Discovering Blender and animation

As Sintel, shown in the following screenshot, learned about her little Dragon, you will be learning a lot about how to use Blender. We will start out with some quick exercises to introduce you to the basics, and as you progress, you will be able to do more and more. As you study and practice, your hands will learn the Blender commands, freeing your mind to let it concentrate on modeling, lighting, camera work, and animation.

This book is about using Blender 3D; we will cover things that can help you build 3D objects for games, models, real-time simulations, 3D printing, and more. Blender began as an animation program, so it's good to start there.

However, there is more to animation than knowing which buttons to push while using Blender. Animators who are skilled at using the software but do not have a broader understanding of animation do not get the full use of the tools. They don't understand the culture or the history of animation or how animation principles have been used by masters such as Ub Iwerks, Chuck Jones, and Hayao Miyazaki, and therefore, they cannot profit from them. Thus, in this chapter, we will look at animation in general, and then computer animation specifically.

As you go through this book, you'll start by creating some simple animations such as moving the lights and camera in Blender. Once you are confident with this, you'll study the fundamentals of modeling and complete a simple modeling and animation project; finally, you will work on a more complex scene to expand your skills and get comfortable with the whole Blender production cycle.

There are many excellent books that teach you how to animate. In this book, we will focus on Blender and include pointers about animation that will help you educate yourself about animation in general and get the most from Blender.

Repetition is important when learning a skill. It takes repeated usage before your arms know what to do when the mind says "scale this box." So be patient. Play, learn, and have fun!

Learning Blender will literally change how you think

You'll be able to look at an object and think of several ways to create it. You will perceive everything differently. As you walk down a street, you will be imagining how you might model it or render it in Blender.

One thing to remember is that there are no buttons in Blender that say "Don't touch". As long as you back up your files and use the Ctrl + Z keys to undo any mistakes, not much is likely to go too wrong.

Now, it's time to begin our discovery of Blender. Using Blender is as simple or complex as you want it to be.

Let's begin simply. To start, we will open Blender and render a scene. Rendering is like taking a picture in Blender. When you take a picture in real life, you have a camera, some light, and something or someone you are taking a picture of.

In a Blender scene, there is a camera, a lamp, and something to render. When you render, Blender scans the scene from the camera's point of view. It notes which objects are where, and what lights are available. It figures out how each object will be lit, what the surface of the object looks like, what part of the object the camera can see, how big it should appear to the camera, and other factors, and then Blender creates a picture. It's pretty amazing.

We'll dip our toe into Blender, just so you can see that using Blender is not difficult and that you can do it. Then, we will do a little background study on animations so that you will understand what animators are trying to accomplish in Blender. Then, using what you have learned, you'll be ready to learn more about Blender.

Installing Blender

Go to http://www.blender.org/ to download Blender for free. There is a Download button on the main menu, which will direct you to the location from where you can download the latest version of Blender for your system. Blender runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Follow the instructions and you should have Blender up and running quickly.

To use Blender, you need to first check that your machine has certain minimum system specifications so that it is capable of running Blender. Here's where to find your system information:

• On a PC that runs XP or Vista, click on the Start button at the lower left of the Windows screen, then go to Programs | Accessories | System Tools | System Information.
• On a PC that runs Windows 7, open System Information by clicking on the Start button. When the search box opens, type System Information, and choose System Information from the list of results.
• On a PC that runs Windows 8, at the bottom-left corner, tap or click on the Start button (Windows logo key) on the screen and choose System from the pop-up menu.
• On a Mac, click on the Finder | Applications | Utilities | System Profiler or Finder | Applications | Utilities | System Information.
• On a Linux machine, check the System Settings | System Info.

The following is what Blender needs in order to be able to run:

• System
  • Windows XP, Vista, 7, or 8
  • Mac OS X 10.6 or later
  • Linux
• Minimum hardware requirements
  • A 32-bit Dual Core CPU with at least 2 GHZ and SSE2 support
  • 2 GB RAM
  • A 24-bit 1280x768 display
  • A three-button mouse or trackpad
  • An OpenGL-compatible graphics card with 256 MB RAM
• Recommended hardware requirements
  • A 64-bit Quad Core CPU
  • 8 GB RAM
  • Full HD Display with 24-bit color
  • A three-button mouse
  • An OpenGL-compatible graphics card with 1 GB RAM
• Optimal (production-grade) hardware requirements
  • A 64-bit Dual 8 Core CPU
  • 16 GB RAM
  • Two Full-HD displays with 24-bit color
  • A three-button mouse and a graphics tablet
  • Dual OpenGL-compatible graphics cards, quality brand with 3 GB RAM

Tip

Using a three-button mouse and the numeric keypad

After looking at the hardware specs, you may have noticed that Blender is designed to be used with a three-button mouse. Whether you are running a Mac and using a single-button mouse, or you have a laptop with a touchpad or trackpad, this is a great time to go to the store and buy a three-button optical or wireless mouse with a mouse wheel. They are not expensive. You shouldn't need anything special. I took one from a PC, plugged it into the USB port of a MacBook Air running Snow Leopard, and it worked fine. I polled a number of Blender users and they all said that using the three-button mouse was faster and easier than other devices.

If you are using a tablet with a higher end system, check your tablet documentation on how to reproduce right, middle, and left mouse-button clicks.

Also, if your computer does not have a numeric keypad built in, treat yourself to an external one. They are not expensive and will add a lot to your enjoyment of Blender, as well as improve your productivity.

Using Blender

Now that you have the latest version of Blender on your system, it's time to try it out.