Animating with Blender: How to
Create Short Animations from Start
to Finish by Roland Hess
Great Book On Blender's Animation Capabilities
Blender has become one of the most popular 3D and animation tools on
the market, with over 2 million users, and it is free! Animating with Blender
is the definitive resource for creating short animation projects from scratch,
the ideal platform for experimenting with animation.
Blender expert and author Roland Hess walks you through the entire
process of creating a short animation, from writing to storyboarding and
blocking, through character creation, animation and rendering.

* Learn the ropes from Roland Hess, one of Blenders developers and a
community guru for this FREE animation program, which was used in the
previz for Spiderman 2
* Create a single short animation project from start to finish, take an in-
depth look into how all of the Blender tools work together
* Study, pick apart and reuse all of the files from the animation referenced
throughout the book, with the Blender software and sample animation files
included on the companion DVD
Personal Review: Animating with Blender: How to Create Short
Animations from Start to Finish by Roland Hess
I have found a new way to torture myself: read books about all the
magnificent things you can do with Blender - and lack the artistic talent
necessary to do them.
Blender is a wonder. It is an open source, free 3-D modeling
program equivalent in many ways to commercial programs that sell for
many thousands of dollars. For artists, architects, animators and many
others, Blender is a dream come true. It delivers to them capabilities for
free that they might never otherwise had access to.
There is an indirect price to be paid. Blender has a very high
learning curve, which is to be expected with a program this powerful and
capable.
Among Blender's many capabilities is animation, which is very
demanding. Animation also requires some modicum of artistic skills, which
- to my great regret - I lack.
But if I possessed the skill to draw something beyond a very crude
stick figure, this is the book that would teach me how to animate in
Blender.
The author, D. Roland Hess, has a marvelously clear writing style,
which is very helpful for novices.
Hess takes it in a step-by-step manner, beginning with an overview
of the "short animation process". Much to his credit, Hess doesn't engage
in sugarcoating the process: it is time-consuming, difficult and complex.
Success is anything but assured.

The core example of the book is "The Beast", a 4 minute animation
that took the author to in somewhat more than 200 hours. That's 50 hours
for each minute of finished animation!
And you'll understand why as the author leads you through the
process, explaining how Blender is used at each stage. He also puts a lot
of emphasis on things like the story - don't leave home without a finished
story - and extras you may need, such as sound equipment.
The true beauty of the book is in the chapters on the mechanics of
Blender: gems like creating rought drafts, rigging and skinning, facial
motion and controls, lip sync and so on. All of the chapters are very well
illustrated and Hess's descriptions are very easy to follow.
A word of warning: this is not a book for people first starting with
Blender: you must have at least a basic understanding of Blender if most
of the book is going to make sense to you.
Other than animating squares, circles and other geometric shapes -
or developing a relationship with a very generous artist - I won't be doing
any animations with Blender. But if I had the requisite artistic talent or
partnered with someone who did have it, this is the book I would learn
Blender animation from. Even though I can't put the lessons to work, it is
also a fun read just to see how accessible such capabilities have become.
Jerry
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