So I've decided to jump into the fray of oblivion (and possibly fallout) modding, and I heard that I would need http://www.blender.org/ However, I've got absolutely no idea how to use blender. So I went on a search for some tutorial guides. I had a look on 'Blender: Noob to Pro' but it didn't look like anything I needed. Has anyone got any suggestions on books I could purchase or something that could educate me on how to use blender?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: @da mage: Yes, but I intended to make new weapons and armour, so couldn't I make models for them in blender?

blender is only for those wishing to make 3d models....to make mods you need the CS (oblivion) or GECK (fallout 3).

Blender is used to create 3d models, it's not required to mod Oblivion.

If you are however interested in creating 3d models then I suggest you take a look at http://www.niftools.org/

I myself used the 1st few chapters of Noob To Pro to learn navigating around in Blender and creating my own meshes, UV-mapping and texturing them, rigging them to an armature I either imported or created myself (Cute Unit's Rigging Guide actually was my main source for this specific knowledge) and how to import/export them from/to NIFs and make them usable ingame I learned from the tutorials on the NifTools page regarding Blender and the NifScripts.

So these things should really get you going already. Just a heads up.

It's not clear from the opening post if you're already familiar with any other modelling tool, like 3DS Max, gmax, or Maya. Blender gets mentioned more than those others because the import/export scripts are more comprehensive for that tool, so it's often necessary to pass a model through Blender in order to complete the Oblivion tweaks on it. For example, I'll build a mesh for Oblivion in MAX, but do the rigging in Blender, because there's better support for copying bone weights. All the tools mentioned can import and export a mesh in nif format, but IIRC only Blender's export gets animations right.

You'll also need NifSkope for the final adjustments to any model. It's not a modelling tool so much as an editor for the nif structure, and has lots of useful "fix-it" functions to make sure the results are compatible with the game.

as mentioned you need the CS/GECK to make changes to the game - including adding new items. however for creating new items you will also need for both retexturing and modeling: a texture creating program (ie photoshop, GIMP etc.), and for creating new models Blender (or max/gmax/maya); also of course the blender(/max/maya) nifscripts for exporting to the right format and also good to have nifskope.

I would reccomend the tutorials/classes over at http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/index for teaching you how to model, texture and mod.

For most now adays you don't need to to use nifskope at all (if using Blender)... of the top of my head the only things that require nifskope are such things as particle effects, some forms of morphing creature heads (other forms of morphs export fine and ready to use though)... even animated nifs don't require post-export nifskopeing now (as of last week's nifscripts release) if set up correctly in Blender.
Pacific Morrowind

Noob to Pro is horribly outdated, do not use it

Get the Blender 2.5 Alpha and learn from BlenderCookie.com

I would seriously suggest 2.49b - the nif scripts for blender 2.5 are in dev but will be a fair while yet... also 2.4x branch blender is what most oblivion tutorials are based; 2.5 has some really fun new features... and is good for playing with but until the nifscripts are semidone for 2.5 not really much good for working in.
Pacific Morrowind

Should have read this before downloading and installing.

Any news on the Nifscripts for 2.5? Blender 2.5 looked pretty cool, but it's no good to me without nifscripts.