Blender Documentation Volume I - User Guide

Last modified September 01 2004 S68

Claudio Andauer

Manuel Bastioni

Baldassarre Cesarano

Alejandro Conty Estevez

Karsten Dambekalns

Florian Findeiss

Alex Heizer

Tim van Howe

Wouter van Heyst

Joeri Kassenaar

Martin Kleppman

Lyubomir Kovacev

Johnny Matthews

Reevan McKay

Kent Mein

Martin Middleton

Eric Oberlander

Jason Oppel

Willem-Paul van Overbruggen

Ton Roosendaal

Bastian Samela

Stefano Selleri

Bart Veldhuizen

Chris Williamson

Carsten Wartmann

Copyright © 2002 by Stichting Blender Foundation. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the Open Content License. A copy of the license is included in the appendix.

Table of Contents
I. Introduction to Blender
Introduction
What is Blender?
Blender's History
About Free Software and the GPL
Getting support - the Blender community
Installation
Downloading and installing the binary distribution
Building Blender from source
Understanding the interface
Blender's Interface Concept
Navigating in 3D Space
The vital functions
Your first animation in 30 + 30 minutes
Warming up
Building the body
Let's see what Gus looks like
Materials and Textures
Rigging
Skinning
Posing
Gus walks!
II. Modelling, Materials and Lights
ObjectMode
Selecting objects
Moving (translating) objects
Rotating objects
Scaling/mirroring objects
Transform Properties Panel
Duplicate
Parenting (Grouping)
Tracking
Other Actions
Boolean operations
Basic Mesh Modelling
Basic Objects
EditMode
Smoothing
Extrude
Spin and SpinDup
Screw
Warp Tool
Advanced Mesh Modelling
Catmull-Clark Subdivision Surfaces (-)
Edge Tools
Bevelling Tools
Symmetrical Modelling
Proportional Editing Tool
Noise
Decimator Tool
Meta Objects
Curves and Surfaces
Curves
Surfaces
Text
Extrude Along Path
Skinning
Materials and Textures
Diffusion
Specular Reflection
Materials in practice
Ramp Shaders (-)
Raytracing Reflections (-)
Raytraced Transparencies (-)
Multiple Materials
Special Materials
Textures
Textures
Environment Maps
Displacement Maps
Solid and Hollow Glass
UV Editor and FaceSelect
Unwrapping Suzanne
Texture Plugins
Lighting
Introduction
Lamp Types
Ray Shadows
Buffer Shadows
Volumetric Light
Tweaking Light
The World and The Universe
The World Background
Exposure
Mist
Stars
Ambient Occlusion
III. Animation
Animation of Undeformed Objects
IPO Block
Key Frames
The IPO Curves
IPO Curves and IPO Keys
Other applications of IPO Curves
The Time Ipo
Path Animation
Animation of Deformations
Absolute Vertex Keys
Relative VertexKeys
Lattice Animation
Character Animation
Introduction: Lights, Camera and... ACTION !
General Tools
The Armature Object
Skinning
Posemode
Action Window
Non Linear Animation
Constraints
Rigging a Hand and a Foot
Rigging Mechanics
How to setup a walkcycle using NLA
IV. Rendering
Rendering
Rendering by Parts
Panoramic renderings
Antialiasing
Output formats
Rendering Animations
Motion Blur
Depth of Field
Cartoon Edges
The Unified Renderer
Preparing your work for video
Radiosity
The Blender Radiosity method
Radiosity Rendering
Radiosity as a Modelling Tool
Radiosity Juicy example
Raytracing
V. Advanced Tools
Particles
Introduction
Simple Particles
Interacting Particles
Other Effects
Introduction
Build Effect
Wave Effect
Special modelling techniques
Introduction
DupliVerts
DupliFrames
Modelling with lattices
Volumetric Effects
Sequence Editor
Learning the Sequence Editor
Sound Sequence Editor
Sequence Editor Plugins
VI. Extending Blender
Python Scripting
A working Python example
Python Reference
Python Scripts
Blender's Plugins System
Writing a Texture Plugin
Specification:
Generic Texture Plugin:
Our Modifications:
Compiling:
Writing a Sequence Plugin
VII. Beyond Blender
From Blender to YafRay Using YableX
What is Yable?
Installing the script
The Interface
Yable Juicy example
YafRay
Introduction
Installation
Scene Description Language Overview
Shaders
Renderable Objects
Lights
Background
Camera
Render
Filters
Glossary
  Next >>>
  Introduction to Blender