Wondering about Blender

[Dreamer]

Thanks every one, I am def going to give it a go. Just got to find some time lol

 

[RAMWolff]

Hi Dreamer, I started using Blender last year. At the beginning was a little difficult. I was stuck with the selection with right click. So I changed to the left click (all the softwares I use selects with left click) and then I started learning really fast.
What I know is the basic yet, but I can make some stuff as you can see here
Don't be intimidated by the bunch of buttons. You'll use only a few to work with. Learning the shortcuts is the key.
I recommend you the Darrin Lile's tutorials for the uvmap and texture painting.

Thanks for the suggestion. Your link doesn't seem to work so here the links:
UV Mapping: Blender Game Character UV Mapping - YouTube
Texture Paining: Blender Game Character Texture Painting - YouTube

 

[VortigensBane]

Although Blender has a rather steep learning curve, I have found it worth the trip, and I only know the basics of modelling with it. Perhaps my favorite feature is the UV editor that comes built in. You can do ANYTHING with it, and it is great for laying out UV maps that don't stretch.

 

[Robynsveil]

I've been using Blender since about 2005, about the time I eventually got into Daz Studio - initially - and then, ultimately, Poser 5. I agree about the Blender interface, although that has improved quite a bit since the 2.4x days.
For the faint-of-heart, here's a thought: YouTube. Personally, I rather like Sardi Pax: his voice is so soothing and professional and he generally doesn't burn a lot of kindling getting his fire started, something you can't say for Andrew Price, although Andrew's quite gifted. (lives just up the road from me, too... no, never met him...)
Although Blender has been opened mostly for video-editing until recently, rendering still scenes has started to look attractive again. With the huge improvements on Cycles and materials, renders are looking pretty amazing. Oh, lighting is still a challenge, but what with the Blender Market offering "New Shinys", materials have become quite sophisticated. Everything has become quite sophisticated! Even making trees... yeah, 'Sapling' is free and this isn't, but WOW!

So now, Poser has become an adjunct to Blender, instead of the other way 'round: Poser for posing humanoid figures only, and Blender for pretty-much everything else:

Still working on the lighting... something seems off.

 

[Dreamer]

Thanks @Robynsveil and good to see you here I all ways found your posts at RDNA full of helpfull info

 

[Robynsveil]

It's very nice of you to say that, @Dreamer. I hope you enjoy Blender... if there's anything I can do to give a helping hand, let me know.

 

[Dreamer]

Thanks @Robynsveil I may just take you up on that one once I get going a bit I never posed much over RDNA but lurked and read and watched. Now I am asking the questions lol

 

[Miss B]

Still working on the lighting... something seems off.

That's a really nice scene Robyn. I'm assuming that's supposed to be early evening at dusk lighting, but it seems a little bit too yellow. Or is that supposed to be a street light behind Chez Marcel that's glowing on the building on the left? Check the color of the light(s) you're using. That's the only thing I can think of.

 

[Banditcameraman]

That's a really nice scene Robyn. I'm assuming that's supposed to be early evening at dusk lighting, but it seems a little bit too yellow. Or is that supposed to be a street light behind Chez Marcel that's glowing on the building on the left? Check the color of the light(s) you're using. That's the only thing I can think of.

What Miss B said Cinematic convention is to depict nighttime as bluish. I guessing from your render it's early evening like Miss B said, also because the lights are on in the Bistro.

The yellowish light (which is the right color for some streetlights) has a huge spread- more than a regular streetlight would be able to give. You could try lighting it with an sIBL sphere, tinting the light blue. That would give the bluish global illumination and make the light in the bistro pop. Not sure if you can put in additional streetlights because the more nightlike the scene gets the more they would be needed.

I'm not sure how Blender works, but in Reality/LuxRender another option is to use Sun/Sky and tint both blue during the render and scale the intensity down.

But since pictures are worth a thousand words....

Global Illumination from an IBL sphere tinted blue. Javert pursuing Valjean

Sun/Sky tinted blue, neon sign made into an emitter.

Sun/Sky tinted blue, very weak fill at an angle so that it's caught on the lantern glass.

Hth

 

[eclark1894]

I've been using Blender since about 2005, about the time I eventually got into Daz Studio - initially - and then, ultimately, Poser 5. I agree about the Blender interface, although that has improved quite a bit since the 2.4x days.
For the faint-of-heart, here's a thought: YouTube. Personally, I rather like Sardi Pax: his voice is so soothing and professional and he generally doesn't burn a lot of kindling getting his fire started, something you can't say for Andrew Price, although Andrew's quite gifted. (lives just up the road from me, too... no, never met him...)

Andrew lives in Korea, South obviously. I thought you were from Australia, Robin.

Oh well, speaking of Andrew Price, his YouTube channel, Blender Guru, is now presenting a tutorial series for Blender beginners just in case any newbies are interested.

 

[Faery_Light]

I just grabbed 2.7.9b and a texturing tutorial pdf.
Once I get the basics down I have several videos bookmarked that all have CC which makes it easy for me to use.
Now if my hands and arms will just not flare up a lot.

I'm going to concentrate on texturing first before I tackle modeling, the brain is not as swift as it used to be.