Book description
A new world of creative possibilities is opened by Blender, the most popular and powerful open source 3D and animation tool. Blender is not just free software; it is also an important professional tool used in animated shorts, television commercials and shows, as well as in production for films like Spiderman 2. Lance Flavell's Beginning Blender will give you the skills to start shaping new new worlds and virtual characters, and perhaps lead you down a new professional path.
Beginning Blender covers the latest Blender 2.5 release in depth. The book starts with with the creation of simple figures using basic modeling and sculpting. It then teaches how to bridge from modeling to animation, and from scene setup to texture creation and rendering, lighting, rigging and ultimately, full animation. You will create and mix your own movie scenes, and you will even learn the basics of games logic and how to deal with games physics.
Whether you are new to modeling, animation, and game design, or whether you are simply new to Blender, this book will show you everything you need to know to get your 3D projects underway.
Table of contents
- Copyright
- About the Author
- About the Technical Reviewer
- Acknowlegements
- Introduction
-
1. History and Installation
- 1.1. Sample Blender Artwork
- 1.2. Blender History Timeline
-
1.3. About Open Source
- 1.3.1. Do I Owe Royalties If I Use Blender for Commercial Work or Otherwise?
- 1.3.2. Does the GPL Apply to All the Work I Do with Blender?
- 1.3.3. If I Download Blender for Free, Can I Give It Away? Can I Sell It?
- 1.3.4. What About Making Changes to Blender Source Code? Can I Market My Own Custom Version?
- 1.3.5. Technical Caveats
- 1.4. Installing Blender
- 1.5. Summary
- 2. The Interface
- 3. Modeling
- 4. Lighting and Procedural Textures
- 5. UV Mapping
- 6. Curves and NURBS
- 7. Basic Rigging and Animation
-
8. Advanced Rigging
- 8.1. Forward Kinematics vs. Inverse Kinetics
- 8.2. Blender 2.5 Rigs
- 8.3. Walk Cycles
- 8.4. Shape Keys
- 8.5. Lip Syncing
- 8.6. Summary
- 9. Making Movies
-
10. Particles and Physics
- 10.1. Making Particles
- 10.2. Making Hair
- 10.3. Fluid Dynamics
- 10.4. Smoke
- 10.5. Soft Body Physics
- 10.6. Cloth Dynamics
- 10.7. Summary
- 11. The Game Engine
-
12. Going Further
-
12.1. Common Problems
-
12.1.1. Interface-Related Problems
- 12.1.1.1. I'm trying to select items, but they won't select, and this funny circle keeps snapping to my mouse clicks.
- 12.1.1.2. Can I select multiple items?
- 12.1.1.3. Can I edit multiple selected items?
- 12.1.1.4. What is the orange dot in the middle of my object?
- 12.1.1.5. For some reason, I can move my objects but not rotate or scale them. I haven't put on rotation constraints or anything like that.
- 12.1.1.6. Where did my window header go?
- 12.1.1.7. The button or menu I'm looking for is missing.
- 12.1.2. Viewport-Related Problems
-
12.1.3. File Management Problems
- 12.1.3.1. Where did my saved render actually go?
- 12.1.3.2. Blender never told me my work wasn't saved when I closed it! How can I get it back?
- 12.1.3.3. I've noticed there are .blend1 files in my project folders. What are they and can I delete them?
- 12.1.3.4. How else can I recover work after a crash?
- 12.1.3.5. Can I combine Blender files into one?
- 12.1.4. Surface Texture Problems
- 12.1.5. Physics-Related Problems
- 12.1.6. Migration Problems
-
12.1.1. Interface-Related Problems
- 12.2. Resources
- 12.3. Summary
-
12.1. Common Problems
- A. Companies That Use Blender
-
B. Blender and GPL Terms of Use
-
B.1. In a few sentences, what is the GPL?
-
B.1.1.
- B.1.1.1. In a few sentences, what is the GPL?
- B.1.1.2. Can I sell my Blender creations?
- B.1.1.3. So I can make games without having to worry about the GPL, right?
- B.1.1.4. So I own the copyright to all output?
- B.1.1.5. What about the splash screen and icons?
- B.1.1.6. What if I take screenshots of the Blender interface?
- B.1.1.7. How does the GPL and Blender benefit me?
- B.1.1.8. Can I distribute the official Blender.org releases under my own branding and name?
- B.1.1.9. Can I license .blend files myself?
- B.1.1.10. What about my Python scripts?
- B.1.1.11. Can I give Blender to my coworkers or employees?
- B.1.1.12. Can I change Blender and give it to my coworkers or employees?
- B.1.1.13. Can my organization use Blender internally without giving up our valuable changes to our competitors?
- B.1.1.14. Can I sell my own version of Blender?
- B.1.1.15. Can I sell plug-ins for Blender?
-
B.1.1.
-
B.1. In a few sentences, what is the GPL?
- C. GNU Public License
- D. OpenContent License
Product information
- Title: Beginning Blender: Open Source 3D Modeling, Animation, and Game Design
- Author(s):
- Release date: November 2010
- Publisher(s): Apress
- ISBN: 9781430231264
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