book suggestions

I am an absolute beginner in graphics and 3d modeling. What How-to books, sites, etc. would you recommend for the graphically hopeless, for both general technique and application-specific info. I have downloaded Sketchup, Bryce, Blender, GIMP, POV-ray and Wings 3d. I figured,"What the hell... They're free, so I'll try 'em all".

Reading the long Delphi topic inspired me to attempt a plug I have been considering, and I've always wanted to learn this stuff.

Thanks

I highly recommend checking out the Blender Tutorials. This is an archived collection of how-to in Blender. There is also a good book available called "Blender: Noob to Pro" or something to that extent. It's quite inexpensive, and virtually indispensible for an amateur 3D artist. I'd also recommend doing your learning in Blender. Sketchup and Wings are perhaps a bit more intuitive about modeling, but you can do everything in Blender - modeling, texturing, animating, and rendering, and it's all in one program. No need to export/import. It's also critical that you pick up an image manipulation program like the GIMP. Hope that helps!

First of all, ditch Wings 3D. Blender and Sketchup are both better, for texturing and general usefulness. Second, start learning by imitation or a set of instructions. Just fiddling takes a long time, and especially in the case of Blender, will result in you using work-arounds for features that already exist. Or maybe that was just me...>_>

Always have a good idea of what you are making before you go to make it. Do some sketches or something. It makes it easier to stick to a plan, and not duff it up.

Now, good luck! I'm far from the best on these boards, but if you have any specific questions that don't pertain to Blender, I'll try and help.

The boards need more modellers anyway.