Who designed this interface? There just doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for why things work the way they do. I've watched umpteen tutorials and I still don't know how to select meshes, or move the camera around. It's almost like as soon as I learn someone changes everything all over again. Why can't you just click on a object to select it?

What version are you using? 2.5x is actually a whole lot nicer than previous versions. It's not that bad. It does have a lot of features though, and just that alone makes things hard to find sometimes.

Laurie

It is packed full of features - so is maya but that doesn't have an interface issue. I have tried blender but its not for me.

I thnk where you may be getting confused is the fact that within most 3d applications you use the left mouse button to select your mesh or camera whilst in blender you use the right mouse button. Blender was created on the basis of speed and accuracy which is why it has never had the cheerful interface style shown by others and so also uses less CPU than others and so can be used within a smaller climate.

I will agree that blender is not the the easiest program to learn, but when it comes to modelling it knocks the socks off most programs and even makes the BIG! boys sweat a bit.

I will also say that when it comes to learning about the program, blender has a lot more resources than any other 3d program (I also use Carrara7pro, Hexagon, Bryce7pro and several others) I have ever used.

I have been learning about blender for the past 8 months now and starting to get more comfortable with it... Hopefully I will start developing some models/scenes of my own soon.

Overall this is just my thoughts on the program and everyone can have their own opinions.

Quote - Blender was created on the basis of speed and accuracy which is why it has never had the cheerful interface style shown by others ...

Blender started out as a Unix program, and ther were few if any GUI conventions to follow.
When it was ported to Windows and Mac, each of which has it's own fairly strong convention on how all things GUI are to be done, it's not surprising that when a program doesn't follow those conventions, people get confused and find it hard when they have to learn absolutely everything from scratch.

Well, I changed the turntable to trackball... or trackball to turntable... I forget, but I did find the user preferences and changed how the mouse moves. So now it's more like Maya which, although I've never used it, seems to be a lot easier to control.

I've also learned to select the vertices, although I'm still having trouble moving them where i want.

Man, this thing makes Shade look like a child's toy.

Quote - Man, this thing makes Shade look like a child's toy.

Funny you should say that, but it was trying to get my head round Shade's way of doing things that made Blender actually make a lot more sense.  

It boils down to being able to understand the intended workflow, concepts, and terminology that are an inherent part of each app.
Like programming languages, after working with a few, it becomes easier to map fundemental things onto what's available.

Stick with it - it'll grow on you. I agree... it is not the easiest programme to learn, but then, neither was Poser, to begin with. And even down the pike, as I got into the material room and the cloth room: all huge challenges.

The difference here is that Poser costs beaucoup dollars: Blender is free. So, given that time is money, you might find the tutorials at blendercookie worth the money and time investment.

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

Quote - Stick with it - it'll grow on you. I agree... it is not the easiest programme to learn, but then, neither was Poser, to begin with. And even down the pike, as I got into the material room and the cloth room: all huge challenges.

The difference here is that Poser costs beaucoup dollars: Blender is free. So, given that time is money, you might find the tutorials at blendercookie worth the money and time investment.

Yeah, seems that's how I've spent my holiday. Watching tutorials.

Blender Cookie is awesome. If it wasn't for them, I'd still be trying to figure out how to select the cube and delete it :P

Laurie

From the Lee Salvemini interview:

What do you think is the best way for a beginner to learn Blender?

I think there were only about 5 Blender tutorials when I started learning, I had to go to 3ds max tutorials and try to translate the techniques.

These days the resources available are amazing! If I could sum up a good method for learning Blender it would be: Read/watch 5 tutorials on a subject (like modeling a human head), give it a shot, fail, read/watch 5 more tutorials and have another go. I found after a few horrible failures trying to model a human head, something just clicked, a mix of about 2 or 3 different tutorial’s techniques making my own custom method, and I was able to model a human head fine every time since! The ‘click’ moment where it just works is so satisfying, and a few of us almost liken it to a ‘level up’.

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

Okay, I need some more help. I'm trying to figure out how to do the referencing images for backgrounds.

A Step by step would be helpful. I am trying to find it in the Blender User manual as well.

A lot has been put into the properties panel (to the side of the main 3d view window). Near the bottom you'll see Background images... Tick the box, then Add image then Not set, then Open...

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

Attached Link: http://www.blendercookie.com/2010/03/15/using-multiple-background-images-in-2-5/

Here's a example of Robin is saying about adding background images..

 

I have seemed to notice a lot of people struggling with Blender and the ones who love working with it usually say something just "clicked" one day. Im sooo close to that point I can almost feel it. I never spent a whole lot of time with 2.49 but am really liking 2.58.:biggrin:

Yay! You go, Amandagirl! Yes, it will click, and then - sheesh! - you'll have been Blenderised (which means: you wonder why other software doesn't work as efficiently as Blender does )...

ETA: btw, if you think that Blender gurus don't make mistakes, have a look at this!

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

Thanks Robynsveil and Amandagirl! That was perfect! finally something went right!

Also on backgrounds, there is a new tip at Blendercookie on how to map background images to empties (using 2.58) which allows you to view the images from any angle. A much better method if working from blueprints and the like instead of just reference photos.

Also, if you're having trouble with the mouse right click selection method in Blender, this can be changed to Left click selection through the user preferences.

 Also remember that if you are used to a particular programs shotcut keys, these can also be mapped through user preferences and saved as a new keyset.

 

3D software in general is difficult to learn. But I agree Blender is a head scratcher when you first dabble into it. That is why I am glad there are so many free resources to learn Blender with. I watch youtube tutorials and Blenderguru tutorials that is why I feel comfortable with the software. I used to visit this site called Blendervideos too bad it is down due to technical difficulties. I learned a lot about blender by watching the tutorials on that site.

 

Well, I've been working away at learning Blender. And while I appreciate all the help you guys gave me, I have to say the DAZ forum was REALLY helpful. It's just that the forum there is a little more active than this one.

Anyway, thought I'd show you my first Blender model. A dress for P8 Alyson. Haven't decided whether to conform it yet, so as  for now, consider it dynamic.

VERY nice!! I'm glad you figured it out :-).

Laurie

Thanks Laurie! Rendered a pic of Alyson sitting in the dress.

looks good!! going to be the first of many??

I'm just learning blender myself so I agree it can be confusing but you seem to have got the hang of it now

Looks like dynamic is a good choice for that dress, myself, but I'm a wee bit prejudiced... :biggrin:

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

Great first dress, Blender is a great program and it gets better with every revision; you can virtually do anything in it and set it up the way you want. you can change any/all settings so if you want the controls to mimic Maya thats do-able.

My Maya now collects dust lol

Eclark it all depend on the attitude you have going into it

if you are expecting for it to be like poser and studio you will be lost because blender is an actual modeling program and not just a pose and render software

i still use 2.49.2B   i have 2.58 but its like trying to read cyrillic to me for now

if you need help just ask and i am glad to see that you got the shrinkwrap modifier working

normaly im a 100% mechanical mesh modeler but then again im not too big on people

 

its all just simpleplanning

I'm watching the video tutorials ( a great help) but something I notice about all of them. Even though these guys sometimes make a mistake, and sometimes I can tell some things are speeded up, they're really rather quick.  I'm having trouble just remembering commands and trying to remember what i did last time so I can do it again.

I agree...PDFs provide a far more flexible information source, bookmark-able and you can easily go back.

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

so you are looking for the .pdf for the 2.5+ versions

i the older (2.49 and before) versions you could open  the cheat sheet in the bottom of the screen and even keep a log of what the last ???? actions were

the 2.5 will keep a history as well   im just trying to remember how to set it up and view it

ill have to do some more research into that and id say also ask this on the daz forums in the old   blender anyone thread that you started

 

while I do love the way blender grows and evolves its does make the learning curve bloody awkward and theres so many bits I haven't even looked at yet

Attached Link: http://gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html

Go Here.. There's tons of PDF tutorials and videos. Plus lesson plans to get you familiarized with 2.5. BlenderArtists highly recommends them.:biggrin:

Thanks so much for the link AmandaGirl. I actually subscribed to BlenderCookie but really haven't found the video approach all that... approachable. However, they and practically the rest of the universe find videos the way to go. Maybe I need a remedial " how to take best value from video tutorials" tutorial.

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

Quote - Thanks so much for the link AmandaGirl. I actually subscribed to BlenderCookie but really haven't found the video approach all that... approachable. However, they and practically the rest of the universe find videos the way to go. Maybe I need a remedial " how to take best value from video tutorials" tutorial.

No, the basic problem with the video approach is that you have to watch the video instead of doing it yourself. And if you miss something, you have to waste time searching for it in the video. I just wish some of the Blender cookie videos were accompanied  by pdf files.

best way to use a vid tut is on twin monitors ;-)

Sorry. Only got the one. And it's old! :laugh:

just found this

http://www.cdschools.org/54223045235521/blank/browse.asp?A=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=55205

is a pdf (one for 2.5 an an older one )   only had a quick peek but looks good

and is vids if you want to watch them

is even a couple of d/l's that might be usefull

 

have fun

You know what would really help? If someone wrote a book of blender projects designed to help you learn the program.  They should be simple projects like making a lamp, Glass, Cup, excetera, and describe step by step how it was made. The only real problem I can see with it is that with Blender always being in development, int could become outdated quickly.

There probably won't be a official book until after the 2.6 release, since the 2.5 series is a developmental faze. Most of the coding, shortcuts and basic tools have been implemented in 2.5, while the 2.6 series will be the stable release and the base program won't see many coding changes.

I prefer reading tutorials too. But sometimes a video tutorial helps getting through the stickier parts.

RobynsVeil... I know what you mean about Blendercookie. I think the tutorials there are great, but I catch myself saying "What the heck did he just do???" to many times. What I really would like is the same step by step tutorial in video and written form, that way you can use one as a reference for the other. Probably just a lot of wisful thinking though.:laugh:

ill talk with some of the guys at cookie to see if i can get permission to make a pdf from thier tuts  if not ill remake them on my end and do the pdf files from my work as i have time

johnathan williamson is releasing a new book intended for the 2.5 series on lowpoly modeling but it wont release till september

maybe ill get lucky and theyll say yes

 

I guess I'm the odd man out. I like the videos since it's much easier for me to do if I see it done ;).

Laurie

Quote - I guess I'm the odd man out. I like the videos since it's much easier for me to do if I see it done ;). Laurie

You're young, Laurie (as is AmandaGirl, I would think), and you stay on task. My mind tends to wander during video tutorials, and next thing you know, the moment's gone and I'm like: "wha... wha... what??" Then I have to start over again. And some of those young whipper-snappers must be on toxic amounts of Red Bull or whatever energy drink is at hand: they go so bloody fast through stuff!

Nah, gimme a pdf anytime. I'll get through that at least... eventually.

@ Unbroken-Fighter: wow, could you? Would you? You'd have my (and I'm sure at least Amanda's) undying gratitude!!

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

trust me you arent the odd one out im better with videos as well

i learned how to rebuild an engine by watching a video  then rebuilt my own and it ran for another 200,000miles

but its all about prefferences and for some its better to have a text based item with images to look back to

 

My new Blender project is a lamp. I'm having a bit of trouble trying to figure out how to do something as simple as a lampshade though. I think I know what to do though. Going to try in a little while.

Wow Eclark! Really, really nice!! You'll have it down pat in no time ;).

Laurie

nice job

depends what sort of shade you want, a simple one is just add a cylinder an scale one edge bigger gives that cone shape(dont forget to untick cap ends!! I often do)

or if u want a dome type add a sphere cut off the bottom then extrude/scale the bottom edge with propotional editing on (mouse wheel controls its strength) delete centre top vertex for a hole in top

 

ps in object mode click the smooth button in left hand tool bar, wont affect the poly count but will make viewers go arrrrhh

have fun

Actually, making the shade itself is not a real problem, as you can see. It's making the metal frame work inside the shade that gives it its shape and connects it to the Lamp base.

use a torus (or two) scaled to suit and some cylinders once you have it assembled join them into one object (ctrl+j)

Okay, I made some more progress. Here's the "finished" lamp base. Actually I have some cleaning up to do on it. But after this, I just need to add in the Lampshade and call it a day. All in all though, I think it's pretty good for my first prop effort in Blender.

Well done, eClark! Strong work. Ah, another Blender convert... heheheh :biggrin:

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

Robynveil... Young ,,,Me? Unfortunately I'll be 48 next month:sad: I guess it comes from having to learn everything from books back in the day. My kids think I'm crazy when I tell them I had to go to the library and look at actual books to do research projects.

 

eClark... I agree, great job on the lamp! It honestly does get easier.:thumbupboth:

Well, I just turned 59, so everyone seems young to me, Amanda. Which made Blender 2.5x a bit more of a challenge: I'd finally gotten my head around a fair few of the hotkeys in 2.49b and was happily modelling away, and now spacebar is different and a lot of stuff is just different. Wish there was a hotkey for that Select Only Visible toggle thingie - I go back and forth so much on that one.

But sometimes I really think they want to keep Blender sort-of less-than intuitive for us Windows-conventions users because it's also a Linux toy and Mac toy and they have different conventions to Windows.
Oh, and geek-status, too, maybe? :blink:
"I Blender, therefore I've attained a distinction as having learned an arcane interface rivalled only by Vi (or Vim)" -- whatever. It's powerful and it's free and I wouldn't be without it. Once we get BMesh, little else the others have to offer that can ever come close in terms of power and capability.

Did I mention it was free?

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

Free is good and I've always been a geek.:biggrin:

I've had Blender on all my machines since NaN open sourced it, but I never really tried to understand it. I toyed with it and basically used this monster of a program as a file converter.. I guess I was just waiting for 2.5 to take things seriously and I caught the Blender bug. I keep hearing myself say "I didn't know it could do that". In the long run I thingk waiting was a good thing since I didn't have to over-write anything I knew in 2.4 to a 2.5 way of doing things. That's alot harder than learning from a blank state.

i started with blender even before it was open source and so far im still resisting the move to the 2.5 versions because the old i/f is second nature to me

theres almost nothing that cannot be done in blender and its getting better every day while keeping a small resource footprint

and just a quik peek at what im working on for a freebie

 

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2232909

**WARNING The image has a NAKED humanlike figure, so don't click if your offended of skin covered in polygon wires!!**

I think I'm aiming pretty high for my first project. But I figure I can learn a lot with just this one figure I'm working on. Be warned it's really rough right now and I'm sort of winging it to get the hang of things. Later I'll watch the Blendercookie tutorials on figure modeling to see where I went wrong. But right now I'm really having a lot of fun!!:biggrin:

 

so far the basics are there id add loopcuts above and below the knees and elbows to get it to deform and rig well

for a first try its ambitious but sometimes its sink or swim and when you know that the possibility of failure will be public you work 10 times harder to get it right

i stay away from soft bodies myself because theres too much to go wrong

Okay, I finished up and exported it as a Wavefront obj. I don't know what I did wrong, but it's rather apparent that I did *something* wrong.

Thanks for the suggestions fighter.

The loopcuts and some detailing are in the works after I get the basic shape I'm happy with. It's about 80% there.. I think.

I figured I'm going to aim high right from the start, because I'll learn the interface, modeling, uv mapping and rigging in this one project. Besides I just wanted to see if I could actually do it.:biggrin:

eClark,,, did you check if the normals are forward? In edit mode, on the sidebar click recalculate normals or in the mesh menu navigate to normals> recalculate outside.

eClark - well done! thats looking good cant wait to see it textured, normals can be a pain and that happens in most modelers at some time or other but now you know how to fix it ;-)

amanda nice looking doll!! u used the scuplt tools or just extruding??

Agree with AmandaGirl: looks like your normals are facing in and out. One of the weird things with Blender is that there's no simple way to get the normals all facing one way: normals -> recalculate outside should work, but sometimes doesn't.

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

easiest way is in face mode choose draw normals

select all incorrect faces and flip

if you raise the nomrals draw size it makes them easier to see but anything over 1 level gets annoying

test render in blender and reversed faces will show as black

 

I corrected all the normals except for one wedge in the lampshade. I've tried several times and just can't get it.

I'm thinking  I may have to trash the lampshade and start over.

Okay, I had to rebuild the lampshade again from scratch, but it seems the lamp now imports into Poser with all the faces present and accounted for. 

Thank you for the comment hedheld:biggrin:

Just Plain old extruding on the body. The head was modeled by extruding single edges to get the facial topography I wanted. I tried sculpting in Blender, It's not working out so good for me yet. I do sculpting with my hands, by sight and touch and trying to repeat the process digitally is a whole new area. Trying to sculpt without that feedback from my hands is making it more difficult.

Blender needs a feature thats pretty useful  in Hexagon. It shows which direction the normals are facing. It would really help in the workflow for exporting objects.

It has that feature, Amanda... but you sort-of have to turn it on. In that main properties thingie (the one that has Transform right the top) when you're in edit mode, below Grease Pencil, View, item and Display is Mesh Display. There's overlays: and then Normals: ... I usually go with Face Normals. Because Poser mesh is so tiny, the normal wire is huge so I turn Normal Size down from .10 to .005.

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

Oh wow!! There it is. That will make things so much easier. There's definitely alot more I need to learn.

Cool, we'll learn it together, Amanda. I'm learning heaps myself atm... and having an absolute ball. I work in recovery - I'm an RN - waking patients (well, they sort-of wake themselves, i just make sure they're breathing okay and not in too much pain) and we're putting together some manuals and competencies and I want to create some decent illustrations to replace those shocking drawings in the manuals - I mean, valiant effort, but jeez, we have Poser, don't we? We can do all sorts of cool stuff.

So far, I've taken the scrubs outfit I found at Daz and made it dynamic (had to take the pockets off and the collar off since they basically fell off anyway during the sim) so that I could make my nurse avatarette do real nursing stuff like hang IVs and do chest compressions and keep thrashing patients from banging their heads against hard objects (males like to do stuff like that when they first wake up - no idea why! :biggrin:) so conforming cloth just wasn't going to do. And yes, did this in Blender. Now I'm converting this really cool hospital bed prop I found on 3DXtras to something that will move and side-rails will go up and down as will the head, just like a real bed. Bedding will be dynamic cloth. It's all a very big project but it'll be ever so much fun to put together!

I'm pretty much making everything that I can find dynamic these days. Wouldn't/couldn't be without Blender!

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

Amanda , have you tried sculptris ? much better tools then blenders (for sculpting lol )  and is a lot of fun

Robyn you can weld the pockets on hun or add them as soft decorated in cloth room, I scale the dolls up out of poser (they are way to small) then scale back down before exporting, on your hossie thing I made this when I had to go for an anigram thing (not real accurate I wasnt in the best position to see the stuff lol ) the sheet shown was dynamic and the "arms"(orange colour) are ajaxs mechanicals (found in free stuff) so I cant send them but your wecome to the rest if u want it, see pic

 

sculptris and bleder 2.55s sculpt properties were developed together

in blender make a lowpoly base duplicate on a new level  use the subdivide surface and divide as much as you need as long as poly count doesnt change   then bake as a normals map and apply

i will still never figure why people are so afraid of poly counts        i render 200,000,000 in 5 hours on a dual core

didnt know sculptris an blender tool was same just find sculptris much easier to play  with, maybe it does the subD on demand lol

poly count depends on what your doin at the mo I'm doin some stuff for my bro to use in unity an under 10 thou is my limit but can cheat a lot with normal maps now just got to work out how to make them in blender rofl

Attached Link: sculpting in blender 2.5+

in sculptris if you turn the detail slider down it creates fewer polys than if its set high

and there is a tutoral on sculpting in blender on blendercookie in the archives that was done by jonathan williamson for 2.5 versions using a lowpoly base mesh

 

Wow, Hedd, that's an amazing model of a cath lab. I did cath-lab nursing for 25 years, so to see a c-arm here on Rendo rather took my breath away.

I work in recovery now, and wouldn't go back to cath-lab and those infernal lead aprons for quids, but I must say, I almost felt at home again, seeing that. Hope your angiogram went well and they didn't have to do anything.

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

well waiting on a bypass at the mo Robyn

will have a look at that tut m8 am working my round Bcookie now but not seen that one yet biggest prob I got at the mo in blender is the curve modifier but I think I missed a step lol haaaaa so much to learn so small a brain ;-)

what about the curves is confusing you?

im actualy looking in to making a .pdf for 2.5+ for noobs that starts from day 1 and works into all details of modeling for daz/poser with blender

every question i can find an answer to is 1 more step to being able to help others get more out of the program at a cost that we can all afford          free

 

as to the bypass good luck with that i remember when my dad had his and that was the worst ive ever seen him hurt except when i told him id joined the marines

oh just sumat I'm doin wrong hun , if I do the tut using a horizontal cylinder it goes whacky but if I dont rotate the cylinder (leave it vertical) it works (rotate by R Y 90 not using the widgit lol )

 

not over worried about bypass bit of tubing an some jubilee clips! shame they have to do it with the engine running ;-)

Semper Fi ehh same ideas dif army rofl

where are you located it almost seems if you are aussie

but probable brittish royal marines

we trained some anzacs in 96 on how to shoot over 1000 yards with a .308

please link to the tut you were using for the curves so that i can see what might have been missed and rewrite it in english

link is to one of gryllus vids

http://www.screencast.com/t/ZTUwMmY5

not marine lol but nearly was in Artillery we have a regiment for the marines(an one for the paras lol ) same training but we dont have to swim  ;-)

ok i watched most of the tut and its as vague as trying to look through mud

but i went into 2.5 and found 1 major issue with the tut

he gives no details on how to do it on any other axis

ill rewatch and .pdf the results asap because that cat couldnt teach a monkey to poop

so far i have the basics of using the curve modifier wrapped up as a .pdf if anyone wants test it for me. i can upload to a filehost and post the link before i post it on any site

I'd love to have a look, UnbrokenFighter...

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

Attached Link: http://http://www.mediafire.com/?00v3fh9hme5d7hi

its still a bit basic but a start for my 1st .pdf ever and my 2nd tut ever hope someone finds it usefull

also please tell me what needs to be done to make it better

The link's broken. It looks like your link is incomplete ;).

Laurie

Attached Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?nhwisya67e4yd8l

it didnt matter the file was incorectly made to start with    i screwed up and forgot to hide the page 1 layer

heres a new repaired version

if the link will not worl i can email it as well just need a few to verify that the instructions are viable prior to posting it publicly

 

downloads fine has helped me (but not sure why lol ) did do it in ortho mode and it worked so sorta thought that was the answer but can do it in any view now so I dont have a clue what I was doing wrong before lol

thanx for taking the time to do this I am looking forward to the next ones

it wasnt the perspective/ortho it was his method     for the most part it was correct but he missed something          the end point does not have to be set as U

also there were some minor steps missing from the original   namely the orientation of the cylinder to the path

as long as they are centered to each other you can make it work

and yes you are part of the reasoning for the tut but truth be told its long about time for this irishman to give back

 

please relay any comments or questions to me here as well as suggestions for future tuts

 

can never be too many tuts, some one may say the same thing in a dif way and it all clicks

as too what tuts I want/need lol at the mo I'm tryna learn how to bake/apply normal maps from a hi res to a low res figure (my bro needs some models for unity) can bake the map ok but it wont "stick" to the low poly one think I got something wrong when uvmapping but will get it one day

one quick question ? I use 2 monitors, is it possible to drag some windows onto the second, do it all the time in poser and carrara but haven't found a way in this

I also have two monotors and have Blender 2.5x spread out on both ;). You have to detach the palattes from being docked. And since I haven't even had coffee yet, I can't remember how to do that....lolol.

Laurie

Thanx Laurie xx once I knew it could be done I found it lol

unbroken-fighter...the tute is good and my only critique:

Make the images larger. I'm a middle aged lady and my eyesight isn't all that great anymore ;). Maybe one or two per page perhaps?

Laurie

Attached Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?7zc6ezvawb06yrs

actualy i did redo the tut and used larger text and larger images this time, its not exactly the same as the 1st one but does have a little more info on the modifier.

 

heres the new link

SPAM!!!!!!!

Attached Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?hz0vpm44piasf85

for those that want to use dual moniters with blender heres a 1 page tutorial on how to do it

 

i am new at Blender i use 2.59 but what is the best to use?

no idea which is best lol I have about 4 dif copys on my comp, using 2.57 the most at the mo' but only cos its set up the way I like and all the plugins I use work in it! quite a funny proggy to get into but its sooooo addictive rofl

have fun an if you need help one of the experts in here will steer you the right way

ya its fun and can be funny i made lily in make human and then moved her to blender so we will see how this goes 

does anyone know what the easiest way to make a 3d skull and crossbones with blender would be?

sculpting and trans maps

trace the basic shapes and model it from a plane

then use loopcuts or subsurf to add verts

go to the sculpt room and make it your desired shape

then use the uv unwrap to make a .tga save it take the .tga to a photo editor and paint it the way you want  then save it with a transpearant background

set it as uv color and render

also for those interested i am working on a .pdf tut for modeling a female mesh from base cube to final render

the first part is almost done and needs to be tested,  as before i will start from the basis of kowing anything about blender and since i just got 2.58 2 days ago you will learn as i do

or if like me you have too many thumbs to sculpt ;-)

just box model them, use a mirror modifier and a subd

hed has been peeping into my modeling tuts before they are done

seems to eerie

not had a peep yet mate ;-) but am waiting lol

been using hex since it came out an still think its the fastest modeler I have ever used, but am enjoying blender!! is something new to explore around every corner, just so bloody much to learn rofl

Quote - not had a peep yet mate ;-) but am waiting lol been using hex since it came out an still think its the fastest modeler I have ever used, but am enjoying blender!! is something new to explore around every corner, just so bloody much to learn rofl

A bit like Poser in that regard, isn't it? Just when you think you're sort-of getting a grip on it, they come out with a new version and new, cool technologies and it's time to roll up the sleeves again. :biggrin:

Not that I mind - looking forward to it!!

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

oh Robyn

poser is like a kids toy compared to blender, but I guess that depends on what you want to do in it lol , I spent a full day just in the graph editor for animations and not even looked at the nodes yet, got a feeling thats gonna be another day or 3 ;-) but am learning it slowly and waiting for the poser tools to be completed if that works as well as the prop bit I might not even bother with poser much

Attached Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?qi6wfr5xoznbn2f

ok the basis for the 1st part is dome for those who wish to give it a shot

modeling a basemesh human female in blender 2.58 from a base cube

 

Quote - ok the basis for the 1st part is done for those who wish to give it a shot modeling a basemesh human female in blender 2.58 from a base cube

Had a quick look through it - I really like it. It's a quick read, to the point, stroke-by-stroke. And this is the thing I really like about pdfs: you can go back and forth easily.

Nice work!

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

quick and simple !! I like it how long for the rest?

 

ill get on part 2 tonight so maybe 3 days

please remember that before this i have not used 2.58 before so i am diong it as i learn it

 

I just tried it again after all these years. Version 2.79, 2019. It's still a totally and utter nightmare of a user interface, even after all these years. Uninstalled.

---

Learn the Secrets of Poser 11 and Line-art Filters.

Supposed to be some major changes in 2.8

Funny, I recently experienced exactly the same sort of frustration as HartyBart. Did exactly as he did: uninstalled.

Only thing, it wasn't Blender... it was another, very popular commercial 3D application. Horses for courses, I guess. You pays your money and you takes your chances. Nice thing about Blender is: it doesn't cost anything to try it. Which is true for other applications, but then, after 30 days or so, you will suffer sticker shock.

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks

RobynsVeil posted at 4:03PM Mon, 07 January 2019 - #4343216

Nice thing about Blender is: it doesn't cost anything to try it.

It just surprises me how many folks will open it, and NOT really try to learn how to use it. I've been using Blender since the 2.4x versions, which all had a horrible UI for sure. It wasn't until I downloaded, and opened, version 2.52 that I got my first look at what's pretty much the current UI, and fell in love with it because it was so much more professional looking than the 2.4x versions.

Yes, I'm constantly learning new things which have been added over the years, but all software has a learning curve. I've been playing in the educational version of Maya the past 2 years, and talk about a busy UI, but I stuck with it, and I like it. I've never been one to take a first impression of a piece of software, as the only impression I'll ever have with the software.

I had the same reaction the first time I played with ZBrush, which also has a very busy UI.

_______________

OK . . . Where's my chocolate?

Butterfly Dezignz

The new 2.8 version fixes so much of what was horrible with previous versions. I've been using the beta for a couple of months and wouldn't dream of going back to my trusty 2.79B. Menus stay put and there are honest to goodness tool bars. I'm sure that this version is going to catapult Blender into much wider usage.

Horses for courses really either you will get a feeling and gel with a piece of software or you wont. Sometimes it can be at a cost Like Robynsveil discovered. Suppose why its always good to have a demo version or free for 30 days type thing. Wish I had a dollar for all the software I've tried out and removed lol. And then there are changes Like Miss B said, I hated Blender in its earlier incantations, thought it was a total piece of (insert expletive). But many years later gave it another go and love it like an addiction. And the transition to 2.8 has been way easier than I thought it would be. And their will always be people who will find a reason to not like something simply because of my first sentence here.

Incantrix

I'm looking forward to 2.8 coming out in final public release so I can play with it. I don't do beta versions, unless I'm on the beta team.

I'll probably keep 2.79b around though, as I do more of my final rendering in other software, like Poser, so having to use Cycles for an intermittent render to see how my model is progressing, just doesn't make sense to me. I'd rather use Cycles, and the new EEVEE, render engines for final renders.

_______________

OK . . . Where's my chocolate?

Butterfly Dezignz

HartyBart posted at 3:33AM Thu, 07 March 2019 - #4343160

I just tried it again after all these years. Version 2.79, 2019. It's still a totally and utter nightmare of a user interface, even after all these years. Uninstalled.

Hi HartyBart, I'm sorry to hear you are so disappointed in Blender. I must admit Blender wasn't, isn't and never will be easy to get in to. No discussion... BUT, Blender has come a LONG way when it comes to GUI design and usage (check out the beta for 2.8 and you'll see what I mean!). I've been using the software on and off since the first public version (almost 20 years ago) and still struggle with certain quirks and still discover new features. Steep learning curve with great rewards if you put your teeth into the beast. Next to DAZ Studio it's my main 3D program and the two can be used in a symbiotic way (mjcTeleBlender). I'm very happy Blender exists, because I never could afford the likes of Maya, 3DSMax and C4D, to mention a few. Ok, that's what I have to say, hope you have more luck with other software!

I still find myself opening Wings3D to start my poly modeling until I get the basics where I want and then port it to whatever advanced package I want (Blender, Maya, Lightwave or whatever).

Wings3d, Zbrush and others are dedicated to specific 3d fields in this case modeling so it does that one thing excelently.

Blender has the same issue as many other big packages, it is trying to do everything in the one package, It does many things well but not exactly great as a result. Also these large packages are trying to do so many things they crash at the most inopertune moment (just before saving) and often (hint: dont breath while using Maya).

The questionis do you want a one stop solution? If yes then you are gonna have to deal with an interface that is a compromise at best.

If you want an interface that is intuitive then you'll need multiple packages & have to learn em all.

Answer: its a pain either way;)