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free from defects in the operational sense that they can be read by PDF Readers. Except

for this express limited warranty, PS-P makes and you receive no warranties, express, im-

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purpose.

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cluding loss of data, lost profits, or other special, incidental, consequential, or indirect

damages arising out of the use or inability to use the ebook.

DRM and Piracy (a private note)Now, enough of the lawyer speech - let me (Tom Beck) have some words about pirating

my books: I personally hate to cripple the ability of my readers to use my books by im-

plementing strict DRM mechanisms, prohibiting useful techniques like copy & paste or

even worse prohibiting printing it, therefore all books from Plasmasolutions are totally

DRM free!

What we do though is injecting unique personalized markers into our books and images

to easily identify the person who uploaded it illegally to warez-sites - we won't tolerate

that and take every legal action we have to stop this behavior and get appropriate com-

pensation!

This book needed over 6 years of passionate work and dedication to reach the level of

detail and depth that you deserve - I hope that you see that copying it illegally will de-

stroy this business and lead to no more books. I trust in you as you trust in me!

And if price is an issue: We got special offers for students - just contact my staff at Plas-

masolutions (https://www.plasmasolutions.de) .

That being said, I'm super pumped to show you what Blender is capable of - so let's have

an in-depth look into the most amazing 3D software available today!

Much love to you, Blender and its community,

Thomas Beck

Book info: Publication date 2018-12-23, book version 1.0.4

https://www.plasmasolutions.de/

https://www.plasmasolutions.de/

Table of contentsChapter 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

1.1 Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

1.2 The Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

1.3 The Blender Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201.3.1 Everything New – Blender 2.5+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

1.3.2 The Future - Blender 2.8x . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

1.4 Blender Foundation Open Movies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

1.5 Installing Blender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261.5.1 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

1.5.2 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

1.6 Who is This Book For / Teaching Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

1.7 Blender Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291.7.1 Gather References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

1.7.2 Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

1.7.3 Modeling – You're the Sculptor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

1.7.4 UV Unwrapping and UV Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

1.7.5 Lighting – How a Scene Is Lit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

1.7.6 Shading and Texturing – Defining the Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

1.7.7 Skinning and Rigging – Preparing the Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

1.7.8 Animation – Action! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

1.7.9 Stereoscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

1.7.10 Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

1.7.11 Post-Processing – Fine-tuning the Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

1.7.12 Motion Tracking – The Real World Meets 3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

1.7.13 Video Editing – A Virtual Cutting Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

1.8 Thanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

1.9 On to the Next Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Chapter 2 The Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

2.1 Blender's Operating Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372.1.1 Blender is Non-Overlapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

2.1.2 Blender is neither Blocking nor Modal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

2.1.3 Right- or Left-click? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

2.1.4 Blender is Your Creative Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

2.2 Window Areas, Editors, and Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402.2.1 Window Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

2.2.2 Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

2.2.3 Screen Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

2.3 The Elements of the User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412.3.1 Menu Entries and Context Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

2.3.2 Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

2.3.3 Tool Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

2.3.4 Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

2.3.5 Checkboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

2.3.6 Input fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

2.3.7 Slider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

2.3.8 Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

2.3.9 Drop-Down Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

2.3.10 Preset Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

2.3.11 Radio Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

2.3.12 Color Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

2.3.13 Color Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

2.3.14 Pie Menus (Pies) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

2.4 Adjusting the User-Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532.4.1 Adjusting Window Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

2.4.2 The Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

2.4.3 Properties Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

2.4.4 Exploring and Adjusting Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

2.4.5 Preset and Custom Screens Using Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

2.5 Exploring the Scene - The 3D View Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632.5.1 Zoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

2.5.2 Rotation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

2.5.3 Translation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

2.5.4 Lovers of First-Person Shooters, Get Ready – The Walk Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

2.6 Organizing Data With Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

2.7 Load and Save Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692.7.1 Version Control in Blender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

2.7.2 Keyboard Navigation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

2.8 The Settings Window – The Land of Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

2.9 Exit Blender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

2.10 Browse Through Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

2.11 On to the Next Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Chapter 3 Working With Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

3.1 Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 763.1.1 Structure of Polygon Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

3.1.2 Coordinate Systems and the Localization of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

3.1.3 The Torture of Selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

3.1.4 Adding and Deleting Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

3.1.5 Duplicating Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

3.1.6 Organization of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

3.1.7 Transformations Made Quick & Easy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

3.1.8 Transformation Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

3.1.9 The 3D Transform Manipulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

3.1.10 The Pivot Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

3.1.11 The Local View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

3.2 The Working Mode – Object Mode, Edit Mode & Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 983.2.1 Object Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

3.2.2 Edit Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

3.2.3 Mode Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

3.3 Small and Big – A Question of Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1013.3.1 Units for Model Export. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

3.4 Family Bonds – Parent-Child Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1023.4.1 Creating Relations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

3.4.2 Releasing Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

3.5 The Properties Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1043.5.1 The Object Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

3.6 Blender’s DNA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1093.6.1 What is a Data-Block? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

3.6.2 Data-Blocks, Links and Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

3.6.3 Creating Data-Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

3.6.4 Linking Data-Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

3.6.5 Renaming of Data-Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

3.6.6 Data-Block Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

3.6.7 Deleting Data-Blocks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

3.6.8 Maintaining an Overview – The Outliner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

3.7 Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1183.7.1 Creating Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

3.7.2 Using Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119


Chapter 4 Modeling and Object Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

4.1 What is Modeling? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

4.2 Types of Mesh Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1264.2.1 Poly-by-Poly Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

4.2.2 Box Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

4.2.3 Sculpting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

4.2.4 Which Type of modeling is the »Right One«? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

4.3 Meshes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1284.3.1 Pretty Primitive – The Mesh Primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

4.4 History and Future. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1334.4.1 Undo History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

4.4.2 Repeat History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

4.5 Background Images / Videos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

4.6 Modeling Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1374.6.1 The Mesh Selection Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

4.6.2 Selecting Vertices, Edges and Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

4.6.3 Transform Vertices, Edges and Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

4.6.4 Create Vertices, Edges, and Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

4.6.5 Divide Vertices, Edges, and Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

4.6.6 Decimating Vertices, Edges, and Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

4.6.7 Deform Vertices, Edges, and Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

4.6.8 Hide / Show Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

4.6.9 To Dissolve Parts of the Mesh – Separate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

4.6.10 Join Various Meshes – Join. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

4.6.11 The Duplication Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

4.7 Digital Sculpting – Become a Sculptor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1644.7.1 Sculpt Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

4.7.2 The Sculpting Toolbox. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

4.7.3 Hide Mesh Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

4.7.4 Mask Mesh Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

4.7.5 Matcaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

4.7.6 For Inquisitive Minds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

4.8 Beautiful Curves – Bézier and NURBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1814.8.1 Add Curves and Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

4.8.2 Control Points and Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

4.8.3 Adjusting Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

4.8.4 Combine Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

4.8.5 The Proof of the Pudding is in the Tasting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

4.8.6 For Further Expeditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

4.8.7 Paint Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

4.9 Text Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1924.9.1 Add, Input and Edit Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

4.9.2 The Control Center – The Object Data Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

4.10 Metaballs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1994.10.1 Add Metaballs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

4.10.2 Letting Metaballs Interact with Each Other. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

4.10.3 Settings of the Metaball Group – The Object Data Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

4.11 Lattices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

4.12 Just Hot Air? The Empty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2024.12.1 The Big Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

4.12.2 Settings – The Object Data tab of the Empties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

4.13 Measuring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2044.13.1 Lengths and Angles of Mesh Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

4.13.2 Distances Between Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

4.14 To Browse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

4.15 On to the Next Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Chapter 5 Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

5.1 What Are Modifiers? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

5.2 All Are Similar, Some of Them Are More Similar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

5.3 The Modifier Stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2085.3.1 Adding and Copying Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

5.3.2 Changing the Order of Modifiers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

5.3.3 Deleting Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

5.3.4 Common Functions of Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

5.4 Dolly the Clone Sheep Says Hello - The Generative Modifiers . . 2115.4.1 The Array Modifier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

5.4.2 The Bevel Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

5.4.3 The Boolean-Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

5.4.4 The Build Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

5.4.5 The Decimate Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

5.4.6 The Edge Split Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

5.4.7 The Mask Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

5.4.8 The Mirror Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

5.4.9 The Remesh Modifier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

5.4.10 The Screw Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

5.4.11 The Skin Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

5.4.12 The Solidify Modifier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

5.4.13 The Subdivision Surface Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

5.4.14 The Multiresolution Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

5.4.15 The Triangulate Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

5.4.16 The Wireframe Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

5.5 Shifty - the Deformation Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2395.5.1 The Armature Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

5.5.2 The Cast Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

5.5.3 The Curve Modifier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

5.5.4 The Displace Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

5.5.5 The Hook Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

5.5.6 The Laplacian Smooth Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

5.5.7 The Laplacian Deform Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

5.5.8 The Lattice Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

5.5.9 The Mesh Deform Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

5.5.10 The Shrinkwrap Modifier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

5.5.11 The Simple Deform Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

5.5.12 The Smooth Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

5.5.13 The Corrective Smooth Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

5.5.14 The Surface Deform Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

5.5.15 The Warp Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

5.5.16 The Wave Modifier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

5.6 Professional Simulations - the Simulation Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2655.6.1 The Explode Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

5.6.2 The Ocean Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

5.6.3 The Particle Instance Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

5.7 Change is Good - The Modifying Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2715.7.1 The Data Transfer Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

5.7.2 The Mesh Cache Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

5.7.3 The Mesh Sequence Cache Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

5.7.4 The Normal Edit Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

5.7.5 The UV Project Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

5.7.6 The UV Warp Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

5.7.7 General Introduction to the Vertex Weight Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

5.7.8 The Vertex Weight Edit Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

5.7.9 The Vertex Weight Mix Modifier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

5.7.10 The Vertex Weight Proximity Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285


Chapter 6 Rendering - An Image Emerges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

6.1 Rendering Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2876.1.1 Rendering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

6.1.2 The Renderer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

6.1.3 Rendering Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

6.1.4 CPU- and GPU-Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

6.2 The Virtual Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2946.2.1 Adding Cameras and Determining the Active Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

6.2.2 Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

6.2.3 Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

6.3 Rendering with Blender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3026.3.1 Select the Renderer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

6.3.2 The OpenGL Renderer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

6.3.3 The BI-Renderer - Speed or Realism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

6.3.4 The Cycles-Renderer - If it Can Be a Bit More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

6.3.5 Your First Render . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

6.3.6 Determine Visibility of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

6.3.7 Blender's Render Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

6.4 Color Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3296.4.1 Color Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

6.4.2 Transformations in Blender. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

6.4.3 The Color Management Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

6.4.4 Filmic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

6.4.5 Loading Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

6.4.6 Creating and Saving Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

6.5 For Browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341


Chapter 7 Lighting Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

7.1 Lighting or Lighting Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

7.2 Light? Naturally! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

7.3 Goals of Light Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3457.3.1 Defining Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

7.3.2 Creating Moods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

7.3.3 Guiding the Viewer's Eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

7.3.4 Shaping the environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

7.4 Types of Light Sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3487.4.1 Blender Internal and Cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

7.4.2 Light Sources in Blender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

7.4.3 General Options of Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

7.4.4 Point Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

7.4.5 Spotlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

7.4.6 Sunlight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

7.4.7 Hemi light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

7.4.8 Area Light (Surface Light) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

7.4.9 Mesh Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

7.4.10 Ambient Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

7.5 What Would Light be Without Shadows? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3567.5.1 General Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

7.5.2 Raytracing Shadows (Ray Shadow) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

7.6 Design the World According to Your Needs - The World Tab . . . 3597.6.1 Preview and World Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

7.6.2 Ambient Occlusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

7.6.3 Environment Lighting (BI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

7.6.4 Indirect Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

7.6.5 Gather. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

7.6.6 Smoke Bombs - The Mist Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

7.6.7 Tips and Tricks with BI Light Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

7.7 Light and Shadows in Cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3727.7.1 General Settings of the Classic Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

7.7.2 Spot Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

7.7.3 Area Light / Portals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

7.7.4 Mesh Lights & Volumetric Lights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

7.7.5 Environment-Lighting, IBL and Ambient Occlusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

7.7.6 Mist (Fog) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

7.8 Three-Point Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3807.8.1 Key Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

7.8.2 Fill Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

7.8.3 Rim Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

7.8.4 Variations of Three-Point Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

7.8.5 The Key-to-Fill ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

7.9 Read More about Lighting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384


Chapter 8 Shading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

8.1 Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

8.2 What is Shading? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

8.3 Shading in the 3D View Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3878.3.1 Viewport Shading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

8.3.2 Object Dependent Shading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

8.3.3 Interpolation Between Faces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

8.4 Learning to See - On the Way to Material Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

8.5 Blender's Material System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3948.5.1 Creating a Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

8.5.2 Naming a Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

8.5.3 Material Data-Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

8.5.4 Defining the Material Binding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

8.5.5 Removing Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

8.5.6 Assigning Existing Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

8.5.7 Assigning Materials to Selected Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

8.6 Blender Internal Shading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3988.6.1 The Material Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

8.6.2 The Preview Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

8.6.3 The Diffuse Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

8.6.4 The Specular Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

8.6.5 The Shading Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406

8.6.6 The Transparency Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406

8.6.7 The Mirror Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

8.6.8 The Subsurface Scattering (SSS-) Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

8.6.9 A Hairy Thing - The Strand Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

8.6.10 The Options Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

8.6.11 The Shadow Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

8.7 Textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4138.7.1 Procedural Textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

8.7.2 Non-Procedural Textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418

8.7.3 Using Textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

8.8 Texturing with the BI Renderer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4248.8.1 The Texture Preview Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

8.8.2 The Colors Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

8.8.3 The Mapping Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

8.8.4 The Influence panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

8.8.5 Understanding the Influence Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434

8.8.6 Image Textures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

8.9 UV/Image Editor and UV Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4418.9.1 Restore and Load Images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

8.9.2 Editing and Saving Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

8.9.3 UV Unwrapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

8.10 Texture Painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4548.10.1 Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455

8.10.2 The Tools panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456

8.10.3 The Slots Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

8.10.4 The Options Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460

8.11 Advanced Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4618.11.1 The Node Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

8.12 Cycles Shading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4768.12.1 Cycles Materials - Realism Counts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476

8.12.2 Cycles - Faking (Im)possible? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477

8.12.3 Surfaces in Cycles - The Shaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480

8.12.4 Your First Cycles Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481

8.12.5 Cycles Shader Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483

8.12.6 Cycles Textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491

8.12.7 Physically Based Rendering & Shading (PBR / PBS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494

8.12.8 Discovering Cycles Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

8.12.9 Cycles Texture Paint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509

8.12.10 Cycles & Node Wrangler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511

8.12.11 OSL Shaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512

8.13 Baking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5148.13.1 Baking - One Term, Many Meanings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514

8.13.2 Texture Baking in Blender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518

8.14 For Browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524


Chapter 9 Animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

9.1 The History of Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5279.1.1 What is Animation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

9.1.2 The Beginnings of Classical Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

9.1.3 Computer Animation - Similarities and Differences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532

9.1.4 Frame Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

9.2 Blender's Animation System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5359.2.1 Mastering Time - The Timeline Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

9.2.2 Keyframe animation with Blender. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

9.2.3 The Graph Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

9.2.4 The Dope Sheet Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555

9.2.5 The Action Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558

9.2.6 The NLA Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560

9.2.7 Shape Key Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565

9.2.8 Path Animations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570

9.3 Animation Helpers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5719.3.1 The Grease Pencil (GP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572

9.3.2 Marker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592

9.3.3 Motion Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592

9.4 Rendering Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5939.4.1 The Dimensions Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593

9.4.2 The Output Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594

9.4.3 The Sampled Motion Blur Panel (BI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595

9.4.4 The Motion Blur Panel (Cycles) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596

9.4.5 Rolling Shutter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598

9.5 No Character Animations? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603

9.6 For Browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603


Chapter 10 Vertex Weights, Skinning and Rigging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605

10.1 Where Does Rigging Come From? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605

10.2 Vertex Weights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60610.2.1 Setting Vertex Weights Manually - The Vertex Groups Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606

10.2.2 Vertex Groups and Wave Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608

10.2.3 Interactive Vertex Weights - Weight Painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609

10.2.4 Weight Painting in Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610

10.2.5 Dynamic Vertex Weights - The Modifier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612

10.3 Rigging and Skinning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61210.3.1 The Typical Rigging and Skinning Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612

10.3.2 Armatures and Bones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613

10.3.3 Settings of Armatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619

10.3.4 The Settings of Bones. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622

10.3.5 Constraints - Defining Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627

10.3.6 Skinning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633

10.4 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637


Chapter 11 Particle Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639

11.1 Particle and Reference Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639

11.2 Blender's Particle System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64011.2.1 Your First Particle System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640

11.2.2 Caching / Baking Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641

11.2.3 Particle System Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 644

11.2.4 Creating Particle Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645

11.2.5 Emission of Particles - The Emission Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646

11.2.6 Hair Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648

11.2.7 Velocities - The Velocity Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649

11.2.8 Physics - The Physics Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650

11.2.9 The Render Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 652

11.2.10 The Display Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655

11.2.11 Rotations - The Rotation Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656

11.2.12 Miraculous Multiplication - The Children Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 658

11.2.13 Too Heavy? Field Weights!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 660

11.2.14 Vertex Groups and Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661

11.2.15 Textures (Cycles) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662

11.2.16 Hair Settings (Cycles). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664

11.2.17 Geometry (Cycles) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665

11.2.18 Styling Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667

11.2.19 A Haircut for Suzanne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669

11.3 Unleashing Natural Forces - The Force Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67111.3.1 Adding Force Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672

11.3.2 Common Settings and Area of Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672

11.3.3 Types of Force Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674

11.3.4 Force Fields for Individual Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 676

11.4 Rendering Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67611.4.1 BI Render . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 676

11.4.2 Cycles Renderer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681

11.5 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683


Chapter 12 Simulations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685

12.1 Blender Simulation Modules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68512.1.1 Simulation Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686

12.1.2 Simulation Modules and the Modifier Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687

12.2 On a Collision Course - Collision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687

12.3 You Are What You Wear - Cloth Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68912.3.1 The Cloth Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690

12.3.2 The Tablecloth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693

12.4 Jello - Soft Body Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69412.4.1 The Soft Body Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695

12.5 Painting Work - Dynamic Paint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69912.5.1 Dynamic Paint Canvas - the Canvas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700

12.5.2 Dynamic Paint Brush - The Brush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704

12.6 Everything Flows - Fluid Simulation in Blender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70712.6.1 Fluid Simulations with the Quick tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708

12.6.2 Construction of Fluid and Smoke Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710

12.6.3 The Fluid Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711

12.6.4 The Fluid Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713

12.7 Smoke Signals - Smoke and Fire Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71512.7.1 Your First Smoke Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716

12.7.2 Smoke Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717

12.7.3 The Flow Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718

12.7.4 The Domain Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719

12.7.5 Burning Smoke and Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723

12.8 Solid-State Physics - Rigid Bodies and Rigid Body Constraints 727

12.8.1 Rigid Bodies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728

12.8.2 Rigid Body Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732

12.9 For Browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734

12.10 On to the Next Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734

Chapter 13 Postproduction and Compositing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735

13.1 The History of Postproduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73513.1.1 The Beginning - Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736

13.1.2 Evolution - TV and Cinema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736

13.1.3 Postproduction Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737

13.2 Compositing with Blender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73913.2.1 Render Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739

13.2.2 Node Compositing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746

13.2.3 Render Passes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757

13.3 Stereoscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76513.3.1 Stereopsis - Stereoscopic Vision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766

13.3.2 Stereoscopy in Blender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 770

13.4 Cycles Denoiser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78013.4.1 The Denoising Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 781

13.4.2 Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 781

13.5 NPR with Freestyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78213.5.1 Freestyle Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 783

13.5.2 Activating Freestyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 784

13.5.3 The View Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785

13.5.4 The Edge Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785

13.5.5 Specify the Line Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 786

13.5.6 SVG Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 792

13.6 For Browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794


Chapter 14 Tracking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797

14.1 Integration of CG in Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79714.1.1 Locked Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798

14.1.2 Manual Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798

14.1.3 Motion Control Rigs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798

14.2 Automated Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79914.2.1 The Tracking Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 799

14.3 Tracking in Blender. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80214.3.1 The Tracking Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803

14.3.2 Track Footage - The Track Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 804

14.3.3 Stabilizing Film Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 815

14.3.4 Using Tracking Data - Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 817

14.3.5 Clean Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833

14.4 Masking and Rotoscoping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83414.4.1 Creating, Selecting and Modifying Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835

14.4.2 Combining splines using layers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 837

14.4.3 Customize the Display of the Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 838

14.4.4 Masks and Compositing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 839

14.5 Integration of Cycles Renderings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840

14.6 For Browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 844


Chapter 15 The Video Sequence Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 847

15.1 The Heartbeat of your Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84715.1.1 Movie Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 848

15.1.2 Color Grading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 848

15.1.3 Image Refresh Rates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 849

15.2 Interface and Terminology of the VSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84915.2.1 Strips, Channels and the Playhead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 849

15.2.2 Too Fast to Catch Up? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 850

15.2.3 The Three Main Areas of the VSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 851

15.2.4 Importing Strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 852

15.2.5 Strip Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 852

15.3 Properties of Strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85615.3.1 Edit Strip Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 856

15.3.2 Strip Input Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 857

15.3.3 Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 858

15.3.4 Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 859

15.3.5 Proxies and Timecodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 859

15.3.6 VSE Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 860

15.4 Working with Strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86515.4.1 Selecting Individual Strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 866

15.4.2 Selecting Multiple Strips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 866

15.4.3 Moving and Cutting Strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 866

15.4.4 Aligning Strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 867

15.4.5 Compiling Strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 868

15.4.6 Compare Strips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 868

15.4.7 Keep Track of the Markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869

15.5 Razzle-Dazzle - the FX Toolbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87015.5.1 Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 871

15.5.2 Add/Subtract/Multiply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 871

15.5.3 Alpha Over/Overlay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 872

15.5.4 Cross/Gamma Cross . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 872

15.5.5 Wipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 873

15.5.6 Glow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 874

15.5.7 Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 874

15.5.8 Transform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 875

15.5.9 Speed Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 876

15.5.10 Multicam Selector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 877

15.5.11 Adjustment Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 877


Chapter 16 Expanding Blender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 881

16.1 Add-ons - Tools for any Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88116.1.1 Searching and Filtering Add-ons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 881

16.1.2 Display Add-on Details - The Info Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 883

16.1.3 Enabling and Disabling Add-ons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 883

16.1.4 Installing and Deleting Add-ons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 884

16.1.5 Add-on Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 885

16.2 Developing Your Own Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88816.2.1 The Python Interpreter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 888

16.2.2 Blender's Internal Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 889

16.2.3 Debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 890

16.2.4 Python and Blender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 890

16.2.5 Exercise "AxisMover" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 899

16.3 For Browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 902


Chapter 17 Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905

17.1 The Blender Community. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90517.1.1 Forums and FAQs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905

17.1.2 Tutorials and Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 906

17.2 Quo Vadis, Blender? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90717.2.1 Testing New Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 908

17.2.2 Blender 2.8 - The "Workflow Project" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 908

17.3 How Can You Help? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 916

17.4 Last but not Least . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 917

Chapter 7Lighting Design

Coming up: In this chapter, I would like to rouse your interest in light. I would like to en-

courage you to see the world through the eyes of a lighting designer and to see how

you use light to create the desired mood in your scene. Along the way, you'll get to know

all of the light types in Blender and know when to use which lighting setups.

7.1 Lighting or Lighting DesignEvery 3D book I know of has a chapter on lighting. This book is, of course, no exception,

because without light your 3D scene and all the objects contained in it would just be

black. Nevertheless, I have chosen a different, less worn, and in my opinion, far more strik-

ing term for this topic: lighting design.

For lighting design, you are more likely to think of different light installations on buildings,

museums, galleries, or public places (such as lighting the Metro station). Few people,

however, associate the lighting of a digital object or a digital scene with this theme.

343

Real Life Light Design

People design with light everywhere - in this example - in a Metro station in Paris.

In other words, lighting design (still) lives in the shadows in the amateur and semiprofes-

sional 3D-environment and is especially neglected in the literature for beginners. In the

professional environment, however, the situation looks completely different. Guess how

many individual lights are used in an average scene from Pixar's "Monster University" or

other Pixar movies. About 400! If you also know that these lights are placed by a consid-

erable number of lighting designers (trained in theaters, cinema productions or photog-

raphy), you will soon realize how much effort is required for light design in professionally

working 3D studios to make the scene "feel right".

The real and digital applications have so much in common that one can not separate

them. Rather, you need to understand lighting in the real world to equip and revitalize

your digital scenes with convincing lighting setups.

7.2 Light? Naturally!Light surrounds us in our daily lives, nearly always, and in many different ways. Whether

we're outside moving around, sitting in a well lit office in front of a computer screen, or

watching a movie in a cinema. We are always confronted by light in different intensities

and from different sources - as well as by indirect, diffuse or direct light.

As you have seen in the last chapter when we talked about global illumination, indirect

light is light that is reflected by different surfaces and cast onto other surfaces and

throughout space. Whether a light shines on a red wall and casts a red tint onto the

ground or it shines on a field of grass and casts a green reflection onto an adjacent wall

- all these effects are a combination of direct and indirect light and are illuminating our

surroundings day by day.

Chapter 7 Lighting Design

344

Before the next section, lay the book aside for a moment and try to carefully observe your

surroundings:

Place a glass on the table, illuminate it, and observe the light refraction.

See how objects placed on a surface get a slightly shaded edge, and observe the

intensity of the shadows around you.

When walking through a forest, observe how the leaves block the sunlight, how

distant objects disappear in the fog, or how the early morning light filters though the

treetops, creating hundreds of light beams you can almost touch.

Hold a white sheet of paper perpendicular to a lawn, and see how the grass colors

the paper green or how an indirectly placed spotlight fills parts of the environment

with light.

Go into the fruit department of a supermarket and examine the lighting there - white

and bluish, combined with warm light, makes fruits and vegetables appear more

appetizing and fresher than they might look at home.

In fact, it's unbelievable how many light phenomena present themselves everyday, which

we ignore completely. By the time you learn to see them you will already possess half of

the tools you need to create perfectly illuminated scenes..

7.3 Goals of Light DesignWhy do professional studios put so much energy, and ultimately so much money, into

producing the perfect lighting conditions? This is what we'll discover together in the next

sections.

7.3.1 Defining ShapesThe first goal of light design is always to accentuate shapes. Look at the ball in the follow-

ing figure that is, from your perspective, front lit by a bright light. For me it looks more or

less like a filled circle without curvature. Modelers, photographers and film-makers face

this precise problem: They've made / booked a great model and want to present it in the

best possible way.

In order to show both the plasticity as well as the richness of detail of the scene, a suit-

able lighting setup has to be designed. Take a look at what a simple modification of the

lighting conditions can do: The figure above shows the same objects, just the lighting was

tweaked.


345

Lighting Spheres

A front lit ball / cube (or more general: object) appears to be flat, it has no depth. Add some sideand back-lighting and it immediately acquires depth and appears in 3D (2nd, 4th).

7.3.2 Creating MoodsThe second important task of a lighting designer is the conveyance of moods. For exam-

ple: Can you imagine a killer lurking in the brightest sunlight? The color of the incoming

light in connection with the intensity and types of shadows powerfully direct your per-

ception of a scene.

A Thunderstorm approaches

Many phenomenons can set a mood of light in nature - but especially extreme weather conditionsset the most beautiful moods.

The figure above shows you at once the menace and beauty of an incoming thunderbolt

- here the light also plays a central role in conveying this mood.

7.3.3 Guiding the Viewer's EyeAnother, nonetheless important, task of the lighting designer consists in guiding the eye

of the viewer to the key elements of the scene. For example: What would a heavenly


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scene under an open sky be without a bundle of light beams illuminating the protagonist

from above? Or a scene, in which the main characters are plodding around in the dark

without a flashlight to illuminate only narrow sections of the scene?

Guiding the viewer's eyes

Reynante Martinez directs our gaze to the main element of the image by NOT lighting the centervery prominently. By using a material for the center sphere that is not as reflective as the one forthe outer spheres, he creates a really nice tension and story - a perfect fit for the title "Judgement".

But even more subtle illuminations direct the viewer's eye: thus a barely perceptible glim-

mer on the hair of the main protagonist can literally bring her head into the right light and

thus into focus. For example, have a look at the Blender-made rendering by Reynante

Martinez below - he often works with highlights and directs our gaze with light.

7.3.4 Shaping the environmentA Window Off-Screen Area

Reflection from an off-screenarea

Last but not least, as a lighting designer, you should

always keep in mind that your viewers will only see a

section of the world you create.

Therefore, you should always try to convey an impres-

sion of the scene behind the camera by strategically

placing light sources: let light through an opening (a

window, a door), be partially obscured by leaves, or

animate it as if it were reflected by a disco ball. While

looking at the scene your viewer will already be able

to guess what could be hidden in the non-visible part


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Cycles / BlenderFor more information onthe Blender Internal andCycles rendering engines,see Chapter 6, Rendering -An Image Emerges (p. 287).

of the scene (the so-called off-screen area). For example, in the figure at the side, you can

only conclude from the reflection that the sphere must have been near a window - this

makes the scene interesting.

With these little tricks, and without too much effort, your scene will be moodier, deeper,

and more exciting.

7.4 Types of Light SourcesIf you describe light, you are likely to make statements such as "reddish light", "cool light",

"neon light". All these terms are actually the result of different combinations of different

light types, which only result from their interaction; which we so succinctly refer to as

light. Light designers therefore distinguish different light types, both in reality and in the

computer-aided generation of light; I would now like to present to you the most common

ones. Along the way, you'll learn how to incorporate the individual lights in Blender into

your scene and what settings they have.

To get on speed with this topic try to follow this advice: keep your eyes open and be open

for lighting phenomenons in the real world! Look at photographs of "National Geograph-

ic", studio photographs of models / food / buildings or study a scene from your favorite

movie. There is so much to discover in nature that I highly recommend putting this book

down, taking a walk outside and looking around (it will also help you prepare for Chapter

8, Shading (p. 385), to begin training your eyes).

7.4.1 Blender Internal and CyclesAs in the last chapter, I would like to differentiate be-

tween the two internal rendering engines BI (Blender

Internal) and Cycles. The individual light settings of

each engine are just too different to be consolidated.

At the beginning of your journey through lighting de-

sign with Blender I suggest working with the Blender

Internal renderer only to get a feeling for lighting de-

sign. Cycles makes your life as a designer much easier (and makes many renderings pret-

tier without any knowledge about lighting), but it also hides a lot of interesting things

about lights (which are important for real time renderers such as Blenders Eevee render-

er which will be available in Blender 2.8).

Since many of the light settings are not needed in Cycles, the following sections will only

be based on the Blender Internal rendering engine. All of the light types shown here are,

of course, also available in Cycles and will be presented again, along with their particular


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Lamps and LayersNote that lamps only illu-minate the currently visiblelayers by default. If youplace a lamp on a layer andthen hide this layer fromyour rendering, this lampwill not illuminate any ob-jects.

settings, at the end of this chapter. Adding lights also follows the same procedure as with

Cycles.

7.4.2 Light Sources in BlenderAdding Lamps

The LLAMPAMP menu contains alllamp types.

You can find all light sources, as usual, using the al-

ready familiar Add menu. If you select the LLAMPAMP menu

item, you'll find many different types of lamps - includ-

ing a Sun type. You will learn how the different lamp

types differ from each other in the following sections.

Once added, the position of a light in the 3D View is

indicated by a filled point in a circle. Most types also

show dotted lines, highlighted areas, or other visual

aides that indicate type and orientation of the light source at a glance. In addition, each

light draws a dark gray line perpendicular to the ground, making it easier to identify its

position on the global x- and y-plane.

7.4.3 General Options of LightsObject Data Tab

You can find all lamp settingson the Object Data tab.

Before we look at the different light types, I would first

like to explain to you which options you will find in all

Blender light types and describe how they affect your

scene. Load the file 07_LampTest_Start.blend and add

a light via Add • LLAMPAMP • PPOINTOINT. Then, in the Properties

Editor, switch to the Object Data tab, which is embel-

lished with a different icon, depending on the type of

light that you selected.

At the beginning of the panel, the usual data-block

field welcomes you with the name of the light. As al-

ways you can change the name and data-block here

as usual or create a fake user. Directly beneath you'll

find a example area under Preview. It provides an ex-

ample of the lamp with the current settings.

You can see which settings are available on the lamp

panel in the following figure - here the settings of a

Point light:


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Lamp Options

The options of the Lamp panel

Point / Sun / Spot / Hemi / Area: This determines

the type of light the lamp is currently set as. From

left to right, you define it as Point light, Sunlight,

Spotlight, Hemi light, or Surface light.

Light Color: The white colored box determines

which color the light should emit. Click on this box

to open up a color picker which lets you select a

color.

Energy: With an input in this field, you define how bright the selected light shines.

Distance: This field indicates how many Blender units the light travels until the

energy of the lamp is only half as strong as it was at the beginning. Objects closer

than this value to the lamp will receive more light, and objects farther away will

receive less light. Sunlight and Hemi lights are exceptions: They use a constant falloff

function (therefore also no intensity) and thus have no distance field.

Negative: With a checkmark in this box, you can define the light as a "negative light".

Instead of adding light, you can use this option to remove light from the scene.

This Layer Only: Specifies that the light only affects objects that are on the same layer

as the light. If, for example, you want to illuminate specific parts of your object more

brightly, this option is very useful.

Specular: The lamp produces luster (specular highlights) on objects.

Diffuse: The lamp produces diffuse shadows.

In addition to these options, there are further special options for each light type, which

you will learn in the following sections. In order to influence the shadows of light sources,

you have additional options, which will be explained later in more detail.

7.4.4 Point LightPoint lights (omnidirectional lights) are lights which radiate equally in all directions and in

all directions with the same intensity. All the light beams emit from the same point in this

type of light; in this way they are similar to incandescent lamps.


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GLSLThe OpenGL Shading Lan-guage is a programminglanguage with which,among other things, cancalculate and describe sur-faces of objects using thegraphics card. It is possibleto change vertices of an

Point Light Example

Point lights radiate from one point in all directions equally.

Spot lights (and also the Spot lights discussed in the next section) offer you, in addition

to the already discussed options, a combo box with which you can control the falloff of

light intensity as the distance to the light source increases. Usually the light intensity in

Blender decreases quadratically, so if you triple the distance to the light source, the light

intensity will be nine times weaker.

Lin/Quad Weighted Setting

Using LLININ / Q/ QUADUAD WWEIGHTEDEIGHTED, youcan specify the falloff in lightintensity using the Linear andQuadratic weight sliders.

In addition, the following settings are available under

Falloff:

Constant: The light intensity doesn't diminish. No

matter how far you are move away - the light will

never get weaker.

Inverse Linear: This option decreases the

intensity of the light source linearly. The farther

you go from the light source, the weaker it

becomes (double distance = two times less

intense light).

Inverse Square: As the distance increases, this

light decreases in a squared manner (double

distance = four times less intense light).

Inverse Coefficients: This type combines the

inverse square, inverse linear and constant

modes into one formula. It is mainly of interest


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object (vertex shader), todivide surfaces (tessella-tion shaders), to create newones (geometry shader),and to define the behaviorof the surface via fragmentshaders (like reflections, di-rect / indirect / diffuse re-flections, etc.)

to game developers who want to write their own

shaders (surfaces) with GLSL (see box).

Custom Curve: If you want to define your own

falloff function, you can select this option. This

makes it possible to create lighting situations

which would be impossible to realize in real

world environments (such as, for example, wave-

shaped light strips). You can define the curve

under the Falloff Curve panel.

Lin / Quad Weighted: This option allows you to define how much light is linear or

square. For this purpose, two sliders are shown: Linear and Quadratic. The values

of these two sliders indicate the respective weights of both factors are (1.0 means

maximum, 0.0 no weight).

Sphere: If you select the Sphere option, the light will falloff immediately when the

number of Blender units specified in Distance has been reached.

Point lights are particularly useful when you use light sources such as candles, matches,

or light bulbs in your scene. For lights that attract attention to an object or are directed at

a stage, there are the so-called Spotlights.

7.4.5 SpotlightSpotlights allow the light to be directed and focused as by a lampshade by limiting the

radius of effect.

Spotlight Example

With a focused light cone Spotlights situate objects in the scene .


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Spot Shape Panel

The Spot Shape paneldetermines how the light coneis shaped.

Volumetric Spotlights

You can create a volumetriclight cone without a longrendering time using the Halooption.

In real life you would shape your light beam either via

a screen or in a professional setting using flaps at the

edge of these lights (so-called Barn Doors). In Blender,

in addition to the settings of the spotlight, the settings

are:

Size: Defines the angle for confining the light

cone. The smaller this value, the more focused

the light point, the larger, the wider the

illuminated area.

Blend: This value indicates how abrupt the

transition between the light cone and the

surrounding area is. A value of 1 gently blends the

light into the surroundings, 0 creates a sharp

edge.

Square: This setting makes the spot square. Thus,

it does not cast a conical beam, but a pyramidal

beam.

Show Cone: If you select this option, the cone of

the spot is indicated to you in SSOLIDOLID viewport

mode, and all the objects in the cone are

illuminated. This option does not affect rendering.

Halo: If you set this option, you are advising

Blender to render the light cone as a volumetric

light cone.

Intensity: Here you define how strongly the Halo effect works (i.e. how the cone

is drawn).

Step: With a step value > 0, all objects that are within the halo cone throw a

volumetric shadow. A value of 1 represents the best quality, a value of 12 is

the worst quality. Step appears only when selecting Buffer Shadow as a shadow

calculation method (this will be covered a little later in this chapter).

Both the Point light and the Spotlight emit light from a point. This means that the light

beams of these light sources encounter distant objects at different angles. The next lamp

types differ exactly in this point from the previously presented lights.


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7.4.6 SunlightDirectional lights emit light in parallel - they represent very far-away and usually very

strong light sources. In Blender, there are Sun and Hemi types for this purpose.

Sunlight Example

Directional lights like the sun shine "endlessly" without loss of intensity. Their rays run parallel toeach other (pay attention to the shadows).

The Sun type does not contain any new settings in addition to the the already known

lighting options of the lamp panel. However, in the Sky & Atmosphere panel, it offers a va-

riety of settings to simulate lighting at different times of day and night. Using the Sun &

Sky presets and a checkmark in the Sky checkbox, you can imitate the light conditions in

a desert, for example. The rotation of the sun around the x-axis controls how late it is: if it

points downwards, its midday, if it points up, it's midnight. The rotation around the z-axis

defines where the sun is - you can let the sun wander around the camera in this way.

Sky Example

With the Sky & Atmosphere panel, you will you can quickly give your scene a cloudy sunset.


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For directional lights, it is irrelevant where you place the light. It will always look as if it

is very far away, and will cast all shadows parallel. However, what counts with direction-

al light sources is how you rotate them, because the rotation determines the direction of

the shadows cast.

7.4.7 Hemi lightHemi lights are uniformly shaped semicircles of light, which have a constant light falloff

function and do not cast shadows. Hemi lights therefore make it easy for you to light the

scene evenly or to color with the selected light color. Since Hemi lights are just like the

sunlight's directional light sources, the same rules apply to them: the position in the 3D

scene is irrelevant and the rotation indicates the direction in which the light source emits

light.

7.4.8 Area Light (Surface Light)

Area Light Example

This very soft shadow throw is typical for large Area lights.

Area Shape Panel

The Area Shape paneldetermines the size of the light-emitting surface.

In contrast to their already discussed lamp col-

leagues, Area lights simulate rectangular light sur-

faces. While you can easily scale point lights without

the change in size having an effect on the brightness

in your scene, adjusting the size of the light emission

surface - using exactly the dimensions of a surface

light - does. For this purpose, there is a separate panel named Area Shape.

Square/Rectangle: This determines whether you want to create a rectangular

surface light (each side can be a different length) or a square surface light.


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Size X/Size Y: Specify how large both sides should be. For a square surface light, you

can only enter one value here.

Area Light Panel

The Area Light shows you twospecial settings: Distance andGamma.

The known lighting options are supplemented by the

additional setting Gamma in the case of a surface

light.

Since surface lights do not have a falloff option (which

controls the reduction of the light intensity), the falloff

is set via the Distance and Gamma values. A higher

gamma value significantly increases contrast and light

intensity. In addition, be careful not to set energy of

Area Lights too high - it would cause ugly color gradings and much too bright light cones

(so-called lighthouses).

7.4.9 Mesh LightIn addition to the "normal", previously described, light types, Blender offers the possibility

to illuminate your scene with one or more mesh objects. Thus, the faces of the objects

mimic the function of plane lights, they illuminate the scene by themselves. This lighting

technique requires special material and scene settings, which I will explain in Chapter 8,

Shading (p. 385).

7.4.10 Ambient LightThe ambient light is the light that permanently surrounds us in reality. It is composed of

the light of the sky, any other sources of light, and the light reflected by our environment.

In computer graphics, "ambient lighting" usually means that the scene is brightened in

an unnatural way (similar to a Hemi light). Please use this effect only very sparingly. Be-

cause ambient light is not defined by a light source, but by the world globe surrounding

the scene, you won't find the settings in the PPROPERTIESROPERTIES Editor or on a Lamp panel of the

Object Data tab, but in the World tab. You will learn about the World tab, including all of

its settings, a little later in this chapter.

In Cycles, any light emanating from the environment is automatically ambient light. So

you do not need to adjust or change anything if you want your scene to be illuminated

by the environment. To turn off the ambient light, set the color of the light to black.

7.5 What Would Light be Without Shadows?In the course of this chapter, I have already told you about the various light types and

light in general. Being attentive reader as you are, you've surely noticed that all lamps of


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Chapter 11Particle Systems

Coming up: Welcome to the world of particle systems. In this chapter, we first look at

the question of what particles are actually, how you encounter them in your daily life,

and how you imitate these highly complex and partially chaotic natural phenomena

with Blender. You will then learn how to assign particle materials to particle systems

and different ways particles can be rendered.

11.1 Particle and Reference SystemsThe word particle originates from the Latin word particulum (which means "particles") and

thus describes exactly what the whole chapter is about: all kinds of micro particles in

your scene. If you think of natural particle manifestations such as the sparking of a bon-

fire, smoke particles, ash, or snow, you're on the right track. Similarly particles can be the

water droplets of a lawn sprinkler, the shower of sparks from a firework's body, or pieces

of confetti.

What you see as particles and what not, always depends on the reference system. If we

change our location a few kilometers further away, leaves, stones and trees suddenly act

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like micro particles - and are thus particles. Blender does not limit you here, any object of

your scene can appear as particles.

11.2 Blender's Particle SystemParticles Tab

On the Particles tab you startall hair and particle systems.

Blender's particle system offers you a lot of adjust-

ment possibilities. It is therefore perfect for any kind of

particle system - regardless of whether you want to

recreate the natural phenomena just described, give

hair to a figure or create a pasture. Every particle sys-

tem starts in the same way: First, select the object that

should house the particle system, then create a new

particle system and adjust the settings until the sys-

tem meets your expectations.

Btw: Particle systems are created and configured on the Particles tab, but they belong to

the modifier stack. This means that it does matter which modifiers are placed before or

after the PPARTICLEARTICLE SSYSTEMYSTEM modifier, since they influence the particle system and the under-

lying mesh (which emits particles) accordingly.

11.2.1 Your First Particle SystemEmitting Particles

A Particle System lets smallparticles rain from an emitter.

The particle system settings can be found on the Par-

ticles tab symbolized by star shapes. If you have not

created a particle system, this tab will be mostly emp-

ty - except for a list and a button labeled New. If you

click this button, a new particle data block is created

and linked to the selected mesh (for example, the de-

fault cube). Now boldly press Alt + A and the parti-

cles are immediately emitted from the mesh, then fall

down and disappear after a certain time. Press Esc to

cancel the animation and reset the playhead or press

Alt + A again to stop the animation at the currently

played frame, just as you did in the previous chapter.

Now restart the animation and move your particle object while the animation is running.

As you can see, the particles are created where the object is located - particle systems

observe the position of the emitting mesh.

Chapter 11 Particle Systems

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Refresh CacheTo update the automaticcache (in the event of afaulty behavior), switch tothe beginning of the simu-lation using ⇧ + ← and

change the particle counton the particle system'sEmission panel briefly toanother value. All red mark-ers should then disappear,and automatic cachingshould work again.

11.2.2 Caching / Baking ParticlesParticle systems are automatically stored in Blender (put into a cache) - Blender uses this

mechanism to show you particle systems without a long wait. Caching can be carried out

automatically or manually, and differs both in duration and in the result. You already got

to know automatic caching: When you started the animation with Alt + A , Blender in-

serted red markers at the bottom of the Timeline, visualizing that Blender stored all par-

ticle positions and rotations on the marked frame.

Automatic Caching

A red line indicates frames thatthe physics system has alreadycalculated.

By linking the automatic cache system with the ani-

mation you can see every frame of the particle system

just in time. You can abort the simulation at any time

via Esc , stop the calculation with Alt + A and make

changes to a particle system live. Because the previ-

ously calculated particle frames are used in automatic

caching to calculate the movement at the current frame, you can not simply jump to

frames that do not yet have particle information using this type of cache. Allow the ani-

mation to go through completely, only then is the particle data available everywhere.

Unfortunately, automatically cached particle systems

often generate strange particle behavior (for exam-

ple, wild, or jittering particles) - especially if you abort

a simulation by Esc . Therefore, as often as possible,

take the path of manual caching (so-called baking) of

particles, even if there are two disadvantages: On the

one hand, Blender is blocked during the complete

baking operation, and on the other hand, you can't

easily make adjustments to your particle system as

the particle settings are locked afterwards. The lock

on the user interface elements will not be released

until you delete the cache. The big advantage is:

When you baked particles, you can (even randomly) jump to any frame of the simulation

and have a look at their state.

To start Baking, switch to the Particles tab in the Cache panel. There, you'll be greeted

with a cache list, several options and buttons that determine how Blender creates the

cache file:


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Cache Panel

Manual baking: Cache panel!

Cache List Widget: This empty list is oftentimes

overlooked (at least have I never seen anyone use

it), although it's super useful for testing various

particle settings. Every list entry (slot) represents

a cache entry - and every cache entry can

represent a baked simulation that incorporates all

settings that you've made in the panels below the

"Cache" panel. This way, you can easily try out

different settings, bake them into different cache

entries and switch between different baked

simulations by just selecting an entry in the list. The cache entry's position in this list

is called Cache List Index and starts with 0 - you'll need this information when whe

talk about Disk Cache. Hitting Alt + A will playback the selected cache entry.

Double clicking on an item lets you rename the cache slot, a click on adds a new

cache slot and deletes a cache slot. Remember to click on "Bake" (see below) to

actually calculate and bind the simulation data to the slot - I'll come to that right

below.

Cache Step: When you simulate particle movements, Blender calculates on every

frame (and even on subframes), how every particle is moving and where. When you

bake a simulation, you define with Cache Step, on every which nth frame the position

of each particle is stored in the cache. When you playback the cache the position

of each particle is interpolated linearly inbetween every cache step. This means that

if you enter 20 here, Blender will save the position of every particle in this particle

system every 20 frames. This will lead to a significantly lowered cache size, but will

lead to particle movement that differs vastly from the original, simulated movement.

The default value of 1 is great in this case, as it's capturing the particles' position

at every frame and therefore matches the simulation movements by 100%. But be

warned: Blender will preset this value to 10 if you add a new cache slot!

Disk Cache: Blender can store the simulated data (the so-called "Point Cache") either

in memory (checkbox disabled) or on disk (checkbox enabled). Caching data in

memory is very fast and enables editing of the baked data, but for larger simulations

the system memory usage can grow quite large. As the Point Cache system is

not only used on particles but also on smoke, cloth and soft-body simulations, it

can easily grow very big - that's why smoke simulations don't even allow storing

simulation data in memory. Assumed that you want to use this option, be sure to

save the Blender file first, otherwise Blender does not know where to save the


642

cache files. After you baked the simulation, the resulting cache files will then be

saved in the folder blendcache_BlenderFilename and will be named

Cachename_FrameNumber_CacheListIndex.bphys.

Compression: Hard disks usually have a much higher capacity than memory, but it's

not endless. If you've got very big simulations (or / and many), you should therefore

compress the cached simulation files with one of the following three options: No

means no compression (and fast reading operations), Light a roughly 10% saving

in size (while still conserving fast reading speed) and Heavy means roughly a 50%

reduction in file size (while having a very big impact on reading speed). Go for Light if

you're unsure what to choose.

Use Lib Path: This setting is only to be considered when you plan to link your particle

object into another file. If this checkbox is checked, Blender loads the simulation

data (if you enabled Disk Cache) from a sub-folder that is located next to where the

original file is located (the file where you linked the particle system from) - you use

the original cache location this way in every linked instance. If the checkbox is off,

the location of the currently loaded Blender file is serving as a base location, which

enables you to have more localized caching (this way it gets easier to distribute the

file inclding all simulation data).

External: This checkbox alters the way, in which Blender deals with simulation data.

It will tell Blender to not simulate anything but instead use the content of the files

under File Path (with increasing file numbers) as a simulation source. The (Index

Number) defines, which "Cache List Index" Blender should use to load the simulation

data (which means if the files end with _00.bphys or _01.bphys, ... ). You can either

write your own exporter to create those files or use Blender's Disk Cache

functionality.

Use the six buttons below to control the creation of the cache:

Bake/Bake All Dynamics: With Bake you start the calculation process of the

currently selected particle or simulation object. Esc aborts the calculation at any

time. Bake All Dynamics re-calculates all particle or simulation systems, not just the

one you just selected. After the calculation completed, many settings of the particle

system are blocked and therefore grayed out. They can not be reactivated until the

cache is deleted again (freed).

Free All Bakes: Use this button to delete all stored data. The previously locked panels

are then released again.

Current Cache To Bake: If you have already created an automatic cache, you can

"bake" this data, and thus make it immutable. This won't need any calculation time.


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Update All To Frame: This button is used to calculate all particle systems up to the

frame where the playhead is currently located.

Before we leave this panel, I'd like to give you a little tip: Depending on what you'd like

to further do with the simulation, it can make sense to just keep the simulation data in

memory by not using the Disk Cache option. Especially when you'd like to manually influ-

ence the path of the particles or the look of the hair / soft bodies with a sculpting brush

(see Styling Particles (p. 667)), it's mandatory to keep the simulation data in memory.

11.2.3 Particle System TypesIn the following sections, I would like to show you which particle system types are avail-

able and how to adapt particle systems to your needs. With more than 250 different set-

tings and controls, I can not, of course, explain to you every single setting in detail - here

your pioneering spirit is, once again, demanded. However, after this chapter, you should

have a thorough knowledge base for Blender's Particle System allowing you to derive

many of the settings not discussed here. I would like to start with the two basic types of

particle systems: the Emitter and the Hair Systems.

11.2.3.1 Emitter SystemsYou can imagine Emitter Systems as the Big Bang (I know - nothing easier than that). Basi-

cally, all emitter systems have a start frame and an end frame. When an animation reach-

es the start frame, particles are emitted from the emitter mesh.

Emitter Example

This image contains two emitter systems. One in the background which uses Cycles' amazinglyeasy depth of field effect and a foreground emitter which emits balls towards the camera.


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Every individual particle has a lifetime that begins when it is emitted and ends after "birth

frame" + "particle lifetime". When a particle system reaches the end frame, no new parti-

cles are generated. How quickly and where the particles are emitted from, how they be-

have during their lifetime, and many more features are defined in the various panels of

the Particles tab which - you guessed it - is our next topic.

11.2.3.2 Hair SystemsHair Systems are always used when you want to produce all kinds of hair, grasses, or bris-

tles. Whether it's parched grass, a flowery meadow, an old carpet, or long hair - Blender's

hair system is extremely flexible. In this type of particle system, you do not determine

when particles are emitted, but how long the hair particles are, in which direction they

grow, and how thick the individual strands are. Hair and emitter systems can also be used

with special tools - including scissors, a hair dryer, and a flat iron.

Hair Example

A hair system simulates, among other things, hair.

Although I will always talk about "hair" in the following chapters, you can also employ hair

systems to make grass, for example. If you want to create a meadow with your hair parti-

cle system, the following statements are also valid. Note though that for believable grass

(especially when you'd like to have a close-up of it in your scene) it's best to rely on real

geometry aka. modeled grass blades which are duplicated by several particle systems.

11.2.4 Creating Particle SystemsYou can make a decision about the type of particle system you are using directly from

the top panel of the Particles tab: After you have added a particle system to the currently

selected mesh via New, you can select one of the two types EEMITTERMITTER or HHAIRAIR using the Type


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combo box. By the way, Blender will create a particle system data block and link it to the

first slot - just as you are accustomed to from using materials. The text slot lets you name

your system - you are not limited to one particle system per object, but can add as many

systems as you like through Blender's slot system.

Particle Type Selection

Specify the type of the particlesystem in the Particles tab.

Also note the two icons at the end of the particle sys-

tem name: The Camera and Eye icons. Clicking on the

camera deactivates or activates the particle system at

the render time, a click on the eye hides or shows the

system in the 3D View Editor. Both of these icons are

also found in the Modifiers tab - In the Particles tab,

they are just displayed for quick access.

The Seed field next to the Type box is used to initialize

the random number generator for the particles. This value allows you to re-trigger the

random arrangement of particles and, with two identical particle systems, make sure that

no particles appear in the same positions by using different values in this field.

If you have defined your particle system as a HHAIRAIR system, there are three other settings:

Segments indicates the number of times Blender divides the hair, Advanced enables ad-

vanced settings on the panel described in the next section, and Regrow allows you to an-

imate the hair length.

11.2.5 Emission of Particles - The Emission PanelEmission Panel

The heart of the particles - theEmission panel

The Emission panel is located directly below the panel

currently being discussed. In the upper part of the

screen, you will be prompted to set the number, start

frame, end frame, particle life, or length of hair (de-

pending on particle type):

Number: For a hair system, this value indicates

the number of hairs. For an emitter system,

specify how many particles are emitted over the

particle system duration as described by Start

and End.

Hair Length: In hair particle systems, determine how long the hair of a hair system

should be. This field is not displayed for emitter systems.

Start: From this frame, particles are emitted.

End: Particles are emitted up to this frame.


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Lifetime: once emitted, particles exist for the number of frames specified here, then

they disappear.

Random: Here you can set whether the Lifetime of each emitted particle is

determined randomly (1.0 = all particle life times are random) or whether you use the

time set at Lifetime ( 0 ).

Particle Example

Emitted particles react togravity and fall into thebottomless space by default.

Below you will find settings that determine where the

particles are emitted:

Verts/Faces/Volume: Verts emits particles from

all vertices, Faces from all surfaces, and Volume

from inside the mesh.

Random: If you have deactivated this checkbox,

the particles are emitted one after the other from

the existing vertices, faces or from inside the

mesh. If the tick is set, they are emitted

simultaneously and randomly.

Even Distribution: This setting distributes particles

uniformly over the faces or in the volume,

avoiding points with disproportionately large

concentration of particles.

Jittered/Random/Grid: This setting determines the distribution of the particles on

the mesh. Use Jittered and the associated Particles/Face option to specify how many

particles are emitted per surface area. A value of 0 does not limit the number.

Random emits the particles randomly, and Grid arranges them in a grid. The

Resolution value determines how many particles you want to place on your grid.

Finally, check Use Modifier Stack to determine whether you want to include the other

modifiers on the stack in particle computation and generation. If you disable this check-

box, the remaining modifiers will be able to change the mesh, but will not affect the gen-

eration of the particles.

Before switching to the next section, I recommend experimenting with the previous set-

tings and re-creating (several) particle systems. If you want to save time, you can also

open the file 11_Particle_Types.blend and try out the existing systems. Use the file in the

following explanations, and try the settings on the appropriate particle system.


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