Reddit reviews Blender For Dummies

Blender for Dummies is pretty decent. Then again, I know the author so I'm a little biased.

You can get only so far with tutorials which are available for Blender on the net. Perhaps, if one has had a lot of experience with other software one could pick it up. For me though, I finally found this book at Powell's. It's a much more comprehensive introduction to the software.

I love the Extra Credits guys. When I was all "well, looks like I won't be a game designer", I thought about maybe becoming a teacher, and using some of the ideas from the gamification episodes. I spend a lot of time thinking about how I'd do things differently, but then again, the problem lies not with the teachers but the syllabi.

Eesh, 26? Haha, well, better late than never. Reinventing yourself is always best. Know that you can always use some programs to straight up make a website (or even game), but don't use them until you feel you have no other option. Or I should say at least try it yourself first. Or even build it in a premade program, then try building the same thing from scratch, maybe.

Also, some freeware programs:

• Unity 3D is a full design suite for free. There's a full version, but it's still very usable without it. No game ever really needs HDR lighting and ultra reflective watermaps.
  
• Blender is a 3D modeling program that also comes with it's own built in game engine (it isn't that great, and the physics don't interact with non-game physics, though). One of my teachers at that shitty school actually wrote the book on Blender. Literally.
  
• Got a .edu email address? Don't quote me on this, but I think that's all you need to get a free student trial of Autodesk software. 3D Studio Max, Maya, Mudbox, AutoCad. All stuff used by the pros. UbiSoft uses Max, and Valve uses something from Autodesk, but I can't remember what.