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Oh man, this is fabulous info. Thanks. *adds more notes to the growing list*
Thanks so much . Love C the most so far.
Discovered another key mouse combo. Alt + Left click will loop select edges faces or verts.
Just adding that in the edge select mode you can select a continuous line of edges by ctrl + right clicking an edge while already having one (or more) edges selected. That will select the active edges and the edges between the two. Very handy for creating seams and creases and such.
Also ctrl+LMB and dragging will give you a lasso-like selection.
Also check "draw all edges" otherwise the display will look like some are missing... I can't believe I forgot that, I use it all the time... :shut:
I'm not sure what soft select is, but I think you mean Proportional Edit... You can enable it down on the tool shelf, it's the grey circle to the right of the select buttons next to the magnet... or press Space Bar and select Proportional Editing... there are three options, Connected - will affect only vertices connected to the selection within the influence sphere, Enable - will affect all vertices within the influence sphere, and Disable - turns Proportional Editing off... When active you can set the falloff from a list box that will appear next to the button on the tool shelf or from the context menu using Space Bar. The size of the influence sphere or brush can be adjusted using the mouse wheel...
nicci... :)
Thanks both of you. Yes, now I can sculpt with the lines on.
The proportional editing seems wrong to me. If I enable it or just use the Connected option and try a few of the Falloff options... I choose a few of the faces and use the widget to drag the area up or down.... well it moves the entire shirt off of Genesis. So I think there must be a falloff setting that limits how far it extends. It's obvious it extends over the entire shirt area of the SuperSuit. I think in Hexagon it does the same thing but there is a way to turn that way way down but not finding that right now in Blender. Plus I'm not seeing any of the feedback colors. Red is usually the area most targeted and as less influence it's usually from orange to yellow as it gets less and less.
You're a decent writer, RAMWolf. It's always refreshing to read from a mind with a good vocabulary.
Thought I'd see what's in here and get subscribed to this thread, too.
Edit:
Just noticed... isn't it SHIFT + RMB to select multiple vertices, faces, edges or objects?
Hmmm. I think I must have changed that to Left in the program prefs so perhaps that's why I'm mentioning Left mouse click for certain operations that more experienced Blender users are using the default Right click option... ??
I find it helpful to zoom out from my mesh with the vertex I want to use selected. Enable the desired proportional editing mode. Press 'g' to start a translation. The proportional editing influence area will show in a big circle. Use the mouse wheel to adjust it to the size you want. Press 'ESC' to cancel the translation. Zoom back into your mesh and proceed with your editing, adjusting the middle mouse wheel to fine tune the area of influence.
I'll give that a try. Thanks much!
Ran into a snag.
Exporting .....
I had Genesis in the scene so it's been exported along with the suit. Do I need to delete Genesis and then export or is there a way to export without having to delete Genesis and then reload Genesis afterwards? Also, ZBrush was complaining about triangulation. I don't remember there being ANY triangles in my mesh before. SO perhaps it's Genesis.
Also are there settings I need to access to keep things "right" during the export of the mesh once I get this ironed out?
Thanks so much!
Enter the city building doctor, stage left...
In experimenting with steel frames and glass panes, I found that, when exported as an .obj, the individual objects (frame and glass, in this case) remain separate. What I found is the layers don't. In the new scene, they must be reset to different layers, if desired.
Maybe some of you Blender curmudgeons could offer some sage expertise that eluded this doctor's myopia.
As for RAMWolf, wouldn't using a similar method of separating the genesis to a different layer solve that while also keeping it available for reference?
Are we strictly limited to 20 layers in Blender, or can the user create more?
The knife (hotkey = k) is a great alternative to subdividing. Eliminates quite a few vertices from the get-go. Any quick tips on using it? For instance, after pressing k, how do we lock x, y or z?
Well typically one limits an action by axis by simply following the shortcut key with the axis designation, such as r, x. However this doesn't work with the knife tool, and probably by design as it is generally a more 'free form' type of tool. Just my guess.
Wondering if this thread should be moved to Nuts N Bolts forum? What started out as a WOW moment has turned out to be a very informational thread.
Have y'all seen the new node system planned for Luxrender in Blender? That's right! Luxrender now has material node support in Blender! There are a few things yet to work out, but this looks to be on schedule for Blender 2.67 and Luxrender 1.3.
http://www.blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?289990-LuxRender-v1-3-Node-editor-demo!
I'm wanting to get the new Blender 2.66 update that has cycles. Some of the tuts at BGuru require it, but all I can find is the 2.66a I already have and the depicted additions to the particles context aren't there. Am I missing something such as an activator?
Blender 2.66a, available from the downloads page on blender.org, supports strand particle rendering. You need to set the render mode from 'supported' to 'experimental' in order to see the settings for Cycles in the particles tab. Cycles has been in trunk since (I think) 2.63. The major updates that have been added for 2.67 are subsurface scattering for Cycles, py-nodes, and Freestyle NPR. The Freestyle renderer has been around for a while as a separate add-on, but is now officially a standard part of Blender. Pre 2.67 test builds are available from graphicall.org and builder.blender.org.
You can download Blender 2.66 here: http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/
Whoops! I tried to get back here to edit before you guys' replies. I have 2.66a and did all along. I just didn't think to look in the "Blender Render" list box. :red:
Once I clicked there... well there's a gleeful little new thread about the experience in "nuts and bolts."
There should be a checkbox on export to export "selected" or "all", much like Daz Studio does. When it gives you the option of where to save and name etc, there are a bunch of options on the lower left.
...concerning camera controls, "Amen" to that. I find using just hotkeys to be it very tedious and cumbersome in comparison to having on screen controls like pretty much all other graphics software has.
Andrew is taking his latest proposals for revamping the UI to the next Blender conference. His feelings are in order for Blender to grow, it must become more intuitive for the new user.
Unfortunately the camera controls were not addressed (at least not in the final video proposal) so I mentioned it in the comments section afterwards.
You can navigate in the 3D view then press CTRL + ALT + Numpad 0 to align the Camera to the view. It's pretty quick
Hmm, good! Days ago I was wondering why stores blender 3d models, googled and googled, and found nothing.
lack whether it can be used in commercial rendering 2d
...this is the kind of thing Andrew mentions in his videos that should be a default setting when the application is opened. Taking it from the POV of someone who opens Blender for the first time and tries to move the camera with whatever pointing device they use (a fairly standard operation in other 3D apps) only to have nothing happen can cause one to dismiss the programme right there and move on to something else.
Blender already provides a camera in the scene. Why not make that the "default" camera and provide the standard movement controls (pan/rotate/zoom/frame) as active on screen icons rather than buried in a hidden menu of hotkeys? That is a lot easier to relate to especially when coming from another 3D graphics app instead of CTRL+ALT+[Number key] and more "elegant".
This is what one sees first opening Blender. There are no visible camera controls on any of the toolbars or sidbars, and not even a "View" menu. So now like Andrew mentions in his video series, one has to stop and think what next to do rather than accomplishing something. The new user is confronted with a lot of controls for rendering and animating, but nothing to simply say, rotate the camera they are viewing through around the cube. It's things like this which cause people to give up and look for something else.
Blender's UI is clunky, unintuitive, and much more complex than it should be.Yes it is customisable, but that is an advanced feature which shouldn't be thrown in the face of a newcomer who's just trying to learn the basic ropes. If the developers were to adopt all of the changes Andrew put forth in his last video proposal it would make Blender a totally "rocking" application. I have a lot of respect for what he says and like he believes, that the time for change is now.
Look and you shall find.
Wow! There are many characters there Blendswap.
I read the license terms, and yes, there is permission for commercial renders.
Just create an account there now, and I paid $ 10.00 a month.
already downloaded the The Hunter by Ricardo28roi, and there are 8 other characters I'll download now.
Tomorrow I'll download some version of blender, and see what these characters are capable of.
Now ... maybe an old problem: character blender can export from Blender to Poser or Vue? No solution?
Another thing: There are more stores with supplies of characters blender?
thank you
I won't agree with that. The problem is that Blender is made with the goal of beeing an all in one tool for 3D creation and especially targetted to movie and vfx production. So it has a lot of tools and buttons and options and advanced options (which are not hidden like it could be in other 3D packages)
I think the UI was well thought. The unintuitive aspect being that some people may have some habits from other softwares, and the interface could be a bit overwhelming too the first times.
It took me one year to get out of my 3DS habits, so I know it's hard. And now I can say I prefer blender over 3DS (okay it wasn't even max at the time but Max's UI didn't really change)
I don't think Andrew's proposal will really make anything more easy for anybody beginning with Blender. Less scary may be but that is all. 3D is hard, and as some blender devs said, they can't make something difficult into something easy just with changing the UI
And I think Andrew doesnt have it all right. But that is an other debate.
So back to the Camera topic. If you really want the camera POV in blender you can lock the camera to the view as explained in the following tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbMe3z7YWEs&hd=1
Actually, once you learn it, Blender is ridiculously intuitive. To the point where I try to use Blender navigation in other programs *embarrassed*
..it's just having to scale that first wall which seems about as steep as the white cliffs of Dover.
Apologies, but I am a more visual person. Having to remember a bunch of multiple key hot commands and where routine functions are buried in hidden menus is cumbersome. If this were still the days of mainframes where everything you needed to do required writing a command line to execute, maybe the mindset would be there. But it isn't for along came GUI and pointing devices to free people up from having to deal with all the complexities of remembering long command strings and which key combinations to use.
the basic commands and tools are what should be up front with the more advanced ones in subsequent "layers". This is why the tab and toolbox setup makes so much sense. Why all the negativity over improving the application for everyone, new and experienced users alike? The hotkey commands will not go away, none of the current features will go away. They may be "packaged" a bit differently but the programme itself will remain the same.
If I already knew and was accustomed to the principles of modelling in another application of this caliber, yeah it might be easier to adapt to it. However, being new to the entire process, and having to come to grips with with such a cryptic UI on top of grasping the concepts of 3D modelling is more than daunting. If I don't feel like I know what I am doing and not seeing progress within a "reasonable" amount of time, it becomes discouraging.
...so does having to work in an application that is unstable which is about the only other option.
For me the structure Blender's current UI gets in the way of the learning process related to understanding the creation of original 3D models from mesh to finished textured and rigged item.
I would think the community would embrace such changes as outlined which would attract new users to the fold rather than continue supporting a structure that tends to scare them away.
We all have to agree to disagree here cause not all of us are the same.
While others are perfectly fine with Blender, others are not. While Blender is meant to be an all in one solution, which is just fine, much like 3D Studio Max or Lightwave, everyone will take to it differently. 3DSM was one of those programs that while I did not get very far with it or too indepth, the UI never bothered me and I found it to be perfectly fine and easy to navigate.
As for exporting from Blender to DS or Poser, you can try FBX export which I had the best results for DS or OBJ for either but I have little experiance with Blender to give a posative say and what you should or should not do with exporting. When I was converting Star Trek models, I found it best to export as FBX and then import that into 3DSM and export from there as OBJ.
@Kyoto : I don't think I'm negative about changing the UI but I can understand the fear of some long time users : that Blender's UI change will have a negative impact on their workflow. Changing the UI will not be magical solution that will make it suddenly really easier for beginners. I said it in another post : Andrew has some valid points but some are not. Of course all people not knowing blender are going to agree with him. But that doesn't make it right. There is more than getting more users. It's about getting more Involved Users to make blender grow up. And that explains what Ton said.
What make Blender's strenght is the community of people who developp on it, making it constantly evolving and filling some holes in missing functionnality that it could have. There are a lot of plugin develpppers who gave up because of API Change. Making it more complicated to dev a plugin will end up having less new functionnality or harder to maintain existing ones. There is also the fact that a newbie UI is not fundamentally efficient for intermediate+ users. And if the goal is to make it into industry, then that is a step backward if Andrew's UI is the only option. Thus, Blender's dev will have to find a way to content Newbies and more advanced users. And to get that, plugin developpers may have a more complicated work to get things working into blender. That is why one of the Dev or Ton (don't remember) said that they don't really focus on getting new users. They focus on bringing new functionnality to make Blender usable in 3D industry. And believe me when I say that despite it having a lot of good thing, blender stil lack a lot.
Blender is thought for efficiency. But you have to pass the first scary feeling and learn it's philosophy
@Matty : I don't think that any other pro 3D package can really do everything. Just for integration of a real footage scene with camera/motion tracking, they need a third party software (after effect, nuke, etc...). Blender can do it alone. I can't find any other 3D package that could give you that but I may be wrong.
@Jorge :You can use some of the blends for commercial purpose but it depends on the licence of the blend. See http://www.blendswap.com/page/licenses
@Seleneyue : Last time I tried a pro software (3ds max or Maya) I found them hard to use because of their UI too :). It's difficult to go from one software to another anyway. Each software has it's own specificity and once you have some habits, it's hard to get new ones. We're poor limited humans after all
...by focusing primarily on those who already have used it for years while not addressing the needs of newcomers who would like to learn Blender but are put off by the UI, it can make some feel that Blender is more like an exclusive "club" rather than a community.
The UI totally stymies me. The fact I have to do a lot of keyboarding to use controls I should be able to access more easily with my trackball like other applications offer makes it tedious and very difficult to try to learn and use. On top of that being dyslexic just adds to the confusion and frustration having to remember all the different key combinations and where functions I need are hidden.
I really want to learn modelling the right way and I don't feel programmes like Hexagon (which has ongoing stability issues and apparently will not be updated anytime soon if ever), Wings (which is very limited), or even Daz's new product, Curvy3D (which employs tris instead of polys and doesn't even involve the basic concepts of 3D modelling at all) are the answer. If I had the funds, Modo would be my first choice, but at nearly 1,000$ pretty much impossible without some kind of mini windfall. Heck I can't even afford Silo at 109$ (won't do the Steam deal as there is no support included and getting future upgrades is questionable). In the end that pretty much leaves Blender.
I've been working with Daz Studio since version 1.5. When 4.0 came along it was a big change. Yes it caught some of us long time users a bit off guard at first as the entire UI and programme structure was changed. After playing with it for a bit, I discovered I could still note only make it look but operate like the older version without losing any functionality and in the process found some of the new features I was apprehensive about actually helped rather than hindered my workflow. Yes there was an adjustment period punctuated by a bit of cursing at the computer, but you know, I rarely if ever open up 3.1 or 2.3 anymore which I also have installed. Now true, Daz Studio is no where near as "comprehensive" as Blender (for one it's modelling capability is very limited) nor is it a"professional" level software tool, but the principles are the same.
If advanced users are supposedly good at customising Blender to fit their needs, I personally don't see why offering a more straightforward UI similar to other 3D applications is an issue. Again, all the commands, hotkeys & such that veterans are used to will still be there.
Maybe what should be done is a two track approach. One version with a more simpler to grasp UI for newcomers and the "classic" version for those already experienced with it. Another idea would be to extract the modelling, sculpting, and UV portion of the application as and offer it as "Blender Modeller" (with the more streamlined UI like Andrew suggests) alongside the full blown "as-is" application. Many like myself have other tools for rigging, surfacing, rendering, etc, and don't need a single "all inclusive" application.
It was modelling which first attracted me to look into Blender as I was tired and frustrated by the instability of Hexagon (which I paid good money for years ago before it was ever offered for free). What stopped me in my tracks back then was the UI. I tried going back to Hexagon but soon gave up because of all the crashes and since have done little to nothing in the way of modelling. From what I was hearing, Blender 2.6 was supposed to have a much improved UI. When I opened it I didn't notice much if any difference from what I saw nearly five years ago when I downloaded and opened ver. 2.44.
http://jootbox.forumchitchat.com/post/base-meshes-creating-a-seed-for-modeling-trees-6365224?trail=15#1
Oh, yes. Blender has proved to be a prime choice. I've actually been documenting many steps I do to create things. I've found this little technique leads to a useful approach for creating gnarly trees.
I've found that DAZ S4.5 figures can be used to create clothes in Blender.
Granted all of these, save perhaps for the leaf example, need work and, other than the seed itself, shown in the link, are experiments. It's proved to be a given that the more powerful the system, the easier your Blender and DAZ journeys will be. Something I tried was using an Emerson 32" HDTV as a monitor. At only 1378 x 700 res the results are remarkable. I'm building a new machine that will allow me to use the full 1905 x 1080 res. This has widened a bottleneck for 4-view modeling and, now that winter is on it's way, I'll have time to really dive into Blender.
On the horizon? I'm learning Python and am laying out the groundwork for a new modeler, that will use a different approach to bones, in that an option will be technically real bones that would render a skeleton. All goes well and a single click would build the organs, if chosen, then flesh, the entire skin surface adjusted by editing the bones themselves, just as life does it.
Anyway. since this showed up in my email, I thought I'd toss in my 2 cents worth. ;)
Blender 2.69 is just out. Not sure what improvements have been made over 2.68. Probably lots of bugfixes.
@ Jose - I like Blendswap, but there's lots of useless junk on there. I've found quite a few models and character rigs are half finished, poorly optimized, and badly organized. If I open up a .blend file and find that the creator couldn't be bothered to give his objects proper names, or I find a simple shape with a gazillion vertices, well... That said, look up the Cookie FlexRig. Make your own characters with it similar to the way Genesis works in DS. No, it is not nearly as complex as Genesis, but it's got a better rigging system that makes posing and animation easier, imo..
Camera controls. What I do: In the properties panel (press N in the 3d viewport) find the 'view' tab and check 'lock camera to view.' Press 0 on the numpad. Now you can position the camera using viewport controls (I have mine setup to work with my Wacom tablet) with middle mouse clicks (or pen button), and the modifier keys SHIFT and CTRL (assigned to buttons on my Wacom). That's the same setup I use in DS, btw. To get back to non-camera view, just uncheck 'lock camera to view.'
Andrew Price: I like what he's proposing. It won't limit the functionality of Blender in any way. It would be good to fix many of the inconsistencies in the current interface. First thing I always do is change the user preferences to get things 'more normal.' That said, any 3D program that is oriented towards content creation in a production environment rather than content consumption will be targeting a somewhat different demographic than DS or Poser.
And here's a render I did earlier this year. This is Elven Treehouse imported to Blender via mcjTeleblender script with my own Cycles shader setup. I opened it in Painter 12 last night.