Blender 3D Design - Online
Instructor - Neal Hirsig
nhirsig@tufts.edu
General:
The Blender 3D Design course is intended to offer students an introduction to the world of computer generated 3-D modeling and animation. As an introductory course, it provides a basic understanding of the skills and techniques employed by 3-D designers in a wide range of applications. In this online course we will explore basic mesh modeling, applying textures and materials to 3-D objects, lighting, animation and rendering. This course should provide a good basis for further independent study in architectural, engineering and theatrical modeling and game design.
Basic Blender Course:
The basic (or beginning level) blender course consists of 10 Learning Units (Learning Unit 1 - Learning Unit 10). There may be additional learning units available as the intermediate level course is being developed.
Online and Self-Paced:
This course is offered to students online. That is, all of the course material is located on this web site or on other web sites. This course is self-paced meaning that you can pick and choose the Learning Units, Video Tutorials or PDF tutorials as you see fit. The sequence of Learning Units are a suggested path of learning Blender but you are welcome to use this material in any way that suits your purposes.
To take this course, you must have access to a personal computer on which you can download all of the required software (free) and execute all of the required assignments. See below for computer specifications.
Personal computer specifications:
System:
Blender will run on the following Operating systems:
Windows 2000, XP or Vista
Mac OS X 10.2 or later
Linux 2.2.5 i386
Linux 2.3.2 PPC
FreeBSD 6.2 i386
Irix 6.5 mips3
Solaris 2.8 sparc
Hardware:
The following are minimal hardware requirements:
1 GHz CPU
500 MB RAM
150 MB free hard disk space
1024 x 768 px. Display with 24 bit color
Additional Hardware:
3 button mouse (You must have a 3-Button mouse. Blender uses 3 buttons on the mouse to navigate the 3-D space and edit objects. Ideally your 3-Button mouse will have a center scroll wheel). Although Blender will work with other mouse arrangements all of the video and PDF tutorials in this course reference the use of a 3-button mouse.
Open GL Graphics card with at least 8MB RAM
Software:
The software used for this course is Blender Version 2.53 Beta (or the latest 2.5X version):
1.) Blender Version 2.53 Beta (or the latest 2.5X version) - Blender is a sophisticated and fully functional open-source 3D software. It is designed cross-platform, with an OpenGL interface. It is available as a free download from http://www.blender.org for Windows, MAC, Linux, Solaris, Irix or FreeBSD operating systems.
1A.) Although it is not required, you may want to download and install the latest version of "Python". Blender uses an embedded Python scripting language (API for Python). The Blender downloaded 2.5X installation includes the Python scripts necessary to run Blender. However, you may want to download and install the latest version of Python (v 2.7). The Python site is located at: http://www.python.org
Other software you will need installed on your computer:
1.) Adobe Acrobat Reader Latest Version - Most of the documents used in this course are in Adobe PDF format. Many documents on this site may not display on earlier versions of Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can download a free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader at http://www.adobe.com
2.) The video tutorials are in Flash and MP4 video format. Some student projects and most PDF tutorial animation instructions use .MOV (QuickTime) video format.
Flash - The video tutorials are in Flash and mp4 streaming format. Make sure you have the latest version of Flash installed on your computer. You can download and install the Flash player at: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
QuickTime Player - If you choose to do any of the suggested student projects or work through the PDF tutorials you must download the latest version of QuickTime player. You can download a free copy of QuickTime Player at: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/win.html
3.) You will need to open Zip Files and extract the files they contain. Most Windows and MAC operating systems have this function built-into the operating system.
Class Structure:
1 - Learning Units:
There are series of learning unit assignments. These are labeled Learning Unit#1, Learning Unit #2... The learning units may contain Video tutorials, Web based (PDF) materials and web site viewing. You will need to complete these assignments as they are the basis for learning the software functionality and completing the assigned projects.
The video tutorials can simply be viewed (however you may want to try some of the techniques in the Blender software yourself). The PDF tutorials should be worked through with a copy of Blender open executing all of the directions. Some of these are quite long.
The Blender software, as you will discover, is quite complex. It is by no means intuitive and the hardest part of learning it is getting used to the interface. The material becomes progressively harder so it is important that you keep up with the learning units.
2 - Exercises:
Each Learning Unit has an accompanying exercise. This is to test your comprehension of the video tutorials and lead you to exploring some of the Blender tools on your own.
3 - Projects:
There are a number of suggested design projects for this course. They are located under the "Blender 3D Design Projects" topic area. Project descriptions, requirements can be found in the description of each project. As this is a self-paced online course with no grading there is no requirement to submit these projects for my approval. However, I am always glad to view anyone's project work sent to me and will gladly return to you my comments.
3 - Examples of Student Projects:
I have posted examples of various project work performed by my students in the "Student Gallery" area. Feel free to view these examples and download the .blend file to serve as inspiration. If you decide to do any of the projects listed here and send me the files I will post them along with the others.
NOTE:
Click on the Alternate Flash Stream Link 
to view Flash Video
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German translations of some of these videos can be found on YouTube HERE (Andreas Czerney)
Blender PDF Tutorials
The PDF tutorials accompany each learning Unit. They are usually quite long and detailed. There are many, many ways in Blender to model almost anything. The object of these tutorials is to expose you to various modeling techniques rather than to explain how to model a particular object or scene. Learning various modeling techniques allows you decide on your own modeling strategies when faced with creating your own models.
You can view and download old 2.4X PDF tutorials that have not yet been updated to 2.5X HERE.
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Learning Unit #1 - First Animated Model - Yellow Submarine Yellow Submarine PDF Tutorial |
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Learning Unit #2 - Castle - Modeling Castle Modeling PDF Tutorial |
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Learning Unit #2 - Castle - Texturing |
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Learning Unit #3 - "The Rocket" Steam Locomotive - Modeling The Rocket Steam Locomotive Modeling PDF Tutorial |
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Learning Unit #3 - "The Rocket" Steam Locomotive - Animation The Rocket Steam Locomotive Animation PDF Tutorial View the Rocket Animation rendered video View Rocket animation video (with audio) created by Design Archaeology |
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Learning Unit #4 - Martini Martini PDF Tutorial |
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Learning Unit #5 - My Materials |
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Learning Unit #6 - Dice |
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Learning Unit #7 - Candle |
General
Blender.org - Blender Foundation web site.
BlenderNation - Daily news for Blender - Large Blender community site. If it is happening in Blender, you will find it here.
BlenderArtists.org - Large Blender community site.
blender art Magazine - Online magazine devoted to modeling with Blender
Training
Blender 2.5X Wiki Manual - Currently being updated to include the version 2.5 interface and tools.
Blender 2.4X Wiki Manual - Blender official documentation.
Blender.org Tutorials - Tutorials located on the Blender.org site. Excellent source.
Blender.org YouTube Channel - Lots of videos / video tutorials, but most are quite advanced.
Blender Cookie - Perhaps best Blender training site on the web.
Blender Underground - Another excellent Blender training site.
Blender Newbies - A very good resource for learning Blender
Pxleyes.com - Nice selection of Blender tutorials.
KatsBits - Good source for Blender tutorials especially with regards to the Blender game engine.
CG Tuts + - Large selection of Blender tutorials
Blender Guru - Quality Blender tutorials.
Feeblemind Weblog - Very nice selection of Blender tutorials
Super3Boy You Tube Blender video tutorials - a large selection of Blender video tutorials.
Ira Krakow You Tube Blender video tutorials - a very nice collection of Blender video tutorials.
Itchy Animation Lighting Tutorials - Every 3D modeler should read this insightful series of lighting tutorials.
Textures
Blender Open Material Repository - Excellent source for Blender materials and textures.
The Blender Texture Disc - The Blender Foundations open source texture disc.
GamingTextures.com - Excellent general source for image textures
CG Textures - Vast collection of excellent textures
Other
The-Blueprints.com - Great source for detailed drawings of a multitude of subjects.
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