Learning Blender - Animation to the Masses!!

I am currently trying to learn Blender 3D. This will be the 4th 3D program added to my arsenal behind Autodesk Maya, Softimage XSI and Cinema 4D. This program is very important for me to learn because it is an open-source program. Open-source means many things, but one of the most important things that it means, for my use, is that it's free. In that I'm trying to teach people animation around New Orleans and Louisiana, it will allow my outreach to stretch farther when I can teach a program that people can download on their computers at no cost to them. A lot of 3D programs can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars which is a barrier to entry.

I've had a couple of previous experiences with Blender that left me not wanting to deal with it. For me, it's a very counter-intuitive program where the creators decided to make things different for the sake of being different. An example of this is the fact that the default click for the program is right-click instead of left-click like it is for every program known to man. That's just where the aggravation starts. But I'm pushing through.

My saving grace has been Digital Tutors. They came through for me when I had to learn Cinema 4D for my current job and they are coming through for me as I am trying to learn Blender. The frustration would never have been overcome without the direction of these videos because even though certain things being introduced are backwards, I can still keep going and listen to someone else telling me about them instead of me having to figure it out myself.

All in all, I'm just really excited that I'm making head way because I really have a passion for teaching people animation and I'm accomplishing that, little goal by little goal.