Starting to use Blender

[italianbull38]

before i get too into it, does anyone know where i can actually use this at, or if i can export the animations that are in here into flash. I basically wanna know the perks of learning this so i dont waste my time

[ZekeDragon]

I don't know if this fits into the Python section. You might want to go to Blender.org and see what kind of perks are available.

Anyway, Blender is a 3D animations package very much like 3D Studio, Maya, or Bryce 3D. It's a full package capable of producing 3D models, rendering, rigging, animation, video enhancing, etc. Blender can export into most other 3D formats, so that you can use them to make 3D games or other things that would require a 3D engine. Blender also comes with a built in game engine, but as of this writing it's still sub par to be honest. There's a lot that can be done with Blender, but I'm not sure what you mean by "export the animations that are in here into flash". If you mean the same way that any video can be imported into flash and played, then yes, you just render out the animation itself as normal, and then use Flash to import that video (in .avi format) and play it there, should be no issues at all. But I'm not sure what you mean.

[italianbull38]

yeah, that was what i meant, and the reason i posted in here, is because it runs off of python coding, and i did end up looking around blender.org. But i need to know what i could use this for, for my future. I'm only a senior in high school, and have a lot on my plate right now, but want to learn this. I was just wondering where i could go with it in life.

[ZekeDragon]

Well, despite what technology you use to learn 3D modeling, it's still 3D modeling experience, similarly to how it doesn't matter too much what language you use to learn programming, if you're a programmer, you can pick up a new language rather easily. Same thing works, as long as you know how to model and animate, you should be able to pick up other industry standard technologies (even if they change over time) if you learn everything with Blender. Just won't feel the same.

Blender allows for Python scripting, but it was actually written in C, just so you know. You can pick up the Blender source code here.

[stykat]

I don't think you need to use Python to create or export Objects (Meshes) or to create Objects (Meshes).
From as far as i know Blender is made with Python and, Python is used as a scripting language for blender.
If you want to know how to use Blender then you should start using it and practice with it, and see what button does what.

"Wikipedia: Blender tutorials from Noob to Pro " it is a good place to start and learn how to use the Blender user interface and how to make nice graphical projects.

I used Blender allot and after you create an object that you will probably texuture with the UV texturing tool, you can export the object into many extensions such as " .x " wich is a directX mesh file (i think that's the accurate name) or to Quake map files i think.

TO answer your question " What is this usefull for ":
Well pitty but Blender is not the popular software that game developers or graphical project developers (or animators or movie makers) use.
Most of them use 3D Studio Max or Autodesk Maya or Zbrush ( and most of the Game developers use these softwares) or they use Vue 7 to create landscapes or Cinema4D for commercials.
Im sure others use other softwares too but these are the popular ones.
If you look at Valve for Jobs, a graphical developer needs to know 3D Studio Max or Maya and Zbrush.
But blender is good for creating Animations, Nice graphical projects, you can use it to create Quake maps or meshes and use them for your game engine or you could try to export it to files and see if you can use the exported objects with other Graphical editing softwares or for a map editor (eventually).
I found blender as an easy to use tool for that suited my needs of creating and creating.
IT has allot of functionality and you can find allot of scripts and add ons ( one of the scripts i found could be used to export objects for Neverwinter nights).
You don't need to know too much python scripting for blender in order to make a graphical project such as a street with flats, but you need to know how to mix things up in order to create what you want.

Now i use Cinema4D and i like it more because i have more functionality and it gives you allot of features but i still have to learn how to create an animation with it.

If you want, i could help you with Blender but this rather depends to you and what do you actually want.
If you look at the features of blender they will write many but what do you want to make with it ?
Are those things you want from a graphics editing software in the Blender software?
And what do you actually want to do ?
Because if you tell us what you want to do we could give you the solutions we would find good from our opinions.

[zeroradius]

Blender Artists Forums is a good source. Zeke was correct on everything he said so i won't bother to restate it. If you don't want to export as a mesh so that you can use it with directX or some other graphics library than you could use the built in game engine that runs off python. Blender made the old download book free if you don't mind using an earlier version. I don't remember the URI of the download but here is a link to a full length online copy: Blender 3D GameKit 1st Edition . Best of luck to you.