Learn Blender 3D

Blender 3d Tutorials - Blender 3D is a Useful Tool For Designers

2009-11-07T13:21:00.000-08:00

What is Blender 3D? It is a very cool open source 3D modeling, rendering and animation program. It is very powerful and comparable in function and performance to commercial 3D applications.

In my opinion, it can be a very useful tool for designers. It is powerful enough to be used in a commercial production environment.

The following are my opinions of the types of creative field that can use this free open source application.

1. Interior design is a field concerned with elements that is found inside a space. This includes spaces within houses and buildings. An interior designer is a person who is skilled in this field. Interior Designers can use Blender 3D to create photorealistic architectural visualizations of buildings, interiors, and environmental scenery.

2. Game design. Blender has an inbuilt game engine. Thus it allows games to be directly created from it.

3. Graphic design encompasses several artistic and creative fields which focus on visual communication and presentation. A professional in this field must know how to use typography, visual arts and page layout techniques creatively to create the final result of the project. Graphic designers can use Blender 3D to create graphic visuals. The Toon shader allows 3D renderings to look more like 2D illustrations. This can proof to be useful for graphic creation.

4. Industrial Design is the creative segment of product creation. In this modern age, the ideation of products are done using 3D software. Industrial designers can use Blender 3D for conceptualization and rendering of product concepts.

As you can see, despite being free, Blender is a very useful tool for creative work. Thank you for reading.

The author runs Idea Cosmo, a website which provides helpful design related articles such as Free game design software and Free Web design software.

Create a wall of bricks in Blender 3d

2009-10-11T04:40:00.000-07:00

In this video tutorial you'll learn how to create bricks in Blender. No sound so make sure you know the basics before this video or you'll get totally lost. To learn the basics click the links to the right of this post that say "Learn Blender 3d"

Blender Tutorial Series - Part Eleven - Clothing

2009-08-22T15:08:00.000-07:00

In this Blender tutorial series you'll learn how to model a complete creation of a character in Blender. This part works on tweaking the model, and then begins the modeling of the clothing.

Blender Tutorial - Part Ten - The Legs pt 2

2009-08-22T15:05:00.000-07:00

In this Blender tutorial series you'll learn how to model a complete creation of a character in Blender. This part works further on the modeling of the legs and feet.

Blender Tutorial - Part Nine - The Legs

2009-08-22T15:03:00.000-07:00

In this Blender tutorial series you'll learn how to model a complete creation of a character in Blender. This part works on the modeling of the legs and feet.

Blender Tutorial - Part Eight - The Fingers pt 2

2009-08-22T15:02:00.000-07:00

In this Blender tutorial series you'll learn how to model a complete creation of a character in Blender. This part works on the modeling of the arms and begins the hands.

Blender Tutorial - Part Seven - The Fingers

2009-08-22T15:00:00.001-07:00

In this Blender tutorial series you'll learn how to model a complete creation of a character in Blender. This part works on the modeling of the hands and fingers.

Blender Tutorial - Part Six - The Arms and Hands

2009-08-22T14:58:00.000-07:00

In this Blender tutorial series you'll learn how to model a complete creation of a character in Blender. This part begins the modeling process.

Blender Tutorial - Part Five- The Torso

2009-08-22T14:54:00.000-07:00

In this Blender tutorial series you'll learn how to model a complete creation of a character in Blender. This part works on the modeling of the torso.

Blender Tutorial - Part Four - The Mouth

2009-08-22T14:52:00.000-07:00

In this Blender tutorial series you'll learn how to model a complete creation of a character in Blender. This part works on the modeling of the inside of the mouth. Click Here for part 5.

Blender Tutorial - Part Three - The Head and Ears

2009-08-22T14:50:00.000-07:00

In this Blender tutorial series you'll learn how to model a complete creation of a character in Blender. This part works further on the modeling of the head and ears. Click Here for part 4.

Blender Tutorial - Part Two - The Face

2009-08-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

In this Blender tutorial series you'll learn how to model a complete creation of a character in Blender. This part works further on the modeling of the face. Click Here for part 3.

Blender Tutorial - Part One - Beginning the model

2009-08-22T14:36:00.000-07:00

In this Blender tutorial series you'll learn how to model a complete creation of a character in Blender. This part works on the modeling of the arms and begins the hands. Click Here for Part 2.

Modeling/Texturing a Low Poly Tree (Part 5/5)

2009-07-04T07:31:00.000-07:00

Click here to go to part 4.In this Blender 3d Tutorial you'll learn how to create a low polygon tree. Click here to go back to part 1.

Modeling/Texturing a Low Poly Tree (Part 4/5)

2009-07-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

click here to go to part 3.In the Blender 3d tutorial you'll learn how to create a low polygon tree. Click here to go to part 5.

Modeling/Texturing a Low Poly Tree (Part 3/5)

2009-07-04T07:25:00.000-07:00

Click here to go to part 2.In this Blender 3d Tutorial you'll learn how to create a low polygon tree. Click here to go to part 4

Modeling/Texturing a Low Poly Tree (Part 2/5)

2009-07-04T07:23:00.000-07:00

Click here to go to part 1. In this tutorial you'll learn how to create a low polygon tree in Blender 3d. Click here to go to part 3.

Modeling/Texturing a Low Poly Tree (Part 1/5)

2009-07-04T07:19:00.000-07:00

In this blender 3d tutorial you'll learn how to create a low poly tree. Click here for part 2

Blender Quick tutorial - features/Basics

2009-06-11T17:54:00.000-07:00

In this tutorial you'll learn some basics of Blender and Features.

Creating Realistic Grass in Blender

2009-06-05T18:27:00.000-07:00

The Secret to Creating Realistic Grass in Blender

The Secret to Creating Realistic Grass in Blender from Andrew Price on Vimeo.

Blender 3d Tutorials- Blender Basics

2009-06-05T14:43:00.000-07:00

Blender Basics from Blender Underground.
Thanks for the great tutorials!

Make fire in Blender 3d

2009-06-03T05:57:00.001-07:00

Learn how to make fire in Blender 3d.

Part 1

Part 2 of making fire in Blender

Part 3 of making fire in Blender 3d

Part 4 of making fire in Blender 3d

Learn Blender 3d free here at animationforcreation.com!

Breaking Glass in Blender 3d

2009-05-31T13:06:00.000-07:00

In this tutorial you'll learn how to break glass in Blender.

Make 3d text in Blender 3d

2009-05-30T04:13:00.001-07:00

In this tutorial you will learn how to create 3d text in blender 3d!

3d text in blender from ITV Teacher on Vimeo.

Blender 3d Tutorial- Distortion

2009-05-29T19:09:00.000-07:00

Blender 3d Tutorial- Distortion

Blender3D Tutorial - Distortion: Local from PapaSmurf on Vimeo.

How to Draw Feet on a Cartoon Girl

2009-05-17T04:39:00.001-07:00

Drawing Feet on a Cartoon Girl. Click Here to go back to the First Tutorial

How to Draw Legs on a Cartoon Girl

2009-05-17T04:38:00.000-07:00

Drawing Legs on a Cartoon Girl. Click Here to go back to the First Tutorial

Click Here to go to the next Tutorial!

How to Draw Cartoon Hips

2009-05-17T04:37:00.000-07:00

Drawing Cartoon Hips. Click Here to go back to the First Tutorial

Click Here to go to the Next Tutorial

How to Draw Arms on a Cartoon Girl

2009-05-17T04:36:00.000-07:00

Drawing Arms on a Cartoon Girl. Click Here to go back to the First Tutorial

Click Here to go to the Next Tutorial!

How to Draw Cartoon Boobs

2009-05-17T04:34:00.000-07:00

Drawing Cartoon Boobs. Click Here to go back to the First Tutorial

Click Here to go to the Next Tutorial!

How to Draw the Neck & Shoulders of a Cartoon Girl

2009-05-17T04:33:00.000-07:00

Drawing the Neck & Shoulders of a Cartoon Girl. Click Here to go back to the First Tutorial

Click Here to go to the Next tutorial!

How to Draw Cartoon Eyelashes

2009-05-16T16:08:00.000-07:00

How to Draw Cartoon Eyelashes.

Click Here to go to the next Tutorial on making the Face!

How to Draw the Face of a Cartoon Girl

2009-05-16T16:05:00.000-07:00

How to Draw Cartoon Girls.Click Here to go back to the First Tutorial

Click Here to go to the Next tutorial!

How to Draw Hair on a Cartoon Girl

2009-05-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

Drawing Hair on a Cartoon Girl. Click Here to go back to the First Tutorial

Click Here to go to the Next Tutorial.

How to Draw Manga Mouths, Four Different Ways

2009-05-08T21:55:00.000-07:00

In this tutorial you'll learn "How to Draw Manga Mouths, Four Different Ways"

Computer Animation Schools

2009-03-22T03:35:00.000-07:00

With the advent of computers came a whole world of fun and entertainment, and computer animation schools can quickly teach you to get in on the excitement. Perhaps you are someone who is interested in digital animation and computer aided drawing (CAD). If so, you already have a foundation for learning computer animation.

There are several levels of computer animation education to which you can aspire. Depending on the college you choose, you can obtain an Associate of Arts (AS), Associate of Science, (AS), Bachelor of Arts (BA), or Bachelor of Science (BS) degree, with specialties such as video game design, graphic design, digital design, website design, and others. Computer animation schools offer a great many fascinating choices; the path you follow is up to you.

The typical animation course will offer lots of practical, hands-on experience with animation software and hardware. In addition to practicing traditional drawing techniques, you will also learn the latest digital design techniques to create realistic animations through texturing, effective lighting, and creating background effects. You will learn how to develop interesting storylines and a multitude of unique characters. Additionally, you will learn how to layer sound, and to write scripts for various objects and avatars to make them behave the way you desire.

Advanced training in computer animation can take you to a higher realm of graphic design, with instruction on interactive media design, digital film and video production, post production animation, full-length cartoon production, digital audio production, two- and three-dimensional design and illustration, and much more. You might find yourself building three-dimensional models, editing videos, and designing audio for various animated productions. Computer animation schools often require students to produce a complete animated project as a part of the course curriculum.

If you are ready to get into the game with some of the best Computer Animation Schools, feel free to contact a few of your top choices on our website today.

Drawing Cartoon Angel Wings

2009-03-01T15:44:00.000-08:00

This is part 4 of the series of drawing the cartoon angle(Click Here to go to part 3)! In this tutorial you'll learn how to draw the angels wings. Enjoy

Click Here to go to part 1 to start drawing the angel!

Drawing Cartoon Angel Legs

2009-03-01T15:39:00.000-08:00

This is part 3 of the Drawing a Cartoon angle series(Click Here to go to part 2) In this tutorial you'll learn how to Draw the Cartoon's Angel Legs

Click Here to go to part 4

Drawing a Cartoon Angel Body

2009-03-01T15:35:00.000-08:00

This is part 2 of the video Series.(Click Here to go to part one) In this tutorial you'll learn how to Draw the Angel's Body.

Click Here to go to Part 3 to watch how to draw the angels legs

Drawing a Cartoon Angel Head

2009-03-01T15:28:00.000-08:00

Starting a tutorial on how to draw a cartoon angle. You'll be learning how to draw the head of a cartoon angel in this video.

Part 2 Click Here to go to drawing the angels body!

My domain from GoDaddys Works

2009-03-01T03:52:00.000-08:00

For the past week I've been having trouble getting my domain to work and finally it works. If you visited animationforcreation.blogspot.com about 3 days ago you probably weren't able to read or do anything here(It probably said blog not found). However you can finally type in animationforcreation.com to come to this website or with the blogspot on it! I'm super excited to have my own domain and hopefully I'll build this website with tons of visitors and followers. I hope all of you will click the follow me button(top right hand corner)! Finally now I can worry about getting some tutorials out there for all of you guys and gals.

Follow Me

2009-02-28T13:03:00.001-08:00

This is so awesome, now you can follow my post. I'm not sure if I have many visitors yet! However if you would invite your friends and follow me it could help!

Domain

2009-02-26T14:56:00.000-08:00

So I just bought the domain for animationforcreation and its taking forever to get everything updated. Sorry for the inconvenience!

How to Draw Clothes for Manga

2009-02-20T18:47:00.000-08:00

How to draw cloths by Mark Crilley

How To Draw Manga Hair, Four Different Ways

2009-02-19T14:32:00.000-08:00

A tutorial from Mark Crilley about How To Draw Manga Hair, Four Different Ways

Draw Manga/Anime Eyes

2009-02-18T13:07:00.000-08:00

Learn to Draw Manga/Anime Eyes from Mark Crilley Anime

Manga Drawing Tutorial: Body Proportions

2009-02-18T13:00:00.000-08:00

Tutorial made by Mark Crilley. A lot of the tutorials here are going to come from him! He's an amazing artiest.

Draw Stewie from Family guy

2009-02-18T11:41:00.000-08:00

We'll be starting off with an awesome video tutorial on how to draw the character from family guy! "Stewie" Remember just keep on drawing and you'll learn little tricks on how to do something. The tutorials coming up are going to be all on characters.

Drawing

2009-02-18T11:28:00.000-08:00

Hey so at the moment I'm finding good drawing tutorials for everyone. The videos are from youtube but only the good ones. I don't feel like making drawing videos that are already out on the web. However I think knowing how to draw will increase your ability of making awesome worlds and characters that only exist in your imagination! I'm also making this into a site where you can post blogs and videos.(Its going to take awhile) So that's something to look forward to.

Draw a Cartoon Character

2009-02-18T11:25:00.001-08:00

Learning how to draw a cartoon character is both, a very simple as well as a tricky job. You need to observe the faces of people around you and use your creativity to give the desired personality to your cartoon character.

How to Draw a Cartoon Character - Method 1. This is a fundamental way of drawing a cartoon character, especially suitable for the beginners.

• Geometrical Shapes. Start drawing a cartoon character with the basic geometrical shapes such as squares, circles, and ovals for the head of your caricature. You need not be great at drawing for sketching these shapes. Think how each shape could represent the different personalities of people. Square-headed character looks stubborn and old, while a round head looks happy and smiling. Similarly, a lens shaped face can represent a feminine character.

• Free Sketch. Take a blank page. Draw one of the basic geometrical shapes and try to imagine a face inside it. Keep your hand as much free as possible while drawing. Of course, continue infusing your imagination all the while, you are raiding the paper.

• Body Drawing. Now let us go ahead with the rest of the body of the cartoon character you are drawing. Again, you begin with the basic geometrical shapes for this. Think about the cartoon characters that you are familiar with such as Simpson, Poppeye, and Tarzan. Observe their body shapes. If you still find it complicated, try to imagine simpler shapes that make up the body of the cartoon character.

• Simplicity. The secret behind learning how to draw cartoon characters is not that you have to be a fantastic artist. The secret lies in being able to separate complex arrangements and designs into simple shapes that anyone can draw. The magic of caricature drawing is to use your brain to imagine each part of the cartoon and then rearrange all to give your cartoon a meaningful personality.

How to Draw a Cartoon Character - Method 2. This is a professional approach to draw a cartoon character. The method emphasizes on drawing a basic pencil outline of human characters by Sticks Method. This method helps in drawing a cartoon character in particular poses. The use of sticks to represent bones makes a cartoon more natural and expressive. We break the cartoon character down to show various joints of its body. With the help of this, any kind of pose can be reflected.

• Imagine a character, all made up of sticks.
• Draw a symbol of cross (†) to impart a symmetry to the caricature's body you are drawing. Draw eyes on the horizontal line of this cross.
• Now draw a horizontal line below the eyes, representing shoulders.
• Draw a circle around the eye line, representing head.
• Draw sticks for hands and legs along with the major joints, in order to capture some pose.
• After the stick figure is complete, give the shape of respective body part around the stick.
• Finally draw eyes, nose, lips, and hair to complete the cartoon character.

Anime, Animation, Art, what is anime

2009-02-13T18:48:00.001-08:00

In English, main dictionary sources define anime as "a Japanese style of motion-picture animation" or "a style of animation developed in Japan". Since anime or animçshon is used to describe all forms of animation, Japanimation is used to distinguish Japanese work from that of the rest of the world.

In more recent years, anime has also frequently been referred to as manga in European countries, a practice that may stem from the Japanese usage: In Japan, manga can refer to both animation and comics (although the use of manga to refer to animation is mostly restricted to non-fans).

Anime often draws influence from manga, light novels, and other cultures. Anime can be broadcast on television and is widely distributed via any form of media presentations, such as DVD, video and the internet. Anime is sometimes referred to as Japanimation, but this term has fallen into disuse

When it comes to the countries that are outside of Japan, the word is known to most popularly refer to the animation that originates in Japan.

However, if you travel to the west you will find that the word anime is not always considered as referring to animation but it is thought to be a subset of animation.

Anime is available outside of Japan in localized form. Anime has also been a commercial success in Asia, Europe and Latin America, where anime has become even more mainstream than in the United States.

Anime features a wide variety of artistic styles. There is some anime that is drawn by hand however there is also some that is computer assisted animation which has actually became very popular over the years.

Anime or manga tends to be targeted at teenage or young male adults. Anime is often considered a form of limited animation. When it comes to anime, it is just like any other entertainment medium in which the actual story lines are used to actually represent the major genres of the actual fiction.

There are many ways that you can watch anime because of the fact that it is broadcasted on television as well as distributed on media that is often known as DVD as well as VHS and it is also included in the video games that are played by adults as well as children.

There is some anime that is even produced as motion pictures that are full length. It is known that anime actually draws its influence from what are known as manga as well as light novels and certain other cultures as well.

There have also been some anime storylines that have actually been adapted into what is known as live action films as well as television series.

The actual history of anime is known to have begun in the very beginning of the twentieth century. This was the actual time that the Japanese filmmakers were experimenting with the techniques of animation. This type of animation was also at that time being experimented with in other countries such as France and Germany as well as Russia and the United States as well.

As a result of this work and that of other pioneers in the field, anime developed characteristics and genres that are fundamental elements of the art today.

Anime became very popular in Japan because it provided an alternative outlet for the art of storytelling. In sharp contrast when compared to the undeveloped industry of live action that was currently being used within Japan.

In the United States as that time the live action industry had a generous budget, whereas the country of Japan had a small market and they also suffered from budgeting problems as well as location and not to mention the restrictions that were placed on the casting.

Anime-influenced animation refers to non-Japanese works of animation that emulate the visual style of anime. Some authorities say that Anime is closely related to the Japanese comics, called manga. Anime also tends to borrow many elements from manga including text in the background, and borrowing panel layouts from the manga as well.

Many anime series got their start as popular manga. Anime is often thought provoking and provides an excellent foundation for raising important issues with your children. Some anime storylines have been adapted into live action films and television series

Anime burst onto the scene in September of 1963, when NBC syndicated a dubbed version of the Japanese series Astro Boy. Robot anime like Gundam and Macross became instant classics in the 80s, and the robot genre of anime is still one of the most heard of in Japan and worldwide today.

In the 1980s, anime was accepted in the mainstream in Japan, and experienced a boom in production (It should be noticed that, manga has significantly more mainstream exposure than anime in Japan). The mid-to-late '90s, on into the 2000s, saw an increased acceptance of anime in overseas markets.

There are many books available that can help in perfecting the anime drawing style. Such books come complete with information and instructions on the styles used in anime.

A common approach is the large eyes style drawn on many anime and manga characters, credited to the influence of Osamu Tezuka, who was inspired by the exaggerated features of American cartoon characters such as Betty Boop and Mickey Mouse and from Disney's Bambi.

Although not all anime have large eyes many western audiences associate anime with large detailed eyes as many shounen or boy comics and shoujo young girl comics depict their characters with large eyes.

Other stylistic elements are common as well; often in comedic anime, characters that are shocked or surprised will perform a "face fault", in which they display an extremely exaggerated expression.

In anime the lines are often influenced more from a stylistic look from brushwork, rather than that of the calligrapher's pen. This is best demonstrated in the anime Karekano.

The anime may also be edited to alter cultural references that may not be understood by a non-Japanese person and certain companies may remove what may be perceived as objectionable content.

Anime also provides a window into another culture. Anime seems to function very effectively as a cultural ambassador.

Anime has a dedicated fan following in English speaking countries, particularly active on the Internet, and at conventions regularly held throughout the US and UK.

Blenducation offers live Blender classes on the web

2009-01-30T16:43:00.000-08:00

I found this article interesting on blender.org so Thought I would spread the word!

There are lots of tutorials, videos and books available to learn Blender, but the easiest way of learning is still to see someone else use it. For most people this is easier said than done of course. Blenducation aims to solve this by offering live Blender classes on the web - you can look over the shoulder of well-known Blender community members and interact with them. Blenducation offers a combination of free and paid classes.

David Millet reports.

Blender is sometimes criticized for having a lack of training options. Despite the community’s best efforts to provide useful training tools such as manuals, DVDs, and online forums and chat rooms, there are topics for which a traditional classroom setting is most appropriate. For example, have you ever wished you could watch an experienced modeler work in real time, personally answering your questions and providing useful hints as they worked? If so, you’re not alone. This is only one of many scenarios in which learning Blender in a classroom environment can be superior to learning it from a hundred tutorials. Helping make this happen is Blenducation.org, the new online live class Blender education website developed by Blender user and education visionary David Hickson.

Blenducation.org aims to provide users with the best live class experience possible, without making you leave your easy chair. By using online meeting service DimDim, Blenducation is able to offer live online classes taught by well known Blender artists and instructors from anywhere in the world. The online nature of the system also allows classes to be scheduled around the clock. Mr. Hickson aims to eventually provide ample learning opportunities for willing students in any time zone.

When compared to the cost of other online school courses (which often spiral into several thousands of dollars), Blenducation.org classes are relatively cheap. Mr. Hickson currently plans to charge no more than $20US for a seat for the most expensive classes, even while offering many other classes free of charge! While almost all of the classes scheduled at the time of writing this article are free introductory classes, Mr. Hickson promises that he will be filling out the schedule with classes covering Blender-related topics right away.

If you haven’t visited Blenducation.org yet, you should check it out! The site features a list of instructors and classes that will only become more complete over time. You can also easily change your time zone with the site, and you will then see all the classes relative to the selected time zone.

Want to sign up for a class? The first step to becoming a student is to watch the introductory video featuring Mr. Hickson (in which he introduces himself as “dipingo”) on the right side of most pages of the site. Next, register for an account by following any of the registration links. You’ll then be able to click on red calendar dates to see what classes are being offered, and sign up for classes. Mr. Hickson explains that when you sign up for a class, you will be sent an email providing you with details on how to attend the class 30 minutes before the class begins.

Having been through one or two classes myself, this author is convinced that Blenducation has tremendous potential, not only in educating Blender users in technical and artistic techniques, but also helping legitimize Blender as a force to be reckoned with in the industry. Give it a try, and don’t forget to leave Mr. Hickson feedback to help him in his goal of providing the best Blender educational experience possible.

Autodesk Maya

2009-01-16T09:18:00.000-08:00

Movies, games, and tv shows used Autodesk Maya for there animation! Will you?

Simulation in Blender

2008-12-29T15:34:00.000-08:00

A cool simulation video, I found someone made with blender

The True Meaning of Christmas

2008-12-21T19:09:00.001-08:00

A lovely article on Christmas! Hope you like it

OK, so what does Christmas mean? Well, I suppose, first and foremost it depends on whom you are asking. Is it the British, US & European secular lobby or the Christian religious lobby, or even the heathen religious lobby, 'cos here in the UK we have Jews, Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists and even some Muslims keeping Christmas - you name 'em and they keep it? So what's going on? Perhaps the answer to this question is tied up in why I, as a Christian, do not keep Christmas and haven't done so for many years. Now, before I get labelled Ebenezer Scrooge 2008 I will quickly explain that it's for Spiritual reasons that I don't keep Christmas, not for financial reasons. That being said, this year I reckon I will save more than a £1,000.00 or in excess of $1,500.00. The projected national Christmas spend here in the UK, for last year, was expected to be £17 billion or $25 billion US. This equates to nearly £400 or $600.00 for every man woman and child in Britain!! As it turned out the national spend for last year was £21 billion!! This is awesome big business - nativity or no nativity.

This year, though, all the financial talk is of 'recession', 'the down turn', 'the credit crunch' and numerous other condescending, devious, negative slogans put out by the bankster controlled corrupt media in order to fool the people that the financial crisis is all their own fault. Needless-to-say, nothing could be further from the truth and I won't go into that subject now as it would need a hundred articles to explain what's going on, but in general terms you need to know that the current crisis is being caused deliberately by the top gangster banksters who are taking their money out of circulation in order to cause this crisis on purpose - a thing they have done many times before. The thing is, will it stop people overspending on this wretched 'holiday'? Sadly, I very much doubt it. Here in the UK, as I write, thousands of people are losing their homes, some having already lost their homes this year. What kind of Christmas will they be looking forward to, and if they decide to keep it what lasting pleasure or relief from their sorrows will it bring them? Not much I'm afraid. Nonetheless, we can be fairly sure that those who can 'afford' to keep it will be out there spending like fury with what little credit they have left and as if there is no tomorrow.

Moreover, whether there is a recession or not, from a Spiritual and Holy Scriptural perspective, where is the Father God and/or the Lord Jesus Christ in all this frantic commercialised frenzy? How can God play anypart in such a festival where Mammon is king? Mammon rules, OK!? God does not. With that in mind, I can hear some of you saying: "Yes, but there is a Spiritual dimension to Christmas - it's all about one's perspectives, priorities and focus." True, there can be a Spiritual side to the 25th December and if you want to keep the 25th of December "Holy to the Lord" that's your business and I'm not against you doing so, nor am I going to speak against it. In turn, I trust you are not going to speak against me, whilst I choose not to keep it. In turn, perhaps you might like to know why, I, as a Christian, do not keep it. As Christians we all need to know the truth about Christmas to enable us to come to an informed decision, as to whether we should continue keeping it, i.e. once we know the truth about it. So, if after reading my article on Christmas you still want to carry on with it, OK, as I said - that's your business and make the most of it for one day it will be gone forever - never to be observed again.

OK, apart from the commercial negativity of Christmas, what are the supposed Spiritual aspects and benefits of Christmas? Is it, for instance, something that was or is commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ, let's face it; it is His birthday after all, isn't it? Well no, actually it isn't, there is no known date for His birth nor did He leave us with any command to keep it. Now why do you think that is? We know the date of His death and resurrection, but not His birth, why? To me, this means we are not meant to keep it, if we were, He would have left us a date, at least, surely!? So why do so many Christians keep it? Why is it called Christmas or Christ's Mass? Where did this nonsensical term come from? Why is the word 'mass' not found anywhere in the Holy Scriptures? When did Christians start holding a 'mass' for His birth? Indeed, where in The Holy Scriptures are we commanded to hold a 'mass' for anything, let alone the Lord Jesus Christ's birth?

All the answers to these questions lie in the origins of Christmas, which are steeped in heathen, pagan and man made religious traditions - the traditions of men, and there are no Biblical foundations for these traditions at all, not one. The 25th of December is actually the culmination of the Feast of Saturnalia, a heathen festival kept by the Romans. This feast began on the 17th December and ended a week later on the 24th culminating in the festival of Sol Invictus or Unconquered Sun on the 25th December. This feasting was just a pagan celebration of bestial fertility rites and the winter solstice, nothing else. This pagan festival has no connection with the birth of Jesus Christ at all - not one part of it. Furthermore, all the Biblical evidence, such as there is, points to another time of the year altogether for the Lord Jesus Christ's birth.

So let us start our search for The Truth in the Gospel of Luke:

Luke 2:8 "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night."

Here we read of the shepherds watching over their flocks at night, but this didn't happen in December in Judea, it was far too cold and wet for that. All the animals were taken indoors before the winter season arrived, so just from this evidence alone a very big question mark appears over the 25th December as the birth date of Jesus Christ. This event most certainly took place at a warmer time of the year, when shepherds would have been out in the fields watching their flocks.

Here is another piece of evidence: In September the Israelites used to keep (and the Jews still do) a festival known as the Feast of Trumpets:

Leviticus 23:24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, (The seventh month of the Hebrew Calendar and the ninth month of Julian Calendar) in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an Holy Convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. (Brackets Mine)

This feast was symbolic of the coming of The Lord Jesus Christ, in both his physical coming in the first century and His Spiritual coming in the future to rule this earth. When The Lord Jesus Christ returns a Trumpet will sound prior to His arrival. First we have Joel in the Old Testament prophesying the first coming and then The Lord Himself prophesying His second coming. The Feast of Trumpets always takes place in September.

Joel 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand.

Matthew 24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Here is more Biblical proof: The birth of John the Baptist took place six months before the Lord Jesus Christ was born and we know this from Luke:

Luke 1:36 And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. Now if we can roughly prove when John was born we will know that the Lord Jesus Christ was born six months later:

Luke 1:5, 8 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. 8 And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course.

Holy Scripture tells us that Elizabeth became pregnant just after her husband Zacharias, who was a priest, had finished his stint of service at the temple; called "the course of Abijah" This was six months before Mary was miraculously found with child - The Lord Jesus Christ. In Old Testament times during the reign of King David, the priestly course was separated into 24 sessions of duty and we can read the proof of it in 1 Chr 24:7-19. These sessions of service began in the first month of the Hebrew year - Abib or Nisan or March/April in the western secular calendar. Again, read 1 Chr 27:2.

Each of these priestly sessions or shifts of duty, to use a modern term, lasted a week. The first course was the first week and the second course the second week until the 24th course and 24th week and then they were repeated or rotated all over again. An additional four weeks were also served at the time of their annual feasts to complete the fifty two week annual cycle. Now Zacharias' term of duty or course of Abijah was the eighth session or week counting from the beginning of the Hebrew New Year - Abib/Nisan or March/April, taking us to early June. If it had been the second rotation of service it would then have been in December. So Elisabeth conceived either in June or December. In the first instance this would mean that John the Baptist was born in March and the Lord Jesus Christ six months later in September. In the second instance John the Baptist would have been born in September and Jesus Christ six months later in March. Either way, we certainly don't have a December birth date for the Lord Jesus Christ - it never happened in December. It's all conjured up by man and it is all lies of the tricksters within the Christian Religion.

Having shown this proof and evidence of either a March or September birth date for the Lord, we can now see that this ties in nicely with shepherds being in the fields with their flocks at night, for it would have been dry and warmer. Furthermore, with the Feast of Trumpets proof thrown in as well, we can now be very sure that the Lord Jesus Christ was born in September and not in March. Of one thing we can be 100% certain - it wasn't the 25th December!!

Blender Introduction

2008-12-12T16:20:00.000-08:00

Introduction!
About Blender
How can Blender be free?
People usually associate freeware software with the terms “bad”, “with limited features” or just a “demo”. Blender is fully functional. It works as an open-sourced, community development program where people from around the world contribute to its success. Blender is a rendering\animation\game development open-sourced freeware program maintained by the Blender Foundation and can be downloaded, free of charge, from www.blender.org. The goal of the foundation can be summarized as follows:“The Blender Foundation is an independent organization (a Dutch “stichting”), acting as a non-profit public benefit corporation, with the following goals:
· To organize a fund raising campaign in order to finance the €100,000 one time license
fee
· To give the worldwide Internet community access to 3D technology in general, with
Blender as a core
· To establish services for active users and developers of Blender
· To maintain and improve the current Blender product via a public accessible source
code system under the GNU GPL license
· To establish funding or revenue mechanisms that serve the foundation’s goals and
cover the foundation’s expenses”
Blender website (blender.org)
Blender can be a difficult program to learn with limitless possibilities. What do you teach in the time you have to teach? That’s a tough question because you can’t teach it all. This tutorial book is designed to get you up and running in the basics of creating objects and scenes and animating. The best advice I can give you about learning this program is Don’t Give Up! Any rendering and animation program has a tough learning curve and Blender is no exception. After a few weeks, things get easier. This tutorial has been developed to be used in conjunction with daily lesson planning and demonstrations. Because of this, some areas of Blender have
not been described as fully as they could be. If you are using this guide as a stand-alone teaching or “self-help” tool, you may need to seek additional help from reputable places like www.blender.org and www.elysiun.com to make sense of things. These sites give you access to help forums and tutorials. There are literally thousands of Blender users world-wide that browse the forums to give and get advice. Make use of that vast knowledge base!Version Information:
The current release at the time of this printing is version 2.42a. Since Blender is developed by a worldwide pool of individuals giving freely of their time, releases can happen in as little as 4 months and as much as 1 year. Because of such a large number individuals contributing to Blender, major changes can occur between releases showing substantial improvements.
2
Rendering and Animation
Rendering and Animation Basics
RENDERING:
A rendering is a pictorial output of a 3D scene or object. Features like materials,
lighting, oversampling and shadows control the effects and quality of the rendering.
The more of these features you add, the more realistic your scene become, but also
lengthens rendering times.
Materials and Textures:
You can control they way an object appears by applying color and textures. Materials
provide realism with added effects. You an control glossiness (specularity), self-emitting lighting characteristics, transparency and pattern repetition. Textures can be made from any scanned photograph or drawn object in paint. The file needs to be saved as a jpeg or bitmap in most cases, depending on the program. For Blender, the image should be square and based off of 8 x 8 pixels (16x16, 64x64, 256x256), however, off size and rectangular images usually work also. Higher pixel images provide sharper images, but increase file sizes. As Blender has evolved, rectangular images work fine and don’t need to be square, but still a good rule to follow.
Lighting:
Lighting provides the realism to your scene through reflections and shadows. You can
control the type of light, intensity and color. Some lights can give a “fog” or “dusty” look with a halo or volume lighting effect. Illumination distances can also be set.
Cameras:
Your camera is your point-of-view for the scene. Just like a real camera, you can control
lens length to achieve close-ups or wide angles. Clipping distance can also be set to control how far and near the camera sees.
ANIMATION:
An animation is a series of rendered images that form a movie. The quality of your
movie is controlled by all of the above mentioned features including frames per second(fps), output size, file type and compression. The most common method of animation is called keyframing. Key frames are created at various points in the animation while the computer generates all of the transition frames between the two keys. Basic animation options include changing size, rotation and location of objects.
3
Rendering and Animation
Time Factors:
In order to animate, you must first set the length of your animation in frames and your frames per second (fps). The length in time can be calculated from these.
Frame Rate Options: NTSC- U.S. and Japan video standard of 30 fps Film- Movie standard of 24 fps PAL- European video standard of 25 fps Custom- set your own fps
*We typically use a frame rate of 25-30 fps depending on computer speed or if we
plan to save the file to DVD. Hit the “PAL” or “NTSC” setting buttons for these.
Creating Keys:
A key is placed at the beginning and end of a desired move, size change or rotation of an object. Think in terms of how long you want a change to occur and relate it to your fps. For example, if you want an object to move from point A to point B in 2 seconds and you have 15 fps, place 2 keys 30 frames apart.
Following Paths and Objects:
In most animation programs, a camera can follow a path or object (or both) as it moves.This feature saves a lot of animation time and reduces the number of keys needed.
Output Options:
We typically save our movies in AVI format for windows. This type of file plays easily on most media players. Compression agents allow us to control file size to a degree.However, animations can be rather large in size and may take up to several hundred megabytes of disk space. A compression agent, which we found to work well with most computers, is Indeo 5.1. For good output size, we typically use a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. This is considered low resolution for computers and produces good full-screen quality when played.Real-Time Animation (Blender only):
Real-time animation allows you to add physical properties to your objects and use the keyboard and other features to control them. You can create actors, change masses,control dampening (friction), set force and torque in x, y, and z planes and create relationships with other objects within the scene. With time and practice, interesting 3D games and real-time architectural walk-throughs can be created.
The current version of Blender is the first version to allow you to use the physics engine to create animation tracks. You can now use the physics to create realistic falling, rolling, etc. animations and use them in movies.
4
Basic Key Commands
Basic Blender Commands
This is just a partial list of Blender commands.
Please visit the Blender.org website for more details and tutorials
TAB key- Toggles between edit mode (vertex editing) and object select mode. If you’re in
edit mode when you create a new object, it will be joined to the selected object.
“O” key- The “O” key (not zero) will put you into proportional vertex editing while in edit
mode.
“A” key- While in edit mode it’s good for selecting all vertices for commands like remove
doubles and subdivide. “A” twice will clear selected and reselect.
“B” key- Gives you a box (window drag) to select multiple objects. In edit mode, works the
same to select multiple vertices, but hitting “B” twice gives you a circle select that
can be sized by scrolling the mouse wheel.
Space Bar- Brings up the tools menu where you can add meshes, cameras, lights, etc.
Number Pad- Controls your views. “7” top, “1” front, “3” side, “0” camera, “5” perspective,
“.” Zooms on selected object, “+ and –“ zoom in and out. The +- buttons also
control affected vertices size in proportional vertex editing.
Mouse- Left to manipulate, right to select, center wheel to zoom and rotate view. If you
hold down “shift” and center wheel you can pan around on the screen.
Shift Key- Hold down the shift key to make multiple selections with the right mouse button.
Arrow Keys- Used to advance frames in animation. Left/right goes 1 frame at a time, up/down
goes 10 frames at a time.
“R” key- Rotates an object or selected vertices.
“S” key- Scales a selected object or vertices.
“G” key- Grabs or moves the object or selected vertices.
“P” key- While in edit mode, selected vertices can be separated into a single object by
pressing P.
Shift-“D”- Duplicates or copies selected objects or selected vertices.
“E” key- While in edit mode, selected vertices can be extruded by pressing E.
“U” key- In Object Mode, brings up the Single-User menu to unlink materials, animations (IPOs),
etc. for linked or copied objects. Undo command. Only works in edit mode and can now
go back multiple steps. Sorry, no system-wide undo command.
“M” key- Moves selected objects to other layers. Mirror- while in edit mode, “M” will give
you a mirror command.
“Z” key- Toggles view from wireframe to solid.
Alt “Z”- Toggles a rough texture/shaded view.
“P” key- Starts game mode
ATL/CTRL “P”-Creates or breaks child/parent relationships. To create C/P relationships, hold
down shift key and select child first, then parent. Hit Ctrl P. To clear a
relationship, do the same except hit Alt P.
“N” key- Brings up the numeric info. on a selected object (location, rotation and size). Info.
can then be changed in the window.
Ctrl “J”- Joins selected objects together.
Alt “A”- Plays animation in selected window. Your cursor must be in that window for it to
play.
“F” key- Makes a face in edit mode of the selected vertices. You can only select 3-4
vertices at a time to make a face.
“W” key- Boolean expression to union, create a difference, or subtract objects from one
another. “W” will also give you a “specials” menu while in edit mode.
“X” or Delete- Delete selected objects, vertices or faces.
5
Basic Key Commands
Function Keys- F1-Load File; F2-Save File; F3-Save Image; F4-Lamp Buttons; F5-Material
Buttons; F6-Texture Buttons; F7-Animation Buttons; F8-Real Time Buttons; F9-
Edit Buttons; F10-Display Buttons; F11-Last Render; F12-Render
“I” Key- The “I” key is used to insert animation keys for various things. Objects can be
animated with basic Rotation, Location and Size keys and combinations there of.
If your cursor is down in the buttons portion of the screen, animation keys can be
added to lights, materials and world settings.
“Alt” “U”- New to Blender, a Global Undo Command. Pressing “Alt U” will give you a list of
commands that can be undone. By default it is set for 32 steps, but can be changed in the
User Preferences panel at the top of the screen.
“Alt “ “C”- Used to convert meshes, text and curves. For example, if you create text and would like to
convert it into a mesh, Alt-C will convert it into a curve, then Alt-C again will convert it into a
mesh.
“Shift” “Space” Toggles between multiple screens to full screen of active viewport.
Ctrl “0”- If using multiple cameras, this will switch to the selected camera. (Number pad
“0”)
Armatures- Meshes can be controlled by “bones” or armatures. Create a mesh with vertices
at the joint locations, then create an armature string within it. Child/Parent the
mesh to the armature using the armature option. You can then animate the
armature in Pose Mode.
Ctrl-Tab- Puts you into Pose mode for manipulating armatures.
Import/Export- Blender accepts .DXF and VRML(.wrl) files. Just use the OPEN option from the
file menu to insert these types of files into an already existing scene. When
inserting other Blender files or objects into another scene, use the APPEND
option from the file menu and select the appropriate options. Multiple objects can
be selected with Shift-Right mouse button.
Springs/Screw-Blender can create these objects in the edit buttons. You need a profile of the
object, the cursor at the center of revolution, and 2 vertices to show the length of
the revolution. The profile and the length vertices need to be in the same object.
All vertices need to be selected when performing the operation. You will also
need to be in the front view. There are several tutorials to help with this
operation. Results are great!
Multiple Viewports- To create multiple viewports, move your cursor over the edge of the
viewport (to start, you only have the drawing window and the button windowmove
your cursor to the break between them). Right click on the break and select
split area. Blender will break the area that you brought the cursor from

Blender Book

2008-12-12T16:17:00.000-08:00

The next content coming in is from James Chronister!
Contact him for any questions: jchronister@cdschools.org
(released 10/5/06 and reflects Blender version 2.42a)

Maya - Y to Z up world

2008-12-07T12:57:00.000-08:00

Maya - Remove Joints

2008-12-07T12:51:00.001-08:00

Maya - Inserting Joints

2008-12-07T12:48:00.000-08:00

Maya - Edit A Window In MEL

2008-12-06T13:16:00.000-08:00

Maya - Create A Window In MEL

2008-12-06T13:11:00.000-08:00

Maya - Control Joint Display Size

2008-12-06T13:09:00.000-08:00

Maya - Check To See If A Window Exists

2008-12-06T13:07:00.001-08:00

Maya Spaceship Tutorial - 3D Modeling

2008-12-06T12:56:00.000-08:00

Free Graphic Programs

2008-12-06T12:55:00.001-08:00

In this article, I will like to list some essential but free graphic programs. These programs should be sufficient for most graphic related works for personal usage and projects. I have used them extensively and find them indispensable.

1. Free 3D modelling and rendering programs. There are a few free 3D programs out there. The best in my opinion is Blender 3D. What is Blender 3D? It is a powerful but hard to use 3D modelling, rendering and animation program. It is comparable in functions and performance to commercial 3D applications.

2. Free graphic image editor. The best of the graphic image editors are GIMP and Paint.NET. My own preference is GIMP. However, many feel that Paint.NET is easier to use. I guess it is a matter of personal preference. Despite the funny sounding name, GIMP is very powerful. Many people have compared it to the powerful but quite expensive Photoshop.

3. Free 2D vector drawing program. The best in this category is Inkscape. About Inkscape, it is a free and open source vector graphics editor that is functionally similar to Illustrator, Freehand and CorelDraw. This program saves in the SVG format.

4. Free image browser. My favourite free image browser or graphic viewer is Irfanview. This cool software has thumbnail/preview option, File search and Print options. You can even save the images as an EXE Slideshow or for burning into a CD.

Well, these are the essential tools. In my opinion, these are very useful programs for non-designers and layman alike. In fact, I think they are powerful enough to be used in a commercial design environment.

Animation Character Bible

2008-12-03T12:47:00.000-08:00

A character bible is the heart and soul of a cartoon series. Without a proper character bible you cannot even get started on talking to anyone about your concept. I have seen many character bibles from producers around the world in the past few years asking for co-production collaborations. I've seen really good ones and absolutely dreadful ones. Having received several questions asked regarding what goes into a character bible, I've written this entry to give some insight on this topic. Below are the various ingredients that should make up a good character bible.

It is absolutely important to have a synopsis in your character bible. This is the foundation which you build your entire story upon and it should be concise, but not verbose enough such that it can't be read or explained in 3 minutes or less. Try to make this a one-pager if possible. The shorter you can make this and still keep it interesting, the better.

Include the designs of the most important characters in your character bible. Be sure to spend considerable time to make them look good and ensure that they do justice to your concept. A character bible should be more visual than wordy, showcasing the character designs to its fullest - with various poses and expressions of the main characters. Props - if any - should also be showcased. These are very important to show the potential of the characters should they become animated or licensed for various reasons. People reading the character bible need to be able to feel the characters for who they are and get an idea of the show through these character designs.

Ideally text descriptions of the characters should not be verbose, because not many people would really read through all that text. The character descriptions should outline only the most important characteristics of the characters to keep things short and quick to read. The visuals should pre-sell, and the text do the selling.

It would be good to showcase certain key locations and also provide illustrations or storyboards of how the world of the property looks like.

Fundamentally, it would be good to leave as little guess-work to the perspective partners as possible, so that the brand identity and values of the property is not compromised.

Lastly - for a property that is being primed for animation - you may want to include something called an 'episodic synopsis' - which outlines the stories which could happen in an animated series. These are usually done by a 'script doctor' - who can also help out in refurbishing the whole story background and character descriptions.

Blender 3d

The World of 3D Animation - Blender 3d Tutorials

2008-12-03T12:41:00.001-08:00

Most of us are aware of 3D animation features and techniques. We also know that they are widely employed in entertainment sectors in different ways. 3D animation in general refer to the art of creating and modifying the images. Its entry can be traced back to as early as 90s when the first 3D animated by film "Toy Story" was released. A lot of changes and advancements have taken place since then.

The entry of 3D animation had brought a sort of revolution in past decade in the animation sector. Its importance and popularity cannot be ignored. There is hardly any area where it has not played its part. The real power and its effectiveness came into light when the film "Jurassic Park" hit the screen worldwide. The film showcased not just the all powerful animal-Dinosaur; but highlighted the wonders of 3D animation in bringing the animal to life in a virtual sense. Reasons for its popularity will be briefly discussed in the following paragraphs.

With 3D animation, you can expect perfect images and at a record time. The impact created is simply outstanding. The illustrations and pictures created cannot be described in words. The final products can generally be viewed from different perspectives. 3D animation software come with different dimensional features and its ability in portraying movements is simply impeccable. A huge amount of scientific data is worked upon and is presented in a simplistic way. 3D animated pictures and movies generally have long lasting impressions on the viewers for a long time to come. It also becomes easier for viewers to recall their experiences in an accurate way.

It is also an excellent tool to communicate fast and present complex ideas into virtual reality. No other software or programming techniques offer this kind of advantages to its users. Even a remote concept or a hint can be converted into reality. Using 3D animated techniques, even hazardous and expensive scenes can be recreated. If you want to depict building demolitions or air crashes for your film, there is no better way to go about than 3D animation. Among many areas where 3D animation has brought about changes is Architecture. Designing and studying 2D and 3D models of different sketches has been made easier. These models are found to be extremely accurate and can be easily be interpreted.

Of lately, many companies have left their footmarks in the 3D animation industry. Each of these companies has their own software products in the market highlighting their unique features. The choices in front of a buyer are virtually endless. Having said this, there is few standardized software in the market. Few of them include Alias Maya, 3DS max and etc. The former allows the user to create designs, textures on them. The latter software too offers similar services. Some other popular software include Bodyshop, Cinema 4D.

The future of 3D animation is bright. Constant innovations and cutting edge technologies have ensured the viewing of pictures, sketches; films and so on will never be the same again. One area where 3D animation is yet to make a mark is in photorealistic animation of humans.

Textures for Blender

2008-11-30T07:54:00.001-08:00

2Textured
Large selection of textures, mostly photo based.

3D Elyvisions
Skyboxes, check them out! :-)

3D Photorealism Toolkit
A small selection of medium resolution textures.

3D Millennium

Good selection of medium resolution textures, bump, and opacity maps also.

3d-rekonstruktioner
Medium resolution textures, Mostly building materials

3D Valley
Small selection of low reslolution textures.

3DXO
A list of free texture sites

Absolute Cross
Large selection of strange pattern/textures

Amazing Textures
High resolution photo based textures.

Animax
High resolution photo based textures.

ArchiBASE
Huge selection of textures of varying reslolutions.

Archive Textures
Large collection of medium resolution textures, mostly photo based.

Arroway
Arroway textures, lower resolution previews are free (still good though)
Includes bump, specular and diffuse.

Back of beyond
Decent selection of medium resolution photo based textures.

Ben Cloward
Good selection of photo based textures, with a few high resolution bump/normal/diffuse textures.

BildBurg
Small collection of computer-based textures.

Blender Texture library
Good selection of medium to low resolution photo based textures.

The Blender Texture Disc
A good selection of textures of varying resoloutions

Celestia Motherlode, The
An awesome selection of extremly high resolution textures of heavenly bodies, including bump, normal and more.

C4D Hotline
Good selection of textures of varying resolutions

C4D user
Several great textures with bump maps

CGArena
A few good textures with bump maps.

CGtextures
Huge selection of photo based textures of varying resolution.

Creative Closeup
Really nice collection of high resolution photo based textures.

DesignMag
Really nice collection of high resolution photo based textures.

Digital-Artist-Toolbox
A package of high resolution photo based granite textures

Continuum Skies In Motion
Several 360 animated skies.

Klicker free textures
A small selection of medium resolution textures.

KTN 3D models and textures
Great selection of low resolution textures

David Gurrea
Great selection of scanned paper based textures (good though!)

Fat Strawberry, The
Good selection of fabric textures varying resolutions.

Filter Forge
Huge selection of medium resolution computer based textures, with normal bump and diffuse maps.
(Recommended)

Free Art Textures
Decent selection of low resolution photo based textures.

Free seamless textures
Medium resolution photo based textures.

Free textures.org
Good selection of medium to high resolution photo based textures.

Free Texture Site
Great selection of high resolution textures.
(Nice job 3Dmedieval!)

FunnyFarm
Lots of stone and wood textures, as well as some alpha mapped trees.

Got 3D
Good slection of photo based textures of varying reslolutions.

Grunge textures
Great selection of high resolution photo based textures.

High Resolution Textures
I guess the name says it..

Image After
Large selection of photo based textures of varying resolutions.

Lost and Taken
Some photo based textures, of quite high resolution.

Lugher Texture
Good selection of photo based textures of varying resolutions.

Maxwell Materials
Huge selection of textures of varying resolutions. Free registration required.
(Recommended!)

Mayang
Unknown

Medieval textures pack
52 game textures, 512 resolution.

Mega tex
Large selection of medium to high resolution photo based textures.

Meta's Material Library's
Large collection of texutures and materials.

Mtextur
Good selection of meduim resolution textures.

Blender Texture Pack and 125x125 (low res) texture pack
...Well the name pretty much says it all :-)

Noctua graphics
Good selection of medium to low resolution textures.

Photo Textures Home
A nice selection of photo based textures.
(Nice, Fishcake :)

PixelPoke
Good selection of seamless textures, medium resolution.

Shannon Palmer
Good selection of photo based textures, medium to high resolution.

Small GFX
Lots of really nice vector graphics, I recommend the flame pack!

Stock Textures
Good selction of photo based textures of varying quality.

Texture Archive
Large selection of photo based textures, high resolution.

Terminal 26
Good selection of medium to low resolution textures.

Textura
Good selection of textures, computer based.

Texture Barn
Good selection of medium to high resolution photo based textures.

Texture bits
A blog of high resolution photo based textures.

Texture, Colour
A large selection of low resolution photo based textures.

Textures.forrest.cz
Good selection of medium resolution photo based textures.

Texture king
Large selection of photo based textures of varying reslolutions.

Texture Love
Good selection of photo based textures of varying resolutions.

Textures Pedramk
Some photo based textures and a few reflection maps.

Texture Studio, The
Eight texture packs (unknown resolution)

Texture Vault
Great selection of high resolution photo based textures.
(I recommend this site!)

Texturenwelt
Good selection of medium to low resolution textures.

Texture Warehouse
Large selection of photo based textures. Varying resolutions

Texturez
Great selection of high resolution photo based textures.

Wild Harmony studio
Good selection of photo based textures of varying resolutions.

WWa Wood Sampler
Good selection of low resolution wood textures.

Z7server
Large collection of medium resolution photo based textures.

(Free) Texturing software

Allegorthmic Mapzone
An amazing texture creating software.
Create Diffuse, Bump, Displace, Normal, Specular and SpecularColor.

Inspiring videos made with Blender 3d

2008-11-20T14:27:00.000-08:00

Some of these videos below might inspire you to use Blender 3d as your Animation software or just to keep on pursing to learn Blender!

Lumber Jack Video: Click Here

Elephants Dream

Orange Open Movie project

Bounce to space

By Pablo Vazquez

Soft Boy

By Andy Goralczyk

Art festival intro

By Andy Goralczyk

Mindfields

By Andy Goralczyk

Mick

By Liubomir Kovatchev

DragonFall

By Rob Debrichy

Big Buck Bunny

Peach Open Movie projet

Murnau the Vampire

: (Vimeo, 27 min.)

By Oscar Alvarado

Meischeid

By Matray

lumberjacks

By Dominic Agoro-Ombaka

Plumiferos

By Studio Manos Digitales

Kickflip

By Basse

Penalti

By Vinicius Zanete Novaes

Showreel 1995

By NeoGeo

Lighthouse

By ProMotion Studios
^{(2008, 3 minutes streaming)}

The trap

By Piotr Kosmala, Oceaneffects.com
^{(2005, 18 MB mpeg)}

Siggraph reel 2005

By Bart Veldhuizen

Chicken Chair

By Bassam Kurdali

Man in Man

By Sacha Goedegebure

Esign

By Chris Larkee

Blender Article

2008-11-17T03:15:00.000-08:00

Click Here for the blender article!

Tamito Kajimaya (T.K.) has created some test videos with Blender using the Freestyle renderer and he has come up with some great results!

Tamito writes:

As one of many people who grew up with the influential culture of Japanese
manga and anime, my favorite pastime in childhood was to draw illustrations in
the manga style.

Since I met Blender having a complete set of features for 3D animation, my
major concern in using the software has always been how to create movie clips
with the taste of Japanese manga and anime.

Among the key elements that constitute the Japanese cartoon style, the most
difficult part to produce was solid outlines of shapes. Now that we have the
new Freestyle renderer, however, it is rather an easy task, since in many cases
you just need to specify an appropriate style module and press the render
button.

The integration of Freestyle is really an epoch-making advance in Blender. I
would like to take this opportunity to thank Maxime Curioni for his enormous
efforts to turn this integration into reality.

Although the Freestyle renderer is in an early stage of development, I have
found it very usable and stable enough. I believe many users with a bit of
care and creativity will be able to find ways to exploit the new renderer for
your applications.

I would like to share experiences in using Freestyle with the Blender
community. As a new developer of the Freestyle development team, I would also
like to make contributions toward better usability and stability. I hope I will
be able to give momentum to the project.

Feedback of any kind from users is of particular importance. Thanks a lot for
your cooperation!... Click Here to see videos!

Blender Basics Tutorials

2008-11-12T15:52:00.000-08:00

Basics - v1.0 (2008, January 6th)

BlenderCourse - Basics teaches you how to work with Blender 3D. This course is suitable for everyone who can use a computer. You are being guided through every step in the lessons you are making. Because of the great amount of screenshots, you can be sure you are doing every step right. BlenderCourse offers you all the source files too, so it is possible for you to check how to fulfil the exercises.

Mesh and vertex editing
Proportional editing
Bezier curves
Materials and light
Textures
Animation
Tips and tricks

Rectangle with rounded corners (2007, January 3th)

This BlenderCourse teaches you how to create a square with rounded corners in Blender 3D.

Bezier Curves

Software box - v1.1 (2007, February 21st)

This BlenderCourse teaches you how to create a 'software box' in Blender 3D.

Textures
UV-mapping

Console Rendering - v1.3 (2008, October 17th)

This Course describes how to perform render jobs using Blender 3D from the command line/console (Linux and Windows).

Render an image by using the console
Render an animation by using the console

3d Animation

2008-11-10T17:39:00.000-08:00

Today there is a great demand in the entertainment industry. People love watching movies and are keen to watch most new movies. In some ways I think due to the busy schedules everyone has, they are looking for some kind of entertainment at the end of the day and that’s exactly what movies provide them with. Watching a movie is a great way to let out steam after a long day at work. We can just kick our shoes off, jump on to our couches and enjoy a movie. Be it serious movies or comedies. They are always entertaining. Besides being entertaining many movies prove to be educative or informative which again is interesting to watch. It can brighten up a boring week day or provide great entertainment on a relaxing week end. There is no doubt that everybody just loves and appreciates a good movie.

With the increase in the number of viewers of movies or rather the audience, more movies are being produced. Very often, two to three movies are released at the same time. Besides the usual Hollywood movies, the latest thrill in the film industry is the animated movies. Animated movies are believed to be kiddies’ movies, but that is no longer true. Tons of adults are crazy about animated movies. Couples along with their kids flood the movie halls to enjoy animated movies. Another version of movies that are popular is the 3D movies. These movies are increasingly popular. The 3D version makes the people connected with the characters. It also brings more life to the movie. Kids especially enjoy this version. It is a super success among audiences of all ages. Due to the success of both animation and 3D, producers are now combining both versions. They prove to provide more entertainment for the masses. Animation never seizes to thrill its audience and everyone cannot help but admire the 3D format. 3D animation has now become common. It has left the audiences asking for more. Sometimes it is hard to imagine that all of this has been developed over the years. Technology is steadily being rediscovered and so many new technologies are coming into being, one better than the other. Technology doesn’t seem to stand still; it just keeps evolving and evolving. Thanks to evolving technology, we get to watch some really entertaining movies and can enjoy the 3D Animation format.

What is so special about 3D I hear you ask? Well the 3D format definitely brings more life into the movies. It makes it feel more alive. The characters seem alive and with you. Animated movies too are widely popular because they show you something you don’t get to see in real life. Here in animated movies, you see dogs talk, chicken sing, rabbits cry, horses talk and the sun smile. Animation is popular because it really explores different possibilities. It makes you think, what if! It is very interesting. Also it is believed that the animated movies are providing serious competition to movies made with actors. Many actors and actresses fear that they may not have a happy career thanks to the invention of animation. According to them there is hardly any margin for error where animation is concerned. You don’t have bad acting when it comes to animation. In fact the acting in animation is top. All you need is good voices and most animated movies have some of the best Hollywood actors lending them their voices. When it comes to acting by individuals, not many can say they are perfect. In fact acting is tough and all the actors are continuously under scrutiny by the audience, for a movie to be successful acting will play a keen role. If the acting is good, you can be ensured that the audiences will enjoy it even if the story line isn’t that great, on the reverse, if you have a great story line but it isn’t accompanied by brilliant acting, you will find that the audiences won’t be watching your movie. With 3D animation, there is no problem. The acting is always top notch and people enjoy it. 3D animated movies are a sure short success most of the times unless the story line is very poor. But almost every time, animated movies receive good responses from the movie lovers.

Make a Character In Blender

2008-10-31T13:25:00.001-07:00

Character Tutorial - Ref Images	Jonathan Frammingham	2.4	2.0-3.0	40.7kb rar	refimages.rar
Character Tutorial - Setup	Jonathan Frammingham	2.4	2.0-3.0	11Mb wmv	setup.wmv
Character Tutorial - Foot	Jonathan Frammingham	2.4	2.0-3.0	16Mb wmv	foot.wmv
Character Tutorial - Leg	Jonathan Frammingham	2.4	2.0-3.0	23Mb wmv	leg.wmv
Character Tutorial - Torso 1	Jonathan Frammingham	2.4	2.0-3.0	12Mb wmv	torso1.wmv
Character Tutorial - Torso 2	Jonathan Frammingham	2.4	2.0-3.0	18Mb wmv	torso2.wmv
Character Tutorial - Arm	Jonathan Frammingham	2.4	2.0-3.0	20Mb wmv	arm.wmv
Character Tutorial - Hand 1	Jonathan Frammingham	2.4	2.0-3.0	25Mb wmv	hand1.wmv
Character Tutorial - Hand 2	Jonathan Frammingham	2.4	2.0-3.0	15Mb wmv	hand2.wmv
Character Tutorial - Finishing	Jonathan Frammingham	2.4	2.0-3.0	20Mb wmv	joining.wmv

Make Your Own Video Games For PCs and Consoles

2008-10-30T14:14:00.001-07:00

Recently there has been a demand for tools which will allow the user to create video games for the PC and consoles. In the last few years many options have become available, and in this article I will outline a few of them. I will also cover some of the terminology of this subject, and provide some alternatives to creating your own games on the PC.

Make Your Own Video Games for Consoles:

The only console system you can currently make games for is the Xbox 360. To do so you need to download XNA and join their "Creator's Club" for $99.00 a year. XNA has been designed to be fairly easy to use, but some programming experience is required.

Make Your Own Video Games for the PC:

There are many options if you want to make your own games on the PC. The first thing you need to know is the difference between a game engine, and a GCS (Game Creation System.)

Game Engines:

A video game engine is just that, an engine. Few if any tools come with it, so some programming is required. There are many commercial engines available such as the Unreal Engine or CryEngine 2, and almost as many free alternatives. Crystal Space 3D and the Irrlicht Engine are examples of the later.

GCSs:

If you don't want to mess with any programming you need a GCS. A GCS packages a video game engine along with a variety of tools which can be used to make a game. There are a lot of commercial options, such as Torque or Gamestudio, but no comprehensive free or open source alternatives. Delta 3D is one such choice, but you will need additional tools to create games with it.

I should also mention that GCSs may not be a perfect fit for your particular needs when making a game for the PC. Most game developers use many custom tools tailor made for their needs as a result. So your best bet is to use tools that are specialized for different aspects of game development. You will need a good programming environment, a good image editor, a good sound and music editor, and a good modeling animation studio.

The current industry standard modeling and animation studios are 3DS Max and Maya. However True Space and Blender both provide excellent free alternatives, and are backed by large, supportive communities. The industry standard image editing programs are Paint Shop Pro and Adobe Photoshop, but the free alternatives Gimp and Paint.NET will work just as well. Expensive programs like Cakewalk are used for the creation of music and sounds, but Audacity is a free alternative. The best free programming environment is Microsoft Visual Studio Express.

Making video games requires a lot of work, but with the right tools it can be done fairly quickly and easily. Now that you know what tools to look for, it should be a lot easier to find what you need.

Age of 3D Animation

2008-10-30T14:13:00.001-07:00

Age of 3D Animation

The art of creating and moving images with the use of computer is generally termed as 3D Animation. The era of animation can be dated back to the early nineties when the first 3D animation film "Toy Story" was created. With the passage of time there was tremendous transformation and many more movies were created.

The power and effectiveness of the animation became apparent when "Jurassic Park" hit the cinema screen in 1993 and was a wonder. The most powerful animal, "the dinosaur" was brought to life. It has certainly brought about a revolution and there is hardly any area where it is not playing a pivotal role. It has increased the popularity of computer animation. There are several reasons for its popularity; few important ones are spelled out in the paragraph as follow.

The crystal clear images can be revealed in a very short period of time and the impact created is just unimaginable. It is true to say that concepts and ideas which are not easy to be expressed in words or even through illustrations can not only be created easily but also analyzed from different perspectives. The dimensional feature of 3D Animation is where its true power lies and its ability to portray movement is exceptional. A huge amount of scientific data of movements is combined and presented in a simplistic manner. An advantaged tagged of this attribute of is that it creates a long lasting impact on the memory and the viewer tends to retain the image for a much longer time and that too with accuracy.

It is a fine communicating tool which offers more information at a faster rate presents complex concepts in a simplified manner and also helps turn an idea or even a hint into reality. Recreation of any event, expensive or dangerous to reproduce, is possible through this technology. Fine examples of this would be an air crash, demolition of buildings or creation of colonies. In today's age photo-realistic effects are possible by using virtual light sources from different angles with a fine blend of reflection, transparency and shadowing. One big area where it is brining about a huge and fast transformation is Architecture. The 3-dimensional models are more accurate and make it easier to see and study the possible relationship of the buildings with the environment.

In the age of animation there is no limit in so far as the software packages are concerned. You can find several packages in the market but the main and only problem that there are far too many and there re endless companies who have created their own packages on the pretext that the ones available don't suit their purpose. However, there are still a few standardized ones. The first and the most familiar one that comes to mind is 'Alias Maya'. It is software which allows you to create models, texture and animate, with them and lots more. Another package which stands a rival to 'Alias Maya' is '3DS max', it is a package with almost the same facilities that one would find in 'Alias Maya' its advantage is that it allows you to from 'Maya' to '3DS max' and vice-versa. A few other software packages are Cinema 4D, Bodyshop, Light ware 3D and many more.

The future of 3D Animation is far reaching there are going to be more and more, different areas where it is going to bring about a radical change. However, one area of challenge for it is a photorealistic animation of humans. As of now animals, fantasy characters, robots or cartoon like humans are shown but time is not far off when you will certainly see it progressing in these areas too.

Career Opportunities in the World of Animation and Multimedia

2008-10-30T14:10:00.000-07:00

Career Opportunities in the World of Animation and Multimedia
By Geetika Jain

These days, it is not uncommon to see Indian children talking about mythological stories of Indian culture like Ramayana, Mahabharata and the legendary characters such as Lord Hanuman, Lord Ganesha and many more. This reintroduction to the fast-fading Indian culture can be attributed to the fascinating animated movies that have recapitulated the good old Indian epics for our young generation. And who can forget the ever-so-famous characters of Tom & Jerry, Mowgli, Stuart Little, Popeye, and many others that were brought to life by animation. In the endearing world of animation, lifeless images are brought to life through different tools and techniques.

With the expanding world of media, the demand of animators is also on the rise. Be it movies, television, cartoon film making, advertising, media or gaming, good animators rule the roost. In the world of animation, reality meets imagination and impossible becomes possible. Unthinkable graphics, special effects and evolved technologies come together to create a world that sweeps you off your feet. This upcoming industry has opened new doors to opportunities. A lot of creative people are choosing multimedia and animation as full-time careers and making good money out of it.

Multimedia means combining text, graphics, animation, video, sound, interactivity and conveying a message in an appealing manner. Therefore, just being creative is not enough. One has to be technically sound too. Although one has to have a good drawing hand to become a good multimedia expert. Thus, if you are blessed with immense creativity and imagination, there is no dearth of job opportunities. One can find a good full-time or freelancing job in the fields of television, cinema, video production, advertising agencies, publishing, web design, preparation of CD ROMs, fashion designing, textile designing, interior design, etc.

When it comes to training, there are numerous computer-training centres that offer training in multimedia and animation. It is good to check out the facilities and faculty at the institute before joining any institute. One can enroll in a Visual Communication and Design course straight after 12th standard. However, if one is already a graduate in fine arts with an aptitude for drawing, one can join production houses or studios as a trainee. National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad offers a course in Animation Film Design. In private institutes, Arena Multimedia offers basic as well as advanced courses. Even NIIT has developed a special programme called Maxi media to help learners build the skills needed for this market. Then, there is Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics that offers advanced courses in multimedia and animation.

Professional training is a must to handle animation and multimedia software like 3D Studio Max, Maya for 3D Animation, Animo and US Animation for 2D animation, along with skills set in Photoshop, Adobe After Effects and so on. All the institutes mentioned above provide training in these and there are advanced courses to acquire specialization.

One can choose from the following type of courses to make a career in this segment:
The foundation courses offer an introduction to the fascinating world of multimedia, and its tools and techniques. Digital printing and publishing courses provide training in designing products for the publishing segment. Digital web authoring trains you in website creation. Digital film animation is all about creating professional animators. Digital interactive multimedia course acquaints students with the new media like mobile, Internet, etc. An advanced diploma in digital visual communication and animation gives hands on knowledge of this industry and prepares one for careers in animation, multimedia, special effects, games and others.

One must understand that all courses offered are not of the same caliber. Before joining any institute or course, one must contact these institutes and discuss in detail with the faculty and understand their individual strengths. Also, it is a good idea to meet people in the industry and ask questions. Try to find out if the institute offers practical experience. Also, find out if they can help you find a job once you have finished the course.

After completing an appropriate and acquiring the appropriate skills, one can be absorbed at various levels such as graphics designer, visual artist, supervisor, digital film animator, senior animator, web designer or web author. Of late, this industry has become very high paying and salaries are almost on par with the software industry. There is also demand for Indian animators in the international markets due to the low costs incurred here for 2D and 3D content development.

In India, leading animation houses are in cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram. Companies such as UTV Toons, Zee Institute of Creative Arts (ZICA), 2NZ Studios, Prasad Studios, Crest Communications, Films Division, Maya Entertainment, Silverton Studio, Acropetal, jadooWorks, Color Chips, Toonz Animation, Heart Animation, etc. some of the premier ventures that deal in the world of animation and special effects.

New Maya Article

2008-10-30T04:22:00.000-07:00

If we are to talk about computer animation and the software associated with it, there is one name we can’t afford to miss—that’s ‘Maya’! Maya is the leading name in 3D animation and rendering software for its high-end features and unique capabilities. Getting its name from the Sanskrit word for ‘illusion’, Maya indeed lives up to it by its powerfully impressive potential, which have enraptured all the animation-crazy creatures of the present world.

To let you in this world of illusion and Maya, you must know its origin. This is an integrated 3D software package, developed from Alias’ Power Animator. Maya has been released in two versions—May Complete and Maya Unlimited (the more advanced version). Many popular feature films of today owe their fame to Maya. For instance, Jurassic Park, Terminator 2: Judgment Day have their fame rested on the power of Maya 3D animation. Maya’s originator Alias Research merged with Wavefront-TDI and this resulted in great synergies; both combined their best software strengths taking each step closer to the discovery of ‘Maya’.

Alias moved the Mac product ‘Alias Sketch!’ to the SGI platform and modified it further with the code name ‘Maya’. This was when this word first came into use. Later, Alias|Wavefront merger took the Maya saga forward inspiring customers to switch to this high-end product. When Alias was acquired by Autodesk in 2005-2006, this software came to be known as Autodesk Maya.

Maya not just takes prides in its versatile modeler, character animation and visual effects capabilities; it is also strongly popular in video game development. Its node-based architecture helps in creating complex animation and rendering links. Because of its complex functionality, it is quite difficult to learn this. However, Maya tutorials are plenty over the web to help learn comfortably or take guidance.

Maya has also been used in some of the finest animated television shows that time has ever produced. It has a customizable interface which helps in bringing about various high-end visual effects. This is one interesting feature in Maya—its adaptability to third-party software, functioning in the garb of another software. So this precisely explains why Maya is the software of choice in big studios where customized codes are written for production.

With Maya, you are capable of keyframe, nonlinear, and path animation, motion capture animation, skinning, rendering (shading, lighting, and paint effects), constraints, character sets, mental ray rendering, and more. The Unlimited version also helps you to implement cloth, hair, fluid and fur simulation, etc. along with scripting and plug-ins. Blender can also do the same things maya can! Most people say Blender is used for short films or commercials, and Maya is more of a big movie type of Package!

Autodesk Aqcuires Softimage

2008-10-26T11:44:00.001-07:00

Crazy article I found on blender.org!

"SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Oct. 23, 2008 — Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) and Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID), announced that they have signed a definitive agreement for Autodesk to acquire substantially all of the assets of Avid’s Softimage business unit for approximately $35 million." (full press release)

Wow. After Maya, they've now gobbled up another high-end 3D app. Users of 3D software around the world are worried and even outright angry about this move. People ask themselves if they should continue investing in (learning) Softimage and they wonder if a move to Blender can be worth their while. With the upcoming 2.50 redesign they might just stick. Thank you, Autodesk!

What do you think will happen to the 3D software market now?

Want to Learn Maya

2008-10-21T15:19:00.000-07:00

First off what is Maya: Maya is a high-end 3D computer graphics and 3D modeling software package(Exactly Like Blender) originally developed by Alias Systems Corporation, but now owned by Autodesk as part of the Media and Entertainment division. Autodesk acquired the software in October 2005 upon purchasing Alias. Maya is used in the film and TV industry, as well as for computer and video games, architectural vizualisation and design.

In 2003, Maya won an Academy Award "for scientific and technical achievement", citing use "on nearly every feature using 3-D computer-generated images."

Maya is the most commonly used program with most companies! So if you want to start a career in animation then you want to go to a college that will be using Maya or 3d Max! Blender is also a great 3d package(I mean common its free) it can do everything Maya can do, and some people say its better! It just depends on what you want to accomplish! Blender was used for a scene in Spider Man 2(Just because its a free program don't doubt what it can do!) However if you want to learn Maya then I would recommend you go to this site!3d Buzz!

EditMode Surface Hotkeys

2008-10-18T12:35:00.001-07:00

EditMode Surface Hotkeys

CKEY. Toggle Cyclic menu. A PopupMenu asks if selected surfaces in the 'U' or the 'V' direction must be cyclic. If they were already cyclic, this mode is turned off.

EKEY. Extrude Selected. This makes surfaces of all the selected curves, if possible. Only the edges of surfaces or loose curves are candidates for this operation. Grab mode is started immediately after this command is completed.

FKEY. Add segment. A segment is added between two selected vertices at the ends of two curves. These two curves are combined into 1 curve.

LKEY. Select Linked. If you start with an non-selected vertex near the mouse cursor, this vertex is selected together with all the vertices of the same curve or surface.

SHIFT+L. Deselect Linked. If you start with a selected vertex, this vertex is deselected together with all vertices of the same curve or surface.

SHIFT+R. Select Row. Starting with the last selected vertex, a complete row of vertices is selected in the 'U' or 'V' direction. Selecting "Select Row" a second time with the same vertex switches the 'U' or 'V' selection.

WKEY. The special menu for curves appears:

*

Subdivide. Subdivide the selected vertices
*

Switch direction. This will switch the normals of the selected parts.

XKEY. Erase Selected. A PopupMenu offers the following choices:

*

"Selected": all selected vertices are deleted.
*

"All": delete everything.

Creating content for the plug-ins

2008-10-18T12:33:00.002-07:00

Creating content for the plug-ins

When creating content for the plug-in, there is not much difference with creating and running content inside Blender or as a stand-alone game. There is one difference however. The plug-in might have dimensions that do not correspond to the settings made in the Blender file. This might create a difference in aspect ratios. The plug-in will match the two as good as possible.

The next figures show the situation of a perfect match. In the 3D view of Figure 2, the outer dotted rectangle shows the area that is to be displayed. The size and shape of this rectangle is set by changing the value in the SizeX and SizeY buttons in the DisplayButtons (F10) of Blender. The size of the plug-in in Figure 3 has been set to the same values.

Figure 2. File in 3D view

Figure 3. Perfect match in the plug-in

Figure 4. Framing of content

In the images in Figure 4, the aspect ratio of the plug-in does not match the Blender file. You'll notice that the plug-in or stand-alone player will try to show the content as big as possible without distortion of the content. The extra areas within the plug-in are drawn in a solid color (red in the figures) that can be either set in the HTML or in the Blender user interface.

How the plug-in or stand-alone player solves the difference in aspect ratio can be controlled in Blender. In the Display Buttons (F10) click on the "Game framing settings" button. You now can select three options: Stretch, Expose or Bars. If you select Bars the extra areas are filled with the color you set with the color sliders.

You can have different settings for different scenes. So you can have a 3D scene with bars and an overlay scene that is stretcht to fit to the output size.

If you select for a single 3D scene the settings as they are shown in Figure 5 you'll get results similar to the pictures in Figure 4.

Figure 5. GUI for Framing in the DisplayButtons (F10)

If you select "Expose", the plug-in or stand alone player will simply show more of the 3D environment. This will usually produce the most natural results but if you have enemies coming from the top or from the sides the user might see them pop up.

Figure 6. Extended framing

And finally, if you select "Stretch", the plug-in or stand-alone player will simply stretch the image horizontally or vertically to fit. This will distort the image somewhat (See Figure 7) but you'll never see bars or more from the 3D world as defined in Blender.

Figure 7. Stretched framing

Jumping to another HTML page

It is possible to have the browser load a new URL from within your Blender file. Send a message with the "To:" field set to "host_application" and the "Subject:" "load_url". The message's "Body:" should contain the full URL you want the browser to load.

Figure 8. Browsing HTML pages from within the Plug-in

Creating a custom loading animation

The file load.blend (download at http://www.blender3d.com/plugin/blend/load.blend) is an example of a custom loading animation for the Blender 3D Web Plug-in. The selected object has all of the important logic for showing file loading progress. It has a property called "progress". The value of that property drives the Ipo animation curve of the object, causing its size to increase in the Z direction. This is the most convenient way to use the loading information, because it's easy to set up and preview an Ipo animation.

The only tricky part is to get the file loading progress information being sent by the plug-in. The plug-in sends game messages with the subject "progress" as the file loads. Each message has a body which is a floating point value between 0.0 and 1.0 sent as a text string. The value 0.0 means that none of the file is loaded yet. 1.0 means that the file is completely loaded. This information is extracted by the Python script "progress.py", which gets all "progress" messages from the message sensor (in case more than one message is received within a single cycle of the game logic). It evaluates the body of the last message, converting it back to a numerical value and assigns the value to the "progress" property of the object.

The camera has some logic attached which causes it to send artificial progress messages for testing the animation. This logic should be deleted from the camera before the file is actually put into use.

Tips:

The purpose of a loading animation is to occupy the viewer's attention while a larger file is loading. It should be as small as possible so that it loads very quickly. Textures, especially *.tga images, increase file size a lot. Use JPEG images or avoid images completely. Save your file using Blender's file compression tool.
Most of the complexity in this example is for showing the download progress of the larger file. Showing the loading progress is very reassuring to the viewer, but not absolutely necessary. You can use any real-time Blender scene as a loading animation.

Embedding Blender 3D Plug-in in web pages

To embed the Blender 3D Plug-in on your web pages, you will need to add some HTML code to your web pages. Also, you will want to add a link to the Blender 3D Plug-in page (http://www.blender3d.com/plugin/) where users can install the plug-in if it is not already installed on their system. Click-able images that you can use to forward users to the download page are available at the Blender 3D Plug-in page.

The current version (2.28) of the Active X control (the Internet Explorer plug-in) is now able to support multiple plug-ins on a one HTML page. The Netscape version does not support this however. Therefore, you are still advised not to put two plug-ins on a HTML page. This will be fixed in one of our forthcoming releases.

Insert the following HTML tag into your web page and change the parameters to suit your content:



 classid="clsid:5DB05CB8-7751-469D-A1DD-45C8C201C013"

 id=Blender3DPlugin

 width = 640

 height = 480

 codebase="http://www.blender.nl/plugin/Blender3DPlugin.cab#Version=2,25,4,0">

















 type="application/x-blender-plugin"

 PLUGINSPAGE="http://plugin.blender.nl"

 name="NPBlender"

 WIDTH=640

 HEIGHT=480

 SRC="http://www.yoursite.com/yourproduction.blend"

 loadingURL="http://www.yoursite.com/yourloadinganimation.blend"

 ForeColor=65280

 BackColor=255

 useFileBackColor=1

 frameRate=20>

This code works for both the ActiveX control and the Netscape plug-ins.

The part between the and the tags relates to the ActiveX control.

The classid is the unique identifier of the Blender 3D Plug-in.
The id is the name of the plug-in on the page. This can be used to identify the plug-in in Javascript.
The width and height parameters allow you to set the dimensions of the plug-in on the page. In the example, width and height are given in pixels. You can also specify the dimensions in percentages of the size of the page (e.g. width = "50%").
The codebase is the URL the ActiveX control will be downloaded from when it is not installed on the system the page is viewed on. The version number after the hash sign (#) should read the minimum version of the ActiveX control needed to view your content. Internet Explorer will compare this version to the version of the ActiveX control installed on the system. If the ActiveX control installed is older, the newer version is downloaded and installed automatically.

The tag is followed by a list of parameters:

blenderURL (required) is the URL of the Blender file to be viewed.
loadingURL (optional) is the URL of the custom loading animation.
ForeColor (optional) is the color to be shown while the custom loading animation is downloaded.
BackColor (optional) is the color used to draw the extra areas when the aspect ratio of the plug-in does not match the aspect ratio set in the Blender file.
useFileBackColor (optional) read the color to draw the extra areas with from the Blender file. If neither BackColor or useFileBackColor are set the HTML background color is used to draw the extra areas.
frameRate (optional) is the maximum number of frames per second. When your animation does not need to be viewed at maximum frame rate possible (e.g. web banners), set this value to a meaningful maximum. With lower frame rates the client system will remain more responsive. For other types of content (e.g. games) you probably want to set this value to the maximum of 100 or leave out the parameter in which case the plug-in will use 100 as well.

The Netscape plug-in settings can be found between the and tags. Most of the parameters are the same as those of the ActiveX control.

Parameters that differ are:

PLUGINSPAGE (optional) The URL of the web page displayed by the browser when the plug-in is not installed on the client system.
name (required) The id is the name of the plug-in on the page. This can be used to identify the plug-in in Javascript. It is the equivalent of the id of he Active control.
SRC (required) is the URL of the Blender file to be viewed. The equivalent of the ActiveX blenderURL parameter.

Color values should be passed to the ActiveX control in a format known as OLE_COLOR. The red, green and blue components of the color are stored in a single value. To determine a BGR value, specify blue, green and red (each of which has a value from 0 - 255) in the following formula: BGR value = (blue * 65536) + (green * 256) + red

Some parameters of the plug-ins can be dynamically accessed (through Javascript for example). This means that you can interact with the plug-in from your HTML code. For instance, you can change the URL of the Blender file from the HTML page with a button by adding the following to your HTML page:

                    

value="load other production"

onClick="Blender3DPlugin.blenderURL='http://www.yoursite.com/other.blend';">

This feature is currently not available for the Netscape plug-ins. We are planning to add Javascript capabilities in the next release.

Another very powerful option is to send messages to the Blender file running inside the plug-in. This way you can change the behaviour of your production from the HTML. The following form allows you to type in messages in the HTML and send them to the plug-in:


























to:


from:


subject:


body:


&nbsp


	    onClick="Blender3DPlugin.SendMessage(the_to.value,

	    the_from.value, the_subject.value, the_body.value);">

Sequence Editor

2008-10-18T12:33:00.001-07:00

Sequence Editor

An often underestimated function of Blender is the Sequence Editor. It is a complete video editing system that allows you to combine multiple video channels and add effects to them. Even though it has a limited number of operations, you can use these to create powerful video edits (especially when you combine it with the animation power of Blender!) And, furthermore, it is extensible via a Plugin system quite alike the Texture plugins.

Learning the Sequence Editor

This section shows you a practical video editing example exhibiting most of the Sequence Editor built in features. We will put toghether several Blender made animations to obtain some stuning effects. One frame of the resulting edited animation is in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Final result.

First animation: two cubes

Let's start with something simple and see where it leads. Start a clean Blender and remove the default plane. Split the 3D window and switch one of the views to the camera view with NUM 0. In the top-view, add a cube and move it just outside of the dotted square that indicates the camera view. Figure 2.

	TV limitations
	When you are planning to show your work on television, note the inner dotted square. Since not all televisions are the same, there is always a part of the picture that is 'cut off'. The inner square indicates which area is guaranteed to be viewable. The area between the dotted lines is referred to as the 'overscan area'.

Figure 2. Moving the cube out of the camera view.

We want to create a simple animation of the cube where it moves into view, rotates once and then disappears. Set the animation end to 61 (set the End: value in the Render Buttons window - F10) and insert a LocRot keyframe on frame 1 with IKEY and selecting LocRot from the menu which appears. This will store both the location and the rotation of the cube on this frame.

Go to frame 21 (press ARROW_UP twice) and move the cube closer to the camera. Insert another keyframe. On Frame 41, keep the cube on the same location but rotate it 180 degrees and insert another keyframe.

Finally on frame 61 move the cube out of view, to the right and insert the last keyframe.

	Keyframe checking
	To check, select the cube and press KKEY to show all keyframes in the 3D window. If you want, you can easily make changes by selecting a keyframe with PAGEUP or PAGEDOWN (the active keyframe will be displayed as a brighter yellow color than the other keyframes) and moving or rotating the cube. With the keys displayed, you do not need to re-insert the keyframes - they are automatically updated (Figure 3). Figure 3. Defining keyframes for the cube

Keyframe checking

To check, select the cube and press KKEY to show all keyframes in the 3D window. If you want, you can easily make changes by selecting a keyframe with PAGEUP or PAGEDOWN (the active keyframe will be displayed as a brighter yellow color than the other keyframes) and moving or rotating the cube. With the keys displayed, you do not need to re-insert the keyframes - they are automatically updated (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Defining keyframes for the cube

We will need two versions of the animation: one with a solid material and one with a wireframe. For the material, we can use a plain white lit by two bright lamps - a white one and a blue one with an energy value of two (Figure 4).

For the wireframe cube, set the material type to 'Wire' and change the color to green (Figure 5).

Figure 4. A rendering of the solid cube.

Figure 5. And a rendering of the wireframe cube.

Enter an appropriate filename (for example 'cube_solid.avi') in the 'Pics' field of the Render Buttons window (F10) (Figure 6).

Figure 6. Set the animation output filename.

Render the animation with the white solid cube. This will save it to your disk. Save it as an AVI file. Use AVI Raw if possible, because it yelds an higher quality - compression should be the last thing in the editing process - otherwise, if short of disk space use AVI Jpeg or AVI Codec, the first being less compressed and hence often of higher quality.

Now change the material to the green wireframe, render the animation again and save the result as cube_wire.avi.

You now have a 'cube_solid.avi' and 'cube_wire.avi' on your hard disk. This is enought for our first sequence editing.

First Sequence: delayed wireframes

The first sequence will use only the wireframe animation - twice - to create an interesting effect. We will create multiple layers of video, give them a small time offset and add them together. This will simulate the 'glowing trail' effect that you see on radar screens.

Start a clean Blender file and change the 3D window to a Sequence Editor window by pressing SHIFT F8 or by selecting the Sequence Editor icon from the window header.

Add a movie to the window by pressing SHIFT-A and selecting 'Movie' (Figure 7). From the File Select window select the wireframe cube animation that you made before.

Figure 7. Adding a video strip

After you have selected and loaded the movie file, you see a blue strip that represents it. After adding a strip, you are automatically in grab mode. The start and end frame are now displayed in the bar.

Take a closer look at the Sequence Editor screen now. Horizontally you see the time value. Vertically, you see the video 'channels'. Each channel can contain an image, a movie or an effect. By layering different channels on top of each other and applying effects, you can mix different sources together. If you select a video strip, its type, length and filename will be printed at the bottom of the window.

Grab your video strip and let it start at frame 1. Place it in channel 1, that is on the bottom row (Figure 8).

Figure 8. Placing the strip.

	Lead-in, Lead-out and stills
	You can add lead-in and lead-out frames by selecting the triangles at the start and end of the strip (they will turn purple) and dragging them out. In the same way, you can define the 'length' in frames of a still image.

Duplicate the movie strip with SHIFT D, place the duplicate in channel 2 and shift it one frame to the right. We now have two layers of video on top of each other, but only one will display. To mix the two layers you need to apply an effect to them.

Select both layers and press SHIFT-A. Select ADD from the menu that pops up (Figure 9).

Figure 9. Mixing two video strips

To see what's happening split the sequence editor window and select the image button in the header (Figure 10). This will activate the automatic preview (Figure 11). If you select a frame in the sequence editor window with the strips, the preview will be automatically updated (with all the effects applied!).

Figure 10. Sequence Editor preview button.

If you press ALT A in the preview window, Blender will play back the animation. (Rendering of effects for the first time takes a lot of processing time, so don't expect a real-time preview!).

Figure 11. Adding a preview window.

	Windowless preview
	If you do not like the separate render window, switch to the Render Buttons (F10) and select DispView in the bottom left.

Now its time to add some more mayhem to this animation. Duplicate another movie layer and add it to the ADD effect in video channel 3. Repeat this once and you will have four wireframe cubes in the preview window (Figure 12).

Figure 12. Sequence with 4 wireframe cube strips added together.

All the cubes have the same brightness now, but I would like to have a falloff in brightness. This is easily arranged: open an IPO window somewhere (F6) and select the sequence icon in its header (Figure 13).

Figure 13. Sequence IPO button.

Select the first add strip (the one in channel 3), hold down CTRL and click LMB in the IPO window on a value of 1. This sets the brightness of this add operation to maximum. Repeat this for the other two add strips, but decrease the value a bit for each of them, say to around 0.6 and 0.3 (Figure 14).

Figure 14. Defining the brightness of a layer with an IPO

Depending on the ADD values that you have just set, your result should look something like what is shown in Figure 15.

Figure 15. Four wireframe cubes combined with fading effects.

Now we already have 7 strips and we have only just begun with our animation! You can imagine that the screen can quickly become very crowded indeed. To make your project more manageable, select all strips (AKEY and BKEY work here, too!), press MKEY and press ENTER or click on the Make Meta pop up. The strips will now be combined into a meta-strip, and can be copied or moved as a whole.

With the meta strip selected, press N and enter a name, for example 'Wire/Delay', to better remember what it is Figure 16.

Figure 16. Named META strip

Second animation: A delayed solid cube

Now it is time to use some masks. We want to create two areas in which the animation plays back with 1 frame time difference. This creates a very interesting glass-like visual effect.

Start by creating a black and white image like this one. You can use a paint program or do it in Blender. The easiest way to do this in Blender is to create a white material with an emit value of 1 or a shadeless white material on some beveledCurve Circles(Figure 17). In this way, you do not need to set up any lamps. Save the image as mask.tga.

Figure 17. Animation mask.

Switch to the sequence editor and move the meta strip that we made before out of the way (we will reposition it later). Add the animation of the solid cube (SHIFT+A, 'Movie'). Next, add the mask image. By default a still image will get a length of 50 frames in the sequence editor. Change it to match the length of the cube animation by dragging out the arrows on the side of the image strip with the right mouse button.

Now select both strips (hold down SHIFT), press SHIFT+A and add a SUB (subtract) effect. (Figure 18).

Figure 18. Subtracting the mask from the video.

In the preview window you will now see the effect; the areas where the mask is white have been removed from the picture (Figure 19).

Figure 19. Mask subtracted.

This effect is ready now; select all three strips and convert them into a META strip by pressing MKEY

Now do the same, except that you don't use the SUB effect but the MUL (multiply) effect (Figure 20). This time you will only see the original image where the mask image is white. Turn the three strips of this effect into a meta strip again.

Figure 20. Mask multiplied.

For the final step I have to combine the two effects together. Move one of the meta strips above the other one and give it a time offset of one frame. Select both strips and add an ADD effect (Figure 21).

Figure 21. Adding the two effects

In the preview window you can now see the result of the combination of the animation and the mask (Figure 22).

When you are ready, select the two meta strips and the ADD effect and convert them into a new meta strip. (That's right! You can have meta strips in meta strips!)

	Getting into a Meta Strip
	To edit the contents of a meta strip, select it and press TAB. The meta strip will 'explode' to show its components and background will turn yellow/greenish to indicate that you are working inside a meta strip. Press TAB again to return to normal editing.

Figure 22. Two time-shifted layers.

Third animation: a tunnel

We want a third 'effect'to further enrich our animation; a 3D 'tunnel' to be used as a background effect. This is really simple to create. First save your current work - you will need it later!

Start a new scene (CTRL-X) and delete the default plane. Switch to front view (NUM 1). Add a 20-vertex circle about 10 units under the z=0 line (the pink line in your screen) (Figure 23).

Figure 23. Adding a 20-vertex circle.

While still in editmode, switch to side view (NUM 3) and snap the cursor to the origin by locating it roughly at the x,y,z=0 point and pressing SHIFT-S. Select Curs>>Grid.

We want to turn the circle into a circular tube, or torus. For this, we will use the Spin function. Go to the Edit Buttons window (F9) and enter a value of 180 in the Degr NumButton and enter '10' in the Steps one. Pressing Spin will now rotate the selected vertices around the cursor at 180 degrees and in 10 steps. (Figure 24).

Figure 24. Spinning the circle around the cursor

Leave editmode (TAB). With the default settings, Blender will always rotate and scale around the object's center which is displayed as a tiny dot. This dot is yellow when the object is unselected and pink when it is selected. With the cursor still in the origin, press the Center Cursor button in the Edit Buttons window to move the object center to the current cursor location. Now press RKEY and rotate the tube 180 degrees around the cursor.

Now it's time to move the camera into the tunnel. Open another 3D window and switch it to the camera view (NUMPAD+0). Position the camera in the side view window to match Figure 25, the camera view should now match Figure 26.

	Missing edges
	If not all of the edges of the tunnel are showing, you can force Blender to draw them by selecting 'All Edges' in the Edit Buttons window (F9).

Figure 25. Camera inside the tunnel.

Figure 26. Camera view of the tunnel interior.

To save ourselves some trouble, I want to render this as a looping animation. I can then add as many copies of it as I like to the final video compilation.

There are two things to keep in mind when creating looping animations. First, make sure that there is no 'jump' in your animation when it loops. For this, you have to be careful when creating the keyframes and when setting the animation length. Create two keyframes: one with the current rotation of the tube on frame 1, and one with a rotation of 90 degrees (hold down CTRL while rotating) on frame 51. In your animation frame 51 is now the same as frame1, so when rendering you will need to leave out frame 51 and render from 1 to 50.

Please note that the number 90 degrees is not chosen carelessly, but because the tunnel is periodic with period 18°, hence you must rotate it by a multiple of 18°, and 90° is it, to guarantee that frame 51 is exactly the same than frame 1.

Second, to get a linear motion you need to remove the ease-in and ease-out of the rotation. These can be seen in the IPO window of the tube after inserting the rotation keyframes. The IPO smoothly starts and end, much like a cosine function. We want it to be straight. To do so select the rotation curve, enter editmode (TAB) and select all vertices (AKEY) and press VKEY ('Vector') to change the curve into a linear one (Figure 27).

Figure 27. Tunnel rotation IPO without ease-in and ease-out.

To create a more dramatic effect, select the camera while in camera view mode (Figure 28). The camera itself is displayed as the solid square. Press RKEY and rotate it a bit. If you now play back your animation it should loop seamlessly.

Figure 28. Figure Rotate the camera to get a more dramatic effect

For the final touch, add a blue wireframe material to the tube and add a small lamp on the location of the camera. By tweaking the lamp's 'Dist' value (attenuation distance) you can make the end of the tube disappear in the dark without having to work with mist. (Figure 29).

When you are satisfied with the result, render your animation and save it as 'tunnel.avi'.

Figure 29. Figure A groovy tunnel.

Second sequence: Using the tunnel as a backdrop

Reload your video compilation Blender file. The tunnel that we made in the last step will be used as a backdrop for the entire animation. To make it more interesting I will modify an ADD effect to change the tunnel into a pulsating backdrop. Prepare a completely black picture and call it 'black.tga' (try pressing F12 in an empty Blender file. Save with F3, but make sure that you have selected the TGA file format in the Render Buttons window). Add both black.tga and the tunnel animation and combine them with an ADD effect (Figure 30).

Figure 30. Setting up the backdrop effect.

Now with the ADD effect selected, open an IPO window and select the Sequence Editor button in its header. From frame 1-50, draw an irregular line by holding down CTRL and left-clicking. Make sure that the values are between 0 and 1 (Figure 31).

Figure 31. Adding randomnes with a irregular Ipo

When you are ready, take a look at the result in a preview screen and change the animation into a meta strip.

Save your work!

Fourth Animation: a jumping logo

Let's create some morerandomness and chaos! Take a logo (We can just add a text object) and make it jump through the screen. Again, the easiest way to do this is to add vertices directly into the IPO window (select a LocX, LocY or LocZ channel first), but this time you may need to be a bit more careful with the minimum and maximum values for each channel. Don't worry about the looks of this one too much - the next step will make is hardly recognizable anyway. (Figure 32).

Figure 32. Jumping logo

Save the animation as 'jumpylogo.avi'.

Fifth Animation: particle bars

Our last effect will use an animated mask. By combining this with the logo of the previous step, I will achieve a streaking effect that introduces the logo to our animation. This mask is made by using a particle system. To set one up switch to side view, add a plane to your scene and while it is still selected switch to the Animation Buttons window (F7). Select 'New effect' and then change the default effect (build) to 'Particles'. Change the system's settings as indicated in Figure 33.

Figure 33. Particle system settings.

Press TAB to enter editmode, select all vertices and subdivide the plane twice by pressing WKEY and selecting Subdivide from the pop-up menu.

Next switch to front view and add another plane. Scale it along the X-axis to turn it into a rectangle (press SKEY and move your mouse horizontally. Then click MMB to scale along the indicated axis only). Give the rectangle a white material with an emit value of one.

Now you need to change the particles into rectangles by using the dupliverts function. Select rectangle, then particle emitter and parent them. Select only the plane and in the left part of the animation buttons window, select the DupliVerts button. Each particle is now replaced by a rectangle (Figure 34).

Figure 34. Dupliverted rectangles

I now add some mist as a quick hack to give the rectangles each a different shade of gray. Go to the World Buttons window with FKEY , click on the button in its header and select Add New. The world settings will now appear.

By default, the sky will now be rendered as a gradient between blue and black. Change the horizon colors (HoR, HoG, HoB) to pure black (Figure 35).

Figure 35. Figure Setting up mist.

To activate rendering of mist activate the Mist button in the middle of the screen. When using mist, you have to indicate on which distance from the camera it works. Select the camera, switch to the Edit Buttons window and enable ShowLimits. Now switch to top view and return to the World Buttons window. Tweak the Sta: and Di: (Start, Distance, respectively) parameters so that the mist covers the complete width of the particle stream (Figure 35 and Figure 36).

Figure 36. Setting the mist parameters

Set the animation length to 100 frames and render the animation to disk. Call the file 'particles.avi' (Figure 37).

Figure 37. Rendered particle rectangles.

Third sequence: Combining the logo and the particle bars

By now you know the drill: reload your compilation project file, switch to the Sequence Editor window and add both 'particles.avi' and 'logo.avi' to your project. Combine them together with a MUL effect. Since the logo animation is 50 frames and the particles animation is 100 frames, you'll need to duplicate the logo animation once and apply a second MUL effect to it (Figure 38 and Figure 38).

Figure 38. Use the logo animation twice

Combine these three strips into one meta strip. If you're feeling brave you can make a few copies and give them a small time offset just like with the wireframe cube.

Figure 39. The particles animation combined with the logo animation

Sixth Animation: zooming logo

If you would combine all your animations so far you would get a really wild video compilation, but if this was your company's presentation you would want to present the logo in a more recognizable way. The final part of our compilation will therefore be an animation of the logo that zooms in very slowly. Prepare this one and save it as 'zoomlogo.avi'. Also prepare a white picture and save it as 'white.tga'.

We will now use the CROSS effect to first make a rapid transition from black to white, then from white to our logo animation. Finally, a transition to black will conclude the compilation.

Start off by placing black.tga in channel 1 and white.tga in channel 2. Make them both 20 frames long. Select them both and apply a cross effect. The cross will gradually change the resulting image from layer 1 to layer 2. In this case, the result will be a transition from black to white (Figure 40).

Figure 40. Black-white transition.

Next, add a duplicate of white.tga to layer 1 and place it directly to the right of black.tga. Make it about half as long as the original. Place the logo zoom animation in layer 2 and add a cross effect between the two. At this point, the animation looks like a white flash followed by the logo zoom animation (Figure 41).

Figure 41. Figure White-video transition

The last thing that you need to do is to make sure that the animation will have a nice transition to black at the very end. Add a duplicate of black.tga and apply another cross effect. When you are ready, transform everything into a meta strip (Figure 42).

Figure 42. Video-black transition

Assembling everything so far

We're at the end of our work! It's time add some of the compilations that we have made so far and see how our work looks. The most important thing to remember while creating your final compilation is that when rendering your animation, the sequence editor only 'sees' the top layer of video. This means that you have to make sure that it is either a strip that is ready to be used, or it should be an effect like ADD that combines several underlying strips.

The foundation of the compilation will be the fluctuating tunnel. Add a some duplicates of the tunnel meta strip and place them in channel one. Combine them into one meta strip. Do not worry about the exact length of the animation yet; you can always duplicate more tunnel strips.

On top of that, place the delayed wireframe cube in channel 2. Add channel 1 to channel two and place the add effect in channel 3 (Figure 43).

Figure 43. Combining the tunnel and the wireframe cube

Now we also want to add the solid cube animation. Place it in channel 4, overlapping with the wireframe animation in channel 2. Add it to the tunnel animation in layer one. This is where things are starting to get a little tricky; if you would leave it like this, the animation in channel 5 (the solid cube together with the tube) would override the animation in channel 2 (the wireframe cube) and the wireframe cube would become invisible as soon as the solid cube shows up. To solve this, add channel 3 to channel 5 (Figure 44).

Figure 44. Combining the tunnel, wireframe and solid cube.

You will often need to apply some extra add operations to fix missing parts of video. This will most likely become apparent after you have rendered the final sequence.

Slide the Sequence Editor window a bit to the left and add the meta strip with the particle/logo animation in it. Place this strip in layer 2 and place an add effect in layer 3. For some variation, duplicate the wireframe animation and combine it with the add in layer 3 (Figure 45).

Figure 45. Adding the particle/logo animation

Now go to the end of the tunnel animation strip. There should be enough place to put the logo zoom animation at the end and still have some space left before it (Figure 46). If not, select the tunnel strip, press TAB and add a duplicate of the animation to the end. Press TAB again to leave meta edit mode.

Figure 46. Adding the logo zoom animation.

If there is still some space left, wecan add a copy of the solid cube animation. To get it to display correctly, you will have to apply two add channels to it: one to combine it with the particle logo animation and one to combine it with the logo zoom animation (Figure 47).

Figure 47. Adding one last detail

Figure 48 shows the complete sequence.

Figure 48. The complete sequence

Conclusion

We are now ready to render our final video composition! To tell Blender to use the Sequence Editor information while rendering, select the 'Do Sequence' button in the Render Buttons window. After that, rendering and saving your animation works like before (be sure not to overwrite any of your AVI of the sequence!).

Volumetric Effects

2008-10-18T12:32:00.002-07:00

Volumetric Effects

Although Blender exhibits a very nice Mist option in the World Settings to give your images some nice depth, you might want to create true volumetric effects; mists and clouds and smoke which really looks like they occupy some space.

Figure 1 shows a setup with some columns in a circular pattern, whith some nice material of your choiche for columns and soil and a World defining sky colour.

Figure 1. Columns on a plain.

Figure 2 shows, the relative rendering, whereas Figure 3 there is a rendering with Blender's built-in Mist. Mist setting in this particular case are: Linear Mist, Sta=1, Di=20, Hig=5

Figure 2. A plain rendering.

Figure 3. A rendering with builin Blender Mist.

But we want to create some truly cool, swirling, and, most important non-uniform mist. Blender Built in textures, clouds for example, are intrinsecally 3D, but are rendered only when mapped onto a 2D surface. We will achieve a 'volumetric' like rendering by 'sampling' the texture on a series of mutually parallel planes. Each of our planes will hence exibits a standard Blender texture on its 2D surface, but the global effect will be of a 3D object. This concep will be clearer as the example proceeds.

With the camera in the default position, turn to front view, and add a plane in front of the camera, with its center aligned with the camera wiewing direction. In side view move the plane where you want your volumetric effect to terminate. In our case somewhere beyond the furthest column. Scale the plane so that it encompasses all camera's viewing angle (Figure 4). It is important to have a camera in the default position, that is pointing along the y axis since we need the planes to be orthogonal to the direction of sight. We will anyway be able to move it later on.

Figure 4. The plane setup.

After having checked that we're at frame 1, let's place a Loc keyframe (IKEY). We should now move to frame 100, move the plane much nearer to the camera, and set another Loc Keyframe. Now, in the animation buttons (F7) Press the DupliFrame button.

The 3D window, in side view, will show something like Figure 5. This is not good because planes are denser at the begin and at the end of the sweeep. With the plane still selected change to an IPO window (SHIFT F6). There will be three Loc IPOs, only one of which non-constant. Select it, swithc to EditMode (TAB) and select both control points. Now turn them from smooth to sharp with (VKEY) Figure 6.

Figure 5. The Dupliframed plane.

Figure 6. Reshaping the Dupliframed Plane IPO.

The planes will now look as in Figure 7. Parent the Dupliframed planes to the camera (select the plane, SHIFT select the camera, CTRL P. You have now a series of planes automatically following the camera, always oriented perpendicularly to it. From now on you could move the camera if you so wish.

Figure 7. Reshaping the Dupliframed Plane IPO.

Figure 8. Basic Material settings.

Now we must add the Mist material itself. The material should be Shadeless and cast no shadows to avoid undesired effects. It should have an small Alpha value (Figure 8) A material like this would basically act like Blender's built in mist, hence we would have no advantage in the resulting image. The drawback is that computing 100 transparent layer is very CPU intensive, expecially if one desires the better results of the Unified Renderer.

Quick previews

	Quick previews
	You can use the `DupOff:` NumButton in the Animation Buttons window to turn off some of the planes and hence have a faster, lower quality preview of what you are doing. For the final rendering you will then turn DupOff back to 0. Pay attention to the Alpha value! the lesser planes you use the thinner will be the mist, so your final rendering will be much more 'Misty' than your previews!

You can use the DupOff: NumButton in the Animation Buttons window to turn off some of the planes and hence have a faster, lower quality preview of what you are doing. For the final rendering you will then turn DupOff back to 0.

Pay attention to the Alpha value! the lesser planes you use the thinner will be the mist, so your final rendering will be much more 'Misty' than your previews!

The true interesting stuff comes when you add textures. We will need at least two: One to limit the Mist in the vertical dimension and keep it on the ground; The second to make it non uniform and with some varying hue.

As a first texture Add a Blend Linear texture, with a very simple colorband, going from pure white, Alpha=1 at a position 0.1 to pure white, Alpha=0 at a position 0.9 (Figure 9). Add this as a Alpha only Mul texture (Figure 10). To make our mist consistent as the Camera moves, and the planes follows, we have to set it Global. This will be true also for all other textures and will make the planes sample a fixed 3D volumetric texture. If you are planning an animation you will see a static mist, with respect to the scene, while the camera moves. Whichever other texture setting would show a Mist wich is static with respect to the camera, hence being always the same while the camera moves, which is higly unrealistic.

Figure 9. Basic Material settings.

Figure 10. Basic Material settings.

If you want to anyway have a moving, swirling changing mist you can do so by animating the texture, as will be explained later on.

The Blend texture operates on X and Y directions, so if you want it to span vertically in the Global coordinates you will have to remap it (Figure 10). Please note that the blending from Alpha=1 to the Alpha=0 will occurr from global z=0 to global z=1 unless additional offsets and scalings are added. For our aim the standard settings are OK.

If you now do a rendering, it doesn't matter where your camera, and planes, are. The mist will be thick below z=0, non-existent above z=1 and fading in between. If you're puzzled by this apparent complexity, think of what you would have got with a regular Orco texture and non-parented planes. If you had to move the camera, expecially in animations, the results would become very poor as soon as the planes are not perpendicular to the camera any more. To end up with no mist at all if the camera were to become parallel to the planes!.

The second texture is the one giving the true edge on the built in mist. Add a Cloud texture, make its Noise Size=2, Noise Depth=6 and Hard Noise on (Figure 11). Add colorband to this too, going from pure white with Alpha=1 at Positoion 0 to a pale bluish gray with Alpha = 0.8 at a position of about 0.15, to a pinkish hue with Alpha 0.5 around position 0.2, ending to a pure white, Alpha=0 color at position 0.3. Of course you might want to go to greenish-yellow for swamp mists etc.

Figure 11. Cloud texture settings.

Use this texture on both Col and Alpha as a Mul texture, keeping al other settings to default. If you now render the scene the bases of your columns will be now masked by a cool mist (Figure 12). Please note that the Unified renderer gives much better results here.

Figure 12. Cloud texture settings.

If you are planning an animation and want your Mist to be animated like if it were moved by a wind it is this latter texture you must work on. Add a Material texture IPO, be sure to select the correct texture channel and add some IPO to the OfsX, OfsY and OfsZ properties.

Modelling with lattices

2008-10-18T12:32:00.001-07:00

Modelling with lattices

A Lattice consists of a non-renderable three-dimensional grid of vertices. Their main use is to give extra deformation to any child object they might have. These child objects can be Meshes, Surfaces and even Particles.

Why would you use a Lattice to deform a mesh instead of deforming the mesh itself in Edit Mode ?

There are a couple of reasons for that:

First of all: It's easier. Since your mesh could have a zillion vertices, scaling, grabbing and moving them could be a hard task. Instead, if you use a nice simple lattice your job is simplified to move a couple of vertices.
It's nicer. The deformation you get looks a lot better !
It's FAST !. You can put all or several of your child objects in a hidden layer and deform them all at once.
It's a good practice. A lattice can be used to get different versions of a mesh with minimal extra work and consumption of resources. This leads to an optimal scene design, minimizing the amount of modelling job. A Lattice does not affect the texture coordinates of a Mesh Surface. Subtle changes to mesh objects are easily facilitated in this way, and do not change the mesh itself.

How does it work ?

A Lattice always begins as a 2 x 2 x 2 grid of vertices (which looks like a simple cube). You can scale it up and down in Object Mode and change its resolution thru the EditButtons->U,V,W.

After this initial step you can deforme the Lattice in EditMode. If there is a Child Object, the deformation is continually displayed and modified. Changing the U,V,W values of a Lattice returns it to a uniform starting position.

Now we are going to see a very simple case in which having a lattice will simplify and speed up our modelling job.

I have modelled a very simple fork using a plane subdivided couple of times. It looks really ugly but it's all I need. Of course it is completely flat from a Side View. Wow, it is REALLY ugly. The only important detail is that it has been subdivided enough to ensure a nice deformation in the Lattice step. You cannot bend a two vertices segment !

Figure 44. An ugly fork.

In Top View, now add a Lattice. Before changing its resolution, scale it up so it completely envolves the fork's width. This is very important. Since I want to keep the lattice vertices count low (it doesn't make sense it has the same number of vertices than the mesh, right ?) I need to keep resolution low but still set the lattice to convenient size.

Figure 45. A 2x2x2 Lattice.

Adjust the Lattice resolution to complete the fork's lenght.

Figure 46. Use a suitable resolution, but don't exaggerate.

Now, we are ready for the fun part. Parent the fork to the lattice, by selecting the fork and the lattice and pressing CTRL-P. Enter Edit Mode for the lattice and start selecting and scaling vertices. You might want to scale in X or Y axis separately to have more control over the lattice depth (to avoid making the fork thicker or thinner).

Figure 47. Deforming the lattice is a pleasure !.

Note that if you move the fork up ad down inside the lattice, the deformation will apply in different parts of the mesh.

Once you're done in Front View, switch to Side View. Select and move different vertices sections to give the fork the suitable bends.

Figure 48. Bending things.

It was quick, wasn't it ?

You can get rid of the lattice now if you're not adding any other child object. But before doing it, you might want to keep your deformations !. Just select the fork and press CTRL-SHIFT-A and click on the "Apply Lattice Deform ?" menu entry.

Figure 49. A nice fork.

You can use a lattice to model an object following another object's shape. For instance take a look at the following scene. I have modelled a bottle, and now I would like to confine a character inside it. He deserves it.

Figure 50. Poor guy...

Add a lattice to envolve the character. I didn't use a too high resolution for the lattice. I scaled it in X and Y to fit the lattice to the character.

Figure 51. Bending things.

Parent the character to the lattice, and then scale the lattice again to fit the dimensions of the bottle.

Figure 52. Scale the lattice to fit the bottle.

Now enter Edit Mode for the lattice. Press the Outside button in the Edit Buttons to switch off the inner vertices of the lattice. We will switch them on later. Move and scale the vertices in front and side views until the character perfectly fits the bottle's shape.

Figure 53. Edit comfortable.

You can select the lattice and do the modelling in one 3D window using Local View and see the results in another window using Global View to make your modelling comfortable.

Figure 54. Claustrophobic ?.

Hadn't we used a lattice it would have taken a lot more of vertex picking-and-moving work to deform the character.

Since lattices also supports RVK for vertex animation, quite interesting effects can be achieved with this tool.

Figure 55. Final Render. Believe me, he deserved it !

Lattices can be used in many applications which require a "liquid-like" deformation of a mesh. Think of a genie coming out of his lamp, or a cartoon character with its eyes popping out exaggeratedly. And

Dupliframes

2008-10-18T12:31:00.004-07:00

Dupliframes

You can consider Dupliframes in two different ways: an arranging or a modelling tool. In a way, Dupliframes are quite similar to Dupliverts. The only difference is that with Dupliframes we arrange our objects by making them follow a curve rather than using the vertex of a mesh.

Dupliframes or Frame Duplication is a very useful modelling technique for objects which are repeated along a path, such as the wooden sleepers in a railroad, the boards in a fence or the links in a chain, but also for modelling complex curve objects like corkscrews, seashells and spirals.

Modelling using Dupliframes

We are going to model a chain with its links using Dupliframes

First things come first. To explain the use of dupliframes as a modelling technique, we will start by modelling a single link. To do this, add in front view a Curve Circle (Bezier or Nurbs, whatever). In Edit Mode, subdivide it once and move the vertices a little to fit the link's outline.

Figure 18. Link's outline

Leave Edit Mode and add a Surface Circle object. NURBS-surfaces are ideal for this purpose, because we can change the resolution easily after creation, and if we need to, we can convert them to a mesh object. It is very important that you do not confuse Curve Circle and Surface Circle. The first one will act as the shape of the link but it will not let us do the skinning step later on. The second one will act as a cross section of our skinning.

Figure 19. Link's cross section

Now parent the circle surface to the circle curve (the link's outline). Select the curve and in the Anims buttons press CurvePath and CurveFollow.

Figure 20. Curve's settings: Curve Follow

It probably happens that the circle surface will appear dislocated. Just select it and press ALT-O to clear the origin.

Figure 21. Erasing origin

Figure 22. Aligning object's axis to World axis

If you hit ALT-A the circle will follow the curve. Now you probably will have to adjust the TRackX,Y,Z and UpX,Y,Z animation buttons, to make the circle go perpendicular to the curve path.

Figure 23. Tracking the right axis

Are you done ?, well, now select the Surface Circle and go to Animation Buttons and press Dupliframes. A number of instances of the circular cross section will appear along the curve path.

Figure 24. Dupliframes !

You can adjust the number of circles you want to have with the DupSta, DupEnd, DupOn and DupOff buttons. These buttons control the Start and End of the duplication, the numebr of duplicates each time and also the Offset between duplications. If you want the link to be opened, you can try a different setting for DupEnd.

Figure 25. Values for dupliframes. Note "DupEnd: 35" will end link befor curve's end.

To turn the structure into a real NURBS-object, select the Surface Circle and press CTRL-SHIFT-A. A pop-up menu will appear prompting "OK? Make Dupli's Real".

Figure 26. Values for dupliframes. Note "DupEnd: 35" will end link befor curve's end.

Do not deselect anything. We now have a collection of NURBS forming the outline of our object, but so far they are not skinned, so we cannot see them in a shaded preview or in a rendering. To achieve this, we need to join all the rings to one object. Without deselecting any rings, press CTRL-J and confirm the pop-up menu request. Now, enter EditMode for the newly created object and press AKEY to select all vertices. Now we are ready to skin our object. Press FKEY and Blender will automatically generate the solid object. This operation is called "Skinning".

Figure 27. Skinning the link.

When you leave EditMode, you can now see the object in a shaded view. But it is very dark. To correct this, enter EditMode and select all vertices, then press WKEY. Choose "Switch Direction" from the menu and leave EditMode. The object will now be drawn correctly.

The object we have created is a NURBS object. This means that you can still edit it. Even more interestingly, you can also control the resolution of the NURBS object via the EditButtons.

Here you can set the resolution of the object using "ResolU" and "ResolV", so you can adjust it for working with the object in a low resolution, and then set it to a high resolution for your final render. NURBS objects are also very small in filesize for saved scenes. Compare the size of a NURBS scene with the same scene in which all NURBS are converted (ALT-C) to meshes.

Finally you can delete the curve we used to give the shape of the link, since we will not use it anymore.

Figure 28. Values for dupliframes. Note "DupEnd: 35" will end link befor curve's end.

Arranging objects with Dupliframes

Now we will continue modelling the chain itself. For this, just add a Curve Path (we could use a different curve but this one gives better results). In Edit Mode, move its vertices until get the desired shape of the chain. If not using a Curve Path, you should check the button 3D in the Edit Buttons to let the chain be real 3D.

Figure 29. Using a curve path to model the chain.

Select the object "Link" we modelled in the previous step and parent it to the chain curve. Since we are using a Curve Path the option "CurvePath" in the AnimButtons will be automatically activated, however the "CurveFollow" option will not, so you will have to activate it.

Figure 30. Curve settings.

If the link is dislocated, select it and press ALT-O to clear the origin. Until now we have done little more than animate the link along the curve. This can be verified by playing the animation with ALT-A.

Now, with the link selected once again go to the AnimButtons. Here, activate the option "DupliFrames" as before. Play With the "DupSta:", "DupEnd:" and "DupOf:" NumButtons. Normally we are going to use "DupOf: 0" for a chain. If using "DupOf: 0" the links are too close from each other you should change the value PathLen for the path curve to a minor value, and correspondingly change the DupEnd: value for the link to that number.

Figure 31. Adjusting the dupliframes.

We need that the link rotates along the curve animation, so we have each link rotated 90 degrees respect the preceding one in the chain. For this, select the link and press Axis in the Edit Buttons to reveal the object's axis. Insert a rotation keyframe in the axis which was parallel to the curve. Move 3 or 4 frames ahead and rotate along that axis pressing "R" followed by "X-X" (X twice),Y-Y, or Z-Z to rotate in the local X,Y or Z axis.

Figure 32. Rotating the link.

Open an IPO window to edit the rotation of the link along the path. Press the "Extrapolation Mode" so the link will continually rotate until the end of the path. You can edit the IPO rotation curve to make the link rotate exactly 90 degrees every one, two or three links (each link is a frame). Use the "N" key to locate a node exactly at X=2.0 and Y=9.0, which correspond to 90 degrees in 1 frame (since frame 1 to 2).

Now we got a nice chain !

Figure 33. Dupliframed chain.

More Animation and Modelling

You are not limited to use Curve Paths to model your stuff. These were used just for our own convenience, however in some cases there are no need of them.

In Front View add a surface circle (you should know why by now). Subdivide once, to make it look more like a square. Move and scale some vertices a little to give it a trapezoid shape.

Figure 34. Figure

Figure 35. Figure

Then rotate all vertices a few degrees. Grab all vertices and displace them some units right or left in X (but at the same Z location). You can use CTRL-K to achieve this precisely. Leave Edit Mode.

Figure 36. Figure

Figure 37. Figure

From now on, the only thing we are going to do is editing IPO animation curves. So you can call this "Modelling with Animation" if you like. We will not enter Edit Mode for the surface in any moment.

Switch to Top View. Insert a keyframe for rotation at frame 1, go ahead 10 frames and rotate the surface 90 degrees over its new origin. Insert one more keyframe. Open an IPO window, and set the rotation IPO to Extrapolation Mode.

Figure 38. Using a curve path to model the chain.

Figure 39. Using a curve path to model the chain.

Go back to frame 1 and insert a keyframe for Location. Switch to Front View. Go to frame 11 (just press Cursor Up) and move the surface in Z a few grid units. Insert a new keyframe for Location. In the IPO window set the LocZ to Extrapolation Mode.

Figure 40. Using a curve path to model the chain.

Now, of course, go to the Animation buttons and press Dupliframes. You can see how our surface is ascending spirally thru the 3D space forming something like a spring. This is nice, however we want more. Deactivate Dupliframes to continue.

In frame 1 scale the surface to nearly zero and insert a keyframe for Size. Go ahead to frame 41, and clear the size with ALT-S. Insert a new keyframe for size. This IPO will not be in extrapolation mode since we don't want it scales up at infinitum, right ?

Figure 41. Using a curve path to model the chain.

If you now activate Dupliframes you will see a beautiful outline of a corkscrew. Once again the last steps are: Make Duplis Real, Joining teh surfaces, Select all vertices and skinning, Switch direction of normal if needed and leave Edit Mode.

Figure 42. Using a curve path to model the chain.

Figure 43. Using a curve path to model the chain.

You can see this was a rather simple example. With more IPO curve editing you can achieve very interesting and complex models. Just use your imagination.

Dupliverts

2008-10-18T12:31:00.003-07:00

Dupliverts

"Dupliverts" are not a rock band nor a dutch word for something illegal (well maybe it is) but is a contraction for "DUPLIcation at VERTiceS", meaning the duplication of a base object at the location of the vertices of a mesh. In other words, when using Dupliverts on a mesh, on every vertex of it an instance of the base object is placed.

There are actually two approaches to modelling using Dupliverts. Mainly they can be used as an arranging tool, allowing us to model geometrical arrangement of objects (eg: the columns of a greek temple, the trees in a garden, an army of robot soldiers, the desktops in a classroom). The object can be of any object type which Blender supports.

The second approach is using them to model an object starting from a single part of it (eg: the spikes in a club, the thorns of a sea-urchin, the tiles in a wall, the petals in a flower)

We are going to discuss both approaches to examine all our options

Dupliverts as arranging tool

All you need is a base object (eg: the "tree" or the "column") and a mesh with its vertices following the pattern you have in mind.

I will use a simple scene for the following part. It consists of a camera, the lamps, a plane (for the floor) and a strange man I modelled after a famous Magritte's character. If you don't like surrealism you will find this part extremely boring.

Figure 1. A simple scene to play with

Anyway, the man will be my "base object". It is a good idea that he will be at the center of coordinates, and with all rotations cleared. Move the cursor to the base object's center, and From Top View add a mesh circle, with 12 vertices or so.

Figure 2. The parent mesh can be any primitive

Out of Edit Mode, select the base object and add the circle to the selection (order is very important here). Parent the base object to the circle by pressing CTRL-P. Now, the circle is the parent of the character. We are almost done.

Figure 3. The man is parented to the circle

Figure 4. The Animation Buttons

Now select only the circle, switch the ButtonsWindow to the AnimButtons (F7) and select the option"DupliVerts".

Figure 5. In every vertex of the circle a man is placed

WOW, isn't it great ?. Don't worry about the object at the center. It is still shown in the 3D-views, but it will NOT be rendered. You can now select the base object, change (scale, rotate, EditMode)[1] it and all dupliverted objects will reflect the changes. But the more interesting thing to note is that you can also edit the parent circle.

Select the circle and scale it. You can see that the misterious men are uniformly scaled with it. Now enter the EditMode for the circle, select all vertices AKEY and scale it up about three times. Leave EditMode and the dupliverted objects will update. This time they will still have their original size but the distance between them will have changed. Not only we can scale in EditMode, but we can also delete or add vertices to change the arrangement of men.

Figure 6. Changing the size of the circle in Edit Mode

Select all vertices and duplicate them. Now scale the new vertices outwards to get a second circle around the original. Leave Edit Mode, and a second circle of men will appear.

Figure 7. A second row of Magritte's men

Until now all Magritte's men were facing the camera, ignoring each other. We can get more interesting results using the "Rot" option next to the duplivert button. With this option active, we can rotate the dupliverted objects according to the face-normals of the parent object. More precisely, the dupliverted objects axis are aligned with the normal at the vertex location.

Which axis is aligned (X, Y or Z) depends on what is indicated in the TrackX,Y,Z buttons and the UpX,Y,Z buttons. Trying this with our surrealist buddies, will lead to wierd results depending on these settings.

The best way to figure out what will happen is first of all aligning the "base" and "parent" objects' axis with the World axis. This is done selecting both objects and pressing CTRL-A, and click the "Apply Size/Rot?" menu.

Figure 8. Show object's axis to get what you want

Then make the axis of the base object and the axis and normals in the parent object visible (in this case, being a circle with no faces, a face must be defined first for the normal to be visible (actually to exist at all))

Now select the base object (our magritte's man) and play a little with the Anim buttons. Note the different alignment of the axis with the different combinations of UpX,Y,Z and TrackX,Y,Z.

Figure 9. Negative Y Axis is aligned to vertex normal (pointing to the circle's center)

Figure 10. Positive Y axis is aligned to normal

Figure 11. Positive X axis is aligned to normal

Figure 12. Positive Z axis is aligned to normal (wierd, huh ?)

Dupliverts to model a single object

Very interesting models can be done using Dupliverts and a standard primitive.

Starting from a cube in Front View, and extruding a couple of times I have modelled something which looks like a tentacle when Subsurfs are activated. Then I added an Icosphere with 2 subdivisions.

Figure 13. Strange tentacle (?) and subsurfed version

I had special care to be sure that the tentacle was located at the sphere center, and that both the tentacle axis and the sphere axis were aligned with the world axis as above.

Figure 14. Strange tentacle (?) and subsurfed version

Now, I simply make the icosphere the parent of the tentacle. Select the icosphere alone and made it "Duplivert" in the AnimButtons.

Press the "Rot" button to rotate the tentacles.

Figure 15. Dupliverts not rotated

Figure 16. Dupliverts rotated

Once again to make the tentacle point outwards we have to take a closer look to its axis. When applying Rot, Blender will try to align one of the tentacle axis with the normal vector at the parent mesh vertex.

Again, the base mesh is not rendered, so you probably would like to add an extra renderable sphere to complete the model.

You can experiment in EditMode with the tentacle, moving its vertices off the centre of the sphere, but the object's center should always be at the sphere's center in order to get a simmetrical figure. However take care not to scale up or down in one axis in ObjectMode since it would lead to unpredictable results in the dupliverted objects when applying the "Rot" button.

Figure 17. Our model complete

Once you're done with the model and you are happy with the results, you can select the tentacle and press SHIFT-CTRL-A and click on the "Make duplis real ?" menu to turn your virtual copies into real meshes.

Notes

[1]	and also ObjectMode, however scaling in ObjectMode could bring up some problems when applying Rotation to dupliverts as we will see soon

Special modelling techniques

2008-10-18T12:31:00.001-07:00

Special modelling techniques

by Malefico

Introduction

Once we have overcome the "extrusion modelling fever" and started to look at more challenging modelling targets, we might start the searching for alternative methods to do the job. There are a group of modelling techniques in Blender which not only make our modelling job easier but sometimes make it POSSIBLE.

These so called "special" modelling techniques involve not only some vertex manipulation but the use of non-intuituive procedures which require a deeper knowledge or experience from the user than the average beginner.

In this chapter we will describe these techniques in detail and explain their utility in several modelling applications which could not have been solved any other way.

Wave Effect

2008-10-18T12:30:00.002-07:00

Wave Effect

The Wave effect adds a motion to the Z co-ordinate of the Object Mesh.

Figure 29. Wave Control Panel

The wave effect influence is generated from a given starting point defined by the Sta X and Sta Y NumButs. These co-ordinates are in the Mesh local reference (Figure 30).

Figure 30. Wave Origin

The Wave effect deformation originates from the given starting point and propagates along the Mesh with circular wavefronts, or with rectilinear wavefronts, parallel to the X or Y axis. This is controlled by two X and Y toggle buttons. If just one button is pressed fronts are linear, if both are pressed fronts are circular (Figure 31).

The wave itself is a gaussian-like ripple which can be either a single pulse or a series of ripples, if the Cycl button is pressed.

Figure 31. Wave front type

The Wave is governed by two series of controls, the first defining the Wave form, the second the effect duration.

For what concerns Wave Form, controls are Speed, Height, Width and Narrow (Figure 32).

Figure 32. Wave front controls

The Speed Slider controls the speed, in Units per Frame, of the ripple.

The Height Slider controls the height, in Blender Units and along Z, of the ripple (Figure 33).

If the Cycl button is pressed, the Width Slider states the distance, in Blender Units, between the topmost part of two subsequent ripples, and the total Wave effect is given by the envelope of all the single pulses (Figure 33).

This has an indirect effect on the ripple amplitude. Being ripples gaussian in shape, if the pulses are too next to each other the envelope could not reach the z=0 quote any more. If this is the case Blender actually lowers the whole wave so that the minimum is zero and, consequently, the maximum is lower than the expected amplitude value, as shown in Figure 33 at the bottom.

The actual width of each gaussian-like pulse is controlled by the Narrow Slider, the higher the value the narrower the pulse. The actual width of the area in which the single pulse is significantly non-zero in Blender Units is given by 4 over the Narrow Value. That is, if Narrow is 1 the pulse is 4 Units wide, and if Narrow is 4 the pulse is 1 Unit Wide.

Figure 33. Wave front characteristics

	To obtain a Sinusoidal-like wave
	To obtain a nice Wave effect similar to sea waves and close to a sinusoidal wave it is necessary that the distance between following ripples and the ripple width are equal, that is the "Width" Slider value must be equal to 4 over the "Narrow" Slider value.

The last Wave controls are the time controls. The three NumButs define:

Time sta the Frame at which the Wave begins;

Lifetime the number of frames in which the effect lasts;

Damptime is an additional number of frames in which the wave slowly dampens from the Amplitude value to zero. The Dampening occurs for all the ripples and begins in the first frame after the "Lifetime" is over. Ripples disappear over "Damptime" frames.

Figure 34. Wave time controls