blenderart magazine issue 44 mech mayhem!

I SSUE 44 | MAR 2014 | WWW.BLENDERART.ORG

Tutorial: Mech Textures

MMEECCHHMMAAYYHHEEMM!!

Tutorial: Mech Bust

Tutorial: AWeight Scale

TheDenier -byAngel Roldan

BLENDER LEARNING MADE EASY!

Retracting LandingGears

EDITOR - GauravNawaniMANAGER/EDITOR - SandraGilbertWEBSITE - NamPhamDESIGN - GauravNawani

PROOFERS

Charl ie SheneFade Shayol *Scott H i l lBrian C. TreacyBruce Westfal lDaniel HandDaniel MateHenriël VeldtmannJoshua LeungJoshua ScottonKevin BraunMark Warren *Noah SummersPatrick O Donnel lPhi l l ip RyalWade Bick *

WRITERS

Jerry PerkinsAngel RoldanHakkı Rıza KÜÇÜKAlain MathezWitold JaworskiAcasio OsmanKrzysztof Bozalek

COVERART

The Denier -by Angel Roldan

DISCLAIMER

Blenderart.org does not take any responsibil ity either ex-pressed or impl ied for the material and its nature or accuracyof the information which is publ ished in this PDF magazine.Al l the materials presented in this PDF magazine have beenproduced with the expressed permission of their respectiveauthors/owners. Blenderart.org and the contributors disclaimal l warranties, expressed or impl ied, including, but not l imitedto impl ied warranties of merchantabil ity or fitness for a par-ticular purpose. Al l images and materials present in this docu-ment are printed/re-printed with expressed permission fromthe authors and or writers. The contents responsibil ity l iescompletely with the contributing writer or the author of thearticle.

This PDF magazine is archived and available from theblenderart.org website. The blenderart magazine is madeavailable under Creative Commons ‘Attribution-NoDerivs2.5’ l icense.

COPYRIGHT© 2005-2012 ‘Blenderart Magazine’, ‘blender-art’ and Blenderart logo are copyright of Gaurav Nawani.‘I zzy’ and ‘I zzy logo’ are copyright Sandra Gilbert. Al l productsand company names featured in the publ ication are trade-mark or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

I wil l admit, I am not the mostmechanical ly mindedindividual and yet, mechanicalobjects are endlesslyfascinating. They can range fromthe simple can opener to highlyspecial ized robotic equipment.

Like many artists, I have no ideahowmost mechanical objectswork. But a large portion of ourcommunity thrives on al l thingsmechanical and spend countlesshours faithful ly reproducingeverything from commoneveryday items to creatingfuturistic objects of mechanicalingenuity.

Thinking about it, there is anartistry to a wel l designed

machine that even the mostclueless of us can appreciate.And by clueless, I am of coursetalking about myself. Honestly Iam ecstatic if things work when Iturn them on. :P

Which brings us to our fun fil ledand informative “MechMayhem” issue of BlenderartMagazine. We get to take a lookat a variety of mechanicalprojects and the artists whocreate them.

So find a comfortable spot andget ready to learn al l about therigging, texturing and othermechanical goodies we havegathered up for you.

"a large portion of ourcommunity thrives onall things mechanical"

Sandra GilbertManager/Editor

EDITORIAL

CONTENTS

BLENDERART - ISSUE 44 | MAR

2

Tutorial :Mech Bust

Tutorial :MechTextures

AWeightScale

MechanicalSystems

RetractingLandingGears

CreatingComicsCharacter

5

9

14

17

20

26

I picked this e-book up on a whim and I canhonestly say I am glad I did. Most tutorials and

books focus on rigging for characters. Which isgreat, but not everything that moves is a character.And according to Christopher Kuhn, armatures arenot the only way to rig an object.

Christopher begins from the viewpoint thatarmatures are not always the best option and thenbacks it up with a series of projects that showcasehow to use constraints to rig and animate a varietyof projects. Al l of these projects are mechanical lybased, but as with most things in l ife could beadapted to a number of different uses.

He starts off with a sol id explanation of some theconstraints used and then builds on thoseexplanations with each project he shows you.

While this e-book is not necessarily geared towardsbeginners, new users should be able to fol low alongfairly wel l as he explains his techniques in a clear andeasy to understand manner, making it easy to fol lowalong on each project.

ALSO BY CHRISTOPHER KUHN

Build Your Own Rocket Bike: Sci-Fi Modeling in

Blender

An intermediate guide to hard-surface model ing inBlender. The emphasis is on futuristic, science fictionvehicles. The book demonstrates a wide variety oftechniques, such as cutting windows into curvedsurfaces, adding hul l panels and l ines to smoothmodels, and building common vehicle components.Related topics such as vehicle design are alsocovered.

IZZY SPEAKSthe truth and nothing but the truth

3

Book Review: Death to the Armatures: Constraint-Based Rigging in Blender

Book Summary from Amazon

"A guide to rigging hard-surface models inBlender without the use of armatures. Thebook utilizes constraints to achieve realisticmotion. Related topics are covered, includingOrigins, parenting, Empties, Global Spaceversus Local, etc. Several models are built andrigged in the course of the book, with a single-cylinder gasoline engine as the final project.

This is not a "Blender 101" book. It assumesthe reader will have a basic knowledge ofmodeling (through advanced techniques arecertainly not required). All models used in thisbook can be freely downloaded online."

BLENDERART - ISSUE 44 | MAR IZZY SPEAKS

The final project is the "Rocket Bike". By the time thereader gets to this section, they wil l be able to applytips and techniques shown throughout the book tocreate their own version.This is not a "Blender 101"book. I t's aimed at people who have a basic grasp ofthe software and want to learn more complexmodel ing techniques. The book is exclusively devotedto model ing; there are only passing references tomaterials, textures, l ighting, etc.

I f you have a basic understanding of Blender andwant to design your own vehicles, this book is for you.

Note: This book is legible on a Kindle, but the picturesare best viewed on a tablet or PC (in color)

IZZY SPEAKSthe truth and nothing but the truth

4

File Size: 6978 KB

Print Length: 361 pages

Simultaneous Device Usage: Unl imited

Publisher: Kuhn Industries (March 8,

2013)

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Language: Engl ish

ASIN: B00BRNGQVQ

Price: $4.99

BLENDERART - ISSUE 44 | MAR IZZY SPEAKS

Hello, my name is Jerry Perkins and onl ine I go bythe name masterxeon1001. I have been using

Blender for about 3 years now and I would l ike to goover the workflow for making a mech bust in Blenderusing 3 of my favorite tools. Dynamic Topology,Retopology and Cycles. So without further ado letsjump in and begin.

I personal ly feel cubes are the origin of al l matterbecause of Blender. So let’s take the cube into editmode and w >> subdivide twice and then press shift +alt + s to make it into a sphere. Usual ly I ' l l hit 1 so thatway it makes it a complete sphere.

After turning on proportional editing I go to townextruding and getting the rough shape of a bust. Revelin the simpl ified geometry because the better you lay

it out here the easier time you wil l have in sculptmode.

In sculpt mode I turn on dynamic topology with ctrl +D and also lower the detail size to around 10 to al lowme to sculpt up detailed forms. I am merely usingstandard, clay tubes and pol ish to get the meshlooking the way I want. A good way to approach it isto raise the edges or dig in with the standard then goback with the pol ish and make the edging smooth. I t’s

5

WORKSHOPLerning blender bit by bit

MECH BUST

Jerry PerkinsContributing Author

BLENDERART - ISSUE 44 | MAR 3DWORKSHOP

also good to zoom in and out to go between macroand micro detail .

After I get the form that I want to capital ize on, I ' l l adda plane as wel l as turn on the magnet for snapping forface and project individual elements. From here it is agame of retopology. I f you aren’t famil iar withsnapping and retopology it’s something magicalwhere you can take unusable geometry and rebuildyour wires around the form for simpl ification. Soduring this step you want to keep in mind whichpieces are segmented as wel l as keep a nice edge flowso you can add loops to the edges to give it a hardsurface look.

I t’s also good to use the hidden wire option in the Npanel to make the wires only show up on the sol id. Iusual ly turn on some tunes and just cover theunderlying sculpt. You can also use B-surfaces orContours for extra speed, however B-surfaces workbest here. Keep in mind that the geometry is brokenup into pieces so that it’s not a sol id object. This wil lhelp the material and mechanization process.

So now I am finishing up the retopolgy and am nowpreparing to sol idify the pieces using the sol idifyoperator. Ctrl + F >> sol idify. You can also control thethickness in the T-Panel . I hide the loop surrounding itso I can isolate and delete the interior faces. You don’twant useless faces that won’t be seen by the camera.

When you first add a subdivision modifier with Ctrl +1. You see the surface looks smooth. So you want toadd some edge loops to get hardness at the edge ofeach segment because otherwise loops too closetogether don’t sol idify the best. I usual ly do that aftersol idifying each piece individual ly with L (with themouse cursor over the part) . Personal ly I select the

piece with L and then press shift + H to hide otherthan selected then unhide with alt+h after I finish thatsegment.

As you can see here I also use the power of sculpt toensure there are no gaps. At this stage you only wantto use the grab brush in smal l stints to move thepieces into position. I think its the sub-division that

6

Mech Bust


causes the shrinkage but you can hide the parts youare not using while in edit more, then when you got tosculpt mode only the unhidden piece wil l move. I amso glad I came across that feature because it mademechanizing that much easier.

I enjoy using matcap mode for checking the surfacesmoothness. That’s something I think Claas Kuhnenopened my eyes to with his car experiments but Icannot get enough of the matcap panel under the N-Panel . They al low you to see in real-time how smooththe surface is. My goal is to make it smooth on thesurface and hard on the edges. I do this with edgeloops but you can also use creasing, however I wouldrecommend against it.

So now I have my finished form. There are some smal lthings here and there I stil l needed to do. Like fil l inholes and whatnot but for the most part it is time torender.

I start off creating a l ine of 6 planes going up on the z

in row for the l ighting and reflections and beginmoving off to the rendering stage.

So here you can see my l ighting setup. That’s it and Iused HDRI for the rest of the l ighting setup. With

l ights l ike this you may also want to uncheck camerain ray visibil ity so the l ights don’t show up in therender. Now for the exciting part. Using my edge flowto slap materials on the edges and faces of my object

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Mech Bust


to get a unique look.

The materials that I am using come from a paint packthat I found on Blendswap for car paint. They are verygood.

http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/47497


By using these I am able to reduce the amount ofwork I would normal ly use for fighting nodes andworking out materials. The materials is something Iam able to easily change out in the material paneluntil I find something that works wel l for me. I tssomething that I enjoy quite a bit because differentmaterial setups create al l sorts of moods andatmospheres. I continue to refine the materials untilthe very end. However the sphere in the forehead issomething that I am adamant about giving anemissive material . Emissive materials in cycles onrobots is a guilty pleasure of mine however I do try todo it sparingly.

So since it's a bust I might as wel l add a pose level rigsince its only 3 bones. I selected each piece with L andadded it to the appropriate group. I find mech riggingto be much easier than organic rigging so there isn’t alot to explain there since each piece is eitherRed(weightedMax) and Blue(weightedMin). I use anHDRI for the rest of the reflections and to help therender pop and since it looked so blown out you cansee I used an RGB curve to adjust contrast for richerreflections.

So for the passes I al lowed more than I even used butthe main ones is the emit pass which is fed into a glarethen with the threshold down and then added backover the render which has been color corrected withan RGB Curve node and a color ramped AO pass

multipl ied l ightly to darken the crevices and shadowareas. The glare real ly added l ife to the image andmade it look very awesome in my opinion.

In case you would l ike to hear me discuss this processmore in depth

http://youtu.be/hoaPM1C1vAE


8

Mech Bust




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoaPM1C1vAE


This is the “quick and dirty” on making your Mechlook dirty…quickly. When you want your war

machine to look l ike it’s been used, nothing gives itthat real world look l ike some rust and old metaltextures. In this tutorial , we’l l look at some quick waysof applying textures (and adding character) to acompleted Mech model .

INSPIRATION

3D Artist Magazine had a competition cal led ‘MechSomething Awesome’, so the theme was, “askingreaders of the mag and fans of free-to-play FPSHAWKEN to create a digital design of a combat Mechusing 3D software”.

My original concept was “the Denier”. A Very Long-Range Suppressing Fire Support Mech.

I actual ly make smal l thumbnail sketches for differentMech designs al l the time. So I grabbed one of myrecent sketches and made a model I thought was very“HAWKEN” inspired. Since this is a texturing tutorial ,we won’t go into any details of what it took to buildthis beast! Maybe some other time…

TEXTURES

So now that my model was done, I had to decide howto texture this beauty. Again, my concept was going toend up being a dirty, already used, kind of Mech. Iwent to CGTextures.com and started searching for

metal textures. Something aged looking and,hopeful ly, rusted (at least a l ittle) . These are thetextures I ended up downloading fromCGTextures.com.

9

METALBARE0174_1_M.JPGBRONZE COPPER0066_6_S.JPG

METALBASE0017_M.JPG


Angel RoldanContributing Author

MECH TEXTURES


3DWORKSHOP

THE PROCESS OF BODY PARTS

Now it is a matter of setting up a default material witha seamless metal texture mapped to it.

NOTE: While I normally use Blender Cycles I haddecided to use Blender Internal Render Engine for thisproject. WHY? Because at the time of this writing, youare not able to BAKE your textures using Blender Cycles.You’ll see that Texture Bake plays an important part ingetting these textures done quickly.

This one uses a seamless metaltexture from a deviantART.com usernamed ~hhh316:

In the MATERIAL panel of Blender,create a material and change theDiffuse color to this:

Now make sure your Specularsettings match this next image:

In the TEXTURE panel (Fig. 01), create a new textureand name it something generic. I cal led mine“seamlessMetal”. The texture (A) Type wil l be Imageor Movie and select your (B) Image of the SeamlessMetal Texture.

Further down in the TEXTURE panel (Fig. 02), take alook at the (C) Image Mapping section. Make sure

Extension is set to“Repeat” and under (D)Mapping make sureCoordinates are set to“Generated” andProjection is set to“Cube”. Now apply this

material to every part of the Mech that is going tohave a basic green mil itary look to it.

Quick Tip: you can apply this Material to one part (thetorso, for example) and then select al l the other partsthat wil l match (SHIFT+Right Mouse Cl ick). Then,making sure the object that already has the materialis the last one selected (active object) using theshortcut (CTRL+L) you can choose MATERIALS and itwil l l ink al l your objects to this material .

BAKING (THIS IS IMPORTANT)

Now in order to BAKE each texture, every object hasto have its own, unique material . So in theMATERIALS panel select an object (the torso, forexample) and Left Mouse Cl ick on the smal l numberlocated next to the material name (Fig. 03). This wil lmake a unique material assigned to the current

10

Mech Textures


SEAMLESS_METAL_TEXTURE_BY

_HHH316-D30X412.JPG

FIG. 01 – TEXTURE SETTINGS

FIG. 02 –MORE TEXTURESETTINGS

3DWORKSHOP

object. Rename it to something appropriate (Fig. 04).

The next few steps are easier to do in the UV Editingworkspace preset (Fig. 05). Now, in the RENDERpanel (Fig. 06), at the very bottom, you wil l find asection label led (F) Bake. In there, you wil l set theoptions to (G) Textures and make sure (H) Clear is notchecked. I set (H) Margin to 2 and leave (H) Spl it set to“Automatic”.

Now you are ready toBake!

On the left side of the Blender Workspace you shouldhave a UV/Image Editor window open. The right sideshould be the 3D View. Select your object. Press (TABkey) to go into edit mode. Make sure no faces, verticesor edges are selected then press (A key) to select al lyour faces. Now press (U key) to bring up the UVMapping Menu. Select “Smart UV Project”. A newmenu wil l open showing the options for Smart UVProject. Just leave the default settings and cl ick OK.

In the left side window (UV/Image Editor) your

unwrapped UV map wil l be generated. Left MouseCl ick on (Image > New Image). I always set mytextures to be 2048 x 2048, but using the default of1024 x 1024 is fine. I name my texture to somethingunique (torsoMap in this example).

Left MouseCl ick on OKand Blenderwil l generatea new, blanktexture.

Now in theRENDERpanel , cl ickonBake (seeFig.06 – Section J) . When Blender is done baking, you’l lsee a texture in the UV/Image Editor that wasgenerated with your generic base mil itary green on it.Left Mouse Cl ick on (Image > Save as Image) and savethis texture.

NOW WE PAINT . . .

Next we are going to add some variety, weatheringand age to the Mech metal by painting directly on thetextures in Blender. I try to emulate aged machinery. Iused lots of images from Google of machinery,mil itary tanks, and Mechs as inspiration.

I tend to put the rust towards the edges of the panels.This looks more real istic to me. You can also usescratches and worn paint texture as wel l , if you l ike.

11

Mech Textures


FIG. 03 –MAKE MATERIALUNIQUE

FIG. 04 – RENAME MATERIAL

FIG. 05 – CHOOSE THE UVEDITING WORKSPACE

FIG. 06 – BAKE SETTINGS

3DWORKSHOP

Be creative. Since it iseasy to blend thetextures in the TexturePaint mode of Blender,you can get great resultswith someexperimentation!

In the 3D View ofBlender, set the ObjectInteraction mode to Texture Paint as shown here:

To paint the textures (Fig. 07) you can adjust the (K)Radius and Strength to get the (L) Brush results youwant. I leave the (K) Blend mode on Mix. Also, I set the(M) Overlay to a smal l Alpha Value (around 20%) so itis easy for me to see the model through the textureI ’m using. Notice that the (N) Brush Mapping is set toStencil . This wil l enable a texture overlay that you wil luse to paint with in the 3D View.

You can add Brushes asneeded but I normal ly usethe default brush and add(P) Textures that I can switch back and forth between.To add a new texture, first you cl ick the (R) PLUSsymbol . This wil l add a new texture channel , but youstil l need to select an image. This needs to be done in

the (S) Brush settings over inthe TEXTURE panel . Changethe (T) Type to Image or Movie,select an (V) image to use (orOPEN a new one), and it wil l beavailable in the (P) Texturesection of the brush setting.LeftMouse Cl ick directly on the(P) Texture to select which oneto use. I f you do not see thebrush settings in the 3D View,the (T key) wil l toggle it openedor closed

You can move the Stenciltexture around in the 3D Viewby (Right Mouse Cl ick + Drag)to move it around, (Shift+RightMouse Cl ick) to Scale it, and

(CTRL+Right Mouse Cl ick) to Rotate it. After you aredone painting the texture, be sure to save the texturein the UV/Image Editor by Left Mouse Cl icking on(Image > Save Image). This wil l overwrite the textureyou created with the freshly painted texture you havebeen working on.

BACK TO MAPPING

Now you wil l need tomap this newtexture youcreated to the uniqueMaterial you made forthis part (Fig. 08). Go intothe TEXTURE panel . Thematerial you madeunique should stil l haveyour Seamless MetalTexture l inked to it. (AA)Unl ink that texture bycl icking on the X next tothe Browser.

12

Mech Textures


FIG. 07 – PAINTING THETEXTURES

FIG. 08 –MAPPING THE PAINTED TEXTURE

FIG. 09 – UV MAPPING THEPAINTED TEXTURE

3DWORKSHOP

Now cl ick on the button label led “NEW” (NOTSHOWN HERE) to make a new (BB) Texture channel(I named mine “torsoMap”). Set the texture (CC) Typeto Image or Movie. In the (DD) Image section, selectthe painted image you have saved in the (EE) Browserdrop down.

Final ly (Fig. 09), in the (FF) Image Mapping section ofthe TEXTURE Panel , set the Extension to Cl ip. In the(GG) Mapping section, set the Coordinates to UV andthe Projection to Flat.

Your painted texture should now be mapped to yourmodel and ready to render!

IN CONCLUSION

You can get very good results very quickly by usingthis process. Just repeat the steps for each part of theMech. The main points of the process are:

Make a generic, military * green basematerial to apply tothemodel.

Make a uniquematerial for each object (torso, arms, legs,boosters, etc…).

Unwrap that part.

Bake the texture for that part.

Paint on that texture.

UVMap your painted texture to your uniquematerial.

Be sure to save your textures when you are donepainting on them. I f you forget and you close Blender,al l the painting you’ve done wil l NOT be automatical lysaved. You wil l lose any unsaved texture painting

LINKS

Blender 3D:

http://www.blender.org/

CG Textures:

http://cgtextures.com/

3DArtist Competition Results:

http://www.3dartistonline.com/news/2013/09/mech-something-awesome-the-winners/

13

Mech Textures


www.blender.org

www.cgtextures.com

http://www.3dartistonline.com/news/2013/09/mech-something-awesome-the-winners/

Today, I wil l show a very easy scene about scales,with real physical settings. You can check this

article to teach your students with real-timeexperiments or just for fun!

( I am using BL2.68a)

So, for starting, add a plane, scale up how you wantand then extrude down (“TAB” to jump edit mode and“E” to extrude) a l ittle bit. Or you can just add a cubeand change the size of it. This wil l be our ground forthe scene and it must be l ike a box, not a 2D plane. Toavoid physical fails, you need to use 3D objects.

And MAKE SURE THE ORIGIN OF THE OBJECT ISAT THE MASS CENTER OF THE OBJECT. To makesure press “SHIFT+CTRL+ALT+C” and cl ick “origin tothe center of mass”. This may not be so important forpassive objects, but it is for active objects.

Anyway, after that add a cube and move it over theground that we just created. The current scene wil llook l ike this PICTURE 1.

NOW OUR STEPS BEGIN...

Step 1- Go to edit mode and choose one of the edgesof the cube ( of course, the edge of the upper face).

Then pressALT+M andcl ick “at center” as youcan see in PICTURE 2.

In final , you wil l get aresult of triangularprism. PICTURE 3

Step 2- add anothercube and resize it l ike arectangular prism.Then put it over thetriangular prism. Nowour scaler is ready!

Step 3- create twomore cubes and putthem over therectangularprism.Notso important, but if youcan place themsymmetrical ly, you getbetter results. Yourresult may look l ike this PICTURE 4.

Step 4- Now we canset up the physicalsettings. Press A toselect everything. I f itdoesn't press again.Then press CTRL+G togroup al l of them. Thisgroup wil l be our

14

3DWORKSHOPBLENDERART - ISSUE 44 | MAR

A WEIGHT SCALE


Hakkı Rıza KÜÇÜKContributing Author

physical objects group. PICTURE 5.

Step 5- Now in theright side window,jump to scene menuand find Rigid BodyWorld. Cl ickAdd RigidBody World and forgroup , choose ourgroup that we justcreated. I f you did not rename the group, it wil lappear as “group” PICTURE 6.

Step 6- So, in the scene, some of the objects wil l movefreely, and some of them wil l not. That wil l be asPASSIVE and ACTIVE objects in blender. To do that,Press T and in the left toolbar menu, find rigid bodytools. You wil l see “add as active” and “add as passive”options. That means “add the object to physical worldas passive or active”.

The ground object and the triangular prism wil l bepassive objects. Add them as passive. And al l theother three objects wil l be active. PICTURE 7

By pressing ALT+A you can see that you got a resultalready! But the animation is a l ittle bit creepy. Nowwe wil l fix that.

Step 7- Select rectangular prism and at the rightwindow, go to the “Object” menu and find “transformlocks”. Transform lock wil l al low you block the motionof the object. For example, by locking al l the locationaxes your object wil l not move to any of these axes.We don't want our rectangular prism to move, it mustonly rotate, which depends on the mass of objects. Solock al l the location axes, and two rotation axes toavoid rotating l ike bal l . Your finished result wil l lookl ike this PICTURE 8.

We are almost done. Actual ly, if you did not get anerror yet, you’re done :) . But for best result, we needto change some more settings in “physical settings”.

Step 8– Inphysicalsettings,make al lobjects as“mesh” . I f younotice whenyou play theanimationthe objectsare nottouchingeachother at al l , make al l the margins about 0.012 .PICTURE 9

15

A Weight Scale


Step 9- I f you notice that the scaler is rotating al l theway around, you can use “l imit rotation” under“constraints” menu. PICTURE 10

So buddies, congrats! We finished it, you can tryvarious stuff l ike moving the scaler to create degreesor in the rigid body tools menu you can choosecountless type of masses and see the animationresult!

16

A Weight Scale


MyFirst article in the Blender Art Magazine wasthe "Caterpil lar Soft Track" in the Issue 19. Be

quiet, this time I am not going to write a 22 pagearticle on mechanical systems. In fact, I am not goingto write an article at al l . I nstead, I wil l give you someof my mechanical "rigs", and some descriptions. Themethod is always the same, I drive everything with asingle Empty which name is E-Master.

Difficulty-level: medium (only the principles arebriefly described below)

I f I have to move a piece, I drive the Delta Locationinstead of the Location. This al lows me to change theposition of the piece and keep the movement intact.

I often use Empties as Parents, for the same reason. Ican sl ightly change the rotation of a gear, to avoid theteeth touching another gear, and keep the "driven d"rotation as desired. But I could use Armature andBones as wel l .

Let’s go. Empties are on Layers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6,Gears and other objects are on Layers 11, 12, 13, 14,15 and 16. Move the Empty E_Master or play theanimation to see how everything is synchronized.

On Layer 11 :

E_Drived_A, B Use an Expanded Polynomial Driver (drivenbyE_Master) on ZRotation axis

E_Transformed_AUses a Transform ConstraintwithE_Master as Target

E_SatellitCenterUses an Expanded Polynomial Driver(driven byE_Master) on ZRotation axis

E_Satellit_A, B, CAre Children from E_SatellitCenter

Use a Copy Rotation Constraint with E_Satel l itCenteras Target

E_GearReverse_A, B Use a Keyed Driver (driven byE_Master) on ZRotation axis

E_2Speed_A, B Use a Keyed Driver (driven byE_Master) onZRotation axis

On Layer 12 :

17

MAKING OF

MAKING OFExploring blenderart and blenderheads


Alain Mathez (mcBlyvers)Contributing Author

MECHNICAL SYSTEMS

E_Hatchet_A, B Use a SineDriver (driven byE_Master) on ZRotation axis

E_Potatoe_AUses an Expanded Polynomial Driver (drivenbyE_Master) on ZRotation axis

E_Potatoe_B Uses a Keyed Driver (driven byE_Master) on ZRotation axis

E_4Steps_A, B, C Uses a Keyed Driver (driven byE_Master)on ZRotation axis

On Layer 13 :

E_EllipseTri_Aan Expanded Polynomial Driver (driven byE_Master) on ZRotation axis

E_EllipseTri_B, C Use a Keyed Driver (driven byE_Master)on ZRotation axis

E_EllipseTri_CUses a Keyed Driver (driven byE_Master) onZRotation axis

E_RopeWheel Uses a Transform ConstraintwithE_EllipseTri_C as Target

E_RopeUses a Transform Constraintwith E_EllipseTri_C asTarget

This Transform Constraint is used to add a ScaleFactor on the movement of the Target. I t’s l ike using aCopy Location Constraint with an Influence greaterthan 1. Without this trick, the rope would sl idesl ightly, because of the Curve Modifier. I s it real lynormal ? I don’t know.

E_GearRack_A Uses a Transform ConstraintwithE_EllipseTri_C as Target

E_GearRackTwist_B Uses a Transform ConstraintwithE_EllipseTri_C as Target

On Layer 14 :

E_CopyMasterUses a CopyLocation ConstraintwithE_Master as Target

E_SlowParent Is a Child of E_CopyMaster, with SlowParent

Uses a LimitDistance Constraintwith E_CopyMaster asTarget

With Slow Parent Offset = 1000 and Limit Distance =0.095, E_SlowParent is able to fol low E_CopyParent(and E_Master) with adelay. This is useful tosimulate the spacebetween the teeth ofthewheels.When therotation of themotoris reversed, in real itythe fol lowing gearwil l not reactinstantaneously. Thespace between theteeth have first to becounterbalanced.

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MAKING OF

Mechanical Systems


On Layer 15 (correct effect is only available fromFrame 1 to Frame 250) :

The supposed motor is E_OneWay_Crank_A or B. I trotates about 360 degrees and reversesautomatical ly. The final piece E_OneWay_Rotationwil l always rotate clockwise. This can simulate astreet organ with a crank that the player can turnclockwise or anti-clockwise and the music paper wil lalways go in the right direction.

E_OneWay_Parent_A, B Use a Keyed Driver (driven byE_Master) on ZRotation axis

E_OneWay_Rotation Uses a Keyed Driver (driven byE_Master) on ZRotation axis

E_OneWay_Crank_A, B Use a Keyed Driver (driven byE_Master) on ZRotation axis

The rest is difficult to describe, but you wil l easily seethe goal of each Empty when you activate the Layer15 and animate the Empty E_Master.

On Layer 16 :

This differential isusing principleswhich are alreadydescribed inLayer11. In fact, this is afirst version of abigger system,which includes abrake. But it is stil la "Work InProgress" on myComputer.Because of that, Iwon’t go deeper in detailed explanations here.

In the second file :

I real ized this system some years ago, with Blender2.48 or 2.49. And guess what, it’s stil l working! I f youlaunch the animation, the Empty Motor wil l rotate.You can move the Empty E-MainTarget in the up rightwindow and see what’s happened. In fact, the system

is based on real ity,with LockTrackConstraints onEmpties.

The LockTrackConstraint is notas famous as theTrackToConstraint. But inmost cases formechanicalsystems,LockedTrack is better than TrackTo, becauseLockedTrack works l ike a hinge, and TrackTo worksl ike a bal l joint (a sphere). Some of the names in theBlend file are in French, so don’t be surprised if yousee one.

In fact, al l those examples are the basis of a"Mechanical Library" that I have been preparing for afew months. My goal is to publ ish a large col lection ofmechanical systems, with Drivers and Constraints,and of course some short tutorials or detailedexplanations for every case.

I f you have ideas or suggestions, feel free to sendthem to me at [email protected]

For now, I hope my very first examples wil l be helpfulin some cases

19

MAKING OF

Mechanical Systems


mailto:[email protected]

Most of the fast airplanes have retractablelanding gear. You must extend it in the ground

scenes and retract in the pictures of the flyingairplane. Of course, it is possible to move and rotateeach of the landing gear parts separately. However, Iassure you that such an exercise wil l become verytedious when you repeat it several times. The betteridea is to use the rich set of Blender animation tools.In this article, I wil l show you my solution forcontrol l ing themovable parts of anaircraft model .

I wil l explain thisusing the example ofa tail wheelassembly (from themodel in the pictureabove). Let’s take alook at thismechanism (Figure1). The wheel ispivoted on the fork,which is attached atthe end of the swingarm. There is also a shock absorber and an actuator,which, when moved, pul ls forward the shockabsorber, rotating the swing arm and retracting thetail wheel .

We can easilyrecreate the basemechanism using anarmature. I t wil lconsist of 3 bones(Figure 2):

Unfortunately,when the modeledelements have toperform spatialmovements, thebones havetendency to rotatearound theirlongitudinal axes.

This can lead to surprising results. For example, I triedto use similar “three-bone” setup for the tail wheeldoors retraction mechanism (Figure 3):

You stil l could master such an "unruly" armature, but,frankly, I did not want to spend much time on suchtrials. During my attempts to cope with the bonetorsions I learned more about object constraints.Then I quickly came to the conclusion that it ispossible to extend and retract the landing gearwithout any bones through a single shift of anauxil iary handle. You just need to reverse the cause

20

MAKING OFBLENDERART - ISSUE 44 | MAR


Witold JaworskiContributing Author

RETRACTING LANDING GEARS

FIGURE 1 ELEMENTS OF THE P-40TAIL WHEEL ASSEMBLY

FIGURE 2 BASIC TAIL WHEEL MECHANISM, CREATED WITHAN ARMATURE.

andeffectsequence.The swing arm wil lnot be dragged bythe shock absorber,just the absorberwil l move, because itwil l be pushed bythe rotating swingarm.When you do itright, the externalobserver wil l notnotice the realrelationshipsbetween variousparts of this

mechanism. Using such a solution you can model theentire assembly using a few constraints. Thearmatures with their Pose Mode are no longerneeded.

I started by creating an auxil iary handle object,named X.500.Handle (on a layer which is notrendered). Then Iused a Locked Trackconstraint to directthe swing armtoward this handle(Figure 4):

In such a setup l ikein Figure 4, when Imove the handleupward, the tailwheel retracts. Toextend it, I have tomove the handledownward. Ingeneral , you can usethe Locked Trackconstraintstocreate“pivot joints” in yourmechanisms. So far,

it is nothing extraordinary, is it?

Let’s start to enhance this simple scheme. Forexample, you can use a Limit Location constraint torestrict the handle movement to a “reasonable” range(i.e. a range that corresponds to real istic positions ofthe control led mechanism). Figure 5 shows such arestriction imposed on the handle from Figure 4:

In this way, you do not have to worry whether youhave set the handle in the appropriate locationbecause it is forced by the constraint.

To include this shock absorber and the actuator intothe virtual mechanism, you have to choose careful lythe origins of these objects (Figure 6):

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MAKING OF

Retracting Landing Gears

FIGURE 4 USING A LOCKED TRACKCONSTRAINT TO RETRACT THE

TAIL WHEEL


FIGURE 3 PROBLEMS WITH THE DOORS INTERMEDIATEPOSITIONS

FIGURE 5 RESTRICTIONS IMPOSED ON HANDLE LOCATION

FIGURE 6 ORIGINS OF THE TAIL WHEEL ASSEMBLYELEMENTS

I n the mechanism l ike this, the actuator pushrod andthe shock absorber piston should have their origins inthe same place. The logical hierarchy (the Parentrelationships) of these objects is also important.Assign the piston to the pushrod, the shock strut tothe connector object, and the connector to the swingarm (see Figure 6).

Use another Locked Track constraint to direct theconnector (and its “child” — the shock strut) objectstoward the pushrod origin (Figure 7):

Assign two other Locked Track constraints to bothshock absorber parts, to direct their Z-axes towardthe parent of the opposite element (Figure 8):

Such a constrained shockabsorber deflects andextends, fol lowingmovements of the handle.However, we stil l have toforce the actuator pushrodto perform the l inearmovement. But how can weobtain such an effect?

For the actuator pushrod, wewil l use an “al l -purposegear”: the Transformationconstraint (Figure 9):

In the result, a single handlemovement drives the tailwheel mechanism (Figure10):

Of course, if you want to createan animation sequence, you canassign to this handle object amovement curve (F-Curve). I t issimpler than deal ing with thearmature bones!

There is stil l one detail missing:the shock absorber deflectionthat occurs under various loads(the static weight of the airplanestanding on the ground, or thedynamic forces during landing).To reproduce this effect, I use the“child” handle (Figure 11):

I shaped this child object as a“donut” around the originalhandle — just to grab it easily,when needed. Initial ly its origin is

22

MAKING OF



FIGURE 7 CONSTRAINING THE CONNECTOR OBJECT

FIGURE 8 CONSTRAINING THE SHOCK ABSORBERS PARTS

FIGURE 10 TAIL WHEEL RETRACTION

FIGURE 11 THE “CHILD” HANDLE, TO CONTROL THE LANDINGGEAR DEFLECTIONS IN THE “LOADED” POSITION

in the same place as the origin of its parent — themain handle object (X.500.Handle) . This child handlehas a Limit Location constraint, which al lows it tomove within the range of 2 Blender units from itsparent. (Note that you stil l have to enter thecorresponding Maximum and Minimum values as youcan see them in the Object properties panel — seeFigure 11).

When the childhandle is set, useit in the LockedTrackconstraintsof the swing armand the shockabsorberobjects(Figure 12):

To close andopen the tailwheel doors,assign to theirhingesTransformationconstraints,

which converthandle locationinto rotations(Figure 13):

The last elementwe have toanimate is thedoor retractionmechanism(Figure 14):

I t consists of acentral pivot,which connects

two drag braces. The end of each brace is connectedto the barrel on the door fitting. I used Locked Toconstraints to control the pivot and barrelsdirections.

The braces have to use the Stretch To constraints,because of l inear rotation of the doors (Figure 15):

Figure 16 shows the ultimate result: retraction of thecomplete tail wheel assembly. I drew on it the

23

MAKING OF



FIGURE 12 THE EFFECT OF LANDING GEAR DEFLECTION

FIGURE 13 CLOSING THE TAIL WHEEL DOORS

FIGURE 14 DETAILS OF THE DOOR RETRACTION MECHANISM

FIGURE 15 USING THE STRETCH TO CONSTRAINT

handles,becausetheyare notrendered:

You can usesimilarsolution forthe mainwheel . In thecaseoftheP-40 it wassimultaneously rotatingaround twoaxes (Figure17):

I appl iedappropriateTransformationconstraintsto rotate theleg and itspivot (thelatter part ishiddeninsidethe leg andits fittings —see Figure17).

Another interesting part of this mechanism is thescissor l ink (Figure 18). I ts movement is caused by theshock absorber deflection. The easiest way toanimate such pivoted struts is the armature.

However, to take advantage of the “one handle”system, I decided to obtain the same effect usingconstraints (Figure 18):

The key element of this scissor l ink assembly is the

central bolt.I ts positionisdeterminedbytwoLimitDistanceconstraints,which keepit on fixeddistancefrom theupper andlower bolts.The twostruts havetheir originsat thecorresponding bolts (the upper or lower one). Theyare stretched toward the central bolt using theStretch To constraints. I used this constraint hereinstead of the Locked Track, to hide minor gapsbetween their ends and the bolt (I cannot explain whythey occur).

The model presented in this article is available athttp://airplanes3d.net/model-p40_e.xml

The Handle Panel add-on and its description isavailable at http://airplanes3d.net/tutorials-020_p.xml

Except the undercarriage, there are also othermovable parts which are worth to “mechanize”: therudder, elevator, ailerons, wing flaps, etc. For each of

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MAKING OF



FIGURE 17 MAIN WHEEL CONSTRAINTS

FIGURE 18 SCISSOR LINK CONSTRAINTS

FIGURE 19 SHOWS THE RETRACTION OF THE COMPLETEMAIN WHEEL.

FIGURE 17

http://airplanes3d.net/model-p40_e.xml

http://airplanes3d.net/tutorials-020_p.xml

these I created a handle. Final ly, I ended up withdozens of different handles, “orbiting” around themodel (Figure 20).

To manage them, I created an universal add-on. I tscans the current scene for handle objects andcreates their panels in the Properties window.

To do this “magic”, just append to the names of yourhandles the “.Handle” suffix, and assign to them LimitLocation constraints. Using this tool , I can quicklypose the airplanes in such a scene l ike the one shownin Figure 21

25

MAKING OF



FIGURE 20

FIGURE 21

The present article seeks to give a sample of thebasic conceptual design for the creation of a

character for a comic. As a comic maker, dedicated tocount histories through the l iterature of the imagewe need to show the character’s story throughimages, Blender is an ideal tool to make a comic.

THE CONCEPTUAL ART

For the hero or the vil lain's concept of comic, the firstthing to on work is the history behind the character.To give answers to basic questions l ike: what shouldthe hero/vil lain look l ike? What does he do? Wheredoes he l ive? Those answers wil l be a great help whendesigning the character.

To know the character's history is highly important,and as the comics maker we base the character'sconception on the script of the comic.

The comic script helps to maintain consistent detailswith the plot of the comic. For example, theenvironment where the character is revealed woulddefine his personal ity and image certainly. The historybehind the character would be reflected in basicelements such as it’s expressions, gestures, anddetails l ike clothes, tattoos, gear and accessories.

PRE-PRODUCTION : THE HISTORY BEHIND THECHARACTER

The comic in which I am working, is a comic of thegender SteamPunk where the main character is arobot monster hunter. A comic set in the Venezuela ofJul io Verne of their novel “The superb Orinoco” (Lesuperbe Orenoque). An alternative Venezuela in1893 where the typical characters of theindustrial ized society cohabitate with anachronicelements worthy of any science fiction history. Aplace where anything can happen and where theblack magic and the technology meet each other andthey are supplemented one with the other.

ONE MACHINE THAT LOOKS SEXY

The main character ofmy comic isa female robot possessed by thehuman soul of the monsterhunter. Being a robot, I desire togive her a sexy look. Amachine orrobot can be as sexy as anyhuman. The trick resides in seeingthe heroine l ike a human beingand less l ike a machine.

This is the most difficult part,because we al l tend to see robotsas machines, but giving them souland human shape is the key tomaking them attractive.

26

MAKING OFBLENDERART - ISSUE 44 | MAR


Acasio OsmanContributing Author

CREATING COMICS CHARACTER

To make it more attractive we pay good attention totheir hips and chest. I f we play with the correctproportions, the character wil l reach the wanted sexylook. The character's face plays an important role thatalso deserves attention. A beautiful face on a robotwil l make it look more attractive. Working these areasof the body, we wil l be able to determine the sexy sideof the robot.

INSPIRATION

For the character`s design of my comic, let us beinspired by the android Maria of the Fritz Lang´sClassic masterpiece “Metropol is” (1927) and theandroid Eve of the videogame fighters “Dark Rift”(1996) of Kronos Digital Entertainment, Inc. Likecharacteristic African features, my character wil l havecertain resemblance with a certain pop singer.

DISSECTING A COMIC CHARACTER CONCEPT

To real ly get famil iar with acomic character, you need tobreak down the concept andidentify each element. Study theconcept and count every singlepiece that defines the comiccharacter. Create a l ist ofelements that compose thecharacter.

Although it takes time, the l istwil l give you an idea of thenumber of objects to model in3D. You should also have acheckl ist to mark

things off as you build them.

Another benefit of creating an element l ist is that ital lows you to start thinking of how to approach the3D model ing of each element. In the fol lowing case,the female robot consists of 17 parts that should bemodeled in 3D. From parts of the body to accessoriessuch as the crown (1), the gun(2), the maracas in theankle (13) and the feathers (4).

As a general rule, it is better to model every singlepiece, including elements as simple as rivets forexample. This way, one has absolute control of eachelement that composes our character and we canmodify as we desire.

To model a 3D character for a comic in white andblack, the selection of textures for our character'selement won't be necessary, saving valuable time forthe culmination of the comic project.

ANATOMICAL PROPORTION

When one draws a comic character, the head servesas a basic unit of measure. The standard rule dictatesthat an average person has six and one half heads ofheight. The proportions of the comic heroes arealways extremely exaggerated. Often they are drawnwith a height of eight heads. These proportions make

27

MAKING OF

Creating Comics Character


the figure seem enormous and unreal ; qual ities thatare desirable for a comic hero.

Having this in mind, I create a model sheet of thecharacter we wil l use as a reference for model ing 3D.

MODELING THE FACE

Starting from pictures taken from the internet of theface (Side and front) of a wel l -known singer of pop,the comic character's face is modeled in 3D using thepolygon - to - polygon technique.

MODELING OF THE BODY

A female body base created in MakeHuman isexported to Blender for modification. Break down themesh in al l the pieces that compose part of the l istyou made in the beginning. Each element is modified

taking reference from the character sheet model .

MODELING OF THE WEAPON.

The heroine'sweapon is createdusing the Boxmodel ing technique.The accessories ofthe weapon arecreated from basicprimitives.Again theuse ofpictures takenfrom the internet forreference wil l be ofgreat help for such a purpose.

SETTING IN SCENE

The created character is put ina scene together with theother characters. I l luminationis added to the scene and thecamera wil l be adapted to theappropriate al ignment to theframe format of the comic.

RENDERING

The frame is rendered with theCartoon option and ambientocclusion. The Image is treatedwith filters in GIMP to give itthe look of an inked of comic.The speech bubbles and text ofthe comic are created inBlender. The comic editioncarries out it in GIMP . Thefinal result is a fanzine aboutthe adventures a female robotMonsterhunter in untameablelands

28

MAKING OF

Creating Comics Character


You want to make a tank track, or somethingsimilar ? You watch some tutorials, and final ly

you use a Mesh Link, with an Array Modifier, and aCurve Modifier. This is easy to do, this is animatable,you are happy, so where is the problem ?

The problem is that the Curve Modifier is deformingyour Mesh Link in the curved part or the Curveobject. In addition, if you animate this system in the3D viewport, it could be slow, very slow.

The workaround that I just discovered last week-endsolves both problems.

1) TheMesh stays undeformed in the curved part

2) The animation is much faster in the 3D viewport

3) In bonus, it is not really harder to do than the firstmethod.

The Mesh that has to receive the Array and the CurveModifier is a simple Plane. This Plane has to be theParent of the detailed Mesh Link, and must beswitched on Faces option in the Dupl ication section.

Wel l , this method is not perfect. I f you zoom on thecurved part, you wil l see that the axis are notperfectly al igned with each other. But in most casesthis won’t be visible, and it wil l surely achieve a morereal istic result than the first method.

29

BLENDING

BLENDINGEveryday blendeing for all of us


Alain Mathez (mcBlyver)Contributing Author

Undeformed Track Links

My computer is a Win7, 64Bits, i7-3770K 3.90GHz,with 16GB RAM.

Because the detailed Mesh has first a Bevel and aEdge Spl it Modifiers, the animation of the firstmethod runs in the 3D viewport at 2-3fps and has towork with 71600 vertices.

I f I disable the Bevel and the Edge Spl it Modifiers, theanimation runs at 15fps.

With the second method, the animation runs at 25fps,and only 2808 vertices are used for the exact sametrack.

Deformed method

Undeformed method

30

BLENDING

Undeformed Track Links


Since this issue I wil l be part of the Blenderartteam, on the Quick tip column. So let’s try a coup

with this chal lenge. This time I have chosen smal l butuseful tips about model l ing.

When your modelis very complex,l ike this example.Navigation can bedifficult andannoying.Depending on

your PC, how many vertices you can use before yoursmachine slows down,

But there is one quick way to get around this problemand speed up your work.

Tip1:Quick Hide: On standard desktop keyboardswith Num-pad there is "/” (slash) key. I f you select oneseperate object of your model and then press “/ “onthe num-pad, unselected objects wil l disappear andyou can easily continue working. (Same as Shift+Honly quicker).

B

e warned, there isno notificationabout thisfunction. I f yousave the file withthis function on,you wil l not beable to find yourwork. (pressing "/"key on numpad again or Alt-H reveals the hiddenobjects back as usual ) .

Tip2: Zoom fast:

The other buttonis also on the num-pad, and it is “.”(DOT). I t can bevery useful in editmode special ly ifyou want to focuson one part ofyour model , tap itand you can justzoom in with yourmouse wheels .

Here is a doublewhammy, thezoomed selectionwil l now also act as the rotation point regardless ofyour usual rotation preference. I hope these quicktips have made your model ing session quicker anduseful

31

BLENDING

BLENDINGEveryday blendeing for all of us


Krzysztof BozalekContributing Author

Lightening quick tips for modeling using Num-Pad keys

32

GALLERIA

GALLERIABlender artworks from the blenderheads

Kaid - by Connor Simpson

33

GALLERIA


Ramses Walker -by Angel Roldan

34

GALLERIA


35

GALLERIA


Hawken_DENIER -by Angel Roldan

36

GALLERIA


P-40 -byWitold Jaworski

37

GALLERIA


P-40 -byWitold Jaworski

38

GALLERIA


M4W1_FloorModel -by Angel Roldan

blenderart magazine issue 44 mech mayhem!

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