Blender 3d Modeling Tutorials

[Cody]

The original Oolite core ships were much closer to the Elite ships - and welcome aboard.

[Disembodied]

(Don't mind me - just trying to exorcise a ghost post …)

[Cody]

<grins> I had to exorcise one of those a couple of days back.

[Cody]

Got another one (intro thread), and I can't exorcise the damn question mark.

[Cody]

<grumbles> Who will rid me of this irritating interrogative?

[Cholmondely]

Can anyone point to any "Blender for Frickin' Idiots" tutorials, (the ones several steps below "Bender for Dummies") I might try?

Hopefully these will help.
Good luck!

Maestro: would there be any chance that you could just look over this (Blender Planet Textures) and possibly add a couple of comments to cover a_c's improvements since 2016?

[Commander_X]

There are two things I can say about that technique right away:

- it's still valid, but only with an (quite) old version of Blender (max 2.79b to be more specific). This is about the material configuration used to generate the textures -- what was presented there was valid only for the Blender Internal renderer engine, which was removed since.
- although what's presented there can be extended to create the additional textures for the improvements you mentioned, the effort would be quite high, and without too much value (someone would have to (re)train on an obsolete version of Blender in order to make use/sense of it)

I've concocted a different method usable with the latest versions of Blender for my initial attempts in BPlanets, and that could be a sort of upgrade to it, although I've placed it on a dusty shelf since I switched gears by trying the shader approach.

[Killer Wolf]

not sure if it's of any use/interest but there's a Planet Generator tool available for either $2 or $15
https://blendermarket.com/products/planet-generator-1

[montana05]

Bibe (Savannah)


Ququor (Terrestrial)


Retila (Mud)


Riraes (ocean world with pink oceans )

Some (lousy) screenshots from an experimental OXP, all designed by using a diffuse and a normal map created with https://www.texturesforplanets.com/. Somebody who actually knows what he is doing instead of just playing around like me probably could increase the quality significantly.

[Cholmondely]

I just bumped into this: Spaceship Generator (needs Blender 2.80)

[Killer Wolf]

Blender has an inbuilt Rock Generator too now, in case anyone needs more asteroidy things.

[Killer Wolf]

Just as info if anyone's thinking of using Blender, after my initial absolute nightmare trying to get anything to work, i have since had no issues whatsoever w/ the King Cobra; i'm guessing there was just *something* about the initial model i tried that either the export or the converters didn't like. simply;
- model away, ship aligned to Blender's axes/views, ie ship runs along the Y axis, Z is up.
- when you're done, Ctrl+A and apply any scales etc etc.
- rotate the model 90 degrees up on the X scale, so it's nose up
- Ctrl+A, apply rotation
- rotate back down 90 degrees on X
- Crtl+A, apply rotation; these steps now mean that your ship's local axes now match Oolite, ie Y is up, Z is along the ship.
- export as OBJ, there's settings where you can specify Y as up etc
- Obj2DatTex worked just fine, again i have no idea what the carry on was the first time i tried it.

[Old Murgh]

Just as info if anyone's thinking of using Blender..

What would you say is Bender's strength, making you choose to use that over Wings3D?

[Killer Wolf]

i personally found it more user-friendly and intuitive, once you get used to the controls etc. it really is a complete package too, when i first started the Vampires i remember the process was hugely convoluted - model in Milkshape, UV unwrap in a separate program, convert, PS for the skins etc etc. Blender's unwrapping is much better and convenient. it also helps that it's massively popular, so my learning was greatly helped by tutorial sites and places like blenderartists, and there's a load of cracking Youtube channels now. all 3D programs take some getting used to, i've used Milkshape, Hexagon and Wings too, but Blender seems here to stay so support and help is unlikely to die off as it did w/ Milkshape. it's extremely powerful too, both in features and capability - virtually anyhting you want to do in 3D, it can [i did an animation of my spider mech, everything but the skin paint was done in Blender; the modelling, rigging, animating, sound and redering] and a couple of the models i've made have been over a couple million faces.

[Cholmondely]

What would you say is Bender's strength, making you choose to use that over Wings3D?

i personally found it more user-friendly and intuitive, once you get used to the controls etc. it really is a complete package too, when i first started the Vampires i remember the process was hugely convoluted - model in Milkshape, UV unwrap in a separate program, convert, PS for the skins etc etc. Blender's unwrapping is much better and convenient. it also helps that it's massively popular, so my learning was greatly helped by tutorial sites and places like blenderartists, and there's a load of cracking Youtube channels now. all 3D programs take some getting used to, i've used Milkshape, Hexagon and Wings too, but Blender seems here to stay so support and help is unlikely to die off as it did w/ Milkshape. it's extremely powerful too, both in features and capability - virtually anyhting you want to do in 3D, it can [i did an animation of my spider mech, everything but the skin paint was done in Blender; the modelling, rigging, animating, sound and redering] and a couple of the models i've made have been over a couple million faces.

But then there is this (2017):

... I think I am addicted to Wings3D, learned how to use it in just a few days after banging my head against Blender's wall for years.

What does Griff use - and why? And what does cbr use?