(on Wikipedia)
(on Steam)
https://www.blender.org/

A Free and open source 3d creation suite and video editor.

3d editing: Said to be very difficult to use, and it is. There is an argument that in mastering it one gains a huge set of capabilities with one tool. I was unable to get that far.

Video editing: Requires a fair amount of setup, but ends up being reasonable to use. Selecting and moving objects is wonky because I'm used to Inkscape, but I'll get used to it.

• It has a portable zip, with no install required. Yay!

• 2016-06-23 - 2.77a, on Windows 10 64bit

• 2015-05-02 - 2.74, on Windows 8.1, updated recently

• http://www.youtube.com/user/BlenderFoundation

• https://www.blender.org/support/

  • http://www.blender.org/manual/
  • http://blender.stackexchange.com/
  • http://www.blenderartists.org/
  • http://www.blender.org/get-involved/user-community/

Tutorials ∞

• https://www.blender.org/support/tutorials/

• http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Tutorials

3d editing:

• http://gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html

• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9MUC-YxhJ6BwWXXNu9THB4k4KcrsEkA9

Nonlinear video editing:

• https://youtu.be/te9HFQVaSUE

2016-06-23 - 2.77a ∞

Using the tutorial from https://youtu.be/te9HFQVaSUE I was able to get things working easily enough. His key presets (FCP_KeyPreset_v2.72b.py) work fine. Downloading that requires an email address. I used https://10minutemail.com/

2015-05-02 - 2.74 ∞

FAIL - The interface is abysmal. Several significant features are buried. I spent bit of time one day, took a break then spent some more time another day, and my initial impression has not improved. Blender needs to learn from, say, inkscape. Basic object manipulation is astoundingly blisteringly ridiculous.

Try resizing the default cube so it's the dimensions of the grid it's on. Just try. It's so motherfucking difficult. The grid seems to be 2x2 by default. Why?

• How do I cube?

  • I made one and was fiddling and it became this really fucked up shape with a curve down one side and a corner off in a strange direction.

• I really fucking hate stretching an object out into two different directions.

  • Each axis needs an arrow pointing in either direction.

• Holding control locks an item when moving and resizing to "snap to grid".

  • This doesn't seem to actually work. It snaps to something, I just don't know what.
• I'm expecting simple "oi dude, the dimensions of the cube are x/y/z and its location is x/y/z, like in other programs.. something simple in the bottom-left corner.. but .. nope.

• I figured out how I made the broken lopsided cube.

  • Press tab, select one of the obnoxiously barely-visible points on it's corners, move the point.
  • I've no clue how to manually return it to it's normal shape.

• The "save" dialog is not normal, so it's confusing.

2015-05-01

• God damn it's fast to load.
• It feels fast in general.
• There's no "x" to dismiss the intro dialog.
• Control-w prompts to save over. Wut.

• Its interface isn't standard. They're using their own GUI stuff.

  • Their file browser isn't standard, so I lose stuff like alt-up or backspace to go up a directory, and alt-left to go back in history. Inconvenient.

• The mouse can wrap around up/down, at least in particle_effects_effector.blend from their test suite.

cannedmushrooms tutorial notes ∞

• His home website is broken.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9MUC-YxhJ6BwWXXNu9THB4k4KcrsEkA9

• Keyboard settings

  • Download it to your Desktop so it's easy to find.
  • (Also works for Maya)
  • File > User Preferences > Input > Import Key Configuration -- select welshkeyboard.py (wherever you downloaded it)

• Using a different keyboard layout seems to help a lot. Unfortunately all their documentation assumes the defaults, so it becomes useless. One would think that I'd just use their defaults, but they're fucking crazy.

https://youtu.be/oiJncP6_p-k?list=PL9MUC-YxhJ6BwWXXNu9THB4k4KcrsEkA9&t=224

• I changed my pivot center, and now I cannot change it back to normal no matter which of them I choose. What the fuck.

  • This is a side-effect of the joining un-joining process. Object > Transform > Origin to Geometry
  • This is ridiculous.
• Pressing l (ell) does not open up that menu. Earlier, I believe he had pressing p open a menu too.

• Joining is fine, but un-joining is stupidly hard.

  • Why isn't there a "just un-join the objects I have selected" function? Why must I enter a magical other mode, select a point and un-join that point?
• I made two objects, joined one to the other, moved them around, and now I have a fixed black spec floating around on the viewport.

• I can't join two objects, then select another object and join it, and have that be brought into a three-object-join.