Hi Folks,

I've had my main PC for about four years, it has run extremely well but the time has come to update and order a new one. Last time I used a local company to build me a custom one, they did a great job so I'm using them again. Placed the order last Monday.

Came home and would you know it my graphics card went out. I could hear it booting up but black screen. Swapped monitors etc but nada, it was definitely the card. Problem was that I had no other monitor connection. Dug around in an old box of bits and pulled out a card with just a serial port on it, no idea how old it was but managed to get it to work using baling wire and ducktape.

However that just gave me enough output for a 1024 x 768 monitor and no graphics acceleration. The new computer is expected to take a week to ten days to arrive. Bummer :(

On the other side of my desk is a Mac with a large screen, I only use it for product testing. I hate Macs. I've modeled in Truespace for 15 years, it will not work on a Mac. Did not want to purchase Cinema 4D, does Blender work on a Mac? Dunno, went to look. Oh my it does, OK so let's give it a go.

So after a few days of RTFM and on line tutorials, I'm still a little clunky but you know what? When the new PC gets here the first thing I'm going to load on it is Blender :)

Nice one ;-)

blender is a bit funky at first but sure you'll soon get used to it

and cant wait to what what you do with python in blender (love new toys )

Welcome to the dark side!

Blender, once you get a little used to it, can be a lot of fun and surprisingly powerful.    Spent most of yesterday playing with the fluid dynamics simulator for the first time.  Ended up making a mini-waterfall

You can export to and from Poser with vertex order preserved so its great for doing morphs.  Ironically I was about to watch some of your tutorials this week on rigging, clothing and doing morphs for Poser.  LOL

Here's some links to some sites with video tutorials

www.cgcookie.com

www.blenderguru.com

www.blendtuts.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/blendercookie

http://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewPPrice

http://www.youtube.com/user/A1Sirius

This one in particular is good for showing how to bake hi-poly bump / normal maps to low poly models as well as using Blender to paint textures, sculpt, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVWNmeIoY74

And here's a 4 sec video done entirely in blender of the animated water fall I did yesterday using Blender's fluid dynamics.

http://s1367.photobucket.com/user/BardicHeart/media/0001-0100_zps5e41bc04.mp4.html

I think you're going to enjoy using Blender.  I got it initially to help me get started until I could afford to upgrade to 3DS Max or Maya, but at this point I'm not sure I ever will.

Oh, one last tip, go through the Add-ons in User Prefs, there's a bunch of extra's there you may find useful as well.

Happy Blending!

Hehehe...GO PhilC! ;)

Laurie

Welcome to the Dark Side is right and knowing your talents Philc I am sure we will soon be seeing some fantastic things down the road and don't hesitate to ask for help we have a great Blender following here 

Thank goodness.
I've been trying to retool my Lightwave modeling skills to Blender.
I know you'll soon have some awesome tutorials and tools so my Blender to Poser Workflow will be even more painless than my old Lightwave to Poser was.

In fact... to give you a head start on making my life easier: ;-) LOL!

http://blender3dclub.com/PT2blog//blog1.php

http://www.euclideanspace.com/threed/threedsoftware/blender/character/index.htm

Also be sure to check out:

http://makehuman.org/

MakeHuman is kind of an Open Source Poser wanna be. I think it started as Blender Plug in, but has become it's own entity.

If you can make an effective CR2 loader for Blender and or MakeHuman... I will throw money at you, as I'm sure others will.

An Exporter to go back to a weight mapped Poser CR2 will probably get you diety status.

I've played with just about every 3D Package ever made.

Blender has evolved into more of a Rival to Maya, Softimage, and 3DMAX than you would expect.

I know I'm having issues UNLEARNING my Lightwave habbits. I started on Calagari on my Amiga, and have been doing Lightwave since version 3.2. I think.

You're going to have some learning curve hell... Blender is kind of backwords and inside out sometimes... but there is insane documentation. It evolves like nothing else, and it's capable of almost anything.

With your Python Skills, you could probably emulate Truespace's interface in Blender. I know I'm trying to learn enough Python to emulate Lightwave Modeler.

If you stick with it, knowing your skills are going to be adding to it is like an early Chirstmas Gift.

Heh, I must be naturally backwards. LOL  I took to Blender rather easily, so much so I've had difficulty understanding all the "backward interface" complaints I hear from others. 

And yes, Blender is very much becoming a rival to 3DS Max.  The Cycles rendering engine, which I'm still learning is so much more powerful than Poser ever thought about being.  I wish Poser had more of the node structure Cycles has.  Once I get a better handle on it I may stop using Poser for renders completely and export to Blender for rendering (which would mean I would basically only be using Poser for... well... posing and morphs).

I will second Joe's remarks about a CR2 importer / exporter.   There was one started by another fellow but apparently he stopped due to time demands.  That's a project that really needs to be done.

I've never used Makehuman, heard of it and seen it in some tutorials.  Maybe one of these days, right now I've got so much else I'm learning there's just no time yet.

Oh, just to save Phil some hair pulling.  These are the settings I use to import and export OBJ meshes from and too Poser.

For importing to Blender, import the obj from the geometry file in Poser

Uncheck Ngons, Lines and Smooth Groups.

Switch to Keep Vertex Order and check Poly Groups

Then simply import.  I've been able to import Vicky 4, do morphs, etc. and all the vertex groups are there and preserved.

For Exporting back to Poser as an OBJ

Check Selection Only, Include UVs, Write Materials, Polygroups and Keep Vertex Order, nothing else.

That preserves the figures as Poser expects them for morphs and such.  All the vertex groups retain their names so rigging should be fairly simple.

Poser imports are small, scale them up in Object Mode when you first import, big as you like.  Make your changes an when done, hit Alt+S and it will snap back to original size so its correct for export.  Note, any scaling changes made in Edit Mode will NOT be affected.   That is if you imported a figure, scaled it to say 4x size in Object mode, then in Edit Mode scaled it 2x, you now have a figure 8x its original size.  Using Alt+S removes the 4x, but the figure would still be 2x size which would mesh things up.  Something to keep in mind.   Basically, scaling in Object mode is like a temporary modifier, while scaling in Edit mode is actually changing the vertice placement.  That's the best way I know to explain that.  If you get used to it early on will save you some headaches and speed up your workflow.

Have to agree it is a shame that for the time being the Poser Tool Box project is at a stand still but there is a set of scripts for transfering a whole scene from Daz Studio to Blender to use the Blenders Cycle Rendering mcasualsdazscripts and I saw will have to find the article but by modifing one of the scripts you can export a Poser Scene using the scrips so you can use Cycles. I have heard allot of positive fedback from these scripts over in the Daz studio forums. Have not had a chance to test myself since my graphic card just falls short to take full advantage of Cycles 

Welcome to the "BrightSide" :biggrin: Phil... there is NO limit to what you can do in Blender these days.

I received a copy of the houseplans (pdf) for my daughter's new home they're building out in Bundamba (near Ipswich) in SE QLD... thought I'd have a go doing a bit of ArchVis. Nice thing about living in Oz is that everything is already metric, so you can use the actual dimensions of things in Blender to sort-of put your house together.

Having an absolute ball: we're looking at colours of feature walls, adding a bay window for the kitchen (near the sink), landscaping ideas... sky's the limit. :woot: And rendering in Cycles is just amazing. It all just looks so real! Working on the kitchen atm, putting in the cabinetry and all that. How fun is this, then.

Phil.... Poser to Blender and back plugin... money waiting to give..!

Have fun with Blender... it's a beast but hang in there, it is worth it.

Hey Phil! After five minutes with Blender you won't need my help, but I can tell you where the tutorials are!

Welcome welcome.