3D modeling is an excellent way to exercise your creativity while keeping in touch with your technical side. 3D modeling skills are necessary if you want to print 3D objects, create your own 3D games, or make machinima films from scratch.

A common question that we get asked is, "which program is best for 3D modeling and animation?"

Learning Maya is smart, but it's cost-prohibitive. Easy 3D modeling programs, like Sculptris, also exist, but we recommend Blender for free 3D modeling software that beats the competition.

The only problem is that 3D modeling can be difficult to master, so here are some of the best free Blender tutorials on the internet.

1. ZoyncTV's Blender Beginners Series

The Blender Beginners series by ZoyncTV is based in Blender 2.6, but a lot of what you'll learn is applicable to the current version of Blender. Even as hotkeys and terms change, the underlying concepts will always be applicable.

Each video in this 11-part series is between 10 and 20 minutes long, split into five separate topics: modeling, modifiers, materials, textures, and animation. It's a newbie-level course, making it great if you've just installed Blender for the first time.

2. The Blender Survival Guide

The Blender Survival Guide series by Creative COW is also slightly outdated, but it's still one of the best resources available for someone who has never used Blender before. Every video in this 13-part series is between 15 and 45 minutes long, meaning you'll get 350 solid minutes of training, completely free.

What's great about this series is that it touches on all of the essential skills for Blender without delving too deeply into technical explanations or geeky tangents. It truly is a survival guide that teaches only the absolute necessities.

Related: An Introduction to Physics in Blender

3. Umberto Oldani's Learning Blender Series

The Learning Blender series by Umberto Oldani works as a great introduction to Blender 2.7. It starts from the very bottom: with the user interface. By the end of this 100-minute lesson, you'll know how to create a complete 3D model from scratch.

4. Blender Guru's Modeling Tutorial

Blender Guru dons the role of a digital carpenter in this fun and informative Blender tutorial. While this video focuses on 3D modeling in Blender, it also covers textures and wrapping the model, as well.

Blender Guru makes an excellent example not only of the techniques that are taught here, but also of choosing engaging source material to base your practice model on. He does a great job recreating the chair that he chose, which is kind of inspiring to see. He makes matching his skill level an exciting challenge.

This is only part one in this series, but he warns the viewer that some knowledge of Blender is required to make the most of what this video shows. Thankfully, there's always his famous doughnut Blender tutorial for those who still need to get themselves up to speed.

5. KatsBits' Blender Tutorials

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The KatsBits website is home to a lot of great asset creation tutorials for video games, and its Blender tutorials are excellent when you need a starting point for different kinds of 3D models. There are 45 Blender tutorials available at the time of writing.

One of the tutorials is a step-by-step guide to creating and animating a gingerbread character. Another tutorial takes you through the process of creating a 3D level for Quake; another shows you how to create a simple sword model.

These tutorials are a little more outdated than the others, but they're still useful in principle. Don't be afraid to check them out.

6. Daniel Krafft's 100 Blender 2.8 Tips

While this is another Blender 2.8 tutorial, the tips and tricks that Daniel shares here are all relevant to pretty much any type of Blender workflow. He covers super simple stuff like edge and vertex sliding while also taking the time to explain some of the more nuanced parts of the system. Technical pointers coexist alongside other really helpful, less technical pieces of advice.

Honestly, this list of Blender tips and tricks is awesome fodder for inspiration once you've gotten the hang of Blender as a beginner. Even a quick scroll through once you've watched the video will give you plenty of ideas when it comes to scenarios to apply each lesson to.

If you're low on practice exercises, take a look for yourself; all of them are great jumping-off points that will certainly help you get the ball rolling in your quest to master Blender.

7. GameFromScratch's Blender Game Art Tutorials

GameFromScratch.com is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to start making their own games. The site is home to over 100 tutorials covering game development tools such as Unreal Engine, LibGDX, SFML, and, yes, Blender.

The Blender 2.73 series is meant for complete beginners, starting with modeling, advancing to textures, and ending with keyframe animations, Blender camera manipulation, lighting, and rendering. This comes highly recommended for game creators who need homemade 3D assets.

8. Blender 3D: Noob to Pro

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This last online tutorial is actually a "wikibook" called Blender 3D: Noob to Pro. This ebook is a dense resource that's packed full of valuable Blender tips and insights.

The first section starts off with an overview of 3D concepts and an in-depth introduction to Blender's interface. There are several dozen pages on basic modeling, followed by several dozen more pages that delve into intermediate and advanced concepts in Blender.

The best part? Once you become a master of Blender, you can come back and contribute your own bits of knowledge for others to benefit from.

Related: Blender Was Downloaded More Than 14 Million Times in 2020

For Free 3D Modeling, Blender Wins

Despite being a free tool, Blender is incredible for creating 3D art. Used correctly, Blender enables you to produce professional-quality work.

All that you have to do to take full advatange is get over the initial, and rather steep, learning curve. Thankfully, the tutorials above will help you get started in no time.