Blender 4.1 has entered Release Candidate stage!

[Larry Shelby]

The official release is planned for next week, please test and report any issues you may find.

https://builder.blender.org/download/daily/

[Hillmy]

Looks like it's releasing on the 19th! https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/milestone/18 During Blender at GDC 2024 https://www.blender.org/press/blender-at-gdc-2024/

Edited March 14 by Hillmy

[mettelus]

I was just telling someone last week that Blender is probably the most powerful free app out there, with DaVinci Resolve running a very close second. For those not familiar with Blender, it is an incredibly capable 3D rendering program BUT it will intimidate the crap out of new people as many things are not intuitive until you actually do them.

For new folks, this Blender tutorial series is exceptional (and relatively short), and walks through a lot of the major components of Blender. He has redone this with each major Blender release and touches upon a lot of tips and shortcuts that are most commonly used along the way to making donut(s). If totally new to Blender, I recommend starting with that series and then other tutorials you watch will make more sense because you can understand what they are doing (not a lot of tutorials say/show the shortcut keys being pressed as they bebop around, so they can just confuse you further).

Side comment: you will very much want a mouse with a middle mouse button (many mice with scroll wheels have a button if the wheel is pressed)... Blender is one of the few apps that almost relies on the middle mouse button for tasks. Although you can alter the app to set ALT-left click as the "middle mouse button," having a real one is highly preferred.

[jude77]

I've been working with Blender for a bit over a year.  It is, indeed, an amazing program that will do anything 3D you can imagine.  As @mettelus rightly notes, however, it can be overwhelming, but if you hunker down with the tuts and work with it a bit everyday you will make progress.  Plus, you will learn things you never imagined needing.  Boolean curves, anyone?