Blender Complex but fun-produce your website logos, animations and more

[mtnbluet 0]

Do you have a website but just can't find the right logo or design to identify yourself to the world? Why not make it in Blender and render it in your website. Do you have the blueprints to your new home but just can't envision the completed product? Why not let Blender put it into the 3D for you. Have some boring home videos that need some action ? Why not let Blender build some aliens or alien craft insert them(it) into your home video. That is sure to spice it up and make it interesting and entertaining to watch.

Blender 2.43 allows you to create 3-D objects whether it is used in still or motion pictures and/or websites. Recent additions have been the Character Animation rewrite , Fluid Dynamics, improved Particle Based Hair and the Modifier Stack. You can render blender objects to place into websites or even embed them into video clips.

Some history of Blender is that some years ago it was solely proprietary, but was less developed than it is today. Hence, when it did poorly in the marketplace it was dropped. Someone did front the money to purchase the rights to the software and then made it Open Source. This has allowed collaboration by a number of developers to the advanced state of the Blender application to date. Just 3 months ago an Undo feature was added that we have come to expect as standard feature with any software.

Starting with the Blender User Interface the most prominent is the 3D window which is a large gray grid with a selected pink box (the standard plane) in the middle with 2 arrows at a 90 degree angle to each other. Also don't forget the large black dot off the side that is surrounded by 2 circles- one solid and one dashed which is your lamp. The black 3D triangle down at the bottom on the right side is the camera and the black cross hairs with the red and white circle joining them is the 3D cursor. To make the camera fully visible you may need to select the bottom edge of the gray grid and move it downward. One usage for the 3D cursor is as the center for rotation or scaling. You can also use the 3D cursor to pinpoint the location of new objects.

Below the 3D window is the Buttons window. Each window has a Header menu. The Button window's is at its top, but it is at the bottom of the 3D window. There are six Modes to be selected from: Edit, Object, UV Face Select, Vertex, Texture, and Weight Paint. There are four Orientations: Global, Local, View, and Normal. There are six Panels: Scene, Editing, Object, Shading, Script and Logic. Next to Panels in the Button header is an Icon Slider menu that is composed of icons each representing a different Panel.

To view the Toolbox containing 7 basic functions place your mouse in the 3D window and press the space bar on your keyboard: Add, Edit, Select, Transform, Object, View and Render. By selecting Add, then Mesh then UVSphere then Resolution 32, you will see a yellow mesh sphere appear in the 3D window that is of lower resolution. A choice of high resolution creates a smoother object, but the drawback is more memory usage which can slow down manipulation and rendering time. Remember you can equally use your keyboard or your mouse to create in Blender.

Additional features:
10 Mesh Objects
5 Curves
6 Surfaces
5 Meta objects
5 Lamp types
5 Draw types
9 Views

With Blender you can make that unique logo that was so difficult to design in other 2-dimensional graphic/photo software. Once you have down the computer keys and all the buttons and drop down items in Blender the sky is the limit with the things you can do. You may say, I have a slower computer with little hard drive space to spare. It doesn't matter as, for Windows, the install executable is under an unbelievable 7 mg for all its strength and versatility. Also, for you Linux users, Blender comes in 4 different flavors and even has 2 flavors for Mac users.

Be patient with this software, do not, I repeat, do not dive right in without getting a hold of one of the many step-by-step tutorials that are out on the Web. This will save you the frustration of being a newbie and allow you to gently see what Blender can do instead of just chucking it out because it didn't perform the way you expected it to. There is a moderate learning curve, but the rewards are well worth the training time spent.

Click here to download Blender

[Animator 0]

I think Blender would have to be one of the best damned freely available programs on the planet. I would love to see a subsection for Blender in the main area.

Now up to version 2.46.

If you don't know what this program is capable of, check out the user galleries at https://blenderartists.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?27-Forum-Gallery

[skedad 0]

Wow, I am very impressed! I do like what I am seeing. I only looked at a few images from the posted link. I saw as far as the cool looking robot webcomic.... Nicely done.I also have Blender installed. I just don't know how to just up and start a project. It never seems like I have time to sit down and get started. Now I put my time into Photoshopping, and Dreamweaver. I am trying to even learn a little Flash... Now if I can get a handle on a lot of these, I will be set for life!Thanks for the the links, and it seems like anything really is possible... Using media programs to the extreme it seems.- skedad -

[magiccode91405241511 0]

Besides the all the great information above listed.
Anyone who like the blender could also be download
blender magazine at a unoffical place at,

http://blenderart.org/

It provides a lot of tips and how-tos.
Edited September 20, 2008 by magiccode9 (see edit history)

[Animator 0]

I agree that Blender is an awesome package. I would hardly call it a "moderate" learning curve though... it takes years to get up to the standard of what some are doing in the user galleries.I have a diploma in 3D Animation where we were taught in Maya. Even though Maya costs a lot of money, there are always a certain number of things that Blender can do better (and the other way around, it goes both ways). If you were to compare Gimp to Photoshop, I would have to say that Photoshop is the better package. But if you were to compare Blender to Maya, I'd say they were both very good.I used Blender to make the characters for my Maya animations because some of the modeling things in Blender were better than Maya at the time.