I've got a little popup in my RMB context-menu that allows me to edit Wmeshes, and I was working on a modal in Pie Menu Editor, but that's on hold for now. The modals are more complex than I thought, haha.
I made a tutorial for a 100% Non-Destructive Workflow on Blender that allows you to create different versions of an asset and use them for games (Low/High), Subdivisions or even, use it with bevel shader or Remesh it with Blender or Openvdb addon.
pior: the input is an high poly and it bakes a single diffuse texture to the low poly UVs. So we don't need to bake a curvature, AO map, etc. then compose the images. The advantage is that we can see the result directly on the high poly and check the readability of the details from far away. You don't need ID maps too, you assign different materials to the vertices, you adjust the sliders and color ramps. To make the vertical gradient work correctly, the high polys must be joined. The rotation must be applied.
This has no effect on the normal map, you will still have to bake it separately.
I have added an Highlight Front setting, it is a combination of an object space normal to generate front lighting (with a default GradientRamp to clamp the values, I did the same for the top lighting) and an horizontal gradient multiplied to make it less visible on the back of the model. I have also multiplied the vertical gradient with the top lighting setting:
Well, it's the same issue again - there is a file to download, but zero instructions (either in the zip as txt, or in the scene itself as a text object) as to how to use it. And no lowpoly either - just a needlessly complex highpoly model with some material applied.
Just to be clear this is not some sort of "bashing" on my end - I just genuinely don't understand the goal here, as I would assume that you would want to make it very easy for your target audience to give you feedback. Otherwise what's the point ?
Hi Pitiwazou,
I have seen your work with modifiers and meshes generated from a single
vertex. If you have time and think this is possible can you try to
generate an edtiable armor set base mesh procedurally? We could combine your script with my asset and texturing generation to automate a big part of the game art workflow.
Important: it only works on an high poly. You can append it in your .blend with File > Append.
- Base Color: the color of the dark values of the grayscale - Highlights: the color of the bright values of the grayscale - SSS Intensity: the amount of blood - SSS Color: color of the blood
Note: the values and saturation of your colors are automatically adjusted: the full value range of the grayscale is preserved and your highlights desaturated.
- AO: the amount of self-shadows - Vertical Gradient: it creates a color ramp that will make the bottom of the model darker - Top Lighting: a fake top lighting effect (must be subtle) - Front Lighting: a fake 45 degrees top-front lighting effect (must be subtle) - Curvature: it will contrast your details, the concave shapes will be black and the convex white; the quality depends on the amount of triangles - Vertical Saturation: it will desaturate the bottom of your model
An RGB Curves is used to adjust the values and contrast.
I apply a script to make my cylinder looks stylized with bevel, taper and subsurf applied. Then I use my node group to texture the high poly. Then a script generates me the low poly at 50 tris for a mobile game. The low poly uses a convex hull shape (Ctrl + V > Convex Hull) and applies an edge split during the baking to avoid texture distortion0
The tool is also very fast because two textures are baked: the diffuse from the node group and the normal map. This asset was generated in 4.6 seconds with 1k textures.
This is a preview, in the final version with the GUI, each time you will generate your assets your LoDs and textures will be automatically exported to your game engine. So you will just have to swap between your high poly in Blender and game asset in the engine so you will be able to update and tweak it very quickly.
after 6 years of writing, I released my super comprehensive and super in-depth handbook for Blender live at the Blender conference 2018 into the world: it contains 17 chapters, 917 pages, 1200+ illustrations and 250 demo files, and explains every bit of Blender from a core developer and simultaneously an artist's perspective.
👨🏫 My way of teaching is not what buttons to press, but to explain in detail what a button press would trigger on the inside and how it works. I'd like to enable you to understand Blender in-depth and to help yourself if you face problems...
Tweak in the keymap means click&drag. I don't press B to enter border select. Click&drag directly enters box selection (instead of entering translate), like Max or Maya. When starting the click&drag, a close vert might be selected, even when not in selection. I now have a script from a Vaughan Ling course, that overides this behavior. But even for a single click selection, this radius is annoying. Wished it could be tweakable
@plasmasolutions Kinda interesting, even though I have 6 years of experience in Blender (started learning it in December 2012), especially with its modeling and UV tools, primarily. But I can use Cycles a bit though, but not much. I have very minimal or no experience with simulations, particles, animation, compositing etc. But as I'm a 3D character artist, I have not much need for those to be honest.
Anyway, rigging by building a skeleton is straightforward in Blender, but skinning it to a mesh with manual weight painting is somewhat painful. I tried Maya's skinning tools, and those are awesome... but I want to get back into Blender with that too, to eliminate the use of Maya, since weight painting is the only thing I use in Maya.
Painting weights in Blender is a bit too sensitive, even with a tablet and a pressure sensitivity. And often times, I get weights painted to the backfaces unintentionally too easily. In Maya, it's so precise and controlled.
@RN Oh yeah, I've been using the latest official stable 2.79b since it got released, so that's definitely the culprit. Gotta check out the "Master" version soon. I've heard it has that Bevel Node for rendering rounded corners as well, which isn't in the official stable release either.
Hey @FourtyNights , I can feel your pain and only encourage you to report the problems to us (best is to write a little doc or to create a screencast with the flaws and tell us about it on the mailing list) - our development is heavily user driven, the best tips come from frustrated users We always love to have feedback - although this does not necessarily means that we got the resources to implement everything right away. I hope that our tools in current master will suit you better - @RN thanks for pointing it out!
Concerning the book: I'm 100% sure that you would learn a ton (especially in areas that you are not a pro of course), but I'm not the "everyone has to buy it or projects will fail horribly" type of guy - after all, it's "just" a tool to create beautiful content. This book is not an ego thing, its pure purpose is helping people to understand Blender and its tools in-depth, but it's certainly no prerequisite to (accidentially ) create beautiful art with Blender! Have a great day! Tom
on an armature with a mesh skinned to it press add boxes select edit the boxes to cover the area for the relative bone (they don't have to stay boxes) press transfer weights press hide boxes (you can add them back and it will keep the mesh data)
its pretty rough but might help . TBH I haven't used it much since making it so there might be some problems
Hi! I have found several techniques to automate game art, that I wanted to share.
I start with the most time consuming thing that hard surface stylized artists have to do in ZBrush: create chipped edges and cracks. Then baking and compositing the maps for each props.
And after running AssetGen at a limit of 20 triangles with convex shapes only:
Creating stylized hairs require some setups before starting, this is why some prefer to sculpt them directly. I have made a script to quickly create hairs, here on Lina from Dota 2 at the correct scale. You can find the script here, place the visor at the +X side of the head where the hair strand starts: https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/101113/23134
I have written a tutorial to create a compatible symbol and setup correctly the sculpt brush to project it on an high poly on any surface curvatures and without the boundaries visible. It uses the Inner Glow technique shown at the Blizzard ZBrush Summit 2016: https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/122584/23134
I have explained how to adjust the contrast without getting any clamping, it also adds a glowing effect. It uses a combination of the Color Dodge and Color Burn. I have included it in TextureGen: https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/122327/23134
Automatic stylized asset, inspired by Blizzard's modelling workflow on Heart of the Storm:
Hey everyone, I'm in the proccess of finishing the Greentooth Theme UI for the new Blender 2.8 BETA that will come out soon. Please, check out the following thread and make sure to like so the developers can see.
I am cross posting this from the Tech Artist Thread, havent gotten any reaction all day long, thought it might be more appropriate here?
I made an addon for Blender. It lets you save out your images (and animations) automatically with a keyword based system (you dont need to use the keywords though). It also searches through the destination folder and retrieves a new file version number, saves your scene on rendering (even incrementally, if you like) and turns off your PC afterwards.
Its in closed alpha right now, so if anybody would like to give it a go or has improvement suggestions, please do hit me up!
I am cross posting this from the Tech Artist Thread, havent gotten any reaction all day long, thought it might be more appropriate here?
I made an addon for Blender. It lets you save out your images (and animations) automatically with a keyword based system (you dont need to use the keywords though). It also searches through the destination folder and retrieves a new file version number, saves your scene on rendering (even incrementally, if you like) and turns off your PC afterwards.
Its in closed alpha right now, so if anybody would like to give it a go or has improvement suggestions, please do hit me up!
excellent ... I have a question, it is for 2.79? for composition and passes do I need to put "pre-fix" + "suf-fix" or the addon make it for me, I spend too much time ,but too much time using passes name convenctions when I use composition node for outputs...and passes , set the name is consuming time.... thx.
Yes, as 2.80 is still in development, it is generally advised to still develop for 2.79, as far as I read. It might work on 2.8, I haven't tested that,.
You set up your render layers, render passes and the file format in the properties panel, just like in vanilla Blender. Then you go over into the tab as shown above and have to tick "passes" in the first row. Now mix and match the keywords shown above (they appear when you hover over the input label), you can also add you own words, e.g.: myprefix_*scn#*_*rl*_*pass*_mysuffix
which would give you: myprefix_myscene001_myrenderlayer_combined_mysuffix.png
where "myscene001" would be the name you saved your file under, "myrenderlayer" would be what you named your respective render layer in the render layers tab on the right hand side and "combined" would be interchanged for every pass you ticked for each render layer. They file format would vary depending on what you set it. (and yes, multilayer exr works, too) "myprefix" and "mysuffix" would stay the same, because they are no keywords. You could also insert a word in the middle, as long as its seperated by underscores.
For PyQt/PySide within Blender, is it possible to set the Blender itself as a the parent? Every examples I could find passed parent=None in __init__. Couldn't get answer from blenderartist.org.
For PyQt/PySide within Blender, is it possible to set the Blender itself as a the parent? Every examples I could find passed parent=None in __init__. Couldn't get answer from blenderartist.org.
I'd try making the Blender window a QWindow and use it as a parent, something like this:
@MACHIN3 What an amazing toolset this is! I'm on Max for a looong time. Learning Blender 2.8 for the last week and these tools are simply fantastic. I donated only $10, but will defiitely purchase your other tools even if I don't use them(which I'm sure I will) as it's always great to support lone devs who give us tools like this.
I was just about to post in this thread about some tools from Max that I miss in 2.8: Quick Align and Isolate selection being 2 of them. Looks like your Addon has both covered......and also they are better than Max's defaults for similar. The multi-level Focus is great(Max needs a paid script for similar)
The Smart sub-object tools are very useful and I'm sure you'll expand on these. Have you thought of adding an edge connect to the Smart Edge: select 2 edges of a ring and hit a key to create an edge/edgeloop along the centre of the selcted edges/edgering.
The focus tool was so simple to do, I couldn't believe I have worked so long without it . I got the idea from Vojtech.
Glad you like it as well!
Have you thought of adding an edge connect to the Smart Edge: select 2
edges of a ring and hit a key to create an edge/edgeloop along the
centre of the selcted edges/edgering.
There actually is edge ring connect in it already, just press 2 or call smart edge with your own keymap, when in edge mode, without any selection.
I've forgotten to demo it in the video, as it was a recent addition.
If you want to limit it to only a part of the ring, you need to select all the ring edges you want to affect and can then just subdivide. I have my subdivide on alt + 2 for that reason.
@musashidan Just checked what 3ds Max's "Isolate selection" does, and Blender has an equivalent as a "Local View". And while you enter to the local view from the default global view, it automatically centers to the selection as well. So, basically no need for an addon with this case. With the hotkey Numpad /, it's faster, naturally.
So, basically no need for an addon with this case.
Not for the basic isolation, true. Local view came back to 2.80 a few days ago. I invite you to check out the focus tool in MACHIN3tools however, It does it better, IMO.
@MACHIN3 Thanks man. The Subdivide is exactly what I was looking for. The edge loop slide tool is good, but it's a pity it doesn't allow you to create the new loop where you click your mouse(Max's swiftloop) It always snaps to the middle of the ring. Also, it would be nice to have a MMwheel+Mod key to allow spreading/tightening a new double loop - so you can create 2 loops and spread them towards their closest loops with the mouse wheel.
Also, the Align tool isn't working any more. The pie is greyed out and I can't select anything? It worked fine when I first tested it. User error?
^
EDIT: for anyone else wondering why the operator panel is sometimes greyed out, it's because 'glbal undo' is disabled in prefs. Not related to Align tool at all.
@FourtyNights Thanks, but Machin3's is nested. Much more powerful.
Yeah there is a big thread over at blenderartists about left click selection. Hard to miss that one. Team DieHard making a last stand.
Have to say I'm delighted so far how well the new interface is coming together, common sense really showed up in force for this release (finally). The early mockups looked cruel so I initially had expected something akin to Sketchup.
However what they've delivered so far might actually end up being my favourite interface out of all the 3D packages I've worked with so far (outliner excluded).
2.8 entered the Beta phase today. Usually that doesn't matter much, since you can download new builds daily anyway. In this case, the bug reporter also gets opened, so things can hopefully stabilize quicker.
Really great to hear that there is now a dedicated "workbench" viewport mode, as the focus on Eevee had me seriously worried over the last few months. Hopefully it will be just as fast as the current Solid model - can't wait to see it in action !
Really great to hear that there is now a dedicated "workbench" viewport mode, as the focus on Eevee had me seriously worried over the last few months. Hopefully it will be just as fast as the current Solid model - can't wait to see it in action !
It's not new, it's been there all along, it's just the sold shading, with the flat/studio/matcap shading modes.
Edit: I guess it is new, if you have never checked the pre beta releases.
@MACHIN3 - exactly yup ! Last time I tried it was quite a few months ago (April built), and the viewport options in that release were stripped down (probably because of the Eevee focus, and understandably so) - back then there wasn't any workable mode, all were slow and unresponsive :
[edit] Anyways - tried the latest now and there are some fantastic ideas and features. The random color mode alone is excellent, and indeed viewport performance is great.
Still a few hiccups here and there, but of course everything will smooth out with time. Good times.
Simon Thommes has made a demo with Triplanar and Parralax Occlusion Mapping, this has a lot of potential with 32 bit Float displacement maps, because even if the framerate is bad this will be much faster to get OpenGL snapshots than rendering with Cycles for animations.
I need some advice regarding the best way of making this curve turn into a nice looking piece of rope, everytime I attempt to 'alt-c' into a mesh, (this creates a UV known as 'orco') it looks terrible (some parts look worse than others though), the scale has to be 50x20y etc to make the pattern visible, it seems each quad is stretched 3x times+ in one direction too much. I've tried experiemnting with the 'auto texture space' option on the curve tab, i've tried experimenting with how many subdivisions I add to it before doing alt-c, with the mesh I've experiented with the 'mapping' options, and I've scoured the internet for answers and nothing seems to be an easy answer, any other solutions.
I just want to make a tassle thing which looks nice for the viewer, with no obvious seams.
I suggest you to ask on Blender Stack, your question will get more visibility and get tagged to help others find the answer: https://blender.stackexchange.com/
I've been trying 2.8 release and finding really pleasant compared to
previous releases. So I wanted to ask if anybody bakes normal maps right
in Blender using round edge shader, decal machine and all that stuff. I
remember reading a few years ago that baking in Blender is wonky and
not recommended in general.
Is there a way to transfer vertex positions based on UVs in Blender? I'm learning Marvelous Designer and like the retopo workflow shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFAfqW0Zlqk using Maya's Transfer Attributes, but I can't figure out how to do the final step of morphing my retopo mesh to the final shape. I tried using TexTool's UV Mesh tool on the posed garment and morphing that way, but it either froze Blender or was taking an unreasonably long time. Any ideas or alternate workflows?
Is the 'set origin to selection' feature gone from 2.80? It isn't in the F3 global search. I realise it can be set via the 3D cursor, but this is an extra step and ideally should be a single hotkey press. Strangely, I can't find a single post online about it being missing in 2.80
Replies
Hi Guys,
I made a tutorial for a 100% Non-Destructive Workflow on Blender that allows you to create different versions of an asset and use them for games (Low/High), Subdivisions or even, use it with bevel shader or Remesh it with Blender or Openvdb addon.
I hope you will like it
https://gumroad.com/l/Non-Destructive_Workflow_Tutorial_1
Well, it's the same issue again - there is a file to download, but zero instructions (either in the zip as txt, or in the scene itself as a text object) as to how to use it. And no lowpoly either - just a needlessly complex highpoly model with some material applied.
Just to be clear this is not some sort of "bashing" on my end - I just genuinely don't understand the goal here, as I would assume that you would want to make it very easy for your target audience to give you feedback. Otherwise what's the point ?
- Base Color: the color of the dark values of the grayscale
- Highlights: the color of the bright values of the grayscale
- SSS Intensity: the amount of blood
- SSS Color: color of the blood
Note: the values and saturation of your colors are automatically adjusted: the full value range of the grayscale is preserved and your highlights desaturated.
- AO: the amount of self-shadows
- Vertical Gradient: it creates a color ramp that will make the bottom of the model darker
- Top Lighting: a fake top lighting effect (must be subtle)
- Front Lighting: a fake 45 degrees top-front lighting effect (must be subtle)
- Curvature: it will contrast your details, the concave shapes will be black and the convex white; the quality depends on the amount of triangles
- Vertical Saturation: it will desaturate the bottom of your model
on an armature with a mesh skinned to it
press add boxes
select edit the boxes to cover the area for the relative bone (they don't have to stay boxes)
press transfer weights
press hide boxes (you can add them back and it will keep the mesh data)
its pretty rough but might help . TBH I haven't used it much since making it so there might be some problems
https://devtalk.blender.org/t/call-for-content-themes/3174/21
(^Download Link is there also^)
I made an addon for Blender.
It lets you save out your images (and animations) automatically with a keyword based system (you dont need to use the keywords though).
It also searches through the destination folder and retrieves a new file version number, saves your scene on rendering (even incrementally, if you like) and turns off your PC afterwards.
Its in closed alpha right now, so if anybody would like to give it a go or has improvement suggestions, please do hit me up!
https://dev-files.blender.org/file/data/c74zsymx3etuqavduzw4/PHID-FILE-l75qaon623psr2u47nut/demo.mp4
You set up your render layers, render passes and the file format in the properties panel, just like in vanilla Blender.
Then you go over into the tab as shown above and have to tick "passes" in the first row.
Now mix and match the keywords shown above (they appear when you hover over the input label), you can also add you own words, e.g.:
myprefix_*scn#*_*rl*_*pass*_mysuffix
which would give you:
myprefix_myscene001_myrenderlayer_combined_mysuffix.png
where "myscene001" would be the name you saved your file under, "myrenderlayer" would be what you named your respective render layer in the render layers tab on the right hand side and "combined" would be interchanged for every pass you ticked for each render layer. They file format would vary depending on what you set it. (and yes, multilayer exr works, too)
"myprefix" and "mysuffix" would stay the same, because they are no keywords. You could also insert a word in the middle, as long as its seperated by underscores.
Have you guys seen this yet? It adds almost substance painter /designer like functionality to blender via the node tree.
[edit] Anyways - tried the latest now and there are some fantastic ideas and features. The random color mode alone is excellent, and indeed viewport performance is great.
Still a few hiccups here and there, but of course everything will smooth out with time. Good times.