Hackerspace LA Meetup – May 18, 2016
Blender Basics
In a nutshell (a very big nutshell) Blender is a professional free and open-source 3D computer graphics software product used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D printed models, interactive 3D applications and video games. Blender’s features include 3D modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, raster graphics editing, rigging and skinning, fluid and smoke simulation, particle simulation, soft body simulation, sculpting, animating, match moving, camera tracking, rendering, video editing and compositing. It also has an integrated game engine.
Online Resources
Official Blender website: https://www.blender.org
Download current Blender software: https://www.blender.org/download/
Recommended Blender community: http://blenderartists.org/forum/
Recommended Tutorials
HackerspaceLA Curated Blender Beginners Tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLro2LhzvRdB4ZDH-pRlB8foZhNKpJXnJI
Video Editing in Blender Introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te9HFQVaSUE
Video editing quick start: http://danielpocock.com/quick-start-blender-video-editing
YouTube Blender Tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/user/blendercookie/playlists
Blender tutorials: http://www.creativebloq.com/3d-tips/blender-tutorials-1232739
Blender Absolute Beginner Series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrgQj91MOVfjTShOMRY8TLmkJ7OFr7bj6
The links and resources on the previous page cover the following tutorials, skills, and techniques.
The Basics
Introduction for beginners
Shading and lighting
Enhance your environments
Create a realistic off-road scene
Enhance a game level environment
Rendering
How to create a cup of coffee in Blender
How to create a realistic earth
How to make a minion
Create a realistic head
How to create a photo-real render using Cycles
How to make realistic bread
Create a spaceship
Modelling a building
The secrets of realistic texturing
Animation
Fun with rigid bodies
Character animation fundamentals
Create an animation walkcycle
Animate a circular swipe in Blender
Create a Tron-inspired light cycle effect
Animate a flame using materials in Blender
Create an energetic fire and water scene
How to roll a 3D object on its edge
Create a classy fluid simulation
Blender Techniques
Fur with Cycles and particle hair
Model a low-poly T-Rex in Blender
How to make metallic text
Introduction to rigging
How to box model a sperm whale in 3D
How to build and use a phoneme library
Model a modern interior scene
Introduction to camera-tracking
Camera mapping in Blender
Blender tips from the pros