Learning Blender: A Hands-On Guide to Creating 3D Animated Characters

OK, I just spent about 30 good minutes reviewing the table of contents and key chapters in the book. Since I have did video tutorials of creating models in Blender before, while not an expert on 3D modeling, that experience has at least prepared me what to look for in evaluating this book for it's capacity to help me become a better 3D modeler in Blender.There were two things I was concerned about when I bought this book:1) The author is a native of Spain so would I be able to understand his style of English?a) Yes, his English is excellent, concise, and attention holding and not droning or boring.2) To teach all this book teaches in about 325 pages is a whole lot to learn and not a lot of pages to learn it in. It also, because of the very visual nature of what is being taught requires quite a lot of images to illustrate concepts and explanations that no amount of words could do concisely or as accurately so that reduces the amount of teaching verbal explanation quite a bit in 125 pages.a) The book manages to teach everything concisely and well as promised in the 325 pages. The table of contents of index where given extra details when he organized the writing of this book so it could be used as a quick review & reference source by forgetful amateurs such as myself. The basic concepts are taught generically and simply as learning, preparation, and practice before you are taken to actually applying the same concepts and tools to modeling a character. The book is quite detailed in teaching you these things.This book is excellent!

Fantastic - this is a short book - not that I care or measure in the thickness thereof, but about a half inch thick. I add that info because I was expecting some rather lengthy read. I was disappointed at first. But - it gets to the point really quick. I would expect anyone that is starting with vector graphics the first time might have to add in some you tube time to go along with this. But if you already have a general idea on what a vector line is (bezier curve), a plane (not that you fly), and a coordinate system (x, y, z) - then this book will get you into 2D layout to extrusion into solid forms very quickly. From there you go quickly into Boolean operations, etc.In short fashion you will actually build the little guy on the cover of the book. And he's not that hard to make with the way the author explains it. For myself, I had no interest in making characters, I just wanted a quick introduction into the tool set. But if you are wondering about the character art, then you will be happy with this selection.I was happy with this more than I expected. And I have already used it more than once as a reference because the progress of the tool set is laid out in short order in about 1/4 of the total book and reads from simplicity to complexity...

This book has become part of my desk. I'm very early in my Blender training and this book helps me by answering my questions. How to navigate the screens, where's the this or the that, you know the things beginners need to know. Helps tie all the videos and forums together.

Excellently written and updated book. I am working through the tutorials for the character mesh building and rigging. I am finding this an easy to follow step-by-step approach for modelling characters correctly. It also has a great guide to Blender functionality and use in the early sections for version 2.78.

Oliver Villar' is a master teacher taking you all the way from an idea and a crudesketch to a short finished animation. Unlike so many other blender books he evendelves into character design philosophy where he blocks out a character in aniterative process instead of just presenting a finished design that doesn't let yousee the process by which the artist created it.The book is generously illustrated and the author includes on his website plentyof videos made for the book that are a great help in learning.

I bought this for my son who usually struggles with tech stuff. He was able to create some cool stuff while using this book. I bought it for a specific version of Bender and found out when i looked at the book that i had the wrong version. But, it still was usable.

This book has demystified 3D character creation. I just wish Blender wasn’t so buggy. The version I’m using now 2.81 is more reliable. Hopefully I’ll be able to apply what I learned when modeling my own characters.

This book seems to be well written, easy to follow, and a good resource. However, this edition (2nd) that I purchased is pretty behind the current version (2.9) and as such there are commands that don't work as they should, instructions that have changed, or items that have simply been moved to new areas of the program. This is always an issue with buying books based on computer programs so I wasn't all that surprised. If you were depending on this book to learn though you would be frustrated. The concept though, character creation, is VERY good and I think at least the subject is timeless even if its in program directions aren't. Buy the book for the character development but don't expect to get a lot from the directions although a lot of them still work fine.