1st Edition

Blender for Animation and Film-Based Production

By Michelangelo Manrique Copyright 2015
    288 Pages 223 B/W Illustrations
    by A K Peters/CRC Press

    288 Pages
    by A K Peters/CRC Press

    See Why Blender Is Right for Your Studio’s Pipeline

    Blender for Animation and Film-Based Production explores why Blender is ideal for animation films. It demonstrates Blender’s capability to do the job in each production department. Whether you are a beginner or more advanced user, you’ll see why Blender should be taken into consideration in animation and film production.

    This Blender reference will help you:

    • Manage your projects from start to finish
    • Understand the different stages in any animation production
    • See how studios work and develop their animation projects

    Describing the versatility and power of Blender, the book shows you why studios should incorporate Blender in their pipeline. It avoids tedious tutorials and incomprehensible examples. Instead, the book guides you toward finding efficient solutions for issues with your production files or pipeline. It familiarizes you with the animation industry and explores the risks involved in choosing Blender as a primary tool in animation studios.

    Why Blender

    History of Blender
    BLENDER’S ROADMAP

    Blender User Interface
    START UP BLENDER
    CONTROLS AND BUTTONS
    EDITOR SYSTEM
    EDITOR TYPES
    MODES AND CONTEXT
    INTERNATIONALIZATION

    Blender in a Digital Studio Pipeline
    USING BLENDER FOR PREPRODUCTION TASKS
    USING BLENDER FOR POSTPRODUCTION TASKS
    ORGANIZE THE PROJECT IN DISK
    BLENDER AND THE OPEN MOVIES

    Modeling Your Main Character
    MODELING IN BLENDER
    MODIFIERS
    MAKING PROPS
    BUILDING THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE SCENE
    TOPOLOGY SOLUTIONS

    Applying Materials to Our Objects
    PREVIEW
    DIFFUSE
    SPECULAR
    SHADING
    TRANSPARENCY
    MIRROR
    SUBSURFACE SCATTERING
    STRAND
    OPTIONS
    SHADOW

    Blender Internal Textures
    PREVIEW
    COLORS
    MAPPING
    INFLUENCE

    UV Unwrap and External Textures
    UNWRAPPING A MESH
    UV LAYOUTS
    EDITING UVS
    OPTIMIZE THE UV MAP
    COMBINE UV MAPS
    REFINE LAYOUT
    APPLYING IMAGES

    Introduction to Rigging: Armatures and Bones
    THE ARMATURE OBJECT
    BONES

    The Animation Process
    TIMELINE AND ANIMATICS
    MARKERS
    KEYFRAMES
    TYPES OF ANIMATION
    USING CONSTRAINTS IN ANIMATION
    SHAPE KEYS
    WALKCYCLE

    Introduction to Lighting
    LAMPS
    SHADOW
    ENVIRONMENT LIGHT
    AMBIENT OCCLUSION
    RESOLVING ISSUES WITH LIGHTS

    Compositing Nodes
    SETTING UP NODES
    USING NODES
    NODE TYPES

    Using Particles and Dynamics
    DYNAMICS AND FORCE FIELDS
    COLLISIONS
    PARTICLES
    SOFT BODY
    CLOTH
    FLUIDS
    SMOKE

    Render
    BLENDER INTERNAL
    CYCLES
    EXTERNAL RENDER ENGINES
    RENDER SETTINGS AND TIPS

    Final Movie Compositing
    USING BLENDER IN POSTPRODUCTION

    Python
    PYTHON API
    BLENDER/PYTHON API IN FILM PRODUCTION

    Film Promotion and Conclusion
    CONCLUSION

    Appendix

    References

    Index

    Biography

    Michelangelo Manrique is a full-time programmer with a gaming network company. He is also involved in publishing tutorials, writing books, and conducting different courses on Blender designed to suit individual student needs.