7 of the best online resources for Blender users

Introduction

I always find it helpful to have my finger on the pulse of what resources are out there that are going to help me with my 3D visualization. These might be resources that will speed up my workflow such as plugins, or it could be 3D models that I can insert into my scene. This is particularly helpful for set dressing a house for example. Other resources provide training which help us get better at using Blender. In this article, we give you seven online resources that we find particularly helpful.

Blender Guru

This is arguably one of the most well-known websites for Blender training and resources. They’ve got a ton of tutorials which are well written and produced, many of them include engaging videos produced by Andrew Price. They also have some excellent products that you can purchase which include a mix of assets and training. I love Andrew’s humor in his videos and his down to earth style. Check it out.

Make use of Andrew Price’s training and products to help you learn Blender © Blender Guru

CG Cookie

This website, set up in 2010, gives you training around 3D Animations, Game Art, and Visual Effects with Blender. The resources are put together by a small group of dedicated artists and friends which is amazing considering they’ve amassed more than 500,000 users. They have live classes, tutorials, peer graded exercises, and much more. If you’re into animation they even have a rig you can download to get you started on animating today. I love also that they have a free trial so you can see whether it’s going to work for you.

Use CG Cookie to take your animation skills to the next level © CG Cookie

Blender Nation

This is an excellent website. Blender Nation have collected and continues to collect all of the best 3D models from across the Blender community. So, if you need one or more assets for your project then this would be a great place to check out. As you would expect there’s a great search facility and there is a surprisingly large range of categories covered. There is a mix of different qualities of models on there so you have to do a bit of digging but that’s pretty common for these types of repositories.

Dress your scene with models from the Blender Nation website © Blender Nation

Udemy

Udemy is an incredibly extensive and exhaustive training provider. Their Blender training Modeling for beginners is an excellent place to start if you want to get up to speed with using Blender. The course covers the interface, modeling, materials, the basics of animation, as well as an introduction to the physics engine. The training is clear and accessible and the concepts are well explained.

Udemy provide over 100,000 online video courses with new additions published every month © Udemy

Blend Swap

This website is the home of a community of passionate Blender artists who have chosen to share their work under the range of creative common (CC) licenses. There are a good range of resources available on this website and it’s great that they are provided through the CC licenses. That being said it does take quite a lot of mining and trial and error to find the right model that have been created to the right level of quality. Thankfully they do have a “Staff picks” section which is helpful for more curated resources.

Use Blend Swap to download models under the Creative Commons license © Blend Swap

CG Masters

CG Masters is a training platform for Blender. They provide training courses that you pay for and then a good number of other free video tutorials. The courses include things like hard surface modeling, an animation primer, and various courses on character creation. The free tutorials are also well worth a look as they cover subjects such as Blender overviews, tips, tricks as well as specific modeling tasks.

CG Masters provides paid training courses and free video tutorials © CG Masters

Blender

I don’t think any discussion on Blender resources would be complete without mention of the online home of Blender itself! If you head over to the Support section of their website you can find a range of tutorials, the software documentation, community and professional support, as well as the ability to report bugs. With this being the home of Blender you know you’re going to get good quality, accurate resources that will help you improve your Blender skills.

Make use of the Blender website to access a wide range of tutorials and support © Blender

Make the use of online resources

Hopefully it goes without saying that we really need each other. The Blender community is an incredibly strong and tight knit group of people which is really special. It is made up of absolute beginners who have only just picked up the software to talented pros who have been investing in the software since the very beginning. This is a wonderfully rich resource of expertise and knowledge. Make use of the community resources that I’ve mentioned and have a look for your own too.