Blender 3D 2.49 Incredible Machines Modeling, rendering, and animating realistic machines with Blender 3D Allan Brito BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by Gay Anschultz on 5th December 2009 21844 Grovepark Dr., , Santa Clarita, , 91350 Blender 3D 2.49 Incredible Machines Copyright © 2009 Packt Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews. Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book. Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information. First published: November 2009 Production Reference: 1121109 Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. 32 Lincoln Road Olton Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK. ISBN 978-1-847197-46-7 www.packtpub.com Cover Image by Vinayak Chittar ([email protected]) Download at WoweBook.Com This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by Gay Anschultz on 5th December 2009 21844 Grovepark Dr., , Santa Clarita, , 91350 Credits Author Editorial Team Leader Allan Brito Gagandeep Singh Reviewers Project Team Leader Claudio "malefico" Andaur Lata Basantani Yorik van Havre Project Coordinator Joel Goveya Acquisition Editor David Barnes Proofreader Jade Schuler Development Editor Swapna V. Verlekar Production Coordinator Aparna Bhagat Technical Editor Aanchal Kumar Cover Work Aparna Bhagat Indexer Rekha Nair Download at WoweBook.Com This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by Gay Anschultz on 5th December 2009 21844 Grovepark Dr., , Santa Clarita, , 91350 About the Author Allan Brito is a Brazilian architect specialized in information visualization. He lives and works in Recife, Brazil. He works with Blender 3D to produce animations and still images for visualization and instructional material. Besides his work with Blender as an artist, he also has a large experience in teaching and researching about 3D modeling, animation, and multimedia. He is an active member of the community of Blender users, writing about Blender 3D and its development for websites in Brazilian Portuguese (http://www.allanbrito.com) and English (http://www.blendernation.com). This is his third book on Blender 3D, the first one was Blender 3D—Guia do Usuário, which was published in Brazil. It's a guide on how to use Blender that covers everything from the basics to character animation. The second book, Blender 3D: Architecture, Buildings, and Scenery, covers the use of Blender for architectural visualization. It is written in English, and is published by Packt Publishing. He can be reached at his website, http://www.blender3darchitect.com, where he covers the use of Blender 3D and other tools for architectural visualization. I would like to thank my family for supporting me during the production of this book, especially my wife Érica, and my parents Maria and Luiz. Download at WoweBook.Com This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by Gay Anschultz on 5th December 2009 21844 Grovepark Dr., , Santa Clarita, , 91350 About the Reviewers Claudio "malefico" Andaur is an argentine CG artist residing in Buenos Aires. He graduated as a Chemical Engineer from Universidad Tecnologica Nacional, Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1998. He started working with Blender and open source applications in 2000. He was increasingly involved in Blender animation projects mainly for television shows. In 2003, he was part of the team who wrote the Blender 2.3 Official Guide. In 2005, he quit his regular job as an engineer and started working as one of the project leaders of Plumiferos, a CG feature film project made in Blender. In his blog (www.malefico3d.org), he likes to write about character animation, rigging, and personal projects. In 2008, he started his own animation studio called Licuadora Studio (www.licuadorastudio.com). Claudio, better known as "malefico" in the Blender community, has given lectures and classes in Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Belgium, and Spain, as well as the Blender Conference in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on several occasions. I'd like to thank my wife Laura for her constant support and patience, and my fellow Licuadores: Ivan, Manuel, and Diego. Yorik van Havre is a Belgian architect who currently lives and works in Brazil. Blender occupies a big portion of his daily work. He regularly writes articles and tutorials about Blender, architecture, and architecture software, and is actively involved in several communities and open source projects. He has also reviewed Allan's previous book, Blender 3D: Architecture, Buildings, and Scenery. More about Yorik's work can be found at his website: http://yorik.orgfree.com. Download at WoweBook.Com This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by Gay Anschultz on 5th December 2009 21844 Grovepark Dr., , Santa Clarita, , 91350 Download at WoweBook.Com This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by Gay Anschultz on 5th December 2009 21844 Grovepark Dr., , Santa Clarita, , 91350 Table of Contents Preface 1 Chapter 1: Machinery Modeling and Visualization with Blender 9 Blender history 9 Working with Blender 10 Blender 3D, YafaRay, and GIMP 10 What is an Incredible Machine? 11 How the book is organized 12 Do I have to know Blender already? 13 How to know more about Blender 3D 13 Summary 14 Chapter 2: Modeling a Handgun 15 Briefing and concept 15 Objectives 16 Why a hand weapon? 17 Parts of the model 18 Modeling workflow 18 Best modeling technique for this project 19 Effects and rendering 20 Summary 21 Chapter 3: Polygon Modeling of the Weapon 23 Starting with a background image 24 Using subdivision to model 26 Modeling the hand wrap 38 Modeling the small and removable parts 45 Using hooks to place and align objects 49 Summary 55 Download at WoweBook.Com This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by Gay Anschultz on 5th December 2009 21844 Grovepark Dr., , Santa Clarita, , 91350 Table of Contents Chapter 4: Adding Details 57 Tools and techniques for detailing 57 Face normals 58 Adding the handgrip 60 Using the spin tool to close a model 67 Adding creases and rounded details 69 Summary 78 Chapter 5: Rendering the Project with YafaRay 79 YafaRay renderer 79 Installing YafaRay 80 Creating a studio environment 81 Adding light to the scene 87 How YafaRay works 90 Setting lights in YafaRay 92 Adding materials to the weapon 93 Framing the weapon 95 Final render with YafaRay 96 Summary 98 Chapter 6: Steampunk Spacecraft 99 Steampunk concept 99 Spacecraft concept 101 Project workflow 102 Building edges and planes for the spacecraft 103 Creating the first section of the spacecraft 103 Modeling the wing 109 Modeling the front 111 Summary 113 Chapter 7: Working with Smaller Areas 115 Modeling the front of the spacecraft 115 Adding details to the wing 120 Modeling the engines 123 Creating the bottom of the spacecraft 128 Creating the weapons 131 Mirroring the spacecraft 135 Closing the cockpit 136 Detailing the fuselage 140 Modeling auxiliary engines 142 Adding cables and wires 144 [ ii ] Download at WoweBook.Com This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by Gay Anschultz on 5th December 2009 21844 Grovepark Dr., , Santa Clarita, , 91350 Table of Contents Using curves 144 Twisting the cables 149 Adding the cables to the model 150 Summary 153 Chapter 8: Advanced UV Mapping 155 UV mapping in Blender 155 What is UV mapping? 155 Using UV mapping in Blender 156 Using smart projections 157 UV test grid 161 Using the unwrap tool 163 Planning the unwrap 164 Controlling and editing the UV layout 166 Pinning and unpinning vertices 167 Live Unwrap Transform 167 Editing the UV 168 Exporting the layout 169 Editing the texture 171 Summary 173 Chapter 9: Putting the Spacecraft to Fly and Shoot with Special Effects 175 Blender particles 175 How particles work 177 Creating particles 178 Adding speed and force fields 181 The rear engine 184 The guns 187 Summary 189 Chapter 10: Rendering the Spacecraft with YafaRay 191 Environment setup in YafaRay—creating a physical sky 191 Single Color 192 Gradient 193 Texture 193 SunSky 194 DarkTide's SunSky 195 Materials and textures in YafaRay 197 Setting up a metal material 198 Creating the glass in the cockpit 198 [ iii ] Download at WoweBook.Com This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by Gay Anschultz on 5th December 2009 21844 Grovepark Dr., , Santa Clarita, , 91350 Table of Contents Rendering the scene 200 Rendering a night view of the spacecraft 202 Summary 203 Chapter 11: Transforming Robot 205 What is a transforming robot? 205 How big will the robot be? 205 Textures and materials 206 Rendering with LuxRender 207 Mixing modeling and animation 207 Modeling the object with poly modeling 208 Choosing a modeling technique 209 Modeling the legs 210 Modeling the main body 212 Modeling the head 215 Modeling the arms 216 Summary 217 Chapter 12: Using Modifiers and Curves to Create Details for the Robot and Scene 219 Modifiers 219 Using the bevel modifier to chamfer the edges of the model 220 Using the array modifier to add rivets 223 Creating wires and cables with curves and hooks 225 Adding details to the robot 228 Modeling the scenario 230 Modeling the stands for the robots 232 Creating the storage boxes 233 Modeling lights 235 Summary 236 Chapter 13: Making the Robot Look Metallic with Materials in LuxRender 237 Installing LuxRender 237 Using LuxBlend 239 Setting up materials for the robot 241 Adding textures to the ground of the scene 246 Summary 248 [ iv ] Download at WoweBook.Com This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by Gay Anschultz on 5th December 2009 21844 Grovepark Dr., , Santa Clarita, , 91350