Blender 2.5 Crash Course (Not For Retards)

ralusek · Mar 2010

|||UPDATE|||
Retopology video:
[ame]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icqPZnD_3lA[/ame]

This video is a little different, as it's not a "crash course" so much as a workflow demo with a lot of pointers. I hope you enjoy.
|||UPDATE|||

Alright so this is pretty much an all in one look at Blender, mainly covering UI/modeling functions, next one is focused on modifiers, so sub-d, mirror, extrude along curve, contour to curve, and array along curve, then i'll do UV and retopo and that's probably it.

The pacing of this is geared more for someone who's curious and would like to try blender, but is already comfortable with modeling packages (i.e. most of this community).

i might do a quick one on particles and sculpting after that, but that will just be for fun

EDIT UPDATE:
PART 1:
[ame]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecV6pkUNiss[/ame]
I edited this to cut down the time a bit, but more importantly added a few new features that I thought belonged better in part 1 than part 2.
If you already watched this, sorry for missing these first time around. Here I'll include times if you want to just skipped to what you missed.
New Material:
6:08-7:09 *target weld/merge and proportional editing*
7:46-8:26 *new tool shelf/CUSTOMIZABLE VIEWPORT CONTROLS AND HOTKEYS* (relevant to everybody's interests)

PART 2:
[ame]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4twxrkfVKs[/ame]

PART 3:
[ame]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRElU2E_5Dg&[/ame]
New Mic so it should sound significantly better. I'll type up description a little later

ralusek · Mar 2010

double sorry

Ben Apuna · Mar 2010

I've been poking around in Blender the last few nights, this helps a lot.

You probably crammed in 4 or 5 times what the usual video tutorial will go over, nice time savings.

Thanks

DrunkShaman · Mar 2010

Nice! I will watch this thoroughly when I get home. Also Sir. Ralusek, if you are starting your own series of tutorials on the blender 2.5 Alpha (which I have been thinking of downloading soon) I have a retarded question for you.

Blender is far the finest 3d modeling engine and game engine all togather and the use of it is pretty easy, however; there is one thing so far that annoyed me to death while I was modeling in blender. It is rotating the scene to edit your model. As you and others must've felt this already and may have found the plugins or modifications to alter / solve the problem. if you rotate the scene it will rotatie in XYZ (pretty much, every direction and than you will have to adjust the Y and Z rotation) Is there anyway to around it for example, is there anyway to just modify the nevigation (rotatiing the scene specificly) to just rotate the viewport on XY or XZ axies?

Thanks.

Lamoot · Mar 2010

Nitewalkr, if you're using one of the Blender 2.5 versions, go to user preferences File -> User preferences.. (or ctrl + alt + U). Then go to Input tab and on your left you should see Orbit style, which you change from Trackball to Turntable.

It's similar in 2.49, but the way you get to the user preference is a bit unconventional. You drag down the border between the top bar and the 3d window and you'll find the controls under View & Controls:

DrunkShaman · Mar 2010

Thanks Lamoot, will try to figure this in .49 and will definately try this in .5 alpha 2 Thanks again.

EDIT: Done! Though it was pretty damn easy to figure this one out in Alpha 2, I'll try it on .49. Thanks Ralusek, Really appreciated your tutorial.

Michael Knubben · Mar 2010

Hey Ralusek, this is really well done.
Most videos will be aimed at either people completely fresh to 3d, or Blender-users, and this fills a gap that needed filling. Well done.

I've always had an interest in Blender, but found that I was always much better served by Silo and Max. I'm following its development closely though, and will try it out every now and again to see where it stands. With the inclusion of bmesh, I'm hoping they'll take a close look at the modeling tools and try to diversify those.
I learned a few things in this video that made me respect Blender's modeling more than I did previously, though, so that's a great thing.

PolyHertz · Mar 2010

Thanks ralusek, its great when people do general overviews like these. I remember watching some Blender tutorial vids for an earlier version about a year or two ago, and it took them about 6 hours to say what you did in just seven minutes

I hope that sometime in the future we'll be seeing Silo-level modeling capability and ease, because when that happens I fully expect Blender to begin wide spread industry adoption as a complementary tool. If that happens it'll open up the door for it to start replacing other more expensive much tools later on down the line as well.

ralusek · Mar 2010

thanks, glad you guys liked. i reuploaded a video and posted it in OP, has a few more key features I didn't want to leave out of Part 1. Part 2 will be up tomorrow

ralusek · Mar 2010

nightwalkr sorry i didn't see your post o.o. thanks lamoot for helping him out. if you want to do this in 2.49, you go to the user preferences button (the "i" logo in your button set). if you don't know what i mean, then fortunately it's already open, just kind of hiding x_x. to bring it out of hiding, just mouse over the dividing edge RIGHT below the top toolbar (where it says "File Add Timeline Game Render etc") and drag it down. this will expose the full user preferences window. with View & Controls open (should be open by default, if not it's far left on the bottom row of buttons) switch to turntable under "View Rotation" options. is that what you were looking for?

DrunkShaman · Mar 2010

Yes, But;

I start using 2.5 a 2 yesterday ,instead of working in 2.49. It is kinda hard to follow along the user menual that was made using blender 2.4 when you are using 2.5. Figuring the turntable rotation only on z axies from global rotation was right in front and the program version is extremely user friendly if you have been using previous blender versions, however; It will obviously take time adjust when you are using an outdated menual. But I'll stick with this one and try my luck out.

If you are starting up on making your own series of tutorial on this very version, are you taking any suggusted topics from learners? Or giving heads up in details. Something like "after watching this tutorial you should be able to do the following:

table of contents."
? Or just covering the basics in 10 minutes. <.<

ironbearxl · Mar 2010

Damn dude, you're a tutorial machine! I didn't know about the remove doubles trick or the edge orientation with ctrl+alt+space, which is much more efficient than the way Silo does it, since Blender can save/delete different edge orientation selections.

Zwebbie · Mar 2010

For the next one, don't forget about the 3D cursor. It's genuinely handy for bending or rotating stuff, and you need to know about it to understand how to position the origin of an object, which in turn you need to get a full grasp of the Mirror modifier.

Oh, and do show proportional editing at some point! I only realised you could change the area of affect while working when I saw @ndy do it at the latest Blender Conference and it's very nifty.

Heh, I don't want to dictate what you should do, but you're just better at explaining this with videos than I ever could with images

.

ralusek · Mar 2010

zwebbie thanks for the input. proportional editing is already in there, go to 6:47.

and no worries object centers and 3d cursor are first things i'm going over for modifiers

edit: nightwalkr feel free to request whatever you want, but there's a good chance i'll go over it. table of contents is good idea though, i'll include it in the info on youtube.

outline i made is at home, but off the top of my head things i intend on covering (not in this order)
are
modifiers
subsurface modifier
3d cursor/object centers
curve modifier
array modifier
other modifiers
extruding along curve
smoothing groups
retopo
maybe UV (probably won't give this too much attention because i don't really care for blender's UV tools). hopefully if i put this off, by the time beta is out they'll have addressed this as part of the modeling revamp

and those will probably fill the video, but i might have time to go over dupliframes and dupliverts

Mister Sentient · Mar 2010

Speedy but to the point. Me like.

DrunkShaman · Mar 2010

I'll wait till your next part of tutorial comes out. I also had a problem finding the shaders mode which was found under the material tab on the right after half hour of searching because it is right in front of you in the blender 2.49. (Not suggusting you to go over it, unless you wish to run through the gingerbread tutorial 1 and 2 in five minutes and animate it in next 5 minutes with lights and all that would be epic

)

from the top of my head.

-Move the scene while in the camera view in the viewport, to align with the object (and not move the object to align with the camera) not sure if it makes any sense <.<
-briefly going through the logic engine of blender (I havent touched that part but I think that one is easy too, but anyways)

I am just randomly thinking here.

anyways, I'll wait for your next tutorial upload. I'll post the contents (if any) to put a request up for your series.

Good luck and awsome work.
Thanks.

EDIT: Actually its kinda noob to ask someone to show us how to move the camera to adjust the camera scene, because you can just simply select the camera in the other viewport and move to adjust the camera scene..Sorry about that. =\

However; After your tutorial part 2 regarding modifiers, if you are kind enough to run through the logic engine of blender. that would be really appreciated. That is if you have the time to do so.

Thanks

DrunkShaman · Mar 2010

Pardon for double post and being a pain, as you have authorized PC users to give you topics to go over them (after your vid 2 ofcourse.)

I have been trying this for 2 hours approx to find how to import material and texture in to the node editor. The vids on youtube have a little check box in texture, that is after the texture is added they can simply import it in to the node editor.

This topic would be a cooler one to go over in 2.5 a2, along fog, fluid, fire, hair.

<.<

just saying.......I am still figuring out how to import it in to the node editor..so I can have better control over materials and textures.

eld · Mar 2010

ralusek wrote: »

maybe UV (probably won't give this too much attention because i don't really care for blender's UV tools). hopefully if i put this off, by the time beta is out they'll have addressed this as part of the modeling revamp

Aren't blenders uv'tools always pretty much going to be controlled the same way the regular viewport is?, same way to move vertices, same way to align, same way to snap and split vertices, same way to work with the 3d mouse pointer, same but on a 2d plane.

Lamoot · Mar 2010

Aren't blenders uv'tools always pretty much going to be controlled the same way the regular viewport is?, same way to move vertices, same way to align, same way to snap and split vertices, same way to work with the 3d mouse pointer, same but on a 2d plane.

Indeed, the 3d window and the UV editor (and other editors and windows as well) share quite a few shortcuts and have similar functionality. For example G to grab (move), S to scale, R to rotate, LMB to place the cursor, RMB to select, L to select linked etc. these all work the same way in the 3d window, UV editor and some other editors like the node editor where you can move stuff around.

+peter · Mar 2010

That was a great video! I actually took some notes!

I have a couple points I want to add on to your video:

Multiple Component Selecting Mode- you can press Shift and select multiple component modes, like Shift select both Face and Vertex mode, or all 3. (similar for the transform widgets rotate, scale and translate)

You also do not have to press the Magnet/Snapping button to snap - just press control to use the selected snapping mode. (not sure what the trade off is though)

Another method for merging vertices, set snapping mode to Vertex, and in the Mesh list, check "Automerge editing." When the vertices align, they will automatically merge. (use in conjunction with the above for quick vertex snapping and merging)

Now, I have a question - it's possible to make custom transform orientations ... is it possible to delete them?

ralusek · Mar 2010

just uploaded part 2, put it in OP. didn't cover as much, because these topics were harder to breeze through like part 1. curious to know what you guys think. i tried to go into a bit more depth, because dealing with modifiers and many of these things can lead to a lot of problems if not understood properly, but feel free to let me know if this one feels drawn out or just as informative

DrunkShaman · Mar 2010

Thanks again ralusek!!

Ben Apuna · Mar 2010

Yeah, you rock ralusek!

Thanks for taking the time to put these together.

The pace, topics, and amount of coverage seem just right.

Keep em coming

ralusek · Mar 2010

ah good, glad you're enjoying. i'm gonna take a little break from these because my sound card is totally going nuts. you might notice i kind of will start to yell sometimes randomly, i'm just watching the audio input as i talk, while trying to do the tutorial, and it's kind of stressful. the bass and volume are just dropping out (for recording and playback), so i'm thinking my sound card is fucked

ralusek · Mar 2010

+peter wrote: »

That was a great video! I actually took some notes!

I have a couple points I want to add on to your video:

Multiple Component Selecting Mode- you can press Shift and select multiple component modes, like Shift select both Face and Vertex mode, or all 3. (similar for the transform widgets rotate, scale and translate)

You also do not have to press the Magnet/Snapping button to snap - just press control to use the selected snapping mode. (not sure what the trade off is though)

Another method for merging vertices, set snapping mode to Vertex, and in the Mesh list, check "Automerge editing." When the vertices align, they will automatically merge. (use in conjunction with the above for quick vertex snapping and merging)

Now, I have a question - it's possible to make custom transform orientations ... is it possible to delete them?

cool notes, didn't know about automerge. yes it's possible to delete, but you have to do it one at a time as far as i know. just hit "n" to bring up your transform window in edit mode, scroll down a bit and under "transform orientations" you can create or delete them

+peter · Mar 2010

ralusek wrote: »

cool notes, didn't know about automerge. yes it's possible to delete, but you have to do it one at a time as far as i know. just hit "n" to bring up your transform window in edit mode, scroll down a bit and under "transform orientations" you can create or delete them

oooh, thats cool, you can even rename them! Still getting used to the 2.5 properties window/tab thing. Thanks for the tip!

hijak · Mar 2010

its just amazing how this program has grown, Blender is what is taught myself on back in 2000 or 2001 cant quite remember. Thats when i learned how to make cubemaps because you could not do raytrace reflection, and it still took hours to render single frames. But its such a great app glad to see its just getting better and that more people are using it.

Does it still have all the cool particles stuff? that was my favorite part.

vcool · Mar 2010

Nice stuff ralusek!

Mind if I spread the word to some modders?

ralusek · Mar 2010

vcool, go for it meing. i'm gonna buy a decent mic and rerecord most of these, so i'm taking notes on stuff i'll add. +peter made some good points i should throw in there, so the more of collaboration this is, the more complete these will eventually be. especially with nice projection painting and bmesh on the immediate horizon, i'm gonna need to be changing stuff constantly to keep up

Harry · Mar 2010

what the hell man, i downloaded 2.5 like a week ago and was severely disappointed with the tutorials. they all seemed to assume 0 knowledge of 3d and wouldnt get to the fucking point. they also had very little focus on realtime type stuff. This is like, exactly what i wanted. I'll definitely be watching whatever stuff you make from here on

ralusek · Mar 2010

glad it worked for you harry.

here is an update from Durian project, showing off new Indirect Lighting, looking pretty slick. as i understand it, he's using one spot light and that's it:

Mongrelman · Mar 2010

Good stuff man, looking forward to more as I'm planning on moving back to Blender for modeling once Bmesh is out (currently I only really use it for uv mappping).

Thought this was worth pointing out to those who haven't seen it. It's like polyboost for Blender I think. A script called LoopTools

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=148728

Zephiris · Mar 2010

I finally got around to watching this today (had it bookmarked for a while now) and It's been a huge help, thanks a lot ^_^

metalliandy · Mar 2010

Mongrelman wrote: »

Good stuff man, looking forward to more as I'm planning on moving back to Blender for modeling once Bmesh is out (currently I only really use it for uv mappping).

Thought this was worth pointing out to those who haven't seen it. It's like polyboost for Blender I think. A script called LoopTools

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=148728

Looptools is fantastic...i use it every time i model in Blender pretty much.

yiannisk · Mar 2010

thanks, i had not seen the latest developments on blender.

nezach · Mar 2010

Nice one ralusek. I like your rapid fire tour approach. I picked up some cool stuff because you moved so fast I didn't have time to get distracted. More please!

Dim · Jun 2010

Wondering if you're continuing these, they're fantastic!

leslievdb · Jun 2010

ah great work on these videos! gives all the info without to much BS in between

Michael Knubben · Aug 2010

Hey ralusek, are you still doing any more of these?

Tehrasha · Aug 2010

Love this tutorial! Really want to start using the new 2.5 interface.
Just waiting on 3DConnexion to get their plugin updated.....

ralusek · Mar 2011

k so sorry i took so long to do this one but i added another part to the tutorial. fortunately i got a new mic so this one should sound a little better. it goes over the spin function, array modifier, and curve modifier.

[ame]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRElU2E_5Dg&[/ame]

SnowInChina · Mar 2011

how did i miss this ?
great tutorials and good speed.

passerby · Mar 2011

pretty good pace only new thing i figured out was the user definable transformation widget and i don't know how iv been using blender for months and not know abut that one yet but thanks.

but im actually here to ask some question i've been using the build from the blender Foundation site currently 2.55a assuming that would be more stable than daily builds and the issues im having with this scripts like loop tools don't work. and as a result i kinda switched to silo for high poly work and just use blender for exports and scene management and renders.

so are the daily builds that work with loop tools stable enough to be used for production. or atleast on par with 2.56a

metalliandy · Mar 2011

passerby wrote: »

pretty good pace only new thing i figured out was the user definable transformation widget and i don't know how iv been using blender for months and not know abut that one yet but thanks.

but im actually here to ask some question i've been using the build from the blender Foundation site currently 2.55a assuming that would be more stable than daily builds and the issues im having with this scripts like loop tools don't work. and as a result i kinda switched to silo for high poly work and just use blender for exports and scene management and renders.

so are the daily builds that work with loop tools stable enough to be used for production. or atleast on par with 2.56a

Yea, the daily builds are just fine

They are just as stable as the official builds in most cases

passerby · Mar 2011

metalliandy wrote: »

Yea, the daily builds are just fine
They are just as stable as the official builds in most cases

ah thank and by the way your fastloop script is nice for quick support loops
saves lots of time.

though i do hope blender gets bevel/chamfer soon.

metalliandy · Mar 2011

I think Crouch is developing a bevel for the looptools script (at least it was sugessted and he said he would look into it)
There is a bevel script but i couldnt get it to work in the newer builds

Thanks for the compliment on fastloop

Im happy you are finding it useful

elitewolverine · Mar 2011

good to see another blenderhead in here.

Ive been thinking about making a set of tutorials myself. Ive been getting used to the scuplt tools, i consider myself a intermediate user, but i think my knowledge can help those who are new to blender.

Great tutorials by the way.

ralusek · Mar 2011

so now that a few people have seen, i'm curious about the pace? the first one was fastest, second was slower, and i feel this last one was maybe a little to "hand-holdingly" slow. it's just as the modifiers get to be more potentially problematic, i figure i'll go out of my way to do a few examples to try to troubleshoot in advance.

let me know for next one though, or topics i should cover.

i guess i really should go over UV mapping, sculpting and projection painting? i feel projection painting is pretty fail though and i'm not the worlds biggest fan of blender UV mapping

Mongrelman · Mar 2011

Cheers for the vids, been getting back into Blender as my main modeling app and there was some useful stuff.

What don't you like about the UV mapping? Personally, I love it. I'd like to see some sculpting vids though, never given that a shot.

SnowInChina · Mar 2011

sorry for derailing it a bit, but i didnt want to make a new thread for it

does anyone have the bevel weight script flying around ? tryed to find it online but the site where it was hosted seems to have died

elitewolverine · Mar 2011

i dont think the 2.49 bevel scrip will work in the 2.5 version of blender...

plus dont forget that bevel is now a selectable option in the modifier stack of 2.5...

i do know the advantages of the script was making only certain parts bevel within the mesh, something i dont know why they havent implemented yet...

Blender 2.5 Crash Course (Not For Retards)

Replies