Initial Blendering
We are almost up to date! Over the past month I have started to work through some Blender tutorials just like I did with Gimp previously. There are a HUGE number of tutorials out there! I started out going through the Blender online manual and went on from there. I won't bore you with all of the things I've been doing the last few weeks, but just a couple of highlights that I think have been most helpful to me.
The manual taught me most of the basics of the Blender interface, which now is surprisingly intuitive. I've never used a 3D program before, but feel very comfortable with Blender now. The online manual also went through the basics of modeling. One of the most important tools was modeling with a reference image. This model was based on a little figurine that I have in my apartment of a "Happy Buddha." 
After going through some of the basics of modelling, I ran across the video tutorials at www.spaghettimoon.co.uk/downloadpot.htm. Jonathan does an excellent job with these tutorials and I went through his series to model who he refers to as Bob the Zombie.
He is a pretty rough human shape, but the series of tutorials are an excellent introduction to a lot of modelling techniques.
Not the least of which is making eyes!.jpg)
These were modelled after my beautiful girlfriend's eyes:
The Discovery
I've always been interested in computer graphics. I think this stems from my interest in traditional art (drawing and photography) and my interest in technology and computers. I recently started to do some web design and stumbled across/discovered the open source program GIMP.
GIMP is short for GNU Image Manipulation Program, which is an open source, freely distributed image program (think adobe photoshop). The program is incredible in what it can do and if you have any interests at all in touching up photos or other computer artwork I encourage you to check out their site and the program itself. GIMP and the online community surrounding it offers a huge number of tutorials for all skill levels and I got in to learning about the program through these documents.
I began to play with some pictures that I had taken (I also enjoy photography) and came up with a number of nice images:.jpg)
This image was taken at Shenandoah National Park during my girlfriend and I's hiking expedition last summer. I really like the effect of a color area in a black and white picture.
This is a quick snapshot of one of my bikes (biking is somewhat of an obsession of mine). Along with the selective colorization, I also added some patterned text with a shadow.
A few years ago my mother started a craft business which has really taken off. For Christmas last year I designed a website for her business in which I used GIMP for all the design work. After learning CSS, I am fairly happy with the way the site came out. It is a great way for me to learn about web design and for her to showcase some of her artwork. She would be thrilled if you took a look at it: Birds on a Feather.
I had started to play around with the 3D logo effect in GIMP (the feather logo uses it a little bit) and wanted to expand. This led to the discovery of the fabulous 3D open source program called Blender.
That was about a month ago and ever since I have been in awe. It is like this whole new world of computer graphics that I knew about, but could never break into before. I am still just scratching the surface now, but if you have any interest at all in 3D design do a little research about Blender.
I'll follow up next time with some of my first Blender projects and what I've been working on recently!
Open Sourcing Myself...
Open source software is amazing. If you are not familiar with the term "open source" it is the practice of freely distributing the source code of software. This allows normal people to add to a program or fix a bug they come across. The practice stems from the idea that the collective brain is smarter than an individual one.
This concept really is a bit lost today in our society. Everything seems to be a secret nowadays that people have no issues about charging for. For example, Microsoft charges hundreds of dollars for their Windows operating system and think of all the complaints that you have heard or even given about it! Have you ever said something to the affect of "If I was writing this software I would change this or fix that..." That is exactly what the open source community offers.
Imagine the next time you get an error message pop up from Windows, that you restart the computer, go into the source code, and fix the error. Then, you tell everyone about your fix and give them a copy for free. They would absolutely love you! This happens daily with programs like Blender, Gimp, and Open Office.
Thousands of people out there use these programs, find ways to improve them, and then actually do it. Not only do they actually do it, but they come out with new versions on a regular basis (available for free) that fixes bugs and adds features.
All of these programs have huge web followings, so even if you don't program yourself, you can drop in to one of these forums (the people in these forums are actually nice!) and post what you found or think needs improvement. There will be someone there who will A.) Thank you for your suggestions and B.) Actually write the code and release it in a new version eventually, then give it to you. It's absolutely amazing!
It's also really inspiring to me. I am a constant learner and these programs (Blender and Gimp in particular) have given me something to learn without becoming broke buying professional software. I am most definitely not an artist, but I really enjoy designing things and showing them off. I also enjoy getting feedback on everything with ways to improve.
In a way, I am open sourcing my life, parts of it anyway. I hope to post some projects that I've been working on, so I can keep track of my progress and so I can get some comments about them. I hope you enjoy it!
