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# Organic Chemistry/Periodic table
+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| `<span style=" | \ | `<span style=" |
| color:green;">`{=htm | | color:green;">`{=htm |
| l}1`</span>`{=html}\ | | l}2`</span>`{=html}\ |
| **H** | | **He** |
+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| 3\ | 4\ | 5\ |
| **Li** | **Be** | **B** |
+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| 11\ | 12\ | 13\ |
| **Na** | **Mg** | **Al** |
+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| \ | `<span style="c | |
| | olor:green;">`{=html | |
| | }35`</span>`{=html}\ | |
| | **Br** | |
+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some of the good news about organic chemistry is that it focuses on a
subset of the periodic table, so there are fewer elements to worry
about. These are the main elements with which we must concern ourselves,
although occasionally a few others will be used in reactions.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Organic chemistry \> Periodic table
|
# Organic Chemistry/Templates
------------------------------------------------------------------------
## Review table
+----------------+
| ```{=html} |
| <center> |
| ``` |
| ```{=html} |
| <H1> |
| ``` |
| Header |
| |
| ```{=html} |
| </H1> |
| ``` |
| ```{=html} |
| </center> |
| ``` |
| body goes here |
+----------------+
## Note table
+-----------------------+
| ## Note |
| |
| note contents go here |
+-----------------------+
## Equations
+---------------------------+
| ## Title |
| |
| CH~4~ Br^-^ → No reaction |
+---------------------------+
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Glossary
|previous=Intro-GE-Source
|subcat=Reference
}}
```
## A
- **Alpha Channel** is an additional channel in a 2D image for
transparency. In an image element which stores a color for each
pixel, an additional value is stored in the alpha channel containing
a value between 0 and 1. A value of 0 means that the pixel does not
have any coverage information; i.e. there was no color contribution
from any geometry because the geometry did not overlap this pixel. A
value of 1 means that the pixel is fully opaque because the geometry
completely overlapped the pixel.
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- **Ambient Light** is light that doesn\'t seem to come from a
specific source, but is just there. Look under the desk - it\'s
pretty dark, but there\'s some light there. In the real world, this
is caused by stray photons bouncing around and occasionally
ricocheting under the desk. Ambient light is the basic, minimal
amount of light in the whole scene. Adding too much ambient light
makes a scene look washed out. Since the light doesn\'t come from
anywhere, all sides of an object are illuminated equally, and it
won\'t have any shading on it.
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- **Ambient Occlusion** (AO) is a ratio of how much ambient light a
surface point would be likely to receive. It simulates a huge dome
light surrounding the entire scene. If a surface point is under a
foot or table, it will end up much darker than the top of someone\'s
head or the tabletop.
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- **Armature** is the interconnection of bones that form the skeleton
of an animated figure. The Inverse Kinematics library contains the
code to make armatures move. The armature must still be rigged with
3D objects to give shape to its head, hands, trunk, feet, etc.
## B
- **Background image**: a 2D image (\"picture\") that is placed
\"behind\" the entire 3D scene, like a backdrop on a movie set.
Blender permits the placement of these images in all six directions
from the origin: back, front, top, bottom, left, right.
- **Bake**: to precompute computationally-intensive elements of an
animation. For example, in a physics simulation involving the
behaviour of fluids or clothing, you would set up the physical
parameters, then compute (*bake*) the positions and shapes of the
objects over the duration of the animation. Afterwards, you can
assign materials and lighting, and then render the frames to produce
the actual animation. Doing the baking as a separate step, and
saving the results from that, means you can change your mind about
the materials and lighting and rerender the frames more quickly.
- **Bézier surfaces** were first described in 1972 by the French
engineer Pierre Bézier who used them to design automobile bodies.
Bézier surfaces can be of any degree, but bicubic Bézier surfaces
generally provide enough degrees of freedom for most applications.
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- **BF** is Blender Foundation
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- **Blend** - *to Blend*, working with Blender; also Blender\'s file
extension.
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- **Bounce Light**: Simple lighting situations have a single light,
called a key light, illuminating one side of an object. This creates
strong shading and definition of the volume of the object. However,
a 3D light will often make the contrast too great - the dark side of
the object is completely black since no light is hitting it. In
reality it would still be lit a little, just not as much as the
brightly lit side, because of light bouncing around the room and
hitting the dark side of the object. In realtime 3D, bounce light is
not calculated, so you have to create it yourself. Either add a
little ambient color, or put a second, less bright directional light
pointing the opposite direction to give a little light to the
shadows.
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- **Bump mapping** is a technique where at each pixel, a perturbation
to the surface normal of the object being rendered is looked up in a
texture map and applied before the illumination calculation is done.
Bump Mapping use a gray-scale image map to change the direction of
surface normals. You can use this to simulate height, so that you
can paint wrinkles and bumps. 50 % grey means neutral (no change is
made), lighter means higher, darker means lower. Note that the
position of faces is not actually changed; by rotating just the
normals, lighting will change too, to give the illusion of a height
difference. This has downsides too: the outline of objects isn\'t
changed, so the trick is given away. For similar effects you can use
Displacement Mapping and Normal Mapping.
## C
- **Caustics** in optics is a bundle of light rays. For example a
caustic effect may be seen when light refracts or reflects through
some refractive or reflective material, to create a more focused,
stronger light on the final location. Such amplification, especially
of sunlight, can burn --- hence the name. A common situation when
caustics are visible is when some light points on glass. There is a
shadow behind the glass, but also there is a stronger light spot.
Nowadays, almost every advanced rendering system supports caustics.
Some of them even support volumetric caustics. This is accomplished
by raytracing the possible paths of the light beam through the
glass, accounting for the refraction, reflection, etc.
- **CG** is Computer Graphics
- **CGI** is Computer Generated Imagery
## D
- **Depth of Field** (DOF) is the
distance in front of and behind the subject which appears to be in
focus. For any given lens setting, there is only one distance at
which a subject is precisely in focus, but focus falls off gradually
on either side of that distance, so there is a region in which the
blurring is tolerable. This region is greater behind the point of
focus than it is in front, as the angle of the light rays change
more rapidly; they approach being parallel with increasing distance.
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- **Diffuse Light** is even, directed light coming off a surface. For
most things, the diffuse light is the main lighting we see. Diffuse
light comes from a specific direction or location, and creates
shading. Surfaces facing towards the light source will be brighter,
while surfaces facing away from the light source will be darker.
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- **Directional Light** is a light that has a specific direction, but
no location. It seems to come from an infinitely far away source,
like the sun. Surfaces facing the light are illuminated more than
surfaces facing away, but their location doesn\'t matter. A
Directional Light illuminates all objects in the scene, no matter
where they are.
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- **Displacement Mapping** uses a
greyscale heightmap, like Bump Mapping, but the image is used to
physically move the vertices of the mesh at render time. This is of
course only useful if the mesh has large amounts of vertices, but
the (relatively) new \"Simple Subdiv\" subsurf option allows you to
add more vertices at render time which will be moved by the
displacement. This makes it much slower than Bump Mapping, as there
need to be many more faces to render, but it is much more realistic.
## E
- **Environment Maps** (EnvMaps) is the method of calculating
reflections. Involved rendering images at strategic positions and
applying them as textures to the mirror. Now in most cases obsoleted
by Raytracing, which though slower is easier to use and more
accurate.
## F
- **Focal Length** of a lens is the
distance along the optical axis from the lens to the focus (or focal
point). The inverse of a lens\' focal length is called its power.
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- **Focus "wikilink")** of a lens is the point onto
which collimated light parallel to the axis is focused.
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- **Foreshortening**
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- **Fresnel** lens is a type of
lens invented by Augustin-Jean Fresnel. Originally developed for
lighthouses, the design enables the construction of lenses of large
size and short focal length without the weight and volume of
material which would be required in a lens of conventional design.
As it relates to rendering, fresnel refers to the tendency of
materials to be more reflective when light strikes at a high angle
of incidence\-- think of how sunlight reflects from distant water,
but penetrates closer water, or of how road glare is most extreme at
dawn or dusk. This varies with material, and specification of
fresnel is an important part of material definition.
## G
- **GE** is Game Engine.
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- **Global Illumination** (GI) is
a superset of radiosity and ray tracing. The goal is to compute all
possible light interactions in a given scene, and thus obtain a
truly photorealistic image. All combinations of diffuse and specular
reflections and transmissions must be accounted for. Effects such as
colour bleeding and caustics must be included in a global
illumination simulation.
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- **Gouraud shading** is a method used
in computer graphics to simulate the differing effects of light and
colour across the surface of an object. In practice, Gouraud shading
is used to achieve smooth lighting on low-polygon surfaces without
the heavy computational requirements of calculating lighting for
each pixel. The technique was first presented by Henri Gouraud in
1971.
## H
- **High Dynamic Range
Image** (HDRI) is a set of
techniques that allow a far greater dynamic range of exposures than
normal digital imaging techniques. The intention is to accurately
represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes,
ranging from direct sunlight to the deepest shadows. The use of high
dynamic range imaging in computer graphics has been popularised by
the work of Paul Debevec. Blender uses Yafray for these techniques.
## I
- **Index Of Refraction** (IOR) is
about the way that light passes through different types of
materials\... diamond, glass, water etc. When a light ray travels
through the same volume it follows a straight path. However if it
passes from one transparent volume to another, it bends. This is why
a straw in water looks bent. The amount of bending differs between
materials. The angle by which the ray is bent can be determined by
knowing two things: the angle at which the incoming ray has been
cast and the Index of Refraction. This IOR value is unique for every
material. Glass has an IOR of about 1.5 and water 1.3. By increasing
the IOR value for a Blender material, you can control how much the
environment behind the transparent object is distorted, and thus
improving the realism of the shader.
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- **Interpolation** (IPO) is an
animation curve: it indicates how the object must \"move\" between
an initial and a final position, at the rate determined by the
rendering engine. Objects can be animated in many ways. They can be
animated as Objects, changing their position, orientation or size in
time; they can be animated by deforming them; that is animating
their vertices or control points; or they can be animated via very
complex and flexible interaction with a special kind of object: the
Armature.
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- **Inverse Kinematics** (IK) is
the process of determining the movement of interconnected segments
of a body or model, starting from the desired motion of the
endpoints of the armature. Using ordinary Kinematics on a
hierarchically structured object you can for example move the
shoulder of a puppet. The upper and lower arm and hand will
automatically follow that movement. IK will allow you to move the
hand and let the lower and upper arm go along with the movement.
Without IK the hand would come off the model and would move
independently in space. The Blender Armature System includes Inverse
Kinematics. For general armatures there are many possible solutions
to the IK.
## J
- **JPEG** Acronym for Joint Photographic Expert
Group (pronounced jay-peg) is a commonly used standard method of
lossy compression for photographic images. The file format which
employs this compression is commonly also called JPEG; the most
common file extensions for this format are .jpeg, .jfif, .jpg, .JPG,
or .JPE although .jpg is the most common on all platforms.
## K
- **Keyframe** is a frame in an animated sequence of frames that was
drawn or otherwise constructed directly by the user. When all frames
were drawn by animators, the senior artist would draw these frames,
leaving the \"in between\" frames to an apprentice. Now, the
animator creates only the first and last frames of a simple
sequence; the computer fills in the gap. This is called tweening.
## L
- **Luminosity** (more properly called
luminance) is the density of luminous intensity in a given
direction. In astronomy, luminosity is the amount of energy a body
radiates per unit time. It is typically expressed in the SI units
watts, in the cgs units ergs per second, or in terms of solar
luminosities, Ls; that is, how many times more energy the object
radiates than the Sun, whose luminosity is 3.827×1026 W.
## M
- **Motion Blur** is the simulation of the
phenomenon that occurs when we perceive a rapidly moving object. The
object appears to be blurred because of our persistence of vision.
Doing motion blur makes computer animation appear more realistic. It
can be thought of as adding back some of the time dependence
expressed in the Rendering Equation.
## N
- **Nabla**. *Ton wrote:* Almost all procedural
textures in Blender use derivatives for calculating normals for
texture mapping (with as exception \"Blend\" and \"Magic). The
texture normal, the derivative, is calculated by using four samples
in the texture formula:
`s0= texture(x, y, z)`\
`s1= texture(x+nabla, y, z)`\
`s2= texture(x, y+nabla, z)`\
`s3= texture(x, y, z+nabla)`
`normal[0]= s0-s1`\
`normal[1]= s0-s2`\
`normal[2]= s0-s3 `
Up to now, the \"nabla\" offset was a constant (0.025) which worked fine
in most cases, but doesn\'t give proper control over the way a texture
is sampled, for example to make the effect smoother or sharper. This
feature especially is useful in combination with the ColorBand feature.
- **Non-Linear Animation** (NLA) allows the animator to edit motions
as a whole, not just the individual keys. Nonlinear animation is not
just about editing and manipulating groups of keyframes, but it also
allows you to combine, mix, and blend motions to create entirely new
animations.
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- **Nonuniform Rational
B-Splines** (NURBS) is a
computer graphics technique for generating and representing curves
and surfaces.
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- **Normal** (Surface Normal) to a flat surface is a three-dimensional
vector which is perpendicular to that surface. A normal to a
non-flat surface at a point p on the surface is a vector which is
perpendicular to the tangent plane to that surface at p.
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- **Normal Mapping** is similar to Bump Mapping, but instead of the
image being a greyscale heightmap, the colours define in which
direction the normal should be shifted, the 3 colour channels being
mapped to the 3 directions X, Y and Z. This allows more detail and
control over the effect.
## O
- **Orange** is the first Blender open
movie project.
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- **Oversampling** (OSA), also called **Anti-Aliasing** is the
technique of minimizing aliasing when representing a high-resolution
signal at a lower resolution. In most cases, anti-aliasing means
removing data at too high a frequency to represent. When such data
is left in a signal, it causes unpredictable artifacts.
## P
- **Phong** shading term is used indiscriminately to describe both an
illumination model and an interpolation method in 3D computer
graphics. Phong reflection is a local illumination model and can
produce a certain degree of realism in three-dimensional objects by
combining three elements - diffuse, specular and ambient for each
considered point on a surface. It has several assumptions - all
lights are points, only surface geometry is considered, only local
modelling of diffuse and specular, specular colour is the same as
light colour, ambient is a global constant.
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- **Point Light** is a light that has a specific location and radiates
equally out in all directions. Examples of point lights would be
candles or bare lightbulbs. Surfaces close to the point light are
brighter than those which are far away. Point lights have
attenuation, which controls how quickly the light intensity drops
off as you move away from it. Lights with high attenuation are very
localized, while lights with low attenuation will spread farther.
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- **Polygonization** *(of meta-surfaces)* is the process of
approximating the meta-surface via polygons so it can be
displayed/rendered in Blender.
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- **Purple** runs as a normal Verse client. It implements a node
database to mirror the contents of its host. It loads the plug-ins,
which reside in libraries, from local disk as DLLs or shared objects
depending on the platform.
## Q
- **Quaternion** is a representation of 3D
rotations with four numbers. It can be interpreted as an extension
of complex numbers to 3D. The interpretation of the four numbers is
not very intuitive for a human, but the numerical advantage of
quaternions is that it is the smallest mathematical representation
that does not suffer from the gimbal
lock
singularity problem. This
problem occurs for example with Euler
angle representations, when a small
change in the 3D orientation can give rise to a large change in
Euler angles.
## R
- **Radiosity** is a more accurate but also more process-intensive
technique than raytracing, that calculates patterns of light and
shadow for rendering graphics images from three-dimensional models.
One of the many different tools which can simulate diffuse lighting
in Blender.
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- **Raytracing** works by tracing the path taken by a ray of light
through the scene, and calculating reflection, refraction, or
absorption of the ray whenever it intersects an object in the world.
More accurate than Scanline, but much slower.
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- **Render**: to generate actual viewable images from a 3D model or
scene. This may or may not need to happen in real time; for example
an interactive game requires real-time rendering, whereas a feature
film does not. These situations require very different rendering
techniques.
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- **Refraction** in geometric optics is the change in direction of a
wave due to a change in velocity. It happens when waves travel from
a medium with a given refractive index to a medium with another. At
the boundary between the media the wave changes direction; its
wavelength increases or decreases but frequency remains constant.
For example, a light ray will refract as it enters and leaves glass.
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- **Relative Vertex Keys** (RVK) are part of a keyframe animation
system that operates on vertex level objects. Each (shape) key is
stored as a morph target such that several keys may be blended
together to achieve complex mesh animation. With RVK you can create
facial expressions, speech, and other detailed animated keyframed
movements within your mesh-based models.
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- **Rig:** the controls that aid in the manipulation of a digital
character.
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- **Rigging** is the process by which a person creates constraints and
relationships between objects that will generate controls to aid in
the manipulation of a digital character.
## S
- **Scanline** is one row of pixels in the final render. Also the term
for one of the methods of rendering which Blender can use. It is
much faster than Raytracing, but allows fewer effects, such as
reflections, refractions, motion blur and focal blur.
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- **Seed**: a starting number for generating a random-looking number
sequence. Using the same seed will always give you the same
sequence. Technically, such a sequence is not truly random, it is
only *pseudorandom*.
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- **Shader**: an algorithm for computing the appearance of a given
material based on the colour, angle and intensity of the light.
*Specular* shaders produce a more shiny, mirrorlike finish, while
*diffuse* shaders give a duller surface appearance. There are also
*toon* shaders, which are deliberately designed to produce an effect
more akin to a cartoon drawing, with delineated object borders and
less gradation of colours over a surface.
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- **Shadows**: simulated lights don\'t normally cast shadows. And,
they also pass through solid objects - so a light inside a closed
box would actually illuminate things outside the box as if the box
were transparent. The shading on objects is only calculated based on
the angle of the surface.
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- **Specular Light** refers to the highlights on reflective objects,
like diamonds, billiard balls, and eyes. Specular highlights often
appear as bright spots on a surface, at a point where the light
source hits it directly. Ambient, Diffuse, and Specular are called
the three components of a light source. Each one is given a color,
which, when added together, create the final color of a light. For
most lights, the main overall color of the light is defined by the
Diffuse color. Sunlight or lightbulbs would be white, while
moonlight would be a darker blue, and a candle would be yellow. You
can use the ambient color to adjust the overall color range of the
light source; or, you can get a slight tint to shadows by making the
diffuse component yellow and the ambient a slight blue. In many
lights, the ambient color is left at black, meaning that it won\'t
have any effect. Specular components are often left at white, but
you can make them different colors to get interesting effects. Most
of the time you can completely ignore the specular and diffuse
settings on a light, but just be aware that the way you set the
color is by specifically setting the diffuse color. The final color
that an object appears to be is a combination of the light hitting
it and the color of the surface.
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- **Spotlight** is a light with both location and direction. A
spotlight sends out a cone of light defined by the spotlight angle,
and illuminates only objects within that cone. Spotlights also have
attenuation, as well as a parameter that controls whether the spot
of light is sharply defined or has smooth edges. These 4 types of
lights are listed in order of computational complexity; the more
lights you have, the more work the computer has to do. Generally
it\'s a good idea to use directional lights whenever possible, since
they\'re the cheapest, and use pointlights and spotlights sparingly.
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- **Stucci** is one of the classes of blender textures. *Stucci* is
not an English word, but is used in Blender as the plural of
stucco.
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- **Subdivision Surface** (Subsurf) is the tool which subdivides your
model at render-time, without affecting your mesh at design-time.
There are two subsurf algorithms in Blender to choose from - *Simple
Subdiv*, which doesn\'t affect the shape of your mesh, and is used
to add detail to displacement mapping or render-time radiosity, both
of which operate on a per-vertex basis. The other is
*Catmull-Clark*, a common subdivision algorithm which smooths out
curves, and allows you to make complicated smooth surfaces (e.g.
people, plants, etc.) with very few faces. However this algorithm
can sometimes (read: often) have strange results with meshes
containing triangles or vertices with many edges (\"poles\"), unless
it is correctly handled.
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- **Sub Surface Scattering** (SSS) is a mechanism of light transport
in which light penetrates the surface of a translucent object, is
scattered by interacting with the material, and exits the surface at
a different point. All non-metallic materials are translucent to
some degree. In particular, materials such as marble, skin, and milk
are extremely difficult to simulate realistically without taking
subsurface scattering into account.
## T
- **Tuhopuu** is an experimental version of Blender that is like a
code playground, developers can put their new code in there to be
tested and played with by users before it gets put into the official
Blender. Tuhopuu is Finnish for \"Tree of destruction\".
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- **Tweening** is short for in-betweening, the process of generating
intermediate frames between two images to give the appearance that
the first image evolves smoothly into the second image. Tweening is
a key process in all types of animation, including computer
animation. Sophisticated animation software enables one to identify
specific objects in an image and define how they should move and
change during the tweening process. Another word for tweening is
interpolation.
## U
- **UV Mapping** (UV) This refers to the process of re-parameterizing
a 3d object with dimensions x, y and z into a 2d plane with
coordinates u and v. Most texturing requires this step because it
tells the program HOW to apply a 2d image map onto a 3d object. If
all your textures must be 2d and flat, the easiest way to determine
what pixel goes where is if your model is flattened and made 2d. It
also establishes a relationship between a 2d image and the mesh such
that if the mesh deforms, the image map will deform along with it.
Think of it as skinning a cat and pinning its hide onto cardboard to
facilitate painting it!
## V
- **Verse** is a network protocol that lets multiple applications act
together as one large application by sharing data over a network. If
one application makes a change to shared data, the change is
distributed instantly to all the other interested clients.
## W
- **WC** is Weekend Challenge.
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- **WIP** is Work In Progress.
## X
## Y
- **Yet Another Free Raytracer** (YafRay) is an open source ray
tracing program that uses an XML scene description language. It has
been integrated into, and is often used to render scenes made in,
Blender.
## Z
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Unit 1: Knowing Before Making
|previousFull=Blender 3D: Noob to Pro
|subcat=Background
}}
```
Blender is a powerful and complex 3D modeling and rendering package.
However, before you can make anything, you need to understand several
concepts used in 3D modelling and related fields. Examples include:
- Understanding the process of 3D modeling and rendering
- Understanding how the axis and 3D coordinates work in Blender.
- Understanding orthographic and perspective views.
- Local coordinates, parent objects, and child objects.
- Blender\'s user interface and how to navigate it.
- Viewing a scene from different camera angles
Don\'t be scared by their long names; a lot of these are actually pretty
intuitive and easy to grasp. Of course, since you\'re not doing any
actual modelling in this unit, you might be tempted to skip ahead, and
that\'s completely fine! Just know that understanding these concepts
well will help you a lot in the long run, and proceeding through
tutorials in order will build a strong foundation for you to build on.
Prior knowledge also plays a huge part in this, so if you\'re coming
from other 3D software, you should already be familiar with these
concepts.
That said, the actual fun (making stuff in Blender) comes in the next
unit. However, keep in mind that Blender is not the kind of software you
can jump into and experiment with. It\'s notorious for having a steep
learning curve. It\'s less like exploring an unfamiliar city and more
like flying a spaceship; if you hop into the pilot\'s seat without
knowing the fundamentals, it\'s going to be near impossible to get off
the ground.
### Blender-specific terminology.
Like any subject, 3D graphics has its own words and terminology used to
describe specific ideas. In this book, important words are
and defined on their
first use. If you\'ve missed or forgotten the meaning of a word, try
looking it up in the Glossary.
### Things you\'ll need.
In order to follow the tutorials, you need a computer with Blender
installed. You can download the latest Blender release
here.
Depending on your system, you may also need the appropriate Python
installation. Each version of Blender requires a specific version of
Python, but it\'s usually packaged with Blender.
The Blender team has the Blender Long Term Support program which
provides a stable Blender version with 2 years of support. During the 2
year support window, no new features, UI changes, API changes or other
enhancements will be done; only critical fixes will be applied. This
allows teams working on long-lasting blender projects to use a single
supported version over a 2 year period. Long term versions are indicated
below with the LTS suffix and a year indicating the last year of
support.
Blender version Python version
----------------- ----------------
2.79 3.5
2.83 LTS 2022 3.7
2.90 3.7
2.93 LTS 2023 3.9
3.0 3.9
3.1 3.10
3.3 LTS 2024 3.10
3.4 3.10
You can check Python version on Scripting workspace using:
``` python3
import sys
print(sys.version)
```
Since Blender is open-source software, you can download the source code
and build it yourself, but it\'s easier to download a pre-built binary.
As of Blender 3.4.1, compiled releases are provided for the following
operating systems:
- Windows 8.1, 10, and 11
- macOS 10.13 Intel · 11.0 Apple Silicon
- Linux
Along with the website, many Linux distributions have Blender available
in their package repositories, though it may be a slightly older
version. You can use your system\'s package manager to download and
install the package. It\'s also available on steam.
Windows users can also choose between an executable installer (\"setup
wizard\") and a ZIP archive.
After the installation process is finished, Blender should appear in the
Graphics section of your desktop environment application menu.
You may also want to download a 2D image editor, such as GIMP,
Paint.NET, or Photoshop or a media player, such as VLC.
It\'s a good idea to have pencil and paper handy for sketching and
taking notes. There\'s a lot to absorb. Taking notes as you go will pay
dividends later.
### Where to Go for Help
If you get stuck, you can ask for help from other Blender
users in the
appendices.
## Additional Resources
Many modules have a section like this at the bottom, listing websites
with information on the topics covered in the module.
- Blender system
requirements
ko:블렌더_3D_배우기/만들기_전에_알아야할_것
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/What Blender Can Do
|next=3D Geometry
|subcat=Background
}}
```
In this module, you\'ll learn what Blender does, both in terms of the
product (images) and the process (3D modeling).
\_\_TOC\_\_ Blender is a free software
package for authoring \"three-dimensional\" (3D) graphics (also known as
*computer graphics* or "CG"), including still images, games, and video.
While the end-product of most Blender projects is a two-dimensional (2D)
raster image on a flat surface (be it a monitor, movie screen, or sheet
of paper) except for Head Mounted Virtual Reality applications, the
images are said to be \"3D\" because they exhibit the
. In other words,
someone looking at the image can easily tell which parts are meant to be
closer and which are farther away.
## An Example
Here\'s a realistic still image that was created with Blender. !\"A
Lonely House\", by
Mayqel{width="400"}
Look closely at the building.
- Because it is obscured by the building, you can tell that the
tree-lined hillside is *behind* the building instead of vice versa.
- The way the top and bottom edges of the front wall appear to
converge toward the base of the tree allow you to judge the angle
between the front wall and your viewpoint.
- Your brain interprets dark portions of the wall as shadows, allowing
you to estimate where the light is coming from, even though the sun
is outside the frame of the image.
While an illusion of depth can be authored by hand with 2D graphics
software (or a paintbrush!), Blender provides a much easier way.
It\'s likely that the lonely house never existed outside of the
artist\'s mind. Instead of building a big set on a rural lot in Germany,
waiting for the right light, and photographing it, the author built a
scene in a virtual 3D world---one contained inside a computer. This is
called CGI (Computer Generated Imagery). They then used Blender to
the scene (convert it into a
2D image). You can view more of what Blender can do at the Blender
gallery: <http://www.blender.org/features/>
## Steps in the 3D Production Process
To produce an image like the one above involves two major steps to start
with:
- , which is the creation of your miniature 3D world, also known as a
or
. This involves defining the
geometry of the objects, making it look like they are made out of
particular , setting up
the , and defining a
viewpoint.
- , which is the actual generation of the image of the world from the
viewpoint of the camera (taking a "photograph" of the scene, if you
like), for your audience to enjoy.
3D is often used to produce not just single still images, but
as well. This requires
some additional steps:
- --- setting up a , namely a
way of (changing the
shape of) a character in various repeatable ways to convincingly
mimic joint movements, facial expressions and other such actions of
real-life people or animals.
- --- choreographing the positions of the objects and their parts in
the 3D scene over time, using the previously-created animation rigs
- Rendering now involves creating a whole
of frames representing
movement over time, rather than just a single still frame.
But that's not all. There are frequently additional processes to
embellish the results of the above, to make them look more realistic:
- --- a more organic form of modelling objects by shaping them as
though they were made out of clay. This produces more complicated,
irregular shapes which mimic real objects found in nature, as
opposed to clean, simple, geometrical ones which mostly only exist
in the world of mathematics.
- --- You're probably familiar with programs that let you paint an
image on a 2D digital canvas. Such programs are commonly used in 3D
production, to create
which are "wrapped" around the surfaces of 3D objects to give them a
more interesting appearance. 3D programs also often allow direct
painting on the surfaces of those objects, so the effect of the
design can be observed immediately, instead of having to go through
a separate paint-on-a-flat-surface-then-wrap sequence of steps.
- --- simulating the behaviour of real-world objects subject to
real-world forces, for example hard balls colliding, soft cloth
draping itself over an obstacle under gravity, water flowing and
pouring. Mathematical formulas are available for these that give
results very close to real life, all you need is the computing power
to calculate them.
- , or : producing convincing
animations, particularly ones that look like the movements of real
people (walking, running, dancing etc) can be hard. Hence the
technique of capturing the motions of live actors, by filming them
with special markers attached to strategic points on their bodies,
and doing computer processing to track the movements of these
markers and convert them to corresponding movements of an animation
rig.
- --- this is where 3D renders are merged together with real
photographic/live-action footage, to make it look like a rendered
model is in the middle of a real-world scene, or conversely a real
live actor is in the middle of a rendered scene. If done with proper
skill, in particular due care to matching the effects of lights and
shadows, the viewer becomes unable to tell what is real and what is
not!
And just to add another complication to the mix, there are two kinds of
rendering:
- rendering is rendering that has to happen under tight time
constraints, typically for interactive applications like video
gaming. For example, most gamers expect the screen to be updated 60
times per second in order to render smooth motion and respond
quickly enough to player actions. These time constraints impose
major limitations on the kinds of rendering techniques that can be
used.
- rendering is where the time constraints are not so tight, and
quality is the overriding factor. For example, when producing a
single still frame, it may not matter so much that it takes minutes
or hours to do so, because the beauty and detail of the final image
is worth it. When rendering a Hollywood-quality movie, it may still
take hours per frame, but the use of a
of hundreds or
thousands of machines, all working on different frames at the same
time, allows the entire sequence to complete in just a few weeks.
**But wait, there's more:** There are also some areas, which might be
considered to be stepping outside of traditional 3D production work,
where Blender provides functionality:
- **Video editing** --- having rendered your animation sequences and
shot your live-action footage, you will want to combine them in a
properly-timed linear sequence to tell a coherent story.
- **3D printing** --- Many people are
interested in creating physical objects using 3D printers. The shape
data may be obtained from real objects with 3D scanning, or it may
be created from scratch using 3D modelling, or you can even combine
both processes.
Blender is a capable tool for every single one of these processes.
There's quite a lot there, isn't there? But don't be too intimidated:
this Wikibook will take things step by step, and you will be able to
produce some fun stuff from early on.
## Additional Resources
-
-
-
-
-
- Blender Art
Gallery
- Blender Homepage
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/3D Geometry
|previous=What Blender Can Do
|subcat=Background
}}
```
\_\_TOC\_\_
If you haven\'t previously studied 3D graphics, technical drawing, or
analytic geometry, you are about to learn a new way of visualizing the
world, an ability that\'s fundamental to working with Blender or any 3D
modeling tool.
3D modeling is based on , the
branch of mathematics concerned with spatial relationships, specifically
, which expresses
these relationships in terms of algebraic formulas. If you have studied
geometry, some of the terminology will be familiar.
## Coordinates And Coordinate Systems
Look around the room you're in. The odds are it will have a cuboidal
shape, with four vertical walls at right angles to each other, a flat,
horizontal floor, and a flat, horizontal ceiling.
Now imagine there's a fly buzzing around the room. The fly is moving in
three-dimensional space. In mathematical terms, that means its position
within the room at any given moment, can be expressed in terms of a
unique combination of three numbers.
There are an infinite number of ways ---*coordinate systems*--- in which
we could come up with a convention for defining and measuring these
numbers, i.e. the *coordinates*. Each convention will yield different
values even if the fly is in the same position. Coordinates only make
sense with reference to a specific coordinate system! To narrow down the
possibilities (in a purely arbitrary fashion), let us label the walls of
the room with the points of the compass: in a clockwise direction,
North, East, South and West. (If you know which way really is north,
feel free to use that to label the walls of your room. Otherwise, choose
any wall you like as north.)
Consider the point at floor level in the south-west corner of the room.
We will call this (arbitrary) point the *origin* of our coordinate
system, and the three numbers at this point will be $(0, 0, 0)$. The
first of the three numbers will be the distance (in some suitable units,
let's say metres) eastwards from the west wall, the second number will
be the distance north from the south wall, and the third number will be
the height above the floor.
Each of these directions is called an *axis* (plural: *axes*), and they
are conventionally labelled X, Y and Z, in that order. With a little bit
of thought, you should be able to convince yourself that every point
within the space of your room corresponds to exactly one set of
$(x, y, z)$ values, and that every possible combination of $(x, y, z)$
values, with $0 \le x \le W$, $0 \le y \le L$ and $0 \le z \le H$ (where
$W$ is the east-west dimension of your room, $L$ is its north-south
dimension, and $H$ is the height between ceiling and floor) corresponds
to a point in the room.
The following diagram illustrates how the coordinates are built up,
using the same colour codes that Blender uses to label its axes: red for
X, green for Y and blue for Z (an easy way to remember this if you\'re
familiar with RGB is the order \-- Red X, Green Y, Blue Z). In the
second picture, the *x* value defines a plane parallel to the west wall
of the room. In the third picture, the *y* value defines a plane
parallel to the south wall, and in the fourth picture, the *z* value
defines a plane parallel to the floor. Put the planes together in the
fifth picture, and they intersect at a unique point.
{width="800"}
Another simple way to understand what the coordinates of a point say
(x,y,z) means is, if one starts from origin and moves x, y, and z units
of distance parallel to x, y, and z axes respectively, in any sequence,
one will reach that point. Thus, for example, a coordinate of (3,4,5)
means the point which is reached when one moves, starting from origin, 3
units of distance along x-axis, 4 units of distance along y-axis and 5
units of distance along z-axis.
This style of coordinate system, with the numbers corresponding to
distances along perpendicular axes, is called *Cartesian coordinates*,
named after René Descartes, the 17th-century mathematician who first
introduced the concept. Legend has it that he came up with the idea
after watching a fly buzzing around his bedroom!
There are other ways to define coordinate systems, for example by
substituting direction angles in place of one or two of the distance
measurements. These can be useful in certain situations, but usually all
coordinate systems in Blender are Cartesian. However, in Blender,
switching between these coordinate systems is simple and easy to do.
### Negative Coordinates
Can coordinate values be negative? Depending on the situation, yes. Here
we are only considering points within our room. But suppose instead of
placing our origin in the bottom southwest corner, we put it in the
middle of the room, halfway between the floor and ceiling. (After all,
it is an arbitrary point, we can place it wherever we like, as long as
we agree on its location.) If the X-coordinate is the distance *east*
from the origin, how do we define a point *west* of the origin? We
simply give it a negative X-coordinate. Similarly, points north of the
origin have a positive Y-coordinate, those south of it, have negative
Y-coordinates. Points above the origin have a positive Z-coordinate,
those below it, a negative Z-coordinate.
### Handedness Of Coordinate Systems
It is conventional for most Cartesian coordinate systems to be
*right-handed*. To understand this, hold the thumb, index finger and
middle finger of your right hand perpendicular to each other: !**Figure
1:** The three axes form a right-handed
system{width="200"}
Now orient your hand so your thumb points along the X-axis in the
positive direction (direction of increasing coordinate numbers), your
index finger along the positive Y-axis, and your middle finger along the
positive Z-axis. Another way of looking at it is, if you placed your eye
at the origin, and you could see the three arrows pointing in the
directions of positive X, positive Y and positive Z as in Figure 1, the
order X, Y, Z would go counter clockwise.
!**Figure 2:** Another view of right-handed
system
Another way to visualize this is to make a fist with your right hand,
with your curled fingers towards you. Stick out your thumb directly to
the right (X). Now aim your pointer finger straight up (Y). Finally,
make your middle finger point toward yourself (Z). This is the view from
directly above the origin.
## Axes Of Rotation
Consider a spinning sphere. Every point on it is moving, except the ones
along the axis. These form a motionless line around which the rest of
the sphere spins. This line is called the *axis of rotation*.
More precisely, the axis of rotation is a point or a line connecting
points that do not change position while that object rotates, drawn when
the observer assumes he/she does not change position relative to that
object over time.
Conventionally, the *direction* of the axis of rotation is such that if
you look in that direction, the rotation appears clockwise, as
illustrated below, where the yellow arrow shows the rotational movement,
while the purple one shows the rotation axis:
To remember this convention, hold your right hand in a thumbs-up
gesture:
{width="100"}
If the rotation follows the direction of your curled fingers, then the
direction of the axis of rotation is considered to be the same as the
direction which the thumb is pointing in.
This gesture is a different form of the right-hand rule and is sometimes
called *the right-hand grip
rule*,
*the corkscrew-rule* or *the right-hand thumb rule*. From now on we will
refer to it as \'the right-hand grip rule\'.
When describing the direction of a rotating object, do not say that it
rotates *left-to-right/clockwise*, or *right-to-left/counterclockwise*.
Each of these on their own are meaningless, because they\'re relative to
the observer. Instead of saying this, find the direction of the axis of
rotation and draw an arrow to represent it. Those who know the
right-hand grip rule will be able to figure out what the direction of
rotation of the object is, by using the rule when interpreting your
drawing.
## Additional Resources
- the *Geometry* wikibook
-
-
-
-
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Orthographic Views
|previous=Coordinate Transformations
|subcat=Background
}}
```
\_\_TOC\_\_
## Orthographic Views
An view (or projection)
of a 3D scene is a 2D picture of it in which parallel lines appear
parallel, and all edges perpendicular to the view direction appear in
proportion, at exactly the same scale.
Orthographic views are usually aligned with the scene\'s primary axes.
Edges parallel to the view axis disappear. Those parallel to the other
primary axes appear horizontal or vertical. The commonly used
orthographic views are front, side, and top views, though back and
bottom views are possible.
Uniform scale makes an orthographic view very useful when constructing
3D objects, not only in computer graphics, but also in manufacturing and
architecture.
Here\'s one way to think about the orthographic view:
Imagine photographing a small 3D object through a telescope from a very
great distance. There would be no foreshortening. All features would be
at the same scale, regardless of whether they were on the near side of
the object or its far side. Given two (or preferably three) such views,
along different axes, you could get an accurate idea of the shape of the
object, useful for \"getting the feel\" of objects in a virtual 3D world
where you\'re unable to touch or handle anything!
## Example
Here is a drawing of a staircase:
!An isometric view of a
staircase{width="300"}
and here are three orthographic views of the same staircase, each
outlined in red:
!**Figure 1:** \"First Angle\" Orthographic views of a
staircase{width="600"}
The views are from the front, top, and left. Dashed lines represent
edges that, in real life, would be hidden behind something, such as the
left wall of the staircase. (Think of each view as an X-ray image.)
The leading edges of the steps are visible in both the front and top
views. Note that they appear parallel and of equal length in 2D, just as
they are in 3D reality.
## Additional Resources
-
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Perspective Views
|previous=Orthographic Views
|subcat=Background
}}
```
As you know, the main reason for modeling 3D objects in Blender is to
render images that exhibit the illusion of depth.
Orthographic views are great for building a house, but seriously flawed
when it comes to creating realistic images of the house for use in a
sales brochure. While a builder wants blueprints that are clear and
accurate, a seller wants imagery that\'s aesthetically pleasing, with
the illusion of depth. Blender makes it easy to use tricks like
perspective, surface hiding, shading, and animation to achieve this
illusion.
How does perspective work?
The essence of is to
represent parallel edges (in a 3D scene) by edges (in the 2D image) that
*are not parallel*. When done correctly, this produces
(nearby objects are
depicted larger than distant ones) and contributes to the illusion of
depth.
Perspective is challenging to draw by hand, but Blender does it for you,
provided you give it a 3D model of the scene and tell it where to view
the scene from.
If you\'re confident you understand perspective, you can skip the rest
of this module and proceed to
.
## One-point Perspective
!**Figure 1:** 1-Point
Perspective.{width="200"}
Drawing classes teach various kinds of perspective drawing: one-point
perspective, two-point perspective, and three-point perspective. In this
context, the word \"point\" refers to what artists call the *vanishing
point*.
When you\'re looking at a 3D object head-on and it\'s centered in your
view, that is an example of one-point perspective.
Imagine looking down a straight and level set of train tracks. The
tracks appear to converge at a point on the horizon. This is the
.
The image on the right is a 2D image of a cubic lattice or framework.
Like any cube, it has six square faces and twelve straight edges. In the
3D world, four of the edges are parallel to our line-of-sight. They
connect the four corners of the nearest square to the corresponding
corners of the farthest one. Each of these edges is parallel to the
other three.
In the 2D image, those same four edges appear to converge toward a
vanishing point, contributing to the illusion of depth. Since this is
one-point perspective, there is a single point of convergence at the
center of the image.
## Two-point Perspective
!**Figure 2:** 2-Point
Perspective.{width="200"}
Now the cube is at eye level, and you\'re near one of its edges. Since
you\'re not viewing it face-on, you can\'t draw it realistically using
one-point perspective. The horizontal edges on your left appear to
converge at a point on the horizon to the left of the cube, while those
on the right converge to the right. To illustrate the cube with a good
illusion of depth, you need two vanishing points.
## Three-point Perspective
!3-Point
Perspective.{width="200"}
Now imagine you\'re above the cube near one of its corners. To draw it,
you\'d need three vanishing points, one for each set of parallel edges.
From that perspective, there are no longer any edges which appear
parallel. The four vertical edges, the four left-right edges, and the
four in-out edges each converge toward a different vanishing point.
## Additional Resources
-
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Coordinate Spaces in Blender
| previous=Perspective Views
| subcat=Background
}}
```
\_\_TOC\_\_ !**Figure 1:** Objects in a three dimensional space. In the
center of the coordinate system is the origin of the global coordinate
system.{width="400"}
We\'ll start looking at how 3D scenes are represented in Blender.
As was explained in ,
Blender represents locations in a scene by their coordinates. The
coordinates of a location consist of three numbers that define its
distance and direction from a fixed origin. More precisely:
- The first (or x-) coordinate of the location is defined as its
distance from the YZ plane (the one containing both the Y and Z
axes). Locations on the +X side of this plane are assigned positive
x-coordinates, and those on the -X side are given negative ones.
- Its second (or y-) coordinate is its distance from the XZ plane,
with locations on the -Y side of this plane having negative
y-coordinates.
- Its third (or z-) coordinate is its distance from the XY plane, with
locations on the -Z side of this plane having negative
z-coordinates.
Thus the origin (which lies at the junction of all three axes and all
three planes) has the coordinates (0, 0, 0).
## Global and local coordinates
Blender refers to the coordinate system described above as the
, though
it\'s not truly global as each scene has its own global coordinate
system. Each global coordinate system has a fixed origin and a fixed
orientation, but we can view it from different angles by moving a
virtual camera through the scene and/or rotating the camera.
Global coordinates are adequate for scenes containing a single fixed
object and scenes in which each object is merely a single point in the
scene. When dealing with objects that move around (or multiple objects
with sizes and shapes), it\'s helpful to define a **local coordinate
system** for each object, i.e. a coordinate system that can move with,
and follow the object. The origin of an object\'s local coordinate
system is often called the **center of the object** although it needn\'t
coincide with the geometrical center of the object.
3D objects in Blender are largely described using
(points in the object,
singular form: **vertex**). The global coordinates of a vertex depend
on:
- the (x, y, z) coordinates of the vertex in the object\'s **local**
coordinate system
- the location of the object\'s center
- any rotation (turning) of the local coordinates system relative to
the global coordinate system, and
- any scaling (magnification or reduction) of the local coordinate
system relative to the global coordinate system.
For example, the teacup in Figure 1 is described by a mesh model
containing 171 vertices, each having a different set of local (x, y, z)
coordinates relative to the cup\'s center. If you
the cup (move it without
rotating it), the only bits of the model that have to change are the
global coordinates of the center. The local coordinates of all its
vertices would remain the same.
### Coordinates of child objects
!**Figure 1b:** A parent serves as the source of the global coordinates
for its child object. The child is the cup; the parent\'s orientation is
shown with the colored arrows. !Animation of the
above{width="200"}
{width="400"}
Any object can act as a for
one or more other objects in the same scene, which are then referred to
as its . (An object cannot
have more than one direct parent, but parent objects may themselves be
the children of other objects.)
If an object has a parent, its position, rotation, and scaling are
measured in the parent\'s local coordinate system, almost as if it were
a vertex of the parent. i.e. the position of the child\'s center is
measured from the parent\'s center instead of the origin of the global
coordinate system. So if you move a parent object, its children move
too, even though the children\'s coordinates have not changed. The
orientation and scaling of a child\'s local coordinate system are
likewise measured relative to those of its parent. If you rotate the
parent, the child will rotate (and perhaps revolve) around the same
axis.
Parent-child relationships between objects make it simpler to perform
(and animate) rotations, scaling and moving in arbitrary directions. In
**Fig. 1b** the teacup is a child object of the coordinate cross on the
right. That cross is itself the child of an invisible parent. (It is
both a parent and child.) In the cup\'s local coordinate system, it is
not rotating, but as the cross on the right rotates around its Z axis,
it causes the cup to rotate and revolve. In real animations, it will be
much easier when the character holding the cup rotates, the cup changes
its position respectively.
## View coordinates
!**Figure 2:** View coordinates and Projection
Plane{width="400"}
Taking the viewer of the scene into consideration, there is another
coordinate space: the view coordinates. In **Fig. 2** the viewer is
symbolized by the camera. The Z axis of the view coordinates always
points directly to the viewer in orthographic projection. The X axis
points to the right, the Y axis points upwards (**Fig. 3**).
!**Figure 3:** View coordinates in viewing
direction{width="200"}
In fact you always work in view coordinates if you don\'t set it any
other way\*. This is particularly useful if you have aligned your view
prior to modeling something, e.g. if an object has a slanted roof and
you want to create a window to fit in that roof, it would be very
complicated to build the window aligned to the local coordinate system
of the object, but if you first align your view to the slanted roof, you
can easily work in that view coordinate system.
(\* In the Blender 2.6 series, the default has been changed to global
coordinates. View coordinates remain as an option.)
If you work in one of the three standard views (Front/Top/Side) the
alignment of the view coordinates fits the global coordinates.
Therefore, it is quite natural to model in one of the standard views and
many people find this the best way to model.
## Normal coordinates
!**Figure 4:** Normal coordinate spaces for faces. The normal is shown
in
blue.{width="400"}
Although Blender is a 3D program, only objects\' faces are visible. The
orientation of the faces is important for many reasons. For example, in
our daily lives it seems quite obvious that a book lies flat on a table.
This requires the surface of the table and that of the book to be
parallel to each other. If we put a book on a table in a 3D program,
there is no mechanism that forces these surfaces to be parallel. The
artist needs to ensure that.
The orientation of a face can be described with the help of the
so-called . It is
always perpendicular to the surface. If several faces are selected, the
resulting normal is averaged from the normals of every single face. In
**Fig. 4** the normal coordinates of the visible faces are drawn.
This concept can be applied to individual points on the object, even if
the points themselves have no orientation. The normal of a point is the
average of normals of the adjacent faces.
## UV Coordinates
In later parts (for example, talking about textures) you will come
across coordinates labelled "U" and "V". These are simply different
letters chosen to avoid confusion over "X", "Y" and "Z". For example, a
raster image is normally laid out on a flat, two-dimensional plane. Each
point on the image can be identified by X and Y coordinates. But Blender
can take this image and wrap it around the surface of a 3D object as a
texture. Points on/in the object have X, Y and Z coordinates. So to
avoid confusion, the points on the image are identified using U and V to
label their coordinates instead of X and Y. We then refer to "UV
mapping" as the process of determining where each (U, V) image point
ends up on the (X, Y, Z) object.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/User Interface Overview
|previous=Coordinate Spaces in Blender
|subcat=Background
}}
```
Blender\'s **user interface** (the means by which you control the
software) is not particularly easy to learn. However, it has improved
over time and is expected to continue doing so. The current version of
the Blender software is available for download from the Blender
Foundation\'s website.
The tutorials in this section will familiarize you with the basics of
the user interface. By the end of this section, you should be able to:
- resize, split, and merge any Blender window;
- change the type of any Blender window;
- access user preferences;
- access panels containing buttons and other controls;
- change the viewpoint of a viewport.
For those new to Blender, this is a fundamental section of the book.
### Advice on Customization
Blender is a complex software package with many customizable features.
You can customize the user interface to assign new functions to buttons
and hotkeys. In fact, you can change almost anything to suit yourself.
However, this complicates the giving and following of directions. It is
recommended you adhere to the default screen arrangements of Blender in
order to be able to follow the remaining parts of these tutorials.
Blender ships with 4 to 5 screen-content arrangements which are suitable
for almost any kind of job you\'ll want to use it for - from creating
motion and animation to making games.
We recommend leaving Blender\'s user interface in its \"factory
settings\" while working through the *Noob to Pro* tutorials. At the
very least, wait until you\'ve mastered the basics before you customize
the interface --- and we know you definitely will when you master it!
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Keystroke, Button, and Menu Notation
|previous=User Interface Overview
|subcat=Background
}}
```
As you read through these tutorials, you will encounter cryptic codes
such as and *Timeline → End
Frame*. They describe actions you perform using the keyboard and mouse.
The notation used in this book comes from the standard used by the
Blender community. We will try to import those standards here to
facilitate our studies.
If you\'re reading this book online, you may wish to print this page for
future reference. In addition, or as an alternative, you can bookmark it
in your browser for faster reference.
## Hotkeys
!A typical
numpad{width="100"} Most
computer keyboards have number keys in two different places. A row above
the letters, and in a (numeric
keypad) to the right of the keyboard. While many applications use these
two sets of keys interchangeably, Blender does not. It assigns different
functions to each set. If you\'re using a laptop keyboard without a
separate numeric keypad, this might cause some difficulty. You\'ll need
to use your *function key* to do some things. It is possible to indicate
to Blender the type of keyboard you are using, but we strongly recommend
you use a standard external keyboard if you use a laptop for these
tutorials as it will make your studies and usage of Blender much more
straightforward and enjoyable.
This book often assumes your keyboard has a numpad. If yours doesn\'t,
consult the tutorial on Non-standard Input
Devices for
alternative ways to access the numpad\'s functions.
### Key Notation
```{=html}
<div style="float:left; margin-left:50px; margin-right:20px">
```
+----------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| Notation | Corresponding key or action |
+==================================+==================================+
| ```{=html}
<div style="float:left; margin-left:50px; margin-right:20px">
```
When a key is used in a module, it means press that key. For exammple:
- means \"press the **M** key\"
- means \"press the **0** key thats found on the numpad.\"
Combinations that involve holding down a key while performing another
action are written with a plus sign (+). For example:
- means \"press while holding down
\"
- means \"press while holding down
both and
\"
```{=html}
</div>
```
```{=html}
<div style="float:left">
```
### Mouse Notation
Blender uses three mouse buttons and the scroll wheel, if you have one.
If your mouse only has one or two buttons, consult the tutorial on
Non-standard Input
Devices for
alternative ways to access the functions assigned to these buttons.
```{=html}
<div style="margin-left:50px">
```
+-----------------------+---------------------------------------------+
| Notation | Corresponding action |
+=======================+=============================================+
| Mouse and keyboard actions are often combined.
means to click
while holding down
.
```{=html}
</div>
```
```{=html}
<div style="float:left">
```
## Navigating Menus
Blender uses both pop-up and pull-down/pull-up menus. Many menus have
**sub menus** (menus that are reached via another menu). If a menu item
displays a triangle, that means it leads to a sub menu.
!The File
menu{width="100"}
You can move through items in a menu by either:
- Moving the mouse pointer up and down
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- Pressing and
You can enter a sub menu by either:
- Moving the mouse pointer to the right
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- Pressing while hovering
over a menu item that shows a triangle on its side.
You can leave a sub menu by doing one of the following:
- moving the mouse pointer to the left
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- pressing
To initiate a menu action, you can:
- click
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- press
You can escape from a menu by:
- moving the mouse pointer away from the menu
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- pressing
For each menu, Blender remembers your last choice and highlights it for
you the next time you enter the menu.
### Notation
Menu notation is fairly self-explanatory.
*Mesh → UV Sphere*
Means:
1. Press Shift+A
2. In the menu that pops up, move through the items until *Mesh* is
highlighted
3. Enter the *Mesh* sub menu
4. Move through the items until *UV Sphere* is highlighted
5. Press Enter or click the left mouse button to initiate the action
```{=html}
</div>
```
```{=html}
<div style="float:left">
```
## Additional Resources
-
```{=html}
</div>
```
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Non-standard equipment
|previous=Keystroke, Button, and Menu Notation
|subcat=Background
}}
```
This module is applicable only to users with non-standard input devices.
If you have both a three-button mouse and a keyboard with a numpad, you
can skip this module.
\_\_TOC\_\_
### Keyboards lacking a numpad
Most modern laptops have a
, a set of keys in the
main keypad which double as a numpad. The keys typically used for this
purpose are:
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| ` | ` | ` | ` |
| ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} |
| {{B3D | {{B3D | {{B3D | {{B3D |
| :N2P/Do|7key}} | :N2P/Do|8key}} | :N2P/Do|9key}} | :N2P/Do|0key}} |
| ``` | ``` | ``` | ``` |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| ` | ` | ` | ` |
| ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} |
| {{B3D | {{B3D | {{B3D | {{B3D |
| :N2P/Do|Ukey}} | :N2P/Do|Ikey}} | :N2P/Do|Okey}} | :N2P/Do|Pkey}} |
| ``` | ``` | ``` | ``` |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| ` | ` | ` | ` |
| ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} |
| {{B3D | {{B3D | {{B3D | {{B3D:N2P/ |
| :N2P/Do|Jkey}} | :N2P/Do|Kkey}} | :N2P/Do|Lkey}} | Do|SEMICOLON}} |
| ``` | ``` | ``` | ``` |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| ` | ` | ` | ` |
| ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} |
| {{B3D | {{B3D | {{B3D | {{B3D: |
| :N2P/Do|Mkey}} | :N2P/Do|,Key}} | :N2P/Do|.Key}} | N2P/Do|SLASH}} |
| ``` | ``` | ``` | ``` |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| | | | |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
When used as a pseudo-numpad, these keys typically act as the following
keys from a true numpad:
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| ` | ` | ` | ` |
| ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} |
| {{B3D | {{B3D | {{B3D | {{B3D |
| :N2P/Do|Num7}} | :N2P/Do|Num8}} | :N2P/Do|Num9}} | :N2P/Do|Num/}} |
| ``` | ``` | ``` | ``` |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| ` | ` | ` | ` |
| ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} |
| {{B3D | {{B3D | {{B3D | {{B3D |
| :N2P/Do|Num4}} | :N2P/Do|Num5}} | :N2P/Do|Num6}} | :N2P/Do|Num*}} |
| ``` | ``` | ``` | ``` |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| ` | ` | ` | ` |
| ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} |
| {{B3D | {{B3D | {{B3D | {{B3D |
| :N2P/Do|Num1}} | :N2P/Do|Num2}} | :N2P/Do|Num3}} | :N2P/Do|Num-}} |
| ``` | ``` | ``` | ``` |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| ` | ` | ` | ` |
| ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} |
| {{B3D | {{B3D:N2P | {{B3D | {{B3D |
| :N2P/Do|Num0}} | /Do|NumENTER}} | :N2P/Do|Num.}} | :N2P/Do|Num+}} |
| ``` | ``` | ``` | ``` |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| | | | |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
The numpad functions of these keys can often be toggled with
or
on PCs or with on Macs. Alternatively,
you can often temporarily activate the numpad behavior by holding down
.
If your keyboard has the alternate labellings but you don\'t know how
they work, consult your laptop owner\'s manual.
As a last resort, you can use the \"Emulate Numpad\" feature of Blender.
This will allow you to use the normal numeric keys as if they were
numpad numerics. Instructions for enabling this feature may be found in
.
Blender uses the numeric keypad quite a bit. If you envision using your
laptop for this kind of work, it may be worth investing in a *USB
Numeric Keypad*. On eBay, prices for simple external numpads start
around \$10 USD.
### Non three-button mouse
For single-button mouse users, make sure that *Input* for Blender 2.79
(under \"User Preferences\" on the left-most drop-down menu) → *Emulate
3 Button Mouse* is enabled.
On many computers with two-button mice,
can be emulated by simultaneously clicking
and .
On Windows machines you\'ll need to enable this in the mouse settings in
the Control Panel. On a Mac, open the *Keyboard and Mouse* preference
pane and enable *Use two fingers to scroll*. Alternatively, by selecting
*Emulate 3 Button Mouse* under *User Preferences*,
can be emulated by simultaneously
clicking and
.
Recent IBM Thinkpad laptops allow you to disable the \'UltraNav\'
features of the middle mouse button in order to use it as a \'normal\'
third button. Alternatively, some laptops allow areas (called gestures)
on the movement pad to act as or
, and these can be set up in the Control
Panel in the Mouse Pointer options, selecting gestures and editing
features there.
#### Apple single-button mouse
+--------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| Notation | Single-button | Description |
| | Substitute | |
+====================+=======================+=======================+
| - Input devices (version
2.7x)
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Operating System specific notes
|previous=Non-standard equipment
|subcat=Background
}}
```
This tutorial covers user-interface issues that are specific to
particular operating systems or window managers. Read the section that
applies to your computer; you may skip the rest.
## GNU/Linux
is used for changing the angular view on two angular axes of the 3D View
window, if moves the current
window, then there\'s a conflict with your window manager. You can
resolve the conflict or use or
instead. (Also, you may have activated
Compiz-\>Rotate Cube. Default configuration for rotating the Cube is
also ; you may have to change
this binding to an alternative configuration.) If you are running KDE
this can be resolved by: on the title
bar of the main Blender window → select *Configure Window Behavior* → go
to *Actions → Window Actions* → in the *Inner Window, Titlebar and
Frame* section → select the Modifier key to be
and set all the select boxes beneath it
to *Nothing*. An alternate method within KDE might be to
click on the title bar of the main
Blender window; then select *Advanced* → *Special Application
Settings\...* → *Workarounds* and then click *Block global shortcuts*
with *Force* selected and checked.
In Gnome, Click *System → Preferences → Window Preferences*. Look for
the last three options *Control*, *Alt* and *Super*. Select *Super*. Or
in Xfce, click *Whisker → Settings → Window Manager Tweaks*, and in the
*Accessibility* pane, change *Key used to grab and move windows* to
*Super*. Now you can press and hold or
to drag windows around, and use
and
as normal.
### KDE
Under KDE, through
are by default configured to switch
to the corresponding one of the first four desktops, while
brings up Plasma settings. You can
change these in System Settings.
Alternatively you can suppress global shortcuts while inside blender by
adjusting the kwin rules for this application, which you can access with
a click on the title bar of the window
and pressing more actions-\>add program rule.
### Gnome
You\'ll want to disable the *Find Pointer* functionality in Gnome, which
will impair your ability to use certain functions such as *Snap to grid*
and the lasso tool. If your mouse pointer is being highlighted when you
press and release , go to: *Mouse* in
Gnome\'s *Desktop Settings* and uncheck the box *Find Pointer*.
### Ubuntu
As of Ubuntu versions prior to about 09.10 ("Karmic Koala"), there was a
known incompatibility between Blender and the Compiz Fusion accelerated
(OpenGL) window manager used in Ubuntu. By default, Compiz Fusion is
enabled in Ubuntu, causing the problems to manifest themselves in
Blender as flickering windows, completely disappearing windows,
inconsistent window refreshes, and/or an inability to start Blender in
windowed mode.
The fix for this is simple. Install compiz-switch (might be in
universe). Go to *Applications → Accessories → Compiz-Switch*. This will
disable compiz temporarily. Do the same to turn compiz back on when
you\'re done using Blender.
This is no longer needed for current releases of Ubuntu.
## Mac OS X
You may need to press in order to use
the through
keys.
To expand a section in Blender, you would usually press
. On a Mac, if "Spaces" is
enabled, you may have to use
.
## Microsoft Windows
### Two Ways to Launch Blender
Blender requires a console for displaying error messages, so if you
launch Blender by means of an icon, two windows will appear: the
graphical user interface plus a console window. Closing either window
will terminate Blender. These windows are indistinguishable in the
Windows taskbar in versions of Windows before Windows
7, which leads to confusion. Also, launching
this way does not provide any way to pass command-line arguments to
Blender.
Launching Blender from a command prompt is extra work, but it overcomes
these issues:
1. *Start → Run\...*
2. enter `cmd`
3. enter `cd c:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender`
4. enter `blender`
Blender version 2.6 onwards doesn\'t have this problem, and hides the
console window by default. You can show it by clicking Window \> Toggle
system console
### Sticky Keys
Pressing five times in a row may
activate , an accessibility
option which alters how the computer recognizes commands. If a
StickyKeys dialog box appears, you should
the \"Cancel\" button.
If you don\'t need the accessibility features, you can disable sticky
keys:
1. *Start → Control Panel* (**OR** search for \"Accessibility Options\"
on the Start menu/Search)
2. double-click on *Accessibility Options (Ease of Access Center in
Windows 10)*
3. the *Keyboard* tab
4. for each of the options *StickyKeys*, *FilterKeys*, and
*ToggleKeys*:
1. clear the *Use ...* checkbox
2. the *Settings* button
3. uncheck the *Use Shortcut* checkbox in the settings
4. the *OK* button for the settings
5. the *OK* button for *Accessibility Options/Ease of Access Center.*
### Multiple Keyboard Layouts
On systems with multiple keyboard layouts, pressing
can alter the layout. (For
instance, it might change from QWERTY to AZERTY or vice versa.) Because
of this issue, *Noob to Pro* avoids
hotkeys.
If you find your keyboard layout altered, press
again to change it back.
You can also disable the hotkey:
1. *Start → Control Panel*
2. double-click on *Regional and Language Options*
3. the *Languages* tab
4. the *Details* button
5. the *Key Settings* button
6. the *Change Key Sequence* button
7. uncheck the *Switch Keyboard Layout* checkbox
8. the *OK* button
### Additional Resources
- Input method editor keyboard shortcut (CTRL+SHIFT+0) switches the
input language in Vista ---
Microsoft Support Knowledge-Base
-
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Blender Interface
|previous=Operating System specific notes
|subcat=Background
}}
```
\_\_TOC\_\_
Here\'s a preview screenshot of Blender\'s interface, after a new
installation.
!Blender initial startup
display{width="800"}
For those familiar with older versions of Blender, this will look very
different. The redesign makes it much easier to find things.
For a detailed rationale explaining the redesign, read
this.
## Why does Blender use its own windowing system instead of the operating system\'s?
Blender follows its own user interface conventions. Instead of making
use of multiple windows as defined by your particular OS/GUI, it creates
its own "windows" within a single OS/GUI window, which is best sized to
fill your screen. Many people accustomed to how applications normally
work on their platform of choice, get annoyed by Blender's insistence on
being different. However, there is a good reason for it.
The essence of the Blender UI can be summed up in one word: *workflow*.
Blender was originally created by a 3D graphics shop for their own
in-house use. Being a key revenue engine for them, they designed it for
maximum productivity, speed and smoothness of operation. That means
avoiding "bumps" that slow down the user. For example, windows never
overlap, so there's no need to keep reordering them. You don't have to
click in a window to make it active, just move the mouse. There is a
minimum of interruption from popups asking for more information before
performing some action. Instead, the action is immediately performed
with default settings, which you can adjust afterwards and get immediate
feedback on the results.
Blender may not be "intuitive" to start learning, in that you cannot
simply sit down in front of it and figure out things on your own,
especially from a position of knowing nothing at all. But once you have
picked up some basic conventions, you will find it starts to make sense
and *then* you will be free to experiment and discover things on your
own.
## \"Save changes on exit\" prompt
As of Blender version 2.79, you are prompted on exit when there are
unsaved changes. You can change this behaviour in *Edit → Preferences →
Save & Load → Save Prompt*.
Prior to that version, Blender was not asking about unsaved changes.
Instead, Blender saved changes, when it closes, to a file called
\'quit.blend\'. The next time you use Blender, you had to select *File →
Recover Last Session* to resume right where you left off.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Blender Windowing System
|previous=Blender Interface
|subcat=Background
}}
```
The Blender user interface may appear daunting at first, but don\'t
despair. This book explores the interface one step at a time.
In this module, you\'ll learn about Blender windows:
- recognizing windows and their headers,
- the different types of windows,
- how to activate and resize windows,
- how to split and join windows.
You\'ll also practice launching and leaving Blender.
## An Interface Divided
Blender\'s user interface is divided into rectangular areas called
(or sometimes,
). The overall arrangement of
windows is called a .
If you haven\'t already launched Blender, go ahead and do so. You should
soon see something that resembles the following.
Blender has had some major changes to its user interface (UI) since
version 2.4x. Some of these changes include moving buttons and changing
the space bar hot key from the "add menu" to the "search menu"
( is now the \"add menu" hot
key). This is important to know when trying to follow tutorials.
Other changes include the addition of the tool bar and window splitting
widget. The shelf widget (indicated by a plus sign) opens hidden tool
shelves. The object tool shelf can be toggled on and off by pressing
. The properties tool shelf can be
toggled on and off by pressing the .
The split window widget allows you to split and join windows. Blender
2.69 is shown below.
{width="800"}
- You may be running a different version of Blender - perhaps a newer
version. The screenshot was made using the 2.69 release.
:
: If you\'re running an older version, you should probably
upgrade. Download instructions are in the
Introduction.
- The user-interface settings on your computer may have been changed.
: Try resetting the user interface with *File → Load Factory
Settings*.
:
: To take a video in Blender, press
, and click *Make
Screencast*. This will record what\'s on your screen until you
click the red *Close* button on the info header. The screencasts
will be saved in the *tmp* folder. In Microsoft Windows, the
*tmp* folder is located at \'C:\\tmp\'.
## Window Headers
Did you find all five headers?
Every Blender window has a header. A header can appear at the top of the
window, at the bottom of the window, or it can be hidden. Let\'s take a
closer look at the headers.
If you click with on the header, a menu
pops up which lets you move the header (to the top if it's at the
bottom, or vice versa), or maximize the window to fill the entire
workspace:
To hide the header completely, move the mouse to the edge of the header
furthest from the edge of the window (i.e. the top edge of the header if
it is at the bottom of the window, or vice versa); it will change into a
vertical double-headed arrow. Now click with
and drag towards the window edge, and
the header will disappear. In its place, you will see the following
symbol appear at the corner of the window:
.
Click this with to bring the header
back.
## Window Types
Blender has many types of windows (there are 16 of them in Blender 2.69)
and a Console for the Python programming language. You\'ve just
encountered the Info, 3D View, Properties, and Outliner windows. The
rest will be introduced as needed in later modules.
Every window header in Blender has an icon at the left end to indicate
the window type. For instance:
-  = Info
- 
= User Preferences
-  =
3D View
-  =
Outliner
- 
= Properties
If you on the icon, a menu will pop up.
(If you don\'t know what means, please
review the Keystrokes, Buttons, and Menus
Notation module.)
If you\'ve changed any window\'s type, please change it back (or reload
the factory settings with *File → Load Factory Settings*) before
continuing with this tutorial.
## The Active Window
The **active window** is the one that will respond if you press a key.
Only one Blender window is active at any given time.
The active window is usually the one containing the mouse pointer.
(Blender uses a \"focus follows mouse\" user interface model. When a
hotkey fails to work as expected, it is often because the mouse pointer
has strayed into a neighboring window.) To change the active window,
simply move the mouse pointer into the window you wish to activate.
Practice changing the active window by moving your mouse between the 3D
View and the Timeline windows. The Timeline window is directly below the
3D View header. At this point, it\'s worth mentioning that the header
for the 3D View window and Timeline window is at the BOTTOM of its own
window instead of the top as the name \"header\" implies.
## Resizing Windows
Resizing windows is easy.
### Dragging on a Border
Whenever you increase the size of one window, you decrease the size of
another. That\'s because Blender has a
:
unlike many other programs, it does not permit windows to overlap.
Neither does it move windows; it just resizes them. If you find that you
cannot increase the size of a window (e.g. the Info window) any further
although there seems to be enough space to do so, it may be because you
decreased the size of another window (e.g., the Outline window) to its
minimum size (i.e, just the heading).
### Maximizing a Window
Another way to resize a window is to maximize it. When Blender
a window, it makes the
window as large as possible. The previous window configuration is saved.
- To maximize the active window, press
,
or
. On a Mac, if "Spaces" is
enabled, you may have to use
.
- When a window is maximized, use
,
or
to restore the previous
(unmaximized) window configuration.
Practice maximizing and un-maximizing the 3D View and Timeline windows.
## Shelves
You will notice that the 3D View
 window (the
largest window in the screenshots above) has several buttons down the
left side. This rectangular portion is called the *Tool Shelf*. This is
like a window within a window - you can drag the boundary between it and
the main part of the 3D View to resize.
If you drag all the way to the window boundary, the shelf will
disappear. In its place, the following symbol will appear:
.
Click it to bring the shelf back.
## Too Much To Fit
If a window or shelf contains too much information to fit within its
display area, scrollbars will appear along the bottom or right edge. You
can scroll the contents by dragging these with
; alternatively you can drag with
directly within the contents.
A window header may also contain more than fits within its displayable
area. There is no explicit visual clue for this (though some of the
widgets at the right edge might not be visible), but if that happens,
you can drag sideways within the header with
to scroll its contents.
## Splitting And Joining Windows
At the top right and bottom left of every window, you will see something
like this: .
If you move the mouse over the icon, you will see the pointer turn into
a cross. At that point, you can do one of the following by clicking and
dragging with :
- Split the window into two copies horizontally by dragging
horizontally away from the edge.
- Split the window into two copies vertically by dragging vertically
away from the edge.
- Join the window to the adjacent one horizontally (getting rid of it
and taking over its space) by dragging towards it.
- Join the window to the adjacent one vertically (getting rid of it
and taking over its space) by dragging towards it.
Of course, the last two are only possible if there *is* in fact another
window in that direction. Note: you can only join windows horizontally
that are the same height, and windows vertically that are the same
width.
## The Default Workspace
If you look at the above screenshot of the default workspace, you will
see the following window types:
- The menu bar at the top (outlined in green) is actually a window,
called Info . In
previous versions of Blender, you could resize this to reveal the
User Preferences, but in 2.5*x* they have been moved to their own
window type. Instead, all you can see here if you enlarge the window
are some debug messages, which may be removed in a future version of
Blender. As of 2.70, the debug messages are still present in this
menu.
- The largest window on the screen is the 3D View
. This is
where you work on your model.
- The Properties
window is the tall area on the right; this is where most of the
functions are located for performing operations on models, materials
etc. In previous versions of Blender this was called the Buttons
window. Over time, it evolved into a disorganized area that made it
difficult to find things. It has been cleaned up significantly in
2.5*x*. Note that it defaults to a vertical layout, rather than the
horizontal one of previous versions. The new design prefers a
vertical layout, which better suits today's widescreen monitors.
- The Outliner
 (at the
top right) gives you an overview of the objects in your document. As
your models get more complex, you will start to appreciate the
ability to quickly find things here.
- The Timeline
 (across
the bottom) becomes important when you're doing animation.
The default layout may not be optimal. For example, if you're doing a
static model or scene, not an animation, you can get rid of the
Timeline. If you're doing heavy script development, you'll probably want
the Console available to try things out. And so on.
## Workspace Presets
In the Info window/titlebar, you will see a menu with an icon like this
.
Clicking on it with will show the
following menu:
Selecting from this menu lets you quickly switch between various
predefined workspace layouts, tailored to various workflows. Try it and
see. You can return to the default layout by selecting "Default" (but
note that any changes you make to the layout are immediately associated
with the name being displayed here). The menu has a search box at the
bottom. Typing text here will restrict the menu to showing items
containing only that text. It might not appear to have much use, but in
a complicated project that needs dozens of different layouts, the search
function could become very useful indeed!
The name of the currently selected item appears to the right of the menu
icon. In the illustration above, this is \"Default\". Blender allows you
to rename the current menu item by clicking on it with the
and typing a new name, so take care not
to do so unless you actually want to rename the menu item. For example,
if you replace the name \"Default\" with \"MyDefaults\", you will
subsequently see that \"MyDefaults\" appears in the list of menu items.
Note also the "+" and "X" icons to the right of the menu; clicking "+"
creates a new entry which is a duplicate of the last-selected entry,
while clicking "X" gets rid of the currently-selected entry. You will
see these conventions appear consistently in menus elsewhere in
Blender's new, revamped interface.
## One Document At A Time
Blender can only work with one open document at a time (this does not
apply to blender 2.79, which allows multiple instances of blender to run
concurrently). To save changes to the current document, select one of
the Save options from the File menu (or press
to save under the last-saved name).
To open a new document (actually load a copy of your last-saved user
preferences), select "New" from the File menu (or press
), and select "Reload Start-Up File"
from the popup that appears, but be aware *this will not automatically
save any changes to the previous document*.
## Scenes
A *scene* is like a separate Blender-document within-a-document.
Different scenes within the same document can easily share objects,
materials etc. You can define them once and make different renderings
and animations from them. You create, delete and switch scenes using the
scene  menu in the
info header. A new document starts by default with just one scene,
called "Scene".
## Leaving Blender
To exit Blender:
1. If there\'s a tool active, press to
exit the tool.
2. Press . This brings up an *OK?*
menu.
3. Confirm *Quit Blender* by clicking
or pressing .
## Additional Resources
-
-
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
-
-
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/User Preferences Windows
|previous=Blender Windowing System
|subcat=Background
}}
```
!A screenshot of the Blender Preferences window in Blender
2.80
In this module, we\'ll take a closer look at the Blender Preferences
window.
## Accessing Blender Preferences
To open the Blender Preferences window click *Edit → Preferences\...*
In Blender 2.79, you will find it under *File → User Preferences\...*
## Configuring Your Preferences
In order to get to modeling and rendering sooner, this tutorial will
cover only a few of the many user-settable preferences.
If you ever need to restore Blender to its factory settings, click *File
→ Defaults → Load Factory Settings*
### Save & Load → Auto Save
As the name suggests, Auto Save automatically saves the current .blend
after a specified period of time. You can turn this on and off using the
checkbox labelled \"Auto Save\". You can also adjust the amount of time
between each save, by adjusting the \"Timer (Minutes)\" field.
### System → Undo Steps
By default, Blender remembers your last 32 actions and allows you to
undo them one at a time by either pressing
or by selecting a frame under *Edit
→ Undo History*. However, you can change the number of *Undo Steps*
stored to remember more or less actions, in case you want to conserve
memory or simply stay on the safe side. You can also use the *Undo
Memory Limit* slider to specify the amount of RAM (in megabytes) used
for storing the undo levels. In case you\'re not too worried about
memory, you can set the *Undo Memory Limit* field to 0 to remove the
memory limit.
### Input → Numpad Emulation
Blender uses numberpad keys (such as )
to control the 3D View and ordinary numeral keys (such as
) to change layers. If you are working on
a laptop or if you find the numberpad inconvenient, you can select
*Emulate Numpad* to reassign the 3D View controls to the ordinary
numeral keys.
### Input → Emulate 3 Button Mouse
Blender makes significant use of all three buttons on a standard
computer mouse. If you do not have a mouse with three buttons, enabling
this setting will let you perform
-related actions with
### Keymap
In Blender 2.79 and earlier, Blender used right click for selection.
However, in Blender 2.8, this was changed to left click on default,
along with some changes to keyboard shortcuts for efficiency. To stay
compatible with different users\' preferences, three keymap presets are
provided on installation: \"Blender\", the new default keymap, \"Blender
27x\", which includes very few changes compared to earlier versions, and
\"Industry Compatible\", designed to be used by those coming from other
3D software, such as Maya and ZBrush
Since much of this book was written before the 2.8 update came out, you
may find pages that still use the old \"right click to select\" option,
along with some outdated keybinds. If you\'re following a lot of
tutorials for Blender 2.79 or earlier, you can go into *Keymap* and
select *Blender 27x* under the presets list. You can always switch back
if needed.
## Additional Resources
- The Blender manual pages on
Preferences
- The tutorial on Non-standard
Equipment describes other
workarounds for numpad issues.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Properties Window
The properties window lets you change many settings and properties
relating to the current scene and selected objects. You can edit many
options, including customizing materials and textures, controlling how
your scene is rendered and at what quality, among many other things.
The properties window is divided into categories, which themselves group
individual tabs. Each tab, in turn, groups a selection of properties and
settings. For example, the *World Properties* tab, under the *Scene*
category, lets you control the color and texture of the background of
the scene (i.e. the sky), and allows you to add volumetric effects to
the scene (i.e. fog or mist). Each tab has their own, unique, icon. Some
tabs will even change depending on the type of object selected!
## Active Tool and Workspace settings
### Active Tool and Workspace settings
As the name suggests, this simply configures the active tool (for
example, the move tool) and various workspace settings (such as
switching to object mode when a workspace is opened).
## Scene
### Render Properties
This tab lists settings that control the how the resulting render of a
scene is displayed, such as performance-related settings, color
management settings, and effects like motion blur. These settings will
change depending on the render engine used, which can also be edited
from this tab
### Output Properties
This tab controls various settings that determing the output of a
render. This includes resolution, frame rate, file format, among other
### Scene Properties
This tab lets you choose which camera to use for rendering, change the
units and edit the gravity settings for the current scene.
You can also select another scene to be a "background" for this scene.
That is, all renders of this (foreground) scene will also include the
contents of the background scene, as though they had been copied into
this scene. While the background appears in the 3D viewport when editing
this scene, none of its contents are editable, or even selectable; that
has to be done in the background scene itself.
### World Properties
This lets you change the environment of the scene. In this tab, you can
edit the background color and texture (i.e. the sky color), and add
volumetric effects such as fog or mist.
## Collection
### Collection Properties
This tab lets you control various collection settings, such as whether
its contents are selectable, or whether it can be seen in render.
## Object
### Object Properties
This tab lets you control general object properties, such as
transformations (i.e. location, rotation, scale), parent-children obejct
relationships, collections, and other. Note that even if you have
multiple objects selected, these properties only control the active
object, which is usually the last object selected.
### Modifier Properties
This tab lets you add, edit, and remove modifiers. Object modifiers are
operations that affect your object in a non-destructive way (i.e. it can
always be reversed later). For example, adding the bevel modifier to a
cube applies a bevel to the geometry of the cube, but you can adjust the
bevel or remove the bevel whenever you like. Some object types, such as
lights and cameras, can\'t have modifiers.
### Visual Effects Properties
This tab lets you add visual effects to grease pencil objects, such as
pixelation and blur effects. These effects treat the object like an
image. Unlike modifiers, these can not be applied to the object.
### Particle Properties
This tab lets you add particle systems to objects, which can let you
create effects such as smoke, flames or sparks. Particles in Blender can
also be used to generate hair or fur. Particles can be set to custom
objects, to produce effects like blades of grass, water droplets on a
wet surface, or even entire buildings to make up a large cityscape!
### Physics Properties
This allows you to simulate real-world physics, such as simulating solid
dice colliding with each other, or simulating how water in a cup reacts
when you move it.
### Object Constraint Properties
Constraints limit various object properties, such as the location,
rotation, and scale of the object. These are usually to set animate
objects, such as making the wheels of the bus rotate together.
## Object Data
### Object Data Properties
These control settings specific to the object type such as text font,
lamp settings, and camera settings. This is reflected in the icon, which
changes according to the type of object selected.
## Object Shading
### Material Properties
The material settings for an object control its appearance, e.g. its
colour, whether it has a shiny or dull surface, how transparent it is,
and so on.
You can also control the material of an object using shader nodes.
### Texture Properties
Textures in Blender used to control the surface of an object, alongside
the materials. Nowadays, it has been replaced by the shader nodes, and
is only used for texture painting.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/3D View Windows
|previous=Properties Window
|subcat=Background
}}
```
3D View  windows
are used to visualize 3D scenes. You'll do a lot of work in these
windows, so you will need to learn your way around.
In this module, you\'ll learn:
- to recognize 10 things commonly seen in viewports
- to tell which mode Blender is in
- how to change viewport options and viewpoints
- how to position the 3D cursor
You\'ll also learn the fundamentals of:
- visibility layers
## The Viewport and its Contents
Aside from its header, the remainder of a 3D View window is its
. You use viewports any time
you need an up-to-date view of the scene you\'re working on.
Viewports are busy places. Go on a scavenger hunt and see what you can
find in a simple viewport.
1. Launch Blender.
2. Just so we\'re all looking at the same scene, load the factory
settings using *File → Defaults -\> Load Factory Settings*.
3. Confirm the "Load Factory Settings" popup with
(or
).
4. If the NumLock indicator on your keyboard is unlit, press
so that numpad hotkeys will
work properly.
(If you\'re unsure what means, please
review the Keystroke, Button, and Menu Notation
module.)
You should see something like this:
### A Virtual Scavenger Hunt
Look at the default scene and find the following eight items:
In the Center
1\.
{width="60"}
a solid gray cube with orange edges.
:\* This is the , your
first Blender object!
2\.
{width="60"}
Three arrows, one red, one green and one blue, their tails joined to a
white circle
:\* This is not an object (part of your model/scene), but part of
Blender's user interface for manipulating objects. It is the
, also known as the
.
:\* The arrows represent the directions of the ,
and axes of the
currently chosen
coordinate
system. Initially this is the
.
:\* The circle represents the center of the selected object (the cube).
:\* If you don\'t know what the \"global coordinate system\" is, please
review the module on Coordinate Spaces in
Blender.
- It\'s possible that a tool is active. Press
to cancel any tool action.
- Another possibility is that the manipulator has been disabled:
- Toggle it on or off with
.
3\.  A
red-and-white striped circle with black cross-hairs
:\* This is not an object. It is the **3D Cursor**, which indicates
where newly-created objects will appear in the scene.
:\*The cursor is similar to the insertion point in a text editor, which
indicates where new text will be inserted in a document.
In the Lower Left Corner
4\.
:\* This is not an object. It is the **mini axis**, and its orientation
matches that of the global coordinate system, with the usual
conventions: red for X, green for Y and blue for Z. Think of it as a
little compass, reminding you which way is left/right, front/back and
up/down. 5. The notation \"(1) Cube\"
: This is not an object. It is
, indicating that:
- You\'re viewing the first frame of an animation.
: and
- The current or most recently selected object is named \"Cube\".
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
In the Upper Left Corner
6\. The notation "User Persp"
: This is not an object. This tells you which mode the viewport is in.
The first word will change if you select one of the *perfect* views
or the camera view (see below), otherwise it just says "User", and
the second word is "Persp" or "Ortho" to indicate whether this is a
perspective or orthographic view.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
To the Right of Center
7\.  A
black round thing that resembles a sun symbol
:
: This represents a **lamp**, a light source for the scene. (It is
an object.)
8\.
{width="50"}
A pyramidal wireframe item
:
: This represents a **camera**, a viewpoint that can be used for
rendering. (It too, is an object.) The camera is looking at the
base of the pyramid. The solid triangle attached to one side of
the base is to remind you which way is up in the image that the
camera takes.
: On a small display, the camera might initially lie outside of
the viewport and thus be invisible. In that case,
to zoom out until it becomes
visible.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
Throughout
9\. A dark gray background, divided into squares by lighter lines. This
is the , which you can (but
don't have to) use as a ground plane for positioning your models.
:
: Each grid square is one **blender unit** (or **BU**) on a side.
A BU can be whatever you wish, e.g. an inch, a centimeter, a
mile, or a cubit. Blender lets you choose your scene scale in
the Scene tab of the Properties Panel.
10\. Three mutually perpendicular coloured lines associated with the
grid floor: the red and green ones lying horizontally in the floor and
the blue one running vertically. These are the global coordinate axes
for orienting your scene. Red is the X-axis, green the Y-axis, and blue
the Z-axis.
- In Blender 2.67a, you can\'t see the blue line for Z-axis here, but
you **can** see it in Front or Side view.
## Modes
Blender has many **modes**, i.e. settings that affect its behavior, and
this is especially true of the 3D View window.
Sometimes it\'s not obvious which mode is active. This leads to **mode
errors** where Blender will do something you didn\'t expect because you
thought it was in one mode and it was actually in another.
The function performed by a hotkey or mouse button can depend on:
- what mode the user interface is in,
- whether the keyboard is in NumLock mode,
- which window is active,
- the mode the active window is in,
- which item or items are selected,
- whether you\'ve initiated a hotkey sequence.
It helps to recognize the common modes and how to get out of them.
### Object Mode vs. Edit Mode
The 3D View windows are normally in Object Mode. In this mode:
- - The mouse pointer is the default arrow normally used on other
programs.
- is used to select objects in the scene.
- In versions 2.8 and above Use
to select objects in the scene
If there are objects in the scene, you can get into five other modes:
- Edit Mode: used to edit the shapes of objects
- The mouse pointer is a thin inverse-video cross.
- is used to select vertices, faces or edges of the current
object.
- Press to enter/exit this mode.
- Sculpt Mode/Vertex Paint/Texture Paint/Weight Paint
- The mouse pointer is now a thin, orange (white in Texture Paint)
circle.
These modes are also indicated by a menu in the 3D View header. You can
use this menu to change modes.
These modes are a setting shared by all 3D View windows. In other words,
when you change the mode in one window, any other 3D View windows change
mode also.
## Viewport Options
### Solid vs. Wireframe
By default, the 3D View window draws objects using the Solid drawtype,
in which surfaces are opaque. To toggle between Solid and Wireframe
drawtype (edges only, no faces) for a particular viewport:
1. Activate the 3D View window
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
1. Press .
Alternatively, you can choose these and other drawtypes from the
\"Viewport shading\" menu in the 3D View window header.
### Orthographic vs. Perspective
By default, viewports draw orthographic views. To toggle a viewport
between orthographic and perspective views:
1. Activate the 3D View window.
2. Press .
(If you\'re unsure what the difference is, please review
and
.)
Note this perspective versus orthographic setting for the 3D viewport is
completely separate from the similar setting in the camera properties.
The former takes effect while you're working on the model, the latter
when you render.
So why have a separate setting for the 3D view? Because certain aspects
of modelling are easier in one view than another. If the final render
will be using perspective, then showing perspective in the 3D view
naturally gives you a better idea of how the final render will look. But
perspective foreshortening can sometimes make it hard to ensure the
model has the proper shape, which is why there is the option to switch
to orthographic view.
\... you should activate the View Name option. This is enabled by
default and causes the name of the current view (\"User Persp\", for
instance) to appear in the upper left corner of every viewport. If there
is no text, then you can enable it by:
1. Accessing the User Preferences window.
2. Click on the *Interface* tab.
3. Enable *View Name*.
## Changing Your Viewpoint, Part One
Each viewport has a **viewpoint**, which takes into account:
- the location of the viewer in the 3D scene (There doesn\'t need to
be an object at that location.)
- the direction the viewer is looking
- the magnification (or zoom factor) used
Changing your viewpoint allows you to navigate your way through a 3D
scene.
We\'ll start with three very basic techniques:
- Zooming
- Orbiting/View Rotation
- Perfect Views.
Additional techniques will be covered later in this module.
### Zooming
Blender offers several ways to zoom in and out:
- Use
- Click and drag vertically with
.
- Use and
to zoom in and out in small
increments.
Note the following limitations of Blender\'s zoom feature:
- If the viewport is in orthographic mode, Blender zooms as if looking
through a telescope. You can increase the magnification, but the
viewpoint\'s location doesn\'t change. For this reason, you cannot
zoom into or through objects in orthographic mode.
- If the viewport is in perspective mode, Blender zooms to the center
of the viewport. The viewpoint can pass through objects, but can\'t
pass beyond this point, no matter what you do. Zooming only gets
slower and slower and slower. If the center of the viewport is
somewhere you don\'t expect, zooming may appear to be broken.
### Orbiting and View Rotation
Let\'s fly around the default cube, viewing it from different angles. In
this way you\'ll see that it really is a cube, centered on the origin,
half above the X-Y plane and half below it.
1. Activate the 3D View window by placing the mouse pointer inside it.
2. Now you can:
- Click and drag with to orbit
freely around the center of the view.
- Use to rotate the
viewpoint vertically around the center of the view.
- Use and
to rotate the viewpoint
vertically around the center of the view in 15-degree
increments.
- Use to rotate the
viewpoint around the Z axis.
- Use and
to rotate the viewpoint around
the Z axis in 15-degree increments.
If this is all very confusing for you, don\'t worry! You\'ll learn as
you get more experience.
When you are finished flying around the cube, you can restore the
original view by reloading the factory settings with *File → Load
Factory Settings*.
You may have pressed number keys above the letters instead of the ones
on the numpad. If you do, the default cube will vanish. This is because
the scene consists of multiple layers. The default cube is in layer 1,
and you\'ve told Blender to switch to the layer of the number you just
pressed. The selected object (the cube in this case) remains in layer 1,
which is no longer visible. For instance,
tells Blender to switch to layer 2. To
switch to layer 1 again, press . You
can view the different layers by clicking on the little squares on the
layer map: 
The Shift + Alt + Scroll and Ctrl + Alt + Scroll do not work for me with
factory settings in Blender 2.92.0
### Perfect Views
It\'s often useful to get a **perfect view** of a scene, i.e. to view it
along one of the main axes, with the other two main axes oriented
up-down and left-right.
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| Hotkey | View | Axis Pointing | Axis Pointing |
| | | Right | Up |
+================+================+================+================+
| ` | \"top\" | ` | ` |
| ``{=mediawiki} | | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} |
| {{B3D | | {{Red|+X}} | {{Green|+Y}} |
| :N2P/Do|Num7}} | | ``` | ``` |
| ``` | | | |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| ` | \"bottom\" | ` | ` |
| ``{=mediawiki} | | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} |
| {{B3D:N2P/ | | {{Red|+X}} | {{Green|-Y}} |
| Do|Ctrl|Num7}} | | ``` | ``` |
| ``` | | | |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| ` | \"front\" | ` | ` |
| ``{=mediawiki} | | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} |
| {{B3D | | {{Red|+X}} | {{Blue|+Z}} |
| :N2P/Do|Num1}} | | ``` | ``` |
| ``` | | | |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| ` | \"rear\" | ` | ` |
| ``{=mediawiki} | | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} |
| {{B3D:N2P/ | | {{Red|-X}} | {{Blue|+Z}} |
| Do|Ctrl|Num1}} | | ``` | ``` |
| ``` | | | |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| ` | \"right side\" | ` | ` |
| ``{=mediawiki} | | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} |
| {{B3D | | {{Green|+Y}} | {{Blue|+Z}} |
| :N2P/Do|Num3}} | | ``` | ``` |
| ``` | | | |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| ` | \"left side\" | ` | ` |
| ``{=mediawiki} | | ``{=mediawiki} | ``{=mediawiki} |
| {{B3D:N2P/ | | {{Green|-Y}} | {{Blue|+Z}} |
| Do|Ctrl|Num3}} | | ``` | ``` |
| ``` | | | |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
: Perfect View Hotkeys
The following screenshot shows all three perfect views plus camera
perspective for the Suzanne primitive:
{width="600"}
This layout is used so often, it has a keyboard shortcut:
().
## Positioning the 3D Cursor
Positioning the 3D cursor is a very basic operation, yet one that many
beginners find challenging. It touches on an issue common to all 3D
graphics software: \"How do you specify points in a 3D scene when we can
only see two dimensions at a time?\"
### Basic Technique
1. Go into either Object Mode or Edit Mode.
2. Move the mouse pointer to the desired position (in any viewport).
3. Click .
### Two Challenges
**Challenge #1.** Using only tools presented thus far, try positioning
the 3D cursor on the virtual camera.
Try it!
When you\'re done, check your work by orbiting the camera.
Perhaps you thought you were done when you clicked on the camera. But
the moment you changed your viewpoint, you probably found that the 3D
cursor was actually behind (or in front of) the camera.
Hints:
- Try positioning the cursor in two different perfect views.
- Use orthographic, not perspective, view.
**Challenge #2.** Using only tools presented thus far, try repositioning
the 3D cursor at the origin (that is, at the center of the cube).
As before, check your work by orbiting the cube. Don\'t spend too much
time on this.
\"I found that I would select the cube when left clicking on it in
object mode, if the **\"Use 3d transform manipulator\"** button was
enabled. To toggle this off, you click on the **gray pointing hand** in
the 3d panel header, or (Ctrl Space).\"
\"When you want the cursor back into the cube, just select the camera
with **RMB**, put the cursor into the cube following the steps above,
and re-select the cube with **RMB**.\"
\"I\'ve discovered it helps a lot if you are in Object Mode and not in
Edit Mode. I wrote the following before discovering this: *The problem
with this exercise, for me, is that left clicking on the cube selects
the cube instead of moving the 3d cursor. If I click on the cube outside
of its central white circle I can get the cursor to move there, but only
to outside of this white circle, and even then this only works
sometimes.*\"
\"I failed at this until I had zoomed in close enough to the cube. When
I was too far zoomed out I kept selecting the cube rather than creating
an edit point.\"
\"I had the same problem and found it was because the cube was selected.
I made sure I was in object mode, right clicked on the camera to select
the camera instead of the cube, and I could then position the edit point
in the cube. However, doing this messed up the next part of the tutorial
because you cannot switch into edit mode with the camera selected!
Perhaps the suggestion of trying to put the 3D cursor in the cube should
be dropped as it raises too many questions at this stage.\"
\"You can deselect all by pressing the AKEY or the select button in the
3D View.\"
\"Use wireframe mode works better to get the cursor in.\"
\"To get it back in the cube: 1) Make sure you\'re in object mode. 2)
Select the cube. 3) Object \> Snap \> Cursor to selection (cursor refers
to the 3D cursor here) so it puts it right in the middle of the cube.\"
\"I think it\'s an essential point to note that *in order to place the
cursor inside the cube, the cube must NOT be selected*. AKEY was
probably the best way to deselect the object.\"
\"If I remember correctly, undo history gets cleared when you switch
between object and edit mode.\"
\"I wasted a lot of time here. *Thank you* to the reader who suggested
(on the 3D view header) Object \> Snap \> Cursor to selection. It was
the only thing that worked to get the cursor visible again and placed
where clicked.\"
\"I missed the point of the exercise first time around. You can\'t set a
3D point on a 2D screen without technique. Orthographic views are
crucial. I am just learning, but take that, at least, away from it.\"
\"Positioning the 3D cursor in othographic views always made it snap to
the cube surface, making it impossible to center precisely. Fix this by
disabling \"Cursor Depth\" on the \"interface\" tab under \"User
Preferences\".
\"The phrase *check your work by orbiting the camera* needs additional
clarification, such as a referenced section or the precise commands to
use.\"
### More Ways to Position the Cursor
{width="500"}
Here\'s an easy way to position the cursor at the center of an object:
1. Make sure Blender is in Object Mode, with the object selected.
2. Move the mouse pointer to any 3D View window.
3. Snap the cursor to the selected object using either:
- → *Cursor to Selected*
: or
- *Object → Snap → Cursor to Selected*
Here\'s 2 easy ways to relocate the cursor to the scene\'s origin (0, 0,
0):
1. Move the mouse pointer to any 3D View window.
2. Press to reset the cursor to
the origin.
- Note that this also changes the view location, meaning that when
you zoom in, you won\'t zoom in to the scene origin.
3. A better way is to click *Object → Snap → Cursor to Center*
- You can also do this by →
*Cursor to Center*.
## Changing Your Viewpoint, Part Two
Now you\'ll learn some additional techniques for obtaining the view you
want:
- Panning
- Centering
- Jumping to the camera\'s viewpoint
- Zooming in on a selected area
### Panning
When you orbited the cube, the viewpoint\'s position and direction both
changed at the same time. You also can shift the viewpoint up-down or
left-right *without* changing its direction. (This is similar to the
side-scrolling effect in the classic Mario and Sonic video games.)
This is called *panning "wikilink")*, and it\'s an
important skill to master. Try it now:
1. Activate a 3D View window by placing the mouse pointer inside it.
2. Now you can:
- Use to pan up and
down.
- Use and
to pan up and down in
small increments.
- Use to pan left and
right.
- Use and
to pan left and right in
small increments.
- Click and drag with or
to pan freely in the
viewplane.\
\
You will likely find this to be a distraction in some cases. To move the
viewpoint position back to the center, snap the cursor to the center,
then click *View → Align View → Center View to Cursor*. You could also
snap the cursor to the center then press
.\
In versions ≥2.74 you can also use
to center the view to the cursor.
### Centering
When you zoom or rotate the view, you always zoom or rotate around the
center of the view.
To make sure everything in your scene is visible:
1. Press .
To center the view on an arbitrary point:
1. Move the 3D cursor to the point of interest.
2. Verify the cursor position from a second viewpoint.
3. Press
+
to center the view.
To center the view on an object in the scene:
1. Make sure Blender is in Object Mode.
2. Zoom out until the object is in the viewport.
3. If any objects are selected, use (or
*Select → Select/Deselect All*) to deselect them.
4. Select the object of interest by clicking
on it.
5. Press to center the view.
### Jumping to the Camera\'s Viewpoint
To see the scene as the virtual camera sees it, press
. Afterwards, you can rotate, pan, and
zoom normally, but the virtual camera will not follow. To go back to
your previous view, press again. (In
the latest versions of Blender, the virtual camera can be made to follow
all the changes made in viewpoint while in camera view by checking the
option \"Lock Camera to View\" on the Transform panel. Hit
on your keyboard to bring up the
transform panel. To disable this option uncheck \"Lock Camera to
View.\")
### Zooming into a Selected Area
Suppose you want to get an extreme closeup of a particular area. Because
there\'s no center mark on the viewport, you might have to pan and zoom
several times to get the desired view.
The shortcut for zooming to an area is:
1. Activate a 3D view window that contains the area of interest.
2. Press . A crosshair appears in
the viewport.
3. Click and drag with to draw a
rectangle around the area of interest.
4. When you release , the viewport will
zoom in on the area you selected.
## View Navigation
You can also change your viewpoint in the 3D view by "walking" or
"flying" through it. To activate this, press
. By default in Blender 2.70, this
puts you in "walk" mode. Earlier versions only offered "fly" mode. (In
Blender 2.70 and later, you can choose which one you prefer in User
Preferences, under the Input tab.)
In both modes, helpful prompts appear in the header of the 3D view
window to remind you of the key functions while the mode is in effect.
When you have reached the position and orientation you want, press
or
or to end the navigation mode and
stay there, or or
to abandon the navigation mode and be
teleported immediately back to your original position and orientation.
(In 2.77+, pressing will teleport you
to where the cross hairs point towards.)
### Walk Mode
In this mode, you move the mouse to turn your view up/down/left/right,
and , ,
and or the
corresponding arrow keys to move forward, left, back or right, and
and to
move up or down respectively. Hold a movement key down to keep moving.
Movement stops as soon as you release it. Pressing
will "teleport" you close to whatever
objects lie within the crosshairs at the centre of the view.
You can also use to turn on gravity.
Make sure there is a floor or other object under you to land on! With
gravity on, you can no longer use the vertical movement keys, but you
can use to make jumps. Press
again to turn gravity off.
### Fly Mode
In this older mode, moving the mouse to change the view works the same
as in Walk mode, but the above direction keys
(, ,
, ,
, and the
arrows) apply "thrust" in the respective directions, so you keep moving
after releasing the key. Press the key repeatedly to increase your speed
in that direction, or press the key for the *opposite* thrust direction
to reduce your speed. You can roll the mouse wheel up to apply forward
thrust, or roll it down to apply backward thrust.
Your current velocity vector automatically changes direction with you
when you turn. Thus, you can apply a single burst of sideways thrust
while facing an object, then, without applying any additional thrust,
keep turning to face the object, and you will go right around it.
## Visibility Layers
Every object in the scene is assigned to one or more of 20
.
Visibility layers have many uses:
- You can put scenery, characters, particles, and lamps in different
layers, to help organize your scene.
- By changing which layers are visible, you can simplify your view of
the scene and work with only one or two layers at a time.
- When rendering, only visible layers are included. You can use this
to render your scene layer by layer, checking each layer separately.
- You can configure lamps to illuminate only objects in the same
layer.
!Left: Viewing layer 1 only.\
Right: Viewing all 20
layers.
In Object Mode, you can tell which layers are visible by looking at the
twenty small boxes located in the 3D View header between the Transform
Orientation menu and the \"Lock\" button. The top row of boxes
represents layers 1 through 10, with 1 being the leftmost and 10 being
the rightmost. Similarly, the bottom row of boxes represents layers 11
through 20.
### Hotkeys
- To view just one of layers 1 - 9, press
..
.
- To view just layer 10, press .
- To view just one of layers 11 - 19, press
..
- To view just layer 20, press .
- To toggle the visibility of one of layers 1 - 9 without affecting
the visibility of the other layers, press
..
.
- To toggle the visibility of layer 10 without affecting the
visibility of the other layers, press
.
- To toggle the visibility of one of layers 11 .. 19 without affecting
the visibility of the other layers, press
..
.
- To toggle the visibility of layer 20 without affecting the
visibility of the other layers, press
.
- To make all layers visible at once, press
. Press
again to return to your previous layer visibility setting.
On the AZERTY keyboard layout, the standard number keys are the
&é\"\'(-è_çà keys. Do not use unless
you want to toggle visibility as explained below.
Holding down while selecting a layer
(by keyboard or mouse) will, instead of making only that layer visible,
toggle the visibility. In this way, you can select combinations or to
hide particular layers.
The key to press to select all layers at once differs by keyboard
layout. It is:
- (the key under Esc) on UK keyboards,
- US,
- German, Swedish, Finnish and Hungarian,
- Swiss German,
- Danish,
- AZERTY,
- Norwegian,
- Spanish,
- Portuguese,
- Brazilian Portuguese,
- Italian, and
- Russian.
After pressing the aforementioned key, holding down
while pressing it again will restore
the visibility settings you had *before* you made all layers visible.
When only one layer is selected, new objects are automatically assigned
to that layer. When two or more layers are visible, new objects are
assigned to the most recently visible layer.
## Count Your Polys
If you want to count the polygons in your scene, the data is available
in the Info Header.
As you can see in the above image, this scene has 507 vertices and 500
faces (polygons).
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Object Mode
|nextText=Meshes and Edit Mode
|previous=3D View Windows
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
## Introduction
In this module, you will learn some basics about operating in
. This is normally the
default mode Blender is in when you open a new document. It is the mode
where you operate on whole objects, rather than on their parts.
Many of the conventions involving selection and manipulation of objects
or parts of objects apply to other modes as well, so this is a good
place to become familiar with those conventions.
!Cube selected in Object
mode.{width="200"}
Open a new document, then confirm you are in Object mode by checking the
mode menu.
Select the default cube by clicking on it with
. You will see it framed in an orange
outline.
## Object Origin
When you select an object, you will notice a round dot appears, normally
in the middle of the object, the same orange-yellow as the rest of the
selection.
This is the object's *origin*. It is the reference point for the
object's local coordinate system. Certain kinds of edits to the object
can cause this origin to end up at a position well outside the object.
If that happens, operations like transformations applied with reference
to the origin may not behave as expected. However, Blender has
capabilities to deal with this. They will be explained when you need
them.
## Multiple Selections
You can select more than one object at a time. With the cube still
selected, change your view until you can see both the cube and the
default lamp. Select the lamp by clicking on it with
(
for versions after 2.8), so both
the lamp and the cube are selected. You will notice that the lamp takes
on the orange-yellow colour, but the cube now has a more reddish
highlight.
The object is the last one
selected. Other objects can be part of the selection, but the
reddish-orange highlight indicates that they are not active. The
Properties window shows properties for the active object, not the entire
selection, although operations in the 3D view like moving and deleting
objects will affect the entire selection. Some operations (like
parenting, which you will learn about later) set up a special
relationship between the active object and the rest of the selection, so
for these, the order of selection of objects becomes important.
You can remove the active object from the selection with
; the small spot indicating the
origin of the object's geometry stays highlighted in the yellow-orange
colour, even though the rest of the object loses the selection
highlight. If you do this to an inactive object, it will make that
object active.
Pressing *inverts* the selection.
i.e. it deselects what was previously selected, and selects everything
else instead. It does not change the active object.
## Selecting Obscured Objects
If multiple objects lie under the mouse, you can choose which one to
select by clicking : this will bring
up a menu listing the names of the selectable objects.
Alternatively, you can add an object to the current selection, or remove
it from the current selection, by clicking
and selecting it from the
menu.
On Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, it appears that
has the same effect as
on a Window\'s title bar. But
does the trick of **Selecting
Obscured Objects**.
## Selecting Everything and Nothing
Pressing does one of two things: if
*anything* is selected, it clears the selection (i.e. selected objects
are no longer selected). But if *nothing* is selected, then it selects
*everything*. You will often see instructions to press
either once or twice, to ensure that
either nothing is selected, or everything is selected.
## Hiding Things
When working on a complex model or scene, things are likely to get
cluttered, making it hard to see the specific part you're working on. It
is possible to *hide* objects, so they no longer appear in the 3D view.
Select the object(s) you wish to hide, and press
. This is purely a convenience for
working in the 3D view, i.e. hidden objects remain unchanged when you
render them.
Pressing hides everything
*except* the current selection. This is a quick way to remove the
clutter and narrow the view to the objects of interest.
Pressing brings back all hidden
objects and selects them. If you lose track of what is hidden and what
is visible, press this to bring everything back.
## Local Versus Global View
is another way of selectively hiding parts of the scene. Pressing
( for
emulated numpad) hides everything that is not selected, and
automatically zooms in or out as necessary so the selected objects fill
the 3D view. Pressing again, restores
the items to the normal .
This differs from simple hiding with
in that a render done in local view only shows the objects currently
visible in that view. In particular, if your lights are excluded from
the local view, you are liable to see black blobs in place of your
objects.
**How do I determine the viewing mode?** Look at the words in the
upper-left corner of the 3D view. They indicate your current view
orientation and perspective settings (e.g. "User Persp"). If the word
"(Local)" appears at the end of the string, you are in local view.
Otherwise, you are in global view.
## Border Select (Box Selection)
A quick way to select many objects at once is with the
. Press
to activate it. You will see a pair of
dotted crosshairs appear centred at the current mouse position. Drag
diagonally with to mark a selection
rectangle, then release the . Everything
within the rectangle will be added to the selection. If you didn\'t mean
to engage box-selection mode, pressing
exits border select mode.
Alternatively, to remove things from the current selection, after
pressing , drag the selection rectangle
with . When you release the mouse
button, everything in the drawn box will be deselected.
## Circle Select (Brush Selection)
Another way to select several objects at once is with the
,
engaged by pressing . In this mode,
clicking or dragging on objects with
adds them to the selection, while
*removes* them from the selection. Thus the mouse becomes a brush that
you can use to "paint" objects in or out of the selection.
The circle showing the size of the brush can be adjusted with the mouse
wheel. This allows you to use a broad brush for selection of lots of
objects at once, or a finer one for better control.
Clicking or pressing
terminates Circle Select mode.
## The Manipulator
right\|framed\|Manipulator transformation buttons & orientation
menu
left\|framed\|Manipulator---translation
right\|framed\|Manipulator---rotation
left\|framed\|Manipulator---scaling
The manipulator appears in the middle of the selection. There are three
kinds of manipulator as shown in the illustrations. It can be used to
apply translation (position changes), rotation, and scaling (size
changes) to objects. Its appearance changes according to which of these
functions are enabled. You can click on the menu transformation buttons
that appear when the manipulator is visible, to choose a single
transformation, or shift-click to enable more than one simultaneously.
You can toggle the visibility of the manipulator with
, or by clicking the menu button
with the red, green and blue arrows.
If you have troubles selecting the red arcs of the rotation manipulator
select File→ User Preferences\... System → Selection and change it to
\"OpenGL Select\" or \"OpenGL Occlusion Queries\".
**Transform orientations:** the "Orientation" menu governs how the axes
of the manipulator are aligned, with the default "Global" corresponding
to the global coordinate system. Other useful options are "Local", which
corresponds to the local coordinates system of *each object*, and
"View", which is always aligned to your view.
To demonstrate this, click on the camera with
so that it is the only object selected.
Set the manipulator to do only translations (blue arrow button is
selected in menu), and ensure the orientation is set to "Global". Drag
any of the manipulator\'s coloured arrows with
to move the camera in the corresponding
direction.
Now switch the orientation to "Local". You will see the manipulator
arrows re-orient themselves. Note that the Z-direction (blue arrow) is
now in the direction of the camera view. The local co-ordinates of the
camera have the optical axis of the camera running along the Z axis. By
default, that is pointing towards the cube object.
The cube, by default, has its own local Z-direction running vertically.
With the manipulator orientation still set to Local, add the cube to the
selection with . You will see the
manipulator move so it is in the centre of the selected objects. It is
now between the camera and the cube. Now if you drag the manipulator Z
axis arrow with , each object will move
along its *own* version of that axis. The camera moves towards or away
from the cube and the cube rises or falls.
Switch the orientation to "Global", and try dragging a manipulator arrow
again. This time, both objects will appear locked together and will move
in the same direction, along the same (global) axis.
## Transformation Hotkeys
The manipulator is not the only way to apply transformations to objects.
That can also be done via keyboard shortcuts.
Hide the manipulator to reduce clutter. Select the cube, and only the
cube, with . Now press
to `<b>`{=html}G`</b>`{=html}rab the
object. The selection outline around the object turns white, as it did
when you were dragging with the manipulator, except this time, you
didn\'t press any mouse buttons. Now move the mouse without pressing any
buttons, and you will see the object move along with it. Press
or
to terminate the movement and leave the selected object at the new
position, or or
to cancel the operation and leave the
object at its original location.
Similarly, use to
`<b>`{=html}R`</b>`{=html}otate the object, and
to `<b>`{=html}S`</b>`{=html}cale it.
You can *constrain* the movement to particular axes by pressing the
appropriate axis key. For example, press
to start moving the cube again, then
press and you will see a bright
colored line appear parallel to the global X-axis. Now when you move the
mouse, the cube will move along only that colored line. Similarly
and
constrain movement to the Y and Z axes respectively. The colored lines
that appear are a brighter reddish, green or blue that correspond to the
red, green or blue lines for the X, Y or Z axes, respectively.
**Transform orientations:** to constrain the transformation to a
different set of axes, press the constraint key twice. The coordinate
system used depends on the selection in the Transform Orientation menu:
- Local or Global --- the transformation happens in the object's local
coordinate system.
- View --- the transformation is aligned to view coordinates.
For example, with the default "Global" selection from this menu, select
the camera with , press
to move it, then press
twice, and you will see the coloured
line orient itself along the direction of view of the camera.
The axis constraints also work with scaling, and rotation (which only
happens *around* the specified axis).
You can also constrain movement and scaling to happen along two axes,
but not the third one, by holding down
when typing the axis constraint. For
example, followed by
will constrain movement to the
global X-Y plane (i.e. any direction *except* along the Z-axis). To
constrain movement to the *local* X-Y plane, type the contraint twice:
.
Here\'s a summary of what the transformation hotkeys do, with and
without constraints:
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| Key | without | followed by | followed by |
| | constraint | *axis* | `{{B3D:N2P/Do |
| | | | |SHIFT}}`{=med |
| | | | iawiki}-*axis* |
+================+================+================+================+
| ` | moves in plane | moves along | moves in plane |
| ``{=mediawiki} | perpendicular | *axis* | perpendicular |
| {{B3D | to view | | to *axis* |
| :N2P/Do|GKEY}} | direction | | |
| ``` | | | |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| ` | rotates about | rotates about | |
| ``{=mediawiki} | view direction | *axis* | |
| {{B3D | | | |
| :N2P/Do|RKEY}} | | | |
| ``` | | | |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| ` | scales | scales along | scales |
| ``{=mediawiki} | uniformly | *axis* | uniformly in |
| {{B3D | along all axes | | plane |
| :N2P/Do|SKEY}} | | | perpendicular |
| ``` | | | to *axis* |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
In addition, the hotkey sequence
enables *free rotate*, i.e. the object
can rotate around all three axes as you move the mouse.
### Transforming by Numbers
Sometimes you need to position things accurately, using calculated
numbers, instead of estimating by eye. Blender can do that too. Simply
type the number after the transformation hotkeys before pressing
to confirm the operation. For
example,
will move the selection by 1 unit in
the positive X direction.
will move by 1 unit along negative X. Decimal points are allowed, thus
will scale the selection by a factor
of 0.5, or 50%.
Rotation works similarly, using degrees clockwise around the selected X,
Y or Z axis.
### Transformation Menu
 Yet
another way is shown at right, in the Transform panel that appears at
the top of the Properties shelf (press to
toggle its visibility at the right side of the 3D view). Here you can
see the existing transformations values. You can drag the sliders to
change them, or click on them and enter new values.
## Choosing the Pivot Point
 When
you do a scaling or rotation operation, you can choose the
, which is the central
origin point that remains unaffected by the operation. By default this
is the "Median Point", or centre point of the selection, but the Pivot
Point menu lets you choose some other options. For example, select both
the cube and the camera, and rotate them
(). By default they will rotate around
their common centre. Now go to the Pivot Point menu and choose
"Individual Origins" and rotate your two selected objects with
again, and you will see each one now
rotates about its *own* centre, rather than the common one.
Another useful pivot option is "3D Cursor", which places the
transformation origin at the 3D cursor location.
Finally, the button with three dots and a double-headed arrow
immediately to the right of the one that pops up the Pivot Point menu is
titled "Manipulate center points." Selecting this means transformations
do not rotate the actual objects themselves, only their positions. To
see the effect, you need to choose a pivot point that is not the
object's origin. Now try rotating the object. You will see its centre
describes an arc around the pivot point, without changing the object\'s
orientation. Think how the seats in a Ferris Wheel rotate around the
wheel\'s pivot, yet still maintain their orientation.
Similarly scaling will change the distance between the chosen pivot
point and the object's origin, but will not affect the size of the
object itself. A bursting firework scales rapidly in this way.
**Why can\'t I rotate or scale objects?** One pitfall you might
encounter is that you select an object, try rotating with
or scaling with
, and nothing happens, though moving
with still works. It\'s quite likely
you have the "Manipulate center points" button active when you didn\'t
mean to. Check if it\'s active, and click it to deactivate if so.
**Hotkeys** --- there are keyboard shortcuts for all the above options:
+---------------------------------+--------------------------+
| Pivot Option | Key |
+=================================+==========================+
| Active Element | ## Basic Camera Technique
The camera view is very useful for
making adjustments to your camera while getting continuous feedback on
how the render will look. This view shows a framing rectangle covering
the area that will appear in the render, surrounded by a *passepartout*
which gives a darkened view of the surrounding part of the scene. You
can use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out, adjusting how much of your
view is the rendered area and how much is passepartout.
In this view, use on the framing
rectangle to select the camera, and it will show the usual orange-yellow
highlight. The manipulator will not appear even if enabled, so you must
use the transformation hotkeys to perform camera transformations.
Use to move the camera around parallel
to the view plane. Since the view stays locked to the camera, you will
see the scene move in the direction *opposite* of what you might expect.
The camera's local Z-axis lies along its direction of view. This allows
useful operations like
to
move the camera in or out without affecting the direction in which it\'s
pointing. Also the X axis runs left to right in the camera view so
rotating around X
will
adjust the up-and-down *pitch* angle. Rotating around the vertical Y
axis
will change the *yaw* (left-right)
angle, and you can rotate around the optical axis of the camera using
to produce an effect of *rolling* the
view around the visual axis.
Another useful technique is to position the 3D cursor at a point of
interest, set the pivot point to the 3D cursor, then rotate the camera
about a global axis, like the global Z-axis
( ),
to adjust the angle of view while keeping the same objects in view, and
without altering the distance of the camera from the point of interest.
In real life you\'d get that effect by walking in a circle around your
subject with your camera mounted on a *Steadicam* rig.
Scaling the camera object changes its size as shown in the 3D view, but
has no effect on the actual render. Regardless of what axis constraints
you try to apply, the camera object will always scale uniformly along
all axes.
You can also use Fly mode in
camera-view mode to fly around the scene, taking the camera with you.
Another choice for moving your camera in Camera View is to bring up the
Properties panel () and, in the View
section, tick the box next to Lock Camera to View. Now you will be able
to use the to \"move objects\" just as
you move things around in other views such as the 3D view. Holding down
the and dragging will rotate,
will allow you to \"move the
object\" around in the view (panning), and the scroll wheel will allow
you to \"move the object\" closer or farther from the camera. You are
actually moving the camera with these manipulations and not the
object(s) themselves.
## Adding/Removing Objects, Undo/Redo, Repeat
Select the cube with again. Press
either or
and, after confirming the popup, the
cube disappears! It has been deleted from your scene. Unlike mere
hiding, it really has disappeared. Press
to undo your last operation, and it
reappears.
Click with to position the 3D cursor
away from the default cube. Press
to bring up the Add menu, go to
its Mesh submenu, and add another cube to the scene. Again, undo with
, and you are back to a single cube
again.
Now press : this will undo the
undo, and *redo* the last operation you undid, bringing back the second
cube.
Try adding a third cube. Now should
undo that and take you back to two cubes, and pressing
again should undo the addition of
the second cube, taking you back to one. Try
at this point to restore the
second cube, then again to
restore the third one.
Blender remembers up to the last 32 things you did (depending on the
limit set in your user preferences) in its *undo stack*. You can go
backward and forward through it with
and .
Sometimes you want to perform an action repeatedly. To repeat the last
action, type .
## Assigning Layers
Earlier, you learned about showing and hiding layers in the 3D view. To
assign layers for selected objects, press
. The same keyboard shortcuts apply
here as when choosing which layers to display, i.e.
for only the first layer,
for only the second etc,
to include/exclude the first
layer and so on.
**After assigning an object to a different layer, it disappears!** If
this happens to you, it\'s because the layer(s) you assigned to the
object, and the layer(s) you currently have visible in the 3D view, have
nothing in common. Simply change the visible layers to include at least
one of those you assigned the object to, and it will reappear. For
example, if currently only layer 1 is visible, and you assign an object
to only layer 2, it will disappear, but reappear when you change the
visible layer to layer 2.
## Object, Action, Settings
Bring up the Add menu again ().
This time, add a new cylinder mesh to the scene. Look to the left of the
3D view, in the Tool Shelf (toggle its visibility with
if it\'s not visible), at the bottom
you should see a new panel has appeared, titled "Add Cylinder". Near the
top of it is the "Vertices" number, initially defaulting to 32, which
gives a fairly round-looking cylinder. Reduce it to 6, and adjust the
view as necessary to get a good view of your "cylinder", and you will
see it is now a hexagonal prism. Change the number of vertices to 3, and
it becomes a triangular prism.
This is an example of an important user-interface convention that runs
right through Blender: first you select the object you want to perform
an operation on as appropriate (not applicable here because we are
creating a new object), then you perform the specified action with some
default settings, and finally you adjust the settings to give the exact
result you want. This way, instead of getting a popup *before* the
action is performed, into which you have to put the right settings and
hope they will give the right result, you get to interactively adjust
the settings and immediately see the results, without having to
continually redo the operation and deal with popups.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Mesh Edit Mode
A is one of the most important
and frequently-used object types in Blender. While there are other types
of objects that can be used to model parts of a model or scene (text,
NURBS patches, etc.), they often get converted to meshes at some point
anyway, because it is the object type that offers the greatest amount of
detailed control. And as it happens, Blender offers more functions, both
built-in and available as addons, for dealing with meshes than for any
other object type.
is the mode in which you make changes to the internals of the *active*
object. Not every object has an Edit mode (e.g. cameras), and the
details of what you can do in Edit mode vary between the object types
where it is available. This module specifically covers Edit mode for
mesh objects.
## What Is a Mesh?
A *mesh* is made up of one or more *vertices*; each *vertex* is just a
point in space. A pair of vertices can be joined by a straight line
called an *edge*, and a complete loop of edges can be filled in to form
a *face*.
It is the faces that make up the visible surface of the object. The
edges and vertices are essentially geometrical \"scaffolding\" necessary
to hold the object together.
A face must have three or more sides (edges). Prior to version 2.63,
only three or four sides were allowed, so faces had to be *triangles* or
*quadrilaterals* (usually abbreviated to *quads*) respectively. Starting
with v2.63, and the introduction of the BMesh architecture, that
restriction has been lifted. You can have faces with 5 or more sides,
but you will usually find that things work best if all faces, as far as
possible, are quads. Particularly when constructing a model for
animation purposes.
Blender's Object-mode "Add" menu
() contains a Mesh submenu with a
collection of pre-made mesh objects. Think of these as starting points.
They make building your own objects easier by enabling you to modify an
object that is an approximation of the form you want instead of having
to construct a mesh entirely from scratch.
## Introduction to Edit Mode
Start a new model. Hide the manipulator if it is visible
(). You should be in Object mode.
Click with on the default cube to
ensure it is selected and the active object.
framed\|right\|The default cube in Edit
mode You can switch
modes using the mode menu, as you previously learned. However, because
switching between Object mode and Edit mode is such a frequent
operation, it has a keyboard shortcut: .
Do this now, and you should see the appearance of the cube change, as
shown at right. The mode menu should also update. Press
again, and you should be back in Object
mode. Press once more before
continuing, to ensure you are in Edit mode.
Note the following features of the cube, and how they relate to the
description of a mesh above:
- The dots at the corners are the vertices.
- The lines joining them are the edges.
- The filled areas bordered by the lines are the faces.
## Selection Modes
!Select mode buttons in a 3D View header, showing Vertex select mode
active. (Found below the edit
area.)")
In Edit mode, the header (it\'s at the top) of the 3D View window
changes to show the selection-mode controls. If you hover over each of
the buttons in the group of three, you will see they represent
vertex-select, edge-select and face-select respectively. You can
shift-click to enable more than one at a time.
In vertex-select mode, you select a single vertex by clicking on it with
, and select more than one by
shift-clicking on additional vertices with
. Shift-clicking with
on an already-selected vertex will
deselect it.
Pressing will select *all* vertices if
none are currently selected, otherwise it will *unselect* all vertices.
Edge-select mode works in a similar way, except with edges instead of
vertices. Similarly, face-select mode will allow you to select and
unselect faces.
The single button immediately to the right of these three is titled
"limit selection to visible". When it is active (the default), the mesh
object being edited is displayed as *opaque* which means that vertices,
edges or faces on the side away from you are hidden and cannot be
selected. Click this button, and the object becomes translucent,
allowing clicking *through* front faces to select parts of the mesh
behind them.
Another useful display mode for working in the 3D view is
, which can be selected from
the Viewport Shading menu or toggled with the
key. In this mode, the faces become
transparent, almost invisible, and the edges and vertices are displayed
more prominently.
 Here is
what these various selection and display modes look like in combination:
in the first row, a single vertex is selected. In the second row, a
single edge, and in the third row, a single face. In the first column,
limit-selection-to-visible is enabled. In the second column, it is
disabled, and in the third column, wireframe mode is enabled.
### Selection Mode Hotkeys
You can also switch selection modes with
. In the menu that appears, you can
switch to a single selection mode by selecting it with the mouse or
up/down-arrow keys and pressing or
. But if you press
or
that toggles the enabling of only
that selection mode, without affecting the state of the others, as does
shift-clicking on the icons above.
In common with other Blender popup menus, you can quickly select an item
from the menu and immediately
confirm by pressing one of ,
or
to select the first (vertex), second (edge) or third (face) item in the
menu. Or, ,
and
while the menu is up, will
toggle the enabling of vertex, edge, and face-select modes respectively.
## Multiple Selections
You can use to select multiple
items, and to invert the
selection, just like in Object mode. Only here, the "items" are
vertices, edges or faces, depending on the selection mode in effect. The
active (last-selected) part is shown in white, while the rest of the
selection (if any) is drawn in the usual orange-yellow colour.
As mentioned above, works similar to
the way it works in Object mode, only instead of applying to everything,
it applies to all parts of the object being edited.
## Hiding Things
, and
work in a way analogous to their
behaviour in Object mode. Again, instead of applying to everything, they
apply to all parts of the object being edited.
**Remembering What\'s Hidden:** If you switch out of Edit mode with some
parts hidden, they will reappear, then disappear again when you re-enter
Edit mode, i.e. each object remembers what was hidden when you last
edited it.
## Local Versus Global View
You can toggle local/global view in Edit mode, as you can in Object
mode. However, instead of narrowing the view to one or more selected
objects, it narrows it to just the object being edited.
## Border Select (Box Selection) & Circle Select (Brush Selection)
and work analogously to the way they
do in Object mode, i.e. you select multiple items by drawing a box or by
"painting" over them.
## Select More, Select Less
Edit mode has some additional selection capabilities. To demonstrate
them, let's use something other than the default cube, for a change.
back to Object mode, and delete the
cube. Now add () a Grid object.
into Edit mode, and you will see that
the grid is made up of 9×9 faces, or 10×10 vertices. Initially they will
all be selected. Use to unselect them
then to brush-select a few vertices in
the middle. End brush-select mode with
or . Now watch what happens to the
selection when you press (select
more). Additional vertices adjacent to those already selected are added
to the selection. Now try (select
less), and you will see the vertices on the edge of the selection are
removed from it.
## Manipulator, Transformation Hotkeys, Pivot Point
All of these are available for use in Edit mode as they are in Object
mode, except for the "Manipulate center points" button.
Note that scaling vertices scales the distances between them. The
vertices themselves have no size, so they do not get larger or smaller.
Similarly, rotating vertices only changes their direction relative to
the pivot point, since a featureless point itself has no orientation.
### Transform Orientations
The Global, Local and View options in the Transform Orientation menu
apply in Mesh Edit mode as they do in Object mode. In addition there is
Normal mode, where the transformation axes are aligned relative to the
selection:
- If a single face is selected, the X and Y axes are aligned along the
face, while the Z axis is aligned perpendicular (normal) to the
face.
- If a single edge is selected, the Z axis is aligned along the edge,
with the X and Y axes perpendicular to it.
Other selections are also possible. Feel free to investigate their
behaviour for yourself.
Thus, with a single face selected,
will move
the face along its normal.
In addition, it is possible to define the current Normal transformation
orientation as a custom orientation for use in transforming other
vertices and even other objects. To do this, you need to go to the
Properties Shelf, which is made visible on the right of the 3D view with
. Near the bottom is the Transform
Orientations panel which contains a Transform Orientation menu which
looks the same as the one in the header of the 3D View window, except it
also has a "+" button next to it. Click the \"+\" and the current Normal
transformation orientation will be added to the menu initially labeled
"Vertex", "Edge" or "Face", depending on what is currently selected (and
with a unique numeric suffix added if there is already a custom
orientation defined with that name). Now if you look in either Transform
Orientation menu, you will see a new selectable item, in a separate
section above the five standard items.
With your new orientation option selected, an editable text field will
appear in the Transform Orientations panel, allowing you to change the
name if you wish, and there is also a "X" button allowing you to delete
the orientation item when you no longer need it.
With your new orientation option selected, you can now select a
different part of the object, or even
into Object mode and select some other object. The manipulator and the
doubled axis hotkeys will now align their transformations along this
custom orientation. This is handy, for example, for aligning objects to
a sloping plane.
## Proportional Editing
When trying to produce natural, organic shapes, moving vertices one by
one gets tedious. To produce smoother looking shapes, you need a mode
where unselected vertices close to the selection also get some movement.
In contrast to the sharp distinction between selected vertices which are
moved and unselected ones that remain in place, there is a gradual
transition from one to the other.
This is where
comes in. If you select "Mesh" in the header and examine the pop-up
menu, you will see two submenus, titled "Proportional Editing" and
"Proportional Editing Falloff". The former toggles the mode on and off,
the latter controls the falloff function choice. There is also an icon
for "Proportional Editing" in the header of the default 3D view. Look to
the right of the \"Limit Selection to Visible\" (on edit mode). The hot
key is the letter O. Pressing will
toggle between Enable and Disable. Pressing
+
will change the Falloff type.
The "Proportional Editing" submenu has 4 options: "Disable", "Enable",
"Projected (2D)", and "Connected". Do you still have the Grid object you
created in the "Select More, Select Less" section above? If not, add a
fresh Grid object. Switch to Edit mode, and ensure that just a few
vertices in the middle are selected. Enable proportional editing, and
now use to move the selected vertices.
You should notice 2 things:
- unselected vertices near the selected ones also move, and
- there is a white circle enclosing all the vertices that undergo any
movement.
Try using the mouse wheel while moving the vertices, and you will see
the white circle grow or shrink, and the proportional region of
influence will grow or shrink correspondingly.
Try different falloff functions in the "Proportional Editing Falloff"
submenu. Some ensure the mesh stays smooth and curvy, others give a more
angular effect, etc.
The third option to \"Disable\" and \"Enable\" proportional editing is
\"Projected (2D)\". This view is similar to enabled, except depth is
ignored. The radius of the influence region is applied to the mesh two
dimensionally.
The fourth option to "Disable" and "Enable" proportional editing is
"Connected". This one makes a difference in more complicated meshes,
which might have folds or concavities in them. In this situation,
"Enable" affects all vertices within a particular distance of the
selected ones, while "Connected" only measures the distance *via
connected edges*, rather than directly through space. This lets you move
one part of the mesh without affecting another part which might be
located nearby purely as a result of a fold.
Of course, proportional editing works with scale
and rotate
operations as well.
## Deleting Things
 Now
let's try deleting parts of a mesh. This is the menu that comes up when
you press or
when editing a mesh. For now, we will
concentrate on the first three items.
{width="120"}
{width="120"}
First, go into face-select mode. Select one face of the default cube,
press the delete key, and select "Faces". As shown in the screenshots,
the selected face should disappear.
{width="120"}
{width="120"}
Use to undo your previous deletion.
Now go into edge-select mode. Select one edge this time. Press delete
again, this time select "Edges". As the screenshots show, the selected
edge disappears, but *the faces bordering that edge also disappear*.
Faces cannot exist without their bordering edges!
{width="120"}
{width="120"}
Use to undo your previous deletion
again. Go into vertex-select mode. Select one vertex, make sure it\'s
the one closest to you so you get the best view of the effect. Press
delete, and select "Vertices". Not only does the selected vertex
disappear, but also the edges connected to that vertex. Edges cannot
exist without their endpoint vertices. And since those edges
disappeared, the faces dependent on them for their borders were deleted
as well.
So, to recap:
## Undo/Redo
You can undo your last Edit-mode operation with
, and undo your undo with
, similarly to Object mode.
However, Edit mode maintains its own undo stack, separate from the
Object-mode stack. To undo/redo an Edit-mode operation, you must be in
Edit mode, not Object mode.
## Adding Things
Back to the default cube and Edit mode. Ensure you are in vertex-select
mode with nothing selected. Do a
somewhere near the cube. Do you see a little orange-yellow dot appear
where you clicked? You just added a new, unconnected vertex to the mesh.
(If not, you may need to set this hotkey in user preferences -
and search for \"duplicate or
extrude\".)
Undo your addition (). Select an
existing vertex with . Now
to add a new vertex again. You
will notice that it is connected to the previously selected vertex by a
newly added edge as well. Since the newly added vertex is now the
selected vertex, doing again at
another position, and so on repeatedly, lets you construct a whole chain
of new edges. But what good are edges and vertices without faces?
To construct a face, you will need a closed loop of edges. To close a
loop of edges, select all the vertices in the chain, and press
. That will add another edge joining
the first and last vertex into a complete loop of edges and fill in the
loop with a new face.
If you want to close the loop without filling in the face, select only
the first and last vertex in the chain before pressing
. Since only two vertices are selected,
a new face will not be added, i.e. it will only add an edge joining the
two vertices.
You can also *extrude* new sections of mesh with a single click in this
way. Try selecting two adjacent corner vertices of the cube (i.e. two
joined by an edge). Now near them,
and you will see you've created *two* more vertices, joined to the
previous two by a new face. again,
and you can construct a whole sheet of new mesh in this way.
{width="120"} Undo
all your additions, and get back to the pristine cube. Now select all
four vertices of a single face.
near your selection, and you should have four new vertices
(corresponding to the original four you selected), plus a new face
connecting them, plus *four* new faces connecting them to the original
four. (You may not have noticed it, but the face formed from the
original four vertices has been removed as well.) Another
does the same thing again. So with
just a few clicks, you started with a cube and ended up with something
(see at right) that is starting to resemble --- who knows? A
square-cross-sectioned piece of some wonky-looking pipe, perhaps?
## Simplifying Things
It is possible to remove vertices without leaving holes behind in the
mesh, by two or more vertices
into one. Select the vertices you want to merge, and press
; a menu will pop up with some
options, including whether to position the resulting vertex in the
middle of the ones being merged, or at the position of the first or last
one you selected. The resulting vertex inherits all the edges that were
connected to the vertices being merged, as well as the faces connected
between those edges.
Sometimes an operation creates duplicate vertices in exactly the same
positions, or very close together. You can merge these *en masse* by
ensuring you have selected all possible candidate vertices (e.g. the
whole mesh), bringing up the Vertex Specials menu
() and selecting the "Remove Doubles"
item. Look for a message saying "Removed *n* vertices" to show briefly
in the Info window. If *n* is 0, nothing was done. If you look in the
lower left part of the Tool shelf, you will see a "Remove Doubles" panel
has appeared, with a "Merge Distance" slider that governs the maximum
distance allowed between vertices that are merged. Change this value as
appropriate (either by clicking on the left and right arrows, or by
clicking and typing in a new value and pressing
), and the Remove Doubles operation is
immediately redone. A new message will indicate how many vertices were
removed. Simply keep adjusting the value until you are satisfied you
haven\'t removed too many or too few vertices.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Normals and Shading
|previous=Mesh Edit Mode
|previousText=Meshes and Edit Mode
}}
```
{width="120"}
Open a new Blender document. Delete the default cube, and add a "UV
Sphere" mesh. In the "Add UV Sphere" panel which appears at the lower
left of the Toolshelf (press to make
the Toolshelf visible if it's not), set both the Segments and Rings to a
low number, e.g. 8. The result will be very angular, as shown to the
right, not round like you would expect a sphere to be.
{width="120"}
Press to do a quick render. The 3D view
will be replaced with the
view, showing the rendered image, as at right. Press
to return to the 3D view
.
{width="120"}
Select the sphere object (). Now look in
the Toolshelf for the shading buttons:
, and
click on "Smooth". Now try a new render with
.
As you can see, the *surfaces* of the object look a lot smoother and
curved, even though the *outline* or *silhouette* is just as angular as
before.
{width="120"}
Return to the 3D view with . Ensure the
UV sphere object is selected, and you are in Edit mode. Bring up the
Properties shelf at the right side of the 3D view with
if it's not already visible. Look for
the Mesh Display panel, and find the settings for Normals.
.
If you check both icon boxes, the display of the UV sphere should change
to look something like the image to the right.
Those spiky little lines are the
; the green ones in the middle
of each face are , the
blue ones protruding from each vertex are
.
In the physical theory of light, the *normal* is a line perpendicular to
the surface of the object the light is hitting. When your eye (or the
camera) *C* is positioned on a plane through the normal of a particular
surface observing a certain surface point *P* illuminated by a coplanar
light source *L*, a specific amount of light will be reflected and hence
be registered by the camera depending on the physical characteristics of
the surface. The observed intensity of reflected light is at a maximum
if the angle *C-P-L* is divided into two equal halves by the normal.
In the real world, a lot of surfaces are curved or otherwise not flat.
But a mesh can only be made up of straight edges and flat faces. So how
can it represent an object with a curved surface?
When you added the UV sphere to your scene, you had the option of
specifying how many segments and rings it was made from. The more of
those present, the closer the geometry approximates a curve. However,
the more there are, the longer the render will take, and the more memory
the model will consume to hold information about all the extra vertices,
edges and faces.
Which is where that "Smooth" shading button you clicked comes in. It
applies a trick called *Phong shading*.
Instead of doing the lighting calculation based on a normal for each
face as the physical theory says you should, it starts with a normal
assigned to each vertex, and interpolates the normal at each point on a
face from the vertex normals at its corners, based on the distance at
that point to those corners. The result fools the eye into seeing
curved, rounded surfaces where there aren't any.
This completely violates the laws of physics. To start with, how can you
define a "normal" which is perpendicular to a *point*? But as you can
see, the results look rather good, with relatively little extra
computation involved, much less than actually generating all the extra
geometry.
As you learn more about computer graphics, you will come across more
tricks like this. Physically accurate modelling is still very difficult
to do, even with modern computers, and the results may not look all that
good. But by adopting a bit of lateral thinking that goes completely
against physics, we can often, ironically, come up with much more
realistic-looking results.
## Not So Smooth?
{width="120"}
If you have been adding lots of vertices, edges and faces to your mesh,
you may end up with discontinuities in smooth shading causing unsightly
blotches, as shown to the right.
Assuming your mesh is constructed properly (e.g. no edges and faces
cross each other in physically impossible ways), the most likely reason
for this is the normals in the newly added vertices and faces are
pointing the wrong way. To fix it, select the troublesome part of the
mesh (or select the whole thing) in Edit mode, and press
to recalculate all the normals.
Re-render the scene to confirm the shading discontinuity has
disappeared.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/More Mesh Editing Techniques
|previous=Normals and Shading
}}
```
You previously scratched the surface of
the tools that Blender provides for editing meshes. This page will
introduce more of them.
## Adding More Mesh Pieces
Start with the default cube again. Select it and
into Edit mode. Press
to bring up the Add menu.
Instead of all the submenus with all the objects you could add in Object
mode, you will see only a single menu containing only mesh objects.
Select another cube, and use to move
it away from the first cube.
If you into Object mode, you will see
that the two cubes look like separate, disconnected objects, but they
are in fact one object, and cannot be selected separately in Object
mode. You can back into Edit mode, and
make connections between the vertices of the two cubes, which you cannot
do with separate objects. Therefore:
## Linked Selections
If you have some part of a mesh selected, pressing
will select all other parts of
the mesh that are connected to the already-selected parts. In the above
case of the object made up of two disconnected cubes, you can
on a single vertex of one cube, then
use to select all the rest of
that cube but not the other.
Another way to do linked selections is to simply move the mouse over
some part of the piece you want to select, and press
to immediately select everything
connected to that. Conversely,
will *un*select everything connected to the vertex under the mouse.
## Separating and Joining Meshes
You can separate a part of a mesh into its own object. The part you are
separating doesn't have to be disconnected from the rest of the mesh.
Simply select the part you want to separate in Edit mode, and press
, and in the menu that appears, choose
"Selection". You will see the selected part immediately change to a
reddish-orange highlight, indicating it is part of the object selection
but not the active object.
Conversely, you can join two or more mesh objects into one. Select all
the desired objects in Object mode, and press
, and you will see them all
immediately take on the orange-yellow highlight indicating they are
*all* the active object. into Edit
mode, and you can confirm all are editable as part of the same mesh
object.
## Proper Extrusion
You previously discovered how to add whole new sections to a mesh with
. Blender also has a proper
function, which lets you do
this with a bit more control.
Start with the default cube, as usual. Go into Edit mode. Select just
the top four vertices. Press to start
extruding, and move the mouse roughly along the direction of the Z-axis.
You will find yourself dragging out a whole new face formed from four
new vertices connected to the ones you previously selected. You will
notice also that the movement of the newly-added part of the mesh is
automatically constrained to be parallel to the Z-axis. Press
or
to finish the extrusion operation.
Deselect everything. Now try selecting another four vertices of the
original cube, say making up a face pointing along the X-axis. Now if
you extrude these, you will see that the extrusion is automatically
constrained to move only parallel to the X-axis.
A quirk of the extrusion function is that if you press
and then immediately abort with
or ,
*the additional mesh piece is still created*, but it is left in the same
position as the original mesh. To *really* abort the extrusion, you have
to undo it with .
### More Extrusion Options
brings up the Extrude menu, which gives you access to more options,
depending on what you have selected:
- "Region"---extrude the entire selected area as one, exactly
equivalent to .
- "Individual Faces"---if you have more than one face selected, then
they are extruded separately. In particular, any edge common to two
selected faces will give rise to two separate extruded edges, rather
than one.
- "Edges Only"---extrudes only the edges; new faces are created only
connecting the new edges to the existing ones, not between the new
edges.
- "Vertices Only"---extrudes only the vertices; edges are created only
connecting the new vertices to the existing ones, not between the
new vertices, and no new faces are created.
## Edge Loop Selection
*Edge loops* are an important concept when
constructing meshes. They are so important that Blender provides a
shortcut for selecting an entire edge loop with one click:
on an edge or vertex that is part
of the loop you want to select, and it will select the entire loop.
Alternatively, adds an edge
loop to the selection; or, if the part you click on is already selected,
it will *deselect* the entire loop.
For example, try experimenting with a UV sphere: every line of
"latitude" and "longitude" in this mesh is an edge loop.
## Loop Cuts
Sometimes you need to add more vertices to the interior part of a mesh,
perhaps to flesh in some detail. The loop cut function lets you add more
edge loops between existing ones.
Ensure you are in Edit mode. It doesn't matter what parts of the mesh
are currently selected. Press to
activate the function. You
will see a magenta-coloured loop wrap itself around different parts of
the mesh as you move the mouse. You can press
or to
abandon the operation at this point, or once you see the loop appearing
around the correct part of the mesh, you can use
or
to proceed. Now the magenta colour changes to the usual orange-yellow
selection highlight, and will now restrict itself to sliding along this
section of the mesh as you move the mouse. If you press
or
at this point, you will end up with a new loop of vertices and edges at
the last-shown point, while or
will still create the new loop, but
leave it positioned at the midpoint.
When the loop is still at the magenta stage, you can use the mouse wheel
to increase the number of cuts to 2 or more. You can also type a number
of cuts using \...
.
## Edge Loop Deletion
Conversely, you can get rid of edge loops as well, reducing the
complexity of the surface without leaving holes in it. Select the edge
loop (the quick way is on a
component edge or vertex as described above), then bring up the deletion
menu ( or
) and select "Edge Loop". The selected
loop will disappear, and adjacent edges and faces will be merged.
## Subdividing Parts
A loop cut always cuts a complete loop. Alternatively, you can
just a selected part of the
mesh: make your selection, then press
to bring up the Vertex Specials menu, and select the top option,
"Subdivide". This will create one cut, but a panel will appear at the
lower left of the Toolshelf ( to make
it visible at the left of the 3D view if it's not), where you can alter
the number of cuts and other settings. This same option is also
available on Edge Specials .
Another option is the second one on the
menu: "Subdivide Smooth". This one
computes a
Catmull-Clark
interpolation to give more of a curve rather than a flat subdivision.
## Subdivision Surface Modifier
A causes some change to the
geometry of an object just before it gets rendered. The change does not
affect the object as you view and edit it in the 3D view, or as it is
stored in the document (unless you
the modifier, which makes the
change permanent). This allows you to create some complicated effects at
render time, while the original mesh stays simple and easy to edit.
Modifiers for the active object are applied and controlled in the
Modifiers
tab in the Properties window.
{width="400"}
A (also
known as a "subsurf" modifier) applies the Catmull-Clark interpolation
discussed above as a modifier. Being a modifier, it applies to the
entire object, not just to selected vertices. But since the original
mesh is preserved, you use it as a *control cage* to adjust the shape of
the interpolated curve.
Start with the default cube selected in Object mode, as usual. Go to the
Modifiers tab in Properties
. When
you select "Subdivision Surface" from the "Add Modifier" menu, a new
panel appears as at right. Notice the two value sliders under the
"Subdivisions" heading; \'View\' controls the level of subdivision
within the 3D view, while \'Render\' applies to the actual render; the
higher the number of levels, the closer to a curve the interpolated
geometry becomes. Having two separate settings for working environment
and render allows for faster operation in the 3D view, with the usual
tradeoff of lower quality, while still allowing maximum quality for the
final render.
`{{B3D:N2P/Note|'''Keyboard shortcuts:''' Because the Subdivision Surface modifier is so heavily used, there is a set of hotkeys for adding the modifier to the current object if it doesn’t already have one, and setting the number of subdivision levels in the 3D view: {{B3D:N2P/Do|CTRL|1KEY}} .. {{B3D:N2P/Do|CTRL|5KEY}} for setting the view levels to 1 .. 5 respectively.
}}`{=mediawiki}
{width="120"}
As soon as you add the modifier, the appearance of the cube should
change to look something like at right (here shown with just one level
of subdivision).
The upper part of the panel (from the "Apply" and "Copy" buttons
upwards) is common to all modifiers. Note the X button at the right.
Clicking it gets rid of the modifier. Notice also a group of 4 icon
buttons in the middle, the leftmost two look like a camera and an eye.
The icons are defined as follows (from left to right):
- Use the modifier during rendering
- Show the modifier effect in the 3D view
- Show the modifier effect in the 3D view in Edit mode (if this is
unchecked and the previous one is checked, the modifier effect
disappears while in Edit mode)
- Show the mesh as though the modifier were applied to it in Edit
mode.
Unchecking the first one lets you disable the modifier without losing
its settings. The remaining three can be handy if you're trying to
disentangle the effects of different modifiers during editing.
{width="120"}
When the third button is enabled, the mesh will look like this in Edit
mode. The original mesh remains highlightable and editable. A preview of
the effect of the modifier is also visible, and responds immediately to
any changes made to the original mesh. (Try moving some vertices around,
and see what happens.)
{width="120"}
The fourth button goes one step further and acts as if the modifier has
already been applied, while allowing you to edit only those parts
corresponding to the original mesh. (This button affects the behavior of
the third button. It cannot be used independently, and may disappear if
the third button is unchecked.)
## Sharpening the Curves
The subdivision surface modifier offers much more control over the
resulting shape than might be apparent from above. For example, you may
not want uniform curvature everywhere, you may want some parts of the
shape to have sharper edges. This can be achieved in two ways:
- by applying a *crease* value to selected edges
- by strategic positioning of additional vertices in the control-cage
mesh.
### Applying a Crease
{width="160"}
Select the edges where you want the curve to be sharper. Press
. Note how the curve gets pulled
more or less closer to those edges as you move the mouse. The selected
edges take on a magenta colour, indicating they have a nonzero crease
value applied.
The crease value can be seen and edited in the Transform panel at the
top of the Properties Shelf at the side of the 3D view (you can toggle
its visibility with . Values can range
from 0.0 (no crease, the default) to 1.0 (maximum sharpness of the
edge).
### Adding Vertices
{width="160"}
For example, start with the subdivided cube example as above. Press
to start a loop cut, and position
the magenta outline something like this:
{width="160"}
Press or
\...
{width="160"}
\... and move the mouse so the newly-added loop moves closer to one side
of the cube. See how the subdivided mesh develops a sharper curve on
this side?
To confirm the placement of the new loop, press
or .
### Which to Use?
The basic principle is, the closer together the vertices are, the more
control you have over the curve at that point. So the question is, do
you just want a sharper edge, or do you want more detail? That will
govern whether you need to add vertices, or just apply a crease to the
existing edges.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Quickie Lighting
|previous=More Mesh Editing Techniques
}}
```
{width="120"}
Open a new default Blender document. Without doing anything else, hit
to render the default cube with the
default settings. The result should look something like the image to the
right.
Note the lower left visible face of the cube is completely black because
the default light is at the upper right.
{width="120"}
Go back from the render to the 3D view
(). Now select (with
) the default light, and either delete
it or move it to another layer (with ). Go
to your World tab
in the Properties
 window,
and look for the Environment Lighting panel:
Check the box next to the title, and leave the
"E:" (energy) value at its default 1.0. This gives us a pervasive,
directionless light, illuminating all objects equally from all
directions, which means there will be no shadows. Do another render, and
it should now look like the image to the right.
See how we have gone from inky-black shadows to no shadows at all. In
the real world, lighting is almost never perfectly uniform, and this
variation of light and shade is important to help us distinguish details
of the scene around us. Without such variations, everything devolves
into featureless blobs.
{width="120"}
Now undo your deletion of the default lamp (or move it back to layer 1).
Enable Environment Lighting again, but this time lower the Energy value
to 0.1. Do another render, and it should now look like the image to the
right. The shadowed face is still shadowed, but not enough to make it
impossible to see any details it may have. This is usually the type of
effect you want, unless you are aiming for really dramatic contrasts.
So the lesson is:
As you learn more, you will find that it is common to use two or three
lights, or even more, to ensure proper illumination of a scene. In
simple tutorials, where no explicit details are given about lighting,
you can probably get by with the default light, plus some environment
lighting (as we added earlier) to soften the shadows.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Quickie Model
|previous=Quickie Lighting
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
!Your goal. In this
module, you\'ll learn how to extrude and merge vertices of a mesh and
how to save a model. This module also introduces the File Browser window
type.
Your first model will be a house, which we will develop over the course
of several modules. Here we will start with four walls and a pyramidal
roof. Simple! Since you\'re going to use the default cube as a base, all
you actually need to build is the roof!
Editing in Blender generally involves four steps:
1. Selecting an object to edit.
2. Activating Edit Mode on that object.
3. Selecting part(s) of the object to act upon.
4. Specifying the action(s) to be performed on those parts.
## Bring up the Default Cube
!The default cube in Object
Mode.
1. Launch Blender.
2. Load the factory settings using *File → Defaults → Load Factory
Settings*.
This should give you a perspective view of a scene containing three
objects:
- a cube,
- a light source,
- a camera.
## Setting up the Viewport
It will be easier to work on the roof of your house in a perspective
side view:
1. Press to switch to a \"perfect\"
right side view.
\"Right Persp\" will be shown on the top left of the 3D View. The \"up\"
() direction in the scene is now \"up\" on your
monitor as well.
It will also help to zoom in a bit:
1. Make sure the 3D View window is active (which means your mouse
cursor is in it).
2. or press a few times until the
cube is about 1/3 the height of the viewport.
Because you just loaded the factory defaults, the 3D transform
manipulator will be enabled. For mesh editing, it will help to turn the
manipulator off:
1. Make sure the 3D View window is active.
2. Press to toggle the
manipulator on or off.
Press once. This puts you into Edit
Mode on the selected object, i.e. the cube.
Here\'s how the cube should look at this point:
The default cube is constructed as a mesh. Now that you\'re in Edit
Mode, you can access the individual vertices, edges, and faces that make
up the mesh. The default cube consists of eight vertices, twelve edges,
and six faces.
## Adjusting the Height
Right now, all eight vertices are selected, so any vertex edits you make
will affect them all. For instance, if you were to move a vertex, the
other seven vertices would follow. In order to build a roof peak for the
house, you need to alter just the four top vertices of the cube. To do
that, you must change the selection so that only *those* vertices are
selected.
1. Turn \'Occlude Background Geometry\' off, so you can see all
vertices. Note, in newer versions, this button is called \"Limit
Selection to Visible.\" It is one of the buttons to the right of
transform orientation which is to the right of the mode select which
should be currently set to \"edit mode\".
2. Deselect the bottom four vertices, one by one, using
.
The picture to the right shows the cube (in right perspective view and
occlude background geometry \"off\") with the correct vertices selected.
Now you\'ll adjust the height of your house\'s ceiling. Activate the
**grab tool**:
1. Make sure Blender is in Edit Mode, with the relevant part(s) of the
object selected.
2. Make sure the 3D View window is active.
3. Press .
The 3D View header will be replaced by numbers: \"Dx: 0.0000 Dy: 0.0000
Dz: 0.0000 (0.0000)\".
You want to lower the ceiling without making the walls crooked. This is
hard to do freehand, but happily the grab tool provides an option for
doing just that.
With the grab tool activated:
1. Press to limit movement to the global
Z-axis.
When your ceiling is the height you want, confirm the grab with
(or
).
## Extruding
!Step 7: the extruded attic, ready to
confirm{width="450"}
Now you\'re going to \"add on\" to your house by **extruding**.
Extrusion begins by duplicating selected parts of an object. Then the
new parts are pulled away from the old ones, with new faces and edges
created as necessary.
To add an attic to your house:
1. Make sure Blender is in Edit Mode, with the top four vertices
selected.
2. Make sure the 3D View window is active.
3. Press to activate the **extrude
tool**.
4. Restrict movement to the Z axis and move the mouse pointer upward.
5. When the attic is the height you want, confirm the extrude with
or
.
6. Keep the extrusion visible: you will need it for the next exercise.
## Merging
!The Specials
menu{width="350"}
You can change the roof from a flat one to a pyramidal one by merging
the vertices of the roof:
1. Make sure that you still have the extruded roof from the previous
exercise visible.
2. Make sure Blender is in Edit Mode, with the four top-most vertices
selected.
3. Make sure the 3D View window is active.
4. Press to bring up the *Specials*
menu.
5. Select *Merge*. (You can also access this by pressing
+.)
6. The *Merge* menu should pop up, select *At center*.
A message should appear on the Info header saying that 3 vertices have
been deleted, this is because in order to merge four vertices into one,
three vertices must be deleted.
!Your house now has a pyramidal
roof!
## Saving your Work
!Saving the
.blend{width="550"}
We will be developing the house in later modules, so save your work now.
To save the current scene in a `.blend` file:
1. Press (or select *File → Save As*).
The active window temporarily changes into a File Browser window.
2. Navigate to the directory (folder) where you want to write the file
by clicking on directory names in
the File Browser window. (Clicking on \"..\" will take you up one
level.)
3. If you wish to name the file something other than
\"untitled.blend\", type a filename in the text box to the left of
the \"Cancel\" button. (The .blend suffix will be added
automatically.)
4. Click on the \"Save As Blender
File\" button. As soon as the save operation is complete, the window
will automatically revert to its former type.
### Saving Further Changes
Once you have saved your work to a file for the first time, you can save
subsequent changes to the same file name by pressing
and confirming you want to
overwrite the existing file.
## Additional Resources
- A Video Tutorial on Edit
Mode
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Quickie Render
|nextText=Enter the World
|previous=Quickie Model
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
{width="350"}
If you haven\'t completed
, do so now. You will need
the resulting model for this module.
Now that you\'ve created your first model, you\'ll probably want to try
rendering it. Your first render, with a single light source and only
nine faces, should finish quickly. However, as your 3D scenes become
more complex, you\'ll find that rendering can take a long time.
In this module, you\'ll render your quickie model and save the result in
various file formats. You\'ll also learn how to aim cameras and create
lamps.
## Rendering the Quickie Model
1. Launch Blender and load factory settings.
2. To load the house model from the previous module, select *File →
Open Recent*, and select the file you saved. Alternatively, press
or select *File → Open*, find the
file, and open it. As soon as the operation is complete, the window
will load the quickie model that you created in the previous
exercise.
3. Press or select *Render → Render
Image*. This opens the
so you can watch the
render progress.
- With the new Apple keyboard, use
to avoid the Mac Dashboard.
- With Macintosh OS X 10.5, use
.
- With Gnome, use to avoid the
Gnome Search Dialog.
## Seeing Your Render
By default, pressing will switch to the
UV/Image Editor window, and show your render there. You can switch back
to the 3D view with . Pressing
in the 3D view will switch you to the
UV/Image Editor window without redoing the render, i.e. you will see the
same image as last time.
## Aiming the Camera
If you don\'t get a picture of the house, or if the picture is not
framed well, try moving or re-aiming the camera:
1. Press to get back to Edit Mode, if
needed.
2. Press to take the camera\'s
viewpoint.
3. Press to put the 3D View window
into .
In camera fly mode, you can:
- and by moving the mouse
pointer up, down, left, or right.
- Accelerate by forwards.
- Decelerate by backwards.
- Press any key or button to exit fly mode.
(It works differently in version 2.70 and later, more like a FPS game
with possibility to slide and so on, buttons are regular FPS controls)
When you\'re done positioning the camera, try rendering again.
## Lighting
If your cube is completely black, you may not have a lamp in the scene.
Either the default lamp got deleted, or you\'re using a version of
Blender that doesn\'t provide a default lamp.
To add a lamp:
1. Make sure Blender is in Object Mode.
2. Place the 3D cursor where you want the lamp to go; or add the lamp
then immediately grab it, and move it somewhere else.
3. Press .
4. In the popup menu, select *Lamp → Point*.
## Saving the Render
This is old information and is no longer valid. Saving the scene (with
, for instance) does not save any
renders. Saving renders is a separate step.
To save your current render :
1. Make sure you are in the Image Editor. If not press
to render
2. Press . This temporarily changes the
active window into a File Browser window. (in the older versions you
use F3 but in the newer versions the button can be FN + S or SHIFT +
S
3. Navigate to the directory (folder) where you want to write the file.
4. Type a filename in the text box (to the left of the \"Cancel\"
button).
5. To the left of the window, choose your preferred file type.
6. Click on the \"Save as Image\"
button. As soon as the save operation is complete, the window will
return to the Image Editor.
## Renderer Selection
Blender offers a choice of different rendering engines for producing
images. The menu for selecting from these appears in the Info window
(the thin one that contains the menu bar at the top of the default
layout). In most of these tutorials, you will leave this choice set at
Blender Render. But it is worth knowing what other choices are
available:
- Blender Render---the oldest renderer, commonly known as the Blender
Internal renderer. Built into Blender right from its early days. Can
still produce good results with the right tricks, but considered by
the Blender developers to be antiquated and not worthy of continuing
development.
- Blender Game---this is the renderer used by the Blender Game Engine.
Designed to be fast enough for interactive use in a game, which
means there are limitations in the quality of renders it produces.
You also use this renderer to create rigid-body physics simulations.
- Cycles Render---for this and other choices, see Advanced
Rendering.
## Render Control
 The top
panel under the Render tab
in the Properties window shows 3 buttons and a menu. The first button
renders a single frame, equivalent to .
The other two buttons are more relevant to
animations.
The "Display:" menu controls what happens when you press
: the default "Image Editor" causes the
3D view to be switched to the UV/Image Editor showing the rendered
image. "Full Screen" causes the UV/Image Editor display to take over the
entire screen, while "New Window" makes it appear in a separate OS/GUI
window (similar to how older versions of Blender used to work). Finally,
"Keep UI" causes no changes to your window layout at all; you have to
explicitly bring up the Image Editor with
to see the rendered image.
## Render Image Dimensions
 You
can control the size of the image that Blender creates when rendering.
This is specified in the "Dimensions" panel under Render
properties. Apart from the menu at the top, the settings in this panel
are grouped into two columns:
- The column on the left controls settings for a single image.
- The column on the right specifies additional settings for rendering
a whole sequence of images as part of an
animation.
These settings will be discussed
later.
At the upper left, under "Resolution:", we have the dimensions in pixels
of the image (the default settings are 1920×1080 as shown in the
screenshot), plus an additional scale factor slider below (showing 50%
by default). With these settings, the image will actually be rendered at
(1920×50%)×(1080×50%) = 960×540. Having the scale factor is a
convenience. Rendering smaller, lower-quality images is faster, which
speeds up initial work on your model, but you\'ll want full quality for
the final result. Instead of mentally having to work out numbers for
render quality, you can simply set the resolution to full quality, and
use the scale factor to reduce this to, say, 50% or 25% for interim
work, then set it to 100% for the final output.
## Image File Formats
You set the format and location for saving rendered images in the
"Output" panel under the Render
properties.
In current versions of Blender, the default format for saving rendered
images is PNG. This is a
*lossless* format which has the option for *alpha transparency* (which
means the sky background is replaced by transparent pixels---enabled by
clicking the "RGBA" button). This is a good format if you intend to do
further work with the image (e.g. in an image editor like Gimp or
Photoshop), but the files can be large.
JPEG is a lossy
image format, which means it throws away information that the human eye
doesn't see. This produces much smaller files than PNG, and is adequate
if you just want to upload the render directly for use in a Web page or
other such document, but is not the best choice if you intend to do
further processing of the image. It also doesn't support alpha
transparency.
To change the render file format:
1. Switch to the Render tab in the Properties window.
2. Look for the "Output" panel.
3. Click on the popout menu with the
current file format.
4. Select your preferred format.
## Additional Resources
-
- Tutorial on Using Multiple
Cameras ←
Pictures are missing from this tutorial
- Ira Krakow\'s Basic Blender Camera Positioning
(Rigging)
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/World Settings
In the properties panel, the World
settings control the background or sky settings for your scene. A scene
doesn't have to have a World, in which case, the background will simply
be black. If you save your images with a transparent Sky setting, the
background doesn't matter. But in other situations, you will want to
control what appears here.
Here is what the top two panels in the World Context look like in a new
default document. (Settings further down for Ambient Occlusion,
Environment Lighting and Indirect Lighting will be discussed later, when
we discuss lighting.)
"Ambient Color" is a sourceless, shadowless light, coming from all
directions, applied to all objects. Trouble is, its effect is very
"flat", i.e. it washes out detail. It\'s probably better to use the
Environment Lighting or Ambient Occlusion options (in panels further
down) to soften murky shadows.
With none of the boxes checked, "Zenith Color" has no effect, only
"Horizon Color" does. The sky will simply be a flat expanse of this
colour. Selecting "Paper Sky" and "Real Sky" on their own has no effect,
they work only in conjunction with "Blend Sky".
Check "Blend Sky" on its own. Now the sky takes on a gradient from
"Zenith Color" at the zenith (straight up) to "Horizon Color", not at
the horizon, but at the nadir (straight down).
Check both "Blend Sky" and "Real Sky". Now you get "Horizon Color" at
the horizon, with a gradient to "Zenith Color" at both zenith *and*
nadir.
The effect of "Blend Sky" with "Paper Sky" is a bit more subtle. It
means the horizon is always in the middle of the image, regardless of
the orientation of the camera. The effect is more noticeable if you
check "Real Sky" as well, otherwise it looks little different from
"Blend Sky" on its own.
Here is an example with contrasting horizon and zenith colours. I also
set the camera field of view to 90°.
With only "Blend Sky" checked, a render looks like this.
With "Blend Sky" and "Real Sky" checked, this is how the render comes
out. Note how the cube is noticeably off-centre relative to the horizon
band, because the camera view is at an angle to the horizontal.
With all three of "Blend Sky", "Real Sky" and "Paper Sky" checked, the
result is this. The cube now looks like it is on the horizon, even
though the camera angle is the same as the previous image.
You can also add a texture to your sky. That will be discussed
later.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Understanding the Camera
|previous=World Settings
|previousText=Enter the World
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
## Real-World Cameras
Before discussing the camera in Blender, it helps to understand
something about how cameras work in real life. We have become accustomed
to so many of their quirks and limitations when looking at real
photographs, that 3D software like Blender often expends a lot of effort
to mimic those quirks.
When taking a photo with a real camera, a number of important factors
come into play:
- the *focus* --- because of the way lenses work, only objects within
a certain distance range from the camera (the *depth of field*) will
appear sharp in the image. Objects outside this range will begin to
appear noticeably blurred, the blur getting worse the farther they
are outside the focus range. The narrower the range of in-focus
distances (the shallower the depth of field), the more quickly this
blurring happens with objects outside it.
- the *exposure time* --- how long the shutter remains open. The
longer this is, the more light is captured, but also the more likely
the image is to pick up *motion blur* from moving objects.
- the *aperture* --- how wide the iris opening is. This is expressed,
not as an actual distance measurement, but as a fraction of the
*focal length* of the lens (loosely, distance between the lens and
the image-capturing surface when the image is properly focused),
written as *f*: thus, say, *f*/2.8 ("*f* over 2.8", not "*f* 2.8")
is a larger number, hence representing a wider aperture, than *f*/8.
A wider aperture increases the amount of light being captured
*without* contributing to motion blur, but it reduces the depth of
field. The extreme case of a *pinhole camera* has a very tiny
aperture with infinite depth of field (no need to focus at all), but
captures very little light, so it needs a very well-lit scene, a
long exposure, or a very sensitive image-capturing surface.
- the *sensitivity* of the image-capturing surface to light. In the
days of film cameras, we talked about film sensitivity ("fast" film
being more sensitive to light than "slow" film). Nowadays, with
digital cameras we talk about the *gain* of the light-amplification
system. High-sensitivity film was more likely to produce a grainy
image. In a somewhat similar manner, high light-amplification in a
digital camera is more likely to produce a noisy-looking image under
low-light conditions.
- the *field of view* --- how much of the scene the camera can see at
once. A *wide-angle* lens gives a wider field of view, but you have
to be closer to objects to be able to see them, and there is greater
perspective distortion. At the other extreme, a *telephoto* lens
gives a very narrow field of view, but can take pictures of things
from much further away. A wide-angle lens also has a shorter focal
length than a narrow-angle one (remember that aperture is expressed
as a ratio of the focal length *f*), therefore the telephoto lens is
going to capture *less* light than the wide-angle one with the
*same* aperture width. You may also have heard of the *zoom lens*,
i.e. one with a variable focal length. It can be adjusted from a
wide-angle mode to a telephoto mode.
As you can see, many of these different factors interact with each
other. The brightness of the image can be affected by the exposure time,
the aperture, the gain sensitivity and the focal length of the lens.
Each of these have side-effects on the image in other ways.
Blender and other computer graphics software are, in principle, free of
the problems of focus, exposure time, aperture, sensitivity and focal
length. Nevertheless, it is common to want to introduce deliberate
motion blur into an image, to give the impression of movement. Sometimes
it is useful to introduce a deliberately shallow depth of field,
blurring objects in the background in order to draw emphasis to the
important part of the image, i.e that which is in focus.
Exposure (the total amount of light captured in the image) is also less
of a problem in computer graphics than in real-world photography,
because in computer graphics you always have total control over the
amount and placement of lighting in the scene. Nevertheless, if you're
not careful, you can produce overexposed (bright parts losing detail by
saturating to a solid, featureless white) or underexposed images (dark
parts losing detail by becoming solid black).
The field of view issue arises from basic principles of geometry, and
Blender's camera is just as much subject to that as real cameras.
## The Camera In Blender
Here we are going to concentrate on the important issue of *field of
view*.
You can change the field of view in two ways - move the camera closer to
or farther from the scene (called *dollying* in film/TV production
parlance), or change the angle of the lens (*zooming*). You do the
latter in the Object Data
tab in the Properties window (the Camera has to be selected by
in Object Mode, or the required tab
will not be visible).
*Perspective* is the phenomenon
where objects that are farther away from the viewer look smaller than
those nearby. More than that, different parts of the *same* object may
be at different distances from the eye, leading to a change in the
apparent shape of the object called *perspective distortion*. The
mathematical theory of perspective was worked out by
Alhazen in the 11th century, and famously
adopted by the Italian Renaissance painters four hundred years later.
Here are two renders of the same scene with two different cameras, to
illustrate the difference.
This one moves the camera closer but gives it a wider field of view:
This one moves the camera back, while narrowing its field of view, to
try to give the scene the same overall size.
The latter is like using a "telephoto" lens with a real camera. Notice
how the wider field of view gives you a greater perspective effect. The
boxes are all *cuboids*, with parallel pairs of opposite faces joined by
parallel edges, yet there is a noticeable angle between
notionally-parallel edges in both images, which is more pronounced in
the upper image. *That* is what perspective distortion is all about.
### Specifying the Field of View
When you select a camera object, its settings become visible in the
Camera Context
in the Properties window, which should initially look something like at
right.
Photographers are accustomed to working in terms of the focal length of
the lens - longer means narrower field of view, shorter means wider
field of view. But the field of view also depends on the size of the
sensor (image capture area). Modern digital cameras typically have a
smaller sensor size than the exposed film area in older 35mm film
cameras. Thus, the focal length measurements have to be adjusted
accordingly, in order to give the same field of view.
Blender allows you to work this way, by specifying the focal length in
the "Lens" panel, and the sensor size in the "Camera" panel. It even
offers a "Camera Presets" menu, which sets the sensor size for any of a
range of well-known cameras.
Also, you might be doing compositing of your computer-generated imagery
on top of an actual photograph. In which case, to make the results look
realistic, you need to closely match the characteristics of the camera
and lens that were used to take the photo. If you know the lens focal
length and camera sensor size, it makes sense to be able to plug those
values in directly.
 But
if you're *not* doing photo compositing, but generating completely
synthetic imagery, you might consider this a somewhat roundabout way of
working. Why not specify the field of view directly as an angle?
Blender allows for this as well. From the popup menu in the Lens panel
that says "Millimeters", select "Field of View" instead, and the Focal
Length field will turn into a Field of View field, showing the angle in
degrees directly. This is *much* easier to relate to the geometry of the
scene!
## See Also
- Improving Blender Renders with Photography
Techniques
--- another explanation covering similar ground.
es:Entendiendo la cámara
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Improving Your House
|previous=Understanding the Camera
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
!Your goal. In this
module, you\'ll refine the house model you created two modules ago. In
the process, you\'ll learn how to access Blender\'s predefined meshes
and how to set a pivot point. You\'ll also learn how to select, extrude,
delete, and subdivide the edges and faces of a mesh model.
\_\_TOC\_\_
To begin, set up Blender as follows:
1. Launch Blender and load the factory settings.
2. If you have a numpad, make sure NumLock is on.
3. Load the house model you created in
.
4. If the 3D manipulator is active, disable it.
5. Adjust the viewpoint until you can clearly see two walls of the
house and two sides of the roof.
## Adding a Ground Plane
Your house needs some ground to rest on. You can model the ground as an
object in your scene. Blender has many predefined mesh objects built in.
Happily, one of these is a flat, square surface.
Recall that new objects are added at the 3D cursor. Before creating the
ground, you should position the cursor at ground level:
1. Select the house by clicking on it.
2. Enter Edit Mode by pressing .
3. Select one of the bottom vertices by clicking
on it.
4. Bring up the *Snap* menu by pressing
.
5. Choose *Cursor to Selected*.
6. Leave Edit Mode by pressing so your
ground is created as a separate object.
!The ground
added.
Now create the ground object:
1. Activate a 3D View window.
2. Press .
3. Choose *Mesh → Plane*.
!The scaled
ground.{width="200"}
To enlarge (or scale) the ground object, use the
:
1. Make sure Blender is in Object Mode.
2. Select the ground by clicking on
it.
3. Activate the scale tool by pressing
.
4. Type to enlarge the ground 7x.
5. Press or
to confirm and exit the scale tool.
## Scaling with a Pivot
Suppose you want to shrink the house by 50%. As you can probably guess,
this would be done with the scaling tool. However, if you did so right
now without the right pivot point, the reduced house would no longer
rest on the ground (check this by selecting the house and scaling it to
0.2). Blender scales (and rotates) objects around a
, which by default is
located at the
(geometric center) of the selected object(s).
In order to scale the house while keeping its base on the ground, you
need the pivot point to be at ground level. Since the 3D cursor is at
ground level, you can do this as follows:
!Origin to 3D Cursor Menu
Item.
1. Make sure Blender is in Object Mode.
2. Select the house by clicking on it.
3. In the 3D View header, click on
menu item \"Object\" and put the mouse cursor over *Transform* and
select *Origin to 3D Cursor* from the pop-up menu. This can also be
done with Ctrl+Shift+Alt+C, select *Origin to 3D Cursor* from the
pop-up menu. (A.K.A. select \"Object\" which is just left of where
you\'ve been going into object mode/edit mode, as shown in the
image. So Object\>Transform\>Origin to 3D Cursor)
The origin of the house is now at the center of the 3D cursor. If you
scale the house, the place where the 3D cursor is located will remain
fixed, and everything else will expand or contract from that point. The
pivot is marked with an orange-filled circle. Do not mistake it for a
selected vertex.
## Edge Selection
It is often useful to select edges instead of vertices.
!The select mode
buttons.
1. Make sure Blender is in Object Mode.
2. Select the house by clicking on it.
3. Press to enter edit mode.
4. Click on the Edge select mode
button in the 3D View header.
In Edge select mode, edges appear as orange or white line segments when
they\'re selected and as black line segments when they\'re not.
Just as you selected vertices in Vertex select mode, you can now select
(and deselect) edges in the same way as vertices. This is also the same
for Face select mode.
It may be because those edges are
. This can happen if you
cancel an extrude operation and forget to undo the duplication. Here\'s
a solution:
1. Switch to Vertex select mode.
2. Activate a 3D View window.
3. Select all vertices by pressing
once or twice.
4. Press to bring up the \"Specials\"
menu.
5. Choose *Remove Doubles*.
## Extruding Edges
You can extrude edges in much the same way as you extrude vertices.
!Step
5{width="200"}
To add an overhang to the roof of your house, first move the pivot point
to the peak of the roof:
1. Switch to Vertex select mode.
2. Select just the vertex at the peak of the roof.
3. Press to bring up the Snap
menu.
4. In the Snap menu, choose *Cursor to Selected* to move the 3D cursor
to the peak.
5. Use the \"Pivot\" menu (located to the left of the 3D Manipulator
button) in the 3D View header to change the pivot to \"3D Cursor\".
!After step 2 Now
extrude by scaling from that point:
1. Switch to Edge select mode.
2. Select just the four edges at the base of the roof.
3. Press to activate the extrude
tool. The effect is that you have just made a copy of the four
edges.
4. Press to scale the four edges
uniformly from the pivot point.
5. As you move the mouse pointer away from the pivot point, the roof of
your house will expand.
6. When the roof is the size you want, confirm by
(or pressing
).
7. Press to toggle the
manipulator on then make the overhangs slanted by holding
on the blue arrow that appears in
the center of the house, and dragging down.
!After step 7
## Face Selection
It is often useful to select faces.
!The select mode buttons after step
2
1. Make sure you\'re in Edit Mode on the house.
2. Click on the Face select mode
button in the 3D View header.
In Face select mode, the center of each face is marked with a small
square. Faces appear as orange or stippled grey areas with orange edges
when they\'re selected (depending on which face is active), and as grey
areas when they\'re not.
Just as you selected edges in Edge select mode, you can now select (and
deselect) faces:
- If any faces are selected, press
to deselect all faces.
- If no faces are selected, press to
select all faces.
- To select a single face (and deselect the rest), click
(or
) on the center of the face.
- To toggle the selection status of a face (without affecting the
rest), click on the center of
the face.
!The three faces on the +X side,
selected
Use these techniques to select all three faces (two roof and one wall)
on the +X side of your house, as shown.
- Remember that the positive direction of the axis is the direction
the arrows point to.
## Extruding Faces
Just as you extruded edges to grow the roof, you can extrude faces to
grow the entire house.
!After step 6 To
double the size of your house without changing the pitch of the roof:
1. With the three faces on the +X side selected, activate a 3D View
window.
2. Press to activate the extrude
tool.
3. Press to extrude along the X axis
4. As you move the mouse pointer in the +X direction, the +X half of
your house will expand.
5. Press to expand by exactly 2 Blender
units. (If you scaled your house earlier, you must change this value
accordingly, e.g. scaling by 50% means you press
.)
6. Confirm and exit the extrude tool by clicking
(or pressing
).
## Deleting Edges
!After step
2{width="250"} If you
look closely at the model, you\'ll notice an extra edge, inside the
house, connecting the seams between the two halves of the roof. To
delete this edge:
1. Edit the house object in Edge select mode.
2. Select just the edge you want to delete.
3. Press or
.
4. When the \"Delete\" menu comes up, choose *Edges*.
## Subdividing Faces
In order to add openings such as doors or windows to the walls of your
house, you\'ll need to subdivide the wall (vertical) faces into smaller
faces.
!After step
2{width="150"}
To subdivide each wall face into a 10x20 grid:
1. Make sure you are not in wire-frame mode (otherwise the occlude
hidden geometry button will not appear)
2. Edit the house object in Face select mode.
3. Select all six wall faces of your house.
4. Press to bring up the *Specials*
menu.
5. Choose *Subdivide*.
6. Set the number of cuts to 9 in the Operator panel (also accessible
through F6).
You might be wondering why to make 9 cuts instead of 10, the reason is
that in case of dividing a finite surface along one axis there will be
always n-1 cuts to generate n single faces. Here the number of cuts is
applied in 2 dimensions. So, if you count the number of faces on the
subdivided walls, you will find a 10x20 grid. The reason why there are
20 faces instead of 10 lengthwise is because you doubled the size of the
house along the X axis (lengthwise). !After step
6{width="150"}
!Step 2 !After step
3.2{width="150"}
Now you can extrude windows and doors:
1. Edit the house object in Face select mode.
2. Turn on the \"Limit selection to visible (clipped with depth
buffer)\" (for old Blender versions \"Occlude background geometry\")
option by clicking on the toggle
button in the 3D View header.
3. For each wall of the house:
1. Go to the perfect view for that wall:
- for \"front\"
- for \"back\"
- for \"right\"
- for \"left\"
2. Select faces where you want to create a window or door. An easy
way to do this is by:
1. Deselecting all faces by pressing
once or twice.
2. Pressing to activate the
Border Select tool.
3. Clicking and dragging to
delimit a rectangular area.
4. After you release , all
faces in the rectangular area will be selected.
3. Press to activate the extrude
tool.
4. Extrude inward 1/10th of a BU by typing
and confirming it with
or
.
## Final Steps
1. Adjust the position of the lamp and aim the camera until you obtain
a good render.
2. Save your work!
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Modeling a Simple Person
|previous=Improving Your House
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
!Your simple person will look like
this.
In this module, you will model a simple human figure. Along the way, you
will practice using extrusion and learn additional ways to select
vertices, edges, and faces. \_\_TOC\_\_
## Start a New Scene
1. Start with the default cube (*File → Load Factory Settings*) and
NumLock \"on\".
2. Press to edit the cube.
3. Scale the cube down 50% by pressing
.
## Selection Methods
Just as you did for the house model, you will begin by selecting the top
four vertices of the cube. This section presents six methods for doing
so.
Ease of selection depends partly on the viewport settings and viewpoint.
For greatest ease, you want a view in which the parts you are trying to
select are both visible and close together.
For clarity, use a view of the cube in which all vertices are visible:
- Go to right side view with .
- Disable the manipulator widget with
.
- Make sure the Limit selection to visible option is \"off\".
{width="450"}
The picture on the right shows the cube with the correct vertices
selected.
To begin, make sure you start in Vertex select mode.
### Border Select Tool
The selects things
that lie in a rectangular region of the viewport.
1. Activate (place the mouse pointer in) a 3D View window.
2. Deselect all vertices by pressing .
3. Press to activate the border
select tool. Two dashed gray lines should appear, one vertical and
one horizontal, forming a crosshair in the viewpoint.
4. Click and drag diagonally across
the area you want to select. The area will be outlined in dashed
gray lines.
5. When you release the mouse button, the vertices inside the rectangle
will be added to the selection.
Practice selecting the top four vertices this way. If you make a
mistake, press and try again.
### Circle Select Tool
The selects or
deselects things that lie in a circular region of the viewport.
1. Activate a 3D View window.
2. Deselect all vertices by pressing .
3. Press to activate the circle
select tool. A dashed gray circle should appear. note: Prior to
Blender 2.5
twice.
When this tool is active, you can do various things:
- To move the select area, simply move the mouse pointer.
- To resize the select area, use
or
/..
- To select all vertices within the circle, click
.
- To deselect all vertices within the circle, click
or
+
.
- To deactivate the tool, press or
.
Practice selecting the top four vertices this way. If you make a
mistake, press and try again.
### Lasso Select Tool
Like many graphics programs, Blender 3D has a
.
1. Activate a 3D View window.
2. Deselect all vertices by pressing .
3. Click and hold .
4. Drag the mouse pointer in a loop around the vertices you want to
select. As you drag, a dashed gray line will appear.
5. You can deselect with lasso by pressing
++.
6. Release the when you\'re done.
### Vertex by Vertex Selection
You can select (or deselect) vertices one by one, as you did in
.
1. Click on a vertex to make it the
only selected vertex.
2. Toggle the select state of additional vertices by clicking
.
### Edge Select Mode
You can select (or deselect) edges one by one, as you did in
.
1. Click on the Edge select mode
button in the 3D View header.
2. Select the top left edge of the cube by clicking on it with
.
3. Toggle the select state of top right edge of the cube by clicking on
it with .
4. Switch back to Vertex select mode by clicking
on the Vertex select mode button in
the 3D View header.
After you switch back to Vertex select mode, all four vertices in the
two selected edges are selected.
### Face Select Mode
You can select (or deselect) faces one by one, as you did in
.
1. Click on the Face select mode
button in the 3D View header.
2. Select the top face of the cube by clicking on its center dot with
.
3. Switch back to Vertex select mode by clicking
on the Vertex select mode button in
the 3D View header.
After you switch back to Vertex select mode, all four vertices in
selected face are selected.
## Extruding Limbs
!The view menu. The
illustrations in this section are in front orthographic view, so:
- Use (or *View → Orthographic*) to
switch to orthographic view.
- Use (or *View → Front*) to switch
to front view.
### Region Extrusion
1. Make sure you\'re still in Edit Mode, with the top four vertices
selected. (Only two will be visible in front ortho view.)
2. Activate the extrude tool by using
(or *Mesh → Extrude Region*).
3. Move the mouse pointer upwards. As you do, four *new* vertices will
appear, each connected to one of the four that were previously
selected.
The new vertices and their associated edges will move with the mouse
pointer. You can lock them into place with
or ).
### Extruding a Leg
Suppose you want to extrude a region the same size as the default cube
\-- in other words, one Blender unit on a side.
1. Undo your previous extrude by pressing
.
2. Activate the extrude tool again by using
(or *Mesh → Extrude Region*).
3. This time, as you\'re moving the extruded vertices around, hold down
the key. You\'ll see that the new
vertices will only move in multiples of a Blender unit. This is
called , and it makes it
easy to extrude by exactly one blender unit. The size of the
snapping depends on the zoom level; if you are zoomed out a long way
from the object the snapping will be done in large increments and if
you are zoomed in close you can snap in finer amounts.
Continue extruding until you have five cubes of equal size stacked atop
one another. This will be one leg of your figure.
### Extruding the Pelvis
1. Press until all vertices are
deselected.
2. Rotate the view (by dragging ) so
you can see all four vertices on the right face of the top cube.
3. Select those four vertices.
4. Extrude twice to the right.
### Extruding the Rest of the Body
The same trick is repeated over and over to build the rest of our simple
body.
1. Create a second leg by extruding down four times from the last cube
of the pelvis.
2. Create the torso by extruding up five times from the middle cube of
the pelvis.
3. Extrude to each side from the next-to-top cube of the torso to
create arms. (Making sure there are five on each side. Refer to the
picture on the top of the page)
Image:Blender-2.5_simple_person_step3.png\|Legs and Pelvis
Image:Blender-2.5_simple_person_step4.png\|Torso
Image:Blender-2.5_simple_person_step5.png\|Arms
To be safe, remove any double vertices you may have inadvertently
created:
1. In Vertex select mode, press until
all vertices are selected.
2. Make sure that you are in Edit Mode, Press
to bring up the Vertex Context
Menu.
3. Scroll over Merge Vertices, and then select By Distance.
Now check your work:
1. Return to Object Mode by pressing .
2. Make sure the viewport draw type is Solid. (Press
if it isn\'t.)
3. Rotate the viewpoint and examine the body from every side (it might
be useful to return to perspective view for this).
This is easily fixed. To create a face:
1. Press to go back into Edit Mode.
2. Select four vertices.
3. Press (or choose *Mesh → Faces →
Make Edge/Face* from the 3D View header).
- Note that you can also make edges with this tool if you select two
vertices.
## Adding the Head
1. Move the 3D cursor to a point above the neck by clicking with the
.
2. Adjust the cursor position in orthographic top, front and side views
(,
, and
respectively) until the 3D cursor
is about where the center of the head should be. It may help to use
→ *Snap* → *Cursor to Grid*.
3. Make sure you\'re in Edit Mode with a 3D View window active. (If you
create the head in Object Mode, it will be a separate object from
the body, and changes to the body later in this tutorial won\'t
affect the head.)
4. Create a sphere using → *Mesh*
→ *Icosphere*.
5. Leave the default settings for subdivisions and size in the bottom
left of the screen. (Note: Your computer may slow down if you set
subdivisions above 6)
You should now have a small sphere at the top of the body. To make it
more proportional to the body, resize it using the scale tool:
1. Make sure you\'re still in Edit Mode, with a 3D View window active
and the head selected.
2. If necessary change the pivot point to *Median Point*.
3. Activate the scale tool by pressing
(or *Mesh → Transform → Scale*).
4. Move the mouse pointer until the head is the size you want.
You may also adjust its position using the grab tool:
1. Make sure you\'re still in Edit Mode, with a 3D View window active
and the head selected.
2. Activate the grab tool by pressing
(or *Mesh → Transform → Grab/Move*).
3. Move the mouse pointer until the center of the head is where you
want it.
Now check your work:
1. Return to Object Mode by pressing .
2. Make sure the viewport draw type is Solid. (Press
if it isn\'t.)
3. Rotate the viewpoint and examine the body from every side. Make sure
that the head connects properly to the neck.
## Save Your Work
You will continue working on your simple person model in the next
module.
To save the scene in a `.blend` file:
1. Press +
(or select *File → Save*).
2. Navigate to the directory (folder) where you want to write the file.
3. Type a filename in the text box to the left of the \"Cancel\"
button.
4. Click on the \"Save Blender File\"
button.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Detailing Your Simple Person 1
|previous=Modeling a Simple Person
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
!Your goal. Few
real-life objects have perfectly sharp edges. People, in particular,
consist of mainly smooth surfaces. How does one model a smooth object
using flat faces and sharp edges?
In this module, you\'ll learn how to smooth a mesh by using subsurfaces
and smooth shading.
\_\_TOC\_\_
You\'ll need the simple person model from the previous module. If you
haven\'t done it, either go back and do it now or download the pre-made
model from
.
If the model doesn\'t look solid, your Viewport Shading setting may be
set to Wireframe. To switch to Solid shading:
1. Activate the 3D View window.
2. Press .
## Subsurfaces
!The sub surface
modifier.
So far, all the meshes you\'ve created have had sharp edges, giving them
a faceted appearance like that of a cut diamond. To model a smooth
object (like a human body) you might think you need a huge number of
vertices and faces.
partly solves this problem by automatically subdividing a mesh into a
finer mesh suitable for smooth rendering.
You subsurface in Blender by adding a
to an existing mesh
object. A is simply an
algorithm (automatic process) which can be added to an object. (Blender
modifiers are analogous to Photoshop adjustment layers.)
To get started, make sure Blender is in Object Mode, with only the
simple person object selected:
1. If Blender is in Edit Mode, press .
2. To select the simple person, on it.
To add a subsurf modifier to the selected object:
1. Click on the modifiers tab (wrench icon) in the Properties window.
2. *Add Modifier → Subdivision Surface*.
You could also add subsurf modifier by pressing
.
The object\'s appearance should immediately become more faceted and more
rounded. In addition, several subsurface controls will appear in the
Modifiers tab.
The model may include some double vertices. To get rid of these:
1. Edit the model in Vertex select mode.
2. Select all vertices.
3. *Mesh → Vertices → Remove Double*
4. Try again.
You need to look in to upgrading (or possibly even downgrading) your
graphics drivers. Having the right graphics driver can avert many
problems.
What just happened? The default subsurf modifier (one level of
Catmull-Clark) subdivided each face of the object into four smaller
faces that are progressively angled. This softened the sharp edges of
the original model where faces met at 90-degree angles.
### Controls
For this model, one level of subsurf isn\'t quite enough. To increase
the number of levels to two, just increase the number in the text box
directly underneath *Subdivisions*. The *View* setting controls the
number of subdivision levels visible in the viewport. This is very
useful when you have a high-poly scene, just decrease the number of
visible subdivisions to speed up viewport action.
You can specify additional levels of subsurfing to be used during
renders. For extra smooth renders, you might want three levels of
subsurfing. Set this with the *Render* control immediately below the
*View* control.
The *Apply* button applies the modifier to the mesh. Do not click it
yet. We\'ll be playing with the model a bit longer before we apply the
changes. While useful with some modifiers, applying a subsurf modifier
produces a very complex mesh, and there\'s no need to do so here.
Remember that you can undo any accidental modifications with
.
Blender can combine a series of modifiers by
them. For this reason, the
Modifier tab includes buttons for arranging and removing modifiers.
You can hide edges created by the modifier by activating the *Optimal
Display* toggle button. The effect is especially clear with the
Wireframe draw type.
You can edit the mesh in modified form (without actually applying the
modifier) by activating the *Adjust edit cage to modifier* toggle
button, a small button with a triangle and vertices, to the left of the
Up/Down arrows (the arrows are for changing the position of the modifier
in the stack) in the Modifier panel.
Try this out:
1. Press to enter Edit mode.
2. Make sure Blender is in Vertex select mode.
: Note that the vertices no longer lie on the surface of the
object.
3. Activate the *Adjust edit cage to modifier* button.
: Now all vertices lie on the surface of the object, and you can
adjust the (modified) vertices directly. However, any additional
vertices created by the modifier cannot be directly edited
without applying the modifier.
You will be editing the boxy version of the simple person awhile longer,
so before continuing, deactivate the *Apply modifier to editing cage
during Editmode* button.
## Smooth Shading
!Your simple person after setting
smooth.{width="400"}
Subsurfaces do a good job of smoothing out corners in meshes. Even with
two levels of subsurfaces, however, the simple person does not look
completely smooth; when viewed close up, it has a scaly appearance. This
is because each face is
---shaded to resemble a
flat surface---resulting in sudden changes in brightness at most edges.
For a smooth object, you want
, which smooths out the
changes in brightness.
1. Go to Object Mode.
2. Set the draw type of a 3D View window to \"Solid\".
3. Select your subsurfed object.
4. In the Toolshelf on the left, look for a caption called *Shading*.
Under it should be a button called *Smooth*.
: All the mesh edges will be smoothed out, leaving no sudden
changes in brightness. The faces blend smoothly into one
another, making the edges nearly invisible. If the icosphere has
not smoothed properly and is dimpled, enter Edit Mode by
pressing , select all
vertices (A) and recalculate the normal direction (CTRL+N). This
is also available in the Toolshelf under *Normals*.
5. Click the other button under *Shading* in the Toolshelf, named
\'Flat\'.
: The edges will reappear. Now you know the difference between
Flat and Smooth.
6. Since the model looks better with smooth shading, click
on the \"Smooth\" button again.
Note that if you didn\'t have subsurf enabled, then the mesh wouldn\'t
look much different. This is because smooth shading doesn\'t affect the
mesh shape, it just changes how the computer draws the triangles.
Smooth shading also removes a lot of definition. A good way to get rid
of this is simply to add a subsurf modifier like you just did. The
modifier will not only require fewer vertices, but add definition.
<File:Blender3D_FlatShading.PNG%7CFlat> Shading
<File:Blender3D_SmoothShading.PNG%7CSmooth> Shading
Save your work. You will continue refining this model in the next
module.
### Additional Resources
- For more about modifiers, see
- For more about Blender subsurfaces, see
.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Detailing Your Simple Person 2
|previous=Detailing Your Simple Person 1
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
In this module, you\'ll edit a subsurfed mesh using the scale and grab
tools, all the while improving your character. \_\_TOC\_\_
You\'ll need the simple person model from the previous module. If you
haven\'t done it, either go back and do it now or else download the
pre-made model from
.
## Widening the Torso
To be realistic, the simple person\'s torso needs to be three times
wider. In order to keep the torso symmetrical, you\'ll expand it by
scaling both sides from a central point.
{width="350"}
Select the sides of the torso:
1. Enter edit mode on the simple person.
2. In the 3D View header, set Face select mode.
3. From the 3D View header, choose *Pivot → Median Point*.
4. In the 3D View header, make sure Proportional Edit button is off.
5. Select the two faces on both the left and right sides of the torso,
between the armpits and the waist.
We will now scale the torso with the scaling tool:
1. Activate the 3D View window and press
, .
2. Adjust the amount of scaling. Either:
- Move the mouse pointer until the torso is the width you want.
: or
- Press
3. Confirm and exit by pressing or
clicking .
Continue selecting different parts of the torso and scaling them to get
more practice using the above scaling methods.
## Bending the Arms
!Removing the
forearm{width="250"}
When you\'ve got the basic shape of the torso, make the person hold up
his hands. You\'ll do this by deleting the forearms and then extruding
upward from the elbows.
Select both forearms:
1. Enter edit mode on the simple person.
2. In the 3D View header, set Face select mode.
3. With the 3D View window active, press
until all vertices are deselected.
4. Select the five faces at the end of the forearm.
Now erase them:
1. Press to open the Delete menu.
2. Choose *Faces*.
The forearm will disappear, leaving a hole. Don\'t panic; we\'ll fix it
later. Now to make the arm point upwards:
1. Select the top face of the last remaining \"arm cube\".
2. Extrude the region upward by two Blender units
,
and confirm with or
.
The hole in the elbow is caused by a missing face. To fill in the
missing face:
1. Deselect all vertices.
2. Select the four vertices surrounding the missing face.
3. With the 3D View window active, create the face using either
- *Mesh → Faces → Make Edge/Face*
: or
-
The new face should be smooth. If it isn\'t, make it so, using *Mesh →
Faces → Shade Smooth*.
!Repeat on the other
side
Go through the same steps (erase, extrude, and fill) on the other arm.
Be sure to deselect all vertices in the first arm before selecting any
in the other arm. If you have difficulty making the arms symmetrical,
undo your work and go through the steps simultaneously on both arms.
## Making Feet
To make feet for your simple person, you subdivide the ends of the legs
and pull the front edges forward.
1. Edit the simple person in Face select mode.
2. Select the two bottom faces of the legs (front of the feet) by
clicking on the first and then
on the other.
3. Subdivide both faces, either with:
- *Subdivide*
: or
- *Mesh → Edges → Subdivide*
Each face gets subdivided into four smaller faces.
Now select the front edges and pull them forward:
1. Switch to Edge select mode.
2. Press until no edges are selected.
3. Select the four bottom front edges of the soles (two for each feet)
(where the toes should be).
4. Press and limit movement to the Y
axis.
5. Move the mouse pointer until the feet are the length you want.
6. Confirm and exit by pressing or
or clicking
.
!Congratulations! You now have
feet.{width="150"}
## Reshaping the Head
When you\'re satisfied with the torso and limbs, you should do something
about that head. A bit too spherical, isn\'t it? You can elongate it by
scaling along the Z axis.
When scaling the head, you want to make sure that it stays connected to
the neck.
First, place the 3D Cursor at the base of the head, where it meets the
neck. An easy way to do this is as follows:
1. Go into Vertex select mode.
2. Make sure the *Limit selection to visible* option is \"off\".
3. Select the vertex at the base of the head using
.
4. Snap the cursor to this vertex using
*Cursor to Selected*
Now select the entire head:
1. Hover the mouse over a vertex/edge/face of the head
2. Press to select all parts linked
to that part.
Tell Blender that you want to pivot around the 3D Cursor by changing the
pivot point to *3D Cursor* on the Pivot menu (the small button located
to the left of the 3D Manipulator button).
Now scale the head along the Z-axis, using the scale tool
(, scaling by 1.5 should be about
right).
\
You\'ll need this simple person later, so remember to save your work!
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Creating a Simple Hat
|previous=Detailing Your Simple Person 2
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
In this module, you\'ll create a hat for your simple person. Along the
way, you\'ll learn how to use the Spin tool and use layers.
\_\_TOC\_\_
## Creating a Generatrix
For future convenience, you\'ll create the hat as a new object in the
scene containing the simple person. If you haven\'t created the simple
person, either go back and do it now or else download the pre-made model
from
.
Start by changing layers to layer two, then add the basis for your hat:
1. Make sure you\'re in Object Mode (so that a new object will be
created).
2. Click on the second little square,
this will make the viewport display layer two. (The top row is for
layers 1 to 10, the bottom for 11 to 20, so layer 2 is immediately
to the right of layer 1; layer 6 is across the space from layer 5.)
3. Go to orthographic front view by pressing
, then
.
4. Create a mesh circle at the cursor, by activating the 3D View
window, pressing +
and choosing *Mesh → Circle*.
The new mesh object doesn\'t actually have to be a circle. You could use
any sort of mesh object here because you\'re about to reshape it into a
custom 2D mesh (called a )
that describes the profile of your hat. More precisely, the generatrix
describes one side of a vertical cross-section through the hat. You\'ll
want your generatrix to have a slope; it should be higher on one side
(which will become the top of the crown) than on the other (which will
become the brim).
1. The newly-created mesh should be selected. If it isn\'t, select it
by clicking on it.
2. Press to edit the mesh.
3. Activate Vertex select mode.
4. Press until all vertices are
selected.
5. Press to erase all vertices.
Now draw your generatrix, starting with the brim and sloping upwards
toward the top of the crown:
1. Make sure you\'re still in orthographic front view.
2. Press to create the first
vertex.
3. Press to one side of that
vertex to extrude another vertex, connected to the first by an edge.
(If this doesn\'t work, make sure you are in vertex select mode.)
Keep adding vertices until you\'re satisfied with the shape of your
generatrix. You can always undo using
or go back and adjust the
positions of particular vertices using the grab tool.
The mesh is then spun around an axis perpendicular to the viewplane. You
want to spin around a vertical axis, so press
to switch to top view.
## Spinning the Hat
!The spun hat, drawn as wireframe in orthographic front
view.
Now, let\'s actually spin the hat:
1. Move the 3D cursor to the vertex you want to spin around by pressing
on it. You can also use the
snapping tool for positioning the cursor more precisely by pressing
after selecting that specific
vertex. *Cursor to selected* positions the cursor.
2. Press to select all the vertices. The
Spin control only spins vertices that are selected.
3. Press to activate the Spin tool.
- The Spin tool is also available in the Tool Shelf under *Add*\
If you spin the hat in front view, your hat will be flat. You
have to spin the hat in top view.\
You should now see 90° of a generatrix! To spin your hat all the way
round, press or look in the Operator
Panel just below the Tool Shelf. There should be an input slider named
*Angle*, change this value from 90 to 360. There should also be a slider
called *Steps*, increase the value from 9 to 15.
If your hat has a large hole in the center, you must have accidentally
moved the 3D cursor away from the vertex you picked in step 1. Try
again.
Remember that if you spin an object 360° there will be a double row of
vertices at the row of vertices you spun. To fix this, press
to select all vertices, press
and select *Remove Doubles*. Note that
this will only work in vertex select mode.
You may also want to merge the vertices at the top of the hat. Do this
by selecting all the vertices at the top with
and pressing
+ → *At
Center*. You may have to do this twice as some vertices might be beneath
each other.
Note for AMD windows users that \"Radeon Software\" using ALT+R as
default key for \"Overlay Hotkey\" which blocks key in Blender. You can
change hotkey in \"Radeon Software\" preferences.
You have more than one 3D View window, so Blender is asking which window
to perform the spin in. Click on the
window that is showing top view.
## Smoothing Your Hat
!The finished
product!{width="400"}
You\'ll probably have noticed that normal hats aren\'t usually as
faceted as yours! To change this, first press
to go back to Object mode then change
the shading to *Smooth* (available on the Tool Shelf). If there are
unexpected black marks, try recalculating the normals.
1. Switch to Edit mode and open the Mesh menu in the 3D View Header.
2. *Normals → Recalculate Outside*.
Next, add a Subsurf modifier to the hat and set the subdivisions to two,
as you did in
.
1. Click on the modifiers tab (wrench icon) in a Properties window.
2. *Add Modifier → Subdivision Surface*.
Save your work. You\'ll need this scene for the next module.
## Additional Resources
- <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mPtxa_MEPA> Ira Krakow\'s Hat
Creation Video Tutorial, based on this page.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Putting Hat on Person
|previous=Creating a Simple Hat
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
Once you\'re satisfied with the shapes of individual objects, you\'ll
want to combine them into a coherent scene. You do this in Object Mode.
In this module, you\'ll learn how to move objects to and from layers.
You\'ll also learn how to rename and parent objects, and you\'ll get an
introduction to Outliner Windows.
\_\_TOC\_\_
You\'ll need the person-and-hat scene from the previous module. If you
haven\'t done it, either go back and do it now or else download the
pre-made model from
.
## Adjusting an Object\'s Median Point
!The person that you (yeah you!) made with the origin in his geometric
center. made with the origin in his geometric center.")
1. Load the person-and-hat scene.
2. Make sure Blender is in Object Mode.
3. Switch to Layer 2, select the hat and press
. A dialog box will pop up for you to
choose which layer to move it to. Either press *1* (the number on
top of the keyboard, **not** the numberpad) or select the first box
in the popup.
4. Select the person you made earlier.\
Just as you did in Edit Mode, you can specify the pivot for rotating and
scaling objects in Object Mode. If you just finished the previous
module, the pivot is probably set to \"3D Cursor\". If so, change it
back to \"Median Point\".
In Edit Mode, the \"Median Point\" for pivoting is the geometric center
of all selected vertices, edges, or faces. In Object Mode, however,
it\'s the origin of the selected object\'s local coordinates, indicated
by an orange dot. In other words, the origin might lie far from the
object\'s geometric center.
You can use buttons in the Tools Shelf to reunify an object\'s origin
with its geometric center:
1. With Blender in Object Mode, click
on *Set Origin* in the Tool Shelf (under the \"Edit\" sub menu of
*Tools*) and select *Origin To Geometry* (Blender 2.70: \"Object\"
-\> \"Transform\" -\> \"Origin to Geometry\") to move the selected
object\'s origin to its geometric center (without changing the
object\'s appearance).\
This can be useful when you want a better picture of your object. With
the origin set to the person\'s geometric center, you can now snap the
object with to the 3D cursor. This
will let you view more of the model at one time and make for a faster
editing workflow.
## Positioning the Hat
!Positioning the
hat Once you
have the hat properly oriented, move it into position on the person\'s
head. The grab tool enables you to position objects in Object Mode in
the same way you positioned vertices, edges, and faces in Edit Mode.
1. Make sure Blender is in Object Mode.
2. Click on the hat object to select
it.
3. Activate the grab tool by pressing
.
As you move the mouse pointer, the hat will move around in the viewport.
By default, the movement plane is perpendicular to the view axis, so the
hat will move differently depending on which viewpoint you\'re working
in.
Just as in the Edit Mode grab tool, you can:
- Restrict the direction of motion by pressing
,
, or
. Press once to move parallel to a
global axis, twice to use a local axis. (Press the same key a third
time to return to view-plane motion.)
- To restrict motion to the global X-Y plane, lock the global Z by
pressing .
- Hold down to restrict motion to
discrete steps (typically one Blender unit).
- Hold down to get finer control
over the motion.
- Click or press
to finalize the position and exit
the tool.
- Click or press
to return the object to its
previous position and exit.\
Use two different orthographic views to position the hat on the
person\'s head. You will probably want to scale the hat to make it fit
the person\'s head better. When you are doing this along the X or Y
axis, make the changes symmetrical by specifying the axes you want
scaling to be constrained to. This option is available in the Operator
panel (just below the Tool Shelf) and also by pressing F6.
## Parenting the Hat to the Person
!The parenting
menu.
Once you have the hat properly sized and positioned on the person\'s
head, you\'ll want it to stay there. In order to maintain such a cozy
relationship between two objects, you\'d have to remember to select them
both before rotating, moving, or scaling. A drastic solution might be to
join them into a single object using
.
A better compromise is to the
hat to the person. Parenting creates a relationship between two objects,
such that certain changes to one object (called the
) automatically affect
the other (called the ).
Changes to the child, however, do not affect the parent.
Note that an object can have many children, but only one parent.
Since the person is bigger than the hat, it\'s logical to parent the hat
to the person (meaning: parent = person, child = hat) instead of vice
versa.
1. Make sure Blender is in Object Mode.
2. Click on the hat object to select
it.
3. Click on the person object.
: Both the person and the hat should now be selected. The order of
selection is important here.
4. Press to parent the hat to
the person.
5. Select *Object*. The most recently selected object becomes the
parent of all other selected objects.
Now when you move the hat you will see a line from the hat to the
person, indicating that the person is the hat\'s parent. And if you move
the person, the hat will move with it.
You may get an error saying something like *Loop to Parents*, fix this
by clearing all previous parents with
+.
## Renaming Objects
!The renaming
dialog
When you have multiple objects in a scene, it helps to give each one a
name.
Click on the *Objects* tab in the Properties panel (the one with a box
icon).
1. Now select the hat by clicking on
it.
2. At the very top of the tab you should see a dialog box with the name
of your object
- The hat\'s name might be something like \"Circle\" depending on
which mesh primitive you first built the hat from.
3. Click on the dialog box and type in
a more descriptive name like \"Hat\".
You have now changed the name of the hat\'s object datablock. This name
change will be reflected in the Outliner, which we will look at shortly.
Now select your person by clicking on
it and repeat the process, changing the name to something like
\"Person\".
## Outliner Windows
!The Outliner window.
Once you give objects names, it helps to have a way to find objects by
their name and parent. This is exactly what the Outliner is for and it
comes in very handy when you are working with a large scene. The
Outliner is usually just above the Properties panel. You may want to
pull it down a bit to see it more clearly.
You\'ll notice that all the objects in your scene (Person, camera etc)
are listed and that you can select these objects by clicking
on them. And if you click
on an object, a menu will pop up with
options like *Select*, *Deselect*, *Delete* etc. If you select the
Person and then click the \"+\" sign to its left, you will see that the
Hat is listed below the person. This is because Blender lists all
children objects beneath their parents.
On the right of each object there are a series of icons which represent
the state of the object. For example, the eye icon means that your
object is visible in the 3D viewport. You can turn off its visibility by
clicking on the eye, which will turn
grey; click again on the eye to make it visible. If you hover the mouse
over the icons a text box will pop up with a description of what that
particular icon does.
## Good on ya\' mate!
Congratulations!! You have now finished your simple character. Pat
yourself on the back, and have a celebratory coffee! (Or pop!)\
\
## Additional Resources
-
-
-
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Materials and Textures
|previous=Putting Hat on Person
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
In 3D graphics, materials and textures are nearly as important as
shapes. Scenes would be boring if all the objects were gray.
The in Blender allows
you to model a wide variety of materials and how they interact with
light. The next few modules will introduce the available options.
## Material versus Texture
A defines the optical
properties of an object: its color and whether it is dull or shiny. A
is a pattern that breaks up
the uniform appearance of the material. Very few objects in the real
world have completely uniform surfaces. Instead most of them have
patterning or variation in color: consider the grain in a piece of wood,
the pile in a carpet, or the mortar in a brick wall.
Blender allows textures to influence materials in various ways, such as
altering their colors. Multiple textures can interact with each other to
produce interesting effects.
Note that textures have to be attached to materials to affect objects,
you cannot apply a texture to an object without a material.
## Other Material Settings
Additional settings you can specify for a material include
,
and
.
Shaders determine how the appearance of a material varies with the angle
of the light: shaders give a
non-shiny look, while
shaders give a mirror-like finish. Blender\'s material settings always
involve both kinds of shaders, but you can adjust a material\'s diffuse
and specular colours separately to control their respective effects; if
you set the specular colour to black, the surface will no longer produce
reflections.
Ray-tracing is a technique for modeling the physical path of light
through the scene. It is capable of producing exquisite reflection and
refraction effects, including different degrees of reflectivity,
translucency and transparency, and representing materials with different
indexes of refraction. Blender provides two separate groups of
ray-tracing settings, one for reflection of light and the other for its
transmission through the material. You can control these settings on a
per-material basis.
Halo rendering means an object no longer looks like solid matter,
instead it appears to be made of bits of light. This can be used for
real-world effects like fire, smoke and plasma, or to create fantasy
effects with no connection to reality.
Note that reflections produced by ray-tracing are separate from that
produced by the specular shader: the former are controlled by the
material\'s mirror colour, while the latter is controlled by its
specular colour.
Reflection is done in two different ways because, while ray-tracing
produces the most realistic renders, it is also very CPU-intensive. It
is therefore best to apply the ray-tracing effects when you\'re
completely done with your modelling to help reduce high CPU usage.
Enough practice with ray-tracing can also help you get stunning effects
with just few clicks without you having to do much trial and error. You
would do well to dedicate at least a few hours of your time to
experimenting with it, so that in a future real production situation,
you will be spared all that hassle.
## Types of Textures
When you create a texture in Blender, you will see a popup menu listing
a whole lot of different types for the texture. The
texture type lets you
use a scanned image to texture your object: for example, you can scan an
actual piece of metal and use that to give your object a realistic
metallic appearance, or use a photograph of an actual brick wall to
texture the wall of a building model, and so on. You could even use a
movie, which plays during the animation of the scene.
The other texture types are called
, which means the textures
are generated according to algorithms built into Blender itself. These
can be useful for simulating various effects when you don't have an
image of the real material handy; they can also be applied to augment
the appearance in various ways. For example:
- using a "cloud" texture to "dirty-up" a material
: or
- using one texture as a stencil to create an amalgam of two other
textures.
## Additional Resources
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Quickie Material
|previous=Materials and Textures
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
In this module, you will create a new material called \"Green Ooze\".
Along the way, you will learn how to alter the diffuse, specular, and
mirror colors of a material.
## Your First Material
!**Figure 1:** The Materials context in the Properties
window.{width="180"}
The cube in the default scene (which you get from *File → Load Factory
Settings*) has a simple grey color. Now click on the Materials context
 in the Properties
 window.
The materials context contains various menus, but for now you only need
diffuse, specular and mirror. The material is named and linked in the
panel above the preview window.
( is a feature that allows
materials to be shared between multiple objects (or datablocks).
Changing a material affects the appearance of everything it is linked
to.)
The first row of the window above the preview window indicates that:
- there is one material assigned to this object and its name is
\"Material\".
The second row of controls indicates that:
- The current selected material\'s name is \"Material\".
- This material will only be saved if it\'s in use.
- It is not a \"Nodes\" material.
- Instead of being linked directly to an object, the current material
is linked to a datablock.
To rename the material, click on the
name and enter the name you want.
To unlink the material, click on the
**X** button to the right of the material name (\"Material\"). Do this
now. This deletes the link to the datablock, removing the material from
the mesh. As a side-effect, most of the panels in the Material context
disappear. You will see in a moment, however, that the material still
exists. It hasn\'t been deleted; it is simply no longer in use.
At this point, you could click the
\"New\" button to create a new material, but instead we are going to
reapply the old material:
1. Click on the
 button to the left of
the \"New\" button.
2. You\'ll see a nifty drop-down list containing all materials you\'ve
created so far. Choose *0 Material*.
Materials whose names are preceded by \"0\" in this list are not in use.
By default, Blender doesn\'t save such materials when it saves the
scene. Thus, you can delete a material from the list by saving the scene
and then reopening it. You can override this behavior by toggling the
\"F\" button \"on\" for unused materials you want saved.
Your materials will be much easier to find and manage if you give them
brief, descriptive names you can recognize at a glance. Change this
one\'s name to \"Green Ooze\". In addition, naming of your materials and
other objects in your scene is useful when such components of your scene
will be appended in another scene of a different Blender file. Naming
your materials and other stuff in the scene will enable you to choose
the right objects and materials you need whenever you wish to append
just a portion of a whole bunch of work you did. For instance, you\'re
working on a new Blender project, but felt the material you used in this
Blender file is worth it. Instead of going through the pain of creating
a new material (of course you guessed in the initial one in getting the
right material appearance), you just append the material to your new
work. Pretty simple! Make naming a habit, as it\'s much used in a
production environment.\
\
## Specifying Colors
Simple materials are specified by three colors: diffuse, specular and
mirror. Rectangular patches (*swatches*) of the colour in their own
panel in the Material context allow you to see and change each of these.
Diffuse color is the basic underlying color of the material, rendered by
the . Specular color is
for highlights (small bright spots on a shiny surface) as rendered by
the . Mirror color is
for true reflections rendered using ray-tracing.
There are many ways to define colours. Blender supports three:
- RGB: By specifying relative amounts of red, green and blue *primary
colours*, by giving a number from 0.0 to 1.0 for each component. For
example, (R, G, B) = (0, 0, 0) specifies black (no colour at all);
(0, 1, 0) is full green; (1, 1, 0) (full red + full green) is
yellow; (0.5, 0.5, 0.5) is 50% grey, and (1, 1, 1) is full white
(maximum intensity of all components). Note that this is *additive
mixing* of colours, which is what happens when you shine lights of
different colours onto a white screen, not the *subtractive mixing*
that takes place when you mix different-coloured paints or inks on
paper or canvas.
- HSV: By specifying a *hue* (colour position on the rainbow) together
with a *saturation* (strength of colour, from garish down to pastel,
with zero giving shades of grey) and *value* (brightness). This is
generally considered to be easier to use than RGB notation when you
are trying to create new colours (as opposed to copying a colour
spec from somewhere else), since it is easier to predict what the
likely result will be. HSV is commonly represented on a *colour
wheel*, where the hue is the angle around the circle, saturation the
distance from the centre, and value controlled by a separate
brightness slider (as shown below).
- By specifying a 6-digit hexadecimal number. This is just an
alternative form of RGB notation, commonly used for colour
specifications in Web pages.
framed\|**Figure 2:** Blender's colour picker
popup If you click on any
colour swatch, the colour picker will pop up, allowing you to change the
values. This is the most intuitive way. The window that appears will
look like this and will include the following (Figure 2):
1. A color wheel to change the color as you want. In HSV mode, H
corresponds to angle around this wheel, while S corresponds to
distance from the centre.
2. Three color sliders that will change if you change the color in the
colorwheel. You can also change the values with the sliders.
3. A slider that controls the intensity of the color. This corresponds
to the V in HSV.
4. A pipette capable of sampling colors from any Blender window or
render window.
5. Buttons that can change it to \"HSV\" or \"HEX\" mode.
- Alternatively you can specify hue, saturation and value components
by clicking on the \"HSV\" button
and pushing the sliders around accordingly.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- You can also press the last button and enter the hexadecimal (or
HEX) code. This is simply a different representation for RGB, where
the hex digits represent *rrggbb*.
HSV is probably the most easily understandable way of specifying and
experimenting with colours. However, as is common with most computer
systems, all colours in Blender are represented internally as RGB.
If you want to get rid of the window just click
anywhere else.
The most used method of creating a color of your own is using the color
wheel, but because we want to be sure you will get the exact same color
as us we will use the sliders. Use the above methods to set the diffuse
color to R=0.149, G=1.000, B=0.446 (or use the HEX code: 6CFFB2). If you
look in the \"Preview\" panel, you will see that the material is now
bright green.
Most real-life materials (other than metals) don\'t alter the color of
specular light. For this reason, Specular and Mirror are usually left at
their default values (white). For green ooze, however, you\'ll disregard
this rule-of-thumb:
1. Click the sample rectangle below
the Specular window.
2. Use the color selection dialog to adjust the specular color and
watch the Preview panel to see how this color affects the sample
sphere\'s highlight.
3. Set the specular color to R=0.640, G=0.990, B=0.566 (or use the HEX
code: D1FEC6).
With these values for Color and Specular, you should be able to get a
good ooze later on. The Preview, Diffuse and Specular panel should now
look like this:
As you can see, there are many other material buttons. Many of these
will be explained in later modules. Suggestions for creating specific
materials may be found in
.
Save this scene before proceeding. You will need it for
, in which you will
perfect your ooze.
## Additional Resources
-
-
-
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Multiple Materials Per Object
|previous=Quickie Material
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
!The finished render.
In this module, you\'ll create a beach ball with two alternating
colours. Along the way, you\'ll learn how to apply multiple materials to
a single object.
Many real-life objects have parts which are different colours, or are
even made of different materials. One way to model such objects is to
make each part a separate Blender object. However, Blender also allows
you to assign different materials to parts of a single object.
## Set the Scene
Begin by opening Blender and removing the default cube.
Now create a mesh for the beach ball:
1. With the 3D View window active, press
+)
and choose *Add → Mesh → UV Sphere*.
2. Expand the \"Add UV Sphere\" panel in the bottom left of the screen,
then specify 8 segments and 4 rings.
: The initial result will be crude, but meshes with fewer vertices
are easier to edit.
Make the mesh rounder and more organic using automatic subdivision:
1. In the \"Properties\" editor, select the \"Modifiers\" context
(wrench icon).
2. Select \"Add Modifier\" and click *Generate → Subdivision Surface*.
3. For the number of subdivisions, set both the \'View\' and \'Render\'
count to **2**.
Get rid of that blocky look:
1. Ensure you\'re in Object
Mode.
2. Click the object button at the top of the viewport.
3. Select \"Shade Smooth\" from the list of options.
The ball is now round, but a bit prolate. To make it more spherical,
scale it by about 1.1 along the X and Y axes. To select the X-Y plane,
you select ′*not* **Z**′, by using the key combination
. The complete sequence is, then,
, ,
.
## Colorize Time
Now you\'re ready to begin adding colors to the object:
1. Press to put Blender into Edit
mode.
2. In the Properties editor, select the \"Material\" button
.
3. Press \"+ New\".
: A new material appears in the material slot list, and several
additional panels appear below to edit the created material.
4. In the \"Surface\" panel, click on the default white base color and
change it to a nice yellow.
: At this point, the entire ball is yellow.
In the \"Materials\" panel click the \"+\" button (indicated by the red
box in the picture, below) next to the material slot list to create a
new blank slot. The \"+ New\" button will reappear (indicated by the
blue box, in the picture below).
Click the \"+ New\" button and a new material will be created and
assigned the empty slot in the materials slot list. Ensure that the new
material is selected, then change the base color to blue. Nothing will
happen to the beach ball, yet.
Now make a single blue stripe on the ball:
1. All the vertices should still be selected from before; make sure the
3D view is active, then hit to
deselect them.
2. Switch to front view with , and to
\"Face Select\" mode by selecting the face select button. Which is
to the left of the \"view\" button in the top left of the viewport.
3. Select a column of four faces that will make up one stripe of the
beach ball (using , or
depending on your selection
key, on each face):
: 
4. In the \"Material\" property window, select the blue material slot
in the list, then click the \"**Assign**\" button.
Rotate the view (e.g. ) so you can skip
past a yellow stripe adjacent to the blue stripe, and select the second
column that will become a blue stripe. Work your way around the ball to
do this three more times. (Remember we made the sphere with 8 segments;
four of these are yellow, and four are blue).
Now you see the benefit of making a sphere with only 4 rings: more rings
would have meant more faces in each stripe, and more clicking to select
them.
For help with rendering your beach ball, see our Noob to Pro/Render
Settings and Noob
to Pro/Quickie
Render
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Metal Versus Plastic
|previous=Multiple Materials Per Object
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
There are different kinds of shiny materials. Consider the difference
between a shiny metallic object, and one made out of a glossy
nonmetallic material (like plastic or ceramic). This page will explain
some simple techniques for (approximately) mimicking the appearances of
these materials using shader settings in the Blender Internal renderer.
For all the following manipulations, start a new Blender document, get
rid of the default cube, and replace it with a UV sphere. Set it to be
smooth-shaded. Change the lamp falloff to be inverse linear, just to
make the scene brighter. Assign the sphere a new default material. It is
the settings of this material we will now proceed to play around with.
## Making It Plastic
 For a plastic
or glossy effect, give the material a diffuse colour, but leave the
specular colour at white. Increase the specular intensity to something
like 0.9.
(In this and the following examples, I used a diffuse colour of
#E7398B.)
## Making It Metal
 Now change the
specular colour to be the same as the diffuse colour. (The easy way to
do this is to bring up the specular colour picker, click on its
eyedropper icon, and use the eyedropper tool to click on the swatch
showing the diffuse colour.) Also lower the specular hardness from its
default value of 50, to something like 25 or even 12. This will spread
out the specular highlight, giving the impression of a surface that is
shiny, but not perfectly smooth. Also lower the diffuse intensity, to
something like 0.05.
To make the metal more convincing, you may want to choose a more typical
metal colour, like grey, copper or bronze.
## Making It Ceramic
 Let's try for a
glazed-ceramic look, or perhaps some dark, shiny stone like obsidian.
Set the specular colour back to white (the easiest way to do this is to
switch to HSV view in the colour picker and set the S(aturation) value
to 0). Increase the hardness to something like 200 to narrow and
intensify the specular highlight. Leave the specular intensity high and
the diffuse intensity low.
To get an even more sharply-focused highlight, change the specular
shader model from its "CookTorr" default to "WardIso". The "Hardness"
parameter gets replaced with a "Slope" instead; leave this at the
default 0.1.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Texture Settings
|previous=Metal Versus Plastic
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
!Material texture
settings In
the Properties
 window,
you will find the Texture
context, which looks like at right.
At the top you will see a row of three icons
,
which indicate texture settings to view and change:
- 
World Texture --- a texture to use for the sky backdrop
- 
Material Texture --- a texture associated with the
currently-selected material
- 
Brush Texture --- a texture used for some other purpose.
There are two main types of textures in Blender:
- Image/Movie textures
- Procedural textures (all other types in the Type menu).
An image/movie texture allows a two-dimensional image (which might be
static or moving) to be wrapped around the surface of a
three-dimensional object in some way. Alternatively, a procedural
texture directly maps a predefined three-dimensional mathematical
function to the surface coordinates of the object.
The "Coordinates:" popup menu defines how positions on the object
surface are mapped to positions within the texture coordinate space. All
of these options specify automatic mapping algorithms, except one: the
"UV" option. This one lets you work within the UV/Image Editor, where
you *unwrap* the surface of the mesh onto a flat rectangle showing the
texture image (this really only works with Image/Movie textures), and
then move sections of the mesh around to make them show corresponding
parts of the texture.
The "Projection:" popup menu further controls how the two-dimensional
surface of the object is mapped to a two-dimensional Image/Movie
texture. It seems to have no effect for procedural textures.
The "Offset:" and "Size:" X, Y and Z values allow simple adjustments of
the position and scaling of the texture. Note that the size values work
the opposite way to what you might expect: larger values here make the
texture *smaller* along the corresponding dimension.
The image at right shows the common settings panels for all material
texture types. Additional panels will appear depending on the chosen
texture type; the settings shown are for the "None" texture, which is
the same as having no texture at all.
## Material Textures
A material may have more than one texture associated with it. At the top
of the material texture settings (see above), is a list of the *texture
slots* associated with the material. Slots may be empty (unused), and
slots containing a texture may be enabled or disabled, by checking or
unchecking the box at the right of the list item. Disabling a texture
slot stops it having an effect on the material, which is the same as
deleting the texture from the slot altogether, except it is easier to
revert. This can be useful when trying to debug the effect of a
combination of textures on the material.
## World Textures
You previously saw how to set up colours for the sky in the World
Settings; you can also add a sky texture
as well.
World texture settings look similar to texture settings: again there are
a number of slots, and there are mapping and influence options. But the
mapping coordinates types are different (and there is no UV option), and
the influence types are more limited.
If you're wondering why your texture definition here is making no
difference to your sky, either make sure the "Blend" checkbox is checked
in your World
settings, or check the "Horizon" Influence box here if you don't want a
sky gradation.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Image Textures
|next=Procedural Textures
}}
```
## Image Texture Settings
!Simple
checkerboard{width="100"}
To understand how the texture settings apply to image/movie textures,
start with an example texture. A nice simple one is this checkerboard at
right---don't forget to download it in (or convert it to) PNG format, as
Blender cannot use an SVG file as a texture.
Start a new Blender document. Note the default cube already has a a
default grey material, called "Material", and this already has a single
texture, called "Tex", of type "None", which means it has no effect.
Under the Texture
context of the Properties window, with Material Texture
selected, change the texture type to "Image or Movie". You will
immediately see some new panels pop up in the texture context. Look for
the Image panel, as at right. This initially contains a popup menu icon
for selecting from any previously-loaded images (this will start out
empty), a "New" button for using one of Blender's predefined test
textures, and an "Open" button for loading an image from a file.
Click the "Open" button, and select your previously-downloaded or
converted PNG version of the example checkerboard texture.
Now a whole lot more settings will become visible. From the top, the
panels are:
- Preview --- gives you a simple display of how the texture looks.
- Colors --- lets you make simple adjustments to the image brightness,
contrast etc.
- Image --- lets you choose from any already-loaded images, and shows
you the pathname of the file the image was loaded from. Note the two
arrows in a circle to the right of the pathname display: clicking
this will tell Blender to reload the image from the file, which is
useful if you make changes to it in an external image editor.
- Image Sampling --- controls how the image can be interpreted in a
different way from straight pixel values.
- Image Mapping --- lets you crop the input image, and apply fixed
numbers of repetitions to it along each axis, even before it goes
through the usual texture-tiling repetition process.
- Mapping, Influence --- these are more general panels that apply to
all types of textures. They will be discussed in more detail
shortly.
!Projection: flat; axes: X→X, Y→Y,
Z→Z
If you render now, you should end up
with an image like this. Notice in the Projection menu (*Texture* →
*Mapping*) the initial selection is "Flat": this means that the texture
X and Y coordinates go straight to object X and Y coordinates. Thus, the
texture only appears on the top (and also bottom) of the cube, not on
its sides. See also the three little popup menus just below the
Projection menu, each containing the items X, Y and Z. These let you
rearrange the object coordinates that the texture coordinates map to. If
you change the first two, you can get the texture to appear on other
pairs of sides of the cube, other than the top and bottom. The third
menu (corresponding to the Z axis of the texture) has no effect (yet),
because a flat image texture is only two-dimensional.
!Texture size increased to
3.
Now try changing the three "Size" fields in the Mapping panel: give them
all a value of 3. This will uniformly shrink the texture pattern to
one-third of its original size. Or alternatively, it will require three
times the number of texture repetitions to span the same distance as the
original.
!Texture projection set to
Sphere
Now let's try the other Projection types. Here's what "Sphere" looks
like. Imagine the texture pattern as a flat sheet stretched and curved
around, and its edges joined to form a sphere surrounding the actual
object; then the sphere is shrinkwrapped down onto the object.
Note the top and bottom edges of the sheet shrink down to single points
at the north and south poles; this is why the squares of the
checkerboard pattern turn into triangles next to these points.
!Texture projection set to
Tube
Here's a Tube mapping. Here the texture pattern sheet is rolled round
into a cylinder, with only one pair of edges joined together, the top
and bottom left open.
!Texture projection set to
Cube
And lastly, here is a Cube mapping. Here 6 copies of the texture pattern
are arranged parallel to the faces of a cube, before being shrinkwrapped
onto the actual object. Which in this case, happens to be a cube.
Cube mappings are very commonly used in game engines, because they are
just about the simplest way to wrap a texture around an entire object.
!"Mapping" versus "Image
Mapping"
## Making Your Own Texture
Procedural texturing is very powerful; however, sometimes it is
difficult or impossible to generate the desired realism with them. Image
texturing is there for you when you need it. To review, the basic idea
is to take an outside image and wrap it around your model. You can use
any texture, or a seamless one if you want it to repeat to get a tiled
effect. The following shows how you create a seamless texture, and then
how to apply any texture (seamless or otherwise) to an object.
### The difference between \'tiled\' and \'seamless\'
In many cases a simple material will just not cut it for an object, and
you will want to apply a texture to it. However, depending on the
object, you may want to apply either a seamless or tileable texture. A
seamless texture is an image that will, when applied to an object,
spread evenly across the surface of the object without any visible
borders or \'seams\' even if the object is many times larger than the
resolution of the image (also called \'procedural textures\' in
Blender). These can be useful in many situations; such as when you want
a texture for a carpet to seamlessly repeat itself without having a huge
resolution.
A tileable texture on the other hand, is an image that will repeat
itself across an object, but with noticeable seams. Any image can be
used as a tileable texture, but often they will only be used in specific
instances such as a vinyl floor with a tiled pattern on it.
See Using Textures
for more details on applying images as textures, and using them to
affect many other surface attributes such as luminosity, reflectivity,
translucency, displacement etc.
### How to make a tileable texture with the GIMP
It is easy to create a tiling texture image with the
GIMP. Start with the photo you want to use. Crop
out any part you don't want. Here's an example random photo of some
plants in my garden:
Go to Gimp's "Filters" menu, and find the "Map" submenu. In here you
will find the entry "Make Seamless". Select it. That's it:
Just to prove it works, here's a (scaled-down) use of the result as a
tiled fill pattern:
### Other Image Texture Editors
- Wood Workshop A
free utility (Requires Operating System: Windows 2000/XP) that
generates surprisingly high quality tiling wood texture images.
These textures can be exported as standard image files for use
within Blender.
- MapZone A free utility for Windows
(works perfectly in Wine) that generates node
based procedural texture maps. Mapzone can export diffuse, normal
and alpha texture maps as standard image files. It can also import
SVG regions created with Blender\'s UV mapping tools.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Procedural Textures
|next=Quickie Texture
}}
```
**Procedural Textures**
Texturing objects can be broken down into two categories: procedural and
image texturing. Procedural texturing makes use of mathematical formulas
to generate textures. This is nice because it can be used to make
relatively nice looking textures without external images which are very
temperamental where you put them. Procedural Textures are all stored in
the .blend file. These textures are obviously generated within Blender
itself. Image texturing uses images created or captured outside of
Blender, either from an image manipulation program such as the
Paint.NET, GIMP or Photoshop, or captured on a camera. We have already
learned about image texturing, so let\'s move on to procedural
texturing.
**Current Procedural Textures**
Blender currently supports many procedural textures, including: Clouds,
Marble, Stucci, Wood, Magic, Blend, Noise, Musgrave, Voronoi and
DistortedNoise.
## A Simple Wood Texture
Let\'s define a simple wood texture:
- Start a new Blender document containing the default cube.
- Select the cube (and nothing else).
- In the Properties window, go to the World tab
and turn on Environment Lighting (you can leave its default energy
at 1.0).
- Go to the Materials tab
,
and rename the default \"Material\" to \"Wood Material\".
Alternatively, delete the default material using the X to the right
of the name field and add a new material.
Let\'s add some color and texture. You can see the results at any time
by pressing F12 to re-render the scene.
Start by painting the cube a base color using the Wood Material\'s
\"diffuse\" color:
- In the "Material" tab,
- Scroll down to the "Diffuse" properties panel and choose a darker
brown color e.g. #A57E3F.
See <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSL_and_HSV> for where brown fits in
the color wheel.
Next, let\'s add a texture to give the material some highlights.
- Switch to the "Texture" properties tab
,
and again rename the default \"Tex\" to \"Wood Texture\" or create a
new texture. Notice at the very top of the \"Texture\" tab \"Cube \>
Wood Material \> Wood Texture\"
- Change the Type of the material to "Wood" using the pop-up menu.
The texture sample will show parallel alternating black and white bars
that don't look very woody at all. Never fear! The black regions will be
the material\'s base \"diffuse\" color. The white regions are like
\"highlights\" that will be painted over the base.
Let\'s make some improvements to the texture:
- While still in the "Textures" tab,
- Scroll to the "Wood" properties panel that appears, change the
waveform from "Sine" to "Saw".
- In the next row of buttons down, change the type from the default
"Bands" to "Ring Noise".
- Increase the Noise Size to 1.0.
Now the texture sample should show something resembling wavy tree-rings.
If you hit F12 to render now, you will see these rings covering your
cube, except a) the colour is wrong, and b) normal wood patterns aren\'t
so nearly circular.
To make the pattern more elongated:
- Scroll to the "Mapping" properties panel,
- Change the Size X value to 2.0 and Y to 0.4. This squishes the
pattern down along the X-axis, and stretches it out along the
Y-axis, giving the elliptical tree-ring shapes you commonly see on
wood planks and boards.
Hit F12 to render again, and the shape of the texture should be looking
a lot more woody now.
The final step is to color the highlights in the texture:
- In the "Textures" tab,
- Scroll to the "Influence" properties panel further down,
- Click on the color swatch, and choose a nice brown colour.
For a nicer effect, I chose a very light brown e.g. #DEB887.
The result should look very woody indeed!
- Remember that you need to Render to see the wood grain on your
object.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Quickie Texture
|previous=Procedural Textures
}}
```
**Textures** are laid on top of materials to give them complicated
colors and other effects. An object is covered with a material, which
might contain several textures: An image texture of stone, a texture to
make the stone look bumpy, and a texture to make the stone deform in
different ways.
A texture may be an
image
or a computed
function. What
the texture does and how it is mapped onto your object is set in the
material buttons. Some commonly used texture types are shown on the page
Using Textures.
This tutorial uses the file from the **Quickie
Material**
tutorial. If you didn\'t do it before, go back and do it now.
## Making It Mottled
!Texture Context with all the relevant
panels.{width="809"
height="809"}
##### Step 1: Adding Texture to the Material
- In a Properties window, switch to **Texture**
context.
- A default texture, **Tex**, should already be available and set to
*Type: **None***.
- If not, click one of the **Texture Slots** (the ones with
chequered icons) and click the **New** button.
- Set the *Type* to ***Clouds***.
- The Texture **Preview** panel will now reflect this change. However,
said change will not be reflected in the 3D view window.
- You can do a quick render (**F12**) to see the change. However,
you\'ll have to re-render every time you change a setting to see
its effect.
- Otherwise you can click the **Material** button in the Texture
**Preview** panel to see the changes to the material. (Click
**Both** to see them side-by-side.)
- A better, albeit more resource intensive option would be to
change the **Display Mode** to *Rendered*. (**Shift**+**Z** in
the 3D view window or Selecting the Display mode from the 3D
view Header.!Viewport Shading menu highlighting the
**Rendered**
option.
##### Step 2: Refining the Texture
- Once you use one of the ways to preview your work, you\'ll see Green
and Magenta mixed in resembling a polished granite texture.
- This is the default colour for any generated texture. Now all
you have to do is change it to **black**.
- But before that scroll down to the **Mapping** panel and make
sure that *Coordinates* is set to ***Generated,
Global***or***Object*** (for best results).
- Scroll down to the **Influence** panel, and click on the colour
swatch and drag the reticule in the bar to the right all the way
down.
- Now the texture should look more or less like green granite!Render
result in 3D
view.
## Making It Bumpy
!Final
render{width="723"
height="723"}
##### Step 1: Adding a second Texture to the Material
- In a Properties window, switch to **Texture**
context.
- The **Cloud** texture you just created will be listed in a slot.
- To create an additional texture click a second texture slot and
then click **New** button.
- Change the texture *Type* to ***Stucci***.
- Now if you preview this texture you\'ll only notice a bit of magenta
mixed in with the previous texture.
##### Step 2: Making the texture a Bump-Map
- Scroll down to the **Mapping** panel and make sure the *Coordinates*
is set to ***Generated, Global***or***Object*** for best results.
- Scroll down to **Influence** panel uncheck *Color* and check
*Normal* under **Geometry**, then set it to **4**.
- If required, set the *Method* under Bump Mapping to a higher
Quality.
The render result should look like the one on the right.
Now mess around with the various settings we discussed, Particularly the
settings in **Clouds**/**Stucci**, **Mapping** and **Influence** panels.
Also try the whole tutorial (**Quickie Material** & **Quickie Texture**)
with a sphere and other shapes.
## Some Closing words
The downside of bump-mapping, as you may have noticed, is that it only
provides an illusion of depth/bumpiness. The edges will still be
straight as in the render. For curved surfaces the outline will still
look spotless while the centre looks deformed, plus shadows will still
render smooth compromising the illusion. An alternative technique is
displacement-mapping which actually deforms the mesh as per a texture to
produce depth in the mesh, with the downside of creating a higher poly
mesh.
With bump-mapping in general, you will get a greater effect on smoothly
curved surfaces with high specularity as compared to flat surfaces with
low specularity.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Halo Materials
|previous=Quickie Texture
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
## Introduction
Halos are a neat effect. Instead of giving a colour/texture to the faces
of a mesh, like normal Surface materials do, the Halo material ignores
the faces and renders representations of the vertices instead. This can
produce all kinds of ethereal, even ghostly, fantasy effects, of objects
that look like they're made out of light rather than ordinary solid
matter.
A halo material can also produce a *flare* effect. This is the "lens
flare" that happens when a physical camera is aimed at a very bright
light source; the spillage of light bouncing around inside the optics
produces coloured rings and other interesting artifacts on top of the
image. This has become such an accepted part of photography that
computer graphics programs like Blender, which do not suffer the
imperfections of physical lenses, go to a great deal of trouble to offer
a realistic flare effect.
Flare effects can also be achieved using compositing node and a material
with an \"emit\" value, such flares may in some circumstances render
faster and be simpler to control. This works for the Blender internal
render engine, as do flares generated with halos. This is done by
opening the node editor (switching the 3d viewer tab to one of these for
example) then clicking \"compositing nodes\" and \"use nodes\",
\"filters\" can then be added to produce these effects.
This tutorial will show you how to create an image representing a flare
effect in a picture of the Sun.
## Setting The Scene
Open a new default Blender document. Get rid of the default cube. Insert
a new UV Sphere mesh in its place, and set the number of segments and
rings to 24 each. Also set Smooth shading. This will be your Sun. Create
a new material for it, set the Diffuse colour to a suitable yellow.
Under the Shading panel in the material settings, look for the "Emit:"
slider and give it a value of 1.0 to make it look bright. Since the Sun
emits its own light, you don't need the separate default light, so get
rid of that.
Go to the World properties tab
.
In the "World" sub-header, click on the colour swatch labelled "Horizon
Color" and assign a nice deep blue colour for your sky.
If you do a render now, you should see your bright yellow orb, but
without any flare effect.
## Adding The Flare
Now add a new Circle mesh; the default 32 vertices should be enough. By
default it lies in the X-Y plane, which again is fine. Move it along the
Y-axis a little closer to the camera (negative-Y direction), until it
lies outside your Sun sphere, but still close to it. Scale its size down
by 0.5. (It will probably be invisible when first created, because it is
initially inside your Sun sphere, but it will be initially selected, so
you can immediately press
and start moving the mouse without
pressing any buttons, and make it appear from inside the Sun). Create a
new material for it, and set the type to Halo.
In the Halo panel in the Material settings, increase the size to
3.0---this is the size of the fuzzy image that is rendered around each
vertex, and this value is sufficient for them all to run together into a
continuous ring. Reduce the Alpha to 0.05 to avoid overpowering the
image with the halo effect.
Go further down the halo Material settings, and find the Flare panel (in
Blender 2.75 you can check \"Flare\" but what settings you do, nothing
will work). Check the title box to enable this. Set the number of
Subflares to, say, 8 (this controls the number of separate halo
reflections that will be generated, though you probably won't be able to
distinguish that many). Set the Boost to 10 to make the subhalos
brighter than the original parent halo.
The Seed value in the Flare panel controls the particular flare pattern
that you see; each number produces a different effect. I chose the value
3 for this example.
**Where did the circle go?** Like any object with a halo material, the
circle object can be quite hard to see when it's not selected. If you
lose track of it, there are a couple of ways to find it again:
- Select everything with . Now you
can look for the ring of dots and
on it to select it exclusively.
- Use the window at the
upper right. You should see it listed here under its default name of
"Circle"; click with to select it,
and you should see the ring of dots appear in the 3D view.
If the circle object is still inside the Sun, then wireframe
or bounding-box view modes may be
helpful to find it again.
## The Final Result
Now hit to render, and you should see
something like this (the flare effect may not appear immediately with
the rest of the image, give it a few more seconds to appear):
{width="800"}
**Exercises:** Try different positions for the circle mesh; move it near
to the Sun (even partly in it), far from it, move it around to different
sides. How does this affect the flare pattern? Also try changing the
size of the circle mesh.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Blender Memory Management
|previous=Halo Materials
|subcat=Background
}}
```
## Datablocks And Users
It is helpful to understand how Blender manages memory. Just about
everything in a Blender document---objects in scenes, scenes themselves,
materials, textures, whatever---is stored in a *datablock*. Each
datablock has a name, which must be unique among datablocks of the same
type. Each datablock may be referenced from one or more places, mostly
in other datablocks---in Blender parlance, it has one or more *users*.
For example, several different objects might share the same material, so
when you change the characteristics of the material, it automatically
changes the appearance of all those objects.
If the number of users of a datablock drops to zero, it still stays
around in memory, but *it will not be saved when the document is saved*.
Thus, if you save and reload the document, all the datablocks with zero
users will disappear. (In some cases you may need to save and reload a
couple of times before all zero-user datablocks disappear.)
But up until that point, the datablock will continue to appear in the
relevant popup menus, so you can reassign it to more users.
You can also assign a *fake user* to a datablock; this is what the "F"
button is for in the popup menus that list datablocks of that type. This
ensures that the user count never goes to zero, so the datablock always
gets saved in the document even if it has no real users. This is useful
for "library" documents, which can contain collections of useful
materials and textures, say, that can be linked or imported into other
documents, without also having to include dummy objects in the library
just to ensure those materials and textures get saved.
For example, here is the widget that lets you choose the material for an
object:
The main part shows the name of the current material, which is editable.
The **X** button breaks the link to this material and decrements its
number of users by one, while the **F** button assigns a fake user to
this material. The **+** button lets you create a new material.
The material symbol on the left pops up a list of existing materials to
choose from, plus a search box to search all existing materials:
Note the entry with the **0** symbol next to it; that currently has a
user count of zero, and will disappear when the document is saved and
reloaded, if it is not further used.
The widget also displays the current user count if it is greater than 1:
In this case the count was incremented because the **F** button was
selected.
This is the basis of the (slightly confusing) distinction in Blender
between *object datablocks* and *object **data** datablocks*. Object
datablocks contain the information common to all the *types* of objects
in the 3D scene, regardless of whether they're mesh objects, lamp
objects, camera objects or whatever; whereas the object *data*
datablocks contain the information specific to that *instance* of the
type of object, e.g. the vertex, edge and face definitions for this
particular mesh you might be using, or the colour and energy of a lamp
you\'ve set up for your project, or the field of view of a camera you
have.
That leads us to the difference between the two object duplication
commands, and
: the former duplicates both the
object datablocks and the object *data* datablocks (though this can be
controlled in your User Preferences), while the latter only duplicates
the object datablock. That means that in the first case the two objects
are truly independent, but in the second case the new object continues
to share the same object *data* datablock so a change in one will result
in a change in both of them. So, for instance, if you use
on a mesh object and edit the
vertices, edges or faces on one copy, the other copy will also be
affected.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Bones
|previous=Blender Memory Management
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
Bones are a modeling tool that are especially important for animating
characters. Bones allow you to move characters\' limbs in a way that is
much simpler than trying to re-arrange the vertices every time.
It works by associating a bone with particular vertices, causing them to
move along with the bone when the position is changed in pose mode.
Using bones is fairly simple once you get the hang of it, but, like many
things in Blender, can be a little daunting at first sight.
Bones don\'t do much on their own; in fact, they turn invisible at
render time. For this following module we\'ll use the character that we
had made by the end of the module Putting Hat on
Person. You
will have to have completed all the modules in Section
2B.
Note that while we will be using bones on a simple person, the process
can be used with any creature or body type you imagine!
## Laying down bones
{width="400"}
*Note: This just shows the basics of adding bones to an object. Go to
the advanced
animation
page for a more comprehensive guide on this.*
First of all, we\'ll need a model to put some bones on! For this
tutorial, we\'re going to use a humanoid model. Open the model that you
had created by the end of the Putting Hat on
Person
tutorial, or download a pre-made model from
here.
Here\'s our setup, with Block Dude standing on a plane. You can add a
plane by pressing → *Mesh* →
*Plane*. Scale the plane to an appropriate size and move it so that it
is approximately underneath the person.
**Noob note:** You will be placing armatures (\"bones\") inside your
humanoid, so you must work in \"wireframe mode\", not \"solid mode\".
Otherwise, you will not be able to see the armatures when you place
them. To toggle between \"solid\" and \"wireframe\", press
. You may find it helpful to make the
wireframe less complex by hiding the subsurface mesh. You can do this by
going to the Modifier context panel
of the Properties window
and deselecting the eye button.
**Note:** An alternative to working in \"wireframe mode\" is to turn
\"X-Ray\" on for the armature. To do this, select the armature. In the
properties panel under *object* there is a display menu. Click \"X-Ray\"
in the second field of buttons. This will allow the armature to show
through other objects.
## Add a bone
{width="400"}
Now, let\'s put some bones on Block Dude! In Object Mode press
*→ Armature → Single Bone*.
What we are looking at is an armature. This is a single bone. Now, we
need to put the bone in Block Dude! Move and rotate the bone so that
it\'s in the middle of Block Dude\'s chest. If your bone does not have
the correct length, then change the size of the bone by moving one of
the ends of the bone: switch to Edit Mode, select one of the ends of the
bone, then move it using . Alternatively,
you can scale it using
## Extrude a second Bone
{width="400"}
To create a second bone starting from one of the ends of the first bone,
switch to Edit Mode with the bone selected, select the end of the bone,
then extrude the end. A second bone
appears, with its start point on the selected end of the first bone.
Move the mouse to position the end point, then press
, , or
. Scale the bone as needed to fit it
in his body, and continue adding bones by extruding the end points.
These operate much the same way as vertices: you can extrude, rotate,
move, and even subdivide. Your finished result should look something
like this:
## Name the bones
{width="400"}
Now, just to make things easier, we\'re going to name the bones. For
example, my bones are named \"Right Forearm\", \"Left Forearm\", \"Right
Upper Arm\", etc. While in Edit mode, select the bone you want to
rename. In the Outliner
, the
bone you have selected will be visible with a circle around it
.png "Blender_Armature_Bone_icon_(selected).png").
You may need to expand the Armature Object
,
Armature Data Object
 and
any parent bones before being able to view the selected bone. In the
Bone context panel
of the Properties window click the name field to edit the name.
**Noob Note:** When you are naming the bones remember that if you are
looking at the person from the front, your left is the person\'s right.
To make the naming easier switch to viewing the person from behind using
.)
## Parent the bones
Now, we need to parent the bones to the mesh. Go back into Object Mode
and select Block Dude (and the Hat, assuming you made one). Now, select
the Armature as well, so that it is the last object selected, and press
. The Parenting Menu will pop up.
Select *Armature Deform* → *With Automatic Weights*. The person (and
hat) are now children of the armature.
**Noob Note:** The selection order is important in defining which object
is the parent, so you cannot select both objects at the same time. You
must select the armature last to make it the parent. Also please note if
you have problems with deformation you need to rest the rest position of
the bones this is easily achieved by going to pose edit mode select all
bones and CTRL -A then apply pose as rest position .
## Moving the Bones
{width="400"}
To move individual bones, you have to go into Pose Mode. Select the
Armature in Object Mode and switch to Pose Mode by pressing
or selecting the mode in the mode
selection menu of the 3D Viewer. Try moving a bone around by pressing
(sic) to select it, and then hitting
or to move
it.
If you\'ve done everything correctly, your mesh should move when you
move the bones! If this doesn\'t happen, scale the bones up so that they
fit better in the mesh, and scale up the bones until they do what you
want (read comment in the parenting section above on adjusting the bones
envelopes if you do not get an effect while moving/rotating the bones).
With the bones now, you can put Block Dude into a lot of different
positions without moving individual vertices.
To the right is an example of how you can move Block Dude with the
bones.
Also while in pose mode if after a
click you can\'t move bones with or
, check the \"Move Object Centers Only\"
button (just to the right of the Rotation/Scaling Pivot button).
## In-Depth Info on Selected Bone Topics
### Add/remove mesh from bone control
{width="400"}
**Noob Note:** If you\'ve been adding bones to your simple person from
the previous lessons, you will have likely noticed that the hat seems to
stretch when you move the arms in pose mode. To fix this, you will need
to remove the hat from the forearm vertex groups created in the
Parenting step.
To manually change the mesh areas that the bones control, go to Object
Mode and select the object you want to add/remove (if the mesh is inside
the same object, then select only the areas of the mesh you want to work
with in Edit Mode).
In this case, select the Hat.
Switch to the Object Data context panel in the Properties window and
scroll to the \"Vertex Groups\" submenu.
Now pick the bone group from the dropdown above the Assign/Remove
buttons, and then hit Assign (or Remove) as necessary. Usually vertices
will be assigned to one group, but can be assigned to multiple groups.
In this case, we want to remove the Hat from the Forearm vertex groups.
Select the Forearm vertex groups and press the remove button, as
pictured. With both of the Forearm vertex groups removed from the hat,
it should be able to move properly with the rest of the armature.
#### Mesh deforms like it\'s far away from the bones
If the mesh is properly assigned to the bones they will move regardless
of whether the bones are inside the volume of the mesh or not (HOW they
deform WILL be affected however). The most common mistake in this step
is creating and (more importantly) parenting the mesh to the armature
while the armature is outside the mesh, which causes Blender not to
assign vertices to any bone groups at all.
You can check this by editing the object (i.e. select the mesh and
switch to Edit Mode, then un-select all vertices by pressing A until
nothing is selected). Pick the *Object data* context then select a
vertex group in the *Object data tab**, press**Select*\'. This will
select the vertices associated with the bone group. If the wrong
vertices appear selected, you need to assign them manually as explained
above.
If there is no effect, in Edit mode select that bone (or bones) and
choose Envelope display mode (**Properties** window
,
*Armature context panel → Display → Envelope*), then press
and increase its area of
influence to cover all faces that should be influenced by the bone.
\
\
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Mountains Out Of Molehills
|previous=Bones
}}
```
Now that we\'ve created our simple person, it\'s time to give him
somewhere to go. In this tutorial we\'ll create a mountain range using a
few simple, and handy tools.
## Creating a simple plane
First we need a clean area to work with.
- Start off with a new project, using *File → New*, or hit
. If you have a default cube or
plane just delete them now (select them with
and press
).
Our first step is to create a large grid plane that we\'ll use for the
ground and grow our mountains out of.
- Press to enter top view. This way
our grid plane will be lying flat when we create it.
- Press . This sets the 3D cursor
to (0,0,0) which will be the center of the grid we will add (or
use - → *Cursor to Center*).
- Now add the grid with → *Mesh*
→ *Grid*. This will be our canvas.
- Now add more vertices to the grid. In the bottom of the toolbox
window, change the number of X and Y subdivisions somewhere from 15
to 20.
- Change to Edit Mode using
- Scale the grid plane up by about 15
: First put the mouse close to the center of the grid plane and press
and drag the cursor away and watch
the numbers in the bottom left of the 3D View. Hold
while dragging to increment by 0.1
for a more precise measurement. Alternatively, to enter the exact
amount yourself, press , then
simply type **15** and hit .
## First mountain
Now that we have the ground, it\'s time to start growing our mountains.
- Make sure you have nothing selected
.
- Select a random vertex with . I
usually start at the one that is 4 down from the top and 4 in from
the left (the 4th vertex if you count the edges).
- Change to the side view with .
- Press to change to proportional edit
mode or use the button which shows a grey ring on the header of the
3D View. The button will change its color to blue. You can also use
→ *Transform→Proportional Edit*
(By default this button is located just below the 3D view).
- Once you\'ve turned proportional edit mode on, another button
appears to its right, the falloff button. Select Smooth Falloff
here. Alternatively you can use the menu on the header of the 3D
View (*Mesh → Proportional Falloff → Smooth*) or, using
will cycle through all of the
different falloff types while using the Proportional editing tool.
- Press to grab the vertex. We should
now have a circle surrounding the vertex, this is our *radius of
influence*. Basically any vertices inside this circle will be
affected by any changes to the vertex itself.
**Noob Note:** If you\'re having trouble seeing or changing the radius
of influence, try saving your scene and restarting Blender.
- Use or
and
to adjust the radius of
influence to include just over 2 vertices on each side of our
selected vertex. (Depending on your version of Blender, you may need
to use to adjust the radius
of the influence. On Mac, use
and ).
- Move the vertex up about 8 units on the Z-Axis. Do this by dragging
the cursor up a little, and press the
; this should restrain the movements
along the Z-axis. Now use to move
it precisely. Alternatively you can use
to restrain movements to the Z-Axis,
type and hit
. In older versions of Blender you
may need to hit before typing
.
Congratulations, we just created our first mountain. Now it\'s time to
see what other things we can accomplish with the proportional editing
tool.
## Peaks vs. hills
The 2.37 and onward releases offer at least 6 types and 2 modes of
proportional editing. The previous release only has 2 of these types:
Smooth and Sharp Falloff. We\'ll take a look at the difference between
these two now.
- Change to top view again with .
You\'ll notice that now your \"mountain\" looks like a few
differently shaded squares in the grid; you\'re looking down on
shaded tiles, but in the Z axis, they\'re all still perfectly
aligned with the original grid.
- Select another vertex away from the first. Let\'s say 4 from the
bottom 4 from the right (counting the vertices on the edges).
- Change back to the side view with
- Select Sharp Falloff from the menu on the bar of the 3D View.
Alternatively, using will
switch from one to the next of the 6 proportional editing modes
while using the Proportional editing tool.
- As before, move the vertex up 8 units on the Z-Axis (*Note: The
radius of influence will still be the same size as when we last used
it*).
-
-
- Type and hit
Now we can see the differences between the sharp and smooth falloff. The
same number of vertices are affected in both cases; only the degree to
which they are affected is different.
The different proportional editing modes can be selected from the box
immediately to the left of the proportional editing type box. The mode
box contains four options: Disabled, Enabled, Connected, and Projected
(2D). \"Disabled\" means that proportional editing will not be used.
\"Connected\" means that only vertices linked to the selected vertices
will be affected by the radius of influence. \"Enabled\" means that all
vertices will be affected.
## Shaping the world
{width="300"}
Now that we\'ve created a couple of Mountains, it\'s time to see how we
can use proportional editing to shape them.
- First make sure we\'re in side view
().
- Then on the smooth falloff mountain, the first one we created,
select the vertex that is immediately down and left from the topmost
point.
- Press to rotate, scroll the
to change effective radius so it
includes other points. Your screen should look like the photo to the
right.
You can see the size of the proportional editing circle, and that there
is only one vertex on the mountainside selected.
- Next hold and rotate everything by
-90. Alternatively, use ,
, and type **-90** and press
. Your mountain should now look
like this:
**Noob note:** be careful about the range of affected vertices. If the
range is too small, then rotating will affect just the selected vertex.
If the range is too large, it will rotate everything together. You can
adjust the range by using .
{width="300"}
Notice that the vertex itself did not move; since it is at the center of
the circle it had no effect. The adjoining vertices within the edit
circle were rotated around it in decreasing amounts the further from the
center they are. Try doing it again with a larger proportional editing
circle. Feel free to play around with scaling or rotating from different
view points (don\'t forget that you can also use
to move vertices vertically or
horizontally).
Try viewing your world from top view while rotating with a large
effective radius. You will see the nearby vertices move close to the
full amount while vertices further away move less.
## Smoothing things out
Now that we have a couple of budding mountains, you probably think they
look kind of choppy. Sure they would be good if we were making an 8-bit
console game, but we\'re working with 3D here, we want things to look
sharper (or maybe smoother) than that. There are a couple of approaches
to this. The first is to use more vertices when we create our plane. And
I won\'t lie, it works. But it\'s also a HUGE resource hog. It would
take your home computer hours of work just to keep things updated, let
alone run it. So instead, we fake it. The easiest way to do this is to
turn on *SubSurfaces* (we saw this in Detailing Your Simple Person
1.)
For our purposes, let\'s set the subdivision (*Levels*) to 2. Also,
ensure our SubSurf algorithm is set to *Catmull-Clark* (this is the
default setting).
Now, you\'ll notice that with SubSurf on, we lose a lot of hard edges
that we had, essentially we have no sharp corners any more. I don\'t
know about you, but to me that doesn\'t make for a very interesting
mountain range. So to restore our corners, we are going to use *Weighted
Creases for Subsurfs*.
- First turn off proportional editing with
, and ensure we\'re in side view with
- Next, while still in edit mode, change to *Edge Select* mode with
and select *Edges*.
Alternatively press *Edge Select Mode* button at the bottom of the
object window.
- In the Tool Shelf at left, select the Options tab, then under Edge
Select Mode, choose Tag Crease.
- On our Sharp Falloff mountain, the second one we did, select the two
edges on the right. *(see image
below)*
- Press or
→ *Edit → Edges → Crease
SubSurf*, then move the mouse away from the edge until the edge
*Crease* reads 1.000 in the 3D viewport header. If moving the cursor
there seems to be impossible, just hit 1 and enter.
As you move the cursor away from the edge you will notice two things.
The first is that the edge becomes thicker as we move from it; this is
showing how much of a crease we have (with *Draw Creases* turned on).
The second is that you will notice the subsurfed mesh moving closer to
the edge as the sharpness increases.
## Naturalness
Press to enter Edit Mode and
select vertices. Then go into front view
. Select the second vertex from the top
in the centre of our Sharp Falloff mountain, then go into side view
. Hold
and drag the vertex inwards, not too far or your mountain will come out
of itself on the other side. Just bring it in enough to make a small
indent.
Then grab the top vertex and pull it down a small amount. You will
notice that there is a small \"crunch\" in your mountain.
Don\'t forget to select all with , then
*Shade Smooth* button to smooth
everything out.
OK, so your mountains are starting to shape up. But they still look a
bit too neat. You could spend time moving each individual vertex but the
chances are your model will still lack the natural feel. What we need is
some chaos. Thankfully this is quite easy to accomplish. Firstly select
the vertices that make up your mountains, all of them and a few around
the base (box and circle select will make this easier). Select a few
vertices between the mountains too. Next we use something called
fractals. Fractals are chaotically (i.e. randomly) generated variables.
In short you can use these variables to give your mountains a \"wobbly\"
look.
!Fractal option in
2.72 In
the Tools tab of the Tool Shelf, press Subdivide (under Mesh Tools),
then look at the Subdivide submenu below. The value in the Fractal box
is the strength of the fractal. 1 is very low and will barely change
your model. 10 is very high and will twist your models into very odd
shapes indeed. Have a play with different values until you find one that
you like. Around about 4.0 should do it. Hit OK and presto, your
mountains have been transformed from clinical neatness, to lumpy chaos.
- If you make too many fractals, your computer will slow down.
However, the more you add, the more bumpy and realistic it looks!
Repeatedly using the fractal tool seems to rapidly multiply the amount
of vertices on your canvas. I suggest using the tool once, and if the
result isn\'t satisfying, undo the result
() and try it again with a different
fractal strength. Helpfully, even after undo, your selected vertices
remain selected.
Now go back into Object mode and view the result.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Modeling a volcano
|previous=Mountains Out Of Molehills
}}
```
In this module, you will create a volcano using the proportional edit
fall-off tool. You should be comfortable with deleting and adding
meshes.
\_\_TOC\_\_
## Adding a Plane
Delete the basic cube. Add a plane, and
cale it up by 10. Rotate it so you see it
in top-view (make sure it\'s in Orthographic view too).
Enter Edit mode and subdivide (with ) 5 or
6 times. More subdividing will give you a \"smoother\" volcano, but it
also needs more CPU power.
\"Subdivide\" divides every square in the plane into four new squares.
So every time you press \"Subdivide\" you will have four times as many
squares as before. \"Subidivide Multi\" will make x horizontal and x
vertical lines through your existing squares, so the new number of
squares is: (squares_old)\*(x+1)^2^, where x is the number you
enter.\'\'
## Making the Mountain
In top view, select one of the points in the middle of the plane. With
this point selected change to side view. Press the
, which enables the \"Proportional Edit
Falloff\" tool in the Menu-Panel beneath the 3-D-Window. As seen in the
previous tutorial Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Mountains Out Of
Molehills
when you move a vertex while edit falloff is enabled, all vertices in a
defined radius of the selected vertex will align with the selected
vertex when its position is altered. How they are adjusted can be chosen
in the tab on the right of the yellow dot. I propose using \"smooth
falloff\".
{width="400"}
Now grab the vertex with . You will now
see a gray circle. You can change its size with the mouse wheel. Every
vertex inside this radius will be affected by the falloff. Change the
size of the circle so almost the whole plane is in it.
{width="400"}
Now move the vertex a bit upwards, as seen in the picture. Optionally
you can lock the z-axis to make the volcano go straight up by pressing
.
{width="400"}
As you can see all the other vertices will shift upward. We could keep
moving this vertex at the same rate, but that would cause the plane
itself to rise and bend, and that\'s not very good. So press
to apply the changes, grab the same
vertex a second time and repeat the previous exercise as before, except
now choose a smaller radius for the circle, about half the diameter of
the plane ( →
→ scroll
).
{width="400"}
Repeat this two or three more times and you will get something like
this:
{width="400"}
## Forming the Crater
Now we\'re going to create the \"hole\" on the volcano. First change the
falloff to \"root\". Grab the vertex one more time, change the size of
the circle so it\'s more or less as seen in the picture.
{width="400"}
Grab this vertex down a bit, apply, grab it one more time with a smaller
circle. You now should have something like this:
{width="400"}
Just leave the border jagged and just smooth (Subdivision Surface) the
whole volcano cause it is much more realistic. Go to Object mode, select
the volcano, go to the \"Modifier\" menu in the \"Properties\" Header
and just click on \"Add Modifier\" -\> Subdivision surface (you can
leave \"view\" on 1). Do not apply these settings yet.
{width="400"}
First we\'ll do a test-render. Still in \"Object mode\" Delete the
default Lamp point with \"X\" or \"Delete\" and place your 3D cursor
behind the camera and press
+ -\>
\"Lamp\" -\> \"Point\". With the Lamp Point still selected Click on The
Lamp point Properties (\"Data\") in the \"Properties\" Header then
change \"Energy\" to \"10\". Press **F12** to enter Render, after
adjusting the camera.
{width="400"}
## Finishing the crater
You can very easily make a nice looking crater. Just go into \"Edit
Mode\", touch \"Num1\". Make sure \"limit selection to visible\" is off
and \"proportional editing\" is on and set it to \"sharp\" falloff.
Select about the upper vertices with \"border select\" (Press \"B
key\").
{width="400"}
After that, scale (press \"S key\") it \'till it\'s a nice crater with a
circle as large as mine.
{width="400"}
And that\'s it, you just created a nicer looking crater.
{width="400"}
{width="400"}
## Adding Magma
Let\'s add some \"magma\" using lighting.
1. Make sure you\'re in \"Object Mode\"
2. Press
+
and choose *Cursor to Center*.
3. Press
+
and choose *Lamp → Point*.
4. In the Properties window, click the Data tab.
5. In the colour box (white by default) in the Lamp section, change the
color to reddish-orange. (Red: 1, Green: 0.1, Blue: 0)
6. Set the Energy to around 7.
7. Raise the light until it\'s just above the bottom of the crater
(rab along the
axis).
8. If the ground level of your plane is reflecting light from the lava
lamp this is because the bottom of your crater is above ground level
of the plane you created; you\'ll need to turn on ray-tracing. in
the object data menu for the light, open the Shadow menu and click
\"Ray Shadow\"
- Alternate 1: Spot Lamp
1. Change the light\'s type to *Spot*.
2. Raise the light until it\'s covering most of the crater. If the
light is not pointing down, otate and
angle it downwards.You can also scale the radius of the light by
press to fit the rim of the crater.
- Alternate 2: Area Lamp
1. Change the light\'s type to *Area*.
2. otate along the axis: 180 degrees.
3. Set Gamma to 2.
4. Set Distance to around 5.
Experiment with the values and positioning to get something that works
with your volcano.
It should now look like this:
{width="400"}
## Varying the Terrain
Next, let\'s set the volcano\'s material.
1. on the volcano plane.
2. Select the \"Material\" button
 and press New.
3. Change the Diffuse color to ashen gray. (Red: 0.260, Green: 0.230,
Blue: 0.230)
4. Select the \"Texture\" button and press New.
5. Change the Type to Stucci.
6. In the Influence panel, uncheck Color, and check Normal. Set the
Normal slider to 0.5. This will render the texture as a bump-map.
(Note: In version 2.77 you may need to change the texture Mapping -\>
Coordinates option from UV to Generated before you see bumps appear.)
(Note: In version 2.78c you may need to change the texture Mapping -\>
Coordinates option from UV to Global or Object before you see bumps
appear.)
**Older versions:**
Select the volcano and press F5. Keep Pressing F5 until the Materials
Buttons (symbolized by a red ball) is highlighted. Then add a new
material. You do this by clicking the Add New button in the Links and
Pipeline Panel. Once you\'ve done that, set the settings similar to the
picture below. Now press F6, then add a new texture to the material.
Choose a stucci texture, set the noise size to 0.15. Now switch back to
the materials-window (F5) and click on the \"map to\" tab. Deselect the
\"col\" button and select the \"nor\" button. This will render the
texture as a bump-map on the volcano. Set the \"nor slider\" to 0.5,
which should be the default. Switch to the \"map input\" tab and choose
\"tube\".
{width="400"}
If you now render you should get something like this:
{width="400"}
This looks really smooth, like clay pottery. To get a more rough-looking
volcano, try out these options:
- Option 1: Subdivide and increase the fractal. 5 should do the trick.
{width="400"}
- Option 2: Decrease the texture\'s basis size (in the \"Stucci\"
panel when you select the \"Texture\" button).
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- Option 3: Proportional edit tool.
1. Press to turn on Proportional
Editing mode. Select Random fallout.
2. rab the center vertex, and raise it along the
axis.
**Older versions:**
Go into Edit mode, select all Vertices, and use the fractal (set from 15
to 30) to really get things looking rocky and mountainous. **TAB** (Edit
mode) → **F9** → **AKEY** to select all → Mesh Tools → Fractal → 15 - 30
(15-low, 30-high) → OK → **TAB** (Object mode) In Blender 2.5 you can
use the random proportional edit tool: use **NUM7** to switch into top
view, grab the central vertex of your volcano using a large-radius
random proportional edit, and pull it slightly into Z-direction.
(A note: Seems there is no need in subsurf at all since fractal tool
will dramatically increase vertex quantity.)
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Penguins from spheres
|previous=Modeling a volcano
}}
```
Note: Some Pictures are outdated.
## Setup
Start with the default
scene: it should
contain a selected cube. Delete this cube by pressing
→ *Delete*.
 Put the 3D cursor at
the scene center by pressing
+.
: ***Note:** after deleting the cube you must be in*Object Mode*. If
not, Press CTRL-Z and switch with
and redo the operation.*
## Creating the body
!Z-scaled sphere
**Noob note:** to ensure that you don\'t become confused, make sure that
your viewport is set up in the same direction you see in these pictures.
The colored arrows are red, green, and blue and they control the *x*,
*y*, and *z* axes, respectively.)
- We start by creating our main body from a sphere. Press
+ *→
Mesh → UVSphere*, then choose 16 segments and 16 rings.
We\'re going to make it look like a penguin body:
- Press to enter Edit mode
- press to switch to the front view,
- with all the vertices selected (if not,
), choose the scale tool
(),
- restrict scaling to the Z-axis (),
- and move the mouse away from the 3D cursor while holding down the
key (this snaps the scale values
to whole numbers),
- \'**\'Note:** Make sure the mouse cursor is not too far away
from the sphere when hitting the
or else you may not be able to reach a 2.000 scale value. The
scaling steps are proportional to the distance from the 3D
cursor when calling the scale tool.
- the current scale shows in the lower left corner of the viewport,
click when you\'ve reached 2.000 ).
- ***Note:** You can also do this by typing in 2 after starting
the scale and restricting movement to the Z-axis*: S -\> Z -\> 2
This is our main body!
## Shaping the head
We're going to shape the penguin head from the top of the sphere.
{width="200"}
Start by selecting the top-most single vertex as well as the top two
smallest circle segments.
: ***Note:** Selection has been explained in a previous
tutorial.
Here, the easiest methods are either box selection
) in the front view
) and*Limit selection to
visible*off, or lasso selection
(+)
in the top view () and*Limit
selection to visible\'\' on. You can also switch to top view, center
your mouse on the topmost vertex and use the circle tool. Don\'t
forget to deselect all first ()
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
: **Noob note:** You can also select the top vertex and press
+
twice to select the circle segments.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
: **Noob note:** Make sure the *Limit selection to visible/Occlude
background geometry* button is in the right state each time you
select vertices, edges or faces. When it\'s off, selection affects
any item, visible or not.\'\'
### Building the neck with the 3D transform manipulators
To turn on the 3D transform manipulator, either push down its button
 or use
+ and
choose *Enable/Disable*.
#### Moving the two selected circles up
{width="200"} Go to the
front view (). Drag the blue arrow
while holding the key down to move the
selected vertices 0.3 units up.
: **Noob note:** you may not be able to snap the extrusion lengths to
tenths of units. snaps to the grid
size by default: if you can only translate by one unit (1.0), zoom
in until the grid divides itself into tenths (**SCROLL**). Some
Blender versions allow to snap to one tenth of the current step by
holding both the and
keys while moving the mouse.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
: **Noob note:** instead of the *Transform* manipulator, you can use
the and constraint the movement to
the Z axis ().\'\'
#### Rotating the neck
{width="200"} Now switch
to the side view () and make sure that
the rotation/pivot point is set to \"median point\" either by selecting
it from the third drop down menu right of the \"Mesh\" menu, or by
pressing +
. Choose the *Rotate* tool
(). Move the mouse with the
key down to rotate the selection 30
degrees counter-clockwise. Use to
validate the rotation.
{width="200"} Select an
additional ring of vertices by expanding the selection
( +
(*Note:*NUM+*Refers to the addition symbol on the NUM Pad,*KEY+*will not
do.*). You can contract the selection by pressing
+ .
Move these vertices an additional 0.3 units up, then rotate them as
previously 30 degrees counter-clockwise in the side view.
{width="180"}
Repeat those steps (selection expansion, translation and rotation) two
more times and you\'ll end up with the body seen in the below.
That doesn't really look like a penguin, yet!
{width="200"}
Now move all of the selected vertices to the left 0.4 units by pulling
the manipulator\'s green arrow (and of course holding the
key down). This straightens out the
neck as seen in the next picture.
: **Noob note:** you can also use the
and translate the selection by -0.4 as displayed in the bottom left
corner of the viewport. Still do this in the side view
().
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
: **Noob note** if you had to pull the red arrow, not the green one,
then you probably didn\'t switch to side view, and modeled the neck
in front view. If you realize here that you have this done from
another view then press AKEY twice, then NUM7, then Space -\>
Transform -\> Rotate and type 90 or 270
#### Creating the beak
{width="180"} Switch to
the front view (), and select the
frontmost vertex (the one that originally was the top vertex of the
sphere) with the . Then switch to the
side view () and translate this vertex
to the left by 1.2 units using the manipulator\'s green arrow or the
translate tool.
: ***Note:** some Blender versions allow moving the vertices from the
keyboard with the following sequence:
, ,
-1.2, .*\
The main body of the penguin is now finished. The next step is to create
some flappers for the poor little guy.
## Extruding the wings
We are going to create the wings by extruding faces on each side of the
penguin.
: **Noob Note:** You can rotate the whole object by pressing A to
select all of its vertex and then rotate it pressing R or using the
Rotate Manipulator until the axis on your screen matches the axis on
the example image. That way, also, you can practice a little more.
{width="200"}
Choose the side view () and switch to
the *Face select mode*
(+ →
*Faces*, or click on the orange-sided cube icon in the toolbar).
{width="200"} Now,
select two faces that will make up the penguin's shoulder as shown on
the right (either select the first one with
and the second one holding
, or use box selection
() to select them both in a single
operation).
!Wing extrusion{width="200"}
Then switch to front view () and
extrude the selection:
- choose → *Region*,
- constrain to the X axis (),
- hold to snap,
- and move the mouse to extrude the shoulder by 0.2 to 0.3 units.
!Bottom face
selection{width="200"}
We\'ll now extrude the bottom face of this new extrusion. Rotate the
view to show it with:
- a drag,
- or several presses on ,
- or
+
(bottom view).
Press the to deselect all, and select the
bottom face (), switch to front view
(), extrude by 1.4 units down
( and ).
Now do the same on the penguin\'s other side: use
+ to
view the left side (you can also rotate with
, or press
several times).
## Smoothing the wings
We're going to smooth out the shoulders and improve the wings. Though
this can be done in many ways, we\'ll only use the merge tool.
{width="200"}
Rotate your penguin so that you can see one shoulder from above. Then
switch to *Vertex select mode*
(+ →
*Vertices*). Press to deselect all, then
select the two shoulder vertices with
and .
Press
+,
choose *At Center* from the popup in order to merge the two vertices at
their center. Finally dismiss the message saying *Removed 1 Vertices*.
!Edges to
smooth{width="250"}
Repeat the steps with the two other vertex pairs shown on the right
picture, and smooth the other wing. I'm leaving the middle segments for
now, else the wing tips will be too pointy.
: ***Note:** if you have troubles merging vertices, it comes from
vertex duplicates in your mesh. You probably chose*Individual
Faces*instead of*Region*when extruding the wings, which creates
duplicate vertices and neighbouring faces. To clean up your model:
select all vertices () and choose
→*Remove Doubles*.*
You must do them one by one!
Or, Alternatively, change into *Edge select mode*
(+ →
*Edge*), select the edges to smooth
(+),
press
+,
choose *Collapse*
{width="200"}
Finish off the wings by selecting the two backmost vertices of the
wings, and moving them up using the blue arrow by 0.1 unit.
!Wings
complete{width="200"}
You should now have something like this:
## Cutting the underside
{width="200"}
{width="200"} We\'re going
to cut the penguin\'s lower end, for it to stand up! Select the bottom
vertices (bottom vertex and the first ring above it) as shown in the
picture. There are many ways, this is left as an exercise.
Once they\'re selected, delete them ( →
*Vertices*). Now our penguin is hollow: select all the vertices around
the hole, and fill it using
+.
: **Noob note:** To quickly select all the vertices around the hole,
you can enter edge mode
+-\>
\"Edges\", and then select one edge that goes around the hole. Now
press **CTRL+E** -\> \"Edge Loop Select\", which should select all
edges around the hole. Now go back to Vertex select mode and
continue with
+.
: **Noob note:** For Blender 2.56 In vertex select mode and occlude on
hold down ALT and select one of the vertices all the vertices in the
ring will be selected.
## Adding the feet
The next step is to provide the little guy with feet. To do this, we're
going to extrude two of the front faces:
- choose the front view (),
- switch to *Face select mode*,
- turn on *Limit selection to visible*,
- and select the face to the left and right of the middle two faces of
the penguin.
Then switch to the side view () and
extrude the selection by -0.6 units ( →
*Region*, restrict to the Y axis: ).
{width="190"}
Keep the selection and look for the *Mesh Tools* in the Tool Shelf. If
you can't see it, press to make the Tool
Shelf visible. Then click on the *Subdivide* button (under Add in the
Tools tab). Or press and choose
Subdivide.
{width="190"}
Switch to \"Vertex Select Mode\", Now select the three middle vertices
(or two edges) vertically at the tip of each foot, and drag them along
the Y axis by 0.3 units towards the penguin
: **Note:** if something goes wrong here, you may need to remove
double first. As always, to move the vertices, either use the
manipulator or and
sequence.\'\'
{width="200"}
You should end up with what\'s shown in the right picture (minus the
selection).
!\|190px The feet look too thick,
let\'s flatten them a bit. Switch to the front view
() and select the two bottom vertex
rows (*Limit selection to visible* off, use either the lasso or box
selection).
!\|190px Then choose the scale tool
(), limit its action to the Z axis
() and scale down by a factor of 0.4.
The feet still look rather peculiar, so please go ahead and move the
vertices around on your own as you like.
\'**\'Reminder:** you can use the and
restrict movements to the X or Y axis using the
or . Try
not to move vertices along the Z axis to keep the penguin\'s bottom
flat.
## Extruding a tail
{width="250"}
{width="250"}
{width="250"}
To complete the penguin, we have to add a tail (the end of the tuxedo):
- go to the back view
(+),
- make sure you\'re still in *Vertex select mode*,
- and that *Limit selection to visible*/*Occlude background geometry*
is on.
Select the three middle vertices in the second row up from the bottom.
Then, switch to the side view () and
extrude the edges 0.3 units away from the penguin and 0.08 units down
( → *Edges*), so that the end of the tail
is at the same level as the bottom of the penguin.
**Noob Note:** Or you can extrude the edges 0.3 units away from the
penguin, then
-0.08,
or .
Press +
to save your work!
## Subsurfing
!Now that\'s what I call a penguin. But then again, there are no
penguins where I live, so I might be
wrong.
Go to *Object Mode* (), and make sure
the penguin is selected. Then check for the *Modifiers* toolkit in the
*Buttons* panel. Press *Add Modifier → Subsurf* (or Press
+).
Look at the penguin now, he's much smoother. You can alter the levels of
the subsurfing if you like, but I'll settle for level one. Under the
*Links and Materials* toolkit, you can press the *Set Smooth* button as
well, which makes the penguin really slick.
: ***Note:** you may see some weird effects at the bottom and the tail
after subsurfing the penguin. If so, there is an issue with normals:
they have to be all pointing outwards. This can be achieved by
selecting all vertices in*Edit Mode*and recalculating the normals
outside
(+).
Click on the message to confirm. Note that
++
will turn the normals inwards and that
→*Flip Normals\'\' flips them.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
: \'**\'Question:** The finished penguin looks fine in Object Mode,
but when I render it, it looks odd. Quite patchy.
: \'**\'Answer:** Make sure you adjust the \"Render Levels\" parameter
(directly under \"Levels\") to be greater-or-equal than \"Levels\".
```{=html}
<div style="clear: both;">
```
```{=html}
</div>
```
## Extra
The penguin can be colored or textured, but that will be part of later
tutorials!
Image:Penguin_orbisonitrum.jpg\|This is what the penguin (sans tail)
looks like, textured and ready.
Orbisonitrum
Image:peng.jpg\|The eyes are there, just not easily visible in the
thumb. At the top of the white part, two faces on the chest were
subdivided to give the white more of a curve at the top. The faces were
selected that were going to be white, and the I used separate (**P**) to
make them a different mesh. I used a white material for the chest, black
for the body, and grey uvspheres for the eyes. Apparently, an easier way
to colour the chest can be found at Multiple
Materials*please
feel free to replace this with your own image of the penguin you made,
with comments on how you put your own style into it*
Image:Penguin.jpg\|A pretty basic picture of a penguin. I subdivided the
stomach and eyes, but then I also added some eyeballs by making a
UVSphere, cutting the top of it off, and then placing it inside of my
penguin\'s head. All the colors have specular colors, giving the penguin
a slight blue glow under the black.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Dicing With Depth
|previous=Penguins from spheres
}}
```
**Dice** are objects which are familiar to us all,
used in countless games. Here we will model how to make a single *die*
(or a single dice, if you prefer).
The end result should look something like at right. Notice the following
features:
- different colours for the pips versus the body of the die
- rounded edges and corners, while the faces are (mostly) flat
- round, recessed pips.
Achieving all these effects will be a good exercise of your
mesh-modelling skills.
### Characteristics of the Die
 The number of pips on each face
of a die ranges from 1 to 6. However, in order to space them correctly,
there needs to be 9 positions for a pip on each face, even though not
all of them will be filled on any face.
 We will also
proportion our die so that the diameter of each pip will be twice the
horizontal or vertical distance between pips, even though if you look at
the illustration the pips on the finished die look smaller because they
eventually do not occupy this full diameter. As you will see, this makes
it easy to get the proportions uniform with a relatively small number of
*loop cuts*.
 Also note one of
the characteristics of real dice is that the number of pips on opposite
sides adds up to 7 as depicted in the Standard Die Layout.
## The Basic Mesh
Open a new Blender document. Select the
default cube, and into Edit mode.
 First of all, let's apply a small
amount of bevel to the corners and edges: with *all* the vertices
selected, press to start
bevelling---not too much, press when
you see something like at right.
!The first cut is the
deepest Now, we
need to make a bunch of loop cuts to mark out the areas where the pips
will go. To simplify things, we will do cuts through the middle of each
pip, as well as between pips---a total of 9 loops each way---then go
back and remove the unneeded cuts. That way we get the 2:1 proportions
correct with a minimum of effort. Who says it doesn't pay to plan ahead?
To make a loop cut, press , then
move the cursor over the edge you wish to subdivide: you should see a
single magenta loop appear. Now press ,
and you should see this change to 9 loops. Next, click
to change the lines to yellow and
really start cutting, then immediately press
to finish the cut *without* moving the
cuts from their initial positions.
You will need to do this 3 times, between the 3 pairs of opposing faces.
!First loop to remove
selected
!First loop gone Now look at
each face of your cube: you will see an 11×11 grid of vertices, with the
corner vertices each adjoining a triangle at the corner. Make sure
nothing is initially selected. Count the *third* vertex in from a
corner, and move the mouse slightly so it is over the edge leading from
this vertex into the interior of the face, just to avoid confusion; now
, and you should select a loop
like at right.
If you get the wrong selection, just
to clear it, and try again. Remember to click over an *edge* that is
running the right way, rather than a vertex, otherwise Blender is liable
to select a loop running the wrong way.
Press or
, and in the deletion menu that
appears, select "Edge Loops". The selected loop should disappear.
!Middle loop selected
!Middle loop gone Going in
from the edge of the face, skip over one loop, and remove the middle
one.
!Third loop selected
!Third loop gone Then
finally remove the third one in from the opposite edge.
 You
need to do this deletion of loops on every face that has the original 11
X 11 grid of vertices. When you are finished, the resulting mesh should
look like at right.
## Making the Pips
 Now we will hollow out
the spots or pips. The idea is to *extrude* selected ones of the large
squares on each face *inwards* into the cube ("intrude" rather than
"extrude", perhaps?), then split the bottom of each resulting pit into
four triangles each by adding an extra vertex in the middle; then
pushing in this vertex will give us the hollow for the pip (as at
right).
We will show three methods for doing this.
Do this individually for each face that is to be made into a pip.
### Method 1 (Slowest)
Select all the large squares to be made into pips (perhaps do one entire
face at a time). Press to
triangulate these faces. Now switch to edge-select mode, and select the
new diagonal edge that has appeared in the middle of the original
squares; bring up for edge
Specials and select Subdivide (leave the number of subdivisions at the
default 1). Things won't look any different, but each triangle is now a
quad, with an extra vertex added to the middle of each of those
diagonals.
Now switch back to face-select mode, select those subdivided halves of
all the squares, and to
triangulate again.
### Method 2 (Faster)
Switch to face-select mode. Select all the large squares to be made into
pips (perhaps do one entire face at a time). Do
to extrude, and immediately press
to leave the new extruded vertices in
the same positions as the old ones; now do
to merge and select the "Collapse"
option.
### Method 3 (Fastest)
Select the relevant large squares on each side to make the required
numbers for each face of a real die. From
for face Specials, select "Poke
Faces" (or more directly, do ).
Leave the settings at their defaults (in particular, leave the Poke
Offset at 0).
### Digging The Holes
Now that you have crossed the faces of your pips, select the middle
vertices one side at a time, and rab
inwards by a distance of 0.17 (make sure you do it at the appropriate
axis, pres ,
, )
along the appropriate axis.
**Noob Note:** Do this side after side, otherwise you will translate all
your vertices to one side and not all inside.
## Rounding Things Off
 Now apply a subsurf
modifier and set the shading to smooth, the result should look something
like this.
The trouble is, the pips look too much like dimples rather than proper
holes. To fix this, we can apply a *crease* to sharpen up the edges.
In edge-select mode, select the four edges around the opening of each
pip. Press , and move the mouse
until the edges take on the darkest magenta tint. That should firm up
the edges of the holes a bit.
## Colouring Your Die
First, go to the Materials Context
and set up the colour for the main part of the die (say, make it red as
in the illustration above). This can be done in Object or Edit modes.
Next, click the "+" button to add a second, initially empty, material
slot, then click the "+New" button that appears below it to create a new
material for this slot. Make this material white, for the pips. Then,
select the pips themselves, and use the "Assign" button to colour them
with this material as detailed below.
### Quickly Selecting The Pips, Method 1
Go to the Select menu, and select the option "Select Faces by Sides". A
panel will appear at the bottom of the Tool Shelf (use
to toggle the visibility of this),
with a field titled "Number of Vertices", initially showing 4; change
this to 3, and it should select all the triangles, which includes the
pips as well as the corners of the cube. You can deselect the latter one
by one by ing them.
### Quickly Selecting The Pips, Method 2
Alternatively, you can do just select the faces of each pip.
### Quickly Selecting The Pips, Method 3 (Fastest)
(Works in blender 2.6, not sure about earlier versions.) In face select
mode select one of the triangular faces of one of the pips. Hit space
and type \"select similar\" then choose \"area.\" If this selects too
many faces along the edge of the die, cancel and try again with
\"perimeter.\"
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Model a Goblet
|previous=Dicing With Depth
}}
```
Why a goblet? After all, goblets (fancy containers for consumable
liquids) are not really all that important in the real world. However,
they represent a very large class of interesting objects: those that are
radially symmetric. Also, they are fun to play with.
To model a goblet and actually see the result, we do the following
steps:
- create the actual mesh of the object.
- apply a *material* to the object.
- create and light a scene to display the goblet
- render the scene.
The following tutorials demonstrate three different approaches to
creating the mesh model, and then show two different materials (glass
and silver) that may be applied to the goblet. Finally, we add the
minimal elements to the scene to permit an \"interesting\" rendering.
## Three ways to build the mesh
As a beginner, you may wonder why we describe three different ways to
build the mesh. After all, surely the Pros know of a \"best\" method?!
The answer is that there is not really a best method. Blender provides a
sophisticated toolkit, and different blender artists will become
familiar with different tools. If, after you gain experience, you become
comfortable with cube extrusion, then this may become your preferred
tool. If you need more than four vertices per \"circle\" you may find
that cylinder extrusion is better for some particular object. If you are
comfortable with \"spinning\" an object, then spinning may be right for
you. All three techniques generate an object that is defined by a set of
vertices on a set of circles that are \"stacked\" on a common axis.
After we build the mesh using one of the three methods, we can apply any
number of fancy techniques for texture and rendering. We provide two
simple \"cookbook\" approaches in this section so you can see the
result, but materials are treated much more extensively in other
sections of the book.
In the next three sections of the book we describe the \"cube
extrusion\" approach, the \"cylinder\" approach, and the \"spin\"
approach. Following sections describe three textures that can be applied
to objects that are created with any of the approaches, and the final
tutorial provides a simple way to render the result.
The \"cube extrusion\" approach is a basic technique that all blender
artists will become familiar with, to model most types of objects. Since
it is such a basic technique, it may become the most efficient way for
you to create objects, and you may choose to use it wherever possible
rather than switching to a less familiar technique. You can see from the
tutorial that this technique is perfectly acceptable for goblets, and by
extension it will work for similar objects.
You may prefer the \"cylinder extrusion\" technique when you need more
than four vertices per circle, because cylinder extrusion is very
similar to cube extrusion. Thus your proficiency with cube extrusion
will directly carry over to cylinder extrusion.
\"Spinning\" is conceptually different, even though it creates the same
mesh as cylinder extrusion. Spinning is the easiest way to create a
radially symmetric model from a two-dimensional description of the
cross-section of an object.
## How many circles?
right\|400px
right\|400px Each of the three
methods defines a set of stacked circles, with vertices equidistant
around each circle. The \"cube extrusion\" technique has four vertices
on each circle, while the cylinder and spin techniques have a
user-specified number of vertices per circle. But how did we pick the
number of circles and the spacing between them?
The answer is that we know in advance that we intend to use a technique
called \"subsurf\". Subsurf interpolates additional vertices between
those we explicitly specify, and this \"smooths out\" the profile of our
goblet.
This will cause problems where we need a fairly sharp \"bend\" in the
profile, as between the base and the stem and between the stem and the
\"bulb\" of the goblet. At each point in the profile that has a (fairly)
sharp bend, we need for the vertical circles to be close to each other.
The two images illustrate this effect. Each image shows an outline of
the object, the spun object, and the result after subsurf (level 2) has
been applied. The outlines and the spun images are nearly identical, but
the subsurfed result is very different, because there are three extra
vertices in the second outline: one just above the bottom of the base,
one at the top of the base, and one below the bulb: these are the three
locations where we need relatively sharp changes in contour. When we
spin the outline, the first outline generates seven circles and two
degenerate circles, while the second outline generates ten circles and
two degenerate circles. Those extra three circles make all the
difference. The same phenomenon occurs with the other two modelling
techniques.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Model a Silver Goblet
|previous=Model a Goblet}}
```
## Basic Shape
right\|200px
At first glance, the goblet looks like it is composed of cylinders.
However, while it is possible to model the goblet with a cylinder mesh,
it is easier to make a goblet by using cubes. Cubes make the goblet
faster to make and it makes fewer vertices to track. Now, lets start
making the basic shape of the goblet.
Start with the default cube and go to Edit Mode
(). Toggle off \"limit selection to
visible\". Move to the side view ().
Toggle to ortho view. Box select () the
top edges of the cube. Extrude () upward
about one grid square. Hold down while
extruding for incremental movement; by default movement should be
restricted to the Z-axis (normal to the selection); if necessary, press
to toggle this effect. This extrusion is
called E1. Repeat 2 more times for extrusion 2 and 3 (E2 and E3).
Now Extrude a longer piece upwards, for the Goblet\'s stem, of 10 grid
squares (E4). Next we will define the area for the 2 top knobs and the
bottom of the glass by Extruding upwards 5 more times at 1 grid square
each (E5-E9). Next do another upward Extrusion of about 10 grid squares
(E10). This is the actual glass itself.
### Inflate the Glass
!Sizing the first
knob{width="400"}
Now, let\'s begin to inflate the glass. First, clear all selections by
hitting the . Make sure you are still in
the side view (). Box select
() the bottom most cube (all 8 vertices,
not just the bottom 4). Then expand it outward by scaling
(), then pressing
+ to
lock/prevent any scaling in height along the Z-axis and finally pressing
to quadruple its size. Next, deselect all
vertices (), select
() the 4th pair of vertices (E2), scale
them (), lock scaling
(+) and
triple the vertices in size ( and
).
Do the same for E5 and E7 (the 7th and 9th pairs of vertices,
respectively). Then expand ( and
+) the
top, Goblet rectangle (E9 and E10) to 6 times its current size
().
### Make the cup\'s interior
!All extrusions\|left !View of the
finished basic
goblet\|right Last
is the cup\'s interior. Once again, you should still be in the side view
(). Box select
() the very top most vertices of the
Goblet (E10). Once selected, get a better view by changing to \'Orbit
Up\' (). With the top surface selected,
initiate an Extrusion (), followed by a
termination with the . It will appear
as if nothing has happened, but new, overlapping edges have been created
and are now selected (this also creates E11). Next Scale
() the selected vertices to 90% of the
original size (). This creates the inside
lip of the cup. Now, Extrude () the
interior lip, along the Z-axis downward
() to create the bottom interior of the
Goblet (E12). Finish off by selecting all, and then a \'Remove Doubles\'
( → **Remove Doubles**), for good measure.
It should look something like this.
## Smoothing and Defining
Time to take the mesh and turn it into a proper goblet. Add a subsurf
modifier with 3 view subdivisions to the mesh. Change to Object Mode
() and select smooth shading. The
cube-looking mesh will now look like an object that was created from a
cylinder. This has removed all our crisp edges, but our globlet is
looking very unstable! Let\'s rectify things by flattening the bottom.
**Noob Note:** *If your goblet has a bulge in it after applying the
subsurf, go to **Edit mode** (), select
all (), press
, and select \"Remove doubles\". (If a
menu for boolean operations appears when you hit the
, then you\'re not in **Edit mode**;
change immediately to Edit mode and try the
again.)*
Select the four edges that surround the small circle at the very bottom
(the very lowest set of edges) and press
+ to
enable creasing. Now drag the mouse up and down to select the level of
the crease. When you\'re satisfied, hit
. Repeat the process for other edges you
want to be sharp. I\'ve turned on Draw Creases under *Mesh Tools 1* to
illustrate which edges have been creased (highlighted yellow) in this
example.
That concludes the creation of the goblet. Save the scene for use in the
lighting tutorial.
!Applied subsurf modifier
!Crease edges
## Quick links for the impatient
To jump to the relevant lighting section, go to Blender 3D: Noob to
Pro/Light a Silver
Goblet.
What about applying glass look already? Take a sneak peek at Blender
3D: Noob to Pro/Spin a
goblet#Material.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Model a Silver Goblet cylinder
|previous=Model a Silver Goblet
}}
```
## Preliminaries
This is a version of \"Model a Silver Goblet\" but starting from a
cylinder rather than a cube.
Start Blender or start a new scene ( +
) and delete the default cube.
Change to Top view (), make sure
you\'re in Object mode and add a cylinder
( +
Mesh \> Cylinder): in the popup menu, change the number of vertices from
32 to 16, the Radius from 1.000 to 1.800, the Depth from 2.000 to 0.100
and leave \"Cap Ends\" as it is.
Change to Front view ().
## Description of the modeling steps
The steps in this tutorial are almost all made up of \"extrude\" and
\"scale\": so, to avoid repeating key sequences every time,
extrude : means
1. make sure \"Limit selection to visible\" is off !Shows \"Limit
selection to visible\"
icon
2. box select the top vertices of the cylinder: press
, click and drag
to make a rectangle around the top
vertices
3. press , press
and type in the amount of the
extrusion and press ; you can move
the mouse instead but it is quicker and easier to type it in.
For example, the following keystroke sequence extrudes by 1.5:\
, click and drag
to make a rectangle around the top
vertices;
.
scale : scaling is by default restricted to the X-Y plane; although the numbers in the bottom left corner of the 3Dview show Z changing, in fact only X and Y change, and by equal amounts.
1. press , type in the value and press
--- you can use the mouse instead
but it is quicker and easier to type in the number.
## Creating the Goblet
!E-numbers and construction
steps
This diagram shows the connection between the E-numbers and the goblet
construction.
- **E1:** Deselect all vertices (),
Box-select the top vertices (B-key), and extrude by 0.2: you may
need to zoom in () to do this as
it\'s quite thin. Scale to 0.1.
- **E2:** Extrude by 0.2, scale by 2.
- **E3:** Extrude by 0.2, scale by 0.5 to make the lower knob.
- **E4:** Extrude by 4 to make the stem.
- **E5:** Extrude by 0.2, scale by 2.
- **E6:** Extrude by 0.2, scale by 0.5 to make the upper knob.
- **E7:** Extrude by 0.2, scale by 8 to make the base of the cup.
- **E8:** Extrude by 4, if you wish to make a flared cup, you can
scale by 1.5.
- **E9:** Extrude by 0.0, scale by 0.9 to make the rim of the cup.
(This will create a new ring of vertices and then move them in
towards the centre.)
: Now go into Wireframe mode () so
you can see inside to guide the next few steps.
- **E10:** Extrude by -3.9, that is, downwards. and scale by 0.69: you
can do this last scaling with the mouse, if you like, to get the
edges of the inside of the cup and the outside parallel.
- **E11:** Extrude by 0.0, scale by 0.0 to make the inside of the cup.
Press Remove Doubles to merge the
centre vertexes.
You now have a goblet, the base of the inside of the cup is the face of
the last extrusion, is circular and flat as it derives from a cylinder.
If you haven\'t already saved your work-in-progress, now would be a good
time.
## Subsurfing and smoothing the goblet
The last step is to subsurf and smooth: go into Object mode and enable
Solid mode again ().
Select the Editing panel from the Buttons window
() and, in the \"Modifiers\" panel, click
on \"Add Modifier\", select \"Subdivision Surface\" from the popup menu
and, in the Subsurf display, increase \"View subdivisions\" from 1 to 2.
!Shows the Editing panel icon and the Modifier
panel
At the bottom right of the \"Links and Materials\" panel, click on the
\"Shading: Smooth\" button. At the bottom of the cup you will see
fluting --- this is an artifact caused by smoothing and subsurfing
triangles on a curved surface. Here it adds to the appearance, don\'t
you think?
*In Blender v2.78, the \"Smooth\" button is located in the \"Tools\"
menu under the \"Edit\" tab.* !Tools
shading
## Flattening the base of the goblet
The base of the goblet is curved due to the subsurfing, so needs to be
flattened.
Go into Edit mode, deselect all, box-select the lowest set of vertices,
then crease (remove the subsurfing) by pressing
+ then
.
The final result should look something like this:
{width="200"}
{width="200"}
Save the scene for use in the lighting tutorial. To jump to the relevant
lighting section, go to Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Light a Silver
Goblet
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Spin a goblet
|previous=Model a Silver Goblet cylinder|Model a Silver Goblet from a cylinder
}}
```
The **spin** technique is a good choice when you want to model an object
that is radially symmetric and you know what the cross section of the
object looks like. This the virtual equivalent of using a
lathe to create an object in the real world. With
the spin technique, we draw an outline of one half of the outline of the
object, and then spin the outline about an axis to create the object\'s
mesh.
## Modeling
!Photo of a real-world
goblet{width="300"}
Here is a real-world goblet. The picture is not an orthographic image,
so we cannot directly copy the outline, but it is close.
### Setup
We now model the outline. Let\'s start with the default model. We want
to create an initial object consisting of a two-dimensional outline, so
select the cube, go to edit mode, and delete all the vertices. This
leaves us with an object that has no vertices as a nice place to start.
We want the resulting goblet to sit at the origin with the Z axis as its
axis of symmetry so we get a front view (press
). Since we will be working directly
with mesh vertices, the *manipulator* is a hindrance, so turn it off
(press ). (With the manipulator
on, it is easy to accidentally move a vertex out of the editing plane,
but we want a 2D cross-section.) We are now ready to create the
two-dimensional outline as a chain of vertices with the first and last
vertices on the axis.
### First Vertex
Now, place the first vertex: this will be the center of the bottom of
the goblet, so place it slightly above the origin on the Z axis
(). Why? Well, for two reasons: in
the real world, the bottom of a goblet is not actually flat. Instead,
the rim is lower than the center of the bottom, so the bottom is concave
and the goblet sits on a flat surface without wobbling. The second
reason is that we intend to use the \"subsurf\" technique, and this
technique will make a flat surface slightly convex in our virtual world,
so we will preemptively start the bottom of the base with a slightly
concave surface.
### Finish the outline
Add the second vertex, which will be on the rim of the goblet\'s base:
move the cursor to the X axis at about -3, and add a vertex (press
, or
,). Add
additional vertices to your outline by moving the cursor to the desired
location and adding,[^1] for as many vertices as you need to accurately
model the outline. Since you will be using subsurf later, make sure that
you place two vertices near each other when you need a sharp curve in
your outline. Otherwise, subsurf will convert your sharp curve into a
wide smooth curve.
Eventually, you will place the last vertex, which will become the point
at the bottom of the inside of the goblet. This point should be on the Z
axis. Your outline is done!
### Spin
Now, to spin it. first, make sure that you are still in edit mode, and
that the last vertex is selected. Set the cursor to the selection
(, then *cursor→selection*). Now,
get a top view (): you are now looking
at your outline from the top, and it should look like a straight line
along the X axis with one end at the cursor on the Z axis. (If this is
not the case, select and move points to the X axis and check your work
by switching back to the front view, then come back to the top view.)
Now select the whole outline and then move to the button menu to perform
the spin (or use the Spin option under Mesh Tools, Add, in the
Toolshelf). Set the rotation to 360 and the steps to 12 (or another
number of your choice).\" An elaborate circle will appear. Go to the
front view () to see your un-smooth
goblet.
### Finish up
Since you are in edit mode and you have the whole mesh selected, this is
a good time to remove duplicate vertices. The two vertices on the Z axis
(base bottom center and bulb bottom center) were duplicated 12 times,
and the entire outline was duplicated once when the circle closed at the
end of the spin. Remove the duplicates (press
and select *Remove Doubles*). If you
fail to do this, the subsurf operation will create a cusp at the two
centers, and a crease at the duplicated outline.
If you placed the two Z-axis vertices by hand, they may not be exactly
on the axis, and therefore may still be duplicated, leaving a tiny
\"hole\" at the axis. Fix this by merging each of the two sets
separately:
1. select the vertices to merge.
2. merge at center (press ,*Merge → At
Center*, ).
Now start to smooth by using the subsurf in the button window. First add
a modifier and select subsurf. Set levels to 2 Then, click on *smooth*
in the Tool shelf under \"Tools\" -\> \"Shading\". You now have a goblet
model.
{width="500"}
The image shows four objects: the
two-dimensional outline, a smoothed version of the two-dimensional
outline, the result of spinning the outline, and the result of
subsurfing and smoothing. As you follow the procedure above, you will
not actually have more than one object at a time as shown here.
## Rendering
 As with the
other two goblets, It is difficult to fully evaluate the model unless
you render it. However, a \"pretty\" rendering requires at least minimal
materials, lighting, and scenery. This section is a cookbook approach to
providing these minimal elements and is not really a useful tutorial, so
we won\'t explain the concepts. These topics are treated at length in
later tutorials. If you wish to explore these subjects in more depth, go
to the appropriate tutorials.
- The Goblet material: plain glass.
- The tablecloth: A (non-existent) table with a white tablecloth, in a
featureless room painted yellow.
- The lighting: one bright lamp.
### Material
- Go to object mode and select the goblet.
- In the Materials button window, add a
material to
the goblet, and name it \"glass\".
- In the *Material* tab, change the color in *Diffuse* section to
black (set R, G, and B all to 0.000). Here, \"black\" merely means
\"do not add any color\". It does not mean that the goblet looks
black.
- In *Transparency* section, pick Raytrace. Set Alpha to 0.1 (i.e.,
quite transparent), set IOR to 1.5, and set Depth to 6 (or higher on
a very fast computer).
### Tablecloth and room
- In the main window, put the cursor at the origin (Center) and switch
to top view. In object mode, add a plane and then scale it to quite
large. This is your tablecloth
- Go to object mode and select the tablecloth.
- In the *Material* tab, set the color to white and ensure the Alpha
is 1.000 (i.e., opaque.)
- In the *Shadow* section, check the Receive Transparent checkbox.
(Older versions: in the *Shaders* tab, click on Trashado.) This
allows the tablecloth to show the ray traced shadow of your goblet
instead of a fake shadow.
- To paint the room, in the *World* tab check Blend Sky and change
Zenith Color to e.g. yellow.
### Lighting
If you started with the default camera and light the scene will be too
dark and the shadow effect from the lamp will not be too pretty. To fix
this:
- Move the lamp higher and farther away.
- Turn up the Energy.
- In the lamp\'s *Shadow* section, pick Ray Shadow.
### Camera
Now adjust the camera:
- Shift to camera view.
- Dolly and aim the camera.
- Move the camera back some.
- Render.
[^1]:
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Light a Silver Goblet
|previous=Spin a goblet
}}
```
Note that the images are outdated.
## Techniques
You should know how to:
- Perform actions discussed previously in the tutorial.
This section will recap or introduce:
- Reflective material
- Positioning camera and light
- Editing the World colors
## Objects in the Scene
Create the goblet discussed in Model a Silver
Goblet or
load it if previously made. If you haven\'t already made the goblet,
feel free to try the tutorial using a sphere or something else instead
and you will still get a good outcome. In Object Mode with **NUM 7**
view, add a plane mesh. Scale the plane to a very large size and make
sure the goblet is sitting comfortably on top of it.
Select the camera and move it so that the goblet, and its reflection in
the plane will be seen or else if you want. You can see the numerical
location of the camera by bringing up the *Transform Properties* window
by pressing **NKEY** in the viewport. In my example where 0,0,0 is the
bottom center of the goblet, the camera is located at 27, -21, 19 XYZ
with a rotation of 63.5, 0.62, 46.7.
Create a Sun with **Shift+A** → Lamp → Sun. And (in the lamp properties
\"Object Data\") set \"energy\" to \"0.5\", and place it above the
goblet. Move it at around 80 points on the Z-axis. It is very important
that you place the lamp on the right spot cause it will give your goblet
anon 100 times more true to nature when you will give your goblet a
silver texture. You can try placing a point or another lamp but it\'s
very difficult to get a realistic image then. If you choose a different
lamp click on the World button in the \"Properties\" header (the section
where you can edit the sky). Check the Environmental Lighting box. Set
energy to \"0.800\".
The rendering of this scene yields:
!Current render Old Picture.
## Adding the Atmosphere
In Object Mode, select the goblet and go to the \"Material Properties\".
If no material is linked to the goblet, add new material. Rename the
material \'cup\' or something similar. The area of interest is the
*Mirror* window. Highlighted below are the mirror options we\'ll be
playing with. Press the Mirror button to make the material act like a
mirror and reflect light.
Move the \"Reflectivity\" slide to 0.85 or type it in after **LMB** on
the number. This is how reflective the surface will be. A low number of
0.00 means that it reflects little while a high number of 1.00 reflects
everything.
Also change the Fresnel slide from 0.0 to 1.4. This will increase the
power of the Fresnel function. What this means is the color of the
material will be strong because the light source is taken into
consideration. If the Fresnel wasn\'t used, the object would appear dark
because the light source isn\'t directly calculated in the mirror. Also,
change the color of the goblet to white. Using a light color will give
your goblet an interesting patina if you so choose.
!No material linked
!Make the goblet reflective
Next, select the plane and modify the material, add if it is not there.
We want the plane to be dark and shiny. Set *Diffuse* and *Specular* to
near black for the color. For reflectivity, turn on *Mirror* to about
0.15 Reflective and ignore Fresnel this time.
!Edit the materials of the
plane
There is only one more thing to do before rendering the scene: change
the world. Under the \"Properties\" Header is the \"World\" panel. Here
you have *Paper Sky*, *Blend Sky*, and *Real Sky* buttons. There are
also options for changing the color of the horizon (Horizon color),
zenith (Zenith color), and ambient (Ambient color). We\'re interested in
these two windows at the moment.
Using *Real sky* and *Blend sky* will affect the way the horizon and
zenith interact. Experiment with them to see what they do in the
preview. In this example, *Real* and *Blend* are turned on.
The *Paper* button works a little differently in that what you see in
the preview will essentially be the background of your render. This
effect is most noticeable when your camera is rotated. Despite the
camera rotation, the preview would still be \'wallpapered\' on the
render.
For our world, set the color close to black for the horizon, zenith, and
ambient.
!World shading
That was the last step! Make sure the camera is in the right spot and
render the scene. Here is the output of this example
!Final rendering
## Creating a metallic texture for the goblet:
The metallic look can be achieved by these steps:
1. **Materials** \> **Diffuse**. Set color Hex value to: **C7C8CB** or
you can set it completely black for dark metal. Set intensity to
\"0.8\".
2. **Materials** \> **Specular**. Set color to white(Hex: **FFFFFF**).
Change **Intensity** to \"**1.000**\", left of the color-swatch, set
the *specular shader* to **CookTorr**. Also change the **Hardness**
to value around \"**16**\".
3. **Materials** \> **Mirror**. Make sure the Mirror check-box is
checked. Set **Reflectivity** to **1.000** and color to white(Hex:
**FFFFFF**). Make sure that under \"Gloss\" the \"Amount\" is set to
\"1.000\".
4. (not compulsory but it may be required) Use the texture from this
earlier tutorial: Procedural Wood
Texture
on the planes that are below and behind the goblet as in the picture
below. It will give you a much better contrast.
**Notes:**
*Problem:* When I render I see brown where I have used \"Shift-E\" and
\"G\" and I followed everything. *Answer:* Please remember, the author
did say play with the settings a bit, this tutorial should be used as a
guide. We are learning how to use all the tools that Blender has to
offer, that is the important thing. It is up to us to experiment more
with the settings set forth in these tutorials. If the settings in these
tutorials do not give us the same results, that is OK, we should be
changing them anyway to express ourselves! Also remember, NEVER strive
for PERFECTION, but ALWAYS strive for EXCELLENCE. Perfection only leads
to frustration, and it is frustrating enough, at times, to learn
something new. Have fun learning, I know I am.
*Noob Question:* I managed to get it looking like the first picture
above. How do I get it to look like the second?\
*Pro Answer:* Change the reflection settings. a higher depth and a
larger raymir value will make the goblet more \"mirror\" like as in the
2nd picture. the other settings should be left alone, or you can
experiment with them to achieve the effect that you want. lighting is
also important. the object that is to be reflected has to be illuminated
as well as the object that is doing the illuminating. Different lights
(don\'t use a hemi if you want it to be realistic) at different angles
will give you a more realistic effect.
*Noob Note:* On the answer above, I didn\'t manage to do it with any of
the things the pro said in the answer here, I found out that the key is
to change the color of the material which is white (or close to white)
in the upper picture. In the lower picture the color is set to black (or
close to black). This eliminates the \"un-metallic\" whitish sheen that
the goblet in the upper picture has.
*Noob Note:* I don\'t know about those using lower versions but those
using v2.5x have a choice of different shaders both for diffuse and
specular colours. I strongly suggest that for the same object one should
try playing around with the shaders. They can create different effects.
for eg. here if you change the diffuse shader type to **oren-nayar** and
the specular shader type to **wardiso**, the goblet will have a glossy ,
finished look.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Simple Vehicle
|previous=Light a Silver Goblet
}}
```
!Let\'s make this jeep. The idea of
this tutorial is to learn to face a complex project. A vehicle is a nice
object to use to test yourself and find new problems.
First, we must understand that a project does not reproduce the real
world; a project shows an idea or thought and will result in a final
image or video. Whatever does not appear in the final result is
unnecessary to include in the model.
What vehicle should we make? Let\'s go with the classic jeep. This will
allow for a lot of doodads.
Let\'s decide what objects of the jeep model will need to be made -
body, wheels, seats, and a rocket launcher for good measure. Objects we
can ignore include the engine, which remains hidden under the hood.
There are many additional objects you can make such as a steering wheel
to customize your jeep. {{-}}
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Simple Vehicle: Wheel tutorial 1
|previous=Simple Vehicle
}}
```
There are 2 tutorials for the tires. This and the next tutorial: this is
the basic tutorial but the next tutorial is more complicated and you can
end up with one of the four different versions.
## Techniques
You should already know how to:
- Make a mesh
- Navigate the viewport
- Extrusion
- Create, edit materials
This section will recap and introduce:
- Forming faces
- Subsurfing
- Merging vertices
- Object naming
For our premise, envision jeep tires. They\'re not too sleek but rather
rugged for all kinds of terrain. We need a tire that can handle any
obstacle in its way.
During this tutorial we will be primarily using orthographic view. Feel
free to switch to perspective view (**NUM5**) from time to time to see
how things are developing. You may also want to rotate in the XY plane
using scroll **MMB** or **NUM2**/**NUM4**. Switch back to orthographic
view (**NUM5**) to edit.
## Model the tire
Hit **NUM1** to set front view (XZ coordinates), then delete the cube.
### Create the outside of the tire
Add a cylinder **Shift+A \> Mesh \> Cylinder** then in the tool shelf
use 32 vertices, set the radius to 4, depth to 3, choose Cap Fill Type:
\"Nothing\", and click on \"Align to view\". By default, objects are
aligned to the *global space* axes. The \"align to view\" option rotates
the cylinder so that it is aligned to the *view space*.
### Create the inside of the tire
Switch to orthographic mode (**NUM5** to toggle) and then go into **Edit
Mode**.
Select all vertices, hit the **E Key** and directly after that the **ESC
key** to make the new faces, then **Alt+EKEY** and choose \"Individual
faces\" and extrude the individual faces into the circle.
You may either type in -1.2 and hit enter, or hold **SHIFT CTRL** and
move the mouse to extrude the faces until the sides come in -1.200
units. Now select all with the **AKEY** and remove doubles by pressing
the **WKEY** -\> Remove Doubles.\
!Checking the outer
mesh{width="300"} !Reduce the
width{width="121"}
### Subsurf the tire
Now it\'s time to make the tire look like a rugged tire.
Return to Object Mode, and apply a subsurf modifier (use the Modifier
menu in the properties header - it looks like a wrench) click on \"Add
Modifier\" and select Subdivision Surface - select VIEW level 1 or 2.
The tire will now look like a bead necklace.
### Crease the edges
A little creative use of creases will restore our tire.
Switch back to orthographic mode (**NUM5** to toggle) if need be then go
into to **Edit Mode**. Check that Limit Selection to Visible is off
(that is, so you can see the extra edges and vertices).
Enter **Edge Select** mode
Bring up the circle selection tool (**AKEY** to unselect all, then
**CKEY**).
Use the scroll wheel to change the circle selection size to be in the
center of the tire, between the inside and outside edges. This will
select all of the inside edges, as well as the triangles on the side of
the tire, as in the picture below. Then hit **Enter**
Now press **SHIFT+EKEY** to Crease these edges - type 1.000, and press
**ENTER**, or hold **CTRL** to pull in steps till you see 1.000 in the
status bar at the bottom of the view window.
!Applied subsurf{width="300"} !Crease
the edges{width="311"}
## Model the hubcap
The tire is almost done. Let\'s add a simple hubcap to it.
### Create a cylinder
Be sure you\'re in **Edit Mode**.
Hit **AKEY**, once or twice till all the wheel\'s vertices are selected.
(The scene should be in front orthographic view - hit **NUM1** for front
view, **NUM5** for orthographic if not).
Press **SHIFT+SKEY**, from the popup menu, choose \"Cursor to
Selected\", to put the cursor at the center point of the existing tire.
Hit Shift+A =\> cylinder with 32 vertices, radius of 1.9, depth of .5,
choose Cap Fill Type: \"Nothing\", and click on the checkbox of \"align
to view\".
Turn orthographic view off: **NUM5**. Hit **NUM7** for top view.
Hit **GKEY**, then **YKEY**, then type 2.2, and hit **ENTER** to move
the hubcap into part of its eventual location and a place we can work on
it.
!Add another tube
mesh{width="300"}
### Create the outside of the cap
In top view, hit **AKEY** once, so that nothing is selected.
Zoom in with the **MMB** till the hub cap fills most or all of the view.
Switch to **Vertex select** mode. Make sure \"Limit selection to
Visible\" is off (that is, so you can see the extra edges and vertices).
Hit **BKEY** for box select, then holding the **LMB**, drag the box to
enclose the vertices along the top edge of the hubcap.
Hit **SKEY**, then **SHIFT+YKEY** to only move in the XZ axis, then type
in .35, and hit **ENTER**
Hit **GKEY**, then **YKEY** to only move the Y axis, then type in .35,
and hit **ENTER**
!Shorten the hubcap
width{width="218"}
### Create the Axle Cover
We\'ll merge these vertices together to create a flat surface.
Hit **Alt+EKEY**, on the popup select **Edges only**, then hit **ESC**,
to create the edges we will need.
Hit **ALT+MKEY** on the popup pick **At center**. Blender will reduce
the 32 vertices to 1.
Hit **NUM3** for side view.
Hit **GKEY**, then **YKEY**, to only move the Y axis, then type in -0.4
and hit **ENTER**.
!Scale in the front
vertices{width="300"}
!Pull the center vertex
in{width="193"}
### Final sizing of hub cap to tire
The final mesh editing is to scale the hub cap to a size that is
slightly larger than the hole of the tire.
Hit **NUM7** for top view, **NUM5** for orthographic if needed.
Position the mouse over the hubcap, and press the **LKEY** to select the
entire hubcap.
Hit **SKEY**, then **SHIFT+YKEY** to move only the XZ axis, then type
1.48, and hit **ENTER**
Hit **NUM3** for side view.
Hit **GKEY**, then **YKEY**, to move only the Y axis, then type -1.11
(use -0.77 if you want your hubs sticking out) and hit **ENTER**.
### Renaming the Wheel
The last thing to do is to rename the wheel so we can find it easier
later.
Enter Object mode and select the wheel only.
In the outliner window you\'ll see the tire called \"Cylinder\". This
name was created because we started with a cylinder mesh.
Click on the name with the right mouse button and click on Rename -
rename the object to something like \'wheel\'. Save your file where
you\'ll find it later and continue to the next step.
## Extra
!Rendered tire{width="200"} Change the
materials to make it look like a tire. As you have seen in previous
tutorials, one object can have multiple colors/textures.
*If you\'d like to review how to do this, then refer to the
materials section
for an explanation on how to, or to the Blender manual: Multiple
Materials*
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Simple Vehicle: Wheel tutorial 2
|previous=Simple Vehicle: Wheel tutorial 1
|subcat=Project
}}
```
There are 2 tutorials for the tires. This and the previous tutorial. The
first is basic but this is a more complicated tutorial with a total of 4
different versions.
Congratulations on making it this far; you\'ve proven you have what it
takes to finish this book. At this point you don\'t need me explaining
the simple things like the differences between or how to select
vertices, edges or faces. Feel free to swivel the camera this way and
that. I\'ll leave it to you to decide when to turn snap on or off
\"Limit Selection to visible\". At every step I hope you think, "Ah-ha,
now it looks more like a tire!" since that\'s essentially what I did.
I\'m writing this tutorial because I don\'t want this book to become
outdated. Also\... I really like tires!
## Build the Tire
!A real world wheel
This is the real world wheel we\'ll be modelling. It has three parts: 1)
tire 2) rim 3) hub. We\'ll create the wheel laying down starting with
the tire and working our way in.
### The wheel
Delete the default cube and hit to go
to the top view.
Center the cursor and add cylinder with 32 vertices, radius 4, and depth
2. Set Cap Fill Type to nothing. Set snapping to Increment:
++
and enable snapping:
+.
Next we will make a series of cylinders which will become the tire and
the rim. Switch to edit mode. Extrude the cylinder inwards by pressing
+
. Do
this a total of two times, then extrude another cylinder inwards by 0.8.
!only select the vertical
edges Unselect
everything () then select only the
vertical edges of the innermost cylinder, as follows: ensure \"limit
selection to visible\" is turned off, switch to vertex-select mode,
circle-select the innermost vertices, switch to side view
() and edge-select mode, block-unselect
the top edges with
+, and
do the same for the bottom edges. !merge
collapse the edges
Merge-collapse
(+ \>\>
Collapse) these vertical edges to create a circle that\'s vertically in
the center of the other cylinders.
### The Hub
!completed simple
wheel\|left The inner
ring should be already selected. Extrude it and scale to 0.4. Move the
new circle down by 0.5, then extrude it up
( ) by 0.5.
Extrude and scale to 0.25. Move the circle up by 0.15, and lastly press
to make a face in the inner circle.
To be safe before saving highlight all and
remove doubles. We can add different types of tread to this simple tire.
If you\'re feeling ambitious come up with your own tread design. Save
your work now.
## Finish your tire several versions
Working on the vertical faces of the outermost cylinder in face select
mode.
### Type 1
Subdivide the outer faces one time, and rotate, with Z-Lock, the newly
created central edge by 12. !rotate the middle edge by
12\|left\
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Stager select every other outer face and extrude size out 1.15 (\"Ekey\"
then \"Enter\" then S and then 1.15). Make sure your sizing outward from
the center of the wheel. For quick selecting, Alt-select the two rings
of faces and press Select-Checker Deselect !select tread pattern and
extrude outward by
1.15\|left\
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What you can also do is Alt+E click on individual faces, 1.15 and then
\"S key\" scale it down some points. !nice round
wheel\|left\
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### Type 2
This tread is a little trickier but the extra work is worth it.
Subdivide the outer faces and change the number of cuts to 2. There are
now 96x3 outer faces. Think of these as being on 3 levels bottom middle
and top. ! creating
faces\|left\
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Select 2 of the bottom faces skip 4 faces then select 2 more go all the
way around the circle. The pattern for the middle level is select 2 skip
one select 2 starting at the top left vertex of the bottom level. The
pattern of the top is the same as the bottom select 2 skip 4 start at
the top right vertex of the middle level just not the same middle
selection that the bottom is\... see the picture :) ! select tread
pattern\|left\
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Extrude size out 1.15 from the center of the wheel \"Ekey\" then
\"Enter\" then S then 1.15)! extrude outward to create
tread\|left\
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### Type 3
Evenly loop-cut the faces of the outer cylinder ! loopcut center of
wheel\|left\
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CTRL-R, center the mouse on the outer cylinder -\> Enter -\> Enter. Now
subdivide the outer cylinder. There are now 3 inner edges. rotate, with
Z-Lock the top inner edge by 12 and the bottom inner edge by -12.
!rotate edges\|left\
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This time make a Z-pattern with the faces and extrude size out by 1.15
from the center of the wheel \"Ekey\" then \"Enter\" then S then 1.15).
! select tread pattern and extrude
outward\|left\
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## Finishing
To get the wheel standing up lock the y axis and rotate everything 90°
The wheel object as well as the wheel mesh are both named Cylinder in
the outliner lets rename both Wheel. Right click the name and select
rename ! rename object/mesh
wheel\|left\
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Lets add a sub modifier and set shading to smooth. ! subdivide to
smooth things
out\|left\
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Crease the hub edges. Shift EKEY 1 enter. By the way the easiest way to
remove a crease is just to add a negative crease. Shift EKEY -1. !
crease the hub\|left\
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## Colouring
Now for some color. By the way, think of diffuse as being the base color
and specular as being the reflected color. If you\'re curious about
words like lambert and fresnel just look them up in your favorite
dictionary.
In the properties menu select the materials icon.
Create three material slots by clicking the plus button that\'s above
the minus button 3 times. !after you click new rename the
material\|left\
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Select each material slot and click new to add a material to it. Name
the first material Rim, the second Tire and the last Hub.
We\'ll leave the rim default white. Select Tire and change the diffuse
color to almost black RGB of 0.010 and the specular intensity to 1. This
gives our tire a very shiny black look. Give the hub a dull gray look by
setting the diffuse color to RGB 0.05. ! create dark gray by lowering
all colors to
0.05\|left\
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The first material added becomes the default material for the entire
object. So we only need to select the parts of the wheel mesh that are
not rim.
Select the tire that\'s the two outer cylinders- with the tire material
highlighted click assign. ! assign the tire color to the tire
mesh\|left\
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To make selecting the hub easier close the subsurf eye in either the
properties or outliner menu. Assign the hub material to the hub mesh.
I\'ve left adding the red hub oil seal up to you. ! turning subsurf off
makes selecting
easier\|left\
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!The final Tire
rendering\|left\
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That\'s it! Hopefully my instructions weren\'t too painful. Be sure to
save and good luck!
If you want you can create a more complex tire. Otherwise you can skip
this.
## Creating a more complex tire
Start by loading a basic cylinder and rotating it so it rests on its
side.
!Cylinder\|thumb\|left\
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Next, remove the faces from the top, and bottom of the cylinder. !No
Faces\|thumb\|left\
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Now Press the num5 key to enter orthographic view. !2
Cuts\|thumb\|left\
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Then press num7 to view the front of the cylinder.
Then click on \"Loop cut and Slide\" in the tools shelf and make a cut
of \".5\" to each side as shown in the picture (ctrl+R -\> 3 -\> Enter
-\> Enter) select the middle then (X -\> edge loops).
Next, make 2 more cuts .4 on each side (ctrl+R -\> 4 -\> Enter -\>
Enter) select the unneeded then (X -\> edge loops). !Total Count Of
Cuts\|thumb\|left\
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Next, press the b key to enter box select mode.
!Boxselect\|thumb\|left\
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you will want to select all the middle faces.
Next. type \"S key\" then X or Y, dependent on direction your cylinder
is in, then .5 !Scale The
Middle\|thumb\|left\
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Then press the A key to select everything, then \"S key\" -\> X or Y,
and type .5 to squish the whole wheel.
Then use the \"B key\" to reselect the middle faces. Now, with the
Middle faces still selected rotate them so they look similar to the
picture shown by typing \"R key\" \"X key\" or \"Y key\" and then\"10\".
!Rotate The
Middle\|thumb\|left\
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Next, select all the faces beside the middle and in the middle and
rotate them all in the opposite direction so it looks similar to the
picture shown by typing \"R key\" \"X key\" or \"Y key\" and
then\"-10\". !Rotate The Middle And
Sides\|thumb\|left\
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Next press the A key to unselect everything. !Select The
Faces\|thumb\|left\
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Then start selecting faces as shown in the picture. Continue this all
the way around the wheel leaving 1 space of unselected faces in-between
each row.
With the faces selected press \"Shift+S\" then \"Cursor to Center\" then
**EKEY** then **ESC** and then \"S key\" to scale them. While scaling
type \".9\" then press enter. !Extrude And
Scale\|thumb\|left\
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Next, select all of the side edges as shown and Then Press the \"S key\"
and type .7 then press enter. !Outside
Edges\|thumb\|left\
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!Sides The
Tire\|thumb\|left\
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Type \"S key\" then X or Y, and then type \"1.5\" to move both sides
outward slightly.
Type \"E key\" then \"Enter\" , then the \"S key\" type \"0.75\" as
shown in the image. !The Inner Of The
Tire\|thumb\|left\
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!The Render Of The
tire\|thumb\|left\
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You\'re done!
Feel free to add the hub cap from the previous wheel, or one of your own
design.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Simple Vehicle: Seat
|previous=Simple Vehicle: Wheel tutorial 2
}}
```
## Techniques
You should already know how to:
- Make a mesh
- Navigate the viewport
- Extrusion
- Subsurf
- Crease edges
This section will recap and introduce:
- Loop Cut and Slide (Loop Subdivide)
- Small, consistent vertex movement
The design will be an all-terrain bucket-type seat.
## Extrude the Seat
!Basic setup of
shapes.{width="200"} Start in
view of the default cube and rename
it.
Extrude the cube multiple times to make your basic shape. In this
example a 3x3x1 block composes the body with one cube coming out the top
for the headrest, and the bottom cube\'s front faces extruded out to
create the seat.
**Noob Note:** best practice is use \"Face\" selection mode, select the
face, or faces you want to extrude with the
, then hit
, select an axis to move on by pressing
the , , or
keys, and pull with
held down.
## Add cushion seams
!Multiple Loop Cut and
Slide.{width="200"}
**Noob Note:** Before starting on this, you\'ll need to make sure you
don\'t have any unnecessary faces **inside** the seat, or else you\'ll
get strange cushion seams.
To add a little texture to the mesh, we\'ll add some cushion seams. Use
Loop Cut and Slide
(+ and
you\'ll see the pink selection loop. You can use the
key to increase the number of loops
made at the same time. Use mouse wheel or press
3 times to form 4 loops and
the center column of blocks. You may
also find it easier to add them one at a time in the correct place, than
inserting them and then moving them.
(To get multiple Loops instead of pressing
just press the number of loops you
want in this case , this is a fast easy
way to achieve this.) You can use a mouse-wheel as well. Finally pres
\"Enter\" 2 times.
**Noob note:** If the loop comes up with green lines rather than purple
you have gone one step too far, just press
and try again. When you see the purple
lines use your or the
button.
## Position the cushion seams
!Where the 3D cursor should be placed and what to
select{width="200"}
Go into ZX view () and make sure the
view is orthographic ( to
activate/deactivate orthographic view). Place the 3D cursor on one of
the sides of the head rest (, or
+ to
move cursor).
!Positioning the
seams.{width="200"} The idea is
to move the 4 loop cuts just created away from center to the sides. Set
the pivot to 3D cursor and select the two closest loop cuts. Scale
() it down on the X axis
() to 0.3. The goal will be to have the
loop closer to the cursor to go into the cushion to become a seam. Now,
do the same thing for the other side of the head rest.
`<b>`{=html}Noob note:`</b>`{=html} The easiest way to select the two
closest loop cuts is to first select (,
+) one
edge of each loop, and then go to Select Edge Loop
( -\> `<i>`{=html}Select`</i>`{=html}
-\> `<i>`{=html}Edge Loop`</i>`{=html}). Or hold down
when selecting one of the loop\'s
edges. This should select the entire loop. In order to select more than
one loop, hold down as well.
`<b>`{=html}Noob2 note:`</b>`{=html} in Ortho view with \'Limit
selection to visible\' disabled, just box-selected with one drag of the
mouse.
## Add Depth to the seams
!Vertical seam
creation.{width="200"} In
overhead view (), select the vertices
in vertical parts of the two front facing seams of the seat back, grab
them (), move only along the Y axis
(), and type in
**.05**.
!Horizontal seam
creation.{width="207"}
Switch to view and move the vertices
in the horizontal parts of the same two seams, grab them and move them
down by moving them -0.05 along the Z-axis.
**Noob Note**: I\'ve found that an easier way to do this is selecting
each loop of the seam one by one and scaling to .95 (make sure the pivot
is set to \"Bounding Box Center)
## Subsurf the seat
!Subsurfed seat{width="250"} Add a
\"Subdivison Surface\" Modifier to the object. Hit in the Tool shelf:
\"Smooth\" under \"Shading\" **Not Necessary:** *Select the edges
between the back and seat and crease
(\'+)
them. Crease any edges you feel like to create your perfect jeep seat.*
**Noob note:** it\'s best to be in **Edge** select mode when creasing
A subsurf level of 2 or 3 looks best, and don\'t forget to change the
render level to 3 or 4.
Select all () then either hit the \"Set
Smooth\" button at the bottom of links and materials, or hit
and select \"Set Smooth\" for a much
smoother subsurf.
**Noob note:** If your seat is noticeably misshapen after adding the
subsurf modifier, you may just have to delete internal faces in your
model. into edit mode, and hit
to get into wireframe mode. Click the
face select button and look for faces that are totally inside the model.
There will probably be a couple vertical faces (in YZ-plane) under the
seams in the seat. I found a few elsewhere, also. Deleting all these
cleared everything up.
**Noob note 2:** Another way to remove the extra faces (which can cause
the \"seams\" to be very deep) is to go into edit mode, select your
whole seat (), then hit
() and select \"Remove doubles\" from the
menu. This is much quicker than finding them individually, and should
solve the problem.
**Noob note 3:** The problem may also be solved by going into edit mode,
using to select all, and using
\> Edit \> Normals \> Recalculate
Outside ( +
).
## Resize the seat
!Change the widths.{width="245"}
Next, resize the seat\'s height and width.
**Note:** Be sure to change the rotation/scaling pivot back to center
point!
To make the whole seat narrower in width, select all
twice, then hit
, followed by
then type 0.8 and press
.
right\|250px
To make the seat back a bit narrower in thickness, select around the
seat back (in vertex mode) with the circle select
. Once you have it completely selected on
all of the sides, hit , lock axis with
, and type 0.75, and hit
.
## Final touches
This final seat renders to: !Rendered
seat.{width="300"}
### Leathery look
To give the seams a leathery cord look, Hit
twice to select all, then
and choose Subdivide Fractal on the popup
menu (in 2.6x select Subdivide and then press
and choose 1 for fractals); just keep
the defaults and the seams will look like a bunch of vines until you
render it and they look like leather seams, and set in \"Material\" in
the \"Properties header\" diffuse color to deep black.
### More concave
!Making it concave.{width="200"}
Also the seat can also be made slightly more concave to look like it
would hold a person better.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Simple Vehicle: Rocket Launcher
|previous=Simple Vehicle: Seat
}}
```
## Techniques
You should already know how to do:
- Previous Simple Vehicle techniques
This section will recap and introduce:
- UVspheres
- Changing object\'s center
## Overview
Two assumptions are going to be made here. One is that the rocket will
not be launched in the future (use separate objects if you want to do
that). The other is this is going to be a simple design.
If you want to add options to your gun (think sight, trigger), go for
it!
## Create the Launcher
Start a new file and delete the default cube.
### Add a cylinder
In view, add a cylinder mesh with 24
vertices with \"Cap Fill Type\" at \"Triangle Fan\" and set it to
\"align to view\". We\'ll use 24 because the default 32 is overkill and
will only increase rendering time. Rename and elongate the cylinder
along the Y axis(\"S key\" then \"Y key\" then \"6key\" ). This will be
the length of the launcher (minus the rocket).
!Elongated cylinder{width="400"}
### Hollow the cylinder
right\|400px
Circle Select ( ) the vertices at one
side, then extrude (\') them, and press
to create a copy of the vertices.
Scale () them by 0.7.
Do the same at the other side.
Extrude at one side the inner circle vertices
() then \"Enter\", then press \"N key\"
and change the value at \"Z\" in 1.2 or -1.2 dependent on what side you
take. Then press hit \"A key\" \'till you have the whole cylinder
selected then press \"W key\" and say \"Remove doubles\".
## Create the rocket
For the purposes of this tutorial we will add the rocket on the left end
of the launcher.
!Finishing the rocket
head{width="300"}
### For a one piece rocket + launcher
400px\|right
Select the inner ring of vertices using circle select
()
Extrude () the \"edge\" along the Y axis
() press \"Num1\" then \"S key\" then
\"0.95\" select the all the faces second from the outside and press
\"X\" then \"Only Faces\". Select the inner ring vertices then \"E key\"
\"Y key\" then \"0.5\".
Extrude the \"edge\" along the Y axis with 1.5, and scale the new edge
by 1.5.
Extrude the \"edge\" along the Y axis with 1.
Extrude the \"edge\" along the Y axis with 3, and scale the new edge by
0.2.
Extrude the \"edge\", hit , and merge
(+) at the
center to form the face for the nose
For fun you could extrude the left end of the rocket with -11 in the
cylinder and then \"F key\". you can separate the objects by pressing
\"P key\" after selecting the objects you want to separate. you can
manually delete the edges that stayed at the cylinder.
### For a two piece rocket and launcher
- **Method 1:** create a cone, rotate it, then extrude and scale to
get the rocket shape.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- **Method 2:** create a cylinder, scale it along the Y-axis, then
extrude one side, scale to about 1.3, then extrude two more faces,
scaling the first about 0.3 and merging the vertices of the second
at center.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- **Method 3:** Create a UV sphere with 4 rings, and model it - much
in the same way as the penguin - into a rocket.
## Create the mount
Having a launcher is nice, but we\'ll need to affix it to the jeep
somehow. Let\'s add a mount to the tube.
Make sure you\'re in edit mode, not object mode!
### Add a cylinder
!Mount arm{width="200"} Add a cylinder with 24
vertices with \"Cap Fill Type\" at \"Nothing\", since we won\'t be
seeing the ends.
Scale to about 0.55, then move it to the bottom of the tube.
### Add a UVsphere
!Place the sphere{width="200"} The
easiest way to have a wide range of motion for the launcher is to use a
ball joint. We can simulate one by just adding a UVsphere. The default
32 segments and 12 rings will be fine. This creates a smooth sphere.
You can think of the number of segments as being the wedges visible when
the sphere is viewed as you added it. The number of rings then could be
described as the depth of the sphere from that same view.
Resize and place the sphere at the new cylinder arm.
### Reposition the center point
This next step will be important for continuing the tutorial. Get the 3D
cursor to as close to the center of the sphere as possible. While the
sphere is still selected after creation, you can press
+ and
snap cursor to selection, putting it in the exact center of the UV
Sphere.
Switch to Object Mode. In the \"Tool shelf\" under \"Tools\" you\'ll
find the button \"Set origin\", click this and click on \"Origin To 3D
cursor\" This should move the large pink dot where the cursor is
located. This will give it a new center of gravity around the ball
joint, making it easy to manipulate later.
!Change the center of the
object{width="400"}
## Subsurf
Be in **edit** mode!
Apply subsurf, level 2
Select everything ( twice), and hit the
**set smooth** button ( at the bottom of the links and materials panel).
This makes the ends of the rocket launcher tube too rounded, as real
ones are squared up.
### Square up the tube edges on the right side
On the right side (without the rocket sticking out) be in **Face**
select mode
right\|400px
on one of the faces in the outer ring, then circle select
(), and select all the faces at the end of
the launcher tube. You can also do a lasso selection by
+ in
face selection mode.
Crease the edges of the faces by hitting
+ and
set it to 1.0.
### Squaring up the tube edges on the left side
right\|400px
Now do the left side exactly like the right side.
**Noob Note** Be sure to deselect everything on the other side first
( )!!
### Squaring up the rocket
right\|400px
**RMB** on one of the faces in the middle surface, then circle select
(), and select the faces all the way
around
Crease the edges of the faces by hitting
+ and
set it to 1.0.
## Final touches
Apply materials or additional items to the object and save for later
use.
Do not forget to name the rocket for later use.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Simple Vehicle: Another Shooting Machine
{{ B3D:N2P/NAV \|next=Simple Vehicle: Body \|previous=Simple Vehicle:
Rocket Launcher }} {{ B3D:N2P/ForVersion\|2.79 }} {{ TOC\|limit=3 }}\
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== Techniques == You should already know how to do:
- Previous Simple Vehicle techniques
This section will introduce and recap:
- Transform Locking (new)
- Reuse of existing assets (new)
- Application of *Show/Hide* (new)
- Duplicate (recap) & Separate (new)
- Parenting (recap)
- UV Spheres (recap)
- Changing object\'s pivot point (recap)
Caveats:
1. I'm also learning Blender; if I've misrepresented anything please
correct me
2. I have *Select With* under *Mouse* on the *Input* tab of User
Preferences set to Left whilst the "factory" setting is Right; if
some of the following instructions containing
are not working mentally replace
with
3. I must use a 2 button mouse and cannot emulate a 3 button mouse (due
to number 2 above) for orbiting around the viewport; instructions
presented here use the Numpad for Orbiting
## Overview
!***Fig. 01: Big Game Camera Rendered Model and
Components***\|357x600px
A simple Safari Big Game Camera for use on a photo safari will be
created; a render of the completed product is provided at right (Fig.
01-A). It is primarily based on cylinders and is comprised of three
components (Fig. 01-B):
1. Lens Casing
2. Camera
3. Swivel Mount comprised of four sub-components:
:
: → Front Support
: → Central Bracket
: → Stability Braces (2)
: → Ball Joint (from the Rocket Launcher)
## To Abridge or not to Abridge **\...**
This tutorial turned out to be \"a bit\" (as my British friends would
say) longer than initially anticipated. And that\'s alright, I had a lot
fun -- and learned a ton -- making the Another Shooting Machine.
Occasionally I may have provided a little more than you want in
explanations or intellectual exploration. To address the desires of
those who only want bare bones instructions an abridged version of this
tutorial is available. All of the illustrative graphics -- excepting
those associated with the linked explanatory Supplements -- in this full
version are also in the abridged version.
The Abridged version does **_not_** have:
- or (mostly: provided if a
function has not been previously introduced in Noob to Pro)
- In-line Blender icons supporting instruction clarity (mostly)
- Clarification Notes or Hints
- \"Alternative approaches\" exploration (including the Knife topology
tool usage detail)
- Linked explanatory Supplements (for those curious about the
\"why\"s)
You can, and are encouraged to, try out both. If you\'ve taken an
extended hiatus from Blender I recommend following this full version, at
least until you\'ve refreshed your memory on key strokes.
To follow the full version simply continue here. OR access the
_Abridged
Version_.
## Lens Casing -- Base Model
If you have completed the Rocket Launcher tutorial:
- Open the Rocket Launcher file
- Select an unused visibility layer in the layer map
 of
the 3D View header, indicated by the absence of the little \"used\"
circle for that layer
- Add a Lamp if you expect to render the scene; the default camera
will work for the new layer but each layer to be rendered must have
at least one Lamp
- Just to be certain, Snap the 3D Cursor to the center
If you have ***not*** completed the Rocket Launcher tutorial, start a
new file and delete the default cube.
### Add Starting Cylinder
\[\[<File:Fig-02-Change-Default-Orientation.jpg%7Calt=Fig>. 02: Change
Default Cylinder Orientation illustration\|frame\|***Fig. 02: Change
Default Cylinder Orientation***\]\] Begin in Front Ortho view
, ensuring "Limit Selection to Visible"
is turned***off***
Add a cylinder mesh: sides=8, radius=1, depth=2, cap fill=nothing;
rename the object (using the Outliner) to something unique and easily
identifiable like Big Game Lens Casing
Remaining in Front Ortho and Object Mode, rotate the cylinder 22**.**5
degrees around the Y axis (the easiest (and most accurate) approach is
to type 22**.**5 on the Y line of the Rotation section in the Transform
Panel at the top of the Properties Shelf (press
to toggle its visibility at the right
side of the 3D view). This will provide a horizontal flat surface for
the top of the lens casing which will be used to create the handle.
Because we want to ensure this orientation does not get inadvertently
altered we will also lock this specific transform (Fig. 02).
`{{B3D:N2P/Note|The Properties ''<u>Shelf</u>'' and the Properties ''<u>Window</u>'' are two different animals. The Properties Shelf is toggled on and off with {{B3D:N2P/Do|N}} and contains the Transform, Grease Pencil, Display & View, Background Images and Transform Orientations Panels. The Properties Window [[File:Blender269PropertiesIcon.png]] "factory" location is underneath the Outliner Window [[File:ILIp01-Outliner-Window-icon.png]] to the right of the main viewport; there is a page dedicated to the <u> [[Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Properties Window|Properties Window]]</u> in this Wiki Book.}}`{=mediawiki}
### Extend Starting Cylinder
!***Fig. 03: Create Lens Casing Base
Model***
Switch to Right Ortho view , enter edit
mode by pressing and execute the
following steps (see (Fig. 03) for reference). *Note: all units are
Blender Units.*
Switch to Vertex Select mode
 and
select the "rear" 6 vertices using Border Select
() then:
1. Extrude on the "Y" axis **.**5 by pressing
2. Scale to 70% along the "X" and "Z" axes by pressing
followed by
+
(not Y)
3. Extrude on the "Y" axis 2**.**5 by pressing
followed by
4. *Repeat* Step 2
5. Extrude on the "Y" axis 1**.**5 by pressing
followed by
6. *Repeat* Step 2
## Lens Casing -- Refining the Model
### Adding Details
!***Fig. 04: Refine Casing Front
End***\|right\|428x428px\|alt=
- Rotate the view counter-clockwise
() until you get a nice view of the
inside and outside combo.
- Switch to edge select mode
and select a front edge.
- Click on *Select→Edge Loops* (Fig.
04-A).
- Extrude followed by
to exit extrusion while retaining
the newly created edges.
- Scale to 90% along the "X" and "Z" axes by pressing
followed by
(not Y)
(Fig. 04-B).
- Extrude on the positive "Y" axis **.**3 pressing
followed by
;
this creates the visible interior of the lens casing. Press
to create the face which is our glass
lens (Fig. 04-C).
```{=html}
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```
- Based on experience we know we will eventually be adding a
Subdivision Surface (\"Subsurf\") modifier and can anticipate that
action, so with glass lens face (and its attached edges) still
selected press to crease these
edges with an edge crease factor of 1 (Fig. 04-D) in order to retain
a sharp delineation between the lens casing interior and the glass
lens.
- Select an outside front edge and select Edge Loops on the Select
Menu (as above) (Fig. 04-E). Scale to 120% along the "X" and "Z"
axes by pressing followed by
(not Y)
to create the typical flared or belled mouth of the lens casing
(Fig. 04-F).
\
\
\
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<HR SIZE="2" COLOR="#800080" WIDTH="50%" ALIGN="center">
```
\
### Preparing for Subsurf
\[\[<File:Fig-05-Subdivision-Surface-Modifier-Preperation.jpg%7Calt=Fig>.
05 Subdivision Surface Modifier Preparation\|thumb\|400x400px\|***Fig.
05 Subdivision Surface Modifier Preparation***\]\] Return to Right Ortho
view and toggle \"Limit Selection to
Visible"
***on***.
Select an edge from each of the vertical edge loops -- using
to add edges - and then 3D header
*Select Menu→Edge Loops*. Rotate the viewpoint vertically towards you
() until you can see top fully.
Deselect the top edges from the middle pair of loops
( on each edge to deselect) and
crease the remaining selected edges
() at a factor of 1 (Fig. 05).
\
```{=html}
<HR SIZE="2" COLOR="#800080" WIDTH="50%">
```
\
### Adding a Casing Handle
#### Handle Stem
!***Fig. 06: Extrude Handle
Stem***
For clarity's sake we will divide the handle into two sub-components:
- The vertical piece we'll call the "handle stem"
- The piece parallel with the lens casing body we'll call the "handle
proper"
Start by switching to Top Ortho view
Deselect all ()
Switch to face select mode
 and select
the handle extrusion face (Fig. 06-A), Extrude 1 on the default
extrusion angle
(Fig. 06-B). Giving the handle a slightly slanted stem rather than a
stem perpendicular to the casing results in a more "organic" looking
handle.
#### Handle Proper
!***Fig. 07: Extrude Handle
Proper***
Switch to Front Ortho , deselect all
once or twice and select the front face
of the handle stem (Fig. 07-A); just to be safe, rotate the viewpoint
enough to verify the correct face (and only the correct face) is
selected (Fig.07-B)
We could just extrude this face to create the handle proper but that
would not result in a very functional looking handle. Instead we will
only extrude the upper 1/3 of the face, which will result in a nicely
functional looking handle proper.
There are 3 approach options to accomplishing this
1. Subdivide face, merge 10 vertices -- requires the least knowledge
but is the most time consuming
2. Subdivide Left then Right edges sequentially, use the Knife topology
tool and (optionally -- see Handle Variations below) merge 2
vertices -- less time consuming and potentially the most powerful
3. Subdivide Left and Right edges simultaneously and (optionally -- see
Handle Variations below) merge 2 vertices -- quickest/easiest for
this specific case
All 3 are presented as has potential utility depending on the situation.
This section became bigger than expected; the alternate approaches are
described on a supplemental page: _Face Subdivision
Alternatives Supplemental
page_.
##### Extruding the Handle Proper
\[\[<File:Fig-12-Final-Handle-Extrusion.jpg%7Cthumb%7C400x400px>\|***Fig.
12: Handle Proper Extrusion***\]\] Remaining in viewport orientation
used for the "face work" above, deselect all
than switch to face select mode
, ensuring
"Limit Selection to Visible" is still***on***
and the select the upper face (Fig. 12 inset).
Switch to Right Ortho view and extrude
on the Y axis -2
.
Be sure to specify the Y axis in order to override the default extrusion
angle (Fig. 12).
## Finishing Up the Casing -- No Materials Yet
!***Fig. 13: Smoothing Things
Off***{width="326"
height="326"} While still in Edit mode click
on the Modifiers icon
 at the
top of the Properties Window and select the Subdivision Surface
(frequently called Subsurf) modifier under the Generate column on the
pop-up and use 2 subdivisions for both view and render. You should see
an immediate change in the model to a much smoother look.
Exit Edit mode and apply Smooth shading
from the Tool Shelf. Voilà! The result should be fairly close to
Fig.13-A.
If your results look closer to Fig. 13-B then some -- or all -- of the
edge creasing needs attention.
If the results look similar to Fig. 13-C then the face the handle proper
was extruded from has not been divided into thirds.
### Handle Variations
!***Fig. 14: Variations on a
Theme***{width="325"
height="325"} As mentioned above the merging of vertices V09 and V12
(Fig. 07-D) into their respective lower corners is optional. That is
because merging/not merging results in a discernibly different
shape. When the original face is divided into three faces the inner
curve between the underside of the handle and the top of the main casing
body is much more open with the handle proper having a slimmer look
(Fig. 14-A).
When the original face is divided into two faces -- the top ⅓ of the
original and the bottom ⅔ of the original -- the inner curve between the
underside of the handle and the top of the main casing body is quite
smooth (Fig. 14-B).
Which one you choose is strictly personal preference.
Just for fun, Fig. 14-C depicts the result if the center face from Fig.
13-B is extruded instead of the upper face; hmmmm, that's (maybe)
potentially useful sometime ...
## QDRC Camera
A camera is a complex piece of equipment with many different pieces and
creating a truly accurate model of camera could be a tutorial on its
own. We must keep in mind, however, the function of this camera within
our scene. It is a "supporting player" in the scene. It will be attached
to a much larger lens casing, both of which will then be attached to a
much, much larger object (a jeep). Since the focus of attention is
intended to be the jeep we only need an object that at a distance
provides the viewer with enough clues -- in this case a general shape
and coloration -- to lead the viewer to the desired interpretation:
they're "seeing" a camera.
!***Fig. 15: Camera
Base***{width="400"
height="400"} So let's create a Quick & Dirty Rude & Crude Camera ...
Start by switching to Top Ortho view and add a cube, making sure you are
in Object mode
In the Dimensions section of the Transform Panel of the Properties Shelf
(Press if it isn't displayed) type in
1**.**5 for X, **.**75 for Y and 1 for Z (Fig. 15-A); rename the object
(using the Outliner) to something unique and easily identifiable like
Big Game Camera
Enter Edit mode , select all
and Bevel
with an amount of .2 and 1 segment
(default) (Fig. 15-B)
!***Fig. 16: Loop
Cuts***
Switch to Front Ortho view and then
orbit until you have a nice view of the front and top, adding a Loop Cut
with 4 cuts (Fig. 16)
!***Fig. 17: Face
Extrusion***{width="233"
height="233"}
Switch to Face Select mode
 with "Limit
Selection to Visible" on
.
Select the top central face and extrude **.**35 on the default (Z)
extrusion axis
(Fig. 17)
!***Fig. 18: Selective
Merging***
Switch to Vertex Select mode
successively selecting the vertices at the bottom of the newly extruded
section and merging them with their
nearest neighboring vertices towards the outside of the object and along
the X axis (Fig. 18)
!***Fig. 19: Top Face
Subdivide***
Switch to Edge Select mode
and deselect All () and select both the
top front and back edges.
Subdivide with two cuts
Switch to Vertex Select mode
, Deselect
All and select the four exterior vertices
of the combined three top faces using Circle Select
(Fig. 19)
!***Fig. 20: Shaping View
Finder***
Switch to Front Ortho view
Move the vertices -**.**15 along the Z axis
Scale 2**.**5 along the X axis
(Fig. 20).
!***Fig. 21: QDRC Camera - Ready to
Use***
While still in Edit mode click the
Modifiers icon
 at the
top of the Properties Window and select the Subdivision Surface
modifier.
Exit Edit mode and apply Smooth shading
from the Tool Shelf.
As promised, you now are the proud owner of a QDRC Camera (Fig.
21)
## Swivel Mount
The Swivel Mount is comprised of:
- Ball joint providing the swivel movement
- Stabilizing support (1), bracket (1) and braces (2)
### Ball Joint
\[\[<File:Fig.-22N-Reusing-the-Ball-Joint.jpg%7Cthumb%7C717x717px>\|***Fig.
22: Reusing the Rocket Launch Mount***\]\] If you have***not***
completed the Rocket Launcher tutorial you can find the ball joint
creation instructions at _Create a mount
instructions_.
When you finished the ball joint return here.
For those having completed Rocket Launcher, click
on the Rocket Launcher layer in the
visibility layer section of the 3D View Header.
: Since we were in Edit when the mount components were added to the
Rocket Launcher the Cylinder and UV Sphere became an integral part
of the Rocket Launcher object. The result is that we cannot simply
copy the mount components in order to reuse them. Instead we now
need to "extract" a copy of the mount\'s components (which are
collectively referred to as the *ball joint* in this tutorial) from
the Rocket Launcher object.
::\*Select your Rocket Launcher object, enter Edit mode
and Deselect everything
::\*Select a vertex/edge/face (which is irrelevant) in both the cylinder
and sphere that together create the ball joint and press
to select the entirety of both
components (Fig. 22-A)
::\*Press to create a duplicate,
which automatically become the selection and move the selection into a
clear area.
::\* to release, press
to bring up the Separation Menu and click
on Selection (Fig. 22-B)
: At this point we are still in Edit mode of the original object (Fig.
22-C). Note that the selection is now portrayed as an object
outlined in red (selected but not active) and the
Manipulator/Transform Widget has disappeared; this confirms
Separation and informs us that nothing is selected in the actively
edited object.
: Exit to object mode . We now have
two distinct objects and are ready to reuse the ball joint (Fig.
22-D).
Deselect all and select the newly created
ball joint. Move it to the layer where
you have the lens casing and camera. Take note that the Manipulator is
hanging out in space rather than in center of the new object (Fig.
22-E). That is because an object "extracted" from another object carries
with it the characteristics, including the origin, of the source at the
point of Separation.
Well, that is easy to correct. To change the Origin characteristic click
on *Set Origin→Origin to Center of
Mass* on the Tool Shelf. Now the Origin more accurately reflects the
object to which it is attached.
While in Object mode click on the Layers tab of the Tool Shelf to
view/use the Layer Management capability. Layer Management enables the
naming of visibility layers and facilitates management of visibility;
quite handy. (This is an Add-on in Blender; if you don't see a Layers
tab go to the Add-ons section of User Preferences and look for "3D View:
Layer Management". If you're not finding this Add-on mostly likely
you're using an older Blender version.)
### Stabilizer Support, Bracket and Braces
!Jeeping\|***Fig. 23: Rough
Roads*** We expect our Big
Game Camera to be attached to body of a safari jeep which will be
traveling over rough terrain (Fig. 23) at potentially high speeds. To
provide stability in this demanding environment we'll include a Front
Support and Central Bracket in the package.
The Front Support and Central Bracket need to reflect the size and shape
of the object to which they will be attached. We could start with a new
cylinder and then manipulate it to achieve the desired size and
shape. An easier, faster and more accurate approach is to start with the
facet of the Lens Casing to which the stabilizing element will be
attached.
#### Creating the Front Support Basis
!***Fig. 24: Support
Prep***
1. Select the Lens Casing, switch to Right Ortho view
and enter Edit
mode ensuring "Limit Selection to
Visible" is toggled ***off***
2. Select the 8 faces of belled front section using border or circle
or
(Fig. 24-A). Double check 8 faces are selected (using the Info
header). If less than 8 are selected "Limit Selection to Visible" is
not toggled off.
3. Duplicate
;
do not use
in this situation, it will remove the selected faces from the model
when they are separated.
4. Separate the selection similar to
what was done with the Ball Joint but leave it in place -- do
***not*** move; this will provide the starting point for the Front
Support.
5. Exit Edit mode .
Rename the new object -- using the Outliner -- to something unique
indicating it is (will become) the Front Support. Take note of the
yellow lines on the belled faces of the Lens Casing in Fig. 24-B; this
indicates two (or potentially more) mesh areas are occupying the exact
same space, which is exactly what we want this case.
\
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<HR SIZE="2" COLOR="#800080" WIDTH="50%" ALIGN="center">
```
\
#### Refining the Front Support
!***Fig. 25: Support in the
Round***\|567x567px
Select Front Support (if it is not already selected) and switch into
Local View . Local View is used here to
avoid having the Lens Casing obscure our editing vision.
Enter Edit {{ B3D:N2P/Do\|TAB}} and perform Loop Cut with seven cuts
(Fig. 25-A)
While all of the Loop Cuts are still selected crease at a factor of one;
deselect all, select an edge of the 2^nd^ loop from the right and click
on *Select→Edge Loops* (Fig. 25-B).
Delete the loop then selecting *Edge
Loops* which results in a selected ring of faces that will become the
Front Support (Fig. 25-C)
Invert the selection (Fig. 24-D) and
delete unnecessary mesh , selecting
*Edges* so that we now have the "foundation" for creating the Front
Support (Fig. 25-E).
Switch to Vertex Select mode
 and
select all ; scale 115% on the X and Z axes
(Fig. 25-F/G)
Extrude and escape
(Fig.
25-H)
Scale 70% on the X and Z axis
(Fig. 25-I/J).
Exit Edit mode to view results.
Whoops, not quite what was expected (Fig. 25-K) but no worries.
Re-enter Edit mode , switch to Face
Select mode 
and select all . Click
on *Mesh→Normals→Recalculate Normals*
(or simply press ). You will
immediately see a change in face orientation. Upon exiting Edit mode
the problem is solved; now results
equal expectations (Fig. 25-L).
#### Front Support -- Finishing Touch
!***Fig. 26: Support Finishing
Touch***{width="357"
height="357"} Switch to Vertex Select mode
 and
select the top 8 vertices using your preferred method (Fig.
26-A). Delete the 8 vertices *Vertices*.
Select the 8 "open ended" vertices resulting from the deletion (Fig.
26-B) and give them Faces (Fig. 26-C) by pressing
.
Exit Edit mode .
#### Finalizing the Front Support
!***Fig. 27: Support Quality
Check***{width="276"
height="276"} Switch out of Local View
to review the finished (excepting materials/textures) Front Support.
Check shape, size and position to ensure they match intent (Fig.
27).
#### Create the Central Bracket
!***Fig. 28: Create Central
Bracket***{width="444"
height="444"} Repeat the same process as used for the Front Support
(Fig. 28) with the following exceptions:
1. perform Loop Cut with 7 cuts _*changes*_ to
perform Loop Cut with **11** cuts
2. select an edge of the 2^nd^ loop from the right
_*changes*_ to select an edge of the
**3^rd^** loop from the right
3. scale 115% on the X and Z axes *_changes_* to
scale **120%** on the X and Z axes
4. No "Finishing Touch" is required, we'll use this one as a full
circular bracket to enhance stability
#### Retaining Positioning
!***Fig. 29: Setting
Parent*** Once the
support and bracket are where we want them we need to keep them in
place. In fact, we want the brackets to retain their current
relationship with the Lens Casing regardless of transforms performed on
the Lens Casing. We will use Parenting to keep the brackets--Lens Casing
relationship stable. Select the Front Support and the Central Bracket
and *_**lastly**_* the Lens Casing using
.
The order of selection is irrelevant with _the
exception_ of the last one selected; last selected is active
and will be the Parent (master). Click
on *Object→Parent→Object→Object (Keep Transform)* from the 3D header
*or* it can be set using the Tool Shelf (Fig. 29). Now whatever we do
with the Lens Casing the Front Support and the Central Bracket will "tag
along".
#### Alternate Bracket Creation Approach -- Extrusion
!***Fig. 30: Extrusion
Approach***{width="681"
height="681"} Another approach to creating the brackets is to make them
integral to Lens Casing mesh itself through the use of Loop Cuts and
Face Extrusion (Fig. 30-A). Using Loop Cut/Extrusion has the following
benefits:
- it is easier and quicker
- it eliminates the need for additional positioning during creation
- the bracket will retain its proper relationship with the Lens Casing
regardless of how the object is transformed post-creation without
the complexity of Parenting
There are, however, at least two drawbacks to the Loop Cut/Extrusion
approach.
1. Even with all bracket edges creased at a factor of 1 and with the
Smoothing Correction modifier applied there remains an unwanted
shine between the Lens Casing body and bracket (Fig. 30-B). With two
separate objects and use of parenting the shine problem is resolved
by avoiding the problem.
2. There may be design changes or may want to reuse all or portions of
the object (s) for some other project. If the bracket is integrated
into the Lens Casing mesh it restricts our future options. In
developing brackets and braces I became dissatisfied with the
bracket positioning and their implied function. Had the bracket been
integrated into the Lens Casing object not only would making the
change have been a lot more work, portraying the functional change
of the front bracket could not have been accomplished (Fig.
30-C).
#### Adding Bracing
##### Incorporating the Ball Joint
!Fig.-31-BJ-pos\|***Fig. 31: Positioning Ball
Joint***
The bracing will stabilize the connection between the Lens Casing, the
camera and the Ball Joint. Since even a Big Game Camera and Lens Casing
are typically smaller than a rocket and its launcher (even a little
rocket that can fit in the back of a jeep) we're going to scale the Ball
Joint down a bit.
Switch to Right Ortho view remaining
in Object mode. Select the Ball Joint object
and scale it to 90%
.
Enter Edit mode, select a shaft element
(vertex, edge or face) and press to
quickly select the whole shaft.
Scale the shaft to 60% on the X and Y axes
followed by
(not Z)
.
Exit Edit mode and position the Ball Joint so that the shaft intersects
with the bottom of the Central Bracket; the top of the object outline
will disappear when full intersection (no gaps) is achieved (Fig.
31). Positioning of the Ball Joint relative to the Central Bracket is
perhaps easiest to see by:
- Selecting both objects
- Switch into Local View
- Switch to Front Ortho view
- Change the *Method to Display/Shade Objects* in 3D View in the 3D
header from the default Solid
 to Wireframe
 or press
- Click on the Central Bracket which
should make the Central Bracket active while the Ball Joint remains
selected but is no longer the active object
- Parent the Ball Joint to the Central Bracket so it retains its
position relative to both Central Bracket and the Lens Casing.
Switch out of Local View and back to
Solid View .
\
```{=html}
<HR SIZE="2" COLOR="#800080" WIDTH="50%" ALIGN="center">
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\
===== Creating/Positioning the Braces =====
###### Initial Set-up
!Fig.-32-Setup-Braces\|***Fig. 32: Bracing
Setup***
Select the Front Support and switch into Local View
.
Switch to Top Ortho view .
- Snap the 3D Cursor to the Support's center
Object→Snap→ Cursor to Selected.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- Add a cylinder sides 8, rad=**.**25, depth=2 (default) and Cap Fill
Type=Nothing.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- Similar to what was done when starting the Lens Casing rotate
22**.**5 degrees around Z by typing 22**.**5 on the Z line of the
Rotation section in the Transform Panel of the Properties Shelf
(Fig. 32-A). This will be the Front Brace -- you may want to rename
it as such now.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- Change the *Method to Display/Shade Objects* in 3D View in the 3D
header from the default Solid
 to Wireframe
 or press
:
: *This will make seeing what we're doing easier.*
- Switch to Front Ortho view and use
the Manipulator to move the Front Brace down (negative direction)
the Z axis until top is just above lower surface of the Front
Support (Fig. 32-B). Switch to Right Ortho view
and check to ensure proper Y axis
alignment (Fig. 32-C).
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- Keeping the Front Brace selected select the Front Support and set
the Front Support as Parent to the Front Brace.
Change from Wireframe View back to the default Solid View and switch out
of Local View .
###### Transform a Cylinder into Braces
!***Fig. 33: Brace
Creation***\|482x482px
Deselect all upon returning to Global
View then select the Front Brace and enter Edit mode
.
- Deselect all , switch Vertex Select
and select the bottom 8 vertices ( or
). Use the manipulator to move the
vertices into the sphere of the Ball Joint just above its center
(Fig. 32-A).
- Exit Edit , duplicate the Front
Brace
and click *Object→Apply→Rotation
and Scale* to reset any transform parameters to zero. Note the Front
Brace origin is no longer in center of the object (Fig. 32-B); click
on *Set Origin→Origin to Center of
Mass* on the Tool Shelf. Now the origin is where we need it for
proper mirroring (Fig 32-C).
- Click *Object→Mirror→Global Z*
to create the Rear Brace (Fig
32-D).
Use the manipulator to position the top of rear brace just inside the
bottom of camera. The bottom of the rear brace is now "hanging" in
mid-air unconnected to the Ball Joint where it needs to be. Enter Edit
mode to solve the problem.
- Deselect all and select the bottom 8
vertices ( or
). If we attempt to position the
bottom vertices into the Ball Joint as was done with the Front Brace
you'll see that the diameter of the Rear Brace becomes smaller. Our
objective, however, is to keep the diameters of both braces
identical.
- Go to the 3D header and find the 3D Manipulator Widget section and
change the Transformation Orientation from Global to Normal. Now we
can extend the length of the brace so that the bottom vertices are
just inside the Ball Joint without impacting the brace's diameter
(Fig. 33-E).
Exit Edit mode. That completes the
Stabilizer components with the Ball Joint securely connected to the Lens
Casing and Camera (Fig. 33-F).
### Pre-Textured Model Review
!***Fig. 34: Hierarchically Connected***
\|470x470px
Chapeau! You've completed modeling the Safari Big Game Camera. Take
moment to review how the Outliner is displaying the model components.
With the Parenting we've set up to prepare for mounting the assembly on
the back of the forthcoming Jeep we've also set up a hierarchy of the
model's components. Whatever is done to the Big Game Camera Casing
(which I\'ve named BGC Lens Casing (Fig. 34)) -- in terms of location,
orientation and scale -- the children elements will follow along.
## Bringing it to Life
One of the primary objectives of 3D Modeling is to create a 2D rendition
conveying a 3D feel that communicates one --or more -- specific messages
to a target audience. Despite all the hard work you've done to create
this model (which is -- I hope -- SAVED to your storage device) it is
not yet ready for public consumption:
- colors (called materials in 3D land and for good reason: materials
encompass much more than color, even when the word "color" is used
in it's broadest, non-technical sense) need to be added
- lighting needs to be set up (lamps in Blender)
- and the 3D model converted to the 2D rendition (rendering) before it
is ready for dissemination to the target audience. What follows is
only a cursory exercise in materials, lighting and rendering; entire
books have been written on each of the three topics.
### Adding Zing! with Materials
!***Fig. 35: Base Material
Selection***\|463x463px
Material selection can make or break a project. Material selection also
happens to be very subjective. Regardless of the science underlying
material selection -- and especially material combinations -- many
individuals will either like or not like what they're viewing without
being able to specify why. To make things even more intriguing, material
preferences, material combination preferences and subliminal material
messages are also strongly influenced by culture. The particular
materials I've chosen simply reflect my personal tastes and you are
encouraged to substitute your own preferred materials.
In addition to material selection, lamp selection and setup will also
dramatically influence how the final render will appear. Using the
default Point lamp with no material applied to the Big Game Camera
results in a dull grey look when rendered (Fig. 35-A), which is not my
objective. My objective is to have a base material of brilliant white
(Fig. 35-D) that will be contrasted with a material that accentuates the
object's geometry. *\Hint: Click on the Materials context
! in the Properties
![ window
to access Fig. 35-B/C.\]* The Lamp set up used in this tutorial is
explained in the Render section.
#### Lens Casing Materials
There are four different materials to be created for the Lens Casing:
1. the base material which is the dominant color of the object
2. an accent material used emphasize geometric transitions
3. an inside front rim material
4. a lens glass material
##### Base Material
The default starting material provided the desired look (HEX CODE E7E7E7
in v2.79). If you are unsure how to create a new material using the
default characteristics and/or how to apply it to an object please
review _Quickie
Material_
and _Multiple Materials Per
Object_
before continuing.\
```{=html}
<HR SIZE="2" COLOR="#800080" WIDTH="50%" ALIGN="center">
```
\
##### Accent Material
!***Fig. 36: Apply Accent
Material***\|624x624px
Once you're satisfied with base material, the mesh areas that display
only that material can be hidden to make it easier to work on accents
and fine details. Let's start with the accent material:
- ensure *Limit Selection to Visible* is toggled ***off***
- select the three main shank sections comprised of horizontally
oriented faces using border select
(Fig. 36-A)
- press to temporarily hide the
selection
- select all faces remaining visible
(Fig. 36-B)
- deselect the glass lens and inner rim faces
(Fig. 36-C)
- orbit the view a bit to
double-check that only faces intended to receive the accent material
are selected (Fig. 36-D)
- add a new material in the Materials context of the Properties Window
-- or use one you've already created -- (Fig. 36-Inset) and assign
the material to the selected faces
The accent faces should now show the accent material color (Fig. 36-E).
Press to hide the accent faces. Exit Edit
mode to seeː
- changes on the full model
- assure yourself that hidden faces are indeed still there ;-)
##### Inner Rim Material
!Fig.-37-Apply-Flat-Black\|***Fig. 37: Apply Inner
Rim***
Select all to ensure only the inner rim
and lens glass faces are remaining (Fig, 37-A).
- Deselect all and select
the lens glass face (Fig. 37-B).
- Invert selection and the selected
faces will now be the inner rim faces (Fig. 37-C)
- Create a material for the inner rim. I used "matte" black (no gloss;
Diffuse=HEX CODE 393939 with Specular=0**.**05) to minimize unwanted
light reflections onto the lens glass.
Assign the material to the inner rim faces (Fig. 37-D) and hide the
faces .
##### Lens Glass Material
!***Fig. 38: Add Lens Glass
Material***\|425x425px
Select all to select the only remaining
face (or you can simply click on the
face).
- Create a new material and leave it at the default; we're going to
add a texture to this material as explained _Image
Textures_
- Select the red and white checkerboard representing Texture context
to right of the Materials context in the Properties Window (Fig.
38-A).
:
: *Before proceeding with material/texture you will need a
suitable picture of lens glass. You can use the one I created
(so it isn't copyrighted) or find one you prefer on the web. To
use mine, right click on ***Lens Glass Pic.jpg*** below (I
suspect you know the drill) and save to your local computer.*
- Select Image or Movie for the Type (Fig. 37-B) and click on Open
(Fig. 37-C). Navigate to the lens glass image file and open it.
- When you are returned to Blender note that (1) the image is
displayed in the Preview pane and image information is provided
(Fig. 37-D). You can leave all other settings at their defaults.
Click on the Materials context icon and Assign the material to the lens
glass face. Exit Edit mode to see the
changes .
###### Non-copyrighted lens glass image.
Lens Glass Pic.jpg !Fig.-39-Lens-Glass-Pic\|***Fig. 39: Share Alike
Lens Glass
Image***\|624x624px
##### Quickie UV Unwrap
!***Fig. 40: Results of UV
Unwrap***\|481x481px
Rotate the model's front rim towards you until you can clearly see the
lens glass face. It should look similar to what is shown at right. All
of the materials are applied as intended with glaring exception of the
lens glass (Fig. 40-A), because in Solid View mode textured-based
materials are not displayed.
Change the *Method to Display/Shade Objects in 3D View* in the 3D header
from the Solid  to
Material ; you
will need to make the change by clicking
on the icon in the 3D header as
only works for toggling between and Solid
and Wireframe. Now it is possible to see a material's texture in the 3D
display without rendering.
Results are still not matching intent. The texture looks like it is
scrambled. Why? Well, this Wikipedia article on _UV
Mapping_
gives some very strong clues. To summarize: the output isn\'t really
scrambled. Lacking sufficient information Blender is creating triangular
\"slices\" of the texture image and applying to all of the faces.
In the Image Texture tutorial in which a square checkerboard was applied
to a cube Blender could determine how to apply the image to the object
using the Mapping instructions of the Texture context since there was
only a single face -- having a same proportions as the texture image --
to which the image needed to be applied. To tell Blender how we want the
image texture applied to the object in this tutorial's situation -- a
multitude of faces (calculations are performed on the faces generated by
Subsurf) none of which have the image\'s proportions -- we need to use
*UV Unwrapping*:
- enter Edit mode ; select the lens
glass faces (if needed)
- click *Mesh→UV Unwrap→Unwrap*
Even with the face selected and still in Edit mode you will see the
texture image appear on the lens glass faces as a single image.
Exit Edit mode and you will see the
applied texture image much better. It still doesn't look quite right
though; specularity is too strong and sharp. To correct that reduce
Specular Intensity to **.**1 and Hardness to 15 (Hardness is the spread
of the specularity, the lower the value the greater the spread and the
softer the specularity border). Now specularity complements the
selected image texture (Fig. 40-B).
\
```{=html}
<HR SIZE="2" COLOR="#800080" WIDTH="50%" ALIGN="center">
```
\
##### A Minor Hiccup
!***Fig. 41: Optical Illusion Partially
Resolved***\|664x664px
That completes application of materials to the Lens Casing. And it is
looking pretty good (Fig. 41-A).
Except ... if we look closely at the rear section of the Casing it sort
of appears to slant downwards. It is difficult to see for sure with
white of the Lens Casing against the light blue background.
Let's give it darker background and yes, it definitely appears as though
rear section has a downward tilt (Fig 41-B). We know it does not tilt
downward because of the manner in which we created the model. It must,
therefore, be an optical illusion, most likely caused by the curvature
of the handle stem as it merges into the Casing's rear section.
One option for correcting the illusion is to redesign (and obviously
remodel) the handle, which would entail substantial time spent on
rework. Another option is to provide a visual "clue" that would counter
the illusion by reinforcing the horizontal structure of the Casing
shank. Two parallel stripes down the shank running from the front to the
rear should correct the illusion *and* be fairly quick & easy to
implement.
The stripes are added by simply:
1. press to reveal the hidden
faces
2. apply a Loop Cut with 8 cuts to the side face of the shank
3. use select edge/select loop/delete loop to quickly select stripe
faces
4. assign the accent material (Fig. 41-C)
The good news is that the stripes do counteract the illusion. The not so
good news is that when the Loop Cuts were added the Subsurf algorithm
flattened the area around the cuts resulting in a very noticeable
flattening of the front rim (Fig. 42-D).
Use or the Tool Shelf's Undo History
(my preferred approach) to revert to before the Loop Cuts were applied.
##### Optical Illusion Resolution
!***Fig. 42: Optical Illusion Fully
Resolved***\|407x407px
Since the stripes appear to correct the optical illusion we need to
create the stripes whilst leaving the front rim pristine (untouched).
While still in Object mode click the
Modifiers icon
 at
the top of the Properties panel (ILI08) and Apply the Subsurf modifier.
Enter Edit mode to find that a lot of
now permanent faces are now available to us (at a small ploy-count cost)
(Fig. 42-A)
Select faces which in aggregate will provide the stripes (Fig. 42-B) and
Assign the Accent material.
That does the job; the illusion issue is resolved and the circular
curvature of the front rim is intact (Fig. 42-C).
#### QDRC Materials
!***Fig. 43: QDRC Fully
Clothed***\|457x457px
We will give the QDRC Camera the traditional black and silver two tone
look which requires two materials:
- main body area
- viewfinder area
Select the Camera object
- click , on the Materials context
icon at the top of the Properties Window
- click the "+" sign to create the
first material slot then click on
"New"
- click on the default name type in
Camera Body
- click on the Diffuse color swatch
and move darkness slider to the bottom (darkest) -- leave other
options at their defaults
- enter Edit and switch Limit
Selection to Visible off
- select the upper faces (Fig. 43-A) using Border select
- create another new material naming it something like Camera
Viewfinder and make the following changes to the defaultsː
1. check the checkbox for Mirror
2. in the Mirror section set Reflection to **.**2 and Depth to 4
Exit Edit mode to see your completed
Two Tone QDRC Camera (Fig. 43-B)!
#### Swivel Mount Material -- Create
!***Fig. 44: Swivel Mount
Texture***\|432x432px
All Swivel Mount components have the same material. The intent is to
create rugged dull metal look.
Select any one of the components and create a new material, naming it
something appropriate.
- set Diffuse to HEX CODE=5E5E5E
- click on the Texture context icon in the Properties Window (Fig. 44)
- add a new texture and select Noise for the type
- make the following changes to the defaults:
1. activate *Influence/Diffuse/Intensity* and set to **.**75
2. activate *Influence/Diffuse/Color*, leaving it at 1
3. activate *Influence/Shading/Emit* and also leave it at 1
4. change the *Blend* from Mix to Divide
5. click on the default pink color and set the Hex value to BFBFBF
6. change the *DVar* from 1 to **.**4
##### Swivel Mount Material -- Apply
!***Fig. 45: Swivel Mount
Textured***\|277x277px
Click on the Materials context icon and apply the material (one at a
time) to the remaining Swivel Mount components. After the material is
created you can (with the Material context active):
- select a Swivel Mount component
- click on the Material sphere next
to the material name
- select the material on the "fly-out" panel (Fig. 45) from the list
of all the materials created in this Blender file, or
- use the search capability at the bottom of the panel
If no other materials have been created for the object the selected
material will be automatically applied to the
object
### Project Status Overview -- Outliner Hierarchy
!***Fig. 46: Project
Status***\|921x921px
Good job on getting this far! Before we move to the final step
(rendering) let's take a bit of breather and review what has been
accomplished. One way to do that is using the Outliner which provides a
structured, organized and comprehensive "snapshot" of the status (Fig.
46). Using the content of the Outliner it is quite easy to identify:
1. the hierarchical relationships
 between the
high level components of the project
2. which primitive meshes
 provide the
base for the object
3. the consistency and logic of naming conventions
4. the materials 
associated with different objects, down to the names of image
texture files
5. which (if any) Modifiers
 are active
for each object
The granularity of this information facilitates model
maintenance/changes, asset re-utilization and -- potentially -- problem
solving.
### ¡¡Camera -- Lights-- Render!!
Now that you've created the Safari Big Game Camera it is time to
transform -- or render -- the results of your hard work into a format
shareable with others. Rendering is a BIG subject comprising at a
minimum:
- selecting a rendering engine (internal Blender Render used here)
- positioning and adjusting the camera(s)
- selecting, positioning and adjusting lights (or Lamps in Blender
terminology)
- providing a presentation setting
Exploring any of the items listed above in their entirety is well beyond
the scope of this tutorial. There are, however, some very simple things
we can do to create an attractive rendered result.
#### Camera
!Fig.-48N-Camera-Setup\|***Fig. 47ː Camera Set
Up***
Positioning and aiming of the (single) camera in this tutorial uses the
*"Lock Camera to View"* capability which is based on the simplistic
WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) principle. To activate this
function:
- toggle Property Shelf visibility if needed --
- find the View Panel (3^rd^ panel down with factory settings) and
click on the checkbox to the left of *"Lock Camera to View"* (Fig.
47)
Now camera positioning/aiming can be accomplished quickly and easily:
- select all BGC components ( or
)
- activate the camera viewpoint
(Fig. 48 Camera Persp)
- press to center the BGC components
in the view space
- adjust to your satisfaction by panning and zooming (which may
illustrate a constraint inherent to the *Lock Camera* approach,
namely it can get you close but it may not be "perfect")
- you can fine tune the positioning using the Manipulator but use with
caution: this actually moves the objects -- it is not just for
camera positioning/aiming
\
```{=html}
<HR SIZE="2" COLOR="#800080" WIDTH="50%" ALIGN="center">
```
\
#### Lighting
!***Fig. 48ː Lighting Set
Up***\|562x562px
A single Hemi Lamp with Energy set to **.**8 is used for the renders in
this tutorial. To switch to the depicted Quad View first activate the
camera viewpoint then press
. Position the Lamp (Fig. 48)
using the Manipulator in move and rotate modes.
Alternatively, you can quickly position using the values provided in the
Fig. 48 Inset:
1. click on the lamp to select making sure it is the only thing
selected
2. toggle Property Shelf visibility if needed and enter the values
provided in the Location area
3. the values are relative to the position of the BGC
components
#### Setting
!***Fig. P1ː Render Backgroundː Elephants (no
copyright)***\|674x674px|674x674px")
!***Fig. P2ː Render Backgroundː Leaping Tiger (no
copyright)***\|674x674px|674x674px")
To provide the presentation Setting we'll give the World context a
render background derived from a standard image. The image should
explicitly or implicitly invoke the feeling of a big game safari. You
can use either (or both) of the images in Fig. P1/P2 or find one you
prefer on the web. Neither P1 nor P2 is copyrighted. The elephants image
is from WikiCommons and the tiger image is my own creation using
Photoshop and starting from a royalty-free image. To use these, right
click on the image and save to your local machine.
Image aspect and sizing is the Render context
default.
#### Render Background Texture
!***Fig. 49ː World Background \--
Texture***\|586x586px
The following steps associate your selected image with a World entry so
that Blender knows to display it as the render background:
1. click on the World context icon
 at
the top of the Properties Window
2. and then on the "**+**" sign to the right of a World name (Fig.
49-A) to create a linked World entry which is a clone of the
original
3. click on the "**X**" adjacent to the "**+**" sign to unlink the
clone and reset the entry (Fig 49-B)
4. click on the New button (Fig. 49-C) which has replaced the named
clone to create a fresh World entry named World.xxx
5. rename the entry then click on the Texture context icon (Fig. 49-D)
to create a texture linked to the new World entry
6. click on "New" to create a new Texture entry (Fig. 49-E)
7. similar to how a texture was identified for a material, select
"Image or Movie" for Texture Type and click on "Open" to browse to
the background image location
8. after returning to Blender -- where the image info is displayed --
scroll towards the bottom of the Texture context to the Influence
Panel (Fig. 49-F)
9. click on the checkbox to the left of *Horiz:*
10. *Blend:* should be checked by default; if isn\'t, check it also
11. return to the World context
!***Fig. 50ː World Background \--
Rendered***\|508x508px
Click on the "Paper Sky" checkbox in the World Panel of the World
context to activate the image for use as the render background and align
to your render dimensions. Press to
view the final results of efforts in a render.
***Congratulations**... you've completed this tutorial! I enjoyed
making it and I hope you found it enjoyably educational.* {{ B3D:N2P/NAV
\|next=Simple Vehicle: Body \|previous=Simple Vehicle: Rocket Launcher
}}
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Simple Vehicle: Body
|previous=Simple Vehicle: Another Shooting Machine
}}
```
## Techniques
You should already know how to:
- Make a mesh
- Navigate the viewport
- Extrusion
- Form faces
- Name objects
This section will recap and introduce:
- Deleting and creating edges
- Subdividing
- Merging vertices
- Loop subdivide
- Adding unconnected vertices in one object
## Planning
The jeep is being designed to include the back, flatbed, door holes,
dashboard, window, and hood. The window is extruded straight up (older
jeeps\' windshields aren\'t slanted), and I decided to add a lower back
to later hold the bumper/lights if you want to add them.
## Building the Jeep
### Extrude the Chassis
Start a new file.
Change to front view (), switch to
**EDIT** mode, and deselect all ().
!Main sections are
made..jpg "Main sections are made."){width="300"}
Be in **Face** select mode
Starting from the default cube (*#1*), box select
() on the right edge to select the right
face, and extrude () 2 units (*#2*) to the
right along the X axis (should default, otherwise
). Continue with three more extrusions to
the right along the X axis of 1 unit (*#3*), 1 unit (*#4*), and 2 units
(*#5*).
deselect all ().
Now starting again from the default cube (*#1*), box select
() on the left edge to select the left
side face, and extrude 1 unit (*#6*) to the left in the X axis
deselect all ().
box select () on the bottom edge of block
*#6* to select the bottom face, and extrude 1 unit (*#7*) down in the Z
axis.
deselect all ().
Finally box select () on the top edge of
*#4* the second block from the right to select the top face, and extrude
up 2 units (*#8*) in the Z direction.
### Widen the chassis
250px\|right Now to
widen the jeep body.
Switch to top view ().
deselect all ().
set \"Limit selection to visible\" off Increase the width of the
existing boxes (*#1*) with one square (*#2*) by box selecting
() everything (since you\'re in **face**
select mode it will select all the faces of the starting chassis), now
Scale () 2 times on the Y axis
()
And select all faces on one side and extrude along the Y Axis 1 unit. do
the same on the other side
This should give you the figure that is shown to the right.
**Noob note:** holding as you do the
above moves and extrusions will lock it to grid steps
**Noob note:** You might want to save your job here and rename it before
carrying on as the options below are easier if you can revisit this
stage.
!Widening along the Y
axis{width="250"}
### Flatbed and Doors
Our jeep design will have somewhat of a cheat - no actual door.
There are now a few different ways of doing this (thanks to reader
submissions)! Try each one and study the results, as they will teach you
about the issues you will encounter when you start making models of your
own design;
Method 1 is the simplest of them, but teaches you the least in dealing
with mesh trouble.
#### Method 1
##### Make the jeep bed
{width="200"}
In view
Be in **Face select** mode
Turn **occlude background geometry** (now called **Limit selection to
visible**) on. It\'s the button with the spotty-box icon to the right of
vertex, edge, and face select buttons.
Select (, then
+) the
top faces where the flatbed and then doors should go. You should now
have four faces selected, two large ones for the bed, and two small ones
for the doors.
200px\|right
Extrude () the \"region\" -2, on the Z
axis ().
##### Make the no-door holes
200px\|right
200px\|right
Now in front view ()
Be in **Edge select** mode
Select () the top edge of the door face,
and delete () the \"edge\". Next, do the
same to the corresponding door edge on the other side.
200px\|right
Be in **Face select** mode
Select the faces in the bottom of the door wells, and extrude them up
0.5 along the Z axis.
200px\|right
Select the bed panels, and extrude them up .1 along the Z axis ( leaving
them on top of each other will cause problems with rendering engines
down the road )
right\|200px
**Noob Note:** Be very careful as you extrude the parts up, since they
are on top of each other, it\'s easy to select the face on the outside,
rather than the one on the inside. Once you\'ve done the extrusion,
check the normal lines by hitting the *draw normals* button in the mesh
tools more panel (*if you can\'t see it, hover and scroll with the
MMB*). If you don\'t get good normals, then hit undo, then reselect the
faces, and try again until you get the correct face being extruded (50%
chance of getting the wrong face pulled up). Or select the faces with a
wrong normal and hit the *Flip Normals* button in the Mesh Tools tab.
Finally, select the whole body and remove doubles,
() to select all then
() to bring up the specials menu. On the
special\'s menu, hit \"remove doubles\".
Note: removing doubles every couple of steps is a good habit to get
into, and will save you time down the road.
#### Method 2
##### Make the jeep bed
!Deleting faces{width="300"} be
in Top view (), and **Face select**
Mode.
Select the two faces in between the bumpers and windshield
(, then
+).
Now delete both faces (-\>\"faces\").
**Note:** *you could also be in edge select mode, and delete (xkey) the
edge between the two faces, for the same end result.*
!Selecting
vertices{width="300"} You
will now add outer faces around the hole we just opened in the model, by
selecting two vertices at the top of the model, and two from the bottom
of the model.
Be in vertex mode
Deselect all ( twice)
Starting at vertex A, circle select ()
vertex B, C, and D,
!Creating faces{width="300"}
Next create a face (); do this same
procedure 5 more times at the vertx groups show in the pictures.
right\|700px
right\|700px
###### Issues with exposed inside faces (Normals)
right\|300px
Now that we have gotten the new outer faces in place we can\'t see into
the model any more but we still have a big problem, the floor is
actually the outside face of the bottom of the model, this is not good
because you should never leave exposed inside faces (the other side of
outer faces) on a model.
Exposed inside faces are invisible when looking through them when you
apply textures and render it, since nearly all rendering engines
completely ignore inside faces ( A common problem with many sketchup
models, ah the irony! ).
You can tell a face is an inside face, by the fact that if you turn on
show normals, and show vnormals, on the mesh tools more panel, the
outside faces and vertices will have blue lines shooting out of them,
while inside faces will not. \'\'
Understanding this now will save you lots of wasted hours in the future
trying to fix your normals.\'\'
!Click the button within the red circle to display face
normals
Press **NKEY** and go to \"mesh display\" and click on the cube with the
face highlighted. Look closely at the exposed interior faces in the
floor of the truck bed, they don\'t have blue lines popping out in the
inside, only on the outsides.\'\'
*Now select textured from the box where you pick wireframe, or shaded,
and the exposed inside faces will become invisible when viewed from the
inside, but look great when looked at from the outside.*
In newer versions it is no longer invisible, and it seems to work but it
still has no normals, and it is still important to know.
###### Add the floor of the bed
Lets make a floor for the bed now.
right\|400px
Be in **Face select** mode
Select () both faces of the truck bed,
Extrude () pick \"region\" from the popup,
and move up along the Z axis (), by about
0.2.
With the two faces selected, hit mesh -\> normals -\> flip to make their
normals correct for their new position
Now rotate the model till you\'re looking at it from the bottom, as you
can see there is now a hole that needs some extra inside faces removed,
and new faces added to compete the bottom.
right\|400px
Select each extra face on the sides, and delete
() the \"faces\" as shown in the photos.
right\|400px
Change to **Vertex select** mode
Select () corners a, b, c, d, and create
a face , then do the same for c, d, e, and
f.
right\|400px
Recheck the normals, and make sure you only have outer faces on the
outside of your model.
##### Make the door holes
Method 2.2 is easier!
###### Method 2.1 Subdivision
right\|400px
To cut out one door, select the four vertical edges where the door will
go.
!Split the area where the door will
go.{width="300"}
Use the subdivide command () to cut the
edges in half. You\'ll notice that the subdividing will also affect the
adjoining faces.
!Delete edges for door
opening.{width="250"}
Select the two edges at the top of the door panel and delete them,
removing the top half of it.
right\|400px
Change to **Vertex select** mode
Now build up faces by selecting the groups of vertex\'s as shown in the
photo, and creating a face (). Do the same
thing for the other side, removing/adding edges and creating new faces.
!Merging faces.{width="300"} If you
want to clean up the look of the sub divided faces in the model
Change to **Face select** mode, and select the faces that are going to
be combined.
Press and a little window will appear
titled \'Make Faces\'. Click on \'Make FGon\' to merge the faces. (*As
you may have guessed, if an FGon face is created and you want to later
undo it, select the \'clear FGon\' option in the Make Faces window.*)
**Note:** to merge an Fgon to a flat face, select it and hit
+
**Pro Note:** You don\'t even have to make an FGon. Just select the
door-to-be, Tris and Quads both, and hit
+.
**Noob Note:** Q. What is an FGon??
A. It is a fake polygon, a way to hide triangles and quads on flat
faces.
###### Method 2.2 Multicut
right\|400px
Be in frontview (NUM1).
Select the top edges where you want the doors
Multicut (KKEY), enter two in the popup, draw a line along the axis of
the cut, as shown in the photo, and hit
.
right\|400px
Then move the newly created edges down and towards the sides.
###### method 2.3 (Noobie)
Select top face of where door is going to be
` `` to extrude, pick "Region" from the popup menu`\
` `` to lock in Z direction`\
` hold `**`CTRL`**` to snap to whole BUs and move down one BU`
Select 2 top edges that look like they have no widths
` `` to erase, pick "Edges" from the popup menu`
Two faces will be missing. For each individual missing face, Select top
and bottom edges
` `` to fill in the missing face.`
### Resizing the bed and windshield
Go ahead and resize the widths of the bed and windshield.
As a precaution, Remove doubles before starting!
right\|400px
To narrow the width of the window, change to **Edge mode** and select
the edges shown in the picture, then move
() along the X axis.
right\|400px
To narrow the width of the side, change to **Edge mode** and select the
edges shown in the picture, then move ()
along the Y axis.
!Adjusting the
widths.{width="300"} Always move
as many vertices or edges at the same time to not only work faster but
to make sure they are moved equally. The use of circle select, loop
select, and while moving vertices is
very helpful in fine movements.
!Bringing the back to a
point.{width="300"} If
you want an object to come to a point such as a wedge from a cube, merge
vertices.
In this example, the lower back area will be modified. Select two
vertices to join together and press
+. Select
the option for your merging. \'At First\' or \'At Last\' will probably
be the option that will work here.
Play around to see what each merge option does. After the merging,
Blender will tell you how many vertices were removed.
Be certain to \"remove doubles\" (), as
merging creates lots of them. ( *You can also find it on the menu Mesh
==\> Vertices ==\> Remove doubles*)
!Raise the flatbed.{width="300"}
Extrude the bed surface upward. This is only useful in hiding the tires
that we\'ll add later in the tutorial. Alternatively, you could make two
boxes to hide them.
## A Touch of Detail
### Adding an Engine Hood
#### Method 1
!Loop Subdivide
select.{width="200"}
Let\'s add some detail to the model - how about the hood? First thing to
do is add some edges to the front of the jeep. Press
+ to
enter Loop Subdivide. A pink loop will appear around the mesh. Put the
cursor over the area to get the example picture to appear.
!Aligning the hood.{width="200"}
When the loop is in the right place,
click. The place to put the actual cut can now be selected. Do this
twice - once for each side. Move and align the resulting edges to form
an angle to the front and bring the window vertices in.
Extrude the hood surface up a small amount. We don\'t want it too high,
just high enough to catch the light.
Zoom in and select the top-front hood edge created from the extrusion.
Drag it out along the X axis. Select the now diagonal face of the hood
extrusion. Extrude from it. The result will come out of the surface at a
diagonal angle. Take the resulting vertices and move them close to the
front of the jeep.\
!Formatting the
window.{width="200"}
Using the additional lines from the loop subdivide you can improve the
shape of the window
#### Method 2
Another way to raise the Jeep hood. It doesn't require loop cuts, so is
a bit simpler. !Hood
extrusion.{width="200"} Step 1. Make
Inner Square.
Switch to Top-view (), or slightly
rotated off for easier viewing. Face-select the top square of the hood.\
Do -xtrude, then hit `<esc>`{=html}. NOTE:
this WILL make a new surface, hitting
doesn't cancel the extrude, just makes its location to be exactly on the
old surface.\
Do -cale and type 0.9 and hit
`<return>`{=html}. Now you will see the new surface as a smaller square
(or really rectangle) on top of the jeep hood square.\
\
**Noob Note:** What I had to do is -cale
on and type 0.9, otherwise the New
Surface For the hood would end up shooting through the Windshield.\
\
!Bring out the top front
edge.{width="200"} Step
2. Shape Hood.
Still in Top-view NUM 7, deselect all.\
Box-select the right two vertices of the new square, towards the front
of the jeep.\
Do -cale on Y, and type 0.8 and hit
`<return>`{=html}. Leave the two vertices still selected.\
Do -rab on X, and type 0.2 and hit
`<return>`{=html}.\
Face-select the resulting quadrilateral.\
Switch to Side-view NUM 3.\
Do -xtrude on Z and type 0.2 and hit
`<return>`{=html}. I used 0.2 to exaggerate the screenshot a bit, you
probably want 0.1 instead.\
Now you should have a raised hood on the front of the jeep.
#### Method 3
Another way to extruding the Hood of the jeep including a lip that comes
over the front.
{width="200"} Step 1: In face select
mode
(+-\>faces),
select the top of the hood and press to
extrude it. Only extrude it a small amount.
{width="200"} Step 2: Staying in Face
select mode, here is the tricky part. Select the small face on the front
of the hood you just extruded. Then, hit
then . This creates a duplicated face on
top of the one you selected. Do not click or move the mouse between
these two keystrokes.
{width="200"} Step 3: Now deselect the
selected face by hitting `<b>`{=html}AKEY`</b>`{=html}. Then enter Edge
select mode
(+-\>edges)
and select the top edge of the face you just deselected.
{width="200"} Step 4: Hit
to go to the side view. Now using the
red X arrow pull the edge out a little further than you pulled up the
hood itself then hit .
{width="200"} Step 5: Now rotate just
enough so you can see under the wedge you just made. Go back into Face
select mode
(+-\>faces)
and select the face on the underside of it.
{width="200"} Step 6: Go back into
side view with . Now hit
to extrude the face a little with the
mouse. When it\'s a good size hit .
{width="200"} Step 7: Now make sure
the \"Select only visible\" button is turned off (\"Occlude background
geometry\" in later versions) and go into Vertex select mode
(+-\>vertices).
Play around with the vertices pulling them a little closer to the front
of the jeep. It\'s best to select using the box select
() or the Lasso
(+).
{width="200"} The end result should be
an extruded hood with a lip.
### Add a Fender
!Starting the
fender.{width="300"} In the
topdown view (), add a plane. Extrude
an edge twice to result in three connected planes.
!Bend the fender.{width="300"} Pull
the sides down to form a trapezoid shape and reduce the width.
!Model with
fenders.{width="300"} Once it is
in the desired shape, select the three faces and duplicate it. Press
+\'\'\'
and all selected vertices, edges, and/or faces will be duplicated. The
copy will automatically be grabbed for moving.
Move the duplicate to the jeep body and repeat the duplication two more
times for a total of four fenders.
Noob note: A good idea is to first position one fender, then copy it and
restrict movement to x or y-axis. Then copy both fenders and move the
two new copies along x or y-axis. Much simpler than trying to position
four fenders individually.
### Add a rocket launcher mount
!Setting up the tripod in
view.{width="300"}
We\'ll move on to making a tripod support for the rocket launcher.
Add a cylinder mesh with 12 vertices then scale and size it so that it
looks like a tube. Once you have it to a size you like,
Duplicate it twice for a total of 3 cylinders.
Rotate two of the cylinders in the
view by clicking on the white circle
that appears when the cylinder is selected in rotate mode.
The picture on the left is an example of the end result.
!Setting up the tripod in
view.{width="219"}
Change to overhead view () and put
together the three cylinders so the tops come close together. Now all
three can be selected and moved or rotated accordingly.
!Putting in the
tripod.{width="300"} Move the
tripod onto the jeep flat bed. The final steps are to select your
materials and rename the object (described in the wheel section). This
will complete our simple jeep model.
## Subsurf
Since we expect a jeep body to have squared up edges, we won\'t subsurf
this part of the model.
## Optional Activities
Feel free to add anything you see fit such as bumpers, guard rails,
doors, steering wheel, lights, etc. You can either have them on the same
object or separate objects (useful if you want to move them around).
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Simple Vehicle: Some Assembly Required
|previous=Simple Vehicle: Body
}}
```
## Techniques
You should know how to:
- Do everything discussed in previous tutorials
This section will recap and introduce:
- Append a file
- Duplicate an object
## Overview
The objects for the simple vehicle have been made if you have followed
all the previous Simple Vehicle tutorials. Putting it all together will
come very easy now.
## Appending the File
!Body object\|right{width="200"} If you
have the jeep body file open, keep it open. Otherwise, open the file for
the jeep body.
In Object Mode, go up to **File \> Append** (*Append or Link* in later
versions), about 3/4 of the way down the menu. The Find file window will
appear. Go to the location where the jeep seat was saved. When the
.blend file is clicked, you\'ll go into it as if it is a directory.
Here we have the categories of Camera, Lamp, Material, Mesh, Object,
Scene, Text, and World. We are interested in the seat object, so click
on Object. Now there are three items: Camera, Lamp, and Seat. That is,
it will say Seat if you named your object Seat. This is why it is useful
to rename your objects, materials, etc. If you forgot to rename the
object, it will be called Cube (default for our starting mesh).
**Noob note:** You must be sure you\'re appending, and not linking! If
you try to duplicate it, and you get an error, then it\'s probably
linked, there will also be \"li\" to the right of the ME: object name
button. Ways to be certain you\'re appending are: when selecting the
file, look at the bottom for the append/link options and make sure
\"Append\" is selected; In the file menu, don\'t choose \"Append or Link
(Image Browser)\", you need to use the option above it.
!Appended seat
object\|right{width="228"}
What should happen after selecting Seat and the button \'Load Library\'
is the seat will pop into our file where the 3D cursor was.
!One seat\|right{width="300"}
It will definitely need to be scaled, rotated, and/or moved to the right
position. One way to do this is to rotate the seat about the Z axis -90
degrees by pressing
.
!Duplicated seat\|right{width="300"}
After placing the seat in the jeep body, let\'s make another so we have
a seat for the driver and passenger. Still in Object Mode with the seat
selected, duplicate it
(+) and
slide it over. After duplicating it, it will automatically go into grab
mode. If you or
, it will still be duplicated - just
sitting on top of the original.
**Noob note:** Duplicate appended objects in object mode, not edit mode,
as they are separate objects and do not share the same edit mode space
(each appended object has its own edit world, unless you join them
together)
## Rinse and Repeat
Append the file again to place the wheel object and rocket launcher in
the file. Scale, rotate, move, and duplicate each object accordingly.
Depending on the position of your camera, you may or may not have to
make all four tires. Remember that the only important parts to draw are
those that will be seen!
Set the ball over the tripod. The fun part is rotating the rocket
launcher since the center of it has been moved to the ball joint.
!All objects{width="300"}
## Parenting
Be sure to parent each item to the jeep chassis, by selecting the item,
lets say the tire, then also selecting the chasis (
then
+ )
and then
+, and
select \"make parent\" from the popup menu.
## Final things
!Rendered jeep{width="300"}
The last thing is to apply materials to your objects!
You can apply material in either object, or edit mode. As you might have
noticed when you select something in object mode the entire object is
selected, in edit mode on the other hand individual faces can be
selected, and painted.
### Make the windshield look like glass
You have to create a new material and assign it to the appropriate
faces.
In edit mode, select the faces you want (make sure you select both sides
of the windshield including: front face, back face, and top face).
On the Editing section F9, under Links and Materials, click the \'New\'
button under Materials then click the \'Assign\' button. This assigns
the new material to the selected faces.
You can then go into the Shading section F5 and adjust the material to
be glass, by setting the alpha to .20, and hitting the ray transparency
button. Three more ways of making a material that looks more like glass
are shown in Material
Glass.
Make sure you are editing the correct material (if you have just the one
texture on the jeep, the default name for the new material should be
something like \"2 Mat 2\").
**Noob note:** Glass is only transparent when you render it. in order to
render it you will need to position a few lamps around the jeep, and
move the camera around so that it can see the jeep (view-\>camera).
## Extra
{width="400"}
Other possible ideas
300px
600px
600px
600px\|Created by following the great
tutorial!
600px\|Make LOVE not war!
Jeep \| Render \| Version
5
## Additional Tutorials
Append and Link Video Tutorial:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69ZBlDrOlIY>
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Modeling a 3D Parachute in Blender
|previous=Simple Vehicle: Some Assembly Required
}}
```
## Remove the default cube
{width="150"}
When you first open blender you will see the default Blender user
interface (UI) layout and the default cube.
Delete the cube by selecting it with
and then pressing .
## Add a cylinder
{width="150"}
Switch to **Side** view ().
Add a Cylinder with → Add→ Mesh→
Cylinder. At the bottom of the Tool Shelf change "Cap Fill Type" to
"Triangle Fan".
Press to switch to Edit mode. The
cylinder should now look like the picture at right.
## Remove the bottom row of vertices
{width="500"}
Next you will want to delete the bottom row of vertices. To accomplish
this go into side view by pressing .
Ensure that you are in **Vertex select** mode (that the leftmost of the
group of 3 icons
 is
selected; click on it if not).
Press twice to deselect everything.
Press , and box select the bottom row
of vertices, and press to delete and
then confirm.
Note: you must have limit selection to visible off, the button to the
right of the group of three icons for selection. If you wish to do the
selection with it ON, you will have to change your perspective so as to
be able to select all lower vertices.
Note: Instead of all of the above, you can also just add a circle with
fill type \'triangle fan\'
## Extrude and scale to shape
{width="150"}
Be in **Vertex-select mode** (as above).
Select all the vertices around the outside of the circle. The centre
vertex must not be selected. You can do this conveniently in a number of
ways; why not practise them all:
- Starting with no vertices selected, use
to select all vertices, then
on the centre vertex to
deselect it. Or
- Starting with no vertices selected,
(*loop select*) on one of
the outside edges or vertices to select the entire loop of them. Or
- on the centre vertex to select only it, then use
to invert the selection.
Now switch to edge-select mode by
and selecting Edges.
{width="150"}
Press to extrude (\"region\") the
selection and to constrain to the Z
axis.
Drag the edges a small ways down then click
to release.
As this makes a right-angle at the sides and parachutes don't have
straight edges, we need to scale the selection outward.
Press and move the mouse away from the
model, you will see that the edges get smaller and bigger.
Scale them out a small ways then left click to release. You will want to
practice a little with the scale amounts till you can make a realistic
parachute shape.
{width="150"}
Continue extruding and scaling till you have a shape like the one shown
on the right.
When you\'re done making a nice shape, be sure to select all
( twice), then
and pick "Remove Doubles".
## Make the top more rounded
150px\|right
Be in **Vertex mode**.
Select the center vertex in the middle of the original top half of the
cylinder, use circle select to get it, otherise you will be
a number of times to find it, and move
it up along the
axis.
Select all , and then
and Remove Doubles, in case any were
created.
## Extrude the parachute straps
{width="150"}
Now go into top-view by pressing . Here
you will select \~4 edges at opposite sides of each other.
{width="150"}
Go back into side-view and extrude
downward by pressing and then
.
## Merge it together
{width="151"}
All that remains to finish your parachute is to press
then choose "At Center" which will
merge all selected vertices.
A alternate way to make the parachute top is to create a UV sphere, and
cut it in half.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Model a Low Poly Head
|previous=Modeling_a_3D_Parachute_in_Blender
}}
```
## Overview
This tutorial is designed to teach users to make a low-poly animesque
head in Blender.
What you need to know:
- Basic Blender controls
## Add a plane
Noob Note: Using triangles on a subsurfed model may result in \"peaks\"
appearing in some areas. To reduce this problem, merge as many triangles
into quads as possible.
!Add a plane{width="200"}
Start with a new file, and delete () the
default cube.
Be in **Front** view ()
Add a plane
(+-\>
add-\> mesh-\> plane)
Click on \"Align to view\" in the settings at the bottom left side.
## Make a pointed chin
!Merge the vertices{width="200"} Switch
to **Edit mode**
Be in **Vertex select** mode
Select the bottom two vertices
(+)
and press W to bring up the vertex menu. \"Select Merge\", then \"At
Center\", or just hit
+ and
choose \"At Center\".
!A pointed chin!{width="200"} Now you have
a pointed chin.
!A pointed chin!{width="200"}
Select the top two vertices (use the )
!Select the top 2
vertices{width="200"}
Re-arrange them so they make more of a chin shape by pressing the
to move and
to constrain the movement to the Z-Axis.
**Noob Note:** Move it down; don\'t scale it out.
## Extrude the face
!Extrude along the
Z-Axis{width="200"} Now extrude
() \"edges only\", along the Z-Axis
() so that you have another area.
!Scale it{width="200"}
As a precaution, remove doubles. (**WKEY**)
Scale it () so that it\'s not so cubic.
!Extrude along the Z-Axis
again{width="200"} Now
extrude along the Z-Axis again ( then
) and scale
() it down a bit.
!Extrude along the Z-Axis
again{width="200"} One last
time\... (E) (Z) (S)
## Make the facial features
!Select the middle
vertices{width="200"} Select the
middle vertices (**BKEY**) or (**RMB**) and press (**WKEY**) to bring up
the specials menu. Subdivide it once.
**Note**: In newer versions you have to check the checkbox: \"Quad/Tri
Mode\" in the lower left corner.
!Select the vertices{width="200"} Now
select at first the pair of vertices above and subdivide once.
!Subdivide!{width="200"} Now subdivide 2 times
with the pair of vertices below the center line.
!There!{width="200"} Yours should now look like
this one on the right.
### Eyes
!Subdivide some more{width="200"}
Select and subdivide here, so you can make the eyes.
!Make some eyes{width="200"} And rearrange
the vertices so they make eye shapes.
### Nose
!Select these{width="200"} Now select the
middle vertex here (right mouse button).
Extrude it along the Y-Axis (**EKEY**) (**YKEY**) and move your mouse
around to change how far it moves.
!Let\'s make a nose!{width="200"}
Select these three vertices (*\'SHIFT+RMB*) and press (F) to make a
face.
!Do the same to the other
side{width="200"} Now do the
same to the other side, and you will have the nose\'s base.
!Make a face{width="200"} Select these
vertices (**SHIFT+RMB**) and make a face (F).
Do this to the other side.
!You have a nose!{width="200"} Now you
have a nose.
### Remove interior nose faces
!Rotate the camera{width="200"} Rotate
the camera (**CTRL+NUM1**) so you are seeing the back.
Be in **Face select** mode.
!Get rid of these{width="200"} Select
(**SHIFT+RMB**) the faces behind the nose.
Delete (**XKEY**) them (on the popup pick \"Faces\").
## Smooth the mouth region
!Select these{width="200"}
Be in **Vertex select** mode
Select the vertex at the bottom of the chin, and the one at the bottom
of the nose.
Subdivide them.
## Make the head
!Select edges on the
outside{width="200"} Be in
**Edge select** mode
Select all the edges on the outside (shown with blue lines in the
photo).
!Give the face more
smoothness{width="200"} Move
(**GKEY**) the vertices back, along the Y axis (**YKEY**), a bit to give
the face more smoothness
!Select the vertices at the back of the
head{width="150"}
Be in **Vertex select** mode
Rearrange the chin, by moving (**GKEY**) the bottom vertice along the Y
axis (**YKEY**) till it looks right.
## Make the back of the head
!Extrude along Y-Aixis{width="150"}
Be in **Edge select** mode
Now select the edges all around the back of the head, using (**BKEY**).
Extrude these along the y axis (**EKEY**) (**YKEY**)
!Ta da!{width="200"} Ta da!
!Make a face{width="200"} Now select a set of
4 back vertices that form sort of a rectangle and press (**FKEY**) to
make a face.
!and so on\...{width="200"} and so on\....
!and so on\...{width="200"} and so on\....
!Subdivide these{width="200"} now select
and subdivide these once (W)
!Subdivide these as
well{width="200"} and these points
too.
!Move the middle back{width="200"}
Now select the middle and move it back (G) (Y).
## Finishing it up
!With subsurfing{width="200"} And here it
is with sub-surfacing. You have finished. Hit (F12) to see the final
render.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Building a House
|previous=Model a Low Poly Head|Model a Low Poly Head
}}
```
In this tutorial, you will learn how to make a simple toy-like house
with a fence around it. You will learn how to use *array modifiers* to
replicate the palings of the fence, saving you from duplicating them one
by one.
This tutorial is based on Bart Veldhuizen\'s \"Building a House\" from
Tutorial #01 published by NaN in 1999 which is also available in a PDF
at
<http://download.blender.org/documentation/BlenderTutorialGuide1.tar.gz>
(a tar.gz containing BlenderTutorialGuide1.pdf) or
<http://download.blender.org/documentation/BlenderTutorialGuide1.zip> (a
ZIP file containing the same PDF).
Permission was asked to use it and Ton Roosendaal said \"Be assured that
everything that was produced by NaN now is open and free content for
everyone to reuse, including the tutorial "Building a House".\"
## Setting the Scene
{width="300"}
Start a new document (). Split the
view into four views as at right, by pressing
. This gives you a standard set
of views: top, front, side and camera, the first three orthographic and
the last one in perspective. You can switch back to the single 3D view
at any time by pressing again.
Leave the default cube, it will be the walls of the house.
## Make the Roof
{width="300"}
Ensure you are in **object** mode (
switches between object and edit mode)
Now, in the Front view window (lower left)
Press
+ to
duplicate the cube, grab mode is automatically selected, press
to restrict the move to the up-down
axis and move the cube to rest on top of the original (pressing
while moving will snap it to the grid
and make it easier to position accurately.) Press
when it is in place.
You can see how useful this four-paned window is; it shows you exactly
what\'s going on.
Note: It helps to simply grab one of the arrows, press
and then press 2 on the key pad, this
will move the block 2 units in the z direction. the standard starting
cube is 2 units tall.
{width="300"}
The top cube is going to become the roof and needs to be given a
triangular cross-section.
Select the top cube (if it is not already selected) by clicking
on it
Press to go into **Edit** Mode (check
the box in the middle of the 3D window header)
Press to deselect all the vertices.
In the top view, select the top four (
the first one and the rest). You
can check in the other views that only those four are selected.
Note: another way to do this is to have \"limit selection to visible\"
turned off, and then press the for,
border select, and make a box around the top vertices. (it helps to view
it from one of the sides, by pressing either the 1 or 3 keys)
Another Note: Or, with \'limit selection to visible\" turned on, press
for circle select and turn the mouse
key to make the circle large enough to enclose all four vertices before
you press .
### Make the Apex of the Roof
{width="300"}
Now press for scaling and
to limit the scaling to the X-axis
(left to right). You could try to move the mouse back and forth to bring
the top vertices together, but you will have a hard time lining them up
exactly, so it\'s best to just type in
(zero) followed by to set scaling to
zero.
Now it looks like there are only 2 vertices where there were 4, but in
fact there are still 4, even though 2 of them are occupying exactly the
same positions as the other 2. With these 4 still selected, bring up the
vertex specials menu with and select
"Remove Doubles". You should see a message briefly flash up at the top
right saying "Removed 2 vertices". Now there really are only 2 vertices
where there previously were 4.
### Form the Eaves
{width="300"}
The roof needs to project over the walls of the house to form the eaves.
To do this, we will scale it, but only along the X- and Y-axes, not the
Z, so it doesn't become taller.
Select all the vertices in the roof object by pressing
once or twice.
Press to scale, followed by
to scale uniformly along all
axes *except* Z, and scale to about 1.1. Confirm the operation with
or
in the usual way.
## Naming the Roof and House Objects
In a complex project with lots of objects, it can be helpful to keep
them straight by giving them names. This is less of an issue in a simple
tutorial like this one, but for practice, let's give names to your
objects anyway.
Go to the Object context
in the Properties window, and at the top you should see an editable
field containing the name of the currently-selected object. The walls of
the house should be called "Cube", and the roof should be called
"Cube.001" (note the automatic addition of a numeric suffix to keep the
names unique). Try changing these to, say, "House" and "Roof"
respectively.
### Object Name Versus Mesh Name
If you look in the Mesh Data context
,
you will also see a name like "Cube" or "Cube.001". This is a separate
name for the object-type-specific data (the mesh data, in this case),
quite independent of the object name. Don't worry about this name for
now; you will learn about its significance
later.
## Colouring the House
The roof now needs to be given a different colour to the default grey.
Select the Materials Context
in the Object Properties window. In the list at the top, you should see
a single entry, called "Material" (the name of the initial default
material). Below that is an editable field containing the name, and
immediately to its right should be a small box with the number "2" in
it. This number indicates that the same material is being used in two
places---in this case, we know the other place is the object
representing the walls of the house. Click on this "2", and that will
force a new copy of the material to be made (leaving the house walls
with the original); the number will disappear, and the material name
will change to "Material.001" to be different from the original.
Change this material name to "RoofRed", to make it clearer what it is
for. Next, find the panel "Diffuse" further down, showing a swatch of
the diffuse (non-reflective) colour, which is initially white. Click on
this to bring up a colour picker, and choose some suitable shade of red
for the roof. (Notice that when using shades of red, the white to black
slider on the right actually creates shades of brown from the red.) As
you do this, the 3D view should instantly update to show your new colour
being applied to the roof of the house. If you want to exit the colour
picker and leave the colour unchanged, press
; otherwise, to confirm your choice,
simply move the mouse outside the picker window, and it will close,
leaving your last-chosen colour in effect.
Follow a similar procedure to choose the colour for the house walls:
click the "House" object with in one of
the 3D views, go to the Materials Context
in Object Properties, change the material name from "Material" to
something more appropriate (here I'm choosing "HouseSandy" because I'm
going to give the house walls a sandy-yellow colour), click on the
colour swatch in the "Diffuse" panel and choose a suitable colour for
this material. **Noob Note:** I have found it very useful, when I
re-name anything, to type my new name in ALL CAPS. This makes it easier
for me to pick out what I have done.
{width="300"}
Your house should look like this now.
## Make a Chimney
{width="300"}
Go into Object mode, if you\'re not already in it.
( flips between object and edit mode.)
Go to the Front view (lower left window).
Click to position the 3D cursor on the
right-hand side of the roof, this will select the spot where the chimney
will be created.
Press to Add → Mesh → Cube from the
popup menu --- a bit large, isn\'t it?
Scale it along the X and Y (,
) to about 0.2.
Now grab it (,
) and move it into position looking at
the front view (lower left window). (Feel free to use the mouse wheel to
zoom in the view to make things easier to see.)
When this is correct, move it into position along the Y axis
(, )
looking at the top view (upper left window).
You can check the side view (lower right window) and the camera view
(upper right window) to see that it looks OK.
### Name and Colour the Chimney
In the Object context
in the Object Properties window, change the name of the chimney object
to \"Chimney\".
Next in the Materials Context
in the Object Properties window, you will notice there are no buttons,
and there is an icon
,
and next to that a button with the word \"New\" in it. You can now
choose to have the chimney a different colour to the roof or the house
or reuse one of these colours.
If you want a new colour, the \"New\" button, and it will create a new
material with a default name and settings. You can rename this and give
it an appropriate colour.
If you want to reuse the same colour, you can click on the icon
and select from the available materials, namely \"RoofRed\" and
\"HouseSandy\".
## Adding a Window
### Make the Window Frame
{width="300"}
Be in Object mode.
Using the front and top views, click to
place the 3D cursor where you want the window to go: use the top view to
place it against the front wall, and the front view to place it a little
to the left and up from the centre of the wall. (Of course, it's easy
enough to reposition the window after you've created it, so exact
initial placement is not critical.)
In the front view (lower left) add a plane:
Mesh → Plane). This will
initially be laying flat, facing upwards instead of forwards; to fix
this, just rotate it 90° about the X-axis:
.
Scale it down to 0.4, and press
To give it a rectangular shape, scale the plane by about 0.8 along the
X-axis
.
Move it into position (), using the top
and front view, on the left hand side of the house a little higher than
midway.
Be in the Side View window (lower right).
Move the plane along the Y-axis (,
) until it is just in front of the
house. You may want to zoom in () to see
better.
Now, still in Side View,
Switch to **Edit** mode ()
Extrude the plane towards the house (,
-0.07) until it is embedded in the wall.
### Make the Window Sill
!Box-select in
progress
To make this box into a window frame will require a larger view: move
the mouse into the Side View window and zoom in with the mouse wheel.
Deselect all () and select the outer
(leftmost in the right view) vertices using box select
().
Press and immediately (without moving
the mouse) press . This will extrude,
but leave the newly-created vertices on top of the previous ones.
Scale the newly created vertices by 0.9
(
).
Extrude again inwards to most of the depth of the box about -.03 to -.05
along the Y axis, depending on how you have your window into the
wall(,
, -.03,
).
This screenshot shows a side view in wireframe mode (use
to switch wireframe mode on and off).
### Name and Colour the Window Frame Object
Change the name of the window object, as you previously did for the rest
of the house pieces. It will be initially called "Plane" (because that
is the kind of mesh object you started with); change it to
"WindowFrame". Also give it a new material, and make it white. Change
the material name to "WindowFrame".
### Make the Window Glass
The glass of the window has to have a different material from the frame.
There are two ways to achieve this: make them separate objects, or make
them the same object, with different materials assigned to different
faces. We will do the latter.
Deselect all ()
Be in **Edit** mode .
Switch into **Face** select mode (
-\> faces) select mode (you\'ve been in **Vertex** select mode up to
now)
on the face in the center of the window frame, to select it.
In the Materials Context, click the \"+\" button next to the list of
materials, and where that was previously showing just the "WindowFrame"
material, you should see a new blank item appear. The rest of the window
will go blank, but the "New" button will appear; click this to create a
new material. Give it a colour reminiscent of glass; I chose to colour
it light blue ("87ceeb" SkyBlue).
Now to connect the new material to just that one face, press the Assign
button just under the material list.
Note: If you do decide to make the windows with real glass material, as
explained in previous lessons, make sure you use the materials on both
faces in the front and back of the window. Also use loop cuts or knife
to cut out a hole in the wall in place of the window. And add a point
light inside the house.
## Adding a Door
{width="300"}
Add the door using the same method:
Be in Object mode
Deselect all,
Create a plane, rotating it to face forward as necessary
(
) to align it with the front wall of
the house.
Scale the plane down by .7 and then again by .5 along the X axis.
Move it into position using Front view and then move it against the wall
of the house in Side view.
Change the Object name to "Door". Create a new material for it; change
the material's name to "Door" and choose an appropriate colour for it.
## Building the Fence
The fence will consist of long sequences of identical palings. Creating
them one by one would be a long, tedious process---which is something
the computer, not a human, should do, right? In fact, even creating just
*one* paling and making duplicate copies would be a long, tedious
process. Which is where the magic of modifiers comes in.
Blender's *array modifier* lets you make any number of copies of a
single object, all neatly arranged in a row or in various other ways.
Being a modifier, the copying only happens at render time, so there is
still only a single object to edit while modelling: change that, and the
change is automatically propagated to all the copies.
### Make a Paling
200px\|right
Be in object mode, with nothing else selected.
Add a plane, orient it vertically (
90 ),
scaled to 0.4 and then 0.1 along the X axis in Front view.
200px\|right
Switch to edit mode. Ensure you are in **vertex** select mode
(+ -\>
\"vertex\"), in case you were still in face-select mode from making the
window (above).
To give it some thickness, go into Side view and extrude it to 0.05.
200px\|right
The pointed top is made by going back into Front view,
Selecting the top vertices and extruding them by 0.07 (along the Z axis
is selected automatically),
200px\|right
Scaling them to 0 along the X axis and then removing the doubled
vertices (, \"Remove Doubles\": it
should say \"Removed 2 vertices\").
In Top view move the paling to the intersection of two grid lines at a
suitable distance from the house.
In Front view again, check that the bottom of the paling is level with
the bottom of the house.
Change the name of the object and the mesh to \"Paling\", create a new
material for it called \"Paling\" and make the colour white.
### Duplicate the Paling
{width="300"}
Be in Front view, as the flat face of the paling is along the X axis and
it is easier to create the front fence first.
Change to Object mode. Select the paling. Find the Modifiers Context
in the Object Properties window. Click the "Add Modifier" button, and in
the menu that pops up, select "Array". You should see a second copy of
the paling appear next to the first.
Look at the checkboxes: "Relative Offset" should be checked, "Constant
Offset" and "Object Offset" should *not* be checked. Under "Relative
Offset", there are values for X, Y and Z; these are the distances
between copies, relative to the dimensions of the object. Change the X
value to something like -2 (the negative value causes the duplicated
paling to appear on the other side, away from the gap we want to leave
in front of the door). Now increase the number under the popup that says
"Fixed Count", and watch the line of duplicates lengthen until it
reaches the point that you want to be the corner of the fence line---a
count of about 12 did it for me.
{width="300"}
Now type to make a duplicate of
the row of palings, followed by to
constrain its movement to the X-axis (parallel to the row of palings).
Move the duplicate row to the end of the existing row so it looks like a
continuation of it. Now type
-90
to rotate it so it lies parallel to the side of the house. Increase the
array count for this row to something like 24 so it extends all the way
past the side of the house to a suitable corner point.
{width="300"}
Again, type to duplicate this
second row, this time followed by to
constrain its movement parallel to the side of the house. Move the
duplicate so its looks like a continuation of the same row. Rotate it
parallel to the back of the house by typing
-90
. Adjust its array count as necessary
to get the right length.
{width="300"}
Once more, type to duplicate this
third row, followed by to constrain
its movement parallel to the back of the house. Move the duplicate to
the end of the row, and rotate it to be parallel to the side of the
house with
-90
. Give it the same count you did to
the array on the other side, so its length will be the same.
{width="300"}
One last time: to duplicate,
to ensure it only moves parallel to
the side of the house, move to the end of the row, rotate into position
with
-90 . You'll probably find it's so
long it runs into the original row of palings you started with on the
other side of the front of the house; reduce its array count to
something like 8 and you should end up with a nice gap in front of the
door.
**Noob Note:** I encountered a problem when rendering the fence. It
became grainy, and when I say grainy, there are random clusters of black
all over every rendered post. Some had few of this \'grain\' while
others were almost black. I have environment lighting at 1 and it\'s
still goofed up. Would this be due to hand-sizing them instead of
putting in all of the above values?
**Noob Answer:** I don\'t think hand sizing would make any difference.
The first thing I would do is go back into edit mode on the original
paling and select all vertices. Then I would hit \'W\' and click remove
doubles. After that, recalculate the normals by holding \'Ctrl\' and
hitting \'N\'. Those operations typically fix common rendering issues
for me, hopefully it will work for you too.
**`Alternate Noob Solution:`**` I encountered this problem and it turns out it is caused by having more than one copy of the fence in the exact same place. Try moving the affected fence pieces, to find the duplicate then delete it. Remove doubles did not work for my instance of the problem.`
### Make the Horizontal Bars (Left Side)
{width="300"}
The fence needs horizontal bars to hold the palings in place: be in
Front view
below the middle of the left-hand fence.
Create a plane, rotating it to the vertical as necessary
( 90
) and scale it to the length of the
fence.
Scale it again to 0.05 along the Z axis and move it into position. ( if
you keep pressed while you move it, it
will snap to the grid.)
Go into Edit mode ()
In Side view move it so it is against the back of the fence and extrude
it by -0.04 along the Y axis.
Go into Object mode (). Give the
horizontal bar the same material you previously created for the palings.
Duplicate it () and move it
(keeping pressed) along the Z axis
() to make the bottom bar.
### Make the Horizontal Bars (Right Side)
{width="300"}
To make the bars on the right-hand part of the fence: In Front view,
select *both* the horizontal bars you just created:
on one, then
on the other (you may need to
zoom in to be able to select them without accidentally including the
rest of the fence). Duplicate them with
. Move your duplicates along the
X-axis until they are horizontally
centred around middle of the right-hand fence; now scale them
horizontally
until they are the right size.
You could have done the bars one by one, but it's quicker to do them
both at once, don't you think?
### Put the Horizontal Bars Around The House
Select the two horizontal bars you created above for the front fence
(make sure you don't select anything else, like the palings). Press
+ to
make a duplicate, then
to rotate the duplicate about the Z-axis,
type 90 for the angle and press to
confirm the rotation. In the top view, move the duplicate
() you just made so it's against the side
fence. Keep scaling it along the Y-axis (
) and/or moving it along the Y-axis
( ) until
it's the right length and position.
Having done the side of the house, press
+ to
make another duplicate of the horizontal bars, and
90
to rotate it into the right alignment
for the back fence. In the top view, move
() it against the palings. Now keep
scaling and moving it along the X-axis until it has the right length and
position.
Having done the back of the house, do the other side: another duplicate
of the bars, rotate 90° around the Z-axis, move against the palings,
move and scale until they're the proper length in the right position.
Again, another duplicate, rotate and move/scale into position against
the palings on the other side of the front of the house.
{width="400"}
Your house should now look like this.
## The Ground Plane and a Path
{width="400"}
### Make the Ground
In Top view put the 3D cursor somewhere near the middle of the plot,
(click )
Create a plane
Be in camera view (bottom right-hand window)
Scale it to extend just past the boundaries of what the camera sees
(10.0 seems a good number).
Go back into Object mode and change its (object, mesh) name to
\"Ground\",
create a new material for it, rename it \"Grass\" and select a suitable
green from the colour selector (\"00cd00\" green3).
Check in Front view that it is level with the bottom of the house and
fence and move it (along the Z axis) if necessary.
### Make the Path
{width="300"}
For the path: Go into Top view, create a plane.
Scale it to fit the gap in the front fence with some space on either
side and position it just outside the fence.
Check, in Front view, that it lines up with the door and is level with
the bottom of the house.
Scale it along the X axis to the same width as the door.
{width="300"} Be
in Top view, Select the two vertices closest to the fence, and extrude
away from the house
to make a suitable width for the footpath
outside the fence.
{width="300"} Of
those four vertices just outside the fence, select the left two and
extrude a suitable distance to the left, and then the right two and
extrude a suitable distance to the right, to make the path passing the
house.
### Give the Path Some Thickness
The path is still just a flat plane. Let's give it some thickness, so it
rises slightly above the ground.
Go to Object mode. Make sure the path is still selected. Go to the
Modifiers Context
,
click Add Modifiers, and look for Solidify. The default thickness (the
top-left editable field) is 0.01; change this to -0.01 so the path
protrudes above the ground rather than into it.
## Improve the Lighting
{width="300"}
If you were to try to render now, you will probably find that most of
your beautiful house is lost in gloomy shadow. To fix this, let's add a
bit more light to the scene.
In the top view, find the existing default Lamp object. Duplicate it a
couple of times, and position your copies around the house to give it a
more even lighting.
## Check the Camera View
{width="300"}
Before doing the render, check your camera is properly positioned to
capture the beauty of your work. In the camera view (top-right quadrant
of the split view), you should see something like this; note the
*passepartout* (darkened area) outside the rectangle denoting the
visible area of the scene that will be rendered. If you
on the rectangle, you can reposition
the camera from side to side or up and down with
, or do
to move it
closer to or further away from the scene.
**Pro tip :** To adjust camera view, select camera view by
, then +
to enter \"Fly\" mode. Then, use FPS
control to move the camera (WASD keys to move around, mouse to change
direction and or
to acsend or decsend.
## Final Render
Now hit , and hopefully you should see
something like this!
500px
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Pipe joints
|previous=Building a House|Building a House
}}
```
How to model pipe joints.
## T joint
Start in top view, and delete the cube.
!**Figure 1:** Modeling a simple T
joint.{width="150"}
- Add a cylinder object (*Add-\>Mesh-\>Cylinder*)
- 16 Vertices, Depth 4, Cap Fill Type *Nothing* (For recent versions
of Blender create the cylinder then press F6 to get these options)
- Switch to front view (*View-\>Front* or
).
The X axis now points to the right. We will work along the X axis from
now on.
- Change to Edit mode ().
- Create a Loop Cut in the middle of the cylinder
().
Make sure that the 3D cursor is placed in the middle of the cylinder
()
- Switch to right view ()
- Box select () the 7 vertices at the
front
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- Rip the mesh with .
Tap on *Proportional editing* and set it to *connected*
, and select *Falloff Type* to *inverse
square* .
- There will be 7 overlapping vertex pairs: 7 vertices linked to the
top half of the tube, and 7 vertices linked to the bottom half of
the tube.
- Either the upper middle vertex or the lower middle vertex should be
selected. Depending on which set of vertices is now selected you
will need to grab at the Z-axis by 1 (upper) or -1 (lower)
make the circle that indicates how round your hole will be larger
\'till you get a beautiful half circle.
- Once you have grabbed the first, deselect
(), then select the other middle
vertex
- grab at the Z-axis the selected vertex by +/- 1 BU. The pipe should
now be straight again thanks to the rotations.
Set \"proportional editing\" off
- Box select the vertices of the gap
and extrude \"edges\" along the X
axis.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- *Pivot -\> Median Point* (**CTRL+,KEY**)
- To flatten the front: scale at the X axis by factor 0.
().
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- Add the *Subsurf* modifier in combination with *Set Smooth*,
*LoopCuts*,
- Use *Edge Crease* to get a nice transition. In *Edge Select Mode*
select the edges around press
and move the mouse until
you\'re done.
## Six-cylinder joint
!**Figure 2:** 6 cylinder
joint{width="200"}
Be in Object mode (have nothing else selected)
Add a cube.
Switch to Edit mode
- (**1**)
: Select all , then Subdivide the
cube once (,
),
: Select the 12 vertices in the middle of the cube\'s edges.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- (**2**)
: Scale by factor 1.4142 (press
and type in the factor with the keypad) .
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- (**3**)
: Select all vertices, and Extrude \"Individual Faces\"
( -\> individual faces),
: Select all vertices, and
*Remove Doubles*.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- (**4**)
: Select the center vertex of each tube, and delete them
() to open the ends.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- (**5**)
: Select the original vertices in the middle of the object and
delete them.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- (**6**)
: Clean your mesh as described above.
## Three-cylinder joint
!**Figure 3:** 3 cylinder
joint{width="201"}
This is very similar to above, only the selection for scaling is
different.
- Select the middle vertices at the edges where the cylinders shall
come from. Additionally select the middle vertices at the faces that
shall be kept free. You have to select 12+3=15 vertices.
- Scale your selection by 1.4142.
- Select the faces that shall be extruded.
- *Extrude-\>Individual Faces* (**5**)
- Select all, then *Remove Doubles*.
- Delete the inner vertices (**6**, **7**).
- Select 3 vertices (which were middle of faces that were kept free)
and 1 corner vertex in middle of the free faces (**8**).
- Make sure your 3D cursor is at the origin (and that you added the
cube at the origin)
and switch to 3D Cursor Pivot (**.KEY** in v2.49b), then scale
(**SKEY**), and type in 0.7071 (inverse of square root of 2, or Sin(45
degrees) or Cos(45 degrees)) and **ENTER** (**9**).
- Make sure you switch back to Median Point Pivot (**SHIFT**+**,KEY**)
to straighten out pipe ends (**10**).
Clean your mesh as described above.
If your joint looks odd, it might be because of some edges in the mesh.
Delete those by selecting it and delete (**XKEY**) edges (not vertices).
## T-joint with smaller diameter
framed\|**Figure 4a:** Basic structure for a T joint with a smaller
diameter
framed\|**Figure 4b:** The
result We\'re
going to create a structure like in **Fig. 4a** and extrude the inner
circle. To do that we place a circle with *Retopo* (\"Snap during
transform\") on the cylinder and join both objects afterwards.
- *Add-\>Mesh-\>Cylinder*
- 8 vertices (of course you can use more vertices if you like)
- *No Caps*
- *Depth 4*
- **Noob note:** *More vertices in your cylinder will mean more
intuitive work and figuring \[more loop cuts, face making,
etc.\] later on when retopo-ing. First, follow the tutorial,
then try to do a more advanced model with more faces / vertices
when you understand the tool. If you have trouble getting really
nice geometry, do a search for some tutorial videos. There are
many really helpful ones.*
- *Add-\>Mesh-\>Circle* (**Noob note:** *To make sure you create these
as separate objects, be in Object Mode (not Edit Mode).*)
- 8 vertices
- *No fill*
- Rotate the circle by 90° at the Y axis (**R**-\>**Y**-\>**90**).
- Move the circle in front of the cylinder(**G**-\>**X**-\>**2**).
- Switch to side view (**Num-3**).
- Scale the circle to the diameter of the smaller cylinder.
(**Noob note:** *I felt this was a little unclear. What the author means
is, scale the circle down until it is the size of the diameter of the
smaller cylinder you are going to create from it later by extrusion.
Scale it so it fits (straight backwards from view) inside the two
closest faces of the cylinder as per **Fig. 4a** if you wish to follow
the tutorial.*)
- Switch to edit mode, select all vertices of the circle.
(**Noob note:** *To recap: you should be in edit mode for the circle,
with the all of it selected, with the cylinder object directly behind it
in from your viewpoint in orthographic mode.)* Make sure that you don\'t
work in *Wireframe* view.
- Click on *Snap during transform*, that is the icon of the magnet in
the 3D view header, select \"Face\" and after that a third box will
appear, select there \"closest\". After that, push: \"num3\" and
then \"G key\" and reposition it a little. After that you will see
it lies perfectly around the cylinder.
(**Noob note:** *What \"retopo\" (Snap during transform) does \[in this
case\]; is project the selected topography of an object in edit mode
directly backwards from your selected view point onto the topography of
another \[separate\] object. So you must be lined up view-wise for this
to work. It is necessary to press the **Enter key** for the \"Snap
during transform\" to take effect even if I\'ve selected it with the
**LMB***.)
If the vertices of the circle are not adjacent to the cylinder but have
jumped to wrong places undo the last step (**Ctrl-Z**), deselect and
reselect all vertices and try again. This does help (strangely). *Snap
during transform* works with limited accuracy, if the vertices don\'t
fit perfectly you have to move them by hand.
- Change to object mode, select additionally the cylinder and join
both objects (**Ctrl-J**).
Now you work best in *Wireframe* view.
- Add three loop cuts (**Ctrl-R**-\>**3**)
- Delete the middle vertex.
- Connect the free vertices (**F**).
- Select the circle.
- Extrude and clean up.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Lighting Suzanne: Introductory one lamp lighting
|previous=Pipe joints|Pipe joints
}}
```
# Lighting Suzanne: Introductory one lamp lighting
If you have followed all these tutorials you now have quite a library of
images: A simple figure with a hat, a penguin, a volcano, a jeep and
several goblets, not to mention dice, a head and a house! To show them
off to best effect, you need to experiment with lighting.
**Lighting** is a complex subject, as any photographer can tell you.
Blender allows many different arrangements and numbers of lamps to be
used in combination to light your image. For this introductory tutorial,
let us consider single lamp lighting and do some experiments to see how
it works. (In later sections more complicated lighting is covered:
Lighting
Rigs.)
\_\_TOC\_\_
## Suzanne, Our Star
We need an object to light. Who better than Blender\'s favorite resident
simian, Suzanne! Open the default startup page. Delete
the default cube. Be sure the 3D
cursor is at the origin. Add a plane. *Add\>Mesh\>Plane*, scale it up
nice and large
,
and in the Properties panel (which by default is the lower right panel)
add a material
color such as light blue that will render well. In that same panel be
sure that under SHADOW the Receive box is checked.
Now Add Suzanne, the famous monkey. *Add\>Mesh\>Monkey*. Move her up
about 1.5 Blender units so she is above the plane but close to it.
.
Rotate her around the Z axis so she is facing the Right View.
.
Add a material
color such as red (red is my favorite color).
## The default light
!300 px\|Default Quad
view!300 px\|First
Render Now lets change to
the Quad view, which you should refer to extensively throughout this
tutorial. Press
to bring up this view. You now have the TOP, FRONT and RIGHT ORTHO
views. In the top right you will see your camera view. Suzanne should be
seen in 3/4 profile just above the plane. If not, rotate and scroll in
or out until she is. Then I suggest you bring up the object panel
, scroll down to View and put a check
next to Lock Camera To View.
In the outline panel, select Lamp. You will see the default lamp
position. In Ortho Quad view, we can see that the default lamp is up, in
front of and slightly to the right of Suzanne as she now faces. If you
don\'t see it, scroll out in each view window until the lamp shows up as
a point with a double dashed circle around it.
When your screen looks like the screenshot, render for the first time to
get a good image of Suzanne and her shadow.
## Types of lamps
Lamp should still be selected in the Outline panel. In the Properties
panel, click the
button to see the properties of the light. The default lamp is a POINT
lamp with ENERGY 1.000. Let\'s experiment with those settings. First,
click in turn each of the different kinds of lamp, SUN, SPOT, HEMI and
AREA, and render after each one. You can see that each of the light
types has its own characteristics. With the light in the default
position, your images should look like this:
!800 px\|Comparison of light
types.
### Point lamp
This is the default type. The light rays are assumed to originate in a
single point and spread from there. At the default value of ENERGY 1.000
is not very bright and covers a limited area. It casts a good sharp
shadow. Point is the basic general purpose lighting in Blender. Advanced
lighting rigs will frequently use several point lights with different
settings.
### Sun
The sun is assumed to be infinitely high in the sky so its rays are all
parallel. It puts out a bright light and casts heavy shadows. It is the
lighting type of choice for outdoor scenes but can also be used to good
effect indoor.
### Spot
The Spot lamp behaves very much like a theatrical spotlight (DUH). It
casts a limited circle of light. Within the circle it is bright and
casts a heavy shadow, but outside the circle all is dark. (Note: Under
the Shadow setting, the Spot lamp is the only one that can cast a Buffer
shadow. The distinction is subtle but important in some more advanced
applications.)
### Hemi
The Hemi lamp resembles lights photographers choose for indoor shots. It
is the only kind of light that does not cast shadows. It gives a very
bright lighting that is relatively even over the entire picture.
### Area
This light behaves more like a flood light, as if the area is flooded
with it. It is extremely bright and casts a very heavy shadow.
## Light Energy
Each type of light has its own brightness. This is controlled mostly by
the ENERGY setting of the light. Obviously less energy reduces the
amount of light, more energy increases it. Still in the Properties
panel, try different settings for ENERGY and see how it affects the
image.
Begin with energy increased to 2.000. Render each type of lamp. We can
see that reacts differently to the energy settings. Area is almost too
bright at Energy 2.000, while Point and Spot are just reaching nice
bright levels. Sun is \... Sun. Remember that it is infinitely far away
and its rays are parallel. Little changes with the Sun. Now reduce
energy to 0.300 and render each type of lamp. Point and spot at these
settings are way too dim, while Area becomes a very useable setting.
!800 px\|Lighting varying energy
settings
## Distance and Height
The distance of the lamp also affects brightness and its position
affects several things, particularly including the shadows. In the quad
view, grab the default lamp and raise it up quite high, say to Z=25. The
light falls off with distance, so point becomes very dark. The spot area
increases with distance so the circle in the spot example is now quite
large. The Sun \... well, the sun was infinitely far away already,
remember? The shadow cast by the sun does not change, and hemi still
casts no shadow. But the shadow cast by the other three lights moves
considerably and is now almost directly under Suzanne.
Lower the lamp to Z=3, placing it almost directly at a level with the
subject. Both the distance and the angle of light change. The brightness
increases, the size of the spot circle shrinks, and now the shadow is
long and far behind the subject, except, of course, for the Sun which
remains infinitely far away and casts parallel rays.
!800 px\|Effects of height on
lighting
## Rotation
!400 px\|Effects of Rotation on
lighting
The last setting we will consider in this lesson is Rotation. The Point
light cannot be rotated since it is equal in all directions. Each of the
others reacts differently to being rotated.
The Sun finally shows a different effect when rotated. I am not sure how
Blender interprets the difference between location and rotation for the
Sun. It seems rather counter intuitive. The sun when rotated seems to me
to behave as if it has been moved. But in any case you can see that the
shadow and the lighting show a distinct difference.
The Spot behaves very much like a real spotlight. Its circle of light
moves with the rotation and frames whatever it is pointed at.
The Hemi lamp also finally shows a bit of difference. Even pointing it
entirely way from the subject still lets light leak through it and give
that same shadowless flat lighting.
The Area lamp has its characteristic brightness over a large field, and
then suddenly cuts off in to total blackness. The contrast is very
striking.
## Experiment!
You can experiment with other placements of the light, and see the
effects on the illumination and the shadow. There is an almost infinite
variety of ways to light a Blender image, and this is just with a single
lamp. Multiple lamp setups increase the variety many fold as will be
seen in the Advanced portion of this tutorial.
## Note on Transparency
thumb\|left\|300 px\|Where does that shadow come
from?thumb\|right\|300
px\|Plane Shadows set to Receive
Transparency A special case of
lighting is transparent objects. What sort of a shadow do transparent
objects cast? You can try an experiment. Click on Suzanne to select her.
Now in the Material panel
scroll down to Transparency and put a check in the box. Just below that
is the Alpha setting, which controls the amount of transparency, with
1.000 being fully opaque and 0.000 being completely transparent to the
point of invisibility. Lets try setting it to 0.200 for an almost glassy
effect. Render your view, and then ask yourself, why does this glassy
object still cast a thick black shadow in the render?
The answer is not in Suzanne, but in the settings for the plane which is
her background. Recall that we checked Receive under shadows for that
plane. But go back to the properties panel for the plane, and notice
that there is another check box under Shadows that says Receive
Transparent. By default, to save rendering time, Blender assumes that
all objects block light equally. Only if that box is checked does it
make a check for transparency in the object casting the shadow. Now
render your view and you will see that the shadow is suitably glassy.
Experiment with this one. Try different types of lamp (Area is so strong
that transparent objects effectively disappear) and different values for
the alpha setting. You might want to remove the color material from
Suzanne and see what effect that has.
## Note on World Lighting
It is not absolutely necessary to use any lamp source. In the World
panel
you will find several lighting settings that simply produce light
throughout the scene without any particular source. Experiment with
Environment Lighting and Indirect Lighting and see the effects they
produce.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Curve and Path Modeling
|nextText=Intro to Bézier Curves
|previous=Lighting Suzanne: Introductory one lamp lighting
}}
```
## Why Use Curves?
You've learned how versatile mesh objects can be, and how they can
easily produce flat surfaces with sharp edges and even give a convincing
representation of curved surfaces with rounder edges. So why do we need
a separate kind of curve object at all?
There are important reasons.
- The various kinds of curves and surfaces/patches (Bézier, NURBS etc)
were used in computer graphics before meshes were developed. In the
days when memory was more expensive, they offered a more compact way
to represent complex shapes. Even now, they are still common in CAD
and other technically-oriented graphics applications, where they
make it easy to precisely specify the shape of a curve. Thus, if you
are importing data from such applications, you will need the ability
to represent such curves---even if you end up converting them to
meshes before applying materials and textures for rendering.
- You can use curves as guides for shaping meshes. This makes it
easier to construct certain kinds of complicated curved shapes.
Particularly since it is simpler to make changes to the curve (with
fewer control points), than after it has been converted to a mesh.
To this end, Blender defines *scaling radius* and *tilt angle*
settings for curve control points, which make no difference to the
appearance of the curve itself, but have an effect when it is used
to deform another shape.
## Bézier Versus NURBS
In the following pages, you will come across two kinds of
curves/patches.
*Bézier* objects only occur in Blender as curves, while *NURBS*
("**N**on-**U**niform **R**ational **B**-**S**pline) objects can be
curves or surfaces. If you've used 2D drawing programs like Inkscape or
Adobe Illustrator, you would have come across Bézier curves before.
NURBS curves are a mathematical generalization of these, which are
heavily used in CAD applications. Unlike Bézier curves, NURBS curves
allow the specification of a variable *weight* for each control point,
which governs how closely the curve passes to that point.
## More Than You Wanted To Know About Curves
As usual, Wikipedia has the lowdown on all the interesting trivia about
- Bézier curves
- NURBS curves
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Intro to Bezier Curves
Note: Some pictures are outdated.
## Bézier Curves
!It should look like
this.{width="300"}
- First start a new Blender project, and delete the default cube.
- Press: → Curve → Bezier to
create a new curve. Switch to top view
for a clearer look. You may want
to zoom in a bit as well. into Edit
mode.
The black line with the extra angled lines like centipede legs coming
off it is the Bézier curve. The white or orange dots are the *control
points*, with the ones in the middles of the pink handle lines defining
the endpoints of the curve segment.
Press to deselect the selection, so
that all the control points turn black, and the lines connecting them
turn red. You can on any point to
select it; however, selecting a curve endpoint selects the entire handle
line passing through it.
You can move a selected point in the usual way, with
: note how moving an endpoint causes
the curve to bend so it always connects to the endpoint. Moving just a
point at the end of a control handle affects the inner part of the
curve, making it bend more or less sharply away from the endpoint: try
moving one of these points around, and note how the handle gets longer
or shorter, and automatically rotates as necessary to remain a single
straight line.
Alternatively, you can select an endpoint (which selects the entire
control handle, remember) and use to
rotate the handle, and to make it
longer or shorter.
### Resolution
In the Curve Context
in the Properties window, further down you will see the Active Spline
panel. (This is only visible in Edit mode.) Note the editable field next
to the label "Resolution:", probably showing "U: 12". That number
governs the number of straight-line segments that the curve is converted
into for rendering purposes; the more of these, the smoother the result,
but it will add a bit to the render time.
This resolution setting is also used when converting the curve to a mesh
().
### Extending Your Curve
So far your Bézier curve only has one segment. You can add segments in
several different ways:
- Back in EDIT mode, on an endpoint
at either end of the whole curve, and use
to extend a new curve segment
connected to the same endpoint. (We won't say "extrude", to avoid
confusion with a different extrusion function discussed further
down.)
- on an endpoint at either end of the whole curve, and
where the endpoint of the new
segment will go; the new segment will immediately be added between
the previous endpoint and the new one.
- Select the endpoints of a single curve segment, press
and choose "Subdivide" from the
menu. This splits the curve segment into two new connected segments.
Note that if you when the
selection is not precisely one endpoint of the whole curve, it will add
a new handle that is not connected to any part of the existing curve.
You can extend from this handle to create a whole set of new curve
segments that are still part of the same curve object, even though there
are no lines running between this piece of curve and the previous one.
You can join two separate pieces of the curve with a new segment by
selecting an endpoint of each and pressing
.
You can also add new pieces with
in Edit mode.
### Removing Points and Segments
You can delete any control points by selecting them and using the
familiar or
. The menu that pops up asks you if you
want to remove the "Selected" points, the "Segment", or "All".
- "Selected" removes all points that are part of the same handle(s) as
the selected point(s). Removing an endpoint of a curve piece removes
the connected segment. Removing an interior endpoint causes the
replacement of the curve segments on either side of it with a new
one running directly between their remaining endpoints. Thus, the
curve piece of which that segment was a part remains a single curve
piece afterwards.
- "Segment" removes a segment between two connected endpoints. If
neither endpoint was an endpoint of the curve piece, then the
remainder of that piece of the curve becomes two disconnected
pieces.
- "All" removes *all* of the control points, leaving an empty curve
object!
### Handle Types
So far, all the handles on your curve have been *aligned*. This means
that adjacent curve segments are guaranteed to join smoothly. If you
select a control point and press , you
will get a menu allowing you to set other types for the handle:
- *Free* means the two parts of the handle on either side of the
endpoint are free to rotate independently, so the two curve segments
can now meet at a corner.
- *Vector* means the selected part of the handle points at the other
endpoint of the same curve segment, and will keep pointing that way
even if you move either endpoint. If you set the part of the handle
from the other endpoint pointing back this way to "Vector" as well,
then the curve segment becomes a straight line. However, as soon as
you explicitly move the handle itself, it reverts to being "free".
- *Automatic* is like "aligned", except Blender will automatically
adjust the orientation of the handles as you move the endpoints, to
try to keep the curve smooth. Moving either end of the handle will
change it back to "aligned" type.
### 2D Versus 3D
At the top of the Shape panel in the Curve Context
in the Properties window, you will see buttons labelled "2D" and "3D".
"2D" means the points of the curve are constrained to lie in a single
plane, while "3D" means they are free to be located anywhere in 3D space
relative to each other. Initially "3D" should be selected.
Try moving one point along the Z axis. Now click the "2D" button, and
you should see all the points you moved snap back into the same plane as
the rest. Also the "centipede legs" along the curve should have
disappeared (their presence indicates a 3D curve). You can alter the
orientation of this plane by bing into
Object mode and then rotating the
whole curve about any desired axis.
### Closing, Filling and Extruding
Each curve piece can be individually *closed*, meaning that an extra
curve segment is automatically added between the two endpoints of the
piece. This is governed by the "Cyclic: U" checkbox in the Active Spline
panel in the Curve Context
.
Each closed piece of a 2D curve is automatically filled to form a flat
surface.
The curve can also be *extruded* into the third dimension, effectively
turning it into a ribbon-like shape. Look for the "Extrude:" editable
field in the Geometry panel, and put a nonzero value into that to
specify the extrude width.
If you extrude a 2D closed curve, the flat surface becomes a solid
object, and the result is a *prism*---a solid shape with a uniform, but
arbitrarily complicated, cross-section.
### Scaling and Tilting
Turn your curve into a ribbon by specifying a nonzero Extrude value.
Change your view so it is not exactly from the top or bottom, but at
some angle. Notice how the ribbon is of constant width and always
perpendicular to the plane of your curve.
Select an endpoint, and press . As
you move the mouse, you are changing the *radius* of the endpoint from
its default 1.0 value, and this causes a corresponding scale factor to
be applied to the width of the ribbon at that point. You can see (and
also edit) this radius value in the Properties Shelf
, in the Transform panel at the top.
With an endpoint selected, now try
(**Note:** This only has an
effect with 3D curves, not 2D ones). Now as you move the mouse, you are
applying a *tilt angle*, which correspondingly alters the angle of the
ribbon at that point. This value is also accessible in the Transform
panel in the Properties Shelf.
The scale radius and tilt become particularly useful when you apply a
*bevel shape* to the curve---then you will start to get much more
complicated shapes than simple ribbons.
## NURBS Curves
Start a new Blender document, and get rid of the default cube.
This time, do → Curve → Nurbs
Curve, and into Edit mode. The result
looks a bit similar to a Bézier, except there are no control handles,
only the segment endpoints. Instead of dragging handles, you can adjust
a weighting assigned to each control point. Bring up the Properties
Shelf with if it is not already
visible. If you have a single point selected, in the Transform panel at
the top, you should see four editable fields under the heading "Control
Point:", labelled "X:", "Y:", "Z:", and "W:". The first three are of
course the position of the point; the "W" value is like a gravitational
field strength that attracts the curve to the point. Try adjusting this,
and see how it influences the shape of the curve near that point.
You can move endpoints in the usual way, but there are no handles to
rotate. All the other options for add and deleting endpoints apply as
for Bézier curves: or
xtend,
→Subdivide,
eting Select/Segment/All. The curve can
be 2D/3D, extruded and cyclic, and each endpoint has a
cale radius and a
ilt angle. In the "Active Spline"
panel in Object Properties, there is an additional "Endpoint: U"
checkbox which forces the curve to pass through the endpoints (this is
ignored if Cyclic is enabled).
→Curve→Nurbs Circle inserts a NURBS curve with eight control points
arranged in a square, "Cyclic: U" enabled, and the weights of the corner
points adjusted so the curve is an exact circle.
→Curve→Path inserts a NURBS curve with five control points in a straight
line, and the "Endpoint: U" option already checked.
## Which Curves To Use?
As mentioned earlier, NURBS curves are heavily used in CAD applications,
while Béziers are popular in 2D drawing applications. If you are
importing data from these applications, then you won't have any choice
about which one you end up with.
But if you are creating your own curves, then you have a choice. If you
have done drawing with Bézier curves a lot, then you should feel at home
with them. If you just want simple curves to deform a shape or guide an
animation, NURBS curves could very well do the trick---you could even
leave the W values at the default, and just add, delete and position
points to get a suitable curve.
## Extruding from 2D to 3D
You may have noticed you can only modify the curve in two dimensions,
and now it\'s time to explore the third dimension! Extruding is where
you define a two dimensional \'profile\' shape, and it is \'swept\'
through space to create a volume.
**Noob note** Bézier circles are not true circles, they are
approximations. For artistic purposes, this may not really matter, but
for precision modelling only NURBS circles should be used. This is due
to the math used to describe the Bézier and NURBS curves.
## Make a Simple Face of Bézier Curves
- **Make a curve and fill it**: Being sure you are in 2D mode, Use the
steps above to create something simple, and fill it in using
.
**Noob note:** you may find it easier to use Bézier circles, instead of
filling discrete curves.
{width="400"}
Note that the eyes and mouth of the face above are parts of the same
curve object. Blender can only identify holes in a filled curve if the
holes are part of the same object as the outer curve. If you had created
four separate curves then filling the outer curve would have covered the
eyes and mouth. To create a detached section of a curve, be in edit mode
and deselect all the points (). Then
create new points (you will need two or three) with
+.
Alternatively you can create the pieces as separate curve objects and
join them later with in object
mode. You might prefer the alternative way if you don\'t want a lot of
control handles and \"centipede legs\" to distract you.
### Extrude the Simple Face
**Set the extrude depth**: Click on the Object Data button and find the
Geometry panel. (Older versions: find the \'Curve and Surface\' box in
the Editing tab of the Buttons window.) There is a slider called
Extrude. Set the Extrude depth to something other than 0, and probably
less than 1.
!Bezler
Geometry\|right\|300px
Behold, your 2d curve has transformed into a neat 3d structure. The
great thing is, you can still edit the curve as if it were just 2d, and
the changes will update in real time.
### Bevel the Simple Face
Now you have an extruded shape, you should start playing around with
some of the other curve settings on offer, so here is a description of
how the Bevel depth and Bevel resolution sliders work.
Try setting the Bevel depth to a small value, say 0.02. This will cut
off all of the sharp edges, and give a bevelled effect all around the
shape.
{width="400"}
As you may guess, Bevel resolution decides how many times the algorithm
divides up an edge. Higher values than 0 result in smooth curves rather
than sharp edges, but dramatically increase the number of vertices in
the shape.
Try setting the resolution to 3 or 4, you should see an effect like
this:
{width="400"}
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Bevelling a Curve
|previous=Intro to Bezier Curves
|previousText=Intro to Bézier Curves
}}
```
A simple, non-extruded curved line on its own will not be visible when
rendered in Blender. Things are different, however, when you *bevel* the
curve---that is, use some two-dimensional shape as a cross-section, and
the line curve becomes a guide for extruding the shape into the third
dimension.
## Built-In Bevel
!Bézier curve with default
settings
Start with a curve object---any curve will do. Here we use a Bézier
curve.
Look in the Curve Context
in the Properties window, for the Geometry panel. There you should see
two editable fields with the title "Bevel:" above them, one labelled
"Depth:" and the other "Resolution:". Try setting the depth to something
like 0.1.
!Bëzier curve with bevel = 0.1, fill = half, resolution =
0
Now your curve is no longer a simple line. It should have a V-shaped
cross section, perhaps like a piece of bent angle iron.
!Bëzier curve with bevel = 0.1, fill = half, resolution =
3
Now try increasing the "Resolution:" value, and you should see the V
cross section start to smooth out, until at about a resolution of 2 or
3, it looks like a curved half pipe.
Now look further up, in the Shape panel. There should be a popup menu
with the title "Fill:" above it; for a 3D curve, by default the item
selected is "Half". Try the "Front" and "Back" items, and you should see
that these give you just halves of your half pipe.
!Bézier curve with bevel = 0.1, fill = full, resolution =
0
!Bézier curve with bevel = 0.1, fill = full, resolution =
3
Now try "Full", and your half pipe should now be a complete pipe.
!Bëzier curve with bevel = 0.1, fill = full, resolution = 3,
cyclic
You can also join the ends together by checking the "Cyclic: U" box
under the Active Spline panel.
**Start and End Bevel Factors:** These reduce the extent of the bevel
shape, so that instead of extending the full length of the curve, they
go from and to the specified fractions of the length. These become more
useful when the cross section of the shape is no longer uniform, when
you apply a custom taper (below).
!Bézier curve, 2D,
cyclic Now
change the curve to 2D. The Fill options now become "Both", "Front",
"Back" and "None", where "Both" is like the "Half" setting for 3D
curves. Note there is no equivalent of "Full". But there is a new
feature: if you check the "Cyclic: U" box, it will fill in the entire
interior of the curve!
!Bézier curve, 2D, cyclic, extrude =
0.1
Try this with a Bézier circle or a NURBS circle, and you should get a
pancake-like object. For added flavour, give it a nonzero Extrude value,
and this will make the shape even thicker. !Bézier curve, 2D, cyclic,
extrude = 0.1, bevel = 0.1, resolution =
3
## Custom Bevel
!selecting just the *end points* of the
handles
Now we will try using another curve to supply the cross section. Add a
Bézier circle shape. into Edit mode.
Now, select *just the end points of the handles* (*not* the control
points themselves). In the Pivot Point menu, select "Individual
Origins". Now cale down to 0.4. !if they
highlight like this, you're doing it
wrong
!handles scaled to
0.4 The
result should be something close to a square, but with rounded corners.
Go back to your first curve, and find the field titled "Bevel Object:"
in the Geometry panel in the Curve Context
properties. Click on it, and a popup menu should appear, and you should
see the name of the second curve (e.g. "BezierCircle"). Select that
name, and you should see your bevelled curve immediately take on the
cross-section of the new curve.
In fact, you may find the bevel object is a bit large; select it and,
while still in Object mode, cale it by a
factor of 0.1. The result should appear something like this.
Select the second curve again, go into Edit mode, and try messing around
with the control points: you should see your changes immediately get
reflected in the shape of the bevelled curve. You may find that the
orientation of the second curve doesn't coincide with the orientation of
the bevel cross-section. This is easy to fix, because any change you
make to the rotation and position of the second curve *in object mode*
will have no effect on its use as a bevel, so you can freely reorient
and reposition it to make it easier to match its shape up with the bevel
cross section. (Scaling does, however, have an effect.)
## Custom Taper
Now try adding a *third* curve object. (As with custom bevels, only
curve objects will work.) Go back to your first curve, find the "Taper
Object:" field (it should be next to the "Bevel Object:" field you've
already used), and select the name of your newly-added curve. The
bevelled shape will now most likely squish down in a most peculiar way.
Select your third curve, that you are using as a taper, and go into Edit
mode. Now try adjust control points, and observe the effect on the
bevelled shape: what you should find is that the object-local
Y-coordinate of each control point governs the thickness of the bevelled
shape at the corresponding position along the shape given by its
X-coordinate, while the object-local Z-coordinate doesn't have any
effect.
As with the bevel shape, you can freely rotate and reposition (and this
time, even rescale) the taper shape *in object mode*, and it will have
no effect on its taper function: only alterations of the control points
in edit mode have an effect.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/NURBS Patches
|previous=Bevelling a Curve
}}
```
What Blender calls *surfaces* are more commonly referred to in computer
graphics as *patches*. It makes sense to stick to the commonly-accepted
terminology, particularly when talking with users of other software.
You previously saw how a NURBS curve consisted of a single row of any
number of control points. A NURBS patch consists of an *n*-by-*m* grid
of points, where *n* and *m* can be any positive integer (and not
necessarily equal). The grid has a rectangular topology, but of course
the points may be positioned anywhere in space, to shape the curve
accordingly. The resulting object can look a bit like a mesh in edit
mode, but it behaves very differently.
## Your First NURBS Patch
Start a new document, delete the default cube, bla-bla-bla, but stay in
Object mode. Add a new NURBS surface:
→Surface→NURBS Surface. Switch to
Edit mode, and find the Surface Context
in the Properties window.
For NURBS curves, you previously had the "Cyclic: U" and "Endpoint: U"
options for making the curve open or closed, and extending all the way
to the endpoints or not. Now you also have "Cyclic: V" and "Endpoint:
V", because the surface has two dimensions, and you can control these
settings independently along each dimension. Try checking just one
Cyclic box at a time, and the patch turns into a closed ribbon shape
along the corresponding dimension; check both, and it forms a solid
object, shaped perhaps reminiscent of a pillow or an unusual loaf of
bread.
As with the curve case, you can move selected points around to alter the
shape of the curve, and adjust the "W" value of each point to control
how strongly it attracts the curve. Radius-scaling and tilt settings are
still adjustable, but don't seem to achieve anything, since you can't
apply a bevel to a surface.
### Adding and Removing Control Points
Adding and deleting points in a NURBS surface need to follow some rules.
The irritating thing is, if you try to do things not in accordance with
these rules, Blender will simply ignore you, with no error message.
Remember how I said that the control points form a *n*-by-*m*
rectangular grid? Any addition or deletion of points must preserve this
characteristic. Thus, you can only add or remove points an entire row or
column at a time. For example, to extend the patch, you select all the
points along one outermost edge of it, and press
to add the same number of new points.
Or you can select all the points in two adjacent rows or columns, and
use →Subdivide to add a new row/column
of points in-between. Similarly, you can only delete points by selecting
an entire row or column of them at a time.
### NURBS Curve, NURBS Circle?
The first two options in the
→Surface menu are "NURBS Curve" and
"NURBS Circle". Try adding these objects; at first glance, they look
exactly like the "Nurbs Curve" and "Nurbs Circle" entries in the
→Curve menu. However, regardless of
appearances, these really are surfaces, not curves.
To observe the difference, ensure all points are selected, and now use
to extend the curve: this will create
a *whole row* of new control points, instead of just one! As with the
different options in the →Curve
menu, the ones in →Surface offer
premade objects for you to choose whichever is the most convenient
starting point for the shape you actually want to create.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Deforming Meshes using the Curve Modifier
|previous=NURBS Patches
}}
```
## Understanding the Curve Modifier
The *curve modifier* lets you use a curve shape to deform a mesh. The
mesh will follow every twist and turn of the curve as far as it can
bend, depending on how many vertices it has---clearly, the more vertices
there are, the more faithfully it can follow the curve.
The curve modifier is also very easy to confuse yourself with if you're
not careful in how you set it up. A common situation is you try to move
the deformed object in one direction, but it ends up moving in a
completely different direction! This happens when you choose a
deformation axis that doesn't correspond to the predominant orientation
of the points in the curve.
There are in fact some predictable rules that govern the behaviour of
the curve modifier. Once you understand these rules, you shouldn't need
to keep trying different things at random to try to achieve the effect
you want, you should be able to go straight for it.
### A Simple Example
!Grid plus path objects, ready for
action
Let's do an illustrative example to clarify things. Start a new Blender
document; delete the default cube, and add a grid object instead, with
the default 10×10 subdivision to give it plenty of vertices that can be
deformed. Also add a path curve on top of it---this will give you a
NURBS curve with 5 points, initially in a straight line. The result
should look like at right.
!Grid deformed by path, default
settings
Now on the grid, go to the Modifiers
Context
in the Properties window, and add a new Curve modifier which you will
find in the \"Deform\" column. Click under \"object\" in the empty box
and choose \"NurbsPath\".
The grid object should immediately jump a little way in the direction of
the negative X-axis. Why?
If you select the curve and into Edit
mode, you should see that, while the origin of the curve's local
coordinate system (the fat orange dot) is in the middle of the curve,
the first point (the one at the end of curve in the same direction that
the "centipede legs" are pointing) has a negative X-coordinate. Select
just that point, and from the Snap menu
, do "Cursor to Selected". Now
back into Object mode, and from
Object→Transform do "Origin to 3D Cursor". This will adjust the origin
of the curve's local coordinate system to that first point (keeping the
curve itself in the same place), whereupon the grid object should jump
back to its original location.
You can of course freely move around, add and delete the other points.
Just be sure to keep that first point always at the origin of the curve.
Now look at the settings for the Curve modifier. Notice those six
buttons under "Deformation Axis:"?
When a path curve is created, all its points initially lie along its
local X-axis. Since the default for the Deformation Axis is "X", all
works pretty much as you expect. If the two do not coincide, then weird
things happen when you try moving things around.
If you *really* want to mess around, you could go into Edit mode on the
curve, select all its points, rotate them to, say, orient them along the
local Y-axis, then get out of Edit mode, select the deformed mesh, and
change the Deformation Axis on its modifier to Y, and things should
still work consistently. But why bother?
As long as you obey the above rules, you can move, rotate and scale the
deforming curve *in object mode only* as much as you like, and the
deformation will still behave in a reasonable fashion. Of course, you
can do what you like to the deformed mesh in object or edit modes, and
this will still be true.
!Fiddling with the deforming
path
Select the curve, into Edit mode,
select the middle point, and move it a little to one side, as at right.
You should see the grid mesh immediately bend in a corresponding way.
Now into Object mode, select the mesh,
and move it around: notice how it
tries to follow the shape of whatever part of the curve lies nearest to
it. What shape does it take when you move it off an end of the curve?
How about to one side?
Alternatively, you can similarly drag the curve instead of the mesh, and
the same thing will happen: it is only their relative positions that
governs the actual deformation.
Also try changing the scaling radius
and tilt angle
on particular curve points: note
how the former causes the deformed mesh to get wider and narrow at those
points, while the latter makes it tilt from side to side.
## Another Example
### Setting up your Mesh
While this example will be done with a cone primitive, you can use the
default cube or another shape of your choosing so long as it can be loop
subdivided along the axis you wish to curve. Delete the default cube if
you\'re not going to use it as your base mesh, and add your chosen
primitive. In this example, we\'ll be using a Cone.
! A basic cone in Edit
Mode{width="220"}
Do everything with the 3D cursor at the center.
- Set your view to the X-Y Axis (Top View) by pressing **NUM7**, the 7
on the keypad.
- Press *\'Shift+A \>*Mesh*\>*Cone\'\'
- A smaller number of vertices are needed, since this cone will become
just the tip of the finished shape.
- Reduce the number of vertices to 12.
- Press **TAB** to enter Edit Mode, or choose Edit Mode from the
bottom of the 3D viewport.
- Switch views to the Z-X Axis by pressing **NUM1** (1 on the keypad).
Your screen should now look something like the picture at left.
- If your cone is selected (one or more vertices are yellow) press
**AKEY** (Select/Deselect All) until they are deselected.
- Select the point of your Cone with the **RMB** and drag it upwards
with the blue arrow. You can hold down the **CONTROL** key if you
want to constrain the scaling to set units. For this example, 5
squares of height were added to the cone.
### Subdividing the Cone
!Extruded cone{width="100"}
- Go to front view by pressing **NUM1**
The best way to do it is by selecting the side edges and subdivide them
by pressing **WKEY** then clicking on *Subdivide*, after that you can
select the number of cuts you want. You need at least \"5\" segments.
The more segments you have, the smoother your curved cone will be. be
sure you have \"Limit selection to visible off\" and to first deselect
all \"A key\" and you are in \"edge select\" mode
- You can also do: still in Edit Mode, press the **NUM8** repeatedly
to rotate your view to the underside of your cone. Select the center
vertex of the circle, and hold down **CONTROL**, then press the
**+KEY** on the keypad. This will select all of the adjacent
vertices of the base. Then extrude using the **EKEY** Pull the new
vertices away from the cone a distance at the Z-axis and click the
**LMB** to set them in place. Press the **SKEY** and widen the new
base of the cone a bit.
### Making a Curve
{width="100"}
- In Object Mode, Z-X orientation (**NUM1**\'), make sure you have
nothing selected and press *\'Shift+A* \> *Curve* \> *Bezier Curve*
- Rotate your curve 90° (holding down the **CONTROL** key to make it
rotate in 5° intervals) Note- or just R-KEY and then type 90, so
that it lines up with your cone. Move it off to one side so that its
not hidden by your cone.
- Go into \"wireframe\"
- Grab the center vertex of each end and adjust its rotation
(**RKEY**) until you have a nice shallow dome shape.
- Scale the curve in size (**SKEY**) until it is larger than your
cone.
- The name is highlighted in the \"Outliner\" Window: \"BezierCurve\"
### Applying the Curve to the Mesh
!Modified cone{width="120"}
- Select the cone in Object Mode. Choose in the \"Properties\" Header
the \"modifiers\" tab and click \"Add Modifier\"
- Click the *Add Modifier* button and choose *Curve* from the popup
list.
- Under Object tick the empty box, and select the name of the \"Bézier
Curve\" (it will be \"BezierCurve\" without the quotations if you
left it as the default.)
- Notice the six buttons underneath, They are **X, Y, Z, -X, -Y, -Z**.
They affect which plane the curve deforms. For this example, you\'ll
need to select the **X** button.
- Move your Cone so that it overlays the curve in the \'3D View\"
windows, and notice how it follows the Bézier Curve.
- You can modify the Bézier Curve as well as the cone repeatedly until
you are happy with the design.
- If you switch to Edit Mode, notice that the cone returns to its
straight orientation.
- To apply the deformation to the mesh permanently, in the Modifiers
panel, click the *Apply* button next to your Curve modifier.
- Move the curve up \'till the cone is around the curve
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/The Empty Object
|previous=Deforming Meshes using the Curve Modifier
}}
```
Every object in a scene has common settings in the Object
Context. This includes the common transform settings shown at right:
location in the scene, overall rotation and overall scaling. Most
objects also have additional properties, such as the geometry of a mesh
and the materials that govern how it appears in the render.
The **Empty object** has none of these additional properties. It has the
overall transform settings, and not much else. And it has no appearance
in the final render. So what is the point of having such a thing?
In fact, it has many uses, such as:
- In the Physics
Context, it can be set as the source of a force field (e.g. wind).
- It can be used as the parent for multiple
other objects. That way they can be moved together just by moving
the Empty, rather than each child object individually.
- It can be used as a target object in an **array modifier**, where it
adds its transformation to the copies of the object being modified
by the array.
- It is a handy marker and place holder if you are moving things
around. You can mark an object\'s original position, and then put it
back easily where the empty object is.
In these situations, the invisibility of the Empty in the render is an
advantage, because it can be placed wherever necessary, without
introducing unwanted clutter into the final image.
## Using an Empty With the Array Modifier
!The types of
Empties Open a
new default Blender document, complete with default cube. Add a new
Empty object to the scene. It doesn't matter what type of Empty you
choose; the options just control its appearance in the 3D view, not the
actual behaviour of the Empty. Besides, you can change your mind about
this later anyway.
Now select the default cube, go to the Modifiers
Context and add an Array modifier. In the properties header, there are
three different ways the modifier can produce its copies of the original
object: via a Constant Offset, Relative Offset, or Object Offset. The
Constant and Relative offsets only allow a simple displacement for the
copies, but the Object Offset looks at the full transformation of the
specified object, which can include rotation and scaling.
Here I have unchecked the default Relative Offset, checked Object
Offset, and from the popup menu for selecting the target object, I have
selected my Empty (which by default would have been called "Empty").
But if you look at your 3D view, nothing seems to have happened: the
cube is still sitting, unmoved, in its original position. In fact, it
might be hard to see the Empty, because it would have been inserted in
the same position as the cube, so it ends up within it. If you switch to
Wireframe view, you should be able to
see the Empty sitting within the cube.
Before doing anything further, increase the Count field in the cube's
array modifier to 3. This will give you a clearer idea of the effect of
subsequent manipulations. Doing so will not have any noticeable effect
to start with, because all the copies will be lying right on top of each
other.
Now select the Empty, and move it to one side: you will immediately see
a second copy of the cube follow the empty, and the third copy move *by
the same amount in the same direction*, so it ends up beyond that.
Return the Empty to its original location, and this time try moving the
cube. As the original cube moves, you will see the second copy stay with
the Empty at the centre of the scene, while the third copy moves beyond
that, by the same distance and in the same direction as the second copy
is removed from the original cube.
Now if you return the cube to the same location as the Empty, select
both and try moving them together, you will see no additional copies of
the cube appear, because they remain exactly on top of the original
cube.
The rule for using an Object Offset with the Array modifier is this:
In other words:
- the translation applied is the difference between their origins.
- the rotation applied is the difference between their object
rotations.
- the scaling applied is the *ratio* between their object scaling
factors.
Try moving the Empty to one side, as before; this time leave it there,
so the three copies of the cube are nicely spread out. Now try applying
a rotation to the Empty; see how this applies the corresponding rotation
to the second copy (the one located where the Empty is), while the third
copy gets *twice* that rotation.
Return the Empty to its unrotated state, and this time try rotating the
cube: see how the second copy (where the Empty is) stays unmoved, while
the third copy gets the opposite rotation.
Undo the rotations, and now try scaling: shrinking/enlarging the Empty
correspondingly shrinks/enlarges the second copy, while the third copy
gets transformed by the *square* of the shrink/enlarge ratio (the ratio
multiplied by itself, or alternatively the ratio raised to the second
power). Or shrink/enlarge the original cube, and see the second copy
stay unchanged (as before), while the third copy enlarges/shrinks by the
*inverse* ratio.
When you change the transformation of the original cube, the second copy
always stays unchanged because the Object Offset transformation is the
*inverse* of the transformation you are applying to the original; hence
it always cancels out for the second copy, but you can see corresponding
increasing powers of it applied to subsequent copies.
### Editing the Modified Object
Make sure the Empty is positioned so the array instances are well
separated. Select the cube, into Edit
mode, select all the vertices, and try transforming them: moving,
rotating or scaling.
Note the difference in behaviour from doing this to the cube in Object
mode: this time all the copies of the cube transform along in unison.
This is because we are not affecting the object transformation, which is
what controls the behaviour of the array modifier.
### Arranging Object Copies in a Circle
Which brings us to a convenient trick for a common need: arranging
copies of an object in a neat circle.
The easiest way to do this is start with the cube and the Empty in their
original central positions. Suppose you want 8 copies of the cube in
your circle; the angle between them then needs to be 360° ÷ 8 = 45°. So
rotate the Empty by 45°. Now select the cube. Set the Fixed Count field
of its Array modifier to 8. into Edit
mode, and move all the vertices to one side. You should see the other 7
copies of the cube correspondingly move away from the centre in
different directions, maintaining a nice neat circle arrangement. Your
cube mesh is simply being rotated about its origin, which is not where
the vertices are, but where the Empty is!
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Background Images
|previous=The Empty Object
}}
```
You will often need to use reference photos to guide your modeling.
Among the many things you can do with photos and other images in
Blender, it is possible to use them just as guides in the 3D view, such
that they do not appear in the final render. Furthermore these images
will only be visible when the view is *orthographic* and exactly aligned
to one of the X, Y or Z axes (or the camera view). This way, they can be
used as a precise reference for positioning elements of the model.
In the 3D view, make sure the Properties Shelf
is visible. Look for the Background
Images panel; it will most likely be collapsed, so expand it. Initially
it will look like at right, with no background images in your view.
Check the box at the top. Click the "Add Image" button once, and this
will add one entry to the list of background images, as at right.
Initially there is no image opened in this entry; you will need to click
the "Open" button and select an image file.
Once you have chosen an image file, the list entry expands with
additional options.
Clicking on the eye icon lets you temporarily hide a reference image,
without actually removing it from the document. Or you can uncheck the
box at the top of the Background Images panel to temporarily hide all
reference images; just check it to make them visible again. Click the X
to delete an entry from the list of background images.
If you have multiple scenes in your document, the document's background
image settings apply to all of them.
 If you don't have an
image handy to experiment with, how about downloading this simple 2D one
from Wikimedia Commons. Flat images with no perspective work best for
use as a precise modelling reference.
Having loaded your image, it might not immediately appear in the 3D
view. For it to show, you must be in a *perfect* (axis-aligned) view
(i.e. one of ,
, ,
,
or
) which is in orthographic, not
perspective, mode (use to toggle
between these), or alternatively it will show in
the camera view.
You may not want the same reference image visible in all views. For
example, you might have one reference image for top view, another for a
side view, and so on. The Axis menu lets you choose which view this
image is visible in.
## Other Ways To Bring In Reference Pictures
Maybe you don't want to use a reference image for precise, axis-aligned
modelling, but only as a rough guide. There is a standard Blender addon
called "Import Images As
Planes",
which will create a plane object and apply an imported image to it as a
texture. This can then be aligned whichever way you want in the scene.
 In
Blender 2.58 or later, an empty with the type of image can be created.
In the object data pane an image can be selected. Like the image plane,
the image will be present in the 3D view and can be aligned in any
orientation.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Aligning Vertices with a Guide Image
|previous=Background Images
}}
```
Note: Some pictures are outdated.
This tutorial is about using guide images to place vertices in their
proper places in 3D space. The second tutorial is on how to take good
reference pictures. This tutorial assumes that you have completed all
previous tutorials.
This tutorial describes the use of the *background image* feature of
Blender to assist in creating models of 3D objects. The background image
provides a reference for the dimensions of the object, similar to the
way the floor plan and elevation views of a house provide dimension
information for the actual house. Guide images are not rendered, and may
be removed after the model is completed, or they may be retained as part
of the internal documentation of the model. Background images are not
generally useful for other \"image\" purposes such as materials,
textures, and actual background images in a scene, just as a floor plan
is not actually visible after a house is constructed.
## Background: orthographic projection
!orthographic projections in six
directions{width="300"}
**orthographic
projection** is a
technique used by architects and engineers to describe a
three-dimensional object by the use of several two-dimensional images,
or \"projections.\" In architecture, the projection as seen from above
is called the \"plan view\" or \"floor plan,\" the projection as seen
from the front is called the \"front elevation,\" and the projection as
seen from the right side is called the \"right elevation.\" Orthographic
projections are intended to assist builders in creating an actual 3D
object.
A Blender user also wants to create a 3D object, in this case a model.
Blender provides a way to use a set of one or more orthographic
projections as a guide for object creation. Because the images are
conceptually \"behind\" the object from the appropriate point of view,
Blender calls these 2D images *background images*.
Each background image is located \"at infinity\" in an orthographic
view, and there may be one image in each direction: back, front, top,
bottom, left, and right. we can use one or more background images to
assist our modeling effort.
For example, to model a house, we can put the \"floor plan\" on the
bottom, and build the house above it. We put the front elevation image
on the back background, and build the house in front of it. We put the
right elevation image on the left background, and build the house to the
right of it. The background images can be diagrams such as floor plans,
or they can be photographs of an object taken from sufficiently far away
to provide undistorted dimensional information.
Reasonably enough, an orthographic projection is only useful in Blender
when in orthographic mode. Blender enforces this to prevent you from
making mistakes: the orthographic image is only displayed in the
background when you are in the orthographic view mode.
## Making a Simple Pyramid
{width="300"} First
we are going to create a pyramid the easy way. Then we are going to show
how to use different viewpoints and images as a guide to place vertices
correctly in 3D space.
Get rid of the default cube. Press
and select Mesh→Cone. Set the number of vertices to 4, and Set \"Capp
fill Type\" to \"Nothing\". Click OK. There's your pyramid.
**Note:** Do not render this looking up from the bottom, as it will
appear invisible, as the interior faces of models are ignored by most
rendering engines.
### Save the top vertex for later steps
Enter Edit mode (). First, unselect all
the vertices by pressing . Next, select
the bottom four vertices of the pyramid and delete them with
or .
The only vertex left will be the vertex which makes the tip of the
pyramid. This will be used later.
## Using the guide images
Now that we have the pyramid the easy way, let\'s learn how to use guide
images as references to build models.
### Window Layout
{width="300"}
Split the Main 3D view window in to 4 windows (2 x 2).
: **Reminder**: to split windows, move the mouse to the border of the
view, when the cursor transforms into arrow, right-click and choose
\"Split Area\". (Explained in the guide: Noob to Pro/Blender
Windowing
System.)
\
The point of view in each window are like this:
: {\| border=1 width=\"30%\"
\|- align=center \|**NUM7**\|\|**NUM0** \|- align=center
\|**NUM1**\|\|**NUM3** \|}
And if you click on View, you can see that these windows are
respectively:
: {\| border=1 width=\"30%\"
\|- align=center \| *Top* \|\| *User* \|- align=center \| *Front* \|\|
*Right* \|}
By knowing which view you are looking at you may find that you quickly
get the idea of what you are doing and can proceed somewhat intuitively
in this section on your own without following all of the step by step
instructions.
Note: The quick way to achieve this layout is to go into Quad-View
(CTRL-ALT-Q)
### Guide images
Now, we need some images. These come from a source outside of blender.
For this tutorial, we need a floor plan of our pyramid, a front
elevation view, and a side elevation view. The floor plan of our pyramid
is a square, and the front elevation view is a triangle, as is the side
elevation. We will cheat and use the same source image for both the
front and side elevation. We can make a picture of a white square and of
a white triangle in the GIMP, Paint :) , or some other image editor. Or
we can find appropriate images somewhere.
#### Method 1 download and use
!Save the triangle with a black
background
Download the black and white triangle image on the right of the screen
and use that. This image is, minus the checker pattern at the border,
198 x 198. (click it once to get the larger version, right click on the
larger one, and save)
#### Method 2 roll your own
!The square and triangle
relationship
You want to make a triangle, for the ground plane you don\'t need a
picture.
**Noob note** Make sure that the *drawing* of the square is *square* and
not just rectangular. Make the triangle the same width and height as the
square. Make sure the apex of the triangle is directly above the
midpoint of its baseline.
##### Specific instructions for Photoshop
Make a square selection of \"n by n\" size, remember the value of \"n\".
Fill it with white color and save. To create a triangle of needed
properties make a rectangular selection of same (n by n) size, on a new
layer, click **RMB** on your document, choose \"Transform selection\"
option in the pop-up menu. Once you are in \"Transform selection\" mode,
right-click the blank image again. This time the pop-up menu would be
different. Choose \"Perspective\" from it, and with **LMB** drag one of
the two top vertices toward the other. Once the vertices meet (in the
top-center of the image), exit the transformation mode, and fill the
resulting triangular selection with white.
Save the files to a place that is easy to access. Blender only supports
the TGA, PNG, and JPG image formats.
##### Specific instructions for Gimp
Turn on the grid (View-\>Show Grid, View-\>Snap to Grid), use the
rectangle select with a fixed aspect ratio of 1:1 (in the tool options
panel) to select a square that you can flood fill. For the triangle, use
the node tool to draw a triangular path, convert to selection
(Select-\>From Path) and fill it. Or you could just use Inkscape\...
Save the files to a place that is easy to access. Blender only supports
the TGA, PNG, and JPG image formats.
### Background Images
{width="300"} Load the
images (as described in the previous module) like this: In the 3D view,
make sure the Properties Shelf `<b>`{=html}(N)`</b>`{=html} is visible.
Look for the Background Images panel; it will most likely be collapsed,
so expand it. Initially it will have no background images to view. Check
the box at the top. Click the "Add Image" button once, and this will add
one entry to the list of background images. Then, with \'Image\'
selected, use the Open button to navigate to your image file.
Load the white triangle (the front elevation view): this places it
infinitely far \"behind\" the model. You can see the image in the front
view. Similarly, load the right elevation (coincidentally, you can see
the same triangle image in the right view window, to place it infinitely
far to the left.
If necessary, zoom out so that you can see the whole background image in
each view.
Now you have now placed your guide images for making your pyramid.
### Sides
Make sure you\'re in Toggle Quad Mode. The vertex that is left will be
the topmost point of the pyramid. Use the **GKEY** to move the vertex
around. To get it in the right spot, line it up at the top most point in
the **front** and **right** windows. If you look in the **top** window
the vertex should appear to be in the center. Make sure to keep the
vertex highlighted for the next step.
\
Now you can begin to create individual vertices with **CTRL + LMB**. Be
sure you don\'t create vertices in the Top view cause that will confuse
you completely.
First line in the pyramid in front view then place a new edge between
the last made vertex and the top vertex by selecting them and hit \"F\".
Then do the right side, after selecting the top vertex, exactly the same
way. (Don\'t do the bottom side)
### Make Faces
Select the side vertices of the corners were you want a Face and Tick
\"F\" Do this for every Face you want to make.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Modeling a Wolf from Guide Images
|previous=Aligning Vertices with a Guide Image
}}
```
This tutorial assumes that you have completed all previous tutorials.
## Method 1
### Get the pictures of the model
If you have a puppy and a digital camera, take three pictures of the
cute little rascal and upload them. If you don\'t have a puppy, any
object or small animal will do. Ideally, the photos will be looking
straight down at the top of the puppy, a side view, and a front view.
It\'s important that the puppy be in the same pose in all three photos!
Or at least close to the same pose\...we all know puppies don\'t stand
still very long.
You could use two mirrors. One is placed next to the puppy at 45 degrees
to the camera and 45 degrees to the puppy. Another is placed above the
puppy, also at 45 degrees to the camera and 45 degrees to the puppy.
This produces three images, one of the puppy (**front \\ NUM1**), one of
its reflection seen 90 degrees to the right (**side \\ right \\
NUM3)**), and one of its reflection seen from overhead (**top \\
NUM7**). Take the photo from a long distance away with a zoom lens to
get close to an orthographic
projection.
Or how about pictures of a toy wolf taken from 6 view points?:
- Left view
- Right
view
- Front
view
- Back view
- Bottom
view
- Top view
Using your favorite image editor, such as PhotoShop or the
GIMP (see detailed GIMP instructions below: Detailed
steps to align images using
GIMP),
down-scale the images need to a reasonable size (I made mine 512x384),
and then match them to each other. To match them, draw construction
lines (pulled from the rulers above and to the left) on the left view
for example to pick out key features. I picked the tail, the front of
the back foot, eye level, tip of the ear, and the front of the nose:
I found when I picked out these features that this first image needed to
be rotated slightly. That completed, I proceeded to scale, rotate and
shift the other two views (top and front) until they matched fairly well
as layers on top:
Once I had the proper results I saved the resulting images, and these
are the ones we will use in Blender.
The results are the files you\'ll need for Step Two:
Just right-click and save them some place where you can find them to
load them into Blender for Step Two. You may notice the photos aren\'t
perfect, but we\'ll use them just to show how you should deal with your
real photos. When you are creating your own pictures to import, note
parallax. In this example,
parallax is present, and we\'ll attempt to compensate.
### Get the Picture into Blender
Getting the image into blender is the easy part. The more difficult part
will be creating the mesh, but first things first. Create a new file
(*File → New*) to see the familiar default objects. Don\'t bother
deleting the cube, we\'ll end up using it in the tutorial. Just as was
done in the \"Making A
Pyramid\"
section, split the 3D Viewer into four views with CTRL-ALT-Q.
Each window will show you different XYZ coordinates.
Go to View \> Properties, or press . A
new toolbar will open to the right of the viewport and by scrolling
through you should see *Background Images*. Use the \"Add images\" bar
and options will open up. Then check the box to display your images.
Click the *Add Image* button and several more buttons will appear. Now
\"Open\" button. A new full-viewport window will appear. Explore this
window a bit and end up selecting the image file of the wolf from the
top view. What you should get is the picture of the toy wolf from above
with the default cube on top of it.
Now load the top view of the wolf, click on \"Open\" select the picture
and set \"Axis:\" to \"Front\". Repeat the procedure and load the
picture of the wolf to the other views.
**Noob note:** the photo from the top goes into top view, the photo from
the front goes into the right view, and the photo from the right goes
into front view, if you have front in front, change it now!
The pictures are now loaded into the Blender viewports. If you look at
the pictures on the grid, you may notice that the front view of the wolf
isn\'t quite center. That is okay, Blender has a way to fix it.
Press **Shift + SpaceBar**, this expands the current viewport to a
fullscreen view, then go to \"Background Images\" and go to the Front
view. Notice that there are picture manipulation options available. One
of these includes picture offsets. Click on right side of the \'X
Offset: 0.00\' to increase the offset to 0.20. The picture will be
shifted over slightly so now the wolf is more centered. Press **Shift +
SpaceBar** again to return to the window-setup you had earlier. Correct
the other views also, and scale the cube if needed.
**Noob Note:** If you made, and aligned your own photos, you will need
to use a different value than \'0.20\' to center the head in the cube in
front view.
The setup work is now done! Let\'s start on actually making the wolf
model.
### Create a Rough Model
This is a brute force model creation using techniques discussed
previously in this book. This section is meant to help you explore and
become more comfortable with them. Do *not* try to follow the example to
the tee. Your wolf and my wolf will probably not look the same since you
may want to add more or have less detail.
**Noob Note:** If you are just getting started with blender, this step
may likely take several hours to complete, since you must use your own
creativity to position things in 3D space, using 2D views. Just like
sculpting, drawing, or oil painting, it will be extremely fustrating at
first, but once you get used to the way it works, \"modeling\" will be
much easier.
The rough fit stage requires either some planning or on-the-spot
decisions. Think about where the wolf will have parts of its body flex
or require parts jutting out.
The first step is to create a blocky wolf. Start out with a column of
blocks using the extrude face command (select face,
). Don\'t worry about snapping the
vertices to the grid since we are working with an organic figure.
***Noob Note:** It is handy to do this in wireframe view, to see better
how the rough model fits out*
**Figure 2.3.1** Body column formation\
The next step is to split the ears and legs off of the body. Do this by
subdividing (With \"Quad/Tri Mode\" checked) the appropriate faces. Save
often, and if you make a mistake, go ahead and use the undo option
(**CTRL** ). Also, if you find yourself
looking at redundant faces, combine them
().
**Figure 2.3.2** Appendage formation\
\]
If you are having trouble with this, try mousing over the perspective
window (the one you designated with NUM0) and using the MMB to rotate
the view so that you are looking at the underside of the wolf. Click on
the face underneath the wolf that is alongside his front legs (use the
side view to check this). We are going to subdivide this face in order
to grow legs off the new faces. To subdivide, press the
and choose subdivide. You will see
that the face has been divided into four. Take one of these faces and
extrude it as many times as is necessary to make the right leg. Then do
the same again for his left leg.
**Noob Note:** To avoid making the extruded faces share common vertices
(and be connected to each other), either extrude the legs separately (as
stated above) or select *Individual faces* in the Extrude pop-up menu.
The same works for the ears.
Doing the ears is similar, except instead of working underneath you will
start with the face on top of the wolf which is directly over the ears.
Select this face and subdivide it once. Deselect everything using
, then select one of these four faces
and extrude it upwards once to make an ear. Do the same for the face
alongside it to make the other ear.
Finally, extrude the tail end of the wolf one more time, so that your
wolf has as many divisions as the picture above.
### Refine the rough model
Let\'s start refining the model starting with the tail. Try putting your
viewports in wireframe mode by pushing
, it may make things much easier. Line
up the vertices over the wolf in each viewport by lasso selecting
multiple vertices (**CTRL LMB, Drag**). then move to the right location
with grab ().
**Figure 2.3.3** Working on the tail\
Continue onto the hind legs of the wolf. It is trickier to manipulate
the legs so keep rotating a viewport to look at the model from multiple
perspectives. Remember that we are working in three dimensions.
**Figure 2.3.4** Working on the hind legs\
Continue working up along the wolf fitting the blocks to the pictures.
If you have problems seeing the picture because the model is in the way,
let\'s hide the model. In Edit Mode, select the entire model by
or by pressing
when you have the cursor over the
model. Simply pressing will hide the
selected items. To unhide the view, use
+. By
hiding and unhiding the model, or parts of the model, you should be able
to keep using the picture as a guide. *Note: It is much easier to just
switch layers by, let\'s say, pressing
(not the Num-Block one) to hide the entire model (thus getting a look at
the picture) and to reveal the mesh
again.*
Once you have the first pass done, you\'ll notice that the model just
won\'t fit all three pictures correctly. This is due to parallax. The
most obvious example is the side view. The four feet should be level, as
they are all standing on a flat surface. Since they are not, we\'ll just
ignore some of the aspects of each picture and continue with the model.
(This is a helpful example to show what you need to consider when taking
your own pictures.)
**Figure 2.3.5** Completed rough fit\
### Subsurf the model
Now that the rough fit is done, let\'s smooth out the wolf. Add a
Subsurf modifier and set the Levels to 2. The wolf will now be smoothed,
but we want to add some of the hard lines back into the model. This may
be accomplished with creased edges.
Select Edges or faces you want to crease and press **SHIFT + EKEY**. Use
the mouse and pull away from the center until the Crease value is close
to what you want. A value of +1.000 will give you the sharpest look and
is useful for places such as the bottoms of the paws. When an edge has
been creased, the edge will be highlighted in yellow (positive crease)
or black (negative crease). These highlights are shown due to the \'Draw
Creases\' button being turned on.
In this example, I creased edges along the paws, tail, ears, and nose to
give them some sharpness.
**Figure 2.4.1** Creased edges\
The last step is to refit the model to the pictures. You may have
noticed that when the model was smoothed, the result didn\'t quite fit
to the pictures. Now is a great time to tweak the vertices to fit to the
pictures or add to/modify the model.
*Noob note: if you see a weird edge on the body after smoothing, check
the face normals (F9 \> Mesh Tools More \> Draw Normals; and then W \>
Flip Normals on the culprit faces).*
And here is my basic wolf based on three pictures!
**Figure 2.4.2** Final toy wolf model\
{width="400"}
## Method 2 (using mirroring)
In this alternative method we will do half a wolf and then mirror it to
create a complete wolf. You should start out by creating a silhouette of
the wolf body in the side view, and then in front view start to shape
the wolf head, tail and legs\...
**Noob Note:** If you are attempting this method, it is best to avoid
using triangles in rounded areas of a Mesh, because they tend to cause
artifacts in your model (artifacts are protruding edges or other things
that don\'t look realistic). Using quads is a much better alternative.
Triangles should only be used on flat areas of your mesh if they cannot
be avoided.
Here is what you should end up with
{width="400"}
## Using mirroring with method 1
You can also use mirroring with the first method (the one with cube
extrusions).
This can speed up your work as you don\'t have to do the same changes on
each side of the fox - just once.
To start the mirroring:
- Go to Editing (**F9**)
- In the *Modifiers* panel, add a *Mirror*
- Check only the *Y* button
When modeling:
- You may want to adjust the *Merge Limit* value (e.g. 0.14): this
means vertices too close to each others (after the mirroring) will
be merged, thus avoiding artifacts along the mirror\'s axis.
- Remove the faces along the mirror\'s axis, otherwise Subsurf will be
confused by the faces *inside* the body of the mirrored fox. Keep
all the faces for the legs though.
- To move the legs differently on each side: when you\'re done
modeling the rest of the fox, apply the Mirror modifier, and then
work on each leg independently.
## Detailed steps to align images using GIMP
From this point forward there are multiple ways to do exactly the same
thing, however for simplicity\'s sake and so that I can be more detailed
I will be using one method (the one which I use) and be using GIMP.
I found it best to size all the photos to a known width, with an easy
way to find center. (Mine happened to be 850x638 pixels, I don't
recommend that but you can choose any size you want really, as long as
all of them are the same size). Then drag the construction lines to form
a crosshair in the middle of the photo. To do this, click on the top
ruler, and drag down to the middle (Exact middle) of the photo, then
click on the side ruler and drag across to the middle (Again exact
middle) of the photo.
If you are having trouble finding the exact middle of the photo, move
the cursor to the very bottom left of your photo and the height of your
photo will be listed at the bottom left of the GIMP interface. The
numbers are listed in an (x,y) format so you want the first number to
say 0 and the second to be the largest you can make it by dragging your
cursor. The second number is the height, and half of that is the middle
of your photo. You can do the same with the top ruler to find the
vertical middle of your photo. Only this time the co-ordinates at the
bottom left of the GIMP interface should list the second number (y) as
0, and the first number should be as large as you can make it by moving
your cursor (to the upper right of the photo). Once you have your width
again half of that will be the middle of your photo.
Then using construction lines put one at the top of your object, and the
bottom of your object. Find the \"height\" of your object by the
distance between them. Remove the construction lines from the top and
the bottom, and place a new construction line above the horizontal
center line by the half of the \"height\"(of your object). Now place a
construction line on both sides of your object and find the "width"
(distance between the new vertical lines), then remove those
construction lines and place a new construction line vertically half of
the \"width\"(of your object) to the right of the vertical center line.
Now cut the object out, and drag it so that the point you used as the
\"top\" is on the horizontal construction line that is above the middle.
Then Drag the photo left or right until the right edge of the object is
on the vertical construction line you put in right of the middle
construction line.
Now the center of your object is at the center of your photo. This is a
very important thing because when blender loads in the picture you will
need this so that all of your pictures match up with each other 3d. You
should repeat these steps with all 3 photos. I also don\'t recommend
doing it in GIMP\'s \"layered mode\" as that caused more pandemonium for
me. I recommend opening each photo in a new window .
Taking your pictures is the most important part, because if the pictures
are not all in the same scale (object size to photo size) then your
photos will not line up and you won\'t be able to place a dot on the
same location from front view, side view, and top view.
As a recommendation I would recommend making your first model from a
Lego man. That is what I did and it is very simplistic easy practice. To
take my photos I took about 10 minutes to construct a photo platform for
my object. It consisted of a cardboard box with two sides cut out. I
covered the inside area with computer paper. I then used a 2"x4" and a
ruler to make sure that the box stayed the same distance from the camera
for all shots, as well as marking where the Lego man's feet were
positioned inside the box with a pencil. This will provide good
pictures, providing you keep the camera at the same distance and zoom
for all three photos.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Subsurface scattering
|previous=2D Image (logo) to a 3D Model
}}
```
Real-life materials which may look opaque are often not perfectly
opaque: light may penetrate a little way into the surface before
bouncing off. This is noticeable as a subtle softening and colouring of
the edges of shadows on the object. This effect is known as *subsurface
scattering* (commonly abbreviated
"SSS").
Open a new default Blender document. Select the default cube. Go to the
Material
context in the Properties window. Look for the Subsurface Scattering
panel. Check the box at the top to enable it for the cube's material.
!Subsurface scattering with default settings, before and
after
Compare how the cube looks with and without SSS enabled: see how the
edge of the shadow becomes a little bit fuzzy? This is simulating the
effect when the light penetrates a little way into the material,
emerging just within the edges of the shadow, making them that little
bit lighter.
Note the following settings in the SSS panel:
- The *Scale* controls how the overall size of the effect relates to
the size of the object. If you size your object so that 1 BU is
equivalent to 1 metre, then the default scale of 0.1 should produce
a realistic effect.
- The colour swatch causes the scattered light to take on the
specified colour.
- The RGB Radius values govern how far the red, green and blue
components of the light penetrate into the material before being
scattered. These are relative values, all subject to the overall
Scale factor.
!Higher red scattering
radius
For example, this is what happens when the red radius is increased to
10, leaving the green and blue radii and the actual scattering colour
unchanged: this causes the red light to travel further, tinting the
interior of the shadow red and the adjacent area the opposite
colour---blue-green. This is similar to what happens with human skin, as
the light scatters through the blood vessels underneath.
Try the various options in the Presets menu: how convincing do they
look? Of course, they may look better if you apply them to a model that
is supposed to look like the actual material.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Ray Tracing
|previousText=Subsurface Scattering
|next=Using Textures
}}
```
You previously learned about
using diffuse and specular shaders to control the appearance of a
material. These settings only affect how the material reflects *direct*
light from lamps; but in the real world, objects are also illuminated by
*indirect* light bouncing off other lit objects.
!A particularly outstanding ray-tracing example, from the Wikipedia
article "wikilink")
In particular, there is the important case of light bouncing off mirrors
and other glossy or polished surfaces before travelling to the camera,
and also of light passing *through* transparent objects and being
*refracted* (bent).
In the real world, such light can illuminate other objects, and it can
also do so after bouncing off non-mirrorlike surfaces. The general
problem of modelling such indirect lighting is called *global
illumination*, commonly abbreviated "GI". Unfortunately, the Blender
Internal renderer, which is what we have been working with so far,
cannot deal with GI in its full generality; to cope with that, we would
have to use the Cycles renderer, which is introduced
later. So for now
we will confine ourselves to mirrorlike reflections which do not
illuminate other objects.
## Setting The Scene
Let's create a very basic model we can use to experiment with various
ray-tracing effects. Open a new Blender document. Make sure the default
cube is selected. Go to the Modifiers
context in the Properties window, and add an Array modifier to the cube.
The cube will immediately become two cubes, but so close together that
they look like a single cuboid. This is because the default settings for
the Array modifier are to use a Relative offset of (*X*, *Y*, *Z*) =
(1.0, 0.0, 0.0). Change these offsets to (1.5, 1.5, 1.5), so the copies
are more widely separated at a more interesting angle, and increase the
repetition count to 5.
Now try rotating and repositioning the camera and the cubes to get them
all in the view. If you hit to render
now, you should see something like at right. So far not very exciting.
But since we are going to be dealing with reflections and refractions,
it would be nice to have something in the surroundings to be reflected
and refracted.
thumb\|upright=0.5
One easy thing to add is a world texture. Go to the Texture
context in the Properties window. Make sure the World texture
(the leftmost of the 3 buttons at the top of the topmost panel) is
selected. Create a new texture, and change its type to "Magic", which
has a nice variety of different colours. Go to the Influence panel; by
default the top-left checkbox (affect background progression) is
checked; but this does nothing, because the default sky setting is not
to have a progression at all. So uncheck that box, and check the second
one on the left (affect horizon colour) instead.
Also under the "Size:" setting, set the X, Y and Z scaling all to 3.0;
by shrinking the pattern, this will bring more detail into the view.
Now if you hit , you should get an image
with a slightly more interesting background.
OK, we are ready to start playing with the material settings\...
## Ray-Traced Transparency
!Left half of pool is filled with water material, right half is empty;
floor is *not* broken, it just looks that way because the path of the
light is
bent.
In physics, *refraction* is what happens to
light when it crosses the boundary from one material (e.g. air) into
another (e.g. water); it slows down when it enters the denser material,
and speeds back up when it leaves. The *refractive
index* of a material is a measure of how
much the speed changes relative to a vacuum (where light travels at full
speed). As the speed changes, the light beam also changes direction,
giving rise to well-known "bending" effects like you see when you put a
teaspoon in a glass of water, or look down into a swimming pool (as at
right).
Anyway, back to our tutorial model. Make sure the cubes are selected. Go
to the Materials
context in the Properties window. Find the Transparency panel, and check
the box at the top to enable transparency. In the row of buttons for
selecting the type of transparency just below that checkbox, titled
"Mask", "Z Transparency" and "Raytrace", select "Raytrace".
In the editable fields immediately below those transparency-type
buttons, the one at the top left is titled "Alpha:"; you will have to
reduce it below its default value of 1.0 in order to see any actual
transparency effect. Try reducing it to 0.5.
Just a bit further down from the Alpha field, look for two more fields:
"IOR:" ("Index Of Refraction") and "Filter:".
To simulate glass, set the IOR to 1.5 (other useful values are 1.33 for
water, 2.4 for diamond etc).
The Filter value controls how much of the diffuse colour of the material
the light takes on as it passes through; set it to something like 0.5,
though you probably won't notice much effect from this unless you
specify a strong colour in the diffuse shader settings.
The "Depth:" setting controls how many times the light passes across
material boundaries before the renderer gives up keeping track. Larger
values give more realistic results, at the usual cost of increased
render times. In more complex scenes where you have transparent objects
in front of other transparent objects, this value will have a definite
effect; here it probably doesn't matter too much.
!Semi-glassy\...
Now if you hit , you should see
something like at right. The cubes still look a bit grey; if you set the
alpha to 0, they will look much more transparent.
Also try playing with the "Amount:" slider under "Gloss:": the default
value of 1.0 gives perfectly smooth refraction, while values less than
1.0 give a "frosted glass" effect, blurring the light as it passes
through the material.
## The Fresnel Factor
Real-life materials are never perfectly opaque or perfectly absorbent;
even with something like a shiny metal which seems entirely opaque,
light still manages to penetrate a little way into the surface, and even
with the blackest of black soot, there is still some (tiny) amount of
reflection going on.
The general behaviour is that a material is most transparent when its
surface is viewed directly-on, and it is most reflective when it is
viewed almost parallel to the surface (as usual, Wikipedia has all the
gory details if you're interested).
If you look back at that Transparency settings panel, you will see to
the right of the Alpha field one labelled "Fresnel:", and another one
below that labelled "Blend:", which comes to life when the Fresnel value
is set to something greater than its default of 0.
The Fresnel (pronounced
"fray-nel") value is the *power*,
which governs how sharply the transparency of the surface changes with
viewing angle; 0 means the transparency stays unchanged at all angles,
while higher values cause the transparency to fall off more rapidly
towards the edges. The maximum value you can set for this field is 5.0.
## Ray-Traced Mirroring
Just below the Transparency panel in the material settings, you will see
the Mirror panel. Check the box at the top to enable it. Note the
"Reflectivity:" editable field just below the checkbox; you will need to
set this to something other than its default of 0.0 in order to actually
observe any mirror effect.
!Is that glass, or is that
glass?
If you render now, you should see something like this.
See also the colour swatch specifying the colour of reflections: the
default white means that reflections keep their colours unchanged, which
is characteristic of reflections off glass, plastic or ceramics.
Reflections off metal tend to take on the colour of the metal.
The Gloss setting governs how mirrorlike the reflections are: reducing
this from its default of 1.0 adds blurring to the reflections, giving
the effect of less-polished surfaces.
Note the Mirror panel has its own Fresnel settings. Go back to the
Transparency panel, and set the Alpha to 0. That will disable the
diffuse and specular shaders completely, giving us a pure ray-traced
material, and also render the transparency Fresnel ineffective. Instead,
we will control the Fresnel here in the Mirror panel. The behaviour for
a nonzero Fresnel power is similar to before; however, instead of fading
from transparent in surfaces viewed face-on to effects from the shaders
when viewed edge-on, it will fade from transparent to mirrored.
!Even more
glassy? Set the
Fresnel value to something like 2.5. Compare the render to the previous
one without Fresnel:
!Pure mirror
Finally, set the Reflectivity to 1.0, and the Fresnel to 0. Now if you
render, you should get a completely opaque, mirror-reflective set of
cubes.
## Why Are My Shadows Black?
Consider the render at right: this is a default document with a plane
added; the cube has ray-trace transparency turned on with an IOR of 1.5,
Filter of 0.5, Depth of 5 and Alpha of 0, other settings left at their
default. The plane has a material with all settings at their default.
Light should be able to pass through the cube and illuminate the part of
the plane directly behind; so why is the shadow completely black?
The problem is, by default, the Blender Internal renderer *doesn't
bother to compute transparent shadows*. Instead, it assumes that
anything that blocks the light does so completely, presumably because it
would slow things down too much to assume the opposite. To fix this,
select the plane (*not* the cube), and in its Material
settings, look for the Shadow panel. Note the two checkboxes at upper
left: by default the "Receive" one is checked, the "Receive Transparent"
one is not. Check the latter as well. Now any object surface with this
material assigned will have proper non-transparent shadows computed as
appropriate.
Now when you re-render, you should see a more accurate-looking
transparent shadow.
Imagine if you had a scene with lots of non-transparent objects with
different materials receiving shadows from lots of transparent objects:
you have to check this "Receive Transparent" option on *every single
one* of those materials that might be receiving transparent shadows!
Yes, this can be a pain. Not to mention the issue of
*caustics "wikilink")*, which the BI renderer
doesn't handle at all. If you want to render realistic scenes like this,
then you will need to learn about
Cycles\...
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Using Textures
|previous=Ray Tracing
}}
```
Having said everything about Textures in Blender in the manual
1, many people
find it still hard to grasp the concepts behind the texturing system and
applying Textures.
There are some brilliant tutorials about texturing on the net, I
personally like Texturing for
Dummies , by Leigh Van
Der Byl. It is free (as in free beer, not as in free speech like this
book), so you should download and read it now, to take the most
advantage out of this tutorial.
We\'re going to see how to apply the texturing concepts within the
Blender texturing system. I will explain it using an image texture and
procedural textures, but be aware of the fact that the texturing system
is quite complex, and more advanced maps are created with the use of a
few combined textures.
If you\'re really into texturing you need to learn how to
UV-Map, there\'s no
way around it.
## Colormap
!**Image 1a:** An image applied as a texture to a plane. Download
texture{width="250"}
This is the most basic mapping type. You can use an image or a
procedural texture to change the color of a material.
**Noob Note:** A simple Basic texturing Guide The Basics of texturing
I.
framed\|**Image 1b:** The *Map To* Panel for a
colormap. **Using
an image texture:**
- Add an *Image* texture in the *Texture Buttons* and load the image
(this is necessary also for UV mapped textures).
- The button *Col* in the *Map To* Panel uses the RGB information of
the image to change the color of the material.
- The slide number button *Col* governs the blending amount of the
texture, *Neg* inverts the colourvalues.
- If you use *No RGB* only the intensity information from the picture
is used. The target color is then taken from the RGB sliders in the
*Map To* Panel.
**Using a procedural texture:** The result depends on the type of value
the texture provides.
- If the value is of type intensity (e.g. *Clouds*), the color is
taken from the RGB sliders in the *Map To* Panel.
- If the value type is color (e.g. *Magic*), everything is handled as
with image textures.
## Diffusemap
framed\|**Image 2a:** Diffusemap settings with a small range
(0.2). A
Diffusemap changes the amount of diffuse light the material
reflects/absorbs. This is controlled by changing the reflectivity
(*Ref*). A material with a rough surface may have the color white, but
absorbs light to a greater amount than a material with a smooth surface.
For more on diffuse reflection physics, see Diffuse
reflection.
**Noob note:** Most of the settings described below will be found in the
\"Influence\" section under the texture/material panel in blender 2.61
Let\'s test:
- In the Texture buttons (**F6**), in the Map Image panel, make sure
*UseAlpha* is unchecked.
- In the Material buttons (**F5**), in the Map To panel, uncheck *Col*
and check *Ref*.
**Noob note:** In blender 2.6x \"Ref\" has been changed to \"Intensity\"
To understand the effect of this and all other mappings, we have to
discuss the meaning of the NumButton *DVar* (Destination Value).
- White in a texture (or an intensity value of 1) will be mapped to
the value of the *DVar* Button. So if you set *Dvar* to 1, white
will be mapped to 1, if you set *DVar* to 0, white will be mapped
to 0. The result is multiplied with the value of the *Var* number
button.
- Black on the other hand (or an intensity value of 0) does not change
anything, so the settings from the material will stay unchanged. The
difference between the material settings and the *DVar* button is
the range for the texture.
Let\'s take a look at an example.
!**Image 2b:** The image used for the Colormap applied as a Diffusemap
with a small range
(0.2).."){width="250"}
If we use the default settings for the Diffusemap the range of the
values is small.
- *Ref* is 0.8
- *Dvar* is 1.0
- White pixels in the texture change the *Ref* value to 1.0, black
pixels in the texture don\'t change the *Ref* value at all.
So the resulting **range** for *Ref* is 1.0 - 0.8 = 0.2.
!**Image 2c:** Diffusemap with full range
(1.0).."){width="250"}
When we change the *Ref* parameter in the *Shaders* panel to 0, we\'ll
get a much larger range of *Ref* values from 0.0 (black pixels in the
texture) to 1.0 (white pixels in the texture).
There are other ways to achieve a larger range, you could also set *Ref*
to \"Inverted\" (click it twice, it will be painted in yellow), *DVar*
to 0 and *Ref* in the *Shaders* panel to 1.
## Luminositymap
Luminosity is the property of self-illumination, i.e. of objects
emitting light. So we change the *Emit* value with this texture.
This light does not illuminate other objects - you would have to use
Global Illumination (e.g. Yafaray) to use an emitting object as a true
light source. Radiosity rendering does not work with Luminositymaps.
Everything that was said about the *DVar* value applies here exactly as
for Diffusemaps.
## Specularitymap
Specularity is the second most important material attribute. Specularity
fakes the reflections of light sources. Of course you can modify the
general specularity with a texture. In Blender you can change three
different attributes related to specularity:
1. *Spec:* The degree of specularity. You can\'t set values above 1.0
with Specularitymaps, but you could invert the texture and set
*Spec* on the *Shaders* panel to a higher value and *Dvar* to the
lowest value of your range. So the texture actually lowers the
specularity in all areas, that shall have a low specularity.
2. *Hard:* The hardness of the specular reflections. Sometimes called
\"Glossiness\". A *DVar* of 1 is equivalent to a hardness of 130.
Use the same method as described above to achieve a greater range
for the hardness.
3. *Csp:* The specularity color.
You will probably use some kind of \"Dirtmapping\" (stenciling) to
change the specularity in certain regions of an object, like an often
touched object, that is shinier on the used or touched parts.
For more on specular reflection physics see Specular
reflection.
## Reflectionmap
A Reflectionmap would be used to fake real raytracing reflections,
either because you don\'t want to use raytracing, or you don\'t want to
create a scene, or you need a special effect you don\'t get with
raytraced reflections. A Reflectionmap would be a Colormap, typically an
Environment
Map.
Since you can use prerendered Environment Maps, you can fake a
surrounding for your object. Sometimes it is sufficient to use a simple
Colormap that just bears the right colours, e.g. if you want to create a
stormy sea it is not necessary that the clouds above are truly reflected
in the water.
Environment Maps are a bit more complicated to create, see the
respective section in the manual.
A very different kind of texture would be used to change the amount of
raytracing reflections, the *RayMir* value. This is useful for something
like a stained or dirty mirror. Simply click the *RayMir* button in the
*Map To* panel and lower the *DVar*.
## Transparencymap
Transparency- or Alphamaps change the (partial) visibility of an object.
They don\'t have to be transparent themselves (though it doesn\'t hurt,
see Make a material partially
transparent).
You will often use an image as Colormap and Transparencymap together. A
nice example for a Transparencymap is in the paragraph
*Translucencymap*.
There\'s one catch though, you can\'t change Fresnel transparency with a
Transparencymap. So you have to use plain transparency, or fake the
Fresnel effect with the method described in the section Map
Input.
## Refractionmap
Well, there\'s no such thing as a Refractionmap. You can\'t change the
IOR with a texture. You may try and use Environment Maps to fake
refraction, but the result is often not worth the effort (for stills, in
an animation it might not be that noticeable).
## Translucencymap
Translucency is a material property of all semitransparent materials,
like frosted glass, paper, plastic, cloth, skin, stained glass and the
like. It allows objects to be lit from behind.
Totally clear glass does not show where the lightrays travel through it.
But if the glass is dirty or uneven you will see the path of the light.
In the first example (*Translucency 1*) the glass material has a
transparency of about 0.5 and a translucency of 0.78. So the glass is
brighter where the lightrays hit the surface from behind. Additionally a
Transparencymap - which sets Alpha to 1 - lets the surface appear to be
stained. If we use the same map also as a Translucencymap (*Translucency
2*), the stain appears to be lit - which it would be of course also in
reality.
```{=html}
<table>
```
```{=html}
<tr valign="top">
```
```{=html}
<td>
```
!*Translucency 1:* Material with Translucency and a Transparencymap,
but without a Translucencymap. This is an example from the releasenotes
of Blender
v2.32.{width="300"}
```{=html}
</td>
```
```{=html}
<td>
```
!*Translucency 2:* Material with Translucency and a Transparencymap and
a
Translucencymap.{width="300"}
```{=html}
</td>
```
```{=html}
</tr>
```
```{=html}
</table>
```
framed\|Material settings for example *Translucency 2* (blue
glas). The
settings for the material (*Z-Transp*, but raytracing shadows):
framed\|Adjusted *Clouds*
texture. The
texture itself is a *Hard Noise* *Clouds* texture, with modified
*Brightness* and *Contrast*.
## Bumpmap/Normalmap
framed\|Settings for a Bumpmap in the *Map To*
panel.
Bumpmaps are a technique to create the
illusion of geometry. They could be used for something like a canvas or
any small structures that are either difficult to model, or are too
computationally expensive. As long as you don\'t get too close with the
camera you won\'t notice the difference.
They come in several different flavors:
- A Bumpmap texture in the nearer sense is a greyscale image or
procedural texture mapped to *Nor*. Don\'t activate the button
*Normal Map* in the *Texture Buttons* for a Bumpmap.
- A Normalmap is an RGB image whose color information bears the
information about the direction of the surface normal, also mapped
to *Nor*. For this you need to activate the button *Normal Map* in
the *Texture Buttons*.
See also the manual about the differences between Bump and Normal
Maps.
```{=html}
<table>
```
```{=html}
<tr valign="top">
```
```{=html}
<td>
```
!The bumped
image.{width="300"}
```{=html}
</td>
```
```{=html}
<td>
```
!The Bumpmap, a simple greyscale
image.{width="300"}
```{=html}
</td>
```
```{=html}
</tr>
```
```{=html}
</table>
```
In the example the bump map was used additionally to the colormap. The
*Nor* slider in the *Map To* panel sets the depth of the bumping.
## Displacement Map
framed\|none\|A displacement map deformes the
mesh A
Displacement Map creates real geometry, i.e. it moves the vertices of a
mesh. Therefore, you need a lot of vertices. You can use it as a texture
mapped to *Disp*, or even more flexible using the Displacement
Modifier.
## Dirtmap
!Our picture has seen some bad
times.{width="300"}
I will try to explain what a Dirtmap is and how you apply one. There are
different things that people mean when they talk about dirtmapping.
- Sometimes a Diffusemap is meant.
- Dirtshading is often used as a term for Ambient Occlusion.
With a Dirtmap I simply mean any texture that breaks the clean, uniform,
untouched look of image or procedural textures. You may do this by
simply combining some partially transparent textures resp. textures that
affect only parts of the picture in a semirandom way. You can also
select parts of the object with a
stencil
texture. And of course you can (and will) combine both of these methods.
As long as two textures don\'t affect the same property you can simply
apply one after the other. To select only parts of your texture to apply
another texture with the same properties use stenciling. Or use
stenciling as a convenient method to separate two different sections on
your texture.
You need at least three textures for this.
1. The basic texture (e.g. color).
2. The selecting (stenciling) texture.
3. The Dirtmap affecting the same or other properties then the first
texture.
The stenciling texture has to provide an intensity value, so if you want
to use an image (or other RGB) texture you must activate *No RGB*.
!The stenciling
texture.{width="300"}
The image texture used as a dirtmap for our example contains some
semirandom noise. framed\|Settings for the stenciling
texure.
*Nor* for the stenciling texture was not really necessary, but it adds a
nice 3D effect. Since the stenciling texture is mostly white, I had to
use *Neg* to use the black pixels as mask.
The third texture (\"Dirt\") affects *Col*, *Nor* and *Spec*.
## Use UV Coordinates for your Maps
It is often necessary to create UV coordinates for more complicated
textures/objects. UV coordinates only describe the geometry of the
mapping, i.e. which pixels to map on what face. You can use the UV
coordinates to create any mapping you want.
1. Create an UV map for your object. This is beyond the scope of *this*
tutorial, see UV Map
Basics and the
section about UV Mapping in the manual.
2. Don\'t turn *TexFace* in the *Material* Panel in the *Material
buttons* on. Though *TexFace* is a very simple way to use UV
textures, the normal texture mapping methods are much more flexible.
3. Load the image you used for UV-mapping (or any image with the same
size) as an image texture. Change *Map Input* to *UV*.
4. Now you can use this image - or multiple different images - for your
maps, including color-mapping.
The advantage of this technique is that you have much better control
over your texture. Even if you just want to texture something like a
cube shaped object, you\'re often better off with UV mapped textures.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Using a texture to make a material partially transparent
|previous=Using Textures
}}
```
To understand the collaboration of textures and material we will use the
opacity of a material - the alpha value - as an example. We will show
how to set the opacity/transparency of a material with different types
of textures.
The Alpha value of the material is set with the *A*(lpha) slider in the
Material panel. This is the basic Alpha value. If *Alpha* is 1, the
material is fully opaque, if *Alpha* is 0, the material is fully
transparent.
Now you change that basic Alpha value with a texture.
1. If the basic Alpha value is 1 you can only lower it with a texture,
because 1 is the maximum value anyway.
2. If the basic Alpha value is 0 you can only increase it with a
texture.
The target value of Alpha that can be achieved with the texture is set
with the **DVar** button in the *Map To* panel. If *Alpha* is 0 and
*DVar* is 0 than nothing will happen. You can set either:
1. *Alpha* to 1 and *DVar* to 0, then the texture will lower the Alpha
value, or you can set
2. *Alpha* to 0 and *DVar* to 1, then the texture will increase the
Alpha value.
Both methods are possible and equal in the result, but for clarity we
will always use method number 1. There are more combinations possible,
so it may be that you find tutorials with different settings.
## Using a greyscale texture - white for opaque
!**Image 1a:** Greyscale Image of
leaf{width="200"}
In **Img. 1a** the black areas shall become transparent, the white areas
shall become opaque.
- Load the image as *Image* texture, turn off *Use Alpha*.
- Set the *Alpha* value in the material buttons to 1. This is the
default value anyway.
- Activate *ZTransp* (or *RayTransp* if you need refraction)
- The *Map To* panel:
- Turn off *Col* (or else the texture would also affect the color
of the material)
- Turn on *Alpha* inverse, you have to click it twice. We need
inverse here, because the texture shall affect the material from
its black parts. (**Noob Note**: *On blender 2.63 you need to
set a specific \'Alpha\' value (the one located under
\'influence-\>diffuse) to -1, as the alpha button referenced in
this step no longer exists in 2.63.*)
- Turn on *Spec* inverse (you don\'t want your transparent
sections to show specular highlights) (**Noob Note**: *As far as
I could tell, the equivalent to doing this on blender 2.63 is to
set a specific \'Intensity\' value (located under
Influence-\>Specular) to -1.*)
- Set the *DVar* value to 0. The default value is 1.
framed\|**Image 1b:** Material settings for the
texture Now
let\'s take a look at the texture.
- Where the texture has a value of 0 (e.g. black) it will affect the
Map To values fully (because we have used inverse).
- Where the texture has a value of 1 (e.g. white) it will do nothing.
- Where the texture has a value in between 0 and 1 it will affect the
Map To values partially.
!**Image 1c:** Result of applying the Greyscale Image to a
plane{width="200"}
The result is shown in **Img. 1c**, the texture applied to a plane
rendered against a white world background.
If your texture is inverted, i.e. black shall become opaque and white
transparent, simply use the normal *Alpha* and *Spec* setting in the
*Map To* panel. (**Noob Note** *If you don\'t see the white \'shine\' on
the maple leaf, move the default point lamp (lighting source) closer to
the plane mesh to which the texture and material are assigned.*)
That\'s it. It\'s basically the same for all settings, the only problem
that remains is sometimes to know which value a texture will give if you
use transparent textures or colored textures.
**_For 2.7 blenderers out there:_** To obtain the
results I had a hard time and finally came across (almost accidentally)
to uncheck the \'use alpha\' button in the image sub panel of the
texture menu. Then, you can get the results as above.
## Using a partially transparent texture to make the material transparent
!**Image 2a:** Using a partially transparent
texture{width="200"}
Often we have a partially transparent texture, and want to directly use
that transparency of the texture to make the material transparent too.
We have now to think a bit about the values that are generated by the
texture itself: If we load the image texture with *Use Alpha*, the Alpha
value of the image is used as input value for *Alpha* and *Spec* in the
*Map To* panel. So a fully transparent pixel in the image has an Alpha
value of 0, a fully opaque pixel has an Alpha value of 1. This is
exactly the same situation as above, simply turning on *Use Alpha* and
*Premul*(tiply Alpha in Advance) will give use the same result as with
the greyscale image. framed\|**Image 2b:**
Texture settings for a RGB/Alpha
texture So:
- Turn on *Use Alpha* in the *Map Image* panel of the texture buttons.
- Turn on *Premul* in the *Image* panel. This is necessary to get real
partial transparent borders.
- Turn on *Col* in the *Map To* panel additionally.
!**Image 2c:** The
result{width="200"}
The rendering result is pretty similar to **Img. 2a**, only that it is
affected by lighting (and casts shadows).
Don\'t forget to turn on *TraShadow* in the *Shaders* panel for the
object that is **receiving** the shadow. (**Noob Note:** In Blender 2.6x
you also need to check the \"Receive Transparent\" box in the shadow
section of the material for the object receiving shadows or you will get
a black square shadow.)
(**Noob Note:** *In this case add a plane colored white just below the
\"leaf.\" This is the object the you should turn on* **TraShadow** *with
as this is the object that will receive the shadow. This is also
providing that you have a light source properly positioned.*)
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Creating Basic Seawater
|previous=Using a texture to make a material partially transparent
}}
```
: \[*ed. note: Need a much more basic introduction to what materials,
textures, maps, and all the accompanying terms are with illustrative
examples before diving into a specific sea-water example. Much more
effective learning when you know what you\'re changing.*\]
!Settings for the seawater
material{width="350"}
75% of the Earth\'s surface is covered with water. In homage to this
great fact, we will develop your materials skills first by creating
basic seawater.
## Create 3 linked planes
First we create a new file in Blender and delete the default cube by
pressing **XKEY** and confirming the popup dialog. Now switch to top
view with **NUM7** and enter **SPACE \> Add \> Mesh \> Plane** to create
a plane. Then scale it up to 20 its original size with the **SKEY** the
way you\'ve already learned in one of the earlier tutorials. Go to the
side view with **NUM3** and duplicate this plane *two more times* using
**Alt-D** (not Shift-D), moving the plane down on the Z axis by two grid
spaces each duplicate. This will make the transparency of the water more
realistic once we set it. Using Alt-D rather than Shift-D makes a linked
duplicate, so that the changes we make to one plane effect the other
two.
## Create material
Now off to the actual texturing work. Select any one of the planes and
press **F5** to bring up the Material Buttons in the Buttons Window. You
will probably find two new small windows appearing here: one called
Links and Pipelines and the other one Preview.
(**Noob note:** A new section has been added for Blender 2.63 users
after this section.)
Click the \'Add New\' button in the \'Links and Pipelines\' tab to
create a new material named \`Material.001\' or so. To make life easier
we\'ll rename it to something meaningful like \'Seawater\' by simply
clicking it and typing in the letters, as shown here (SHIFT+DELETE in
field to clear):
Now, on the same tab, give the seawater material a color of RGB (0.100,
0.310, 0.435). Find the tab that reads \'Mirror Transp\' and click it.
Click on \'Ray Mirror\' and \'Ray Transp\'. For the \"Ray Mirror\" box,
move the \'RayMir\' slider to 0.3, the \'Fresnel\' slider to 2.5 and the
Depth to 5. For the \'Ray Transp\' box, move the \'IOR\' slider to 1.33,
the \'Fresnel\' slider to 2.0 and the Depth to 5. This will give the
water realistic transparency and reflection. Also click the \'Shaders\'
tab, change \'CookTorr\' to \'Blinn\', move \'Spec\' to 2.000, \'Hard\'
to 180 and \'Refr\' to 10.000. This will make the water look more
glossy.
Now we\'ll add a procedural texture to our seawater, which will give it
a \"wavy\" look. Click the Texture button (looks like bricks) or press
**F6** to view the texture buttons subcontext. Click on the knob to the
left of the texture name and select the \"Add New\" button. This creates
a new texture named \"Tex.001\" or so. Click on the name and change it
to \"Waves\".
Go to the Texture Type pull-down (**F6**) and select \'Clouds\'. On the
Clouds tab change \'NoiseSize\' to 0.050. Our Waves texture is ready;
next, we will refine how it is applied to our Seawater material.
Noise Size increases the size of the noise, in this case, the clouds.
Soft Noise blends the intensities and reduces the contrast. Makes a
mellow effect, like soft waves. Hard noise creates a high contrast, and
brings out individual \'shapes\'.
If you want to add more detail to your water, add another texture and
rename it to \"LargeWaves\". Make it a cloud texture like the previous
one, but make it\'s \'NoiseSize\' 0.300 and use \'Hard noise\'.
!The final rendered
image{width="350"}
Left click on the Materials button (looks like a red sphere) to return
to the material buttons subcontext. Look at the Texture panel, and
you\'ll see that the \"Waves\" texture has been automatically associated
with the Seawater material.
Select the \'Map To\' tab. Click the \'Nor\' and \'Spec\' buttons so
they\'re selected and have white text (the white text indicates a
positive mapping). Click the \'Hard\' button twice so it\'s selected and
has yellow text (the yellow text indicates a negative mapping). Click
the \'Col\' button so it is not selected, this button will show any
color in the texture which we do not want. Find the \'Nor\' Slider and
move its value to about 5.00.
If you created the \"LargeWaves\" texture, select the \"LargeWaves\"
texture under \'Texture and Input\', go to the \'MapTo\' tab, deselect
\'Col\', select \'Nor\' and move the \'Nor\' slider to 7.00. Do not
select \'Hard\' or \'Spec\' this time.
For lighting press **Space \> Add \> Lamp \> Sun**. You shouldn\'t need
to move the sun or change any of its settings. Finally move the camera
to the edge of the plain and move it up towards the sky a bit.
Go to the Scene tab (**F10**), and look for the six buttons next to the
big render button. Deselect all these, leaving only the \'Ray\' button
selected. This will tell Blender not to render some features in our
scene that we really don\'t need. Go and press **F12** to render the
water, it may take a while depending on your system.
Admire your water, and maybe drink a tall glass of something refreshing!
## Create Material / Textures (Blender 2.63)
**Material**
- Go to the properties window (Bottom right window by default) and
click on the Material tab
- Click of the + symbol to create a new material and name it Seawater
- Click on the diffuse color box and give it a seawater blue RGB
(0.100, 0.310, 0.435)
- Enable the Mirror checkbox
- In the Mirror section, set Reflectivity: 0.3, Fresnel: 2.5 and
Depth: 5
- Enable the Transparency checkbox
- In the Transparency section, click the Raytrace button
- Also in the Transparency section, set IOR: 1.33, Fresnel: 2 and
Depth: 5
- In the Specular section, use the pull-down menu to change CookTorr
to Blinn, then set Intensity: 1, Hardness: 180 and IOR: 10
**Textures**
- Still in the Properties window, click on the Textures tab
- Click on the "+ New" button to create a new texture and name it
Waves
- Set the Type: Clouds using the pull-down menu
- In the Clouds section, set Size: 0.05 to create soft noise
- In the Influence section, uncheck Color under Diffuse, then under
Specular, check the \"Specular\" box and "Hardness" box then set the
value to Hardness: -1. Under Geometry, check the "Normal" box and
set the value to Normal: 5
(**Noob Note: V. 2.78** Under Mapping change coordinates to Generated.)
- Select the second line in the Textures list and create a second
Texture using the "+ New" button. Name it LargeWaves
- Set the Type to clouds again, but this time, set Size: 0.3 in the
Clouds section and click on the \"Hard\" button for hard noise
- Deselect "Color" and under Geometry, select the "Normal" box and set
the value to Normal: 7
(**Noob Note: V. 2.78** Under Mapping change coordinates to Generated.)
**Lighting**
- In object mode, select the default lamp (if present) and delete it
- Create a new lamp by pressing ALT+A and selecting Lamp \--\> Sun
- Place the Sun in the sky by moving it up the Z-axis. Press G, Z, 20
and hit ENTER
- Go back to the Properties window and click on the World tab
- Click on the box under Horizon Color and set the color to RGB
(0.242, 0.617, 0.831) for sky blue
- Position the camera to be looking over the water with some sky
visible and render your scene.
- How about using what we have learned in previous modules to add some
dolphins swimming just below the surface?
!The final rendered
image{width="350"}
## Extra Practice
This tutorial might also help you make even more realistic water:
Link
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Mountains Out Of Molehills 2
|previous=Creating Basic Seawater
}}
```
This tutorial shows you how to use displacement mapping to make a simple
environment.
1. Make a grid. (Add/Mesh/Grid) 32x32 will do just fine. Be sure to
create a Grid instead of a Plane, or you\'ll end up with just a flat
plane! This is because a Plane only has four vertices to
manipulate - one for each corner - while a Grid has many, many more.
A 32x32 Grid, for example, would have over 1000 vertices. The more
vertices there are to manipulate, the more effect displacement
mapping will have on the finished product.
2. Set it smooth. (Editing/Link and Materials/Set Smooth)
3. Make a new material for it. (Shading/Material/Add New)
4. Make a new texture for the material. (Shading/Texture/Add New)
5. Go to Shading/Texture Buttons. You can see your newly created
texture there now.
6. Change Texture Type to Clouds.
7. Change the name of the texture to be more descriptive. For example
GroundDisp or something similar.
8. Go back to Shading/Material buttons. You can see our cloud texture
applied now, but it\'s not applied correctly yet. Let\'s fix this
next.
9. Go to Shading/Map To. This defines how the selected texture is
mapped on our material. Uncheck Col, check Disp on, and set the Disp
slider to a value like 0.200
10. Set camera and a few lights to the scene. (This is already done as
part of the default scene in recent versions of Blender, such as
2.49)
11. Render.
**Noob Note** It looks like from version 2.70 there is no shading as a
main tool but rather as a subtool for Material, so in version 2.70 to
get the effect described in here you have to check third checkbox in
Texture\>Influence\>Geometry and adjust the slider
:
: Several individuals, when working through this tutorial, had
trouble getting anything more than a flat plane. A few solutions
were proposed (most are still visible on the Talk page), and
while each worked in its own way, the vast majority of the time
the problem stemmed from creating a Plane instead of a Grid.
With version 2.79, it was necessary to change Texture \| Mapping
\| Coordinat in the Properties window to Generated, Object, or
Global rather than the default \"UV\" to get anything but a
plane. Be sure to follow each step very carefully to ensure you
don\'t miss anything or do a step incorrectly.
You can tweak the environment easily by changing Nor value in the
Shading/Map To. This defines how strongly the displacement texture
affects the material.
You could also add subsurfing to the ground area to get smoother
results. Also feel free to tweak the texture and try out different
alternatives.
Once your mountain looks good, try adding some Mist.
1. Select the \"Mist\" button on the \"Mist/Stars/Physics\" Tab among
the World buttons
2. Add a Cloud Texture to the World and make it blend from white to
gray
The end result is something like this:
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Basic Carpet Texture
|previous=Mountains Out Of Molehills 2
}}
```
## Goal
I am using a basic scene that I quickly set up before I started to
create the carpet material. It shows a monkey (suzanne), a plane,
camera, 3 area lamps and 1 spot lamp.\
!The basic scene
setup{width="240"}
The purpose of this tutorial, is to highlight the power of blenders
built in shaders and procedural textures to create a carpet material to
use in your scenes.
**`NOTE:`**`'' For those of you needing help getting a similar scene to the one above, here are some axis positions,etc. to help out:`\
**`(Spot-Lamp)`**`-`**`X`**`=1.62,`**`Y`**`=0.86,`**`Z`**`=6.74;`**`rotation`**`-`**`X`**`=37.26,`**`Y`**`=3.16,`**`Z`**`=181.34;`\
**`(Area-Lamp-1)X`**`=4,`**`Y`**`=3.27,`**`Z`**`=4.12;`**`rotation`**`-`**`X`**`=54.67,`**`Y`**`=-18.59,`**`Z`**`=-109.47;`\
**`(Area-Lamp-2)X`**`=-2.07,`**`Y`**`=-2.08,`**`Z`**`=4.85;`**`rotation`**`-`**`X`**`=29.37,`**`Y`**`=-28.98,`**`Z`**`=355;`\
**`(Area-Lamp-3)X`**`=0.315,`**`Y`**`=-2.89,`**`Z`**`=4.29;`**`rotation`**`-`**`X`**`=49.23,`**`Y`**`=-10.63,`**`Z`**`=6.68;`\
**`(Monkey)X`**`=0.05,`**`Y`**`=0,`**`Z`**`=0.42;`**`rotation`**`-`**`X`**`=58.61,`**`Y`**`=-16.07,Z=23.245;`**`DIM`**`(`*`dimensions`*`)`**`X`**`=2.734,`**`Y`**`=1.969,`**`Z`**`=1.703;`\
**`(Plane)x`**`=0,`**`y`**`=0,`**`z`**`=0;`**`(no rotation)`**`;`**`Dimensions`**`: `**`X&Y`**`=14.30,`**`z`**`=0.`
Alternatively, you could also download a pre-made
file
in case that you\'re in a hurry.
**Noob Note:** Try adjusting each of the area lamps Dist(ance) value.
**Noob Question:** How does the above coordinates help me at all? I
haven\'t found anything that tells me were in 3D space object actually
is or the objects dimensions little alone control them. Nothing in the
Tutorial up to now even gives a clue to this.
**Noob Answer:** Hit \'N\' to bring up the Transform Properties window
and enter the values there.
## The Basic Material and Shader Settings
For the basic material for the carpet set the color settings of your
material as follows -\
Col (R 0.714) (G 0.134) (B 0.134) Dark Red\
Spe (R 0.590) (G 0.210) (B 0.084) Reddish Brown\
Mir (R 1.000) (G 1.000) (B 1.000) White\
`<b>`{=html}Noob Note:`</b>`{=html} Copy paste-able hex values: Dark Red
(DC6666), Reddish Brown (CA7E52) and White (FFFFFF)
Change the specular shader to (\'phong\') and leave the default lambert
diffuse shader as it is. Change the (\'spec\') to \[0.13\] and the
(\'hard\') to \[12\]. Lastly click the (\'Full Osa\') button to enable
it. If you render now you will notice that the plane looks like an ugly
pastel color (if not, you have a different lighting setup to mine and
the shader will not look the same as the images in this tutorial.)
Don\'t worry about this ugly looking plane it will soon be a beautiful
carpet.\
!Shader Screen-shot{width="800"}\
!Base Shader{width="240"}
## Cloud Texture 1
Press \'F6\' on the keyboard to bring up the texture panel. Click the
bottommost of the long boxes to create a texture in the bottom channel.
Create a new texture and rename it something like \'Red Clouds 1\'. From
the (\'Texture Type\') pull down select clouds. In the \'Clouds\'
settings panel change (\'NoiseSize\') to \[0.210\] and (\'NoiseDepth\')
to \[4\].\
Now select the Colors tab which will bring up the ColorBand for the
texture. Press the orange (\'Add\') button to add a cursor on the
colourband. Next make sure the \'Cur : 0\' is showing next to the add
button and change the colours as follows - (R 0.770, G 0.168, 0.168).
Now click on right side of the \'Cur : 0\' so it shows \'Cur : 1\'.
Change \'Pos\' to 0.6. Set Alpha to 1 and change the colour to (R 0.732
G 0.243 B 0.243).\
!Texture 1 texture panel
Screenshot{width="608"}\
Now go back into the material settings and change the settings in the
Map To tab as follows. Click (\'Spec\') twice so the text becomes yellow
do the same for (\'Hard\'). Now select \'Subtract\' for the texture
blending mode. Change (\'Col\') to \[0.188\].\
!Texture 1 materials panel
Screenshot{width="408"}\
At this stage if you render you might find it hard to notice the
difference, it is apparent only where there is low light levels on the
plane, don\'t worry about this at the moment. It means if you render
with Ambiant Occlusion you get a nice carpet effect of slightly varying
colour.
## Cloud Texture 2
Go back to the texture panel and create another texture, call it
\'Clouds\' and put it in the channel above \'Red Clouds\'. Change
(\'NoiseSize\') to \[0.054\] and (\'NoiseDepth\') to 4. Select
\'Improved Perlin\' from the Noise Basis pull down. Finally change
(\'Nabla\') to \[0.031\]. Do not change any more settings here.\
!Texture 2 texture panel
Screenshot{width="618"}\
Now in the material panel, under the Map To tab change the following -
Click (\'Nor\'). Click (\'Spec\') and (\'Hard\') twice so as they are
yellow.
!Texture 2 material panel
Screenshot{width="412"}\
!Render with the 2 textures so
far{width="240"}\
As you can see the material is starting to look a bit better, only 2
more textures to go.
## The Final Cloud Texture
Switch to the texture panel once again and create a new Clouds texture
in the next channel up. Change (\'NoiseSize\') to \[0.010\] and
(\'NoiseDepth\') to \[6\]. Now click on the \'Colors\' tab and change
the colour of the left cursor (\'Cur : 0\') to (R 0.713 G 0.262 B 0.223)
and Alpha to 0. Switch to Cursor 1 (\'Cur : 1\') and its colour settings
(R 1.000 G 0.363 B 0.000) and Alpha to 1.\
!Texture 3 texture panel
Screenshot{width="618"}\
Now in the materials panel under the \'Map To\' tab Click (\'Nor\').
Click (\'Spec\') and (\'Hard\') twice so as they are yellow. Leave the
blending mode as \'Mix\'. Change (\'Col\') to \[0.464\] and (\'Nor\') to
\[1.00\].
!Texture 3 materials panel
Screenshot{width="409"}\
!Render of the 3 textures so
far{width="240"}\
## The Last Texture
Finally, go to the textures panel one last time. Create a new Stucci
texture in the next channel up. Change (\'NoiseSize\') to \[0.006\] and
(\'Turbulence\') to \[10.94\]. Click on the \'Colors\' tab. The first
cursor \'Cur : 0\' should be black with alpha 0. \'Cur : 1\' should be
red (R 1.000 G 0.000 B 0.000) with alpha 1.\
!Texture 4 textures
panel{width="800"}\
Now go to the materials panel. Under the \'Map To\' tab Click (\'Nor\').
Click (\'Spec\') and (\'Hard\') twice. Change the Blending type to
\'Subtract\'. Change (\'Col\') to \[0.056\] and (\'Nor\') to \[0.50\].
And that\'s it. When you render now, you should have a nice-looking
carpet material. By tweaking with the colours you can create any colour
of carpet.\
!Texture 4 material
panel{width="412"}\
!Final Render of Carpet
Material{width="640"}\
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/The Rusty Ball
|next=Creating Pixar-looking eyes in Blender
}}
```
Making objects with image textures is not really hard for simple objects
like balls, cubes, and tubes. I\'ll show you how to do this:
{width="300"}
1. Make a new scene in Blender and delete the default cube.
2. Add a sphere. Apply a Subsurf modifier and Smooth as we have learned
in previous tutorials.
3. Find a file picture that you want to apply to your object. Check
Flickr for something like \"rust texture.\" (If you are going to
share it, be sure you check the license of the texture you
download.)
4. IMPORTANT: Sometimes you need a seamless texture. If you are not
sure, use a program such as GIMP. Use FILTERS \> MAP \> MAKE
SEAMLESS. Usually this works well but if your texture turns into
gorp, try another one.
5. (**Noob Note:** *Do \[<http://lmgtfy.com/?t=i&q=rust+textures>*a
search for **Rust Textures** *\] if you do not have one handy.*)
6. In the Properties Panel, which by default is the bottom right panel,
select the Material icon
.
7. Select NEW or if you already have a material in use, select the +
sign to add a new material. Give it a good name like rustyball.
8. Click on the Texture Icon
.
9. Click NEW or if you already have a texture loaded, click on the + to
add a new one. Give it a good name like RUST.
10. The default type is CLOUDS. Pull down the menu and change it to
IMAGE OR MOVIE.
11. Go to the IMAGE section, choose OPEN. New options will become
available. (Note: JPGs, PNGs or TGAs are recommended for Blender.
Bitmaps tend to get all screwy.)
12. Under Source: Click the folder icon and navigate to your image.
13. Scroll down. In the Image Mapping area are some options that you may
need to try. If your image is small it may have to be repeated in
the X or Y directions.
14. In the Mapping section (yes, one section is Image Mapping and the
other is just Mapping) after Projection, choose the shape closest to
your object. If you are using a sphere like the example, then choose
\... you guessed it \... SPHERE.
- The Preview often looks a bit odd and stripey, but render your
project and it should look very nice.
- This method works for all sorts of things. Try making a brick wall
with a wooden gate using Flickr textures or go back to the Jeep
tutorial and put a pattern on your jeep.
- You can also render videos onto objects using this method. Just
select a movie in the \"Load image\" dialog and enable the option
\"Movie\" at the textures buttons. `<i>`{=html}NOTE:`</i>`{=html}
Blender ONLY works with Full Resolution video, not video which has
been compressed using a codec. Most video software will allow you to
export video as \"**full frames**\" or \"**no compression**\".
Experiment a bit!
!300 px\|left\|The Rusty
Ball
!400 px\|Textures used from Flicker under Creative Commons 2.0
license!400
px\|Psychedelic Jeep, my own texture such as it may
be
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Creating Pixar-looking eyes in Blender
|next=Procedural Eyeball
}}
```
!The final result, with a blue
iris.
Note: This tutorial uses the same modelling and texturing technique
described in the well-known MAX tutorial by Adam Baroody
(http://www.3dluvr.com/rogueldr/tutorials/eye/eyes.html). The sole
purpose of my tutorial is to make this technique more popular among the
Blender users by explaining how to achieve the same result with Blender.
The goal of this tutorial is to make a Pixar-looking eye. One of the
main reasons that Pixar\'s characters really convey life is in their
eyes. They have depth, you can see how the eye not only shines but it
\"collects\" light. You may think that you can\'t achieve this effect
without raytracing but you\'re wrong. The secret of this depth is in the
modelling of the eye. Let\'s see how it works!
## Parts of the Eye
In this picture you can see the \"ingredients\" of the eye model. The
blue mesh at the left is the cornea. Its shape allows for a small spot
of specular light to appear on it even if the light is in a far side
position. The mesh next to it is the iris. Now notice how it\'s a bit
concave. That\'s the tricky part - the shape of the iris allows for a
wide soft specular light to appear at the opposite side of the lamp
direction. This fakes refracted light from the cornea and makes the
illusion of \"collecting\" light and creates depth. The next mesh is the
eye pupil - a simple circle.The pupil size is the same size as the iris
hole. You can position it close to the inner side of the iris. And
finally - the eyeball. It\'s a simple sphere with a hole in it.
```{=html}
<div style="clear: left; height: 20px;">
```
```{=html}
</div>
```
I won\'t go deep into modelling of each element - it uses Blender\'s
subdivision surfaces and it\'s quite simple as you can see.\
## Materials
Now let\'s look at the materials.
### Sclera
To make the eye white, press NUM3 to go into side view and add a
UVsphere with 8 segments and 8 rings. To create the hole at the front of
the eyeball, delete the 8 triangular faces that make up one end of the
eyeball. Ctrl+Tab+3 to go into face select mode, B for border mode and
select the middle 8 triangles as shown below, press Delete or the X
button and LMB on Faces.
The resulting hole will be ringed by 8 vertices (which you could
subsequently extrude and use to help you model the sections below - just
a suggestion for those who feel capable)
The eye white has white color and
high values for Spec and Hard (depends on the lighting), as well as a
moderately high Ref value (0.700 - 0.800). Optionally you can use a
reflection map to make it look more wet but I usually don\'t do this.
(Noob note: Using a Phong specular shader turned to work quite well.)
(User: Make sure shadow buttons are off or it will black out the iris.
Spec and Hard are located in the Shaders tab.)
### Iris
- Loop select the opening of the eye (ALT+RMB click edge of opening).
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- Duplicate the loop (SHIFT+DKEY). Move the new loop away from the eye
a bit perpendicular to the opening.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- With the loop still selected, extrude (EKEY). Without moving the
extrusion, press ENTER.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- Resize by half (SKEY then .KEY then NUM5 then ENTER).
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- Move the inner loop back toward the eye a bit to form the concave
shape.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- Create a new
material and
create a new
texture called
iris. Then hit F6 or click the spotty square icon
 to open the texture
panel, choose Image as the texture type and then press Load Image
button and use the image below.\
!`Setting the iris color.`
Here is the eye texture taken from the picture above: !The
iris
**Alternatively**, you can create an image like this procedurally, using
the technique described here.
All that is required now is a bit of tweaking of the texture size using
the Xsize and Ysize values in the Map Input tab, and scaling the pupil
hole size in Edit mode. Also please remember to change \'Projection\' in
the map input settings from \'flat\' to \'cube\'. You can tweak the RGB
values and brightness/contrast of the image to achieve the appearance
you want. Use a smaller value for Hard (about 50) otherwise you\'ll have
a too shiny look instead of soft specular that fakes refracted light.
The Spec value depends on the energy and distance of the light that
illuminates it. Generally you\'ll need to take care that the refracted
light on the iris should be no more than half as bright as the small
specular spot on the cornea - otherwise you\'ll achieve the bad effect
of two specular spots. Oh, another important thing - join the four
meshes before tweaking the texture coordinates. Otherwise you\'ll have
to do the job twice after you join them, because the texture space is
changed. And activate shadeless button.
### Pupil
The material for the pupil is a simple black color with the
\"shadeless\" button on.
### Cornea
The cornea uses a transparent material (**alpha = 0.1**) with **Spec =
.6**, **Hard = 255** and **SpecTra = 1**. \"**Ztransp**\" should also be
turned on (found under Links and Pipelines tab). The cornea is simply a
piece that fits exactly in the middle of the hole in the eye white. Make
sure that the \'Traceable\' button, under Render Pipeline, in the Links
and Pipelines tab, is switched off.\
Noob note: It may be helpful to turn off Shadebuff since you don\'t
generally want the cornea to cast a shadow.
## Lighting
The lighting is simple - move the eye to a new layer, create a new lamp
and make the lamp affect only this layer. Position the lamp at a good
angle so you have a small shiny spot of specular light on one side of
the iris and a soft spot of \"refracted\" light on the other side. You
can use a backlight to prevent the eyeball from being too dark at the
non-illuminated part.
To move the newly created lamp to a new layer, press SHIFT+M and select
the second blue button and press OK.\
Note though that it is not mandatory to create a new layer; it\'s just
meant to prevent cluttering in your main workspace. It\'s completely
optional.
That\'s it! Now you\'re (almost) ready to start with character
animation. You have a nice eye, now you only need a character for it!
## Changing the Eye Color
You can change the color of the eye by either changing the cornea color,
or by changing the iris color itself. Changing the cornea color might be
like putting on colored contacts.
### Changing the Cornea Color
To change the cornea color, do the following:
1. In the mesh which is used to create Cornea set the value of the
alpha slider to 0.2 (or more if you desire)
2. Change the color of the mesh to whatever color you like
3. Turn off traceble\
4. Render!
(and remember to smooth out everything by selecting the particular mesh
going to edit buttons and clicking on set smooth)
Image:Blue eye created in Blender.jpg <File:Greeneyes(1).jpg>
Image:redeyes.jpg
### Changing the Iris Color
To change the iris color you can either edit the iris image external
from blender or you can modify the RGB values of the image when imported
into Blender.
!Setting the iris
color.
Image:Pixareyes-iris_blueeye.png Image:Pixareyes-iris_greeneye.png
Image:Pixareyes-iris_redeye.png
## Troubleshooting
### I don\'t know where is the \"SpecTra\" Value. I\'m working on 2.46.
You can find \"SpecTra\" under \"Mirror Transp\"
### My cornea isn\'t transparent. I don\'t know where Traceable is since I\'m using 2.6x
This applies to 2.6. Something that doesn\'t seem to be mentioned in
this tutorial (sorry if it is and I missed it) is the cornea\'s shadow
settings. If it casts a shadow, it will block out everything inside the
eye. So under the cornea\'s Material-\>Shadow settings uncheck the cast
box. Another option is to leave the cast box in your cornea on, and
change to shadow setting in your iris. Check the Receive Transparent,
and that works just as well.
## Useful Links
1. Ira Krakow\'s Blender 2.49 Pixar Eye
Tutorial
2. `<s>`{=html}For rigging an eyeball, (making it stay in one place
while turning to look at something) and other eyeball stuff, you can
visit this site. This tutorial assumes you already have the eyeball
made above or one of your own.
Click. 5jun2009,
the PDF shows no rigging, only creating an eyeball.
`</s>`{=html}(May 10th 2011, the site no longer exists.)
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Procedural Eyeball
|previous=Creating Pixar-looking eyes in Blender
}}
```
Level: intermediate\
**Building a better (procedural) eyeball!**\
Originally created by Jon McKay (Ammusionist) and posted on
blenderartists.org/forum\
1
The end result of this tutorial is an eyeball that fulfills the
following requirements:
1. Single mesh
- I wanted to be able to append a single object into any project.
2. Procedural Textures
- I didn\'t want to have to rely on image maps that could get
lost.
3. Versatile
- One single model to be used for any type of character, be it
human, alien or whatever.
4. Easy
- Any effects needed to be quickly accessible. I don\'t want to be
wasting time faffing around with colour-band settings at the
texture level
5. Impressive
- This sucker needs to look good any way it goes.
6. One other thing I really wanted was the iris musculature to follow
the pupil dilation!
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An old and different Tutorial:
1. Very old video for making deep-looking eyes
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKmHUZroaBA>
## Creating the Mesh
The objective here is to make a great looking eyeball. That means it may
not be anatomically perfect, but there are some things we need to take
into account: The eye should consist of a white (white bit with veins);
an iris (coloured bit); a pupil (black but in the centre of the iris)
and a cornea (clear bit surrounding the whole eye). These may not be
absolutely correct, but these are how I\'m referring to the pieces of
the eye.
1. Start with a ball: Go to a front view
() and create a UV sphere. 32 Rings
and 32 segments should be sufficient. It\'ll give us plenty of
smoothness and enough verts to work with when we create shapes.
2. Click on \"Align to view\"
3. This sphere will become the coloured parts of the eye, but we also
need a second sphere for the cornea. Use the
key to switch to a wireframe view (if
you\'re not already there). Hit the
key a couple of times to ensure all points are selected then
to duplicate the sphere.
4. Press key to scale and scale the
second sphere to slightly larger than the first. (Hint: Hold
while scaling for fine
adjustment) or you could also enter a value, 1.01.
5. Now that we have a nice confusing mesh, we\'re going to make our
life easier. We\'re going to hide the outer bit for the moment. Hit
the key.
6. **Noob Note:** Don\'t panic like I did the first time I accidentally
hit , you can bring it all back with
. (Note: In blender
+ some key often reverses the
effect of pressing the key in the first place!)
- OK Now to create the basic mesh for the inner part. Basically, we
need to make a concave iris/pupil section.
1. Make sure you're in Orthographic view.
2. Switch to a side view and use the Border Select
() to select the first 4 rings and the
tip. Now we\'re going to flatten these. Press
for scale
for Y axis only and
for scale-to zero.
For more realistic eyes you can also grab the inner 3 rings + the tip a
bit inwards the eye.
**Noob Note:** It is also possible to flatten the rings in a way that
leaves the last ring in place and moving the rings later is not
necessary. Before you flatten those 4 rings and the tip of the sphere
place your 3D cursor in the plane where the last ring involved in
scaling operation lies (use border select to select *only* the fourth
ring, press , and select \"Cursor to
Selected\"). Then set the pivot point to \"3D Cursor\". Finally proceed
like instructed above by selecting all rings to be flattened and scaling
them to 0 in Y direction. This time the outermost ring will stay in
place. Do not forget to set the pivot point back to the default option
\"Median Point\". You may return the 3D cursor to the center by pressing
.
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1. Last, grab them along the Y-axis to the eye till it\'s round again.
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\* Now for the cornea. It\'s not perfectly spherical; it bulges slightly
at the front. We\'re going to use the Proportional Editing tool.
1. First, we need to un-hide the cornea. Hit Alt-H to make it visible.
2. Click the O-Key, this will activate proportional editing, click on
\"Connected\" in the 3D view header at the settings for Proportional
editing.
3. Select the type of falloff: "Sphere Falloff"
4. Press A-Key a couple of times again to make sure no points are
selected, switch to a side view (Keypad-3) and right click just to
the left of the front-most point. We just want to select the tip
vertex.
5. Now comes some fun. We want to drag that point away from the eye in
the y axis, so press "G" for grab and "Y" for Y axis. As you move
the vertex, you\'ll see a circle that defines the influence of the
proportional editing. Adjust it so it is as the height of the whole
iris and drag it out until it looks right.
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\# First, switch off Proportional editing.
1. Select from center the tip and the first 4 Loops.
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\# Then Hit Ekey and Ykey then drag out a bit \'till it\'s good.
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\* To clean the model up, we\'re going to apply a subdivision surface
modifier and some smoothing.
1. Go to Modifiers in the Properties Header and hit new and choose
\"Subdivision Surface\" choose view: 2.
2. Hit Tab to switch to Object mode and hit the \"Set Smooth\" button
in the Link and Materials panel.
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- Now would be a good time to save your work before we go on to
textures.
## Adding the Textures
You\'re going to need multiple materials on this mesh. It\'s possible to
apply materials to selected faces.
1. Press A a couple of times to ensure nothing is selected.
2. Press Z to switch off wireframe; this will be easier without it.
3. Place the mouse pointer in the centre of one of the faces on the
outside layer of the eye and press "L" to select linked faces. If
you get a message saying "Nothing Indicated" try positioning the
pointer on a different face and try again.
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\# Once the outside section is selected, go to "Materials" in the
Properties Header, click "+". Click "Assign" to assign the outside faces
to Material.001.
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\* Now the inside.
1. Hide the outside faces (H-Key). We\'ll assign the rest from the eye.
If a face is already assigned to a material and you assign it to
another, it just switches material.
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\# Press A to select all and, as above, click "+" then click "Assign" so
it is assigned to Material.002.
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\* Now for the iris and pupil.
1. Hit A to deselect all.
2. Switch to a front view and zoom in. Hit "C" to enable circle select
and select the central faces plus one ring out. You can control the
size of the selector by rotating your mouse wheel.
3. Again, create a "+" material index and "Assign" the pupil faces to
it.
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\# Finally, click Akey to deselect all and use circle select again to
select the remaining faces on the iris. Assign them to a new material.
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\* Now we\'re ready to make the materials.
### Cornea Material
1. Switch to object mode (Tab). Go to Material.001.
We\'ll start with the simplest texture first. The cornea is basically
just colourless and transparent. This is because some lighting
conditions make the eye under the cornea difficult to see. Go to the
shading buttons (F5)
1. Locate the "Transparency" control. Set this on. This means as we go
we\'ll be able to see through the cornea. Note that we\'re using
Z-Transparency instead of Raytrace. And set Alpha to \".2\"
2. Diffuse at white and intensity is 0.1.
3. Under Specular CookTor is used 1 and Hardness is 333.
4. Under Mirror, Click on, and set to 0.4, Depth is 3
5. Unclick the \'Traceable\' setting under Options
6. And Under Shadow unclick \"Cast\"
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### White Material
The white of the eye\'s a little trickier. The material here includes
some red veins that can be seen at the side of the eye, but not from the
front. This can be done with two textures, but there\'s a cheat we can
use.
First, the veins:
Switch to Material.002.
Go to the texture Properties aside of the from the Material:
Make a new texture.
Use a marble texture, and copy these settings.
1. Under color choose Ramp.
2. The first point is \"0\": Pos=0; R=1, G=0.0, B=0.0; A=1;
3. Click on the second point, The second point is \"1\": Pos=0.340;
R=1, G=1, B=1; A=1;
4. Under the Marble tab: Sharper, Sin, and under \"noise\", hard are
clicked;
5. Size=2; NoiseDepth=10; Turbulence=26.04;
6. And set under mapping \"Coordinates\" to \"Generated\". And
\"projection\" to \"sphere\" or \"Flat\".
The two colour band items are shown here separately. This makes a nice
marble texture that will evenly cover the eyeball. So how to hide it
from the front of the ball? Another colour band trick, but this time in
the material itself.
Here they are in all their glory.
1. Under the material tab, Diffuse is white and intensity is 1;
2. Check Ramp, 0: Pos=0.533; R=1, G=1, B=1; A=0; Input is Shader;
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
1. 1: Pos=0.544; R=1, G=1, B=1; A=1; Input is Normal;
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The colour band items are both white with one alpha 0.0 and one alpha
1.0. As you can see they are very close together to give a fairly clear
line that the veins will stop at. The input setting for the band is set
to "Normal" this means the left hand side of the band refers to faces
that are parallel to the camera view and the right is faces that are
facing directly towards the camera.
There\'s also some colour band fun to be had with the pupil material.
### Pupil Material
I wanted a nice black texture, but I also wanted to get a red-eye effect
if a light is shone directly at it from behind the camera. Why? I guess
just because I can, and now so can you!
As before move to Material.003.
There are no textures in this one. It\'s basically black and a little
reflective with a nice hard specular.
1. Diffuse is Black, presumably with an Intensity of 1
2. Specular is white with an Intensity of 0.6 and a Hardness of 300;
3. Under Mirror reflectivity is 0.1;
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If you want to have the red-eye effect, have a good look at the colour
band settings though! (Not Necessary, and maybe not wanted by everyone)
1. Check Ramp.
2. 0: Pos=0.970; R=0, G=0, B=0, A=0;
3. The second is fully red (with no blue or green). We want the red-eye
to respond to light not angle like the white of the eye.
4. 1: Pos=1; R=1, G=0, B=0, A=1; Input: Energy;
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Now the bit you\'ve all been waiting for -- the iris!
### Iris UV Map
Save your work and grab a cup of coffee for this part. It\'s a little
involved.
We need the texture to stay glued to the mesh irrespective of the shape
of the mesh. This gives the effect of the muscles in the iris expanding
and contracting. In a nutshell, we\'re going to UV map a procedural
texture to a single part of the mesh.
OK, here we go. Switch material.004. You\'ll need to be able to see both
3D view and UV/Image editor. This can be achieved by splitting windows,
if you don\'t know anymore how to do this read
again. Noob
note: If you rendered the image of the eye you will see the rendered
image, we want an empty grid. So click the \"X\" in the Datablock
(Image) choose-section in the UV/Image editor Header.
{width="810"
height="10"}\
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Make sure the window is displaying a front view (Keypad-1) this will be
important when we unwrap the bit we\'re going to use.
Change the 3D view to edit mode en Face select mode.
1. Hide the outside (cornea) as done before.
2. Go to Material.004 and click on \"Select\" right of \"Assign\", this
will select the to the material assigned faces. We will unwrap the
faces to place our texture.
- You can use these properties for the iris material:
1. Diffuse: black but with an intensity of 1
2. Specular: Intensity: 0
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\# Now search in the tool shelf for the Shading/UV\'s tab, you will find
there the \"Unwrap\" button under \"UVs\".
1. Click it and select \"Unwrap\". The unwrap tool, is a tool which you
can position a texture. You can allocate the places in the texture
to the mesh by positioning the unwrapped faces in a grid. The
texture can be an image or another texture and will be used at the
places, that are described in the unwrapped image in the \"UV/Image
editor\"
2. Zoom in \'till it\'s placed exactly to the outer edge the \"UV/image
editor\" window.
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\# The image window should now contain a nice even circle of dots. If
they aren\'t selected anymore, put the cursor in the \"UV/Image editor\"
and press "A" to select all the points. Now select each ring in turn
using Alt-Shift, starting from the innermost, and scale them until they
cover from the centre to the outside of the image grid as shown. (This
won\'t affect the mesh)
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Now we\'ve got a map, lets get a texture. In the 3D view \"Tab\" to
object mode for the next part. If the UV/Image editor is in your way you
can merge the two windows. If you don\'t know anymore how to do this
read again.
### Iris Texture
Firstly, a texture to control the colour blend across the iris.
Generally it starts on the outer edge dark and gets lighter as it moves
to the centre. Sounds like a job for the blend texture.
1. Create a new texture for Material.004 at the Texture Properties in
the Properties Header. It will be called \"Texture.001\".
2. Change Type to Blend.
3. create a second texture with type: Clouds
The texture itself is fairly straight forward, but again, the colour
band is where the magic happens.
There are two stops in the colour band. Note the alpha values. This
blend texture is meant to tint the iris texture so it\'s lighter in the
centre and darker in the outside.
We make a Blend texture and a clouds texture (yes clouds)
Now for that iris texture:
Blend texture:
The blend texture is applied to the UV map input. The green colour is
used as a lighten mix to tint the iris near the centre.
1. Select Ramp,
2. (Blue) 0: pos: 0, play with the color settings and set alpha to 1
3. (Green) 1: pos: 0.009, play with the color settings and set alpha to
0.89
4. set progression to Spherical
5. Set mapping to Coordinates: UV, Projection: Flat
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Now you\'ve got color
Clouds texture:
The colour band points are black with alpha 0 and white with alpha 1.
1. 0: pos: 0, black with alpha: 0
2. 1: pos: 0.737, black with alpha: 1
3. Under Clouds: Grayscale, Noise: Hard
4. size: 0.4, depth: 2
5. here is (together with the UV mapping) the magic of the lines:
Mapping Coordinates: UV, Projection: Flat
6. **Important:** Size X: 0.01, Y: 5
7. Under influence - Geometry - Normal: 1
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This texture is applied to UV again and. This makes some small shadows
in the iris when the light is from the side. Add some lights and have a
look at your eyeball so far.
## Pupil Dilation
We\'re going to use shape keys to create the pupil effects.
We\'re going to create a normal eye and a cat\'s eye. Fortunately, the
fully dilated eye is the same in both cases so that\'s going to be our
shape key basis.
**Noob Note:** note that you can only set a \"Shape key\" in object
mode.
1. Go to Object Mode and go to the \"Shape Keys\" properties in the
\"Object data\" (The triangle one) context in the \"properties\"
header.
2. Click "Add Shape Key" to create the \"basis\".
3. Make 3 extra Shape keys. (Don\'t make a shape key after editing,
because you will change the previous keyframe and that is not the
intention)
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\# Go to \"edit mode\" and click on Shape Key 1.
1. Use circle select, Alt+Shift of de Select button in Material to
select just the first 2 loops en the tip (pupil) in vertex select
mode.
2. Now scale this to the next loop, select the latter and scale to just
before the edge of the iris (This gives a very wide pupil). It has
to be as wide as possible because you can adjust how wide you want
it in the shape key section. It is just a maximum so you can simply
make an animation.
3. Change the name to "Wide Pupil Contract"
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shape key 2). Call it (Little Pupil).
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Use the value slider in \"Object mode\", also set Viewport shading to
Rendered (so you can see how it will be when rendered), To increase the
shape of the pupil with \"Wide pupil Contract\" and make it smaller with
\"Little pupil\" you can use them at the same time also (and much more
if preferred).
Now switch back to object mode and try the shape key sliders out. Pretty
neat huh?
1. Let\'s make a cat\'s eye now. Change the name of Shape Key 3 to
-"Cat Pupil".
2. Use the same method as before to scale the edge loops. As you scale,
restrict your scaling to the X axis (That is "S" then "X"). You
should end up with a shape key tiny but medium long.
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That\'s pretty much it. Try some other things to practise with this.
Set the Camera and lightning.
Note: Due to the settings you\'ve done in the material of the white of
the eye, you have to position the camera in front of the eye. Because
the white of the eye that overrules the vein-texture is a white spot in
the middle of the camera and that has to be placed in the middle of the
eye around the iris.
Don\'t forget to save -- and enjoy!
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# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Putting It All Together: A Dragon!
|next=Image Editor
|nextText=The UV/Image Editor
}}
```
# Putting it all Together: A Dragon!
I downloaded Blender without knowing much about how to use it, probably
like you. I hunted around for a good tutorial and found this one. It is
teaching me wonderful things! I have diligently followed every lesson
from the beginning, as I hope you have. Every lesson seems to contain
some valuable technique. So now it is time to put it all together into a
single project.
Hopefully, you now know
- How to add objects, move and rotate them, scale them in various
dimensions, and change their shape.
- How to use proportional editing to change them even more.
- How to parent, join and separate objects.
- How to use materials and textures.
- How to use images in materials.
- How to use basic lights.
- How to use modifiers including subsurf and array.
- Basic use of curves
- It will help if you know how to use a photo editor such as GIMP to
produce seamless textures
This project will build on all that background. Since all those things
have been covered before, this will not be a key-by-key tutorial but
rather a description of the general steps to take to make the finished
scene. \_\_TOC\_\_
## Modeling from the Image
!300 px\|left\|Komodo
Dragon.jpg "300 px|left|Komodo Dragon") !Using
cubes to model the
dragon{width="300"}
!200 px\|left\|The basic body
smoothed. It
happens that the Komodo Dragon is one of my favorite creatures. Let us
start with that and let our imagination run wild. In the lesson on
**Modeling a Fox from Guide
Images**
we learned how to make a beautiful 3 dimensional wolf from an image.
(Yes, I know. The fox turned into a wolf. If you did that lesson you
understand.) Here is a nice picture of a Komodo Dragon by wallygrom from
Creative Commons with a
proper license. We can then set that picture as a background image and
apply the technique of starting with a cube and scaling it, extruding
it, scaling again and so on. We only have one view, so our imagination
and application of other pictures has to help with the top and end
views, and we have to add a nice long tail. As you build your cubes keep
in mind that you will have to create faces and extrude the legs so place
a well sized face at the proper spot.
We will use the techniques we learned to split faces and add the legs.
Be sure to provide a nice mouth to put teeth in later, and pay
particular attention to modeling the claws. I modeled one entire foot
and then duplicated it three times to have them all, and joined each one
to the body at the appropriate spot.
Once you have outlined the dragon with the cubes, remember what we
learned in **Smoothing Your Simple
Person**
and apply subsurf modifier and smooth the entire thing. You can then
push and pull on vertices to help make it look as good as possible. I
wanted to try to maintain the look of an ordinary creature and stay
close to my Komodo Dragon, rather than a huge fierce beast to take on
St. George.
## Setting the Body Materials and Textures
Use what we learned in **Image
Textures** to give
the dragon his scales. The most used technique in this tutorial is:
- Search Flicker Creative
Commons for a
properly licensed picture that has a good material in it. If you use
Google or some other search, be sure that the picture you get is
properly licensed if you plan to share the image.
- If your image is NOT a single seamless texture, use photo editing
software (such as GIMP) to produce a usable seamless file.
- Load the image into GIMP. Crop it to a reasonable size showing a
relatively uniform texture.
- Choose *Filters \> Map \> Make Seamless*. Other photo editors
will usually have a similar operation.
- Save the image with a suitable file name.
- Add a material and a texture using the image. Adjust the settings as
needed to look good.
- If you are following my steps, I have put all the textures in this
article for you to copy if you wish. Click on the thumbnail image
and go to the Wiki page from which you can download.
!266 px\|Fantasy Dragon Skin seamless
textureYou
can just select a rectangular swatch of skin from the picture and use
GIMP to make it seamless. But Komodo Dragons are a depressing color. For
a fantasy creature we need a brighter skin! So you can play with GIMP
Colorizer until you have a suitably colored swatch. I used red and gold,
but use your imagination! This becomes the first material and texture
for the dragon\'s body. It will probably be necessary to repeat the
image several times in both the X and Y directions. I used X:6 and Y:2
in this particular case.
## Adding the Eyes
thumb\|300 px\|left\|The first
rendering.The dragon needs suitably
scary eyes. Hopefully you have already modeled eyes for the
**Procedural
Eyeball**
tutorial. I chose the cat\'s eye. In **Some Assembly
Required**
we learned how to append a file. Append the Cat\'s Eye, and then work on
the color textures until you have a suitably scary dragon eye. Then
duplicate it and put one eye on each side of the dragon\'s head. I
joined the eyes to the body, but you can also just parent them if you
are careful. You will notice in later renderings that I kept playing
with the eye color and position.
## A Dragon Needs Teeth and Claws
thumb\|300 px\|left\|Assigning texture to the
clawsthumb\|100 px\|right\|Four rows
of Teeth Using the technique from
**Multiple Materials per
Object**
, isolate the claws and give them a nice shiny black material. Too much
Specularity will make the claws look like plastic, too little will make
them dull and uninteresting. I added just a little bit of Mirror also.
It will be something to experiment with until you get the look you like.
Click on the picture to enlarge it and see the setting I settled on.
Remember that you have to select the area of the mesh and ASSIGN it to
the material or you will wind up with a dragon that is black all over!
(That is the voice of sad experience speaking).
A dragon needs teeth. A lot of teeth! Modeling all those teeth would be
a big job. Fortunately we learned how to use array modifiers in
**Building a
House**. Add a
cone, scale it down very small, and extrude some more parts so you can
shape it into a nice curve. When you have a beautifully sharp tooth, add
the Array modifier and make it into a whole row of sharp teeth. Then
duplicate the whole thing three times, rotate it around as needed, and
you will have four rows of teeth, enough for both jaws. This is why we
left the mouth open when we made the original model.
## Horns, a Crest, and Nostrils
thumb\|left\|300 px\|Using the Curve
Modifierthumb\|right\|200 px\|The
color settings for the
hornsthumb\|left\|100
px\|NostrilsLets give the beast some
horns. Here we can use what we learned in **Deforming Meshes using the
Curve
Modifier**
to make some gracefully curved horns. Just as in that lesson, add a cone
and extrude segments to give a lot of vertices. Then create your Bézier
Curve and set it as a modifier to the horn mesh. Properly done your horn
will mold itself to the shape of the curve. Duplicate it and rotate it
to fit the other side of the head and put them in place.
Animal horns are some of the most beautiful structures in nature. We
should make a particularly pretty material for them. We can use the
blending colorband as in the tutorial **Basic Carpet
Texture**,
updating it a bit for 2.69, to give the horns a nice color appearance.
Then add **Subsurface
Scattering**
as taught in that tutorial, with a lot of experimenting, until you get a
really beautiful appearance. The settings I used are in the picture but
it is fun to try different things.
An impressive crest should dominate the dragon\'s back. I found a
picture of a basilisk lizard and used it as a background model for the
crest. The Crest texture was produced in GIMP exactly the same way as
the dragon skin texture.
Reptile nostrils are sort of nondescript, so lets make some nice
nostrils like a snorting bull might have. You can use the technique from
**Spin a goblet** to
model one nostril, then duplicate it, rotate the pair until they look
fierce, and give them a nice color like the dark red brown I picked.
Then put them in place and parent them to the body.
Now you can render your dragon and see the basic body shape, but
something is missing. What is it?!400 px\|Teeth, Claws, Crest and
Horns
## Giving the Dragon Wings
!200 px\|An attempt at
wings.
The wings were the hardest part, because we have not had many tutorials
in this series that dealt with the problems involved. I started with a
cylinder object and went from there, joining other cylinders to it, and
then selecting edges and using to
create faces. There may be other better ways to do it. I wanted the wing
sail parts to be semi transparent and give an appearance of shimmering
colors. Experimenting with the transparency and the materials as seen in
the screenshot gave me some I liked pretty well. I am not completely
satisfied with it but perhaps it is the best that can be done with the
tools we have so far learned. Joining the wings to the body seemed to
produce some distortions so I just parented both of them to the body
object.
Now there is just one more thing that a perfect dragon needs.
## FIRE!
thumb\|right\|300 px\|Settings for
flames!273 px\|Seamless flame
materialthumb\|left\|100
px\|Scaling the cylinders
thumb\|left\|100 px\|Distorting the
cylinders Everybody knows that
dragons breathe fire. It seems that there are many different ways to do
flames in Blender. However, I am attempting to use methods covered so
far in this tutorial series, so I wanted to experiment and see what
could be done with just what we have learned. I came up with something
reasonably close to flame breath using basic techniques. I started with
a series of cylinder objects, scaled at one end until they are almost
cones, and then stacking them inside each other. I used the proportional
editing that we learned about in **Mountains Out Of
Molehills**
to pull and stretch into some more or less random shapes. I found the
flame picture and turned it into a seamless material swatch. Then I
wrapped it around my cones and began playing with the settings for
transparency, and added an Emit setting just to see how it looked. (If
you want to jump ahead refer to Making
Fire in the next
section of this series.)
## Ground to Stand on
thumb\|left\|273 px\|seamless lava
texturethumb\|right\|300
px\|seamless grass textureNow it
is time to complete the scene by giving him something to stand on. Since
his front feet are raised, put in a sort of lava flow for him. That
seems appropriate for a dragon. Try Adding a series of cubes. Stack them
up and pull them out of shape with proportional editing. Add a subsurf
modifier, and then the set the lava rock as an image texture. Again I
made a seamless material out of a photo.
Then create a plane and again use the proportional editor to make some
nice hills. A seamless green grass texture repeated multiple times
completed the ground.
## Lighting
!100 px\|The No Shadow
settingSo far the
lighting has just been the default point light. I think it is a bit more
dramatic to use the Sun style of lamp. As we learned in **Light a
Silver
Goblet** go
to *Add\>Lamp\>Sun* and place a sun type lamp rather high in the sky.
You will notice that now you get two overlapping shadows, one from the
Sun and one from the default point lamp. You could just delete the point
lamp, but, to advance beyond what has already been covered, it is useful
as fill lighting. You can select the point lamp, go to the properties
panel and click on the light
icon.
Scroll down to Shadow and click No Shadow and the point light becomes a
fill light. Setting the horizon color in the world panel
 is
the last step to produce this scene.
# THE FINAL RESULT
thumb\|center\|700 px\|The Final
Result
I think it nicely combines pretty much all I have learned about Blender
so far in the tutorial! If you want to try your hand at a project, it is
not as hard as you might think. You and I have really learned a lot by
going through the first two sections of**Blender 3D:Noob to Pro**. I
thank all the authors who have worked hard to bring us to this point.
I challenge you to show off what you can do with your newly acquired
knowledge and put your finished work up here. It will probably be a lot
better than mine.
# Noob Project No.02 - Space Dragon in Space
First off, thanks for creating this page! What a wonderful idea to
include all the good readers in a final project! This is what openness
is all about, and this wiki platform is the perfect place to be doing
it. Also, huge thanks to whoever originally wrote this tutorial. Whoever
you are, nameless stranger, you\'re doing excellent work.
thumb\|right\|300 px\|A Quick
Sketch
Moving on, I knew I wanted my dragon to live in space and shoot lasers,
so the first thing I did was sketch him out so I had some sort of plan
before beginning the tedious busy-work.
I think this is technically called a \"wyvern.\" Anyway, with this
general idea in mind, I began extruding a cube to bound out the basic
shape, keeping in mind how it\'s internal skeleton would look and behave
(if dragons were real of course) The wing hand and knuckle bits were
kind of tricky. For those, I extruded a long rectangle for the arm, and
added a few loop-cuts at the end, which i extruded into fingers. Tricky
and finicky. thumb\|left\|250 px\|He looks like a chestburster with
wings. There\'s probably a better
way to do this. While editing, I recommend using a mirror modifier, but
be careful of vertices on the negative side of your mirror. Best thing
to do would be cut your model in half along its axis of symmetry and
then apply the mirror. Otherwise, vertices can show up on the positive
side where you don\'t notice them until you\'re almost done modeling.
Have fun cleaning that up\... I did. **Select \> Select All by Trait
\>** helps a lot with this, and as always, remember to remove doubles
every now and then! After several hours, here\'s the basic, blocky model
of a wyvern I made.
Next I made some teeth. Cone with 3 verts \> Curve modifier \> Array x
37 thumb\|left\|200 px \|What a pretty
smile! Now, those teeth look a
little small, and I suppose 37 rows of teeth is a little much for
anyone, even if their mouth is 4.76 meters long. Next time, I\'ll
probably give him less teeth, and just make them all a little bigger.
I wanted to make a U/V map and draw some real nice textures on this
thing, but we hadn\'t gotten there in the tutorial yet, and I figured
I\'d follow the precedent. Besides, I don\'t properly know how to do one
anyway. So I opened up the GIMP and drew some neat looking scale
textures. Actually, first, I looked up scales on Wikipedia (and learned
that scales grow from the epidermis and are weaker than *scutes*, which
grow from the deeper dermis, and so are more durable, among other
differences. It\'s cool stuff, for sure.) So I pulled up some images of
scutes from the internet, and I got to work. I made my textures super
low resolution (32x32 I think) cause I wanted that retro/late-90s
rendering look. Haven\'t you heard? It\'s all the rage these days! It
also helps with rendering times on my craptop computer. Just check out
this YouTube
playlist
I was listening to while I made it. thumb\|left\|350 px\|Now with
textures and materials! \...and 90% less
sugar
Of course that strange position he\'s in looks uncomfortable, not to
mention it would probably make for a unexciting rendering. So I gave him
some bones for him to orient into a more natural position with. The
toughest thing about making an armature has got to be symmetry. At its
very best, it\'s tedious. At its worst, it\'s torture. I know there\'s a
way to edit armatures with a mirror modifier in blender, but I couldn\'t
find it, and anyway, I finished up alright. A thing to note: If you\'ve
gotten pretty far along and you find you need to delete a bone in the
middle of your armature, you can rejoin the ends by selecting them and
hitting **Ctrl + P \> Connected** To keep your armature in the same
position, reposition the ends with cursor to selected then selected to
cursor. thumb\|right\|250 px\|Now he\'s got some bones on that
meat!
Next, I wanted him to shoot lasers out of his mouth instead of fire,
cause ya know\... He\'s in space. So I opened up the GIMP again and made
a texture to wrap around a tube that would be the beam.
thumb\|left\|250 px\|That didn\'t come out
right\... Lots
of lightning and sparks everywhere\... It was cool. The beam itself was
a tube with a blue material on it---full emit, can\'t receive shadows,
slightly transparent, and full translucency. I slapped my texture on and
put the tube in the beast\'s mouth. I duplicated that tube with **Alt +
D** and shrunk it a little on its local !Z axis (**Shift + D**) so it
would shine through. Inside the dragon\'s mouth and down the length of
the tube i stuck a few point lights with the energy turned up to 11.
Actually it only goes to 10. Maybe those guys at blender should fix
that.
To get the beautiful starfield you see in the background I went into the
GIMP, filters \> noise \> hurl (what a great name for this thing btw),
and desaturated the picture with colors \> desaturate. Yep. Simple as
that. There\'s probably something you can do right from Blender with
procedural textures, but either way, sky texture! getting it to show up
in the view took me some searching. I didn\'t remember how we\'d done it
from earlier in the tutorial. Anyway that sort of repetition helps the
memory.
center\|AAAAAAHHHHH!!
**`<big>`{=html}`<big>`{=html}`<big>`{=html}`<big>`{=html}`<big>`{=html}AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!`</big>`{=html}`</big>`{=html}`</big>`{=html}`</big>`{=html}`</big>`{=html}**
### Add your project below this line
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Image Editor
Blender's UV/Image Editor window serves a number of related purposes:
- It is a place to view rendered images, and save them to files.
- It is a place to view and edit images being used as textures.
- It is a place to perform *UV mapping* of meshes to texture images.
In the window header, you will see "View" and "Image" menus, followed by
a menu for choosing which image to view. The rest of the window header
varies depending on your choice from this last menu.
## Viewing Render Results
Here is what the variable part of the window header looks like when you
choose the special "Render Result" entry in the image-selection menu.
The next menu, showing the word "View", serves no useful purpose in this
case (it is only applicable to editable images, not the render result).
Next to that is a Slot menu, allowing you to select from any of 8
numbered slots. Each slot can hold a separate Render Result image. This
is handy for trying out different render settings (e.g. quality etc),
and quickly flip between them for comparison. You can also use the
keyboard shortcuts ..
to switch slots. When you perform a
render, the generated image is put into the slot you are currently
viewing in the UV/Image Editor.
The next two menus, showing "RenderLayer" and "Combined" in the above
screenshot, allow you to view different render layers and render passes,
if you have more than one of these configured in the render settings, as
well as the final compositor result.
The rightmost group of four icons make a further breakdown of the image
into RGB channels with/without alpha transparency layer, alpha on its
own, and Z (depth) buffer on its own. Alpha transparency only matters if
you are rendering a transparent background in place of the sky, as
discussed later.
## Viewing/Editing Texture Images
Here is what the variable part of the window header looks like when you
select some other image, or create a new one. Now the editing-context
menu
becomes useful: selecting the "Paint" item lets you paint on the image.
Note the rightmost group of icons in the header has shrunk slightly:
there is no more Z-buffer option, though the alpha-related options still
exist.
## UV Mapping
Here is what the variable part of the window header looks like when you
select a texture image, and go into Edit mode on a mesh in the 3D View
window.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/UV Map Basics
|previous=Image Editor
|previousText=The UV/Image Editor
}}
```
UV mapping is a technique used to \"wrap\" a 2D image texture onto a 3D
mesh. \"U\" and \"V\" are the names of the axes of a plane, since \"X\",
\"Y\" and \"Z\" are used for the coordinates in the 3D space. For
example: increasing your \"V\" on a sphere might move you along a
longitude line (north or south), while increasing your \"U\" might move
you along a line of latitude (east or west).
Another explanation can be gleaned from the Blender manual. Imagine a
paper 3D model of an object, e.g. a sphere, that is to be laid flat on a
table. Each of the 3D coordinates of the sphere can be mapped to the 2D
coordinate on the flat piece of paper. Blender provides another view of
the vertices (coordinates) in the UV/Image Editor. You can select and
edit these 2D vertices just like in the 3D Editor window. The purpose of
this unwrapping of the coordinates is just to map these coordinates to
images/pictures so that the 3D image can have a realistic looking
surface with textures derived from these images.
## The Basics of UV Mapping
##### Add a sphere
We\'ll use a sphere for this demonstration. Delete the initial cube
( + X ). Then, create a new model, a
sphere (**** → Add → Mesh → UV
Sphere). Leave the settings at default for now.
{width="300"}
##### Mark a UV seam
In edit mode, select a ring of vertices around the widest part of the
sphere (the equator, if you will). This can be done easily by holding
down and left-clicking on the
\'equator\'.
Press and select *Mark Seam*, or
select *Mesh* → *Edges* → *Mark Seam*. This tells the UV unwrapper to
cut the mesh along these edges.
{width="300"}
##### Unwrap the mesh
Next, create a window for the UV mapping: click and drag left the small
lined area in the top right corner of the 3D window, a new window will
be created. Set its window type to \"UV/Image Editor\" with the drop
down box at the bottom left corner of the new window or with
.
{width="600"}
In the 3D View window, select all your vertices by pressing
, and press
→ *Unwrap*. In the UV/Image editor you
should see all the vertices/faces/edges of the model represented, or
\'mapped\', in 2D space.
If you don\'t see anything, you need to select UV Editing from the
Screen Layout dropdown in the UV/Image editor window.
{width="400"}
##### Apply an image
Now we\'re going to actually use this UV map. Save the following image
(click to view in full high resolution (4,096 × 2,048 pixels)):
{width="500"}
Load it in the UV/Image Editor window by clicking *Image* → *Open Image*
or by pressing . Then with the grab,
rotate and scale tools, adjust the UV islands (the UV groups that
aren\'t connected to each other) so that it fits nicely on top of the
image as shown. To select a UV island, hover the mouse over the island
and press a vertex and .
*Note: Since the aspect ratio of the image will warp the UV\'s, it may
be easier to simply re-unwrap the mesh exactly the same way you did
before. You can then adjust the UV\'s as needed.*
If you have issues fitting to the image use X and Y letters after
pressing S. This will adjust the shape to fit the image.
\[S\]cale, \[R\]otate, \[G\]rab, \[B\]order selection, \[A\]
Select/Deselect all
{width="600"}
##### Admire your new creation
Back in the 3D View window, go into Object mode. The next drop-down menu
to the right of the mode menu is the Viewport Shading (Draw Type) menu;
use it to set the Viewport Shading to Texture. Note that parts of the
model will be shadowed and other parts illuminated based on the location
of the lights in your scene. Try adding more lights and moving them
around so you see the model more clearly, and try to use this lighting
preview to \'Rough\' your lights. (you can add more lights Shift-A-Lamp
and right click lamp to move to where light is needed)
To make the texture visible in renderings, you also need to add the
texture to the sphere as a new material. In the Properties window,
switch to the Material context by clicking the small shaded-sphere
button. Create a new material by pressing the *New* button, leave the
settings as they are for now; then switch to the Texture context. Create
a new texture and select the type to be \'Image or Movie\'. Select the
globe texture from the dropdown menu.
{width="150"}\
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Then go to the mapping menu and set the Coordinates to \'UV\' and the
\'Map\' to \'UVMap\', leave the projection at \'Flat\'. This will make
use of the UV\'s we unwrapped earlier. To make the globe a bit smoother,
switch to the Modifier context in the Properties window and add a
subsurf modifier; set the number of subdivisions to 2. Then press
, if you had no Tool-shelf, in the 3D
viewport and select \'Smooth\' under the shading options. This will make
the globe far smoother and more realistic.
Now, simply press to render your scene!
Note that in the above render I\'ve changed the lighting and the camera
position to make the image more interesting. I also added a star
background, you can find the settings for this in the World context (a
pretty relevant coincidence) in the Properties window and the texture
settings for the World.
Go to the **World** properties and check both **Blend Sky** and **Real
Sky**, set all 3 colours (Horizon, Zenith, Ambient) to **black**. Go to
**Texture** settings and if you weren\'t already there, click on the
**World** texture settings (upper left globe icon) and set the type to
**Voronoi**. Scroll down to **Colors** panel and check **Ramp** and give
Color Stop 0 a white color and an alpha of 1 and Color Stop 1 a black
color and alpha of 0. Now some will happen magic: set **Distance
Metric** to **Minkowski 1/2**, in **Noise** section set size to **.002**
and set 2 of Feature Weights at around .5. Finally, in **Influence**
panel, check **Horizon**, **Zenith Up** and **Zenith Down**. That will
do the trick. In some older versions there was a standard option for
this but it has \"disappeared\".
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## Alternative method
If you looked around the textured globe we just made, you would have
noticed that around the \'equator\' there were lines, or \'seams\',
where the two UV islands met. This is a common problem with UV mapping
and there are a couple of ways to avoid it. In our case, since we\'re
using a sphere, the best way to remove the seams is to use spherical
mapping.
First download one of the textures from this link:
<http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/BlueMarble/BlueMarble_2002.php>.
Then use this texture for your globe instead of the one we first
downloaded.
Go into edit mode, and select all the vertices of sphere. Press
→ *Sphere Projection*. If you\'ve got the
UV/Image editor open you should see a very different UV map, as shown
below. Note that only the \'Unwrap\' option will use the seams we just
made, all of the other options completely ignore it.
You can also try, especially handy when you use a more detailed map in
the place of the seam: First unwrap with cube projection and then with
sphere projection. It\'s now a square like UV.
{width="450"}
Now lets make the UVs fit more evenly over the texture. In the UV/Image
editor, press *UVs* → *Constrain to Image Bounds*. This will make sure
that during editing none of the UVs will go over the bounds of the
texture; if they did, it would cause the texture to repeat itself in the
area of the UVs outside the bounds.
Now select all the UVs with and scale
them up till it is stopped by the image bounds. In my case, there is one
vertex in the top-right corner, and a few in the bottom-right corner
that are quite distant from the rest of the UVs; to fix this, I simply
selected those vertices and moved them closer to the rest of the UVs.
{width="400"}
Now simply scale all the UVs by the X axis until the UVs stretch over
all of the image. Doing this is exactly the same as scaling in the 3D
viewport, press and
, then drag the mouse.
Now rerender your model, and you will see that there are no seams! You
can also use an image with clouds. if you render this you will see
seams. you can fake this away a bit by making the diffuse at material
sea-blue by using the color picker after rendering the first render (If
it looks good it is good).
{width="450"}
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Realistic Eyes In Blender
|previous=UV Map Basics
}}
```
Note: Some pictures are outdated.
## Overview
**NOTE: this tutorial is incomplete!**
This tutorial will teach you how to effectively utilize textures and
materials in Blender to create realistic eyes for characters. This
tutorial will not teach you how to finish the eye. Because you did
already learn that in previous tutorials. This tutorial was inspired by
a great Maya tutorial in the Gnomon Workshop series by Alex Alvarez. My
goal with this tutorial is to teach you how to get those same stunning
results using Blender. Please check out Alex\' tutorial as well, as it
is very informative and covers more detail than I will be covering here.
This tutorial assumes you know your way around the Blender interface and
so I will not explain each key command as I go, but will instruct you in
what steps to take and point out details such as key commands only when
it seems relevant to do so. In addition, you will need some sort of
image manipulation software, as this tutorial relies heavily on
image-based textures, which we will be preparing outside of Blender. I
will be using GIMP, but feel free to use Photoshop or whatever you\'re
comfortable with.
1. The 4 original Maya tutorials in video format
<http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/category/167/Free-Maya-Tutorials>
OK, let\'s dig in\...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
## Reference Material
Let\'s Take a moment to familiarize ourselves with the anatomy of the
human eye. Do a Google image search and examine whichever diagram is to
your liking. Now, you don\'t have to pay attention to every single
feature, but do take note of the **cornea**, the **iris**, the
**pupil**, and the **sclera**. These are the only parts that are visible
to us when we look at a person\'s eyes, and therefore the only parts we
will actually need to create. Many of the diagrams you find out there
will be disproportionate, and so in order to know how large to make our
features in relation to one another, it is best to view a large number
of diagrams, a large number of eye photos, and also photos of plastic
models of the eye, as plastic models tend to be truer to scale than 2D
drawings. I also found a photo of a guy popping his eyes half-way out of
his head. All of these together gave me a good feel for what the
appropriate proportions are for a human eyeball. To some extent though,
cornea size and sclera shape will vary on a person-to-person basis, so
there is no precisely correct size, per se.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
## Building The Eye
Creating a UV sphere. 24 segments, 24 rings, and a radius of 1 is
recommended. The top of the UV sphere will become the cornea of the eye.
So now let\'s go into **side view**, in the **orthographic** view, and
with the topmost vertex selected and **proportional falloff** enabled,
**grab** and raise this vertex along the **Z axis**. Don\'t click to
finalize the edit just yet - first we will use the **mouse wheel** to
control how much falloff is going to be applied. This process can
require some finesse and multiple adjustments until the bump of the
cornea is anatomically correct. You will want to set the falloff shape
to \"**sphere**\". You can also make 2 balls, like in the Pocedural
eyeball tutorial, and let the iris bend inwards of the inner ball.
If you like you can use a Torus for the iris, this is difficult but fun
to play with.
Below is a render of the curve I ended up going with. You can use it as
a guide when modeling if it helps you. *This is with a SubSurf of 3
applied*, so keep that in mind.
Now, some people may prefer to use a NURBS sphere for the geometry of
their eyeball. If you are comfortable with NURBS modeling, and texturing
NURBS models, go right ahead. It will give you a smoother and more
rounded eyeball. I prefer not to complicate things with NURBS when polys
will do just fine, and am guessing most of you feel the same, so I\'m
sticking with polys. This does however bring us to the topic of the
SubSurface modifier and how it will affect your eyeball. When SubSurf is
applied to a UV sphere such as our own, it causes the previously
spherical shape to become slightly oblong. In other words, the eye will
become nearsighted. This is barely noticeable, but it does happen, as a
result of the way SubSurfing affects a UV sphere. You could create a UV
sphere with more rings to ease this if it bothers you. It looks fine for
our purposes though, to be honest. See the comparison in the animated
GIF below.
There is one last issue to address with regard to using a polygon-based
eyeball. That is the small triangles that persist on the poles of the
eyeball. These stubborn tris will remain and you will find that they
result in an ugly and unnatural pinched effect when a specular highlight
appears over the center of the cornea. Adding a SubSurface modifier will
not make them go away. This didn\'t become apparent until after I did
some texturing work and test renders, but I want to point it out to you
now, before we get into all that. (See examples below)
Now repeat this process at the opposite pole of the eye (the optic nerve
area).
We are now ready to begin texturing the eyeball.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
## UV Mapping
In **Edit Mode**, we will define the seams for our eye. Select the edges
you want to mark as seams and type **Ctrl E**, then choose **Mark Seam**
from the menu.
With all of your mesh selected, type **U** to unwrap. We can now see our
unwrapped UV layout in the **UV/Image Editor** window. (For older
versions of Blender, you might need to select **UV Face Select** mode to
unwrap, but it\'s better if you download the latest.)
We will make the iris on another mesh so don\'t spent time on the cornea
UV island.
Those two islands we see are the cornea and optic nerve area. We can
move them out of our way by selecting any vertex on them and typing
**L** to select all linked vertices. Then **G** to grab as usual.
**Grab** and move your straightened column of verts over to the left.
Constraining to the X axis, by typing the \"**X**\" key after you grab,
is a good habit to get into while straightening these out.
Straightening out all of these vertices into a usable grid shape will
take you some time so we won\'t do it that way. Having a rectangular
grid will prove very helpful when we are texturing our eyeball. so we
will use an Add-on for blender. You\'ll want to use Blender\'s grid as a
reference and just align the rows and columns to it exactly. Yes, you
can get it *exactly* aligned, since there is a snap-to-pixels feature,
Click on snap-to-pixels in the drop-up menu in the uv/image editor
header. (Don\'t move the 2 circles when snap to pixels is on cause that
will ruin them.) You can scale the whole thing up later, once each row
and column is evenly spaced. If you can, leave some space between your
UV layout and the border of the layout area, if you \"bleed\" it to the
edge, you may have texturing problems later. But you can scale it down
later, so no problem. we will download the UV Tool from Daniel Banasik.
A wonderfull free tool which can smooth an align the vertex loops to a
beautiful grid with a little effort. The old method was aligning every
single vertex 1 by 1 :(. Page of the tool
<http://blenderaddonlist.blogspot.nl/2013/11/addon-smooth-selected-uv.html?showComment=1442661338961#c2078699794934513533>
Installing an Addon is very simple. If you\'ve like me not installed
blender but use a standalone version it\'s done in no time. All you have
to do is put a folder or file in a folder blender is reading for
add-ons.
Just download it and Unpack it. What you\'ve unpacked is, most of the
time, precisely what you have to put in the add-on folder. In the
blender standalone version folder (if you don\'t use a standalone
version of blender, it\'s Operating system specific how to place an
Add-on.): go to the folder with the name of the Version Number (at my
version it is 2.75)-\> scripts -\> add-ons. then put it here. Save your
work and quit blender. Then restart blender and open your work. Go to
User Preferences under File in the blender program header (the
uppermost) and go to addons. Go completely down and open the details of:
UV: uv_tool. Then click the checkbox: most right and you\'re able to use
it.
Noob Note: Don\'t forget to save the user preferences.
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If you, like me, love Disney-Pixar Movies you can recently download an
Uncommercial (you\'re not allowed to earn money with it) free version of
Renderman, the program Disney Pixar uses to render their movies. You can
install it and use a third-party add-on (PR-man) to implement it in
blender. But that will come in later tutorials.
How to use:
select the loop on the right side and click on align, do the same for
the left. You can\'t do more than 1 loop at a time otherwise you\'ll go
out of Edit Mode in the 3D View. Then go to 3D view put back in Edit
Mode and go back to UV/Image Editor. You\'ll Also notice nothing has
aligned. so do them loop for loop. Just select the loop and click on
Align. It will be automatically placed correctly. Just move on till
they\'re all done.
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It\'s important to pay attention to which way the UV layout is facing.
Chances are the top of the sclera region is actually what you will want
to be the bottom. It doesn\'t technically matter which way it\'s facing,
but you will probably want it to look intuitive when you are painting
the textures.
You can check this by going to the 3D view (or having split windows so
you can see the 3D and UV views at the same time) and making sure
everything is selected, then deselect 1 vertex close to the optic nerve
or the cornea. Back in the UV/image editor the vertex will disappear all
connected edges and maybe more from your UV map, so you can work out how
the map corresponds to the actual mesh surface.
Once you\'re done, **save your .blend file** and then **save your UV
Face Layout**. This is done in the **UV\'s: Export UV Layout**.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
## Preparing A Template For Texturing
Now launch your image editor and open the UV face layout you just saved.
(You probably saved it as a .png file, since that is Blender\'s default
format for UV layouts) So we are now looking at a UV grid with the
square and the 2 islands.
Open gimp and rescale the image to 4092 by 4092.
One other element that will be useful to have in our template is a layer
of markers that denote where the equator of the eye is, because what
looks like the middle on the UV layout is not actually the middle. To
find the middle, go back into Blender and count the rings of your eye
mesh, starting at the seam of the cornea. Once you get to the equator,
take note of how many rings it took to get there. Go back to your image
editor and mark that area. You can mark it with a guide, or mark it with
a coloring of some sort - as long as it\'s clear to you that it
indicates the equator of the eye mesh. It may also be useful to mark the
point where the transparency of the cornea should begin.
Now we will make the texture. To begin make the inside of UV square and
islands white, a neutral colour.
Do this by selecting (round or square) the UV island or square and then
clicking 2 times on the bucket and set the Affected area to Fill whole
selection then switch the black and the white colour by clicking on the
arrows in the toolbox (If you\'ve no toolbox click on tools in the
program header and click: new toolbox) and click with the bucket on the
selected area and do this for every part of the eye.
an eye is reddish at the back so make the back point directly reddish, I
use FB2F05.
Select the back point so you can fill it with this beautiful colour.
Select the square so you cannot \"Spill\" over the corners. We will
paint the back with the same colour of the back point \'till over the
middle of the eye. click the airbrush tool and increase the value of the
size and also the flow if its a very transparent at the end it has to be
very transparent.
Noob Note: make the selection a little bit bigger then the square or the
UV island to prevent seams.
Search for a nice iris texture:
1. Google: iris texture
<https://www.google.nl/search?q=eye+texture&client=ubuntu&hs=Nf0&channel=fs&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAWoVChMInOGCgKmDyAIVBw8aCh1gdQ4_&biw=1215&bih=897#channel=fs&tbm=isch&q=iris+texture>
Make sure you have around 1024 by 1024 pixels.
Open with gimp and crop it out by pressing image -\> Crop to selection
save it as .png and use it later. If it\'s a little bit to small, don\'t
worry you won\'t render it that big.
If you like you can make blood vessels in the cornea with the pencil
tool and the colour FF0000. Make sure you shrink the to about 10. Only
don\'t try to copy my vessels cause they are to bad.
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You can design your own texture to apply.
Save your texture as .png.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
## Bump Map - The Sclera
If you want to use a bump map in your eye.
**Create a material** for your eyeball. Then within that material
**create a texture**. Name this texture something like
\"*BumpMap(Procedural)*\". Set the texture type to **clouds**. A noise
size of **0.25** with a noise depth of **2 or 3** is fine, and you can
experiment with other values if you like. The other texture settings can
be left at their defaults.
Now we are going to bake this procedural texture to get an image-based
UV texture that we can edit in our paint program. Why? Because there is
not an even level of bumpiness around the eyeball. The sclera has bumps,
while the cornea doesn\'t. If your cornea was bumpy, your vision would
be distorted. We want our 3D eyeball to accurately convey this subtle
difference when light is reflected from the surface.
Before baking the texture, there are some parameters we must specify. In
the materials panel click the **Map To** tab. The Color button is
depressed by default, so you can leave it as is. Make sure this is the
only depressed button. Then **change the color to black**.
Now go to the **Material** properties. Change the diffuse color to
**white** and click the **Shadeless** checkbox.
Note: In this particular case it doesn\'t actually matter which of these
colors is set to white and which is set to black. The end result is
basically the same, and you can always invert the image later.
Check the Material Preview window to make sure it looks right.
Time to bake your eye. Make sure your eyeball object is selected and go
into **UV Face Select Mode**. Then **split your screen** and set one
viewport to the **UV/Image Editor**. From the menu at the bottom of the
UV/Image Editor, choose **Image \> New**. Enter a name like
\"*ScleraBumpBake*\" and set both the Width and Height to **2048** (to
match your UV guide). Click \"OK\" and a new all-black image will appear
behind the UV grid.
Go to **3D view then in the render properties to Bake and
click**Textures**at the Bake-mode drop down menu . Then set the margin
to**10**and click the**BAKE**button. You will see the black image in
the**UV/Image Editor**fill in with your bump texture. From the menu
choose**Image \> Save As Image\'\'\'.
Now save your .blend file. You are able to make the rest of the eye
yourself and if you forgot, read to previous tutorials.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Beginning Lighting
|previous=Realistic Eyes In Blender
}}
```
Lighting, you say? Psshh. Just throw up one light source and let her
run, right?
Lighting is probably the most underestimated part of a scene by new 3D
artists. Unlike real life, it's actually quite easy to produce a
uniformly well-lit, shadowless scene in Blender. But such scenes are
usually pretty dull and boring.
Far more interesting are ones with highlights drawing attention to some
areas, and shadows in other areas, leading the viewer to wonder what
they might conceal. If a picture tells a story, and a picture is worth a
thousand words, then lighting is like the punctuation for those words,
the pauses between sentences and the sudden dramatic changes of tone.
Extremely uniform lighting can even give the picture a "photoshopped"
look, as though the artist took part of one picture and stuck it on top
of another. Whereas even a little bit of shadowing of one object by
another can reinforce the impression that they are very much
three-dimensional objects with a definite spatial relationship to each
other, located in the same scene.
The following tutorials will help you gain knowledge of the technical
use of lights in your scenes.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Understanding Real Lights
|previous=Beginning Lighting
}}
```
In order to learn how to light a scene properly it is helpful to first
learn a few things about real lights. When you add a light to your scene
you need to understand how to go about emulating the properties of the
real light source that you want your Blender light to replicate.
## The Properties of Real Lights
### Color
Every light source always has a distinctive color of its own. A
photograph taken at sunrise or sunset is very easy to distinguish from
one that is taken at noon just by looking at the color of the light.
Incandescent light bulbs emit a light of a color that is different from
that of fluorescent light bulb. So a scene lit with one of the two will
have a different color cast when compared to the other.
### Angle
Light always streams in from a particular direction. The angle or
direction of light has a particular influence on which planes of an
object receive light and the shape and direction of the shadows that are
cast by objects receiving light from that particular source.
### Brightness and Decay
As light travels through space it decays or grows dimmer with distance.
Think of a firework bursting in the night sky. When the firework first
bursts the sparks are bunched close to each other. Over a short period
of time they quickly spread out from each other. If you replace sparks
with photons of light and the firework with your light source than you
have a very rough analogy to how and why light decays. All real lights
decay with distance according to the inverse-square law. At times when
lighting a Blender scene it becomes necessary to cheat this law.
### Shadows
Real lights will always cast a shadow of some sort. Real scenes also
typically include multiple sources of light (even if these are only
*indirect lighting* as a result of light bouncing off other objects).
Thus, even in an area shadowed by one light source, there will typically
be light coming from other directions, to soften the shadow so it is not
completely inky black.
### Size
Real light sources rarely take the form of tiny points; the light
usually comes from an area of discernible size. This manifests itself in
the form of a softness to the edge of the shadows, or
*penumbra*: areas behind an object where
the light is partially obscured are less dark than the inner parts of
the shadow where the light is completely blocked.
##
These are not all the properties of real lights, but as far as CGI
lighting is concerned they are the most important. As we will see later
on, Blender offers enough controls for you to tweak and adjust each of
these key properties of light.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Understanding Blender Lights
|previous=Understanding Real Lights
}}
```
Blender provides several different kinds of lights:
- **Point**: Single point light source. Useful to provide very
localized light. The shadows can be sharp, or you can set its size
to something nonzero to make the shadows fuzzy. Can represent light
sources within the scene; e.g. if there is a lightbulb or candle or
something in the scene, position one of these within it to give the
impression of light coming from that object.
- **Sun**: A light with parallel rays that will illuminate the scene
with an even light. Because the sun is (effectively) infinitely far
away, the position of this lamp does not matter, only its direction.
Good to use in brightly-lit outdoor scenes (i.e. a sunny day).
- **Spot**: Spot lights produce light constrained to a cone-shaped
beam, and have some special features. They are the only light source
that can be made visible with the \'halo\' option, to simulate light
in a fog. They are also the only light source that can cast buffer
shadows (see below).
- **Hemi**: 180°-wide uniform, shadowless light source. Great for use
as a fill light, or as a back light, or to represent light from the
sky. Similar to Sun, its position does not matter, only its
direction.
- **Area**: These are similar to point lamps, except that they are
rectangular. As a result they can cast accurate raytraced soft
shadows, at the expense of additional render time.
There are two different kinds of shadows that lights may cast:
*buffered* and *ray-traced*. The main difference is that buffered
shadows are much quicker to calculate, but take more memory, and can be
of lower quality without some fiddling. Also strand-rendered materials
(as can be used for hair or fur) cannot cast ray shadows with the
Blender Internal renderer, so you have to use buffer shadows for them so
their shadows look realistic.
Only spot lamps can cast buffered shadows. Hemi lamps cannot cast
shadows at all.
+-----------+-----------------+-----------------+
| Lamp Type | Buffer Shadow | Ray Shadow |
+===========+=================+=================+
| Point | |
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Basic Lighting Rigs
|previous=Understanding Blender Lights
}}
```
!Blecch Open a new Blender
document. Delete the default cube, and insert the Monkey (Suzanne)
instead. Hit to render. You should get
something like this.
See how the character's face---arguably the most important part you
usually want to look at---is in shadow? That is absolutely terrible
lighting.
In this section, we will look at how to improve the lighting of this
scene. The object of the game is not to get rid of *all* shadows,
because flat-lit scenes tend to look pretty boring, too. Instead, we
will look at how to make imaginative use of the placement and strength
of highlights and shadows, to add interest and realism to the scene.
In photography, there are basically two kinds of lighting setups:
outdoor and indoor. In the real world, outdoor lighting (at least in
daylight) is dominated by the Sun. This is a single, extremely strong
light source. But there is also indirect sunlight reflected off other
objects, including the sky, and these tend to soften the shadows and
even add some colour to them. Outdoor close-up model photo shoots also
frequently make use of metal sheets, held up by support crew, to
deliberately add more of this indirect reflection and make the lighting
of a model more even.
Indoor (studio) lighting setups are commonly described in terms of the
number of lights employed, commonly "one-point", "two-point" or
"three-point" for 1, 2 or 3 lights.
In 3D graphics, you can cheat over this outdoor/indoor distinction.
After all, the Sun is just another light source you can choose to place
in a scene. Instead of metal reflectors, it is usually simpler to just
add more lights, even if it is meant to be an outdoor scene. In Blender,
the lights themselves need not show up in the render, only their
illumination of the scene.
## One-Point Lighting
!Ho-hum Continuing on
from the above example, move the default lamp so it is roughly in the
same location as the camera. Now your render should look something like
this:
This is similar to the lighting you get when you take a picture on a
point-and-shoot or cameraphone with flash enabled: because the light
source is close to the lens, you don't see many shadows (think about it:
the parts the light doesn't reach are close to the parts your vision
doesn't reach), leading to a very flat image. This is why experienced
photographers often try to avoid using the flash.
## Two-Point Lighting
!At least some
variation\...
This time I have gone back to the default light position, and added a
second light ("fill light") close to the camera, reducing its strength
to 0.5, while the original "key light" stays at 1.0. That way the second
light fills in the shadows just enough to make things legible, without
flattening out the lighting completely.
Set the direction of the light using object rotation. The light must be
selected, press the and move the mouse to
change the angle.
The important point is that **the key (brightest) light is not at the
camera position**. That way, the image will contain some interesting
shadows.
## Three-Point Lighting
!Positioning the
backlight
Now we add a *third* light, called the "backlight". This is positioned
behind and a little above the model, and serves to accentuate the upper
silhouette (particularly the head and shoulders), and make our model
stand out from the background. I set its energy to 2.0, to increase the
effect. This screenshot shows what should be a good position for this
light (it is directly above the green line of the Y-axis). Put it too
close to Suzanne, and her bald head will glow a little *too* brightly.
:)
!I'm ready for my close-up, Mr
DeMille.
Now the render looks like this. Does the effect look familiar? You
should have seen something like it in countless close-ups in film and
TV, as well as portraits.
## Other Lighting Setups
Of course, there are countless other ways to light a scene. The above
ones are mainly intended for close-ups and portraits. But where there
are multiple characters in a scene, or even no characters at all and
just the scene, you may want to position multiple lights to draw
attention to some parts or characters while playing down other parts.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Faked Gi with Blender internal
|nextText=Practicing Good Parenting
|previous=Basic Lighting Rigs
}}
```
**Getting uniform studio lighting with the blender internal renderer**
## Preamble
This tutorial will teach you how to use blender to create faked Global
Illumination (here forth called \"GI\"). The reason it is faked is that
blender currently doesn\'t support true Global Illumination but it\'s
not a difficult task to fake. To fake global illumination, we will
surround our subject with a lot of suns. The easiest way to do this is
to create a very large sphere around our subject and place a sun at each
vertex of this sphere, pointing inwards. Luckily, Blender can
automatically duplicate an object at each vertex of another object. The
results of this tutorial should look like this:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This tutorial assumes you know the basics of the blender interface and
how to add objects, toggle editmode, and scale objects.
Now lets start blendering!
## Blender Faked GI Tutorial
!In more recent Blender versions DupliVerts and Rotation options can be
found under the Object Data tab in the Properties Panel. Icosphere needs
to be
selected.
**Add an ICO-sphere.** Fire up blender and add an icosphere (**SPACE** →
*add* → *mesh* → *icosphere*). Set the subdivisions to 3 and accept.
**Scale the ICO-sphere** by 15 times
**Flip the normals of the icosphere so that they point inwards.** This
will make sure that our duplicated suns will point inwards. Go into
edit-mode and press the A key till all faces/verts/edges are selected
and press **WKEY** and *Flip Normals*.
**Add a *sun* light source** (**SPACE** → *Lights* → *Sun*)
**Set the energy value of the light.** This requires some special
attention. If you keep the value at the default 1, you get a pure white,
washed out scene because we will duplicate the light 162 times. A good
way to calculate the light intensity required is to mess with the one
sunlight and do test renders while tweaking the energy value of the sun
as required till you get the brightness you want. THEN you divide the
energy value of your sun by the amount of vertices in your icosphere and
then finally set the sun energy to the number you got.
Noob Note: I found I had to set the energy of the sun lamp extremely
low, at .044. Otherwise, you end up with a completely washed-out image.
**Parent the sun to the sphere.** Select the Sun THEN shift select the
sphere and hit **CTRL**+**PKEY**
**Enable dupliverts for the sphere.** Depress the DupliVerts button.
This will copy the sun to each vertex of the sphere. Also depress the
ROT button. The ROT option tells Blender to rotate the suns to point
along the normal of each vertex.
**Enable AAO (Approximate Ambient Occlusion)** This will result in more
realistic soft shadows around our subject. Set the AAO settings in the
world buttons as in the following image:
**Set up the scene to render** This can be anything you want but I used
a simple curved plane with Suzanne on top of it.
One more note: Often it is hard to see your scene when you have this
huge sphere encompassing your scene. So what you can do is to set the
draw of the sphere to wireframe.
Just one last note: if you want more directional lighting, select the
sphere and go into editmode and press **CTRL**+**TAB**+**3KEY** for face
select and select one face on a spot of the sphere and press **WKEY**
and subdivided a few times to get more lights in one spot making that
side a bit brighter and a stronger shadow on the far side of that
cluster.
Blend happy and save often.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Parenting
In 2D drawing programs, you may be familiar with the concept of
*grouping* objects together, so that they can be manipulated and
transformed as an indivisible whole.
Blender can achieve a roughly similar effect through its concept of
one object to another.
(Blender also has a concept called "grouping", but that serves an
entirely different purpose, which will not be discussed here, so don't
be confused.)
## Parenting and Unparenting
 **To
parent one object to another** is simple: in object mode, select the
to-be-child object(s), then select the to-be-parent object, then press
to bring up the "Set Parent To"
menu. The options in the menu have the following meanings:
- Object: set the parent of the rest of the selection to the active
(last-selected) object, clearing any existing parent relationships
the new-children-to-be may have had. Any objects that were
previously parented are reset to their original transformations
before that previous parenting.
- Object (Keep Transform): similar to the above, except the children
keep the transformations from any previous parenting they may have
had.
- Vertex: this allows you to parent a child to a single,
currently-selected vertex in the parent (which must be a mesh). You
can go into Edit mode on the parent mesh to make the selection
before using this option. The child will then track the movements of
just that vertex, not the entire object.
- Vertex (triangle): here 3 vertices are selected in the parent mesh.
The child tracks, not just their translations, but also their
relative rotations as well.
When viewing your scene in Object mode, you will see black dashed lines
connecting child objects to their parents. Try moving, rotating or
scaling just the parent object, and you can see how the same
transformation is automatically applied to its children as well.
**To parent multiple children at once to a common parent**, select all
the child objects in turn, then *last of all* select the parent object.
Now when you do , all the objects
selected (except the last one) become children of the last one.
A parent of objects may in turn be a child of yet another object; any
transformation of its parent will automatically be passed on to it and
all its children, and their children, and so on.
 **To
remove a parent relationship:** select the child in Object mode, and
press to bring up the clear-parent
menu. The options here are:
- Clear Parent: remove the parent/child relationship, and reset the
child to the original transformation it had before the parenting.
- Clear and Keep Transformation: remove the parent/child relationship,
but the child keeps its current transformation as a result of the
parenting.
- Clear Parent Inverse: this doesn't actually clear the parent/child
relationship, but it sets the transformation of the child relative
to the parent to the same as the transformation the child had on its
own before it was parented.
### Clear Parent Inverse Clarified
Normally, when a parent relationship is set up, if the parent has
already had an object transformation applied, the child does not
immediately inherit that. Instead, it only picks up *subsequent* changes
to the parent's object transformation. What happens is that, at the time
the parent relationship is set up, the *inverse* of the current parent
object transformation is calculated and henceforth applied before
passing the parent transformation onto the child. This cancels out the
initial transformation, leaving the child where it is to start with.
This inverse is not recomputed when the parent object is subsequently
moved or subject to other object transformations, so the child follows
along thereafter.
The "Clear Parent Inverse" function sets this inverse transformation to
the identity transformation, so the child picks up the full parent
object transformation.
## Lock Up Your Children!
In the Properties shelf at the right of the 3D view (you can toggle its
visibility with ), you will see at the
top the Transform panel. This shows the overall object transformation
(translation, rotation, scaling), but note also the padlock icons next
to the transformation fields: clicking each one closes its padlock,
locking the corresponding field against further changes, *including
changes made with the usual object-transformation tools in the 3D view*.
(If you click a closed padlock, it will open again and remove the lock.)
This can be useful for a child object: if its object transforms are
locked, it will still follow changes to transformations on its parent,
but it cannot have its transformation changed directly. This can prevent
accidents when manipulating an "object" which is actually made up of
multiple Blender objects: parent them all to a common root object (e.g.
an Empty), and then lock them all, apart from the root object, and so
they will transform together by manipulating just the root object, and
cannot (accidentally) be separated.
For example, you might construct a car with separate objects for the
doors and wheels; these might be left free to rotate (about their hinges
and axles respectively), but are otherwise locked in position relative
to the car body.
## Example: Camera Pan
Imagine you want to make a movie where the camera does a 360° pan right
around an object. We'll leave the details of how to set up an animation
for later, but for now let's just consider how to set up the camera
movement.
Start with a new default Blender document. With the 3D cursor at its
default location (at the centre), add a new Empty object. It should end
up inside the cube, so it won't be visible; switch
to wireframe view, and it should be
easier to see.
Select the camera; then select
the Empty as well; now
parent the camera to the Empty.
Now select just the Empty, and try
otating it: notice how the camera follows
along? For added fun, switch to camera view
(make sure the Empty is still the only
thing selected). Now try rotating the Empty: it should look like the
cube is rotating in the opposite direction, when it is really the camera
moving around it.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Basic Animation
|nextText=Introduction to Keyframing
|previous=Parenting
|previousText=Practising Good Parenting
}}
```
### Frames and Keyframes
A is a snapshot of the scene at
one moment in time. An animation consists of displaying a succession of
frames representing successive moments in time; if these are shown
sufficiently quickly (at least 24 frames per second), the eye is fooled
into seeing smooth movement, instead of a succession of still poses.
This is the principle behind both cinema film and digital video. But
long before these were invented, it was known that you could make a
sequence of drawings on pages of a *flipbook*, which could then be
rapidly flipped by hand to produce an animation.
In live action video, we can capture the frames simply by letting the
camera record as the scene unfolds. In hand-drawn animation (cartoons),
each frame had to be drawn by a human animator (though there were some
shortcut techniques like articulated character pieces, separately-moving
scenery layers etc). Actually what would happen was that the most
skilled artists would create
s representing pivotal points
in the animation (starting and ending poses in a character's movement
etc), and the lower-paid assistants would have the job of filling in all
the intermediate frames to produce smooth movement between those
endpoints.
Computer animation works in a similar way, except here Blender is your
lower-paid assistant. You go to crucial points in the timeline of your
animation, position and pose your objects/characters appropriately, and
tell Blender that this is a keyframe for the relevant transformations
(positioning/rotation/scaling) of those objects/characters. Then when
you run the animation, Blender will *interpolate* the specified
transformation parameters between keyframes, giving you smooth motion
over those intervals.
## The Timeline
At the bottom of the default Blender screen layout is a window called
the
. This gives
you an overview of your animation.
{width="800"}
You can zoom the view in and out with the mouse wheel, or scroll left
and right with .
The numbers across the bottom are frame numbers, with your animation
starting at frame 1. The light grey background indicates the total
duration of the animation. The vertical green line is positioned at the
current frame time, and the current frame number is also displayed in
the box between the start/end values and the transport controls, and at
the lower left of the viewport in the 3D view window. Yellow lines
indicate where keyframes have been inserted.
You can set the current frame time by clicking with
at the desired position. You can hop
forward and backward a frame at a time with the left- and right-arrow
keys, skip to the next or previous keyframe with the up- or down-arrow
keys, and jump immediately to the first or last frame by holding down
and pressing left- or right-arrow.
You can also "scrub" by dragging with
across the timeline, which causes the animation to run backwards or
forwards at whatever speed you choose, locked to the times across which
you drag.
## See Also
- The animation
section
in the Blender user manual.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/The Ways of the Animator
|nextText=Animation Editors
|previous=Basic Animation/Keyframing Introduction
|previousText=Introduction to Keyframing
}}
```
You have just seen how animation can be applied to most object property
values. In addition to this, Blender provides some specific features to
aid in animating movements of parts of objects:
- Meshes can have *shape keys* defined for them. These give different
positions to the vertices (though their number and
*topology*---edge/face connections---cannot change). The amount of
influence each shape key contributes to the shape can be
continuously adjusted from nothing to 100%, and like other property
values can be made to vary over time.
- *Armatures* are specialized objects, consisting of rigid *bones*
that can be connected by joints, and moved and rotated relative to
each other to produce different poses, very much like the skeleton
of a human or animal. Armatures do not appear in the final render,
but a mesh can be *deformed* (i.e. have its shape changed) by an
armature to bring lifelike movement to a character.
- *Lattices* are another kind of specialized object that can also be
used to deform a mesh. Like armatures, they do not appear in the
final render. Unlike armatures, they lack rigid joints, and so
produce more rubbery changes of shape, characteristic of creatures
without bones, or perhaps for a cartoony effect.
- Curve and surface objects can also have shape keys defined for them.
And of course curves can be used to deform a mesh via the curve
modifier.
- You previously saw the usefulness of the Empty
object in modifiers. But being an
object with position, scale and rotation properties like any other,
these properties can be animated for an Empty, too, with
corresponding effects on those modifiers. Also if the Empty happens
to be a parent of other objects, then
those objects can be animated as a group, just by animating the
Empty.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Animation Editors
|nextText=Introducing the Graph Editor
|previous=The Ways of the Animator
|previousText=The Ways of the Animator
}}
```
Blender offers several different kinds of editing windows specifically
to do with animation.
## Timeline
You have previously come across the Timeline
 view as the
simplest way to see the keyframes in an animation. This window also
includes transport controls that you can use to start and stop the
animation, jump to a particular frame with
, and scrub by dragging across a time
range with .
This window also lets you define *markers* which you can name to
identify important points in the animation, for informational purposes.
Also, using the "Bind Camera to Marker" function, you can dynamically
switch the active camera at marked points in the animation, to cut
between different viewpoints.
## Graph Editor
You previously saw how to define keyframes for animating a property,
such as an object position or material setting. But what if you get a
keyframe definition slightly wrong? Perhaps the timing is slightly off,
or the movement is not quite right. You could delete the keyframe and
try again. But, in many cases, it would be easier if you could get into
the actual definition of the keyframe and tweak it around a bit, move
its time position, adjust the animated property values, that kind of
thing.
This is the purpose of the Graph Editor
. It
gives you the most detailed, low-level view possible of your animation,
by drawing an *FCurve* for each animated property of the selected
object, representing how the property value varies over time. Each curve
has control points located at each of its keyframes, and you can move
these points around---horizontally to change the timing, or vertically
to change the keyframe value---as well as add and remove points.
## Dope Sheet
The Dope Sheet
 gives a
high-level view of your animation, similar to the Timeline, but slightly
more detailed. Here you see the separate keyframes for each animated
object, and you can do some limited editing, like moving the keyframes
around, and duplicating and deleting keyframes, but you can't seem to
add entirely new ones.
Actually, this window can show any of five different editor submodes:
Dope Sheet, Action Editor, Shape Key Editor, Grease Pencil or Mask. The
Action Editor is useful in conjunction with the NLA Editor (below).
- **See also:**
Dopesheet
on the Blender Wiki.
## NLA Editor
The NLA ("Non-Linear Animation") Editor
represents a different way of setting up an animation: instead of
thinking of it as a single linear sequence of keyframes, you break it up
into *actions*, which are separate sequences that can be arranged in
various ways. You can also duplicate an action any number of times,
position the copies at different times in the overall animation, and
even attach them to different objects. But they still share a single set
of FCurve contents, which you can edit in the Graph Editor as you would
a monolithic linear animation sequence, and your changes will take
effect in all copies of the action.
To edit the contents of an action in the Graph Editor, you select the
action and into "tweak mode" (analogous
to Edit mode in the 3D view). again
takes you out of Tweak mode.
However, the Action Editor submode of the Dope Sheet now becomes useful,
for creating new actions. These start out initially empty of any
keyframes or FCurves, but you can add these in Tweak mode.
- **See Also:** NLA
Editor
on the Blender Wiki.
## To Summarize\...
The above description may seem rather confusing in places. Basically,
there are two ways to organize your animation:
- Linear, as a single sequence of FCurves and keyframes
- Non-linear, as a sequence of actions, each consisting of a sequence
of FCurves and keyframes. The nonlinear data can be further divided
into multiple overlapping *tracks*, which combine together at any
moment in time to produce the complete animation.
Objects that can have animation data attached to them can have both
kinds, linear and nonlinear. You can even attach both kinds at once,
though then the linear animation data takes precedence. It is easy to
change your mind and switch back and forth; typically, the development
of a simple animation might start out linear, then change to nonlinear
as it gets more complicated.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Creating Basic Water animation
|previous=Basic Animation/Bounce
}}
```
!A low resolution, high viscosity fluid
test
## Water and Other Fluids
Water is without a doubt one of the most important compounds in our
lives; It covers about 75% of the earth and is therefore incredibly
important in quite a few Blender animations. Wouldn\'t it be great if we
could get an accurate physical representation of this liquid in Blender?
We can, using a tool called Fluid Simulation. This tool looks
unnervingly complex at first glance, but this tutorial should clear it
up for you. At least to a basic level.
## The Domain
One can imagine how much time it would take Blender3D to think about
everything in the infinite space of a 3D world in terms of fluid objects
and deflection, so we obviously need to cut down on that size. Create a
fairly large cube. This will eventually be set as the volume in which
all of the fluid simulation occurs. Don\'t make it too large, but not
too small either, let\'s say 10 times bigger. With this cube selected,
go to to the Physics context
of the Properties window. Find the button that says \"Fluid\", and click
the \"Fluid\" button to enable the function. Set type to \"Domain\". All
the fluid physics will be calculated inside this cube. Also in that tab,
you\'ll see 3 sub-sections, \"Fluid World\", \"Fluid Boundary\" and
\"Fluid Particles\". Each one opens a different set of settings. These
will be explained as they become important.
Under \"Time\" you can adjust how many seconds the fluid animation will
take. Due to this you should change the \"End\" frame to \"96\", under
the \"Timeline\", because the standard setting is \"4\". You can also
change it how you like.
To make the other objects go into the \"Wireframe\" viewport.
!Domain\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
## The Fluid
As a basic start up for your experiments with fluid simulation, I am
going to take you through a small demo in which we drop an object into a
pool of water, creating a splash. To do this, we need a fluid object and
an obstacle object. For the fluid, create another cube, scaled down to
cover the bottom of your domain. Make a rectangle, that hovers just
inside the domain and is half as high as the domain. Enable this object
in fluid simulation also and set type to \"fluid\". When we start to
bake the fluids, this will be set up as your liquid.
Let us go over what you have now. You have your starting cube, with
fluid physics and type \"domain\", and will be referred to as
\"Domain\". Inside this is the rectangle that will cover the bottom of
your Domain , which is the liquid. The liquid will be a different object
with the type \"Fluid\".
!Fluid\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
## The Obstacle
Create a third object which we will call \"Obstacle\". This will be the
object dropped into the water, and will be described further in the
explanation. Give it an IPO/Animation to drop into the water, and enable
it as \--you guessed it\-- an obstacle (click the \"fluid\" button, in
physics, and set type to \"obstacle\").
Set up the animation in the front/side views, not the top view. The
z-axis is where gravity works.
!Obstacle\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
## Baking Fluids
Now we get to see what it all looks like. Select the domain object, and
find the big button that says \"BAKE\" under \"Physics\" - \"Fluid\". If
you want to use a bake again, don\'t choose a temporary location,
otherwise you\'ll have to bake it all over again. Press it. Be patient,
blender has to bake this simulation, something like it would render the
final product. The loading bar of this baking will stay in the bar at
the top of the screen with the blender logo. If at any time you feel
that you want to abort this process, press \"Esc\". Once the bake is
finished, click under the \"Timeline\" on the play button. You should be
able to view the full simulation.
!Bake\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
## Finishing touch
Blender will make your water its default opaque grey, unless you set its
color. A good way to make realistic, clear water (as well as glass for
that matter) is to edit the color, then apply a simple mirror effect
plus transparency effect. After your water has rendered, select the
domain in object mode. This selects the liquid in the frame you have
just added. in the \"Materials\" tab (if when you click on this, the
colors settings are not up, just press add new under the only panel
there). Go to the \"Mirror\" section, play around with the settings
until you get what you fancy. Suitable settings include Reflectivity to
0.1 for water, 0.15 for glass, set depth to 7; Under the Transparency
section, click on Raytrace and set IOR to 1.3 for water, 1.5 for glass;
Then set the Alpha value to 0.1 while adding an appropriate color under
the \"Diffuse\" section, like: \"6279E7\". I should do the same for the
\"Fluid\"
!Simulation\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
## Other Fluid Objects
There are other incredibly useful types of fluid objects like \"inflow\"
and \"outflow\". The both of these do exactly what they sound like.
Inflow objects pour more fluid into the scene, and outflow objects drain
it away.
|
# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Flying Through A Canyon
|previous=Creating Basic Water animation
}}
```
## Creating the Canyon
### Forming from Textures
1. Open up a new Blender file and erase the default cube with
2. Add a grid and change the subdivisions to 100 for both X and Y.
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
1. Scale the canyon up to 5 times its current size
(Do this by either hitting and typing
in 5, or hitting while holding
to snap and scale your mesh 5 times.
At this point your mesh should look like something like the picture
below.
### Texturing, Shading, and Deforming Your Mesh
- Go to the Texture tab next to the Materials, and click *New*.
- This texture will be used to create our canyon, so give it an
appropriate name. In this tutorial, \"Canyon\" was used.
- Select the Texture Type to be Wood
- If there is a Checkbox next to \"Canyon\" in the Texture tab,
uncheck it.
We will now displace the vertices based on the texture.
- Click on the Modifiers tab on the Properties panel (spanner icon).
- Click the *Add Modifier* pop-up menu and select \"Displace\".
- Select your \"Canyon\" texture for the displacement.
- Go into Object Mode. Notice that the vertices have been
displaced! (To see the results better, make sure you\'re in
Solid Mode) However, the material is very jagged. This is
because Blender is preserving the original faces on the
underlying material, and the original faces don\'t run in the
same direction as the grooves the wood material has created.
**Noob Note:** This will also work with an image texture, i.e. using an
image as a texture. Tested using NASA\'s Blue marble topographic
pictures. Go to the end of this tutorial for additional projects.
Your Mesh should now look something like the picture below.
### Improving the Look
Now to make the canyon more interesting:
- Go back to the textures tab, under the Wood tab deselect Bands and
select RingNoise. Keep the default options for the moment.
- You will now see a \"rippling\" texture. But it isn\'t a canyon yet.
**Note:** If you go into Edit mode (Tab), and select all vertices, then
scale to 0.2 of the original size. after this should leave Edit Mode
into Object Mode, and scale the Object (as a whole) up to 10.0 of the
size. What will occur is that you\'ll pack the vertices closer to each
other, but not the texture. Then, you would have taken the object as a
whole (including the Texture) and up-scaled it. This is the difference
between Scale in Edit Mode and Scale in Object Mode. Don\'t do it!
- You should now have a semi-boring canyon, but it does have circuits
which the camera can float around in.
- To make the Canyon more interesting, play around with the Texture
values for Wood. I chose the values Noise Size: 1.0 and Turbulence:
15.00 as they produced a somewhat interesting outer ring.
- You may also want to play around the Deform modifier settings,
especially *Strength* which changes the strength of the
deformations.
- When you are happy with your mesh, press the *Apply* button under
the Deform modifier.
- The displacements are now permanently baked into the Mesh, and
the result should be something like the picture below.
### Eliminating the Unneeded
- We will now reduce the number of vertices. Go into Modifiers, and
add Decimate. The mesh will appear to change slightly, but it
hasn\'t, except that 4-vertices faces have been triangulated
- Add another Modifer, Sub Surf, and make sure that the Levels is just
1
- Under the Decimate, slowly reduce the ratio and watch the Mesh. Very
tiny mesh details will be changed but the Decimate modifier will
keep the shape while reducing vertices.
- I got to 0.07 on my mesh before I decided the detail was getting too
low. Remember you will be flying through the canyon, not over it, so
the detail on the walls of the canyon is more important.
- Hit apply to bake the reduced vertice count into the Mesh. Smaller
vertice counts will make rendering faster.
- Increase the number of levels on your Sub Surf modifer and take a
good look, you have just created a canyon! You may reduce the levels
or remove the Sub Surf entirely afterwards.
## Coloring the Canyon
### A Rocky Material
This is one method to create a rocky wall. The result isn\'t
particularly realistic but it is easy to make. Creating materials is a
difficult practice, and the first step is to know what you\'re trying to
recreate, perhaps by using actual photographs.
- Create a new material for the cliff
- In the Specular panel under the Materials tab, set the Intensity
value to 0.132 (our cliff isn\'t particularly shiny) and Hardness to
20.
- Under the Textures tab, add a new texture in the first slot.
- Give this texture the Marble texture type. Under the Marble
options, select Hard and set the Noise Depth to 1 and Turbulence
to 1.7.
- Under the Colors tab, activate *Ramp*. The first colorstop
should be white with an alpha of 0, leave the second as it is.
- This is meant to give our primitive rock a textured appearance
- In the second texture slot, add another texture.
- Set this type to Clouds, under the *Mapping* options set the X,
Y, and Z sizes to .025, under the cloud options select a noise
depth of 2 and activate Hard Noise.
- This one will recreate some bumpiness and small inconsistencies
in the rock
- In the third slot, add another texture
- Set the type to Clouds
- In the Colors tab, modify the colors to go from Black, 0 Alpha,
to a Brown of your choosing, 0.750 Alpha. Reposition the second
color to Pos 0.820
- This Texture will simulate dirt on the Canyon
- You will definitely want to do a render now. Reposition the camera
and lights, and adjust render options to make for a fast render
- Go into Materials, then the textures tab and select the first Clouds
texture you entered (should be 3rd on the list if you did not delete
the Wood texture used earlier).
- With that selected, under the influence section, uncheck the Color,
and check normal. Set the Normal value to 2.0.
- What we have just done is set the second texture not to affect
color, but to affect the angle of the normal in a render. This
can be used to reproduce jagged edges on flat surfaces, or waves
in water
- Now, select the Marble texture again. Under the Map Input, adjust
the sizeX, sizeY, and sizeZ values to 5.0.
- Change the Z size under mapping to 5.0 from the second cloud
texture.
- You will want to render here, adjust the values as desired. For
more layers vertically, increase the sizeZ value
- You should now have an unrealistic, but sort of rocky Canyon wall.
### Lighting the cliff
- Remove all existing lights
- Creating a new light with the type of \"Hemi\". Center it over our
cliffs, and use Scale (s) to scale it down.
- Create another light, with the type of \"Sun\". Position it where
you want (position doesn\'t matter with Sun), and use Rotate (r) to
position its Ray at the Angle you desire.
- In this example, the Sun was more of an evening Sun. Its light
is at a 45 degree angle on one side. This creates some Canyon
walls light, some dark.
- Position your camera and adjust the Energy values of your Hemi and
your Sun. The Hemi will light up everything, its an easy way to give
light to canyon walls that would otherwise be completely black. As a
starting point, set your Hemi value at 0.4 and your Sun value at 1.5
and observe how that looks from a few angles. Make adjustments if
you desire.
```{=html}
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```
- Finally change for all the three textures the Mapping - Coordinates
to \"Generated\" instead of \"UV\"
## Guide the camera through the canyon
The last step is to guide the camera through the canyon.
1. Click on the camera in the Outliner.
2. Click on Num0 and zoom a bit, then lock camera to view.
3. Go to keyframe 1 and set a locrotscale keyframe.
4. Click on the red dot under the Timeline, which will keyframe every
movement.
5. For simple keyframing set the Framerate to 8 FPS and set the End
frame on \"1000\" then hit the play button under the Timeline.
6. Now fly with shift+F through the canyon.
7. After this set the frame rate back at 24 FPS and watch and see your
beautiful simulation, which will possibly take too long to render.
## Additional projects
1. Using NASA\'s topographic image map at
<http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/BlueMarble/BlueMarble_2002.php>
You have the option of selecting a small portion of your selected
topographic map or you can map the entire 360x180 degree panoramic map
onto a sphere. Refer to UV Mapping tutorial.
If you just select a small portion of the map of the world(cropping),
note the resolution of your cropped image. Create a basic plane and do
not scale it yet. Sub divide as many as required to match the resolution
of your image. This is in order to get the most out of the topographic
image. If you don\'t bother, this is not essential.
Then apply the texture. Choose texture of type \"image\" and do not
disable this texture. NASA\'s topographic pictures also come in a
colourful form but shaded to indicate heights. The reason why you leave
the scaling to the last is that the texture is set to map onto the basic
plane size of 2x2 units. If you increase this, the textures will be
repeated. Adjust the strength level to a suitable level. The default 1
is too large.
\
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Subsets and Splits