Hi, guys! Today, I will be reviewing Blender 2.79. Now, before I get started, I am going to say that I have been 3d modeling for a while, but I'm still very new to Blender. I had been hearing about Blender for years, but I was always under the impression that the learning curve was steep. Finally, when I did try, I did not know what I was doing. Understandably, that only added to the stigma of impossibility I experienced with Blender. Trying again, I found a written walk-through with photos, and, safe to say, it was smooth sailing from there! So yes, there definitely is a steep learning curve, but taking a tutorial significantly lessons it. So, if you, like I was, are afraid about picking up Blender as a new tool, then don't be! It's not that bad. With that said, let us continue!

Review:

This program does admittedly have a scary UI, but you soon find it is not that bad, and is actually organized very well. I really like the features available, as it has several improvements over simpler, easier modelers. I first started with a guide, (See here! Some things are different due to version discrepancies.) but after finishing the first lesson I took off. I immediately thereafter 3D modeled a toy robot, and was quite impressed with my quickly developing capabilities. I think that the same results would follow anybody who sincerely wants to learn Blender, and that, in reality, Blender not half as daunting as it looks.

Some cons:

• As I wrote, Blender has an intimidating UI.
• Blender has a steep learning curve. You can't just "jump" into Blender you already have to have some prior 3D modeling experience, and even so, you'll probably be lost without a tutorial.
• Blender is slow going. Not to discourage a future Blender user, but to say that if your model is very basic, then you might want to use a more basic modeler, just because it would be faster to design. Blender is more for higher quality work. (I'll admit that it would have been much faster to design my robot in Tinkercad, but for the sake of learning something new, designed it in Blender.)

Some pros:

• I think the default grey UI is easy on the eyes which is certainly helpful when it comes to long hours slaving over a design!
• This is a great tool to switch to if you feel confined with your current editor. Not only that, but it is also open-source (Surely, you know what that means. If not, look it up, it's awesome!).
• This program supports the coloring of your designs via several options by face, brush and a few others. If you like rendering your models with lighted background and more, then this also makes Blender a good choice for you.

And, since I was saving the best for last, this is my favorite pro:

• Blender has an edit mode that lets you just move vertices of a model around, with the faces consequently adjusting. Yes, Blender is a mesh modeler and that is one of the many things that really helps make it awesome. Mesh modelers like Blender are very freeing because you can just break a mesh, drag a vertices around, and create a face around the vertices. In reality, you can do so much more in Blender, things that are simply not available in modelers like Tinkercad, 123D Design (It's deprecated, I know, but some people live by it.), or even OpenSCAD.

If this article hasn't convinced you to take the plunge and try Blender, I will also write that it has a great community, tons of tutorials and guides to get you started, and, (while it can be used for figurine design) is capable of mechanical design. So give it a shot (No, don't download it, install it, run it, and run from it. Download it, install it, run it, find a good tutorial, and create with it.) Thumbs up for Blender.

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or if you want me to review your model then please comment below. Or just like/share it via social media.

Get Blender Here!
PS: That's my robot above! ;)