beginner here...

[MogyFlow]

Hi :)

If not already, also sign up on www.blenderartists.org (http://www.blenderartists.org)
Something to read:
http://glenmoyes.com/articles/to_those_learning_3d.shtml
http://www.onona3d.com/pdf/beginnerguide.pdf
http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Main_Page (ENG Documentation)
http://de.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_Dokumentation (GER Documentation)

Have Fun....

[walkercreations]

The two things that I would add are take a look at this site:
Tufts University Online Blender Courses (http://ocw.tufts.edu/Course/28/Supplementarymaterial)

And this site:
Spaghettimoon's Donwload Pot (http://www.spaghettimoon.co.uk/downloadpot.htm)

Good luck on your new adventure.

Peter
(http://www.spaghettimoon.co.uk/downloadpot.htm)

[Apollux]

Let's see... every 3D artwork goes trough a well known process. Many times you see an otherwise excellent artwork and you can tell on the spot where the artist skiped or understimated a part of the process.

Without further aldo, a good 3D artwork goes like this:



Conceptualization. The artist decides about the message to transmit with the artwork, the elements to employ, the possible audiences. Here you engage your brain to form the general look and feel of the finished work. Conceptualization usually is done in writting with some hand made scketches to better define the idea.
Pre-Visualization. 3D artwork is just another form of visual artwork, and thus it is subjected to the same rules that apply to all the pieces of visual art. Here you use dummy/place-holder objects to test the possible compositions of the general image and decide wich one goes better with the concept you already have in your mind. This step is very important as it will save you many hours of work in objects that you won't use in the final image. A model that will be placed on the background shouldn't have the same level of detail that your main piece, if it does then you have wasted a lot of effort.
Modeling. You create the final objects that will be seen on your artwork. There are many methods to model. Box Modeling, Splines, NURBS and poly-by-poly are among the most popular methods.
Animation. If your work involves the forth dimension (time) then it is more likely that you will have moving subjects in your scene. Sometimes everything moves, sometimes just the camera moves. Somethimes nothing actually moves but they give the impression that they are moving (nothing easy to achieve). If you will have complex objects moving then it is likely that you also need to rigg them, wich is another step on itself.
Texturing and shading. Now that you have your objects and they are doing what you want them to do, it is time for they to start looking the way you want them to look. The shading and texturing of an object can be as simple as a plain color or as complex as a mathematical equation that calculates the propper angle of reflexion for each possible position of the object in front of the camera.
Lighting. This stage is super important. Once because lighting is the main way to define the mood of an scene and second because this is one big chance to conceal any mayor mistake you could have made on the previous steps.
Rendering. Time to let the computer bring to reallity all your decisions and conceptualizations. Each rendering engine behaves diferent, so even if this is the (almost) last step, you must know the possibilities and limitations of your rendering engine from the start.
Post-Production. Many times the artwork is so complex that it can not be reallistically achieved in just one pass. So you break it down into smaller pieces that you put together at the end. Here you also do final adjustments to the rendered images to accentuate or fade elements.
As you can see doing a 3D artwork takes a lot, but don't be intimidated. In fact, most 3D artist become experts in just one or a few of the steps and work as a team to complete the final artwork. Nowadays you can find a job where you only model, or you only do the lighting, etc. etc. etc. Even if you are not going to become an expert on every step (nobody can) you should at least know them and be proficient enough so that you can move along to the next step.

One common mistake is skipping the 2 first steps and starting your project modeling right away... do so and you will find yourself wasting A LOT of time going around in circles and ending with a message-less piece of work.

[Rambiert]

Let's see... every 3D artwork goes trough a well known process. Many times you see an otherwise excellent artwork and you can tell on the spot where the artist skiped or understimated a part of the process....

Excuse Apollux. Can you give a sign to blenderartists.org? Someone did me ugly joke in personal data at the phorum (password without password), so i reedited it. Now i can't repply to the post. Maybe they set some kind of delay in sql and i have to wait on an acctivation? :argh: No. I'm logged in and CP works fine. It happens second time.

Ok i'm going to gmx.de for new scripts. I can't remind myself what was the name of the alternative programable UI inside 3D window. O.k. Expresso 1.1.1 it may be easier for beginners in some cases i think. http://members.fortunecity.de/pytablet/

When i'm on unix do what you want. But when i'm on xp it means that i'm on xp ...
ok. Never mind. I'm taking just some tools and i'm going out. I'm looking for usefull technology. Look for latest Cekuhen works. I like catapult. Just great.

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