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Blender 3D Basics Beginner's Guide Second Edition
Blender 3D Basics Beginner's Guide Second Edition

Blender 3D Basics Beginner's Guide Second Edition: A quick and easy-to-use guide to create 3D modeling and animation using Blender 2.7

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Blender 3D Basics Beginner's Guide Second Edition

Chapter 1. Introducing Blender and Animation

Welcome! It's a good guess that you are interested in learning how to create 3D animations or model 3D objects, maybe for use in games or 3D printing. You've chosen Blender 3D and you want to learn how to use it. This book is a good choice for learning Blender 3D. We did research on what hurdles new users faced and what were their frustrations with other training methods. So we will go step-by-step, learning how to use Blender comfortably to create animations, and do modeling, lighting, camera work, and much more. We will start out with simple steps and get comfortable at using the Blender interface, making and animating a rowboat and a sloop, and creating our own private island as shown in the following screenshot:

Introducing Blender and Animation

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • A small introduction to Blender.
  • Installing Blender and giving it a quick test.
  • The top ten reasons to enjoy Blender 3D
  • General animation and a glance at a few videos. The videos give us a quick introduction to animation.
  • A few basic principles of animation.
  • Watching some early computer graphics on how computer animators learned animation.
  • Uses of 3D.
  • The inner workings of Blender.

Welcome to the world of Blender 3D

The following is a screenshot of the Big Buck Bunny movie that was made using Blender:

Welcome to the world of Blender 3D

The world of Blender is not an animated world as seen in films such as Big Buck Bunny or Sintel that was also made in Blender. It's the amazing community of people all over the world who use Blender. Artists, programmers, scientists, professionals, amateurs, teens, and retirees all use Blender, and now you will be one of the newest members of our community.

One thing that makes this community remarkable is the concept that since Blender is free, you pay for it by helping out the Blender community. There are many ways to give back to the community. You can recommend Blender to your friends, have fun helping other Blender users on websites such as www.blenderartists.org, critique their works, or pass along tips that you have learned. Blender is an open source software. Once you have mastered Blender, you can help create new functions for Blender itself or work with the Blender foundation team to make new cutting-edge examples of what Blender can do; for example, the films Sintel, Tears of Steel, and The Gooseberry Project were all created using Blender. There are as many ways to help the Blender community as there are Blender users and, most importantly, helping others will help you as a Blender user. Blender is not a solo sport, so join in!

Tip

Big Buck Bunny, Sintel, and Tears of Steel are animated films created by the Blender Institute

They were made with the dual purposes of improving Blender by bringing the best Blender users in the world together to push Blender to its limits, using its full capacity, and demonstrating to people what Blender is capable of. You can download Big Buck Bunny, Sintel, or Tears of Steel, or watch them at these locations:

Big Buck Bunny can be seen at http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/.

Sintel can be seen at http://www.sintel.org/.

Tears of Steel can be seen at http://mango.blender.org/.

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Key benefits

  • Explore Blender's unique user interface and unlock Blender's powerful suite of modeling and animation tools
  • Learn how to use Blender, and also the principles that make animation, lighting, and camera work come alive
  • Start with the basics and build your skills through a coordinated series of projects to create a complex world

Description

This book teaches you how to model a nautical scene, complete with boats and water, and then add materials, lighting, and animation. It demystifies the Blender interface and explains what each tool does so that you will be left with a thorough understanding of 3D. This book starts with an introduction to Blender and some background on the principles of animation, how they are applied to computer animation, and how these principles make animation better. Furthermore, the book helps you advance through various aspects of animation design such as modeling, lighting, camera work, and animation through the Blender interface with the help of several simple projects. Each project will help you practice what you have learned and do more advanced work in all areas.

Who is this book for?

This book is for 3D Artists and Designers who want to learn efficient building of 3D Animations. Knowledge of 3D Modeling is essential but no prior experience with Blender is required.

What you will learn

  • Use the Blender user interface for building and animating projects
  • Build objects using Box Modeling, Subdivision Surfaces, and NURBS Curves
  • Create landscapes and trees with Blender s powerful procedural modeling plugins
  • Use movie lighting theory to make your images pop
  • Manipulate cameras for dramatic effect
  • Make entertaining animations with keyframes and motion curves
  • Connect graphics nodes to create stereo 3D animation from two separate image streams

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Aug 26, 2014
Length: 526 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783984916
Vendor :
Blender Foundation
Tools :

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Product Details

Publication date : Aug 26, 2014
Length: 526 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783984916
Vendor :
Blender Foundation
Tools :

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Table of Contents

14 Chapters
1. Introducing Blender and Animation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Getting Comfortable Using the 3D View Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Controlling the Lamp, the Camera, and Animating Objects Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Controlling the Lamp, the Camera, and Animating Objects
Placing lamps in the scene
Time for action – moving the lamp
Time for action – moving the lamp close to the cube
Time for action – moving the lamp far away
Time for action – observing how the lighting looks without rendering
Time for action – adding color to Lamp
Time for action – adding a second lamp
Time for action – setting colors
Saving your work
Time for action – saving a file
Always have a backup file
Controlling the camera
Time for action – using the global axis and local axis
Time for action – moving an object in one plane in the global mode
Time for action – moving an object in one plane in the local mode
Time for action – setting up Blender so you can see what the camera sees
Time for action – investigating the camera composition guides
Making an animation
Time for action – loading a file
Time for action – making a simple animation with keyframes
Time for action – rendering the animation
Time for action – exploring Graph Editor
Time for action – working with a Bézier curve
Time for action – adding squash and stretch to the animation
Time for action – refining the use of the Bézier curve handles
Time for action – adding keyframes in Graph Editor
Time for action – controlling the F-Curves with the Channel Selection Panel
Time for action – controlling channel display with the header
Time for action – copying and pasting keyframes
Time for action – keyframes for lights
Revisiting the commands
Summary
4. Modeling with Vertices, Edges, and Faces Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Building a Simple Boat Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Making and Moving the Oars Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Planning Your Work, Working Your Plan Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Making the Sloop Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Finishing Your Sloop Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Modeling Organic Forms, Sea, and Terrain Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
11. Improving Your Lighting and Camera Work Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
12. Rendering and Compositing Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
A. Pop Quiz Answers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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(25 Ratings)
5 star 56%
4 star 32%
3 star 4%
2 star 8%
1 star 0%
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Mrs. J. Jarvis Jan 04, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Excellent book and great for what we needed it for.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Yates Feb 06, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Great book to learn from!
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Wayne Norman Jan 20, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book is a great read the layout is nice and simple to read, the chapters are great for beginner's and experienced user alike.I do amit I haven't finished the book yet but the chapters I have read are well thought out for a new user of blender and would be a must have for any hobbyist and student learning 3d modelling
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Sydney L. Cuthbert Oct 13, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This is the tome I've been looking for. It has an informal, take you by the hand and ease you in approach that'll help you get to know Blender's distinctive interface and get up to speed as quickly as possible. In addition, it's structured much like an actual class you might attend, with sections after each exercise that explain further "What Just Happened" as well as giving a short quiz after each section to help you retain what you've learned. Short of having an actual teacher living with you, I found this book to be an excellent way to ease into the more advance online videos and other tutes by giving you a solid background to build on. It's also geared to the latest version, the 2.7x release, so everything you learn will be as up-to-date as it's possible to get with printed material.
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Amazon Customer Jan 23, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Covers vast majority of Blender. Great flow. Good chapter reviews. This is my winter project
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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