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First Try at Blender
First Try at Blender
| Name: | Jonathan Toolan | |
|---|---|---|
| Date Posted: | Jan 21, 2008 | |
| Rating: |  Not Rated | |
| Public: | YES | |
| Comments: | YES | |
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| Profile Page: | View profile page for Jonathan Toolan |
Blog post
I have successfully managed to create a stretched hexagon in Blender. That may not sound like much of a deal, but my current experience with Blender is largely "I've looked at some tutorials, and got confused a lot".
Snap to Grid (S 1) was very handy for making this hexagon, and although I lost the scale of the grid half-way through, by accidentally resizing the whole shape with an inadvertent random modifier click and drag, with no undo available (perhaps because it was a view change) it still came out ok.
That first step done, I can move on to the next bit of modelling my spaceship, which largely consists of concentric hexagons in various configurations. I shall start at the cockpit end, and work my way through the main body, and then the propulsion systems (two massive rotatable rockets on each side of the ship).
The unusual thing about this ship is the way the cockpit is separated from the main cargo bay by a long "neck", which can move the cockpit independently for various reasons.
I know the idea is to start small, and work up, so the first draft of the spaceship will be made of several cubes joined together, and probably look nothing like the finished article.
Oh, and the finished article will need to be walkable through in some modes, and be the player in other modes. It may be necessary to have two seperate objects for that, but I'm such a newbie that I couldn't say at the moment.
I'm still not sure why it's got a pink dot in the bottom half. It doesn't appear to be a vertex, but I'm sure I'll figure it out at some point.
Snap to Grid (S 1) was very handy for making this hexagon, and although I lost the scale of the grid half-way through, by accidentally resizing the whole shape with an inadvertent random modifier click and drag, with no undo available (perhaps because it was a view change) it still came out ok.
That first step done, I can move on to the next bit of modelling my spaceship, which largely consists of concentric hexagons in various configurations. I shall start at the cockpit end, and work my way through the main body, and then the propulsion systems (two massive rotatable rockets on each side of the ship).
The unusual thing about this ship is the way the cockpit is separated from the main cargo bay by a long "neck", which can move the cockpit independently for various reasons.
I know the idea is to start small, and work up, so the first draft of the spaceship will be made of several cubes joined together, and probably look nothing like the finished article.
Oh, and the finished article will need to be walkable through in some modes, and be the player in other modes. It may be necessary to have two seperate objects for that, but I'm such a newbie that I couldn't say at the moment.
I'm still not sure why it's got a pink dot in the bottom half. It doesn't appear to be a vertex, but I'm sure I'll figure it out at some point.
Recent Blog Posts
| List: | 01/21/08 - First Try at Blender 01/09/08 - Torque in OS X Leopard |
|---|
Submit your own resources!| Pesto126 (Jan 21, 2008 at 12:49 GMT) |
| TT (Jan 21, 2008 at 14:49 GMT) |
To spoil your fun i gotta tell you what that dot is ;}
"It doesn't appear to be a vertex, but I'm sure I'll figure it out at some point."
Its basicly a Object origin dot.. To show you where your object "started out" if that makes sence...
oh and this link might help you some.. I hope.
http://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=71113
Blender is rather easy when you figure out how to navigate it, so keep at it and you will be pro in no time.
| Ben Acord (Jan 21, 2008 at 15:01 GMT) |
Check out www.BlenderNation.com for news and great information.
| David Janssens (Jan 21, 2008 at 15:06 GMT) |
nice to see somebody else adventuring in the Blender world.
Quick info : the nice pink dot has nothing to do with the Love parade (even though Blender development originated from the Netherlands ;-) It's just the logical middle of your polygon. Rotations, translations and other operations take that point to work from.
Well, seems I was preceded by Typhoid Twitch. And for once I knew the answer :-(
Happy blendering, and keep us updated on your work.
| Jay Barnson (Jan 21, 2008 at 17:51 GMT) |
| TT (Jan 21, 2008 at 20:17 GMT) |
Jay Barnson:
I've had trouble getting some of those videos, i guess the rstralberg.com mirror is down..
Maybe someone can mirror them for Nigel Syme, if he's intrested.?
| Geom (Jan 21, 2008 at 22:22 GMT) |
lol, I feel that way with Blender too.
| Frank Carney (Jan 23, 2008 at 02:54 GMT) |
demolishun.net/images/antpreview00.png
demolishun.net/images/eye_purple.png
demolishun.net/images/plasmaboltbuggone.jpg
demolishun.net/images/turrets_crossbow_bug.jpg
Start working with the exporter on really simple shapes so that you can get used to using it to export objects. Here is some starter files to work with:
tdn.garagegames.com/wiki/DTS/Blender/Creating_an_Advanced_Character
tdn.garagegames.com/wiki/Image:AnimCar.zip
The character files have references for height of the orc or human sized players.
The car is just a fun vehicle.
Good luck!
| Jonathan Toolan (Jan 23, 2008 at 09:44 GMT) |
@Typhoid: Funnily enough, I stumbled across the link you provided just after I posted, and I loved the tutorial, so thanks. The multiple select and the merge vertices have come in handy for producing this rough model.
@Ben: I think I'm getting more and more used to Blender, the more I play with it. The first time I loaded it up, I couldn't do anything at all. Now I at least feel like I can draw dots on the screen and have them place properly. :)
@David: Thanks for letting me know what the purple dot was for. I still haven't done any rotations or transformations, but it'll be handy knowing that for when I do.
@Jay: I haven't been able to download any of those videos yet. I'll try again later today to see what I can get.
@Geom: I spent quite a lot of time scratching my poor little head, saying things like "How come that didn't work?" and cursing because I'd accidentally done something unintentional because I couldn't tell the difference between an Alt-MiddleButton sideways scroll followed by a click and drag and a Control-Shift-RightButton drag and then click.
Is it just me, or are quite a lot of the controls quite obscure? I *will* get there though!
@Frank: Nice pictures! I'm sure I've seen that ant in a screensaver before. :) And thanks for the links. I'll read them when I get home this evening, or maybe lunchtime if I can squeeze the time in. :)
It's really nice to get lots of helpful comments and assistance, so thanks everyone.
Jonathan
| Charles B (Jan 24, 2008 at 06:15 GMT) |
If you can't afford the expensive modelling packages, there is blender which is free.
Although it may be strange ui wise someone(thanks!) has created a beginner guide to blender which is 118 pages long and it is free.
[[[http://www.cdschools.org/54223045235521/blank/browse.asp?A=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=55205]]]
| Jonathan Toolan (Feb 25, 2008 at 11:13 GMT) |
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