The Highlander Blog » 3D

Landscapes created in Blender

Alex — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 11:20:03 +0000

Just a quick post to show you some of the landscapes that I have been creating in Blender recently. I have been going through the Nature Academy series of courses (which you have to pay for, it is closed now but I believe it will re-open soon), created by Andrew Price (at blenderguru.com).

Andrew Price has created some fantastic tutorials, and I would heartily recommend that you check out his web site. His latest offering, the Nature Academy series, is all about creating natural landscapes – rocks, trees, grass, lakes, mountains, and so on. Each tutorial (and I am only half way through so far) is chock full of interesting techniques. I have found it invaluable going through the process several times in order to create landscapes in Blender – even though each landscape is different.

So here are some of my efforts so far…

Grass landscape

Rock landscape

Plant landscape

Tree example

The only downside is that I keep on tweaking and tweaking, and saying to myself just a little change here, add some more there – it takes a real effort for me to say Stop! – scene finished

Learning three.js

Alex — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:01:45 +0000

In my foray into the world of WebGL, I came across three.js, a JavaScript library for doing 3D in a web browser, with no plug-ins needed. It can render in three types – WebGL, SVG, or directly into the canvas. So I thought I would go through Three.js and see how easy it is to create a 3D scene. So, in this my first post into learning Three.js I will just create a simple shape – a sphere.

In the first few examples I will stick to very simple code, so as to make it easy to concentrate on the actual important stuff – Three.js. So I will not be using JQuery, and I will not be using any other libraries - just Three.js. Eventually I will introduce some more libraries for particular purposes, but for now, all you need is to care a simple html page, and download the three.js library and link to it. You can download the library from here…

https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js

You will also need a WebGL enabled browser – basically the latest version of Chrome, Safari, or FireFox should do. If you are not sure if your browser can run WebGL, go to this website…

http://webglreport.sourceforge.net/

…this will tell if you can run WebGL. Once you have a browser that can run WebGL, load up a simple web page and get ready to code. This is what we are going to create…

simple sphere

Here is a simple html setup for this example…

=“en”>

Three js example 1
=“utf-8″>

=“myshape”>

…it is HTML5, but any simple html code will do. We have linked at the top to the Three.js library, and we will be writing our code in the script tag lower down the page. There are a lot of very good examples (much more advanced) at the Three.js site, so have a look and see exactly what it is capable of, but at the moment we will start very simply. I have adapted this example from various sources, and simplified it to make it more understandable. So, on to the JavaScript.

First we need to set up some variables…

var myworld;//this holds the element that we will use to draw in
//this sets the canvas size.
var WIDTH = 1200, HEIGHT = 500;

// camera attributes
var VIEW_ANGLE = 45, ASPECT = WIDTH / HEIGHT, NEAR = 0.1, FAR = 10000;

These variables set the width and height of the drawing area (our world you might say), the camera details (viewing angle, aspect, etc) Next we populate the variable my world…

myworld = document.getElementById(“myshape”);

Now, if you look at the html, you will see that I had already created a div element with the id of myshape. It is this that we will draw into. However, you could also do this…

myworld =document.createElement(“div”);
document.body.appendChild(myworld);

This creates a brand new element and then appends it to the current document body. Both will work, however a word of warning. Create a div element, not a canvas element, as Three.js creates a new canvas element to draw into inside the created element. So if the created element is a canvas element, you then get another canvas element inside, and then nothing gets rendered.

Next we need to create a renderer, a camera, and a scene…

var renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer();
//I am choosing the WebGL renderer here, but you have others to choose from
var camera = new THREE.Camera(VIEW_ANGLE, ASPECT, NEAR, FAR);
//these variables have been set at the top of our script
var scene = new THREE.Scene(); //create a new scene
// the camera starts at 0,0,0 so we need to pull back
camera.position.z = 200;
// start the renderer
renderer.setSize(WIDTH, HEIGHT);

Next we need to set up a material to use with our shape. I will use a MeshLambertMaterial, but check out what happens when you use a MeshBasicMaterial! Looks completely flat!

//create materials
var material = new THREE.MeshLambertMaterial({color: 0xCC0000});
//var material = new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial({color: 0xCC0000}); //gives you just a flat colour – ugly

Next we need a new mesh, and we will use a spherical geometry. In future posts I will try out the different geometries and eventually I will get on to load complete 3D scenes created in Blender.

// create a new mesh with sphere geometry
var radius = 50, segments = 16, rings = 16;
var mesh = new THREE.Mesh( new THREE.SphereGeometry( radius, segments, rings ), material );
scene.addChild(mesh);

Now we need to add our scene into our DOM element…

// attach the render-supplied DOM element
myworld.appendChild(renderer.domElement);

If you were to load this file now you wold see nothing. There is one more thing that we need and that is a light source.

var pointLight = new THREE.PointLight( 0xFFFFFF );
// set its position
pointLight.position.x = 50;
pointLight.position.y = 50;
pointLight.position.z = 130;
// add to the scene
scene.addLight(pointLight);
// render our scene
renderer.render(scene, camera);

All you see is a simple red and black sphere. Nothing terribly exciting, but now try changing the pointLight position, the radius, colour, and camera position. This will give you a good idea of how to setup a simple WebGL (or whatever renderer you use) scene.

In the next tutorial I plan to add more shapes, along with buttons to allow you to choose which shapes to draw.

threejs1

What is WebGL?

Alex — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:16:18 +0000

I have recently been taking an interest in WebGL, so I thought I would post some information about WebGL here, and also add some links to some of the examples that I have found.

What is WebGL? WebGL is a graphics library that extends JavaScript to allow it to generate some truly spectacular 3D graphics, within the browser, with no plug-ins needed. It uses the computer’s GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), and as such is a fairly low-level language (read: complicated).

WebGL interactive water example / (http://madebyevan.com/webgl-water/)

WebGL Water Simulation

Runtime: 1:14
View count: 103,740

It uses the canvas element (html5) and the webgl context of that element (if you know anything about drawing with the canvas element, the context is how you access the particular api for drawing in either 2D or WebGL).

You can use WebGL now in Safari, Firefox, and Chrome. But not Opera or Internet Explorer, and not on smart phones or tablets yet.

Although the actual language looks daunting, not only can you create superb results, but there are various JavaScript libraries that will use WebGL to render their output…

scenejs (WebGL scene library) http://scenejs.org/
processingjs (An open programming language for creating animations etc without using Java or Flash) http://processingjs.org/
threejs (A lightweight 3D JavaScript engine that can render using the

Here are some examples of WebGL in action…

BioDigital Human

(http://www.biodigitalhuman.com/default.html)

HelloRacer (using three.js)

(http://helloracer.com/webgl/)

Interactive water example

(http://madebyevan.com/webgl-water/)

WebGL filters

(http://evanw.github.com/webgl-filter/)

There are many more (if you know of any please let me know).

You can even use Blender to create a scene and output it to something that can be used by scene.js and so basically create a 3D environment in Blender for use on a web page.

In future posts I am going to look into these topics and see what can be created and I will be posting the results here.

Modelling a vehicle within Blender – final result

Alex — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 11:46:58 +0000

I am a big fan of the web site blendercookie.com, and they recently came out with a lovely tutorial series by Jonathan Williamson (using artwork from David Revoy), the Vehicle Modelling Series.

There are over 15 hours of movies, taking you through the process of modelling a Gyrocopter, from a series of pictures. It took we a while to go through all the videos, but it was well worth it. Here is a still of my final result…

Final gyrocoptor render

The series goes through a lot of modelling, and at the end of it I came away with a much better appreciation of Blender, its tools, and how to model. I would recommend this series to anyone who wishes to become a better modeller.

I now have a few more techniques to use when modelling, and also a better understanding of the steps I need to go through when modelling.

The model is far from perfect, I made loads of mistakes . But at least now I can see what the problems are and I can have a good go at fixing them. After going through this series it has me wanting go back to other series that I have bought and finish them to see just how well I do. In the ensuing months I will do just that and I will post the results. Here is the timelapse movie, along with the final render…

Modelling a Vehicle with Blender

Runtime: 0:33
View count: 356

All in all I am quite happy with the result.

Latest Blender 2.5 tutorials and DVDs

Alex — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 09:26:49 +0000

Here is a round-up of some of the latest Blender 2.5 tutorials and DVDs that I have come across. I am slowly going through them, and when I finish them I will upload the final renders and .blend files to share with you, but it will take me a while to get through them all.

In the meantime, here is the list, and below some of them is the current render that I have created after going through the tutorial.

Blenderella (http://www.blender3d.org/e-shop/product_info_n.php?products_id=133)

Creating realistic outdoor lighting (http://www.blenderguru.com/how-to-create-realistic-outdoor-lighting/)

Environment still 63

Blender Cookie Vehicle Modelling Series (http://cgcookie.com/vehicle-series/)

vehicle still 38

vehicle still 39

cgmasters.net – Rigging your ninja – (http://www.cgmasters.net/training-dvds/character-creation-rigging/) n.b. due out in July

cmifx.com – Rigging your mammoth (http://cmivfx.com/tutorials/view/302/Blender+Massive+Mammoth+Masterclass%3A+Rigging+V1)

Have fun!

Creating an asteroid in Blender 2.5

Alex — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 09:39:16 +0000

Another website I keep an eye on is Andrew Price’s website at blenderguru.com. Recently he did a lovely tutorial on creating an asteroid in Blender 2.5 and animating it…

http://www.blenderguru.com/how-to-make-a-realistic-asteroid/

I recommend you have a look at his site if you are at all interested in Blender and 3D work. And here is my asteroid, created by following his example…

…and here is the timelapse movie showing the steps that i took…

Making an Asteroid

Runtime: 0:58
View count: 164

… and here is the final animation (not perfect by any means) that I created…

asteroid animation

Runtime: 0:13
View count: 80

I haven’t sorted out any collisions between the small asteroids and the large one, but overall I am quite pleased with it.

Blender 2.5 Intro course results

Alex — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:19:26 +0000

We recently ran our first Blender 2.5 Introduction course, and I just wanted to share some of the models and animations that I created during that course.

Some simple examples of shapes and materials created within Blender

Disclaimer: It is only a four day course so the models are necessarily primitive, but useful nevertheless. To teach how to model a high detail human figure can take days, so we just created a simple figure – head, arms and legs. No fingers, toes, etc. Then we added a material and did a very simple animation with it (again learning how to do proper walk cycles etc is the job of another course entirely).

We also created a simple environment, hills and valleys, and played around with particles and added some rocks to the environment. Then we added materials and I created a simple camera tracking animation to take you through the environment, which I then rendered out. We also played around with materials and simple animations as applied to a ball – working with deformations and rigging. So, here is a picture of various shapes with various materials applied to them (some applied from an external picture, some created as procedural textures). Here is a little movie of the said shapes…

materials.mov

Runtime: 0:06
View count: 32

Here is a simple animation of a bouncing ball, with some deformation…

Ball animation 2.avi

Runtime: 0:05
View count: 24

Here is a still of the environment I created and a movie…

Environment created within Blender 2.5

Animated Camera Track in Blender

Runtime: 0:05
View count: 78

Here is a still of the figure that I created…

Simple figure created within Blender

…and here is a timelapse of the creation process of the figure…

Simple model of a basic figure

Runtime: 0:07
View count: 26

…and here is an animation of the figure doing a very basic walk…

Simple Walk Movement

Runtime: 0:04
View count: 38

These were just some of the shapes and models created. Everyone loved the course, and our thanks go to Dolf who ran the course for us – he made it very interesting and fun to do.

Blender and Ocean Sim

Alex — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:11:30 +0000

There are various branches of Blender in existence, and one of the ones I was keeping an eye on was the Ocean Sim branch. The people behind this brilliant project raised some money to port over an Ocean Simulator modifier to the main Blender branch.

Recently they produced a public build of Blender that works with their new modifier and it is blinding. I thought I would post a quick example that I made using this tutorial.

Here is a simple example I got going in a few minutes of playing around…

ocean and object v3.mov

Runtime: 0:11
View count: 168

Here is a link to the main site…

http://www.savetheoceansim.com/

I will make just one clarification – I do not do much animation in Blender yet, so when it came to animating my ocean, it did not work – you need to be over the Time box when you press I – this will add a Time keyframe, which is what you want. If you do not do this you get an ordinary set of keyframes – none of which do what we need, which is to animate our ocean.

Here is a link to the tutorial, which has a link to the a build of Blender 2.5 with the Ocean modifier…

http://www.savetheoceansim.com/blog/?p=161

Try this out for yourselves and let me know how it goes, I would love to see other people’s results.

Modelling with Blender

Alex — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 10:10:22 +0000

The more I use Blender, the more I see how modelling with Blender can produce fantastic results, with some people making it more of an artform. To show you what I mean, here are some links that show you just what a great Blender modeller can do (the second link shows you how collaborating can produce great work as well)…

Andy Goralczyk - Speed Modelling

Runtime: 7:54
View count: 8,055

Andy Goralczyk & David Revoy Collaboration - 2010 Blender Conference

Runtime: 3:55
View count: 7,863

Review of the Beginning Blender book by Lance Flavell

Alex — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 09:59:49 +0000

This is a review of the Beginning Blender book by Lance Flavell (Open source 3D modeling, animation, and game design) – pdf version.

Beginning Blender

Author: Lance Flavell

Title: Beginning Blender

Number of pages: 449

Publisher: Apress

Price (as of December 17th 2010): ($34.99 and $49.99 respectively)

Format: Comes in pdf and print versions

I love Blender, but ever since 2.5 came out there has been a dearth of good, up-to-date tutorials and documentation. It has been difficult to get information regarding all the various aspects of Blender.

This is partly because Blender keeps on changing and partly because there is so much that Blender can do.

So I am always on the look out for Blender books, and when I saw this one I thought – let’s give it a go.

There are 12 main chapters, and 10 of them cover the major topics regarding Blender…

The interface
Modeling
Lighting and textures
UV mapping
Curves and NURBS
Basic rigging and Animation
Advanced rigging
Making movies
Particles and Physics
The Game Engine

The other two chapters deal with the history and installation of Blender and Going Further – both important topics in their own right.

Also useful were appendices dealing with what licensing Blender uses, and what restrictions you could be under for your work etc, a very good clarification of how Blender licensing works (it is under GPL) and also a nice appendix on who uses Blender at the moment. It was very helpful to see a roundup of that sort of information.

But what about the main content of the book?

Well each chapter starts with an overview of what it will cover, and then goes into the chapter’s topic in more detail. Then there are some excercises for you to go through (and these can be downloaded as well so you do not have to create a particular model just to go through lighting, for example).

I found the chapters engaging and informative. This is billed as a beginner’s book, and each chapter introduces you to a particular topic with just the right amount of background, just the right examples, and just the right amount of information to show you what you need to know in order to understand the topic and get working on your own.

You soon realise just how much Blender can do when you start to go through the examples for yourself, but at no time does the book swamp you with too much information – I found it pitched just right.

The book was based on Blender 2.52 alpha, and I was testing things on Blender 2.55 beta, but i found there were no problems working on a newer version.

In short, I enjoyed reading the book and I had great fun going through the excercises.

This book is perfect for beginners, as it gives a good all-round introduction to just what Blender is capable of. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get a grip with just what Blender can do, and how powerful it can be, and it certainly left me a thirst for doing more with Blender.