The Blender Book

Blender is a fast, powerful, and best of all, free 3D modeling program that runs on multiple platforms: Windows, Linux, SGI, Sun, and BeOS. Popular among Web developers, graphic designers, artists, and students, it can be used to develop 3D graphics, create complex animations, and render 3D scenes. As useful as Blender is, its interface can be difficult to master. The Blender Book remedies this with its step-by-step tutorial approach that allows the user to take immediate, full advantage of the program. The book covers 3D graphic fundamentals; colors, lighting, and transformations; moving from 2D to 3D; and modeling, materials, and animation. Individual topics include animating with keyframes, paths, and particles; integrating 3D objects into video; and modeling with polygons, curves, and surfaces. The bundled CD-ROM includes the latest version of Blender for all platforms, as well as textures from the digital design library and all the tutorials, scenes, and animations from the book.