"Painting" Instanced Objects into your Blender Scene

This tutorial teaches how to use Blender’s particles system to “paint” instanced objects onto mesh surfaces. Similar to Maya’s “Paint Effects”, though not nearly as powerful, it’s a very nice way to fill a scene with flowers, vegetation, rocks, pebbles, gravel, debris, etc.

There's so much you can do with these techniques! The end of the tutorial includes a timelapse demonstrating a practical application of the techniques.




The tutorial is hosted by BlenderCookie. There's a streamed version of the tutorial at a nice resolution of 960x600 (10 fps) and, there's a downloadable version that includes

• 1280 x 800 resolution, 30 fps, MOV format
  
• better audio quality
  

Check it out!



Check out the video tutorial...

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

Video: Oven-Baked Pretzels in Blender 3D (Complete)

I love hot, oven-baked pretzels. I haven't had one in a good long while, though. So, I thought I would create some 3D pretzels in Blender!

This video tutorial series will take a look at how you can create 3D pretzels in Blender. We'll start from a collection of reference images and go, step-by-step, all the way through to the final render.


For more experienced users, here's a PDF file of the outline used in the creation of the tutorial. It provides a good overview of the entire process.


I hope you enjoy it.


Part 1 - The Draft Scene

• We take a look at our reference images
• Establish a basic work environment in Blender
• Create a draft version of the oven and conveyor belt
• Create some proxy objects for the pretzels

Watch the tutorial online (faster access to different chapters!)
(SWF streaming, Length - 17:54)
Or, Download the 48.8MB ZIP file to view it offline (load the HTML file in your browser).
Or, Download via Torrent.


Part 2 - The Basic Pretzel Mesh

• Create pretzel mesh using a curve, BevOb, and Shrink/Flatten (Alt-S)
  

Watch the tutorial online
(FLV streaming, Length - 10:56)
Or, Download the 70.8MB ZIP file to view it offline (load the HTML file in your browser).

torrent available later...


Part 3 - Sculpting Details

• Learn some basic sculpting keystrokes that free you from the Properties panel
• Use sculpting to give the pretzel more volume and realism

Watch the tutorial online (faster access to different chapters!)
(FLV streaming, Length - 14:45)
Or, Download the 60.3MB ZIP file to view it offline (load the HTML file in your browser).

torrent available later...


Part 4 - Materials

• Flattening the bottom of the pretzel mesh
• Multi-Layered materials
• Vertex Painting
• Texturing the conveyor
• Adjusting the pretzel proxies
• Replacing the pretzel proxies

Watch the tutorial online (faster access to different chapters!)
(FLV streaming, Length - 53:41)
Or, Download the 183MB ZIP file to view it offline (load the HTML file in your browser).


torrent available later...


Part 5 - Soft Shadows, Lights, Tweaks

• Using Mist for Shadowy Areas
• Soft Shadows Demo
• Applying Soft Shadows
• Object Name Editor script
• Adding and Tweaking Details
• Lighting the Scene
• Final Environment Tweaks
  

Watch the tutorial online (faster access to different chapters!)
(FLV streaming, Length - 1:02:55)
Or, Download the 180MB ZIP file to view it offline (load the HTML file in your browser).

torrent available later...


Reference Material:

• Mist
• Buffer Shadows
• Ambient Occlusion
• Blender Spotlights
• Blender Lamps
• Ambient Light
• Loop Cuts

Part 6 - The Finishing Touches

• Adding "feet" to the Pretzel
• Final Adjustments to the Basic Pretzel
• Making Each Pretzel Unique
• Final Tweaks
• A Little Post-Production
  

Watch the tutorial online (faster access to different chapters!)
(FLV streaming, Length - 41:38)
Or, Download the 162MB ZIP file to view it offline (load the HTML file in your browser).

torrent available later...


Reference Material:

• Numpad-Asterisk(*): align view to selected object(s)
• In Vertex Paint mode, you can sample colors faster by right-clicking any desired color within a 3D View.
• To save an image of your render to file, press F3. The file will be saved according to your current Output Format settings.
• The OSA (anti-aliasing) filter used is Mitch, which helps to sharpen the quality of the edges and some textures. The sharpest OSA filter, however, is CatRom. (see BlenderWiki's Oversampling details)
  
• Exposure and Range
• Output Formats
  

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