SKYLAB CHAT

[Miss B]

I've been surfing the free models on BlendSwap.com ...and there's some really cool stuff on there. It's an animator's paradise...sigh. I found one character that's a favorite of mine, and it just may end of being an incentive to face learning Blender animation...Scrat from Ice Age.

Oh do I ever remember that character. I used to laugh myself silly with him trying to get, and hoard his acorn.

As far as version 2.8, from what I've seen over in the Blender forum at Renderosity, they're not expecting a public release of 2.8 until first quarter 2019, so there's time for you to learn the basics.

 

[skylab]

Well, it may be because I don't know how to approach opening them...it's not as simple as just opening a rabbit file...there are numerous files associated with each character...some have to do with textures, some with rigging and animation...they are literally the files used to create the movie. I attempted to open the rabbit in 2.79, but I kept getting lengthy error reports, so I just moved to 2.46 and it opened up with no problem. On BlendSwap, I tried to stick with stuff that I thought would work in the current version of Blender, so I could at least study the models and rigging. I just finished downloading from BlendSwap...they have a 20 model limit per day, but no limit on the size of the files...so I chose a few large scene files, a few rigged characters, some rigged and unrigged fish, and an earth in space scene, and Trek Enterprise. I'm thinking that the fish would be a good place to start with rigging, to get the hang of how things work in Blender. One of the models is of a stylized fish, and there's a lengthy tutorial on YouTube showing how the model was created. Go here if interested in simple characters, rigged and unrigged. And Star Wars stuff can be found here.

 

[skylab]

Oh okay...then I won't be like a five year old, saying "are we there yet" every single day until next year...haha. I've got the latest 64 bit Blender installed, so guess I'll use it to play with the new models until the next version is released.

One of the models that I ran across was from the Cars movie...the tow truck, and the user comments indicate it has extensive rigging. They also have super hero Mr. Incredible, and the toon character Shaun the Sheep...and a whole section of Lego characters...and of course, human models.

 

[Miss B]

Ohhhh, sounds like you're going to be having fun.

 

[skylab]

Found the updated info page about Blender 2.80. Most of the updated features are so far advanced, I probably wouldn't know the difference in the changes...I was just hesitant to try to learn an interface that would soon change...but I think the changes will be hidden from a beginner's perspective. One new feature apparently will be 2D animation, called Grease Pencil. Here's the blog link where new features are being reviewed.

Well, it's time for rest now. Thanks for your input Miss B...always appreciated.

Have a good evening everyone

 

[skylab]

My first successful Blender render...greatly reduced from the 1920 x 1395 original. It's of the Blendswap Cycless Earth in Space by SubZeroFX. I didn't have to do anything but find the render button...but in that sea of buttons and adjustments, that was pretty good without instructions The only thing I wasn't sure about was how to adjust the size...I just hit what I thought was the render button, and it took off like a spooked horse, rendering in a tiny window not much bigger than a post-it note. It wasn't until after saving the result that I realized it was huge, as big as my large wide-screen monitor.

 

[Terre]

Good morning.

 

[skylab]

Good morning Terre

Andy is trying to adjust to the idea of allowing Blender into his territory. He borrowed M3's space suit and made the best of it, and discovered skylab while floating around on Cycless Earth in Space

 

[Miss B]

I didn't have to do anything but find the render button...but in that sea of buttons and adjustments, that was pretty good without instructions The only thing I wasn't sure about was how to adjust the size...I just hit what I thought was the render button, and it took off like a spooked horse, rendering in a tiny window not much bigger than a post-it note. It wasn't until after saving the result that I realized it was huge, as big as my large wide-screen monitor.

What "render button" did you use that gave you a small window to render in? I ask because I use F12 to render, and it gives me a full view almost the full width of my laptop monitor, except for the main menus on the right. I reduced the size of this screenshot so it would fit nicely on the forum, but you can click on it to see it larger. Oh, and when you use F12, you use the Esc button to go back to Edit mode when the render is finished.

 

[skylab]

Thanks Miss B The screen I saw didn't exactly appear that way...the buttons along the top and bottom look familiar, but when the space scene loads, the screen has connected boxes, and lots of settings along the right hand side...reminds me of how the advanced material room in Poser appears...and when it loaded it almost discouraged me enough to just shut it down, but I decided to try the render button to see what would happen. Here's a screen shot:

 

[skylab]

Comparing the screen shot to the image above of the rendered scene, I assumed that Blender lighting is assigned like this close-up, as that is the area on the lighted side of the earth model (see pic below). I noticed that it rendered in two layers...the basic globe, and then another transparent blue hazy layer, which on the final render above appears as a glowing edge.

​

 

[Miss B]

AHA!! You can setup your UI the way you want. I prefer as much workspace as possible, and I have the Node Editor on the bottom, but keep it closed most of the time, as I only need that if I'm working on a Cycles shader. Also, I always have the Tool Shelf visible on the left, but it can be toggled off with "T", and the Properties Tab can also be toggled on or off with "N". I only use that when I need it, which is usually less often than the Tool Shelf. Below is a screenshot of my startup scene. Needless to say, everyone has their own way of working, and the only time I cut the main 3D View window in half vertically, is when I'm working on a UV Map, because then I can have the UV Editor and the 3D View in Edit mode open at the same time.

 

[Terre]

That looks nice and customizable.

 

[Miss B]

Comparing the screen shot to the image above of the rendered scene, I assumed that Blender lighting is assigned like this close-up, as that is the area on the lighted side of the earth model (see pic below). I noticed that it rendered in two layers...the basic globe, and then another transparent blue hazy layer, which on the final render above appears as a glowing edge.

I'm assuming you're rendering in Cycles mode, because in Blender render mode it probably wouldn't have taken as long, and not sure about the layers, as that's probably a shader setup.

As far as Blender lighting, by default there's only one light. I have two more lights in my default setup, though can add more if need be. I don't, as a rule, do final renders in Blender, only renders to see how my model is developing. The scene you were working with was more than likely developed with several lights, which are probably different kinds of lights depending on how they wanted the scene lit.

I also have a second camera, as the default camera is set up to view a large scene, and I always found it hard to zoom in to see what I'm working on up close and personal, so now I have a front camera as well, and I just choose which one I want to use, for whatever purpose I need them for.

 

[Miss B]

That looks nice and customizable.

It is, and I think that's part of the problem why most Blender n00bs don't like it. They have no idea where to start to customize it, and the User Preferences dialog is huuuuuge with a ton of options, so I think it scares people off.

 

[skylab]

Oh yeah...I still have memories of the old interface, and back then you pretty much had to take things as they were...I can remember being so distracted while reading what was on each button, and of course being new, it was like a foreign language. The main reason I've never tended to rearrange interfaces much when learning is because a good tutorial or book on the subject will use screen shots reflecting the default settings...and if I change them, I'm pretty much on my own to try to find stuff. After I gain some experience, I'm more comfortable rearranging things, since I know something about the stuff I'm moving.

Apparently when the guy from BlendSwap saved the space scene, he was primarily working in the cycles mode, and so the scene just opens up there by default. Right now I'm rendering another scene downloaded from BlendSwap, and it opened differently, so the render window occupies about half of the upper section, and rendering progress is slow...it's called the Birth of Creation, public domain, author credit recommended, but not required. I thought a few complicated scene files like this would be a good way to get over cycles-shock...haha. The third scene I chose was of an aquarium, a suitable, already lit environment in which to attempt simple animations of fish.

There's so much to explore in Blender. In the video tutorial (below) of how the stylized fish was created, he demonstrates sculpting (similar to Sculptris) after beginning with modeling simple cubes. Blender rigging and animation is advanced much beyond Poser's capabilities, and soon they will be introducing Grease Pencil, which will be similar to Anime Studio.

 

[skylab]

I just realized that the above scattered information could be difficult to find if anyone wants to follow along with trying Blender, so here's the list of downloads so far...and I noticed that downloads are reset every month, not every day, so it would be next month before I could download again. Shaun the Sheep will definitely be on next month's list.

Aquarium

Stylized Fish

Birth of Creation

Cycless Earth in Space

USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Wubby

Mr. Blender Head

Phil Rig

Goldfish with Water Bubble

Scrat from Ice Age

Tow Mater from Cars

Rigged Archer Fish

Fish for cartoon or underwater

Man 1900

Toon Cockroach

 

[skylab]

Finally found the HTML download version of the Blender 2.79 manual It's a hefty download...a little over 75 meg.

Have a good evening everyone

 

[Miss B]

I don't think I've ever gotten an HTML version of the Blender manual, as it's easy to open the online version from the Help menu in Blender.

Not surprising it's large, as the HTML itself won't weigh much at all, but all the screenshots, etc. will add a lot to the weight.

 

[skylab]

Just woke from a very long nap, so I'm back for a little while. Yes, there does seem to be screen shots...it's well done, from the online version, and the links all appear to work offline, which for me is great, since we occasionally experience unstable internet connection. I had to search a long time to find the updated download, since most google searches kept pointing back to older version PDF's, but I wanted something that reflected the UI changes.

The Blender render has a little over an hour to go...it has taken over 10 hours so far, rendering slowly in blocks, similar to Poser superfly. I do like the way it keeps track of the time in the upper left corner above the image. I wanted to know what a detailed scene would take in terms of render time. I know now to use my kitchen hard drive for rendering projects so that my main workstation is not tied up for that long. I did find over on the right hand side panel the option to change the default .png format to .bmp. That's what it will take, my searching around to find a few things, until I'm convinced that the learning curve will not be overwhelming.

I like the fact that Blender plays well with Poser, since I'll always be a Poser user I think, regardless of what the market does. My interest in it was never market driven in the first place, so I don't suspect that will change. And the fact that Blender has such a steep learning curve may be one of the reasons why it never has fallen victim to a flood of quick buck "Barbie doll content advertising"...and that may end up continuing to be its protection. It was refreshing to browse BlendSwap and not encounter a single thing that was "selling" something other than creative models, unlike what I recently experienced on Rendo. To escape the "slut flood" is an added incentive to try to learn Blender...even though learning the interface seems as mentally paralyzing to me now as the Poser interface was over 10 years ago. So I'm trying to look at it that way, and tough out learning the basics.

The render that's in progress, Birth of Creation, could have a number of artistic themes. For a person of faith, it could illustrate well how man originated first in the thoughts of his creator, and then was finally spoken into being. For the artist, it could be the reaching, the stretching toward a higher expression of creativity. There is another scene on BlendSwap called Free Your Mesh, with a similar "breaking out of a mold" theme...that could well reflect the theme of the next Poser release. I'll try to get a render of it tomorrow.

I'm keeping all your Blender tips in a folder, Miss B, so that I can keep track of them