Starbright Illustrations (blog)

By The Illustrator 　http://starbrightillustrations.com/blog/2009/09/19/my-review-of-the-free-pdf-blender-art-magazine/

Wow a free magazine for Blender, BlenderArt Magazine. It’s taken me a surprising amount of time to find and investigate this great resource for users of the Blender 3D graphics suite – I mean it often turns up on the first page of results in any Blender based Google search for goodness sake.

I’d already been looking in newspaper shops and bookshops for a 3D magazine related to 3D graphics without much success. I’d found magazines like 3D Artist on the shelves, but they were all focused on slick how-to features for the more expensive, “professional” packages like 3D Max and Z Brush – there was nothing about Blender.

But then I found Blender Art and I’m really pleased with it. There are lots of articles, discussions, news and tutorials written by ordinary Blender artists, some who obviously have English as a second language, and there is an enthusiasm that shines out of the publication. And another important feature for me is that the PDFs transform very neatly into Mobipocket files, using the free Mobipocket software, so I can read them on my Samsung mobile phone.

I’m currently reading the latest issue, I’m only about half way through, and I’ve already picked up a few tips, including discussions about creating magical effects, using textures to make a backlight and also an idea for how to turn particles into objects.

The illustrations are, as you would expect, all of a very high standard. If you are looking for inspiration it’s worth checking out, and it’s free!