Time to change...

[danifou]

Thanks Giovanni. I've only been "blending" on and off for the pas 4 years. It's hard to keep up with all the changes and improvments of the software. I haven"t touch the node editor yet...

Resources...
Well I'll try to make a short list :

Blender.org Tutorial & Help section : http://www.blender.org/tutorials-help/ (Quickstart, Video tutorial, online manuel - 2.3 guide still valid...)

Blender Wiki site : http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Main_Page (excellent to keep up to date with all the changes - especially the Summer of documentation section)

Books from the e-shop http://www.blender3d.org/e-shop/ :
"The Essential Blender" (just released and covers the 2.44 version)
"Introducing character animation with Blender" (If you're into animation)

La 3D libre avec Blender (if you read French. ISBN : 2-212-11959-3 The version I got covers 2.42 version)

Non Blender related but a excellent reference :

Digital Texturing and painting (ISBN : 0-7357-0918-1)
Digital Lighting & Rendering (ISBN : 1-56205-954-8)

Blender Artists Forums : http://blenderartists.org/forum/ (tips, discussions etc.)

Blendernation.com : http://www.blendernation.com/ (for news in general).

The thing about Blender is that the developpement is so fast that the documentation and/or tutorials are modified and becomes out of date very rapidly. But the basic, the techniques behind an effect or a rendering still are valid.

I thak you agian for the compliment about my latest work. It is for me the best I've done in a while.

Keep on modeling, keep on trying new things, keep on Blending !

Dan

[Grafixman]

Great work, Dan.
You can create great materials in Blender, but it takes a lot of time and effort. Easier if you just download material libraries, then append them and tweak them if necessary.
The blenderartists forum has links to material libraries, I think. Check out the links in the main blender site, too. Lots of resources, really. Just have to seek them out.