bikes
Matt Ebb - 2010-03-23 22:18:51

near maruyama koen, sapporo

fantasy GIMP illustration of a dragon
Starbright Illustrations (blog) - 2010-03-23 22:00:07

Follow the Leader on Lumix GH1 and Blender
Vimeo / Blender 3D - 2010-03-23 17:55:46

Short animation combining live footage and motion tracked with Voodoo and animated in Blender.

Cast: Matt Hoecker

Tags: blender, gh1, animation, CG, 3d, tracking and walking

Particle video series
Tinker Code - 2010-03-23 15:51:58

Hi all This video serie shows the basic workflow with particle fluids, from sand to multiple interacting fluids, hope you will like them. I warn that this videos are made with an older version of Particle Fluids patch so the GUI and some internals have changed, and the results now are much more better thanks [...]

Project London: Multiply Teaser
Phil McCoy's Posts - Project London - 2010-03-23 15:00:00

Here's the new teaser from the independently-produced, science-fiction, action-adventure, no-budget, effects movie, Project London featuring the song, "Multiply" performed by Half Acre Day.

This clip explores the world of Project London and introduces the opposing forces, Joint Command and The London Underground. All 3D animated elements were created using Blender, open source software.

We recommend playing this clip with your volume control turned way up.

For all things Project London, visit projectlondonmovie.com.

For all things Half Acre Day, visit halfacreday.com.

Phil McCoy, Executive Producer
on behalf of Nathan McCoy (left), also Executive Producer and Phil McCoy (right)

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Indonesian Animators Creating Their Own World
Hello! - 2010-03-23 12:49:49

The world of animation has progressed dramatically since the days of Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” While last year’s wonderfully nostalgic “The Princess and the Frog” brought back the era of hand-drawn cartoons, the last decade has been dominated by 3D animation.

Beginning with “Shrek” and “Toy Story” — both of which grew into lucrative franchises — 3D animation has grown rapidly in technique and details. Compared to more recent movies such as “Avatar” “Up” and “Wall-E,” the graphics of the first generation pale in comparison. But considering how first-rate the trailblazers were when they hit the screen, that’s saying a lot.

But it’s not just in the United States and other more-modern countries that animation is gaining ground. Indonesia’s talented computer artists are eager to show the rest of the world that they’re a force to be reckoned with.

While the country has yet to produce anything of Pixar’s caliber, there have been some proud achievements. Last year, the Batam-based animation studio Mediacorp Raintree Pictures produced the country’s first 3D feature, “Meraih Mimpi” (“Sing to the Dawn”). The film was a box-office success and critics say the it announced the country’s arrival in the animated movie-making universe.

“Animation in Indonesia has gotten better and progressed significantly,” says Hiza Ro, who represents Blender Community, one of the nation’s leading animation societies. “This era of technology has made the software and hardware [needed to create animation sequences] easy to obtain.”

Hiza points to the increasing number of animation production houses popping up in Indonesia, including big names like Kasatmata (Invisible) Studio in Yogyjakarta and Castle Studio in Jakarta.

“With the progress local animation studios are making, we’re certainly at a place where calling yourself an ‘animator’ can be a proud declaration,” Hiza says. “With the number of newly formed production houses specializing in [animation for] television advertisements, as well as opportunities creating short films and designing computer games, a person can live as an animator in this country.”

Aldy Waani is a motion graphic designer who has directed and produced numerous features, including a trailer for the video game “Gladiator” for Microsoft’s Xbox. He’s worked for post-production companies including Luminaire Digital Post and Lumine 3D House. He’s also a member of the Blender collective.

According to Aldy, the local animation industry is off to a promising start.

“Tons of local animators were recruited to work for Lucasfilm Animation Singapore,” he says. “You should also know that the well-known game ‘Need for Speed Underground’ involved a lot of Indonesian animators.”

Hiza agrees, and says that rapid growth is one of the reasons the members of Blender got together.

The collective was officially formed in August, but has grown swiftly in both members and activity. It was formed by animators from various communities around the country who realized that they would hold a stronger influence as a group of artists.

Blender’s Web site, blenderindonesia.org has become a hub for the country’s animation artists as well. The site is a place for animators to share and display their work and offers discussion boards that give members a forum to discuss anything related to animation.

Hiza says that Blender’s primary purpose is to encourage artists with limited means to create something original with what they have. He describes the group as “a large collective of fans, workers and studios trying to develop this ecosystem surrounding open-sourced animation software.”

Blender shies away from using illegal software, which is an encouraging stance of integrity in a country famous for its lack of artistic ethics. For animators on a budget, the group promotes the use of open-source programs developed by senior designers in the industry and available for free on the Internet.

Hiza says that the seeds of Blender were planted when a few of the group’s founding members bumped into one another at the Global Conference on Open-Source Software in South Jakarta last October.

“Our goal is to create an atmosphere of quality and creativity that is legally sound,” he says. “We want to help drive the economy and create healthy working opportunities for the younger generation.”

But Aldy says staying true to the law isn’t easy and that honesty comes at a price.

“The software needed for fresh video effects are not cheap,” he says. “But it all goes back to creativity, especially in using limited resources. Creativity knows no boundaries.”

Hiza says that although the vast library of local animation created by Blender is definitely influenced by their American and Japanese colleagues, Indonesian animators are slowly taking on their own form and creating truly unique works.

“Generally, the diversity of Indonesian culture has provided a great influence toward the development of local animation,” Hiza explains. “We’re somewhat still trying to figure out our own voice, so to speak, but slowly and surely you see the variety of our colors, style, design and story line.”

According to Aldy it is a positive sign that a lot of Indonesian animation borrows from local content, including “Si Kabayan,” an animated series shown regularly on Global TV.

“It gives our animation a distinct feel compared to international animation,” Aldy says.

With all these encouraging developments, Aldy says he knows what expect from the artists in Blender and other burgeoning animators in Indonesia.

“We are going to give a variety in style and substance — things different than what non-Indonesian animators have to offer — a promising alternative for animation junkies here and across the board.”

Source: The Jakarta Globe

Particle Garden by David Tillman
BlenderNation - 2010-03-23 05:40:30

“This might be of interest to motion graphic artists that use Blender or After Effects, but don’t have the Trapcode Particular plugin. I wanted to try and  recreate some of the techniques seen in videos that use Trapcode in particular. I used particles and dupliverts within Blender to create a similar style.” A link [...]

Creating Volumetric Clouds
Blender Guru - 2010-03-23 05:07:06

For those that have been following the durian blog, you’ll know that they recently posted a jaw dropping cloudscene.

Keen to make my own, I experimented with different cloud shapes, trying to see what worked and what didn’t. Some of you may have already seen these attempts on my facebook fanpage.

But when I was stuck at Brisbane airport for 3 hours, I thought I might try my hand at…

Speed Modeling a Cloudscape

So armed with a laptop, I setup myself up at a vacant flight check-in desk and got to work. I honestly expected a flight attendant to kick me out, but amazingly no one bothered me. I knew I had less than an hour of battery life on my laptop, so I had to be fast.

Here’s the video:

Now that you’ve seen how easy it is, do you want to make your own?

Tutorial

We will be using Blender 2.5 so if you don’t have it already, download it here.

Step 1

Create a new scene.

With the default cube selected, hit Ctrl+4 to add a subsurf modifier. Then go to the modifier stacker and hit ‘Apply‘. This will give us lots of vertices to play with.

Step 2

Press T to bring up the toolbar, and under the shading options hit Smooth.

Step 3

To make the cloud fluffy we will be using a combination of displacement modifiers.

But before we can add any displacement we need to add a new material. For now, we will leave all the settings as they are.

Step 4

Switch to the texture panel and click New to add the first texture.

Step 5

Leave the texture type as Cloud, but set the noise type to Hard and the Size to 1.00

Step 6

Next switch to the modifier stacker and add a Displacement modifier. Enter the name of the texture we just created and set the Strength to 0.40

Step 7

As you can see, the cloud texture we have just created is now effecting the geometry of the sphere.

To make it look smoother, add a Subsurf modifier underneath the displacement modifier. Change the Render count to 1.

Step 8

Add a second texture under the one we have already created.

Step 9

Set the noise size to 0.05 and the depth to 6.

Step 10

Add a second displacement modifier underneath the subsurf modifier we previously created. Set the texture name to the newly created texture and the strength to 0.30

Step 11

Add another subsurf modifier, making sure it’s underneath the last displacement modifier.

Step 12

Switch back to the texture panel and add a third and final texture. Leave the type to clouds  but change the size to 0 and depth to 6.

Step 13

Add another displacement modifier and set the texture field to the name of the texture we just created, and set the strength to 0.10

Step 14

Add a third and final subsurf modifier underneath that displacement modifier.

If you’ve done everything right, your object should now look like this:

Step 15

At the moment our cloud is spherical and looks very unrealistic.

Go into edit mode (TAB) and press O to activate proportional editing mode. We want to give the cloud a flat bottom, so select the vertice at the very bottom of your sphere and press G.

Step 16

Move the vertice upwards along the Z-axis until your sphere looks like a piece of dough that’s fallen flat. You can scale the amount of proportional editing by scrolling your mouse wheel.

Step 17

Use this method to shape the rest of the cloud. There’s no right or wrong shape as every cloud is different do whatever looks right to you. My cloud looks like a meringue

Step 18

We will now add the material.

Go to the materials panel, and set the material type to Volume. To give the cloud a thicker appearance, increase the density scale to 1.5. To exaggerate the effect of the bright sun, set the reflection to 1.3. Set the resolution to 100 and the transparency type to Raytrace. I’ve found these to give the best results. Finally set the Step Size to 0.02 so it doesn’t look too noisy.

Step 19

We don’t want any of the textures we created to effect the clouds material so turn all of them off. This will not effect the displacement modifier.

Step 20

With the modeling and materials out of the way, now we just need to light and render it.

Position the camera so it’s facing the side of the cloud. The easiest way to do this is to go into side view (Numpad 1) and hit Ctrl+Alt+0

Step 21

Next change the default lamp to a Sun Lamp and set the energy to 3. You may also wish to give it a slightly yellow color.

Step 22

Although the sun is the main light source, the sky also gives off a faint blue glow, and will make your cloud look a lot more realistic.

For this, add a second sun lamp and point it directly downwards. Set the colour to a light blue and the energy to 2.

Save your work. Render now and you should get a result similar to this:

Which is great except the sky is grey.

Go to the World panel. Check the Blend Sky box and set the horizon color to a very light blue and the Zenith Color to a light blue.

Render now and you’re finished!

As always I’m keen to see whatever creations you guys come up with, so if you make something, upload the render to pasteall.org/pic and post it in the comments!

Tip: Creating a Rounded-off Square Form
Blender Cookie - 2010-03-23 04:31:14

In this quick Blender 2.5 video tip we demonstrate how to easily model a rounded-off square form by using snapping/retopology tools.

http://blendercookie.com