The Blender 3D suite is probably one of the most used 3D creation and animation tools currently in existence. The reason for that popularity is both its tool set and the extraordinary fact that it can be downloaded free of charge. Blender has been around since 1998 but it was not until it entered the GNU General Public License, open source market in 2002 that it grew in popularity to its current position.

Over the last year Blender has been going though a major update to its user interface, which has been named Blender 2.5. This radical restructure of the 3D suit has introduced not only a more up-to-date interface but also some advanced features that make Blender a capable 3D tool for professional productions. Indeed the Blender Foundation has been keen to develop these capabilities by applying Blender to create open source productions. 2010 saw the premiere of Sintel, a 15-minute cinema quality fantasy, which had over one million views on YouTube in less than four days.

Blender 2.5 is therefore an ideal tool for the aspiring 3D animator, and seasoned professional, to turn their ideas into professional quality renders and productions. Of course, producing a great model and animating it is only part of the process necessary to bring a production to life. We need to add color and texture to our models to make them appear real or give that extra artistic flare to change a computer 3D model into a stunning-looking creation. We do this by adding materials and textures to our 3D models and Blender 2.5 offers some unique and easy to use tools that are covered in this book. By studying the recipes described here you will learn how to use and manage many of the Blender 2.5 material and texture techniques to transform your 3D objects into spectacular creations.