Planet Blender

New: Donation Fame Hall & call
Blender Physics Development - 2009-09-09 22:30:53

Hi all,

I got several requests for a list of donors. Now this has come true: A real time updated donors list! You can choose what gets displayed and what not. It might be that there are some layout bugs still but I hope you enjoy it.

Since I get several thousand visitors per month, this could also be a great opportunity for advertising e.g. your company or your new published book.

I will also consider to add the highest donators (max 3) with logo to the front page.

This should really speed up the development!

I also start a new donation call since OpenCl is quite near and behind the scenes it’s already been worked on (no, not yet by me) and my gfx-card was the only thing not updated by the last call.

Greetings for the great support so far,

Daniel / Genscher

$200 in Donations and Counting!
Montage Studio - 2009-09-09 19:01:18

I would like to truly thank everyone that has shown their support thus far by purchasing the Blender 2.5 Training! It is humbling to see the phenominal response it has seen so far.

There were a good few people who wanted to see this project supporting the Blender Foundation better, and so we have answered that call by donating $5 USD for every order to the Blender Foundation. In the last twenty four hours we have donated $200 USD! And this number just keeps growing!

Thanks again to everyone!

Smoke: high res cache
Blender Physics Development - 2009-09-09 18:51:29

Hey,

it’s been a bit long since my last post since the high res cache was really a challenge to code. I just commited it into svn.  A problem is that many things are still not working, like pressing “Bake”. I also have to create some connection between low res and high res cache baking.

Beside that you can now forward and backward playing your smoke animation in realtime after you cached it (alt-a).

High res also uses the new 3dview display and uses low res shadows so it got alot faster.

Adding a video background plate to OpenGL animation
harkyman.com - 2009-09-09 16:12:30

I’ve been coming across (and answering) some interesting questions on the forums lately, and I thought it would be a nice idea to reprint certain ones here to give them a larger audience.

Today’s came from Stefan Andersson at the cgsociety.com Blender forum:

“I have a sequence which I have in my background. I would like to ‘playblast’ with my animation. Right now the image background isn’t included in the viewport capture. I’ve also tried adding the sequence as a image on a plane, but the sequence doesn’t update in the 3d viewport.”

What he’s referring to as “playblast” is the Maya term for the kind of OpenGL “rendering” we do all the time for animation testing. In other words, Ctrl-LMB clicking on the Render icon on the 3D view header, which quickly generates an animation from the current view settings that can be watched in real time.

It seemed like this should a no-brainer — either add a View-mapped image in the world or a backbuffer and you’re done. Not so, as I found when I tried it. The OpenGL “renderer” doesn’t recognize either technique. There is a way to do it, however:

1. Create a plane, size it to exactly fill the camera space, and make it the child of the camera.
2. Bring up the UV Editor. TAB into Edit Mode on the plane. Unwrap (or Project from View->Bounds if you’re straight on) it so it fills the UV space.
3. In the UV Editor, use choose Image->Open from the header menu. Select your video file or the first image of your sequence.
4. Press the N-key to bring up Image Properties. Enable “Auto Refresh.” If you’ve brought in an image sequence, adjust the settings so that as you move Blender’s master frame counter the image in the UV Editor changes too.
5. Back in the 3D view, TAB out of Edit Mode.
6. Change the viewport draw mode to “Textured”

The image should now show on the plane in the 3D view. Changing the frame will NOT update the image on the plane in the 3D, but don’t worry. Go into your camera view and Ctrl-LMB the OpenGL “render” button. The image will successfully update in the OpenGL render.

And…. we’re done.

Still Alive
BlenderNation - 2009-09-09 16:00:36

Nefzen wrote: Helloo everyone!! This is my first animation project in the blender. I remixed each item I had practiced before and accomplished this project called "Still Alive". Hope you can enjoy it!! Link: Nefzen's Website

Blender+Ardour: A truly powerful combination
BlenderNation - 2009-09-09 14:00:54

Ardour is an 'Open Source Digital Audio Workstation'. Juan Pablo Bouza explains how to hook it up to Blender. Juan Pablo writes: Well, I guess many people out there still don´t know that you can already connect Blender with Ardour through Jack for Video and Audio Editing in Linux. Even before 2.5 comes out! This connection enables you [...]

Fino y Arrecho !
malefico's spot - 2009-09-09 13:43:29

Ya estoy de regreso de San Cristóbal, Venezuela, donde fui invitado por Ernesto y Romulo del Valle de la Fundación Macuare a dar un curso de Rigging y Animación. Esta fue la tercera vez que visito ese país, pero fue la primera donde realmente pude acercarme un poco a la gente común, al “venezolano de [...]

Support Blender and Get Your Name in the Credits, September 15th Deadline!
BlenderNation - 2009-09-09 13:26:42

As you may all remember, the newest Open Movie, Project Durian, is underway. These Open Movies are organized to improve Blender as much as possible. For Project Durian one of the goals is to make the next Blender series, Blender 2.5x, stable for production use. It is possible for you to get your name in the [...]

Reminder - September 15th for Credits!
Sintel, the Durian Open Movie Project - 2009-09-09 12:14:47

Hi all!

First of all, thankyou so much to all of you who have supported us so far - both financially with the DVD pre-sale campaign and through positive and constructive comments on the blog, forums and all the other digital forms of encouragement sent our way. It is really affirming to have so many people cheering us on at such an early stage!

Not really wanting to plug the money side of things too much because I know times are a bit tough for many people at the moment, but this is a gentle reminder that if you want your name in the credits of the film as a supporter, the September 15th deadline is coming up.

Also, to clarify some things previously mentioned to do with the pre-sale:

• The DVD will still be available for pre-order after September 15th and we will still love you for helping out the project! Your name won’t be in the credits though.
• The reason for not having a Blu-Ray presale is not because we overlooked it in some way, but because of the setup costs involved. (If you would like to help us out in that regard, please let us know!)

Once again, thankyou for your support on behalf of the team!

-Ben

Introducing Yubiy Emotion Sheet!
Prince Harming To Prince Charming - 2009-09-09 11:29:50

Just finished creating the character sheet for Yubiy….this sheet presents the  nine emotions, just like the other three character layouts..

These brushes will be available for download along with the entire set of character brushes for PH2PC used in creating the storyboards…..including various angles and close-ups of Turk, Pavo, Bella, and of course Yubiy!

David

3D Animation Contest: Anime Nebraskon
BlenderNation - 2009-09-09 09:00:19

The local Blender community is holding a 3D animation contest to spice up the Anime Nebraskon conference. Have fun! Nick Dinges wrote: The Lincoln TechyFX Blender community is holding a 3D animation contest at Anime Nebraskon. Blender is the recommended program, but others may be used. Cash prize is starting at $100, but could go up! Rules The animation needs [...]

.BLEND Magz ~ Call For Submit
Hello! - 2009-09-09 07:00:33

Kabar gembira untuk para Blender Army di Indonesia. Bulan depan akan segera terbit (oktober) Blender Indonesia Magazine #1. Segera kirim artwork dan tutorial kalian ke email: helloblender@gmail.com ; kapten@blenderindonesia.org paling lambat 30 september 2009. Come On Guys, saatnya unjuk gigi dan berkarya demi kemajuan Animasi OpenSource di Indonesia Tercinta.

Download this Poster:
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Blender 2.5 Training Unveiled
BlenderNation - 2009-09-09 05:00:37

Big changes are afoot in the Blender community and it seems like everyone is preparing for it in his own way. Tutorials publisher CGCookies.com have announced a *very* comprehensive training series for Blender 2.5. From the announcement: With the introduction of Blender 2.5, we are very excited to be one of the first to offer a complete, [...]

StrongestMan - 3D MODEL final
Amazing Animation Tales - 2009-09-09 03:59:00

STRONGESTMAN from Federico Moreno on Vimeo.

By Alejandro Barbesi

3D Modeling for architecture using N-Gons and B-Mesh
Blender 3D Architect - 2009-09-09 02:59:34

One of the tools for 3d modeling that making people excited about the release of Blender 3D 2.50, even with no guaranties that this feature will be added to the release, is the B-Mesh. A lot of old users and artists coming from other 3d packages want to use tools like N-Gons in 3d modeling [...] Related posts:

1. Using the B-Mesh for architectural modeling in Blender 3D A new system to manage the way Blender 3D deals...
2. Table with mesh organization tips for 3D polygon modeling What is required to learn and develop even more your...
3. Precision 3d modeling for architecture with Mesh Planes From all the tasks related to architectural visualization, one of...