Blender 3D by Example

Design a complete workflow with Blender to create stunning 3D scenes and films step-by-step!

About This Book

• Give life to a character within a full animated short film by learning the rigging and animation process
• Make use of the powerful tools available in Blender to produce professional-quality 3D characters and environments
• Discover advanced techniques by adding fur to a character, creating a grass field, and fine-tuning a shot with post-processing effects to enhance your creations

Who This Book Is For

This book will give any beginner the necessary skills and knowledge to create own 3D projects with Blender. You don't need to have any previous experience in 3D modeling, but if you do, then this book is a great way get you started with Blender. This book is for anyone who wants to learn Blender by creating concrete projects.

What You Will Learn

• Understand the basics of 3D and how to navigate your way around the Blender interface
• Create a 3D robot toy model from start to finish using the basic modeling tools of Blender
• Make a full alien character using the skin mesh modifier and the sculpting tools with an artistic approach
• Use re-topology techniques to create a clean 3D version of the previously sculpted alien
• Model a full haunted house and its environment using more advanced modeling tools and techniques such as the Array Modifier, Instance duplication, or Curves
• Discover the power of the texture paint tool in order to add color to the haunted house
• Get to know the Cycles render engine by creating different materials for the house and the environment

In Detail

Blender is a powerful tool, stable, with an integral workflow that will allow you to understand your learning of 3D creation with serenity. Today, it is considered to be one of the most complete 3D packages on the market and it is free and open source! It is very efficient for many types of productions, such as 3D animated or live action films, architecture, research, or even game creation with its integrated game engine and its use of the Python language. Moreover, Blender has an active community that contributes to expanding its functionalities. Today, it is used in many professional products and by many companies.

Through this book, you will create many types of concert projects using a step-by-step approach. You will start by getting to know the modeling tools available in Blender as you create a 3D robot toy. Then, you will discover more advanced techniques such as sculpting and re-topology by creating a funny alien character. After that, you will create a full haunted house scene.

For the last project, you will create a short film featuring a rat cowboy shooting cheese in a rat trap! This will be a more complex project in which you learn how to rig, animate, compose advanced material, composite, and edit a full sequence.

Each project in this book will give you more practice and increase your knowledge of the Blender tools. By the end of this book, you will master a workflow that you will be able to apply to your own creations.

Style and approach

This is an easy-to-follow book that is based on four concrete projects, with increasing levels of difficulty. Each chapter will teach you how to create these projects step-by-step. New tools and techniques are introduced in a theoretical and practical way, so you can apply them in your own projects later.