Planet Blender v2 beta4 - 'Turning Pages'

OSX and blender 2.5 compile not working anymore...
digital janitor - 2010-02-24 21:52:00

[updated below]

Something happened a few weeks back. While I try and update as much as I can, sometimes work gets in the way and I do check out the svn a few weeks later. So on my OSX machine I updated as usual and tried to compile (using gcc 4.0 and osx 10.5.8). I get this:


Compiling ==> 'AUD_C-API.cpp'
In file included from intern/audaspace/intern/AUD_C-API.cpp:54:
intern/audaspace/SDL/AUD_SDLDevice.h:31:17: error: SDL.h: No such file or directory
In file included from intern/audaspace/intern/AUD_C-API.cpp:58:
intern/audaspace/OpenAL/AUD_OpenALDevice.h:35:19: error: AL/al.h: No such file or directory
intern/audaspace/OpenAL/AUD_OpenALDevice.h:36:20: error: AL/alc.h: No such file or directory
intern/audaspace/intern/AUD_C-API.cpp:67:34: error: libavformat/avformat.h: No such file or directory
intern/audaspace/intern/AUD_I3DDevice.h:37: warning: 'class AUD_I3DDevice' has virtual functions but non-virtual destructor
intern/audaspace/SDL/AUD_SDLDevice.h:45: error: 'Uint8' has not been declared
intern/audaspace/OpenAL/AUD_OpenALDevice.h:49: error: ISO C++ forbids declaration of 'ALCdevice' with no type
intern/audaspace/OpenAL/AUD_OpenALDevice.h:49: error: expected ';' before '*' token
intern/audaspace/OpenAL/AUD_OpenALDevice.h:54: error: ISO C++ forbids declaration of 'ALCcontext' with no type
intern/audaspace/OpenAL/AUD_OpenALDevice.h:54: error: expected ';' before '*' token
intern/audaspace/OpenAL/AUD_OpenALDevice.h:124: error: 'ALenum' has not been declared
intern/audaspace/intern/AUD_C-API.cpp: In function 'int AUD_init(AUD_DeviceType, AUD_DeviceSpecs, int)':
intern/audaspace/intern/AUD_C-API.cpp:90: error: 'av_register_all' was not declared in this scope
scons: *** [/Users/sanders/blender-svn/build/darwin/intern/audaspace/intern/AUD_C-API.o] Error 1
scons: building terminated because of errors.

Apparently this is due to some 'JACK' thing, and right now I'm not able to compile at all. Both libs and blender trunk is checked out at revision 27128.
user-config.py has "WITH_BF_JACK = False".

Any ideas?

[solution]

First install Xcode 3.1 if you are on Leopard (10.5.8), Xcode 3.2 is only for Snow Leopard.

Second, alter your user-config.py with these lines:


if MACOSX_ARCHITECTURE == 'x86_64':
    REL_CFLAGS = REL_CFLAGS+['-mssse3']
    REL_CCFLAGS = REL_CCFLAGS+['-mssse3']

Third, you need to fix your gcc links to use 4.2 instead of 4.0

in a terminal


sudo rm /usr/bin/gcc
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/gcc-4.2 /usr/bin/gcc

now you (read "me") should be able to update and compile blender just fine :)

Python external scripts.
pixel-sized - 2010-02-24 18:22:00
Interview: Jason van Gumster
Blender Tutorials Downloads Videos & Education - Blender Cookie - 2010-02-24 17:17:30

As is pretty standard with interviews, would you care to introduce yourself? I am Jason van Gumster of Hand Turkey Studios, author of Blender for Dummies and GIMP Bible, and a general goof ball. You have been a successful Blender artist for quite some time, can you give us a little insight into what you do on [...]

http://blendercookie.com
New cleaner look for the Starbright Illustrations scifi art site
Starbright Illustrations - 2010-02-24 16:13:08

As I mentioned in my last post, all the science fiction sketches, designs, art, 3D renders and illustrations have always been the most popular element of both the Starbright Illustrations main site and the Starbright Illustrations blog. It seems that now might be a great time to refocus the site towards this sort of work, to make the site more unified and understandable, but hopefully still vibrant, varied and interesting.

As part of this process I’ve been redesigning the site to have a white background, simpler layout and new logo. The first of these new-design pages is taking shape here. I’ creating the pages in Kompozer, and one of the advantages of using such a simple app is that it creates nice simple web pages that download quickly. At lest they should download quickly as long as I keep my eye on the sizes of all the images I’m creating. When I remember I use the Save foe Web extension for GIMP to make sure the illustrations are as small as possible.

Installing it was a bit of an effort with Mandriva Linux however. I remember with the old Windoze machine – before it died – all I had to do was drop the extension into the right GIMP folder. With Linux I had to download extensions to my operating system and type in different lines of code, using Google to look up how to react to the error messages that were spat out in a little black window when the extension repeatedly failed for various esoteric reasons.

But as soon as the new look has spread across the site a little, it’ll be straight back to sketching spaceships and other bits of sci-fi hardware and working these designs into completed illustrations.
graphicall: "Allow cloth sim for linked duplicates" [27122] on Trunk by Campbell, awesome! i.e. using Cloth/Hair on linked characters..yay!
Twitter / graphicall - 2010-02-24 15:56:36

graphicall: "Allow cloth sim for linked duplicates" [27122] on Trunk by Campbell, awesome! i.e. using Cloth/Hair on linked characters..yay!
Blending Life 2010
BenSimonds.com - 2010-02-24 13:52:05

After learning so much from last year’s blending life competition, I couldn’t wait to test out what I’d learned since in making my entry this year. It was tremendous fun to do and I had great feedback from the BlenderArtists community as I went along. Anyway, I thought that as the competition still has a [...]
Job Opening: Terrestrial 3D Scanning
BlenderNation - 2010-02-24 13:00:57

LandAir Surveying uses a terrestrial 3D scanner to scan high density pointclouds (2 billion points). Some of their clients require a video presentation of these datasets. After the pointcloud has been downsampled, they use Blender for the visualisation. They’re looking for a Blender artist. James wrote: LandAir Surveying has an immediate opening for anyone that may be [...]
Facebook will set indie gaming back 5 years
goplexian.com | animation, modeling, scripting - 2010-02-24 12:17:00

I read books just about every day, and I'm talking real books mind you, not e-ink, not e-book. I'm talking paper and dust and the musty smell of old print. So if you're one of those people who gave up reading a few years ago and whose fingers spasmodically continue to click long after the hand has left the mouse then you may not exactly understand the reasons for my grumbling, but just a brief word of warning this is probably an "I'm an old man so get off my lawn" type of rant and it is likely to upset you.

Facebook games suck. Few would really be surprised if Farmville turned out to be made by a couple of 17 year olds in their mom's basement. Turns out it wasn't, but it easily could have been. But it made hundreds of millions of dollars, so it *must* be good, right? Wrong. Popularity has no bearing on quality these days. Does anyone remember that kid on youtube swinging the lightsaber? Didn't he get over 20 million views? Was he some kind of genius? Nope, just a silly video that got lucky and went viral a few times.

Facebook games are a lot like that, except instead of just being silly they are sinister, they are designed to be simple and viral, not good.

I want games with substance and style, richly textured and thickly layered, with real character development and breathtaking artwork. --[[ I'm talking in the context of indie games though, I am not suggesting that indie titles can compete pound for pound with AAA studio titles. If you're not sure what I'm talking about maybe have a look at Braid or Machinarium.]]-- Essentially I want games which remind me of good books. Facebook games don't even qualify as comics. I feel sick even comparing them to comics.

Facebook games might get a bit prettier after Googles' NaCL takes off and we see serious hardware acceleration become standard on the web but they wont get any closer to what us old timers consider to be good, they judge good by a different metric.

Sadly though everybody is screaming their brains out about Facebook right now, and the hundreds of millions some of its games made last year, we're looking at a gold rush in the middle of a global recession folks, and you mark my words, where the carcase lays down the eagles will gather, big names are going to start dropping Facebook titles, but instead of making things better this will assuredly only make things worse. It will only lend further credibility to what has become nothing but a glorified marketing machine.

Facebook games are successful for three reasons. Firstly because Facebook's main purpose is to expose internet newbies to marketing from their nearest and dearest friends. Everyone knows that people are many times more likely to try/buy something which is recommended to them from their friends. Facebook is built on that premise. It is simply a thinly veiled mechanism by which people organize themselves willingly into groups which know and trust each other, so that they can then unwittingly mass market applications amongst their closest friends.

The second reason web games are successful is because they are delivered through a browser, and even though the games suck the sucking is mostly excused because even grandpa knows that browsers are limited. The browser also means these games can be played on just about any computer in the known universe.

And third, they succeed because they are designed to be played in short bursts, people new to the net don't feel intimidated or obligated. They can get in, give it a try for free, and then get out, or so they think. It is like the perfect gateway drug.

Facebook is going to set indie gaming back 5 years, developers must follow the money, and nobody can deny that there is sick cash to be had playing the viral lottery on Facebook. The indie market is literally teetering on the verge of awesome, but it's going to get slammed pretty hard when half the market suddenly flips the channel to Facebook or other similar venues.
Work in Progress February 2010
The Process Diary - 2010-02-24 11:27:00

Welcome to the February WIP video. This month's installment continues the modeling phase, creating the boots and hands for the character. I've heeded the advice of some listeners this month, and gone for no soundtrack. Will be curious as to how people feel about this. Note that for the DVD release, music is going to be specially composed, and full credit will go to the composer on release. This episode is also a bit longer than usual - coming in at about 32 minutes - but all fairly worthwhile stuff.

TPD - February 2010 from Paul Caggegi on Vimeo.

Some quick points of what to expect:
- Special focus on keeping edge loops consistent.
- Some use of the sculpting tool in tandem with traditional modeling techniques
- Hand modeling from the fingers down.
Please find the different size downloads linked below:
Subscribe to iTunes Feed
Physics Fun
BlenderNation - 2010-02-24 06:00:58

By Tagzerz. This video on YouTube has additional information in the subtitles.
Pintura Matte
The Mercator Project - 2010-02-24 03:59:48

Una de las cosas que más disfruto hacer es pintar y en particular, pintar decorados. Las pinturas matte nos ahorran muchisimo trabajo de modelado y texturizado sobre todo en casos como esta escena donde los personajes simplemente pasarán explorando sin interactuar con el entorno. La técnica que usamos es crear un modelo muy rudimentario que nos permita tener una referencia del espacio, y luego hacer una mezcla entre collage fotográfico y pintura.

Luego de realizada la pintura, la usamos como textura y la mapeamos desde la cámara sobre alguna geometría low-poly, obteniendo un resultado muy interesante de “Pintura 3D”. Pero eso lo contaremos en otro momento

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Tip: Mixing Clips in the Video Sequencer
Blender Tutorials Downloads Videos & Education - Blender Cookie - 2010-02-24 03:05:31

This quick Blender video tip demonstrates how to mix two image sequences (or video clips) in the video sequencer and then export them out as a single video file. The footage used is from http://openfootage.net

http://blendercookie.com