Blender Introduction
by Thomas Hauth
What is it all about ?
● Blender is a free, open-source computer
graphics suite
● Developed as a commercial product
● Freed by the community as GPL software by a
one-time payment of 100.000 EUR in 2002
● Since then, managed and developed by the
non-profit Blender Foundation
What can it do ?
● A set of open-source movies have been made,
to improve Blenders feature set in certain
areas
● The movies are produced by the Blender
Foundation with donations from the
community
● A professional team of artists gathers in the
Blender Institute in Amsterdam for ~5 month
● The movie and all source material (models,
textures) are available for free once the
production in done
The most recent production
● Goal was to improve the
tracking and mixing of
rendered and real-film
● [Link]
● Visual Effects Breakdown
[Link]
● Done with blender alone,
almost
they also used GIMP ;)
Where to get it ?
Easy:
[Link]
Linux | Windows | MacOS | Free BSD
Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install blender
This talk is based on blender 2.64
The 30.000 feet feature overview
● 3d Modeling
mesh modifiers | sculpting mode | texturing
● Animation
character rigging | inverse kinematics |
● Rendering & raytracing
material effects | ambient occlusion | GPU-based raytracing
● Physics simulation
particle systems | soft & rigid body | fluid dynamics
● Game engine
OpenGL based | python scriptable | full physics simulation
● Compositing
Object tracking | video sequencer | flexible node system
[Link]
What can you use it for ?
● No idea ! → whatever you can imagine
● I used it for content creation for computer
games
Pre-rendered 2d images used in-game
3d models & textures exported and loaded in the game engine
What we want to do today
● Talk
User Interface
Modeling Basics & Techniques
Animation Introduction
● Workshop:
Model a Mech
Export model to 3d printing software
Whatever is fun ...
User Interface
meet the beast
Meet the User Interface
● For many the first hard challenge
● But not so bad, if you got used to the concepts
● If you get lost, press Spacebar and type
“Load Factory Settings” and press Return
Tada !
My Blender Setup
● Notebook + 3 Button mouse with Scrollwheel
● Left hand on the keyboard
for quick shortcuts during editing
for changing the camera view
● Right hand on the mouse
for selecting and moving elements
for free rotations and zoom with the mouse wheel
Meet the User Interface
Meet the User Interface
Info Window
3d Window
Buttons
Window
Timeline Window
Meet the User Interface
Meet the User Interface
● Pre-configured window setting for some tasks
can be selected in the topmost window
Meet the User Interface
● Use the Numpad to navigate in the 3d view
[Link]
Meet the User Interface
● On notebooks, the Numpad can be emulated
by the regular 0-9 keys
2. Select “Input”
3. Select “Emulate Numpad”
4. Save as default
1. Select “User Preferences”
The magic space bar
● No matter in which window you are
● Press the space bar and type a keyword
● All available commands fitting your keyword
are listed (emacs 3d mode ?!?)
How to use your mouse
● The following is the general setup of the
mouse buttons in blender
● Might be slightly different in some windows
Middle Button
Press & Move mouse
rotates view
Left Button Right Button
Middle Button & Shift
Modify Select Objects
Move Press & Move mouse Press Shift to select
Rotate moves view multiple objects
Mouse Wheel
Zoom In / Out
Modeling
let's build stuff
Triangles & friends
Basic building blocks of meshs
● Vertex
Individual point in the model
● Edge
Connecting any two vertices
● Face
An area which can be spanned between to 3 or 4 points
The only building block that is visible when rendering the
model
Modeling Techniques
● Start from a basic object
Cube
Cylinder
Sphere
…
● Select object ( right click )
● Enter Edit Mode ( TAB )
Modifying Meshes
● Right click to select vertices, edges or faces
● Use Shift or the B key to select multiple elements
● You can configure which elements you want to select
● Move selected elements: press G
● Rotate selected elements: press R
● Press X,Y or Z to constrain movement and rotation to
one axis … veeeery useful
● Press Z to toggle between wireframe or filled mesh
Modeling Techniques
● Extrude Faces
Shortcut E
Modeling Techniques
● Loop Cut
Shortcut CTRL - R
Modeling Techniques
● Knife Topology Tool
Shortcut K
Mesh Modifiers
● A list of modifiers can be added to meshes
● The underlying mesh is not changed
Mirror Modifier
● Very useful when modeling symmetric objects
● Only one side of the mesh needs to be
modeled, the other one is mirrored
Subsurface Modifier
● A basic mesh is sub-divided into a more complex mesh to
allow smooth surfaces
● Keeps the underlying mesh simple but looks great in the
render
Animation
keep on movin'
Animation
● Multiple techniques exist in Blender
Key-Frame based
Bone-based ( for example for Characters )
Path-following
Physics-based ( Gravity, Force Fields )
Animation User Interface
Timeline Start / End Frame Current Frame
Key-frame based Animation
● Move the current frame to the intended place
(default 25 frames / sec)
● Position the objects were they should be in the
frame
● Press I and select the keyframe information
you intent ( Location, Scale, Rotation )
● Repeat till the end of the animation time span
● Blender will interpolate the movements for all
frames
● Press ALT+A to get a preview
More Information
● Blender Wiki
[Link]
● Reference Manual
[Link]
aint
This presentation is licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
Background Image by
(CC) Blender Foundation | [Link]
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0