Is Blender 3D Good for Source/How to Start
Beginning
I started using Blender3D (Blender3D.org) just a few months ago (I had no prior 3D modeling experiance), and I recommend all newcomers to the program to consider the steps I took when learning the program and how to model.
The following are video tutorials from the Blender3D.org website that detail certain vital aspects of Blender that you need in order to get started. I found that the video tutorials help you much more than text tutorials do. I understand that the video files are large. However, I consider them invaluable in learning the program.
Blender Beginner Video Tutorials:
http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Getting_started.400.0.html
(I highly recommend watching them in order.)
When you are through with the video tutorials, try taking a look at the Blender 3D: Noob to Pro wiki. It will gradually take you through a few different projects that will get you familiar with the items you've already learned from the video tutorials.
Is Blender 3D practical for Source Mods?
As it stands, Blender 3D has very limited support for exporting .smd files (for information on the exporter, see this entry by Pelle Johnsen Modeling Props with Blender). The current, and only, .SMD export plugin is a third-party plugin that "does not support skeletons, multiple materials, or animations, but it does support hard/soft edges" (you can download it with this link: http://asrc.pjohnsen.com/downloads/smd_export.py). Therefore, Blender 3D is currently only useful for creating prop models for Source maps. Despite it's limited capabilities due to the exporter, this proves Blender to be a very powerful asset for Source mappers who care to create their own custom content.
With that being said, I would like to call some attention to another third-party .SMD exporter plugin that is currently in the works for Blender that is showing a lot of promise. For more information about the usefullness of Blender 3D as a program, it's applications in the Source engine, and the new plugin that is being created to add full .SMD exporting support to Blender, see this forum thread: ModDB Forums - Blender 3D.
For those in the Source editing community who want a full and complete 3D editing program that is both free and requires little HD space (Blender 3D is a 10MB program, and is comparable to XSI or even 3DS MAX, which are both well over 100MB), Blender 3D is a godsend. Moreover, with the prospect of a new fully functional .SMD exporter on the horizon, Blender 3D is looking like an excellent 3D model authoring solution for Source projects.
By: Frank (a.k.a. Squirrel), a member of the Source editing community.
Feel free to email me if you need some help, or have anything to add.
--Fconcepcion@gmail.com 15:08, 9 Oct 2005 (PDT)