Get up and running with Blender 3D through a series of practical projects that will help you learn core concepts of 3D design like modeling, sculpting, materials, textures, lighting, and rigging using the latest features of Blender 2.83
Key Features
- Learn the basics of 3D design and navigate your way around the Blender interface
- Understand how 3D components work and how to create 3D content for your games
- Familiarize yourself with 3D Modeling, Texturing, Lighting, Rendering and Sculpting with Blender
Book Description
Blender is a powerful 3D creation package that supports every aspect of the 3D pipeline. With this book, you'll learn about modeling, rigging, animation, rendering, and much more with the help of some interesting projects.
This practical guide, based on the Blender 2.83 LTS version, starts by helping you brush up on your basic Blender skills and getting you acquainted with the software toolset. You'll use basic modeling tools to understand the simplest 3D workflow by customizing a Viking themed scene. You'll get a chance to see the 3D modeling process from start to finish by building a time machine based on provided concept art. You will design your first 2D character while exploring the capabilities of the new Grease Pencil tools. The book then guides you in creating a sleek modern kitchen scene using EEVEE, Blender's new state-of-the-art rendering engine. As you advance, you'll explore a variety of 3D design techniques, such as sculpting, retopologizing, unwrapping, baking, painting, rigging, and animating to bring a baby dragon to life.
By the end of this book, you'll have learned how to work with Blender to create impressive computer graphics, art, design, and architecture, and you'll be able to use robust Blender tools for your design projects and video games.
What you will learn
- Explore core 3D modeling tools in Blender such as extrude, bevel, and loop cut
- Understand Blender's Outliner hierarchy, collections, and modifiers
- Find solutions to common problems in modeling 3D characters and designs
- Implement lighting and probes to liven up an architectural scene using EEVEE
- Produce a final rendered image complete with lighting and post-processing effects
- Learn character concept art workflows and how to use the basics of Grease Pencil
- Learn how to use Blender's built-in texture painting tools
Who this book is for
Whether you're completely new to Blender, or an animation veteran enticed by Blender's newest features, this book will have something for you.
Table of Contents
- Introduction to 3D and the Blender User Interface
- Editing a Viking Scene with a Basic 3D Workflow
- Modeling a Time Machine - Part 1
- Modeling a Time Machine - Part 2
- Modern Kitchen - Part 1: Kitbashing
- Modern Kitchen - Part 2: Materials and Textures
- Modern Kitchen - Part 3: Lighting and Rendering
- Illustrating an Alien Hero with Grease Pencil
- Animating an Exquisite Corpse in Grease Pencil
- Animating a Stylish Short with Grease Pencil
- Creating a Baby Dragon - Part 1: Sculpting
- Creating a Baby Dragon - Part 2: Retopology
- Creating a Baby Dragon - Part 3: UV Unwrapping
- Creating a Baby Dragon - Part 4: Baking and Painting Textures
- Creating a Baby Dragon - Part 5: Rigging and Animation
- The Wide World of Blender
Whether you're completely new to Blender, or an animation veteran enticed by Blender's newest features, this book will have something for you.
Author(s): Oscar Greer, Xury Baechler
Edition: 2
Publisher: Packt Publishing
Year: 2020
Cover
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
About Packt
Contributors
Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1: Introduction to 3D and the Blender User Interface
Overview of the 3D workflow
The 3D coordinate system
3D objects
Components of a mesh
Materials and textures
Perspective view versus Orthographic view
Blender's user interface
A brief history of Blender's user interface
Blender 2.8's user interface
Basic 3D navigation controls
A brief introduction to the projects in this book
Setting up the source files
Summary
Chapter 2: Editing a Viking Scene with a Basic 3D Workflow
Setting up the source files
Using the Outliner to organize a scene
Navigating the 3D Viewport
Using the Toolbar
Basic transformations in Object Mode
Editing the Viking helmet
Preparing to work on the helmet
Making changes to components in Edit Mode
Adding the nose guard
Adding the horns
Adding the studs
Returning to Object Mode to finish
Rendering the final image
Summary
Chapter 3: Modeling a Time Machine - Part 1
Using transformation hotkeys
Setting up the reference images for the time machine
Box modeling the main section of the chair
Destructive editing versus non-destructive editing
Modeling the cushions of the chair
Modeling the sci-fi rings with modifiers
Modeling the armrests
Summary
Questions
Chapter 4: Modeling a Time Machine - Part 2
Modeling the base of the time machine
Modeling the clock
Modeling the side rails
Modeling the rear assembly
Modeling the front housing
Adding smooth shading to the model
Summary
Questions
Chapter 5: Modern Kitchen - Part 1: Kitbashing
Setting up the source files
Previsualizing the kitchen layout
Creating a floor plan
Creating previz objects
Laying out the kitchen composition
Creating tables with box modeling
Appending or linking the tables to the scene
Creating chairs with modifiers and curves
Chair 1 – a wooden slat deck chair
Chair 2 – a perforated plastic bar stool
Chair 3 – cushioned coffee table chairs
Chair 4 – a plastic chair with air slits
Chair 5 – wooden layers with Booleans
Appending, linking, and instancing the chairs
Creating cabinets, islands, and a stove with add-ons
Enabling our add-ons
An Archimesh kitchen island
Boolean modeling a sink with Bool Tool
Doors and windows with Archipack
Adding other decorations with Extra Objects
Linking in canned assets
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Chapter 6: Modern Kitchen - Part 2: Materials and Textures
Simple materials and the nodal workflow
Navigating nodes with a test material
The Principled BSDF material
Simple metals
Simple non-metals
Wood
Tiled backsplash
Granite counters
Plant alpha cards
Wall art texture atlas
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Chapter 7: Modern Kitchen - Part 3: Lighting and Rendering
Preparing the scene
Daylight rendering
Preliminary lighting with a sun object
World lighting
Indirect lighting
Irradiance volume
Addressing artifacts
Reflection probes
Using filters and postprocessing
Screen space reflections
Bloom
Ambient occlusion
Color management
Camera settings
Rendering with indoor lighting
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Chapter 8: Illustrating an Alien Hero with Grease Pencil
Playing with Grease Pencil objects
Setting up a tablet and stylus
Annotating with Grease Pencil
Testing in the default Grease Pencil scene
The Edit and Sculpt modes
Adjusting the brush tool for calligraphy
Customizing Grease Pencil materials
Stippling over a photo with a dots material
Roughing in a character
Thumbnailing with layers and keyframes
Sketching rounded forms in Pencil
Construction drawing
Inking the alien hero
The starting ink
Adding color with the fills pipeline
Silhouette and local color
The background
Lighting and texture
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Chapter 9: Animating an Exquisite Corpse in Grease Pencil
Animating a bouncing ball
Pose to pose beginnings
Arcs, timing, and squash and stretch
Adding a visual style
Adding an ease-in, ease-out anticipation starting take
Reusing and reworking frames with Multiframe
Blinking Blender eyes
Reusing frames for the Blender blinking animation
A field of eyeballs
Returning to the start frame
Building a zooming fight scene
The lines layer
The fighters
Adding color
Bringing it all together
Rendering to external files
Editing the scenes together
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Chapter 10: Animating a Stylish Short with Grease Pencil
Getting started
Preproduction
Navigating this chapter's files
The walk cycle
The pencil test
The head and pelvis
Footfalls
Finalizing the walk cycle with loop and pizzazz
The background
The city skyline
The theater and usher
Animating the usher's take
The theater approach
The first take
The money exchange
Setting up the scene
Animating the characters
The theater, crying, and triumph
Reusing the walk with the concession stand
The popcorn
The change of heart
The ending
Entering the theater
Animating the girl's eating and the popcorn's death
End credits
Rendering the finished animation
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Chapter 11: reating a Baby Dragon - Part 1: Sculpting
The sculpting UI preset
Viewport shading and MatCaps
Low poly versus high poly
Overview of the sculpting brushes
The Draw brush
Smooth, Slide Relax, and Simplify brushes
The Clay and Clay strips brushes
The Snake Hook, Grab, and Elastic Deform brushes
Mask brushes
The Inflate and Blob brushes
The Crease and Pinch brushes
The Scrape and Flatten brushes
The Nudge and Thumb brushes
The Layer brush
The Rotate and IK Pose brushes
Utility brushes
Creating the starting point of the baby dragon with speed-sculpting
Approach 1: Dynamic topology – head, jaw, and horns
Approach 2: Skin modifier – wings, arms, and legs
Approach 3: Metaballs – torso and tail
Approach 4: Meshes – eyes, teeth, claws, and horns
Brute-force sculpting
Sculpting intermediate details
Chiseling with the Scrape, Pinch, and Smooth brushes
Bulging seams
Overlapping muscles via masking
Sculpting the fine details
Stenciling in scales
Stamping ridges along the wing and spine
Refining the details
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Chapter 12: Creating a Baby Dragon - Part 2: Retopology
What is topology?
What are the rules of good topology?
Polygon density
Edge loops
Face loops
Poles
Setting up Blender for the retopology workflow
Downloading the source files
Linking the sculpture to a new scene
Setting up viewport shading
Setting up the snap settings
Setting up the retopology object
Subdivision-shrinkwrap method (optional)
Enabling add-ons
Retopologizing the baby dragon
Method 1 – the Poly Build tool
Method 2 – Manual extrusion and F2
Method 3 – Shrinkwrap
Method 4 – Bsurfaces
Method 5 – QuadriFlow remeshing
Finishing up
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Chapter 13: Creating a Baby Dragon - Part 3: UV Unwrapping
What are UVs?
Setting up Blender for the UV unwrapping workflow
Downloading the source files
Setting up the interface
Setting up the preview checker pattern
Marking the seams and UV unwrapping
Marking the first seams
Visualizing the distortion
Fixing texel density issues
Laying out the baby dragon's UVs
Summary
Questions
Chapter 14: Creating a Baby Dragon - Part 4: Baking and Painting Textures
Technical requirements
Getting set up for texture baking
Preparing the scene for baking
Material baking setup
Baking texture maps from high poly to low poly
Your first bake – AO
Normals
Cavity and displacement
Convexity
Subsurface
Top lighting, soft lighting, and facing maps
Texture painting the base color in Blender
Painting the base color
Creating stencils in the image editor
Normal maps and sculpting with a bump map
Using external programs for image editing
Setting up an external program
Image edit projection painting
Setting up the remaining BSDF textures
Making specular and roughness maps from a master file
Subsurface scattering
Rune magic with object projection
Painting the eye
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Chapter 15: Creating a Baby Dragon - Part 5: Rigging and Animation
What is a rig?
Armatures and bones in Edit Mode
Practicing with a simple tentacle rig
Setting up the tentacle rig's controls
Finishing the tentacle rig
Using the Rigify add-on to rig the baby dragon
Setting up the baby dragon's meta-rig
Creating and modifying the Rigify rig
Modifying the armature weights
Parenting (everything) with automatic weights
Parenting to bones (eyes and stencil)
Assigning weights manually (to the horns, claws, and teeth)
Weighting the animation
Painting weights
Animating a flying cycle
Understanding the rig controls
Blocking in keyframes
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Chapter 16: The Wide World of Blender
Blender skills to learn next
Photogrammetry
Physics
Volumetrics
Hair and fur
Recording a macro in Python
The Blender community
The Blender Foundation and Blender Institute
Blender user groups
Online Blender communities
Summary
Questions
Other Books You May Enjoy
Index
