The Essential Blender by Roland Hess is a great book. It covers everything you need to know to get started with Blender, a great free 3D modeling program that even professionals can use. The Essential Blender has easy to read tutorials that anyone can understand, step by step instructions explaining how to do certain problems faced with using open-source software. It also has advanced tutorials for more advanced users, such as UV mapping and using some of the physics portion of the program. I also like the fact that it can be used to teach animation, not just the basics, this book goes right into the details from using the time line to using the preset animation moves. You can also learn from this book is how to add texture to a model, overly a picture onto your model and how to use Python, a programming language for creating video games created in Blender.

All in all the Essential Blender is a great program, even if you are a professional or even a beginner, this book is sure to have something just for you! Even though Blender can be tricky to learn this book will help you along, it can be purchased at you local bookstore or at Amazon.com for a relatively low price of $29.99.

Rating: 9