Tip: Generating Automatic Names for Materials and Textures

Blender has a feature that will create a name for the current material or texture. This is very useful for those times when you just don't feel like being creative in coming up with a name, yourself.

For materials, the name generated is based on an approximation of the material's color (Red, Blue, LightBlue, etc.). The name generated isn't always an exact match, but it's definitely good enough for a quick naming solution.

The auto-naming feature is activated by a button located to the right of the material's name field. It's icon is an automobile, making it easy to remember its function.


For textures, the button is located in a similar location as shown below. The automatic name generated for a texture is simply based on the texture's type (Image, Wood, Blend, etc.).

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

Disabling Modifiers to Increase Interface Responsiveness

As you develop your 3d models and scenes, you inevitably come to a point where the responsiveness of the 3D View begins to diminish. There are many ways to deal with this issue, but one way that may not be too obvious is to simply temporarily disable the effects of some modifiers in the 3D View.

This works really well for modifiers that add geometry or objects to the scene, such as:

• Subsurf
• Particles
• Mirror
• Array

For example, you add a Level 2 Subsurf to a model in a scene and begin working on some other aspect of the scene. You can temporarily disable the Surbsurf effects for any existing models while still having the Subsurf applied during the render. This lightens the load for the 3D View and increases the interface's responsiveness as you continue to work on other aspects of your scene. Using this strategy in a scene containing several objects with multiple modifier's applied can result in a significant increase in performance.

To disable a modifier's effects in the 3D View, simply deselect the button indicated below. This same button can be found on the control panel of all modifiers and is enabled by default.


Also, note that you can disable a modifier's effects during a render and in the editing mode by toggling the appropriate button.

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

How to Convert Duplicated Objects into Linked Duplicates

Here's a familiar scenario:

You're developing a 3D scene that includes several duplicated objects. At some point, you decide that you want/need to tweak some aspect of the duplicated objects and you want them all to be the same. The problem is that you created them as normal duplicates, instead of linked duplicates, because you thought you were done with editing the original object.

What do you do? You definitely don't want to manually replace the existing duplicates with the new version.

Well, there's a simple solution. You can use the Ctrl-L keystroke (displays the Make Links menu) to link any number of objects to one other object's mesh data. This will copy the mesh data of the one object to all of the other selected objects, creating a live link where the editing of one object is immediately reflected in the others!

Here's a simplified demo.

Here we have five cubes that were duplicated using Shift-D, the keystroke for creating regular (non-linked) duplicates.


Because these are non-linked duplicates, each object is independent of the others. Any editing of the mesh has no effect on the others.


However, we decide that we want to edit the mesh and have that change reflected in all of the other duplicates. So, we need to Link all of the desired objects to one common object. Do this by multi-selecting (while holding the Shift-key) the desired objects. Make the last object in the selection group the object whose mesh data you want copied to the entire selection.

The last object selected in Blender is known as the Active object.

With the desired Active object selected, press Ctrl-L to display the Make Links menu. In the image below, the front-right and center cubes are selected. The center cube was selected last so it's the Active object in this case. Select Mesh Data from the Make Links menu.


At this point, the front-right cube is a linked duplicate of the center cube! As you can see, editing the center cube is also reflected in the new linked duplicate.


Multi-select the remaining cubes, with the center cube selected last. Press Ctrl-L and select Mesh Data from the Make Links menu. Now, all of the cubes are linked duplicates of the center cube, causing the edits of one to be reflecting in the rest.



Now, let's look at how to unlink a linked duplicate. Having made our edits to the mesh, let's unlink the center object so we can continue editing it independent of the others.

To do this, simply select the center object and go to the menu Object | Make Single User. Select Object & ObData. (You can also press the U-key to access this same submenu.)


Now, the center object is independent of the previously linked objects. Editing the others will have no effect on it and vice-versa.




An interesting thing to note about copying mesh data is that the object types can be different.

For example, let's copy the mesh data of a sphere to the center object (cube).



Now, let's copy the mesh data of one of the other objects to the center object.



And, that's it!

BTW, when creating duplicate objects, you can automatically make them linked duplicates by pressing Alt-D, instead of Shift-D.

Here's a quick video of the entire process:

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

Hidden feature in Blender dramatically reduces render times

This is a great way to dramatically reduce your Blender render times. It's a "hidden" feature in Blender that allows you to reduce the complexity of the render calculations WITHOUT having to change your parameter settings.

The trick is to go to the Scene buttons window (F10) and locate the Anim panel.


Directly to the right of the Play button, you'll see a mysterious little control labeled "rt".


Changing the value of this control does several things (more info on that later in this article), but we're going to focus on the access it provides to Blender's Render Simplification panel.

To reveal the Render Simplification panel, set the "rt" value to 1.


You'll notice that a new panel appears next to the Render panel called, "Simplification".


Simply go to this panel, enable Render Simplification by clicking the option button with the same name.

Now, you can drastically reduce the effects of several time-consuming aspects of rendering your scene! The great part about this is that you can really turn down many of the parameters with minimal change to how your rendered scene appears! Yes, there are some differences but the render still functions very well as a pre-visualization for your final full render. This will dramatically increase your productivity by allowing you to render far more high-quality test renders within the same amount of time, allowing you to try more ideas and designs before dedicating yourself to a more time-consuming full render.

Experiment and have fun with this and it will really have a positive impact on your Blender workflow!


For more info on the other "hidden" features revealed by the "rt" control, go here.

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

Time-Saver Tip: Auto-Fitting the Button Panels

Quite often, you need to pan or zoom the Button Panels when working in Blender. It's great to have the freedom to do that but, it can be a real time-waster when trying to reset their size and position or, when trying to get the Panels to fit nicely within a resized Buttons window. It often involves several adjustments and, too often, you probably just end up leaving it as it is just so you can refocus on your scene.

Well, here's a simple solution that takes advantage of an existing feature in Blender!

Simply Right-Click anywhere within the Buttons window to bring up the Panel Alignment menu. Select the desired orientation and the Panels will be oriented accordingly but, they will also be resized perfectly (within the Panel's sizing range) and left-aligned within the Buttons window. You're done! Now you can quickly get back to your scene.

Coming from a tip provided by someone (Mr(s). Anonymous) in the Blender community:
To save even more time, you also have the option to use the Home-key! That's one of the great things about Blender, there's often more than one way to solve an issue.

If you need more clarification, I've included a short video demonstration.


Watch the tutorial online
(FLV streaming, Length - 1:22)

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

Video: Super Time-Saving Tips (Part 1)

Here are some great time-saving tips to help increase your productivity in Blender.


Watch the video tutorial...

technorati tags: 3d modeling, 3D, graphics, keystrokes