Blender Art Magazine 2006

ED ITORIAL
Five ye ars ago I w e nt l

ook ing for a 3D program . I
ne w fe ature s , and s e l
dom us e d/obs cure fe ature s .
found bl
e nde r, frie nds and a ne w w ay of l
ook ing at W e w il
ltak e a l
ook at ne w w ays of doing th ings
th e w orl
d around m e . D uring th is tim e , one of m y
and cove r h ow to accom pl

is h bas ic to advance d
favorite bl
e nde r re l
ate d activitie s h as be e n
proje cts . Tutorial

s in e ach is s ue w il
lcove r a
brow s ing onl

ine for al
lth e l
ate s t bl
e nde r ne w s , ne w ge ne ralth e m e , pul
l
ing toge th e r a com pl
e te
Sandra Gil
be rt
fe ature s , tutorial
s and te ch niq ue s . O ve r th e l
as t
proje ct, giving you th at e xtra l

ittl
e pus h to try
five ye ars I h ave us e d l

ite ral
l
y cas e s of pape r,
s om e th ing ne w .
printing out e ve ryth ing avail

abl
e on bl
e nde r. I s til
l
re m e m be r h ow I (and m any oth e rs ) e age rl
y w aite d In th is is s ue w e are going to tack l
e m ode l
ing,
for e ach ne w is s ue of th e "Com m unity Journal
". It
te xturing and rigging a robot for bas ic anim ation.
w as s om e th ing coolto l
ook forw ard to. And
Ke e ping in l
ine w ith our th e m e , Ste fano s h are s h is
s om e th ing I s til
lm is s .
te ch niq ue s on m ode l
ing and anim ating ge ars , w ith
a s h ort tutorialon us ing th e Bl
e nde r M e ch anical
W h ich brings us to th e point of th is e ditorial

.
Ge ars (BM G) s cript. And Al

varo Luna Bautis ta
Gaurav and I de cide d th at w e didn't h ave
s h ow s us h ow to cal
cul
ate a pl
ane l
ine inte rs e ction.
anyw h e re ne ar e nough th ings to do w ith our non-
W e al
s o h ave a s m al
lgal
l
e ry of m e ch anicalim age s
e xis te nt fre e tim e , s o w e de cide d to l

aunch th e
s ubm itte d from com m unity m e m be rs .
l
ate s t re -incarnation of a bl
e nde r m agazine . And
th is is it, Bl
e nde rart. W e l
com e to our m is s ion to
W e h ope you e njoy our firs t is s ue and w e l

com e you
provide ne w s , tutorial
s and bl
e nde r re l
ate d
to s ubm it articl
e , tutorial
s and artw ork for future
inform ation in an attractive , fun to re ad form at.
e ditions .
A pl
ace to find out al
lth e l
ate s t ne w s conce rning
bl
e nde r. W e w il
lbe bringing you tutorial
s cove ring
w w w .bl
e nde rart.org
As k Bl
e ntuu
Wel
l
, s ince I h ave nt re ce ive d any q ue s tions ye t, I
th ough t I w oul
d k ick off our firs t is s ue w ith s om e
l
ittl
e k now n/obs cure bl
e nde r tips .
obje cts , a m e nu w il
lbe dis pl
aye d in th e 3D
w indow al
l
ow ing you to pick th e obje ct you w is h to
se l
e ct.
1. Anim ation Pre vie w in al

lw indow s at th e
s am e tim e : It is w e l
lk now n th at Al
t-A is for
pre vie w ing an anim ation on th e 3D w indow . But
th at's not al
lof it. D ivide your s cre e n into m ul
tipl
e
3D W indow s , e ach from a diffe re nt point of vie w .
4. Sh ow al
ph a te xture as w ire :
ctrl
-d in 3dvie w can s h ow al
ph a te xture as w ire .
ve ry us e fulfor pre vie w w ith out re nde ring.
3. H idde n O b je cts :
I don't k now h ow ol
d th is is (or w h e th e r it's be e n
m e ntione d be fore ) ... but I jus t dis cove re d it. Say
you are in front or s ide vie w and you w ant to
se l
e ct an obje ct, but it is h idde n be h ind oth e r
obje cts . If you pre s s Al
t RM B ove r a group of
Untilne xt tim e
Bl
e ntuu
If you h ave an obje ct (w ork s be s t on a m e s h

pl
ane ) w ith an im age te xture , you can us e [Al
t-V]
If you h ave an Action/Ipo W indow and 3D w indow s outs ide e ditm ode . Th is w il
ladjus t th e obje ct's s ize
ope n, and you is s ue th e [Al
t-Sh ift-A]com m and
val
ue s s o th at th e im age w on't be s tre tch e d w h e n
from th e Action (or th e Ipo) w indow , it w il
lanim ate proje cte d
both (th e action and th e 3D ) in s ync!! Gre at for
vis ual
ization of Ipo's e ffe ct on your m ode l
.
Th e s e are jus t a fe w tips I found brow s ing bl
e nde r
forum s . If you h ave a coolbl
e nde r tip or te ch niq ue
2. "Truck " th e cam e ra in cam e ra m ode :
you w oul
dl
ik e to s h are or a q ue s tion you w oul
d
a) go into cam m ode w ith NUM PAD 0
l
ik e ans w e re d, s ubm it it to:
b) m ove th e cam e ra w ith pre s s ing Gk e y
c) pre s s th e m iddl
e m ous e button
m anage r_bl
e nde rart@ yah oo.com .
w w w .bl
e nde rart.org
Ask Blentuu
manager@blenderart@
yahoo.com
grabbed. Note that in this case there are 4 possible rips, so positioning the mouse has to be done a bit careful.
I have a question for your section of the Blender art mag. Ive
used other 3d programs before like Maya, Max and XSI and they
all have a tool that allows you to split a polygon in half. I cant
figure out how to do this in Blender. Ive tried using the knife tool
to split a polygon but when it cuts, polygons on both sides of the
one I tried to cut would have cuts in them too.
Blentuu answers
If you have a problem

or a tip you want to
share mail it to blentuu
Hi there Blentuu,
My question is; is there a way to cut a single polygon? If so,

how? I hope my question makes it into the next issue. Thanks in
advance,
- Alonso
Well the answer to that is no. In Blender, cutting a polygon will

always create extra cuts/edges, but not all hope is lost. With the
release of version 2.40, you get some control over the number of
cuts with the new improved Knife tool. Or you can use the new
Mesh Rip tool. The Rip tool can be used for tearing or ripping
parts of a Mesh, in order to create seams to be filled in with new
faces.
Rules for the Rip tool are (taken straight from the release notes);
Use short cut Vkey to activate it (a V resembles ripping :). It immediately enters Transform translation mode after.
It only works for quads, this because it internally uses the face
loop-select to detect the proper faces that need to be ripped.
If only 1 vertex is selected, the edge closest to the mouse cursor defines the direction of the rip seam and what part is being
www.blenderart.org
When edges are selected, the rip seam is defined, so the mouse
cursor position only defines which part is being grabbed.
With only 1 vertex selected, you can step by step rip a mesh seam;
this also works on the edges of a mesh grid for example.
Hi,
I read and enjoyed your Blender art magazine, and have a question for your Ask Blentuu section.
I have an application in which I would like to use Blender, however, I have not been able to determine if the following feature
is available. (For my purposes I would be driving Blender from a
python script.)
Is it possible to have Blender calculate the volume of an object in
order to calculate the objects mass?
Many thanks,
Charlie Taylor
charlie@sallyandcharlie.com
Ask Blentuu
Python not being one of my greatest strengths, I did some searching

around and discovered that there is a python script in progress right
now that should cover what you need. It is named AreaVolume and
further information about its progress and usage can be found in the
python forums at: http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5051
0&highlight=areavolume.
Hello Blentuu,
I have a question I would like to see answered in the next issue of
Blender art magazine.
I am new to Blender (using it about six months part time and have
worked through the tutorials in the Blender 2.3 Guide twice now). I
am just getting to the point where the application is familiar to me and
can easily follow most well written tutorials. I come from a scientific
background and I approach things the way I would, if I was executing a
laboratory protocol (read procedure, gather materials and tools, follow
instructions, collect data, analyse data, write a report). Now not having
any formal art education I have been thinking about how to approach
the work flow in Blender to produce a small animation project. Do the
professionals have a general methodology that they follow: model characters, add texture and lighting, rig for animation, create animation,
render animation files?
- Matt
Any work flow you use will be of course tailored to your individual work
style. That being said, a commonly used work flow.
A) Planning Stage.
B) Story line.
C) Concept sketches, perhaps even do up clay models.
D) Story boards ( even if only using stick figures).
E) The next part is done in progressive stages of detail. Set up your
shot/scenes with basic primitives, to get an idea of spacing and size Do
a quick render with basic colouring and lighting to judge timing.
F) Model low poly versions of everything, refining colouring, lighting
timing issues. Add in rough dialogue and sound effects. Add progressive
amounts of detail, materials and texturing and lighting, fine tune the
timing and sound issues
G) Final render
This type of setup works best in a team environment, with everyone
assigned specific tasks, but can be modified to an individual effort.
-- Blentuu
Some tips for a noob regarding typical work flow that professionals use
when approaching a small project would be of interest to me. I like the
first issue and am happily working on the included tutorials. Thanks for
the magazine hope to see something on work flow in one of your upcoming issues.
www.blenderart.org
News Flash
Blender 2.40 released
Gimp in news
SubSurf, Decimate, Wave, Build etc have found a new
home there, as well as a few new ones.
There have also been rather exciting changes and
improvements to the UV/Image Editing tool set. A
new Live LSCM gives instant feedback while UV
mapping, while a number of new tools allows cloning
and smudging of images within Blender itself. TIFF
support has also been added for import and export.
The Blender version 2.40 has been released with

an overwhelming list of new features that will keep
all of us busy experimenting and learning. Although
there were a large number of new features, most of
the attention has been given to the Animation code
improvements and rewrites.
With such features as a new IK System, Stride Support, Shape Keys, IPO Drivers, Skin Weighting and
Rigging improvements, animation has become not
only fun, but a lot less painful. The new Particle
Guides and Shaded Particles have added a whole new
dimension to hair/fur/grass.
Having already played with a lot of the new features,
I can tell you that it is well worth the down load. A
few features have been moved, but not removed.
So before you panic, look in the new Modifier Stack,
in the Edit Buttons. Most all effect features such as
News of this release has already reached all corners

of the Internet, even appearing of the front page of
the prestigious CGTalk website, adding to the already
growing popularity of Blender. So, if you somehow
managed to miss the news of the release, head over
to www.blender.org and grab yourself a copy. Dont
forget to read the release notes as there is a wealth
of information contained in those pages and you
wouldnt want to miss out on even one of the new
features.
Every Blender release is followed by a bugfix release. From the developers meeting notes, it looks
like 2.41 may see the daylight next week: Instead of
2.40a we drop the a/b convention and the 2.40
bugfix release will be called 2.41
www.blenderart.org
The Gimp team has released the latest bug fix

release of Gimp as the new stable release in Gimp
2.2.10 and also released Gimp 2.36, the beta release
for the up coming Gimp 2.4.
Although the Gimp stable release doesnt add any

thing in new features, it is recommended to upgrade
your older Gimp 2.2.9 or 2.2.8 versions with this.
For those seeking to play with the up coming features in Gimp you can also download the Gimp 2.36
in source form from the www.gimp.org website.
There is also a windows version of gimp 2.35 available at source forge, though it is termed as unstable
it is pretty useable and lets you experience the all
new organised menu structure, lots of elementary
goodies that finally made it into the text tools and
much more, go play with it and provide feedback to
the Gimp team
Foss.in report
Foss.in report
The Linux Bangalore has always been a big event in
India. Bangalore being the IT capital of India, has tremendous interest in FOSS. This year the LB was aptly
renamed and transformed to FOSS.in as it has grown
greatly over the years and due to the amount of attendance it commands it is no longer correct to call it
a local LUG event any more.
Day 1
I was there as a Blender user presenting the ever
increasing quality and features of Blender at a booth.
The event was launched by Atul Chitnis, one of the
biggest supporters of FOSS in India.
After attending the inspirational talk by Alan Cox,
we went to fetch the machines which we were going
to use for our demos or projects. We got brand new
machines from the warehouse. Then I realised that I
had a problem on my hands, this being the first of any
such event for me, I didnt bring a copy of Blender
with me! Although I had duly burned all necessary
stuff for demonstration a day before. No worries, just
next to me was the strong contingent from Delhi LUG
and they had everything I needed ;).
After a short while I started demos of Blender animations, using the recent Suzanne award winners. Slowly
many people gathered and started to discuss among
themselves as to how Blender stands amongst other
commercial counterparts.
I did not answer any of those queries, but promptly

switched the animated demos to the rendered artwork. Their queries immediately changed to: how was
this stuff done in Blender? How much time it would
take to do so? Exactly the questions I was waiting to
answer :)
Shortly after noon a group of youngsters presented

themselves at the stall. They were the enthusiastic
type and one of them wanted to actually see how is
was done. There began my first live Blender session
and boy I was not aware of the usefulness it had.
Things were going fine for us, though we did not have
net access until Atul came in and suggested that
we move to the Business Expo booth, as there was
plenty of empty space and ready net access there.
By the time lunch ended we had shifted there. At the
end of the day the crowd waned.
Day 3
Day 2
I was prompt to present myself at the event the next
morning, however it seems
morning does not wake
people faster. Since I had
nothing to do, I went and
attended my first FOSS
event of the day Ahem...
LinuxChix. After attending the event I returned
back to my stall and was
told that a few guys were
interested in Blender and
they were waiting for me
for some time. After a
while a small group of four
guys came over, and asked
what Blender could do. I
showed them some stuff,
Enricos Penguin Dance
was a favourite and so was
the Cycles animation.
www.blenderart.org
This was the busiest day for me. I gave about 5-6 Live
Blender sessions, it was as if my stall had a high PR
rating through word of mouth. Sartaj Kang, one of
the KDE developers (and few others who have been
watching the small groupings with amusement) were
of the view that I should have been giving a full
Foss.in report
talk instead, at other times they even wanted a BOF
entirely for themselves. I nodded in agreement but
luckily they were just too busy to attend one ;)
Just next to us was an HP stall. There they were
demoing a Blender version running on a modified
xserver which made use of three monitors and gave
a large desktop real-estate for Blender. There was
Mr. Manjunath from HP, with whom I discussed various
issues under which HP could be helping OSS. But as
they always say a commercial company has commercial interests in mind, well rightly so, but at-least he
agreed in theory that there can be a chance that HP
can make use of Blenders growing capabilities. The
talk went on to comparing the powerful features of
other commercial apps with Blender, which came
back to the development of features needed and
when I told him about the speed of actual development, I could see him getting excited.

Then there was Vaseem a engineering student, who
was interested in learning whether Blender can be
used for his academic project on photo geometry.
We discussed a lot on the issue and finally he agreed
that using python with Blender might help him.
Finally I met an very interesting person: Shree Kumar.

He had worked on Blender scripting and was the one
those guys who made those Blender demos running
on the HP Cluster (or was it some thing else ?) And if
I recall right, was one of the people who customised
the Xserver to use multiple monitors asynchronously
on that machine. More importantly, we developed an
mutual understanding that I can misuse his talents
to correct errors on python scripts which fail on my
machine ;)
At the end of it, I was filled with vigour, that I will
return next year with a much larger role than this.
If Blender could generate such a good amount of interest despite being announcing as an entry very late
in the event schedule, then it surely will have a much
better presence with a full fledged talk on the subject, and more importantly a developer friendly BOF
on which I am sure Tom (Letterrip) will be nodding his
head in agreement ;)
Day 4
Again a slow start in the morning, but this was one
of the most productive days of all. A professor from
one of the Goa Universities wanted to learn the basics
of using Blender himself so that he can introduce
this useful tool to his students. There was only one
problem though, he was looking for CAD features
which Blender does not readily offer. I discussed a
work around with him, like importing the mechanical
drawings through images and building models with
reference. They might not be accurate, but 3d models
will keep students interest. I also suggested to him
other OSS CAD tools. Despite that, I spent a good 1-2
hrs. detailing for him how to use Blender, and I must
say he was really interested in learning. I hope he can
make use of the small learning session.
-- Gaurav Nawani
www.blenderart.org
Animation tips - pg1

Animation Tips
-- by Sandra Gilbert
Introduction
Just like any art form, when it comes down to it, it
isnt the tool being used, it is the artist and his/her
knowledge/skill. Animation is no different. While a
fancy program with lots of cool tools can make an
animators life easier, the animation will still fall flat
if not done properly.

It has long been held in the animation industry,
that there are 12 basic principles of animation. You
can find them written, re-written and paraphrased
all over the net. With the advent of Blenders new
animation features, it is a good idea to review these
principles before we all get animating.
Thats right, here is another incarnation of the golden
animation rules. :)
At a glance, here are the 12 Basic Principles of
Animation:
1. Squash and stretch
2. Anticipation
3. Staging
4. Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
5. Follow through and Overlapping Action
6. Slow In and Slow Out
7. Arcs
42
8. Secondary Action
9. Timing
10. Exaggeration
11. Solid Drawing (same or different as Weight)
12. Appeal
clearly. Proper use of close-ups, medium and wide

shots can help direct your audience to the tone, mood
and action of your scene. Be sure to plan your shots
and scenes out carefully so as not to confuse your
audience.
Squash and Stretch
Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose Animation
One of the most important elements to master as an

animator. It gives the illusion of weight and volume
to characters, facial animation and objects such as a
bouncing balls. It can also be useful while animating
dialog. One thing to remember when using squash
or stretch, is to always maintain the same volume.
Think of it as a balloon filled with water. Squish your
balloon, the water moves to different sections of
the balloon, but always maintains the same volume.
Tools in blender that can help in your use of Squash
and Stretch are lattice deformations, Soft bodies and
Shape Keys.
Straight ahead animation goes from frame to frame,

allowing complete control over movement. Pose to
Pose is the use of KeyFrames at set intervals, allowing the computer to fill in the missing frames. Both
methods have their uses and most likely you will use a
combination of both. In blender it is easy to set Pose
to Pose with KeyFrames at your set intervals and then
fine tune those actions on a frame by frame basis using IPO manipulation.
Anticipation
Anticipation the act of starting a movement before
the movement actually starts. Generally staged as
a backward movement just preceding the forward
movement. It can be done broadly or subtly, depending on what effect you are going for, with broad
anticipation usually used for comic effect.
Staging
Staging is the animated equivalent of photography
composition. Use staging to convey your actions
www.blenderart.org
Follow Through and Overlapping Action

By observing the world around you will notice that
objects in motion never stop all at once. In animation
this is called Follow Through and Overlapping Actions.
Most obvious examples hair flowing and settling into
place once the character has stopped. An animal with
loose skin, different parts are all moving, but at
different speeds and stop at different points.
Animation tips - pg2

Slow-Out and Slow-In
Slow-out and slow-in will soften an action and render
it more life like. The basic concept for setting them
up is as follows. You bunch up the KeyFrames toward
the beginning and end of each action with only one
or two in the middle of the action. More KeyFrames
creating slower actions, fewer KeyFrames creating
faster actions.
Arcs
Remember your math teacher saying youll use this
someday, here it is. Most all movements are on an
Arc. A soft semi circular motion that gives a more
natural feel to the movements. Test it yourself, raise
your arm and move it around, there is your arc. Look
for arcs in movements all around you.
Secondary Action
Secondary action provides the extra little details that
make a performance more believable. Adding arm
movements to a walk cycle, head bobs, and dialog all
are examples of secondary action.
Timing
Timing can make or break an animation. It is one of
those things that is best learnt through trial, error
and experience. A stopwatch can greatly increase
your grasp of timing. Go into a room, shut the door
and act out your scenes, using a stopwatch to record
when the actions start and stop. Dont forget to
overlap actions from different characters and objects.
43
Grab a friend and play out your scenes that involve
more than one character
Exaggeration
In computer animation it is very easy for your movements to look stiff and staged, minor exaggeration of
features and movements can soften your movements
and make them more fluid. But be careful with how
much you exaggerate, unless you are going for a very
comic look.
Solid Drawing
Solid drawing covers the basic principles of giving
form, weight, and volume solidity to your objects.
This actually applies more to traditional hand drawn
cell animation, but should be kept in mind even for
CG animators. Make sure that your characters and objects have the look and feel of a solid object. Check
from all angles to ensure that you havent forgotten
something.
Appeal
Often we get so caught up in all the mechanics of
animation that we forget all about appeal. The whole
reason for making the animation was to tell a story,
is your character believable, will it connect with the
audience? These are questions you need to keep in
mind when creating your characters. Make sure they
have personalities, even if they are evil ones.
Okay now we have covered the very basic of the
www.blenderart.org
basic principles. It gives you the ideas and concepts

to improve your animations, but like all things in life,
this is a subject that requires further study and a lot
of practise
Hi, my name is Sandra

Gilbert, (aka dreamsgate).
I have been using blender
for a little over five years.
I currently live in Nampa,
Idaho, USA and work as a
graphic designer for a small
print shop.
I am married and have 2
children, which leaves not near enough time for
feeding my growing blender obsession. Yet somehow I always manage to find the time to explore
new features, keep up on the latest news and start
new blender projects. Some of them I actually
even manage to finish.
Special - Project Orange Team Interview
Project Orange
by
Interview
b
by - Sandra Gilbert
ave you ever sat back and watched

a project or idea literally explode
across the scene. Now for the blender
community this is not an unusual occurrence. We have a long history of avidly
supporting any community project,
idea or fund raising campaign that
comes along. But even with our history
of support, the popularity and support
gathered around Project Orange has
been gaining an historic momentum.
News of which has appeared not only
on community websites, but has leaked
over into Open Source news sites and

even been featured in issue #68 of
3D World where the Project Orange
website had been chosen as Website of
the Month.
Blender, having been an in
house production tool, once
had the immediate feedback and interaction of both
developing and using the
software on a daily basis.
With a desire to recapture
that unique synergy of
development and a very real
desire to create a professional quality Open Source
animation, Project Orange
was born. The Blender Foundation
teamed up with Montevideo (Netherlands Media Art Institute) to produce
and distribute the resulting animation.
With Montevideo handling the tax/legal
and hiring issues and the Blender Foundation taking charge of the creative
process, a new focus was about to hit
the blender community and take hold
of our imaginations.

From a basic idea, a full fledge studio
soon appeared. Two apartments were
rented and equipment was set up. Jan
Morgenstern and his studio WaveMage
44
agreed to sponsor the movie by providing all music and the full sound effect
editing for the project. Next Prof. Mark
Alan Matties, Department of Computer
Science at Bowie State University and
Director of the BSU Xseed xseed.bowiestate.edu, offered the BSU Xseed as
a rendering farm for the entire period
of the Orange Open Movie project.
The offer of a full render farm allowed
for more creative scenes using longer
render times, while still maintaining
the set production schedule.
And yet as all the organisational stuff
is going on, the real story revolves
around a team of brilliant artists, who
voluntarily locked themselves into a
studio in Amsterdam to work 16 hour
days. Bouncing ideas off each other and
helping solve road blocks and problems,
the Orange team has been hard at work
creating a style that will forever be all
their own.
When I decided to write this article
and had gotten permission to use information from the website, I thought it
would be a simple thing to summarise
all the information they have provided
on their website. That didnt prove to
be the case. They have posted such a
wealth of information that it cant simply
www.blenderart.org
be condensed into a short article.

Having followed the Project from the
beginning, I hadnt realised how much
they had shared on their website until I
went to download it all and try and put
it into perspective. Months of work has
been documented and posted for our
education. Their work and dedication
to such a huge undertaking is nothing
short of amazing.
They have pushed the envelope
of blender capabilities, finding its
strengths and weaknesses. In fact their
work and close communication with the
coders has pushed the development of
blender features into hyper-overdrive,
bringing the community a new wealth
of tools for our own enjoyment and
projects. Such as the addition of a
better particle system, making realistic
hair far easier to achieve. And Shape
keys have added a much easier way to
deal with facial animation. The list of
improvements and new features added
to blender is already overwhelming to
say the least.

Throughout the last six months their
work has fired the imaginations of an
entire community. Blender users the
world over are firing up blender and
attempting for the first time their own
animations, inspired by Project Orange
and the new ease of use for animation
features.
We have watched the first concept
sketches turning step by step into a
movie. Feature tests and progress
reports tease and delight us with the
endless possibilities such projects
bring. Keeping with the Open Source/
Creative Commons ideal they have
freely shared each step of the process, educating the community on new
techniques as they discover them
themselves.
As the weeks have passed, they have
tested and refined each stage of the
process. Now having passed the half
way point in the project, characters
are built, scenes set up and basic timing in place. With each further week
that passes, the scenes will be further
refined and moulded into shape. All the
while Jan Morgenstern has been working closely with the team to create the
music and mood for the movie.
As they are approaching the final stages
of their production they are pushing
even harder to get everything organised and finished up. Voice recording
for the characters has been completed

with well known Dutch actors Tygo Gernandt as Proog and Cas Jansen as Emo.
They videoed the recording session
which now gives them great reference
material for animating the expressions
and movements of Proog and Emo.
From this point on the team will be
continuing the fine tuning of every little detail and polishing it all up.
Knowing all too well how busy the
team members are at this point, I
bravely or foolishly (depending on your
view) decided to try and get an interview with the Project Orange team
members, hoping at best that at least
one would have the time to answer a
few questions. To my great delight, five
of them found the time to answer. So
without further delay, here they are.

1-Aside from the official goals of the
project, what do you personally hope
45
to accomplish or take away from this
experience?
Lee J. Cooks (LohnC): Ah this is a
question with a thousand answers
hehe. I think mainly working with a
team on a project has been something
very new to all in the team, and being
halfway through the project we have
been really working out our specialities, and how to work together well. I
hope and believe we will have learnt a
lot about forming an idea of many, and
executing it. We may be like brothers
by the end.
Toni Alatalo (Antont): Learn about
all aspects of movie making. And also
get professional in Blender and related
software development. It has proved to
be fun too and a great group of people to get to know to, which is very
rewarding considering many aspects
of life.
Andy Goralczyk (@ndy): I would really love to make a *good* movie that
not only I enjoy watching, but also a
movie thats appealing to many other
people. And I really hope that this
is really not the average boring CG
short, we hope to treat it as art, as a
real movie. Besides, I just want to have
fun in the process and learn... thats
www.blenderart.org
all!
Bastian Salmela (basse): Hmm...,
personal goals.. I would say.. to learn
how to actually make a movie, like the
big boys do, and also what this weird
blender program is about.
Bassam Kurdali (slikdigit): Spending 6
months making a short animated movie
is my biggest personal motivation; its
what I would most want to do with my
time. Beyond that goal, Id say learning plays a big part in my motivation:
becoming a better animator, learning
from my teammates substantial abilities, learning more about film making.
I also wouldnt be displeased if project
orange enabled me to more easily do
similar projects in the future.

2- As busy as you are and as fast as
new features are being coded, do you
find it hard to keep up and master the
new tools?
Lee J. Cooks (LohnC): Wow, hasnt it
been amazing the speed of everything
lately. Many times we will form a great
idea among the team that could be
great for the community and in our
work flow for the film, after we have
told Ton that night he has hacked away
and the feature is there. Since we are
needing to use it sometimes in that
week for the film, and also wanting to
get the feature optimised as soon as
possible, many late nights have come
from trying to learn all the great new
things in Blender. I can admit I try to
master a new feature added, but most
times you just have to learn as much
as possible of how it works before your
using it, and of course the next night a
new one is there!
Toni Alatalo (Antont): Every day is
learning.. for me, as a kind of a developer of the tools, the perspective is of
course different .. have a lot of time for
learning.
Andy Goralczyk (@ndy): Were basically working with blender 15 hours a
day, every day, every week... so were
learning new things as they come up.
Our luxury is that most of the new tools
that drop in are specifically coded for
our needs. It takes of course some time
to get used to everything, but so far it
wasnt that hard. Its great to see the

software evolving as youre using it
Bastian Salmela (basse): YES!!! heh,
I think I am the only one at the studio
complaining that there is too much
new things popping up in CVS everyday. I just dont have time to learn all
of them. but of course, these are the
features we asked, features we need, so
I try my best to keep up.
Bassam Kurdali (slikdigit): Naaah! OK,
well, sometimes At first I would play
with every new feature as it came out,
but now the schedule is a little rough
for that. Its easy for me to stay on top
of the animation features, since Im
the one who asked for half of them I
let Andy worry about the materials and
rendering stuff- I havent even done a
test render with the new materials layering system, but I promise myself Ill
spend some time playing with it after
the project is over.
46
also some models or character rigs are
always being worked on and replaced
(sometimes due to a new feature). The
flexibility to work with Bassam on keeping everything consistent and keeping
up with the ever changing film along
with an ever changing program has been
by far the biggest.
Toni Alatalo (Antont): Dunno if it the
greatest, but a nice basic lesson is that
in animation programming it is not
needed to control frame-by-frame like
in game logic, but things can be done
nicely by creating IPO curves etc.
cinematography, lighting, modelling and

also the technical aspects of rendering
than in any other project before.
Bastian Salmela (basse): The beer in
Amsterdam is much cheaper than in
Finland, and water in Amstel doesnt kill
you, just remember to shower afterwards.
Bassam Kurdali (slikdigit): This is my

disobedience to authority workshop I
cant say Ive made huge strides so far,
but hopefully Im getting a little better.
Im also learning a lot about making a
short movie of this type, especially with
Andy Goralczyk (@ndy): The main driv- the early problems we had getting the
ing force behind the learning process is
script /story stabilised. I dont think Id
that we all have different fields of exper- start production again on a project
ience. From my fellow team members
I learnt so much more about animation,
3- So far what has been your biggest

learning experience on this project?
Lee J. Cooks (LohnC): I can say there
are more things then all the fingers
in the world could count that I have
learnt so far from this wonderful and
hectic experience. Probably the biggest
learning experience was the production work flow. The idea (as happens in
feature films too) can change slightly,
and improve every day more and more,
www.blenderart.org

without first having a script completely
finished. The planning for the project
is also quite interesting. Its amazing
how much structure and speed it gives
us, compared to my usual planning
without planning approach.
4- Project Orange has become the focus of considerable attention; how do
you feel about so many pairs of eyes
watching everything you do?
Lee J. Cooks (LohnC): Haha well it
is very weird when somebody like the
Ambassador of European Media comes
to have a gander at what we are doing,
sometimes I must admit being in the
studio each day for 3 months now it
is hard to believe we would have such
attention, each day has its own little
challenges and we usually have to
concentrate on these, but sometimes
you get a little shock here and there to
realise we are being followed .
Toni Alatalo (Antont): They dont see
me, I am well hidden and unknown. I
guess we mostly just keep forgetting
that.
Andy Goralczyk (@ndy): On some ways
its pretty helpful, were getting a lot
of feedback on our project, and not
only on our website! A lot of people
from our host, the Netherlands media
art institute are constantly helping

and supporting us, too. On the other
hand theres also a lot of noise (mainly
from the Internet) being thrown at us.
At some point you just have to push
everything away and concentrate on
your job.
Id also like to add, that contrary to
many overly unrealistic expectations of
a certain group of people, we really are
not Pixar or DreamWorks or SPI! Were
in no way even attempting that. To be
realistic we neither have the talent,
the experience or magical substance.
But we are studio orange!
Bastian Salmela (basse): Its like being in Big Brother. Except that you are
stuck with us, there is no way to vote
anyone out of here.. hmm, but yea..
well I like sitting back and to watch
peoples reactions. Sometimes they
get very excited, sometimes angry..
depending if we are doing something
right, or wrong.. And they always have
lot of opinions. Thats always fun.
Bassam Kurdali (slikdigit): Its no problem really. We all just behave like we
normally do. Andy issues dire threats
from his desk, Lee contentedly munches on brains, Basse paints inscrutable
paintings with increasingly esoteric
foodstuffs (hes using Swedish herring
47
and milk now) while Toni and I indulge
in the pleasures of Amsterdam.
In all seriousness, were mostly very
focused on the work we do, but the
online comments provide us with a nice
break from time to time. Most people
in the community seem enthusiastic
about the project, and have contributed freely their insights and ideas.
5- As hard as you are working to
meet project deadlines; has this
experience turned out to be more or
less fun" than you originally
expected?
Lee J. Cooks (LohnC): Oh, this is
another hard one. Its probably safe to
say that if I thought one thing before
the project started, when it did start
all my expectations were flipped upside
down. It really has
been a lot more
fun then I could
have hoped for,
but in such an
opposite way then
I could imagine
before I started
the project. The
challenges, hard
work, sharing ideas
and ogling over
others screens
after they finish a
www.blenderart.org
shot with wonderful results have been

amazingly fun, like having a very long
game of Tennis, Its exhaustingly fun.
You learn to blend longer without as
many rushes of excitement, but when
they come around they are a lot more
satisfying.
Toni Alatalo (Antont): hm .. perhaps
more, or well I dont remember any
more what I expected
Andy Goralczyk (@ndy): Its actually
more fun than I expected! We all knew
from the beginning that it would be
hard work, but at the end it will
definitely be worth all the effort.
Bastian Salmela (basse): Its still fun.
Sometimes it gets to you, when

you are fighting with something that
just doesnt work and time is running
out. But in the end, they always turn
out nicely. Deadlines are very important
to have, they dont only make you work
hard, but they also make you to actually
finish things and move on to the next
thing.. just because you have to.
Bassam Kurdali (slikdigit): Its pretty
close to my expectations in terms of
fun..
6- What aspect of this project have
you enjoyed the most?
fix it!
Toni Alatalo (Antont): Perhaps being
allowed to concentrate on interesting
things, like animation scripting .. but
also being a part in the whole process.
Andy Goralczyk (@ndy): I think Im
enjoying mainly the fact that Im able to
work with people who share the same
interests, working on a common task,
in the same place! and I also like the
opportunity of really going insane with
style, animation, lighting, everything!
Bastian Salmela (basse): Maybe
the possibility to actually work
full time on just designing,
drawing, modelling, animating..
instead of what Ive used to at
home, having couple of hours to
blend after midnight.. oh, and all
the cheap beer of course.
Lee J. Cooks (LohnC): Ill try keep this

one short and sweet ... *think for a few
hours*. OK, most enjoyable thing about
the project would have to be having a
technical director! If anybody can break
a computer Its me, and now there is
somebody around who knows how to
48
Bassam Kurdali (slikdigit): Cant

single anything out really.. Animating has been big fun the last
few days, making some wacky stuff,
some of the facial rigging has been
pretty fun too.
7- Any tantalising tidbits about the
movie that you would like to share
with us?
Lee J. Cooks (LohnC): Well, Im still

pushing Bassam for it, but Im debating to have the huge anime style sword
fight scene, Ill inform everyone if there
is any progress
Toni Alatalo (Antont): The shoes are
great!
Andy Goralczyk (@ndy): Dutch cheese
is gooooooooooooood!
Bastian Salmela (basse): I have been
working with these little things that
nobody knows what
they are all about,
and I heard somebody
saying: Oof, what
are they?
Bassam Kurdali
(slikdigit): Well weve
gotten some big name
(in the Netherlands)
stars to do the voices
for our characters Im
not sure Im allowed
to reveal who it is
yet, and its likely
only to excite Dutch
audiences, but its good news for us,
and might help the movie get taken
more seriously by non members of the
www.blenderart.org
blender community, for instance in film

festivals, etc
Project Orange still has some time to
go before they wrap it all up and return
home. For further information and
updates on their progress, stop by the
Project website. http://orange.blender.
org/
--Sandra Gilbert
Bl
e ntuu s ay s
Re nde ring is an ofte n

m is unde rs tood proce s s and until
w e ge tth e m ak e re nde r be autiful
button ;) code d, w e h ave to do it
th e h ard w ay. And th atw oul
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unde rs tanding w h atgoe s into a
re nde r and w h ataffe cts th e
re nde ring proce s s .
Th e s h ortans w e r is th atEVERYTH ING affe cts th e re nde ring
proce s s . Th atw oul
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s,l
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trick s th atcan incre as e or de cre as e your re nde r tim e s and
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Raytracing, Am bie ntO ccl
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H e avy us e ofparticl
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Extre m e l
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O n th e oth e r h and, CG artis ful
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O th e r th ings th atcan l
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Sim il
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lnotnotice (l
igh ts ,
s ubs urf, rayde pth , e tc.).Re nde r in pas s e s w h e n pos s ibl
e , you
can re -com pos ite th e pas s e s in GIM P or Ph otos h op, notonl
y w il
l
itl
ow e r re nde r tim e s , you w il
lh ave m ore controlove r h ow e ach
l
aye r goe s toge th e r w ith th e oth e rs .
O nl
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s th atare ne e de d, UVm apping and
prope r us e ofte xture s can s ave on your pol
ygon count. W h e n it
is al
ls aid and done , us e onl
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you actual
l
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anim ation l
ook good. Ifyou can ch e ator fak e it,
th e n do s o, itw il
ls ave on your re nde r tim e s . If
you jus th ave to us e it, th e n be pre pare d for th e
w ait. W h il
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nice cup ofcoffe e and a good book .
NEW S Fl
as h
Th e bigge s te ve ntin th e Bl
e nde r w orl
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jus taround th e corne r. Proje ctO range is
ne ar com pl
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El
e ph ants Dre am h as be e n s ch e dul
ed
for M arch 24, 2006. Cine m a K e te l
h uis , a
wel
lk now n cine m a for docum e ntarie s and
art-h ous e m ovie s in Am s te rdam , h as
be e n ch os e n as th e l
ocation for th e l
ong
aw aite d pre m ie r.
Th e cine m a ope ns at17:30 and th e
s h ow ing w il
ls tartat18:00. In addition to
th e s cre e ning ofEl
e ph ants Dre am , th e re
w il
lal
s o be a pre vie w ofth e M ak ing of
docum e ntary. Ifyou m is s th e firs t
s h ow ing, th e re w il
lbe anoth e r at18:45.
Afte r th e pre m ie r, th e re is a ce l
e bration
pl
anne d atone ofth e h ippe s tnigh tcl
ubs ,
ironical
l
y nam e d Bl
e nde r. W h il
e th e
pre m ie r is fre e ofch arge , th e re is an
e ntrance fe e to th e afte r party.
Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 M arch , th e
Proje ctO range te am w il
lbe on h and al
l
day in M onte vide o (K e iz e rs grach t264,

Am s te rdam ) for furth e r vie w ing and
dis cus s ion ofth e proje ct. For m ore
inform ation on th e pre m ie r and th e
fol
l
ow ing pre s e ntations ofth e m ovie
ch e ck h ttp://orange .bl
e nde r.org/.
Bl
e nde r h as be com e an e ve r ch anging
program , w ith ne w fe ature s cons tantl
y
be e n w ritte n and re vis e d for be tte r and
cl
e ane r functional
ity. O ve r th e l
as ttw o
m onth s , m ajor coding e fforth as be e n
focus e d into th e Noodl
e s s ys te m (node
e ditor) and th e re nde r e ngine . Th e
Noodl
e s s ys te m al
l
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h igh l
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s and
com pos iting e ffe cts . Th e re nde r e ngine is
be ing s tre am l
ine d and m odifie d to w ork
cl
e ane r and m ore e fficie ntl
y, al
l
ow ing for
fas te r and m ore e rror fre e re nde ring.
To ch e ck a te s tbuil
d w ith th e s e ne w
fe ature s , drop by th e te s tbuil
d forum at
w w w .bl
e nde r.org.
Since th is is s ue is focus ing on re nde ring,
th is is a good tim e to e xpl
ore al
lth e
re nde r e ngine s avail
abl
e for us e w ith
bl
e nde r. In addition to YafRay, PO V-Ray,
M e gaPO V, th e re are now e xports cripts
avail
abl
e for th e fol
l
ow ing ne w e ngine s :
K e rk yth e a
Site :
h ttp://w w w .s oftl
ab.e ce .ntua.gr/~ jpanta/Gra
ph ics /K e rk yth e a/
Sunfl
ow
Site : h ttp://s unfl
ow .s ource forge .ne t/
Indigo
Site :
h ttp://h om e page s .paradis e .ne t.nz /nick am y
/indigo.h tm l
3De l
igh t
Site : h ttp://w w w .3de l
igh t.com /
M e tropol
igh t
Site : h ttp://w w w .3dvirtual
igh t.com /m l
t/
W O RK SH O P2D -
28
D PI de m y s tifie d
DPIde m ys tifie d
You did it! You h ave trul
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m as te rpie ce . Butw h e n you printe d itout, it
l
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lpixil
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m us th ave a bad s e tting s om e w h e re . You go
back , doubl
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lyour s e ttings , h itre nde r
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ll
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e ntth re ats at
your printe r. W e l
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one m ore th ing (your printe r w il
lth ank you for
it).
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is s ue . W h il
e its true th atBl
e nde r h as s om e
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unde rs tand h ow th atre l
ate s to printing, you
w il
lbe fore ve r gl
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Firs tl
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num be r ofdots /pixe l
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cre ate an im age . Th e m ore corre ctte rm is
pixe l
s pe r inch , h ow e ve r dots pe r inch is ofte n
us e d ins te ad (Th e im age can be a fontor
graph ic). In ge ne ral
, th e m ore dots , th e be tte r
and s h arpe r th e im age . DPI is printe r
re s ol
ution. DPI is notim age re s ol
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al
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e nde r. Bl
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s cre e n, butnot
printe d out. In orde r
for itto l
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re nde r your im age
bigge r and th e n
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your favorite graph ic
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l
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w h atyou w il
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re s ol
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ch art(fig. 1 be l
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s h ow s s om e com m on
re nde r s iz e s in pixe l
s
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e nde r us e s ) and a good printre s ol
ution of
300dpi. You can s e e th atth e ph ys icals iz e s
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l
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re s ol
ution.
Th is m ay s e e m ove rl
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e form ul
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by th e de s ire d ph ys ical
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for Bl
e nde r (fig. 2).
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th os e s e ttings , you ne e d to go into your
favorite im age program and re s iz e your
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W O RK SH O P2D -
29
D PI de m y s tifie d
Ste p 1: O pe n your im age

Ste p 2: Go to Im age >Im age Siz e , a dial
og box
l
ik e fig. 3 s h oul
d ope n.
Ste p 3: Atth e bottom ofth e box, unch e ck
Re s am pl
e Im age
Ste p 4: Ne xtl
ocate th e Re s ol
ution Box,
e nte r your ne w re s ol
ution. Th e W idth and
H e igh tboxe s s h oul
d autom atical
l
y update to
re fl
e ctth e ne w s iz e atth atre s ol
ution.
O k ay, s o now you h ave a be tte r unde rs tanding

ofdpi and h ow to ge tth e prope r dpi for
printing, butw h atdpi re s ol
ution is be s tfor
w h atyou ne e d. As a ge ne ralrul
e , you s h oul
d
ch oos e a re s ol
ution be tw e e n 150-300 dpi.
Th is re s ol
ution is good for m os tprintproje cts .
Ifyou are h aving s om e th ing profe s s ional
l
y
printe d, itis al
w ays a good ide a to ch e ck w ith
your printe r and find outw h atre s ol
ution th e ir
e q uipm e ntruns at.
Ste p 5: H itth e O K button and s ave , you are

al
ldone and now your im age w il
lprintl
ik e you
e xpe cte d itto.
H i, m y nam e is Sandra Gil

be rt, (ak a dre am s gate ). I h ave be e n
us ing bl
e nde r for a l
ittl
e ove r five ye ars . I curre ntl
yl
ive in
Nam pa, Idah o, USA and w ork as a graph ic de s igne r for a
s m al
lprints h op.
Im m arrie d and h ave 2 ch il
dre n, w h ich l
e ave s notne ar
e nough tim e for fe e ding m y grow ing bl
e nde r obs e s s ion. Ye t
s om e h ow I al
w ays m anage to find th e tim e to e xpl
ore ne w
fe ature s , k e e p up on th e l
ate s tne w s and s tartne w bl
e nde r
proje cts . Som e ofth e m I actual
l
y e ve n m anage to finis h .
Lizzy K now s
Izzy's Tal
k on Mode l
ing
Be fore you
can de cide
w h ich
m e th od of
m ode l
ing
w ork s for
you, it
h el
ps to
k now
e xactl
y
w h at
options are
avail
abl
e and h ow th e y w ork . Bl
e nde r offe rs a
gre at se t of core tool
s to m ak e w h ate ve r
m e th od you use as productive as possibl
e.
H e re is a l
ist of m e th ods and tool
s for you to
conside r as you start your ne xt proje ct:
Box Mode l
ing
Ge ne ral
l
y th e e asie st m e th od w h e n you first
start l
e arning. You'd be am az e d by h ow m any
th ings ge t th e ir start as a cube . Start by
adding a pre -m ade prim itive (usual
l
y a cube ,
but can be any of th e oth e r prim itive s i.e .
Sph e re , Cone , Tube e tc). Th e n e xtrude , de l
e te
e dge s and ve rtice s as ne e de d to ach ie ve your
de sire d sh ape .
Th e use of Box Mode l
ing is pre fe rabl
e if you
are abl
e to conce ive th e de sire d sh ape in
l
e sse r am ounts of de tailin th e be ginning.
Bl
e nde rartM agazine - Jul
y 20 0 6
Basical
l
y, you start by cre ating a basic box,
th e n de fining de tail
s as you carry on.
Ve rte x Push ing

Al
so re fe rre d to as point-to-point m ode l
ing.
Th is m e th od re q uire s m ore patie nce but
al
l
ow s for gre ate r pre cision, e spe cial
l
y w h en
cre ating sm ooth Edge Loops for anim ation.
Start w ith one ve rte x, e xtruding and/or
adding ve rtice s one -by-one , adjusting and
re fining your sh ape untilyour m ode lis
com pl
e te d.
Th is m e th od is in contrast to th e box m ode l
ing
te ch niq ue . It suits pe opl
e w h o are abl
e to
conce ive th e sh ape and de tail
s in advance ,
inste ad of adding de tail
sl
ate r.
Curve s
Al
l
ow s you to cre ate sm ooth sh ape s and
com pl
e x ge om e try. Gre at for l
ogos.
Nurbs
O ne of th e m ore difficul
t m e th ods of
m ode l
ing. You cre ate patch e s th at are th e n
stitch e d toge th e r to cre ate sm ooth se am l
e ss
m ode l
s. Gre at for organic m ode l
ing.
Me tabal
l
s
Much l
ik e w ork ing w ith cl
ay. You add
additionalm e tabal
l
s w ith varying infl
ue nce
(can be positive or ne gative infl
ue nce ) to
buil
d up your m ode l
.
Tool
s th at can be use d in conjunction
w ith m ost m ode l

ing m e th ods.
Extrude : [E k e y] Ve rtice s, Edge s and Face s
can al
lbe e xtrude d to buil
d your m ode l
s.
K nife : [K k e y] can be use d to cre ate
additionalEdge s and Face s, use fulin adding
m ore de tailonce your basic m ode lis cre ate d.
Ve rte x/Edge /Face Se l
e ct: (Toggl
e buttons on
th e 3D w indow H e ade r Bar [l
ook s l
ik e
dots/l
ine /triangl
e ]) Use fulfor se l
e cting just
th e are a you ne e d.
Loop Se le ct: [Al
t + MMB] al
l
ow s you to se l
e ct
an e ntire l
oop for m odification.
Subsurf: (Subdivision Surface s found in th e
Modifie rs pane lof th e Edit buttons w indow )
Subsurf sm ooth s th e h ard angl
e s of your
m ode l
, m aintaining l
ow pol
ygon counts w h il
e
m ode l
ing.
Th e re are actual
l
y m any m ore use fultool
s
incl
ude d w ith in Bl
e nde r, but th e se are th e
one s use d m ost ofte n. More inform ation on
Bl
e nde r's tool
s and m e th ods, as w e l
las
various tutorial
s can, of course , be found in
th e Bl
e nde r w ik ibook found at:
h ttp://m e diaw ik i.bl
e nde r.org/inde x.ph p/Main
_Page
3D W ork s h op - Using th e Blende r M ate rialLibrary Script
- b y M ariano H id al
go
Le ve l:Inte rm e diate
'Bl
e nde r Library' is a pyth on s cript for Bl
e nde r
inte nde d to provide an e as y w ay to s tore ,
m anage and re trie ve fre q ue ntl
y us e d ite m s ;
s uch as m ate rial
s , te xture s , obje cts , e tc. It al
so
trie s to de fine a s tandardiz e d w ay of s h aring
s tuff be tw e e n th e re s t of th e Bl
e nde r
com m unity, w ith buil
t- in im port and e xport
functional
ity (Th is fe ature ne e ds a ful
lPyth on
ins tal
l
ation for th e com pre s s e d s upport, pl
e as e
re ad be l
ow for w ork around).
Since th e s cript is m e re l
y an inte rface buil
t on
top of th e curre nt Bl
e nde r appe nding s ys te m
[Sh ift+ F1] it w il
lbe m os t l
ik e l
y com patibl
e w ith
al
lfuture e nh ance m e nts in upcom ing Bl
e nde r
re l
e as e s . As an e xam pl
e th e m ate riall
ibrary w as
code d be fore th e de ve l
oping of th e ne w
M ate rialNode s and w ith out ch ange s in th e
s cript it can now s tore m ate rial
s w ith node s .
Se tting itup: Grab th e s cript from h e re .
h ttp://us e l
e s s dre am e r.bye th os t32.com /s cripts /bl
e nde r
_l
ibrary.py
Bl
y 20 0 6
O nce dow nl
oade d, jus t pl
ace th e s cript in your
Bl
e nde r's s cripts fol
de r and s tart or re s tart
Bl
e nde r (you can al
s o us e (Scripts >> Update
Me nus ) to re fre s h your s cripts ). Th e s cript w il
l
now be l
is te d in th e (Scripts >> Obje ct>> Bl
e nde r
Library) s cripts m e nu.
O n th e firs t run it w il
las k
you to ch oos e a l
ocation
for th e l
ibrary fol
de r.
Pl
e as e try to ch oos e a
dire ctory not too de e p in
your fil
e s ys te m , th is w il
l
avoid pos s ibl
e probl
em s
w ith Pyth on's path
h andl
ing, e ve n th ough
us e rs re port th at th is is no
l
onge r an is s ue in l
ate s t
ve rs ions of th e s cript.
Firs ts te ps
Th e s cript s tarts in
brow s ing m ode . At th e
top, th e re are th re e dropdow n m e nus . Th e
uppe rm os t one is th e
curre ntl
y brow s e d l
ibrary,
th e oth e r tw o are
cate gorie s and s ubcate gorie s . Sub cate gorie s
are optional
, but th e y
be com e us e fulonce you
s tart fil
l
ing th e l
ibrary w ith
Fig2. Th e M ate riall
ib rary in b row sing m od e .
l
ots of s tuff. Th e l
ittl
e arrow s on th e s ide of th e
m e nus al
l
ow to q uick l
y brow s e th e conte nt.
Th at's it! your l

ibrary is
re ady to be fil
l
e d w ith
ite m s .
Fig1. Initiald ial
og.
Untilyou ge t com fortabl

e w ith th e s cript th e re
is a conte xt h e l
p fe ature , and if you l
e ave it
ope n it w il
lcons tantl
y s h ow tips and advice as
you ope n m e nus and navigate th e form s . O nce
you h ave m as te re d e ve ryth ing, you can cl
os e it
by Jus t cl
ick ing on th e l
ittl
e button on top w ith
an inte rrogation m ark . So th e s cript w indow
ge ts s m al
l
e r and don't e at th at m uch s pace on
your s cre e n.
Now you can s tart e xpe rim e nting w ith th e

s cript. Eith e r add s om e s tuff you h ave (re ad
be l
ow ), or go to Bl
e nde r Stuff (h ttp:\ \ bl
e nde rs tuff.bye th os t32.com ) and dow nl
oad s om e
re ady to us e ite m s . D ow nl
oade d ite m s can be
im porte d one by one or in a batch m ode . If you
dow nl
oade d s e ve ralite m s , jus t ch oos e "Im port
a Fol
de r" acce s s ibl
e from th e 'Righ t Cl
ick ' M e nu
and point it to th e fol
de r w h e re th e ite m s
re s ide .
O nce you re ach a cate gory w ith ite m s on it, a
row w ith e xtra buttons w il
lappe ar, al
ong w ith a
pre vie w im age and a dropdow n m e nu to
q uick l
y jum p to oth e r ite m s in th e cate gory.
Th e buttons above th e pre vie w are :

Th e LOAD button. It w il
lpop a m e nu w ith
diffe re nt l
oading options , de pe nding of th e type
of ite m .
Th e INFO button, to dis pl
ay a m e nu w ith
e xte nde d inform ation about th e curre nt ite m . If
you [Ctrl+ LMB] in ite m 's nam e or de s cription
you can ch ange th e m . Auth or's inform ation is
dis pl
aye d be l
ow and can't be ch ange d for th e
m om e nt.
To m anage th e conte nt, th e s cript provide s
s e ve raloptions in th e M ANAGE m e nu. You can
re nam e , de l
e te or m ove th e conte nt to oth e r
cate gorie s . You can al
s o im port a cus tom
pre vie w im age to re pl
ace th e curre nt one .
Afte r th e s e fis t s te ps , it w il
lbe coolto ope n up
th e pre fe re nce s dial
og, w h e n you can e nte r
your pe rs onalinform ation. Th e n, w h e n adding
ite m s you can us e th e FILLbutton in th e AD D
form to
autom atica
l
l
y e nte r
your data,
s aving
you s om e
typing
e ve ry tim e
you m ak e
ne w ite m .
Fig3. Ad d ing stuffto th e l

ib rary
Bl
y 20 0 6
Adding Ite m s
To add your ow n s tuff to th e l

ibrary, cl
ick in th e
Add button at th e bottom of th e s cript. A form
w il
ls h ow up. Se l
e cting th e de s ire d ite m s w ork s
a bit diffe re nt de pe nding on w h ich l
ibrary your
are on.
Th e 'O bje ct' and 'Lam p' l
ibrarie s can s tore
s e ve ralBl
e nde r's databl
ock s in th e s am e ite m ,
s o you are not l
im ite d to s tore s ingl
e m e sh e s.
You can s tore and s h are a ful
lch aracte r,
com pl
e te w ith props and arm ature , an e ve n
s h ape k e ys attach e d. By s toring s e ve rall
am ps
in th e s am e ite m you can cre ate l
am ps s e ts to
ach ie ve re us abl
e l
igh ting e nvironm e nts or on
cl
ick - to- s e tup fak e gl
obalil
l
um ination. Ch oos e
th e de s ire d obje cts or l
am ps on th e 3D Vie w
and th e n type a nam e for th e ite m in th e SET
NAM E: l
abe l
.
For th e re s t of th e l
ibrarie s you s e l
e ct th e
de s ire d ite m from a m e nu acce s s e d from th e
righ t pointing arrow ne xt to th e NAM E l
abe l
. In
th is cas e th e l
abe lw il
lbe auto fil
l
e d w ith
ch os e n databl
ock 's nam e . D e s pite th is , al
l
re l
ate d s tuff to th e ch os e n ite m is al
s o adde d. If
you add a m ate rial
, it's te xture s and Ipos are
al
s o adde d, and s o on.
For s om e l
ibrarie s you can turn on th e ENABLE
RAY button, in cas e you w ant a ray trace d
pre vie w im age , and for m ate rial
s you can al
so
ch oos e th e s h ape of th e pre vie w obje ct from a
dropdow n m e nu.
Now its tim e to cl

ick th e Add Ite m button to
finis h th e proce s s . Th e s cript w il
lw arm you
about th e ne e d to re ope n th e curre nt bl
e nd fil
e
afte r adding. Th is is a s m al
ll
im itation (w h ich
m ay dis appe ar in future ve rs ions ) s o pl
e as e
s ave your bl
e nd be fore adding s tuff to th e
l
ibrary. If you accide ntal
l
y forgot to s ave and
l
os e w ork , you can s e arch for th e q uit.bl
e nd
fil
e , th at is a Bl
e nde r fe ature to re cove r bl
e nd
fil
e , w h ich Bl
e nde r autom atical
l
y cre ate s for
s afe ty.
Afte r re l
oad, run th e s cript again and th e ite m
you h ave jus t adde d w il
lbe th e re for q uick
re us e .
If you pl
an to s h are your ite m s , and to prote ct
your righ ts as a cre ator it is pos s ibl
e to bundl
e
a Lice ns e Te xt w ith e ve ry ite m you add to th e
l
ibrary. To do th is , h ave your l
ice ns e te xt
ope ne d in th e curre nt .bl
e nd and th e n s e l
e ct it
from th e drop dow n m e nu. W h e n pe opl
e l
oad
your ite m , th e s cript w il
lw arn th e m about th e
pre s e nce of th e l
ice ns e and its te xt w il
ll
oad
into th e proje ct.
Exporting Ite m s
If you w ant to s h are your cre ations w ith oth e r

pe opl
e , us e th e Export Ite m option in th e
M anage m e nu. You can e xport com pre s s e d TAR
pack age s onl
y if you h ave a ful
lPyth on
ins tal
l
ation.
As an al
te rnative you can run a s e arch on
googl
e or you favorite s e arch e ngine and l
ook
for th e s e tw o fil
e s : s h util
.py and tarfil
e .py;
dow nl
oad and pl
ace in your Bl
e nde r's fol
de r.
Now you can e xport and im port com pre s s e d
ite m s .
W h e n you e xport com pre s s e d ite m s th e s cript
give s you a JPG im age al
ong w ith th e TAR
pack age . Th e im age is not ne e de d to im port th e
ite m back , rath e r it provide d s naps h ot w h ich
you can s h ow as pre vie w in th e forum s or
w e bs ite s w h e n you m ay be pos ting your s tuff.
If you are e xporting uncom pre s s e d ite m s , th e n
th e th re e re s ul
ting fil
e s are ne e de d and you
s h oul
d dis tribute th e m al
l
. It w oul
d be a good
ide a to pack th e m m anual
l
y as a TAR fil
e by
h and.
Th e Librarie s
Le ts tak e a l
ook at s om e of th e l
ibrarie s .
Th e Mate rialand Te xture Libs Th e m ate rial
l
ibrary is th e s tar of th e s h ow . It can s tore
re gul
ar m ate rial
s , m ate rial
s w ith node s and
e ve n m ate rial
s w ith IPO s attach e d. If th e
m ate rialus e s Im age ' te xture s , th e im age fil
es
w il
lbe autom atical
l
y pack e d. Th e te xture l
ibrary
is coolfor s torage of proce durals e ttings and
e nvironm e nt m aps . As a pl
us , te xture s of type
Bl
e nd can be us e d to s tore col
or bands .
Th e (Gam e ) Logic Lib Th is is inte nde d for gam e
de ve l
ope rs and is a q uick w ay to s tore l
ogic
brick s . Th is w ay you can s tore your k e yboard
m appings or th e brick s ne e de d to m ak e a pan
and rotate vie w tooland q uick l
y re us e th e m
l
ate r. To s tore gam e m ode l
s is be tte r to us e th e
O bje ct l
ibrary ins te ad, th e TEXFACE button w il
l
al
l
ow you to ge t a righ t pre vie w for UV te xture d
m ode l
s.
Th e Sce ne Lib Al
lth e tim e pe opl
e dow nl
oad
from th e ne t bl
e nds w ith e xam pl
e s and
conce pts , us ual
l
y w ith a s ingl
e s ce ne . W ith th is
l
ib you can e as il
y catal
og th at fil
e s and al
s o its
a good pl
ace to s tore s e ve ralas s orte d ite m s
you m ay w ant to l
oad at once .
Fig4. Exporting ite m s
Bl
y 20 0 6
Th e Particl
e Lib.
Can s tore s tatic (h air, fur, gras s ) or anim ate d
particl
e s ys te m s , th e l
ate r w ith attach e d force
fie l
ds and de fl
e ctors .
For th e l
ate r to w ork , you ne e d to nam e e ach
force fie l
d and de fl
e ctor be ginning w ith th e
nam e of th e particl
e obje ct, pl
us a dot, pl
us
th e ir nam e
(for e xam pl
e : PARTICLEO BJECT.FO RCEFIELD ,
PARTICLEO BJECT.D EFLECTO R.001)
Th e Arm ature , Action,
Pos e and IPO Libs .
Favorite s for anim ators ,
th e y s tore anim ation
re l
ate d databl
ock s and
e ve n s ingl
e pos e s .
Th e pos e l
ibrary curre ntl
y
doe s n't s tore th os e pos e s
w h ich us e attach e d Targe t
IK s , but th is m ay ch ange
in future ve rs ions . Th e
autom atic IK w ork s jus t
fine .
Fig5. A com pl
e te anim ate d particl
e sy ste m justone
cl
ick aw ay
Th e W orl
d Lib
It is pos s ibl
e to s tore anim ate d w orl
ds , a ve ry
coolfe ature for pe opl
e us ing Bl
e nde r for
adve rtis ing or m ul
tim e dia de s ign. In th e l
ate s t
ve rs ion of th e s cript, you can al
s o ch oos e to
jus t l
oad Particl
e or M is t s e ttings , to m e rge w ith
your curre nt w orl
d.
Extra Functional
ity
O nce you s tart col

l
e cting ite m s , you'l
lne e d th e
Se arch function, w h ich can be acce s s e d from
th e 'Righ t Cl
ick ' M e nu. It w il
ll
e t you s e arch a
s pe cific l
ibrary for m atch ing ite m s both by
ite m 's nam e and auth or's nam e . O nce found,
th e m atch ing ite m s w il
lbe s h ow n jus t l
ik e in
th e brow s ing m ode , re ady to be l
oade d in your
curre nt proje ct. Al
s o re m e m be r th at m os t us e d
ite m s can be adde d to favorite s for q uick acce s s
and th e y w il
lbe l
is te d at th e bottom of th e
LO AD m e nu. To re m ove a favorite jus t [Ctrl+
LMB]on it's nam e .
Round D ow n
Curre nt ve rs ion of th e
s cript is 1.3.4. For future
ve rs ions th e s m al
l
im pl
e m e ntationalq uirk s
m ay be gone and h ope ful
l
y
th e re w il
lbe no l
onge r
ne e d to re ope n th e .bl
e nd
afte r adding s tuff. Al
s o,
m aybe giving th e s cript a
cus tom s pace w il
lbe a cool
ide a.
H ope th e Bl
e nde r H e ads around th e w orl
d find
th is toolus e fuland w e 'l
ls oon s tart cre ating a
h uge com m unity of pe opl
e s h aring al
lk ind of
gre at Bl
e nde r conte nt.
- Se e ya around
M ariano H id al
go
M ariano H idal
go A.K.A.
use l
e ssdre am e r
Fig6. Look ing for m ate rial

s in th e se arch pane l
You can vis it th e Bl

e nde r Library th re ad at
Bl
e nde rArtis ts forum to pos t doubts q ue rie s or
fe ature re q ue s ts . You can al
s o tak e a l
ook at m y
s ite h ttp://us e l
e s s dre am e r.bye th os t32.com for
m ore s cripts .
Bl
y 20 0 6
I'm a graph ic artist, de signe r and

m usician from Bue nos Aire s, Arge ntina.
Som e tim e s I code for fun and I m anage
to ge taw ay w ith it;)
3D W ork s h op - Using Blue prints in Blende r
38
- By Ed ouard d e M ah ie u
Le ve l
: Inte rm e diate
Us ing Bl
ue prints in Bl
e nde r
M ode l
ing com pl
e x s h ape s and m ode l
s in
Bl
e nde r, or in any oth e r 3D appl
ication, m ay
se e m l
ik e a daunting tas k if you do not k now
w h e re and h ow to s tart. H ow are you s uppos e d
to m ode la car w ith its com pl
e x h ood or fe nde r
curve s ?Th is is w h e re Bl
ue prints com e in. Th e y
w il
lact as a m ode l
ing guide to h e l
p m ak e th e
s h ape s you w oul
d norm al
l
y h ave troubl
e
m ak ing w ith out bl
ue prints . Th is articl
e w il
ls tart
by e xpl
aining h ow to prope rl
y s e t up bl
ue print
guide l
ine s in Bl
e nde r and th e n e xpl
ain h ow to
us e th e m for m ode l
ing.
Se tup
Th e firs t s te p is obvious l
y obtaining bl
ue prints
to w ork w ith . If you do not h ave th e m al
re ady,
th e n Googl
e is your frie nd. You s h oul
d al
so
ch e ck out h ttp://w w w .th e - bl
ue prints .com . W e
w il
lbe us ing th e bl
ue prints of a Ford Es cort
us e d in ral
l
y racing.
Fig1. Ad d ing b l
ue printas b ack ground in Bl
e nd e r
Th e s e cond s te p is dividing your bl

ue prints into
s e parate im age s . You m us t tak e s pe cialcare to
m ak e s ure th at th e s iz e s and dim e ns ions of an
im age s tay proportionalto th e oth e r im age s
oth e rw is e you w il
lfind th at th e y do not fit
toge th e r in Bl
e nde r.
Th is re q uire s re s iz ing th e bl
ue prints in th e
Gim p or Ph otos h op but w il
lnot be e xpl
aine d in
th is articl
e . You s h oul
d, afte r th e m odifications ,
h ave an im age for e ach s ide /dire ction of your
m ode l
, in th is cas e , four (front, back , s ide , top).
Se e fig2 bl
ue prints w ith s am e dim e ns ions .
Fig2. Bl
ue printfrom d iffe re ntsid e s
Bl
y 20 0 6
O nce th is is done , w e ne e d to s e t th e m up in
Bl
e nde r. Th e advantage of th is s e tup is th at you
can h ave s e ve ralbl
ue prints on th e s am e s cre e n
and be abl
e to vie w th e m at diffe re nt angl
es
w h il
e giving you a be tte r ide a of de pth and
m ak ing it e as ie r to m ode lth e pie ce s . To do
th is , s tart Bl
e nde r and go to th e top vie w port
and add th e firs t im age to th e back ground by:
(Vie w >> Back ground Im age >> Us e Back ground
Im age ) and s e l
e ct your im age . Your firs t im age ,
in th is cas e , th e top im age , appe ars in th e top
vie w port. Th e n add a pl
ane : (Add>> Me s h >>
Pl
ane ). And s cal
e to fit your back ground e xactl
y
us ing th e [S k e y]+ [X k e y, Y k e y or Z k e y].
Now go to th e m ate rialtab, add a ne w m ate rial
and give it an appropriate nam e . Add a ne w
Te xture and l
oad th e s am e im age as be fore . In
th e m ap input m e nu s e l
e ct UV. Spl
it th e
vie w port and ope n up th e UV/Im age Editor.
Load up th e s am e im age . Se l
e ct your obje ct and
go into th e UV Face Se l
e ct M ode .
Pre s s th e [U k e y]and s e l
e ct Cube from th e
m e nu. Th e pl
ane UV coordinate s w il
lnow
appe ar in th e UV/Im age Editor. Pos ition th e
ve rtice s as be fore to m ap th e im age corre ctl
y
on th e pl
ane . M ak e s ure th e y fit corre ctl
y. Now
go into th e (Draw Type >> Te xture d), us ing th e
[ALT-Z ] s h ortcut. Th e te xture w il
lappe ar
m appe d on th e pl
ane .
Re pe at w ith e ach of your im age s and pos ition
th e pl
ane s corre ctl
y as to h ave a re s ul
t s im il
ar
to th e fol
l
ow ing s cre e ns h ot: Fig3.
Bl
y 20 0 6
39
Fig3. Bl
ue prints proje cte d on pl
ain m e sh
You now h ave a s trong bl

ue print s e tup th at w il
l
e as e and guide your m ode l
ing. Now , if th is is
done corre ctl
y, al
lth at is l
e ft to do is to actual
l
y
m ode l
. I w il
lnow try to e xpl
ain, th rough an
e xam pl
e , h ow to m ode lth e h ood of th e car
us ing th is bl
ue print s e tup.
Fig4.Ad d ing a pl
ane
Th e firs t e dge goe s dire ctl

y in th e m iddl
e , as w e
w il
lbe us ing a M irror m odifie r for th e m ode l
.
Th e s e cond e dge s h oul
d be furth e r to th e righ t.
W e w il
lbe e xtruding th is e dge of tw o ve rtice s ,
m ak ing s m al
ladjus tm e nts to th e ir pos ition to
fol
l
ow th e bl
ue prints . You s h oul
d now h ave a
m e s h s im il
ar to th e fol
l
ow ing s cre e ns h ot:Fig5.
Mode l
ing th e Pie ce s
Go into top vie w [Num pad 7] and (Space bar>>

Add>> Pl
ane ). Pl
ace th e firs t four ve rtice s as
s e e n in th e s cre e ns h ot. Fig4
Fig5.Extrud ing th e m e sh
40
Now , go into front vie w and al

ign th e ve rtice s
w ith th e front bl
ue print. M ak e s ure th at you
al
ign th e corre ct ve rtice to th e corre ct l
ine s on
th e bl
ue prints . You now h ave th e ge ne ral
outl
ine of th e h ood. Your m e s h s h oul
d now
l
ook l
ik e w h at you s e e in th e s cre e ns h ot: Fig6
Fig7.Finish e d h ood as se e n in th e se tup
Fig6. Ad justing in th e fron vie w
As pointe d out by th e bl
ue arrow of th e l
as t top
s cre e ns h ot, th e h ood h as a curve al
ong its righ t
e dge . Subdivide th e pl
ane us ing Loop cuts :
[CTRL+ R] and us e your m ous e w h e e lto add
s e ve ralcuts at e q ualdis tance s . Al
ign th e ne w
ve rtice s to th e bl
ue prints . Th e m ode lof th e
h ood is now e s s e ntial
l
y finis h e d.
Concl
us ion
Continue us ing th is te ch niq ue al

ong w ith th e
bl
ue prints to com pl
e te your m ode l
. You s h oul
d
e nd up w ith a fairl
y corre ct re production of th e
bl
ue prints in 3D . It w il
lof cours e re q uire s m al
l
m odifications and de tail
s th at you s h oul
dl
ook
up in re fe re nce picture s .
Bl
y 20 0 6
M os t bl
ue prints w il
lgive th e ge ne raloutl
ine of
your m ode lbut not e ve ry s ingl
e tiny de tail
.
H appy Bl
e nding
Edouard de M ah ie u A.K.A.
Ede e h e m or Sl
e pnyrl
Il
ive in Be l
gium and I am in m y l
astye ar
of h igh sch ool
. I h ave m any h ob b ie s such
as m ode l
ing or te nnis b utcom pute rs are
m y m ain occupation.
I h ave b e e n using Bl
e nde r for ab outtw o
and a h al
f ye ars now . I al
so spe nd a l
otof
tim e on th e Bl
e nde rArtistforum s trying
to m ak e m yse l
f use fuland participating
in th e conte sts h e l
d th e re .
-by Ye llow
Izzy Tal
ks
Bl
e nde r M ate rial
s
W ith th e
m ul
titude of
tool
s avail
abl
e
in Bl
e nde r, jus t
about any
m ate rialcan
be
convincingl
y
cre ate d.But
th e re is a
s aying in CG,
its not th e
tool
, its th e
artis t th at
cre ate s art.
Th e s am e can be s aid about m ate rial
s .Al
lth e
l
ate s t, ne w tool
s are nt going to cre ate re al
is tic or
am azing m ate rial
s for you.You s til
lh ave to k now
h ow to us e th e m and m ore im portantl
y, you h ave
to k now h ow m ate rial
s are cre ate d and w h at
m ak e s th e m convincing.
So, ins te ad offocus ing on tool
s , w e are going to
tak e a l
ook at w h at m ate rial
s are and w h at m ak e s
a good m ate rial
.W ith th at inform ation, you can
th e n us e al
lth e am azing tool
s m ore e ffe ctive l
y.
Le ts s tart w ith a fe w de finitions .
M ate rial
: is th e bas e s ubs tance ofa s urface
(i.e .w ood, m e tal
, gl
as s )
Te xture : is th e adje ctive ofth e m ate rial(i.e .
rus ty iron, brus h e d s te e l
, s oil
e d cl
oth , fros te d gl
as s )
Anytim e you cre ate a ne w m ate rial
, you s h oul
d
gath e r re fe re nce m ate rial
s .It can be an obje ct w ith
th e m ate rialyou are trying to cre ate or a good
ph otograph ofit.Th e s e re fe re nce m ate rial
s w il
l
h el
p you vis ual
ize w h at you are trying to cre ate .
W h e n gath e ring re fe re nce , ve ry rare l
y w il
lyou find
pris tine m ate rial
s w ith out s igns ofw e ar and te ar in
w w w .bl
e nde rart.org
04
re all
ife .Th e re w il
lbe dus t, rus t, s cratch e s , de nts
and a m ul
titude ofoth e r s igns th at th is m ate rialh as
gone th rough ove r th e pe riod oftim e .Notice th e s e
s igns ofw e ar and de cide ifth e y are s igns of
m ate rial
or te xture .
Te xture attribute s /q ual
itie s can be brok e n dow n by
ans w e ring th e fol
l
ow ing q ue s tions :
W h at are you?
O fte n th e s im pl
e act ofide ntifying an obje ct can
h el
p you unde rs tand w h at k ind ofm ate rial
s you w il
l
be cre ating.
Exam pl
e : a fire h ydrant te l
l
s you its s h ape ;th at it is
m ade ofth ick s te e ll
e ft out in th e w e ath e r, and
m os t ofte n painte d.
W h at is your e s s e nce ?Try to ide ntify th e m os t
im portant fe ature ofth e m ate rial
Exam pl
e : a radiators m os t im portant fe ature m igh t
be its rus ty q ual
ity.As you ide ntify th e m os t
im portant fe ature , k e e p l
ook ing de e pe r and
noticing e ach uniq ue fe ature ofth e m ate rial
, it w il
l
give you a l
is t offe ature s to add to th e m ate rial
;
adding m ore re al
is m and de pth w ith e ve ry one you
add.
W h at are you m ade of?Be fore dis s e cting th e
m any l
aye rs ofte xture s th at m ak e up a m ate rial
,
you ne e d to ide ntify th e bas e m ate rial
.By
ide ntifying th e bas e m ate rial
, you w il
lm ore e as il
y
s e e th e de tail
s (te xture s )th at m ak e it th at
particul
ar m ate rial
.
Exam pl
e : an ol
d m e tals ign;k now ing th at it is
m e tal
,l
e ads you to re al
ize th at s om e m e tal
s are
prone to rus ting, s o l
ook for s igns ofrus t and
corros ion.Is th e s ign painte d?(O l
d paint h as a
te nde ncy to ch ip or fl
ak e aw ay, ne w paint w il
ll
ook
s h iny and s om e w h at re fl
e ctive .)
W h at do you s ound l
ik e ?As odd as it m igh t
s ound, s om e tim e s your e ye s w il
lfoolyou.Tap on
th e obje ct, w h at doe s it s ound l
ik e ?M e tal
, gl
as s
pl
as tic...
W h at do you s m e l
ll
ik e ?
O fte n you can ide ntify im portant cl
ue s by noticing
h ow th e obje ct s m e l
l
s .Le ath e r s m e l
l
s diffe re nt
th an pl
as tic, diffe re nt m e tal
s h ave diffe re nt s m e l
l
s.
H ow can Is e e you?
Ide ntify th e l
igh t s ource , l
igh ting ofth e m ate rialw il
l
pl
ay an im portant part in h ow it is re cre ate d.W arm
l
igh t s ource s w oul
d produce w arm h igh l
igh ts or
h ots pots , cooll
igh ts th e oppos ite .W h e n gath e ring
your re fe re nce m ate rial
s , m ak e s ure to note in a
journalor m e ntal
l
y w h at th e l
igh t s ource w as , tim e
ofday (ifouts ide )s o you can re cre ate th e m ate rial
accurate l
y.
W h e re are you?
Is th e obje ct ins ide or outs ide ?Ifouts ide , it w il
lbe
e xpos e d to w e ath e r, h e at, m ois ture .Th is w il
laffe ct
its appe arance .Ne w obje cts q uick l
yl
os e th e ir
ne w appe arance by acq uiring de nts , dings ,
s cratch e s , dus t e tc.K now ing w h e re it is l
ocate d
w il
lh e l
p ide ntify th e s e q ual
itie s .
W h at do you l
ook l
ik e ?
Now com e s th e part w h e re you s tart de s cribing
th e te xture q ual
itie s .Th e be tte r you can de s cribe
w h at you s e e , th e e as ie r it w il
lbe to re cre ate .
Som e th ings to l
ook for:
Col
or te xture
Re fl
e ctions and s h adow s
Is th e obje ct trans pare nt?
Is th e obje ct l
um inous ?
W ith h e at?
W ith out h e at?
From an outs ide s ource ?
From th e obje ct its e l
f?
Lum ine s ce nt obje cts can h ave one or tw o of

th e s e q ual
itie s and ide ntifie d as :
Trans l
uce nt
Iride s ce nt
O pal
e s ce nt
Fl
uore s ce nt
Incande s ce nt
Is s ue 7 Nove m be r 2006
Bl
e nding -
A Com pos itor Node

O ve rvie w
-b y D anie lLaBarge
Sandra Gil
be rt and Idis cus s e d th e fact th at w ith al
l
ofth e ne w fe ature s com ing from th e Bl
e nde r
re l
e as e s , it is ofte n h ard to k e e p up w ith th e m .
O fte n, you ne ve r actual
l
y ge t to us e th e fe ature in
a proje ct be caus e you are s im pl
y too bus y
e xpl
oring al
lofth e diffe re nt w ays ofus ing th e ne w
functional
ity.To h e l
p th os e ge t up to s pe e d fas te r,
I'l
lgive a q uick ove rvie w ofth e Com pos itor Node
s ys te m .
NOTE: Th e de s cription ofh ow e ach node w ork s
is bas e d onl
y on th e util
ity and not on th e actual
m ath e m aticalor graph icalfunctional
ity ofth e
node .A m ore accurate de s cription ofh ow e ach
node functions and ope rate s is be yond th e
s cope ofth is articl
e and w il
lprobabl
y appe ar in
future articl
e s on th e Bl
e nde r W ik i at
e nde r.org.
Com pos itor Node Sys te m
Th e Com pos itor Node Sys te m is an advance d

pos t- production e ditor th at al
l
ow s for q uick and
e as y configurabl
e m odifie rs , cal
l
e d node s , to be
h ook e d toge th e r (us ing noodl
e s )bas e d on various
inputs and outputs .Th e configurations are fl
e xibl
e
and th e re s ul
ts can be q uite dram atic or ve ry
s ubtl
e bas e d on de s ign and ne ce s s ity.Th e m ajor
fe ature ofth e Com pos itor Node Sys te m
(Com pos itor)is th e abil
ity to m ix various re nde r
pas s e s (com bine d RGBA, Z , Ve ctor, and Norm al
val
ue s )w ith oth e r inputs to ach ie ve advance d
e ffe cts . Th e s e fe ature s h ave com e about m ainl
y
th rough th e de ve l
opm e nts m ade by O range Studio
w w w .bl
e nde rart.org
31
A Com pos itor Node O ve rvie w
and jus t re ce ntl

y by th e proje ct Pl
um ife ros .
Al
th ough de s igne d for anim ations and com pute rge ne rate d im age ry, th e Com pos itor h as found its
w ay into th e tool
box ofm any graph ic artis ts w h o
us e 3D and 2D program s to cre ate il
l
us trations and
artw ork .Th e pos s ibil
itie s are onl
yl
im ite d by your
im agination and abs traction ofth e node - bas e d
l
ayout!
Inputs Val
ue s
Inputs are variabl
e s e ttings on al
lEffe ct and
O utput node s .Input node s do not contain inputs
th e m s e l
ve s , th e y us e th e inputs from th e actual
Sce ne .An input can e ith e r be an RGBA val
ue
(Im age inputs )or a range val
ue (Factor, Size , Val
ue
inputs ).Th e k e y diffe re nce be tw e e n RGBA val
ue s
and range val
ue s are th at e ach pixe lre pre s e nts a
col
or/al
ph a val
ue or a val
ue re pre s e nting an input
am ount (0- 255). RGBA val
ue s are typical
l
y th e
pixe l
s th at m ak e up th e finalim age w h e re as range
val
ue s are typical
l
y val
ue s th at controlth e
trans form ing ofth e pixe l
s and are us ual
l
y Z , Ve ctor,
Norm al
, Al
ph a or oth e r range val
ue s .
Inputs can onl
y acce pt one input ch anne land
re pre s e nt th e e ntire picture on a pe r pixe lbas is .
Inputs are e ith e r from th e s ce ne or tak e n from th e
output ofanoth e r node or a s e t val
ue (s uch as
Im age inputs , w h ich can s im pl
y us e an RGBA
val
ue ).
An RGBA val
ue input is al
w ays ye l
l
ow and a range
val
ue input is al
w ays gray.Bl
ue inputs are s pe cial
inputs w h ich onl
y w ork w ith th e as s ociate d s ce ne
data (Norm aland Ve ctor ch anne l
s ).An RGBA val
ue
input m ay h ave to be conve rte d to be us e d as a
range val
ue input.An input th at re pre s e nts e ach
pixe lin an im age is ofte n re fe rre d to as an pixe lor
im age m ap.
O utput Val
ue s
l
ik e Input Val
ue s , O utput Val
ue s are e ith e r RGBA or
range val
ue s .An RGBA val
ue output is al
w ays
ye l
l
ow and a range val
ue output is al
w ays gre y
and s pe cialch anne lval
ue s (Norm aland Ve ctor
ch anne l
s )are al
w ays bl
ue .To vie w range val
ue s ,
you m ay h ave to conve rt it to an RGBA val
ue or
us e s pe cialfil
te rs w h e n vie w ing.An output th at
re pre s e nts e ach pixe lin an im age is ofte n re fe rre d
to as a pixe l
m ap or im age m ap.
W ith th at q uick prim e r on inputs and outputs and
w h at can and cannot be us e d, l
e t us tak e a l
ook at
h ow th e s e inputs and outputs can be us e d
toge th e r w ith node s .Pl
e as e note th at in th e
fol
l
ow ing e xpl
anations , an actualw ork ing m ode l
w on't be de s cribe d but rath e r h ow e ach s e tting
can be us e d w ith in e ach node and h ow , w h e n
com bine d w ith oth e r inputs , th e y w il
lch ange .
Input Node s
Re nde r Laye r Node s are inputs from th e Sce ne .
Curre ntl
y th e onl
y avail
abl
e output s e ttings for th is
node incl
ude Im age (RGB), Al
ph a, Z (de pth ),
Norm al(m apping), and Spe e d (ve ctor).Th e Re nde r
Laye r Node contains an Im age Pre vie w and a
se l
e ctor for s e l
e cting Sce ne s and Re nde r Laye rs
from th e s e l
e cte d Sce ne .Note th at th e Norm al
and Spe e d val
ue outputs are col
ore d bl
ue , th is is
be caus e th e y are s pe cialval
ue outputs .Th e y can
be tre ate d th e s am e as any range val
ue , but onl
y
w ork for re l
ate d node s .
Th e Im age output dis pl
ays th e RGB col
or val
ue s
for e ach pixe l
.Th e Al
ph a output is a bl
ack and
w h ite range val
ue w h ich re pre s e nts th e opacity
for e ach pixe lw ith a range from 0
(bl
ack /trans pare nt)to 255 (w h ite /s ol
id).Th e Z
output is a range val
ue th at give s de pth
inform ation (th e dis tance from th e cam e ra to th e
virtualobje ct)on a pe r- pixe lbas is .
O utputs val
ue s are variabl
e s e ttings on al
lEffe ct
and Input node s .O utput node s do not contain
outputs th e m s e l
ve s , th e y dis pl
ay th e inputs .Jus t
Bl
e nding -
Im age Node s are inputs from an im age fil

e .An
im age fil
e can e ith e r be a val
id im age type fil
e
(jpg, png, bm p, e tc.)or a range im age type fil
e (e xr,
h dri, e tc.)or e ve n a m oving im age fil
e (avi, m pe g,
m ov, e tc.).Curre ntl
y th e onl
y avail
abl
e output
s e ttings for th is node incl
ude Im age (RGB), Al
ph a,
and Z (de pth ).Th is node al
s o contains an Im age
pre vie w .
W h e n a fil
e is l
oade d, a s m al
licon re pre s e nte d by
fil
m tape appe ars .W h e n you e nabl
e th is , m ore
options be com e avail
abl
e .You can s e t th e num be r
offram e s in th e anim ation and s e t th e s tarting
fram e and w h e th e r or not to cycl
e th rough th e
fram e s .Th is m ak e s us ing raw im age output from
th e anim ation re nde r e as y to l
oad into th e
com pos itor for pos t production, s ince Bl
e nde r
nam e s e ach fram e bas e d on a num be r.
Al
s o, Bl
e nde r can re ad th e fil
e nam e and ge t th e
ne xt fram e ofth e anim ation.Anoth e r icon al
so
s h ow s up and can be e nabl
e d, w h ich w il
ltak e
e ach fram e from th e fil
e ifth e fil
e is a m oving
im age .Typical
l
y, onl
y th e Im age (RGB)output is
us e d but, ifa s ce ne fil
e is cre ate d, you can us e it
as input w h ich w oul
d de l
ive r th e Al
ph a and Z
val
ue s to be us e d.
Val
ue Node is a ve ry s im pl
e node .You s e t a
num e ric val
ue (0.00 to 1.00)and th e val
ue output
de l
ive rs it as a range .Program m e rs can th ink of
th is as pre de fine d variabl
e.
RGB Node is bas ical
l
y th e s am e th ing as a Val
ue
Node e xce pt th at it outputs an RGBA val
ue ins te ad
ofa range val
ue .Th is node contains a col
or
pal
e tte w h ich m ak e s it e as y to s e l
e ct th e de s ire d
col
or.
Tim e Node is a ve ry practicalnode be caus e it is
e s s e ntial
l
y a variabl
e Val
ue Node . Th e diffe re nce
is th at th e variation is bas e d on th e num be r of
fram e s .Th e Factor output is a range val
ue w h ich is
s e t us ing a curve .You can s e t th e Start and End
fram e for w h ich th e curve re pre s e nts .Th is node is
w w w .bl
e nde rart.org
32
us e fulfor control
l
ing th e ch ange s th at occur during
an anim ation, and is ofte n us e d as an input for
anoth e r node .
Te xture Node is s im il
ar to th e Im age Node e xce pt
th at it us e s inte rnalte xture s from th e Bl
e nde r
s ce ne as th e inputs .Th is give s you a l
ot ofcontrol
be caus e you can us e Norm alm apping to control
th e O ffs e t and Scal
ing dynam ical
l
y and can us e
th e RGBA val
ue s as e ith e r a range Val
ue output or
an RGBA Col
or output.Th is node al
s o incl
ude s an
Im age pre vie w w h ich dis pl
ays th e te xture s e l
e cte d
from th e s ce ne .Th is is good for adding proce dural
te xture ove rl
ays and gradie nt e ffe cts .
O fal
lofth e Input Node s , onl
y th e Te xture Input
actual
l
y h as input s e ttings .Th e s e are l
im ite d to th e
Bl
e nde r s ce ne h ow e ve r, th e y are s til
ldynam ic.
O ve r al
l
, th e Input Node s are e s s e ntialto us ing th e
Com pos itor as th e y s e rve as th e bas e to w h ich
ch ange s are m ade .Th e y al
s o al
l
ow for control
ove r e ffe cts appl
ie d to oth e r inputs .Th e th re e
m os t com m onl
y us e d Input Node s are th e Re nde r
Laye r, Im age , and Tim e node s .
NOTE: At th e tim e ofth is w riting, CVS ve rs ions
ofBl
e nde r incl
ude ne w output node s .Th e s e
node s w il
lnot be dis cus s e d in th is articl
e as
th e y h ave not ye t m ade it into th e official
Bl
e nde r re l
e as e . You s h oul
d note , h ow e ve r, th at
advance d node s do e xis t and w il
lprobabl
y be
m ak ing th e ir w ay into future Bl
e nde r ve rs ions .
O utput Node s
Com pos itor Node s ounds k ind ofre dundant but, it
is actual
l
y th e onl
y w ay to output th e finalch ange s
to th e Re nde r Buffe r.Curre ntl
y, th e re can onl
y be
one Com pos itor pe r s ce ne and it onl
y acce pts
Im age , Al
ph a, and Z inputs .Th e node us e s an
Im age pre vie w for dis pl
aying th e re s ul
ts in th e
Node W indow . Th e Re nde r Buffe r (F11)w il
lal
so
dis pl
ay th e Com pos itor node output.Ifno
Com pos itor node is found th e re nde re r w il
l
produce an e rror.
Vie w e r Node is ide nticalto th e Com pos itor node
e xce pt th at ins te ad ofdis pl
aying re s ul
ts to th e
Re nde r Buffe r, it util
ize s th e UVIm age Editor unde r
th e Vie w e r Im age .Th is is a dynam ic im age th at
dis pl
ays th e pre vie w ofth e curre ntl
y se l
e cte d
Vie w e r node .Th is m e ans th at you can h ave
m ul
tipl
e Vie w e r node s w h ich w il
ldis pl
ay th e
various outputs ofoth e r node s ...us e fulfor
de bugging and te s ting diffe re nt attribute s ofth e
com pos ition.
Col
or Node s
RGB Curve s Node is a ve ry pow e rfulnode
be caus e it can controlth e col
or ofth e im age by
varying th e infl
ue nce ofe ach col
or s e parate l
y, and
al
lofth e col
ors toge th e r.Th is node h as a Factor
Input (range val
ue )and an Im age Input (RGBA
val
ue ).Th e Im age O utput is a com bination ofal
lof
th e RGB Curve s w h ich incl
ude Com bine d, Re d,
Gre e n, and Bl
ue .Th e re are + and - s ym bol
s
w h ich zoom in and out accordingl
y s o th at you
can fine tune th e curve and al
ign it m ore e as il
y to
th e grid.
Th e w re nch icon al
l
ow s for controlove r th e grid
vie w and th e curve h andl
ing (Auto and Ve ctor),
and it al
s o al
l
ow s you to re s e t th e curve to th e
l
ine ar de faul
t.An orange grid icon al
l
ow s for
cl
ipping to controlth e m axim um val
ue s .Th e X
icon de l
e te s th e curre ntl
y se l
e cte d point.Points
are s e l
e cte d us ing th e Le ft M ous e Button (LM B).
Ne w points are adding by us ing Ctrl
+ LM B.Th is
node is m os t com m onl
y us e d for contras t control
and for fine tuning th e col
or range s .It is e as y to
m ak e ve ry boring im age s inte re s ting us ing th is
node .
Bl
e nding -
M ix Node doe s e xactl

y w h at it s ounds l
ik e it
m ixe s tw o Im age inputs bas e d on a Factor and
fil
te r type and outputs th e re s ul
t as an RGBA val
ue .
Th is node h as tw o Im age inputs , but it w il
lacce pt
range val
ue s .Th is m ak e s it good for m ixing a
pre s e t val
ue w ith a Tim e Node val
ue to h ave a
varying range val
ue for node s th at don't h ave
m ul
tipl
e range inputs .Am ong th e fil
te r type s are
m ix, m ul
tipl
y, add, s ubtract, divide , s cre e n, ove rl
ay,
dark e n onl
y, l
igh te n onl
y, and m any oth e rs .Th is
node is good for m ixing col
ors as w e l
lbe caus e
th e Im age inputs can be s e t as a fixe d RGBA val
ue
ins te ad ofa pixe lm ap.
H ue Saturation Node is pe rfe ct for fine tuning th e
RGB col
ors .Ifbl
ue is n't bl
ue e nough , th is is th e
node th at you w il
lfind th e m os t us e ful
.It acce pts
an Im age input and a Factor range val
ue input, and
outputs th e m odifie d Im age .Th e H ue s l
ide r
control
s th e H ue val
ue s (s im il
ar to RGB)w ith 0.500
be ing no ch ange .Th e Saturation (inte ns ity)s l
ide r
control
s th e s aturation ofth e H ue s w h ich can be
us e d to fl
ood a ph oto or jus t s l
igh tl
y tint an im age .
Th is node is ve ry us e fuland is m os t popul
arl
y us e d
as a tint fil
te r for s uch nigh t s ce ne s w h e re a s l
igh t
bl
ue tint is ne e de d.
Al
ph a O ve r Node is th e titl
e e ffe ct l
ife s ave r.Th is
node al
l
ow s one im age to be l
aid ove r anoth e r and
trans pare ncy is us e d as th e w indow in w h ich th e
back ground is l
e t th rough .Th is node h as tw o
Im age inputs and a Factor range val
ue input.Th e
Factor can be e as il
y conne cte d to a Tim e Node
and th e n you can fade in/out th e e ffe ct.Conve rt
Pre m ulus ual
l
y bl
e nds th e trans pare nt e dge s
toge th e r be tte r s o artifacts are re m ove d.It al
so
conve rts RGB bl
ack to Al
ph a, w h ich w ork s w e l
lfor
cre ating Al
ph a m aps .
It's im portant to k e e p a l
aye r m e ntal
ity w h e n
w ork ing w ith th is node .Th e top Im age input is th e
l
aye r w h ich is pl
ace d on top ofth e bottom Im age
input and tak e s pre ce de nce ove r th e pixe l
.Any
trans pare nt pixe l
s th e n al
l
ow th e back ground to
s h ow th rough .Th is node is gre at for ove rl
ays and
w w w .bl
e nde rart.org
33
titl
e w ork as w e l
las com pos iting s ce ne s .
Z Com bine Node is a ve ry inte re s ting node in th at
it can e as il
y ge t tangl
e d.It h as a s ingl
e Im age
output but acce pts tw o Im age inputs and tw o Z
range val
ue inputs .It com bine s th e pixe l
s bas e d on
th e Z range val
ue s and pas s e s th at com bine d
im age to th e output.Th e probl
e m w ith th is is th at
th e Z val
ue th at corre s ponds to th e Im age (at l
e as t
in th e s ce nario w h e re th is node is us e ful
)is th e
be l
ow th e oppos ite Im age input.
Th us , th e noodl
e s th at conne ct th e node s can
e as il
y ge t cros s e d and fol
l
ow ing th e m ge ts m e s s y
ifm ul
tipl
e node s are us e d.Th is node is m os t
com m onl
y us e d w ith s ce ne com pos iting.In th is
m e th od, th e s ce ne is re nde re d in s e ctions and
l
aye rs .Th e l
aye rs are re as s e m bl
e d afte r pos tproduction is com pl
e te d.Us ual
l
y th e s ce ne 's Z
ch anne lis us e d to do th is .
Ve ctor Node s
Norm alNode h as to be one ofth e cool
e s t node s
avail
abl
e .Ionl
y re ce ntl
y figure d out h ow am azing it
re al
l
y is .Bas ical
l
y, you can th ink ofit as a pos tproduction l
igh t.It us e s th e Norm alch anne las its
input and th e n you can m ove a l
ittl
e s ph e re around
to re l
ocate th e l
igh t s ource .Th e avail
abl
e outputs
incl
ude th e re m appe d Norm alch anne land a D ot
range val
ue output w h ich re pre s e nts th e l
igh t and
norm alinte ns ity in a grays cal
e pixe lm ap.Th e
pos s ibil
itie s for th is incl
ude s pe cul
ar m apping, nigh t
l
igh ting, s ubs urface s catte ring, and m uch m ore .
Ve ctor Curve s Node is s im il
ar to th e RGB Curve s
node in th at you can controlth e Ve ctor ch anne l
val
ue s for th e X, Y, and Z axis .Th e onl
y input and
output are Ve ctor ch anne ldata w h ich m us t be
l
oade d e ith e r from a Norm alnode or th e s ce ne
its e l
f.It contains th e s tandard curve w idge t and
controlfe ature s .Th is node is m os t us e fulfor
re m apping th e Ve ctor ch anne lfor fine tuning
m otion bl
ur, e tc.
M ap Val
ue Node is anoth e r us e fultoolfor
ch anging val
ue range s .It acce pts any range Val
ue
input and can l
im it its M inim um and M axim um
val
ue s and can be furth e r m odifie d bas e d on Size
and O ffs e t val
ue s .Th e s e s l
ide rs are not l
im ite d to
0.0 and 1.0 be caus e th is node is not de s igne d onl
y
for range val
ue s ofth at k ind.It al
s o acce pts Z ,
Norm al
, and Ve ctor ch anne l
s and can is ofte n us e d
in com bination w ith th e Z ch anne lto re m ap it for
fore ground and back ground bl
ur or in com bination
w ith a Ve ctor ch anne lto produce m otion bl
ur.
Fil
te r Node s
Fil
te r Node is th e m os t com m onl
y us e d node in
th is s e t.It can be us e d for a broad range of
e ffe cts , s uch as s oft bl
urring, e dge e nh ance m e nts
for cartoons , ne on s igns , de cal
s , and m uch m ore .
Th is node acce pts an Im age input w h ich can be
control
l
e d us ing a Factor range val
ue and w il
lth e n
m odify th e pixe l
s bas e d on a diffe re nt fil
te r or
e ffe ct type .Th e re s ul
t is pas s e d to th e Im age
output.Th e s ofte n fil
te r type appl
ie s a ve ry s m al
l
bl
ur to th e pixe lto e l
im inate s m al
lartifacts .
Sh arpe n atte m pts to e nh ance th e e dge s be tw e e n
th e pixe l
s to de fine th e e dge s be tte r (th is ofte n
cre ate s artifacts ).Lapl
ace , Sobe l
, Pre w itt, and
K irs ch are al
lve ry s im il
ar and th e y e nh ance th e
e dge s and dark e n th e re s t.Sh adow is k ind ofl
ik e
e ngraving and appl
ie s a s e l
fs h adow on th e
e dge s .Th is node is ofte n us e d to m ak e im age s
th at are too pe rfe ct s e e m cris pe r.
Bl
ur Node is a ve ry s im pl
e node .It tak e s an Im age
input and (bas e d on a Size range val
ue w h ich
infl
ue nce s th e am ount ofbl
ur)w il
lbl
ur th e pixe l
s
bas e d on diffe re nt fil
te rs or m e th ods .It w il
lfil
te r it
bas e d on an X and Y val
ue and can e ve n be
appl
ie d to Gam m a corre cte d val
ue s .Enabl
ing
Bok e h fil
te ring w il
lus e a circul
ar fil
te r ins te ad of
th e s im pl
e s q uare m e th od.Am ong th e fil
te r
m e th ods avail
abl
e are Fl
at, Q uadratic, Cubic,
Gaus s ian, CatRom , M itch , and Te nt.
Bl
e nding -
Each one fil

te rs diffe re ntl
y and any one ofth e m
can be us e d to obtain th e de s ire d e ffe ct.Th e
re s ul
ting e ffe ct is appl
ie d to th e im age and pas s e d
to th e Im age output.Th is is ve ry us e fulfor D e pth
ofFie l
d and m otion bl
ur.It can al
s o be us e d
cl
e ve rl
y for inte re s ting titl
e w ork and ove rl
ays .
Ve ctor Bl
ur Node is bas ical
l
y a one - purpos e node ,
but it doe s its job ve ry w e l
l
.It re q uire s th re e inputs
to ge ne rate th e de s ire d output.Th e s e th re e inputs
are an Im age , a Z ch anne lm ap, and a Ve ctor
Spe e d input.Al
lofth e s e can be gath e re d from th e
s ce ne and Ve ctor Node s .Th is m e th od us e s al
l
th re e ch anne l
s toge th e r to bl
ur th e im age bas e d a
pixe ls tre tch ing m ode l
.Th e inne r w ork ings ofth is
m e th od are be yond th e s cope ofth is articl
e but
th e functional
ity is a ve ry fas t and e fficie nt pos tproduction e ffe ct.It us e s a Sam pl
e val
ue to
controlth e q ual
ity ofth e bl
ur, a M inSpe e d to s e t
th e m inim um s tre tch for e ve ry pixe land a
M axSpe e d for th e m axim um s tre tch for any pixe l
.It
th e n us e s a Bl
urFactor w h ich can be us e d to fine tune th e bl
ur from s trong to w e ak .Th e h igh e r th e
Sam pl
e s and th e h igh e r th e Bl
urFactor, th e
s tronge r th e bl
ur.It is im portant to s e t th e M in and
M ax s pe e ds to incl
us ive e nough val
ue s , but not
too broad to be com e m e m ory inte ns ive .Th is node
is m os t ofte n us e d for m otion bl
ur.
Conve rte r Node s

Col
orRam p Node is a dualpurpos e node in th at it
bl
e nds col
ors and val
ue s , and outputs both an RGB
Im age output and a range val
ue Al
ph a output.Th e
al
ph a output can be us e d as any val
ue output but
is m os t ofte n us e d for trans pare ncy.Th e Factor
input can be e ith e r a range val
ue or a tim e l
ine
controlto controlth e infl
ue nce ofth e node .Th e
ram p s l
ide r can us e col
ors and trans pare ncie s to
cre ate a gradie nt w h ich is us e fulfor gradie nt
e ffe cts on ove rl
ays and for val
ue tuning.
RGB to BW Node is th e s im pl
e s t node avail
abl
e .It
tak e s an RGBA Im age input and outputs a range
Val
ue output.Th is is a grays cal
e re pre s e ntation of
w w w .bl
e nde rart.org
34
th e RGBA Im age input and can be us e d as s uch or

as a val
ue output.
Se parate RGBA Node is ve ry ve rs atil
e be caus e it
al
l
ow s you to m odify e ach col
or ch anne l
inde pe nde ntl
y.It acce pts an RGBA Im age input
and outputs th e corre s ponding Re d, Gre e n, Bl
ue ,
and Al
ph a ch anne l
s as grays cal
e val
ue s .At th e
tim e ofth is w riting, th e ne xt officialre l
e as e of
Bl
e nde r w il
lincl
ude a Com bine RGBA Node w h ich
w il
ldo th e re ve rs e ofth is node .
Se parate H SVA Node is e s s e ntial
l
y th e s am e as
th e Se parate RGBA node but it s e parate s th e H ue ,
Saturation, Val
ue , and Al
ph a ch anne l
s for th e
im age .Th e y are grays cal
e val
ue s jus t l
ik e th e
Se parate RGBA node .At th e tim e ofth is w riting,
th e ne xt officialre l
e as e ofBl
e nde r w il
lincl
ude a
Com bine H SVA Node w h ich w il
ldo th e re ve rs e of
th is node .
Se t Al
ph a Node is good for titl
e w ork and
ove rl
ays but h as it's purpos e in oth e r node s as
wel
l
.It acce pts an RGBA Im age and th e n al
l
ow s an
Al
ph a val
ue to be s e t or ove rw ritte n by a Val
ue
input.Al
ph a val
ue of0.0 is trans pare nt and 1.0 is
opaq ue .Th e com bine d RGBA val
ue s are pas s e d
to th e Im age output.Th is node is ofte n us e d w ith a
Tim e node to controlth e fade in or fade out ofa
s ce ne .
Trans l
ate Node is th e onl
y m oving anim ation node
avail
abl
e at th e m om e nt (m ore advance d node s
for rotation, e tc.are be ing de ve l
ope d).Th is node
w il
ltrans l
ate or m ove an Im age input a s e t val
ue
from th e top l
e ft ofth e bas e canvas s ize .It w il
lbe
m ove d X (h orizontal
)pixe l
s by Y (ve rtical
)pixe l
s.
Th e s e val
ue s can be variabl
e X and Y inputs w h ich
is us e fulfor anim ations w h e re a Tim e node can be
us e d to s l
ide a s ce ne or im age acros s th e canvas .
Th e re s ul
ting Im age is output w h ich can th e n be
pl
ace d on top ofanoth e r Im age for m e rging dow n.
Group Node s
Group node s are noth ing m ore th an cus tom node s
w h ich are m ade by tak ing th e ge ne ric node s and
grouping th e m w ith Ctrl
+ Gk e y.Th is group is th e n
avail
abl
e as a dupl
icate to th e curre nt group.To
ungroup th e node s , you can pre s s Al
t+ Gk e y.To
add a group node you can e ith e r us e th e Add
m e nu or pre s s Sh ift+ Gk e y for a l
is t ofcurre ntl
y
avail
abl
e node s .W ork ing w ith group node s can
s ave a l
ot oftim e for re pe titive e ffe cts , but s h oul
d
be us e d w ith caution.A ne w group s h oul
d be
adde d, th e n ungroupe d and re groupe d as a
diffe re nt group node .Th is ge ts around th e
probl
e m ofcopy node s ins te ad ofdupl
icate node s .
Group node s are m os t ofte n us e d in th e de faul
t
Bl
e nde r fil
e , th at w ay com m onl
y us e d e ffe cts can
be done q uick l
y.
Concl
us ion
Iw oul
dl
ik e to e ncourage you to e xpl
ore th e
various s e ttings and us e s for th e node s .Al
s o, vis it
th e s upport forum s for various re fe re nce
s ch e m atics w h ich can h e l
p you unde rs tand th e
m ath e m aticaland graph icalfunctional
ity ofe ach
node .For practicalpurpos e s , th e Com pos itor is a
ve ry pow e rfultooland s h oul
dn't be cons ide re d a
gl
orifie d Se q ue nce r you can do a l
ot m ore w ith
th is th an you coul
d e ve r do w ith th e Se q ue nce r.In
fact, Iw oul
dn't be a bit s urpris e d ifyou ne ve r us e
th e Se q ue nce r again!
Th is h as be e n a brie fde s cription ofth e
Com pos itor, w h ich is onl
y h al
fofth e Node w indow .
Th e re is m ore to l
e arn, s uch as th e inte rface , th e
M ate rialnode s , and th e various w ays in w h ich
th e s e node s can be us e d toge th e r.
Again, Ie ncourage e ach us e r to practice us ing
node s and l
e arn th e ins and outs ofth is tool
.
H ave fun!
K now H ow -
35
Inde x O f Re fl
e ction
Inde x O f Re fl
e ction
Inde x of Re fraction
Re fraction occurs w h e n th e e ne rgy of

an incom ing l
igh t w ave m atch e s th e
naturalvibration fre q ue ncy ofth e
el
e ctrons in a m ate rial
.Th e l
igh t w ave
pe ne trate s de e pl
y into th e m ate rial
,
and caus e s s m al
lvibrations in th e e l
e ctrons .Th e e l
e ctrons pas s th e s e
vibrations on to th e atom s in th e m ate rial
, and th e y s e nd out l
igh t w ave s ofth e
s am e fre q ue ncy as th e incom ing w ave .But, th is al
ltak e s tim e .
-by Sandra Gil

be rt
Th e part ofth e w ave ins ide th e m ate rials l

ow s dow n, w h il
e th e part ofth e
w ave outs ide th e obje ct m aintains its originalfre q ue ncy.Th is h as th e e ffe ct of
be nding th e portion ofth e w ave ins ide th e obje ct tow ard w h at is cal
l
e d th e
norm all
ine , an im aginary s traigh t l
ine th at runs pe rpe ndicul
ar to th e s urface of
th e obje ct.Th e de viation from th e norm all
ine ofth e l
igh t ins ide th e obje ct w il
l
be l
e s s th an th e de viation ofth e l
igh t be fore it e nte re d th e obje ct.
Th e am ount ofbe nding, or angl
e ofre fraction, ofth e l
igh t w ave de pe nds on
h ow m uch th e m ate rial
sl
ow s dow n th e l
igh t.
D iam onds w oul
d not be
s o gl
itte ry ifth e y did not
sl
ow dow n incom ing
l
igh t m uch m ore th an,
s ay, w ate r doe s .
D iam onds h ave a h igh e r
inde x ofre fraction th an
w ate r, w h ich is to s ay
th at th e y s l
ow dow n
l
igh t to a gre ate r
de gre e .
th e gl
as s .As s uch , it is s l
ow e d dow n to a gre ate r e xte nt th an a w ave ofre d
l
igh t, and w il
lbe be nt to a gre ate r de gre e .Th is accounts for th e orde r ofth e
col
ors th at w e s e e in a rainbow .It is al
s o w h at give s a diam ond th e rainbow
fringe s th at m ak e it s o pl
e as ing to th e e ye .
D e finition ofInde x ofRe fraction tak e n from
h ttp://s cie nce .h ow s tuffw ork s .com /l
igh t12.h tm
For a m ore te ch nicalde s cription you ch e ck out th e e xpl
anation at
h ttp://e n.w ik ipe dia.org/w ik i/Re fractive _ inde x
Now w h y is th is im portant?W h e n cre ating m ate rial
s , you ne e d to tak e Inde x
ofRe fraction into account.O th e rw is e , your m ate rial
s w il
lnot be convincing.
And w ith th e ne w trans m is s ivity fe ature adde d in th e l
as t re l
e as e in addition
to th e IO R s e ttings pane lal
re ady in pl
ace , bl
e nde r is capabl
e ofconvincing
IO R val
ue s .
H e re is a l
is t ofIO R val
ue s for your re fe re nce .Th is im age is rath e r s m al
l
, for a
cl
e are r copy pl
e as e ch e ck th e pdfincl
ude d w ith th is is s ue .
O ne inte re s ting note

about re fraction is th at
l
igh t ofdiffe re nt
fre q ue ncie s , or
e ne rgie s , w il
lbe nd at
sl
igh tl
y diffe re nt angl
e s.
Le t's com pare viol
et
l
igh t and re d l
igh t w h e n
th e y e nte r a gl
as s pris m .
Be caus e viol
e tl
igh t h as
m ore e ne rgy, it tak e s
l
onge r to inte ract w ith
w w w .bl
e nde rart.org
K now H ow -
Th e l
as t ye ar h as s e e n a m ajor incre as e in us e r docum e ntation.W ith th e
arrivalofne w book s in s e ve rall
anguage s , dow nl
oadabl
e m anual
s and cl
as s
book s /cours e s , l
e arning Bl
e nde r h as be com e e as ie r th an e ve r.Le ts tak e a
l
ook at w h at is curre ntl
y avail
abl
e for our e ducationale njoym e nt.
Book s
Introducing Ch aracte r Anim ation w ith Bl

e nde r by Tony M ul
l
e n, w il
ls oon be
finis h e d and is now avail
abl
e for pre - orde r at Am azon.com .It is 432 page s
and is an ide als tarting point for anybody inte re s te d in cre ating e ngaging,
convincing ch aracte r anim ation, giving a th orough and practicalintroduction
to th e functional
ity ofBl
e nde r.
It com e s w ith a com panion DVD th at incl
ude s th e com pl
e te Bl
e nde r
ins tal
l
ation e xe cutabl
e for W indow s , M ac, and Linux;th e s h ort fil
m "El
e ph ants
D re am ";al
lth e Bl
e nde r and s ource fil
e s us e d to produce th e e xam pl
e s and
tutorial
s in th e book ;e xte ns ive l
ink s for tutorial
s and Bl
e nde r- re l
ate d
re s ource s ;and oth e r val
uabl
e O pe n Source s oftw are dis cus s e d in th e book ,
incl
uding th e popul
ar Bl
e nde rPe opl
e s cript.
La 3D l
ibre ave c Bl
e nde r (Fre nch m anual
)by O l
ivie r Saraja is avail
abl
e in
France .It is around 356 page s , fe aturing s om e col
or pl
ate s by w e l
lk now n
artis ts ofth e com m unity (Ste fan Z s ol
t, Robe rtt, H ark ym an
).
Bl
e nde r 3D - Guia do O s orio (Brazil
ian / Portugue s e m anual
)by Al
l
an Brito.
Th e book is aim e d both at th e be ginning and th e advance d Bl
e nde r us e r
and it counts 448 page s .
Bl
e nde r Be ginne rs Bibl
e (Japane s e m anual
), by Sh inich i Tas ak i w as
re l
e as e d in Se pte m be r.Bl
e nde r Be ginne rs Bibl
e is aim e d at th e be ginning
Bl
e nde r us e r, cove ring al
lth e ne w fe ature s and tool
s th at h ave be e n adde d
to Bl
e nde r s ince th e l
as t Japane s e book w as re l
e as e d in 2003.
Apre nde e n 24 H oras Bl
e nde r & Yafray D is e no Grafico 3D con Softw are
Libre (Spanis h Bl
e nde r 2.41 M anual
)
h ttp://w w w .boxe l
.info/m orcy/inde x.ph p?e ntry=e ntry060805- 185712
Th e printe d book (or PD F ve rs ion)is actual
l
y a com pil
ation ofth e tutorial
s
from th e cours e 'Anim ation for Com m unication' w h ich w as taugh t at th e
Es cue l
a Supe rior de Inform atica ofCas til
l
a- La M anch a Unive rs ity in Spain, in
2005/2006, by Carl
os Gonzal
e z M orcil
l
o
w w w .bl
e nde rart.org
36
EducationalRe s ource s
Cours e W ork / Guide d Tutorial

s
Bl
e nde r Bas ics by Jim is th e s e cond e dition ofBl
e nde r Bas ics ;h is
cl
as s room tutorialbook .It is a ve ry th orough , re ady to us e guide of118
page s .
Ne alH irs ig from Tufts Unive rs ity offe rs com pl
e te cours e m ate rial
s for Tufts
Unive rs ity 3D D e s ign cl
as s can be found at h ttp://ocw .tufts .e du/Cours e /28
or th e Bl
ack board cours e s ite at: h ttp://bl
ack board.tufts .e du Us e rw ord:
bl
e nde r Pas s w ord: bl
e nde r.Th e re is a l
ink to th e cours e s ite l
is te d unde r "M y
Cours e s "on th e h om e page dis pl
aye d afte r l
ogin.Th e Bl
ack board s ite is not
avail
abl
e dail
y from 1:00AM - 2:00AM Eas te rn Standard Tim e .
Th e cours e contains w e e k l
yl
e arning units cons is ting ofove r a h undre d
vide o tutorial
s and s om e 25 PD F tutorial
s .Al
las s ociate d fil
e s incl
uding
com pl
e te d tutorial
s can be dow nl
oade d.Th e vide o tutorial
s are in s tre am ing
Re alM e dia form at and re q uire broadband or D SLacce s s .Th e s ite al
so
incl
ude s 4 cours e proje cts and e xam pl
e s ofprior s tude nt w ork .
Ne alinvite s com m e nts on th e cours e m ate rialand can be re ach e d at
nh irs ig@ tufts .e du
O fficialD ocum e ntation
e nde r.org/inde x.ph p/M ain_ Page
Us e r's M anual
Gam e Engine D ocum e ntation
Gl
os s ary
Q uick Start
Noob to Pro w ik ibook
Bl
e nde r Sum m e r ofD ocum e ntation
Introdu ction to Pyth on Scripting b y Ste ph e n Sw ane y (stivs)
Introdu ction to th e Gam e Engine by M al
Introdu ction to Ch aracte r Anim ation b y Ryan D al
e
Introdu ction to Rigging Robe rt Ch ristian (w ave z)
Introdu ction to Ph ysicalSim u l
ation by Fe l
ipe Be rgam in Boral
l
i
Introdu ction to M ode l
ing by M ich ae lW orce ste r (M ick M cM ack )
Introdu ction to Ligh ting by Gu il
l
e rm o S. Rom e ro (gsrb 3d)
Introdu ction to th e Principl
e s of Anim ation b y W il
l
ian Padovani Ge rm ano (Ianw il
l
)
Introdu ction to M ate rial
s and Proce du ralTe xtu ring b y Col
in Litste r (Cog)
Introdu ction to th e Bl
e nde r D atab ase by Frdric van de r Esse n (e fb ie )

Blender Art Magazine 2006

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ED ITORIAL

Five ye ars ago I w e nt l

and cove r h ow to accom pl

proje cts . Tutorial

brow s ing onl

proje ct, giving you th at e xtra l

five ye ars I h ave us e d l

printing out e ve ryth ing avail

te xturing and rigging a robot for bas ic anim ation.

W h ich brings us to th e point of th is e ditorial

Ge ars (BM G) s cript. And Al

Gaurav and I de cide d th at w e didn't h ave

anyw h e re ne ar e nough th ings to do w ith our non-

e xis te nt fre e tim e , s o w e de cide d to l

s ubm itte d from com m unity m e m be rs .

W e h ope you e njoy our firs t is s ue and w e l

inform ation in an attractive , fun to re ad form at.

1. Anim ation Pre vie w in al

If you h ave an obje ct (w ork s be s t on a m e s h

If you have a problem

My question is; is there a way to cut a single polygon? If so,

Well the answer to that is no. In Blender, cutting a polygon will

Python not being one of my greatest strengths, I did some searching

Blender 2.40 released

The Blender version 2.40 has been released with

News of this release has already reached all corners

The Gimp team has released the latest bug fix

Although the Gimp stable release doesnt add any

Shortly after noon a group of youngsters presented

Finally I met an very interesting person: Shree Kumar.

Animation tips - pg1

clearly. Proper use of close-ups, medium and wide

Squash and Stretch

Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose Animation

One of the most important elements to master as an

Straight ahead animation goes from frame to frame,

Follow Through and Overlapping Action

Animation tips - pg2

basic principles. It gives you the ideas and concepts

Hi, my name is Sandra

Special - Project Orange Team Interview

ave you ever sat back and watched

over into Open Source news sites and

be condensed into a short article.

Special - Project Orange Team Interview

for the characters has been completed

without further delay, here they are.

Special - Project Orange Team Interview

wasnt that hard. Its great to see the

cinematography, lighting, modelling and

Bassam Kurdali (slikdigit): This is my

3- So far what has been your biggest

Special - Project Orange Team Interview

art institute are constantly helping

shot with wonderful results have been

Special - Project Orange Team Interview

Lee J. Cooks (LohnC): Ill try keep this

Bassam Kurdali (slikdigit): Cant

Lee J. Cooks (LohnC): Well, Im still

blender community, for instance in film

Re nde ring is an ofte n

To s e tone up is e as y: Add>M e s h >Icos ph e re , s ubdivis ion 2

day in M onte vide o (K e iz e rs grach t264,

O nce you h ave re nde re d your im age us ing