When researching in preparation to write this book, we discovered that some Blender users try to learn Blender three times and give up twice before they become comfortable with Blender's effective, if unusual, interface. The editors at Packt and I decided that this was a problem that could be solved. The answer is to explain the basics in depth, give you practice so that your hands can learn Blender just as your mind does, and then you build on what you have learned. This isn't just a subject-by-subject reference book. It's a workbook to give you experience.
The theory behind Blender 3D Basics Beginner's Guide is to start out simply and delve deeper and deeper into Blender in gradual stages. This book will start with an introduction to Blender and some background on the principles of animation, how they are applied to computer animation, and how these principles make animation better. Then you will be gently guided through the Blender interface, and introduced to using Blender with simple projects that cover the full process of modeling, lighting, camera work, and animation. Then you will continue to practice what you have learned and do more advanced work in all areas. Finally, you will bring it all together with an advanced project covering these subjects and edit animations made in this book; creating a video and a stereoscopic 3D animation.
This may be a workbook, but it's a fun workbook with surprises, humor, and the projects build on each other, so it's not just a random series of exercises. When you are finished, you'll be prepared to show the world your skills.
Let's go!
Chapter 1, Introducing Blender and Animation, will help you to get your first hands-on use of Blender, a brief but very relevant bit of history of animation and computer animation and an overview of the basic principles of animation.
Chapter 2, Getting Comfortable using the 3D View, includes some fun exercises that explore using the Blender window system and the basic elements that are found in the 3D View window.
Chapter 3, Controlling the Lamp, the Camera, and Animating Objects, explains the basics of lights in Blender, good use of the camera, and making your first animation.
Chapter 4, Modeling with Vertices, Edges, and Faces, teaches you the fundamentals of 3D modeling, using Vertices, Edges, and Faces. You'll be introduced to Blender's library of pre-made objects and have fun bending and distorting Blender's lovely mascot, Suzanne.
Chapter 5, Building a Simple Boat, will teach you Box Modeling techniques. You will learn how to use them to make a small johnboat, give it a color, and make wooden seats. Then you will study the different lights that Blender has.
Chapter 6, Making and Moving the Oars, focuses on the oars for the boat. You will use more advanced modeling and animation techniques and discover how to create more complex keyframe animations.
Chapter 7, Planning your Work, Working your Plan, teaches you to create templates to help you plan your modeling. You will get an introduction to modeling with Bezier Curves; take a look at storyboarding and planning an animation as well being introduced to some charts and guides that help you plan your work.
Chapter 8, Making the Sloop, helps you to make the hull of the sloop using Box Modeling and Subdivision Surfaces. You will learn to make holes in objects with Boolean operations and create the Ship's Wheel with Spin Tools and DupliVerts.
Chapter 9, Finishing your Sloop, explains how to use text and fonts in naming your sloop. Then you will assemble all the objects you made in this and the previous chapter, build some sails using NURBS surfaces, and add a few extras that have been provided in your download pack.
Chapter 10, Modeling Organic Forms, Sea, and Terrain, helps you to build and paint an island and the ocean. You make trees for it, and assemble some pre-fab buildings, as well as make a pier from four simple parts.
Chapter 11, Improving your Lighting and Camera Work, focuses on professional lighting and camera techniques. You will also learn more about animation and ways to speed up performing test renders and improve the final rendering quality.
Chapter 12, Rendering and Compositing, covers assembling strips of animated sequences in the Video Sequence Editor to create a completed and edited animation with sound. You will use the Node Editor to assemble a 3D Stereoscopic animation and get introduced to the Cycles renderer, which adds even more realism and possibilities to a Blender scene.
Of course you need to download a copy of Blender available at http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/. This book was written and tested on Blender 2.63a. It should work with later versions of Blender as well, but we cannot guarantee it.
This book was written to reduce the frustration that beginning Blender users face, by offering a thorough introduction to the unique Blender interface; starting with simple projects and working up to more complex scenes and animations. It's intended to provide plenty of practice in using Blender, advice on things to keep in mind when doing 3D animation, and an exploration of Blender so that the student, when they finish the book, will have a solid background in using Blender and know enough that they can confidently participate in the world wide Blender community.
This book also takes a peek into some arcane subjects such as the Cycles render engine, so that the reader will not be afraid, and will have a start on how to understand them. The student will have a solid enough basis in using Blender that they can continue and learn all of the higher functions of Blender including the physics engine, game engine, particles, armatures for character modeling, and more.
In this book, you will find several headings appearing frequently.
To give clear instructions on how to complete a procedure or task, we use:
Action 1
Action 2
Action 3
Instructions often need some extra explanation so that they make sense, so they are followed with:
This heading explains the working of tasks or instructions that you have just completed.
You will also find some other learning aids in the book, including:
These are short multiple choice questions intended to help you test your own understanding.
These set practical challenges and give you ideas for experimenting with what you have learned.
You will also find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text are shown as follows: "For your reference, the file 6907_07_sloop_mast.blend has the mast started".
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Click on the Add Image button with the LMB".
Note
Tips and tricks appear like this.
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