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basic interface
of Blender's user interface. It will not
explain every button or even every
window in detail (that is where the
Blender manual comes in), but inste-
ad let you see the basic idea behind
it.
If you are reading this chapter, you Even while Blender's user interface
are probably feeling like I did exactly may be a bit daunting at first, I hope
one year ago. I had found this extre- that working with this book will
mely interesting looking 3D applica- teach you that it is actually a very
tion (which other users were raving intuitive one. It was written entirely
about), but the user interface com- for working efficiently and quickly
pletely baffled me. I couldn't find and this means that a lot of functions
the quit function (I had to kill the are accessible both by using the key-
application instead of exiting it), I board and by using the mouse.
saw buttons that seemed to react Working with hotkeys instead of
differently each time I clicked on menus is harder to learn, but the
them and every time something rewards are great.
interesting happened, I could not
reproduce it. After a while working with Blender
becomes a second nature. Often, my
In the weeks after that, I slowly girlfriend watches in amazement at
found out the basic principles behind the speed with which I can handle
the Blender user interface. And objects, change views, navigate my
though it is non-standard, it became way around my scene in Blender.
clear that it was a very consistent Blender has really turned my keybo-
system - it would let me use the ard and mouse into a glove which
same functions in a number of com- reaches into 3D space.
pletely different situations.
But it all starts with the Golden Rule
This chapter will save you weeks of - remember it while you are working
frustration by explaining the basics your way through this book!
3
CHAPTER 1
basic interface
The window on the bottom is called CHANGING THE SIZE OF THE WINDOW
the Buttons Window. In this window,
you can edit a variety of information
about your scene: materials, lights, Blender's screen can be reconfigured
animation settings, rendering settings in any way that you like. To start
- it is all in here. with, you can change the size of the
4
CHAPTER 1
basic interface
5
CHAPTER 1
basic interface
your mouse pointer to the right and to set the value of the 'Segments'
click on a function button to activate variable.
that function. Each button also shows
the corresponding keyboard shortcut.
In the shortcut notation, cl<button>
means holding down [CTRL] and
pressing the listed button. Similarly,
al<button> uses the [ALT] key as a
THE TOOLBOX modifier.
6
CHAPTER 1
basic interface
7
CHAPTER 1
basic interface
8
CHAPTER 1
basic interface
The 3D window is where you will Blender uses a very simple yet intui-
spend most of your time in Blender. tive method for changing the view in
In this window, you can rearrange 3D. To get started, MiddleClick,
the objects in your scene, edit their hold and drag your mouse around.
individual vertices (vertices are the Do you see what happens? Without
points that make up an object), any modifiers, MiddleClick, hold and
define animation, add lights and drag rotates your 3D view.
cameras, ...
9
CHAPTER 1
basic interface
SIDE VIEW If you want to get a specific object Once you are ready to render your
into view and not the entire scene, image or save it to disk, you need
first select the object by RightClick the Display Buttons window. In this
on it (the object will turn pink to window you can control all the
indicate it is selected). Next, press parameters that have to do with
NumPad [.].
CAMERA
VIEW
10
CHAPTER 1
basic interface
11
CHAPTER 1
basic interface
12
CHAPTER 1
basic interface
13
CHAPTER 1
basic interface
(use the 'Time' value) and how many Material buttons [F5]
versions to keep on disk.
Material Buttons are only shown
Here, you can also activate Blender's when an object has been selected.
tooltips function. Tooltips will appear This window allows control over pro-
in the right corner of the header of perties as object color, shininess,
the Info Window, right next to the transparency, textures, texture
Blender URL and version number. types, texture projection methods.
14
CHAPTER 1
basic interface
MATERIAL BUTTONS
TEXTURE BUTTONS
ANIMATION BUTTONS
WORLD BUTTONS
EDIT BUTTONS
15
CHAPTER 2
Step 1:
Start with new scene. (You can clear
everything in Blender by pressing
[CTRL][X] and selecting ‘Erase All’
from the menu that pops up).
Press [SPACE] to bring up toolbox.
First, select add, then ‘curve’, and
finally ‘nurbs circle’.
Step 2:
I will use the first circle to form the
outline of the smiley. While all verti-
ces are still selected (they are yel-
low, if not; press [A] twice), start
scale mode with [S] and move your
mouse to make the outline bigger.
LeftClick to finish scaling.
Author: Bart Veldhuizen
Topics: NURBS editing
Level: Beginner Step 3:
Now, I will add the eyes. While still
in editmode, add another NURBS cir-
cle. After adding, start grabmode
Introduction with [G] and translate the eye to the
correct position. Add a duplicate of
You have already seen quite a bit of the eye with [SHIFT][D], enter grab-
polygon editing in this book. mode [G] and translate the eye to
However, Blender also supports two the right position.
other important object types to
model with: Curves and Surfaces.
With Curve Objects you can draw Step 4:
two-dimensional spline graphics that I will now add a mouth. Add another
can be filled and extruded automati- NURBS circle (or just duplicate an
cally. With Surface Objects you can eye), and select the two vertices
model smooth three-dimensional sur- indicated in the figure by right-clik-
faces. king on the first, holding down the
[SHIFT] key and right clicking on the
I will first teach you how to create a second vertex.
smiley using 2D curves, and then how
to create a heart by using 3D surfa-
ces.
STEP 2 STEP 3 STEP 4
STEP 1
16
CHAPTER 2
STEP 9 STEP 10
STEP 8
17
CHAPTER 2
If you have a fast computer, you can Select the three vertices in the top-
do this tutorial in shaded view by left and the three in the top-right,
pressing [Z]. If not, you can edit the and scale them a bit by using the
sphere in wireframe mode. scaling mode [S] so that the top
becomes a bit wider.
Step 3:
If you switch to topview by pressing
NumPad [/], you can see that you Step 7:
have actually selected a couple of The heart is starting to look good,
vertices that were hidden from your but the bottom is still a bit blunt.
view in the frontview. Make it more pointy by box-selecting
STEP 3 [B] the middle vertices at the bott-
Using box-select in front-view selects tom and using the grabber [G] to
all vertices within the box, even move them downward.
when they are hidden behind each
other Before going on, return to
frontview by pressing NumPad [1].
STEP 4
18
STEP 5 STEP 6 STEP 7
CHAPTER 2
Step 9:
STEP 8 Select all vertices (press [A] twice),
and scale everything in the x-dimen-
sion. To do this, enter scaling mode,
move your mouse horizontally and
then press the MiddleButton. This
will lock the scaling to only one
dimension.
Step 10:
Result after scaling
STEP 9
Step 10+:
I have added some colour and light
and rendered a bunch of hearts here.
STEP 10+
STEP 10
19
CHAPTER 3
MODELLING A DOLPHIN
20
CHAPTER 3
MODELLING A DOLPHIN
With the lattice still selected, press As you can see (Fig. 9), the lattice
[S] to scale the lattice. Increase its consists of several layers of control
size so that it neatly fits around the vertices.
spheroid (Fig. 6). Remember this when you make selec-
tions in the next step of the tutorial.
It is important to use the box tool to
Before the lattice can actually affect select several vertices at once and
the spheroid, we need to attach the then move then. Turn on solid dra-
two together. More specifically, the wing with [Z] for the next step.
FIG. 6
lattice should become the parent of
the spheroid. Blender can then use
the 'parent-child' relation to pass on Now select a single vertex and press
the deformation information from [G] to start the grabber and move
FIG. 7
the lattice to the spheroid. the vertex around. Do you see the
effect that it has on the dolphin's
To do this, first select the spheroid, body? Editing the lattice vertices
hold [SHIFT] and next select the smoothly deforms the attached sphe-
lattice. Both should be pink now, but re (Fig 10). Turn off solid drawing
the lattice is brighter to indicate it is with [Z].
the active selection.
Now we'll make the lattice the To restore the lattice's geometry
parent of the spheroid. Select from before you entered editmode,
[CTRL][P], and a message comes up: press
OK? Make Parent (Fig. 7). Hit [U] now. Confirm the requester
[ENTER], or LeftClick on the 'Make 'Reload Original Data?' (Fig. 11) either
FIG. 8 Parent' option. The active object has by LeftClick clicking on the text or
now become the parent of the inacti- by pressing [ENTER].
ve but selected object.
This is in fact the only form of undo
that Blender currently offers. It may
Now it is playtime! Let's first get a seem a bit limited, but with a bit of
feeling for the way the lattice looks careful planning and saving regularly
and works. you will be fine.
FIG. 11
21
CHAPTER 3
MODELLING A DOLPHIN
Restore the front view with NumPad By now, we already have got the
[1] and turn perspective mode off basic shape of the dolphin! Let's take
with NumPad [5]. a sneak peek at how it looks in 3D.
Press NumPad [5] to turn on per-
spective view, [Z] to turn on shading
The body of the dolphin will be for- and play around with the trackball
med by changing the shape of the option (remember? MiddleButton and
lattice. I will first create a good loo- move your mouse). Is it already
FIG. 12 king profile of a dolphin in the front starting to look good (Fig. 14 and
view. When I am satisfied with this, I 15)? Hello, Willy!
will turn to top view and create a
good profile there.
Adding Fins
Each time you need to move a ver-
tex, first make sure all vertices are We are getting there, but Willy is not
deselected. Press [A] to deselect quite finished yet. First I have to add
them all if necessary. Next, use the some fins. Return to wireframe,
box select tool to select a row of orthogonal (non-perspective), front
FIG. 13 lattice vertices. To do this, press [B] view (that is [Z], NumPad [5] and
and drag a box around the vertices of NumPad [1]).
interest. Box select will not only
select the visible vertices (the ones I am making the fins by drawing an
at the front), but also the vertices outline and beveling it. Press [TAB]
that are 'behind it' in other layers. to leave the edit mode of the latti-
After having selected vertices, press ce. Place the 3d cursor above the
[G] to start the grabber, move your dolphin's back (LeftClick). Bring up
vertices and LeftClick to confirm the toolbox and select add-curve-
their new position. bezier curve (Fig. 16).
FIG. 14
FIG. 15 In the front view, keep working until When you are satisfied, close the
your lattice and sphere look like curve with [C].
Figure 12.
Now try playing around with the
bezier controls (the lines that 'touch'
Now, switch to top view (NumPad the curve) until your curve looks like
[7]) and use the same technique to the one in Figure 21.
move the vertices until they look like
Figure 13.
FIG. 16
22
FIG. 17 FIG. 18 FIG. 19 FIG. 20 FIG. 21
CHAPTER 3
MODELLING A DOLPHIN
FIG. s4
23
FIG. s3
CHAPTER 3
MODELLING A DOLPHIN
Result
FIG. 28
24
CHAPTER 4
materials + textures
Author: Geno Ruffalo
Level: Intermediate
Subjects: Materials, Textures, Image
Mapping
Introduction
Procedural 3 dimensional
textures
Wood
A Procedural Texture is a true 3D tex-
ture. This means that each 3D coordi-
nate of the object can be directly
THE MATERIALS BUTTON WINDOW translated into a color. This can be
easily demonstrated by creating a
wood texture an applying it to a rect-
angular solid, or block of wood.
When the block of wood is cut into
halves and even quarters the texture
flows around the new planks of wood
as it would in real life. Create a
CUBE primitive and scale it larger on
one axis. With the object still selec-
ted, go to the Material Buttons win-
dow by clicking on the icon, or
pressing [F5]. Click on the ‘-’ button
THE PROCEDURAL TEXTURE APPLIED TO A BLOCK
next to the ‘MA:Wood’ label in the
Material Buttons screenshot on the
left and select ‘ADD NEW’ from the
menu that pops up. Now click on the
icon or press [F6] to go to the
Texture Buttons window and create a
new texture by clicking on the ‘-’
button just like you did to create the
material. Adjust the parameters as
seen in the example. It is a good idea
CREATING THE MARBLE TEXTURE when creating new materials and
textures to name them appropriately.
25
CHAPTER 4
materials + textures
THE RESULT
26
CHAPTER 4
materials + textures
27
CHAPTER 4
materials + textures
Color
SETTINGS FOR THE STUCCI TEXTURES... The most common use of image tex-
tures is for adding real color surfaces
to objects. Two dimensional images
can be mapped to three dimensional
objects four different ways in
Blender. Planar mapping is done with
the 'Flat' button and is as if the
image were projected on the object.
Cylindrical mapping wraps the image
around an object with the 'Tube'
button. Cubic mapping is where a
copy of the image is projected
equally on all six sides of a cube with
the 'Cube' button. This works extre-
...AND THE RESULTING OCEAN VIEW mely well with seamless images. The
way we will explore image mapping
Stucci is with Spherical mapping.
Stucci is used for Bump Mapping. Rectangular images are wrapped
Bump mapping effects the way light around a sphere and the most fre-
and color is shaded in respect to the quently applied use of this is for pla-
vertex normals adding a sense of netary objects. We will recreate the
depth to the final render. The Stucci most well known planetary body of
texture Blender provides us with can all, the Earth. Start off with a high
28
CHAPTER 4
materials + textures
resolution sphere. Add a new materi- map is just a two toned version of
al with three textures of type 'Image' the original color map and is easy to
linked to it. Loading an image is very create in any image manipulation
simple. Click the 'Load Image' button program.
which will call up the File Dialog
Window. Navigate to the proper Alpha
location of the file and MiddleClick Alpha map images can mask off
on the file name. If the image is in parts of an object from being affec-
the same directory as the .blend file ted. In our example a second sphere
itself then the file name can be slightly larger that our first is added
entered preceded by '//' . to the scene and an alpha map is
used to create some unbelievable
Bump cloud formation circling our planet.
Bump mapping works the same way Notice the 'CalcAlpha' and 'UseAlpha'
the stucci procedural texture does, buttons activated in the Texture
except in image's light and dark Button Window.
areas are used to calculate the high
and low sections. All that is needed When all put together with a starry
is that the 'Col' button be turned off background
and the 'Nor' button turned on. This
will add depth to the mountains and
other land formations of our home. Summary
Specularity
Specularity maps control the reflec-
tion of the lights themselves in the
objects they are mapped to. The
bright glow from the sun can be seen
in the earth's oceans but not so much
in the land masses. This specularity
29
CHAPTER 4
materials + textures
30
CHAPTER 5
building a house
by calling up the toolbox (press
[SPACE]) and selecting 'add', 'mesh'
and then 'cube' (Fig. 2). This puts a
cube at the position of the 3D cursor.
Newly added objects are always in
editmode (do you see the yellow dots
at the corners?).
31
CHAPTER 5
building a house
The cube can now only move along
the grid lines that you see in the
background. Give the cube its final
position with LeftClick.
32
CHAPTER 5
building a house
you have just selected will scale mouse horizontally and click the
them down; moving your mouse away MiddleButton. You will see that the
from the center will increase the scaling now only works in the front
size. view, and no longer in the side view.
By moving your mouse in the X-direc-
Do you see what happens? In both 3D tion and clicking the MiddleButton,
windows (Fig. 7), the vertices are you have constrained the scaling pro-
scaled. This is not the kind of roof cess in the X-direction. Check the
that I want my little house to have. scaling numbers at the bottom of the
Instead, I only want the roof to be 3D view to see what I mean.
pointy in the front view and not in
the side view. Press [ESC] to cancel Scale the top of the roof all the way
scaling mode. down to zero.
33
FIG. 10 SOLID MODE VIEW
CHAPTER 5
building a house
Rotation is not the only thing you can The default material name is
do with the 3D window; press and 'Material'. Click in the box that
hold [SHIFT] and drag with the cotains the material name with the
MiddleButton to translate your view. LeftButton and change it into a more
Use the [CTRL] modifier to zoom in sensible name (Fig. 13). Press
or out. Pressing [HOME] will restore [ENTER] to confirm the new name,
your view here, too. or [ESC] to cancel. Change the color
definition by selecting a slider for
When you have seen enough, restore the red, green or blue component of
the view by pressing [Z] and the color and dragging it to another
NumPad[5] to switch off solid and value (Fig. 14). You will immediately
perspective view, and press see the effect that this has on your
NumPad[1] or NumPad[3] to restore color.
the correct viewing direction.
34
FIG. 16 FIG. 17
CHAPTER 5
building a house
same material as the walls. I now want to turn the extruded
plane into a `window-frame`. To
This is what your house should look hide some unwanted clutter from my
like right now (Fig. 18). Not bad, is screen, I first press NumPad [/]. This
it? Of course, the door and windows will remove everything but the curr-
are still missing, but I will be working rently selected object and rescale
on that next. the view in such a way that you can
easily edit the selected object. Next,
The windows and doors go to top view with NumPad [7].
Enter editmode and use box select
FIG. 18
To model the windows and door, I [B] to select the front vertices of the
will use a technique called extrusion. window (Fig. 23).
Extrusion is used when you want to
give a flat object depth. Start extruding with [E], but do not
move your mouse just yet. Instead,
Start by adding a plane in the front start the scaling mode and move the
view. It is probably the same size as selected vertices inward a bit.
the front of the house, so immedia- LeftClick to confirm (Fig. 24).
tely start scaling with [S] and scale
the plane to a good size for a win-
dow. Use the grabber to position the Extrude once more and move the
window correctly (Fig. 19). selected vertices up (Fig. 25).
FIG. 19
In the side view you can see that the Now return to normal view by press-
plane is placed in the middle of the sing NumPad [/]. Because I want to
house. Use the grabber to translate color the window blue, I have added
it to a position slightly in front of the a single plane at the position of the
front wall (Fig. 20). extruded window and placed it just
in front of the wall.
35
FIG. 23 FIG. 24 FIG. 25 FIG. 26 FIG. 27
CHAPTER 5
building a house
extrude the entire shape to give it how accidentally deleted it, you can
some depth. always add a new one from the tool-
box. To look through the camera in
any 3D window, press NumPad [0].
Now all you have to do is create You can edit the camera (its position
duplicates and place them all around and orientation) in another 3D win-
your house. This time, do not use dow, and the changes will be shown
[SHIFT][D] to copy your objects, but in the camera view immediately.
[ALT][D] instead. This created an Editing the camera is exactly the
'instanced' copy. The difference bet- same as editing objects - use [G] for
ween normal and instanced copies is moving it and [R] for changing the
that an instance does not copy the orientation.
object's geometry data, but only
references it. You will probably have to switch bet-
ween front- and side view a few
Changing one instanced copy will times to get the camera angle just
therefore immediately change all the right. A nice trick that can help you
instances along with it. In our case, with aiming cameras and lights is
if you would like to change some- described in the sidebox 'Follow that
thing about the fence afterward, you Object!'
would only have to change one ele-
FIG. 28
ment and everything would be auto- Blender supports different types of
matically updated. light sources. When you add a lamp
The easiest way to build the fence to the scene using the toolbox, the
around the house is to first build one standard type 'lamp' is added. This is
side of the fence, then use box a source that transmits light into
select [B] to select and duplicate it. every direction. It can cast no sha-
With the duplicate still selected, use dows.
the grabber and rotate tool [R] to
place the copies around the house. You can change lamp types with the
You can constrain rotation with buttons indicated in Figure 30.
[CTRL] too - in this case, rotations If you wish to use shadows, you have
are limited to multiples of 5 degrees. to change the lamp type into 'spot'. A
spotlight shines light into a specific
In the picture (Fig. 28), I have also direction (Fig. 32). You can manipula-
added a path leading to the door. te this direction by rotating [R] the
FIG. 32
FIG. 30
36
CHAPTER 5
building a house
spot. When you do this, always make (Fig. s4)! Move the camera around -
sure you check at least two different it will keep 'looking' at the empty.
views - a lamp that is perfectly alig- Pretty neat eh?
ned in one view may be pointing in a
completely unwanted direction in the
other! Final result
This (Fig. 33) is how I have set up my
spotlight for this scene. In the Lamp To finish the house scene, add a
Buttons window ( ), I have also plane and scale it large enough so
increased the value of 'SpotSi' (Spot that the edges do not show in the
FIG. 33
Size) to make the spotlight cover a rendering. In the front view, position
larger area, and I have set the value it so that it coincides with the base
of 'Energy' to 2.0 to make sure the of the house.
scene doesn't become too dark when
I render the image. Try experimen-
ting with the lamp settings later
when you have finished the scene.
FIG. 34
37
CHAPTER 6
MR BASIC
Select the two points on the left
using RightClick and [SHIFT] to
extend the selection then extrude
them two grid spaces using [E].
Constrain the points to the grid using
[CTRL] while dragging. We now have
created the hips.
Step3:
Deselect all points using [A] then
select the top three points and
extrude these up two grid spaces,
repeat this again another two grid
spaces. This creates the height of the
torso, it is segmented so the arms
and legs can be created.
Step4:
Author:Jason Nairn Deselect all again, and select the two
Topic: mesh modeling bottom right points, This time try
Level: beginner using box select as practice for at
the end of the tutorial. You can
access box select by pressing [B].
Introduction Extrude these two points down four
grid spaces and across one. Repeat
In this tutorial we will create a very this to create the lower leg down
basic character which will then be four across one.
used for ika animation. To do this we
will use simple extrusions.
Step5:
Keep the end points selected or
Step1: select them, and extrude them one
Delete the default plane and switch grid space down. We need to add the
to frontview with NumPad [1] place extra vertices at the knee and foot
a plane using [SPACE] then select so the mesh will bend when anima-
ADD->Mesh->Plane. Constrain by ted. If we
using [CTRL] while dragging all the extruded straight from the hips to
STEP 1
points one grid space to the right. the foot with no segments the knee
This step is important as we need to couldn't bend!
model in the correct view
so ika setup will be easy later on.
Step2: STEP 5
STEP 2 STEP 3 STEP 4
38
CHAPTER 6
MR BASIC
Step6: Adding detail:
Select the two points in the top right Using this very simple model you can
and extrude these three grid spaces subdivide [W], choose ‘SUBDIVIDE’ or
to create the arm, repeat this, anot- ‘SUBDIVIDE SMOOTH’ in edit mode
her three grid spaces. [TAB] and further refine the points
to create more complex human or
cartoon characters.
Step7:
STEP 6
Repeat from step four on the other Tip:
side of the body. When modeling more complex orga-
nic characters try to vary the curves
that are formed. In nature it is rare
Step8: for curves to be perfectly symmetri-
Go to side view by pressing NumPad cal as shown on the left. Rotating
[3], select all the points using [A] and offsetting rings of vertices as
then extrude them two grid shown on right will help make
spaces. This gives the body some models more natural.
depth.
STEP 7
Step9:
To create the feet select the bottom
left points using box select [B]. It is
important to use this tool as we want
to select the points we can not see
to extrude both sides at once, now
extrude these points two grid spaces.
Take note of where I have placed the
3d cursor, Leave edit mode [TAB],
then you can add a simple sphere for
a head using [SPACE] then add,
STEP 8
mesh, icosphere, 2. You can make
this bigger by using scale [S].
Step10:
And here we have our finished Mr
Basic! This tutorial should give you
some insight into how you can
quickly create a simple character
using polygons. Remember to save
him, as he will be needed for the
STEP 9 IKA tutorial later on.
STEP 10
39
CHAPTER 7
a pawn in a hurry
across the board and it will deform a
bit when it hits the ground.
FIG. 1 But there is more! There is a comple- When you want to create a rotation
te animation system inside Blender. object, you must indicate the loca-
Making an object move is as easy as tion of the rotation axis with the 3D
defining its beginning and ending cursor (Fig. 3). I want to place this
position. Blender does the rest for somewhere on the Z-axis. While still
you - calculation of all the frames in front view, LeftClick on the blue
between beginning and end are done Z-axis to place the 3D cursor there.
automatically.
40
FIG. 3
CHAPTER 7
a pawn in a hurry
A nice trick to align the 3D cursor or Now switch to the Edit Buttons
objects is to use the snap function screen. In the middle you see a butt-
([SHIFT][5] - Fig. 4). With this, you ton labeled 'Spin' (Fig. 8).
can do four things: Underneath it are inputs for 'Degrees'
and 'Steps'. Set degrees to 360 and
1 - Align a selection to the grid. For steps to 21. (This value determines
example, when in editmode you can the resolution of the resulting object
FIG. 4 place vertices exactly on grid corners - higher values increase the smooth-
with this ness).
FIG. 9
41
CHAPTER 7
a pawn in a hurry
If no vertices have been removed, be the pawn making a hop.
try decreasing the limit value in the The first thing you need to know is
previous step and trying again. how to navigate to other frames in
your animation. Take a look at the
As a finishing touch, smooth the figure 11. The current frame number
pawn by clicking on 'Set smooth' (Fig. is always displayed here. There are a
10). number of ways to go to another
frame number:
FIG. 12
- frame - 10
[5] and drag around with the
MiddleButton to look around your
object (Fig. 12). [SHIFT][->] - start of animation
(default=1)
[SHIFT][<-] - end of animation
Making it Move (default=250)
The basic idea behind keyframe I will now set up the first keyframe
animation is to define objects pro- of the pawn. Go to frame 11 (the
easiest way is to press once).
[->]
42
FIG. 11 FIG. 14
CHAPTER 7
a pawn in a hurry
Next, move it [G] so that the bottom mode [R], and rotate the pawn +30
is on the height z=0 (Fig. 13 - the degrees. It should be perfectly verti-
FIG. 15 brightly colored horizontal line). This cal now.
height will later be used for the
floor. Insert a new locRotSize key to define
this position.
To set a keyframe, press [I]. This will For the next key, go to frame number
bring up a requester with a lot of 21, move the 3d cursor to the right
options - these are the different key base point (Fig. 17). This is the new
types that you can set. In this tutori- center of rotation. Rotate the pawn
al, I will only use the types (or +30 degrees and insert a new
channels) 'Loc' (Location), 'Rot' LocRotSize key.
(Rotation) and 'Size'. You can select
one of the first three options to set Go back to frame 1. Translate the
only a Loc, Rot or Size key. If you pawn up and to the left a bit
FIG. 16 wish to define multiple keys at once, (Fig. 18). This will be the position in
select LocRot or LocRotSize. which in comes flying into the anima-
tion. Insert a new LocRotSize key.
For this frame, I want to set the
location (make sure Blender remem- And for the final key, go to frame
bers that I want the pawn exactly at number 31. Like in the previous step,
z=0) and the rotation (the -30 translate the pawn upward and to
degrees I just defined). the right a bit (Fig. 19). Insert a new
key.
Later, I will also define a Size key on
another frame. Because of this, I If you want to see all the keys that
have to make sure Blender keeps the you have defined for your animation,
pawn's size on my current frame select the pawn and press [K]. You
FIG. 17
intact. For this reason, insert a key can now select a different key with
for Size too. [PG UP] and [PG DN]. Selected keys
are drawn in yellow (Fig. 20). The
Take a look at the icon row at the
bottom of the 3D Window. There are
four buttons that define the behavior
of the scaling and rotation tools. By
default, the first button is selected.
This will cause the scaling and rota-
tion to use the pink dot in the midd-
le of an object as the center.
FIG. 19
43
CHAPTER 7
a pawn in a hurry
animation at once, simply select all Change the size to about 0.7 (this
the keys with [A] and move, rotate value is printed at the bottom of the
or scale them.If 3D Window while you are sizing).
you want to see all the keys that you
have defined for your animation, To make the squashed pawn look a
select the pawn and press [K]. bit more realistic, it should not only
get shorter, but also a bit wider.
(An alternative for editing key values After all, its volume should remain
is to go to a frame for which you the same.
FIG. 21 have defined a key, change the FIG. 25
object properties and then re-insert Repeat the previous step, but now
the necessary keys). move the mouse horizontally (as in
To hide of the keys, press [K] again. Fig. 24) before you constrain the
sizing process. Increase the object's
width to 1.3.
If you want the object on frame 1
and 31 to have the exact same Switch to top view and repeat the
height, press [N]. This brings up the scaling to increase the object's Y size
object properties screen in which
you can enter numeric values for ! to 1.3, too.
position, rotation and size. LocZ con- To finish this part of the tutorial,
trols the object's height (Fig. 21). insert a new LocRotSize key for
frame 16 (Fig. 25). Take a look at
FIG. 22
your animation now - did you expect
You are now set to play back the first it would be this easy to create
frames of your animation with elastic-looking objects?
[ALT][A]. Press [ESC] to stop play-
ing.
Creating the Chessboard
(In figure 22 I have composed several
frames of the animation together.) Snap cursor to grid
Of course, this scene would not be
complete without adding a chessbo-
Squasing the pawn ard. I will use the extrusion techni-
FIG. 24
FIG. 28 FIG. 29
44
CHAPTER 7
a pawn in a hurry
45
CHAPTER 7
a pawn in a hurry
tion, values of 0 and 31 should be the shutter time. A higher value corr-
entered. responds to a longer shutter time.
Press the 'Anim' button to render the
entire animation. Here is the result of the same image
as before, but now motion blurred
Play it back from within blender by (Fig. 35).
pressing 'PLAY'. This opens a new
window - press [ESC] to stop playing.
A Little Extra
FIG. 31
FIG. 32
FIG. 33
FIG. 34
46
CHAPTER 8
selection sets
Author: Bart Veldhuizen pink dot in the middle of figure 2 is
Level: Beginner the object center and not an unse-
Topics Mesh Editing, Selections lected vertex.
47
CHAPTER 9
welding vertices
Author: Geno Ruffalo An easy way to make sure that the
Level: Beginner vertices in the seam overlap is to
Topics: Remove Doubles, Mesh select them with the border select
Mirroring, Welding tool and scaling them down in the X-
direction only. Press [S], move the
Introduction mouse horizontally and press the !
MiddleButton to lock the scale action
When modelling symmetrical meshes along the X-axis. Holding down
time can be saved by modelling one [CTRL] will make it easier to set the
FIG. 1
half of the mesh then 'mirroring' or scale value (in the bottom left corner
duplicating the 2nd half. After this, of your 3D window) to zero.
the two halves are joined by welding
the vertices that run along the seam.
In Blender this can be by using a The result should be a single mesh
mesh function known as Remove with both halves joined together. To
Doubles. test this place the mouse over any
vertex of the mesh and press [L] to
Figure 1 is half of the skate board select linked vertices. In figure 5 you
wheel from the "Proportional Mesh see that all the vertices will become
Editing" chapter. In front view select selected as long as all the vertices
FIG. 2 along the seam were successfully
all the vertices of your object and
place the 3D cursor along the edge of welded together. If any vertices did
the object that you will duplicating not get joined simply increase the
and press [.] (This will cause scale limit value and repeat the remove
and rotate actions to be centered doubles process.
around the 3D cursor instead of the
object's center)
FIG. 5
48
CHAPTER 10
MICRO TUTORIALS
Height Maps, also known as Did you ever wonder how to align a
Displacement Maps, are a fast and group of vertices the same value
easy way to model landscapes and along one axis. Well in Blender this
other special meshes in most 3D can be done by, believe it or not, the
applications. Fortunately Blender also size translation. The first step is to
offers this feature. It's a breeze to place
FIG. 1
do, and can give you some quick the 3D Cursor in the location that
landscapes. Start off with a Grid you wants to align the vertices on.
Mesh and add a Material and Image Select the vertices and press the 5.
Texture to it. I chose this skull (Fig. MOve the mouse towards the 3D
1). Cursor and press the 8MiddleButton
to restrict the movement to one axis
Enter edit mode and click the 'Noise' (Fig. 5).
button a few times (Fig. 2).
The result is a group of vertices lined
You may want to click the 'Smooth' up nicely (Fig. 6).
button after every few Noise clicks,
but that is up to you. Here is the We might as well try it one more
FIG. 2 result after a few clicks (Fig. 3). timejust for practice. Place the 3D
cursor at the center of the sphere
(Fig. 7).
FIG. 3 FIG. 4
49
FIG. 7 FIG. 8