# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Organic Modeling

|previous=Create a Clayman
}}
```
**Subsurface modeling**

Organic modeling is considered by some the most challenging. Non-organic
can mostly be accomplished by extrusion and scaling. Organic modeling on
the other hand involves mainly curves, as nature has a thing against
straight lines. Because of this, organic modeling is usually done with
subsurfaces. To subsurf a mesh, first select it and navigate to the
\'Editing\' tab. Then go to the modifiers stack and add a new Subsurf
modifier.

![](BlenderAddSubsurf.jpg "BlenderAddSubsurf.jpg")

In Blender 2.5 Alpha 0, Subsurf has been removed from the modifiers
list. Instead hit Ctrl, followed by a number which will specify the
subsurf level. For example `<b>`{=html}Ctrl-1`</b>`{=html} adds a new
Subsurf modifier of level 1. This also works in Blender 2.4. Increasing
the level greatly increases the number of verts in your model, so make
the level relative to the number of vertices in your original model
(pre-subsurfed). Subsurf often works best in conjunction with smoothing,
so be sure to set your object to smooth, again in the \'Editing\' tab,
or in 2.5 A0 under \'Object Tools\', which you can bring up by hitting
the `<b>`{=html}T`</b>`{=html} key in the 3D viewport.

![](BlenderSubsurfModifier.jpg "BlenderSubsurfModifier.jpg")

In this way you can create a smoother, higher-poly shape based on that
of the original mesh. This is controlled by the vertices, edges and
faces of the original.In order to control the rounding of your mesh you
can use two methods: loopcuts, which is a very sloppy method as it adds
more verts to your mesh, which serve very little purpose and can get in
the way of modeling; and Edge Creasing. The latter can work extremely
well in most circumstances. By default all edges are declared uncreased,
and so allow complete rounding in subsurfing, by creasing the edges
using `<b>`{=html}Shift-E`</b>`{=html} you can far better control the
amount of rounding on your mesh, and most importantly, without adding
extra vertices. However, unfortunately Edge Creasing is not available in
Blender 2.5 A0. Yet. And so loopcuts and extra verts are the only
option.\

<File:Blender-DefaultSceneRender.jpg%7CBefore>
<File:BlenderCubeSubsurfed.jpg%7CAfter>

\
Now, start shaping your mesh into an organic shape. There are various
tutorials for modeling bodies and faces, but it is often a good idea to
use references. Only use quads - that is, shapes with four vertices.
Triangles do not subsurface well, they create bad looking rough
surfaces - avoid if at all possible. Also avoid Poles, which are
vertices connected to anything other than 2 or 4 other vertices, as they
create literal creasing in your subsurfed mesh, that is, sudden bunching
up and pinching of faces.

To make the object shape properly, you will need good edgeloops and
edgeflow. This means that all your vertices and/or faces line up in a
continual line or curve around your model. It is possible to select
edgeloops all in one, fantastic when you have to resort to them in
controlling rounding, by holding down `<b>`{=html}Alt`</b>`{=html} when
selecting a vert. This really expands into topology, which is an
advanced subject. I would recommend visiting
<http://www.subdivisionmodeling.com/forums>, although it has just been
closed down, which was a great place to start, however it still (at the
time of revision) is active and well worth a look if you are struggling
with modeling heads. It is best not to have too many vertices to avoid
making the subsurfaced shape look rough - in other words, the original
shape should be quite low-poly.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Understanding the Fluid Simulator

|previous=Organic Modeling
}}
```
## Understanding the Fluid Simulator

When I first encountered the Fluid Simulator I had a hard time
understanding its behavior, especially the *Start time* and *End time*
didn\'t seem to make any sense at all. Going on a Google spree revealed
that many people have problems figuring out the secrets behind fluid
simulation, and I didn\'t find any truly helpful guides. In this little
guide I\'ll try to explain it in a newbie friendly way. It may not be
entirely correct, although it might help newbies understanding how it
works.

## First of all

*Start time* and *End time* **are** in seconds. Don\'t forget this. Even
if your simulation seems to go insanely fast when you set *Start time*
to 0 and *End time* to 10 and having 250 frames in your animation with
25 frames per second, there is a good reason for this. For now, just
remember this, don\'t let your mind wander and believe that the values
are in milliseconds or that you have to do some wicked math
dividing/multiplying with frames and so on.\
\
Also notice that the domain is the bounding box for the whole fluid
calculation. EVERYTHING is done inside this box. It acts as the floor,
ceiling and walls for all of the fluid. This is very important, as the
number 1 reason why I couldn\'t get a good fluid simulation going. If I
have time, I will do a section on Fluid \> Control, but for now, I will
say that it adds a LOT of calculation time. Running on an I7, ATI Radeon
8970 Video, Asus P6X58D Premium, 64-bit Windows 7 and 64-bit Blender, I
crashed my computer with the lowest quality settings. So just remember
that the domain MUST surround the area in which you do calculations.
Also note that after you set up your simulation, the domain becomes the
actual liquid, so give it proper material and try not to bake until
you\'re pretty sure of your simulation.

## Setting up the scene

We\'ll learn how the fluid works the practical way. plane

-   Start with the default box, this simulation will be very simple.
-   Let\'s work in wireframe mode, press the **ZKEY** to turn off solid
    mode.
-   Go in to camera view by pressing **Numpad0**.
-   With the box selected, scale it up to two times by pressing
    **SKEY**, then **2**, then **ENTER**. This fits the camera fairly
    well.
-   Press **Numpad7** for a top view.
-   With the box selected, press **Shift-D** (don\'t move the mouse or
    else the duplicated box will move) then press **ENTER** to confirm
    the duplicated box\'s location. If you do move the box, just press
    **Escape** then the new box will be kept but the move cancelled.
-   While the new box is selected (and in exactly the same spot as the
    other box), press **SKEY**, then **.5**, then **ENTER** to scale it
    to half size.
-   Stay away from the mouse, accuracy is important here and I\'ll
    explain why later.
-   Now we want to move the new box into one of the upper corners. Press
    the **GKEY**, then press the **XKEY**, type in **-1**, press
    **ENTER** and the box should move to the left wall of our larger
    box.
-   We want the box in a corner, so press **GKEY Y 1 Enter**, the box
    should now be in the top left corner from our current view.
-   However, we\'re in 3 dimensions, not 2 so click **Numpad1** for a
    side view. This time we\'ll move the box up along the Z-axis: **G Z
    1 Enter**.
-   Excellent, our setup is done.

## Setting up the simulation

-   Make sure you\'re in Object Mode, and that you followed the above
    steps precisely.
-   Select the smaller box and click **F7** twice. You should get a
    panel where the rightmost pane says \"Fluid Simulation\". Click
    **Enable**.
-   Our small box will be the fluid, so just click the **Fluid** button.
    That\'s all there is to do with the small box.
-   Now select the large box. The Physics panel should still be visible,
    click **Enable** in the Fluid Simulation pane and then select
    **Domain**.
-   By default your animation should have 250 frames. Rendering should
    also be set to 25 frames per second by default, this tutorial
    assumes this setup.
-   Since we got 250 frames and 25 frames per second that means our
    animation is 10 seconds long. So here comes the tricky part, which
    actually isn\'t that tricky at all:
    -   Start time is by default set to 0 seconds. This means that on
        the very first frame the simulation has just begun. You could
        increase this value to say, 1 second and that would mean that on
        the first frame the fluid simulation has already run for 1
        second. We don\'t want to do this, so keep it at 0 seconds.
    -   End time is by default set to 0.3 seconds. What does this mean?
        This means that on the 250th frame the simulation has run for
        0.3 seconds. However, by default our animation is 250 frames
        long with 25 frames per second, making those 0.3 seconds
        stretched over 10 seconds. Basically this means that we\'re
        watching the show in slow motion, or slightly less than 1/33 the
        realtime speed. So now you may think \"it looks quite realtime
        to me!\", and yes, it does, but why does it do that? Well,
        that\'s hard to explain. Consider this: In a world without
        friction, how far would a drop of water fall after 1 second? The
        answer is about 4.9 meters. So, if a drop of water falls from
        4.9 meters it will take 1 second before it reach the ground. How
        long would it take the waterdrop to reach the ground if it falls
        from 3 centimeters? About 0.078 seconds. So why do i mention 3
        centimeters? Because by default the size of our domain is 3x3x3
        centimeters, or **really** small. If you\'re like me, you were
        probably thinking that the fluid was flowing around in a bathtub
        or a barrel, not in the wrapping of a cupcake. **Set *End time*
        to 10 seconds**.
-   Since our imagination likes big things, let\'s crank up that cupcake
    to say, a swimming pool. Make sure the big box is selected in Object
    Mode In and look at the Fluid Simulation pane. Just to the left of
    the \"BAKE\" button there should be 3 other buttons, possibly named
    \"St\", \"A\", \"B\". Click **A** for advanced options.
-   Some new boxes should appear, Gravity (should be -9.81 for the
    Z-axis, nothing else), Water and the option we\'re looking for,
    \"Realworld-size\". Also Gridlevels and Compressibility, but let\'s
    not care about those now.
-   The \"Realworld-size\" value says how large our domain is in meters,
    and as you can see it\'s 0.03 meters by default, or 3 centimeters.
    We want it huge, so crank it up to 10, which is the limit for
    Blender 2.45. Now our swimming pool is 10x10x10 meters (don\'t
    drown!), remember this because scale matters with fluid. Do not
    think we\'re playing with cupcakes again :)
-   Now click **BAKE**, and read on while your computer is chewing
    zeroes and ones.
-   Remember how I told you to be very accurate about placing that
    second box? And how I began talking about gravity, falling
    waterdrops and stuff? Well, now you\'re going to see why.
-   As stated, our \"swimming pool\" is 10x10x10 meters. The smaller box
    we added is exactly half the size (well, in terms of
    length/width/height, not volume), or 5x5x5 meters. Remember that a
    drop of water would fall 4.9 meters in 1 second? And that our
    animation got 25 frames per second? This means that the bottommost
    part of our blob of water will be exactly 5 meters above the
    \"ground\", and that after 25 frames our water should be very close
    to the ground.
-   If you got a fast computer, Blender should be done baking by now. Go
    to frame 25, for example by using the arrow keys (up/down goes 10
    frames forwards/backwards, right/left goes 1 frame
    forward/backward). Take a close look at the blob, then go forward 1
    frame. Notice how the blob hits the ground? Rings a bell, doesn\'t
    it? :)
-   Although, we\'re not done! We gotta render our swimming pool. It\'s
    easy, but takes time, hit **Ctrl-F12** and go make dinner.
-   When the rendering is done, press **Ctrl-F11**, and think of a 10x10
    meter large pool. You might want to keep an eye on your kids if your
    local swimming pool acts this way, though.

## Final notes

Scale matters. It\'s really difficult to understand fluid dynamics on a
very small scale, especially when you don\'t even know what scale is
used. The \"Realworld-size\" value seems to be left out in many guides,
I would recommend you set it to something you can relate to, or you\'ll
end up with simulations that look really slow/fast or having an **End
time** value that seemingly makes no sense. Further I\'m not a
mathematical genius, for all I know I could be way off with my
explanation, although this way the values makes sense to me, and I\'m
able to make fluid simulations without \"guessing\" on values for **End
time**.

## Extra Practice

This YouTube tutorial on fluids might also help:
Link and this Realistic
Water Texture

## Links

-   Youtube: Comparison of different values for resolution and
    real-world size


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Creating a jewel in Blender

|previous=Understanding the Fluid Simulator
}}
```
In this tutorial we will create a jewel in Blender. It is fairly simple.
I recommend you do this tutorial if you are a noob, because it explains
some basic features, but I suggest you read the tutorial syntax and the
pages at the very beginning of this Wikibook first.

## Modeling the jewel

Start up Blender if you haven\'t already. There is a cube in top view
(it looks like a square because it is in top view.) Delete it by
pressing the X key. Then, to begin modeling, add a circle by pressing
**SPACE**→*Add*→*Mesh*→*Circle*. Set the vertices to 10 and make sure it
is not filled in. Then press OK.

![](StepOne.png "StepOne.png")

Next, we will extrude the vertices down. First enter side view by
pressing Numpad 3 on your keyboard. As you can see, the circle is flat
and not filled in. We will give it some depth. Switch to Edit Mode (TAB)
and extrude the circle by pressing the E key and selecting \"Only
Edges\". Move the mouse down and click to confirm the position (you may
want to limit to Z axis by pressing the Z key).

![](StepTwo.png "StepTwo.png")

OK, what we just did is turn the circle into a hollow cylinder by
extruding. But we don\'t want a cylinder. We want the bottom to be a
nice tip. To do this, press Alt-M. This creates a Merging menu. Select
\"At Center\". Now the bottom is a nice tip, like we want it!

![](StepThree.png "StepThree.png")

Now we will edit the top of the jewel. Press A to deselect everything
and press the B key. This enters Box-Select Mode. Drag a box over the
top vertices to select them.

![](StepFour.png "StepFour.png")

Now extrude the vertices upwards a bit (again: E key and \"Only
Edges\"). Next, we will scale down these vertices to look a bit more
like a jewel. Make sure the ring of vertices are selected and press the
S key. This enters Scale Mode. Scale down the top vertices a bit and
click to confirm.

![](StepFive.png "StepFive.png")

To look around your jewel model use the Middle Mouse Button or Alt-Left
Click. Your jewel is looking fantastic! But there\'s a big gaping hole
at the top. We\'ll fix that. First, enter side view (Numpad 3). Now
extrude the topmost ring of vertices but don\'t move them anywhere with
the mouse. If you are feeling doubtful, just press 0 and then Enter (or
just click right mouse button). This makes a duplicate of rings placed
over the original. Next merge this new ring with Alt-M -\> At Center.
This merges the duplicate ring, thus filling up your hole.

At last! Your jewel is finished! Feel free to rotate around it and make
further adjustments if you are more advanced with using Blender.

![](JewelFinished.png "JewelFinished.png")

## Shading

Switch back to Object Mode (TAB) and show the Shading Panel (F5). Enable
the Material Buttons (click on the button with a red ball). Add new
material by clicking on \"Add New\" button in the \"Links and Pipeline\"
tab. Copy the settings in the screenshot below. If you are having
trouble setting the precise value to a slider, just click on the number.
This allows a manual type-in. First, make it green by setting R to 0, G
to 1, and B to 0. Next set the alpha slider to 0.458 (it looks like an
A). Now press \"Ray Mirror\" (raytracing reflection) to turn it on and
set it to 0.13. Now press \"Ray Transparency\" and set the IOR value to
set 1.44. When you\'re done it should look like this:

![](Jewel_Materials.png "Jewel_Materials.png")

## The finishing touch

To improve the effect, add a plane underneath the jewel. In the Object
Mode (TAB) press SPACE\>\>ADD\>\>MESH\>\>PLANE. Scale it 5 times using
the S key. Then move it down a bit using the G key (press the Z key to
restrict movement to the Z axis).

You may try to render your jewel now. Press the F12 key. You may find
that camera doesn\'t see whole jewel. Move and rotate the camera (using
the G and R keys) to set it in the right position. You may want to
switch to \"Camera View\" (Numpad 0) and try out \"Camera Fly Mode\"
(SHIFT F). Try also moving the lamp and see what happens.

I\'ve found that the jewel looks best with Ambient Occlusion on. So go
to the Shading window, then the World buttons, click the Amb Occ tab and
click the Ambient Occlusion button.

Here is an example of what you can do:
![](JewelExample.png "JewelExample.png")

## External links

-   <http://www.blender.org>
-   <http://www.blenderartists.org>


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Modeling with the Spin Tool

|previous=Modeling a picture
}}
```
!A collection of objects modeled with the spin
tool

The Spin tool is a great tool for modeling objects you might make on a
lathe quickly and easily.

Lathe objects have circular cross sections along a certain axis. That is
to say, when you cut such objects perpendicular to a certain axis
you\'ll get circles. Examples of such objects includes rods, poles,
wineglasses, and pails. A Blender render at the left shows some of
these.

With the Spin tool you only have to \"model\" half the outline of your
object. The object is completed after you spin this outline. A bit of
cleanup here and there and your model is finished.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Spin Tool Introduction

|previous=Modeling with the Spin Tool
}}
```
## How the Spin Tool Works

The Spin tool works by making copies of the selected vertices in a
radial array around an axis indicated by the 3d cursor. Each copies of
vertices are connected to previous vertices that corresponds to it with
necessary geometry, i.e. edges and planes.

A picture explains this more clearly.

!Selected vertices before using the Spin
tool{width="603"}

!Result after using the Spin
tool{width="562"}

Note that the copied vertices are arranged in a radial array around our
3d cursor and parallel to our view plane.

## Typical Work Flow

1\) Make half of the outline of our object with connected vertices. If
you want to model a wineglass, make the half of the outline of the
wineglass.

2\) Spin our outline. After this the Spin tool would complete our
object.

3\) Clean up the resulting mesh. The mesh created by the Spin tool is
not so perfect so we had to \"clean\" it up.

#### Modeling Half of the Outline

To start we make half of the outline. Here we do it by creating
vertices.

Open Blender. Don\'t remove the default cube since we are going to use
it. If you don\'t have any object after you open Blender (like mine),
add a mesh object. Any of them will do. I tend to use the plane. At this
time it is good to give your object a proper name. Name it sensibly,
like \"wineglass\" if we are modeling a wineglass. This will help us
locate it if there comes a time when we have a lot of objects in our
scene. We don\'t want to have all objects to be called cube.001,
sphere.003 or something. That could get confusing.

Hit Tab key to enter Edit Mode, if we are not in there yet. Select all
vertices by hitting AKey, then delete them with XKey -\> Vertices. Then
go to the front view by hitting Num1.

Now, we are going to make the outline by creating vertices. Press and
hold CtrlKey then click the left mouse button. A new vertex will be
created. Click the left mouse button again, another vertex will be
created but this time it is connected to the previous vertex by an edge.
Click again to add more vertices. We are going to use this to create our
outline.

You might notice that the 3d manipulator (red, green and blue arrows)
could get in the way. Deactivate it by hitting Ctrl+Space Bar, then
select Enable/Disable, or by clicking the white pointing hand icon in
the 3d view window.

Let\'s start making the outline. Delete our previously created vertices
first. Using what we have learned, let\'s create vertices again but this
time let\'s add them to form some sort of outline. Let\'s be creative
here. It could be anything you want. Here I\'ve made two to illustrate
two situations that we might encounter when modeling with the Spin tool.
That is, modeling objects that are hollow or non-hollow.

!Half outline of a drinking
glass{width="315"}

The first one is an outline of a glass. Here, we are modeling an object
that is not hollow. We had two vertices that are located in the center
of our would-be glass bottom. We need to align the two central vertices
perfectly along the z axis. Select this two vertices then scale it along
the x axis to zero (SKey, xKey, 0Key, Enter).

!Half outline of a napkin
ring{width="341"}

The second one we will make into a napkin ring. This time our outline is
closed and no vertices are located in the center of our would be napkin
ring. Here we are modeling an object that is hollow.

To make the closed outline, select the two vertices on the open side
then press FKey. The two vertices will be bridged by an edge, thus
closing the outline.

Adjust vertices when necessary.

For those who may like to have an image in the background to guide them.
Upload a background image by selecting the View menu from the 3d View
Window then select \"Background Image\". A new internal window will
appear. Click \"Use Background Image\" Button, then click \"Load\".
Navigate to where the Image is located, select it, then click \"SELECT
IMAGE\". Our image will appear on the 3d Window as a background. Bellow,
I used a picture of a wineglass.

!Half outline of a wineglass with a background image as a
guide{width="362"}

#### Spinning Our Outline

Now that the outline is finished, we are ready to use it with the Spin
tool

Two things you must know is that the Spin tool is dependent on the
location of the 3d cursor, and view where we activate our Spin tool.

!Setup with an arbitrary
shape{width="362"}

Here is our setup with the vertices all selected. In the nest pictures
are results when this shape is spun with the 3d cursor at different
locations.

!Shape spun with 3d cursor at the
origin{width="362"}

!Shape spun with 3d cursor at another
location{width="362"}

Here we have the same shape but is spun around in different views.

!Shape seen in top
view{width="362"}!Shape
spun in top
view{width="362"}

!Shape seen in an arbitrary
view{width="362"}!Shape
spun in an arbitrary
view{width="362"}

Note that its important only to place the 3d cursor properly relative to
the view where you are going to use the Spin tool

###### Placing Our 3d Cursor

We can see that the location of our 3d cursor is very important in Spin
modeling so we need to know how to place it properly. If you prepare it
to be, the cursor would already be in position after we make our outline
but accidents happen and we accidentally misplaced our 3d cursor. Here
are some ways we could make our 3d cursor go to the place where we want
it to be.

###### Snapping

Snapping the 3D cursor is a quick and simple way to place our 3d cursor
to its proper location. In the 3d window, hit Shift + SKey. A list of
options would appear. We are interested with the last three options,
namely the cursor snaps options. They are the Cursor-\>Selection,
Cursor-\>Grid and Cursor-\>Active. The name are pretty descriptive but
we\'ll give a short description here.

Cursor-\>Selection places the cursor to the exact location of our
selected element or elements. In case of multiple selected elements, our
cursor is placed on the median of the selected elements. In edit mode,
select a vertex and use Cursor-\>Selection snap to it. Our 3d cursor
would jump to the exact place where our selected vertex is located.

Cursor-\>Selection snapping is especially useful when modeling non
hollow objects because there are vertex or vertices located at the
center of our model to snap to. Just select one central vertex and snap
to it.

!Here our 3d cursor is not at the center of our drinking glass outline.
We select one of the central vertex and do Cursor-\>Selection
snapping.{width="298"}

!Result after doing the Cursor-\>Selection
snap.{width="293"}

Cursor-\>Grid snaps the cursor to the nearest cross of the visible grid.
Try clicking at a center of a square in our Blender\'s grid and use it.
See its effect.

Cursor-\>Grid snapping is useful for spin modeling hollow models.
Usually if you are careful, our object outline would be on a plane that
contains one of the axises. If we make our outline in front view as
advised, go to the top view (or side view depending on what we are
modeling). If you are doing okay, you will see all our vertices aligned
perfectly along the x axis. It just a matter of LMB close to a cross on
the grid that contains our objects center then snap to it.

Cursor-\>Active might not be so helpful in spin modeling.
Cursor-\>Active snaps the cursor to the active element (usually the
element that is last to be selected). Try it by selecting several
vertices, then do Cursor-\>Active snap. The vertex where the 3d cursor
goes is the active element in your selection.

###### Spin Tool Parameters

The spin accepts two parameters to execute its function. These are
Degrees (degr) and Steps.

image:BlenderDegr.jpg

**Degrees** specifies the angle at which the selected geometry will be
rotated from its initial position around the axis. It accepts values in
degrees. A 360 degrees value being a whole turn around the axis. Values
lesser than 360 produces something like a wedge is sliced from the side
of the form.

none

**Steps** specifies the number of \"copies\" of the selected geometry
the spin tool makes that it arranges in a radial array around the 3d
cursor. A higher value result in much rounder form.

#### Cleaning Up the resulting Mesh

After using the spin tool, a little clean up work might be necessary,
especially if you specified a 360 degree turn. Though the mesh looks
clean to the eye, the tool actually make geometries (vertices) that are
in the same blender position as another one. So what might look like one
vertex may actually be two. A simple way to clean up our mesh would be
to select the whole geometry then activating the \"remove doubles\" from
the specials menu ( Wkey(Specials Menu) -\> remove doubles or
Wkey-\>6key). This would remove these problem geometries, finds vertices
that are too close to each other and merging them to one.

## Post Modeling

After the lathe able parts are done it would be ready to adding non
latheable parts. For example a cup may have a bowl-like body, that we
could use the spintool. Alas the handle can\'t be so we had to put it
there after. Depending on the geometry added. This geometries could be
formed from the mesh itself or be adding in a separate mesh.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Illustrative Example: Model a Wine Glass

|previous=Spin Tool Introduction
}}
```
Lets start with a classic spin tool model. Here we go step by step in
making a wine glass\... or any other latheable models\... using the spin
tool.

## Model half the outline

Using what you have learned earlier, create a simple outline of the wine
glass. Just the half part and leave the center part open. As a recap, go
first to front view. Select the cube (or if you have no object create
one) and press Tab to go to edit mode. Delete all vertices of the
object, then using Ctrl+ LMB, add connected vertices. Keep holding Ctrl
and clicking until finished. Adjust vertices as required.

## Spinning the outline

Remember to align the two end points in the open side. Select the two
vertices and scale at the x-axis to zero (Skey-\>Xkey-\>0key). Move the
3d cursor to the center by snapping to the selection (Shift+S -\> 4key).
Then select all vertices by hitting Akey twice.

Now go to top view (Num7). Select the editing button (F9Key) and find
the mesh tools tab. Change Degr to 360 for a complete turn and change
steps to 20 or higher to form a much rounded shape.

Press the Spin button.

## Cleaning up the Mesh

Select all vertices by pressing Akey twice then apply remove doubles
operation (WKey-\>6Key/Remove doubles). Now the model is finished. Make
it shade smooth using set smooth (Wkey -\> set smooth). If you like, add
a Subsurf modifier to the object to make it geometrically smoother. If
dark bands appear, recalculate normals outside (Ctrl+N), to eliminate
them.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Creating Ogg-Theora movies using Blender

|previous=Illustrative Example: Model a Wine Glass
}}
```
Wikimedia Commons requires that movies be uploaded as Ogg-Theora (OGG)
files. As of Blender 2.42a, this is not a builtin feature of Blender. To
get OGG files from your finished animation isn\'t difficult, though.
However, you\'ll need additional software.

There are basically two ways to generate OGG files: you can use one of
the many fine video editors or you can use special conversion programs.
Video editors like LiVES or Cinerella allow you to load your AVI or your
rendered frames, manipulate them, and create the OGG file from it.
Please refer to the editor\'s documentation on how to achieve this.

A disadvantage of a video editor is they are huge pieces of software,
duplicating functionality that you already used when you created your
animation file/s with blender. It\'s actually not necessary to install a
video editor just for converting your animation to OGG Theora format.

## Converting saved frame picture files to Ogg Theora

It\'s actually possible to convert frame pictures that you saved before
to OGG format movies. The ffmpeg2theora software
package, which is available in
source or binary for all relevant systems, is capable of
batch-processing files into an Ogg format movie. For example, if your
frames were saved as PNG (with filenames `filename001.png`,
`filename002.png`, etc.), you could convert them to a soundless OGG file
with:

`ffmpeg2theora filename%03d.png -o output.ogv`

Sound is possible too, as well as being able to set the quality and
framerates. Consult the `ffmpeg2theora` documentation for more.

## Converting AVIs to Ogg Theora

`ffmpeg2theora` can also convert AVI movies to OGG. Usage example:

`ffmpeg2theora --optimize my.avi`


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Creating animated GIFs using Blender and Gimp

|previous=Creating Ogg-Theora movies using Blender
}}
```
This tutorial will guide you through how to make a simple animated Gif
Using Blender and Gimp. This is useful for creating Avatars for forums
etc. This tutorial assumes basic knowledge of blender and Gimp, see the
basic animation
tutorial.

To start off you will need an animation, this usually should be no
longer than 25 frames long.

1.  Open Blender. and delete the default cube and add a UV sphere, the
    default settings for the sphere work fine.
2.  Now set the camera size in the scene buttons (F10) to 50 by 50 (I am
    creating an avatar for deviant art where the required size is 50 by
    50 pixels, you may change this if you want)
3.  set the frames to start at frame 1 and end at frame 20.
4.  select the sphere and insert a LOC keyframe at frame 1 and 21, then
    go to frame 11, move the sphere and insert another LOC keyframe.
    this will create a looping animation.
5.  Set the image type to PNG or JPEG (it doesn\'t matter) and render
    the animation.

Now to combine the images into an animated GIF using Gimp.

1.  Open the first image with gimp.
2.  Now click File-\> open as Layer or press \"Ctrl-Alt-O\". Select the
    next frame and it will be added as a new layer. Repeat this for all
    of the images, or select all of the images by pressing \"Ctrl-A\".
3.  If you press Filters-\>Animation-\>Playback it should play the
    animation. It will probably have a low frame rate making it
    \"choppy\". this will be fixed in the next step.
4.  Change the frame rate to 40 ms(25 frames per second). Choose
    file-\>Export as-\> \"Name\".gif, then choose Save as Animation.

Note: Don\'t know wheter this is an additional feature of Gimp 2.6.8 or
not, but i found out following: In Gimp 2.6.8, within the export wizard,
you have to choose option: -save as animation- first and next at the
option: -single picture where not mentioned- the option: one single
picture per layer. -Sorry i use the german version of gimp-

You should end up with something like this: ![](Tut.gif "Tut.gif")

Alternatively, you may try using addons to create animated Gifs directly
from Blender. 2 options include
Spritify and
Bligify


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/3D Tiling Backgrounds For The Web

## Overview

This tutorial will guide you through the process of making 3D tiling
backgrounds for use with web pages, your desktop, or anything else for
that matter. We will be using Blender and a graphic editing program such
as Adobe Photoshop or GIMP. I will provide detailed explanation to cator
to beginners, however more experienced Blenderists can probably get away
with just following the picture diagrams provided. You may also find the
diagrams useful if English is not your native language, or if you hate
reading instructions.

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

## Create The Object You Wish To Tile

Start up Blender and look at your lonely cube. We will use this cube as
a starting point for the sake of demonstration, but feel free to use any
shape you like. Press \"**Tab**\" to enter **Edit Mode**. Press the
\"**E**\" key on your keyboard and the **Extrude** menu will appear.
Select \"**Individual Faces**\". As you then drag your mouse cursor you
will see some numbers move in the bottom left in the window and text
saying \"Shrink/Fatten\". I recommend setting it to 1.0000 to keep it
simple. Hold down the \"**Ctrl**\" key while dragging to do so in set
increments.

Next, with the six faces of the cube still selected, press the \"**S**\"
key to scale those faces. I recommend scaling to 0.8000.

![](3dbg-extrude&scale.jpg "3dbg-extrude&scale.jpg")

Good. Now that we have created our object we will prepare to tile it.

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

## Specify Your Tiling Area

\"**Tab**\" back into **Object Mode** and press \"**NumPad 7**\" to go
to the Top View, or manually click \"**View**\" at the bottom of the
window and select \"**Top**\".

Press \"**spacebar**\" and from the menu that appears select \"**Add**\"
**\>** \"**Mesh**\" **\>** \"**Plane**\". The plane has appeared, but is
obstructed by our cube object, so press \"**S**\" to scale the plane to
5.0000.

![](3dbg-planescale.jpg "3dbg-planescale.jpg")

You\'ll notice that I\'ve colored my plane black. This is only to make
it easier for you to see. You need not bother with this as we will be
deleting the face of this plane shortly.

![](3dbg-planeblack.jpg "3dbg-planeblack.jpg")

We now have an easily visible boundary representing the area which will
be tiled. If at any point we decide we no longer need or want this we
can move it to another layer by pressing \"**M**\" and selecting a layer
to move it to.

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

## Tile Away!

Now the fun part begins. If you have created 2D tiling backgrounds
before, this concept will be very familiar to you.

While in **Object Mode**, select your cube object. At this point you
have a couple of options. One is to make duplicates of the cube object.
Another is to make ***linked*** duplicates of the cube object. I
recommend making linked duplicates because you can later edit the mesh
of one object in order to change the mesh of all the duplicated objects.
This can be especially useful if you later plan to animate your tiling
background *(careful not to distract from the foreground)*. It is also
useful if you want to experiment with new designs easily without having
to re-place all your objects.

With your cube object still selected, press \"**Alt+D**\" to make a
linked duplicate. *(Non-linked duplication is done with \"Shift+D\")*
Now hold down \"**Ctrl**\" to move in set increments and move the object
to one of the corners of our plane. Make sure the center of the object
(represented by a pink dot) is aligned with the very corner of the
plane. At this point you may notice it\'s somewhat difficult to tell
whether the center of the object is exactly on the corner of the plane,
and that\'s why we are going to press \"**NumPad 5**\" or click
\"**View**\" and select \"**Orthographic**\". For all practical purposes
we can spend the rest of the time we are building the tiling pattern in
Orthographic View because this view is essential for tiling.

![](3dbg-persp-ortho.jpg "3dbg-persp-ortho.jpg")

Now with your duplicate object still selected, scale it (\"**S**\" key)
so that is somewhat smaller than the first. Then rotate it using the
\"**R**\" key. While rotating you can constrain to a particular axis by
typing \"**X**\", \"**Y**\", or \"**Z**\" respectively.

We will now make linked duplicates (**Alt+D**) of our rotated and scaled
cube object and place one in each corner exactly on the grid (remember
to hold \"**Ctrl**\" while dragging). If you place an object in one
corner, you must place it in all four corners because corners touch both
the X axis and the Y axis.

![](3dbg-scale&dup.jpg "3dbg-scale&dup.jpg")

Now as you will notice in the following diagram, I made an object that
is crossing over the edge of our plane. This is good. This is how to
make natural tiling backgrounds. However! Whenever we do this we must be
absolutely certain to do the same on the opposite side, or else our
backgrounds will not tile properly.

![](3dbg-boundaries.jpg "3dbg-boundaries.jpg")

So now we\'ve created a few objects of different sizes and orientations,
however they have all been along the same spot on the **Z** axis. So
let\'s give our pattern some depth - after all, that is the joy of
working in 3D!

Before we do this, we\'ll want to get our guide plane out of the way. So
**right click** on the plane to select it, then \"**Tab**\" into **Edit
Mode**. Press \"**X**\" and from the **Erase** menu choose \"**Only
Faces**\". Now \"**Tab**\" back into **Object Mode**. There! We now have
only the segments of the plane as our guide.

![](3dbg-deletefaces.jpg "3dbg-deletefaces.jpg")

Hold down the **middle mouse button** while dragging the mouse to see
what our design looks like in three dimensions. Now right click one of
the cube objects, duplicate a linked copy (**Alt+D**), and press
\"**Z**\" to constrain movement to the Z axis.

![](3dbg-zmove.jpg "3dbg-zmove.jpg")

Navigate in this way along the **X** and **Y** axis as well and once
you\'ve found a good spot, **scale** and **rotate**. Remember to make a
duplicate on the opposite side whenever you cross the outline of the
plane guide. You can go on like this and populate your tiling pattern
with as many objects as you wish. The grid is your friend during this
process, so you should always have your finger on \"**Ctrl**\" while
moving the duplicate of an object that crosses a border of the guide
plane. Also, any object that will \"tile\" across the border must be at
the same point on the **Z** axis as its counterpart on the other side of
the seam. Press \"**NumPad 7**\" periodically to see where you are from
a 2D standpoint. This is the view from which we will eventually render
the image, so this perspective is the one that counts. Beginners,
remember that **mouse wheel** zooms in and out, and \"**Shift+middle
mouse button**\" allows you to \"drag\" your way around.

![](3dbg-populated.jpg "3dbg-populated.jpg")

Keep in mind that in **Orthographic View** we do not perceive the depth
of objects. Those far away and those near by appear to be at the same
distance. This is what allows us to make a tiled image, but it also
limits the apparent depth of the scene. We can compensate for this by
scaling down the objects we want to appear further away. Or, as in this
example, we can just make each object a different size and place some in
front of others.

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

## Camera Settings

We will now position the camera directly over our cluster of objects.
Press \"**NumPad 7**\", center the view on the cluster using
\"**Shift+middle mouse button**\", and zoom out a couple notches with
the **mouse wheel**. From the **3D View Window**\'s menu, click
\"**View**\" **\>** \"**Align View**\" **\>** \"**Align Active Camera to
View**\". Now you may be wondering why everything appears to be
distorted. This is because when we changed to the camera\'s perspective,
the view automatically reverted to **Perspective View** because by
default the camera is set to that view. But just as we changed to
**Orthographic View** in the 3D View Window, we can change the view of
the camera as well. While in **Object Mode**, swivel the view until you
see the camera. It is represented by a pyramidal wireframe with a black
triangle atop the opening. **Right click** to select it. Now press
\"**F9**\" or click the **Editing** button (it\'s icon is four vertices
joined in a square). Now in the **Camera** panel you will see a button
labelled \"**Orthographic**\". Press it. Above the button is a value
labelled **Scale**. Set it to around 20. (See figure below)

![](3dbg-orthocamera.jpg "3dbg-orthocamera.jpg")

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

## Lighting & Materials

Place some lights in your scene, and add some materials to your objects.
**Lighting** and **materials** are subjects which demand their own
tutorials, so if you don\'t know how to do these things yet, please
consult the Wiki.

**Note:** I advise lighting your scene pretty evenly in order to make
the tiling seem contiguous.

**Note:** You could also only use Sun lamp, so the light is clean all
over the mesh!

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

## Rendering

Now that you\'ve presumably got your lighting and materials as you want
them, it\'s time to render the scene. Under **User Preferences** click
\"**Render**\" **\>** \"**Render Settings**\" or just press \"**F10**\".
In the **Format** tab you can choose the dimensions of your rendered
image, the file format you prefer, and the quality. I\'m going with
800x600 at 100% quality.

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

## \'Shopping

And it\'s time to begin post-production. Open your rendered image in
your preferred image editor. I will be using Photoshop in this example.
Now find and mark the four corners of your tile (on a new layer of
course). Just eyeball it.

![](3dbg-tilepoints.jpg "3dbg-tilepoints.jpg")

We will use guides to mark the tile boundaries. In Photoshop guides can
be inserted by selecting \"**View**\" **\>** \"**New Guide\...**\".
Guides can be positioned with the **Move Tool**. You can zoom in and
make sure your guides are accurately positioned by holding \"**Ctrl**\"
while typing \"**+**\" or \"**-**\". You can now hide or delete the
layer with the markers, as that was only to help us get accurate guides.

Should you decide to make an animated tiling background I recommend
layering all your frames on top of one another in your image editor
before editing in order to keep the position uniform. You can then
animate them using Adobe ImageReady (comes with Photoshop) or find
decent low-budget and occasionally free GIF animation programs online.

![](3dbg-guides.jpg "3dbg-guides.jpg")

Now select an area just *outside* of the guides with the **Marquee
Tool**. Make sure \"**Feather**\" is set to **0px** and that the marquee
is rectangular and **Style** is set to **Normal** (meaning no Fixed
Aspect Ratio or Fixed Size). Also, it will help you to have **Snap**
enabled, so go to \"**View**\" and make sure it is enabled for guides.

Once you have selected the area, copy (**Ctrl+C**) and paste
(**Ctrl+V**). Then drag to the right using the **Move Tool** and that
piece should snap to the inside of the rightmost vertical guide.

![](3dbg-copypaste.jpg "3dbg-copypaste.jpg")

Select the Eraser Tool and choose a brush size. I\'m going with a
diameter of 65. You\'ll want to use a soft gradient-like brush for this.
Now erase the left edge of the newly pasted selection so that it blends
into the picture. Don\'t erase any of the right edge.

![](3dbg-eraseseam.gif "3dbg-eraseseam.gif")

Press \"**Ctrl+E**\" or alternatively, select \"**Layer**\" **\>**
\"**Merge Down**\".

Alright, so that procedure you just performed copying from left to
right - now do it bottom to top. Once again, erase the edge. Do a **Save
As**.

Finally, select the square center area that will become your tile and do
\"**Image**\" **\>** \"**Crop**\".

Now scale your new tiling background to a web-friendly size. **Save As**
a JPEG, GIF, or PNG. **You\'re done!**

*Note:If your pattern still isn\'t tiling quite perfectly, load the
version with the guides again and repeat the copy-paste-erase process.
Remember to merge down your layers each time or the corners may not tile
correctly. If still no joy, try tiling the background in a web browser,
taking a screenshot, pasting that into your graphics editor, and
touching up from there.*

Here is the final result: ![](3dbg-finaltile.jpg "3dbg-finaltile.jpg")


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Cool Things

Cool things in Blender that aren\'t that obvious. Useful tips and tricks
in Blender.

## Attribution

Many of The Following Tips and Tricks have been contributed by members
of the CGsociety.org, a Public Society for
Digital Artists. The tips have been extracted from a CGsociety
thread.
They have been roughly edited to improve readability.

## File Browser Functions

### Delete, Move, Rename, and Make Directory

When you are inside a file browser for loading or saving something and
you want to create a new directory, just add the name to the path on top
of the window and confirm \'Makedir\'.

you can also delete(x), move(m), or rename(n) a file. you can do action
on multiple files by seling with right click

### Preview images when loading them as a texture

Whenever you are loading images as a texture, you can hold down **Ctrl**
while clicking on the \'load\'

### Trick for Creating Quick File Revisions

After you have saved a blend file or an image you can then save it in
progression that is:

car .blend. or car .JPG

Next time do \"Save As\" then press the + (plus) key which will advance
the blend file by 1 every time it\'s pressed. example: car .blend
becomes car 1.blend. press again car 2.blend and so on.

The - (minus) key will subtract one. I\'ve gotten into the habit of
saving frequently. Yeah I know there is now the undo feature but I like
this better because it gives you a history in case you need to back a
few levels of a build. You get a saved version at the level you choose.

Note: Blender automatically detects the number\... meaning it does not
need to be in any position. For instance: If you have a file named
001starport.png or .blend or whatever, pressing the + (plus) key will
automatically name it 002starport.png. If you want to name it
starport1.png, it will change it to starport2.png.

Two rules: The filename has to have a number. It can be 0, or 1, or
3.141569.

If the file number is a negative, pressing + (plus) key will increase
the \"magnitude\" of the negative number. I may have used magnitude
wrong, if so, I mean pressing the + (plus) key will make -0.04 drop to
-0.05. The - (minus) key will bring you only to 0, and then it will
start to eat itself up.

### Open Recent

Control O

## Object/Vertex Manipulation

### Constrain Movement to one Axis or to a plane

when moving objects/vertices or set of objects/vertices (**\[G\]** key)
if you move in the direction of the global X axis (Up/Down) and then
press the **MMB**, movement will be constrained to only move in the X
axis, or if you move the vertices in the direction of the Y axis and
then press **MMB** it will be constrained to move only in the Y axis.
The same is true of the Z axis.

You can achieve the same effect by using the X, Y or Z keys while in
grab mode. You simply have to press X key, Y or Z, once to lock to X Y
or Z global axis,\*

To Constrain the Movement to two axes (a plane): Press **Ctrl+X** to
move in the Z-Y-Plane. **Ctrl+Z**=XY, **Ctrl+Y**=XZ.\*

Alternatively, Select scaling mode and select the axis not to scale with
the selecting button at the same time as you hit **Shift**.

-   in every case You can hit the X,Y or Z button again to constrain
    movement to a different set of axes. Normally this different set of
    axes is local. However you can change the identity of this set to
    global, local, normal, or view by pressing **Alt+Space**. which
    cycles through the different identites.

Note: All of these shortcuts work with scaling and Rotating as well

### Shrink/fatten mesh in direction of vertex normals

When you\'re mesh-editing, **Alt+S** will shrink/fatten the mesh
selection in the direction of the vertex normals.

### Vertex Parenting

You can parent object to a Mesh, in that case you are parenting to the
center of the mesh.. BUT if the mesh is translated somehow (let\'s say
by an armature**\'\[S\]** pose) the center remains in the same spot, and
thus the child object doesn\'t receive any transformation at all.

To solve this, you can parent the child object to a vertex (or a face)
within the mesh, and any transformation that the vertex receives is
passed to the child.

There are only 2 options, to parent to any 3 vertex within the mesh or
to parent to just one vertex. If you parent to 1 vertex then only
location information is passed, with 3 vertex all transformations
(rotation, location and size) are passed to the child.

How to do it? Starting in object mode select the child(ren), hold
**Shift** and select the parent, enter edit mode, select one or three
vertex, press **Ctrl+P**. That\'s it!

### Work around to welding Verts

For Edge loop (Verts) position both loops together as close as possible
then hit W then 4 (not on numkey pad). You can adjust how far the effect
of collapse can go in the Edit window (a button on the right labeled
Limit: \*\*\*, where \* is a number).

As for individual Verts, e.g. Two vertices welded to become one, select
both Verts, scale until they are very close then hit W then 4.

you can also do this with the snap combo

select the vertex you want to weld together **Ctrl+S**, Cur -\> Sel
**Ctrl+S**, Sel -\> Cur **\[W\]**, Remove Doubles

Also, whenever Blender pop up a menu with different options, you can
just type in a number to choose one of the options (use the numbers not
on the **NumPad**)

### Make individual objects the camera and Change them back

If you select certain objects and press **Ctrl+0(zero)**it will make
them the camera. I use it all the time to align spotlights.

Select your camera and hit **Ctrl NumPad 0** to make it the active
camera again

### Ordering Meshes in Vertex Groups

If you are preparing to skin your meshes and you are ready to create the
vertex groups, you should pay attention to the order in which you create
them, because once they are created there is no way to re-arrange them
on the vertex-group list.

That means that if you are a ultra-by-the-book person and you would like
the vertex group alphabetically ordered on the list them you must create
them in alphabetical order.

.. Or, if you would like them to be ordered according to their function
(shoulders, then arms, then forearms, then palms, etc. you must create
them in that order.

This may all sound like a stupid thing to care about, but If you have a
character with 39 vertex groups you may quickly find that when one of
them needs fixing it is a little difficult since they were randomly
created.

### Position and scale along face normal,

\-**Shift V**: Position camera along face normal, **Alt S**: scale
selected vertices along face normal

### Using Fake Users

pressing **Shift+F4** will turn the window into a ¨Data Select Window¨
where you can assign and unassign fake users to almost everything by
selecting the name and pressing the F key

Creating a fake user allows you to keep useful data blocks (materials,
textures, base meshes) at hand even if they are not linked to an object.
You can use it to set a default material that would have the shader you
like best.

### Align a selection of vertices on a plane

If you want to perfectly align a selection of vertices on a plane, you
just have to follow these little steps:

1.) Before you are selecting the vertices you want to align, position
your 3D cursor in the plane that you want to align to (you could select
the 4 vertices of a big plane and hit **Shift+S** / Cursor-\>Selection
for example, but you can position it anywhere)

2.) Now select those vertices you want to align

3.) Choose \"3D Cursor\" under \"Rotation/Scaling Pivot\"

4.) Now with the **\[S\]**-key start scaling mode, hit the key of the
axis you want to move the vertices on (X,Y,Z)

5.) Holding down the **Ctrl-Key**, you can now move the vertices in one
line towards the cursor, until the value for the chosen axis is 0.000.
Alternatively, just enter, using the keyboard, the scale factor you want
(0 in this case) .

6.) Hit LMB. The vertices are perfectly aligned along a plane through
the 3D cursor.

This even works very well while in perspective view mode, so you can
align on the fly and don\'t have to switch to front/side/top view all
the time.

### Welding Vertices

You can weld vertices by selecting them in edit mode and pressing
**Alt+M**.

### View wireframe of hidden Verts

to view the wireframe of hidden Verts, make sure you are in WIREFRAME
MODE and then turn SubSurf on and change the level to 0 If you already
knew about this then

### Select a true loop

shortcut is **Shift + Alt + right Button** of the mouse, serves to
select true loop, in vertices as in edges like in faces.

### Selecting one object from a single mesh comprised of multiple objects

If you have more than in Edit Mode, you can place your mouse cursor next
to one of the Verts in the desired object, then press the \"L\" key to
select all of the Verts linked to that one. \"Alt+L\" reselects in the
same manner.

### Precise Zoom and Select/Deselect

Selecting: If you Hold down the **Ctrl+LMB** (left mouse button) and
drag the mouse, it will allow you draw a selection as opposed to using
the B button which gives you a square.

Deselecting:To draw an area to deselect, Hold down the **Ctrl+ Shift+
LMB**(left mouse button) and drag the mouse,

Zooming:Hold down the **Ctrl+MMB**. Move your mouse vertically to can
get a more controlled zoom versus scrolling the Mouse wheel.

This feature may not be present in 2.37 or earlier versions.

### Mouse Gestures

Left click and draw:

-   a straight line - moves the selected object.
-   a circle - rotates the selected object (note: this must be drawn
    fairly circle-like).
-   a V - scales the selected object.

### Selecting Obscured or Hidden Objects

Say you are in front or side view and you want to select an object, but
it is obscured or hidden behind other objects. If you press **Alt RMB**
over a group of objects, a menu will be displayed in the 3D window
allowing you to pick the object you wish to select.

### Select or Deselect Multiple Vertices

In Edit mode, when you click the **RMB** near a vertex that vertex (face
or edge)will be selected, **RMB** again will reselect. By holding the
**Shift** key this will allow you to add each selected vertex (face or
edge) in that highlighted group.

Pressing the U key (Undo in Edit mode) will also remove the last
selection you made.

Alternatively, you can Press B and then draw a box with **MMB**.
Anything caught in the box will be deselected. Also works with BB and
the draw selection. Draw with **MMB** and you reselect.

### Selecting multiple items

You can hold **Shift** and use right mouse button to select multiple
items to append.

### Measuring, length, distance on an object.

Hit \"F9\" (editing), you should have split (2) windows. One \"3d\" the
other \"buttons\" go to the Mesh Tools 1 panel and press the Edge
Length, Edge Angles and the dimensions will appear on your selections in
the 3d view.

### Adding Connected Vertices

In Edit Mode, if only one vertex is selected, pressing \"E\" will add a
vertex, on a freely defined place, connected to the selected one. As
will holding **CTR**L and left clicking the mouse where you want the new
vertex to be positioned.

Note: It must be an Image texture and in wireframe mode to be visible.

(2.37a)

### Recalculate Normals

**Ctrl + N** = Recalculate normals outside (you might have to select
faces before doing so) **Shift + Ctrl + N** = Recalculate normals inside

These two hotkeys are useful when you extrude some edges and see a kind
of seam in between (due to normals pointing in different directions).

Then, after selecting an edge, **Ctrl + NumPad(+)** selects the face
associated with this edge. **Ctrl + NumPad(-)** deselect the face.

### Create a Quad from two Tris

**Alt + J** when having two Tris selected makes a Quad.

### Remove Doubles

To Remove Doubles use hotKey: W. You can adjust the \"limit\" option so
that \"Remove Doubles\" has more or less tolerance. This option is
located in editing window under the mesh tools panel, (i.e. weld
vertices that are further?)

### Combine edit levels on a mesh.

When in Edit mode for a mesh (TAB key) you can choose the level that you
wish to edit at. At the bottom of the 3D window, there are four buttons.
Vertex, edge, face & back-face cull.

By default the vertex level is selected, if you hold **Shift** and press
the edge button, you can use both at once.

### Change Select Mode

to change select mode (vertex, edge or face) you can press **Ctrl+Tab**.
But this way you can\'t use the Ctrl+Key to ADD the select modes.. Still
could be useful, if you don\'t have a header for the window you\'re
working in..

### Precision Warping

When using the warp tool (**Shift+W**) you may find that there are times
when you have trouble perfectly closing a 360-degree loop. This is
because Blender will warp based on the total width of the selection,
which may not necessarily be what you want.

Getting around this is simple, just select two verts to denote the new
endpoints, duplicate them (**Shift+D**), scale the two verts times two,
so they are just twice as far apart. Then select what you want to warp
plus those two marker verts, and warp 720 degrees.

When done, click a vert on your mesh and type **L** to select everything
linked to it. Then type **H** to hide it. Once you\'ve hidden all of
your mesh, all that remains are the two marker verts. Do a Select All
(**A**) and type **X** to delete them. Now unhide your mesh using
**Alt+H** and you have just the warped mesh, extra guide verts are all
cleaned up.

### Precision Cutting

The Knife Tool can actually be quite precise if you take advantage of
the snap feature. Press **K**, choose **\"Knife(Exact)\"** and then hold
the **Ctrl** key while choosing where you wish to cut and you will find
that the path to be cut will now snap to nearby vertices.

Keep in mind that the vertices being snapped to don\'t have to be the
ones you are cutting. Say you want to cut the midsection out of a UV
sphere and you want the cut to be two grid units in height. While
viewing the side of the sphere, add a plane, and scale it to be two grid
units tall, and wide enough so that it extends beyond the sphere. Now
select the vertices of the sphere (because what we have selected is what
gets cut) and when you cut it, snap to the four verts of the plane. Now
hit **Enter** to apply your perfect cut.

Using guide geometry such as a plane to cut other geometry
\"cookie-cutter\" style can be extremely useful when accuracy is needed.
Remember to align your view before cutting, since your view will
determine the angle from which the geometry is cut.

## Working with Meshes

### Turning Sub-Surfed Mesh into Normal Mesh

If you have a sub-surfed mesh you can turn THAT sub-surf mesh into a
normal mesh. Just select the sub-surfed mesh and press **Alt+C**
(Conversion).

### How to remove (numb) black spots on a Mesh

If a Sub-Surfed mesh becomes (numb) black on some places, that\'s
because of the normals. Select all and press **Ctrl+n** and then
confirm. now it should look prettier!

if the above solution does not work , save your Blend file, Quit Blender
then restart. Use **Ctrl O** to open the last file and your mesh will
have returned to correct shaded state.

### Select all holes in a mesh and fill them

**Shift+M**\* selects all Non-manifold edges/vertices (holes) in a mesh
\*\*. Then all you have to do is hit **Ctrl+F** to auto-fill those holes
with \"beauty fill\".

-

**Shift+M**is an alternative shortcut for \'Select Non-manifold\'.
You\'ll find this in the select menu when in mesh edit mode. The listed
short cut there is **Ctrl+Alt+Shift+M**. **Shift M** is obviously a lot
more comfortable on the fingers though!

-   -

Although \'Non-manifold\' usually refers to holes in your mesh, it is
not necessarily only holes e.g., an edge with three faces coming out of
it is also a non-manifold edge!

### Fill in four or fewer vertices

Select the vertices and press **\[F\]**, this will fill in the empty
space around them.

To clean up a filled in space, select all the vertices for the area, and
press **\[F\]**. Choose OK to make FCon. For example: add a plane in
wireframe mode, extrude it several times, select all vertexes, then hit
**\[F\]**.

## Animation

### Animation Preview in all windows at the same time

It is well known that **Alt+ a** is for previewing an animation on the
3D window. But that\'s not all of it. Divide your screen into multiple
3D Windows, each from a different point of view.

Press **Alt + Shift + a**

Enjoy!!!

If you have an Action/Ipo Window and 3D windows open, and you issue the
**Alt + Shift + a** command from the Action (or the Ipo) window, it will
animate both (the action and the 3D) in sync!! Great for visualization
of Ipo\'s effect on your model.

### Choose animation mode, Convert mouse movements to IPO

-T in IPO window: Choose animation mode, i.e., linear, bezier, constant
-**\[R\]** in IPO window: Record mouse movements, and convert to IPO

### Animate procedural textures

To animate procedural textures, press \'i\' with the mouse pointer in
the materials window, and select the type of Key-Frame you wish to set
in the pop up menu. advance a few frames, tweak your materials, and set
another key frame.

## UV Mapping, Particles and Texturing

### Blender color picker

Blender has a PhotoShop-esque color picker. Simply click on the color
preview next to the sliders to use it. Hit enter when you have the color
you want.

### Saving your face groups selections

Regarding UV mapping and Face Groups Selections there seems to be the
general misconception that you can\'t save your face groups selections
on Blender.

Most people already know that from within the Face Select Mode (Potato
Mode) you can switch into Edit Mode and whatever selection you do while
in Edit Mode is passed back to Face Select Mode when you exit the Edit
Mode.

Well, Did you ever wonder why Material Index Groups (that are nothing
more than face groups with a common material on them) have those little
\'Select\' and ´Deselect\' buttons there? Sure they come handy for later
modification of the material index but that is not all about them.

Do this: Before starting the UV unwrapping job, cut your mesh by
creating as many material indexes as you need, you can even assign each
one a different color so you can be sure that there is no face orphan.
Once you have the mesh all cut and sliced (so to speak) you enter in
Face Select Mode, then switch into Edit Mode, select the index
containing the faces you want to unwrap, press \'Select\', leave Edit
Mode and Voile! You now have an entirely useful face group waiting for
you to unwrap. No more manual (and imprecise) face selection is needed.

If you later need to change the mapping of those faces, don\'t fear.
Just make sure there isn\'t any face selected on Potato Mode, do as you
did first (enter edit mode, select the index, exit edit mode) and there
are your very same faces selected again with the UV mapping you already
assigned to them.

Note: Another benefit of have precise face selection groups is that,
initially, you don\'t have to worry about UV coordinates overlapping,
since you know have the way to select ONLY the faces you want to. For
example, you unwrap all your faces by groups and when you are done you
can start thinking about scale and position within the texture map, not
like before when you have to solve those things as you go.

### Bulk Texture Change

Consider a scenario in which you have a scene with a 100 mesh objects,
and 50 of them have one texture and 50 of them have another.

If you want to change the texture of the first 50, but don\'t want to
change each individually, do the following. Add a Plane out of the view
of the camera. Add your new texture (Material) to the plane. Then use
the "Copy to material Buffer" button in the header of the Material
buttons. Select one mesh object of the same sort that you want to
change, open Material buttons and Paste from Material Buffer.

All the mesh objects with the same texture will now have the new
texture.

Alternatively, If you have a material that you want to apply to a lot of
objects at once:

1\. Select all the objects you want to apply the material to. 2. Apply a
material. (this only applies to the last selected object) 3. press
**Ctrl+L** \> Materials. (this links the material of the last selected
object to all the other objects)

### Negative Meta-Balls

Add\>Metaball as usual. Exit EDIT mode and Add\>Metaball. This time
before you exit EDIT mode, hit the Negative button in the EDIT buttons
window. Then leave edit mode.

If you move the negative Metaball around, you can see the effect it has
on the positive metaball.

Be careful though, as negative metaballs are not displayed in the same
manner as positive metaballs, you will only see the Pivot point not a
meta-mesh.

This is a little test you can try to see the amazing effects negative
metaballs can produce.

Make 1 Metaball, make it big. Place three spheres (UV) inside, make them
emit particles, one 100, one 200, one 300 particles. Parent three
negative metaballs, one to each sphere, and use dupli-vert on each
sphere. Make the 100 duplicate metaball quite big, the 200 medium and
the 300 small. Hit **Alt A** to run animation in 3D window.

*(`<s>`{=html}Click here for this author\'s negative-metaball
thread`</s>`{=html}\... **oops,** it\'s not there anymore, well, not the
AVI
anyway!)*

*(Click here for this author\'s negative-metaball
AVI.)*

### Maintain the UV layout when moving/scaling/rotating UV co-ords.

When you have the UV image/editor window open and have loaded an image
you want to UV map to a mesh, click on the UV tab in the header bar and
turn off \'Snap UV to pixels\'.

This will help to maintain the UV layout when moving/scaling/rotating UV
co-ords.

## Rendering

### Tricks, related to the view ports and the render buffers

First. Switching among screens

So you have your screen made off the 3D window, the buttons window and
the info window\... but you are doing some fine tunning to the mesh in
two places simultaneously, and they both need to zoom in the 3D window.
You could scroll or zoom out, translate the view and zoom in again. None
of them an elegant solution.

Another situation. You are working on a model and are using an image for
reference. You are not tracing over the photo, just take a look at it
often to make sure you don\'t deviate to much from the concept. So you
open the photo in a 2D program and keep switching back and forth from
Blender.. or you have the photo open in an image window and keep
maximizing and minimizing the window\... another hassle

Worry no more!!! Blender can handle multiple virtual screen (ala Linux)
and you can come and go from them with just one key stroke.

Just press **Ctrl+Left Arrow** or **Ctrl+Right Arrow** (for all of you
OS X users, add a **Shift**) and you are switching screens. Go ahead! By
default EVERY .blend file comes with 3 screens \... and of course you
can add/delete as many as you see fit.

the magic button to add or delete screens is right beside the Tools
menu, up there in the info window.

### Using the render buffers

Ok, so you set your scene and press RENDER, a nice window comes up and
you see your hard work coming to existence (that\'s the default
behavior, if your change it on the display buttons then this may not
work for you).

Do you realize that the window containing your render image is also a
render buffer? Actually they are 2 buffers for your to play with.
Whenever the render window is open (and you can re-open it by pressing
F11 without having to wait again for the render) if you press the J key
you can switch from Buffer A and B. (the last active one is what you
save when you press F3). You can even switch buffers in the middle of a
rendering (but I advice against that when rendering very complex scenes,
you have been warned!)

The cool thing about having two separate render buffers is that you can
have instant before-and-after images for things that you change in the
scene. For example you are searching the perfect position for a light
source in a scene, you place it and do a render, place the light in
another position, switch to the second buffer and do a new render. Now,
with the render window open, just press J to see how the change on the
light\'s position influence your scene and that makes your decision
easier.

By the way, the render window can be zoomed (by the normal ways or by
pressing Z ) to do a closer inspection of the image.

### Render window Tricks

To zoom into the render window, use the **ZKEY**.

To find out what the (Red, Green, Blue, Alpha) values of rendered image
are, left click and hold the button of your mouse.this will reveal the
RGBA values of the pixel below the mouse cursor. i.e. R 127, G 255, B
13, A40. The values will appear in the bottom left corner of the render
window. You can also hold the button and drag the mouse around. This
will display the values of the pixels your mouse pointer passes over.

With the render window open, you can press **AKEY** to view an alpha
version of the image. Press **AKEY** again to go back to the normal
colour view.

To do a before/after comparison after making a change, hit **JKEY** to
switch render buffers, then hit **F12** to render. In the render window,
use **JKEY** to alternate between the previous render and the current
one, so you can easily see the differences.

### Working while you Render

If you use a X/X11 based window manager, you do not need to watch
blender while it renders, go to a different virtual desktop. Blender
doesn\'t have to keep X informed of what\'s going on and rendering speed
may increase.

### Border Rendering

In the rendering buttons find the buttons marked \"Border\" and
\"Crop\". If you depress \"Border\", you can get a rendering of any part
of what the camera sees. Just do the following :

Go into a camera view using **NumPad 0**, press **Shift+B**. Then, mark
the limits of the rendering as you want them using LMB. Next, render the
usual way and the section you marked will be rendered first, then it
will be integrated to the complete rendering. If you wish that \*only\*
the chosen section would be rendered then click on the button marked
\"Crop\" also.

### Creating a cluster of particles which takes little time to render

Render some particles, and make the picture into an alpha mapped tga in
GIMP or whatever graphics editing application you use.

Load the image onto a plane. Adjust the alpha settings accordingly.
Parent the plane to the emitter. Press dupli-verts.

You now have a cluster of particles which takes relatively little time
to render. Of course it doesn\'t have to be an alpha map of particles.
That\'s entirely up to you.

### Alpha from render view

When cut & pasting stuff from render window to {insert your favorite
image editor here} using **Alt+ PrtScr**, cut and paste the render
first, come back to render window and press \"A\". It changes the view
to alpha and you get black & white mask to cut the background nicely in
the {again, favorite image editor}. Nice when you do testing in low res.

### View alpha texture as wire.

**Ctrl+d** in 3d very usefully for preview without rendering.

Also, if you have an object (works best on a mesh plane) with an image
texture, you can use **Alt+V** key outside edit mode. This will adjust
the object\'s size values so that the image won\'t be stretched when
projected.

## Miscellaneous

### Restoring your "lost" work.

If you go to the temp folder where you have Blender save its temp .Blend
files, reload the most recent one and this will save you losing the
whole of your work. You don\'t even need to save a .Blend file for this
to work. You can change the settings for this in the tool window at the
top of the Blender screen.

### Built in Hot-Key List

Since the few last versions (since 2.28 I think) blender has a built-in
all inclusive hot-key list. Just open a text-editor window, and right
besides the option to create a new text-buffer there is a menu option
called ¨KEYLIST.intrr¨. Select that option and the full list is loaded
in memory

\--Edit: There may be many hot-keys missing, especially the newest ones,
like M to mirror a mesh, K for the Knife tool, **Alt+Z** for textured
view\... but the list is a good start at least.

### Un-compiled PlugIns

Blender can load plug-ins for texturing, sequence editor, etc. .
However, Blender comes with a few of such PlugIns un-compiled.

In Linux they are located on the plug-ins sub-directory of the default
Blender install, and all that you need is a Make command to compile
them. I don\'t know how to compile them in Windows, but there they are,
just waiting for you to awake them!!!

### Blender "Easter Eggs" (Weird things included in blender)

All Publisher versions of Blender have been shipping with a Monkey mesh
called Suzanne. Just open the main tool box (**Space Bar**) -\> Add -\>
Mesh -\> and right below the other primitives you\'ll see the Monkey.

Why/What it is for? Only NaN programmers know\*. It is supposed to be a
private joke among the blender developing team. Since then, its
considered as a sort of mascot for blender. However, it is incredibly
useful as a quick complex object for testing textures, shaders, etc..

By the Way, Suzanne isn\'t the only joke included\... but I won\'t spoil
the surprise. You will bump with them on your daily work, that is for
sure.

-   NaN was the company that originally developed Blender

Try this: run blender with the -Y argument (open the command
prompt/terminal, go to your blender executable file folder, and type
blender -Y)

### Weird Error Message

Sometimes, when trying to use a boolean on a tri-based mesh, Blender
gives the prompt: \"Wanna Crash?\" \>Yes Please!

but clicking it doesn\'t crash. This is because Blender is a lot more
stable now compared to when that \'crash\' request was coded. It also
used to appear when using beauty fill after face fill. (**Ctrl+F** in
edit mode)

Blender 2.37 now has a \'widget\', which replicates the red/blue/green
axis symbol in 3DSMax in the 3d windows. Rotation scaling and movement
of objects/Verts/faces etc., can be manipulated using the widget, or in
the usual manner of earlier versions of Blender.

### Turn your blender animation into a screen-saver (Windows)

to turn your blender animation Windows binary file into a Windows screen
saver, rename the EXE file into SCR and right click it and install !

### Discover the FPS rate of a Window

If you hit **Ctrl+Alt+T** key in a window, Blender will tell you how
much time it takes to render a single frame of that window, in
milliseconds. Valuable Benchmark

## ???

using construction widget press **Shift** to get precision mode for fine
tuning. Release left mouse button (LMB) and holding **Shift** down press
it again, then you\'ll get moving along another axis.

## Sculpt Mode Hotkeys

-   F: an interactive brush resize
-   Shift F: an interactive brush strength adjuster
-   Ctrl F: in interactive texture angle adjuster for your brush.
-   Shift B: a rectangular zoom selection for close-up work
-   Alt B: hides all but selected rectangle
-   A: toggles airbrush
-   S: smooth
-   D: draw
-   G: grab
-   L: layer
-   I: inflate
-   P: pinch
-   V: toggles add and subtract in draw mode
-   Use X, Y and Z to toggle axis mirroring.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Creating Blender Libraries

|previous=Troubleshooting
}}
```
You\'ve finally made that perfect object, armature or material: a
gamepiece, a robot, a fully rigged vampire character, or a
millimeter-accurate model of the Empire State Building. Besides using
this work in your own artistic project, you have made the courageous
decision to share that creation with the world.

Sharing your creative work is a great way to \"give back to the
community,\" even if you don\'t write Blender code and you can\'t
translate the Blender documentation to Swahili.

## How to Make a Library

So how do you make a library? In Blender, you don\'t need to export to a
special format. In fact, you don\'t need to do anything special beyond
saving your regular .blend file. Every .blend is a library file. Users
can Append what they like from your .blend file, and ignore parts which
they don\'t need for their own project.

This scheme has some benefits and some drawbacks.

The benefit of using .blend files as a library format is that it\'s
super easy to include extra stuff to help the user see the objects. If
the user loads the .blend file directly, it works like the pretty
packaging for foods, including a quick and easy way to get a pretty
\"serving suggestion\" rendering of the library contents. What you save
in your .blend is what the user will see when they load it, including
all your user interface settings, lighting types, and camera positions.

The drawback of using .blend files as a library format is that it\'s
super easy to include *unintended* things, such as extra meshes, unused
material and texture channels, and other things which the user will not
find helpful. Blender doesn\'t save things which are no longer
referenced anywhere, but it cannot read your mind if you leave a spare
mesh on layer 13 which uses some abandoned Material.034.

Also, some people are not accustomed to the way that Blender saves all
of the user interface settings along with the .blend file. When they
load your mesh, they see your way of working. This can be instructive,
but unless that\'s your intention, it\'s best to try to stick to a
simple and clean user interface setup for your library files.

For best results, you need to apply some discipline to publish a clean
and useful library.

## Library Usefulness Checklist

After having used several library .blend files from various sources, I
propose that anyone making libraries follow a few suggestions:

-   keep to a certain object, theme or area of focus for each library
    file
-   all the test cameras and lights prefixed with a dash; e.g.,
    **-Camera**, **-HemiLight.001**, etc.
-   any other components not intended for Appending prefixed with a
    dash; e.g., **-ground**
-   all the test cameras and lights on the last one or two layers
    (**lower right layer button**)
-   any composite object intended for Appending organized in a **group**
    to hold it together
-   any groups, objects, materials, textures intended for Appending
    given **meaningful names**
-   document your unit scheme; e.g., **1 blender unit == 1 imperial
    foot**, etc.
-   any other layer contains test-render-ready objects or scenes
-   choose rendering and world **settings which will not take an hour**
    to make a simple test render
-   make visible upon loading the layers required for a camera, a good
    lighting angle, and a shared object
-   make visible upon loading one small text file which lists layers and
    objects
-   make visible upon loading any python script, **with instructions on
    how to start it** in a big comment
-   make your licensing expectations clear: **artistic license**,
    **creative commons**, etc.
-   pack the texture files and other data before saving that final
    .blend for publishing
-   sign your work, stable email address or website url if possible

The dash prefixes for test-rendering cameras, boxes, floors and lights
will help the user know at a glance what to Append and what not to
Append from your library.

Here\'s a quick way to throw out all the stuff you really don\'t need,
including extra meshes, materials and user interface complexity.

-   save your current .blend (and make a nice backup file too)
-   shut down Blender entirely
-   open up Blender again, which will load the default settings
-   delete the cube and cameras from the default settings
-   Append all the useful parts of your library .blend file (including
    the *useful* test-rendering items)
-   select the proper test-rendering camera for users to try out your
    model quickly (select, then Ctrl+KEYPAD0)
-   adjust the views to ensure important things are visible and ready to
    render
-   save the new library .blend, ready to publish

Blender saves the default settings in a file called **.b.blend** on your
disk. If your own preferred default settings are still too complicated
for newcomers to understand, you can move that file away temporarily to
get the \"factory\" built-in default settings which the Blender team
produces as a part of each new version of the software. Move the file
back again when you want to go back to your individual way of working.

## Publishing Your Library

It\'s helpful to include the .txt file and/or post it separately so that
people can read a summary before loading the blend file. This should
include any credits, usage notes, layer explanations, and licensing
information. For you Unix folks, remember to run it through **unix2dos**
to enforce \\r\\n CRLF newlines, readable by people with less flexible
tools such as Windows Notepad.

It\'s also of immense benefit to put up small test-renders of your
library objects or materials. They don\'t need to be large but they
should give an honest view of the work you\'re sharing before a
potential user takes the time to download library files that will not be
useful to them.

So, where do you publish your work of artistic genius?

-   <http://www.e2-productions.com/bmr> Blender 3D Model Repository \--
    link has been taken over to serve malware
-   <http://blenderartists.org/> forums
-   <http://www.deviantart.com/>
-   <http://www.blendswap.com>
-   your own website

If you post things on your own website, try not to rely on a free site
that will over-run your bandwidth limits and disappear two months later.
Search engine links will sometimes live on for years, just frustrating
those who were hoping to find a millimeter-accurate model of the Empire
State Building.

## Beyond Libraries

If you have even more time to spare, consider writing up a tutorial on
how you achieved any tricky results!

## Thank You

For every artist who chooses to share their creative works with the
community, there are a dozen artists, or even hundreds, who thank you
immensely.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Add some depth with stereo

This tutorial contains some tips for how to work with stereo images.

Stereo viewing is to see the same thing from two slightly different
angles. This is what humans normally do with their two eyes. There are
many ways to view a stereo image. A perfect method is to use a stereo
monitor. But they are quite expensive, and many are of very low quality.
In the other end of the price-scale you can use crossviewing. Put the
two images next to each other, and look at one with one eye, and the
other with the other eye. Needs a bit of practice though. A popular
solution is red/blue anaglyph glasses, but they give very bad colors.

## The stereo camera

I wanted a stereo camera rig that was easy to work with. It should have
three cameras (center, left, and right), have an easy way to set
separation (should be 1/30 of the distance) and the center cam should be
used to control position etc, the two others should just follow.

### Create it

#### Manually

1.  Reset the cameras position, rotation and size (you can use
    ,
     and
    ). You may want to note these
    values first, so you can change them back later. I just make sure
    there\'s an IPO-curve for them, for example by making a keyframe
    ().
2.  Create two new cameras. Reset their position, rotation and size too.
3.  Name them *Camera.Right* and *Camera.Left* or similar. Set LocX to 1
    for *Camera.Right* and -1 for *Camera.Left*. (Press
     to see data for selected object,
    in this window you can change name and values.) (Select a camera by
    clicking  several times on the
    cameras, until the right one is selected.)
4.  Create a new cube (remember to press
     to exit edit mode). Reset position,
    rotation and size. Name it *Distance Cube* and set these values:
    LocZ: -30. SizeX: 0.1. SizeY: 0.1. SizeZ: 30.
5.  Switch to front view. ()
6.  Select *Camera.Left*. Then select *Camera* while holding down
     so both are selected. Press
     and press
     to register *Camera* as parent.
    Then press  and select *Camera
    Data*. Repeat with right *Camera.Right* and *Distance Cube*.

#### With a script

``` python
import Blender
from Blender import *

# Prepare
scene = Scene.getCurrent()
camera = Object.Get("Camera") # TODO validate that it is a camera
oldLocation = camera.loc
oldRotation = camera.rot
oldSize = camera.size

# Create stuff
c = Camera.New("ortho")
cameraLeft = Object.New("Camera", "Camera.Left")
cameraLeft.link(c)
scene.link(cameraLeft)

c = Camera.New("ortho")
cameraRight = Object.New("Camera", "Camera.Right")
cameraRight.link(c)
scene.link(cameraRight)

dEmpty = Object.New("Empty", "Distance")
scene.link(dEmpty)

# Configure
camera.loc = (0,0,0)
camera.rot = (0,0,0)
camera.size = (1,1,1)

cameraLeft.loc = (-1,0,0)
cameraLeft.rot = (0,0,0)
cameraLeft.size = (1,1,1)

cameraRight.loc = (1,0,0)
cameraRight.rot = (0,0,0)
cameraRight.size = (1,1,1)

dEmpty.loc = (0,0,-60)
dEmpty.rot = (0,0,0)
dEmpty.size = (1,1,1)

scene.update(1)

# Connect
camera.makeParent([cameraLeft, cameraRight, dEmpty], 0, 0)
# do that CTRL+LKEY thing
cameraLeft.link(Camera.Get("Camera"))
cameraRight.link(Camera.Get("Camera"))

# Reset original values

camera.loc = oldLocation
camera.rot = oldRotation
camera.size = oldSize

# Finish
Blender.Redraw()
```

### How to use it

-   Never change the cube or the two side-cameras. Only change the
    center camera. Use that one for positioning, rotation etc.
-   To set the separation: As always, select the center camera. Resize
    it (with ) so you can see the end
    of the cube if needed. Point at the end of the cube with the mouse
    pointer, and press . Move the mouse
    pointer to the point of the main motive, that is closes to the
    camera. The end of the cube may not end exactly there, but that
    doesn\'t matter.
-   To render (or preview) with one of the side cameras, select it and
    press .

### What needs improvement

#### The cube is visible

Instead of using a cube, I\'d rather use something that doesn\'t render.
It could be an \"empty\", but see below.

#### The cube is hard to see

It can be hard to see where the cube ends, even in a simple scene. You
can select the center camera AND the cube, then it is clearly visible.
But you must remember to only select the camera, before you insert a
keyframe, so your changes to the cube doesn\'t get saved.

#### Distance plane is at infinity

The distance plane is where \"zero depth is\". When viewing a stereo
image, the distance plane is where the medium is. In this rig the
distance plane is at infinity, meaning *everything* is in front of it.
While stuff popping out in front of the screen is cooler than stuff
being \"inside\" the screen, it\'s a lot harder to make it look nice.
Specially because with everything in front of the screen, it\'s easy to
get stuff that is just way to close to the viewer. It can get so hard to
see that the 3d-effect is completely gone.

A different solution is to make the side cameras point at the end of the
cube, or add a plane to the rig, and point at that. But then the cameras
are no longer parallel, and that creates distortion.

The compromise solution is to (conceptually) render the images too wide,
and then crop the excess from the left side of the left image, and the
right side of the right image. Then it will look like it points just
like in the previously mentioned solution, but without the distortion.

But this give a lot of problems. First, I\'d like to do this a smarter
way, instead of just following the path describe above. But I don\'t
think that\'s possible in Blender. (I think povray can actually do
this.) So I need to render the image too wide. But if I increase width
in output, it actually renders the same width of the motive, but
decreases height. Then I need to do some weird math to get the right
FOV, and I don\'t know half the formulas. Cropping must be done outside
Blender, and the rest of \"the production line\" is hard to get back
into Blender if wanted.

I guess a couple of planes in the rig close to the cameras could
simulate the cropping, but that is of limited value. To make an
adjustable distance plane with them seems quite hard to me, it would
need some scripting I guess.

## Stereo viewing with the rig

This is where it gets exciting, now you are actually getting something
to look at.

1.  Create a new screen, you could call it *Stereo View*.
2.  The screen should have one big area from side to side.
3.  Set the area to *3D View*
4.  Unlock it (The *Locks layers and used Camera to Scene*-lock)
5.  Select *Camera.Right* and press
6.  Split the area in half so there is two parts next to each other
7.  In the *right* area, select *Camera.Left* and press

8.  Adjust zoom in both areas so the frame that shows what is rendered
    is completely visible, but fill as much as possible. If you can\'t
    make them same size, the two areas are not same size.
9.  Use cross-view method to see the 3d-effect. Look at the left area
    with the right eye and right area with the left eye. (It\'s a skill
    you need to learn and practice.)
10. Press  to see your scene
    animated in stereo.

If you cannot see these, there is a lot of help with viewing them on the
web. Use a search engine to find them.

## Stereo rendering

### Anaglyph

Create two render layers in the *Render Layers* tab.
![](Render_Layers_tab.png "Render_Layers_tab.png"){width="281"}

Then go the *Node Editor* and click on the button with a human face.
Click on *Uses nodes* and remove the created items by selecting the
items and clicking on . Now, using the
*Add* menu, you need to do this diagram:
![](Blender's_Node_Editor_anaglyph_diagram.png "Blender's_Node_Editor_anaglyph_diagram.png"){width="400"}
Once done, return to the *Buttons window* and select the button *Do
Composite* on the *Anim* tab:
![](Anim_tab.png "Anim_tab.png"){width="281"} Then click on the button
*Render* on the *Render* tab:
![](Render_tab.png "Render_tab.png"){width="281"} You should see your
objects as an anaglyph:
![](Suzanne_as_anaglyph_rendering_on_Blender.jpg "Suzanne_as_anaglyph_rendering_on_Blender.jpg"){width="400"}


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Fluffy Material

## Spherical Blend Texture

This technique maps a spherical blend texture to the outsides of an
object.

Create a new material and name it something intelligent. Create a new
texture for this material, change the texture type to Blend, and then in
the texture properties, change the blend shape to \"Sphere\".

![](BNTP_img1.png "BNTP_img1.png")

Back in the material buttons, go the \"MapInput\" tab and change the
texture coordinates to Blank-Blank-Z and Nor and as demonstrated in the
next screenshot: ![](BNTP_img2.png "BNTP_img2.png")

Finally go the \"MapTop\" tab, and depress the Emit button and set the
Texture Blending Mode to \"Add\": ![](BNTP_img3.png "BNTP_img3.png")

That\'s all there is to it, and here is how it looks:
![](Render_SphericalBlend.png "Render_SphericalBlend.png")

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

## Backlighting

This is a technique that a rather famous blender user called \"@ndy\"
uses. Very simple and effective.

All you need to do is place a Hemi light BEHIND the object you want to
light in respect to the active camera.

Breakdown: First add a Hemi lamp to your scene:

![](BNTP_img10.png "BNTP_img10.png")

Next, Select the lamp THEN press and hold down the Shift key, and select
the Camera. Press Control-C to bring up the copy attributes menu, and
copy location AND rotation.

![](BNTP_img11.png "BNTP_img11.png")

Now select JUST your lamp, press R to rotate it, then press the X key
TWICE to rotate around the local X axis. Using your numpad, key in
\"180\" to rotate the object 180Degrees.

All that remains to do is to press G to grab the lamp, then press Z
TWICE to move along the local Z axis, and move the lamp until it is past
and behind the object of interest. your resulting setup should look
something like this:

![](BNTP_img13.png "BNTP_img13.png")

And here is the rendered result:
![](Render_Backlight.png "Render_Backlight.png")

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

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

-   Color ramp
    with input set to normal.

Pretty straighforward, but many advise against it.

-   Minnaert shader

Available in 2.37, \"Darkness\"\<1 actually brightens edge. A cool
shader, but not very useful for this purpose.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Human Body

This tutorial should cover the modelling, skinning and animation of
human body, plus facial expressions.

There are some tools to generate human body from parameters like:

-   makehuman free software program (gpl).
    The models generated are under MIT license. The models generated can
    be easily imported in blender.

Use lightwave(obj) export. The exported file is located at
\...\\Documents\\makehuman

![](makehuman.jpg "makehuman.jpg")

Delete the original cube first. The human object is smaller than the
standard cube. Use the UVImage editor to see the UV mapping but it
actually uses a texture stored in the image file texture.png

![](makehuman_import.jpg "makehuman_import.jpg")

-   facegen proprietary program. Used for
    The Elder Scrolls IV:
    Oblivion.

links to anatomy sites :

-   fineart
-   Body proportions

tutorials: Blender 3D: Tutorial Links
List


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Using Blender Libraries

You can append libraries in two ways. You can make a local copy of
**data blocks** (like objects, meshes, \...) of the content of a .blend
file in your .blend file (**appending**) or you can use data blocks from
another .blend file (**dynamic linking**).

You can **Append** with the command in the 3d view File -\> Append or
**SHIFT+F1**. When you give this command a file browser window opens.
There are two buttons **Append** and **Link** at the bottom of the
window. The default action is *appending*. But you can use *dynamic
linking* selecting the link button.

At this point select the .blend file to append. You can select one of
the following data blocks type to append:

-   **Group**
-   **Mesh**
-   **Object**
-   **Scene**
-   **Text**
-   **World**
-   (not complete yet)

Note that this is a complete list, when you append only block types
present in the file will appear. Select the desired type. Now you can
select the particular data block to append by selecting its id.

## Indirect linking

When you give an append or link command almost all relations between
**data blocks** in Blender get expanded. For example, when you link (or
append) a specific Group, all its objects, the meshes associated with
the objects, the materials and the animations will be linked (or
appended) too. That is called \"indirect linking\". When you use
*dynamic linking* such indirect linked data is not stored when you save
a .blend file, when you load the file again blender will look for the
indirect linked data blocks in the library file.

## Groups

When you *append* a Group, blender will also create links in the current
*Scene* to the objects that are part of the group. The Objects then
become visible. However, when you decide to *dynamic link* a Group, it
won\'t do that. To use the objects in your blender project you can use
the group as a **duplicator** \"**SHIFT+AKEY** -\> Group menu -\> group
id to duplicate\".

## See also

-   <http://www.blender.org/cms/Library_Linking.769.0.html>
-   <http://www.blender.org/cms/Blender_Architecture.336.0.html>