Blender

=Definition= toc Blender is an Open Source 3d and animation program that can be used to create amazingly sophisticated videos. Here is an example of a video created in Blender:

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=Getting Blender= http://www.blender.org/

This is the main website for Blender. Go to "Downloads" (a tab at the top of the page) in order to download it. Choose the version for your computer. For machines running Microsoft Windows, choose 32 bit unless you know for sure you are running a 64 bit machine (if this is gobbledy-gook, then choose 32 bits). Scroll down to get the version for Apple Macintosh.

"Stable version" means that the people who make Blender are confident this version of Blender will run well on most machines. "Beta" means that the version of Blender is perhaps buggy (might crash) but it may also have new features for you to try. If you are new to this, go for Stable until you get comfortable with it. Then you can try Beta versions.

=Learning Blender= Blender has become a mainstream Open Source program and has some of the best documentation out there. Go to this page to get access to some of that: []

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You can find videos to help you learn Blender on [] This seems to be a good starting point and there are several videos in a series created by this author.

There are also tutorials for advanced Blender users: media type="youtube" key="COCFd_BKqLw" height="390" width="640"

There are tutorials in other formats as well: []

These range from beginning to advanced.