the concepts later on.

[Aquila Kytori]

I to had Blender for Dummies by Jason Van Gumster. The edition  I had was for Blender 2.5. It got lost somewhere but before that I had about every page for the first half of the book marked yellow with marker pen. I remember it was beginning to fall apart from all the use I got out of it. I loved it .

Unfortunately the latest edition, fourth edition, came out over 3 years ago, January 2020, and was for Blender 2.80. The next edition is planned for December 2023 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blender-Dummies-5th-van-Gumster-dp-1394204043/dp/1394204043/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

Would I recommend the edition for 2.80 for you now when you will be using  Blender 3.4 ? ............. I just opened Blender 2.83 to have a quick check on how it looks compared to 3.41......................... If you have €30 burning a hole in your pocket then yes I probably would . ( + another 2 euros for a marker pen and a note book ).

 

 

Edited February 28, 2023 by Aquila Kytori

[animats]

It's good that there's a new Blender book in the works.

I've upgraded to 3.x, and now I can't edit UVs.

[Marianne Little]

I had looked at books that came out in 2020. I thought since they were for Blender 2.8 something and we are now on version 3 something, it is not so much changes. It sounds like I was wrong there.

I understand it's no books for "Blender and Second Life" but some of the book description I read sound like it has nothing to do with game models... and that's what we do for SL? But a book description is only a few lines, and maybe the book has a lot more useful SL related stuff that what the description says.

I have dabbled a bit and can make simple things, but when I come to unwrapping and getting the UV, something shut up in my brain.When I have a video open, and go back and forth, it feels so impossible to do. I make it work with ordinary texturing in SL, that works adequate. But I really want to do a little better.

[Aquila Kytori]

59 minutes ago, Marianne Little said:

I had looked at books that came out in 2020. I thought since they were for Blender 2.8 something and we are now on version 3 something, it is not so much changes. It sounds like I was wrong there.

No you weren't wrong, there are not huge changes between 2.8 and 3.4 . So what you learn from from a book published in 2020 is still very relevant. Also, if need be, you can have multiple versions of Blender on your computer. Just download the corresponding version of Blender.   https://download.blender.org/release/  I have 4 versions available on my taskbar.

 

1 hour ago, Marianne Little said:

but when I come to unwrapping and getting the UV, something shut up in my brain.

If I remember correctly Blender for Dummies didn't offer alot of examples when it comes to how to go about unwrapping an object. It just explained a little about the UV options and a step by step on how to UV unwrap (and paint) an eye object.

The important thing is what Optimo said :

11 hours ago, OptimoMaximo said:

but one thing is sure: learn the basics of the software, even if not relevant to the niche you're aiming to. You'll adapt the concepts later on.

 

[Candide LeMay]

https://www.blendersecrets.org/book

I have not read the book version but I like their videos very much (they are free on youtubes). Short and to the point. I'm not sure if it's suitable for someone who doesn't know blender at all, but once you know some basics it's fun to explore based on what your interests are.

[Marianne Little]

13 hours ago, Candide LeMay said:

https://www.blendersecrets.org/book

I have not read the book version but I like their videos very much (they are free on youtubes). Short and to the point. I'm not sure if it's suitable for someone who doesn't know blender at all, but once you know some basics it's fun to explore based on what your interests are.

Yes, I think I can try this. I also dusted off an old laptop I can watch videos and read on, while I have Blender itself on the stationary one. I managed to make a frame I actually can use. I feel stupid that I could not even assign materials on faces, but now I can. I think it is going back and forth between the tutorial and Blender on the same screen that stopped me. When I can have 2 screens, it is much better.

As soon as it worked, I was like "How the ---- could I not do this before?! It was simple."