Indigo Renderer Forum

I was hoping some of you experienced Blender user could give me some direction. I am a SketchUp user and would like to learn Blender. I downloaded it and it is totally Greek to me. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to start to learn about it? Thanks for any advice.

I started with http://www.rab3d.com/tutorial.html
You will be a pro in no time!

Also, http://www.blender.org/education-help/tutorials/

There is a "Noob to Pro" set of tutorials somewhere in there that goes from the very basics and ends with complex animation and particle effects, for example.

Learn how to make some cubes and line them up, split them, add/delete faces and vertices, to get the hang of it. Then give yourself a small project and ask questions along the way.

Also, don't underestimate the power of good old paper. There are a few excellent books availabe through the eShop on the Blender website.

Start with "Essential Blender". A bit bland in print but definitely worth it for the content!
If you are coming from sketchup I can understand that it''ll be a very different experience. Being an engineer I have worked with Parametric Modelers (Solid Works etc.) since their inception and it took me a while to understand modeling with subdivision surfaces. There are tutorials online that are not specifically for Blender but more generally aimed at subdivision surface modeling, which are also quite helpful.

I actually watched a demo from a Modo CD that helped me finally understand how that was supposed to work!

I'm seriously considering getting into Blender as well. StompinTom, you a Vray for Blender user, right? How's that working out?

Stinkie wrote:I'm seriously considering getting into Blender as well. StompinTom, you a Vray for Blender user, right? How's that working out?

Ah pretty well, like most of it's there. The Blender 2.5 version will probably solve most, if not all, the little problems that I have with the current exporter. Stuff like reflection mapping and certain material settings are a bit hit and miss... sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, which is why it'll be much clearer when the material settings will be replaced by Vray settings in 2.5.

Other than that, the exporter has gotten real fast since Andrei coded it in C and it should stay that way.

I use Vray quite a bit, for all the stuff Indigo can't do in time (at least on MY machine). Quick and dirty, but for the quality stuff I let Indigo hammer away at it overnight.

Mmm, sounds good. I'd love a 64-bit version of Vray (I own Vray for Sketchup, which is 32-bit), but I'd rather not have to pay for Max, Maya or C4D! Blender may be the way to go.

One more question, if you don't mind. One needn't have Maya installed to get Vray to work, right?

@ Cholme: apologies for the thread hijack!

Stinkie wrote:One more question, if you don't mind. One needn't have Maya installed to get Vray to work, right?

@ Cholme: apologies for the thread hijack!

Not at all! You just need a dummy 'maya plugins' folder.

Check out: http://vray.cgdo.ru/forum/

Great! Thanks for the info!

Now to find a reseller ...