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BlenderNewbies is a resource for learning Blender 3D. There are Blender 3D video tutorials, PDFs, tests, tools, and .blend files. Our goal is to cover a wide range of subjects while maintaining a presentation style that allows even beginners to keep up when things get to be more advanced. Also, be sure to check out our active forum for Blender users. Thanks for visiting!
URL: http://blendernewbies.blogspot.com/
Updated: 4 hours 26 min ago

News: 2.5 DVD Update

Fri, 08/27/2010 - 14:59
I've been very busy working on the dvd contents and here are a couple more items that I want to highlight. (Note that the things I've highlighted only represent a small number out of the total number of tutorials on the dvd.)

Waving Flag (you can use your Country's flag, of course)


"Starcraft II"-inspired (Terran Banshee) spacecraft
(this will be animated and done with better textures)
Yes, I will TEACH you how to model something like this.



Temporary materials applied for better clarity





Back to my cave...


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News: New Tutorial for 2.5 DVD ("yardwork")

Tue, 08/17/2010 - 01:23
Lots of topics covered in this one.




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News: More 2.5 DVD Contents Update

Thu, 08/12/2010 - 21:41
Time for another update of the DVD's contents! BTW, there are plenty of videos that fall into the "reference video" category, the things being posted are more project-oriented subjects.

Basic modeling exercises




Leaf Texturing


Building a Farmville-styled Cartoon Scene

The level of detail is really geared for more distant overhead viewing, but it's still tolerable when viewed closer.



Also
  • Guidelines for Learning 3D Graphics and Animation
  • A More Efficient Way to Render Solid Wireframes

More updates soon...


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Previsualization (Past, Present, and Future) Documentary - Part 1

Tue, 08/10/2010 - 11:55
I watched this excellent documentary and couldn't resist sharing it with you. It's about the importance of creating previsualization (previs) for CG and Live Action movies. Frankly, a lot of what they call previs I would be happy to call "finished"!

Check it out, I found it very interesting and fun to watch.



(Yeah, I know, get back to working on the DVD!) :p


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News: 2.5 DVD Content update (LOTS of Trees in Wide Open Spaces)

Wed, 07/28/2010 - 00:08
I've finally established a good workflow for creating lots of trees in Blender that begin to approach some of the results that are possible in popular commercial software.

The results below are simple tests, but the results are very promising! I will be covering this workflow on the BlenderNewbies Blender 2.5 Training DVD, along with creating a much more interesting landscape (with better-looking trees and more variety).

Initial test


Tweaked settings with a larger landscape, more trees


Even larger landscape, more trees, atmosphere effects


A lot more trees


A LOT more trees added, got weight-painting to work with density (still not sure if I encountered a bug, or if I made a mistake somewhere but it's working now).


Even more trees with a tiny bit of node work to enhance the atmosphere effect.


Same settings with slightly different trees (I think the other trees looked better and more varied). No node effects.


Same shot with node effects to enhance atmosphere.


I look forward to experimenting with adding clouds, some water, buildings, etc. Animating through the scene introduces some minor flicker where some trees are too close together, but that shouldn't prove to be difficult to resolve. Also, some shadow issues to resolve.


Kernon

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News: Surface Effects in Early Dev Stages for Fluids, Particles, and Animated Objects

Mon, 07/26/2010 - 13:51
Miika Hämäläinen is in the very early stages of developing some exciting new features to enhance the realism of interactions with fluids, particles, and animated objects.

"WetMaps"* allow for fluids to leave surface effects on objects contacted:


"Mesh Paint"* allows you to "paint" a texture with other animated objects or particles:


*tentative feature names

However, this project is still in very early stage so there is no downloadable build or patch available anytime soon. All depends on how much time I have and if I manage to keep motivated. :)
Please visit the developer's website for more info and to show some support to help keep him motivated.


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News: Blender 2.53 Beta 1 Available

Thu, 07/22/2010 - 18:25


The Blender Foundation and online developer community is proud to present Blender 2.53 Beta. This release is the first official beta release of the Blender 2.5 series, representing the culmination of many years of redesign and development work.

What to Expect

  • Big improvements - This software has been used extensively in production of the Durian open movie project "Sintel".

  • Feature complete - Although some of the 2.5 targets have been postponed, such as multi-window support showing multiple scenes, a full RNA data level dependency graph, or radial menus.

  • Exciting improvements in Sculpting - Faster, much more stable and better brushes.

  • Missing/Incomplete Features - Although really most of it is there, not all functionality from 2.4x has been restored yet. Some functionality may work in a different way. Some features are still slower to use than before.

  • Bugs - We've fixed a lot lately, but there are still quite a few bugs.

  • Changes - If you're used to the old Blenders, Blender 2.5 may seem quite different at first. Be prepared to read a bit about this, how to reconfigure things, and learn to use the new built-in 2.5 search functionality!
Download Blender 2.53 Beta 1
Release Log

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News: 2.5 DVD Content update

Tue, 07/20/2010 - 01:53
Just a quick update on the pending BlenderNewbies Blender 2.5 Training DVD.

Tutorials currently in production:
  • Rubber Ducky (not textured, yet)

  • Grass Styles
  • Cartoon Modeling from Photos
  • Starting and Managing Personal Projects
  • Plenty of progressive exercises to really solidify your understanding of uv texture mapping (color, bump, specularity, reflection, ambient occlusion, dirt, etc.)
  • Crash recovery  :)
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News: BlenderArt Magazine Issue #28 - Blender 2.5

Wed, 07/14/2010 - 18:40

Blender 2.5 [alpha] has been out and fairly stable for a while now, so in this issue we have a little fun with Blender 2.5 as we “kick the wheels” so to speak.

So grab your copy today.

Also be sure to check out our gallery of wonderful images submitted by very talented members of our community.

FEATURED CONTENTS
  • Creating 3D contents using Blender 2.5
  • I Love My Bubble
  • Up to Speed
  • Blender 2.49 Scripting
  • High resolution rendering @speed of the light
  • And Lot More…

Open publication

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News: More Bouncing Ball Lessons on the Blender 2.5 DVD

Tue, 07/13/2010 - 16:02





Learn more about the BlenderNewbies Blender 2.5 Training DVD

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News: Bouncing Ball Lesson 1 on Blender 2.5 DVD

Sat, 07/10/2010 - 12:18
Here are the results from one of a few bouncing ball animation tutorials that will be on the BlenderNewbies Blender 2.5 Training DVD.



Other bouncing ball animation tutorials will include:
  • Multiple Bounce with Roll to Stop (yeah, I need a better title)
  • Ball Bounce (with Tail)
  • Animated scene with Ball & Tail character

Also, there's been an announcement from the Blender Foundation that they plan to remove some features from the 2.5 release! Hopefully, this won't cause me to have to redo/rethink some of the tutorials. I definitely don't want tutorials covering features that were removed at the last minute. More info...


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News: BlenderNewbies Blender 2.5 Training DVD Update

Sat, 07/03/2010 - 17:27
Development for the dvd has picked up since some previous bugs have been squashed in Blender. Texture painting and some aspects of dealing with materials is still a bit buggy, though. I experienced lots of crashes when using texture painting to clean up uv seams. The devs are aware of these issue, though, so I'm sure things will be ironed out sooner than later.

Here are a few draft examples of tutorials that will be on the dvd.

There will be several simple modeling tutorials that will involve simple uv-mapping. These will be designed to get you comfortable with the overall process.


This is an example of a project where the texturing is more complex. Yes, I will add some ketchup in the final tutorial! :)


This butterfly flight example is more involved than it might seem, even though the model is not meant to be realistic. There's 2d painting needed to prepare the wing graphics, a touch of uv-mapping, some magic applied in the graph editor, and some final touches added via the compositing nodes.


Also, close to 8 hours of reference videos have been recorded! And, I'll be including some tutorials on modeling in a cartoon style based on photo references.


Kernon

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Memo to Pre-Order Customers of the Blender 2.5 Training DVD

Fri, 06/25/2010 - 15:11
Please check your email Inbox or Junk Mail box for an email from "support at blendernewbies dot com" (that's me!).

I've created mailing lists so that I can keep you more updated on the DVD's status and possibly get some feedback on its development. So, please make sure it's not being filtered as junk mail. If you don't want to receive the emails, just send me a reply and I'll immediately remove you from the list.

Thanks!,
Kernon



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News: Only 42 copies left of the BlenderNewbies Blender 2.4x Tutorial Compilation DVD

Tue, 06/22/2010 - 01:07

Just thought I would post a note about the fact that there are only 42 copies left available of my first DVD for Blender 2.4x. If you're interested, this would be a good time to grab a copy. I don't plan to make anymore after they're gone because I'll need to be focused on producing the BlenderNewbies Blender 2.5 Training DVD.

Get one while you can!

Thanks again to all of the orders received, they really help to keep things going.

More info on the pending BlenderNewbies Blender 2.5 Training DVD soon.

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Shape Modeling Exercise #5 - Wrapping an Object with a Lattice-style Mesh

Sun, 06/20/2010 - 13:33
In this exercise, we'll be creating a lattice, or net-like, mesh that we will then wrap around our targeted object.


Watch the video tutorial...

Here's the blend file that matches the starting point of the tutorial (the reference image is packed within the blend file).


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Tip: Moving Objects out of the Local View without exiting the Local View mode

Wed, 06/16/2010 - 19:13
In this tutorial, we'll take a look at how to easily move objects out of the Local View without exiting the Local View.

This feature is found in both Blender 2.49 and 2.5.


Watch the video tutorial...


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Quick Tip: Aligning Objects in Blender 2.5

Tue, 06/15/2010 - 23:35
In this quick tip video, we'll take a look at how to align objects in Blender 2.5.



Watch the video tutorial...

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Tip: Optimizing Blender 2.5 UI Interaction

Fri, 06/04/2010 - 12:57
In this quick tip, we’ll take a look at probably one of the most important settings to control the smoothness of Blender’s UI interaction, the Window Draw Method.



This video is hosted on BlenderCookie.

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Timelapse: Modeling of a Perfume Bottle

Thu, 06/03/2010 - 02:38
This is a pretty old (at least 2 years old) timelapse that I stumbled upon while cleaning up some files. I thought I would share it instead of just junking it. Maybe it will enlighten someone.

There's no audio, so you can provide your own music if desired.

I just modeled the main form of the bottle.

Here's the reference image:






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Using ZBrush MatCaps in Blender

Mon, 05/31/2010 - 23:29
In this tutorial we'll take a look at how to use ZBrush MatCaps in Blender, and where to find MatCaps.



This works with Blender 2.5 and 2.49.



Resources



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