(Part 2) Best products from r/blender

Yeah, I like it too. It's Matthew Price's PBR dialectric, with the roughness at 0.5 (I think).

Also the colors work well; good color combinations make a big difference. This is my favorite book with examples of nice color combinations. You can buy it used (it's out of print): http://smile.amazon.com/dp/0891348573/ Well worth reading if you haven't thought much about color combinations.

The node editor is basically an editor for data and operators, and how they relate to each other. It has several different modes, such as the compositor and the Cycles material editor. If you want to know more about the Cycles material editor, read danrich2910 and candreacchio's posts, they covered most of the basics there.

If you want to know more about the compositor, Lord Price does a good (if kind of old at this point) overview here: http://www.blenderguru.com/videos/introduction-to-the-compositor/

The compositor is actually pretty similar to Photoshop or After Effects in some sense, except that it's node-based. Node-based compositing is actually quite superior to the layer-based systems you're probably used to, but for most people it takes a bit for them to wrap their head around it. It's really very simple, you just have a set of building blocks to script out whatever it is you'd normally do in an image editor.

If you want to get really serious about using the compositor, I highly recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Art-Science-Digital-Compositing-Second/dp/0123706386

Especially with node-based compositors, it's very helpful to know what it is you are doing under the hood. (I could never really get which input went where on the alpha-over node until I started reading through this and learned about the "over" operator and what was actually going on back there)

This is the laptop I plan on getting. The company is not as well-known as Dell, but I've been told they have great customer support. The model I linked to has more or less the same specs but is $250 cheaper.

I would recommend something more like this. It's a much better deal IMO and would be much better for Blender. The computer you chose doesn't have a video card, and video cards are generally faster for rendering if you set the tile sizes right.

I couldn't help but notice that in the video there wasn't any support for Blender. Unfortunately at least in my case, as as cool as it sounds, I feel like I'd rather spend 1/2 to 1/3 of the price and get the Logitech G13. I'm not sure if it would even work but I feel like you'd have more options and could pretty much make a solid workflow based around that and your mouse (I use one with my buttons remapped).

I read "3D modeling in Blender" by Robbie Tarte recently and found it really helpful https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01LZP64RR/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1494443151&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=blender+modeling&dpPl=1&dpID=51kpEghQXaL&ref=plSrch He explains everything clearly, my only criticism is that he misses out a few topics such as curves and boolean modifiers which I would like to have read about. The Kindle sample includes the full contents list so it is worth looking at that before you buy the book to check that he covers the topics that you are most interested in.

Great start!
I also wanted to learn 3d modeling dinosaurs so I bought this book, http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1584502096/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1422197154&sr=8-1

Sadly I never had any time so. But the book is good it shows how to model differ dinosaurs and texture them :)

The most recent book I know of is the Blender Master Class. It seems to fit what you are looking for though I have not gone through the entire book myself. Hope it helps!

The proportions seem off, specifically the eyes are too close together. Check this out. I also recommend Figure Drawing for Dummies, great book that covers human body proportions in detail.

'Stop Staring' is a great book and thoroughly explains the fundamentals including how to do animation friendly topology.

https://www.amazon.com/Stop-Staring-Facial-Modeling-Animation/dp/0470609907

Thank you! I appreciate those pointers and resources more than you could know. Is this the book you were referring to?

I was thinking this plus a case and wireless connectivity. Do you have thoughts on any of that? The one I'm thinking of is small but we live in a small space (as in 475sq ft studio including kitchen and bathroom) so I think it makes sense for now.

Thanks!

Retopology huh? Thank you! I need to learn how to do that. I couldn’t find how to fix those pinches.

I saw that mug on one of the shopping sites and liked it alot. Search it, they do sell it.

I mostly followed the key poses laid out in Character Animation Fundamentals. Added a little bit of follow-through and overlapping action myself but probably couldn't have done the big parts as good on my own.... yet, I hope.

Borrowed the rigged character from VMComix on Blenderswap.

I recently purchased this book, http://www.amazon.com/Game-Character-Creation-Blender-Unity/dp/1118172728
Which covers everything you are asking for, this was my first try at a written tutorial, which I found everything fairly easy to follow. I would say it's worth the money.

I've found this which is only slightly larger than the intuos small (i think).

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008Y40DQU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008Y40DQU&linkCode=as2&tag=thebestgraphicstablets-20

Given i have a small desk and i would like it to be portable i think something this size could be quite good.
>
> You can also set it to mouse mode, but that's never worked for me so I cant really comment on that.

I can see myself using the mouse instead of the tablet so that shouldnt be a problem

But on the other hand, this backpack almost seems to have the same weirdness... so maybe it's right after all and a product of the lighting setup?

http://www.amazon.com/JanSport-Superbreak-Classic-Backpack-Black/dp/B0007QCQGI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1420869147&sr=8-2&keywords=backpack

I found GTX660 cards on amazon for £130-£150 like this one

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-NVIDIA-GTX660-PCI-E-Graphics/dp/B0099AOAUI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382878830&sr=8-1&keywords=GTX660

A new mouse (even a cheap $10 one) would save you a LOT of grief...

Think about it ... how can you sculpt a human if you don't know what to sculpt? The surface contours of a human or animal are defined by the underlying structures, the bone and muscles. Hence you need to study those structures so you know how to actually sculpt or model a human or animal. The following are books on Amazon on anatomy for artists:

Anatomy for Sculptors: Understanding the Human Figure

Anatomy for 3D Artists: The Essential Guide for CG Professionals

Basic Human Anatomy: An Essential Visual Guide for Artists

Classic Human Anatomy: The Artist's Guide to Form, Function, and Movement

An Atlas of Animal Anatomy for Artists

Or you can use Makehuman.

For less messy amazon links you can extract the part after "/dp/" in

https://www.amazon.com/Designers-Guide-Color-Combinations/dp/0891348573/ref=mt_hardcover

and make it:

https://amzn.com/0891348573

Or via smile link:

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0891348573

BEEP BOP

Plz send any recommendations via PM