Blender Documentation

Last modified September 29 2003 S68

Florian Findeiss

Alex Heizer

Reevan McKay

Jason Oppel

Ton Roosendaal

Stefano Selleri

Bart Veldhuizen

Carsten Wartmann

Table of Contents

I. Introduction to Blender

Introduction

About this manual (x)
What is Blender?
Blender's History
About Free Software and the GPL
Getting support - the Blender community

Installation (x)

Downloading and installing the binary distribution
Building Blender from source (x)

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 he looks like
Materials and Textures
Rigging
Skinning
Posing
He walks!

II. Modelling, Materials and Lights

Selecting objects
Moving (translating) objects
Rotating objects
Scaling/mirroring objects
The number dialog
Duplicate
Parenting (Grouping)
Tracking
Other Actions
Boolean operations

Mesh Modelling

Basic Objects
EditMode
Smoothing
Proportional Editing Tool
Extrude
Spin and SpinDup
Screw
Noise
Warp Tool
Catmull-Clark Subdivision Surfaces
MetaBall
Resources

Curves and Surfaces

Curves
Surfaces
Text
Extrude Along Path
Skinning
Resources

Materials and textures

Diffusion
Specular Reflection
Materials in practice
Textures
Multiple Materials
Special Materials
Environment Maps
Solid and Hollow Glass
UV editor and FaceSelect
Texture Plugins

Introduction
Lamp Types
Shadows
Volumetric Light
Tweaking Light

The World and The Universe

The World Background
Mist
Stars
Ambient Light

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: Light, 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 by Parts
Panoramic renderings
Antialiasing
Output formats
Rendering Animations
Motion Blur
Depth of Field
Cartoon Edges
The Unified Renderer
Preparing your work for video

The Blender Radiosity method
Radiosity Rendering
Radiosity as a Modelling Tool
Radiosity Juicy example

V. Advanced Tools

Introduction
Build Effect
Particle Effects
Wave Effect

Special modelling techniques

Introduction
DupliVerts
DupliFrames
Modelling with lattices
Resources

Volumetric Effects

Sequence Editor

Learning the Sequence Editor
Sequence Editor Plugins

VI. Extending Blender

Python Scripting

A working Python example
Existing Python Scripts.
Python Reference

Blender's Plugins Reference

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

Introduction
Installation
Shaders
Renderable Objects
Lights
Background
Camera
Render
Filters

VIII. Interactive 3d

Interactive 3d

Introduction (-)
Designing for interactive environments (-)
Physics (-)
Logic Editing (-)
Sensors (-)
Controllers (-)
Actuators (-)
Exporting to standalone applications (-)

Usage of Blender 3D Plug-in

Introduction
Functionality
3D Plug-in installation
Creating content for the plug-ins
Embedding the ActiveX control in other applications
Blender 3D Plug-in FAQs

Python Scripting for interactive environments (-)

(game engine specific Python subjects)

IX. Reference

Blender windows - general introduction

The Mouse

HotKeys In-depth Reference

Window HotKeys
Universal HotKeys
EditMode HotKeys - General
EditMode Mesh Hotkeys
EditMode Curve Hotkeys
EditMode Font Hotkeys
EditMode Surface Hotkeys
Armature Hotkeys
VertexPaint Hotkeys
FaceSelect Hotkeys

Windows Reference

The InfoWindow
The FileWindow
The 3DWindow
The IpoWindow
The SequenceWindow
The OopsWindow
The Action Window
The Non Linear Animation Window
The Text Window
The SoundWindow
The ImageWindow
The ImageSelectWindow
The Animation playback window

Buttons Reference

The ButtonsWindow
The ViewButtons
LampButtons
Material Buttons
The TextureButtons
The standard TextureButtons
The AnimButtons
Realtime Buttons
EditButtons
Constraint Buttons
Sound Buttons
The WorldButtons
Paint/Face Buttons
Introduction to radiosity
ScriptButtons
The RenderingButtons

X. Appendices

Hotkeys Quick Reference Table

Python Reference

Command Line Arguments

Render Options
Animation Options:
Window Options
Other Options

Supported videocards

Documentation changelog

Blender changelog

2.28a
2.28
2.27
2.26

Troubleshooting (-)

About the Blender Documentation Project

About the Blender Documentation Project (-)
Contributors (-)
How to submit your changes
Getting your system ready for DocBook/XML (-)
Learning DocBook/XML
The Blender Documentation Project styleguide
Documentation Style in Practice

The Documentation Licenses

Open Content License
Blender Artistic License
GNU General Public License

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