How I learned Blender - and 5 Tips for You

At least once a week I get an email like this: "Hey Andrew, how did you learn blender? Do you have any tips?"

I used to be annoyed by this question. But I've grown to understand it.

When learning any new craft, it's natural to look at those with experience and ask for their "story".

I'm in Korea now and everytime I come across another foreigner who speaks fluent Korean I ask "Hey how did you get so good at Korean?". And I always secretly hope that they'll whisper something about a magical pill that made them speak fluent Korean overnight. But sadly the answer is usually always, "Well I took a few classes, bought some books and just practiced whenever I could."

The road to success is rarely discovered overnight, but it can be made shorter with the right advice. So in this post I'm going to answer the question I get asked the most, and then follow it with 5 Blender Tips on how you can accelerate your learning.

Way back in '04
Ahh yes, the good old days of 2004. Saddam was captured, and Facebook had just launched at Harvard. It was also the year that I first discovered Blender.

Ever since Toy Story I'd admired 3d animation, but always considered it an expensive professionals tool. Then I saw Killer Bean 2, and after realizing it was made by one guy, I wondered if there was some free software somewhere that I could use.

The quick search brought me to ... Anim8or! Which I downloaded it, dabbled around with and promptly quit after realizing there were no tutorials for it.

But a little more searching and I came across this image, created with "Blender".

“Wow, that’s amazing!” said the Andrew of 2004

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