Im using the free version of Blender (dont know if there are other versions). Im brand new to design and programming, is Blender a good program to start on? Also is it easy to get images, models and animations from blender into a game using something like Visual Studio Express 2008? If possible reply in the simplest terms possible, I just started programming in May 2009 and have only been on Blender once, which i also started in May 2009. So basically as far as computers are concerned Im an idiot. Thanks.

Blender is a great program to start 3D on, probably one of the best, if not the very best free 3D app out there.

As for getting images, models, animations from blender into a game, using VS. Well thats the same for everything weather your working with blender, maya, 3dsmax, whatever. The process is the same, you need to find a 3D and Texture format you want to use and then write loaders for them in your programming language in visual studio. Theres plenty of resources on the internet for that and plenty of tutorials as well.

I don't know what language your programming, but if you just started that soon. Its not a good idea to try to jump into a 3D game. First learn the basics of programming, then move up to some simple 2D games. Once you think you have a full understanding then start to expand into 3D programming and other areas.

As for modeling in Blender, modeling and programming are completely different and it will be very hard, if not impossible to become "good" at both of them. Pick one that you want to do more/enjoy more.

You won't load the models into Visual Studio, you'll use VS to write the code that loads the models into your game.

Here's a very rough idea of the process:

You'll model something in Blender, let's say it's a crate. When your model is complete, you'll export it in your format of choice (let's assume you export as a .x file).

The .x file holds--among other things--the numeric values (x, y, and z position) of every vertex of the model.

The task on the code side is to write a program that will know what to do with those vertices and how to display them. You may write a "mesh" class in your game that reads a specific .x file when it's created, and loads all the vertex data in that file for use.

The mesh class you wrote then may have a "draw()" method that displays the vertices and polygons using a graphics API (like Direct3D or OpenGL). You would call this draw() method every time the visual frame was updated, along with any other meshes that were on screen.

This whole process is obviously more detailed and intricate than I've glossed over, however, so I'd suggest spending some time just working in the console (text-based, no graphics), then move to 2D to get used to thinking in terms of frames, animation, and visual game loops and game states. Trying to tackle 2D has given me a much better understanding of how much work it takes to handle 3D.

Thanks for the advice.

At the moment im using C#, Ive gone over some of the fundamentals from a tutorial book ( Learning C# 3.0 - fundamentls, by Liberty and MacDonald, published by O'Reilly) and have completed one XNA tutorial, the 2D Saucer Game, and im currently working on another XNA tutorial all about collision of objects.

If you use XNA you can load .x files directly or you could save your models the OBJ format which is a really simple text file format.