[Bf-docboard] Blender books -> official reference

Ton Roosendaal ton at blender.org
Sun Mar 7 18:03:57 CET 2010 

Hi all,

And let's not forget the game engine :)

I'm playing with the idea to format it "proceeding" or "journal"  
sized, which can be part full color even. Every volume can be like  
100-150 pages, like a magazine. That also allows a design style that  
makes more efficient use of page-estate.

Formatting it this way also prevents it to get too much "book  
value" (I hardly ever throw books away, but magazines and journals I  
don't mind to recycle much). It can even get a very distinct time  
stamp, and get a title that suggests this temporary status precisely.

Title: User Interface
Subtitle: Blender Reference, june 2010

Title: Modeling, Texturing and Modifiers
Subtitle: Blender Reference, oct 2010

Title: Rigging
Subtitle: Blender Reference, dec 2010

.....

That format has a nice flexibility. We never have to assume it's  
complete or final, it can replace previous volumes, or overlap. It can  
be very specialized, or more generic. It just represents a frozen  
moment in time, so it can have cool artwork, copies of recent  
tutorials, etc.

And best of it, it's a nice target for authors to work towards to!

-Ton-

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation   ton at blender.org    www.blender.org
Blender Institute   Entrepotdok 57A  1018AD Amsterdam   The Netherlands

On 7 Mar, 2010, at 16:56, Ira Krakow wrote:

> Hi Ton,
>
> That's great.  So perhaps we publish a "Blender Bookshelf" series,  
> based on the wiki content, with volumes based on your proposed  
> divisions.  Some tentative titles:
>
> Blender Bookshelf, Volume 1:  User Interface
> Blender Bookshelf, Volume 2:  Modeling
> Blender Bookshelf, Volume 3:  Animation and Rigging
> Blender Bookshelf, Volume 4:  Materials, Texturing, and Lighting
> Blender Bookshelf, Volume 5:  Rendering and Post Production
> Blender Bookshelf, Volume 6:  Extending Blender With Python
>
> We could divide the group into teams, to work on the volume (or  
> volumes) they have the most interest in, to basically edit the wiki  
> sections.
>
> Then we end up with 6 books (perhaps more, if we decide there is too  
> much content for one volume), worked on by people who the most  
> motivated.
>
> Ira
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 7, 2010 at 7:44 AM, Ton Roosendaal <ton at blender.org>  
> wrote:
> Hi Ira,
>
> It was always my intention that our printed guides would be create
> using wiki, and donating all new stuff back to wiki. We do that
> already since 2003.
>
> -Ton-
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation   ton at blender.org     
> www.blender.org
> Blender Institute   Entrepotdok 57A  1018AD Amsterdam   The  
> Netherlands
>
> On 6 Mar, 2010, at 8:03, Ira Krakow wrote:
>
> > An idea just came to me.  Please feel free to poke holes in it.
> > Why not publish the wiki, with the author as The Blender
> > Foundation?   The principle is just like Durian or Elephant's
> > Dream.   The title would be "The Blender 3D Wiki", by The Blender
> > Foundation.  The benefits:
> >
> > 1)  The content not only exists, but has been peer reviewed, edited
> > (by the community), and known to be high quality and useful.
> >
> > 2)   The authors can be given credit for their efforts, just as was
> > the case with the community generated movies.  We could even give
> > anyone who buys the book author credit, just like the Blender based
> > movies.
> >
> > 3)   It's useful.  How many of us would buy it?  I definitely
> > would.  There are many people who feel more comfortable with a
> > printed book than with always looking things up online.   We could
> > even have a Kindle edition of the wiki, which would give the content
> > search capability.  It would be published under the same GNU license
> > that applies to Blender, or the variant that applies to books, where
> > the Foundation keeps the copyright and grants publishing rights to
> > the publisher without giving up creative control.
> >
> > 4)   It's in the same spirit of open source that has made Blender
> > such a success.  It's been proven, for example, in the Linux
> > community, that these types of books are profitable.  Look at:
> >
> > http://oreilly.com/openbook/
> >
> > Tim O'Reilly has been very successful with this model.  I even think
> > O'Reilly Media would be interested in publishing it.
> >
> > 5)   Last, but certainly not least, this would be nice revenue for
> > The Blender Foundation :).  It would be our way of saying thanks to
> > everyone who has made Blender such a wonderful program.
> >
> > What do you think?
> >
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 12:19 PM, Mike Belanger <mikejamesbelanger at gmail.com
> > > wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> We already have excellent online documentation, in the form of the
> >> wiki.  It is organized very closely to the ideas that have been
> >> proposed.  Reading the wiki has helped me tremendously.  Between
> >> the wiki and Google, what more would the reference book(s) provide?
> >
> >
> >
> > There should be a distinction between what sort of topics the wiki
> > covers, and what the books do.  The books should be
> > value-added over the wiki.
> >
> > I agree with Ton et all on organizing books by common areas, ie
> > Animation, Modeling, Texturing, etc.  Those
> > could all have specific tutorials, step-by-steps, on creating
> > something.
> >
> > I think the wiki should be a generic glossary of tools, terminology,
> > and settings.  Specific tutorials in the wiki shouldn't have as much
> > priority.
> >
> >
> > Mike Belanger ( Mikahl )
> > www.watchmike.ca
> >
> >
> >
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> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
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> > http://www.youtube.com/irakrakow
> >
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> > http://forum.irakrakow.com
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