Tadd Mencer

Posts Tagged ‘blender’

I’m not  very faithful with the updates lately.

It’s been very busy for me. Started a new job (Praise God for it) and I’ve been trying to get into the swing of things, though I feel like a fish out of water. It’s a good job all-in-all … like any new job you always feel like the outsiders. And I’m sure I will for some time.

I’m trying to decide things about my future. What projects to pursue. Should I freelance on the side? Should I write more than anything? I do like to write … should I work on my 3D skills (Silo & Blender). What about freelance web development? Should I do some of that? What about music? I’m working on a sound score for a friend as well .. so music is also something.

My laptop opens many doors.

I have a lot of thoughts and projects. Hopes and dreams. Many (if not most) of my projects will probably never pay a bill in my lifetime. Some may, but not enough … I have my dreams. Many dreams. I also have responsibility to my family to take care of them financially. Pay bills, buy food, etc.

One project I need to think about is this website: what to do with it. Should I keep it as a simple blog? Should I revamp to look like I’m an author/composer?

Anyone have any thoughts?

Ok … so I was going to try and use SmithMicro’s Poser Pro 7 for my rigging and posing of 3D characters in Deadland Chronicles. I was also hoping I could use it to easily model out side characters and background characters without breaking a sweat. Sadly, for whatever reason, the demo crashes without warning or error message.

So, I’m back to working with Open Source programs such as makeHuman and Blender.

The sad thing is – i can’t really find a really easy to follow tutorial on how to rig in Blender.

For those who are not aware what ‘rigging’ means, this is where you take a 3D character (such as the NeoTech soldier) and add armatures (or bones) to the model. Then, you can use the bones to move the body and pose him/her in various ways (walk, run, punch, jump, etc.). Poser has a slew of present poses so I was really hoping to use that program (despite the price) for posing.

So, if anyone out there can point me to good tutorials or show me how to rig/pose in Blender that would be amazing! I know there are a lot of Blender users out there .. so come now. Help a brotha out! Go to the contact page and drop me an email – I would forever be in your debt! Or at least really thankful!

Sidenote: I have figured out how to move characters and objects around a scene for rendering. Which is a huge deal for me. *crosses fingers* Hopefully Blender will end up the modeler of choice as well as the rigging and posing software. Would make life easier – and it works great with Silo (my modeler of choice).

So I’ve been slowly (ever so slowly) working on Deadland Chronicles. I really should be scripting, but I have been doing some other models, such as the NeoTech Soldier I’ve previously posted.

One of the models I worked on recently is a scene in a throne room for a character named Lady Raven. Inspiration for this character is a mix between the Biblical Nebuchadnezzar, Hitler and the character ‘Azula’ from the cartoon ‘Avatar – the Last Airbender’.

She’s a bad guy. Plain and simple. The first official villain in the story – other than the faceless evil soldiers. She sits on a thrown because she thinks herself a princess or a queen of some sort:

Modeled: Silo
Rendered: Blender
Post: Photoshop CS3

This is just the beginning. I pulled elements from other models and mixed and matched and so on – but I think the current feel is pretty good. I’ll be moving things around a bit – maybe add two spiraling staircases and such … make the room larger since a few scenes will take place here. I won’t tell you WHAT scenes or WHY .. you’ll have to read the book when I get to that!

I’m still excited about this story. But I think I’m self deflating myself. Doing things which takes away time to write. I need to get on the ball. I may have some more exciting news as well! But I’ll wait and see how it pans out. God willing I’ll have some awesome news!

Comments are welcome!

One of the only things I did over the week (other than baby things, errands and helping take care of the wife) is a bit of work on my soldier guy. Aidan and I added a few things to the fray such as a breather and a tube – which very much adds a Steam Punk vibe. I did some work on the chest plate, though I’m not that excited about it. Feels too generic, so I may redo it again. For the 10th time. Literally.

Modeled it Silo
Rendered in Blender

I need to redo the gloves because they got screwy for some reason. But that’s easy enough to do.

If anyone has any good tutorials that aren’t uber-basics please let me know. I have the "The Creature Factory" and "The ManCandy FAQ" but those are beyond me at this point. I need more just above basics. I don’t need to know how to split the viewports and such. I need more how to do the extrudes and all that jazz.

I’ve been trying to work with Blender for a while now, always walking away feeling less than enthused by the insanely inadequete GUI (Graphic User Interface). It was so … anti-standard … it’s rediculous.

However, Daniel Lara Martinez from Pepeland School has created a new Blender interface that’s easy to use and puts the tools you require to get started right at your fingertips.

If you are thinking about trying Blender, maybe you can find usefull download this interface. The organization, some icons and functions are similar to Max-Maya style. (Pepeland)

While I’ve yet to find these new icons, the layout definitely fits an easier to follow format. I very much like this addition.

Installation:

1. Download the zip file
2. Unzip
3. Copy/Paste all contends to your Blender Foundation root location in the .blend folder.

That’s it! Next time you boot Blender you’ll have a nice, crisp and new layout to play with. I found it easier to find simple functions in this interface. It seems to be set for widescreen animation – which is find for most people!

Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD
Max-Maya Layout (267.39 KB)