To get a path from photshop to blender simply export the work path to illustrator and then in illustrator export as SVG. Then you can import the SVG into blender and use it as a curve , path or extrude it to make an object.

You could also simply use the bevel object and taper.

Create a curve.
Scale it up a bit.
Create a circle
Scale it down a bit.
Select the curve.
Press F10
Type "CurveCircle" in the BevOB field.
You can now use DefResU to control the density of the object.

Add another curve and type that name in the Taper field to observe that.

Quicktime is more of a professional codec used by video editors. An MP4 is a delivery format that is heavily compressed. If you have to work with the file again (which it seems you do because you are editing it), then you are editing a copy of a copy. It is kind of like always saving your output in a JPEG after a few edits the original looks crappy.

MP4 edits will suffer the same fate.

Actually,

Some of the bundled scripts did not work with default Blender install unless you had python installed. That's what the message "..could not find python, continuing happily" was all about.

It's not a big deal to download python to get the full features of Blender.
I am supprised, however, that I had to download a microsoft distibution package to get the latest version to work.

Thanks!

I usually create an outliner window along the side,that way I can select whatever object I want whenever I want without having to rely on the pick system of the 3D window.

So what is builtin all about?

I don't really need to return a string, that was just a simplified dummy class.
The main class I am working with will control the position of the object the scriptlink is attached to, much like an enterframe in flash.

Thanks, I'll try it out.

I also want to add that this technique only works with the Blender internal renderer using spotlights that are using raytraced shadows.

The other shadow and light types will not produce this effect.

Just basic questions. I figure other newbies will have similar questions. When they do searches they will see my loud mouth.

I think I figured it out.

Create the geometry you want to catch the shadow. Assign a material to that object then set it to only render shadows. The only problem after that is shadow density.

Damir,

Mainly I have a render where I want a golf ball to fall into a cup. But the green is only there for part of the simulation. So I have a golf ball bouncing on an imaginary ground, then finally ending up in a perfect square with the cup booleaned in to it. So I need an alpha render of the ball going in to the cup, but I need the shadows to fall where the imaginary ground plane was when I baked the Game Engine simulation.

This is one of my first uses of Blender in a production environement, so I have a short deadline and lots of questions. I am quite capable of doing this in Max or Maya, but the company does not have either. I thought I'd give Blender a change and it is holding up well. The slow ass render is killing me though...

Thanks Damir,

Have you actually tried the CTRL-0?

I did that, but it did not seems to work. I still got my original camera when rendering. You can also access that via the Space Bar menu. I thought it strange...

I have been reading the docs quite a bit. I downloaded the HTMLs over the weekend.

I just discovered that key today while reading the HTML I docs.

Thanks, I was not.

I ended up hooking a keyboard arrow to my parameter, then turned on the game engine and simply played the simulation "live" (by pressing keys) to generate the keyframes in the Auto Record IPO while the simulation was running.

I found this tutorial....

http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/BSoD/Introduction_to_the_Game_Engine/Moving_the_cube_using_physics

Thank You Damir,

I'll just mention for others, that you do need to be in object edit mode for this technique to work.

Thank You

Ok **damir_prebeg,

Nice picutre, but how did you do it?

Most of the time when I try to look things up in the blender manual I get "This page has is not written yet"**