Blender Master Class
A Hands-On Guide to Modeling, Sculpting, Materials, and Rendering
Ben Simonds
(No Starch Press, paperback, Kindle)
This excellent hands-on guide shows “how to create models and environments in 3D, using two pieces of software: Blender, for 3D design and animation, and GIMP, for 2D image editing.” It covers Blender 2.6x.
The author, Ben Simonds, is a professional 3D artist and co-director of a London-based post-production and computer animation company, Gecko Animation Ltd.
Simonds explains and shows “how to approach and finish your own projects in Blender.” He offers detailed how-to explanations for three of his own projects “to provide the narrative and examples of the tasks required.”
Along with demonstrating how to use Blender and GIMP, he shows “how to block out and create models, sculpt and detail them, texture and create materials, use lighting, and render finished images.”
This 266-page, 15-chapter book is beautifully organized, richly illustrated and well-written, with numerous headings, subheadings, step-by-step lists, and chapter reviews. The accompanying DVD “contains all the files for the projects in this book, including separate .blend files for each project (corresponding to each chapter in the book) and each project in its final state at the end of the chapter (where relevant).
“These resources,” Simonds adds, “should allow you to look in-depth at the workings of each project and to examine how each one takes shape. Also included are the textures used for each project, .blend files with some useful brushes for sculpting and MatCap materials, and a GIMP brush that you can use with your own projects.”
Simonds notes that Blender has many more tools than can be covered in his book. So Blender Master Class “attempts to deal only with the aspects of Blender that are needed to create, texture, and render models as still images. It doesn’t cover Blender’s rigging and animation tools, simulation tools, or the game engine.” For more information, he refers readers to a Blender website.
Blender is a powerful software package, and even experienced artists and designers can struggle while using it to create finished pieces. Blender Master Class can step you smoothly through the entire process of working from concept to completion.
— Si Dunn
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