Things Blender Beginners Must Know

(and some friendly tips to get you started)

Image courtesy of Tumblr, doomsdayheartbreak
In my decade of using Blender, I spent roughly half that period just figuring out how and why things worked the way they did - which was both frustrating and rewarding.

In this brief article, I'll save you - the aspiring Blender artist and future full-fledged 3D artist - from hitting the roadblock.

Read on and have fun! ^_^

#1: Study the Interface

This is, no doubt, the most terrifying and intimidating aspect of learning Blender; and this is also true for other apps.

Once you get the hang of where things are and how they're arranged, trust me, everything will go by smoothly.

But this is not all, so read further. ;)

#2: Familiarize Hotkeys

As silly as it seems, this will definitely save you a lot of time in the future.

Learning to utilize the keyboard shortcuts as opposed to manually clicking menu entries is proven to be more effective and efficient when it comes to creating things with Blender.

If you've learned touch typing and playing the piano without looking at the keys, you'll know what I mean.
"Keep one hand on the mouse and the other on the keyboard."


- Blender "Golden Rule"

#3: Save Often, Save Always!

You are one step to finalizing your work of art then suddenly - Bam! Our lovely Blender just crashed. ;)

This happened to me quite often and had me so frustrated, I either had to: start all over again or bid goodbye to my wonderful idea.

Better yet, save multiple versions of your file by pressing F2, then incrementing the filename by pressing the NUM + key.

#4: Utilize Addons

Simply put, these are plugins that you can access and/or install to make mundane and repetitive tasks more manageable.

This is one of Blender's strengths and proves just how strong its scripting capabilities are.

Here are some of my favorites.

#5: Stay Updated

This goes for both the application itself and the community that empowers it.

A really good place to check for news is BlenderNation, which is updated daily.

If you want to check out some awesome renders, you can go to the Blender Guru FB page, where we constantly feature impressive Blender artworks.

And lastly, to stay up-to-date with the latest version of blender, head over to the Blender Build Bot and the official Blender download page.

#6: Interact with the Community

Image courtesy of Tumblr, donut-donwhat
Blender has, by far, one of the largest and most active online and offline communities; and this is the best time to immerse yourself and share your thoughts with fellow Blenderheads.

The best places to head over are the BlenderArtists forum and the Blender Stackexchange site.

#7: Learn from the Masters

The last, but absolutely not the least; and one that I would highly recommend.

There's little to be said here and paying a visit to these sites will do more justice:

#8: Pay it Forward

As cheesy as this might seem, there will come a time that you'll eventually reach that level of proficiency, and what better way to pay back than to share what you have learned to the community (through tips, tutorials, and sharing) and to contribute to the development fund to further improve your lovely app.
I hope you learned something valuable and if you have your own tips you want to share,
please let me know on the comments below.

If you want some further reading, check out this neat article by Creative Shrimp on Getting Started in CG.

P.S.
And please, do yourself a favor - have fun! Lots of it! ^_^

Thanks for the time! :)

- Reyn
Image courtesy of Tumblr, paint-me-a-butt
Buy me a cup of coffee? :)