Jason van Gumster
Non-fiction #
One of the things I really enjoy doing is sharing knowledge. I spent some time teaching in a classroom at the college level and that was great, but I’ve found that books are an excellent way to serve artists and creatives in our pursuit of taking what’s in our heads and getting it out in whatever medium we choose. So I’ve written a few over the years. Hopefully you find them helpful.
Blender All-in-One For Dummies
Blender All-in-One For Dummies is the quick and easy guide to learning 3D modeling and animation using Blender, the popular, free, open-source Swiss-army chainsaw of computer graphics. I keep updating this book as best as I can to keep up with how quickly Blender gets updates and new features. It’s serves as a great beginner’s reference for Blender. This All-in-One edition covers all the updated user interface changes introduced in the 3.6 LTS release, but also covers some new concepts added in the 4.x series.
This book helps you get your own start in creating three-dimensional characters, scenes, and animations in the popular free and open-source tool. The companion web site (blenderbasics.com) provides access to additional tutorials that give you the confidence you need to start building and animating quickly. With the web site, this useful guide blends the functionality of a reference with the hands-on learning that develops your skills and understanding in a flash.
Farming Simulator Modding with Blender
Farming Simulator is a video game produced by GIANTS Software that lets you run your own farm. More interestingly, the game is completely mod-able. Farming Simulator Modding with Blender is a thorough guide that takes you through the steps of creating your own mods for the game. The book helps you get familiar with the tools in Blender that you need to get your 3D models in Farming Simulator and working! Most importantly, you get detailed descriptions of the various XML files used to configure vehicles in the game in order to make them completely functional. I wrote this book in cooperation with the team at GIANTS Software, along with the cool folks at CG Cookie (I also happen to be one of those folks… but I’m not sure if I’m one of the cool ones).
Older Books #
Blender For Dummies (previous editions)
The Blender All-in-One for Dummies is actually the latest update to Blender For Dummies. There are actually four previous editions of this book… and, yup, I was fortunate enough to be the author for each one. The reason the latest edition is an “all-in-one” is because the regular For Dummies format didn’t have enough pages to cover all of the cool things that Blender can do. If you’re a collector-y type of person, you can probably find these older editions in places where there are used books.
GIMP Bible
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free, open source image manipulation program that runs on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. GIMP Bible was a comprehensive and independent GIMP reference that (in many ways) went beyond the official documentation.
If you were a digital artist, photographer, or a beginner, the step-by-step explanations in this authoritative guide showed you how to power-use GIMP throughout a production pipeline. Topics included understanding the GIMP interface and how to work with it, how to use all of GIMP’s tools to create high-quality images, GIMP’s default filters and plug-ins, advanced techniques for customization with Python scripting, animation, and much more.
Farming Simulator Modding For Dummies
Quite a long time ago before I wrote Farming Simulator Modding with Blender, I wrote a more concise guide for modding it in the For Dummies series. This was Farming Simulator Modding for Dummies. Of course, since that book was published, Farming Simulator got a lot more features and there were a lot of new things added for modders (hence the reason for the new book). However, you can still find this book in some places. If you need a more simplified guide, this might be the one for you.