blenderblog

A new version of MakeHuman has been release. While it's still a beta version and not everything is working 100% [at least not when I tested it], there's something special about this new release. The interface changes are incredible and like no other Blender script/plugin I've every seen before. This release is setting a new standard for script UI development.

Check it out for yourself. And well done to the MakeHuman Development Team [especially Paolo Colombo who came up with the new interface].

There's a nice tutorial on how to make panoramas with Blender by macouno. The tutorial uses Blender and a Win32 program called GoCubic [although there's probably a alternative for OSX and/or the *nix platforms]. The tutorial is easy to follow and the results are really nice as you can see from the sample gallery.

It goes without saying that lighting is an important part of any 3D project. This tutorial from 3DRender.com is a simple introduction to three-point lighting describing the Key Light, Fill Light and Back Light and how important they are in obtaining a good render.

And here's another, slightly more detailed, tutorial by Andrew Whitehurst.

A few weeks ago I posted about Fiber and what a great script it is, and how well it does grass. And it is a great script and it does grass really well, you should check it out if you haven't already. Since then I've come across another script that specifically does grass, and does it pretty damn well. It's by RipSting and can be downloaded here. Here's a render with the default settings.

There's no UI to the script, but a few parameters can be tweaked, including density, gravity, segments, length, width, randomness of direction and frizziness. It's a nice addition to Blender and definitely one for the toolbox. Thanks RipSting.

For me, materials are one of the most diificult aspects of 3D. Blender provides a great interface to creating and manipulating materials & textures, but it's the content [finding good textures] that really slows me down. Recently I've been rendering a few planets and had to track down some image maps. Here's what I've found so far.

The first place you'll want to check out is, of course, NASA. They've provided a series of images maps for objects in our Solar System as part of the Solar System Simulator. All the planets and a few of the moons are included.

Bjorn Jonsson has a planetary maps page that has few nice maps. Along with the maps Bjorn site includes planetary rendering tips and experimental renderings. It's also worth checking out his models page, which has some great POVRay renders of the Galileo & Cassini spacecraft, and a link back to NASA for some free models.

James Hastings-Trew's Planetary Image Maps site is also a good place to go. This is the first site I've come across that has image maps of the Sun. James also provides example rendering and comments for some of the images.

Above, you'll find links to pages where you can obtain high-quality image maps of the planets for the purpose of 3D rendering. You'll find notes on the creation or source of each map, and a small sample rendering of the map to show you how it will look in your artwork. Interspersed amongst the pages you will find the occasional rendering tip.

The Nine Planets [A Multimedia Tour of the Solar System] also has a planets picture appendix with links to all the objects in our Solar System. If you can't find a good map from one of the sites mentioned above, you're bound to find a picture of it here. It may not be mappable to a sphere, but you can always do a bit of tweaking yourself.

If you know of any other sites containing planetary image maps, please leave a comment and let me know.

Here's good water tutorial. It's not the most detailed tutorial I've read, but that's kind of good in a way - straight to the point. It gives you a good heads-up to creating a simple waterscape with waves and reflection, and also includes a section on animating it all.

The tutorial is from Pekaro Software, which looks like an interesting outfit.

We are a group of three who develop computer games in their free time. On these pages you will find information about us and our projects. Of course, we provide downloads and some links to corresponding sites too.

...

In 2001 Pedro and Karsten started developing XCurse to gather experience in DirectX porgramming. At the same time Turrican fan Karsten began writing T2002. Roy is a friend of Karsten and Karsten told him about XCurse and that they needed a graphic artist for this project. Since Roy has experience with POV-Ray, it was the obvious thing that he would do the graphics for XCurse and so he joined the team in fall 2001. Thus we were complete and gave us the name "Pekaro" which comes from our given names.

Might have to give T2002 a try when I have some free game time.

Sonix has published a nice set of materials for cars, although they can be applied to pretty much anything.

A collection of 54 different materials I use in my car projects, now available for download in one Blend file.

You can check out more of Sonix' great Blender work here.

Jimmy Haze posted a script for building landscapes. Nice piece of work.

There's a WikiBook on Blender called Noob To Pro which was started by spiderworm.

This book is designed to be a set of tutorials arrainged in a sequence to turn the newbie user into a Blender pro. The tutorials attempt to increase in difficulty along the learning path that a user will likely take, so that intermediate users can jump in at whatever tutorial is most suitable for their knowledge and can continue along the sequence. Unfortunately, this is difficult to do because of the incredible functionality of the program and the many learning paths users may take. That being said, we will do our best.

It's only in the early stages yet, but I can see this growing in a great online resource. Imagine all the tutorials out there combined in this type of book-format.

Well worth checking out, and if you feel like it...contribute.

Just found a great script called Blender People.

Blender People is a suite of Python scripts for Blender that, in conjunction with a mySQL database, allow the generation of large scale crowd dynamics, including combat scenarios. Included in the distribution are a sample .blend file, with all the scripts embedded, and comprehensive documentation with both quickstart and in depth sections. Blender People is an open project, and will be formatted to conform to the GPL upon completion.

There's a development blog if you want to keep up with changes, or you can just subscribe to the feed.

The developer of Blender People is Roland Hess.

Recently I've been looking around for help on rigging realistic human characters and came across Sonofpat's site.

Welcome to the online portfolio of Patason Brooks a.k.a sonofpat. This showcases my 3D graphic works that is the product of eight (8) years of experience in CG. Feel free to browse and enjoy the site. If I can be of service to you, you can always drop me a line.

Sonofpat has done a great rendering of Naiomi Campbell and the site contains some good tutorials about some of the more tricky aspects of rigging human characters. I especially like the one on shoulders, which introduced a new concept to be - SkinBones:

These are intermediate bones that are children of the shoulder bones and are oriented in such a way that the CPs they are connected to mimic the skin at the joint as the limb rotates in different positions. When the biceps are at the side, those at the top rotate more, when the arm is extended outward, those at the back rotate more etc.

The results speak for themselves - check out the small flash movies on the tutorial. The armpit movement is really nice.

Here's an interesting tutorial which looks at one of the great features of Blender - it's ability to do composition with video footage. I won't go into the details of the tutorial [my job's just to tell you where it is], because you should do it yourself. It's a good practice introduction to that little beast...The Sequence Editor.

From The Blender Guide: An often underestimated function of Blender is the Sequence Editor. It is a complete video editing system that allows you to combine multiple video channels and add effects to them. Even though it has a limited number of operations, you can use these to create powerful video edits (especially when you combine it with the animation power of Blender!) And, furthermore, it is extensible via a Plugin system quite alike the Texture plugins.

There's a lot to be learned about compositing live video with Blender, but after going through Calle's tutorial, I feel a lot more confident. And, for me, this is a big part of what makes a good tutorial.

Calle also has some other tutorials.