Blender Knowledge Forged Here

It definitely can feel that way! The best place to start is our "Understanding the Blender Interface" guide. It breaks down the main areas like the 3D Viewport, Outliner, and Properties Editor. Focus on learning one workspace, like "Layout" or "Modeling," at a time. Don't try to learn everything at once!

That's exactly why BlenderForge exists! While foundational tutorials are important, try breaking your idea into smaller pieces. For example, if you want to model a character, start by learning basic mesh editing (extruding, scaling, moving vertices) from a focused mini-tutorial. Then, apply that to a simple part of your character. Our tutorials section aims for concise, actionable guides. Look for "project-based" or "quick technique" tutorials that match parts of your idea.

Yes, Blender is completely free and open-source! You can download and use it for any purpose, personal or commercial, without any fees. There are no hidden costs for the core software. Some artists choose to buy third-party add-ons or assets, but those are entirely optional and not required to use Blender to its full potential.

Great question! Eevee is Blender's real-time render engine. It's very fast and great for previews, stylized looks, and game assets. Cycles is a path-tracing render engine that's more physically accurate, producing more realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections, but it generally takes longer to render. Many artists use Eevee for look development and viewport previews, then switch to Cycles for final high-quality renders. We'll have articles diving deeper into both!