Introducing Character Animation with Blender

by Tony Mullen, Ton Roosendaal (Foreword), Bassam Kurdali (Foreword)

Let this in-depth professional book be your guide to Blender, the powerful open-source 3D modeling and animation software that will bring your ideas to life. Using clear step-by-step instruction and pages of real-world examples, expert animator Tony Mullen walks you through the complexities of modeling and animating, with a special focus on characters. From Blender basics to creating facial expressions and emotion to rendering, you’ll jump right into the process and learn valuable techniques that will transform your movies. Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Art

512 pages, Paperback

First published February 16, 2007

Reviews

[Todd Mitchell · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this one case, you'd be better off with a highly rated 3D Studio Max book, or one about general 3D animation.

I won't win any popularity awards for this one but I didn't care for the idea behind this book since I heard it was being written.

I first heard about its creation when there was coverage on the author, who was active in this open source software title's community. Essentially he felt he had worked hard enough in this not-necessarily-for-profit arena and it was time to cash in, and he didn't mind saying so.

That's what he did, and a small number of months later here's the result. Now I was among the first to question the intentions here and after some bickering back and forth with the author directly, I felt significant guilt for kicking and screaming before I read it. To make quiet amends, I picked up a copy on Amazon.

Even for what it is, the tutorials are not fully fleshed out, and in some cases they're downright incomplete. Now I'm back to kicking and screaming. Blender is a package that can take years to gain proficiency in, and its users deserve only the best. I'm keeping the bar high for Blender books because we've gotten them in quality in the past. This one didn't make the cut.

[Reepacheep · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like other Blender books I've read, I find it helpful to flip through the book for an overview, then go back and read through as I'm learning and applying what I learn to projects I'm working on. I've had this from the library once and only read it through partially. Now that I've begun several projects involving animated characters, I'm ready to jump back in and study this some more to make sure I've got the right approach.

I could see adding this to my personal library at some point.

[Kamal]

Things in Blender that I couldn't learn by just fiddling or was too lazy to figure out the docs and tuts online :D