I Haven't Used Blender in Years: Help!

Hi all,

I used to use Blender extensively and enthusiastically, but life has a way of sidetracking one’s hobbies. I’m looking to get back into the game; however, the last version I used was 2.48!

Obviously a lot has changed and there’s so much to catch up on. Where do I start? What major additions since 2.48 should I take advantage of? Are there any good resources out there that will help me get my crusty old knowledge up to date?

Moved from “General Forums > Blender and CG Discussions” to “Support > Basics & Interface”

try it may directly from latest official version of build!

or may be start with a look at CGcookie videos tut for some intro to 2.5 blender
even if not the last version it will show you how it has been changed

after look at some tut from blenderguru

and you can always ask questions here in forums

and yes like 100 new tools and new script addons compare to old 2.48

so good luck with the upgrade and should not be that difficult
and 2.5 is way more powerfull then older 2.48

happy bl

Also on Blender Cookie, they did a “what’s new” for just about every release since 2.5 and that will at least tell you what you need to look into.

Hey adenzerda,
Depending what your area of interest in Blender is, you should probably ask questions relating to that.

As RickyBlender mentioned, definitely the CG Cookie vids introduction to Blender 2.5 are going to be something to get a grasp on the main window and UI changes. You should be able to pick up on that fairly easy.

For me personally, aside the much improved UI, the biggest addition is Dynamic Topology in sculpting, Dyntopo. If sculpting is yuour thing, you’ll be happy about that.

Another one is the Cycles rendering engine. Most of the renders you see on BA nowdays are rendered in Cycles. Having never used it, there’s a steep hill ahead of you to climb. It will be very rewarding if rendering is your thing. Again CG Cookkie has a bunch of vids to get you going.

BMesh is the new mesh system that supports nGons. This has transformed poly modeling. Something to look forward to if you like modeling.

Texture painting has just gotten a major addition, but this is still not part of the official build, it’s on review.

Dynamic Paint is a very handy vfx tool for particle/mesh interacions.

Re-Topo has gotten very good with addition of some cool addons (bsurfaces), and BMesh of course.

That’s my take on it. There’s tons of other stuff, but like I said, you should probably ask that question in regards to specific areas of your interest and you’ll probably get a much more indepth answer.

also you can search wiki for the release logs notes
for all new features added for each version

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes

I cannot go directly to that page
so have to search wiki first then get the page !

happy bl

Thanks to everyone who’s replied so far!

Modeling and lighting are definitely my jam, so Cycles and BMesh sound super promising. With regards to BMesh, I’ve always been taught to avoid n-gons when possible*—*has the industry changed to accept them?

Off to check out Blender Cookie

For Ngon nothing wrong using it if don’t do animation with deformations
but for time being still not friendly with loop tool !

happy bl

It’s still a good idea to avoid them in a finished mesh, but being able to use them while you are modelling can speed things up considerably.

Best wishes,
Matthew