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  1. Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, video editing and 2D animation pipeline.
  2. Blendr - chat, date and meet with over 495 million people. Join our community and make new friends in your area.
  3. Blender's official documentation can be found in the online Blender Manual.The Blender Manual is written using reStructuredText (RST) and is built with Sphinx. This project is run by a small team of volunteers and we would love your contributions!
  4. Take your first steps to becoming a 3D character artist - learn everything from modelling to painting to animating the character. The course is the sequel to the highly popular Blender Character Creator course, enjoyed by 10s of thousands of students. This course has been created using Blender 2.83 and is compatible with newer versions of Blender.

A place to show your work and talk with thousands of other fellow artists & get quality constructive feedback. 33,978 members.

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Blender is a powerful 3D computer graphics suite that's totally free for all users.

In Blender you can model objects, create textures, and animate models all under one roof. Because it's open source Blender leans towards flexibility and customization more than many other 3D programs.

In fact, Blender is so capable with so many features and options, it can be easily overwhelming to new users. It was this fact that led to the new UI overhaul coming with Blender 2.8.

But beginners should not be afraid. Blender is worth learning and easy to use once you get the hang of it.

This is an exciting time to learn Blender! The last few years have seen a big surge in users and the development team has responded by adding plenty of exciting new features.

This guide will focus primarily on animation tutorials so this is perfect for anyone animating game assets or looking into animation as a career.

Animate in Blender

When it comes to learning animation, having a great instructor goes a long way.

Steve from CG Geek is an awesome teacher with a lot of great content on YouTube. In this video he'll show you the ropes of creating animations using Blender.

This tutorial covers a lot of ground so get ready to dive in. You'll start with the basics of animating a cube and work your way towards rigging and animating a character. This video, like Blender itself, forces you to learn quickly.

Rigging and animation are difficult even for experienced CG artists.

The trick is to practice and keep learning from others.

Animation For Absolute Beginners

In this beginner Blender tutorial by Surfaced Studio you'll take an in-depth look at the timeline feature.

The timeline is where you create and manage the keyframes that define your animations.

Keyframe animation allows you to store data about the bones in your rig. Keyframes can store information about the position, rotation, and scale of the bones.

By changing these values along the timeline you create animation.

This video also covers using the dope sheet which is also crucial to learn.

The dope sheet gives you full control over the animations in your scene. You can speed up or slow down animations as well as define actions which can be exported to a game engine.

Easy Blender Animation For Beginners

I recommend this video to those who are brand new to Blender.

It serves as a great introduction to the basics of navigating the interface before diving into Blender's more advanced features.

After a short demonstration of the basics you'll learn how to animate objects using physics. This is a great tool to learn because adding physics can help you achieve more realistic scenes.

You'll also learn about the grease pencil to plan an animation. Years ago, artists would make notes directly on their monitors. Now you can use the grease pencil instead.

Lastly you'll learn how to export your video for playback as a movie.

Walk Cycle

Walk cycles are a necessary part of character animation and, unfortunately, they can be intimidating for beginners.

The secret to making good walk cycles is to break them down into key frames and practice often.

This excellent tutorial by Sebastian Lague details the creation of a walk cycle in Blender. There's a lot of ground to cover so you might want to grab a cup of coffee before starting.

Lague teaches everything necessary for making professional quality animated characters. With a great teaching style and plenty of tips and tricks, I can't recommend this tutorial enough.

Cartoon Tank(Modeling & Animation)

Blender is such a massive program with so many features. It can be hard to find videos that cover the entire process of creating and animation objects.

This one by Olva3D will guide you through building a tank from scratch and animating it.

The whole thing starts off with some great tricks using the array modifier to duplicate the tank tracks. After some low poly construction the tutorial moves on to lighting and animation.

Students looking for an overview of the process of animating in Blender should pay attention to the general workflow and speed of development.

Over time you'll develop your own process, but it's good to see how other artists create their work.

Quick Water Animation

Olav3D is back with this tutorial on creating an amazing water scene. Animal crossing coming soon.

Blender is packed full of features thanks to the open source community so fluid simulations are surprisingly easy.

With Blender's powerful physics and rendering engine, it's possible to create realistic water with relative ease.

With this 10 minute demonstration you'll learn how to set up a water simulation using the physics tab. After the simulation has finished baking, Olav adds textures and lights to the scene to finish the render.

Realistic Cutting Animation

In this advanced animation tutorial by BlenderMania you will learn how to utilize vertex groups to slice an object.

You'll get a detailed overview of the entire process of creating a realistic scene of an orange being sliced.

Sounds simple but really there's a lot to take away here.
Paying special attention to the motion of the knife, BlenderMania achieves a higher level of realism in the end result.

You'll also learn how to take advantage of nodes to create materials that use gloss and texture.

Realistic Animated Trees

Blender has a ton of add-ons that come pre-installed.

You can turn them on or off by visiting the user preferences options. CG Geek shows how to use one of these add-ons called the sapling tool. This tool makes it easy to create trees.

Using the sapling add-on it's possible to generate an endless variety of trees for any scene.

With controls for the number of branches, sides, height, and so much more, you can create nearly any type of tree you could think of. Hint: try cloning the trees to make a forest environment.

Cannon

With another great tutorial by Olav3D, you can learn the process of modelling and animating a cannon start-to-finish.

This video offers a chance to sharpen yours skills and practice a workflow of Blender animation.

Olav teaches modeling a simple cannon and creating a metal texture before moving onto the animation. You'll learn how to fire the cannonball using Blender's physics engine too.

Plus by adding collisions the ball can interact with your scene in realistic ways.

All you need to do is set a few properties and Blender will handle the rest.

Rolling Dice

This stunning tutorial offers a step-by-step guide to creating some rolling dice. The video is about fifteen minutes long but the results will leave you astonished.

Instructor Jeremy Jones skillfully makes use of Blender's advanced features to create a realistic dice roll. By taking advantage of the physics engine, Jeremy gives the dice a believable rolling motion along a simulated felt table.

This tutorial covers a lot of information in a fashion that's easy to digest.

Do yourself a favor and follow along to really hone your animating skills.

Wood Chipping Text

3D text is an essential part of learning motion graphics.

This video teaches how to model and animate text in Blender to create a wood chipping effect.

With detailed instructions, tutor4u shows the entire process of building the scene. You'll cover modeling, UV unwrapping, lightning, and animating in less than 20 minutes.

If that seems like whirlwind speed, don't worry. The instructions are presented in an easy-to-follow manner.

There are some great tips in this video from a professional Blender animator making it well worth your time to follow along.

Flag Blowing in the Wind

In this half-hour tutorial on Blender's cloth simulator you get to see the process of animating a flag in full.

Taking advantage of the physics simulation will not only save you time but also allow you to create more realistic effects.

The cloth simulation will deform a subdivided plane so that it looks like fabric. This feature has a variety of applications beyond making flags. Use it to drape a table with a tablecloth or dress a character in a wizard's cape.

This also makes use of the Cycles render engine available within Blender.

With cycles, greater levels of realism can be achieved through the use of advanced lightning algorithms.

Planets Colliding

This is the big tutorial you've been waiting for.

You'll be making not one, but two planetary explosions set against a cosmic background in primordial space.

tutor4u's excellent guide is easy to follow and filled with amazing tips.

You'll see how to adjust the interpolation rates in the graph editor to create linear motion. You'll also learn how editing the curves gives more control over the feel of the animation.

By the end of this 30 minute tutorial you should have a render you'll be proud to show your friends. I mean, who doesn't like smashing planets?

Fluid Simulation

Fans of low-poly art will love this video on fluid simulation.

3D animator Gabriel Aguiar demonstrates how to create a waterfall in a pirate's cove.

Blender's fluid system can calculate the flow of water dynamically. All we need to do is provide the outflow and the domain.

The outflow is necessary to input water into the scene while the domain is used to contain it.

With these tools it's possible to create any number of fluid systems. Use it to make anything from a bathtub to an entire ocean.

Rig & Animate Anything

Rigging and animation take a lot of practice to master. But once you learn the tools, you'll be able to animate anything you want.

It's with this mindset that Remington Graphics approaches this tutorial on Blender animation.

By walking viewers through the entire process of rigging and animating a Star Wars character, you can more easily learn the workflow of creating motion in Blender.

It can be a tedious process but it's well worth the effort when you finally bring characters to life.

This 20-minute video teaches all the basics you need to know within a real-world example. It doesn't matter if you want to animate a dragon or a chicken, the process is the same: create a bone structure, parent it to the mesh, paint weights, and finally animate the bones.

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Building 3D models can be a time-consuming process.

To jumpstart the creation process we've compiled a list of free blender models and character rigs. These are all free but for the models found in Sketchfab and Turbosquid, you will be required to log-in first before downloading anything.

While most of these assets are made by and for Blender, the models can also be used in other 3D applications too. These can be exported as FBX or OBJ formats which can still be used even if you don't work in Blender.

Also before downloading anything be sure to check the licenses on each model. Not all of them allow commercial use which can lead to copyright issues. In general if you're using models for personal use you're probably good but it's always smart to double check!

Free Models

Lumberjack Darius

League of Legends' Darius is given a makeover as a lumberjack reminiscent of Logan in his time in the Canadian forests.

This model comes with a low poly mesh count with a single 2k texture set. And just like the original Darius in League of Legends, he sports a massive axe.

A default T-pose is not provided but you can learn a lot on how to create an appealing character despite the model and texture constraints.

Because the model is a contest entry you can find the author's work in progress in this thread. Zbrush was used for creating the high poly design, Blender for retopology, UV unwrapping, and rigging. Then lastly 3D Coat and Photoshop for painting.

Vivi Ornitier

You may remember Vivi as the small charming magician from Final Fantasy IX who also happens to be a playable character.

Apart from his emissive texture, the model also comes with different textures for every major part such as its coat, legs, and hands, all while providing high detail definition of every aspect.

Reptile Mage

This reptile mage is also a caster type. Unlike Vivi, this model is built on a low poly count mesh with a hand-painted texture.

In more ways than one, the design is reminiscent of a Pokemon that mated with an Argonian Mage in Elder Scrolls.

Its head is larger in proportion to the rest of its body adding an adorable appeal. It sports a number of magical items including a pair of boots, a staff, and a cape.

Lowpoly McCree

McCree is a stylized low-poly model taken from McCree, the Damage hero in Overwatch.

The model is neither skinned nor weighted with a pose in an almost neutral state.

However its limbs can be adjusted to create a T-pose. The character also sports several props such as a gun, a wad of cash, and a cigarette.

Knight Artorias

Inspired by the Dark Souls boss Astorias the Abysswalker, this model comes with a complete PBR texture from the base color to roughness maps.

The model stays true to its inspiration with ornamental metal armor and a cloth mask that extends into a cape. All of this is complemented with a massive sword for fighting baddies.

Alice

Based on Lost Saga's Alice who's also based on the fictional character of the same name in Alice in Wonderland, don't let her sweet looks fool you.

She's loaded with heavy artillery, specifically a Gatling gun with a bow.

With its action pose intact this is 3D print-ready. However you may need to perform retopology as the mesh is dense by default.

Wolf with Animation

A quadruped model that is both weighted and animated, this wolf is a 16-frame quadruped with a variety of animation cycles that loop seamlessly.

If you want to use the model without the animation you can simply reset to bind pose or disable the skinning entirely.

You may also turn off the wolf's mane since it is skinned separately.

You can also do it the other way around. If you already have a quadruped model you can bind it to the existing joint chain and use the quadruped cycle.

Drunk Troll Tavern

This stylized environment piece easily blends in a mobile game platform because of its low poly count.

While the interior is not modeled, the exterior makes up for it. It presents a proper silhouette that can clearly be viewed from various distances and vantage points.

The entrance has a parked carriage and a signboard that shows several written announcements. There is a bar on the top floor that features beer barrels and bottles of liquor with stables below at the rear end of the tavern that add a nice overall touch.

Also the tavern shows a mix of materials and fixtures including metal details, cloth banners, windows, ropes, bottles, and aging wood.

With a little bit of texturing you can make use of an environment that can act as a venue to numerous stories.

Baba Yaga's Hut

Baba Yaga's Hut is set up as a location that's VR and film friendly.

This stylized piece is well-dressed with various focal points starting with a witch and a boiling cauldron. Not far behind is a hostage trapped in a cage.

On the river we see several rescuers including a priest holding a cross and knight preparing for an attack.

The scene is surrounded by a cloudy mist, adding to its mysterious ambiance. Despite not being a part of the action the interior is also populated with several items such as potions, candles, and a broomstick.

There's also the nice touch of another witch apprentice and an accomplice bat flying around.

Barrels

One of the staples of environment prop designs are barrels.

A scene looks more organic with a pile of barrels in a corner giving the sense of a recent occupancy. With this free download you'll have several barrel types ranging from a standard storage barrel to a beer barrel.

The models come with PBR textures that are ready for Unity and Unreal Engine. The author also conveniently provides several exchange formats such as FBX and OBJ extensions.

Hologram Console

This model comes with the complete PBR textures which is a nice benefit.

What makes this model unique is its emissive texture which is a must for any futuristic or post-apocalyptic setting.

After the proper set-up you'll see the screen lighting up the whole scene. You can take this further and animate the texture like the model in the Advance Tiling for Environment demonstration.

This model can also serve as a good base for a modular asset that can populate a space ship command center or docking control bay.

Runestones

To be upfront, this model does not have a well-organized hierarchy. You may need to clean up certain aspects if you want to modify the asset.

But needless to say the scenery looks good based on the Blizzard style of glowing features and details.

With a night scene the model shows off its magic with its emissive texture. Also through this model you'll get a glimpse on how to create basic but appealing foliage.

Goblin Warrior

Blender 3d Official Site

This goblin warrior is close to a AAA character with such attention to detail.

The author made several interesting design choices to add to the menacing nature of the goblin: nails instead of thread line the side sole of its footwear, and a shield that looks as if it was torn straight from a door.

The main leather material complements all the other elements of the design including the belt straps, armor, bandages and even on the model's footwear.

A threatening look is achieved through a mischievous expression, piercing ears, and emissive textures.

You'll also get a nondescript treasure box that the goblin is protecting. The model is sculpted in Zbrush, polished in Blender and painted in Substance Painter.

Old Tower

So this whole model is meticulously hand-painted and you can tell.

The effort can be seen in the blending of various props. The scene is given detail through a variety of props such as sand, rocks, cacti, barrels, fence, trees, and of course, the tower.

Gladiator Model

By far, this model is the most detailed on the list.

The model is highly realistic with the proper muscle groups for both arms and legs, as well as its torso—all displayed in its full glory.

The realism also extends to his props: a detailed helmet featuring ornaments and chips, an intricate design on the shield, a flail with a spiked morning star, all the way down to a caligae or Roman leather sandals.

While the model is made in Zbrush, the download also offers several formats such as OBJ and FBX files which you can readily import to Blender.

However you might need to decimate it first as the original model has 19 million points in its highest subdivision.

The site also offers several free models such as a teeth model and a helpful guide on how to retopo a Marvelous Designer model.

Dusty Old Bookshelf

Here's a cool model divided into many objects: the bookshelf itself and the books.

You can use this to populate an abandoned room, or you can just use the books and put them into an existing shelf or on top of a cabinet.

These models are shipped with PBR textures which adds the dusty and realistic look.

Fruit Baskets

A fruit basket is another prop that gives life to any environment scene, especially a market place.

The download contains various foodstuffs such as grapes, oranges, tomatoes, pears, and cheese.

As this is a low poly model it will not hold well for close-up shots but the model serves as a decent grey box blocking on your scene.

The Great Sword

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This goblin warrior is close to a AAA character with such attention to detail.

The author made several interesting design choices to add to the menacing nature of the goblin: nails instead of thread line the side sole of its footwear, and a shield that looks as if it was torn straight from a door.

The main leather material complements all the other elements of the design including the belt straps, armor, bandages and even on the model's footwear.

A threatening look is achieved through a mischievous expression, piercing ears, and emissive textures.

You'll also get a nondescript treasure box that the goblin is protecting. The model is sculpted in Zbrush, polished in Blender and painted in Substance Painter.

Old Tower

So this whole model is meticulously hand-painted and you can tell.

The effort can be seen in the blending of various props. The scene is given detail through a variety of props such as sand, rocks, cacti, barrels, fence, trees, and of course, the tower.

Gladiator Model

By far, this model is the most detailed on the list.

The model is highly realistic with the proper muscle groups for both arms and legs, as well as its torso—all displayed in its full glory.

The realism also extends to his props: a detailed helmet featuring ornaments and chips, an intricate design on the shield, a flail with a spiked morning star, all the way down to a caligae or Roman leather sandals.

While the model is made in Zbrush, the download also offers several formats such as OBJ and FBX files which you can readily import to Blender.

However you might need to decimate it first as the original model has 19 million points in its highest subdivision.

The site also offers several free models such as a teeth model and a helpful guide on how to retopo a Marvelous Designer model.

Dusty Old Bookshelf

Here's a cool model divided into many objects: the bookshelf itself and the books.

You can use this to populate an abandoned room, or you can just use the books and put them into an existing shelf or on top of a cabinet.

These models are shipped with PBR textures which adds the dusty and realistic look.

Fruit Baskets

A fruit basket is another prop that gives life to any environment scene, especially a market place.

The download contains various foodstuffs such as grapes, oranges, tomatoes, pears, and cheese.

As this is a low poly model it will not hold well for close-up shots but the model serves as a decent grey box blocking on your scene.

The Great Sword

This stylized model makes a great weapon or even prop in any game.

It features chipped edges that suggests it has been through a lot. The cryptic glowing runes engraved in the center suggests the sword is of magical descent too.

You can treat it as a rare or hero item like the Excalibur where only the righteous can wield it. Cod 1 cover.

Pokémon GO!

With this download you get the three main Pokemon from the Gen 1 games: Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander.

It may not be an action piece but it can be a cute figure piece of them huddled together.

Charmander has an additional texture accent with a glowing tale which is great for newbies in the 3D space to study.

Low-Poly Car

This low-poly car ships with a simple texture.

The car comes with a platform too and the model is also segregated in a hierarchy so you can easily move the body and wheels around.

Cityscape

In this model you'll find several buildings that can populate a city.

For caution's sake the creator didn't consider any zoning. However you can still use parts of the model to block your own scene.

The asset also does not have any textures. Maybe this is a good asset to use for brushing up on your painting skills. There are several variations in this asset from a singular home to four-story buildings.

Cartoon Land

Cartoon Land is a low poly environment based on a rural setting.

It comes with basic textures with different variations of land topology.

As for the models themselves, you'll get trees, grass, a ranch, and a house, among other items.

If you want to complete the set you can even design your own assets to match the scene.

Free Rigs

Vincent

Vincent is a professional rig made by the Blender Foundation.

The character has an appealing design that can easily blend in a Pixar animated film.

It comes with the necessary bells and whistles for you to animate the character from the IK and FK switch to the expressive facial rig.

Media server pc. To maximize features you'd need to download the BlenRig add-on.

Fortunately, like Blender, BlenRig is free. As the rig has dozens of parameters you may find it hard to navigate in the viewport.

But you can turn off several parameters such as the muscle system for faster playback and simply turn them back on when rendering.

Proog

Like Vincent, Proog is a rig made by the Blender Foundation.

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As such you can expect that it made use of the latest tools Blender can offer at the time of the model's creation. Even though Proog has been created for the previous version, he has been updated to work with the Cycles renderer for a more detailed look.

Proog also has hair material you can play around with and study. You can check on how to use Proog's various rig features by reading more on the download page.

Ballie

Free 3d Models For Blender

Ballie is good beginner rig to study body mechanics.

You don't have to deal with the complexity of a facial rig but you can still provide emotion and personality through its shape and movements.

Basically, Ballie is half-bodied rig with only a pelvis and legs.

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On the plug side Ballie is already animated once you open the rig. As such you can dive right in and immediately see what the rig can offer your projects.

Grey Alien

With its shiny eyes and extra-terrestrial skin, this model's design will remind you of any recent alien film.

You can animate this model as it is already rigged and ready to go. Although you may need to add custom controls to fit to your taste.

The model also comes a gradient texture with gradient tapers giving it a subtle focus toward the body.

Penguin Nikko

Nikko doesn't really have a complete facial rig.

However if you want to try to animate penguins like in the film Madagascar this rig is a good start.

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It may have a somewhat flawed deformation but it will be good enough for many body dynamics exercises. The rig also features IK legs and arms.

Funny Robot

What makes this model stand out from a typical robot is its rear turbine.

This means you can animate flying body mechanics fast. It's just a bit tricky to work with at the beginning as the model is already in a position rather than in a neutral pose.

However once you get around the model it functions like any other rig.

Sara Tween Girl

Sara is a teen girl model. She has a weighted skin and ships with several textures, pretty standard stuff.

You can use her in anime projects with her pigtails and slightly larger eyes which are just adorable. She comes with a school girl attire, eyelashes, and a hair ribbon accessory.

Low Poly Character

All other characters in the list have already been posed and designed with textures. This last one does not. And for good reason.

This character is made as a low poly base mesh on which to build your own character. In its current state you can easily make a muscular design or give a more chiseled build to a chubby guy.

This also comes skinned so you can immediately build controls on top of it. The model has proper muscle groups in the chest, arms, and legs. You can subdivide the model too and you'll still keep all the detail.

You can either use it as a base mesh on Zbrush or choose to model on top of it, or just work with this in Blender and have some fun. The sky's the limit here!

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