Taking Blender to the Next Level

By : Ruan Lotter

Taking Blender to the Next Level

By: Ruan Lotter

Overview of this book

If you're ready to start exploring the more advanced workflows and processes in Blender to create intricate 3D models, then Taking Blender to the Next Level is for you. This book focuses on a few different VFX-related workflows such as geometry nodes, organic modeling, 3D camera tracking, photogrammetry, sculpting, compositing, and physics simulations. You’ll learn how to use geometry nodes to create dynamic motion graphic scenes as well as perform 3D scanning of real-world objects using photogrammetry. You’ll also find out how to model, rig, and animate your own 3D characters from scratch. Next, you’ll progress to using simulations to break objects apart and then use cloth and hair simulations to add realism to your 3D creations. Finally, you’ll go over the final render settings and export your 3D animation masterpiece as a video. By the end of this Blender book, you’ll be able to model your own 3D characters, objects, and landscapes; rig, animate, and texture your characters; 3D track live-action footage; and composite your 3D characters into live-action scenes.

Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

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Conventions used

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Part 1: Modeling, Materials, and Animation Workflows

Free Chapter

Chapter 1: Using Geometry Nodes to Create Dynamic Scenes

Introduction to Geometry Nodes in Blender

Creating and manipulating geometry using nodes

Using textures to control attributes

Animating with Math nodes

Summary

Chapter 2: Creating a Motion Graphics Scene Using Geometry Nodes

Creating our base mesh and instance object

Using an empty object to calculate proximity data

Using the proximity data to modify the attributes

Animating our scene

Adding color using materials

Summary

Chapter 3: Organic Modeling P1: Creating a Mushroom

Creating our base mesh for the mushroom

UV unwrapping our model

The multiresolution modifier

Sculpting finer details

Using a lattice to shape your overall model

Creating a low-poly and high-poly mesh

Baking the normal map

Summary

Chapter 4: Organic Modeling P2: Creating the Landscape around the Mushroom

Creating the landscape

Adding grass using Geometry Nodes

Summary

Chapter 5: PBR Materials: Texturing our Mushroom Scene

Adding materials to the mushroom

Adding materials to the landscape

Creating a procedural grass material

Using an HDRI, Sky Texture, and Sun to light our scene

Summary

Chapter 6: 3D Scanning and Photogrammetry: Creating Your Own 3D Scans

Taking photos for 3D scanning/photogrammetry

Using Meshroom to convert photos into a 3D model

Cleaning up a model using Blender

Optimizing the topology of a model using Instant Meshes

UV unwrapping and texture baking

Summary

Chapter 7: Modeling an Alien Cartoon Character

Creating reference images of your character

Setting up the reference images in Blender

Modeling an alien cartoon character

Summary

Chapter 8: Rigging and Animating Your 3D Cartoon Character

Installing the Rigify add-on

Importing our character and getting it ready for the rigging process

Rigging the character using Rigify

IK versus FK and rig layers

Animating the walk cycle

Summary

Part 2: Let's Do Some Physics

Chapter 9: Rigid Body Simulation: Destroying a Statue Using Physics

Installing the required add-ons

Setting up the scene

Using Cell Fracture to break our model into smaller pieces

Fracturing the impact point using the Annotation Pencil

Rigid Body physics

Linking fractured pieces together using Rigid Body Constraints

Animating a Rigid Body impact object

Baking the final physics simulation

Summary

Chapter 10: Dynamic Cloth Simulations

Importing our character and walk cycle

Adding a rest pose

Creating clothing for our character

The cloth simulation

Using forces to enhance the simulation

Baking the cloth simulation

Adding final modifiers

Summary

Chapter 11: Creating Dynamic Hair Using Particles

Reusing our alien character and walk cycle animation

Creating a Vertex Group

Creating hair particles that interact with physics

Grooming and styling

Baking the hair simulation to cache

Setting up a hair shader for rendering

Summary

Part 3: Match Moving and Compositing

Chapter 12: Matching Blender's Camera Movement to Live Action Footage

Creating an image sequence from a video

Importing the image sequence into Blender

Camera tracking or match moving

Solving and refining the track and orienting the scene

Testing the camera track with test objects

Summary

Chapter 13: Compositing the Alien Cartoon Character onto the Live Action Footage

Importing our alien character and tracked camera into a new Blender project

Matching the lighting to our live-action scene

Configuring View Layers

Compositing using nodes

Summary

Chapter 14: The Final Render

Understanding the render settings

Rendering an animation as an image sequence

Converting the image sequence into an MP4 video

Summary

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Setting up the reference images in Blender

In this section, we will set up our Blender project using the 2D reference images we created in the previous section. This will allow you to easily start the modeling process using the front and side reference images. Let's get started!

Create a new Blender project and delete all the default objects in the scene by pressing A, then pressing X, and clicking Delete to confirm.
Next, drag and drop your character reference image from the Windows Explorer or Finder if you are using a Macintosh into your Blender scene. This will import the reference image as an empty object.
With the empty object selected, press N to display the side menu in the 3D Viewport. Click the Item tab on the side menu to show the Location, Rotation, and Scale parameters.
Set the Location parameters to X – 0, Y – 0, and Z – 0 to position the reference image to the center of the grid.
Set the Rotation parameters to X –...

Taking Blender to the Next Level

By : Ruan Lotter

Taking Blender to the Next Level

By: Ruan Lotter

Overview of this book

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