Learning Blender: A Hands-On Guide to Creating 3D Animated Characters(Learning)

Master the Newest Blender Techniques for Creating Amazing 3D Characters: From Design and Modeling to Video Compositing Now fully updated for Blender 2.78b and beyond, Learning Blender, Second Edition, walks you through every step of creating an outstanding 3D animated character with Blender, and then compositing it in a real video using a professional workflow. This edition covers the powerful new selection and modeling tools, as well as high-efficiency improvements related to other parts of the project such as texture painting, shading, rigging, rendering, and compositing.   Still the only Blender tutorial to take you from preproduction to final result, this guide is perfect for both novices and those moving from other software to Blender (open source and free software). Author Oliver Villar provides full-color, hands-on chapters that cover every aspect of character creation: design, modeling, unwrapping, texturing, shading, rigging, animation, and rendering. He also walks you through integrating your animated character into a real-world video, using professional camera tracking, lighting, and compositing techniques.   The rich companion website (blendtuts.com/learning-blender-files) will help you quickly master even the most complex techniques with bonus contents like video tutorials. By the time you’re done, you’ll be ready to create outstanding characters for all media—and you’ll have up-to-date skills for any 3D project, whether it involves characters or not. Learn Blender’s updated user interface, navigation, and selection techniques Create your first scene with Blender and the Blender Render and Cycles render engines Organize an efficient, step-by-step pipeline to streamline workflow in any project Master modeling, unwrapping, and texturing Bring your character to life with materials and shading Create your character’s skeleton and make it walk Use Camera Tracking to mix 3D objects into a real-world video Transform a raw rendered scene into the final result using Blender’s compositing nodes

Table of Contents:
Preface xxiii Acknowledgments xxix About the Author xxxi   Part I: The Basics of Blender 1   Chapter 1: What You Need to Know About Blender 3 What Is Blender? 3 Commercial Software Versus Open-Source Software 4 The History of Blender 5 The Blender Foundation and Blender Institute 7 The Blender Community 9 Summary 10 Exercises 10   Chapter 2: Blender Basics: The User Interface 11 Downloading and Installing Blender 11 Using Blender with Recommended Hardware 11 Navigating the Blender User Interface 13 Understanding the 3D View Editor 14 Navigating 3D View 18 Managing Areas 20 Working with Editor Types 21 Selecting Objects 24 Making an Active Selection 25 Using the 3D Cursor 25 Setting Blender’s User Preferences 27 Summary 29 Exercises 29 Chapter 3: Your First Scene in Blender 31 Creating Objects 31 Moving, Rotating, and Scaling 32 Naming Objects and Using Datablocks 35 Using Interaction Modes 38 Applying Flat or Smooth Surfaces 39 Working with Modifiers 40 Using Blender Render and Cycles 44 Managing Materials 44 Turning on the Lights 46 Moving the Camera in Your Scene 47 Rendering 48 Summary 51 Exercises 51   Part II: Beginning a Project 53   Chapter 4: Project Overview 55 The Three Stages of a Project 55 Defining the Stages 56 Making a Character-Creation Plan 59 Summary 60 Exercises 60   Chapter 5: Character Design 61 Character Description 61 Designing the Character 64 Adding Color 70 Finalizing the Design 71 Making Character Reference Images 72 Using Other Design Methods 74 Summary 75 Exercises 75   Part III: Modeling in Blender 77   Chapter 6: Blender Modeling Tools 79 Working with Vertices, Edges, and Faces 79 Making Selections 81 Using Mesh Modeling Tools 86 Working with LoopTools 105 Working with F2 107 Using Other Interesting Blender Options 108 Summary 109 Exercises 109   Chapter 7: Character Modeling 111 What Is Mesh Topology? 111 Choosing Modeling Methods 113 Setting Up the Reference Planes 114 Modeling the Eyes 117 Modeling the Face 121 Modeling the Torso and Arms 131 Modeling the Legs 139 Modeling the Boots 141 Modeling the Hands 143 Modeling the Cap 147 Modeling the Hair 150 Modeling the Final Details 154 Summary 158 Exercises 158   Part IV: Unwrapping, Painting, and Shading 159   Chapter 8: Unwrapping and UVs in Blender 161 Seeing How Unwrapping and UVs Work 161 Unwrapping in Blender 162 Considering Before Unwrapping 169 Working with UVs in Blender 170 Unwrapping the Rest of the Character 176 Packing UVs 177 Summary 179 Exercises 180   Chapter 9: Painting Textures 181 Defining the Main Workflow 181 Painting in Blender 181 Creating the Base Texture 186 Texturing in 2D Image Editing Software 188 Seeing the Painted Character in Blender 193 Summary 193 Exercises 194   Chapter 10: Materials and Shaders 195 Understanding Materials 195 Shading Your Character with Blender Render 199 Shading Your Character with Cycles 212 Summary 220 Exercises 220   Part V: Bringing Your Character to Life 221   Chapter 11: Character Rigging 223 Understanding the Rigging Process 223 Working with Armatures 224 Rigging Your Character 229 Skinning 242 Creating the Facial Rig 250 Creating Custom Shapes 255 Making Final Retouches 257 Reusing Your Character in Different Scenes 258 Summary 260 Exercises 261   Chapter 12: Animating Your Character 263 Inserting Keyframes 263 Working with Animation Editors 264 Animating a Walk Cycle 269 Summary 274 Exercises 275   Part VI: Getting the Final Result 277   Chapter 13: Camera Tracking in Blender 279 Understanding Camera Tracking 279 Shooting Video for Easy Tracking 280 Using the Movie Clip Editor 281 Tracking the Camera 282 Testing Camera Tracking 289 Summary 290 Exercises 290   Chapter 14: Lighting, Compositing, and Rendering 291 Lighting Your Scene 291 Using the Node Editor 293 Compositing Your Scene in Blender Render 299 Compositing Your Scene in Cycles 304 Rendering 307 Summary 309 Exercises 310   Part VII: Keep Learning 311   Chapter 15: Other Blender Features 313 Particles 313 Hair Simulation 313 Cloth Simulation 314 Rigid and Soft Bodies 314 Fluids Simulation 314 Fire and Smoke 314 Grease Pencil 315 Pie Menus 315 Game Engine 315 Freestyle Rendering 315 Masking, Object Tracking, and Video Stabilization 316 Sculpting 316 Retopology 316 Maps Baking 317 Included Add-Ons 317 More Add-Ons 317 Animation Nodes 318 Python Scripting 318 Summary 318   Index 319

About the Author :
Oliver Villar, born in Galicia (Spain) in 1987, has been drawing since he was a kid. His interest in art brought him into 3D, which he’s been studying since 2004. He used different commercial 3D software before stumbling onto Blender in 2008. Since then, he uses Blender professionally as a freelance 3D designer and tutor. In 2010 he funded blendtuts.com, a website in which he’s devoted to offer quality Blender training videos to the community. Currently, he’s working as the co-director of Luke’s Escape, a 3D animated short film made with Blender.