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It amazing the traction that Blender is now getting. After a lifetime of delivering our 3D courses in Max, our school has recently switched to blender. Despite being long-time Max users, all our staff having nothing but praise for Blender. They are like kids in a candy store. It was the Covid thing that precipitated this move. Max is platform-dependent, making it unsuitable for home use. Today I returned to Max to tweak an old project and I am reminded of what a funckwinkle it is: full of built-in bugs and inconsistent UI choices.

The design landscape is very subject to catastrophic change. I remember when Quark Express went from being king of the hill to playing second fiddle to InDesign, in what felt like a couple of months. This was the outcome of some very poor customer-antagonising decisions by Quark.

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I tried to learn Blender about ten years ago and just couldn’t get past the UI. I tried again this past week, and have already modeled and rendered a proof-of-concept for what I was hoping to do with it.

The 2.8 UI redesign was nothing short of a game-changer.

Do you think it would be simple enough for an 11 year old to learn without getting too lost? My nephew is into claymation and is generally artistically inclined (but otherwise not very into school, even in the best of times). I’m looking for something to help him learn remotely, so anyone’s tips or resources would be appreciated.

Exciting development! ZBrush has just released a stripped-down free version of their app: ZBrush Core

https://zbrushcore.com/mini/

For any young person interested in digital clay, this is tops! ZBrush is the market leader in digital sculpting.

If the regular Blender UI is the problem (which I don't think it will be, you can do a lot with a few simple commands and as soon as the interest is sparked there is no turning back) you could also try https://www.bforartists.de/ it's blender but with an interface more tailored to those who don't like the regular one

There are some child-freindly 3D apps out there, but 11 is probably old enough to start. The community is very helpfull and there is a ton of good learning material. The key thing, as with all apps, will be to demonsnste that 90 % of what they need to learn can be covered with 10% of the UI.

For 3D sculpting there are lots of specialized apps which make the process reasonably close to actual clay modeling, commercial and free alike. Here is a WebGL-based one made by Stéphane Ginier: https://stephaneginier.com/sculptgl/

A tiny 3D modeling tool that also includes this sculpting technique is Art of Illusion: http://artofillusion.org/

My son is 12, learned it over the past few months, as they had little to do for school. Started simple, with basically rendering some squished spheres and cubes, then followed a few YouTube video tutorials (desk with some random stuff on it). Next, he experimented with sculpting, but still has trouble with it. I was fascinated how he took an old photo of some ship, created the outline (extruded?) then added detail. Beats computer games :)

Edit: one recommendation is to avoid books. YouTube and documentation are great.

My friends and I became obsessed with Blender when I was around 13 or 14. This was around 10 years ago and the interface was definitely idiosyncratic back then, but we didn't find any difficulties learning it, and we were able to make some amazing things. Blender made up a lot of my GCSE* in art and gave me some great times working on Blender projects with my friends on Google Hangouts way past our bedtimes.

I'd fully recommend it to your nephew.

*a qualification taken at 16 in the UK

Absolutely. I’m just going through it with my 9yo at the moment (we’re both learning at the same time). We’re using the Blender Guru donut tutorial series. It’s pretty long, but by just doing a little each night you get through it quickly enough. It’s child friendly and he’s got a good dose of humour that keeps my ones engaged.

https://youtu.be/TPrnSACiTJ4

There are a ton of tutorials available, I’d suggest watching a few yourself, make sure it’s for the same version or one that’s similar to the one you’re going to use and that it shows modeling something a bit interesting.

3D modeling is a lot of fun and really not that hard to get started in as long as you get past the initial hurdle.

My son, eight years old, and I spent the whole lockdown learning Blender. He is learning 2d in school; I found Blender a great tool to improve his math learning. He dreams about creating a game.

I'd have more confidence an 11-year-old could learn it than a 30-year-old. It's amazing thinking back at how quickly and absolutely I could immerse myself in things back then.

Wings3d or anim8or would be a better choice for kids to get started.

Agree. The usability is a dream. Light on the fingers, thoughtfully designed, and easy on the eye. In max, you can smell the age of the code base.

I had to reinstall 2.79 yesterday because I couldn't find anything in 2.8 :/ I still prefer the 2.49 interface.

I'd also like to point people to Ian Hubert's youtube videos on some of the things he does in Blender. This short clip (he races through his stuff) shows how he turns a video in a farm house into a dystopian scene using Blender's motion tracking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY8Ol2n4o4A

Thanks for that! He has a link to the un-edited version in the desc as well (for those who want a more complete/easier to follow version).

I played with a cracked copy of Cinema 4D quite a bit years ago (yeah...I know. But I was just tinkering for fun and it's expensive). Seeing how far Blender has come is great! I will definitely be downloading the current version and doing some new tinkering--but without the questionable software or copyright infringement.

> Max is platform-dependent

It is also a rather closed ecosystem.

Audodesk, in the last 10 years, has systematically tried to wall off all their products so you are obliged to use nothing but.

If you need a proof, try to export a modern DXF file from e.g. AutoCad and import it into e.g. Blender.

"How QuarkXPress became a mere afterthought in publishing"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7360076

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/01/quark...

It is interesting to see once dominant software get sidelined. WordStar gave way to WordPerfect which gave way to Word.

Ah Quark. It was lovely, but people put up with its quirks only while they had to. IIRC, it had a single-action undo only, crazy even for its time.

I wonder if the same can happen with Adobe, while I have respect for what they do, I am happy to see a competitor (read : choice) rising with Affinity. For years there was nothing that could touch Photoshop, and slowly I see people moving over. For a first version its very good.

This article details beutifully the fall of Quark and the Rise of InDesign: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/01/quark...

Adobe is making many of the same mistakes now. Hubris. Affinity Photo is 90% there, but annoying short in some very basic areas. I own both, but still use Adobe partly at least because of Adobe ecosystem lock-in at my place of work.

Interesting article! Luckily I do more basic editing and Affinity is more than enough. But if Affinity brings a great second version I would be worried at Adobe HQ

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