Planet Blender

Jarred Reigns
Tube - Epic Production Notes - 2009-12-04 23:22:24

Earlier this week Jarred escaped departed for his hometown in South Africa for winter break. He’ll be sorely missed by all of us in the drome, both tube and caldera team. The good news is we expect him back in mid-January, and we have located a suitably sized grindstone.

SVN log parsing and analysis fun
mike's digital anthology - 2009-12-04 23:10:19

A few of you asked about how I got those statistics for my previous post about Blender SVN.

For the inquiring minds, I got the SVN log with the following command

svn log -r 25000:0 --xml https://svn.blender.org/svnroot/bf-blender/branches >> log.xml
svn log -r 25000:0 --xml https://svn.blender.org/svnroot/bf-blender/trunk >> log.xml

These two SVN operation fetches the SVN logs for both the branches and the trunk of Blender and combine them into one 8 megabyte XML file.  Please do not do this often as I imagine querying all the commit logs must put a heavy strain on the Blender SVN server.

Parsing the XML for the author commit frequency is done with the following python script:

import xml.sax

authorList= {}

# create document handler
class SVNXMLHandler(xml.sax.handler.ContentHandler):
	def __init__(self):
		pass

	def startElement(self, name, attrs):
		self.hasAuthor = 0
		self.hasEntry = 0
		if name == "logentry":
			self.hasEntry = 1
			#print attrs.get('revision', ""),
		elif name == "author":
			self.hasAuthor = 1

	def characters(self, data):
		if self.hasAuthor:
			#print data
			try:
				authorList[data] += 1
			except:
				authorList[data] = 1

	def endElement(self, name):
		if name == "author": self.hasAuthor = 0
		if name == "logentry": self.hasEntry = 0

# load and parse log
f = open('log.xml', 'r')
xml.sax.parseString(f.read(), SVNXMLHandler())

# print to console in comma delimited format
for i in authorList:
	print i,",",authorList[i]

Run the above python script like so:

python logParser.py >> crunched.csv

After a few seconds, a CSV file should be created containing all the data you need, ready to be graphed in Microsoft Office.  Yes I used Excel for the graph…

Elio
Vimeo / Blender3D [Animation/Videos] - 2009-12-04 22:55:58

Un cortometraje animado grabado completamente con un Nokia XpressMusic 5800, para el concurso "2 minutos de cine"

Diseño y Animación: Rob Díaz
Música: Chromeo

Gracias!

____


An animated short film shot entirely on a Nokia XpressMusic 5800 for the "2 minutos de cine" contest.

Design & Animation: Rob Díaz
Music: Chromeo

Thanks!

eliofilm.wordpress.com/

Cast: Rob Diaz

I’m an early adopter, I just downloaded blender 2.5 alpha
Starbright Illustrations (blog) - 2009-12-04 21:04:31

 

Wow, it’s great to be an early adopter of a state-of-the-art 3D editing suite like Blender. I feel like I’m at the cutting edge, blazing a trail etc. Of course all I’m really doing is poking about with something I don’t completely understand and reporting back some first impressions.

First Impression 1. It’s as easy as pie to install, just do like it says on the download page…

unpack the compressed file to the location of your choice.  

Provided the Blender binary is in the original extracted directory, Blender will run straight out of the box. No system libraries or system preferences are altered.

blender.org – Get 2.5 alpha.

First Impression 2. It looks good. The looks of the interface have always been a little functional and basic with Blender (some go as far as to say it isn’t intuitive), and an awful lot of people have listed this as their number one turn off when it comes to getting to grips with this complex and powerful 3D application.

But it actually starts with a 3D scene now! All the old tutorials always used to start explaining what you were looking at when you opened Blender – it was actually a 3D cube seen from above, but it looked more like a sheet of graph paper with a dark bit in the middle. Now that isn’t necessary, it’s obvious at first glance that this app is about 3D.

First Impression 3. The first thing I tried to do was select a face of the default mesh I was presented with at start up. As an experienced user I knew to hit the tab key and click with the wrong button on the face. I’m pretty sure that this idiosyncratic way of working is, as ever, going to be the biggest hurdle for new users. I couldn’t immediately see any new simpler-to-figure-out (i.e. intuitive) way of doing this. But I don’t want to sound too negative. This counterintuitive way of working is rally quick to learn, way less than a day, and most Blender users come to understand why it has to be this way and even like it.

First Impression 4. Next I deleted the face. Now here there has been a huge improvement in the interface. The tool I needed was right there on the screen, and it was very intuitive to use.

I’ve had the this great 3D editing, animation, rendering, you name it it does it suite on my hard drive for only a few minutes and it has already convinced me that great strides have been taken compared to the earlier versions.

More first impressions to come, I’m excited to get to grips with this new revamp of a classic elder statesman of CGI and I’ll probably be having fun and making discoveries long into the night.

What Leaves When Autumn Leaves
ArtofInterpretation.com: Recent Images RSS Feed - 2009-12-04 19:30:00

From my Seasons series. Technical note: Pure Blender internal render.

Quick sketch with Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet and GIMP for Illustration friday
Starbright Illustrations (blog) - 2009-12-04 19:21:34

 

Here we go again, another week, another illustration. This week the art challenge word on Illustration Friday is, “Crunchy”. I’ve noticed that to get the most visitors and comments from Illustration Friday it’s a good idea to post your art, actually on Friday. And that means for obscure words like this week’s art challenge word, where there isn’t a picture you prepared earlier hanging about on the hard drive, that means creating an image very quickly.

Outside of Illustration Friday my art tends to be considered images put painstakingly together over the course of weeks in such applications as Inkscape the open source vector illustration app and Blender the suite of professional-level open source 3D tools. My latest Blender project – a spaceship in 3D with a detailed interior – has been under construction for some weeks now and there is little chance of it being finally done anytime soon.

So for Illustration Friday I choose an entirely different method of creating images. I open Gimp (just as good as Photoshop if you ask me, and totally free, just like the other two apps) and attach my graphics tablet to my PC, my Wacom Bamboo tablet is still very new and I love it a lot. I then quickly sketch out and complete whatever the first idea was that jumped into my head when I saw the challenge word. This week the first idea that sprung to mind was a very hungry fish crunching away on a bag full of nachos that the kind owner has thrown into the tank.

The next big challenge of course is to get the art uploaded in a post on my blog and make sure the Illustration Friday link works, but even including all that the whole process probably doesn’t take more than a couple of hours. A very immediate and raw technique – and this week the results look, to my eye, a little like a spray painting on a wall.

Blender 2.5 – r25127 – SSE optimisation for Renderer
Letwory Interactive - 2009-12-04 17:10:37

I have uploaded 32bit and 64bit builds to graphicall.org that have SSE optimisation for the renderer enabled. This is not a default setting, but I thought it’d be good to get some testing results out of it – whether it causes render artifacts or not, and such.

To use any of the optimisations, check the Performance panel in render settings. The Auto setting tries to select the best optimisation strategy, but you can choose any of the other ones too. Octree is what we know from the previous Blender series, all the new names are from the GSoC work done by André Susano Pinto (jaguarandi).

• win32 build
• win64 build

Durian, 1stMinute Animatic 01
BlenderNation - 2009-12-04 14:54:10

This is the first pass at a storyboard Animatic for the first minute of Durian. Lee Salvemini

graphicall: Blender's new Approximate GI isn't looking too bad for a wip! ;) http://www.pasteall.org/pic/402
Twitter / graphicall - 2009-12-04 13:21:43

graphicall: Blender's new Approximate GI isn't looking too bad for a wip! ;) http://www.pasteall.org/pic/402

Book review: Incredible Machines by Allan Brito
BlenderNation - 2009-12-04 13:00:27

Terry Wallwork reviews Allan Brito’s latest book, ‘Incredible Machines’. Things have been moving along lately on the Blender book front, a friend of mine informed me that Allan Brito released a new book called: Blender 3D 2.49 – Incredible Machines Product Specifications: Allan Bito – Blender 3D 2.49 Incredible Machines Price : £15.19 (ebook) (on 1st December 2009) Price : [...]

Spark Motion Blur user interface
Trickle Project - 2009-12-04 11:57:24

The first version of Spark motion blur node we are improving is almoust finished. This node calculates objects’ movement between two frames, creating subframes or slices (as we called it). Now we are running several tests to check the effectiveness of this node and we are working on the user interface. This is how the [...]

Spin modeling in Blender 2.5
BlenderNation - 2009-12-04 10:32:40

In his latest videotutorial, Adam Kidd goes into the details of spin modeling in Blender 2.5 Adam Kidd wrote: Here is another great helper video, Officially it is just about spinning, but I throw a little textured in there too! I hope the science fans get a kick out of my intro!! Link Spinning modeling in Blender 2.5

Bathroom project
Akta's Way - Blog - 2009-12-04 09:57:35

Hi Blender guys!

I just decided to release under CC license the bathroom I made in Blender for a project I called “Bathroom project” (obvious name, isn’t it? )

Appliances and objects in the bathroom include textures and materials, so it’s ready to be used in your own works!

You can use everything is in the .blend file for both commercial and non commercial use, enjoy it!

Download the .blend file

Tokyo Blender Workshop 2009 photos
BlenderNation - 2009-12-04 07:22:12

Tony Mullen has posted a set of pictures from his latest workshop in Tokyo. Tony wrote: Last weekend I hosted a 10-hour Blender workshop for beginners in Tokyo, just as I did last year. The workshop was very well attended (we actually had two more than our planned maximum number of 10 participants) and people really seemed [...]

Model: Croissant
Blender Cookie - 2009-12-04 05:15:05

Everyone likes free stuff, but as artists free stuff can be a real life saver. With this round of free stuff, Ayman Anwar is giving away a Croissant Model to warm up to during the holidays. Though this model isn’t animated as shown below, but a pretty neat use of it by the author. View animation using [...]

http://blendercookie.com

Art Show in Kingsport, Tennessee
mike's digital anthology - 2009-12-04 02:00:20

Byron Kindig once again pulled it off!  Showing off more than 70 piece of artwork (mostly created with Blender) at the Kingsport Renaissance Center, on display until December 22.  Kudos for putting this wonderful show together, I would love to see this, too bad I can’t be there in person, but at least I am proud to say some of my work are on display.

Edit:  The event was apparently very successful.  Photos and proceedings here: byronsdesigns.com

graphicall: Blender 2.49 is now available in Commodore 64! Expect 2.5 soon! http://www.pasteall.org/pic/396
Twitter / graphicall - 2009-12-04 01:24:27

graphicall: Blender 2.49 is now available in Commodore 64! Expect 2.5 soon! http://www.pasteall.org/pic/396

Citizen Exclusive: Mechanic Part 1
Blender Cookie - 2009-12-04 01:17:26

As promised we have started our first Citizen Exclusive lesson that will cover the creation of the below concept from Drew Wolf. This exclusive lesson will cover the entire of process of modeling the mechanic character based off of the concept art by Drew Wolf. In this tutorial you will see the in-depth modeling process demonstrated, [...]

http://blendercookie.com

1st Minute - Animatic
Sintel, the Durian Open Movie Project - 2009-12-04 00:40:57

So. In a continuation of our “1st Minute” series, here is the current state of our Animatic!

Keep in mind that this is *very* rough. The fight is literally a bunch of random drawings that look like a fight– there is no choreography and very little visual continuity between drawings. (This will be filled in later once we work out the fight with the kung fu guys!) The scratch dialogue has, uhhh… room for improvement. But check it out:

Forgive the patchy drawings– unfortunately David left before he could get to work on the boards, so these were done by me. Rough sound design was done in like an hour by Jan Morgenstern. It totally makes it work! And guess who did the voices?

Laters!

–Colin