When Blender 2.48 came out a couple of days ago I decided to give it a try. I had no real previous experience of the application besides some half hearted attempt that resulted in me finding the GUI confusing and uninstalling. However this time was different.

After spending some time with tutorials, reading about Blender and watching the result produced with it I was getting hooked. The thing that struck me was that this free program got feature updates that should make all of the mayor 3D developers nervous. But most important of all – the dedicated community that makes sure it never gets old and tired. I believe this will make Blender (and similar apps) market leading in time. Don’t believe me? Listen to what Shawn Kelly, cofounder of Animation Mentor and senior animator at ILM has to say on the subject:

…”I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the world was stunned by a true blockbuster film someday, created by people collaborating in their garages all over the world”

(Full interview at www.blendernation.com)

The modeling in Blender is really intuitive and once you get the hold of some shortcuts it’s fast to work with. There are some free tutorials in the various forums and at Blender.org but I highly recommend the Creature Factory DVD if you wish to take it further. And don’t forget the Manycandy rig by Bassam Kurdali. It’s free and totally amazing.

Read more and download blender at Blender.org