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Blender is a wildly popular open source 3D design suite with a massive base of dedicated users. With professional-grade features and a highly customizable interface, Blender goes toe-to-toe with pricey, commercial offerings like Autodesk's 3ds Max and Maya. Ben Simonds's Blender Master Class (No Starch Press, February 2013, 288 pp. w/ DVD, full color, $49.95, ISBN 9781593274771) teaches readers the ins and outs of this powerful program and shows them how make their artistic visions come to life in three dimensions.

Author Ben Simonds is a professional 3D artist renowned for his creative and inspiring Blender art. Blender Master Class takes readers through the design process for three of his intricate projects: a muscular bat monster, a robotic spider, and an overgrown temple deep in the jungle. Each chapter demonstrates a different step in the artistic process, such as sketching, blocking in, modeling, sculpting, UV unwrapping, adding textures and particles, and rendering a final image. As they follow along, readers will not just learn about the tools and features of Blender and GIMP (the popular, open source image editor), they'll see how an accomplished illustrator uses advanced techniques to refine and perfect his compositions.

"I chose each of these projects to provide a unique set of challenges," says Simonds. "And I use them to help explain how readers can use GIMP and Blender in their own projects. While readers can certainly use the book as a step-by-step tutorial, my real goal is to inspire them to make their own creative choices and make the most out of Blender for their own artwork."

Readers will learn how to:

Work with reference and concept art in Blender and GIMP to make starting projects easier
Create models, from blocking out basic forms to creating complex meshes
Sculpt both organic and hard-surface models
Create hair and fur with Blender's particle systems
Paint textures with Blender and GIMP and map them onto 3D artwork
Light, render, and composite models to create striking, ultrarealistic images

The book's DVD includes files for each project, as well as extra textures, brushes, and other resources. Simonds's stunning examples and real-world techniques in Blender Master Class are sure to inspire and guide Blender users to create their own masterpieces.

Zinio Giveaway: Want a free subscription? Grab it!
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As announced previously, here is the Zinio giveaway of 9 subscriptions to the magazine you choose from their catalog!

Zinio is the place to go if you want to get a subscription to the magazines that you love. Your virtual kiosk, where you can find most of the publications that widely known in all countries, and get them directly in your email each month, ready to be downloaded to be read in your computer or mobile reader.

It has magazines available in English as well as in Spanish. Zinio has all the most popular magazines available to you, on many topics, that go from cars, photography, or technology to any other that you usually find in a press shop.

By purchasing magazines in electronic format, you help the environment. This is the mision of
Zinio, to provide a more ecological vision of publication.

How many times you got a magazine that ends in the recycle bin because you lack the space for storing them all? And how bad is printing all that paper that not always end being recycled?

But if you get them in electronic formats, you can store thousands of your favorite magazines in a hard drive or disc, and there is no need to renunce to any of them no matter how old they are, because they take no space. In addition, you save lots of contamination and preserve the forests, by encouraging to not publish in paper. This way you put your two cents in the conservation of nature, through Zinio.

So don't hesitate and spend some time at Zinio, you'll find most of your favorite mags, and will feel better because you are doing something important and at the same time, you'll keep yourself informed of the topics you love.

Now, if you want to get a free subscription to the magazine you choose, here is the giveaway, and what you have to do:
- To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment in this blog post and put your Facebook account name there, so I can locate you.

- Later, you will need to provide your full name and surname, and email, so I can pass them to the agent on Zinio and they can give you the access to the subscription that you won.

- The first 9 people who comment will get the 9 subscriptions! Hurry!

So put your comment below and be sure to post your Facebook name or link, and get the prize!

This review is sponsored. The author was compensated for doing this review.