Blender Intro

A light intro to 3-D
Modeling with Blender
Scott Janousek
May 13, 2015
Intro
A light intro to 3-D Modeling with Blender // Scott Janousek // scottjanousek@gmail.com // www.scottjanousek.com // Creative Commons
Three pieces of material
Buddha LED Star 3-D printed name plate

(explanatory) (explorative) (instructional walkthrough)
Please copy the folder on the USB
flash drive to the desktop on your
computer station
Scott Janousek
Scott or S.J.
Digital Physical
Software, Hardware
Digital Fabrication
Passionate about intersection
of art, science and technology.
@scottjanousek
scottjanousek@gmail.com
www.scottjanousek.com
I work a lot with parametric modelers for
mechanical things (e.g. SolidWorks).
Mesh/organic polygonal modelers for 3-D

scanning, as well as complicated surface modeling.
Questions before we
begin?
Hands-on with Blender
(=~ 15 minutes)
40 Year Old 3-D Computer Graphics (Pixar, 1972)
http://vimeo.com/16292363 (watch later!)
Why use blender?
Mesh Modeler
Open Source
Free
Lots of features & functionality
Active user community
Quick notes
Blender has many features
Blender has many modes
Blender has many
keyboard shortcuts
Blender has many
properties, panels, and UI elements
3 button mouse
is essential
Blender can be daunting,
but it is powerful and free.
Crash Course in Blender
Ways to launch the Blender
1. /Applications/Blender/Blender.app
2. Double click app to launch Blender
3. Hit Command-Spacebar then type Blender
Birds Eye View of the GUI
Exercises
Digital -> Physical
Custom Text
Name Plate Exercise
In this interactive walkthrough, youll model
your own custom nameplate for animation
(digital), and 3-D printing purposes (physical).
Exercise Goals
Learn basic blender tools and manipulation within the UI
Learn to use Text within Blender
Learn how to animate Your Name Plate
Learn how to export and reimport to a 3-D printer your nameplate
Delete the default box on the 3-D view of Blender.
Adding your name text
Goto Add->Add Text Object to Scene.
Hit 7 on the numpad to get to Top View.
Hit Tab to enter into Edit mode, or select from the bottom menu.
While in Edit mode, type in your name.
Change the Font type, and size (if desired).
Load up the Adobe Garamond Font from the resources folder.
Now the properties are changed (e.g. size & font loaded).
Change to top view (numpad 7).
Move the text to the center of the stage.
Text object is now transformed into manipulated mesh poly for extrusion.
Adding the back plate
Be in top view (numpad 7), and add a Plane object via Add->Plane.
Select and move the plane while in Transform (e.g. translate). Constraining axis helps.
The plane is now positioned in the correct place.
Now change to edges mode and select just the right side of the plane.
Now, with the edge selected pull it to the right until its big enough.
Heres another isomorphic perspective.
Now control-tab to and select Face meshing.
Once selected, then use the Transform->Extrude region button, and pull the
z-axis handle up to make the backplate have depth.
Now select the text in the scene, and extrude that up (since its also a mesh now).
Once the mesh is up, then make sure it is manifold and complete.
Add a bevel modifier to the nameplate back.
Exporting the nameplate
to .obj (or .stl)
Exporting to .stl
Exporting to .obj
Lighting, Cameras, and
Animation
Changing the lighting
Adjusting the lamp to Constant falloff.
Adjusting the lamps energy property.
Adjusting the lamp further.
Adding movement via
the timeline
Move the text into the plane hierarchy so it moves along with it.
Adding keyframes in the timeline view for animating the nameplate.
Changing the camera
Adjust the camera settings (if needed).
Larger camera, and rotated and moved to get more of nameplate in render scene.
Rendering
OpenGL Rendering.
3-D Printing the
nameplate
Formlabs Form1+ SLA (liquid resin + laser 3-D printer)
PreForm Software with imported .obj (gray resin)
PreForm Software with imported object (clear resin)
Ceramic Buddha
to 3-D model
Project - Yari Statue
Was approached by a friend to help Yari - a

sculptural artist from New England that makes
religious influenced Cambodian art.
This was pro-bono work.
Yari Livan
The Buddha Statue
Goal
To 3-D laser scan the original ceramic buddha at

small scale, export mesh, scale it 5-7 tall, CNC it
out of a material, and then cast it in bronze or
another metal using a custom forge.
3-D laser scanning
3-D laser scanning
3-D laser scanning
3-D laser scanning
3-D laser scanning
3-D laser scanning
3-D printing the Buddha
3-D Printed Replica (resin)
Magnetic Levitation +
3-D printed Buddha
Animating the Buddha
in Blender
Import the 3-D scan mesh into Blender.
Find the Yari .obj file in the resources folder.
Import the 3-D scan mesh into Blender, and set geometry to origin (it is off).
Scale the buddha down, translate Scale, s and make it smaller to fit in scene.
Zoom to Buddha (via mouse wheel, or shift-c.)
Adjust the z-axis of the buddha by translate z-axis only, and set it to 2.0, or use mouse to adjust.
Reduce the # of keyframes a bit.
Add a keyframe to start rotation.
Add a second keyframe to rotate.
Now actually do the rotational transformation on the object in the last keyframe.
Do this in numbed 7 top view to be more precise.
Either use the mouse to spin the buddha via z-axis, or enter properties and
change z value to 360 (while frame recording).
Trim the values from the start and end frames so there is no delay, and the buddha
spins freely.
Insert keyframes on 0, 60 and 120. Value for 0 something like 2, value for frame 60 like 4, and
value for last frame back to 2 again (i.e. hovering in place).
Change the lamp to constant light source.
Point the camera at the buddha, and tweak focal length to =~ 35mm and up the size
to =~ 75 to get the object in frame. Keep as perspective mode.
Render the image.
Render the animation, and export to a movie.
Rendered.
Controlling an LED Star
with Blender
Work in progress
Blender side (Virtual)
Create an Iso Sphere.
Select all the faces (control-tab).
Add a Subsurface Mesh modifier to the iso sphere.
Add a Subsurface Mesh modifier to the iso sphere.
Drop the iso sphere down in facet size.
Add another iso sphere into the scene.
Change the lighting to semi and constant source.
Experimenting with Material and Textures.
Adding keyframe animation.
Modifying camera properties.
Test Render.
Blender UI Code
(Python T.B.D)
Physical Side
(hardware + poly LED star)
Arduino sketch code to control the sphere (power on/off).
The Star and the Arduino that will be controlling it.
Summary
What are your questions?
(=~ 15 minutes)
Thank you.
@scottjanousek
scottjanousek@gmail.com
www.scottjanousek.com

Blender Intro

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Blender Intro

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A light intro to 3-D

Modeling with Blender

Buddha LED Star 3-D printed name plate

Mesh/organic polygonal modelers for 3-D

http://vimeo.com/16292363 (watch later!)

2. Double click app to launch Blender

3. Hit Command-Spacebar then type Blender

Learn basic blender tools and manipulation within the UI

Learn to use Text within Blender

Learn how to animate Your Name Plate

Learn how to export and reimport to a 3-D printer your nameplate

Was approached by a friend to help Yari - a

This was pro-bono work.

To 3-D laser scan the original ceramic buddha at

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