Maybe we could have a blender thread or something, that would be sweet.
lol I think we already have one :poly124: It's still called 'Blender trying to compete' for some reason. Good do see a few more popping up though. I like 'Trying Blender' more, maybe we'll make this one the main one. Although I don't think metallicandy has found it yet. :poly124:
I think maybe he's saying a PnP thread for blender. I guess.
a PnP thread for just blender seems pointless as hell, im sure most people are like me hwnt it comes to threads like PnP, just want to see art, dont really care what appication and workflow they used.
a PnP thread for just blender seems pointless as hell
Not if we mixed it up with Technical Talk too... people could show their WIP's, which could involve Blender specific features like Ivy generator etc. and ask questions about things that are puzzling them about Blender. God knows Blender has enough of those.
Here is my first walk cycle in Blender. I didn't animate the fingers and hair yet. This animation took about 3 hours. It would have been about 30 minutes in familiar software like 3ds Max. I've spent about 7 hours total with the software. Here are my developing thoughts on Blender.
I download this rig from BlendSwap.
Love:
I like how all the properties of the rig show up on the Property panel on the right. The more objects I select the more properties I see. This is superior to 3ds Max, where you select multiple objects the modify panel hides all properties of all objects.
I really like the animation/actions system. You can create multiple animations in one file.
Rendering is really easy, because all the options are in one place.
I like how rendering doesn't make my PC crawl.
This User Interface is amazing. It's so fast to customize and rearrange per task. I literally stopped customizing 3ds Max years ago, and just stuck with all defaults.
I like how the timeline/dopesheet can be zoomed/panned with the mouse like a viewport.
I'm not sure if editing the file while it's rendering will produce errors, but it's awesome that I can still work while the computer is rendering.
Dislike:
You can only add a new animation/action in the NLA Editor, and not the DopeSheet, and it's pretty hidden in there as well.
I know you guys said it's faster to work without 3D Gizmos, but I disagree. Constantly tapping R-X R-Y is not intuitive. My problem with the Gizmo is that it is "crank" style instead of straight drag style. At shallow angles the crank goes crazy.
The Rig I was using is setup for Quat rotation and not Euler. This leads me to believe Gimbal Lock is a big problem with Euler rotation.
I wish the Dopesheet would filter to selected objects, I never found how to do that.
I spent a long time trying to add the Foot Roll property of the rig to the "Keying Set" but it wouldn't take it. I suspect this is a rig error and not a Blender bug.
Other thoughts:
I mapped the 3D cursor to CTRL-Right Click. I kept accidentally moving the damn thing. I've never used the 3d cursor, not sure why I need it.
I didn't like the Dynamic Space Bar. Maybe for modelers it's neat, but it just slowed down my searching.
That said, I would love to map Dynamic Space Bar to right click, and leave space bar search alone, but I couldn't do that. (I probably could if I edit the Python file.)
I haven't figured out how to put objects in a different layer. It's just a google search away though.
I whole heatedly wish I started using blender sooner.
Select object
Press 'm' (for move)
Press a number on your keyboard for the layer number (you may also be able to do it by clicking the layer (the bunch of small grey boxes at the bottom of the view viewport)
I might end up switching to blender as my primary once my student license runs out this summer, not sure what the AutoDesk unemployed feature really provides, not much info on it from what I have seen.
What more could you want anyway, it can export to FBX now too.
Here is my first walk cycle in Blender. I didn't animate the fingers and hair yet. This animation took about 3 hours. It would have been about 30 minutes in familiar software like 3ds Max. I've spent about 7 hours total with the software. Here are my developing thoughts on Blender.
I download this rig from BlendSwap.
Love:
I like how all the properties of the rig show up on the Property panel on the right. The more objects I select the more properties I see. This is superior to 3ds Max, where you select multiple objects the modify panel hides all properties of all objects.
I really like the animation/actions system. You can create multiple animations in one file.
Rendering is really easy, because all the options are in one place.
I like how rendering doesn't make my PC crawl.
This User Interface is amazing. It's so fast to customize and rearrange per task. I literally stopped customizing 3ds Max years ago, and just stuck with all defaults.
I like how the timeline/dopesheet can be zoomed/panned with the mouse like a viewport.
I'm not sure if editing the file while it's rendering will produce errors, but it's awesome that I can still work while the computer is rendering.
Dislike:
You can only add a new animation/action in the NLA Editor, and not the DopeSheet, and it's pretty hidden in there as well.
I know you guys said it's faster to work without 3D Gizmos, but I disagree. Constantly tapping R-X R-Y is not intuitive. My problem with the Gizmo is that it is "crank" style instead of straight drag style. At shallow angles the crank goes crazy.
The Rig I was using is setup for Quat rotation and not Euler. This leads me to believe Gimbal Lock is a big problem with Euler rotation.
I wish the Dopesheet would filter to selected objects, I never found how to do that.
I spent a long time trying to add the Foot Roll property of the rig to the "Keying Set" but it wouldn't take it. I suspect this is a rig error and not a Blender bug.
Other thoughts:
I mapped the 3D cursor to CTRL-Right Click. I kept accidentally moving the damn thing. I've never used the 3d cursor, not sure why I need it.
I didn't like the Dynamic Space Bar. Maybe for modelers it's neat, but it just slowed down my searching.
That said, I would love to map Dynamic Space Bar to right click, and leave space bar search alone, but I couldn't do that. (I probably could if I edit the Python file.)
I haven't figured out how to put objects in a different layer. It's just a google search away though.
I whole heatedly wish I started using blender sooner.
The 3D cursor is a tool that can be used to control the center of rotation and the location of the mirror axis. You can rotate elements around a point not possible with median, individual, and bounding center methods. It also determines where new objects are added to the scene. If you wanted to add an eyeball to a character, you can place the cursor in the location you want it to appear and the object will be added there, which saves on effort to translate the object to the place you want it to be.
To place an object on a separate layer, switch to object mode (TAB) and press M, followed by the number of the layer you wish to move the object to or just click on the pop-up dialog in the viewport.
You can also use the 3D cursor to reposition the origin of an object. So you could for example, select a vert, snap the 3D cursor to it, then go to object mode and select a different object, then snap it's origin to the cursor.
I wish the Dopesheet would filter to selected objects, I never found how to do that.
There is a mouse arrow icon next to a ghost on the header - click the arrow and it should filter by selection (Graph editor has similar, but I think it defaults to on).
You can only add a new animation/action in the NLA Editor, and not the DopeSheet, and it's pretty hidden in there as well.
I wish the Dopesheet would filter to selected objects, I never found how to do that.
By default, the dopesheet editor shows everything that's animated, but it has other modes as well. You can switch the mode to Action Editor and you'll only be animating currently active object/armature. The small arrow button will limit visibility to selection (works in dopesheet too) and the New button is Blender's standard widget for adding new datablocks, in this case, a new action. Have fun
I could use better performance as far as polycount goes
Viewport FX is one of the GSoC projects this year (starting at the end of the month). All of what he's doing is over my head, but he has a thread about it here.
Select object
Press 'm' (for move)
Press a number on your keyboard for the layer number (you may also be able to do it by clicking the layer (the bunch of small grey boxes at the bottom of the view viewport)
I think I've mentioned this before, but I'd like to repeat how much I love the layer system in Blender (usually), because you can change them with the number keys, and Shift+number keys for showing multiple ones. I generally put the different parts of the highpoly on the first five layers, lowpoly parts and versions in 6-9 and I always put lights and camera in layer 0. It makes Hiding completely unnecessary, you can just put unwanted things on different layers and show or dismiss them without bothering with the Outliner. Or when I'm uncertain about changes I'll make to my model, I'll copy it to layer 2, work on in layer 1, and I can use the number keys to quickly compare the two versions. It might be one of those things that you'll not soon consider if you come in from the perspective of other software.
(Protip: versions of Blender before 2.5 have a secret layer that can only be accessed by the hotkey combination Alt and - . It doesn't have an icon, and it doesn't show up when you show all layers.)
Btw, Reset game's modeling is made with Blender. And it looks like it will kick asses visually.
If i remember right it's mainly been done by 2 guys, here in Finland. And they couldn't hire me..
Holy cow, you guys are awesome! That dope sheet info is very valuable.
A few things I forgot to add to the Love list:
I can render directly to quicktime MOV. That's a MUST HAVE for an animator. It's been missing in 3ds Max since version 8! Not v2008... v8.0.
I can actually use both monitors. 3ds Max has had a long standing bug that prevented you from panning or rotating on your secondary monitor.
I finally have a reason to learn python.
I don't mean to be a stickler, but you never want to render directly to a video file unless it's a very short animation (e.g. 30 seconds to one minute) because if for any reason your machine crashes, you've just lost all of your rendered frames and have to start over. Being that rendering is time consuming, that's not something you want to deal with. It's better to render your animation to still images and then later composite them into a video file. If your machine crashes, you can just start from the last completed frame instead of starting from zero.
No problem, most of my time rendering is just creating playblasts of walk/run cycles for art reviews. I don't remember the last time I did serious rendering. Currently in Max I render to uncompressed AVI, then have to use another program to convert it to MOV.
MOV is important for animators because it's the only format that does scrubbing and frame by frame cleanly.
One thing to be aware of when adding actions is they're marked for deletion by default. Blender has sort of a garbage collection way of handling data blocks. When you delete things they hang around in memory and only get purged when you close Blender itself.
So to illustrate in the picture below all the actions with 0 will be lost when I close Blender, even if I save the Blend file. They're marked this way when you create a new one. In order to make sure it keeps them you have to click that little F button (which assigns it a fake user versus an orphan or 0 users).
Basically, anytime you create a new Action remember to click that little F or it won't save it. I think it's a dumb default myself, but just be aware of it so you don't wind up losing an entire walk cycle on accident or something.
Sorry to change the topic slightly, but is anyone using Blender with Unity. It's behaving differently loading blender files with one mesh in than it is with two meshes and I want them to behave the same way!!
Sorry to change the topic slightly, but is anyone using Blender with Unity. It's behaving differently loading blender files with one mesh in than it is with two meshes and I want them to behave the same way!!
I'm using Blender with Unity on a daily basis for the Eat Sheep Project. However I always export via FBX and then load that into Unity, rather than using the .blend files. This gives me a bit more control over the export process and allows me to keep my .blend files separate from the game files and such.
I have a question about these FBX files, do they always have to be connected to at least 1 bone? and say your importing to something like Unity and its just a static object, what file are you sending there, OBJ?
Its just when I send something static to something like the UDK engine from Max, I just make an ASC file usually.
FBX do not need any bones in them to export. You can export a static mesh no problem. Generally I use OBJ for static meshes, but there's really no rhyme or reason for it, just habit.
I could be mistaken but I don't believe there's any real benefit for one format or the other when it comes to static meshes.
the benefit to sending to unity with fbx over OBJ, with be scene hierarchy and fbx supports instances, you can more or less send a whole scene already assembled in fbx to unity, and unity just treats it as separate objects all grouped together.
...Basically, anytime you create a new Action remember to click that little F or it won't save it. I think it's a dumb default myself, but just be aware of it so you don't wind up losing an entire walk cycle on accident or something.
Looks like this might be an oversight introduced with the newer versions of Blender. I've checked back a couple of versions and the 'problem' is evident there, which is odd, because even if the Action is unassigned, it has data associated with it so it shouldn't be getting deleted - unless this is Blender being aggressive with 'ghost' data.
I'd submit this as a bug report to the tracker.
@carter, agreed with passerby, you don't really want to be using OBJ files for the reasons he mentions - it's a raw datadump iirc so isn't nearly as efficient as fbx..
Yeah, it used to default to having fake users. Me and a few others already argued about it a few months ago. Aligorith (Animation Dev) has a response to us here.
It's not a huge deal - it's just an extra button click. I just know it has bitten people when they're not aware of it so I figured I'd mention it.
On the same subject, here's how to use zbrush style matcaps in blender as well
Yeah, it's actually pretty cool here is another tutorial about it, and how to use multiple matcaps and masking to get fast SSS type effects and stuff and how to make it out into a diffuse texture.
Thanks for the reply, I like the blender to unity pipeline so wont be exporting directly to fbx. All that unity does is automaticly load blender from the command line and export fbx so find this much quicker, and it also links backs so I can open blender files with a double click on the asset. The problem is with the new unity version it varies how it handles a blend file with one or two+ meshes inside it, which is now a problem when my old blender files get rebuilt and the rotation offset is no longer there.
respawnrt thanks for the viewport shading tip. I never bothered changing Blender's default OpenGL lights and didn't realize how lacking the default is
vio, wondering whether Blender can be a good tool for your needs, you might be interested in this interviewwith an artist who won mixamo character space battle contest. For 3d he uses Blender.
I thought I would just say that the whole thing with FBX is fixable...it's just that the Blender foundation cant distribute it with the Blender installer or archives.
Someone could develop FBX import/Export independently with the SDK and hook it up and provide a download etc.. Even the Blender foundation could do this as long as it is not distributed with the main installer and isnt provided as open source.
Is there a way to quickly toggle subdivision preview in Blender like in Maya/Modo, or do you need to use a SubSurf modifier for that w/a modifier visibility toggle hotkey like in Max?
respawnrt: That material is so much nicer then the default. I saw a list somewhere of proposed changes to the default settings, if anyone knows where that is (I must be blind cause I can't find it anymore) maybe you should look into submitting that. The default one is just so fugly...
Is there a way to quickly toggle subdivision preview in Blender like in Maya/Modo, or do you need to use a SubSurf modifier for that w/a modifier visibility toggle hotkey like in Max?
You need to add a subsurf modifier to view this but the "Apply Modifier To Editing Cage" isnt open to Python, AFAIK, so you can't set a hotkey for it.
You can set up the other display options in the subsurf via hot keys though, so maybe that will be enough?
You can add a subsurf modifier quickly and change its levels by selecting an object and hitting CTRL+ the number of subd levels you want. (CTRL+1 is 1 level, CTRL+2 is 2 levels etc.) and if the modifier is already in the stack you can change the current levels like this too. The only downside is that it doesnt work if "Emulate Numpad" is on in the prefs.
respawnrt: That material is so much nicer then the default. I saw a list somewhere of proposed changes to the default settings, if anyone knows where that is (I must be blind cause I can't find it anymore) maybe you should look into submitting that. The default one is just so fugly...
You can make suggestions by tweeting with the hashtag#b3defaults and see the current proposals HERE
What are Blender's 3D painting capabilities? I'm looking for some solution for 3D painting to plug into our pipeline. Was thinking 3dcoat, but maybe Blender has something to offer.
Replies
lol I think we already have one :poly124: It's still called 'Blender trying to compete' for some reason. Good do see a few more popping up though. I like 'Trying Blender' more, maybe we'll make this one the main one. Although I don't think metallicandy has found it yet. :poly124:
a PnP thread for just blender seems pointless as hell, im sure most people are like me hwnt it comes to threads like PnP, just want to see art, dont really care what appication and workflow they used.
Not if we mixed it up with Technical Talk too... people could show their WIP's, which could involve Blender specific features like Ivy generator etc. and ask questions about things that are puzzling them about Blender. God knows Blender has enough of those.
HD Link: http://youtu.be/esfNimdzl0o?hd=1
Here is my first walk cycle in Blender. I didn't animate the fingers and hair yet. This animation took about 3 hours. It would have been about 30 minutes in familiar software like 3ds Max. I've spent about 7 hours total with the software. Here are my developing thoughts on Blender.
I download this rig from BlendSwap.
Love:
Dislike:
Other thoughts:
Select object
Press 'm' (for move)
Press a number on your keyboard for the layer number (you may also be able to do it by clicking the layer (the bunch of small grey boxes at the bottom of the view viewport)
What more could you want anyway, it can export to FBX now too.
The 3D cursor is a tool that can be used to control the center of rotation and the location of the mirror axis. You can rotate elements around a point not possible with median, individual, and bounding center methods. It also determines where new objects are added to the scene. If you wanted to add an eyeball to a character, you can place the cursor in the location you want it to appear and the object will be added there, which saves on effort to translate the object to the place you want it to be.
To place an object on a separate layer, switch to object mode (TAB) and press M, followed by the number of the layer you wish to move the object to or just click on the pop-up dialog in the viewport.
Very useful at times.
There is a mouse arrow icon next to a ghost on the header - click the arrow and it should filter by selection (Graph editor has similar, but I think it defaults to on).
Viewport FX is one of the GSoC projects this year (starting at the end of the month). All of what he's doing is over my head, but he has a thread about it here.
I think I've mentioned this before, but I'd like to repeat how much I love the layer system in Blender (usually), because you can change them with the number keys, and Shift+number keys for showing multiple ones. I generally put the different parts of the highpoly on the first five layers, lowpoly parts and versions in 6-9 and I always put lights and camera in layer 0. It makes Hiding completely unnecessary, you can just put unwanted things on different layers and show or dismiss them without bothering with the Outliner. Or when I'm uncertain about changes I'll make to my model, I'll copy it to layer 2, work on in layer 1, and I can use the number keys to quickly compare the two versions. It might be one of those things that you'll not soon consider if you come in from the perspective of other software.
(Protip: versions of Blender before 2.5 have a secret layer that can only be accessed by the hotkey combination Alt and - . It doesn't have an icon, and it doesn't show up when you show all layers.)
If i remember right it's mainly been done by 2 guys, here in Finland. And they couldn't hire me..
http://reset-game.net/?p=169#more-169
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KLd8kEQJIzw
A few things I forgot to add to the Love list:
I don't mean to be a stickler, but you never want to render directly to a video file unless it's a very short animation (e.g. 30 seconds to one minute) because if for any reason your machine crashes, you've just lost all of your rendered frames and have to start over. Being that rendering is time consuming, that's not something you want to deal with. It's better to render your animation to still images and then later composite them into a video file. If your machine crashes, you can just start from the last completed frame instead of starting from zero.
If you already knew this, then ignore my post.
No problem, most of my time rendering is just creating playblasts of walk/run cycles for art reviews. I don't remember the last time I did serious rendering. Currently in Max I render to uncompressed AVI, then have to use another program to convert it to MOV.
MOV is important for animators because it's the only format that does scrubbing and frame by frame cleanly.
So to illustrate in the picture below all the actions with 0 will be lost when I close Blender, even if I save the Blend file. They're marked this way when you create a new one. In order to make sure it keeps them you have to click that little F button (which assigns it a fake user versus an orphan or 0 users).
Basically, anytime you create a new Action remember to click that little F or it won't save it. I think it's a dumb default myself, but just be aware of it so you don't wind up losing an entire walk cycle on accident or something.
[ame="
1.You can set your gizmo (loc,scale,rot) orientation to any face, edge or vertex, Maya style.
2.You might wanna change the default shading a bit.I find it awkard.
What do you mean by the two pink strokes on the last image? Swapping colours?
On the same subject, here's how to use zbrush style matcaps in blender as well
I'm using Blender with Unity on a daily basis for the Eat Sheep Project. However I always export via FBX and then load that into Unity, rather than using the .blend files. This gives me a bit more control over the export process and allows me to keep my .blend files separate from the game files and such.
Its just when I send something static to something like the UDK engine from Max, I just make an ASC file usually.
FBX do not need any bones in them to export. You can export a static mesh no problem. Generally I use OBJ for static meshes, but there's really no rhyme or reason for it, just habit.
I could be mistaken but I don't believe there's any real benefit for one format or the other when it comes to static meshes.
I'd submit this as a bug report to the tracker.
@carter, agreed with passerby, you don't really want to be using OBJ files for the reasons he mentions - it's a raw datadump iirc so isn't nearly as efficient as fbx..
It's not a huge deal - it's just an extra button click. I just know it has bitten people when they're not aware of it so I figured I'd mention it.
Yeah, it's actually pretty cool here is another tutorial about it, and how to use multiple matcaps and masking to get fast SSS type effects and stuff and how to make it out into a diffuse texture.
http://cgcookie.com/blender/2012/01/09/combining-and-creating-glsl-matcap-materials/
vio, wondering whether Blender can be a good tool for your needs, you might be interested in this interview with an artist who won mixamo character space battle contest. For 3d he uses Blender.
Someone could develop FBX import/Export independently with the SDK and hook it up and provide a download etc.. Even the Blender foundation could do this as long as it is not distributed with the main installer and isnt provided as open source.
respawnrt: That material is so much nicer then the default. I saw a list somewhere of proposed changes to the default settings, if anyone knows where that is (I must be blind cause I can't find it anymore) maybe you should look into submitting that. The default one is just so fugly...
You can set up the other display options in the subsurf via hot keys though, so maybe that will be enough?
You can add a subsurf modifier quickly and change its levels by selecting an object and hitting CTRL+ the number of subd levels you want. (CTRL+1 is 1 level, CTRL+2 is 2 levels etc.) and if the modifier is already in the stack you can change the current levels like this too. The only downside is that it doesnt work if "Emulate Numpad" is on in the prefs.
You can make suggestions by tweeting with the hashtag #b3defaults and see the current proposals HERE
Ctrl+1
Ctrl+2
Ctrl+3
Ctrl+4
Ctrl+5
For subsurf levels. But also
Ctrl+Tilde for 0 subsurf. Here's what tilde key is.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aFxDruEX0zZnWHH5YjEFwJe4g1XqR4YByt_8_HRonTI/edit?pli=1
It started as just unstructured thoughts, but has turned into a more comprehensive document over time.
Anyone have any experience with that?