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  • Book Overview & Buying Blender 3D Cookbook
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Blender 3D Cookbook

Blender 3D Cookbook

By : Valenza
4.7 (9)
Buy this Book
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Blender 3D Cookbook

Blender 3D Cookbook

4.7 (9)
By: Valenza
Buy this Book

Overview of this book

This book is aimed at the professionals that already have good 3D CGI experience with commercial packages and have now decided to try the open source Blender and want to experiment with something more complex than the average tutorials on the web. However, it's also aimed at the intermediate Blender users who simply want to go some steps further. It's taken for granted that you already know how to move inside the Blender interface, that you already have 3D modeling knowledge, and also that of basic 3D modeling and rendering concepts, for example, edge-loops, n-gons, or samples. In any case, it's also possible for a keen beginner to follow this book, by combining it with the manual on the BlenderWiki or preceding it with a basic Blender UI tutorial on the web. The keyboard/mouse shortcuts for the operations in the recipes are, at least in all the more relevant cases, indicated in brackets.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
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Preface
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Preface
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What this book covers
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What you need for this book
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Who this book is for
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Sections
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Conventions
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Reader feedback
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Customer support
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1
1. Modeling the Character's Base Mesh
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1. Modeling the Character's Base Mesh
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Introduction
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Setting templates with the Images as Planes add-on
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Setting templates with the Image Empties method
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Setting templates with the Background Images tool
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Building the character's base mesh with the Skin modifier
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2. Sculpting the Character's Base Mesh
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2. Sculpting the Character's Base Mesh
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Introduction
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Using the Skin modifier's Armature option
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Editing the mesh
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Preparing the base mesh for sculpting
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Using the Multiresolution modifier and the Dynamic topology feature
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Sculpting the character's base mesh
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3. Polygonal Modeling of the Character's Accessories
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3. Polygonal Modeling of the Character's Accessories
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Introduction
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Preparing the scene for polygonal modeling
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Modeling the eye
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Modeling the armor plates
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Using the Mesh to Curve technique to add details
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4. Re-topology of the High Resolution Sculpted Character's Mesh
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4. Re-topology of the High Resolution Sculpted Character's Mesh
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Introduction
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Using the Grease Pencil tool to plan the edge-loops flow
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Using the Snap tool to re-topologize the mesh
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Using the Shrinkwrap modifier to re-topologize the mesh
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Using the LoopTools add-on to re-topologize the mesh
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Concluding the re-topologized mesh
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5. Unwrapping the Low Resolution Mesh
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5. Unwrapping the Low Resolution Mesh
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Introduction
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Preparing the low resolution mesh for unwrapping
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UV unwrapping the mesh
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Editing the UV islands
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Using the Smart UV Project tool
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Modifying the mesh and the UV islands
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Setting up additional UV layers
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Exporting the UV Map layout
6
6. Rigging the Low Resolution Mesh
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6. Rigging the Low Resolution Mesh
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Introduction
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Building the character's Armature from scratch
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Perfecting the Armature to also function as a rig for the Armor
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Building the character's Armature through the Human Meta-Rig
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Building the animation controls and the Inverse Kinematic
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Generating the character's Armature by using the Rigify add-on
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7. Skinning the Low Resolution Mesh
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7. Skinning the Low Resolution Mesh
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Introduction
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Parenting the Armature and Mesh using the Automatic Weights tool
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Assigning Weight Groups by hand
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Editing Weight Groups using the Weight Paint tool
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Using the Mesh Deform modifier to skin the character
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Using the Laplacian Deform modifier and Hooks
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8. Finalizing the Model
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8. Finalizing the Model
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Introduction
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Creating shape keys
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Assigning drivers to the shape keys
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Setting movement limit constraints
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Transferring the eyeball rotation to the eyelids
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Detailing the Armor by using the Curve from Mesh tool
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9. Animating the Character
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9. Animating the Character
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Introduction
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Linking the character and making a proxy
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Creating a simple walk cycle for the character by assigning keys to the bones
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Tweaking the actions in Graph Editor
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Using the Non Linear Action Editor to mix different actions
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10. Creating the Textures
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10. Creating the Textures
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Introduction
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Making a tileable scales image in Blender Internal
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Preparing the model to use the UDIM UV tiles
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Baking the tileable scales texture into the UV tiles
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Painting to fix the seams and to modify the baked scales image maps
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Painting the color maps in Blender Internal
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Painting the color maps in Cycles
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11. Refining the Textures
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11. Refining the Textures
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Introduction
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Sculpting more details on the high resolution mesh
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Baking the normals of the sculpted mesh on the low resolution one
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The Armor textures
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Adding a dirty Vertex Colors layer and baking it to an image texture
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The Quick Edit tool
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12. Creating the Materials in Cycles
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12. Creating the Materials in Cycles
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Introduction
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Building the reptile skin shaders in Cycles
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Making a node group of the skin shader to reuse it
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Building the eyes' shaders in Cycles
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Building the armor shaders in Cycles
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13. Creating the Materials in Blender Internal
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13. Creating the Materials in Blender Internal
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Introduction
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Building the reptile skin shaders in Blender Internal
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Building the eyes' shaders in Blender Internal
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Building the armor shaders in Blender Internal
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14. Lighting, Rendering, and a Little Bit of Compositing
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14. Lighting, Rendering, and a Little Bit of Compositing
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Introduction
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Setting the library and the 3D scene layout
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Setting image based lighting (IBL)
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Setting a three-point lighting rig in Blender Internal
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Rendering an OpenGL playblast of the animation
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Obtaining a noise-free and faster rendering in Cycles
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Compositing the render layers
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Index
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Index

Setting templates with the Image Empties method

In this recipe, we'll set the character's templates by using Image Empties.

Getting ready

For this and the following recipes, there is no need for any particular preparations. Anyway, it is handy to prepare the two Empties to have markers in the 3D view for the 2.5 meters height of the character; so we'll do the following:

  1. Start a brand new Blender session and delete the already selected Cube primitive.
  2. Select the Lamp and Camera and move them on a different layer; I usually have them on the sixth layer, in order to keep free and empty both the first and second rows of the left layer's block.
  3. Add an Empty to the scene (Shift + A | Empty | Plain Axes).
  4. Duplicate it and move it 2.5 units up on the z axis (Shift + D | Z | 2.5 | Enter).
  5. Go to the Outliner and click on the arrows on the side of the names of the two Empties (Empty and Empty.001), in order to make them gray and the Empties not selectable.
  6. Save the file as Gidiosaurus_base_mesh.blend.

How to do it…

So, now we are going to place the first Image Empty in the scene:

  1. Add an Empty to the scene (Shift + A | Empty | Image; it's the last item in the list).
  2. Go to the Object Data window in the main Properties panel on the right-hand side of the Blender UI; under the Empty subpanel, click on the Open button.
  3. Browse to the templates folder and load the gidiosaurus_front.png image.
    How to do it…

    The Add pop-up menu and the Image Empty added to the 3D scene, with the settings to load and set the image

  4. Set the Offset X value to -0.50 and Offset Y to -0.05. Set the Size value to 2.830:
    How to do it…

    The Offset and Size settings

  5. Rotate the Empty 90 degrees on the x axis (R | X | 90 | Enter).
  6. Go to the Outliner and rename it Empty_gidiosaurus_front.
  7. Duplicate it (Shift + D), rotate it 90 degrees on the z axis, and in the Outliner, rename it as Empty_gidiosaurus_side.
  8. In the Empty subpanel under the Object Data window, click on the little icon (showing 3 users for that data block) on the right-hand side of the image name under Display, in order to make it a single user. Then, click on the little folder icon on the right-hand side of the image path to go inside the templates folder again, and load the gidiosaurus_side.png image.
  9. Reselect Empty_gidiosaurus_front and press Shift + D to duplicate it.
  10. Go to the Empty subpanel under the Object Data window, click on the little icon (showing 3 users for that datablock) on the right-hand side of the image name under Display, in order to make it a single user. Then, click on the little folder icon on the right-hand side of the image path to go inside the templates folder again, and this time load the gidiosaurus_back.png image.
  11. Go to the Outliner and rename it Empty_gidiosaurus_back.

How it works…

We have used one of the most underrated (well, in my opinion) tools in Blender: Empties, which can show images! Compared to the Images as Planes add-on, this has some advantages: these are not 3D geometry and the images are also visible in the 3D view without the Textured Solid option enabled (under Shading) and in Wireframe mode.

How it works…

The Image Empties appear as textured also in Wireframe viewport shading mode

Exactly, as for the imported Planes of the former recipe, the visibility in the 3D view of the Image Empties can be toggled on and off by clicking on the eye icon in the Outliner.

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