Just downloaded Blender. Damn, that''s probably the most user unfriendly interface I''ve seen. What''s it like to work with, does it take long to get the hang of? I''ve been using Truespace 3 but it keeps crashing so I decided to try out another modeller. Anyone know where I can find some good tutorials for Blender? There''s not much help for a new user in the documentation.

search around on elysiun
it''s a great blender community

Thanks, I''ll check it out.

I''ve been using Blender for a couple months now, and here are my thoughts:

The interface was intimidating as hell at first, but now that I am familiar with it, I have absolutely no problems with it. It only took me about a week to figure out most of the basics (mesh modelling, curve modelling, materials, textures) even though I had very little familiarity with 3D programs in the past.
I have to say, on the whole I''m very impressed with it. Of course, being a long-time Emacs user, scary-seeming interfaces are nothing new to me
My biggest problem was the scarcity of ''official'' documentation. If you check out the doc project at blender.org, you''ll see a lot of missing/incomplete sections, sparse material, and outdated information. The bulk of my knowledge has come from the tutorials at Elysiun, ingiebee.com, etc... as well as from my own experimentation.
Check out the community pages at blender.org and blender3d.org (I believe) for links to other tutorial sites etc..
The biggest advantage for using Blender, as opposed to commercial packages, is of course the fact that it is free. As a wild-eyed, raving, fanatical Linux phreak, this is all-important. That, and the fact that it runs on all sorts of machines/OSes/kernels, not just Linux (or Windows, if that''s what blows your skirt up).
Anway, good luck with it and I hope it works out for you.

Josh

I highly recommend The Blender Book from No Starch press. I found it at my local library, so check around.

There''s a tutorial for blender at - http://10secondclub.org/users/juicy - so take a look at it and some others. Anyone know if there''s a .x file importer/exporter for blender''s newest version?

Heh, no idea obi-wan, I''m still using version 2.23. But since the files are backwards compatible (least they used to be) you could export it off an older Blender version.