Is Blender 3D Good for Source/How to Start
Is Blender 3D practical for Source Mods?
As it stands, Blender 3D has very limited support for exporting .SMD files. (For information on the currently-available exporter, see Modeling props with Blender.) This is currently the only .SMD export plugin available for Blender, and it "does not support skeletons, multiple materials, or animations, but it does support hard/soft edges". You can download it with this link. Therefore, Blender 3D is currently only useful for creating prop models for Source maps. Despite its limited export capabilities, Blender is a very powerful asset for Source mappers who want to create their own custom content.
There is also a third-party .SMD exporter plugin currently in the works. For more information about the usefulness of Blender 3D as a program, its applications in the Source engine, and the new plugin that is being created to add full .SMD exporting support to Blender, see these forum threads: plugin, 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.
Beginning with Blender 3D
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. The video tutorials are highly illustrative and may prove to be more helpful to those users who are less than enthusiastic about text tutorials. While the video files are large in size, new users should strongly consider viewing them.
Blender Beginner Video Tutorials
It is recommended that you watch the videos in the order they are presented.
When finished with the video tutorials, try taking a look at the Blender 3D: Noob to Pro wiki. It gradually steps through a few different projects that will provide some additional experience with the tools already learned from the video tutorials.
Beyond the beginning
For more advanced video tutorials: Greybeard's Blender Tutorials
Useful keys in Blender 3D
Manipulation
- S (scale)
- G (grab/move)
- R (rotate)
Selection
- A (select all)
- Ctrl-Leftclick (freehand select)
- B (border select)
Faces
- F (create face)
- Shift-F (connect selected vertices with faces; all vertices must be connected by edges in some way)
Special Keys
- K (knife tool)
- W (special actions menu)
- Ctrl-J (join selected objects)
3D Cursor
- Shift-S (3D cursor options)
Other Toggles
- Tab (toggle edit mode/object mode)
- Z (wireframe toggle)
