The Camera Fly Mode Tool

In this tip video, we’ll take a look at Blender’s Camera Fly Mode tool. This is a great to help navigate your 3D scene, and also for camera placement (or any object set to be a “camera”, for example a Spotlight).


You can check out the tutorial at BlenderCookie.com
Version Compatibility: 2.4x+
Tutorial Level: Beginner

technorati tags: Blender3D, 3D, graphics, Blender tutorials

Tip: Match Image Plane Aspect Ratio to Image

In this tip video, we’ll take a look at two ways to set the aspect ratio of a Plane object to match that of the image mapped to it. This is important to prevent distortion in the mapped image. This knowledge will be helpful when using image planes for cutout trees and people, instanced image planes for particle effects, and any situation where you need non-distorted images on Plane objects.

The “Add Image As Mesh” script (created by Ed Mackey) can be downloaded at:
http://www.blinken.com/blender-plugins.php

You can find help with installing python scripts at:
http://www.alienhelpdesk.com/using_python_scripts


You can check out the tutorial at BlenderCookie.com
Version Compatibility: 2.4x
Tutorial Level: Beginner

technorati tags: Blender3D, 3D, graphics, Blender tutorials

Measuring Objects and Distances in Blender

In this tutorial, we’ll look at how to measure objects and distances in Blender. We’ll look at features built into Blender and the Caliper script (created by Dolf Veenvliet, aka macouno).

The Caliper script can be downloaded at:
http://www.alienhelpdesk.com/python_scripts/caliper

Version Compatibility: 2.4x
Tutorial Level: Beginner

You can check out the tutorial at BlenderCookie.com

technorati tags: Blender3D, 3D, graphics, Blender tutorials

Quick Tip: Creating Procedural Noise Textures that are Stable During Animation

In this quick tip, we’ll take a look at how to easily create a procedural noise texture that’s stable during animation, unlike the default “Noise” procedural texture that’s available in Blender.

Version Compatibility: 2.4x, 2.5 alpha zero
Tutorial Level: Beginner

You can check out the tutorial at BlenderCookie.com

technorati tags: Blender3D, 3D, graphics, Blender tutorials

Creating an Urban Stairway Scene (Part 4 - Technical Review)

In this 4th part of the Urban Stairway Scene tutorial we’ll review some of the most common techniques and tools used while modeling the scene.

Topics covered include:

• Snapping Basics
• Creating New Objects by Separating Geometry
• Bevel Basics
• Linking Object Data
• Aligning Objects using “Copy Attributes”
• Using Spin Duplication (or Spin) to Create Pipe Elbows
• Creating Custom Transform Widget Orientations
• Using Edge Loops to Control Hard Surface Edges
• Using the 3D Cursor as a Rotation Pivot
• Using the Array Modifier to Create Steps
• Using Tapered Extrusions and Imperfect Alignments for Increased Construction Realism

Tutorial Level: Beginner

You can check out the tutorial at BlenderCookie.com

technorati tags: Blender3D, 3D, graphics, Blender tutorials