Planet Blender

Creating icons with Inkscape
goplexian.com - 2010-09-21 23:15:00

Recently I was having a look at the wiki site for my favorite audio player Deadbeef and I noticed that they were asking for artist contributors for a new logo/icon. In case you are unaware the name 0xDEADBEEF is just a reference to a filler for debug memory and has nothing to do with death or cows, so it is a bit of a strange name but it is a great audio player nonetheless. Deadbeef is free and Open Source and is notable for being able to be run from both a gui and also the command line....

How to install the LuxRender exporter for Blender 2.5
Blender 3D Architect - 2010-09-21 21:21:06

In the past few weeks a lot of progress was made in the development of the add-ons that will enable Blender 2.54 to export scenes for LuxRender and YafaRay. For architectural visualization artists that use those tools, it may be the final reason for migrate the entire workflow to Blender 2.5x. The scripts are still [...] Related posts:

1. LuxRender: physically based absorption and 2.50 exporter If you like to use LuxRender in your projects, you...
2. Blender 2.50 and YafaRay – Unofficial exporter script A few days ago a new update to the development...
3. LuxRender may use GPU power in the future Since the announcement of Octane Render last monday a lot...

Allan Brito - Blender 3D 2.49 - Architecture, Buildings and Scenery - Ebook Review
Adventures In Blender Diary Entries - 2010-09-21 14:27:00

Allan Brito - Blender 3D 2.49 - Architecture, Buildings and Scenery - Ebook Review

3D world magazine cover
Sintel, the Durian Open Movie Project - 2010-09-21 13:56:21

And now it’s official, the new 3D world october edition is available throughout Europe. USA and other countries follow a month later I heard.

This issue has 6 pages of Sintel graphics, screenies and interviews with the crew. There’s even a Big Buck Bunny mention on the list of “memorable shorts made in past years”!

The “Return of Blender” has been choosen by 3D World as a good cover slogan I guess. We all know we were never gone, but we we’ve been very busy indeed!

-Ton-

Second credit list: DVD-only
Sintel, the Durian Open Movie Project - 2010-09-21 13:49:14

As you remember, we give a special thanks to people who helped realizing Sintel by purchasing the DVD set in advance. The film scroll credit was for those who pre-paid before Sept 16, 2009. The other pre-paid orders will be mentioned on the DVDs itself, in a special “thank you” section.

Here is the DVD list:
http://durian.blender.org/dvd-only-sponsor-credit/

Please check? Thanks!

-Ton-

The Ultimate Guide to Buying a Computer for Blender
Blender Guru - 2010-09-21 12:20:55

Ever since I started Blender Guru I’ve had countless emails from people asking me for advice on what PC they should buy. We’ve all bought PC lemons in the past, so I can see why this would be a common question.

Now before we move on, let me start by saying that your PC is only as good as your skill. If you suck at Blender and buy $4000 computer, you will still suck. The only way to improve your work is through practice, practice and oh yeah, practice.

But now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about getting one a PC specifically built for Blender…

[Click here to read this post in Persian]

Operating System

Everyone has their own preferences in terms of usablity and stability, but for me the winner is Linux. In the past I’ve used blender on both Windows and Linux, and I found that Linux crashes less, handles memory better and generally runs more smoothly than a windows operating system.

However… what most people won’t tell you is that Ubuntu can be an absolute pain in the ass to set up.

If you come from a windows background (like me) then expect to be punching holes in the wall when you find out that you need to type complex commands in the terminal just to connect to a wired LAN. It really is like entering another world. Everything is done differently and tasks that would usually take 2 seconds in Windows to setup could take hours in Linux, if you don’t know what you are doing (like me). A technical savvy person may say that Linux is a piece of cake, but to me it was an absolute nightmare. Go figure.

So for that reason I actually recommend Windows 7. It’s fast, easy to use and comes with 99% less headaches than Linux.

CPU

The faster your CPU, the faster your render times. This is the meat and bones of your PC and will play the greatest influence on how quickly your render will finish.

I recommend choosing a CPU with multiple cores, as this will allow blender to render more tiles simultaniously. My current CPU has 4 cores, which means blender will render 4 tiles simultaneously. This really pays off in render times.

Other than that there’s really no secret to choosing a CPU. Buy the fastest one that you can afford!

RAM

Second on my priority list is RAM. Whilst it won’t effect your render times, RAM will set the limit on how “epic” your scene can be. Now I say the word “epic” loosely here, but really I’m talking about memory usage limits. Everytime you use a large image texture or bake a high resolution simulation you use up more RAM. When you run out or RAM, blender crashes.

The more RAM you have, the more you can push your scene to it’s extremes. If you had only 2GB of RAM and created a fluid simulation, you may only be able to use a domain resolution level of 100 before blender crashed. But if you upgraded to 16GB you may be able to reach 800.

If you’re a simulation junkie then I recommend splashing out and buying lots of RAM.

Graphics Card

A common misconception by beginners is that you need a super duper awesome graphics card to use blender. This is false.

A good graphics card will only help you when you are navigating around the 3d viewport. It will not effect your render times! For the past 7 years I’ve used a graphics card that was at least a year older than the current leading card (I’m cheap), and my work has never suffered from it.

Unless you plan to do lots of high poly sculpting in the future, then an expensive graphics card is a waste of money.

Now when it comes to choosing a GFX card, I always recommend Nvidia. In the past many blender users (including me) have had issues with ATI cards, wherein the menu flickers or some other glitch makes itself known. So for that reason I always recommend other blender users purchase Nvidia.

But! Having said that my last laptop had an ATI card and had no issues whatsoever, so maybe those glitchy days are over? Nope! According to the comments below, the ATI issues are still very much alive. Stick with Nvidia people! :P

Side note: If you follow 3d news, you may have heard about a new, faster method for rendering that uses your GPU instead of the CPU. Unfortunately, this technology is not yet available for Blender, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s developed soon. In the meantime use an external renderer like SmallLuxGPU or Octane if you would like to take advantage of GPU rendering.

Case

If you’re going to be doing lots of rendering on your PC then I’d recommend finding a PC with adaquet cooling.

My last PC suffered permanent internal damage when rendering my New York Earthquake animation, because I only used a standard PC case.  As a result, it overheated and now refuses to turn on.

Standard cases are suited more for air conditioned office environments, not prolonged rendering sessions in your stuffy bedroom. Take note :)

I’d recommend choosing a gaming case as these generally have better cooling than standard cases.

Hard Drive

In terms of speed within blender, you aren’t going to see any noticeable difference by purchasing a faster hard drive. So let’s focus on stability instead…

The last thing you want is for your hard drive to fail, right? Well unfortunately hard drive failure is a sad fact of life so the best thing you can do is be prepared and create a backup.

And what’s the easiest way to do that you ask? Set up a RAID array.

A RAID array. It’s a system configuration that uses two physical hard drives to mirror each other, so that if one fails you always have a backup. All you need to do is purchase two identical hard drives and set it up in the BIOS settings. I highly recommend that you do this before the inevitable happens! ;)

My personal PC

Since so many people have asked what my specific PC specs are, I’ve created this short video revealing exactly what hardware I use. Check it!

My specs are:

• OS: Windows 7 64 Bit
• CPU: Intel i7 950 3.06Ghz
• RAM: 12GB Kingston 2000Mhz DDR3
• GFX Card: Gigabyte Nvidia GTX 470 1280MB
• HDD: 2 x 1TB Western Digital Sata 3 (RAID 1 array)
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A
• Case: Antec ‘Nine Hundred’ 750W
• Monitor: 21″ Benq Widescreen
• Keyboard: Logitech G15
• Mouse: Microsoft basic optical mouse

Still not sure what to buy?

If you’re still unsure PC components to purchase, then check out the Blender Render Benchmark. This is a website dedicated to benchmarking PCs with Blender, showing you exactly what rigs give the fastest render times. In fact, I probably could have just started the post with this website and saved myself the trouble of writing it. Oh well :P

Here’s the site again: Blender Render Benchmark – Bookmark it.

Thanks for reading! :) If you enjoyed this post you might also enjoy 5 Worthwhile Purchases for 3d Artists.

Dynamic Paint beta Released, Realistic rain video
BlenderNation - 2010-09-21 11:06:25

We posted earlier about Miika Hämäläinen’s work on dynamic paint system that allow the simulations to paint themselves directly onto the texture. Here’s a new video Miika made using 500k...

[read the full article on blendernation.com]

Sintel on 3D World’s October Issue
BlenderNation - 2010-09-21 08:36:50

You probably know that Sintel will appear on 3D World’s October issue. James Finnerty sends us the photo of the actual copy! (Or who knows if he rendered that himself ?) Update: Partly quote...

[read the full article on blendernation.com]

[Rigging FAQ] Porting rigs from 2.4x to 2.5 - What you need to know
Aligorith's Lair - 2010-09-21 07:17:00

Texturing Denim Jeans part 01
Blender Cookie - 2010-09-21 03:55:49

In this Blender 2.5 video tutorial we begin texturing some denim jeans by using a combination of techniques. This includes the creation of normal maps, bump maps and color maps. In part 01 of this tutorial we create the bump, color and normal maps for the main denim texture. In the next part we will create [...]

http://blendercookie.com