So just what is this new wonder gift? It is a Pulse Smart Pen by LiveScribe. It was designed to be a study aid for college students and a productivity tool for professionals and journalists. It's biggest claim to fame is its ability to link audio to the text or notes you are taking.

I definitely agree that is a great use for it. It's not what I plan to do with it, but it is a great use none the less.

So what do I plan on doing with my Pulse smart pen, especially as it doesn't interact with blender at all. Well after playing with my new pen for the last week, I have come up with several fun and productive ways to use my new pen.

Writing: Yeah, this one was kind or a given.

• BAM articles
• blog posts
• Animation scripts.

I am aware I could just type articles, blog posts and scripts, but I have always preferred pen and paper for writing anything longer than an email. To me, it just feels more creative. Plus, there is the whole portability issue, I can carry a pen and paper anywhere and work on projects. The biggest drawback was that I then still had to type it afterwards. Well problem solved. :P And in fact, I am writing this blog post with my new pen while sitting on my couch watching TV. :P

Drawing:

• Story boards
• Character/model sketches

I can use the pen to sketch out my story boards and character sketches, then upload the drawings straight to my computer for use in either Blender or Celtx, depending on what I am up to that day. Yeah, I could also use plain pen and paper, then use my scanner. But that wouldn't be near as much fun, now would it? Also this way I get to eliminate the time consuming clean up of the scans. :)

Audio:

• Editing purposes
  • record changes/additions at spots in articles (etc) if editing away from computer
• For research while taking notes
• For planning out of storyboards
  • I can record audio explaining scene setup, camera direction etc.
  • Could be used as quick way to get dialog synced to the shots for timing

As a product feature, the linking of audio is more of a fun quirky thing for me. I no longer need to record class lectures, (I have been out of school for over 20 years) and as a stay at home mom, I really don't attend any meetings that need to be recorded. :P I suppose I could record me and my toddler practicing our ABC's. Nah, probably not. But after giving it some thought, I did come up with a few ways to use the audio feature.

Possible Future Uses:

The software included with the pen also allows you upload something called a pencast to their community website. The pencasts are interactive flash type things with audio linked to the text/notes you wrote. I haven't figured out how to use that in blender related projects just yet, but give me time, I 'll come up with something. I 'm sure over time I will come up with a great number of uses for my new little pen. One thing I know I will enjoy the most, is the mobility and portability of the pen. Now I can work on a great many of my projects while not at my computer, which is more often than most of you realize. :P

]]> http://dreamsgate.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/blender-underground-view-topic-makehuman-to-blender-part-i/ Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:43:44 +0000 dreamsgate http://dreamsgate.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/blender-underground-view-topic-makehuman-to-blender-part-i/ The guys at Blender Underground are at it again. Penix1 has written an excellent 3 part tutorial on how to use MakeHuman models in Blender.

So if you have always wanted to know how it is done, be sure to check it out.

Blender Underground :: View topic - MakeHuman to Blender Part I.

Consultas á tutoriais semelhantes:

• Recursos de física em animação usando o Cloth

Primeiro Tutorial Vídeo do Blender 3D carioca (Publicado no Youtube):

Bem,havia publicado no dia 1 de agosto deste ano, falando sobre o recurso de física para animações usando o Cloth e o Collision. E neste artigo que pode ser acessado no link listado em "Consulta de tutoriais semelhantes", falava somente de como criar uma simulação no modo 3D VIEW. E resolvi criar uma animação utilizando este recurso, com um outro conhecido como empty (para simular uma ventania). E o resultado foi excelente.

Aproveitando este vídeo que fiz, que tem 150 quadros (totalizando 6 segundos aproximadamente a animação) montei o que seria a demonstração do recurso CLOTH. Aos que quiserem ver os resultados assista a abaixo:

Criando o cenário 3D no Blender:

Não usei um cenário realista, o propósito da animação era criar uma simulação final que vissemos o comportamento do recursos CLOTH. O cenário tirando (A caixa de papelão pequena e grande e a bandeira que voam. Forem feitos tudo apartir de um plano. O cenário dependerá em si do desenvolvedor. O que deverá para todos, definir, é que o cenário deverá ser o obstáculo.

Então observe na figura "Gerando um cenário-obstáculo" para saber como definir o cenário e qual o seu papel dentro da animação.

" mostro como foram feitas as simulações da ventania. Dependendo de onde você coloca os Empty o objeto irá reagir de uma maneira diferente. Quando testei numa primeria vez, com um unico Empty o que está em linha reta, a caixa pequena não voava até a caixa grande. Ela ficava grudada no degrau. Por isso vou mostrar somente a configuração de um objeto Empty.

1. Caixa pequena (China in Box Sister) foi com esta intenção de criar esta caixa. Quem lembra do filme "Blade Runner" e quiser simular esta caixa num bairro chinês em 2019 com este efeito e com a chuva (Neon) estará fazendo uma obra de arte da já obra de arte. Nela apliquei o seguinte:

a)Subdivide Frac 1 rad 10 (Para torna-la amassada)

b)Cor marrom meia tonalidade (claro e escuro) para dar a textura de um papelão.

c)Selecionei a face superior, deletei-a. E fiz extrusão nos vértices. Levantei os quatro, apliquei Scale. Para fazer as orelhas da tampa da caixa. E apliquei Smooth.

Faça isso como os demais objetos. (Plane, Subdivide Frac 1 rad 10, smooth) e caixa maior (Tudo igual á caixa pequena, menos a aba)

Agora vamos para o mais importante que modelar os objetos personagens, a configuração dos três objetos fora feito com as mesmas propriedades do Cloth. Então vou mostrar de um, basta adicionar o Cloth em cada um. Exceto o peso(massa,mass e Spring Damp) que alterei.

"Configurando o Cloth"

Direitos da animação:

Todos os direitos reservados á Rafael Junqueira. Copyright@2008. Qualquer parte copiada ou editada do filme, deverá antes ser comunicada antes com o Autor. Com expressa permissão do mesmo.

In this issue we are focusing on the ‘Landscapes, Environments and Sets!’.

We are looking for tutorials, “making of” articles, and projects of interest that focus on either special techniques, tools or work flows that are used in the production of Landscapes, Environments and Sets for use in/with staging and composition of still images, animations and games.

So gather up your tutorials, articles and projects relating to:

• General Landscapes (How to model various landscape elements (trees, hills, rocks etc.) modeling, texturing and staging/composition of said props
• Creating Game environments/levels (Low poly elements/ and level design)
• Animation sets (how to create animation sets)
• Lighting of said backgrounds
• Making of articles that focus on the environments/sets of your project
• Use of Blender libraries for efficient use of assets (sets, props and characters)
• ... and more!

Also wanted, great shaders, materials and node setups for great looking materials and effects.

Articles

Send in your articles to sandra
Subject: "Article submission Issue # 18 [your article name]"

• Author guidelines are available here.

Gallery Images

As usual you can also submit your best renders _based on the theme_ of the issue. As the theme of this issue is Landscapes, Environments and Sets!, round up your best amazing renders for submission. Please note if the entry does not match with the theme it will not be published.

Send in your entries for gallery to gaurav
Subject: "Gallery submission Issue # 18"

Note: Image size should be of 1024x (width) at max.
Last date of submissions September 5, 2008.

Good luck!
Blenderart Team

Motion Graphics... me encanta este estilo y he decidido dedicarme a este cuento, por ahora esta es mi primera animacion y espero poder hacer mas e ir perfeccionandome en el cuento... la buena nueva es que esta hecha totalmente con blender 3d... bueno quiero sacarle el maximo de provecho a este soft espectacular.

This issue we take a look at using Blenders post processing tools as well as explore some tips and tricks to make your lighting more impressive. And as a special treat we hear from not one, but two Blender authors as they talk about their new books.

So grab your copy today.

Also be sure to check out our gallery of wonderful images submitted by very talented members of our community.

Table of Contents:
Making lightsabers using Blender's composite nodes
3 Strip Technicolor Conversion
Baking Light Projection And Shadows
Using the Sequence Editor
Lighting: Plan it out
Interview ‘Tony Mullen’
Interview ‘Allan Brito’
Book Review - Blender 3D Architecture, Buildings, and Scenery
And more . . .

Blenderart Mag Mirrors can be found at:
www.blenderart.org

--.

.

.

.

.I want to get to know you better...for the first time on Mars.

UUUUUU!!! =)

ÊÊÊÊÊ

---------------------------------

=D

software sih dapet dari majalah pcmedia, tapi pas nginstal taunya masih perlu software lain tuh, phyton yang juga free tapi hrs donlot dari internet dan langsung konek ke phyton.com. ternyata disitu banyak banget versi phyton-nya, dan gw lumayan lama juga nyari yang kompatibel bwt winXP. Akhirnya dapat juga phyton-2.5.2.msi tapi sempet juga salah donlot pywin32-211.win32-py2.5.exe trus phyton-2.5.2.amd64.msi. bego juga padahal udah jelas2 disitu ditulis amd64 padahal gw pake p4.

Udah deh diinstal dan jalan tuh program. langkah selanjutnya nyari website tutorial blender dan dapat di blendercourse.com buat yang baru mulai ada tuh file tutorial format pdf : BlenderCourse_Basics_EN_v1.0.zip.

Sekarang tinggal nyoba baca tutorial plus langsung praktek.

Udah dulu nanti klo udah ahli make blendernya pasti nulis lagi plus komentar oke apa gak ni software

]]> http://williamsantacruz.wordpress.com/?p=181 Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:59:37 +0000 williamsantacruz http://williamsantacruz.wordpress.com/?p=181 Y seguimos viendo nuevas opciones que nos brinda blender 3d... en este caso el "game engine".

APRICOT, será el primer juego diseñado con blender y utiliza el motor de juegos interno, es bueno anotar que lo bueno es que en un corto tiempo todos lo usuarios podremos disfrutar de todos estos avances en cuanto al progreso de blender. 

Mas info aca: http://apricot.blender.org/?p=227#comment-2819

While in and of itself this is not a bad thing, I have on more than one occasion lost hours and I mean HOURS following interesting links. Sometimes this leads me to great finds, sometimes it leads me to downright silly things. Generally I am very good about not signing up for or getting involved in overly silly things, but occasionally, an idea or topic does get stuck in my head to spark future silliness on my part.

And here would be where I admit my latest silliness. It started innocently enough, really it did. Through my wanderings, I kept running into information on Cafepress.com. A fun little place where you can sell your creative ideas on a variety of products. Now I have known about this site for some time, I have checked out the rules and options, but I just kept putting off doing anything about it. It would require me to generate some cool images, there's the whole spreading the word thing. Too much bother, I have way too many other things I need to be doing.

Uh huh, yeah, then why am I talking about it. Well my teenage daughter and I were talking and I mentioned the site and explained what it was for. She was interested, she thought it would be a fun and easy way to make money from her own art. So I went ahead and created one of those free shops for her. Thereby launching dino dany's doodles. Which is all fine and good, but it didn't stop there. Within a matter of hours, I ended up launching my own e-shop, DG's Depot.

Now that really doesn't seem overly silly. Just a shop for my daughter and one for me. Granted we really need to work on getting some more designs out. A store with only one or two designs isn't really going be overly successful. But all in all, it's a nice little summer project that might make us each a little "mad money".

Then the silliness started. It dawned on me that the e-shops won't make any money at all if no one knows about them. And not being the type of person to be an "In your face" marketer, I decided on a more subtle approach. I added links to my e-shop in all my signatures at the various forums that I frequent. I added links to my sidebar here (look to your left in the sidebar). I put a link on my Facebook page and went ahead and added a cafepress listing application thingy on my profile page. So far this all seems reasonable enough. Not real in your face, but there if people were interested.

But being the horrible little multi-tasker that I am, while I was doing all of this, I kept looking at my e-shop page thinking, these little free pages are a little limited. Which of course led me to search for and investigate other similar types of sites. Which naturally led to e-shop number two, DG's 3d darlings. Still not too bad, I haven't reached complete silliness yet. I updated my links everywhere, created a new page on my blog listing my e-shops. and sat back to wait.

Well the subtle approach might eventually work, but looks like it's going to take a while.

Subsequent link wandering led me to some threads/topics on improving traffic flow to e-shops. (Uh oh, here it comes.) Before I knew it, I found myself looking up something called "Squidoo". I had never heard of Squidoo before all this started. But found a fun little site where you can make free little pages on whatever you want. I bookmarked the site and wandered off to give it some more thought. It might be a handy way to generate some traffic to my e-shops.

Yep, DG's Introduction to Blender 3D was launched. I started out with the idea of creating a page to promote my e-shops, but of course once you start adding modules for this and modules for that, I ended up with a page for promoting Blender in general, with a focus on promoting blender related products, like books, dvds and documention links. Oh my e-shops are on there, but so is a whole bunch of other stuff.

Now would you just look at what I managed to get myself into within just a few short days. From an idea that just kept nagging at me, I ended up with two e-shops for myself, one for my daughter and a Squidoo page. Now just where did I think I was going to find the time to manage and keep an eye on four more sites? LOL, in fact at the rate I seem to keep adding sites and pages to my list of places I take care of, pretty soon I am going to need my own internet.

Oh well, all in a day's silliness. Oh and if you have some time to kill, go ahead and wander by my growing empire of sites. All the links are in the sidebar to the left. :P

Blender es un programa multiplataforma, dedicado especialmente al modelado y creación de gráficos tridimensionales. El programa fue inicialmente distribuido de forma gratuita pero sin el código fuente, con un manual disponible para la venta. Actualmente es compatible con todas las versiones de Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD e IRIX.

Tiene una muy peculiar interfaz gráfica de usuario, que se critica como poco intuitiva, pues no se basa en el sistema clásico de ventanas; pero tiene a su vez ventajas importantes sobre éstas, como la configuración personalizada de la distribución de los menús y vistas de cámara. Para saber más sobre Blender y su Historia, hagan click aquí.

Características:

• Multiplataforma, libre, gratuito y con un tamaño de origen realmente pequeño comparado con otros paquetes de 3D, dependiendo del sistema operativo en el que se ejecuta.
• Capacidad para una gran variedad de primitivas geométricas, incluyendo curvas, mallas poligonales, vacíos, NURBS, metaballs.
• Junto a las herramientas de animación se incluyen cinemática inversa, deformaciones por armadura o cuadrícula, vértices de carga y partículas estáticas y dinámicas.
• Edición de audio y sincronización de vídeo.
• Características interactivas para juegos como detección de colisiones, recreaciones dinámicas y lógica.
• Posibilidades de renderizado interno versátil e integración externa con potentes trazadores de rayos o "raytracer" libres como kerkythea o YafRay.
• Lenguaje Python para automatizar o controlar varias tareas.
• Blender acepta formatos gráficos como TGA, JPG, Iris, SGI, o TIFF. También puede leer ficheros Inventor.
• Motor de juegos 3D integrado, con un sistema de ladrillos lógicos. Para más control se usa programación en lenguaje Python.
• Simulaciones dinámicas para softbodies, partículas y fluidos.
• Modificadores apilables, para la aplicación de transformación no destructiva sobre mallas.
• Sistema de partículas estáticas para simular cabellos y pelajes, al que se han agregado nuevas propiedades entre las opciones de shaders para lograr texturas realistas.

Más o menos por ahi a principios del 2002 me topé con Blender. En ese momento no sabía que era, solo sabia que existía Flash, 3D Max Studio, Corel Draw y AutoCAD. Descubrir Blender fue accidental, lo bajé mientras buscaba algo con que diseñar viñetas animadas para mi presentación de Biología en PowerPoint. Lo abrí y ví miles de botones, una rejilla gris y un objeto 3D. Le piqué, intente hacer un figura pero solo lograba insertar figuras prediseñadas y mover algunos vértices, ni se diga Renderizar, no sabía ni que era ese termino. Me frustré, lo cerré y seguí buscando. Casi a finales del 2002 un amigo me comentó sobre que utilizaba un programa de diseño 3D, y mencionó Blender. Me emocioné porque en ese tiempo encontrar otro geek era como encontrarse un billete de $100 en la calle, así que llegué a casa y me decidí a "comerme" el programa. Trabajamos en algo juntos pero terminó siendo un juego bajado de por ahí, aun así el maestro mordió el anzuelo. Después me uní a foros de Blender, el primero fue "Nicodigital.com", donde conocí a muchos amigos que también diseñaban en él, intercambiábamos técnicas y mostrábamos nuestros trabajos para ser criticados, y me comencé a clavar seriamente con el programa, a tal grado que antes de entrar a estudiar Sistemas, pensaba seriamente dedicarme al diseño/diseño 3d/animación. Cosa que se vio frustrada por el dinero. Hice varios diseños para presentaciones, algunas animaciones e imágenes, pero nada serio, poco después dejé de usarlo.

Ha pasado más de año y medio desde la ultima vez que lo usé, pero hace poco conforme se ha ido terminando el semestre me ha comenzado a surgir las ganas de utilizarlo. Y aquí estamos, para quitarme el oxido he comenzado con un trabajillo, se llama "Into R.E.M.", y usa elementos realmente simples, claro todo desde Linux. Los trabajos que vaya haciendo los iré posteando y poniendo en mi galería de flicker. Espero sean de su agrado, comenten y les despierte el interés por usar este excelente programa.

Realmente creo que es el programa al que le tengo más aprecio si es que se puede sentir algo por un programa jaja. De rato freaks.

Para descargar Blender, entren a la web oficial.

Aquí un par de foros donde te pueden ayudar, si es que te animas a usarlos.

http://blender.guanajuato.net/

http://blenderartists.org/forum/

http://www.niel3d.com/niel2/

Y la galería oficial de Blender, donde solo llegan los grandes: http://www.blender.org/features-gallery/gallery/art-gallery/

How I work depends on whether or not there is a deadline. And quite honestly, deadlines are a rather subjective thing. Since I blend for my own enjoyment, not professionally, deadlines are self imposed. Well kind of. :P

With no deadlines, I meander along on a variety of projects as the mood takes me. Which more often than not, means a project can and will get set aside for any number of reasons. Generally time is the deciding factor, but needing to practice a technique or learn a new feature runs a close second. I love these often semi abandoned projects of mine. They may be collecting dust but they are not forgotten. I will eventually complete them all. Don't look at me like that, I will, I promise. :P

Then there are my insane little deadline projects. They always start by me getting a "bright" idea, generally in the middle of the night, entirely too close to the occasion I want the project for. Case in point, a week before father's day, I decide I want to do a little music animation for my husband.

Now a week is NOT near enough time, but this is exactly how my mind works. And once I get an idea, well I just have to give it all I got or go crazy trying. Poor me! :p

Ok, so I obviously need to move quick. The first thing I need is a good song about dads. After several hours of searching, I decide on "My Girl" by the Temptations. It's not exactly a father's day type of song but I really like it and it would work for what I had in mind.

So here is the general idea. I wanted to make a little dance video. I even found a video on youtube of the Temptations dancing to "My Girl". I mistakenly thought that would help me quickly setup the animation. Next I needed a simple model so I could actually get this done on time. So I decided to make the “ball and stick guy" from Digital Character Animation by George Maestri. I figured this simple little guy would be easy to animate and with the new Bone heat thingy, easy to rig.

LOL! Nope, not even. For that model to animate the way it was designed, I had to manually set the vertex groups and weights. Inconvenient to be sure, but not a show stopper. Next up, I wanted a few simple constraints to ease my posing. I felt sure I was up to the task. I had Tony Mullen's book (which I had actually worked through and completed up through the rigging chapter) and I had watched the Man Candy DVD numerous times. Yeah, sure, ok, that was very not funny. I spent two days messing with that rig, but I finally did get it figured out. YAY ME!

Okay, I have my idea, a rigged model, my reference video and song. I am good to go.

LOL, yeah you can probably guess from the way this adventure is already going, how that went. I am obviously no good at matching my poses to the video. In my defense they were turning around a lot and there were some odd camera angles. After two days of frustration, I admitted defeat. Which totally bummed me out. I had no video, but on the up side, I did have a fairly usable rigged character. Which actually brings me to the point of this overly long introduction. :P

Okay, so after a brief “whatever!” frustration fit about the video (which I got over fairly quickly since this wouldn't be the first project that blew up in my face), all said and done, I decided that I kind of liked my little stick guy model. So I decided to refine the model and work on the rig some more. He would make a great test dummy for practicing animation and timing. And I find it rather funny to practice with a digital stick figure. Oh come on, you think it's funny too, admit it.

While "Stikmon" is still based on the ball and stick model from Digital Character Animation by George Maestri, I couldn't resist a little redesigning and refining of my little guy. I joined all the segments together to form one mesh and flowed/blended the ball pieces into the stick sections to give him a little more character. And since I recently figured out how to make some rather cool fur, I think he is going to eventually be a furry little stick figure. Right now he is still red and blue, a left over result of starting out as the ball and stick guy. I'm not too attached to those colors, so that will probably change when I fur him up.

The rig is still rather simple at this point, LOL!, in fact not only is the rig still really simple, but I think I need to go back and re-read the section on constraints (in Tony's book) as well as watch the Mancandy dvd a few more times, because I don't think I set up the constraints right. They work, but well, I don't think this is the way it is supposed to work. Something doesn't seem just quite right. On the up side, I figured out how to use bone shapes. That's one pretty cool feature. And by joining all the separate segments together, the Bone Heat option worked much better than it did on the ball and stick guy. I really love that Bone Heat, what a time saver.

Once I get the rig into something resembling a useful state, I plan on starting some animation exercises. Okay, I semi-plan on starting some animation exercises. I haven't set any deadlines, so it might happen eventually.

Well I'm gonna go glare at that rig some more, maybe if I glare enough, it will cooperate. I really doubt it, but it might work. :p

]]> http://williamsantacruz.wordpress.com/?p=178 Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:51:45 +0000 williamsantacruz http://williamsantacruz.wordpress.com/?p=178  

Otto rig http://www.savefile.com/files/1606081 

Ludwig rig http://www.savefile.com/files/1606095

Rig de pablo lizardo http://www.savefile.com/files/1606098

Blendrig http://www.savefile.com/files/1606099

MTI_stickmanV1 http://www.savefile.com/files/1606102

Mouse http://www.savefile.com/files/1606109

Rig de Daniel Lara http://www.savefile.com/files/1613355

Mancandy http://freefactory.org/posts/candy-testers-wanted

Ninja http://www.savefile.com/files/1613369

Espero poder ir subiendo mas rigs para que cada uno de uds lo pueda disfrutar!!

In fact up until recently, my rigging experience has been limited to extremely simple rigs for the sole purpose of posing a model for a still image. Even with simple rigs of twenty bones or less, attaching the rig to the object was always an exercise in frustration and stubborn persistence. I remember when I started using blender, you set vertex groups manually for each bone and setting weight influences was a real pain. Weight painting soon offered a way to ease the pain, but it was still not a lot of fun. Being able to create vertex groups from the closet bone was a huge improvement. But for me at least, it was still a long tedious process to get all the bones weight painted smoothly and make sure that no stray vertices were being influenced by a totally unrelated bone on the other end of the rig.

So you can imagine how happy I am about "Bone Heat Weighting". Skinning a rig has finally become relatively painless. Yay!

For those who haven't yet tried it, here is a quick breakdown:

• create a rig for your model/character
  
• select the model, then shift select the rig
  
• press “control + P”, to parent the rig to the model
  
• choose "Armature" from the pop up
• choose "Create from Bone Heat" from the next pop up
• play with your new rigged model

It is really that easy. To test it out, I grabbed a character model that was hanging out on my hard drive, created a very simple twenty-five bone armature/rig and parented it to my model using the very same steps listed above. In less than five minutes I was posing my character and checking out his cool new moves. It was the easiest skinning of a character I have ever done. Which makes Bone Heating one of my new all time favorite features. A huge time saving bonus was that there were no odd vertices being incorrectly influenced by far away bones, something that always seemed to happen when I rigged something previously.

While I'm sure that some tweaking of weight painting might be necessary for some rigs, my simple little rigs all perform beautifully. Yeah, okay I still need to learn how to create rigs that animate properly, but now I can quickly create simple posing rigs without pulling my hair out. I just love our coders, they are always finding ways to make artistic creation fun and painless. I think feel a big hug headed their way.

]]> http://dreamsgate.wordpress.com/?p=62 Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:25:24 +0000 dreamsgate http://dreamsgate.wordpress.com/?p=62 So many new features are added to Blender, that it is often hard to keep up. These days I am doing good to keep an eye on posts about new features on blender.org, blendernation and blenderartists.org to see what is being worked on.

So while I haven't been playing with test builds or new features, I was aware of the improvements to the particle system, especially the fur/hair aspect of it.

Falling prey to a rather overwhelmingly strong impulse to furify some of my models, I have been playing with fur ever since 2.46 released. There are an amazing amount of options to play with and so it took me a good long while to get some fur that I was happy with. I spent days playing with settings, Particle mode and the brushes and ended up with some really odd looking hair/fur. I also spent a lot of time poking around the BBB production files, trying to figure out how they got their great fur.

My first successful test involved two simple materials and two particle systems. I finally got a nice fuzzy furry monkey. Yay! Not beautiful by any means, but he was furry. Double YAY! And he looked so soft and squishable.

Here is a test render as well as screens of the settings used.

After achieving fur, I moved on to creating color variations in the fur with UV maps. Okay I'll tell you right now, that wasn't a lot of fun. But that was totally my fault, I didn't have any problems with the fact that UV editing got merged into Edit mode. That was an easy enough adjustment. No my problem was because I have let my UV mapping skills go completely to crap. :( In fact I have avoided creating UV maps since the UV tools started getting better and easier to use. That's right, several years and versions ago. Yeah I know, that makes little to no sense. But I had really gotten good at doing it the hard way and convinced myself that I was too busy learning other things, so I never got around to learning and getting comfortable with the now not so new options. :P Well now that the long, boring explanation is finally over, I can get back to my story.

I finally ended up with a really bad (translation: bad = as in very ugly and I should be slapped for using this UV map), which I proceeded to Texture Paint. Another tool I obviously need to study up on and practice more with as well. (I could have sworn it had some other options last time I played with it). My paint job ended up being every bit as bad as my UV map. And If I had planned on stopping there, the resulting image would never have seen the light of day. Luckily when used to generate fur, my ugly UV map ended up looking fairly decent.

Here is a test render as well as screens of the settings used.

LOL, I spent the better part of yesterday working on that ugly UV map and paint job, only to have both my husband and my oldest daughter tell me that they actually liked the version without the UV map that I did the day before.

Go figure! Dang critics! See if I show them all my ugly hard work again. :P

Well I'm off to see what other models I can abuse with new features/tools. I'm thinking I might try that new Bone Heat thingy. Wish me luck!

P.S. The model I used for my fur tests is "Rupert" the evil monkey I created/modeled for a tutorial I wrote for BAM some time ago. If you want to play with Rupert, the blend file is included in the Issue 5 Download zip file. You could also follow the tutorial and model him yourself if you felt like it.

]]> http://eatingfish.wordpress.com/?p=56 Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:43:56 +0000 greymalkin http://eatingfish.wordpress.com/?p=56 This week saw the release of Big Buck Bunny, a short film created using open source software, most important of which is Blender. Two years ago, the short film "Elephants Dream" was the first film that was created to feature the power of this open source 3D package. Viewable on YouTube & Vimeo, downloadable from it's website and if you desire, it can be bought on DVD with lots and lots of extra features.

Enjoy!

Huy que noticiononon!!!!

Big Buck Bunny ha sido liberado, visita la pagina oficial y descargate ya el corto del proyecto peach de la blender foundation... ahhh ademas pueder bajarte todos los fichero y librerias utilizados en este excelente proyecto.

descargas:

http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/index.php/download/

http://graphicall.org/bbb/index.php

The recent release of 2.46 tempted me to ignore a long list of other things I should have been doing, to enjoy an afternoon of just messing around in Blender. Something I don't get to do near as often as I would like. With no real goal or project in mind, just a strong desire to test a few new features, I pulled one of my semi-forgotten Cd's to grab a model to experiment on.

I quickly found a long forgotten character I had modeled for a low poly contest. It didn't have many details, just a fairly simple humanoid type character with funny ears. Oddly enough, I only vaguely remember creating him. I also found some images and numerous half finished models that had been abandoned for one reason or another. At a guess, I got distracted and started something else.

The biggest surprise was that some of them were far better than I actually remember being at that time. Sounds a little silly. But I found some of the images charming. And many of the half finished models look like I could really do something with them, if I ever get around to finishing them, that is. :P

Makes me wonder how many other treasures are hidden on some of my other Cd's. I just might have to go on a treasure hunt and see what I find. But then again, I have so many new ideas that I want to work on. So many ideas, so little time. Oh well, I suppose it really doesn't matter whether I work on new ideas or old, as long as I just keep blending away.

Just for fun and giggles, I thought, I would post of a few of the images I re-discovered.

I seem to remember that this little guy was one of the first human characters I have done.

I remember using this image as a desktop pattern for quite a while.

Oh well, time to go play some more

Hola gente hace dias que no escribia... esta vez vengo con buenas noticias... que digo.. excelentes noticias. El pasado 19 de mayo salio la version 2.46 oficial, que ha sido tan esperada por todos los que somos amantes de este espectacular soft.

Hay muchas cosas nuevas, entre las cuales destaco el nuevo sistema de particulas... el cual ha tenido un vuelco total, todos los paneles han sido reestructurados y ademas añade una gran cantidad de opciones para crear cabellos, fibras, FX y mucho mas, es de verdad muy util. Otra de las nuevas caracteristicas es el mesh deform, cloth simulation, soft shadow en modo raytracer,el aproximate ambiental oclussion, la reestructuracion del editor de secuencias y del editor de imagenes uv, que ahora se integra al modo de edicion. 

 mas info aqui: http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-246/

Dedicado especialmente al modelado y creación de gráficos tridimensionales
Licencia: LPG

Instalacion

Abrir añadir y eliminar aplicaciones e instalar blender3d

Una vez instalado abrimos el programa

Capturas del programa

Capturas de su web

Web oficial
http://www.blender.org/

Manual
http://es.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_novato_a_profesional

Dia 17 ou 18 de maio será lançado a versão 2.46 final do Blender.

E o filme "Big Bunny Buck" será lançado em DVD em 20 de maio. E a versão para internet chegará 30 ou 31 de maio.

Novo tutorial - "Criando fumaça especial" já viu fumaça de cigarro apagado ou disposto no cinzeiro? Então é esste tipo, confira no link FUMAÇA ESPECIAL

Atente que no mesmo tem o resultado final em video e o arquivo em PDF que é o tutorial.

I was so excited, even though I really had way too many other things I needed to be doing, I couldn't resist popping the DVD into my computer to take a sneak peak. Big mistake, even just poking around the DVD to check things out, left me wanting to sit down and devour the entire thing. But, I really, really had other things I needed to be doing. Bummer! Big bummer!

Sigh, so I proceeded to take care of all the things that needed to be done. One week passed, then two. Still no time to watch my new DVD. Sigh, this really sucks. At this rate it will never get watched.. Then all of a sudden I had an amazing idea. I grabbed my DVD, my old laptop and took them both to my craft room, where I promptly set it up and started the DVD. I have been listening to the DVD while working on my projects. Problem semi solved.

I still haven't watched very much of the DVD, just bits and pieces here and there, but I have listened to the whole thing numerous times. Like I said, not a perfect solution, but I am learning quite a bit. Granted, I still have to actually watch it all, but this will do for now.

I have long admired Bassam's skill and creative vision, and after watching the DVD, I am pleased to discover that he is also quite the teacher and rather funny too. His teaching style is akin to having a long in depth conversation with a friend. He explains everything in an easy going, casual manner. One thing I have really enjoyed is how he not only shows you how to set things up properly and why, but what happens if you set it up wrong or forget to set something up. He even left some mistakes of his own in the videos and then showed how to correct them.

Bassam packed an amazing amount of information into each video. And while they obviously all go together, they also stand alone as full lessons in themselves. I have already listened to the DVD many times and will listen/watch it many more. Every time I "watch" a segment, I learn something new and my understanding of rigging increases, which can only be a good thing.

The ManCandy FAQ DVD was well worth the money and the wait for it to arrive. Now if I can just find the time to actually do something with all my new found knowledge. :P

Este tutorial esta disponible en la seccion de tutoriales.