Planet Blender

v2-beta4 'Turning Pages'

... where Blenderheads live. Aggregate of blogs by Blenderheads
  • Call for Content: 4th edition of the magazine blender Indonesia
    BlenderArt Magazine - 2010-03-12 20:10:02

    4th edition of the magazine blender Indonesia invited local and international Blender artists to participate. Please send artwork with the theme “HOBBY”. Send before April 5, 2010 to: kapten@blenderindonesia.org. Thanks :)

    via Facebook | Hiza Ro’s Photos – Wall Photos.

  • Call for Content: 4th edition of the magazine blender Indonesia
    ThruDreamsgate's Blog - 2010-03-12 20:06:50

    4th edition of the magazine blender Indonesia invited local and international Blender artists to participate. Please send artwork with the theme “HOBBY”. Send before April 5, 2010 to: kapten@blenderindonesia.org. Thanks via Facebook | Hiza Ro’s Photos – Wall Photos.
  • Test Demo of kichavadi
    KICHAVADI - 2010-03-12 17:34:00

    This is the demo for the series. Still shots need to be done. Getting the timing correct for now.. Later working on the details and finally rendering it in Aqis (Renderman)..

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4neSnyoUd8
  • Digital painting of a rabbit down a hole, in GIMP, step by step
    Starbright Illustrations - 2010-03-12 17:31:55

    subterranean rabbit picture, GIMP

    Illustration Friday time has once more rolled around and this time the art challenge site has set the word “subterranean” as our source of inspiration. I immediately thought of a space underground, but at the same time, I am conscious that my images of late have all tended towards the creepy, and I wanted to mix up the mood with something more cute.

    I decided that although the image would have an underground setting, it would have a cute rabbit as its main character.


    So of course step one was to attach my Wacom “ Bamboo Pen” Graphics tablet, I must admit I am slightly in love with this gadget, and it’s great to have it working under Ubuntu at last. I also opened GIMP and started a new image. The first thing I did was add a new transparent layer to the image, and I started sketching on that. It makes it so much easier to colour in when the lines float on top of the picture and you can colour in below. It’s impossible to colour over the lines!


    Next I started colouring in the image, I wanted to avoid any trace of the sinister in this image and have the rabbit be extremely cute, so I roughly tried to suggest its shape with a very bright blue. All the different elements of the GIMP image are of course on different layers, and I am using the “save for web” add on to quickly produce these low data thumb nails to illustrate this post.


    As I was adding more detail, and colouring in more of the elements of the picture, I decided that the rabbit should actually be reading his fortune, I have no idea why, it just seemed more interesting I guess. So I increased the size of the table in front of the subject of the image and painted in some cards, free hand, like everything else in the image.


    I was quite pleased with the way the image was progressing but I had my usual issue of too many dissimilar colours lying on the image like a pizza topping. To solve this problem I painted a layer of solid brown, dark brown, as the top layer of the image. Then I turned the transparency of this layer down until I could see the elements of the image through this top brown layer. It immediately pulled all the different colourful elements together into one unified image.

    Then I used the eraser tool to cut holes in this layer for the door and window, and edges that would be caught in the beams of light coming through them. It had a very dramatic effect.


    Then I resized the image, I used the scalpel tool from the GIMP toolbox, and darkened only the layer with our card player on, using the brightness contrast tool from the colours menu. I think it already works as an image, after just two, or three hours work, but I’m probably going to be adding finishing touches such as images on the faces of the cards and a picture within the frame hanging on the wall. We’ll see.


  • Maya, rename the parent object
    digital janitor - 2010-03-12 16:14:00

    It's always easy to select and rename your controllers, but it's a PITA to also name the underlying controller (what I call the ZERO control).

    example:

    create a locator and a circle. parent the circle under the null. Then
    duplicate them and just name the circles. Then select the circles (or
    just one circle) and run this script.

    updated, this will work with maya 2010. Even though the previous one will work too, I'm learning pymel right now and will try and use that as much as possible.

    from pymel.core import *
    oSel = ls(sl=True)
    if len(oSel) > 1:
       for i in range(len(oSel)):
           print oSel[i]
           parent = listRelatives( oSel[i], p=True)
           rename(parent[0], "%s_ZERO" % oSel[i])
    else:
       parent = listRelatives( oSel[0], p=True)
       rename(parent[0], "%s_ZERO" % oSel[0])


    Maya 2010

    #Python
    import maya.cmds as cmds
    oSel = cmds.ls(sl=True)
    if len(oSel) > 1:
       for i in range(len(oSel)):
           print oSel[i]
           parent = cmds.listRelatives( oSel[i], p=True)
           cmds.rename(parent[0], "%s_ZERO" % oSel[i])
    else:
       parent = cmds.listRelatives( oSel[0], p=True)
       cmds.rename(parent[0], "%s_ZERO" % oSel[0])
  • Maya, Create a simple controller
    digital janitor - 2010-03-12 13:55:00



    This will create simple controllers and align them to objects. One of those simple and big time savers :)

    USAGE:
    if you have nothing selected it will create a controller with a locator
    as the parent

    if you have one object selected it will create the controller and align it
    under the selected object

    if you have two objects selected it will align the first object with the second
    object

    SMALL VIDEO


    #PYTHON SCRIPT
    import maya.cmds as cmds
    import datetime

    '''
    created by Stefan Andersson, sanders3d[at]gmail.com
    USAGE:
    if you have nothing selected it will create a controller with a locator
    as the parent

    if you have one object selected it will create the controller and align it
    under the selected object

    if you have two objects selected it will align the first object with the second
    object
    '''

    #create a random number
    rname = str(datetime.datetime.now()).split('.')

    #create a controller
    def create_controller():
        cmds.spaceLocator(n='null_%s_zero' % rname[1])
        cmds.circle(n='circle_%s_ctrl' % rname[1], ch=False)
        cmds.setAttr( "%s.rotateY" % ('circle_%s_ctrl' % rname[1]), 90)
        cmds.makeIdentity('circle_%s_ctrl' % rname[1], apply=True, t=0, r=1, s=0, n=0 )
        cmds.parent('circle_%s_ctrl' % rname[1], 'null_%s_zero' % rname[1])
        return 'null_%s_zero' % rname[1]

    # reset the object
    def reset_object(obj):
        channels = ['X', 'Y', 'Z']
        for channel in channels:
            cmds.setAttr( "%s.translate%s" % (obj, channel), 0 )
            cmds.setAttr( "%s.rotate%s" % (obj, channel), 0 )
            cmds.setAttr( "%s.scale%s" % (obj, channel), 1 )


    oSel = cmds.ls(sl=True)

    if len(oSel) < 1:
        create_controller()

    if len(oSel) == 1:
        parent = oSel[0]
        child = create_controller()
        cmds.parent(child, parent)
        reset_object(child)
        cmds.parent(child, w=True)   
        
    if len(oSel) == 2:
        child = oSel[0]
        parent = oSel[1]
        cmds.parent(child, parent)
        channels = ['X', 'Y', 'Z']
        reset_object(child)
        cmds.parent(child, w=True)

  • Top Five Blender Renders
    Reyn's Blog - 2010-03-12 13:45:00

    Hi, everyone! I'm back again after a hiatus.  This time though, I won't write something about something I learnt but rather share something I have been very amazed with and kept me inspired and driven on my journey to embracing Blender as my personal favorite in my toolbox.So here they are, my top five selection of best Blender renders yet (in no particular order):A Very Little Warrior by Endre
  • Interview: David Revoy
    Blender Tutorials Downloads Videos & Education - Blender Cookie - 2010-03-12 04:16:04

    Being a traditional and 2D digital artist, what has been your impression of the Blender community? Obviously you have been working quite closely with a lot of Blenderheads through Project Durian. This question is funny because it’s linked to some comments I get from the community working on Durian like “the Blender family accepts you even [...]

    http://blendercookie.com
  • Blenderart Mag Issue #26 Now Available
    BlenderNation - 2010-03-12 03:43:45

    Welcome to Issue #25, “Blender & Gaming.” This issue we not only take a look at how Blender is used in various game production pipelines, but we see two very creative uses for Blender’s internal  game engine and how those uses have helped children. So grab your copy today. Also be sure to check out our gallery of [...]
  • rendering improments in 2.5 alpha 2
    blender 2.5 dev - 2010-03-12 01:40:00

    here is a test render:
    the cone in raytraced trasparency, the sphere is a raytrased mirro, the hair is using zbuff to fade the ends, the monky is repeated by a array modiphier, and has SSS. the backround is a NURBS surface. there are 4 colored lights. (renderd on mac book pro 0sx 10.6, 2.53 core 2 duo, 4GB 1067 NHz DD3 ram, )

    blender 2.49b
    time: 1h 6m 21s = 3981 seconds











    blender 2.5 alpha 2
    time: 19m 54s = 1194 seconds











    this shows more than the 3 times speed up.
    here is a diffrence map of the two results:
    one can see that the hair paticals in blender 2.49b where rendered larger than those in 2.5, there is a slight color diffrence, and the bump map on the monky is aplied with diffrent intesity.
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