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Learning Blender: A Hands-On Guide to Creating 3D Animated Characters, 2nd Edition
- By Oliver Villar
- Published Apr 7, 2017 by Addison-Wesley Professional. Part of the Learning series.
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Description
- Copyright 2017
- Dimensions: 7" x 9"
- Edition: 2nd
- eBook (Watermarked)
- ISBN-10: 0-13-466516-3
- ISBN-13: 978-0-13-466516-0
Master the Newest Blender Techniques for Creating Amazing 3D Characters: From Design and Modeling to Video Compositing
Now fully updated for Blender 2.78b and beyond, Learning Blender, Second Edition, walks you through every step of creating an outstanding 3D animated character with Blender, and then compositing it in a real video using a professional workflow. This edition covers the powerful new selection and modeling tools, as well as high-efficiency improvements related to other parts of the project such as texture painting, shading, rigging, rendering, and compositing.
Still the only Blender tutorial to take you from preproduction to final result, this guide is perfect for both novices and those moving from other software to Blender (open source and free software). Author Oliver Villar provides full-color, hands-on chapters that cover every aspect of character creation: design, modeling, unwrapping, texturing, shading, rigging, animation, and rendering. He also walks you through integrating your animated character into a real-world video, using professional camera tracking, lighting, and compositing techniques.
The rich companion website (blendtuts.com/learning-blender-files) will help you quickly master even the most complex techniques with bonus contents like video tutorials. By the time you’re done, you’ll be ready to create outstanding characters for all media—and you’ll have up-to-date skills for any 3D project, whether it involves characters or not.
- Learn Blender’s updated user interface, navigation, and selection techniques
- Create your first scene with Blender and the Blender Render and Cycles render engines
- Organize an efficient, step-by-step pipeline to streamline workflow in any project
- Master modeling, unwrapping, and texturing
- Bring your character to life with materials and shading
- Create your character’s skeleton and make it walk
- Use Camera Tracking to mix 3D objects into a real-world video
- Transform a raw rendered scene into the final result using Blender’s compositing nodes
Extras
Author's Site
Visit the author's site at blendtuts.com/learning-blender-files for production files and additional materials to support this title.
Sample Content
Table of Contents
Preface xxiii
Acknowledgments xxix
About the Author xxxi
Part I: The Basics of Blender 1
Chapter 1: What You Need to Know About Blender 3
What Is Blender? 3
Commercial Software Versus Open-Source Software 4
The History of Blender 5
The Blender Foundation and Blender Institute 7
The Blender Community 9
Summary 10
Exercises 10
Chapter 2: Blender Basics: The User Interface 11
Downloading and Installing Blender 11
Using Blender with Recommended Hardware 11
Navigating the Blender User Interface 13
Understanding the 3D View Editor 14
Navigating 3D View 18
Managing Areas 20
Working with Editor Types 21
Selecting Objects 24
Making an Active Selection 25
Using the 3D Cursor 25
Setting Blender’s User Preferences 27
Summary 29
Exercises 29
Chapter 3: Your First Scene in Blender 31
Creating Objects 31
Moving, Rotating, and Scaling 32
Naming Objects and Using Datablocks 35
Using Interaction Modes 38
Applying Flat or Smooth Surfaces 39
Working with Modifiers 40
Using Blender Render and Cycles 44
Managing Materials 44
Turning on the Lights 46
Moving the Camera in Your Scene 47
Rendering 48
Summary 51
Exercises 51
Part II: Beginning a Project 53
Chapter 4: Project Overview 55
The Three Stages of a Project 55
Defining the Stages 56
Making a Character-Creation Plan 59
Summary 60
Exercises 60
Chapter 5: Character Design 61
Character Description 61
Designing the Character 64
Adding Color 70
Finalizing the Design 71
Making Character Reference Images 72
Using Other Design Methods 74
Summary 75
Exercises 75
Part III: Modeling in Blender 77
Chapter 6: Blender Modeling Tools 79
Working with Vertices, Edges, and Faces 79
Making Selections 81
Using Mesh Modeling Tools 86
Working with LoopTools 105
Working with F2 107
Using Other Interesting Blender Options 108
Summary 109
Exercises 109
Chapter 7: Character Modeling 111
What Is Mesh Topology? 111
Choosing Modeling Methods 113
Setting Up the Reference Planes 114
Modeling the Eyes 117
Modeling the Face 121
Modeling the Torso and Arms 131
Modeling the Legs 139
Modeling the Boots 141
Modeling the Hands 143
Modeling the Cap 147
Modeling the Hair 150
Modeling the Final Details 154
Summary 158
Exercises 158
Part IV: Unwrapping, Painting, and Shading 159
Chapter 8: Unwrapping and UVs in Blender 161
Seeing How Unwrapping and UVs Work 161
Unwrapping in Blender 162
Considering Before Unwrapping 169
Working with UVs in Blender 170
Unwrapping the Rest of the Character 176
Packing UVs 177
Summary 179
Exercises 180
Chapter 9: Painting Textures 181
Defining the Main Workflow 181
Painting in Blender 181
Creating the Base Texture 186
Texturing in 2D Image Editing Software 188
Seeing the Painted Character in Blender 193
Summary 193
Exercises 194
Chapter 10: Materials and Shaders 195
Understanding Materials 195
Shading Your Character with Blender Render 199
Shading Your Character with Cycles 212
Summary 220
Exercises 220
Part V: Bringing Your Character to Life 221
Chapter 11: Character Rigging 223
Understanding the Rigging Process 223
Working with Armatures 224
Rigging Your Character 229
Skinning 242
Creating the Facial Rig 250
Creating Custom Shapes 255
Making Final Retouches 257
Reusing Your Character in Different Scenes 258
Summary 260
Exercises 261
Chapter 12: Animating Your Character 263
Inserting Keyframes 263
Working with Animation Editors 264
Animating a Walk Cycle 269
Summary 274
Exercises 275
Part VI: Getting the Final Result 277
Chapter 13: Camera Tracking in Blender 279
Understanding Camera Tracking 279
Shooting Video for Easy Tracking 280
Using the Movie Clip Editor 281
Tracking the Camera 282
Testing Camera Tracking 289
Summary 290
Exercises 290
Chapter 14: Lighting, Compositing, and Rendering 291
Lighting Your Scene 291
Using the Node Editor 293
Compositing Your Scene in Blender Render 299
Compositing Your Scene in Cycles 304
Rendering 307
Summary 309
Exercises 310
Part VII: Keep Learning 311
Chapter 15: Other Blender Features 313
Particles 313
Hair Simulation 313
Cloth Simulation 314
Rigid and Soft Bodies 314
Fluids Simulation 314
Fire and Smoke 314
Grease Pencil 315
Pie Menus 315
Game Engine 315
Freestyle Rendering 315
Masking, Object Tracking, and Video Stabilization 316
Sculpting 316
Retopology 316
Maps Baking 317
Included Add-Ons 317
More Add-Ons 317
Animation Nodes 318
Python Scripting 318
Summary 318
Index 319
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