Blender: 3D Modeling and Animation
 

Hey Everyone,

In the next two weeks I am putting together many pieces of my artwork, finding jobs that I may apply for, as well as relearning the new Blender 2.63 interface, and creating a "Grim Reaper". (This means the offer and project ends in two weeks.)

I was wondering if anyone else would like to learn Blender, watch tutorials alongside myself, and try to learn something you might be able to use in the future.

Please, only post:

• Questions about Blender (Troubles)
• Images of what you have done so far
• Tutorials you have found fairly interesting

I forgot the creative corner was in the Off Topic section, and this does not seem to go against the rules. So lets start.

Blender Website:http://www.blender.org/

Click Here to Download

Links to the tutorials:
1. Tutorial to Download
2. Interface and Navigation
3. Intro to Modeling
4. Intro to Materials
5. Intro to Animation
6. Intro to Rendering
7. Intro to Lighting

Other CG Examples

My Examples:

Please note: I know the scene is too dark, and my partner never went through with his part of the scene.

My Blender Preferences:
Notes:
Hotkeys Information:
I: Insert Keyframe for animation

Do you know where I can get the minecraft blended plugin? I've been searching for it everywhere. It's the plugin where you can make scenes of your character doing real life stuff.

Possibly:
http://www.directcg.info/minecraft-to-blender.html
http://www.moddb.com/games/minecraft...ft-blender-rig
http://www.blendernation.com/2011/11...r-for-blender/

You should search Google for: Minecraft Blender Plugin
Try to use the least amount as words as possible describing what you are looking for.
Hope that helps.

Be advised, I believe you should try to learn the basics first before getting into that stuff.
See if they work at all of course, then the basics.

Jumping right in can both be fun and messy, but also frustrating.

The second link down is what I needed. Thanks! Also, I might spend more time on blender. Keep this tutorial up and I'll try out some stuff on blender tomorrow.

Alright, if you need some help I will try my best.
I've watched the interface and now watching the modeling...
So far nothing new, since it didn't go into the interface part I need.
It will probably be under Materials. Nope, didn't learn what I wanted from that either.
>.>;;

If you all want, assuming I get my Grim Reaper done in less than two weeks time, we could go into animated (which I will), but also game design aspects of it. I've never tried that...

Added some hotkeys to the top.

Small video of an hours progress...
Deleted the metal work. Should have done that later...


It might be better to just skim through, nothing to really watch unless you'd like to hear me using hotkeys and trying to figure out a few things.

What I'll need to re-learn:
How to separate a mesh to its own object. : Actually it was P, just need to figure out how to use it.
How to move objects to another layer. : And this is M only in Object mode.

Too tired now, I'll continue tomorrow.

Two hours into it.


(Once again, just posting a video of my results, it will be boring and long. If interested, it is best to only skim through.)

Starting again on the metal part of the staff, then I will go into the materials and texture after looking around for help. Since the first few tutorials didn't help in those sections. :'(



Another hour trying to figure out mainly how to center the origin lol...
It was that sad... Added a little color, and the top metal piece..

So far: 3 hours.

Shawn, you might be interested in this also.
Minecraft Physics which was made in blender.
Took him 36 hours to render though...
I doubt my computer could handle it lol..

Once I mow the lawn, I will start again on my project.

Edit: Back, lets start a few tutorials to try and make metal and wood, I'll probably have to revisit the UV imagery placement part too. :[

cool. I'll try it out

Let me know if you need help, I'm still looking around for materials.

Since I'd rather do the video while there isn't much noise, I will watch a few other tutorials before starting. I'm probably going to have to relearn how to rig up a body for this version, and probably make a skeleton... Or not.. lol

The hands maybe.. I might have some hands I can import in though.

Interesting fact:
I'm not sure if you could do this in the older version but you can record for animations now. This means picking a time, placing the object and it updates.

Updated the main post.

I guess I can try these:
Steel Material
Wood Material

Okay, so for the most part, I've been looking around for various tutorials, and I've come up with a list for myself, and some that you all might be interested in as well.

Starting now, I will get the wood and metal on the scythe, and hopefully start my cloaked Grim Reaper. (Maybe skeleton, but probably not)

May use:
Modeling human head basemesh
Cloth Tutorial (Sort of)
Denim Tutorial (Sort of)
Creating a Cartoon Skull
Appending and Linking

Interesting:
Using the Snapping Tool
Drawing Character Silhouettes in Photoshop
Introduction to LuxRender
Rendering Clay Models in LuxRender
Building Blender in iOS
Cloth Simulation


Beginner:
Creating a Simple Claymation Scene
Using the new Sculpting System
Playing with Array Modifiers and others

If wanted, I can find many other beginner tutorials that are similar to the ones that have helped me.
(Most are outdated)


An hour later and my Scythe is finished... Four hours in total basically. @.@;;
Make sure you look for things from version 5.0 and higher. Trying to do materials from version 2.4-2.49 (which I'm used to) can be a pain in the donkey.

EDIT-
It does have clothe around it which I might add in for effects for the Grim Reaper, however I'm working on him next.


(I was eating Pops Cereal, it sounds disturbing, I won't eat while in a videos again.)

Scythe: Four Hours : Ten Minutes


Alright, well I'm getting tired once again... sadly in two days I've only gotten four hours of work done. Starting on the Skull, and hopefully skeleton tomorrow. As well as the cloak if I can find a good tutorial for clothing.

On the good news, I found a blue print for my future dream house, as well as blender images I did for them a few years back if anyone is interested in seeing. As well as a ferret that I never finished. Couldn't get the hair to work right lol.


Note:
Also, in class I was taught usually on these type of tutorials, people usually mess up a few times. And I have witnessed this first hand, might press the wrong button, or not do exactly like they have. Don't worry, just backtrack or try again.

Starting the Skull
 

Well, started and finished the Skull, that took a good 2 hours...
And a good amount of mistakes ...



Now to try and clothe it... ha.. :c

The Grim Reaper: 1

Looks intriguing. I'm assuming you have experience with Ci4D?

Grim Reapers Robe: 2 Hours

This will take a little over an hour to upload.

I still need to give it a proper material and texture, as well as try to look for the hand. Then try to fit the string type stuff around the staff.... A lot of it has to do with the light too..

After all that... @.@;; Rig him.. and since he really doesn't have a body, I'm not sure how well I can do lol..

Same with making his robe clothe like... It has nothing to hang off of...

Posted my two references.



Sorry talon, I've actually never heard of Ci4D. :(
And, it is very good to know, however very time consuming also; especially if you have no idea what you are doing.
Like you will see in this video... I redid parts of it a few times.

If you want to give it a try, I'll try to help you if you need it.

Cinema 4D, it's a program very similar to this.

Oh no, I haven't, but Blender is actually a free open source 3D Modeling and Animation program that can be used to make games with the built in game engine, or taken into Unity. It is constantly updated... which is why I need to refresh on the new interface.

I'm going to try to find some better clothing tutorials.. Still looking for my hands... lol

The Robe was Deleted

I should be able to make it faster and easier next time around.
I won't double the layer either.

I use Autodesk Maya but its good to see someone using Blender :)
Good Job

I have heard of Maya, but I wouldn't pay up to $5,000... @.@;;
Also, somehow, there is a keymap setup for Maya in Blender.

Thank you by the way, much appreciated.


So, I've redone the whole robe... this time it took me a minute less than an hour lol...
Looks much better too, I think...



I'll have to make him less claymation like though.. lol

So now:

• Possibly make the staff skinnier.
• Redo the metal material.
• Less claymated skull.
• Add hands.
• Rig the ... ?body? lol...
• Make the cloth 'fit'...
• Animate

Loving the grim reaper alot to be honest :)

It looks sexy so far

Found the hands, added, project finished!
 

Starting the hands Part 1
Blender crashed.. so I decided to start the hands from scratch to be bone like.
(Taking small break, by the time it uploads I'll have started on the next part.)


Starting the hands Part 2 - Finished


Hands 2 Hours Total
Note to self: Pinky could 'fit' better.
Free Blender Materials like Wood, Steel, Bone.. ect...
I guess I didn't have to make most of mine, but the wood came out fine I think..

Finishing up the arms, 1 hour. (Also computer overheating outside, Blender crashed a few times. Nothing too bad lost.)

Rigging finished, animation started.
 

Okay, so after:

Rigging Fail 1: Complete Loss


Rigging Fail 2: Learned to save (I think when I do Cmd+Z it crashes, due to an add on, or some odd reason I don't know.)


In the mean time, I've deleted the right arm, the whole rig, redid the arms. I then only rotated them inside edit mode. This fixed the problems of the mirror effect. I then learned how to use the weight skinning brush to have only certain bones effect certain vertexes.

I came up with this seven second short.
Now I will start to animate it the way I wanted to. (After finding a smoother way to rotate the camera.

I'll need to make it take longer for certain things... 1 second of waving was too fast lol... ALSO, I got rid of the changing of normals on the staff... so it does not look as good, but fingers aren't showing through. :[



Now I will try to set up the scene with a dark area, a spotlight (low energy) shining on the reapers staff, and he will reach for it.. and from there I don't remember. It will come to me...

I spent yesterday setting up the animation, ran into a few small problems that I just fixed, and today I'll be going to a graduation part of n old friend. I will try to have something to show as well.

I have the staff now linked to one of his hands, however I'm not sure how to link it to the other... :[ (Meaning so they are both linked instead of one.)

I must admit though, it is not easy working with spaghetti.

Well, here is the beta video. I'm having problems with the clothing... not really sure how I can fix that though...



-EDIT
I can't really see the robe malfunction.. I just need to add some crazy effects and cut it off slightly shorter. Spruce it up a bit.

Well, here we are again.. Fixed the finger positioning up... Robe still having problems that I probably can't fix, and I took the smoke effect out because it didn't look good at all... But I did manage to add in the color effect for the void... Which cause another snag. :/

The color took over! I'll have to find an alternate and make it look like the void is opening or something.. Somehow... I have made this HD as well.



I really should give him a little hand swinging movement too..

Woah:0

In the newer version his arms will move at the start so it isn't too dull... maybe he should hover also... I'm messing with the emitter so I can try and get a decent glow... not sure if I can make it get wider due to using the array...

Wow... it is now 4:20 AM and I've finally finished rendering the video.
Time: 2 hours. Thing is... I turned the array view off for the second 'stroke'.
So I'll let it render once again as I go to sleep.. I'm not so much liking the bright green either... possibly a slightly darker variety will do. May have an uppercut added to the final, and have it fade from green to black starting my portfolio.



Before I went to sleep, I fixed it up once again and let it render.
Still want to fix it up some.



Sadly I'll be making it shorter too.

Fluid simulator does not want to work the way I want it to... So seeing as I can't get it to start sometime after frame 1... I've taken a different approach, and I will be rendering the... what I hope to be final results. Should only take an hour or two to finish rendering.





Pre Final Results:
-Next addition, increasing the time by 5 seconds at the end.
Final won't be posted unless more is added.

Ah.. well it does not seem like I can edit my last post any-longer.. but I did want to add in a few more links. If anyone wants to check them out, or in case I'd like to re-look at the thread.

Drag and Drop in Blender - Simple
Human Skull - Advanced
Skinning a Rig - Intermediate/Simple
Creating Fur
Fluid Simulator
Light Saber Effects
Game Engine Character - Intro

Motion Blur Help

I am rendering what I believe is the final product. However I've also maxed up the resolution, anti-alias, and using a motion blur. So far my render is at 16 hours (Yes, I'm timing it.)

Why is it taking me so long?

Final Product


Full project time: 9 Days

Modeling time: 11 hours.
Scythe: 4 hours 10 minutes.
Skull : 2 hours
Robe1: 2 hours (forgot to save)
Robe2: 1 hour
Hands: 2 hours

Render Time: 28 hours 45 Minutes

Oh my

Mind blowing work David. Well done.

Thank you, wait until you see it as my desktop. ;D

Can't wait, post now please ^_^

I'll post it both here and in the regular thread. Since it is a product of my 3D Animation. :]

http://www.graalians.com/forums/atta...1&d=1340840874

My next portfolio project deals with pictures.
This means that I won't be on the forums too often.

That video was pretty cool, but the green effect at the end from the scythe seemed out of place and weird looking, but it might just be me. Anyways you should check out Valves Source Engine Filmmaker. Its amazing and revolutionary, its a 3D animating engine that doesnt require any baking/rendering time as it is the same type of engine that is used for games. It apparently will make film making ALOT easier and quicker, but im not into animation's technical details lol... Its in a closed beta but you can apply for testing it. Heres one of the shorts they did in it from Team Fortress 2 (just came out today):

It seems like you must have steam, and the games that you make movies with are also in steam... I'm not sure how it goes with, or if you can, import other files... I'll have to look more into it.

The first thing I wanted was a green vortex opening which seemed harder than I thought.. then I wanted what I had there to use the fluid simulator to melt down showing that the Grim Reaper had disappeared.. couldn't get that to work when I wanted either. So I just stuck my text on top and Viola! lol

Yeah I'm pretty sure you cant import other 3d files from other programs, but that doesn't mean you cant create whatever you want inside the engine, independent of what is in the game. That's a given. The game part is just for people that aren't experts in animating their own characters and set pieces. You do need steam though, but its free and isnt that hard to install.

EDIT: heres the link to the website if you havent seen it yet:
http://sourcefilmmaker.com/

I have seen it, that is how I knew I probably wouldn't be able to import anything lol...
Once again, I may look more into it, but I think I'll be keeping into the Blender route and possibly learning Unity for the game engine. ^.^
Updating the desktop picture.

Source Film Maker....
Want.