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I’ve been thinking about creating a tutorial on how to make a poseable, animateable character in Blender, (a character of the furry variety of course),
And I’d like to know how many, if anyone, would be interested, or find such a tutorial useful.

So… are there any 3D artists interested in a 3D modeling tutorial, or would it not be that useful?

I would be interested.  I use Blender, and can always use a tutorial.

Hopefully there will be more interest.

3d modeling is fun, but like any craft it takes a while to learn.  



For those curious about  Blender here is the web site  http://www.blender.org/

I don't use that program, but I'd still be interested.

Me, too!  I don't use blender, but I'd still be willing to learn.

There’s no guarantees, but I might start looking into what I can put together in the near future,
If I do, don’t expect to see anything until at least mid November.

In the meantime, if anyone has any opinions on the matter, or anything that someone might prefer to see in a tutorial,
Such as a particular area to put extra effort into, (like modeling, rigging, texturing, lighting, etc.) feel free to mention it.

[yes, I would be very interested in seeing any tutorials that you come up with for Blender!]

I've been toying with the idea of learning how to use a 3D modeling/ rendering program to create CG versions of some of my characters for a looooooooooong time.  There even have been a few times where I actually got somewhere with my occasional dabbling and experimenting.  For example, I remember that back during my Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11 days in the mid to late 1990's I actually got the hang of using a 3D modeling and animation program called "trueSpace 2," and created a fairly basic 3D model of a Science Fiction vehicle with it.  In the early 2000's I got really good at using a 3D terrain generation program called Terragen and created some great landscapes with it.  And I *almost* got the hang of using DAZ Studio a few years back, but I faced a massive setback when the hard drive that I had several years' worth of both commercial purchased and freeware downloaded DAZ Studio content on it got accidentally overwritten due to a bug in an old version of Norton Ghost, which ironically I was trying to use to back the hard drive up with.    To make a long story short, I lost all of the files that I was working with, and I just haven't had the heart or the time to ever try to reacquire them.  

In any case, the latent desire for me to learn how to do 3D modeling and rendering is there, and I probably would have the hang of using these kinds of programs by now if I didn't have so many false starts.  In fact, to this day I still have the very bad habit of purchasing any kind of modeling, rendering, or animation software whenever some publisher of it has some kind of crazy low-cost promotion of it just in case I ever find the time to learn how to use it.  That has lead me to have a very diverse collection of 3D rendering programs currently installed on my machine, including but not limited to Maya 8.5, trueSpace 7.6, Vue 8 Frontier, Vue 9 Pioneer, DAZ Studio, DAZ Bryce 5.5, messiahStudio 5, iClone 4, Terragen, and Blender-- all legally purchased and/or licensed.  And with the exception of Terragen, I only barely know how to use any of them, and a few of them I have barely touched at all.  I know that that is completely ridiculous of me, but what can I say-- I have these grand visions in my mind of how great some of my hand-drawn characters would look in CG, and those visions keep on nagging at me to acquire all of this software programs and books on how to use them whenever I run across a good deal on them.

Blender in particular is always on the top of my list of CG programs to learn how to use because I can always acquire the latest version of it for free.  I may have some fancy professional-grade commercial CG packages on my machine such as Maya and messiahStudio, but since I acquired those software packages from their respective companies when they were having limited-time crazy-low-cost promotions on them, I am basically locked in to the versions of those programs that I currently have because I could *never* possibly ever be able to afford a regular-price upgrade of those programs in a million years.  With Blender I don't have that problem, and I can even run Blender on some of my more exotic hardware if I feel like it such as my Sun Blade Workstations or my SGI Origin 300 Supercomputer nodes-- something that I could never do with my commercial programs.

So in other words, yes, I would be very interested in seeing any tutorials that you come up with for Blender!  

I don't model, but... I say do it anyway! ^^ Even if there's no initial interest, you gotta keep in mind the big picture... who knows?? Some intrepid modeller may come along looking for this very thing and they may not find any other tuts on the matter other than yours, and it could really help them out. Hehe.

I'd like to see this. I like 3D modelling, and want to learn a bit more about Blender too.

I've done a little work on the tutorial, (some things here and there), mostly figuring out the best way to present things…
And given the current date, I can guarantee that it won’t be finished in November, as I previously thought.
As for when… I don’t know, with the holidays coming up, and other at home issues, there’s really no way to know how long it will be,
So I’ll leave that as undefined for now.

As for what I do know, it’s that I’m planning for the tutorial to be at an intermediate level,
Meaning that, it's amused the person following it, already knows the basics of Blender.

So it’s not going to teach you how to use Blender, but instead, teach you how to get things done in Blender,
Such as good techniques to use, what various settings do, and how to put a full model together and create nice renders.

I’ll make it so that beginners can understand it, but the basics really should be well understood first,
Because if you can't make a simple low poly static mesh, move some mesh objects around,
And add simple materials and basic lighting, etc. Then you'll most likely be lost in the tutorial.

So in the mean time, any beginners that are trying to learn how to use Blender for the first time should look [Here].
Learn the basics first, and then there should be no problem understanding my tutorial, once I get it finished.

 

if you make it i will come
online to buy blender that is!!!

if you make it i will come
online to buy blender that is!!!

I have good news for you, friend!  You don't need to buy Blender-- it is an open-source cross-platform 3D content creation suite that can be downloaded for free at http://www.blender.org/.  That is the primary reason why Blender remains attractive to me.   While it is not used too widely in the industry (programs like Maya, 3DS MAX, Softimage, etc. pretty much dominate), since it is free I can always afford to buy it and can always have the latest version.  While I have purchased some of those professional packages in the past when I found crazy deals on them, the fact that they are so expensive normally means that I can never afford to buy upgraded versions of them, locking my into old and obsolete versions.  With Blender that is not a problem, which is why it is always worth some consideration as far as I'm concerned.

I've done a little work on the tutorial, (some things here and there), mostly figuring out the best way to present things…
And given the current date, I can guarantee that it won’t be finished in November, as I previously thought.
As for when… I don’t know, with the holidays coming up, and other at home issues, there’s really no way to know how long it will be,
So I’ll leave that as undefined for now.

I am excited to hear about your recent progress with writing your tutorial Storm Fox, and I will be sure to check it out once you have it completed.  I am still very much looking forward to it!

For those who don't know that much about Blender and it's
capabilities this short video wast made with Blender, and of
course a lot of work by several artists.

http://forums.furtopia.org/index.php?topic=42946.new#new

From the 3D animation I've seen in the past, It can look either really good or really bad. I have no experience with it but it looks like you need a lot of experience in order to make something that's sort of good.

It’s good to hear that there is interest in this.
However I haven’t had much opportunity this month to do a lot of work on the tutorial, as some paid work had to take priority.

And since it’s been over a month from when I last mentioned anything, I’m just letting you all know that I haven’t forgotten,
And that I’m going to pick up the project again… (next week or after new years), and get it done, and done right.

From the 3D animation I've seen in the past, It can look either really good or really bad. I have no experience with it but it looks like you need a lot of experience in order to make something that's sort of good.

@warriorsfan1812
That’s true of most anything, but if someone doesn’t have the experience, they at least need to have patience.
Although having both experience and patience is best, also some decent logic, geometry, and math skills don’t hurt either.

But in the end, it mostly just comes down to, practice + patience = experience.