Blender 3D · Designing Objects by Caudron, Romain -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Blender 3D: Designing Objects

Table of Contents Blender 3D: Designing Objects Blender 3D: Designing Objects Credits Preface

What this learning path covers What you need for this learning path Who this learning path is for Reader feedback Customer support

Downloading the example code Errata Piracy Questions

1. Module 1

1. Straight into Blender!

An overview of the 3D workflow

The anatomy of a 3D scene What can you do with Blender?

Getting used to the navigation in Blender

An introduction to the navigation of the 3D Viewport What are editors?

The anatomy of an editor Split, Join, and Detach Some useful layout presets

Setting up your preferences

An introduction to the Preferences window Customizing the default navigation style Improving Blender with add-ons

A brief introduction to the projects

The Robot Toy The Alien Character The Haunted House The Rat Cowboy

Summary

2. Robot Toy – Modeling of an Object

Let's start the modeling of our robot toy

Preparing the workflow by adding an image reference Adding the head primitive The Edit Mode versus the Object Mode

Using the basic modeling tools

Modeling the head Modeling the antenna An introduction to the Subdivision Surface modifier

Improving the head shape

Modeling the thunderbolts Modeling the eyes Modeling the chest Modeling the neck Modeling the torso Modeling the buttons Modeling the fork

Modeling protections for the fork

Modeling the main wheel Modeling the arm Using Blender Internal to render our Robot Toy

Summary

3. Alien Character – Base Mesh Creation and Sculpting

Understanding the sculpting process An introduction to sculpting Choosing sculpting over poly modeling

Using a pen tablet The sculpt mode

Optimizing the viewport

Anatomy of a brush

Dyntopo versus the Multires modifier

First touch with the Multires modifier First touch with Dyntopo

Creating a base mesh with the Skin modifier

Visual preparation

An introduction to artistic anatomy

Sculpting the body

The head The torso The arms The legs The belt

Summary

4. Alien Character – Creating a Proper Topology and Transferring the Sculpt Details

Why make a retopology?

Possibilities of arranging polygons Errors to avoid during the creation of retopology Density of polygons

Making the retopology of the alien character

Preparing the environment

The head The neck and the torso The arms and the hands The legs

Unwrapping UVs Understanding UVs

The placement of the seams The placement and adjustment of the islands The baking of textures

The baking of a normal map What is a normal map?

Making of the bake

Displaying the normal map in the viewport

The baking of an ambient occlusion

Understanding the ambient occlusion map

Creation of the bake

Displaying the ambient occlusion in the viewport

Summary

5. Haunted House – Modeling of the Scene

Blocking the house

Working with a scale

Blocking the bases of the house Refining the blocking

Adding instantiated objects

Reworking the blocking objects Breaking and ageing the elements

Simulate a stack of wooden planks with physics

Creation of the simulation of a stack of planks Modeling the environment (8 pages)

Modeling the cliff Modeling a tree with curves Enhancing the scene with a barrier, rocks, and a cart

Organizing the scene

Grouping objects Working with layers

Summary

6. Haunted House – Putting Colors on It

Unwrapping UVs

Using Project From View Unwrapping the rest of the house The tree with the Smart UV Project Unwrapping the rest of the environment Tiling UVs

What is tiling for? The UV layers

Adding colors

Basics of the Texture Paint tool

Discovering the brushes

The TexDraw brush The Smear brush The Soften brush The Clone brush The Fill brush The Mask brush

The Stroke option Delimiting the zones of painting according to the geometry Painting directly on the texture

Painting the scene

Laying down the colors

Tiled textures

The settings of our workspace Advice for a good tiled texture

Painting the roof-tile texture Quick tips for other kinds of hand-painted tiled textures Baking our tiled textures

Why bake? How to do it?

Creating transparent textures

The grass texture The grunge texture

Doing a quick render with Blender Internal

Setting lights Placing the camera Setting the environment (sky and mist)

Summary

7. Haunted House – Adding Materials and Lights in Cycles

Understanding the basic settings of Cycles

The sampling Light path settings Performances

Lighting

Creating a testing material Understanding the different types of light Lighting our scene Painting and using an Image Base Lighting

Creating materials with nodes

Creating the materials of the house, the rocks, and the tree Adding a mask for the windows Using procedural textures Making and applying normal maps in Cycles

Creating realistic grass

Generating the grass with particles Creating the grass shader

Baking textures in Cycles

Cycles versus Blender Internal Baking the tree

Compositing a mist pass Summary

8. Rat Cowboy – Learning To Rig a Character for Animation

An introduction to the rigging process Rigging the Rat Cowboy

Placing the deforming bones The leg and the foot The arm and the hand The hips The tail The head and the eyes Mirroring the rig Rigging the gun Rigging the holster Adding a root bone

Skinning

The Weight Paint tools Manually assigning weight to vertices Correcting the foot deformation Correcting the belt deformation

Custom shapes The shape keys

What is a shape key? Creating basic shapes Driving a shape key

Summary

9. Rat Cowboy – Animate a Full Sequence

Principles of animation

Squash and Stretch Anticipation Staging Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose Follow Through and Overlapping Action Slow In and Slow Out Arcs Secondary Action Timing Exaggeration Solid drawing Appeal

Animation tools in Blender

The timeline What is a keyframe? The Dope Sheet The Graph editor The Non-Linear Action editor

Preparation of the animation

Writing a short script Making a storyboard Finding the final camera placements and the timing through a layout Animation references Organization

Animating the scene

The walk cycle Mixing actions Animation of a close shot Animation of the gunshot Animation of the trap

Render a quick preview of a shot Summary

10. Rat Cowboy – Rendering, Compositing, and Editing

Creating advanced materials in Cycles

Skin material with Subsurface Scattering Eye material The fur of the rat

The Raw rendering phase Enhance a picture with compositing

Introduction to nodal compositing Depth Pass Adding effects Compositing rendering phase

Editing the sequence with the VSE Introduction to the Video Sequence Editor

Edit and render the final sequence

Summary

2. Module 2

1. Modeling the Character's Base Mesh

Introduction Setting templates with the Images as Planes add-on

Getting ready How to do it… How it works…

Setting templates with the Image Empties method

Getting ready How to do it… How it works…

Setting templates with the Background Images tool

Getting ready How to do it…

Building the character's base mesh with the Skin modifier

Getting ready How to do it… How it works…

2. Sculpting the Character's Base Mesh

Introduction Using the Skin modifier's Armature option

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… There's more… See also

Editing the mesh

Getting ready How to do it… How it works…

Preparing the base mesh for sculpting

Getting ready How to do it… How it works…

Using the Multiresolution modifier and the Dynamic topology feature

Getting ready How to do it… How it works…

Sculpting the character's base mesh

Getting ready How to do it… There's more…

3. Polygonal Modeling of the Character's Accessories

Introduction Preparing the scene for polygonal modeling

Getting ready How to do it… How it works…

Modeling the eye

Getting ready How to do it… How it works…

Modeling the armor plates

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… See also

Using the Mesh to Curve technique to add details

How to do it… How it works…

4. Re-topology of the High Resolution Sculpted Character's Mesh

Introduction Using the Grease Pencil tool to plan the edge-loops flow

Getting ready How to do it… There's more… See also

Using the Snap tool to re-topologize the mesh

Getting ready How to do it… How it works…

Using the Shrinkwrap modifier to re-topologize the mesh

Getting ready How to do it…

Using the LoopTools add-on to re-topologize the mesh

Getting ready How to do it…

Concluding the re-topologized mesh

Getting ready How to do it… There's more… How it works…

5. Unwrapping the Low Resolution Mesh

Introduction Preparing the low resolution mesh for unwrapping

Getting ready How to do it…

UV unwrapping the mesh

Getting ready How to do it…

Editing the UV islands

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… There's more…

Using the Smart UV Project tool

Getting ready How to do it…

Modifying the mesh and the UV islands

Getting ready How to do it…

Setting up additional UV layers

Getting ready How to do it…

Exporting the UV Map layout

Getting ready How to do it…

6. Rigging the Low Resolution Mesh

Introduction Building the character's Armature from scratch

Getting ready How to do it…

Building the rig for the secondary parts Completing the rig

How it works…

Perfecting the Armature to also function as a rig for the Armor

Getting ready How to do it… How it works…

Building the character's Armature through the Human Meta-Rig

Getting ready How to do it… How it works…

Building the animation controls and the Inverse Kinematic

Getting ready How to do it… See also

Generating the character's Armature by using the Rigify add-on

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… See also

7. Skinning the Low Resolution Mesh

Introduction Parenting the Armature and Mesh using the Automatic Weights tool

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… There's more… See also

Assigning Weight Groups by hand

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… See also

Editing Weight Groups using the Weight Paint tool

Getting ready How to do it… See also

Using the Mesh Deform modifier to skin the character

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… See also

Using the Laplacian Deform modifier and Hooks

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… See also

8. Finalizing the Model

Introduction Creating shape keys

Getting ready How to do it… How it works…

Assigning drivers to the shape keys

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… There's more… See also

Setting movement limit constraints

Getting ready How to do it… See also

Transferring the eyeball rotation to the eyelids

Getting ready How to do it…

Detailing the Armor by using the Curve from Mesh tool

Getting ready How to do it… There's more… See also

9. Animating the Character

Introduction Linking the character and making a proxy

Getting ready How to do it… See also

Creating a simple walk cycle for the character by assigning keys to the bones

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… There's more… See also

Tweaking the actions in Graph Editor

Getting ready How to do it… See also

Using the Non Linear Action Editor to mix different actions

Getting ready How to do it… See also

10. Creating the Textures

Introduction Making a tileable scales image in Blender Internal

Getting ready How to do it… How it works…

Preparing the model to use the UDIM UV tiles

Getting ready How to do it… How it works…

Baking the tileable scales texture into the UV tiles

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… There's more…

Painting to fix the seams and to modify the baked scales image maps

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… There's more… See also

Painting the color maps in Blender Internal

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… See also

Painting the color maps in Cycles

Getting ready How to do it…

11. Refining the Textures

Introduction Sculpting more details on the high resolution mesh

Getting ready How to do it…

Baking the normals of the sculpted mesh on the low resolution one

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… There's more…

The Armor textures

Getting ready How to do it… There's more… See also

Adding a dirty Vertex Colors layer and baking it to an image texture

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… See also

The Quick Edit tool

Getting ready How to do it… How it works…

12. Creating the Materials in Cycles

Introduction Building the reptile skin shaders in Cycles

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… There's more… See also

Making a node group of the skin shader to reuse it

Getting ready How to do it… How it works…

Building the eyes' shaders in Cycles

Getting ready How to do it… How it works…

Building the armor shaders in Cycles

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… There's more…

13. Creating the Materials in Blender Internal

Introduction Building the reptile skin shaders in Blender Internal

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… There's more… See also

Building the eyes' shaders in Blender Internal

Getting ready How to do it… How it works…

Building the armor shaders in Blender Internal

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… There's more…

14. Lighting, Rendering, and a Little Bit of Compositing

Introduction Setting the library and the 3D scene layout

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… See also

Setting image based lighting (IBL)

Getting ready How to do it…

Image based lighting in Cycles Image based lighting in Blender Internal

How it works… See also

Setting a three-point lighting rig in Blender Internal

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… See also

Rendering an OpenGL playblast of the animation

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… There's more… See also

Obtaining a noise-free and faster rendering in Cycles

Getting ready How to do it… See also

Compositing the render layers

Getting ready How to do it… How it works… See also

3. Module 3

1. Overview of Materials in Cycles

Introduction Material nodes in Cycles

Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... See also

Procedural textures in Cycles

Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... See also

Setting the World material

Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more...

Creating a mesh-light material

Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more...

Using volume materials

Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more...

Using displacement

Getting ready How to do it... How it works...

2. Managing Cycles Materials

Introduction Preparing an ideal Cycles interface for material creation

Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more...

Naming materials and textures

Getting ready How to do it... There's more...

Creating node groups

Getting ready How to do it... How it works...

Grouping nodes under frames for easier reading

Getting ready How to do it...

Linking materials and node groups

How to do it... There's more...

3. Creating Natural Materials in Cycles

Introduction Creating a rock material using image maps

Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more...

Creating a rock material using procedural textures

Getting ready How to do it... How it works...

Creating a sand material using procedural textures

Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more...

Creating a simple ground material using procedural textures

Getting ready How to do it... How it works...

Creating a snow material using procedural textures

Getting ready How to do it... How it works...

Creating an ice material using procedural textures

Getting ready How to do it... How it works... See also

4. Creating Man-made Materials in Cycles

Introduction Creating a generic plastic material

Getting ready... How to do it... How it works...

Creating a Bakelite material

Getting ready... How to do it... How it works... There's more...

Creating an expanded polystyrene material

Getting ready... How to do it... How it works...

Creating a clear (glassy) polystyrene material

Getting ready... How to do it...

Creating a rubber material

Getting ready... How to do it... How it works...

Creating an antique bronze material with procedurals

Getting ready... How to do it... How it works...

Creating a multipurpose metal node group

Getting ready... How to do it... How it works...

Creating a rusty metal material with procedurals

Getting ready... How to do it... How it works... There's more...

Creating a wood material with procedurals

Getting ready... How to do it... How it works...

5. Creating Complex Natural Materials in Cycles

Introduction Creating an ocean material using procedural textures

Getting ready How to do it...

Creating the water surface and the bottom shaders Creating the foam shader Creating the stencil material for the foam location Putting everything together

How it works... See also

Creating underwater environment materials

Getting ready How to do it... How it works...

Creating a snowy mountain landscape with procedurals

Getting ready How to do it...

Appending and grouping the rock and the snow shader Mixing the material groups Creating the stencil shader Adding the atmospheric perspective

How it works...

Creating a realistic Earth as seen from space

Getting ready How to do it...

The planet surface The clouds The atmosphere

How it works...

6. Creating More Complex Man-made Materials

Introduction Creating cloth materials with procedurals

Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... See also

Creating a leather material with procedurals

How to do it... How it works...

Creating a synthetic sponge material with procedurals

Getting ready How to do it... How it works...

Creating a spaceship hull shader

Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... See also

7. Subsurface Scattering in Cycles

Introduction Using the Subsurface Scattering shader node

Getting ready How to do it... How it works... See also

Simulating Subsurface Scattering in Cycles using the Translucent shader

Getting ready How to do it... How it works...

Simulating Subsurface Scattering in Cycles using the Vertex Color tool

Getting ready How to do it... How it works...

Simulating Subsurface Scattering in Cycles using the Ray Length output in the Light Path node

Getting ready How to do it... How it works...

Creating a fake Subsurface Scattering node group

Getting ready How to do it... How it works...

8. Creating Organic Materials

Introduction Creating an organic-looking shader with procedurals

Getting ready How to do it... How it works...

Creating a wasp-like chitin material with procedural textures

Getting ready How to do it... How it works...

Creating a beetle-like chitin material with procedural textures

Getting ready How to do it... How it works...

Creating tree shaders – the bark

Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more...

Creating tree shaders – the leaves

Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more...

Creating a layered human skin material in Cycles

Getting ready How to do it... How it works...

Creating fur and hair

Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... See also

Creating a gray alien skin material with procedurals

Getting ready How to do it... How it works...

9. Special Materials

Introduction Using Cycles volume materials

Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... See also

Creating a cloud volumetric material

Getting ready How to do it... How it works...

Creating a fire and smoke shader

Getting ready How to do it... How it works... See also

Creating a shadeless material in Cycles

Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more...

Creating a fake immersion effect material

Getting ready How to do it... How it works...

Creating a fake volume light material

Getting ready How to do it... How it works... See also

Bibliography Index

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