I'm thinking of getting blender for a school project to be done over the course of about a month.
Is it free?
Hard to use?
Does it take up a lot of computer space?
Could I use it effectively in this time?
Thanks.
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Well, I happen to be somewhat good at blender, so I may be able to answer your questions.
1. It is free.
2. It has a bit of a learning curve, but nothing too difficult if you have spare time.
3.Um... do you count 30mb as a lot? because on our old computer, that was a lot.
4. Well, it depends on what you want to do. Do you want to make a statue of a creeper? Sure. Do you want to put that into the real world? A bit more difficult. Do you want to make a short film? Probably not.
I hope I helped!
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Is it free?
Yes. It's perfectly free at blender.org.
Hard to use?
That depends. Blender 2.49b is a good program for beginners, many tutorials and a basic tutorial at 3dartistconnect.weebly.com. Blender 2.6a, the newest version as of yet, is a powerful application with many new features, however the interface isn't quite as easy to navigate (the first thing I suggest if you pick this one is looking up a fluid tutorial for it; it shows you how to scroll through sections, even if you don't look at anything else). Overall, I think that it's simple enough.
Does it take up a lot of computer space?
No. If memory serves, it's about 2 MB. Still, it's got a lot of features in it. It's written in Python which (I think) usually makes relatively small file sizes- the Python program itself is only 1KB!
Could I use it effectively in this time?
Again, that depends. If you are comfortable with it and find the interface easy to use, and can use the tools it gives you efficiently, then yes. If fact, you might be able to make something pretty good in under two weeks!
Python in Blender:
Blender does allow some text-based programming, which, while not necessary, can be very useful and may speed up development. Blender 2.49b and previously work with the Python 2.x.x version, while Blender 2.6a, the newest (while I type), uses the Python 3 variant. If you have skill in either of these, then you may find them immensely useful. If not, don't worry. And if you are more skilled in one of them than the other, that shouldn't matter, as the general syntax is largely the same, and the methods in which you use them minimize the different languages as well.
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The robotics challenge is to create some type of video, and I thought it'd be a minecraft video, kinda like something Captain Sparklez has made.
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Is it free? Yes, @ blender.org
Hard to use? For me it was hard to get the hang of, if your very computer-oriented, you'll do just fine.
Does it take up a lot of computer space? Nope
Could I use it effectively in this time? Definitely.
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Nexstudent wrote:
The robotics challenge is to create some type of video, and I thought it'd be a minecraft video, kinda like something Captain Sparklez has made.
Ooh... you know, he doesn't use blender, but something else. I'm making a Blender 2.6 MC rig, incidentally, which you can just import any skin. However, the sets would be tedious, and so you would need to be doing that as your job, like CaptainSparklez does. Also, to get something really good you need to use the new render engine, Cycles, which is good for stills but not so much for animations, at least for anyone short of Pixar. So... ask me a couple months ago. You could make a short video with not much a set, but not a music video or anything like that, unless you use real MC footage.
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Nexstudent wrote:
I'm thinking of getting blender for a school project to be done over the course of about a month.
Is it free? yes
Hard to use? yes
Does it take up a lot of computer space? not a lot, but quite a bit
Could I use it effectively in this time? if you work on it a few hours EVERY day
Thanks.
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Yep, it is free.
Just dont think they made an animation like sintel or big buck bunny in one day, one person. It was loads and loads of people, and many days.
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