Maxforums - Needed a challenge: learning blender!

Needed a challenge: learning blender!

_3dioot

Hi huys,

Since i (almost) never post here anymore i just thought id take this as an excuse to post a simple plaything i created to learn blender. Sculpted in sculptris and rendered in blender. I might throw some more "learnscenes" in here if anything interesting comes up before i go to ireland for my vacation.

Anyone else as crazy as me and also learning blender 2.5? Tek werent you a fan? Or are you still abusing the brainpower of your gf? ^_^

Ciao

3dioot

read 579 times
8/16/2010 9:41:04 PM (last edit: 8/16/2010 9:41:04 PM)

Westcoast13

Westcoast13 likes this.

I've been toying with the idea of learning Blender but waiting for 2.5. I guess my only excuse is time now. Must make time.....

My Turbosquid Area

read 528 times
8/17/2010 7:02:32 AM (last edit: 8/17/2010 7:02:32 AM)

soontekk

oh yes! blender looks sweet
i have it installed on my laptop and everytime i have a spare minute i'm in there
not many spare minutes for now, learning the new zb4 features (and the old ones :) but learning blender is a very good investment imo
show us moar!

melting ur brainz!
/ FOS4 / FO2 / iStockphoto / Twitter / Facebook / Vimeo /

read 515 times
8/17/2010 8:25:54 AM (last edit: 8/17/2010 8:25:54 AM)

_3dioot

3dioot likes westcoast13 liking this

There are plenty of excuses to wait for 2.6. Believe me. Only do this if your masochistic in nature. ;)

Tek! I thought i had spotted you expressing your blender luvin but from this post you sound like a true fanatic!

All jokes aside i have been quite impressed with blender 2.5 Interface is much improved which means you can actually learn by exploring the program. There are also quite a few good 2.5 tutorials available allready. Offcourse ive allready played with smoke and fluids. I must say i was baffled by the speed! Doubt ill ever need it but eh. ^_^ Rendering seems nice too and faster then i expected.

The one thing that really disappointed me though and thats standing in my way with every experiment im doing is the mesh modelling. Its so incredibly poor its not funny. Essentially its mesh edit with some hacked tools for loops and rings. Biggest flaw; any polygon thats not a tri or a quad gets triangulated. Feels like i travelled back in time. In fact its so poor most blender users use wings to the side.

I look forward to playing with the node editor though. Right now im working my way through curves. The obligatory trace 2d logo extrude kinda stuff. It took me a while because of a bug. :) Next up is lathe. Then i have a glass to fill with a fluid.. Hmmmm ^_^

3dioot

read 503 times
8/17/2010 11:07:09 AM (last edit: 8/17/2010 11:20:15 AM)

_3dioot

Playing with a wineglass. Lots of stuff wrong with it but fun nonetheless. :)

Blender internal render ofcourse. No idea how to get rid of the double reflection. I cant turn on reflection for the area light but placing a white card in front of it somehow disables its shadows. Teeheehee. ^_^

3dioot

PS
Perhaps i should thicken its stem. :)

read 472 times
8/17/2010 4:14:57 PM (last edit: 8/17/2010 4:15:19 PM)

Joey Parker Jr.

I also wanted a challenge, but Blender was too scary so instead I decided to walk on hot coals while rubbing glass into my eyes.

Yes the stem is a bit thin.

read 459 times
8/17/2010 4:31:19 PM (last edit: 8/17/2010 4:31:19 PM)

soontekk

gogo, pour fluid into the glass jw!
it's quite easy btw.. :)

melting ur brainz!
/ FOS4 / FO2 / iStockphoto / Twitter / Facebook / Vimeo /

read 447 times
8/17/2010 5:18:31 PM (last edit: 8/17/2010 5:18:31 PM)

_3dioot

@joey
lol

@tek
Ive been trying that. But im failing miserably. I have the theory down fine but adding obstacles seems to be really hit and miss. Perhaps its important to clear out the cache or something? I must be missing something. I even got it to work with an obstacle in an empty scene so i have no clue why its messing up right now. Hmm... Perhaps i should work to scale. No idea how big blender units are. Time to find out.

Ah ah ah. The experiment continues. :)

3dioot

PS
I totally forgot how much fun it is to figure stuff out. Ive missed it! :)

read 443 times
8/17/2010 5:25:40 PM (last edit: 8/17/2010 5:25:40 PM)

_3dioot

Pfffff... Lots of experimenting while i should be preparing for my vacation. :p

Here is the latest incarnation of the wineglass.

Ran into lots of trouble with raytrace depths not being high enough so transparant objects became opaque etc. etc. But i think this looks reasonable if a little dark. No more time though. Im done with my pc for the coming 1,5 week. Leaving tomorrow.

Tek you have a renderfarm at your disposal? :p

3dioot

read 385 times
8/18/2010 11:49:37 AM (last edit: 8/18/2010 11:51:13 AM)

_3dioot

Let it ran while i did my stuff today.

This is the result: Video

Plenty of stuff to improve and even more questions. Im certain you guys will have a field day with picking the movie apart. My biggest regret is i didnt turn up the velocity and angle the inflow in such a way that you would get more of a swirling effect. Oh well; at least ill have something to look forward to when i have time to play with blender again. ^_^

3dioot

read 357 times
8/18/2010 4:50:34 PM (last edit: 8/18/2010 4:51:33 PM)

soontekk

wow i love it jw !!
yes i have a little farm but only max on it though

melting ur brainz!
/ FOS4 / FO2 / iStockphoto / Twitter / Facebook / Vimeo /

read 341 times
8/18/2010 5:40:17 PM (last edit: 8/18/2010 5:40:17 PM)

Westcoast13

I wanted to watch this but i havent got the codec. I'm seriously ill with Man Flu and need assistance. What do i need to download. Noob. :(

My Turbosquid Area

read 326 times
8/18/2010 7:44:35 PM (last edit: 8/18/2010 7:44:35 PM)

Westcoast13

Panic over. Nice video.

My Turbosquid Area

read 323 times
8/18/2010 7:52:59 PM (last edit: 8/18/2010 7:52:59 PM)

_3dioot

Ireland was lovely. Can definitely recommend that country for a vacation. :)

Thanks Kurt. Its a shame the yafaray connection (external render) isnt up for blender 2.5 yet or i could really push it rendering wise.

In regards to the rendering farm. It may be fun to experiment with that although blender's render is pretty basic at the moment. From what ive read there has been some huge improvements made for use in the durian project but (as usual) they are only in the developmental builds.

@westcoats13
Thanks noob. ;) (its xvid btw)

3dioot

read 258 times
9/2/2010 3:36:19 PM (last edit: 9/2/2010 3:36:19 PM)