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General => Open Discussion => Topic started by: Yoda Almighty on July 03, 2008, 12:33:14 PM

Title: Blender
Post by: Yoda Almighty on July 03, 2008, 12:33:14 PM
I am opening this topic as a discussion for blender or any other 3D program you use, be it with Terragen or for separate projects, and also just to get to know my fellow BlenderHeads. ;D

I originally started off with Wings3D, but the program was limited at best, so when I got a new computer, I switched over to using Blender, and have been using it ever since. (it's been about 4 years now) mostly I specialize in Spaceship, and other Sci-fi related material. Recently, I have been working a lot with the Blender Game Engine, and I am currently making a small, simple game to help me learn it more in depth.

what about you?



Title: Re: Blender
Post by: moodflow on July 03, 2008, 04:15:34 PM
I think Blender is a great tool (being free and open source)...but I have yet to really learn to use it due to being overwhelmed!
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: Seth on July 03, 2008, 04:24:29 PM
just start to learn... i only did a crappy lightsaber ^^
very difficult software but very complete one... i really would like to have 48 hours days so i could learn it :)
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: Yoda Almighty on July 03, 2008, 05:35:27 PM
Quote from: seth93 on July 03, 2008, 04:24:29 PM
just start to learn... i only did a crappy lightsaber ^^
very difficult software but very complete one... i really would like to have 48 hours days so i could learn it :)

lol.

are you on the blender artists forum? I remember somone making a lightsaber there...
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: nvseal on July 03, 2008, 09:59:37 PM
I've loaded Blender onto my computer but never really got into it; I used the Maya Personal Learning Edition instead and recently purchased Maya Unlimited 2008 at a student discount. The last model I was working on was a Venator Class Star Destroyer from Episode 3. Sadly, there is no way convert Maya PLE files into the real Maya format so I had to quit on it in the late stages of development.  :'( I'm going to have to rebuild it.
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: matrix2003 on July 04, 2008, 07:41:31 AM
I agree with Seth.  I got a pretty decent planet out of it after much fiddling, but I need lots more time to get a handle on this one!
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: reck on July 04, 2008, 08:00:58 AM
There's no doubt about it, you have to put a lot of time into Blender to get the most out of it. I think it's the interface that puts so many people off. But once you start to figure out how it all works it can be a lot of fun and very powerful. Since the last blender movie was released the software has become even more powerful with all the features used in the movie being integrated into the latest version of Blender.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Blender 2.50 because there are some changes going in there that will benefit the UI.

Also whenever I talk about Blender I always give a plug to Blender Underground ( http://blenderunderground.com/) because Apollos video tutorials helped me more than anything in understanding how this software works, highly recommended.
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: Yoda Almighty on July 04, 2008, 11:14:18 AM
indeed. Blender is an extremely powerful tool for those who have the time and inclination to learn it. Mostly, I specialize in spaceships, like this one, which  made a couple weeks ago.


I call it the Daemon. the ring is the Hyperdrive,which opens out whenever the ship is going to enter hyperspace, like this:


it folds up so it can land.

and that is an excellent ship, nvseal. I really, really like it.  ;D
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: Seth on July 04, 2008, 01:38:05 PM
Quote from: Yoda Almighty on July 03, 2008, 05:35:27 PM
Quote from: seth93 on July 03, 2008, 04:24:29 PM
just start to learn... i only did a crappy lightsaber ^^
very difficult software but very complete one... i really would like to have 48 hours days so i could learn it :)

lol.

are you on the blender artists forum? I remember somone making a lightsaber there...


no i am not ^^
my crappy one is here : http://www.rendus3d.com/data/505/sabrelasertest.jpg
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: Yoda Almighty on July 04, 2008, 03:04:30 PM
thats actually really good! (better than the one at blender Artists  ;))
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: Costaud on July 05, 2008, 02:05:49 PM
Quote from: seth93 on July 04, 2008, 01:38:05 PM
Quote from: Yoda Almighty on July 03, 2008, 05:35:27 PM
Quote from: seth93 on July 03, 2008, 04:24:29 PM
just start to learn... i only did a crappy lightsaber ^^
very difficult software but very complete one... i really would like to have 48 hours days so i could learn it :)

lol.

are you on the blender artists forum? I remember somone making a lightsaber there...



no i am not ^^
my crappy one is here : http://www.rendus3d.com/data/505/sabrelasertest.jpg
Yes I remember that one Seth HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.......HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: Seth on July 05, 2008, 02:38:43 PM
mouahahaha Costaud !!!
Yoda is soooo nice with nice with me :)
hey ! can you imagine a lightsaber on a blender forum even more shit lookin' than mine !!! lol... poor guy...
ok Costaud ! bring your best blender render nooooow ! ;D
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: lightning on July 17, 2008, 03:32:51 AM
if you have got abit of spare money you should try silo!
http://www.nevercenter.com/ (http://www.nevercenter.com/)

its an awesome modeling program cheap only 160 bux!! and its very easy to use ;D
there is a 30 day trial for both pc and mac you should try it!
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: Seth on July 17, 2008, 05:07:23 AM
yeah but Blender is FREE !
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: Tangled-Universe on July 17, 2008, 07:51:02 AM
hmmmm...I should really consider trying to get me started with modeling sometime.
I just have the idea it is really complicated, but ok...that was also my first impression of TG2 :)

Lightning, what's so easy about Silo (compared to Blender)?
Blender works really slow on my pc, strange :(
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: Seth on July 17, 2008, 08:47:45 AM
Quote from: Tangled-Universe on July 17, 2008, 07:51:02 AM

Blender works really slow on my pc, strange :(

really strange ^^
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: lightning on July 17, 2008, 05:00:35 PM
Quote from: Tangled-Universe on July 17, 2008, 07:51:02 AM
hmmmm...I should really consider trying to get me started with modeling sometime.
I just have the idea it is really complicated, but ok...that was also my first impression of TG2 :)

Lightning, what's so easy about Silo (compared to Blender)?
Blender works really slow on my pc, strange :(
much better i find it so much easier to use no stupid little buttons crammed at the bottom of the interface you can hardly see ::) it was used in heavenly sword you know the ps3 game and heaps of other productions.
just download the free trial here and see for yourself ;D
http://nevercenter.com/download/ (http://nevercenter.com/download/)
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: Tangled-Universe on July 17, 2008, 05:26:34 PM
Thanks Lightning :)

If I ever have time, lol, I'll definitely give it a try!

Martin
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: Xpleet on July 19, 2008, 04:19:09 PM
I use Cinema4D and try to make buildings and starships with it, because I think it is amongst the most easy programs to use.

Zbrush is phuntastic to make organic shapes right out of your creative mind.

I'd dress it up and scene it inside Vue6 which is excellent also.

Title: Re: Blender
Post by: Seth on July 19, 2008, 04:50:41 PM
Zbrush's very good but expensice too ^^
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: lightning on July 21, 2008, 12:54:47 AM
yeah i have zbrush thats a great program i hate the interface though :(
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: rcallicotte on July 21, 2008, 10:50:41 AM
Silo is used all over the place professionally and its price is reasonable.


Quote from: lightning on July 17, 2008, 03:32:51 AM
if you have got abit of spare money you should try silo!
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: Xpleet on July 25, 2008, 12:05:04 PM
Truespace is now free!

that is -600bucks

QuoteDear Caligari community member,

Today is an important day in the 23 year history of trueSpace. We are releasing a major upgrade to our flagship product with trueSpace7.6, bringing significant improvements in modeling, animation, rendering and workflows, plus new direct export to Virtual Earth.Most of these you might already expect if you've been following my regular Captain's Blog posts at http://forums1.caligari.com/truespace/showthread.php?t=893.

What you may not expect is that we are making trueSpace7.6 available to everyone at no charge, in a giant step forward to bring high-end 3D authoring tools to all who want them!



trueSpace7.6 is far more than a SketchUp-style 3D architectural modeling tool. Instead, it provides a complete 3D authoring environment for any type of 3D content creation, whether that's images, animations, objects for games, or content or worlds for online interactive shared spaces.

trueSpace7.6's modeling tools feature a variety of surface representations including full polygonal editing, subdivision surface modeling, NURBS, metaballs, and implicit surfaces. Those are supported by400+ modeling tools like real-time Boolean operations with full construction history so you can move subtracted parts of your design at any time during your work, or even change a subtraction to an intersection.

trueSpace 7.6 also provides advanced surfacing tools like layered materials, texture maps, normal maps, procedural materials, UVE projections, real-time DX9 pixel shaders that include shaders to simulate subsurface scattering, reflection, refraction, smoke, fire, water, anisotropicshader, metallic paint, glass ¨C and those are just the real-time shaders!

The animation capabilities are even more impressive.trueSpace7.6 supports key-frame and motion capture animation on fully hierarchical objects. Key-frame animations can be seamlessly blended with procedural animations and physical simulations, all of which can fully interact with each other. This means you can have a walking character animated by key-frames getting hit by a procedurally animated car and fly away in response to the collision thanks to physical simulation.



In trueSpace7.6 you can also create fully articulated characters and interact with them using full body IK with editable direct manipulation widgets for joints (including physical stiffness), and apply physics oranimated morphs for facial expressions.

If you want to create a photorealisticimagesor a video, then the built-in Lightworks high quality offline renderer will give you spectacular rendering results including soft shadows, raytracing, global illumination in form of hybrid radiosity, image based lighting, caustics, tone mapping, HDRI, anisotropic reflectance,multi-pass rendering to Photoshop layers, motion blur, depth of field, lens flares etc.

trueSpace's award-winning direct manipulation interface with its easy-to-use 2D controls and 3D widgets has always been highly praised by users and press alike.For version 7.6 we have streamlined many workflows in extensive collaboration with our Beta testers. The UI is context-based and fully configurable, including toolbars, panels, widgets, layouts and projects. With universal drag-and-drop you can simply drop your model from the 3D workspace directly into an e-mail, written document, etc, and vice versa, clicking on the object in an e-mail will automatically open it in trueSpace.

There are also a series of advanced editors. In addition to the 3D workspace and modeling editors, there are a universal 2D node link editor, a script editor,a non-linear animation editor, a material editor, a UV editor, and more. Plug-ins are now accessible from the real-time 3D workspace and we expect to release truly amazing plug-ins for trueSpace7.6 in the near future, as well as stimulate 3rd party creation of independent products both free and commercial thanks to the availability of an SDK.

Finally, trueSpace7.6 is the only 3D authoring tool on the market which will allow you do all of the above in real-time shared 3D collaborative spaces where members of the design or animation team can maintain real-time interaction from anywhere in the world.



We are taking the unprecedented step of making these tools available to everyone for free in order to stimulate content creation for the present and future online 3D environments, and so that any artist out there with a dream can fulfill their vision without finding themselves trapped by budget limitations. This is particularly true if their vision includes emerging 3D online worlds, where free and unrestricted communities of web artists can collaborate on 3D projects and even establish new kinds of communities the likes of which the world has never seen before, way beyond simple chats in isolated 3D rooms or 3D islands.

Above all, trueSpace7.6 will empower you to create anything you dream up, whether you want to make illustrations for National Geographic, design products for Rolls-Royce, create buildings for Virtual Earth, make advertising or training videos, architectural walkthroughs, innovative video games, or animated films.All of these possibilities are now open to you simply by downloading trueSpace7.6 and learning what its powerful 3D authoring tools can do for you!

To download trueSpace7.6, visit the link below:
http://cart1.caligari.com/web/Truespacemainreg.aspx

Also, to aid in your learning process we have made all of our video courses, previously $79 each, available at no charge, and you can download those courses here.

Another good way to learn is to join our active user community on our forums: (http://forums1.caligari.com/truespace/index.php).

At a time when other companies are removing their low cost products to make it even tougher to get started in 3D, it gives us great pleasure to enable all artists regardless of age or income to create 3D in whatever field they dream of. We hope you enjoy your copy of trueSpace7.6.
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: rcallicotte on July 25, 2008, 01:41:56 PM
Thanks for the news about Caligari.
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: Cayenne on July 25, 2008, 03:33:10 PM
I'm using trueSpace but only just started with TG2 , also havent had much spare time for the last few years , so havent brought any models in yet .

trueSpace 7.6 has also just been released for Free .

www.caligari.com


he he pipped to the post
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: Yoda Almighty on July 28, 2008, 11:32:50 PM
my dad is going to be downloading Maya autodesk soon, on his new mac book. he has to do it at school, since it's such a massive download.

I am really looking forward to it :)
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: Virex on July 30, 2008, 12:08:38 PM
I usualy use Wings (http://www.wings3d.com/) to scetch up a model and then finish it off in Blender, since Wings doesn't handle things like subsurfing. It's a steep learning curve, but I'll understand most of it, one day...
Title: Re: Blender
Post by: Yoda Almighty on July 30, 2008, 10:54:23 PM
thats what I used to do, but I now work exclusively with blender.