New Tools: Theme Manager, and LoopTools

The power of python programming in Blender and the development skills of Bart Crouch combine to bring us two much-needed tools for Blender. Actually, it's far more than two, if you include the many tools in the LoopTools addon.

Theme Manager

Sharing custom themes for Blender 2.5 used to be difficult, as you had to share entire .blend files, replace your default .blend and then manually reorganize your start-up screen with the new colours. That's why I'm introducing: Theme manager

More info on the Theme Manager...

LoopTools

The LoopTools add-on is a script containing a collection of tools to aid mesh modelling in Blender.

More info on LoopTools...

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

Blender 2.5 Tip: How to Setup Keymaps to Change Transform Manipulator Modes

This time-saving tip will allow you to setup hotkeys to change the mode of the Transform Manipulator (translate, rotate, scale).

Here's how:

This is the Transform Manipulator when enabled.




These are the button controls for enabling the manipulator and changing its mode. They're located on the Header Bar of the 3D View window.




Before setting up new hotkeys, be sure to start a New scene to load your Blender startup file. This is important because if you want to save these changes as new default settings, you'll want to save them to your startup file.



Now, load the User Preferences dialog from the File menu.



Go to the Input tab.



Locate and open the 3D View, 3D View (Global) section.



Click the Edit button for the 3D View section.


Note that the button's caption changes to Restore. You can use this to restore the factory default keymaps.



Now, scroll down to the bottom of this section until you see the Add New button. Click it to add a new keymap panel.



Open the panel to access its interface.



In the field highlighted, type view3d.enable_manipulator. This is the name of the operator that will get called when the assigned input (keystroke, mouse click, etc.) is performed.



In order to avoid conflicts with existing hotkeys, I decided to create a new modifier key (common modifier keys are Ctrl, Shift, Alt, etc.). Blender can create a modifier key from any regular key that you specify. So, let's setup the new modifier key by clicking the blank button at the right side of the interface.



After clicking the button, it's caption reads "Press a key".



Simply press a key to have it assigned as the modifier key for this particular keymap. I pressed the ESC-key, but you can assign this to a key of your choice.



Now, do the same with the button shown below. This is where you assign the main part of the keystroke.



I chose to assign this to the Number 1 key. At this point, the full keystroke is ESC-1.



Now we just need to assign the desired mode of the manipulator. I've selected the Translate mode to be assigned to the ESC-1 keystroke. That's it! You can immediately test this by going to the 3d view. The new keymap will work in both the Object and Edit modes.
Note that this won't enable the manipulator if it's disabled, so make sure it's already enabled (Ctrl-Spacebar).



Now do the same for the remaining two modes. Start by pressing the Add New button located just below the keymap panel just completed.



Repeat the process for the Rotate and Scale modes.



Welcome to new efficiency bliss! If you like your new setup, be sure to save it to your startup blend file by clicking the Save As Default button at the bottom of the Preferences dialog (or you can press Ctrl-U).

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

Blender 2.55 Tip: Hiding the Console Window

There's a very simple, but nice new feature in Blender 2.55 that allows you to hide the Console window that appears when Blender first loads (for Windows users). Yay! It still loads, but at least you can toggle it off, now.



The Console Window is a great tool for debugging Blender and also seeing any error messages that get spit out from different functions. But, if you don't need it, it tends to get in the way.

Here's how to control it:

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

2.5 Tip: Setup the 3D Manipulator to allow Single Click Interaction

In Blender 2.5, the default interaction of the 3d Manipulator requires you to drag the controls with the left mouse button. The transformation is confirmed when you release the mouse button.



We can change this by adjusting the keymapping for the 3d Manipulator.


Start by creating a new scene using Ctrl-N, or selecting New in the File menu.



Load the User Preferences dialog by pressing Ctrl-Alt-U, or selecting User Preferences... in the File menu.



Locate the Input tab.



Locate the 3D Manipulator keymap setup within the 3D View section.



Click the Edit button for the 3D View section to enable editing of the keymaps.



Locate the Confirm on Release option and set it to be Unchecked.






Go to the 3d View and test the manipulator's interaction. Now, you can simply left-click the controls to engage them and left-click again to confirm the transformation.



If you like this type of interaction, save the settings as the default. (Remember that you'll be saving the current scene as the new default scene. You can restore the default cube to its original state by undoing everything. Or, you can press Alt-G, Alt-R, and Alt-S to clear the Translate, Rotation, and Scale transformations, respectively.)



That's it!

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

Tip: Moving Objects out of the Local View without exiting the Local View mode

In this tutorial, we'll take a look at how to easily move objects out of the Local View without exiting the Local View.

This feature is found in both Blender 2.49 and 2.5.


Watch the video tutorial...

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

Tip: Optimizing Blender 2.5 UI Interaction

In this quick tip, we’ll take a look at probably one of the most important settings to control the smoothness of Blender’s UI interaction, the Window Draw Method.



This video is hosted on BlenderCookie.

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

Tip (v2.5x): Displaying Only Renderable Objects in the 3D View

A new feature added to the developing Blender 2.5 allows you to easily display only renderable objects. This is very helpful when you want to isolate only those objects designated as renderable, or when you want to quickly hide things like the Grid, Cameras, Lamps, Empty objects, etc.

(You'll need a recent build of Blender 2.5. You can download the latest builds of Blender from graphicall.org.)

From within the 3D View,


press the N-key to display the Properties Panel.


Scroll down to the Display section


and enable the Only Render option.


Done!


You can control which objects are renderable by going to an Outliner view and toggling the "camera" icon to the right of the listed object. Of course, objects like the Camera, Lamps, etc. are non-renderable by default so no need to adjust their renderable option.

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

Blender 2.5.0 Tutorial: Changing the Keystroke for the Add Menu from Shift-A to Spacebar

Well, Blender 2.5 ALPHA 0 has been officially released! I think many people will be pleased to see that, even though there are plenty of new features, Blender is still Blender. And with some initial effort to get up to speed with the basic differences, you can quickly begin to feel at home with the knowledge gained from using Blender 2.4x.

Personally, I'll still use Blender 2.4x because of its stability, but it will be fun to explore the new Blender while it stabilizes.

I'll be posting occasional tips and tutorials for Blender 2.5.0, but I want to be careful about the subjects I cover until 2.5 stabilizes.

Having said that, here's a quick tip video on how to change the keystroke mapping for the Add Menu in 2.5 so it's the same as what you may be used to using in the 2.4x series.

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

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

Tip: How to set bookmarks in Blender for your favorite project folders

When opening a file in Blender, you often have to navigate to the desired project folder over and over again every time you start a new Blender session. And, it gets to be a bit irritating after a while. In Blender 2.5, this irritation will be soothed with new bookmarking features in the file browser. Unfortunately, Blender 2.5 is quite a ways away so how do we be more efficient?

This question was recently asked in the BlenderNewbies Forums and forum member, "radialronnie", provided a great workaround that will allow you to bookmark your favorite folders within Blender and have them always available!

Check it out.

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

Blender Themes Used in BlenderNewbies Tutorials

I'm often asked about the themes that have been used in the BlenderNewbies tutorial videos, so I've decided to provide downloads for all of the themes that have been used thus far.

This is the first theme that I started using regularly. It was created by Bastian Salmela (aka basse).

Download Zipped theme file.

This green theme is one that I created.

Download Zipped theme file.

This is the theme that I'm currently using. It's a modified version of a theme called "Dark". I can't remember who created the original version.

Download Zipped theme file.


To use these themes, you'll need to unzip the python script into your "scripts" subfolder.


Then, in Blender, open a Scripts window.


Locate the Scripts, Themes menu and select the desired theme. Blender's interface will be updated instantly.



For more info on how to customize Blender's interface, you might want to check out the Pimp Your Blender tutorial.

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

QuickTip: An Easy Way to Remember the Colors for the 3D Axis Lines in Blender

Admittedly, this is trivial, but it's the type of tip that can make life a little bit easier for the beginner trying to get up to speed in the world of 3D graphics.

The issue is how to determine your orientation within the 3d view while you're working on your scene. There's a 3d mini-axis icon located in the lower left corner of the 3d view, and the background grid has colored axis lines to help you understand the current orientation of the 3d view.

However, what if you keep forgetting the color associated with each axis? (It would be good if you didn't have to keep referring to the mini-axis icon.)

A simple solution:

The colors used are Red, Green, and Blue. Now, being involved in graphics, you quickly recognize that as the same order of the common abbreviation RGB.

The order of the axis letters are alphabetical, XYZ.

So, simply take those two easily remembered patterns and connect them.

(R)ed is the color for the X-axis.
(G)reen is the color for the Y-axis.
(B)lue is the color for the Z-axis.

That's it, no more disorientation! Hopefully, it will be of some use.

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

Easy Access to Recently Opened Files in Blender

Here's a "hidden" keystroke that may save you a few miles on your mouse.

You can get quick access to the Recent Files listing by simply pressing Ctrl-O.

This will bring up a menu displaying the Recently Opened files in Blender. This works in both the Object and Edit modes. The only alternative for accessing this listing is to go to the File menu and view the Open Recent submenu.

While we're on the subject of the Recent Files listing, let's look at how you can adjust the number of recent files for Blender to track. Go to the Preferences window, and on the Auto-Save tab, you'll find the Recent Files parameter. You can track as many as 30 recently opened files.



Happy Blendering!

Object Selection Tips for Blender

There are many ways to select things in Blender:

• RMB: Select object
• Shift-RMB: Multi-select objects
• B-key: Box select
• B-key (twice): Paint select
• Ctrl-LMB drag: Lasso select

However, here are some other ways that may go unnoticed by beginners:

The Outliner window

The Outliner window is simply another type of window that can be added to the Blender interface via the Window Type dropdown menu. This menu can be found at the leftmost position on the Header Bar of any window type.



In your Outliner window, be sure to go to the View menu and select Outliner. Depending on your defaults, you may be viewing the OOP Schematic (the thing with the boxes and wires).

Selecting objects in the Outliner causes them to be selected in the 3D View as well, and vice versa.

There's a search feature in the Outliner that's very helpful when your scenes contain many objects. Also notice the icons in the Outliner, next to each item. These help you to control an object's visibility in the 3D View, selectability in the 3D View, and renderability. They also have helpful tooltips in case you forget.




Shift-G keystroke

In the 3D View, you can also select objects based on their relationship to other objects. Use the Shift-G keystroke to see the Group Selection options. This works in both the Object and Edit modes. In Edit mode, be sure to check out the different selection options available based on the current selection mode (Vertex, Edge, or Face selection mode). You can switch between the selection modes using the Ctrl-Tab keystroke.


Alt-RMB keystroke

And, another selection tip that really comes in handy is to use Alt-RMB. This will display a menu of objects that are currently underneath the mousepointer. This is helpful when many objects are overlapping or for objects that are occluded by other objects. Be aware that this popup menu will not appear if there aren't any overlapping objects to choose.


Happy Blendering!