Blender

[Mr Frojo]

This is a thread for people who use or want to use blender. In my opinion, it is the best freeware 3D editer out there. It takes some time to learn how to use it, but its a really powerful editer.

Show off some of the cool stuff you've done with it. If you're new to blender, I'd recomend starting with the video tutorials on their site, found here. If you're beyond the point that those videos will take you, lots of other cool sites that will help you in the blender community.

Its a really cool program, and I would like to see what some people here would be able to do in it.

[pyrochild]

blender's UI is simply frightening. I use Maya =)

[Mr Frojo]

Whats so frightening about this?

Accualy, it is pretty confusing. You'll get used to it though. It just takes a little bit of time.

[pyrochild]

It doesn't help that the whole GUI looks win95-era. That's just gross.

[Mr Frojo]

You can change the GUI to whatever you feel like in it. Thats just the default.

[spike 121]

lol, win 95

and btw, that UI made no sense to me

[Mr Frojo]

Thats just a picture i found to make it look a lot more confusing than it is.

[pyrochild]

Before I learned Maya, I went through some of Blender's tutorials, but they are just so badly written and terribly organized, that I went with the much prettier (and much more powerful, and much more expensive...) Maya.

[drakaan]

I'm all about the open-source tools. Spent a couple hours getting familiar with blender's UI today, and after getting my bearings, I can see being able to do something with it.

I got the basics (moving, rotating, selecting) learned up to beginner understanding today, and tomorrow, I'm going to learn about how to make reflective objects (your basic "chrome" stuff).

It's pretty easy to use after that initial "what the heck do I *do*?" bump is past. I'll put up a sample tomorrow sometime...I'm excited about using it together with PdN as a texture source...also have to see how/if it works with "normal map"...I'm thinking a blender sphere + PdN rock texture + PdN normal map = asteroid goodness in very few steps.

@pyrochild: ...and I plan on writing some blender tutorials (not sure where yet) for that very reason. All of the ones I found sucked badly, although after going through a few, I stumbled onto the bits that were glossed over eventually.

[Yata]

Blenders interface made me crawl into a corner and throw things at the computer at an attempt to make it go away.

When I downloaded it before, it didn't work right with my cursor. When I moved my cursor, it flashed when it was on the blender window and that bugs the living heck out of me.

@Pyro:

I think Maya is what was made to create Lyoko. I know half of you hate the idea of the show, but the graphics are fantastic in it.

[Stephan]

I. Hate. Modeling Software. It's incomprehensible. I can hardly transform an object in GMax, let alone creating ANYTHING in blender :?

@Yata: Their site is really bad. Can't click on anything, and takes ages to load.

[Mr Frojo]

All the tutorials ive done were done pretty well. Some are better than others, but thats kinda like the tutorials here.

[Bob]

Frojo, show off your stuff!

[pyrochild]

All the tutorials ive done were done pretty well. Some are better than others, but thats kinda like the tutorials here.

Maybe they've improved. Last I dabbled in Blender was about a year ago. It doesn't matter to me now, though, 'cause I don't see a point learning Blender when I'm already fairly proficient at Maya.

[Mr Frojo]

Ill post some stuff ive done in it once I get back from vacation. Im not sure when that is though. This is pretty much the last chance ive got to be on here. We leave tommorow, and ive got to do a ton of stuff.

[pyrochild]

Where are you going?

[Mr Frojo]

Pennsylvania. Im not sure where in it though.

[pyrochild]

Bring back pictures!

[Mr Frojo]

Ive still got to post pictures of wyoming from about a week ago. Those are some pretty interesting videos on this huge storm that hit there.

[jpope]

Here is my best Blender render (and it's not very good). Trying to learn the UI is the most frustrating part of learning the program but, I don't see myself doing a lot of 3D modeling so I doubt I'll ever spend the money on anything else.

Which I used for this scene. I figured that I was going to be shrinking the rocket down quite a bit so it didn't matter how good or how much detail was in the rocket...

Click pictures to see larger views.

And the Blender tutorial Wiki can be found here for anyone interested.

[drakaan]

Here's about 15 minutes work in blender as a day-two newbie (20 including creating the clouds in PdN):

I'd say the hardest part is just learning where stuff is. I don't know enough about 3-D rendering apps to know if it's an over-complicated UI, but there are more buttons and options than I thought possible.

That said, after not too terribly much experimentation and googling, I was able to create something basic. I give the functionality 8/10 and the UI 3/10 (I've seen much worse).

[Yata]

When I installed it and I opened blender, a command prompt opened and it says:

Compiled with Python version 2.5
'import site' failed; use -v for traceback 
Checking for installed Python... No installed Python found
Only build-in modules are available. Some scripts may not run
Continuing happily.

Do I have to install something or what?

Blender still runs, but if I close the command prompt, Blender also closes.

[drakaan]

When I installed it and I opened blender, a command prompt opened and it says:

Compiled with Python version 2.5
'import site' failed; use -v for traceback 
Checking for installed Python... No installed Python found
Only build-in modules are available. Some scripts may not run
Continuing happily.

Do I have to install something or what?

Blender still runs, but if I close the command prompt, Blender also closes.

Pretty much what it says is that for some of the "advanced" stuff to work (scriptable things) you need to install Python (http://www.python.org/download/ ... look for the Windows Installer one). It seems to be needed for the help to function properly (probably because there are tutorials that use python scripting). I used online tutorials and didn't suffer from not having Python installed, although I have the feeling I'll want to install it soon...doing my first animated scene (the balls still), and I'm guessing *really* cool stuff (like animating bodies, etc) needs Python.

That command prompt in the background has to do with the fact that it's not a native Windows application...lots of applications that get ported to Windows have this extra DOS window hanging around. Basically, don't close it !

[Yata]

Ah, thanks.

I knew Python was a scripting language but didn't know it had anything to do with 3D modeling/graphics.

[drakaan]

Ah, thanks.

I knew Python was a scripting language but didn't know it had anything to do with 3D modeling/graphics.

Yeah...by itself, it doesn't, but (especially in the non-windows world) it's extremely common as a language to automate scriptable portions of applications...blender just happens to be an application that uses it (easier than writing your own scripting language).