This book has been brought to you by the efforts of the fine folks listed on the Authors & Contributors page and a few people who just edit anonymously.
[edit] Introduction
This book can be seen as a series of tutorials arranged to help new users achieve expertise in Blender. The tutorials will increase in difficulty but enable intermediate users to quickly advance into whatever tutorial most suits their knowledge and continue along the sequence. We've made concerted efforts to accommodate everyone.
The tutorials should be followed in sequence by Blender beginners; do not skip ahead in tutorials and expect to be able to understand the content, since tutorials build upon the lessons learned in the previous ones.
Sometimes it's good to set goals and write down what you want to achieve in Blender. If you tell yourself, "I want to animate [what you want to animate]," write it down! It'll help you focus on the task at hand.
The latest version of Blender can be downloaded from here.
This book is one of the Blender-related Wikibooks. Have a look at the complementary ones.
Should you find this tutorial insufficient, or in some way uninformative, you can also consult The Blender Wiki. It should be useful, but more technical than this tutorial.
[edit] Contributing to this book
If you would like to contribute to this book, you are strongly encouraged (read as begged) to do so! There are a couple of things you may wish to do.
[edit] Editing a page
Simply click on the edit this page link at the top of whichever page you would like to edit! Your contribution will have to be reviewed before it is officially published, so using these pages to spam, flame or link to a e.g., pornographic site is a waste of time and energy. This also applies to spam and flaming. You can also ask questions and make comments about each page by clicking the discussion tab at the top of the page.
[edit] Adding a page
If you would like to add a page to the book, such as a new tutorial page or a reference page, create a link to it under the Contents section on this very page. Then with that link live, click it to be taken to the new page where you will be able to create content for the page. If you're putting up a tutorial and you don't know where it belongs, put it in the Miscellaneous section for now and we will tweak it and put it in the right spot. For instructions on how to name your pages appropriately, see our team mission statement and vision.
To maintain ease of navigation throughout the book, please be sure to create links to the pages before and after your new page, using the template shown here. Also be sure to update the page before and after your new page with links to your new page. You can skip this step if you think the page you are putting in will likely be moved from where you put it, but in this case you should also ask for an opinion via the discussion tab.
[edit] Adding Images
In Blender tutorials, images are definitely a must-have. They help clarify your point, institute a standard and reference by which a new designer may judge their work, and in essence improve the teaching process of this book at least tenfold. However, there is an especially great problem with incorrect copyright attribution usage in Blender, which is leading to more and more images being removed from the pages and from Wikibooks altogether. These seriously hamper the tutorials, especially if the original author is gone, and can make a once-great tutorial completely invalid and useless. Even if you believe that you know what copyright to use, please check the proper Blender images copyright page and see how you should add copyright and where.
[edit] Guidelines for including images
- Check Wikimedia Commons to see if the image you specifically want to use already exists, as uploading the same image twice is wasteful.
- Make sure to check our image portfolio if you're about to upload a general image (such as icons or buttons) or if you want to use someone else's image as an example. Remember to attribute, if necessary. If you upload an image to the Commons and use it in this Wikibook, please create an entry in the portfolio log. This will help us check its copyright and we will file your image away for safe-keeping and later use.
[edit] What you probably don't want to add
- Noob notes, e.g. questions regarding the text or comments, should not be put on the page itself. The discussion pages are exactly for that.
- External links are normally only helpful to some extent (except the manual of course). If they are not directly related to the article they will probably be deleted, so why add them in the first place?
[edit] Become a member of the team!
If you want to join and work with the team, read our team page for information and advice.
[edit] Table of Contents
Wikibook Development Stages | ||||||
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Under Construction | Sparse text | Developing text | Maturing text | Developed text | Comprehensive text: |
[edit] Index
[edit] Blender Help
[edit] Glossaries
[edit] Unit 1: Knowing Blender
[edit] Avoiding Headaches: Good Modeling Practices
[edit] Thinking in 3D
[edit] Learning the Graphical User Interface
- Tutorial Syntax
- Non-standard equipment
- Operating System specific notes
- Become Familiar with the Blender Interface
- Navigation in 3D
[edit] Unit 2: Creation and Development
[edit] Learn to Model
[edit] Modeling a Simple Person
- Detailing Your Simple Person I
- Detailing Your Simple Person II
- Creating a Simple Hat
- Putting Hat on Person
- Using Bones
[edit] Beyond Basics
- Mountains Out Of Molehills
- Modeling a Gingerbread Man
- Penguins from Spheres
- Die Another Way (dice modeling)
- Model a Silver Goblet
- Simple Vehicle
- Modeling a 3D Parachute in Blender
- Model a Low Poly Head
- Building a House
- Pipe joints
[edit] Creating Models With Photo Assistance
[edit] Curve and Path Modeling
[edit] Materials and Textures
[edit] Utilizing Materials and Textures
- Using Textures
- Using a texture to make a material partially transparent
- Creating Basic Seawater
- Mountains Out Of Molehills 2
- Basic Carpet Texture
- The Rusty Ball
- Procedural Eyeball
- Creating Pixar-looking eyes
[edit] UV Maps
[edit] Unit 3: Broadening Horizons
[edit] Lighting
- Beginning Lighting
- Understanding Real Lights
- Adding Lamps
- Faked Global Illumination with Blender internal
[edit] Rendering
- Output Format Options
- Looking All Around - Panorama Settings
- Other Important Render Options
- Yafray Render Options
- Stamping
[edit] Basic Animation
- Screen Layout
- Lattice Modifier
- Bouncing Ball with Lattice
- Creating Basic Water animation
- Flying Through A Canyon
- Using the sequencer to compile frames into an animation
[edit] Particle Systems
[edit] Soft Bodies
[edit] Blender Game Engine Basics
- Platformer: Controls and Movement
- Maze: Force and Multiple Levels
- Platformer: Improving the Physics
- How to make an executable
- Build a skybox
- Basic mouse pointer
- Text in BGE
- Platformer: Creating the Engine with Python
[edit] Unit 4: Taking Off with Advanced Tutorials
[edit] Python Scripting
- Introduction
- Export scripts
- Import scripts
- Procedural object creation
- Scripts for modifying meshes
- Creating a GUI for your script
[edit] Advanced Modeling
- High Dynamic Range imaging (HDRi)
- Landscape Modeling with Heightmaps
- Realistic Water using Fluid Sim and Yafray
- Modeling Textures
- Nodes: An Introduction
[edit] Advanced Animation
- Introduction
- Guided tour:
- Working example: Bob
- Working example: Piston, Rod and Crank
- Working example: Cutting Through Steel
[edit] Advanced Game Engine
[edit] Miscellaneous Tutorials
- Match Moving
- Match Moving/Motion Tracking with Icarus and Blender
- Create a Clayman
- Organic Modeling
- Free Blender Samples
- Understanding the Fluid Simulator
- Creating a jewel in Blender
- General Advice on Modeling Realistically
- Modeling a picture
- Modeling with the Spin Tool
- Creating Ogg-Theora movies using Blender Should this page be moved here?
- Creating animated GIFs using Blender and Gimp Should this page be moved here?
- 3D Tiling Backgrounds For The Web Should this page be moved here?
- Cool Things That Aren't That Obvious in Blender Should this page be moved here?
- Troubleshooting Common Technical Issues and What to do About Them Should this page be moved here?
- Creating Blender Libraries Should this page be moved here?
- All Blender Tutorial Links – tutorials from all over the Web
- Add some depth with stereo
- Ways to create a "fluffy" effect [materials and lights) (under construction)
- Human Body
- Rendering Informations
- Using Blender Libraries
- Beginning Modeling Final Project
[edit] Resource Directories
- All Blueprints Links – blueprints from all over the Web
Modeling
A Better Face Tutorial
Learn how to make a 3D human face easily and quickly with Blender3D. |
Banana Modeling Tutorial
Find out how to make a Banana in Blender3D, complete with textures. |
Bevel with Knife Tool
Learn how to bevel your objects with nothing but the knife tool. |
Create a Race Track
Make your very own racetrack image in Blender3D. Perfect for a game. |
Create a Vase
A very good beginner tutorial for Blender3D. Learn how to make a 3D vase. |
Modeling a Die
A concise tutorial to learn how to make a 3D die. |
Rendering Realistic Leaves
Learn how to make realistic looking leaves in Blender3D. |
Simple Flag Creation
Learn a very interesting method of making a flag. |
Edge Loops for Faces
Edge loops are very important when making a face, especially if it is to be realistic and animated. |
Grass Tutorial
Make realistic grass using the power of Blender particles. |
How to Model a Tennis Ball
This tutorial should teach some very important features of Blender3D, including loop cuts. |
Animated Procedural Textures
Procedural textures in Blender are extremely powerful, and this is brought to the next stage when you can animate them! |
Bump Maps for Beginners
Bump mapping is a popular method to fake details on rough surfaces, and is a skill that should definitely be learnt. |
Material Nodes Making a Planetoid
This teaches you how to use the material nodes system to achieve a popular effect, which can be used on many things, not only on planets! |
Texturing an Apple
Using the example of "How to Texture an Apple", this tutorial teaches you all the basics for doing professional and realistic texturing later on. |
Using Vertex Painting to Blend Textures
Another quicker method to easily blend two textures together. A very useful tutorial. |
Animation
Advanced Rigging Spaceship Landing
This tutorial will bring you one step closer to advanced uses of armatures. |
Animating Wheel Rotation along Path
A seriously important tutorial, it teachers you how to animate wheels moving along a path with rotation. Useful for cars, carts, chariots, or anything, really. |
Camera Changer
A bite-size basic tutorial that teaches you how to switch views from one camera to another. |
Compositioning Terragen Animations
Terragen is a powerful tool to generate realistic terrains and landscapes. This can now be easily linked together with Blender to give stunning visual effects! A must-read! |
Create an IK Chain
The IK chain is one of the most important features in rigging for animations. All people should read this. |
Foot Rig without Action Constraints
Here shows a method which can be used when rigging a foot. This is useful for those new to rigging techniques. |
Lip Syncing With Shape Keys
Syncing the characters mouth with words is a very important part of character animation. This tutorial will serve as a helpful guide to making it an easy process. |
Make a Dancing Character
This tutorial should guide you through several rigging procedures and give the very basics of animation...with practice you'll soon be able to make your own dancing character! |
Making a Ball Bounce
The bouncing ball is one of the most fundamental and important steps when learning how to animate. This should give you a quick and easy introduction to animation. |
Rather Good Leg Rig for Blender
Another rather good rigging technique specific to the leg. There are many techniques, and all have their good points. |
Take on Cloth Animation Envelope Armor
An interesting method to approach animating cloths and cloaks by having fun with bones. |
Train Moving Tutorial
This tutorial teaches you how to make objects follow each other consecutively. A highly useful technique for trains, worms, etc. |
Blender Fluid Simulation
This will guide you through the basics of the Blender fluid simulator. |
Cloud Creation
Create realistic looking clouds quickly and easily using this technique. |
Random Placement Based on Bullet Physics
Don't let the title scare you, it's simply a fancy way to layout objects in your scene! A pretty interesting method. |
Surface Tension of Water
Simply placing one object in a fluid gives a rather nasty looking sharp edge which leads to unrealism. This'll show you how to show surface tension of water. |
Transitional Wipes
A method of achieving a 'warp' texturing effect. |