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Chapter title: |
Theeth's quick blender tuts |
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Chapter sub title: |
Some tips for modelling and texturing |
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Author: |
Martin Poirier (Aka theeth) |
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Topics: |
Modelling and Texturing |
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Difficulty: |
Beginners |
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Introduction |
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Hi, welcome to my Mini-Tutorial collumn. [br]Since it seems like a period of the year full of contest, I though about giving you a little trick to model faster and better. [br]Also, after having saw ViperCA have some problems with decalls (and Hos suggestion to do a tut on this), this will be the second part of my collumn. [br][br]So, lucky you: it's a 2 in 1 this week! YAY! |
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A modelling technique |
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Were you ever stuck when trying to model something to the point that you needed to model two sides of an object as to be identical. For a chair or something as simple as that, it's easy, but when you come across things like a plane, a bicycle or an F1 [wink], it's a lot more difficult. [br]Of course, there is an easier way than modelling one side after the other, Doing one side, copying it and mirroring it. [br][br]Here's how you do: [br]-> Model a little bit of the thing you want to model, but only the half part. [br]-> Make sure that the center of the object is in the middle of the entire model, NOT in the middle of the half [br]-> [icon#tab] out of edit mode. [br]-> Make a linked copy of it ( [icon#alt]+[icon#s] ) [br]-> Mirror it on the X or Y axis depending on your model ( [icon#s] + [icon#control] then [icon#x] or [icon#y] ) Now, whenever you change something on one side, the other side is going to reflect it. [br]The downside of this is that it's going to show a seam in the middle, but just during the modelling phase. Also, Blender has a sort of bugs which make it display the mirrored copy in black in the 3D window (but NOT in rendering!). [br][br]When you are finish with the modelling, join the two side ( [icon#control] + [icon#j] ). You may have to recalculate the normals direction ( [icon#control] + [icon#n] ). [br][br]Tada! You just took half the time to model something complex! |
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Sticking decalls |
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What is important when doing a model is the textures. [br]When texturing, one thing that is useful is to be able to place an image at a precise place on a model. [br][br]One way to do that would be to use Blender's UVtexturer, but there is an easier method, use and object as a coordinates, rotations and sizes placeholder. [br]To do this, here's what you must do: [br]-> First, add a material to your object if that's not already done (in the Material window ( [icon#f5] ) press the little white square at the right of the header and click 'add new'). [br]-> Tweak the colors and material property to your likings. [br]-> Go into the Texture window ( [icon#f6] ) and add a new texture (same technique as the material). [br]-> Change the texture type to image by clicking on the grey button called 'image' in the first button row. [br]-> Press load and browse to the image you want to use as a decall (remember, Blender cannot read BMP or GIFF, so convert those before). [br]-> In the image setting, select 'clip'. [br]-> Create an Empty object (Press SPACE -> Add -> Empty) and position it where you want your decall to be. The Z axis should be perpendicular to the surface. If you rotate or resize it, it's going to affect the decall. [br]-> Go back to the material window ( [icon#f5] ). [br]-> In the right half of the screen, click the green button named 'object' and enter the Empty's name in the field right next to it. [br][br] That's it! the only things that is left is maybe some tweaking of the rotation and size for the Empty. [br][br] Also, a little trick of mine would be to create the same material, but without the texture and assign this to the face near or in line with the Empty but for which you don't want the decall. |
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THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO SAY ABOUT THIS |
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That's the end! If you like it, come back in two week for more! In the time, if you have any suggestion or comments, BIM me if i'm online or drop me a mail at [link mailto:theeth@yahoo.com]theeth@yahoo.com[/link]. [br]I hope you've learned something, if not, you may be too good for me (or you might be [insert your favorite Blenderhead's nickname here] [wink])! [br][br][i]Martin[/i] [br]PS: I've been writing "come back next week" for about 2 months even though the CJs are every other week and nobody noticed. YAY! |
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