Blender 3D Basics Beginner's Guide Blender 3D Basics Beginner's Guide Copyright © 2012 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: June 2012 Production Reference: 1130612 Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. Livery Place 35 Livery Street Birmingham B3 2PB, UK. ISBN 978-1-84951-690-7 www.packtpub.com Cover Image by Gordon C. Fisher ( <[email protected]>) Credits Author Gordon C. Fisher Reviewers John W. Allie Allan Brito Matt Campbell Roberto Roch Bryan Tenorio Willem Verwey Acquisition Editor Robin de Jongh Lead Technical Editor Dayan Hyames Technical Editors Joyslita D'Souza Vishal D'Souza Lubna Shaikh Project Coordinator Leena Purkait Proofreader Bernadette Watkins Indexer Rekha Nair Graphics Manu Joseph Production Coordinator Aparna Bhagat Cover Work Aparna Bhagat About the Author Gordon C. Fisher got his start in Computer Graphics working with industry pioneers at Information International, Inc. At University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) he was the first student to display computer-generated artwork, interactive computer graphics, and computer animation at the UCSB Gallery. Since then, he has made 3D animation for clients including the U.S. Army, Ford Motor Co. the Dallas Cowboys, the Southeastern Conference, and Costco and Southwest Airlines. He has been using Blender professionally since 2002 and has given classes on using Blender and using Python with Blender at Python conferences in Texas and Arkansas. His short, Land and Sky, made with Blender was shown at the Ozark Foothills Film Fest. He has garnered two ADDY Citations of Excellence for an animation and an interactive CD. He has been a speaker at Siggraph, describing his work in VRML. His work has been displayed at the National Air and Space Museum. He is the Creative Director for Point Happy Interactive and spends his spare time as a Bicycling Advocate and Space Activist. He was the co-author and editor for Love and Oil, his grandfather's memoirs of traveling throughout Mexico, prospecting for oil during the Mexican Revolution. He has written articles about 3D modeling and animation for the American Modeler magazine and Digital Video Producer ezine. I would like to thank the people without whom this book would not exist. The staff at Packt; Rachel Gottsch, my English teacher in ninth, tenth, and tenth grades; Gary Demos who encouraged me; Jeffrey Marcus and Gary Brown of UCSB who gave me the access and freedom to do computer graphics; Ton Roosendaal for Blender and Betsy Brown, puppeteer extraordinaire, who got me started in this direction. About the Reviewers John W. Allie is an illustrator and writer. He has been using Blender since 1999, when it wasn't even open source. Blender is an important part of his personal and professional work, which includes everything from games to animations. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut, where he is currently working on a graphic novel. Allan Brito is a Brazilian Architect and a specialist in information visualization, who 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 wide experience in teaching and researching about 3D modeling, animation, and multimedia. He is an active member of the community of Blender users and writes about Blender 3D and its development for websites in Brazilian Portuguese (http://www.allanbrito.com) and English (http://www.blender3darchitect.com and http://www.blendernation.com). Besides his two blogs, he has managed to write three books about Blender in both English and Brazilian Portuguese, covering topics such as architectural visualization, mechanical modeling, and general Blender guides. To find out more about him visit the website http://www.blender3darchitect.com, where he covers the use of Blender and other tools for architectural visualization. I want to thank my wife Erica for her support during the review of this book. Matt Campbell graduated from Conestoga College with a diploma in Mechanical Technology. He has worked in the 3D modeling world since 2007, working mostly with CAD packages. Recently, he has become interested in creating immersive 3D movies. I would like to thank my wife Emma and my son Ethan for always being supportive. Bryan Tenorio studied 3D animation in both high school and in college. He specializes in using Blender as his main tool, and Gimp for most 2D work. He has worked on various freelance jobs. He was on a small team that did previz work for the film 0000, by Eddie Alcazar. He also worked on a few Indie games with (Subli)minal Gaming. Currently he's employed at Rival Theory, a software company that specializes in artificial intelligence for video games. Willem Verwey is the founder and Chairman of the 3D Animation Network www.3danim8.net. The 3D Animation Network introduced children to animation using Blender since 2007. He has also served on the Blender Foundation Certification Review Board since 2007. He is the co-owner of Metagon Games and is currently working on Hidden Object Adventure Games distributed by Big Fish Games. He technically reviewed Material Cookbook.