Fastest way to learn Blender 3D

After spending many late nights trying cut through the dark forest of Blender knowledge I can look back and see that I could have taken a much shorter path. Follow this road map and it will get you up to speed with Blender in the shortest time possible.

Use a stable version of Blender

As I write this, Blender 2.5 Alpha is out and everybody is jumping on it. If you're learning Blender you need to resist all that 2.5 yummy goodness and go with a stable version like 2.49b. Why? Because you don't want to spend hours even days when something goes wrong trying to figure out if it was something you did or a bug in Blender. Besides there's a lot more good documentation for 2.49 than there is for 2.5.

Read through the entire User Manual on the Blender Wiki

This is the foundation of all Blender knowledge and is in reasonably up-to-date condition. It is written by many of the people who actually maintain Blender and know it inside and out. The manual will explain all the buttons, panels and functions. You don't need to memorize it, you just need to do a read through so you are aware of all the features and functions. At some point you will be going through online tutorials like those listed bellow. They will make a lot more sense to you if you know what "Edit Cage" or "ZTrans" mean ahead of time. You can play with Blender in your spare time, but make it a priority to get through the whole manual. It's a simple proposition: you can spend 6 months hacking away at Blender or you can spend a few weeks reading the manual and spend the next 6 months building very cool stuff.

Read through the Essential Blender book on the Blender Wiki

This book combines practical Blender knowledge with tutorials. It's a good blend of technical info combined with hands on experience. The tutorials actually work if you take the time to go through them. Put the time in and when you're done you'll be a competent Blender artist. The time invested will pay off.

Start doing the online tutorials

When I first started using Blender there were a handful of online tutorials of varying quality and usefulness. Today as the Blender user base expands a bunch of excellent web sites have emerged to provide high quality video and text based tutorials. Once you have a good foundation, these tutorials will fast track you to expertise with Blender.

• Blender Guru - Andrew Price is a wiz who has spent well over 7 years working with Blender. His tutorials are clear and informative. The Ballad of the M4 Carbine is a breathtaking example of his work. And remember it was all done in Blender
• Blender Cookie - Blender Cookie has emerged as truly top notch all Blender site. Jonathan Williamson, Kernon Dillon, Wes Burke are among the top contributors. Tutorials range from quick tips to pro-level like modeling a Porsche 911 GT3.
• Blender Newbies - Kernon Dillon is a veteran Blender artist who worked on the first Blender open movie project called Elephant's Dream. His tuts are clear and informative and filled with practical advice. It's like going to Blender University.
• CG Tuts - This is a commercial site that includes all kinds of tutorials related to CG. Most of the tutorials are free. Click on the menu and select Blender to bring up the latest.

These are the top sites with links to other sites. The tutorials range from the beginner to the advanced user. You probably won't use every feature in Blender but it's always good to know what tools you have at your disposal.

Another reason you should follow this road map is that some tutorials suffer from the same fatal flaw: they leave out one or two key steps and you're left wandering aimlessly for hours trying to figure out what went wrong. This is why it's good to read through the manual and Essentials books first.

Impatience is your enemy

Resist the urge to start hacking away at Blender. Blender can be a harsh mistress that doesn't yield her secrets easily. Unless you are some kind of prodigy you will flail away like a drowning man trying to learn how to swim. You will waste time with a lot of trial and error. You will waste time with a lot of rework of your early models. You will waste time doing things because you don't know about all the cool short cuts there are in Blender. Follow the road map and you will be creating cool stuff in Blender while other newbies are still hacking away.