lezione1_blender

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Blender: lezione 1Blender: lezione 1

What is Blender? Blender is an integrated suite of tools enabling the creation of a broad

range of 3D content. It offers full functionality for modelling, rendering, i ti t d ti ti d l b k f i t ti 3Danimation, post-production, creation and playback of interactive 3D

content with the singular benefits of cross-platform operability. Aimed at media professionals and artists, Blender can be used to create

3D visualizations, stills as well as broadcast quality video, while the incorporation of a real-time 3D engine allows for the creation of 3D interactive content for stand-alone playback.

Originally developed by the company 'Not a Number' (NaN), Blender now is continued as 'Free Software' with the sources available undernow is continued as Free Software , with the sources available under GNU GPL.

You can download the latest version of Blender at download.blender.org.

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Blenders history In 1988 Ton Roosendaal co-founded the Dutch animation studio NeoGeo.

NeoGeo quickly became the largest 3D animation studio in the Netherlands d f th l di i ti h i E N G t d dand one of the leading animation houses in Europe. NeoGeo created award-

winning productions for large corporate clients such as multi-national electronics company Philips. After careful deliberation Ton decided that the current in-house 3D tool set for NeoGeo was too old and cumbersome to maintain and upgrade and needed to be rewritten from scratch. In 1995 this rewrite began and was destined to become the 3D software creation suite we all now know as Blender.

In 1998 Ton decided to found a new company called Not a Number (NaN) In 1998, Ton decided to found a new company called Not a Number (NaN) as a spin-off of NeoGeo to further market and develop Blender. At the core of NaN was a desire to create and distribute a compact, cross platform 3D creation suite for free.

In 1999 NaN attended its first Siggraph conference in an effort to more widely promote Blender. Blender's first 1999 Siggraph convention was a huge success and gathered a tremendous amount of interest from both the press and attendees. Blender was a hit and its huge potential confirmed!

User input the Golden Rule of Blender:

"Keep one hand on your keyboard and one on your mouse."

Conventions to describe user input: The mouse buttons are called LMB (left mouse button), MMB (middle mouse button)

and RMB (right mouse button). If your mouse has a wheel, MMB refers to clicking the wheel as if it were a button,

while MW means rolling the wheel. Hotkey letters are named by appending KEY to the letter, i.e. GKEY refers to the

letter g on the keyboard. Keys may be combined with the modifiers SHIFT, CTRL and/or ALT. For modified keys the KEY suffix is generally dropped, for example CTRL-W or SHIFT-ALT-A.dropped, for example CTRL W or SHIFT ALT A.

NUM0 to NUM9, NUM+ and so on refer to the keys on the separate numeric keypad. NumLock should generally be switched on.

Other keys are referred to by their names, such as ESC, TAB, F1 to F12. Other special keys of note are the arrow keys, UPARROW, DOWNARROW and so

on.

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What am I looking at?

What am I looking at?

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Window header The window header:

Each window has a Header. For the 3D window the header is located at the bottom. You can switch the position of the header by right clicking on it and confirming the requester that pops up ('Switch header').

Pay special attention to the button on the far left - each window has this icon. This is also the one that completely eluded me in the beginning. In Blender terms, it is called an Icon Slider button. If you click your left mousebutton on it a menu will appear revealing a number of different icons. Each icon corresponds to a different window type

Arranging frames Blender uses a novel screen-splitting approach to arrange window

frames. The application window is always a rectangle on your desktop Blender divides it up into a number of re-sizable windowdesktop. Blender divides it up into a number of re sizable window frames. A window frame contains the workspace for a particular type of window, like a 3D View window, or an Outliner.

The idea is that you split up that big application window into any number of smaller (but still rectangular) non-overlapping window frames. That way, each window is always fully visible, and it is very easy to work in one window and hop over to work in another.

You can maximize a window frame to fill the whole application You can maximize a window frame to fill the whole application window with the View Toggle Full Screen menu entry. To return to normal size, use again View Toggle Full Screen. A quicker way to achieve this is to use Shift-Space, Ctrl or Ctrl to toggle between maximized and framed windows. NOTE: The window your mouse is currently hovering over is the one that will be maximized using the keyboard shortcuts.

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Configuring the screen In the upper right hand corner of a window is the

window splitter widget, and it looks like a little id d th b i It b th lit d biridged thumb grip. It both splits and combines

window panes. When you hover over it, your cursor will change to a cross. LMB and drag it to the left to split the pane vertically, or downward to split it horizontally.

In order to merge two window frames, they must be the same dimension in the direction you wish to merge To merge the current window with the onemerge. To merge the current window with the one above it (in the picture the properties window is merged "over" the Outliner), hover the mouse pointer over the window splitter . When the pointer changes to a cross, LMB click and drag up to begin the process of combining.

Windows header To hide a header, move your mouse over the

thin line between a window and its header, til th i t t k th f f duntil the pointer takes the form of an up-down-

arrow. Then LMB from the window over the header to hide the latter.

Where a header was hidden it leaves a little plus-sign (see picture). By LMB this, the header will be back again.

In the 3D window there are up to two more of these little plus signs (to the top left and right of the window). Those will open panels with several tools, not a second header.

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Windows types (I) The 3D View- a graphical view of your scene. The Node Editor - alows you to use nodes for

texturing, materials and compositing. The Image/UV Editor - an image editor with

advanced UV management tools. The Properties Editor - shows the several

attributes of the currently selected object. The File Browser - used to organize, load and

save files (most times invoked automatically, when needed).

The Outliner - Helps you find and organize your objects.

The Timeline - Controls for animation playback. The Graph Editor - manage animation keys (and

drivers) and inter/extrapolation of these.

Windows types (II) The NLA Editor - manage non-linear animation

action sequences. The Dope Sheet - combine individual actions into

action sequences. The Video Sequence Editor - assemble video

sequences into a film strip. The Logic Editor -a game logic editing window. The Text Editor - keep notes and documentation

about your project, and write Python scripts. The Console - to directly use python in Blender. User Preferences - customize Blender to your

work style and computer.

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The toolbox Almost every Blender function can be accessed by using the keyboard

or the mouse. The Toolbox contains most of Blender's functions. You ll th t lb ith b li ki th t lb i i th tcan call up the toolbox either by clicking on the toolbox icon in the top-

left of the Blender screen, or by pressing Shift-A.

This is how the toolbox works: The light grey buttons are function categories; moving your mouse over one of them will make them turn dark grey and a function menu will come up.

Contexts The properties (or Buttons) Window shows several Contexts, which can

be chosen via the icon row in the header (see Context button example).

The number and type of buttons changes with the selected object so that only useful buttons show up. The order of these buttons follow a hierarchy which is displayed here: Render Scene World

Object Object Constraints Object Data Material Texture Particles Physics

The Buttons in each context are grouped into Panels.

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Panels Panels generally appear in the Properties window which

can be found at the lower right side of the default screen layoutlayout.

The Properties window includes the header to choose from several contexts and a changing number of panels.

Panels in the Properties window can be aligned by RMB on the Window and choosing the desired layout from the Menu which appears.

Panels can be moved around the window by LMB clicking and dragging somewhere on the empty (by default grey)

f th larea of the panel. Using Wheel scrolls the Panels in their aligned direction,

and Ctrl-MMB zooms the Panels in and out (the same way, zooming in a 3D Window can be accomplished).

Single Panels can be collapsed/expanded by LMB clicking the triangle on the left side of their header.

Adding a mesh Left-click on 'UVsphere' to add a sphere to your scene. When adding objects like a sphere, Blender wants to know which

resolution you require. A sphere with a high resolution looks smoother than a low-resolution sphere, but it also requires more memory and is slower to manipulate and render.

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Adding a mesh These buttons work like the Icon slider you saw earlier: left-click on the

'Segments' button and drag left or right to increase or decrease the value Also you can click on either side of the button to change thevalue. Also, you can click on either side of the button to change the value step by step.

Yet another way to change the value is to hold down CTRL and left-click the 'Segments' button. This will change the button into a text input. You can now type a value into the field directly. Press ENTER when you have entered the correct value.

Finally click on the OK button or press ENTER to set Finally, click on the OK button or press ENTER to set the value of the 'Segments' variable.

In the case of the sphere, you will need to set a second parameter, 'Rings'. After doing this, a sphere will show up at the location of your 3D Cursor. The sphere is drawn with small orange dots. This mode is described in the paragraph 'Edit Mode'.

Edit mode / object mode When you are working in 3D space, you can basically perform two types

of operations: operations that affect an object as a whole and ti th t ff t th t f bj t b t d t ff t thoperations that affect the geometry of an object, but do not affect the

object's global properties An example of the former is moving an object to another location. An example of the latter is shaping a nose on a face.

In Blender, you have to indicate which of the two you want to use. This is where edit mode comes in.

Operations like translating (G KEY), rotating (R KEY) or scaling (S KEY) affect the object as a whole For example translating moves the entireaffect the object as a whole. For example, translating moves the entire object somewhere else.

In contrast, when you select the edit mode, the object is redrawn and the separate points of which is consists are drawn. (These points are known as vertices, by the way). If you select a vertex by right-clicking on it, you can then translate only this point, while leaving the others unaffected.

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Blenders views Blender provides some default viewing

directions: Side, Front, Top, As Blender uses a right-hand coordinate

system with the Z axis pointing upwards, "side" corresponds to looking along the X axis, in the negative direction; "front" along the Y axis; and "top" along the Z axis. You can select the viewing direction for a 3D Viewport with the View Menu entries or by pressing theentries or by pressing the hotkeys NUM3 for "side", NUM1 for "front", and NUM7 for "top".

Hotkeys: remember that most hotkeys affect the window that has focus, so check that the mouse cursor is in the area you want to work in before your use the hotkeys!

Blenders views Apart from these default directions, the view can be rotated to any

angle you wish. Click and drag MMB on the Viewport's area: If you t t i th iddl f th i d d d d l ft dstart in the middle of the window and move up and down or left and

right, the view is rotated around the middle of the window. If you start at the edge and don't move towards the middle, you can rotate around your viewing axis. Play around with this function until you get the feeling for it.

To change the viewing angle in discrete steps, use NUM8 and NUM2, which correspond to vertical MMB dragging. Or use NUM4 and NUM6, which correspond to horizontal MMB draggingwhich correspond to horizontal MMB dragging.

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Translating and zooming the view

To translate the view, hold down SHIFT and drag MMB in the 3D Viewport. For discrete steps, use the hotkeys CTRL-NUM8, CTRL-NUM2 CTRL NUM4 d CTRL NUM6 ith t tiNUM2, CTRL-NUM4 and CTRL-NUM6 as with rotating.

You can zoom in and out by holding down CTRL and dragging MMB. The hotkeys are NUM+ and NUM-. The View>>Viewport Navigation sub-menu holds these functions too.

Wheel Mouse If you have a wheel mouse, you can perform all of the actions that you would do with NUM+ and NUM- by rotating the wheel (MW). The direction of rotation selects the action.If Y G t L t If t l t i 3D hi h i t If You Get Lost... If you get lost in 3D space, which is not uncommon, two hotkeys will help you: HOME changes the view so that you can see all objects (View>>Frame All Menu entry,) while NUM. zooms the view to the currently selected objects (View>>Frame Selected Menu entry.)

Orthographic and perspective projection

Each 3D Viewport supports two different types of projection:

Note that changing the projection for a 3D Viewport does not affect the way the scene will be rendered. Rendering is in perspective by default. If you need to create an Orthographic rendering, select the camera and press Orthographic in the Camera Panel.

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Draw mode Depending on the speed of your computer, the complexity of

your Scene, and the type of work you are currently doing, you it h b t l d i dcan switch between several drawing modes:

Textured - Attempts to draw everything as completely as possible, though it is still no alternative to rendering. Note that if you have no lighting in your scene, everything will remain black.

Solid - Surfaces are drawn as solids, but the display also works without lights.Wi f Obj t l i t f li th t k th i Wireframe - Objects only consist of lines that make their shapes recognizable. This is the default drawing mode.

Bounding Box - Objects aren't drawn at all; instead this mode shows only the rectangular boxes that correspond to each object's size and shape.

Local view and layer system When in local view, only the selected objects are displayed, which can

make editing easier in complex scenes. To enter local view, first select the objects you want and then use the View>>Local View Menu entry; use theVie >>GltheView>>Gl

3D scenes often become exponentially more confusing with growing complexity. To get this under control, objects can be grouped into "layers," so that only the layers you select are displayed at any one time. Blender provides 20 layers; you can choose which are to be displayed with the small unlabeled buttons in the header. To select only one layer, click the appropriate button with LMB; to select more than one, hold SHIFT while clickinghold SHIFT while clicking.

By default, the lock button directly to the right of the layer buttons is pressed; this means that changes to the viewed layers affect all 3D Viewports. To select only certain layers in one window, deselect locking first. To move selected objects to a different layer, press MKEY, select the layer you want from the pop-up dialog, then press the Ok button.

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Loading a Blender file Call up the Load File Window by pressing F1 or selecting File->Open

from the Main Menu. In this window, files are shown in black and directories in white text The blend files are also indicated with a smalldirectories in white text. The .blend files are also indicated with a small yellow square in front of them.

The first method to load a file is by left-clicking on a filename. This will copy the name to the filename box at the top of the window (the second textbox from the top). Pressing ENTER will then actually load the file. Alternatively, you can also middle-click on a file which will cause it to be loaded immediately.

Saving a Blender file Open the Save File Window by pressing F2 or by selecting File->Save As

from the Main Menu. This window works in the same way as above. Additi ll t fil i th fil b TAdditionally, you can now enter a new filename in the filename box. To do this, left click in the filename box and enter a new name.

Navigating to the parent directory is done by clicking on the '..' directory in the list, by clicking on the 'P' button at the top of the window or by pressing P. Sometimes you may want to refresh the file list; for example when another program has been writing or changing files in the current directory. In that case, click in the '.' directory or press the dot keypress the dot key.

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Rendering The size (number of pixels horizontally and vertically)

and file format of the image to be created are picked fhere. You can set the size using the Resolution fields.

Now that the settings are complete, the scene may be rendered by hitting the RENDER button in the Render Panel or by pressing F12.

If you don't see anything in the rendered view, make sure your scene is constructed properly. Does it have lighting? Is the camera positioned correctly, and does it

i t i th i ht di ti ?point in the right direction? A rendered image is not automatically saved to disk. If

you are satisfied with the rendering, you may save it by pressing F3 and using the save .

File Extensions Blender v. 2.5x adds the type extension automatically to image files!

User preferences and themes Blender has a few options that are not saved with each file, but which

apply to all of a user's files instead. These preferences primarily concern pp y p p yuser interface handling details, and system properties like mouse, fonts, and languages.

As the user preferences are rarely needed, they are neatly hidden behind the main menu. To make them visible, pull down the window border of the menu (usually the topmost border in the screen).

Setting the default scene You don't like Blender's default window set-up, or want specific render settings for each

project you start, or you want to save your Theme? No problem. You can use any scene file as a default when Blender starts up. Make the scene you are currently working on the default by pressing CTRL-U. The scene will then be copied into a file called .B.blendin your home directory.

You can clear the working project and revert to the default scene anytime by pressing CTRL-X. But remember to save your changes to the previous scene first!

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The first 3D scene Fire up Blender by double clicking its icon or running it from the

command line. Blender will open showing you, from the User ti i th d f lt t d b Th b iperspective view, the default set-up: a camera and a cube. The cube is

orange, meaning it is selected. Delete the cube with XKEY and confirm by clicking the Erase Selected entry in the dialog which appears.

Now select the camera with RMB and press MKEY. A small toolbox will appear beneath your mouse, with the first button checked. Check the rightmost button on the top row and then the OK button. This will move your camera to layer 10.Blender provides you with 20 layers to help you organize your work Blender provides you with 20 layers to help you organize your work. You can see which layers are currently visible from the group of twenty buttons in the 3D window toolbar. You can change the visible layer with LMB and toggle visibility with SHIFT-LMB.

The first 3D scene: adding a cube

Change to the front orthographic view with NUM1 and add a cube by pressing Shift-A and selecting menu Mesh, sub-A and selecting menu Mesh, subsubmenu Cube. A cube will appear. This newly added cube is in ObjectMode. By default, all vertices are selected (highlighted in orange -unselected vertices are black).

We will call our Gingerbread man "Gus". Our first task is to build Gus's body by working on our cube in EditMode. To switch between EditMode and ObjectMode press the TAB key.

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The first 3D scene: subdividing the cube

Now locate the Subdivide button in th M h T l lthe Mesh Tools panel and press it once. This will split each side of the cube in two, creating new vertices and face

The first 3D scene: erasing vertices

Switch to wireframe visualization mode With your cursor hovering in the 3D window press AKEY to deselect all

elements. Vertices will turn black. Now press BKEY; the cursor will change to a couple of orthogonal grey lines. Move the cursor above the top left corner of the cube, press and hold LMB, then drag the mouse down and to the right so that the grey box encompasses all the leftmost vertices. Now release the LMB. This sequence, which lets you select a group of vertices in a box:

Now press XKEY and, from the menu that pops up, select Vertices to erase the selected vertices

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Undo Introduced in version 2.3, Blender has a Mesh Undo feature.

Pressing CTRL-Z in EditMode makes Blender Undo the last Mesh edit. K i CTRL Z t ll b k h l th U d b ffKeep pressing CTRL-Z to roll back changes as long as the Undo buffer will allow, while SHIFT- CTRL-Z re-does changes.

Mesh Undo works only in EditMode and only for one mesh at a time. Undo data is not lost when you switch out of EditMode, only when you start editing a different mesh.

Another way to revert to the previously saved state is to press ESC in the middle of an action. This cancels the action, reverting to the previous stateprevious state.

The first 3D scene: extruding vertices

Now, using the sequence you just learned, Box Select the two top-rightmost vertices. Press EKEY and click on the Extrude menu entry to extrude them. This will create new vertices and faces which you can move yand which will follow the mouse. Move them to the right.

To constrain the movement horizontally or vertically, click MMB while moving. You can switch back to unconstrained movement by clicking MMB again. Alternatively you can use XKEY to constrain movement to x axis, YKEY for y axis and so on.

Let's create Gus's arms and legs. Move these new vertices one and a half squares to the right, then click LMB to fix their position.q g p

Extrude again with EKEY then move the new vertices another half square to the right.

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The first 3D scene: extruding vertices

Gus should now have a left arm (he's facing us). We will build the left leg the same way by extruding the lower vertices. Try to produce something y y g y p glike that shown.

We use the Extrude tool three times to produce the leg. We don't care about elbows, but we will need a knee later on!

The first 3D scene: coincident vertices

If you extrude, and in the process of moving you change your mind and press ESC to y g y precover, the extruded vertices will still be there, in their original location! While you can move, scale, or rotate them by pressing GKEY, you probably don't want to extrude them again.

To fully undo the extrusion, look for the Remove Doubles button. This will li i t i id t tieliminate coincident vertices.

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The first 3D scene: the other half of Gus

Now we'll create the other half of Gus: Select all vertices (AKEY) and choose the 3D ( )

Cursor entry in the Rotation/Scaling Pivot Menu of the 3D Window header.

Press SHIFT-D to duplicate all selected vertices, edges, and faces. The new objects are in Grab mode, press ESC to exit from this mode without moving the vertices.

Press CTRL-M, X, and LMB. This is the same as selecting the menu Mesh and the entry Mirror. The same operation can be also obtained by using the Mirror modifier.

Deselect all then reselect all by pressing AKEY twice, then eliminate the coincident vertices by pressing the Remove doubles button. A box will appear, notifying you that eight vertices have been removed.

Cursor Reference center: in Blender, scaling, rotating and other mesh

modifications occur either with respect to the cursor position, the bj t' t th b t ( t f ) f th l t dobject's center, or the barycenter (center of mass) of the selected

items, depending upon which entry of the Rotation/Scaling Pivot Menu is active. The crosshair button selects the cursor as reference.

Moving the cursor: to place the cursor at a specific grid point, position it next to where you want it and press SHIFT-S to bring up the Snap Menu. The entry Curs->Grid places the cursor exactly on a grid point. The Curs->Sel places it exactly on the selected object. The other entries move objects other than the cursorentries move objects other than the cursor.

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The first 3D scene: the Guss head

Gus needs a head: Move the cursor so that it is exactly one grid square above Gus' body. Add a

b h (Shift A M h C b )new cube here (Shift-A Mesh>>Cube). Press GKEY to switch to Grab Mode and move the newly created vertices

down, constraining the movement with MMB, for about one third of a grid unit.

The first 3D scene: smoothing So far what we have produced is a rough figure at best. To make it

smoother, locate the Modifier context and add a Subdivision Surface modifier (The Subsurf modifier) Be sure to set bothSurface modifier, (The Subsurf modifier). Be sure to set both the View and Render NumButtons (located under Subdivisions) to values at or below 2. View sets the level of subdivision you'll see in the 3D viewport; Render sets the level of subdivision used by the renderer.

SubSurfacing is an advanced modeling tool, it dynamically refines a given coarse mesh creating a much denser mesh and locating the vertices of the finer mesh so that they smoothly follow the original coarse mesh. The shape of the Object is still controlled by the location p j yof the coarse mesh vertices, but the rendered shape is the smooth, fine mesh one.

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The first 3D scene: smoothing Switch out of EditMode (TAB) and switch from the

current default Wireframe mode to Solid mode with ZKEY to have a look at Guswith ZKEY to have a look at Gus.

To make Gus look smooth, select all vertices and press the SetSmooth button. Gus will now appear smooth but with funny black lines in his middle.

These lines appear because the SubSurfed finer mesh is computed using information about the coarse mesh normal directions, which may not be self consistent, that is, some face normals mightself consistent, that is, some face normals might point outward, some inward, if extrusions and flippings have been made. To reset the normals, switch back to EditMode (TAB), select all vertices (AKEY), and press CTRL-N. Click with LMB on the Recalc normals outside box which appears. Now Gus should be nice and smooth.

The first 3D scene: smoothing

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The first 3D scene: slimming Gus

Press MMB and drag the mouse around to view Gus from all angles. Oops, he is too thick! To fix that,

it h t Sid i NUM3 N it h t EditM dswitch to Side view NUM3. Now, switch to EditMode(if you are not there already), then back to Wireframe mode (ZKEY), and select all vertices with AKEY.

Let's make Gus thinner: Press SKEY and start to move the mouse horizontally.

(Click MMB to constrain scaling to just one axis or press YKEY to obtain the same result). If you now move the mouse toward Gus he should become thinner but remain the same height.

The three numbers on the 3DWindow toolbar show the scaling factor. Once you constrained scaling, only one of these numbers will vary. Press and hold CTRL. The scale factor will now vary in discrete steps of value 0.1. Scale Gus down so that the factor is 0.2, then set this dimension by clicking LMB.

Return to Front view and to Solid mode (ZKEY), then rotate your view via MMB. Gus is much better now!

The first 3D scene: how Gus appears

We're just about ready to see our first rendering, but first, we've got some work to do. SHIFT-LMB on the top right small button of the layer visibility buttons in the 3DWindow toolbar to make both Layer 1 and 10visibility buttons in the 3DWindow toolbar to make both Layer 1 and 10 visible.

Remember that the last layer selected is the active layer, so all subsequent additions will automatically be on layer 10.

Select the camera (RMB) and move it to a location like (x=8, y=-10, z=7). Do this by pressing GKEY and dragging the camera while keeping CTRL pressed to move it in steps of 1 grid unit.E t i i l ti d t ti if f t t Entering precise locations and rotations: if you prefer to enter numerical values for an object's location you can do so by modifying the Location values in the Panel Transform.

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To make the camera point at Gus, keep your camera selected then select Gus via SHIFT-RMB. The camera should be dark orange and Gus light orange Now press CTRL-T and select Track to Constraint entry in the poporange. Now press CTRL T and select Track to Constraint entry in the pop up. This will force the camera to track Gus and always point at him. This means that you can move the camera wherever you want and be sure that Gus will always be in the center of the camera's view.


Now we need to create the ground for Gus to stand on. In Top view (NUM7), and out of EditMode, add a plane (Shift-A ADD>>Mesh>>Plane). It is important to be out of EditMode otherwise the newly added object would be part of It is important to be out of EditMode, otherwise the newly added object would be part of

the object currently in EditMode, as it was for Gus' head when we added it. Switch to Front view (NUM1) and move (GKEY) the plane down to Gus's feet,

using CTRL to keep it aligned with Gus. Switch the reference center from cursor (where we set it at the beginning) to object. Go to Camera view (NUM0) and, with the plane still selected, press SKEY to start

scaling. Enlarge the plane so that its edges extend beyond the camera viewing area, as indicated

by the outer white dashed rectangle in Camera view.

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The first 3D scene: lights Now, some light! In Top view (NUM7), add a

Lamp Spotlight (Shift-A ADD>>Lamp>>Spotlight) in front of Gus but onADD>>Lamp>>Spotlight) in front of Gus, but on the other side of the camera; for example in (x=-9, y=-10, z=7).

Switch to the Spotlight Properties. In the Preview Panel, press the Spot toggle button

to make the lamp a Spotlight of pale yellow (R=1, G=1, B=0.9). Adjust ClipSta: to 5, Samples: to 4, and Soft: to 8.and Soft: to 8.

Make this spotlight track Gus just as you did for the camera by selecting Spot, SHIFT, then Gus, then by pressing CTRL-T.

The first 3D scene: lights Add a second lamp in the same location

as the spot, and again in Top View, with (Shift-A ADD>>Lamp>>Hemi)with (Shift A ADD>>Lamp>>Hemi). Make this lamp a Hemi lamp with energy of 0.6

Two lamps? Use two or more lamps to help produce soft, realistic lighting, because in reality natural light never comes from a single point.

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The first 3D scene: rendering We're almost ready to render. As a first step,

press the Render context button in the Properties window header (The Renderthe Properties window header (The Render context button).

We will use the default rendering settings, as shown in (The Render context).

Now press the Image button or F12. The result, shown in (Your first rendering. Congratulations!), is actually quite poor. We still need materials, and lots of details, such asstill need materials, and lots of details, such as eyes, and so on.

The first 3D scene: rendering

If you have not done so already, now would be a good time to save your work, via the File>>Save menu or CTRL-S. Blender will warn you if youwork, via the File>>Save menu or CTRL S. Blender will warn you if you try to overwrite an existing file.

Blender does automatic saves into your system's temporary directory. By default, this happens every four minutes and the file name is a number. Loading these saves is another way to undo unwanted changes.

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The first 3D scene: materials and textures

It's time to give Gus some nice cookie-like material. Select Gus. Then, in the Properties Window header, select the Materials

button (The Material context Button) to access the Material panels.

The Properties window will be almost empty because Gus has no materials yet. To add a material, click on the + New button in the Material Panel (The (almost) empty Material context).


The Properties window will then be populated by Panels and Buttons. A string holding the Material name, generally "Material.001", will appear in the list box as well as in the Unique Datablock ID box Click the namein the list box as well as in the Unique Datablock ID box. Click the name in the latter (in the lower part of Top of the filled material context and change it to something meaningful, like "GingerBread" (don't type the quotes).

GingerBread: R=0.874, G=0.717, B=0.504, intensity=0.8 (diffuse); white, intensity=0.5, hardness=50 (specular); ambient=0.5 (shading)

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Press the Texture context Button in the Properties window header (The Texture context button) and select Add new We'recontext button) and select Add new. We re adding a texture in the first channel. Call it "GingerTex."

Change the Type from Clouds to Stucci and set all parameters as in Figure.


Set the Mapping and Influence panel of the Texture context as in (Settings for the Stucci texture): DeselectStucci texture): Deselect the Color Checkbox and set the Normal Checkbox, then change the Normal slider to 0.75. These changes will make our Stucci texture act as a "bumpmap" and make Gus look more biscuit-like.

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Now select the second line in the Texture list of the Texture context and add a second texture Name it "Grain" andsecond texture. Name it Grain , and adjust the settings to match (Settings for an additional Noise texture ). The texture itself is a plain Noise texture.


Give the ground an appropriate material, such as the dark blue one shown in (A very simple ground material) Feel free tosimple ground material). Feel free to choose your favorite shade of blue.

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The first 3D scene: adding final touches

To give some finishing touches we'll add eyes and some other details. First make Layer 1 the only one visible by clicking with LMB on the

layer 1 button This will hide the lamps camera and groundlayer 1 button. This will hide the lamps, camera, and ground. Place the cursor at the center of Gus's head. (Remember that you are in

3D so be sure to check at least two views to be sure!) Add a sphere (Shift-A ADD>>Mesh>>UVsphere). You will be asked for

the number of Segments: (meridians) and Rings: (parallels) into which to divide the sphere. The default of 32 is more than we need here, so use a value of 16 for both. S l th h d (SKEY) t f t 0 1 i ll di i th Scale the sphere down (SKEY) to a factor 0.1 in all dimensions, then switch to side view (NUM3) and scale it only in the horizontal direction (YKEY) a further 0.5.


Zoom a little if necessary via NUM+, MW, or CTRL-MMB, and drag the sphere (GKEY) to the left so that it is halfway into the head.Return to front view (NUM1) and move the sphere sideways to the Return to front view (NUM1) and move the sphere sideways, to the right. Place it where Gus should have an eye.

Flip a duplicate around the cursor by following the sequence you learned when flipping Gus's body. (Select the crosshair toolbar button, in EditMode AKEY to select all, SHIFT-D, ESC, Ctrl-M, X and LMB). Now Gus has two eyes.

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Exit EditMode (TAB), and place the cursor as close as you can to the center of Gus's face. Add a new sphere and scale and move it exactly as before but make it smaller and place it lower than and to the right ofbefore, but make it smaller and place it lower than and to the right of the cursor, centered on the SubSurfed mesh vertex.

Exit Edit Mode (TAB), and place the cursor as close as you can (remember the Shift-S key) to the center of Gus's face. Add a new sphere and scale and move it exactly as done before for the eyes, except make its allover scale smaller (0.1 instead of 0.15). Place it below and to the right of the cursor, centered on the SubSurfed mesh vertex.

Switch to Edit Mode (TAB). Now use Alt-R or LMB on Spin on theTool Shelf. Several copies of the sphere appear.

On the lower Tool Shelf, set the details of the Spin: Set Degr: to 90, Steps:to 3. The result should be Gus's mouth, like image 3 in Creating a mouth with the Spin tool.


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Now go back to Object Mode and add three more spheres (below the head and centered along the Z-axis) to form Gus's buttons. Once you h d b tt i l it Edit M d Shift D thave made one button, you can simply exit Edit Mode, press Shift-D to create a duplicate, and move the duplicate into place, as shown in The complete Gus!


Give the eyes a chocolate-like material. Give the mouth a white sugar like material. Give the buttons a red colour.

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The first 3D scene: final result Save your image, if you so wish, by pressing F3. Enter the name

of your image in the file window and save. Image types: you must choose the image format (JPEG, PNG,

and so on) by setting it in the Rendering buttons before pressing F3 and using the Menu in the Format Panel.

Blender v. 2.5x does add an extension to the file name.

lezione1_blender

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