Foreword

Truth be told, the first time I downloaded Blender I didn’t know what I was getting into. I thought this animation stuff would be easy! I was about 14 years old when I first tried Blender, and if I remember correctly, it was probably about a year after the software was released as open source. That first day I spent about eight hours trying to model a cube, vertex by vertex. When I ended up with something that more closely resembled a scrambled egg, I wiped Blender from my hard drive out of frustration. I was not ready for Blender, and Blender was not ready for me. It was clunky and intimidating and hard on the eyes.

But when I came back to it only a couple months later, with a bit more patience and determination, I fell in love.

I feel in a way that I have grown up with Blender. As I have matured as an artist, I have witnessed Blender mature. Over the years I have been astonished at the rate of its development and the increasing breadth of its feature set. Blender has always been a capable 3D tool, but I think it’s only recently that it truly stands its ground next to its commercial counterparts. It has been my privilege to watch the software and the Blender community grow.

Like many others, I was awed and impressed by Elephants Dream and Big Buck Bunny. In addition to being great films in their own rights, both projects spearheaded massive improvements in Blender and have proven its viability in a more serious (and fully open source!) production environment. As an aspiring filmmaker, I was greatly motivated by those projects. It’s really possible to make movies with entirely free software! It was a dream come true for me to become involved in the third Blender Open Movie Project, Sintel.

If I learned anything on the project, it’s that making movies is hard. 3D animation is an incredibly complex process, and every step can be a struggle on both an artistic and a technical level.

There’s a lot to learn. And learning takes time.

There are a myriad of training materials out there, of varying clarity and quality. I know I’ve personally sifted through dozens of written tutorials, wiki docs, and videos, trying to figure out how to approach my personal animation projects. Tony Mullen’s book Character Animation with Blender is the authoritative guide on the technical side of animation in Blender. From an introduction of using the interface to the nitty-gritty details of setting up drivers for facial shape keys, this book will guide you through the complex landscape of Blender’s animation tools and ultimately help you do the work you aspire to do.

I wish everyone reading this the best of luck!

— Colin Levy

Director, Sintel