blender art magazine 2006

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EDITORIAL 4

Five ye ars ago I w e nt look ing for a 3D program . I

found ble nde r, frie nds and a ne w w ay of look ing at

th e w orld around m e . During th is tim e , one of m y

favorite ble nde r re late d activitie s h as be e n

brow s ing online for all th e late st ble nde r ne w s , ne w

fe ature s , tutorials and te ch niq ue s . Ove r th e last

five ye ars I h ave us e d lite rally cas e s of pape r,

printing out e ve ryth ing available on ble nde r. I still

re m e m be r h ow I (and m any oth e rs) e age rly w aite d

for e ach ne w is sue of th e "Com m unity Journal". It

w as som e th ing cool to look forw ard to. And

som e th ing I still m is s .

W h ich brings us to th e point of th is e ditorial.

Gaurav and I de cide d th at w e didn't h ave

anyw h e re ne ar e nough th ings to do w ith our non-

e xiste nt fre e tim e , so w e de cide d to launch th e

late st re -incarnation of a ble nde r m agazine . And

th is is it, Ble nde rart. W e lcom e to our m is s ion to

provide ne w s , tutorials and ble nde r re late d

inform ation in an attractive , fun to re ad form at.

A place to find out all th e late st ne w s conce rning

ble nde r. W e w ill be bringing you tutorials cove ring

ne w fe ature s , and s e ldom us e d/obscure fe ature s .

W e w ill tak e a look at ne w w ays of doing th ings

and cove r h ow to accom plis h bas ic to advance d

proje cts . Tutorials in e ach is sue w ill cove r a

ge ne ral th e m e , pulling toge th e r a com ple te

proje ct, giving you th at e xtra little pus h to try

som e th ing ne w .

In th is is sue w e are going to tack le m ode ling,

te xturing and rigging a robot for bas ic anim ation.

Ke e ping in line w ith our th e m e , Ste fano s h are s h is

te ch niq ue s on m ode ling and anim ating ge ars , w ith

a s h ort tutorial on us ing th e Ble nde r Me ch anical

Ge ars (BMG) script. And Alvaro Luna Bautista

s h ow s us h ow to calculate a plane line inte rs e ction.

W e also h ave a sm all galle ry of m e ch anical im age s

subm itte d from com m unity m e m be rs .

W e h ope you e njoy our first is sue and w e lcom e you

to subm it article , tutorials and artw ork for future

e ditions .

Sandra Gilbe rt

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As k Blentuu 5

W e ll, s ince I h ave nt re ce ive d any q ue stions ye t, I th ough t I w ould k ick off our first is sue w ith som e little k now n/obscure ble nde r tips .

1. Anim ation Pre vie w in all w indow s at th e sam e tim e : It is w e ll k now n th at Alt-A is for pre vie w ing an anim ation on th e 3D w indow . But th at's not all of it. D ivide your scre e n into m ultiple 3D W indow s , e ach from a diffe re nt point of vie w .

If you h ave an Action/Ipo W indow and 3D w indow s ope n, and you is sue th e [Alt-Sh ift-A] com m and from th e Action (or th e Ipo) w indow , it w ill anim ate both (th e action and th e 3D) in sync!! Gre at for visualization of Ipo's e ffe ct on your m ode l.

2. "Truck " th e cam e ra in cam e ra m ode :a) go into cam m ode w ith NUMPAD 0b) m ove th e cam e ra w ith pre s s ing Gk e yc) pre s s th e m iddle m ous e button

3. H idde n Obje cts:I don't k now h ow old th is is (or w h e th e r it's be e n m e ntione d be fore ) ... but I just discove re d it. Say you are in front or s ide vie w and you w ant to s e le ct an obje ct, but it is h idde n be h ind oth e r obje cts . If you pre s s Alt RMB ove r a group of

obje cts , a m e nu w ill be displaye d in th e 3D w indow allow ing you to pick th e obje ct you w is h to s e le ct.

4. Sh ow alph a te xture as w ire :ctrl-d in 3dvie w can s h ow alph a te xture as w ire .ve ry us e ful for pre vie w w ith out re nde ring.

If you h ave an obje ct (w ork s be st on a m e s h plane ) w ith an im age te xture , you can us e [Alt-V] outs ide e ditm ode . Th is w ill adjust th e obje ct's s ize value s so th at th e im age w on't be stre tch e d w h e n proje cte d

Th e s e are just a fe w tips I found brow s ing ble nde r forum s . If you h ave a cool ble nde r tip or te ch niq ue you w ould lik e to s h are or a q ue stion you w ould lik e answ e re d, subm it it to:

m anage r_ble nde rart@ yah oo.com .

Until ne xt tim eBle ntuu

Hi there Blentuu,

I have a question for your section of the Blender art mag. Ive used other 3d programs before like Maya, Max and XSI and they all have a tool that allows you to split a polygon in half. I cant figure out how to do this in Blender. Ive tried using the knife tool to split a polygon but when it cuts, polygons on both sides of the one I tried to cut would have cuts in them too.

My question is; is there a way to cut a single polygon? If so, how? I hope my question makes it into the next issue. Thanks in advance, - Alonso

Well the answer to that is no. In Blender, cutting a polygon will always create extra cuts/edges, but not all hope is lost. With the release of version 2.40, you get some control over the number of cuts with the new improved Knife tool. Or you can use the new Mesh Rip tool. The Rip tool can be used for tearing or ripping parts of a Mesh, in order to create seams to be filled in with new faces.

Rules for the Rip tool are (taken straight from the release notes); Use short cut Vkey to activate it (a V resembles ripping :). It im-mediately enters Transform translation mode after.

It only works for quads, this because it internally uses the face loop-select to detect the proper faces that need to be ripped. If only 1 vertex is selected, the edge closest to the mouse cur-sor defines the direction of the rip seam and what part is being

grabbed. Note that in this case there are 4 possible rips, so posi-tioning the mouse has to be done a bit careful.

When edges are selected, the rip seam is defined, so the mouse cursor position only defines which part is being grabbed.

With only 1 vertex selected, you can step by step rip a mesh seam; this also works on the edges of a mesh grid for example.

Hi,I read and enjoyed your Blender art magazine, and have a ques-tion for your Ask Blentuu section.

I have an application in which I would like to use Blender, how-ever, I have not been able to determine if the following feature is available. (For my purposes I would be driving Blender from a python script.)

Is it possible to have Blender calculate the volume of an object in order to calculate the objects mass?

Many thanks,Charlie [email protected]

Ask Blentuu

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Blentuu answers

Q

A

Q

If you have a problem or a tip you want to share mail it to blentuu

manager@[email protected]

Python not being one of my greatest strengths, I did some searching around and discovered that there is a python script in progress right now that should cover what you need. It is named AreaVolume and further information about its progress and usage can be found in the python forums at: http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=50510&highlight=areavolume.

Hello Blentuu,I have a question I would like to see answered in the next issue of Blender art magazine.

I am new to Blender (using it about six months part time and have worked through the tutorials in the Blender 2.3 Guide twice now). I am just getting to the point where the application is familiar to me and can easily follow most well written tutorials. I come from a scientific background and I approach things the way I would, if I was executing a laboratory protocol (read procedure, gather materials and tools, follow instructions, collect data, analyse data, write a report). Now not having any formal art education I have been thinking about how to approach the work flow in Blender to produce a small animation project. Do the professionals have a general methodology that they follow: model char-acters, add texture and lighting, rig for animation, create animation, render animation files?

Some tips for a noob regarding typical work flow that professionals use when approaching a small project would be of interest to me. I like the first issue and am happily working on the included tutorials. Thanks for the magazine hope to see something on work flow in one of your up-coming issues.

- Matt

Any work flow you use will be of course tailored to your individual work style. That being said, a commonly used work flow.

A) Planning Stage.B) Story line.C) Concept sketches, perhaps even do up clay models.D) Story boards ( even if only using stick figures).E) The next part is done in progressive stages of detail. Set up your shot/scenes with basic primitives, to get an idea of spacing and size Do a quick render with basic colouring and lighting to judge timing. F) Model low poly versions of everything, refining colouring, lighting timing issues. Add in rough dialogue and sound effects. Add progressive amounts of detail, materials and texturing and lighting, fine tune the timing and sound issues G) Final render

This type of setup works best in a team environment, with everyone assigned specific tasks, but can be modified to an individual effort.

-- Blentuu

Ask Blentuu

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A

Q

A

The Blender version 2.40 has been released with an overwhelming list of new features that will keep all of us busy experimenting and learning. Although there were a large number of new features, most of the attention has been given to the Animation code improvements and rewrites. With such features as a new IK System, Stride Sup-port, Shape Keys, IPO Drivers, Skin Weighting and Rigging improvements, animation has become not only fun, but a lot less painful. The new Particle Guides and Shaded Particles have added a whole new dimension to hair/fur/grass.

Having already played with a lot of the new features, I can tell you that it is well worth the down load. A few features have been moved, but not removed. So before you panic, look in the new Modifier Stack, in the Edit Buttons. Most all effect features such as

SubSurf, Decimate, Wave, Build etc have found a new home there, as well as a few new ones.There have also been rather exciting changes and improvements to the UV/Image Editing tool set. A new Live LSCM gives instant feedback while UV mapping, while a number of new tools allows cloning and smudging of images within Blender itself. TIFF support has also been added for import and export.

News of this release has already reached all corners of the Internet, even appearing of the front page of the prestigious CGTalk website, adding to the already growing popularity of Blender. So, if you somehow managed to miss the news of the release, head over to www.blender.org and grab yourself a copy. Dont forget to read the release notes as there is a wealth of information contained in those pages and you wouldnt want to miss out on even one of the new features.

Every Blender release is followed by a bugfix re-lease. From the developers meeting notes, it looks like 2.41 may see the daylight next week: Instead of 2.40a we drop the a/b convention and the 2.40 bugfix release will be called 2.41

The Gimp team has released the latest bug fix release of Gimp as the new stable release in Gimp 2.2.10 and also released Gimp 2.36, the beta release for the up coming Gimp 2.4.

Although the Gimp stable release doesnt add any thing in new features, it is recommended to upgrade your older Gimp 2.2.9 or 2.2.8 versions with this.

For those seeking to play with the up coming fea-tures in Gimp you can also download the Gimp 2.36 in source form from the www.gimp.org website.

There is also a windows version of gimp 2.35 avail-able at source forge, though it is termed as unstable it is pretty useable and lets you experience the all new organised menu structure, lots of elementary goodies that finally made it into the text tools and much more, go play with it and provide feedback to the Gimp team

News Flash

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Blender 2.40 released Gimp in news

The Linux Bangalore has always been a big event in India. Bangalore being the IT capital of India, has tre-mendous interest in FOSS. This year the LB was aptly renamed and transformed to FOSS.in as it has grown greatly over the years and due to the amount of at-tendance it commands it is no longer correct to call it a local LUG event any more.

Day 1 I was there as a Blender user presenting the ever increasing quality and features of Blender at a booth. The event was launched by Atul Chitnis, one of the biggest supporters of FOSS in India. After attending the inspirational talk by Alan Cox, we went to fetch the machines which we were going to use for our demos or projects. We got brand new machines from the warehouse. Then I realised that I had a problem on my hands, this being the first of any such event for me, I didnt bring a copy of Blender with me! Although I had duly burned all necessary stuff for demonstration a day before. No worries, just next to me was the strong contingent from Delhi LUG and they had everything I needed ;). After a short while I started demos of Blender anima-tions, using the recent Suzanne award winners. Slowly many people gathered and started to discuss among themselves as to how Blender stands amongst other commercial counterparts. I did not answer any of those queries, but promptly

switched the animated demos to the rendered art-work. Their queries immediately changed to: how was this stuff done in Blender? How much time it would take to do so? Exactly the questions I was waiting to answer :) Things were going fine for us, though we did not have net access until Atul came in and suggested that we move to the Business Expo booth, as there was plenty of empty space and ready net access there. By the time lunch ended we had shifted there. At the end of the day the crowd waned. Day 2 I was prompt to present myself at the event the next morning, however it seems morning does not wake people faster. Since I had nothing to do, I went and attended my first FOSS event of the day Ahem... LinuxChix. After attend-ing the event I returned back to my stall and was told that a few guys were interested in Blender and they were waiting for me for some time. After a while a small group of four guys came over, and asked what Blender could do. I showed them some stuff, Enricos Penguin Dance was a favourite and so was the Cycles animation.

Shortly after noon a group of youngsters presented themselves at the stall. They were the enthusiastic type and one of them wanted to actually see how is was done. There began my first live Blender session and boy I was not aware of the usefulness it had.

Day This was the busiest day for me. I gave about 5-6 Live Blender sessions, it was as if my stall had a high PR rating through word of mouth. Sartaj Kang, one of the KDE developers (and few others who have been watching the small groupings with amusement) were of the view that I should have been giving a full

Foss.in report

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Foss.in report

talk instead, at other times they even wanted a BOF entirely for themselves. I nodded in agreement but luckily they were just too busy to attend one ;)

Just next to us was an HP stall. There they were demoing a Blender version running on a modified xserver which made use of three monitors and gave a large desktop real-estate for Blender. There was Mr. Manjunath from HP, with whom I discussed various issues under which HP could be helping OSS. But as they always say a commercial company has commer-cial interests in mind, well rightly so, but at-least he agreed in theory that there can be a chance that HP can make use of Blenders growing capabilities. The talk went on to comparing the powerful features of other commercial apps with Blender, which came back to the development of features needed and when I told him about the speed of actual develop-ment, I could see him getting excited.

Day Again a slow start in the morning, but this was one of the most productive days of all. A professor from one of the Goa Universities wanted to learn the basics of using Blender himself so that he can introduce this useful tool to his students. There was only one problem though, he was looking for CAD features which Blender does not readily offer. I discussed a work around with him, like importing the mechanical drawings through images and building models with reference. They might not be accurate, but 3d models will keep students interest. I also suggested to him other OSS CAD tools. Despite that, I spent a good 1-2 hrs. detailing for him how to use Blender, and I must say he was really interested in learning. I hope he can make use of the small learning session.

Then there was Vaseem a engineering student, who was interested in learning whether Blender can be used for his academic project on photo geometry. We discussed a lot on the issue and finally he agreed that using python with Blender might help him.

Finally I met an very interesting person: Shree Kumar. He had worked on Blender scripting and was the one those guys who made those Blender demos running on the HP Cluster (or was it some thing else ?) And if I recall right, was one of the people who customised the Xserver to use multiple monitors asynchronously on that machine. More importantly, we developed an mutual understanding that I can misuse his talents to correct errors on python scripts which fail on my machine ;)

At the end of it, I was filled with vigour, that I will return next year with a much larger role than this.

If Blender could generate such a good amount of in-terest despite being announcing as an entry very late in the event schedule, then it surely will have a much better presence with a full fledged talk on the sub-ject, and more importantly a developer friendly BOF on which I am sure Tom (Letterrip) will be nodding his head in agreement ;)

-- Gaurav Nawani

Foss.in report

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Animation Tips

-- by Sandra Gilbert

IntroductionJust like any art form, when it comes down to it, it isnt the tool being used, it is the artist and his/her knowledge/skill. Animation is no different. While a fancy program with lots of cool tools can make an animators life easier, the animation will still fall flat if not done properly. It has long been held in the animation industry, that there are 12 basic principles of animation. You can find them written, re-written and paraphrased all over the net. With the advent of Blenders new animation features, it is a good idea to review these principles before we all get animating.

Thats right, here is another incarnation of the golden animation rules. :)

At a glance, here are the 12 Basic Principles of Animation:1. Squash and stretch2. Anticipation3. Staging4. Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose5. Follow through and Overlapping Action6. Slow In and Slow Out7. Arcs

8. Secondary Action9. Timing10. Exaggeration11. Solid Drawing (same or different as Weight)12. Appeal

Squash and StretchOne of the most important elements to master as an animator. It gives the illusion of weight and volume to characters, facial animation and objects such as a bouncing balls. It can also be useful while animating dialog. One thing to remember when using squash or stretch, is to always maintain the same volume. Think of it as a balloon filled with water. Squish your balloon, the water moves to different sections of the balloon, but always maintains the same volume. Tools in blender that can help in your use of Squash and Stretch are lattice deformations, Soft bodies and Shape Keys.

AnticipationAnticipation the act of starting a movement before the movement actually starts. Generally staged as a backward movement just preceding the forward movement. It can be done broadly or subtly, depend-ing on what effect you are going for, with broad anticipation usually used for comic effect.

StagingStaging is the animated equivalent of photography composition. Use staging to convey your actions

clearly. Proper use of close-ups, medium and wide shots can help direct your audience to the tone, mood and action of your scene. Be sure to plan your shots and scenes out carefully so as not to confuse your audience.

Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose AnimationStraight ahead animation goes from frame to frame, allowing complete control over movement. Pose to Pose is the use of KeyFrames at set intervals, allow-ing the computer to fill in the missing frames. Both methods have their uses and most likely you will use a combination of both. In blender it is easy to set Pose to Pose with KeyFrames at your set intervals and then fine tune those actions on a frame by frame basis us-ing IPO manipulation.

Follow Through and Overlapping ActionBy observing the world around you will notice that objects in motion never stop all at once. In animation this is called Follow Through and Overlapping Actions. Most obvious examples hair flowing and settling into place once the character has stopped. An animal with loose skin, different parts are all moving, but atdifferent speeds and stop at different points.

Animation tips - pg1

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Slow-Out and Slow-InSlow-out and slow-in will soften an action and render it more life like. The basic concept for setting them up is as follows. You bunch up the KeyFrames toward the beginning and end of each action with only one or two in the middle of the action. More KeyFrames creating slower actions, fewer KeyFrames creating faster actions.

ArcsRemember your math teacher saying youll use this someday, here it is. Most all movements are on an Arc. A soft semi circular motion that gives a more natural feel to the movements. Test it yourself, raise your arm and move it around, there is your arc. Look for arcs in movements all around you.

Secondary ActionSecondary action provides the extra little details that make a performance more believable. Adding arm movements to a walk cycle, head bobs, and dialog all are examples of secondary action.

TimingTiming can make or break an animation. It is one of those things that is best learnt through trial, error and experience. A stopwatch can greatly increase your grasp of timing. Go into a room, shut the door and act out your scenes, using a stopwatch to record when the actions start and stop. Dont forget to overlap actions from different characters and objects.

Grab a friend and play out your scenes that involve more than one character

ExaggerationIn computer animation it is very easy for your move-ments to look stiff and staged, minor exaggeration of features and movements can soften your movements and make them more fluid. But be careful with how much you exaggerate, unless you are going for a very comic look.

Solid DrawingSolid drawing covers the basic principles of giving form, weight, and volume solidity to your objects. This actually applies more to traditional hand drawn cell animation, but should be kept in mind even for CG animators. Make sure that your characters and ob-jects have the look and feel of a solid object. Check from all angles to ensure that you havent forgotten something.

AppealOften we get so caught up in all the mechanics of animation that we forget all about appeal. The whole reason for making the animation was to tell a story, is your character believable, will it connect with the audience? These are questions you need to keep in mind when creating your characters. Make sure they have personalities, even if they are evil ones.

Okay now we have covered the very basic of the

basic principles. It gives you the ideas and concepts to improve your animations, but like all things in life, this is a subject that requires further study and a lot of practise

Animation tips - pg2

www.blenderart.org

Hi, my name is Sandra Gilbert, (aka dreamsgate). I have been using blender for a little over five years. I currently live in Nampa, Idaho, USA and work as a graphic designer for a small print shop.

I am married and have 2 children, which leaves not near enough time for feeding my growing blender obsession. Yet some-how I always manage to find the time to explore new features, keep up on the latest news and start new blender projects. Some of them I actually even manage to finish.

Special - Project Orange Team Interview

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byb

by - Sandra Gilbert

Have you ever sat back and watched a project or idea literally explode across the scene. Now for the blender community this is not an unusual occurr-ence. We have a long history of avidly supporting any community project, idea or fund raising campaign that comes along. But even with our history of support, the popularity and support gathered around Project Orange has been gaining an historic momentum. News of which has appeared not only on community websites, but has leaked

over into Open Source news sites and even been featured in issue #68 of 3D World where the Project Orange website had been chosen as Website of

the Month.Blender, having been an in house production tool, once had the immediate feed-back and interaction of both developing and using the software on a daily basis. With a desire to recapture that unique synergy of development and a very real desire to create a profes-sional quality Open Source animation, Project Orange

was born. The Blender Foundation teamed up with Montevideo (Nether-lands Media Art Institute) to produce and distribute the resulting animation. With Montevideo handling the tax/legal and hiring issues and the Blender Foun-dation taking charge of the creative process, a new focus was about to hit the blender community and take hold of our imaginations. From a basic idea, a full fledge studio soon appeared. Two apartments were rented and equipment was set up. Jan Morgenstern and his studio WaveMage

agreed to sponsor the movie by provid-ing all music and the full sound effect editing for the project. Next Prof. Mark Alan Matties, Department of Computer Science at Bowie State University and Director of the BSU Xseed xseed.bowi-estate.edu, offered the BSU Xseed as a rendering farm for the entire period of the Orange Open Movie project. The offer of a full render farm allowed for more creative scenes using longer render times, while still maintaining the set production schedule. And yet as all the organisational stuff is going on, the real story revolves around a team of brilliant artists, who voluntarily locked themselves into a studio in Amsterdam to work 16 hour days. Bouncing ideas off each other and helping solve road blocks and problems, the Orange team has been hard at work creating a style that will forever be all their own.

When I decided to write this article and had gotten permission to use infor-mation from the website, I thought it would be a simple thing to summarise all the information they have provided on their website. That didnt prove to be the case. They have posted such a wealth of information that it cant simply

be condensed into a short article. Having followed the Project from the beginning, I hadnt realised how much they had shared on their website until I went to download it all and try and put it into perspective. Months of work has been documented and posted for our education. Their work and dedication to such a huge undertaking is nothing short of amazing.

They have pushed the envelope of blender capabilities, finding its strengths and weaknesses. In fact their work and close communication with the coders has pushed the development of blender features into hyper-overdrive, bringing the community a new wealth of tools for our own enjoyment and projects. Such as the addition of a better particle system, making realistic hair far easier to achieve. And Shape keys have added a much easier way to deal with facial animation. The list of improvements and new features added to blender is already overwhelming to say the least.

Project Orange Interview


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Throughout the last six months their work has fired the imaginations of an entire community. Blender users the world over are firing up blender and attempting for the first time their own animations, inspired by Project Orange and the new ease of use for animation features. We have watched the first concept sketches turning step by step into a movie. Feature tests and progress reports tease and delight us with the endless possibilities such projects bring. Keeping with the Open Source/Creative Commons ideal they have freely shared each step of the proc-ess, educating the community on new techniques as they discover them themselves. As the weeks have passed, they have tested and refined each stage of the process. Now having passed the half way point in the project, characters are built, scenes set up and basic tim-ing in place. With each further week that passes, the scenes will be further refined and moulded into shape. All the while Jan Morgenstern has been work-ing closely with the team to create the music and mood for the movie.As they are approaching the final stages of their production they are pushing even harder to get everything organ-ised and finished up. Voice recording

for the characters has been completed with well known Dutch actors Tygo Ger-nandt as Proog and Cas Jansen as Emo. They videoed the recording session which now gives them great reference material for animating the expressions and movements of Proog and Emo. From this point on the team will be continuing the fine tuning of every lit-tle detail and polishing it all up.

Knowing all too well how busy the team members are at this point, I bravely or foolishly (depending on your view) decided to try and get an inter-view with the Project Orange team members, hoping at best that at least one would have the time to answer a few questions. To my great delight, five of them found the time to answer. So

without further delay, here they are.

1-Aside from the official goals of the project, what do you personally hope

to accomplish or take away from this experience?

Lee J. Cooks (LohnC): Ah this is a question with a thousand answers hehe. I think mainly working with a team on a project has been something very new to all in the team, and being halfway through the project we have been really working out our special-ities, and how to work together well. I hope and believe we will have learnt a lot about forming an idea of many, and executing it. We may be like brothers by the end.

Toni Alatalo (Antont): Learn about all aspects of movie making. And also get professional in Blender and related software development. It has proved to be fun too and a great group of peo-ple to get to know to, which is very rewarding considering many aspects of life.

Andy Goralczyk (@ndy): I would re-ally love to make a *good* movie that not only I enjoy watching, but also a movie thats appealing to many other people. And I really hope that this

is really not the average boring CG short, we hope to treat it as art, as a real movie. Besides, I just want to have fun in the process and learn... thats

all!

Bastian Salmela (basse): Hmm..., personal goals.. I would say.. to learn how to actually make a movie, like the big boys do, and also what this weird blender program is about.

Bassam Kurdali (slikdigit): Spending 6 months making a short animated movie is my biggest personal motivation; its what I would most want to do with my time. Beyond that goal, Id say learn-ing plays a big part in my motivation: becoming a better animator, learning from my teammates substantial abili-ties, learning more about film making. I also wouldnt be displeased if project orange enabled me to more easily do similar projects in the future.


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2- As busy as you are and as fast as new features are being coded, do you find it hard to keep up and master the new tools?

Lee J. Cooks (LohnC): Wow, hasnt it been amazing the speed of everything lately. Many times we will form a great idea among the team that could be great for the community and in our work flow for the film, after we have told Ton that night he has hacked away and the feature is there. Since we are needing to use it sometimes in that week for the film, and also wanting to get the feature optimised as soon as possible, many late nights have come from trying to learn all the great new things in Blender. I can admit I try to master a new feature added, but most times you just have to learn as much as possible of how it works before your using it, and of course the next night a new one is there!

Toni Alatalo (Antont): Every day is learning.. for me, as a kind of a deve-loper of the tools, the perspective is of course different .. have a lot of time for learning.Andy Goralczyk (@ndy): Were basi-cally working with blender 15 hours a day, every day, every week... so were learning new things as they come up. Our luxury is that most of the new tools that drop in are specifically coded for our needs. It takes of course some time to get used to everything, but so far it

wasnt that hard. Its great to see the software evolving as youre using it

Bastian Salmela (basse): YES!!! heh, I think I am the only one at the studio complaining that there is too much new things popping up in CVS every-day. I just dont have time to learn all of them. but of course, these are the features we asked, features we need, so I try my best to keep up.

Bassam Kurdali (slikdigit): Naaah! OK, well, sometimes At first I would play with every new feature as it came out, but now the schedule is a little rough for that. Its easy for me to stay on top of the animation features, since Im the one who asked for half of them I let Andy worry about the materials and rendering stuff- I havent even done a test render with the new materials lay-ering system, but I promise myself Ill spend some time playing with it after the project is over.

3- So far what has been your biggest learning experience on this project?

Lee J. Cooks (LohnC): I can say there are more things then all the fingers in the world could count that I have learnt so far from this wonderful and hectic experience. Probably the biggest learning experience was the produc-tion work flow. The idea (as happens in feature films too) can change slightly, and improve every day more and more,

also some models or character rigs are always being worked on and replaced (sometimes due to a new feature). The flexibility to work with Bassam on keep-ing everything consistent and keeping up with the ever changing film along with an ever changing program has been by far the biggest.

Toni Alatalo (Antont): Dunno if it the greatest, but a nice basic lesson is that in animation programming it is not needed to control frame-by-frame like in game logic, but things can be done nicely by creating IPO curves etc.

Andy Goralczyk (@ndy): The main driv-ing force behind the learning process is that we all have different fields of exper-ience. From my fellow team members I learnt so much more about animation,

cinematography, lighting, modelling and also the technical aspects of rendering than in any other project before.

Bastian Salmela (basse): The beer in Amsterdam is much cheaper than in Finland, and water in Amstel doesnt kill you, just remember to shower after-wards.

Bassam Kurdali (slikdigit): This is my disobedience to authority workshop I cant say Ive made huge strides so far, but hopefully Im getting a little better. Im also learning a lot about making a short movie of this type, especially with the early problems we had getting the script /story stabilised. I dont think Id start production again on a project


www.blenderart.org

without first having a script completely finished. The planning for the project is also quite interesting. Its amazing how much structure and speed it gives us, compared to my usual planning without planning approach.

4- Project Orange has become the fo-cus of considerable attention; how do you feel about so many pairs of eyes watching everything you do?

Lee J. Cooks (LohnC): Haha well it is very weird when somebody like the Ambassador of European Media comes to have a gander at what we are doing, sometimes I must admit being in the studio each day for 3 months now it is hard to believe we would have such attention, each day has its own little challenges and we usually have to concentrate on these, but sometimes you get a little shock here and there to realise we are being followed .

Toni Alatalo (Antont): They dont see me, I am well hidden and unknown. I guess we mostly just keep forgetting that.

Andy Goralczyk (@ndy): On some ways its pretty helpful, were getting a lot of feedback on our project, and not only on our website! A lot of people from our host, the Netherlands media

art institute are constantly helping and supporting us, too. On the other hand theres also a lot of noise (mainly from the Internet) being thrown at us. At some point you just have to push everything away and concentrate on your job.

Id also like to add, that contrary to many overly unrealistic expectations of a certain group of people, we really are not Pixar or DreamWorks or SPI! Were in no way even attempting that. To be realistic we neither have the talent, the experience or magical substance. But we are studio orange!

Bastian Salmela (basse): Its like be-ing in Big Brother. Except that you are stuck with us, there is no way to vote anyone out of here.. hmm, but yea.. well I like sitting back and to watch peoples reactions. Sometimes they get very excited, sometimes angry.. depending if we are doing something right, or wrong.. And they always have lot of opinions. Thats always fun.

Bassam Kurdali (slikdigit): Its no prob-lem really. We all just behave like we normally do. Andy issues dire threats from his desk, Lee contentedly munch-es on brains, Basse paints inscrutable paintings with increasingly esoteric foodstuffs (hes using Swedish herring

and milk now) while Toni and I indulge in the pleasures of Amsterdam.In all seriousness, were mostly very focused on the work we do, but the online comments provide us with a nice break from time to time. Most people in the community seem enthusiastic about the project, and have contrib-uted freely their insights and ideas.

5- As hard as you are working to meet project deadlines; has this experience turned out to be more or less fun" than you originally expected?

Lee J. Cooks (LohnC): Oh, this is another hard one. Its probably safe to say that if I thought one thing before the project started, when it did start all my expectations were flipped upside down. It really has been a lot more fun then I could have hoped for, but in such an opposite way then I could imagine before I started the project. The challenges, hard work, sharing ideasand ogling over others screens after they finish a

shot with wonderful results have been amazingly fun, like having a very long game of Tennis, Its exhaustingly fun. You learn to blend longer without as many rushes of excitement, but when they come around they are a lot more satisfying.

Toni Alatalo (Antont): hm .. perhaps more, or well I dont remember any more what I expected

Andy Goralczyk (@ndy): Its actually more fun than I expected! We all knew from the beginning that it would be hard work, but at the end it will definitely be worth all the effort.

Bastian Salmela (basse): Its still fun. Sometimes it gets to you, when


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you are fighting with something that just doesnt work and time is running out. But in the end, they always turn out nicely. Deadlines are very important to have, they dont only make you work hard, but they also make you to actually finish things and move on to the next thing.. just because you have to.

Bassam Kurdali (slikdigit): Its pretty close to my expectations in terms of fun..

6- What aspect of this project have you enjoyed the most?

Lee J. Cooks (LohnC): Ill try keep this one short and sweet ... *think for a few hours*. OK, most enjoyable thing about the project would have to be having a technical director! If anybody can break a computer Its me, and now there is somebody around who knows how to

fix it!

Toni Alatalo (Antont): Perhaps being allowed to concentrate on interesting things, like animation scripting .. but also being a part in the whole process.

Andy Goralczyk (@ndy): I think Im enjoying mainly the fact that Im able to work with people who share the same interests, working on a common task, in the same place! and I also like the opportunity of really going insane with style, animation, lighting, everything!

Bastian Salmela (basse): Maybe the possibility to actually work full time on just designing, drawing, modelling, animating.. instead of what Ive used to at home, having couple of hours to blend after midnight.. oh, and all the cheap beer of course.

Bassam Kurdali (slikdigit): Cant single anything out really.. Ani-mating has been big fun the last

few days, making some wacky stuff, some of the facial rigging has been pretty fun too.

7- Any tantalising tidbits about the movie that you would like to share with us?

Lee J. Cooks (LohnC): Well, Im still pushing Bassam for it, but Im debat-ing to have the huge anime style sword fight scene, Ill inform everyone if there is any progress

Toni Alatalo (Antont): The shoes are great!

Andy Goralczyk (@ndy): Dutch cheese is gooooooooooooood!

Bastian Salmela (basse): I have been working with these little things that nobody knows what they are all about, and I heard somebody saying: Oof, what are they?

Bassam Kurdali (slikdigit): Well weve gotten some big name (in the Netherlands) stars to do the voices for our characters Im not sure Im allowed to reveal who it is yet, and its likely only to excite Dutch audiences, but its good news for us, and might help the movie get taken more seriously by non members of the

blender community, for instance in film festivals, etc

Project Orange still has some time to go before they wrap it all up and return home. For further information and updates on their progress, stop by the Project website. http://orange.blender.org/

--Sandra Gilbert

4Ble ntuu s ay s

Re nde ring is an ofte n m is unde rs tood proce s s and until w e ge t th e m ak e re nde r be autiful button ;) code d, w e h ave to do it th e h ard w ay. And th at w ould be by unde rs tanding w h at goe s into a re nde r and w h at affe cts th e re nde ring proce s s .

Th e s h ort ans w e r is th at EVERYTH ING affe cts th e re nde ring proce s s . Th at w ould include m ate rials , ligh ting, s pe cial e ffe cts and th e s ce ne its e lf. And w h ile dis cus s ing re nde ring could fill a w h ole book , for th is article w e are going to tak e a look at tips and trick s th at can incre as e or de cre as e your re nde r tim e s and q uality.

W h e n it com e s to re nde ring, s om e th ings jus t tak e longe r. If you jus t h ave to h ave th at ce rtain e ffe ct, by all m e ans go for it, but e xpe ct to w ait a w h ile for your re nde r to com ple te . H e re is a lis t of s om e th ings th at are liable to incre as e your re nde r tim e : Raytracing, Am bie nt Occlus ion Ligh ting Se tups H e avy us e of particle s Extre m e ly de taile d s ce ne s

On th e oth e r h and, CG art is full of trick s and w ork -a rounds to low e r re nde r tim e s , s uch as th e us e of th e fak e GI dom e . Long us e d in ble nde r be fore AO w as code d into ble nde r. It is s im ple to s e tup, e as y to adjus t and not as com putation h e avy as th e AO option.

To s e t one up is e as y: Add>Me s h >Icos ph e re , s ubdivis ion 2 De le te th e bottom h alf of th e Icos ph e re Add a s pot ligh t, and pare nt it to th e Icos ph e re H it F7, (Obje ct Se ttings w indow ) W ith th e Icos ph e re s e le cte d, pre s s th e duplive rt button.Se le ct th e s pot ligh t and adjus t th e Ene rgy w ay dow n (around .01) Adjus t th e re s t of your s e ttings as ne e de d to ge t th e am ount of ligh t and s h adow you are look ing for.

Oth e r th ings th at can low e r re nde r tim e s : Ge ne rally us e z -buffe r lam ps ove r raytrace d one s . Se t th e s am ple s and s h adow buffe r as low as pos s ible for th e q uality you look ing for.

Sim ilarly, turn th e s am ple s dow n on e ve ryth ing as low as you can ge t aw ay w ith th at pe ople probably w ill not notice (ligh ts , s ubs urf, rayde pth , e tc.).Re nde r in pas s e s w h e n pos s ible , you can re -com pos ite th e pas s e s in GIMP or Ph otos h op, not only w ill it low e r re nde r tim e s , you w ill h ave m ore control ove r h ow e ach laye r goe s toge th e r w ith th e oth e rs .

Only m ode l th os e de tails th at are ne e de d, UV m apping and prope r us e of te xture s can s ave on your polygon count. W h e n it is all s aid and done , us e only th os e options and te ch niq ue s th at

you actually ne e d to m ak e your im age or anim ation look good. If you can ch e at or fak e it, th e n do s o, it w ill s ave on your re nde r tim e s . If you jus t h ave to us e it, th e n be pre pare d for th e w ait. W h ile w aiting I s ugge s t re laxing w ith a nice cup of coffe e and a good book .

5NEW S Flas h

Th e bigge s t e ve nt in th e Ble nde r w orld is jus t around th e corne r. Proje ct Orange is ne ar com ple tion and th e pre m ie r of Ele ph ants Dre am h as be e n s ch e dule d for March 24, 2006. Cine m a Ke te lh uis , a w e ll k now n cine m a for docum e ntarie s and art-h ous e m ovie s in Am s te rdam , h as be e n ch os e n as th e location for th e long aw aite d pre m ie r.

Th e cine m a ope ns at 17:30 and th e s h ow ing w ill s tart at 18:00. In addition to th e s cre e ning of Ele ph ants Dre am , th e re w ill als o be a pre vie w of th e Mak ing of docum e ntary. If you m is s th e firs t s h ow ing, th e re w ill be anoth e r at 18:45.

Afte r th e pre m ie r, th e re is a ce le bration planne d at one of th e h ippe s t nigh tclubs , ironically nam e d Ble nde r. W h ile th e pre m ie r is fre e of ch arge , th e re is an e ntrance fe e to th e afte r party.Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 March , th e Proje ct Orange te am w ill be on h and all

day in Monte vide o (K e iz e rs grach t 264, Am s te rdam ) for furth e r vie w ing and dis cus s ion of th e proje ct. For m ore inform ation on th e pre m ie r and th e follow ing pre s e ntations of th e m ovie ch e ck h ttp://orange .ble nde r.org/.

Ble nde r h as be com e an e ve r ch anging program , w ith ne w fe ature s cons tantly be e n w ritte n and re vis e d for be tte r and cle ane r functionality. Ove r th e las t tw o m onth s , m ajor coding e ffort h as be e n focus e d into th e Noodle s s ys te m (node e ditor) and th e re nde r e ngine . Th e Noodle s s ys te m allow s for th e cre ation of h igh ly advance d m ate rials and com pos iting e ffe cts . Th e re nde r e ngine is be ing s tre am line d and m odifie d to w ork cle ane r and m ore e fficie ntly, allow ing for fas te r and m ore e rror fre e re nde ring.To ch e ck a te s t build w ith th e s e ne w fe ature s , drop by th e te s t build forum at w w w .ble nde r.org.

Since th is is s ue is focus ing on re nde ring, th is is a good tim e to e xplore all th e re nde r e ngine s available for us e w ith

ble nde r. In addition to YafRay, POV-Ray, Me gaPOV, th e re are now e xport s cripts available for th e follow ing ne w e ngine s :

Ke rk yth e aSite : h ttp://w w w .s oftlab.e ce .ntua.gr/~ jpanta/Graph ics /Ke rk yth e a/

SunflowSite : h ttp://s unflow .s ource forge .ne t/

IndigoSite : h ttp://h om e page s .paradis e .ne t.nz /nick am y/indigo.h tm l

3De ligh tSite : h ttp://w w w .3de ligh t.com /

Me tropoligh tSite : h ttp://w w w .3dvirtualigh t.com /m lt/

28W O RK SH O P 2D - D PI de m y s tifie d

DPI de m ys tifie dYou did it! You h ave truly cre ate d a m as te rpie ce . But w h e n you printe d it out, it look e d all pixilate d and block y. Dang, you m us t h ave a bad s e tting s om e w h e re . You go back , double ch e ck all your s e ttings , h it re nde r again and w ait. It s till look s th e s am e w h e n you print it. You s tart glaring s ile nt th re ats at your printe r. W e ll, be fore you de cide to m ak e good on th os e th re ats , you m igh t w ant to try one m ore th ing (your printe r w ill th ank you for it).

You m ay h ave ove rlook e d th e w h ole DPI is s ue . W h ile its true th at Ble nde r h as s om e nice pre s e t re nde r s iz e s , if you dont unde rs tand h ow th at re late s to printing, you w ill be fore ve r glaring at your printe r.

Firs t le ts look at w h at DPI actually is .DPI is a printing te rm th at de s cribe s th e num be r of dots /pixe ls th at are de fine d in th e boundary of a s q uare inch th at are us e d to cre ate an im age . Th e m ore corre ct te rm is pixe ls pe r inch , h ow e ve r dots pe r inch is ofte n us e d ins te ad (Th e im age can be a font or graph ic). In ge ne ral, th e m ore dots , th e be tte r and s h arpe r th e im age . DPI is printe r re s olution. DPI is not im age re s olution alth ough fre q ue ntly us e d th at w ay.Ok , now th at w e k now w h at DPI is , le ts look at h ow it applie s to Ble nde r. Ble nde r re nde rs im age s out at 72dpi, w h ich look s ok ay on your

s cre e n, but not printe d out. In orde r for it to look good for print, you h ave to re nde r your im age bigge r and th e n re s iz e it s m alle r in your favorite graph ic program . Es s e ntially w h at you w ill be doing is s w apping ph ys ical dim e ns ions for re s olution. Tak e a look at th e follow ing ch art (fig. 1 be low ). It s h ow s s om e com m on re nde r s iz e s in pixe ls and th e corre s ponding ph ys ical s iz e s at 72dpi (w h ich Ble nde r us e s ) and a good print re s olution of 300dpi. You can s e e th at th e ph ys ical s iz e s be com e s m alle r as you incre as e th e re s olution.

Th is m ay s e e m ove rly com plicate d, but re ally it is not. Th e re is a ve ry s im ple form ula you can us e to ge t th e prope r s e ttings . Bas ically you m ultiply th e de s ire d re s olution by th e de s ire d ph ys ical s iz e to ge t th e pixe l s e ttings /s iz e you ne e d for Ble nde r (fig. 2).

Once you h ave re nde re d your im age us ing th os e s e ttings , you ne e d to go into your favorite im age program and re s iz e your im age . Mos t im age program s w ork s im ilarly, s o figuring it out in your program s h ouldnt be difficult. I w ill be us ing Ph otos h op to e xplain th is part, be caus e th at is w h at I h ave .

29W O RK SH O P 2D - D PI de m y s tifie d

Ste p 1: Ope n your im age

Ste p 2: Go to Im age >Im age Siz e , a dialog box lik e fig. 3 s h ould ope n.

Ste p 3: At th e bottom of th e box, unch e ck Re s am ple Im age

Ste p 4: Ne xt locate th e Re s olution Box, e nte r your ne w re s olution. Th e W idth and H e igh t boxe s s h ould autom atically update to re fle ct th e ne w s iz e at th at re s olution.

Ste p 5: H it th e OK button and s ave , you are all done and now your im age w ill print lik e you e xpe cte d it to.

Ok ay, s o now you h ave a be tte r unde rs tanding of dpi and h ow to ge t th e prope r dpi for printing, but w h at dpi re s olution is be s t for w h at you ne e d. As a ge ne ral rule , you s h ould ch oos e a re s olution be tw e e n 150-300 dpi. Th is re s olution is good for m os t print proje cts . If you are h aving s om e th ing profe s s ionally printe d, it is alw ays a good ide a to ch e ck w ith your printe r and find out w h at re s olution th e ir e q uipm e nt runs at.

H i, m y nam e is Sandra Gilbe rt, (ak a dre am s gate ). I h ave be e n us ing ble nde r for a little ove r five ye ars . I curre ntly live in Nam pa, Idah o, USA and w ork as a graph ic de s igne r for a s m all print s h op.

Im m arrie d and h ave 2 ch ildre n, w h ich le ave s not ne ar e nough tim e for fe e ding m y grow ing ble nde r obs e s s ion. Ye t s om e h ow I alw ays m anage to find th e tim e to e xplore ne w fe ature s , k e e p up on th e late s t ne w s and s tart ne w ble nde r proje cts . Som e of th e m I actually e ve n m anage to finis h .

Lizzy K now s 4

Be fore you can de cide w h ich m e th od of m odeling w ork s for you, it h elps to k now e xactly w h at options are available and h ow th e y w ork . Ble nde r offe rs a gre at se t of core tools to m ak e w h ateve r m e th od you use as productive as possible . H e re is a list of m e th ods and tools for you to conside r as you start your ne xt proje ct:

Box Mode ling Ge ne rally th e e asie st m e th od w h e n you first start le arning. You'd be am aze d by h ow m any th ings ge t th e ir start as a cube . Start by adding a pre -m ade prim itive (usually a cube , but can be any of th e oth e r prim itive s i.e . Sph e re , Cone , Tube e tc). Th e n e xtrude , dele te e dge s and ve rtice s as ne e de d to ach ie ve your de sire d sh ape .

Th e use of Box Modeling is pre fe rable if you are able to conce ive th e de sire d sh ape in le sse r am ounts of de tail in th e be ginning.

Basically, you start by cre ating a basic box, th e n de fining de tails as you carry on.

Ve rte x Push ing Also re fe rre d to as point-to-point m odeling.Th is m e th od re q uire s m ore patie nce but allow s for gre ate r pre cision, e spe cially w h e n cre ating sm ooth Edge Loops for anim ation. Start w ith one ve rte x, e xtruding and/or adding ve rtice s one -by-one , adjusting and re fining your sh ape until your m odel is com ple te d.

Th is m e th od is in contrast to th e box m odeling te ch niq ue . It suits pe ople w h o are able to conce ive th e sh ape and de tails in advance , inste ad of adding de tails late r.

Curve sAllow s you to cre ate sm ooth sh ape s and com ple x ge om e try. Gre at for logos.

NurbsOne of th e m ore difficult m e th ods of m odeling. You cre ate patch e s th at are th e n stitch e d toge th e r to cre ate sm ooth se am le ss m odels. Gre at for organic m odeling.

Me taballsMuch lik e w ork ing w ith clay. You add additional m e taballs w ith varying influe nce (can be positive or ne gative influe nce ) to build up your m odel.

Tools th at can be use d in conjunction

w ith m ost m ode ling m e th ods.

Extrude : [E k e y] Ve rtice s, Edge s and Face s can all be e xtrude d to build your m odels.

Knife : [K k e y] can be use d to cre ate additional Edge s and Face s, use ful in adding m ore de tail once your basic m odel is cre ate d.Ve rte x/Edge /Face Sele ct: (Toggle buttons on th e 3D w indow H e ade r Bar [look s lik e dots/line /triangle ]) Use ful for sele cting just th e are a you ne e d.

Loop Select: [Alt + MMB] allow s you to sele ct an e ntire loop for m odification.Subsurf: (Subdivision Surface s found in th e Modifie rs panel of th e Edit buttons w indow ) Subsurf sm ooth s th e h ard angle s of your m odel, m aintaining low polygon counts w h ile m odeling.

Th e re are actually m any m ore use ful tools include d w ith in Ble nde r, but th e se are th e one s use d m ost ofte n. More inform ation on Ble nde r's tools and m e th ods, as w ell as various tutorials can, of course , be found in th e Ble nde r w ik ibook found at:

h ttp://m e diaw ik i.ble nde r.org/inde x.ph p/Main_Page

Blende rart Magazine - July 20 0 6

Izzy's Talk on Mode ling

3D W ork s h op - Using th e Blender Mate rial Library Script 6

Le ve l: Inte rm e diate

'Ble nde r Library' is a pyth on script for Ble nde r inte nde d to provide an e asy way to store , m anage and re trie ve fre q ue ntly us e d ite m s; such as m ate rials, te xture s, obje cts, e tc. It also trie s to de fine a standardiz e d way of s h aring stuff be tw e e n th e re st of th e Ble nde r com m unity, w ith built- in im port and e xport functionality (Th is fe ature ne e ds a full Pyth on installation for th e com pre s s e d s upport, ple as e re ad be low for work around).

Since th e script is m e re ly an inte rface built on top of th e curre nt Ble nde r appe nding syste m [Sh ift + F1] it w ill be m ost lik e ly com patible w ith all future e nh ance m e nts in upcom ing Ble nde r re le as e s. As an e xam ple th e m ate rial library was code d be fore th e de ve loping of th e ne w Mate rial Node s and w ith out ch ange s in th e script it can now store m ate rials w ith node s.

Se tting it up: Grab th e script from h e re . h ttp://us e le s s dre am e r.bye th os t32.com /s cripts /ble nde r_ library.py

O nce downloade d, just place th e script in your Ble nde r's scripts folde r and start or re start Ble nde r (you can also us e (Scripts >> Update Me nus ) to re fre s h your scripts). Th e script w ill now be liste d in th e (Scripts >> Obje ct>> Ble nde r Library) scripts m e nu.

O n th e first run it w ill as k you to ch oos e a location for th e library folde r. Ple as e try to ch oos e a dire ctory not too de e p in your file syste m , th is w ill avoid pos s ible proble m s w ith Pyth on's path h andling, e ve n th ough us e rs re port th at th is is no longe r an is s ue in late st ve rs ions of th e script.

Th at's it! your library is re ady to be fille d w ith ite m s.

Until you ge t com fortable w ith th e script th e re is a conte xt h e lp fe ature , and if you le ave it ope n it w ill constantly s h ow tips and advice as you ope n m e nus and navigate th e form s. O nce you h ave m aste re d e ve ryth ing, you can clos e it by Just click ing on th e little button on top w ith an inte rrogation m ark . So th e script w indow ge ts sm alle r and don't e at th at m uch space on your scre e n.

Firs t s te psTh e script starts in brow s ing m ode . At th e top, th e re are th re e drop-down m e nus. Th e uppe rm ost one is th e curre ntly brow s e d library, th e oth e r two are cate gorie s and sub-cate gorie s. Sub cate gorie s are optional, but th e y be com e us e ful once you start filling th e library w ith

lots of stuff. Th e little arrow s on th e s ide of th e m e nus allow to q uick ly brow s e th e conte nt.

Now you can start e xpe rim e nting w ith th e script. Eith e r add som e stuff you h ave (re ad be low), or go to Ble nde r Stuff (h ttp:\ \ ble nde r-stuff.bye th ost32.com ) and download som e re ady to us e ite m s. D ownloade d ite m s can be im porte d one by one or in a batch m ode . If you downloade d s e ve ral ite m s, just ch oos e "Im port a Folde r" acce s s ible from th e 'Righ t Click ' Me nu and point it to th e folde r w h e re th e ite m s re s ide .

O nce you re ach a cate gory w ith ite m s on it, a row w ith e xtra buttons w ill appe ar, along w ith a pre vie w im age and a drop- down m e nu to q uick ly jum p to oth e r ite m s in th e cate gory.


- by Mariano H idalgo

Fig1. Initial dialog.

Fig2. Th e Mate rial library in brow sing m ode .


Th e buttons above th e pre vie w are : Th e LOAD button. It w ill pop a m e nu w ith diffe re nt loading options, de pe nding of th e type of ite m . Th e INFO button, to display a m e nu w ith e xte nde d inform ation about th e curre nt ite m . If you [Ctrl + LMB] in ite m 's nam e or de scription you can ch ange th e m . Auth or's inform ation is displaye d be low and can't be ch ange d for th e m om e nt.

To m anage th e conte nt, th e script provide s s e ve ral options in th e MANAGE m e nu. You can re nam e , de le te or m ove th e conte nt to oth e r cate gorie s. You can also im port a custom pre vie w im age to re place th e curre nt one .

Afte r th e s e fist ste ps, it w ill be cool to ope n up th e pre fe re nce s dialog, w h e n you can e nte r your pe rsonal inform ation. Th e n, w h e n adding ite m s you can us e th e FILL button in th e AD D form to autom atically e nte r your data, saving you som e typing e ve ry tim e you m ak e ne w ite m .

Adding Ite m sTo add your own stuff to th e library, click in th e Add button at th e bottom of th e script. A form w ill s h ow up. Se le cting th e de s ire d ite m s work s a b it diffe re nt de pe nding on w h ich library your are on.

Th e 'O bje ct' and 'Lam p' librarie s can store s e ve ral Ble nde r's datablock s in th e sam e ite m , so you are not lim ite d to store s ingle m e s h e s . You can store and s h are a full ch aracte r, com ple te w ith props and arm ature , an e ve n s h ape k e ys attach e d. By storing s e ve ral lam ps in th e sam e ite m you can cre ate lam ps s e ts to ach ie ve re usable ligh ting e nvironm e nts or on click - to- s e tup fak e global illum ination. Ch oos e th e de s ire d obje cts or lam ps on th e 3D Vie w and th e n type a nam e for th e ite m in th e SET NAME: labe l.

For th e re st of th e librarie s you s e le ct th e de s ire d ite m from a m e nu acce s s e d from th e righ t pointing arrow ne xt to th e NAME labe l. In th is cas e th e labe l w ill be auto fille d w ith ch os e n datablock 's nam e . D e spite th is, all re late d stuff to th e ch os e n ite m is also adde d. If you add a m ate rial, it's te xture s and Ipos are also adde d, and so on.

For som e librarie s you can turn on th e ENABLE RAY button, in cas e you want a ray trace d pre vie w im age , and for m ate rials you can also ch oos e th e s h ape of th e pre vie w obje ct from a drop- down m e nu.

Now its tim e to click th e Add Ite m button to finis h th e proce s s. Th e script w ill warm you about th e ne e d to re ope n th e curre nt ble nd file afte r adding. Th is is a sm all lim itation (w h ich m ay disappe ar in future ve rs ions) so ple as e save your ble nd be fore adding stuff to th e library. If you accide ntally forgot to save and los e work , you can s e arch for th e q uit.ble nd file , th at is a Ble nde r fe ature to re cove r ble nd file , w h ich Ble nde r autom atically cre ate s for safe ty.

Afte r re load, run th e script again and th e ite m you h ave just adde d w ill be th e re for q uick re us e .

If you plan to s h are your ite m s, and to prote ct your righ ts as a cre ator it is pos s ible to bundle a Lice ns e Te xt w ith e ve ry ite m you add to th e library. To do th is, h ave your lice ns e te xt ope ne d in th e curre nt .ble nd and th e n s e le ct it from th e drop down m e nu. W h e n pe ople load your ite m , th e script w ill warn th e m about th e pre s e nce of th e lice ns e and its te xt w ill load into th e proje ct.

Exporting Ite m sIf you want to s h are your cre ations w ith oth e r pe ople , us e th e Export Ite m option in th e Manage m e nu. You can e xport com pre s s e d TAR pack age s only if you h ave a full Pyth on installation.


Fig3. Adding stuff to th e library


As an alte rnative you can run a s e arch on google or you favorite s e arch e ngine and look for th e s e two file s : s h util.py and tarfile .py; download and place in your Ble nde r's folde r. Now you can e xport and im port com pre s s e d ite m s.

W h e n you e xport com pre s s e d ite m s th e script give s you a JPG im age along w ith th e TAR pack age . Th e im age is not ne e de d to im port th e ite m back , rath e r it provide d snaps h ot w h ich you can s h ow as pre vie w in th e forum s or w e bs ite s w h e n you m ay be posting your stuff.

If you are e xporting uncom pre s s e d ite m s, th e n th e th re e re s ulting file s are ne e de d and you s h ould distribute th e m all. It would be a good ide a to pack th e m m anually as a TAR file by h and.

Th e Librarie sLe ts tak e a look at som e of th e librarie s.

Th e Mate rial and Te xture Libs Th e m ate rial library is th e star of th e s h ow. It can store re gular m ate rials, m ate rials w ith node s and e ve n m ate rials w ith IPO s attach e d. If th e m ate rial us e s Im age ' te xture s, th e im age file s w ill be autom atically pack e d. Th e te xture library is cool for storage of proce dural s e ttings and e nvironm e nt m aps. As a plus, te xture s of type Ble nd can be us e d to store color bands.

Th e (Gam e ) Logic Lib Th is is inte nde d for gam e de ve lope rs and is a q uick way to store logic brick s. Th is way you can store your k e yboard m appings or th e brick s ne e de d to m ak e a pan and rotate vie w tool and q uick ly re us e th e m late r. To store gam e m ode ls is be tte r to us e th e O bje ct library inste ad, th e TEXFACE button w ill allow you to ge t a righ t pre vie w for UV te xture d m ode ls.

Th e Sce ne Lib All th e tim e pe ople download from th e ne t ble nds w ith e xam ple s and conce pts, usually w ith a s ingle sce ne . W ith th is lib you can e as ily catalog th at file s and also its a good place to store s e ve ral as sorte d ite m s you m ay want to load at once .

Th e Particle Lib.Can store static (h air, fur, gras s ) or anim ate d particle syste m s, th e late r w ith attach e d force fie lds and de fle ctors.

For th e late r to work , you ne e d to nam e e ach force fie ld and de fle ctor be ginning w ith th e nam e of th e particle obje ct, plus a dot, plus th e ir nam e

(for e xam ple : PARTICLEO BJECT.FO RCEFIELD , PARTICLEO BJECT.D EFLECTO R.001)

Th e Arm ature , Action, Pos e and IPO Libs.Favorite s for anim ators, th e y store anim ation re late d datablock s and e ve n s ingle pos e s.Th e pos e library curre ntly doe sn't store th os e pos e s w h ich us e attach e d Targe t IKs, but th is m ay ch ange in future ve rs ions. Th e autom atic IK work s just fine .

Th e W orld LibIt is pos s ible to store anim ate d worlds, a ve ry cool fe ature for pe ople us ing Ble nde r for adve rtis ing or m ultim e dia de s ign. In th e late st ve rs ion of th e script, you can also ch oos e to just load Particle or Mist s e ttings, to m e rge w ith your curre nt world.


Fig4. Exporting item s

Fig5. A com plete anim ate d particle sy stem just one

click aw ay


Extra FunctionalityO nce you start colle cting ite m s, you'll ne e d th e Se arch function, w h ich can be acce s s e d from th e 'Righ t Click ' Me nu. It w ill le t you s e arch a spe cific library for m atch ing ite m s both by ite m 's nam e and auth or's nam e . O nce found, th e m atch ing ite m s w ill be s h own just lik e in th e brow s ing m ode , re ady to be loade d in your curre nt proje ct. Also re m e m be r th at m ost us e d ite m s can be adde d to favorite s for q uick acce s s and th e y w ill be liste d at th e bottom of th e LO AD m e nu. To re m ove a favorite just [Ctrl + LMB] on it's nam e .

Round D ownCurre nt ve rs ion of th e script is 1.3.4. For future ve rs ions th e sm all im ple m e ntational q uirk s m ay be gone and h ope fully th e re w ill be no longe r ne e d to re ope n th e .ble nd afte r adding stuff. Also, m aybe giving th e script a custom space w ill be a cool ide a.

You can vis it th e Ble nde r Library th re ad at Ble nde rArtists forum to post doubts q ue rie s or fe ature re q ue sts. You can also tak e a look at m y s ite h ttp://us e le s sdre am e r.bye th ost32.com for m ore scripts.

H ope th e Ble nde r H e ads around th e world find th is tool us e ful and w e 'll soon start cre ating a h uge com m unity of pe ople s h aring all k ind of gre at Ble nde r conte nt.

- Se e ya aroundMariano H idalgo

I'm a graph ic artist, de signe r and m usician from Bue nos Aire s, Arge ntina.

Som e tim e s I code for fun and I m anage to ge t aw ay w ith it ;)


Fig6. Look ing for m ate rials in th e se arch panel

Mariano H idalgo A.K.A. usele ssdre am e r

3D W ork s h op - Using Blueprints in Blende r 38

Le ve l: Inte rm e diate

Us ing Blue prints in Ble nde rMode ling com ple x s h ape s and m ode ls in Ble nde r, or in any oth e r 3D application, m ay s e e m lik e a daunting tas k if you do not k now w h e re and h ow to start. H ow are you suppos e d to m ode l a car w ith its com ple x h ood or fe nde r curve s? Th is is w h e re Blue prints com e in. Th e y w ill act as a m ode ling guide to h e lp m ak e th e s h ape s you would norm ally h ave trouble m ak ing w ith out blue prints. Th is article w ill start by e xplaining h ow to prope rly s e t up blue print guide line s in Ble nde r and th e n e xplain h ow to us e th e m for m ode ling.

Se t upTh e first ste p is obviously obtaining blue prints to work w ith . If you do not h ave th e m alre ady, th e n Google is your frie nd. You s h ould also ch e ck out h ttp://www.th e - blue prints.com . W e w ill be us ing th e blue prints of a Ford Escort us e d in rally racing.

Th e s e cond ste p is dividing your blue prints into s e parate im age s. You m ust tak e spe cial care to m ak e s ure th at th e s iz e s and dim e ns ions of an im age stay proportional to th e oth e r im age s oth e rw is e you w ill find th at th e y do not fit toge th e r in Ble nde r.

Th is re q uire s re s iz ing th e blue prints in th e Gim p or Ph otos h op but w ill not be e xplaine d in th is article . You s h ould, afte r th e m odifications, h ave an im age for e ach s ide /dire ction of your m ode l, in th is cas e , four (front, back , s ide , top).Se e fig2 blue prints w ith sam e dim e ns ions.


- By Edouard de Mah ie u

Fig1. Adding blueprint as back ground in Blende r

Fig2. Blueprint from diffe re nt side s


O nce th is is done , w e ne e d to s e t th e m up in Ble nde r. Th e advantage of th is s e tup is th at you can h ave s e ve ral blue prints on th e sam e scre e n and be able to vie w th e m at diffe re nt angle s w h ile giving you a be tte r ide a of de pth and m ak ing it e as ie r to m ode l th e pie ce s. To do th is, start Ble nde r and go to th e top vie wport and add th e first im age to th e back ground by: (Vie w >> Back ground Im age >> Us e Back ground Im age ) and s e le ct your im age . Your first im age , in th is cas e , th e top im age , appe ars in th e top vie wport. Th e n add a plane : (Add>> Me s h >> Plane ). And scale to fit your back ground e xactly us ing th e [S k e y]+ [X k e y, Y k e y or Z k e y].

Now go to th e m ate rial tab, add a ne w m ate rial and give it an appropriate nam e . Add a ne w Te xture and load th e sam e im age as be fore . In th e m ap input m e nu s e le ct UV. Split th e vie wport and ope n up th e UV/Im age Editor. Load up th e sam e im age . Se le ct your obje ct and go into th e UV Face Se le ct Mode . Pre s s th e [U k e y] and s e le ct Cube from th e m e nu. Th e plane UV coordinate s w ill now appe ar in th e UV/Im age Editor. Pos ition th e ve rtice s as be fore to m ap th e im age corre ctly on th e plane . Mak e s ure th e y fit corre ctly. Now go into th e (Draw Type >> Te xture d), us ing th e [ALT-Z ] s h ortcut. Th e te xture w ill appe ar m appe d on th e plane .

Re pe at w ith e ach of your im age s and pos ition th e plane s corre ctly as to h ave a re sult s im ilar to th e follow ing scre e ns h ot: Fig3.

You now h ave a strong blue print s e tup th at w ill e as e and guide your m ode ling. Now, if th is is done corre ctly, all th at is le ft to do is to actually m ode l. I w ill now try to e xplain, th rough an e xam ple , h ow to m ode l th e h ood of th e car us ing th is blue print s e tup.

Mode ling th e Pie ce sGo into top vie w [Num pad 7] and (Space bar>> Add>> Plane ). Place th e first four ve rtice s as s e e n in th e scre e ns h ot. Fig4

Th e first e dge goe s dire ctly in th e m iddle , as w e w ill be us ing a Mirror m odifie r for th e m ode l. Th e s e cond e dge s h ould be furth e r to th e righ t. W e w ill be e xtruding th is e dge of two ve rtice s, m ak ing sm all adjustm e nts to th e ir pos ition to follow th e blue prints. You s h ould now h ave a m e s h s im ilar to th e follow ing scre e ns h ot:Fig5.


Fig3. Blueprints projecte d on plain m e shFig4.Adding a plane

Fig5.Extruding th e m e sh


Now, go into front vie w and align th e ve rtice s w ith th e front blue print. Mak e s ure th at you align th e corre ct ve rtice to th e corre ct line s on th e blue prints. You now h ave th e ge ne ral outline of th e h ood. Your m e s h s h ould now look lik e w h at you s e e in th e scre e ns h ot: Fig6

As pointe d out by th e blue arrow of th e last top scre e ns h ot, th e h ood h as a curve along its righ t e dge . Subdivide th e plane us ing Loop cuts : [CTRL+ R] and us e your m ous e w h e e l to add s e ve ral cuts at e q ual distance s. Align th e ne w ve rtice s to th e blue prints. Th e m ode l of th e h ood is now e s s e ntially finis h e d.

Conclus ion Continue us ing th is te ch niq ue along w ith th e blue prints to com ple te your m ode l. You s h ould e nd up w ith a fairly corre ct re production of th e blue prints in 3D . It w ill of cours e re q uire sm all m odifications and de tails th at you s h ould look up in re fe re nce picture s.

Most blue prints w ill give th e ge ne ral outline of your m ode l but not e ve ry s ingle tiny de tail.

H appy Ble nding


Fig6. Adjusting in th e fron vie w

Fig7.Finish e d h ood as se e n in th e se tup

I live in Belgium and I am in m y last ye ar of h igh sch ool. I h ave m any h obbie s such as m odeling or te nnis but com pute rs are m y m ain occupation. I h ave be e n using Ble nde r for about tw o and a h alf ye ars now . I also spe nd a lot of tim e on th e Ble nde rArtist forum s trying to m ak e m yself use ful and participating in th e conte sts h eld th e re .

Edouard de Mah ie u A.K.A. Ede e h e m or Slepnyrl

http://blenderart.org

http://www.continuousphysics.com/ftp/pub/test/index.php?dir=blender/&file=physics_demos-2.42-preview34.ziphttp://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Blender_Summer_of_Documentationhttp://www.blender.org/eshop/product_info.php?products_id=83&PHPSESSID=3ae6193f0a9d0e8d1f64218984ae6a17http://blenderart.org

http://projects.Blender.org/pipermail/bf-committers/2006-August/015599...http://www.blendernation.com/http://sharp3d.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Google_SoChttp://mediawiki.Blender.org/index.php/User:Artificer/SummerOfCode2006http://projects.Blender.org/pipermail/bf-committers/2006-April/014374.htmlhttp://www.soya3d.org/wiki/Soya/BlenderToolshttp://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/BSoDhttp://blenderart.org

http://rptd.dnsalias.net/epsylon/http://blenderart.org

http://rptd.dnsalias.net/epsylon/ http://sharp3d.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Pagehttp://members.fortunecity.de/pytablet/http://www.fox-toolkit.org/http://blenderart.org

http://www.brick.com/http://blenderart.org

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blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=72236http://blenderart.org

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