Blender

Blender is free online 3D modeling, animating, and video editing software. The first version of Blender was created on January 2, 1994. Since then, Blender has been constantly updated and improved. the current version of Blender is 4.3.2 (this number will be updated in the future)

Right now would be the best time to start learning. there are over 5,000 communities that specialize in Blender. there is so much documentation on this software and people are constantly finding new things to accomplish with it

Installation

Linux

Blender is in the Ubuntu repository by default as Canonical offers Blender LTS support. Mint allows installation via the apt package management tool. You can simply:

apt install blender

However, if you want the latest version of Blender you have some alternative options. One option is flathub aka flatpak which might offer an easy way to get a near to the latest version, however, has the pitfalls of flathub / flatpak. Another option is via snap, which you should never do. Avoid snap at all costs.

Older versions of Mint might require you add the Blender PPA to your Linux Mint system. This makes the repository with Blender available to Mint.

Where to start

Well, you have downloaded Blender and you have no idea where to start, here are some hotkeys to keep in mind

Hotkeys

Blender Shortcut Keys

Category	Shortcut	Action
General Navigation & Viewport	MMB	Rotate view
	Shift + MMB	Pan view
	Ctrl + MMB	Zoom view
	Numpad 0	Camera View
	Numpad 1	Front View
	Numpad 3	Right View
	Numpad 7	Top View
	Numpad 5	Toggle Perspective/Orthographic
	Numpad 2, 4, 6, 8	Rotate view incrementally
	Shift + Numpad 1/3/7	Opposite view
	Numpad 9	Switch to opposite view
	Home	Frame all objects
	Num . (Period)	Frame selected object
	Alt + Home	Reset view
Object Mode	G	Move (Grab)
	S	Scale
	R	Rotate
	X, Y, Z	Constrain to axis
	Shift + X/Y/Z	Move/scale/rotate on all axes except specified
	Ctrl	Snap to increments while transforming
	Shift	Fine-tune transformation
	Alt + G	Reset location
	Alt + R	Reset rotation
	Alt + S	Reset scale
	Ctrl + A	Apply transformations
	H	Hide selected object
	Shift + H	Hide everything except selected
	Alt + H	Unhide all objects
	M	Move to collection
Edit Mode (Mesh Editing)	Tab	Toggle Edit Mode
	A	Select all
	Alt + A	Deselect all
	L	Select linked geometry
	Ctrl + L	Select linked (whole object)
	B	Box select
	C	Circle select
	Shift + L	Deselect linked
	G	Move
	S	Scale
	R	Rotate
	E	Extrude
	I	Inset faces
	Ctrl + B	Bevel edges
	K	Knife tool
	V	Rip vertices
	F	Fill face
	J	Connect vertices
	Alt + M	Merge vertices
	Ctrl + R	Loop cut
Sculpt Mode	F	Adjust brush size
	Shift + F	Adjust brush strength
	Ctrl	Invert brush action
	Shift	Smooth brush
	Alt	Alternate brush function
Animation	Spacebar	Play/Pause animation
	Alt + A	Play animation in viewport
	I	Insert keyframe
	Alt + I	Remove keyframe
	Shift + E	Extrapolation modes
	Ctrl + Tab	Switch to Pose Mode
Rendering	F12	Render image
	Ctrl + F12	Render animation
	F11	Show last render
	Esc	Cancel render
Miscellaneous	Ctrl + Z	Undo
	Ctrl + Shift + Z	Redo
	Ctrl + C/V	Copy/Paste
	Ctrl + X	Cut
	Ctrl + S	Save
	Ctrl + Shift + S	Save As
	Ctrl + O	Open file
	Ctrl + N	New file

But what do I make first?

I would Heavily recommend watching Blender Guru's Blender Donut tutorial. his video will cover the basics of Blender and where to go from there.

How To Fix Bugs

Blender is not a perfect software so save regularly. The only way to fix bugs is to restart Blender. If you think you found a bug look it up first. It may be a basic setting such as if you're unable to rotate an object check your transform setting: Sidebar (N Panel) > Tool > Options > Transform Under "Affect Only", uncheck Origins. The shortcut is Ctrl-Period