Full Circle THEINDEPENDENTMAGAZINEFORTHEUBUNTULINUXCOMMUNITY

Special Edition .org (c) copyright 2008, Blender Foundation / www.bigbuckbunny Blender Special Edition Volume One Parts 1 - 10 Full Ciircle Magaziine iis neiither affiiliiated wiith,, nor endorsed by,, Canoniical Ltd.. full circle magazine #84 1 contents ^ Full Circle Magazine Specials About Full Circle Find Us Full Circle is a free, Website: independent, magazine http://www.fullcirclemagazine.org/ dedicated to the Ubuntu family of Linux operating systems. Forums: Each month, it contains helpful http://ubuntuforums.org/ how-to articles and reader- forumdisplay.php?f=270 submitted stories. IRC: #fullcirclemagazine on chat.freenode.net Full Circle also features a The Blender series begins... companion podcast, the Full Editorial Team Circle Podcast which covers the We begin our assembly of Nicholas Kopakakis's Blender series magazine, along with other in this Volume. Editor: Ronnie Tucker news of interest. (aka: RonnieTucker) Here is a straight reprint of the series 'Blender', Parts 1- [email protected] 10 from issues #68 through #82. Webmaster: Rob Keria Please note: this Special Edition (aka: admin / linuxgeekery- [email protected] is provided with absolutely no Please bear in mind the original publication date; current warranty whatsoever; neither versions of hardware and software may difer from those Editing & Proofreading the contributors nor Full Circle illustrated, so check your hardware and software versions Mike Kennedy, David Haas, Magazine accept any Gord Campbell, Robert Orsino responsibility or liability for loss before attempting to emulate the tutorials in these special or damage resulting from editions. You may have later versions of software installed or Our thanks go to Canonical and the readers choosing to apply this available in your distributions' repositories. many translation teams around the content to theirs or others world. computers and equipment. Enjoy!

The articles contained in this magazine are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. This means you can adapt, copy, distribute and transmit the articles but only under the following conditions: You must attribute the work to the original author in some way (at least a name, email or URL) and to this magazine by name ('full circle magazine') and the URL www.fullcirclemagazine.org (but not attribute the article(s) in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you must distribute the resulting work under the same, similar or a compatible license. Full Circle Magazine is entirely independent of Canonical, the sponsor of Ubuntu projects and the views and opinions in the magazine should in no way be assumed to have Canonical endorsement. full circle magazine HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Nicholas Kopakakis BBlleennddeerr -- PPaarrtt 11

t's kind of odd to start an repositories. If you haven't already You will encounter a splash differences but the main article with a Youtube link, but installed it, go ahead and install it screen showing the version of philosophy is here. I believe that if you like what from the repository. Blender at the top right corner and I you'll see in there, you will some links. Ignore them for now So, we are in Blender and we love the rest of these tutorials. In these tutorials we will use a and press any mouse button see the 3D view editor, some 3-button mouse and a keyboard outside that area. buttons at the left, some buttons Feel free to follow the link with number pad. Blender assumes and numbers at the right, and a below and come back here in that you have that. But, if you If you are new to 3D animation timeline at the bottom. Working in about 15 minutes, multiplied by don't, you can change these software, don't worry. Give it some Blender mainly means “working in the number of times you'll enjoy it: setting under File > User time and you'll get used to it: 3D view editor”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v preferences. Select the input tab practice, experiment, and practice =eRsGyueVLvQ and, on the left, mark Emulate 3- are the only three ways to excel in Working in Blender is modeling, Button Mouse and Emulate Blender. If you are familiar with animating, lighting, compositing, Sintel (www.sintel.org) is not Numpad. other similar programs (Maya, 3DS texturing (where we will use all the reason I mess with Blender, but Max, etc), you will find some editors), but the 3D view editor (or I believe that if I hadn't till then, 3D view window) is still the place after that I surely would have where everything is revealed. “started my journey”. The 3D view editor is the big So, lets talk about Blender window at the center of our (www.blender.org), the program screen. What you see there is a behind Sintel and many similar cube, a camera, and a light. movies. (Actually Blender is behind a lot of 3D things). Blender is Press F12 available for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and FreeBSD (32-bit and 64- What's going on? Well, you just bit systems). rendered your first scene in blender! When this article was written, the latest version was 2.64 but TIP: You can inspect the we'll work with version 2.62, which previous rendered image anytime you can find in the Ubuntu by pressing F11. Pressing F11 again

full circle magazine #68 19 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER Pt 1 will return you at the 3D view moving the mouse around. You are editor. rotating the view. Moving the mouse wheel up and down, you Move the mouse on the image zoom in and out. and press Esc or press F11 to exit the rendered image window and Alt+Shift+MouseWheel rotates return to the 3D view editor. the view up and down.

All that you need to have a Alt+Control+MouseWheel scene is a capture device (the rotates the view left and right. camera), a theme to capture (the cube), and some light. Also you can pan the view. Shift+MMB and you can pan the Now, lets focus on the bar on view, with Shift+MouseWheel up the bottom of the 3D view (shown and down and below) called Header there where you left it. From the Now, change every editor to Control+MouseWheel for left and same menu select the 3D View. info (the header at the top of your right. Notice the tiny little Voilà! Your box is there. See? screen is already in info so you box (shown left) on the don't have to change it.) You can zoom in and out left-most side. This is the In Blender, you can change any without using the middle mouse editor type selector. window to any editor type window At any time, press File > New in wheel. Use Control+MMB and you want. This will be very handy in info header to reload your default move the mouse up (zoom in) or Press your LMB (Left Mouse the future when we will want to be setup. down (zoom out). Button) on the little 3D box to more productive. Go ahead and change the editor type. locate the four other window Ok. Let's start a new project; Enough with rotation and headers on your screen. (There are press File > New in info header. panning. Lets go to selection! From the list select Python five in total.) Console (the very first selection at Everything is back in place. Start a new project: File > New. the top). Notice that every window has a different header with different Move the mouse in the 3D view By default, when you start a Hey! Where is my box? options, and every time you editor window, and press the MMB new project, the cube is selected change editors, the header (Middle Mouse Button) while (indicated by the highlighted- Don't worry, your cube is right changes as well. orange edges of the cube)

full circle magazine #68 20 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER Pt 1

Now press the A key. You Shift+RMB to the cube. Press C and a Circle appears. the selection with the addition of deselect the cube (nothing in the the Shift key to the combination: scene is highlighted). The redish edges become Circle selection works in a Control+Shift+LMB. Press and hold orange. Shift+RMB again on the cumulative manner like shift Control+Shift+LMB and abstract Pressing A key again will select cube and you deselected the cube. selection, so pressing LMB on the objects from the selection. All objects on-screen. The cube, Now you have in your selection the cube will add the cube to the the camera and the light. Press A light and the camera. Press A to selection. Go to File->New or press one more time to deselect deselect all. Control+N. Start a new project. everything. Moving the mouse wheel up Now, using the MMB, rotate the and down, you can adjust the circle Practice, Experiment and Now press the RMB (Right view, in order to see all 3 objects, radius making selection more PRACTICE! Rotate the view, pan Mouse Button) on the cube. You and deselect all with the A key. precise or general. the screen, zoom in, zoom out, select the cube and it's (You can instead load a brand new make multiple selections and highlighted. scene by clicking File->New or Remember, any time you press deselections. Control+N, and, on the new LMB you add the object to the Press the RMB on the light. You project, press A to deselect the current selection. Next month, we will actually have selected the light but you cube.) create something. deselected the cube as well. Press MMB to remove an object Box Selection Tool from the selection. Go to Press A to deselect the light. http://www.youtube.com/watch?fe Assuming that you have loaded Press Esc to exit the selection ature=player_embedded&v=R6MlU cmOul8 Shift Selection a new project or you have a similar mode. view, move the mouse over and Enjoy “Tears of Steel” Press RMB on the light and then right of the light and press the B Lasso Selection Tool key. A cross appeared. Now hold (www.tearsofsteel.org) by the press Shift+RMB on the cube. You Blender Foundation. selected the light AND the cube LMB and drag the mouse down and Press and hold Control+LMB (notice the more redish edges on to the left in order to Box select all and drag your mouse to put the the light). 3 objects. border around an object. You can select multiple objects in a more Now Shift+RMB on the camera Great! Everything is selected accurate way than the box Nicholas lives and works in Greece. He is working for a post-production (notice the redish light). This is with a different and faster way selection. than the Shift+RMB selection. house (commercials - films) for cumulative selection, meaning that several years. Three months ago he you added the camera to the Press A key again to deselect all. You can add objects to the migrated to Ubuntu because “it selection. selection with the Control+LMB, renders faster”. Blender found him two years ago. Circle Selection Tool and you can abstract objects from

full circle magazine #68 21 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Nicholas Kopakakis BBlleennddeerr -- PPaarrtt 22

s I promised last month, today dimensions which side in nearer, knowing that confirm the destruction by A we are going to create (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orth is a cube. pressing Enter. something. But first let’s destroy a ographic_projection), very useful cube! for modeling! Of course, this is my opinion. Now press Shift+A to add Maybe you can model better and something, and, from the menu, Start a new project in Blender: On the bottom left image, we faster using perspective view. It's click Mesh->UV Sphere or, from the File-> New, or just open Blender. have an orthographic view. Our up to you. header, press Add->Mesh->UV brain cannot understand which Sphere to add a new mesh to your Press Numpad-1 to have a front side is the front. But it is great for A few months ago, Mark started scene. A sphere appears. view. At the upper-left corner you creating models, as we don't to demonstrate the great program can check what you are viewing. actually care for one perspective Inkscape (we will see in the future I guess that you are in front- but for the actual dimensions of how we can use Inkscape with orthographic-view (check the top Now press Numpad-5. You our model. The perspective is Blender) creating a snowman. I left corner on your 3d view change your view from Perspective going to be more realistic if we really liked his example, so let’s window) with the sphere selected. to Orthographic. Pressing create models ignoring the create a snowman as well. But If not press Numpad-1. Numpad-5 toggles the view from perspective! first, destroy the cube! perspective to orthographic and Press Shift+A to add a new vice-versa. In the bottom right image, we Select the cube with the RMB mesh. A UV sphere again. You see the cube from perspective (Right Mouse Button) and press don't see any difference in your TIP: Perspective view is the way view, so our brain can understand the X key or Delete key and monitor. Don't worry. LMB and our eyes see the world. Objects hold the blue arrow pointing that are closer seem bigger than upwards, to move the sphere up on objects that are further. the Z-axis. Place it near the top of the revealing sphere. Orthographic view, on the other hand, is like seeing an object from Press S to scale down the an infinite distance. All objects sphere moving your mouse to the seem as they are at the same center of the cursor. Move your distance relative to the eye. sphere down again to be a little Orthographic projection is a means “in” the big sphere. of representing a three- dimensional object in two Now press Shift+D key to

full circle magazine #69 17 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER Pt 2 duplicate the selected sphere. sphere. Press Z to lock the movement to Z- axis, and press and hold LMB to OK, press Numpad-1 for front move it up near the top of the view, and press S and X to alter the second sphere. X value alone. Now create a long or a short carrot-nose. Press S and scale down the third sphere. Press R and -10 to rotate the nose 10 degrees counter- Ok, we have something. clockwise.

Press File->Save As to save your Using the front view and the work so far. Select where you want right view, place the nose to save your file, give it a unique somewhere in the middle of the name (snowman.blend for snowman's head. example), and press the Save As Blender File button on the upper Now let’s create some buttons. right corner. Great! Press Shift+A to add a Mesh- >Cylinder. Use the same tools to On the Front Ortho view, press Now, select the first sphere by create a little coin-like button as LMB somewhere right of the pressing the RMB on it. Press S and the ones we use to create the snowman body. Press Shift+A to then Z to scale down your sphere carrot-nose. Scale it, rotate it, use add Mesh->Cone. Press R for altering only the Z-axis. your imagination! Don't forget to rotation, and 90 for the rotation duplicate with Shift+D to be more degrees. Do the same for the other two productive. spheres to make them look more TIP: You can manually input values “real” (shown middle left). The When you are happy with your by pressing directly a value. Your gravity pulls the snowballs to the model, save your work. cone rotated 90 degrees clockwise. ground. You can also use negative values Press F12 to render. for rotating your object counter- Press N to open or close the clockwise. properties window on the right of the Y and Z values together. Scale Your snowman seems a little bit your 3D view. There, you can silly. The snow doesn't have this Press Numpad-3 for the right the cone down to look more like a inspect and alter your object's kind of edges like well crafted view. Press S for scale and Shift+X carrot-size nose relative to the properties by actual numbers crystals! We have to smooth that to constrain the X value and alter third-created (snowman head) (shown middle right). up.

full circle magazine #69 18 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER Pt 2

So, press T key to bring up the toolkit on the left. Under the Shading section, you have two options: Smooth and Flat. With one sphere selected (or all) press the Smooth button. Your snowman is smoother now!

You can see the differences. On the image shown middle right, the spheres are flat with a more crystal like cut, and on the one shown middle left, we have applied the smooth shader giving a more smooth and natural feel of snow.

Using the box selection tool that we mentioned last month, select all objects that, united, very useful site with hot news represent “the snowman”. The We have a ground. about Blender. spheres, the cylinders, and the cone. Save your work under a unique Also for this month I have a name. video for you. Go to Using the blue arrow, move the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v snowman up as shown in the Render your snowman by =TLkA0RELQ1g, and enjoy images above, a little bit down the pressing F12. “elephants dream” a short film red axis. created with Blender in 2006, by If your camera doesn't capture orange open movie project. Press Shift+S. From the Snap your model as you like, move your menu that appeared, select Cursor Nicholas lives and works in Greece. camera. Next month, we will add a hat, to Center. Press numpad-7 for the He is working for a post-production maybe a pipe, and his brush-like top view. Press Shift+A to add a house (commercials - films) for Every month, I'll suggest an hands. Also, I will introduce you to several years. Three months ago he new mesh. A plane. Press S for interesting site for Blender. For the edit mode – the place where migrated to Ubuntu because “it scaling the plane and 10 to scale it renders faster”. Blender found him this month, I highly recommend you are going to spend most of up 10 times. two years ago. http://www.Blendernation.com.A your Blender time!!

full circle magazine #69 19 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Nicholas Kopakakis BBlleennddeerr -- PPaarrtt 33

any, many times in your Also the UVsphere changes to a From these buttons you can Press Shift+S for Snap menu, and M blender sessions you will orange-wired sphere. change what you select (vertex, select Cursor to Center. Press press the TAB key. It’s the edge or face). Alternatively, press Shift+A to add a new object. From keyboard shortcut for switching to You are in edit mode. While in the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Tab. the Mesh group select Cylinder. Edit Mode. edit mode, you are able to adjust Notice now the Layers Buttons. and manipulate only the selected Go ahead and switch back to Load the snowman.blend file object. Try, for example to select object mode by pressing the TAB that we created last month, and, with the RMB the lamp or the key. on the header, locate the button nose. You can't. You can select only showing that you are in Object a vertex or group of vertices of the On the header again, you can It shows us that we have Mode (it's called header, but it is object that you are in. see that the buttons that we objects in two layers, and the placed by default where a footer Vertex is a 3-dimensional mentioned before have second layer is the active one with should be). coordinate, disappeared, and some others something selected. Press S for Edge is a line connecting two came back. Let’s focus for a minute scale, and 0.3 to scale it down 30%. vertices and on the buttons showing below Press G for grab, Z to lock it to Z- Face is the planar field in between axis, and 0.3 to move your cylinder 3 or more vertices. up 30% of a blender unit. Select with the RMB (Right Mouse Button) the head (top In edit mode, you can select If it’s not selected already, UVsphere) of our snowman. vertices, edges and faces – the These are called Layers press Numpad-5 to switch to same way we saw in the first part Buttons. The yellow dot in the orthographic view (explained in Press the TAB key. The entire of this series, 2 months ago. Use upper left button indicates that we issue #69) and Numpad-7 for top header changes and now you are the box selection tool, the lasso have objects in that layer selected, view. reading “Edit Mode” on the same tool, the circle selection tool, RMB or recently selected, and the button. (You can alternatively and Shift+RMB to select multiple darker gray color that we are Press the TAB key to enter the press that button, and, from there, vertices. currently in that layer. edit mode. Press Shift+S and you can select the edit mode. For Cursor to Center to move your now, we don't need to know what Also in the Press the number 2 on your cursor again to the center of your the other modes are). header, keyboard (NOT the numpad) or the grid – in case you have moved your observe three second button from the upper left cursor. Press Shift-A to add a Circle small buttons representing the corner. Everything disappears – as from the Mesh group. After that, vertex, edge and face selection. we are now on a different layer. press F6, and, from the window

full circle magazine #70 20 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER Pt 3 that appears, change the Fill Type dimensions, and 0.5 to make it half Now it's time to create a pipe. Scale down a little by pressing S from Nothing to Ngon. After that, long. Lets go to edit mode again. key and moving your mouse press S for scale, and 0.5 to scale With the cylinder selected, press Assuming that you towards the center of your down your circle by 50%. TAB. Add a new cylinder, scale it have a front selection. After that, add a new down, rotate it, and move it in orthographic view, cylinder, scale it down, and create Press the TAB key to return to order to create a branch arm. and the small button on the right the rest of your pipe. object mode. While in edit mode, of the mode selection button the objects that you add (in this When you are done with your indicates the wireframe example the circle) are all parts of branch, Press Alt+1 on your symbol...select all vertices. a single object and blender keyboard (NOT Numpad-1) to manipulates them as a single select Layer Number 11. Scale down your cylinder to 8%. object. TIP: Press 1, 2, 3... to 0 on your Press A to deselect all vertices. It is a good time also to replace We have the hat. Now let’s keyboard: you select your active Now, box select (using the B key) that nose that we did last month create the hands of our snowman. layer from 1 to 10. This is the upper only the upper vertices. (using a cone) with a new one Press 3 on your keyboard (NOT row on your Layers Buttons based on a cylinder – because we Numpad-3) to work in Layer mentioned earlier. Pressing Alt+1, don't actually want a so sharp edge number 3. Alt+2... to Alt+0 selects the lower for our carrot-nose. row of layers from 11 to 20. Shift+S again to move our Now we have almost what we cursor to center. Shift+A to add a With Layer 11 active, add a new need. new Mesh. A cylinder again. Press S Cylinder (by now you have to know for scale, Shift+Z to keep the how to add a new Mesh). Do the same as we did with the dimensions of Z-axis, and alter the Scale up a little by pressing S cylinder a little earlier to create other 2 axis, X and Y. Press 0.02 for Press TAB to switch to edit key and moving your mouse away another branch arm. Place it in a scaling 2%. After that, press S mode. Press Z key to display your from the center of your selection. new layer or in the layer where you again, Z to alter only the Z-axis cylinder as wireframe. This is a very Press A to deselect all vertices, and have the other branch. You can useful view of your object, and I box select the lower vertices only. also duplicate your branch arm by personally use it a lot to toggle the selecting it and pressing Shift+D. view from solid to wireframe. Press A to select all vertices (if not Now that you have all the already selected). (When in object elements in your layers, you can mode, pressing the A key selects either move all objects to the all objects, but, when in edit mode, starting layer (Layer 1), or by this key selects or deselects all pressing Shift and the Layer- vertices.)

full circle magazine #70 21 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER Pt 3 buttons that have objects in them Also for this month, I have a – to combine the view of all layers video for you. Go to that are selected. CCOODDEEWWOORRDD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v Every number in the grid is 'code' for a letter of the alphabet. =USyoT_Ha_bA, and have a look Thus the number '2' may correspond to the letter 'L', for instance. TIP: To move an object to another back in 1963 at the ancestor of all layer, select the object and press M All - except the difficult codeword puzzles - come with a few computer graphics, Ivan letters to start you off key. From the Move to Layer Sutherland's Sketchpad (my window, select where you want to Wacom tablet almost cries). move your object.

Next month, we will add some color in our lives, introducing textures! Nicholas lives and works in Greece. For this month, I'll suggest He is working for a post-production house (commercials - films) for http://www.blenderartists.org – a several years. Three months ago he forum where you can find the migrated to Ubuntu because “it latest news, job ads, artworks, and renders faster”. Blender found him much more blender-related stuff. two years ago.

Solutions are on the second last page. Puzzles are copyright, and kindly provided by, The Puzzle Club - www.thepuzzleclub.com

full circle magazine #70 22 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Nicholas Kopakakis BBlleennddeerr -- PPaarrtt 44

extures and materials are very object mode (shown below). like the one shown right. T crucial. Without them, for example, what we have created so Notice the small icons at the As you can see, there are a lot far is a grey snowman, with a grey right of your 3D view window. The of things that we can tweak, but nose, grey hands and a grey hat. fourth icon from the right we will introduce the very basics to Not so realistic. So, materials and (highlighted) is the Materials tab. create a kind of realistic textures is a way to add realism to environment (maybe, in a later the look of our models with stage of this article-series, we can images, plain colors, etc. focus on materials and textures Select the hat and press the explaining all in detail, but, for You must have a material to New button: now, feel free to experiment with apply a texture on it (by default those). blender adds a material to your objects in order to see their Name your material “Hat”. Your Blender gives us a preview surfaces). material tab has to look something window where we can inspect the

So, for this month we will introduce materials – leaving textures for next month, as it is impossible to fit them both in an article.

But, before anything else, let’s upgrade blender. A new release (2.66a) is available at http://www.blender.org/download /get-blender/ with a bunch of new features and over 250 bugfixes.

Let’s load the snowman blend file that we created last month. It has to look something like this in

full circle magazine #71 22 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER Pt 4 color of our material. Also, on the 0. community as a test model for right, we can change the basic materials, textures, lights, etc. The object that we are previewing (this Under Specular, there is also a Suzanne awards (something like doesn't affect our object at all, but white strip. From there we choose the Oscars awards) are held helps us to understand how the the color of the reflection on annually for blender artists. color looks – for example on shining objects. For example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzan spheres or boxes). choose for diffuse: color Red = ne_Award 0.015, Green = 0, Blue = 0.24, and Under Diffuse, there is a white for specular: Red = 0.915, Green = Now, let’s go back to our strip. Press with your LMB (Left 1, Blue = 0. snowman. Reload the Mouse Button) on it to change the Also on the preview window, snowman.blend file, select the color. Select the color of your change the basic object to monkey. plane that we use as ground and choice from the color wheel, or LMB on the material tab. enter manually the values of Red, Looks like the image below? Green and Blue below the wheel, or you can use the color picker – well known from other graphic Press New to create a new applications. material and rename it from Now, with your RMB, select “Material” to “Ground”. another button of the snowman. You can use the HSV button to Under the material tab, you can choose your color by Hue Under Diffuse, press LMB on see the New button that we used Saturation and Value, or you can the white strip and put the values earlier to create a new material. use the Hexadecimal numbers that 0.5 for Red and Blue and 0.8 for Left of this there is an icon similar are commonly used on web pages Green. On the 3d view window, you to the “materials” one in blender. to specify colors. I personally use can see that the color of the only the RGB values. The values ground changes to a green looking Press it and select can vary from 0 to 1 indicating the surface. Button from the list: percentage of the color (0.2 = 20% for example). Select one button of the snowman, and press the new On the right of the wheel there Button on the material tab. Name is a slider controlling the intensity NOTE: The monkey of blender is it “Button”, and, under Diffuse, of the color. If you slide it all the actually a chimpanzee, called color it red (by now you must know way down we have absolute black. Suzanne. This 3d mode, created by the way to do that, but, in case you Also notice that values of Red, Willem-Paul van Overbruggen, was don't, just put R = 1, G and B to 0): Green and Blue are all changed to introduced to the blender

full circle magazine #71 23 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER Pt 4

The materials that we create are stored for later use in the CCOODDEEWWOORRDD blend file, and many different Every number in the grid is 'code' for a letter of the alphabet. objects can share the same Thus the number '2' may correspond to the letter 'L', for instance. material. All - except the difficult codeword puzzles - come with a few letters to start you off Keeping that in mind, create materials for the hands, the hat, the nose, and the pipe. Also assign the Button material to the other For this month, I recommend buttons, or create a new material that you download and play a for each button if you like. game created in blender with the blender game engine. Yo frankie! http://www.yofrankie.org/

Also you can check out blenderguru.com. A site dedicated to blender, with a lot of tutorials for beginner and advanced users, created and hosted by Andrew Price, a very talented blender artist. Enjoy. http://www.blenderguru.com

For the hat I created a material with a Halo behavior – just to make a Saint snowman with two Halos!!!! Very Saint! Nicholas lives and works in Greece. He is working for a post-production You can experiment with the house (commercials - films) for several years. Three months ago he Solutions are on the second last page. other two kinds of materials migrated to Ubuntu because “it behavior: Wire and Volume. renders faster”. Blender found him Puzzles are copyright, and kindly provided by, two years ago. The Puzzle Club - www.thepuzzleclub.com

full circle magazine #71 24 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Nicholas Kopakakis BBlleennddeerr -- PPaarrtt 55

aving a lousy model is not I will give you an example to tab. H something that you want for make it more clear what textures your models, of course, but, as a are and what they are capable of. good friend of mine (and experienced 3D artist) told me: In the image below, we have a “you can save a lousy model with sphere with a plane, and good texturing.” illuminated by 3 lights.

This month, I will try to explain And, finally, we have ball of the very basics of texturing (the aluminum foil garbage on a beach Now, go to the material tab and truth is that I know the very (very sad). press the New button to create a basics). There are a lot of books material for the body of our out there describing texturing snowman. techniques—as textures are a very important matter for 3D modeling.

Low poly is a polygon mesh in Next, we have the same 3D computer graphics that has a objects, but this time with textures relatively small number of and image mapping to create the polygons. We usually use low poly surface filling on earth. Name the material with a models for performance reasons, For the last picture I used an unique name—for example, in real-time applications such as image for the sand, and, for the “body_Material”. games. foil, the cloud texture with some normal map displacement. Next, press the tab next to the High poly models are usually material tab called Textures. used for animated movies or high But enough with the examples. detail pictures, in conditions, in Let’s load our snowman.blend file. general, where we don't have real- time performance restrictions. Select the three spheres (body) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_ Next, we have the same objects of our snowman, and press Ctrl+J poly) with different textures on them. to Join the three meshes to one. Name it “body” under the object

full circle magazine #72 19 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER Pt 5

Press New to create a new with these settings: texture. Name it body_Texture, or whatever you like.

Find a picture of snow to use as Under the Influence section, a texture. There is a very tick on Emit and put the value interesting site that I use a lot at -0.800 to light up your image a http://www.cgtextures.com. You little, and, under Geometry, tick can register and have access to Normal and enter 4 for value to thousands of images that you can give a hard surface feeling. Finish the snowman by creating use as a texture (with the free and applying textures to the rest registration you can download up of the meshes (hands, nose, to 15MB of images per month. mouth, etc.) Download the low resolution images and you will be just fine). Feel free to send me your For our snowman, I downloaded creations of the snowman project the image Snow0041_5_S.jpg. at [email protected], and I'll present the best here at Full Circle Under the type button, select Magazine. image or movie. Leave the rest to default, or Next month, I'll introduce you experiment with them to see what to the Cycles render engine—a you get (remember that very powerful renderer that has Then press Open under the experimenting is one of the three been included with the blender Image section, and navigate to things that you need to master distribution ever since version your file system to select your blender, the other two are 2.64. Also, we will start a new image. practice!). project. Send me your ideas.

Now, for the ground, here’s For this month, I have a game called Dead Cyborg created by what I have done (of course, you Nicholas lives and works in Greece. can use an image instead). I Endre Barath He has worked for a post-production Under the Mapping section, created a texture from the type (http://www.deadcyborg.com). house for several years and migrated to Ubuntu because “it renders select Sphere for the Projection Clouds, adjusting some of the Another game created with the blender game engine. Enjoy! faster.” You can email him at: and leave Coordinates as it is settings. [email protected] (Generated).

full circle magazine #72 20 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Nicholas Kopakakis BBlleennddeerr -- PPaarrtt 66aa

y default, blender has its own window), press the On the lower render engine creates “on the fly” B renderer called Blender LMB and drag the left window, a photorealistic image of your Render, but my favorite is one mouse left to create press the small model. You can navigate in that called “Cycles”. It is included as an a new 3d view white sphere window, you can zoom in or zoom enabled add-on since version 2.64 next to Object out using the mouse wheel or +, - (we are now at 2.67), and I find it Then do the same with the left Mode button to from the numpad, you can pan the fantastic because among others window that you have, but this display the view by holding the shift key and things, you can actually see the time drag the mouse down to Viewport moving the mouse, rotate the view rendered result of your models in create a third window. You must shading menu by holding the middle mouse real-time! have something like the image button and moving the mouse, below. From that menu select and, in general, any movement of But, first things first. Locate at “Rendered”. the view that we examine in part the top of your blender window Move the mouse on the upper one (FCM#68) of these articles. the pull-down button that says left window, and press Numpad-0 Now, what is actually happening “Blender Render”. to have camera view on it. is that, in this window, the cycles This is a good time to save our setup. On the info header (the one that by default is the upper Press it to open the menu and window), locate the screen button select “Cycles Render”. with the “Default” value in it (foolishly named, as a bunch of setups are the defaults in blender).

By pressing the small icon on the left (red square), you can select Now, let’s arrange our windows from a list of default setups. Press to take advantage of the the + sign next to “Default”. A interactive cycles renderer. “Default.001” value appears. Change it to a distinctive name for On the upper right corner of example “Model” to indicate that the 3d view window (main you use this setup when you model

full circle magazine #73 24 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER Pt 6a objects. Then save your file with a Press Shift-S and select Cursor unique name, I saved mine as to Center if it isn't already or Press “Basic_shapes.blend”. The next Ctrl-C. Now add a plane and scale it time you open this file, the up by 10 times (by now you must “Model” setup will be opened as know how to do that). Create a well. Cone and a UV Sphere. Also smooth them. Move them in order TIP: If you start a new project, or to have them in good view on the load an old one, your custom setup upper left 3d view window (the will NOT be there. Just the camera view window). defaults with blender. To have your custom setup available anytime Like the image below. you start a new project, you must save it as the startup file by pressing Ctrl-U. Note that if you overwrite the startup file (by pressing Ctrl-U), ANYTHING that FCM#72 to paint our objects. Press to Anisotropic BSDF to give a you have changed will be saved as it and from the menu select metallic feeling to our cube. Maybe well. For example, if you delete the “Glossy”. my favorite material shader. cube and you overwrite the startup file, then the next time the cube Almost instantly (depending Above is what we have so far. won't be there! Of course you can upon your CPU power) you can revert to the original startup file Select the plane and press the inspect the Rendered 3d window More on this subject next (File > Load Factory Settings). material tab on the right under what you’ve achieved so far. month... properties window (shown top Impressive for just few clicks! Now, Move your mouse over the right right). if you like, press the color button 3d view window, and press and assign a color to your glossy, Numpad-5 and Numpad-1 for A different set of things to mirror like, surface. I made it Orthographic tweak than the Blender Render! purple (R:0.5,G:0.4,B:0.8). As you Front view. Press the New button (as in change the color, Cycles starts to Nicholas lives and works in Greece. Grab the blue Blender Renderer) to add a new render the result. You have a He has worked for a post-production arrow of the material. Name it “ground”. Under preview really fast. house for several years and migrated to Ubuntu because “it renders cube and Surface, you see the default value move it up just faster.” You can email him at: that is “Diffuse BSDF”. This is like Now select the cube, add a new [email protected] over the grip the Diffuse that we used in material, and set the surface type as shown:

full circle magazine #73 25 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Nicholas Kopakakis BBlleennddeerr -- PPaarrtt 66bb

ast month we used Cycles L Render to create the image shown below left. object emits or reflects light. between Blender and Cycles, is My GPU has CUDA support so I more technical. Let’s create a similar image can enable it. You can also check it On the other hand, Cycles (below right) with the Blender at the official CUDA support url: renderer calculates the light that Navigate to File > User engine. https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda- every object has from the Preferences > System (above). gpus surroundings. You can observe the The first thing that we notice cone and see how the shadow At the lower left corner of the (at least me) is shadows. The If you are lucky and have an from the cube smoothly fades System Tab you can check if your shadows that our point lamp casts, Nvidia CUDA card, you have to (contrary to the cone from the computer has Nvidia CUDA with blender render, are almost enable it under the Compute Blender renderer), and we have a support under Compute Device black. This phenomenon is Device Tab that I mentioned mirroring ground and a shiny metal happening because in Blender before AND under the Properties cube in our scene. renderer, the light is been emitted Panel, Render Tab -> Device -> GPU by the lamp only. This isn't Compute in order to have the full One other thing that is very realistic, as in the real world every power for your rendering. crucial, and a main difference

full circle magazine #74 18 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER Pt 6b

about Cycles. Open the .blend file Select the sphere, navigate to You can check in the Preview that we started last month, or just the Properties Panel and change window the cool effect that we create a new one. Don't forget to the Surface shader from the create. You can adjust the Color check that the Cycles Render at the default Diffuse BSDF to Emission. and the Strength of the light that top is selected your object emits. Also for every shader you can adjust a lot of other things (as textures, for example) by pressing the little dot right next to color and strength values. Cycles can use your GPU CUDA cores to render, and is much faster Select our metallic-looking than the CPU. Check out CUDA at cube, press the little dot next to wikipedia : color, and change its texture to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUDA Brick Texture. Check the result in your 3d view window and select If you don't have a CUDA GPU, different textures until you find you can use Open Shading Also change one of your 3d view something that you like. Language, but it's a little bit buggy windows to show the rendered and I couldn't recommended this result. method of rendering, for now. In the near future I have a feeling that it’s going to be much faster than the CUDA render procedure.

But enough with the technical stuff.

Let’s see another great thing

full circle magazine #74 19 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER Pt 6b

TIP: The little dots are in every world” lighting, and I have no Also visit www.blendernews.org shader, not only emission, and I reason to argue with them. to enter and share with thousands personally find them very useful to of professional artists! quickly create interesting stuff. Below is where I am so far. http://blendernews.org/xe/?mid=F Nicholas lives and works in Greece. Another interesting shader is For this month, follow this link eature_Articles&document_srl=12 He has worked for a post-production house for several years and migrated the Mix Shader. As you can easily http://vimeo.com/68010380 to 74 enjoy a wonderful work by 3 to Ubuntu because “it renders understand from its name, this is a faster.” You can email him at: people and Blender shader that you can use to mix [email protected] other shaders. Two other shaders (congratulations goes to Javier to be more precise. So, let’s select Trapiella, Baol Bardot Bulsara and our cone and change the Diffuse Robert Green). BSDF shader to Mix Shader. Add a Glass shader and a Diffuse shader or a Glossy Shader and an Anisotropic Shader to our cone. Change the value of the Fac parameter to adjust the percentage of the second shader (0.000 means 0% while 1.000 means 100%)

Check the result on your preview window and adjust the settings as you like.

Another thing that I want to mention in this tiny little introduction on the Cycles Renderer, is the use of planes instead of lamps.

Most people working in Blender and Cycles use planes to illuminate their scenes. Looks like more “real

full circle magazine #74 20 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Nicholas Kopakakis BBlleennddeerr:: PPaarrtt 77

fter a month off, we are back two times). Press the right arrow A together to explore modifiers. to increase the View subdivisions One of my favorites is subdivision to 2. Now what you see is what you surface! render.

Tip: Modifiers are automatic operations that work with how an object looks and renders but without changing the actual geometry of your object.

Subdivision Surface (Subsurf in Press with your left mouse button When you add the Subsurf short) is a method of subdividing the wrench icon and then press the modifier to your cube by default the faces of a mesh to give a “Add modifier” button. the modifier subdivides the cube smooth appearance, to enable faces (6 faces) by 4, giving you a Increase the View and the modeling of complex smooth A large window appears with all new shape with 24 faces. You can Render subdivisions by one. Now, surfaces with simple, low-vertex the available modifiers in blender. control how many times to under Subdivisions you should meshes (source: wiki.blender.org). For now we will stick with the subdivide your object’s faces under have 3 subdivisions for View and Subdivision Surface (Subsurf from Subdivisions section as shown in for Render: Open a new project in blender now on). Locate it (highlighted in the image below. The “View:1” and select (if not already) the the image above) and select it to indicates that you subdivide your cube. add this modifier to your cube. object one time.

Now, let’s look to the modifiers Your cube changes to a 24-faces There is another control button On the left of your 3D view tab (shown below) under the shape! But if you render your under Subdivisions section to window, under object tools properties window. image, you will get a 96-faces change the subdivisions when you (shortcut T for show/hide), smooth object... Weird! Let see why this is render your image (Render:2). your cube’s shading Notice a little wrench. This is happening. That’s why in the 3D view window the symbol of modifiers in blender. you have a 24-faces shape (subdivided one time), but, when you rendered it, you had a 6x4x4=96-faces shape (subdivided

full circle magazine #76 17 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER: PART 7

Your “cube” now has to look Select the top face of your cube Tip: Loop Cut or Loop Subdivide of your edge (default position). something like this: and press E key to extrude and (shortcut Ctrl-R) splits a loop of Enter key to confirm the extrusion. faces by inserting a new edge loop Scale it down to 50% by pressing intersecting the chosen edge the S key and 0.5. (source: wiki.blender.org)

Move the extruded face down Deselect all by pressing the A by 2 units (Press G key, then Z key key, and then press Ctrl-R. Hover to lock the movement to the Z-axis your mouse over the cube faces and then press -2 to move it down). and you will notice a purple line “cutting” the edges as shown to You created a highly detailed the image below: pot!

The secret of the power that Press A key to deselect Subsurf has is revealed when you everything. press the TAB key to enter the edit Now, to select one of the two edge loop cuts that we just created, we have to use the shortcut Shift-Alt-Right Mouse Button

Tip: The actual shortcut for Loop Cut Select is Alt-RMB but under Press 2 or scroll your mouse linux it conflicts with the functions By editing the cube, dynamically wheel to add 2 loop cuts. Press that are assigned by the system to you edit the sphere in an organic enter to confirm. the alt key. mode way. Without the Subsurf you’d You can see the sphere that we need a lot of time and effort to After that, you have 2 yellow With the leftmost edge loop created with the Subsurf, and your create this pot. edge loops selected and by moving selected, press Ctrl-E to open the original shape, the cube. You your mouse you can slide them edge special menu, and select cannot edit the sphere (remember Another critical tool to use with freely. Press the right mouse edge slide as shown in the image that your actual object is the cube) Subsurf is the loop cut. button to place them to the center on the next page. but you can edit the cube.

full circle magazine #76 18 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER: PART 7

LIBREOFFICE SPECIAL EDITIONS:

http://fullcirclemagazine.org/libreoffice- http://fullcirclemagazine.org/libreoffice- special-edition-volume-one/ special-edition-volume-two/

happening to your shape. Select INKSCAPE SPECIAL EDITIONS: two vertices and scale them up or down. While in the edit mode, add a new shape, for example a plane, and see what is going on.

Next month we will continue our journey with Subsurf, and we You can slide the edge loop by will try to create something. Please moving your mouse or by entering send me your suggestions or directly the value of the movement questions at http://fullcirclemagazine.org/inkscape- http://fullcirclemagazine.org/inkscape- (for example -0.8). Deselect all by [email protected] special-edition-volume-one/ special-edition-volume-two/ pressing the A key, and select the other edge loop. Slide it by 0.8 units.

Create another two edge loop cuts to the other side of your cube Nicholas lives and works in Greece. (check image above right) He has worked for a post-production house for several years and migrated to Ubuntu because “it renders Select and deselect anything faster.” You can email him at: you like. Grab a simple vertex and [email protected] move it around to see what is

full circle magazine #76 19 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Nicholas Kopakakis BBlleennddeerr:: PPaarrtt 88

ast month, we introduced Press the S key and 0.5 to scale objects tools tab, apply the OK. We have seen subsurf in a L SubsSurf (Subdivision Surface), down the selected face by 50%. smooth shader. We got an egg. non-destructive way. Now we can a very useful modifier to create Then press the G key (G for Grab) see what mesh we can actually smooth, high quality models. You and 0.1 to move the selected face create by applying our modifier to have to practice a lot to get up. We have something like a the models. familiar with this tool to reveal its Mayan pyramid now. Press the tab powers. Let’s see some examples key to exit edit mode and return to CREATE A BULLET object mode. CREATE AN EGG To tell you the truth, I'm not a big fan of guns and bullets. But, Start a new project in blender when you have to model an object, and add (if it’s not already present) you have to know what it looks a cube. like. Thank God we have google and a lot of image banks for that. With the mouse in the 3d view So, after some clicks, I found a window, press the tab key to enter bullet image to work with. (In the edit mode. Press the A key to next article I'll show you how we deselect all vertices and select the use images as a blueprint to model four upper vertices. Tip: The “non-destructive way” is objects). something that you can get when you use modifiers. You create an Let’s start a brand new project object by using a modifier, but, if with a cube in it. On the cube, add a subssurf modifier, and increase This is the power of Subsurf – you decide not to use the modifier, it’s very easy just to delete the View and Render to 3. Press S to from a pyramid we can have an scale your cube, Z for the Z axis, egg! Now go to the properties modifier or alter it. The actual starting model is there and 1.5 for the scaling. Press the panel on the right and select the tab key for edit mode. Select the modifiers tab indicated by a “underneath” your effects. When you hit apply under the modifier's four upper vertices and press the E wrench to access the subsurf key for extrude. Around 1 will be modifier. Add the modifier, and tab, you “destroy” this functionality. fine. Press Ctrl-R for an edge loop- increase the View and Render cut. You must have something like values to 3. On the left, under the

full circle magazine #77 15 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER: PART 8 the image below. at the center of your bullet. Scale it happy with your modified shape, up a little to create something like apply the modifier and continue the image below. from there to finish your project. Remember that when you apply a modifier, you have a new mesh and you can re-apply a modifier if you like. In a later stage we can talk about modifiers stuck and how it works.

Next month, we will introduce Bezier curves, and I'll model my favorite team's logo.

For this month, I can suggest blendswap.com community. 3D artists around the world can post their work in blender there and have actual job opportunities!

As you press the mouse button to accept the loop-cut, move it down – near the base of your model. Notice that the modified object changes its shape. Switch to object mode to apply the modifier. Now we can accept the modifier by clicking Apply under the modifier's tab.

Nicholas lives and works in Greece. Go back to edit mode to see He has worked for a post-production what just happened. We have a Ok. We have a basic shape of a house for several years and migrated mesh created by subsurf modifier! Press E and Enter key to confirm bullet. Adjust anything you like, to Ubuntu because “it renders the extrusion. Press S to scale your start a new project and create a faster.” You can email him at: [email protected] Press Alt-Ctrl-R for edge ring selection a very little bit. Press G to rocket or something using the selection. move your selection down almost subsurf modifier. When you are

full circle magazine #77 16 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Nicholas Kopakakis BBlleennddeerr:: PPaarrtt 99aa

s I promised for this month, You should have something like Select the middle vertex (called With the right control point A we will introduce Bezier the image below control point) as shown below: selected, press Ctrl+LMB. You Curves. create another control point and actually extrude your curve. The Bezier curves (named by the newly created control point is the French engineer Pierre Bezier) are last now, the last one represents used in computer graphics to set where your curve is finished. If you the coordinates for a smooth curve want to extend your curve from really easily. the starting edge, select the starting edge and press Ctrl+LMB Lets see what we are talking to add a new control point as the about. Start a new project in Lets press the Tab key to enter Notice that the other 2 vertices starting edge. If you want to close Blender and get rid of the cube the edit mode. You can see a (called handles) are selected as the curve, select the two edges (select the cube, press X to delete strange looking shape of well. Press the G-key to move the and press the F-key to add a and confirm). something like a fish skeleton or control point. Your curve's right closing segment. This is all we pointing arrows – whatever you edge moves. Press the RMB (right need in order to create our logo Now, press Ctrl-A to add a prefer to call it ... mouse button) to cancel or the with Bezier curves. Curve-->Bezier LMB (left mouse button) to confirm the movement. Now, For more details about Bezier select the right-most vertex Curves go to (handle for now on). Move it as we http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/ did earlier with the control point. Doc:2.6/Manual/Modeling/Curves

The control point stays in place Our goal is to create a three- but the handles are moving. Also, dimensional logo from a two- the curvature of the curve is dimensional logo, and we will start Press R for rotation, X for the X- The interesting stuff is the two changing! Moving the other from an easy one. My favorite axis, and 90 for the degrees of the pink lines representing the edges handler also changes the curve. Greek team is Panathinaikos, so rotation. Then, press Numpad-1 for of the shape (this “shape” is the Moving the handler towards the let’s google to find the team's Front view and Numpad-5 for actual segment of the curve). Let’s control point changes the logo. orthographic view. focus on the right pink line. Press curvature of the curve the A-key to deselect everything. respectively. I came across this jpg that is just

full circle magazine #78 16 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER: PART 9a fine for the work. window. Leave it unhide, scroll it show you techniques to handle down, and “tick” the Background images as 3d objects viewable Images from any angle and any view.

Now, add a Curve-->Bezier. Press Tab-key to go to edit mode and using the Ctrl+LMB to add the necessary control points, create an outline of the clover as shown at the image below. Use the handles in order to create the curves that you need:

I don't really care about the To be continued... text so if I want to I can crop it using Gimp. It's fine for my purposes, so I'll leave it the way it Press the Open button and is. The good thing is that we have navigate to the location that you to model just a clover. An easy task downloaded the image. Select and for bezier curves. open that image.

So start a new project, remove The image appears at the the cube, and have a Front background. You can alter some of Orthographic view on your 3d view its properties (the transparency or window. the position, for example) from the After that, we don't need the panel that appeared just below the background image. Untick it at the One powerful tool is the ability open button that we pressed properties panel or press the X blender gives us to have as a earlier. icon just below and to the right of Nicholas lives and works in Greece. blueprint an image at the the Add Image button. He has worked for a post-production background, for easy modeling. house for several years and migrated Tip: The background images are Up to now, we have a two- to Ubuntu because “it renders Press N-key to toggle visible only at orthographic view dimensional shape, and we have a faster.” You can email him at: [email protected] hide/unhide the right side panel and only at precise angle (front, little more work to do for the third (properties panel) at the 3d view left, top etc). At a later stage, I can dimension.

full circle magazine #78 17 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Nicholas Kopakakis BBlleennddeerr:: PPaarrtt 99bb

ast month, we created a clover can guess, if you choose None, issues of Full Circle Magazine if you L using Bezier curves and also nothing is “filled”. Let’s select don't remember how to add we used a background image to Both. materials. My favorite material is model it. Now it's time to add the glass, so I gave a green glass to my third dimension of our model. Now you have a solid 3D model clover. Also, add a white plane as a – as you can see in the 3D view background to have a better visual On the right, under the window. result. properties window, select the curve tab:

Scroll down and you will find Now, a very interesting thing is the Geometry panel. Enter the under the Shape panel in the value 0.2 to Extrude as shown in properties window: the image below:

Next month, we will introduce Lets tweak it a little. Under the text. We will add text to our image Geometry panel that we that we created this month, but mentioned earlier, you have a also we will examine a technique Bevel parameter. In Depth, enter to create interesting stuff with our the value 0.03, and in Resolution model using a very interesting enter 2 as the value. You can alter modifier. Stay tuned! You can see that the 3D button the Depth parameter if you want is selected. Press the 2D button. to Bevel the edges of your model On the 3rd of November, Under Fill, select Back. Your model more or less. For me 0.03 is fine. www.blender.org changed its You can check the 3D view “filled” in the back. Now select looks. So, I don't have to suggest window to observe that your Front. As you may have expected, Now it is time to add materials another site. Explore the new site image starts to have depth. your model “filled” in front. As you to your model. Refer to earlier and have fun!

full circle magazine #79 15 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO BBlleennddeerr PPtt 1100aa Written by Nicholas Kopakakis

his month we are going to have The first thing that you notice is Butwe have a veryboring text T some fun with text in Blender. that, for some reason, blender (although it says “Full Circle So, start up blenderand delete the adds text object facing the top Magazine”). With your text object default cube (select the cube, press view. I preferto change that to selected, examine the properties X, and confirm the deletion). Now, face the front view so let’s rotate window. Selectthe tab with an F as press the A-keyto add a new ourtext object 90 degrees on the an icon to reveal some interesting object in your scene. Add text (see X-axis (Press R-key, then X-key, and stuff about our object. image below) then press 90). Firstofall, change the name of Now, using the num-pad, press our object from the default “Text” 1 forfrontviewand 5 for to “FCM”. Then, change the orthographic view. You must have extrude value under Geometry to something like the image below. 0,2. You don't see any difference to your text. But, ifyou rotate your Nowthatwe have a betterlook view (by holding the middle mouse ofour text, let’s change it. Press button and moving yourmouse, or the tab-key to enter the edit mode. bypressing 2,4,6 and 8 on the num- Change the default “Text” to “Full pad), you can see thatwe extrude Circle Magazine”. Exit edit mode by our text. Great! pressing the tab-key again. Great! Also we can adjustthe depth of

full circle magazine #81 20 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER PT10a our bevel factor.

Change the value ofDepth to 0,05 and the Resolution to 10.

Ok. Nowwe are going to change the Fonts.

Press the file icon (the icon between F and X), and navigate to your Fonts folder. Select the font ofyour desire. I choose Isabella (search the repositories for ubuntustudio-font-meta package). The Geometry values that we changed earlier are not suitable for this font. I 'll make extrude = 0,05 and Bevel= 0,02.

Ok, nowlet’sadd a boxand rotate, scale, move it. Also use textures! It will be easy to create something like the image below.

To be continued...

Nicholas lives and works in Greece. He has worked for a post-production house for several years and migrated to Ubuntu because “it renders faster.” You can email him at: [email protected]

full circle magazine #81 21 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO BBlleennddeerr PPtt 1100bb Written by Nicholas Kopakakis

ast month we created a text It is critical for our example that The reason that I converted the L object, and we manipulated it the two objects intersect. textobjectto a mesh objectis to (rotate, scale etc.) Now let’s see use a modifierthatI reallylike and I some other adjustments that Now, it is time forsomething want to challenge you to blender gives us. Now, lets start a new project to interesting. With the text object experiment with – the boolean examine something else (I will selected, press Alt-C. From the modifier. So, let’s select our cube On the right, underthe F tab, explain later why we have to create menu that pops-up, select Mesh and select the modifier tab. we have as you rememberfrom a new project for this example). from Curve/Meta/Surf/Text. last month, all the good stuffto Don't delete the cube, just move it alter our font object. We will stay a little and add a newtextobject with the basics for now, although bypressing Shift-A! Textorby Add a new modifier called blender giving us many tweaks. So, the menu underthe Add button Boolean. underFont, we have Size and (you know these things by now!). Shear. You can make yourtext Rotate the text object to face the Something very interesting just bigger or smaller by altering the front view, and increase the happened. Blender created a mesh size value, and you can shearyour extrude value underthe F tab to object that you can manipulate just text to the left by giving a negative 0,5. Move your objects (text and like any other object. Press the tab value to Shearorto the rightwith cube) until you have something like keyto entereditmode, and see for positive values. the image below: yourselfwhat I am talking about.

Also, under Shape, you can change the resolution ofyour text object or the Fill ofyour text. Experiment with these and you’ll understand them better than I can explain to you.

full circle magazine #82 1 9 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER PT10b

Under the Operation choose simpler text object. Also, the called animation. We will try Difference, and under Object convert-to-mesh command would something like the Star Wars select your Mesh object that you have been more demanding for introduction: “Along time ago in a created from Text (I didn't rename blender to handle. galaxy far, far away...” it so it's called “Text”). Then hit Apply. But, the boolean modifier is Enjoy! very useful and very light –ifyou have simple objects as cubes or pyramids, for example.

Forthis month, I would suggest http://gooseberry.blender.org/. It Nicholas lives and works in Greece. is a new project that the blender He has worked for a post-production house for several years and migrated institute has just started. to Ubuntu because “it renders faster.” You can email him at: After a while, depending on Next month, we will continue [email protected] your machine's power and memory, with text, but this time we will the boolean operation will be introduce a little bit ofmovement completed. Now, ifyou move the textorthe cube you can see what we created.

Blender has calculated the difference between the two mesh objects and cut-out the object on which we applied the boolean modifier.

Ifwe had tried itwith a more complex object, such as the ‘Full Circle Magazine’ text (with an elegant font and with the curves that we had applied), blender would have crashed. That’s why, forourexample, we used a much

full circle magazine #82 20 contents ^