Blender

[John Bigboote]

I was just at the bookstore and saw a book on Blender, so I came home and did some research because i know I've heard it mentioned here a lot.

 

So, its a FREE 3D animation program...claims to be easy to learn...and an optional output is that it can publish interactive GAMES and websites...sorta like Arctic Pigs was supposed to be...kinda...

 

So, I tried to look at some of the games, to see if they were cool or lame, and all I found was dead-links and reviews on how awesome a game will be once it's finished and the expected date is (was) last August...etc etc...

 

Does anyone know of some real, live, downloadable or on the market Blender games? Can anyone tell me more about Blender...good or bad? I appreciate it. Is there any file format Blender and A:M share for export/import?

 

I see Justin Barrett has done some tutorials in Blenderland too!

[D.Joseph Design]

My first multidollar 3D animation was done in blender. It wasn't much; just a solid medallion that spun into view. BUT IT WAS 3D! (If you've seen my "Chair Wars" animation progress, this explains the medallion sitting on the fireplace mantle.)

 

I thought Blender's interface was too "original" in the sense that the designers ignored any concept with which computer users had become comfortable and instead came up with their own ideas (though I do think that I saw something that resembled a "button").

 

I liked A:M just from it's interface screenshots alone! It was quite hard for me to figure out anything in Blender. But once I had A:M, I created my first character animation within a couple months.

 

A coworker loves Blender, and I can see just a couple features in it that A:M lacks (right now), but then I go right back to my A:M and feel totally content in splining bliss.

 

Also don't forget that you get that for which you pay (in attempts to proper-grammafy an old saying).

[ragtag]

Just download Blender and play around with it, the last version I tried included some sample games. It's free after all.

 

My experience with it is that it's very hard to learn because the interface is just weird. Also, the animation tools in it are severly lacking. I didn't spend too much time at it, as I figured it simply wasn't worth it. There are other free 3D apps around, like Anim8or and Wings3D that you might want to check out.

 

Ragnar

[Shazam3D]

Interesting links:

 

http://download.blender.org/demo/test/225_game_demos.zip

 

http://download.blender.org/demo/test/demo-loop.zip

 

http://www.gameblender.org/modules/news/

 

http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11857

 

http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=6

 

http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Video_Tutorials.396.0.html

 

http://www.blender3d.org/e-shop/product_in...?products_id=83

 

http://download.blender.org/documentation/...rGameReference/

 

Good luck

[John Bigboote]

Thanks Shazam. The games downloaded and unzipped just fine...now windows wants to know what to open them with... do I need a utility, like the flash player...free download?

[Shazam3D]

You must to install Blender to execute the .blend files

 

http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Blender.31.0.html

 

More info: http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Home.2.0.html