Blender
Community Forums/Developer Stations/Blender
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| I downloaded Blender recently. It looks complex but seems to have a good following, and a good website. If you know it I would like to get your opinions.I found a book on Blender at my local bookshop but it was 36 pounds and only a slim volume. |
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| The book is free online on the blender site. |
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| 36£, or 36lbs? |
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| I've used Blender. It's set up way different than most modellers but it's actually very useful. I experimented with UV mapping a bit and was starting to get the hang of it. I've recently been using it to create some race tracks for a game I'm making. My biggest complaint about Blender is that it's not very user friendly. It's set up for speed, which is good, but that ends up making it difficult to figure out at first. Especially take note that when typing in values (like specific coordinates) that there is no text cursor, which sometimes makes you unsure of if your typing something in correctly. You'll see what I mean. |
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| Yes, Its learning curve is very steep at first but levels out pretty fast after you figure out the basics. .b3d bone export would be nice. It has everything you need in a modeler, level editor, uv mapper and animator. |
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| Yes - I can't figure out how to use it at all. I'm sticking with Milkshape. |
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| I like it. But not so much for modelling. I model in Wings and animate in Blender...well that's at least one of my combinations.. ;) I'd prefer Max for animate my characters, but it's free ;) |
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| I model and animate in Blender. Unfortuantely it doesn't have any succesful exporters to b3d. Yet. You can export to md2, but there are problems with the normals. Check out the video tutorials at http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Video_Tutorials.396.0.html . They are very helpful in getting newbies started. The learning curve is indeed high, but it's definately worth it. |
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| "md2, but there are problems with the normals. " To me it exported well (and md3, x, obj) as well as an md2 can be. if us see cuts in smoothing, it'll make everytimeit finds an uv island border. Is an isue and limit of md2, not the exporter; every md2 exproter exports so in any package. The old guys exporting md2 used to just hide uv seams in non seen , or less seen places. You don't need to model in Blender to animate and export or render, in it, if you don't wish so. |
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| when i used it i couldent export my animations propely. what is the best format to do this in. |
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| For blitz3d, md2, or if u can make it work with Drago's libe, md3. If u have purchased Ultimate Unwrap www.unwrap3d.com , then I'd say go for x. Export the x file, import in UU, and export there in b3d format. Indeed, I'd strongly recommend if u have then UU, uv map there. Is more powerful for uv mapping. Quite more. The only thing is UU doesn't have LSCM uv mapping, or however it's written, but heh, the many more uv mapping features in UU are a total need in game uv mapping, and most aren't yet in Blender.Neither in Wings. You can also make some fixes in UU, even do all the material thing there, if u choose so. I mainly only use Blender for animation. And now, neither that. XSI is ...better :p hehe |
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| Just found out a good working pipeline to export animations from XSI to blitz via Deep Exploration and Unwrap3D. You just have to set the correct .xsi export settings in XSI, et voila. |
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| but...you actually don't need Deep exploration...One reason why I bought it finally is cause the *.x files import perfectly in Ultimate , directly... :? |
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| @bob3d hmm, i found the export to .x very troublesome in XSI. Did you try to export animations with weighted bones like the red_jaquia example? |
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| I know that x tend to support very basic subset of a highend package Reason why I started from scratch and put just what i needed. I don't animate with custom rigs...I came escaping from those rigs in Blender...I prefer something more direct. SO, just 2d and perhaps 3d IK chains, related by simple parenting, and using a lot my favourite feature, joint pinning object. With that and plain asigning of weights, I have all what i want (well plus keyframing tools, timeline, like allways. ) But no more complexity that could be left in the way of conversion or cause problems. Just what I told u, I applied to a mesh, had some problems, but was kindly answered by Softimage customer support, and was able to export it well, and see it ok in UU, and as I know uu displays badly anything with weights, exported to MS Mview to check was perfect. :) I used other viewers as well, to be plain sure. You don't need Deep. |
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| oh, BTW, for Blender...i use also x...but a modificated script of original one...is located at Jox site: www.mindfloaters.de That one works perfect with Ultimate Unwrap. Ben, the original author, released a last version for Ultimate Unwrap , but I have not tested that one. I have more options to tweak the export with Jox's version of it. The 3 packages I have tested to work well with X : Character Fx, Blender, XSI. And for blitz3d projects, UU being not only the uvmapping tool, but also the final conversion step. Actually I helped also in testing with UU the Hash Am Amtex export, and other user's Maya x export. Worked both well. |
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| @bob3d: I'll take another look at exporting DirectX from XSI. I prefer using shadow skeletons for the exporting since they can be made very mean,lean and clean. Animation can then be don with a (vastly) more convinient rig. |
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| Im trying to get into blender (tis hard) and can not work out how to get the standard 4 views Anyone know |
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| Hey D-grafix, you can check out blender's video tutorials, right in here.Get the ones that teach the basics of the GUI (Like opening more 3d views). |
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| >> quote bob3d: >> but...you actually don't need Deep exploration...One reason why I bought it finally is cause the *.x files import perfectly in Ultimate , directly... Hi bob, With bones/animations? I also tried to export the red_jaquia example and bring it into uu3d - but no success... :( Looks pretty weird after the export. Has sometghing to do with the bones I guess... Can you tell me your settings in the x-exporter dialog? I tried a lot of combinations - nothing worked... thanks! |
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| Bob3D, where can I get a working maya exporter that works with blitz? I have been after one for ages :) |
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| @d-graphix, right click in any in-between windows, then "split area" .Also , u have allways the option of hitting ctrl+up arrow key in ur keyboard, which swaps between maximized one window, or the four , 3 or whatever. @hed "Hi bob, With bones/animations? " Yep. Perfectly, here at least. "I also tried to export the red_jaquia example and bring it into uu3d - but no success... :( " Try better with a simple 2d chain ik, asign to those bones a mesh with enough polies, export. there were some tricks.. avod setting "compress mesh" ON. Ms mview and other viewers will cause problems. Othe rthan that, is a bit trial and error, like with any x exporter :) Use basic features: location/rotation keyframes...bake all the "effects" to standard mesh, vertex weights, and bones. There are a number of features not supported in x files, that xsi has, and also, not all x features are supported in every x tool. I can tell u it works :) Also works Blender X export. Just XSI is more comfortable for human animations. |
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| " Bob3D, where can I get a working maya exporter that works with blitz? I have been after one for ages :) " I don't know...there was some user prjecting making one here... long ago. One way is go through export as X, the use Ultimate unwrap to convert to B3d. I have seen too much people doing so as to think is impossible ;) One other way is...export as FBX, import into max, export there as b3d or u3d (if have Ultimate) haven't checked this. One other way is surely use an md2 exporter. I am 99% I have seen a Maya md3 exporter(u'd need drago's free library in bb). of course, there are huge disadvantages(like needing to hide uv seams in geometry hiden places) in those formats, but depends on ur type of project. |
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| bob, do u know were to get this .x exporter from? the typical ones i have found work ok on static meshes but boned ones mess up. |
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| I'm not a Maya user (just that some bc user sent me well exported x files as he wanted to see if an x-->b3d anim conversion could be done in UU, and the results were good) but u may find the good ones here : www.quest3d.com go to "support" menu..."download updates" ...and in the resulting page, at the left menu, choose "tools and exporters" All till Maya 5, I think. Someone posted that Maya 6 one was in certain oficial Maya users mailing list. But dunno. Ask Raven at Db pro forums if can't really make it work for Maya 6. |
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