Planet Blender

UV Texture in Blender 2.5 without seams, am I crazy?
Starbright Illustrations (blog) - 2010-09-10 18:46:45

The UV unwrap is going well, and I haven’t needed to put any seams in place. In Blender 2.5, (I’m not sure if the previous system was the same, or if this is all new) all I have to do to UV unwrap is select faces from my model in the normal 3D window – the UV unwrap window is gone, that’s one definite change -

and see them appear in the UV editor.

Once I’ve selected a nice little island  of faces I just pin it in place and go back for some more. It’s very intuitive.

The yellow and black arrows in the render is my own UV test pattern. I was using this file from a Second Life tutorial. In World Texture Tutorials for Linden Second Life Immersive Alternate Reality Game. Tutorials © Robin Wood 2005.

But the reason I’m not happy with it, or the automatic pattern that Blender generates, is that they are not very directional. It was pointed out to me on this page from the development thread for this 3D spaceship at the Vega Strike game forums that a directional pattern would be a good idea, and I can only agree.

Using a texture with a direction to line the spaceship up properly will make it easier to later add things like micrometiorite impact scratches in the direction of travel. And this functionality is one of the goals of the Vega Strike game, as explained in this UV tutorial.

It was easy enough to knock up a jpeg in GIMP to use as the directional test pattern and import it into Blender. The hard part is going to be getting all those little arrows to be the same size and to line up.

Focused Critique: Episode 1
Blender Guru - 2010-09-10 14:34:37

A few months ago I announced a new segment called ‘The MakeOver’ where I would be selecting one blender project and making improvements to. However this time turned out to be more time consumed than I anticipated and as a result I never had time to create it!

So my biggest apologies for taking so long, but the first episode is here… I’ve relabeled it, Focused Critique.

Introducing… Focused Critique

Every fortnight I will be selecting 10-15 submitted renders and recording a ‘paint over session’.

Using my graphics tablet I will draw over a render and point out areas that are lacking or could be improved.

This is for artists who are serious about improving their skills.

Watch Episode 1

The submissions featured in this video are from the people who initially sent me their renders 4 months ago.

>>To have your work featured in the next episode, submit your render here!<<

So what did you guys think of the first episode? Should I continue this segment? I’d really appreciate your feedback, so please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Yiy, a song with music video done in Blender
BlenderNation - 2010-09-10 14:00:43

Phetogo Tshepo Mahasha writes us he made “this music video “ for a prominent indie musician “Muhsinah” with Blender, GIMP and Photoshop. I come to you bare. Bearing no...

[read the full article on blendernation.com]

2010 Blender Training Series is Complete!
Blender Cookie - 2010-09-10 13:48:06

After a year of planning, 4-5 months of recording and production, Cg Cookie is darn excited to say our 2010 Blender Training Series is complete! A series which has over 23 hours of Blender training. With the introduction of Blender 2.5-2.6, we are very excited to be one of the first to offer a complete, [...]

http://blendercookie.com

National coverage
Tinker Code - 2010-09-10 12:46:31

Hi all This one is big, I have featured a whole central page interview in Juventud Rebelde newspaper, the most important newspaper in Cuba, with national coverage !!!!!! Hopefully this will spread a little what I’m doing and will bring to light Blender to many people that never knew about it Here’s the link to the interviewin [...]

Film work done – last chance for DVD credit!
Sintel, the Durian Open Movie Project - 2010-09-10 12:08:14

With Murphy’s law happily working (studio server died, no network), Pablo and Soenke pulled an all-nighter to get all frames properly graded and transferred to DPX on a USB drive. Each and every frame got a double check, and a dozen or so frames needed a re-render even. A test screening at film lab Cineco yesterday showed it all was just perfect!

Meanwhile Jan Morgenstern went to Hamburg for a 2-day final mastering session in Konken Studios. They made us their excellently equipped dubbing stage available, allowing Jan and Stephan Konken to finalize a true theatrical master for Sintel.

Today Cineco Amsterdam prepares everything to get it printed on their Arrilaser, so we can get official Dolby SR-D cinemascope 35mm film copies. First copy screening for us is tuesday. Wednesday the copy goes to the Netherlands Film Festival.

That also means we can start now on DVD mastering, a NTSC and PAL disc (with film, 60 minute documentary, out-takes, 4-split version, extra credits, subtitles), a 8 GB DVD-ROM video disc (the film in various formats, tutorial videos, other extras) and a 8 GB DVD-ROM data disc with all the relevant files and docs to examine our work and allowing to re-render it all.

Officially today is also last day to order the Sintel DVD box in our store, if you want your name to appear on the DVD!

Thanks!

-Ton-

Earthquake Theory
Aligorith's Lair - 2010-09-10 11:50:00

Mushroomer, Blender 2.5 Mushroom Generator Script
BlenderNation - 2010-09-10 11:00:18

This is a Blender 2.5 mushroom generator script developed by Josh Wedlake for the Tube Project. The Mushroomer Script will  distribute original mushroom object over other object’s surface and...

[read the full article on blendernation.com]

Blender Workshops Fall 2010 Barcelona
BlenderNation - 2010-09-10 06:42:56

Raimon writes: Hi, I’m glad to let you know that there will be scheduled several Blender workshops for this fall, at Casa Orlandai, a culture equipment in Barcelona. Teacher is no other than...

[read the full article on blendernation.com]

The Ian Report #510 - Shiny Little Disk
Ian Hubert's Posts - Project London - 2010-09-10 04:59:45

So the day is finally here! A day. I guess not THE day. That's something else. We tried doing a second screening a few weeks (a month!?) ago, but had to stop when we couldn't get the film out of the computer.

Now, however, success! The film is on a little disc now, ready for the screening Saturday! I'm pretty darn pumped. Phil wanted to make sure the theater was filled, so he sent out an open invitation on facebook, and a bunch of folks responded, so with any luck the entire place will be totally packed! The theater holds 70, so this should be pretty crazy, and I'm looking forward to some good feedback. We're also having a meetup of the sound guys the night before, which is going to be totally fantastic.

Big news after that, I imagine, as we finally are able to really advance on sound design and all that, but until then, that's all!

Ian Hubert
Writer Director

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New Canon EOS 7D and Macro Photography
Aligorith's Lair - 2010-09-10 04:29:00

Series: Modeling a Shipping Container part 01
Blender Cookie - 2010-09-10 02:16:48

In this Blender 2.5 video tutorial we begin modeling a shipping container as a hard-surface modeling exercise. This first section covers the majority of the blocking-in phase, creating the basic shapes of the container. Support the site – Download includes: High resolution .mov Video .blend file at the state of the tutorial

http://blendercookie.com