Learning Blender

Oliver Villar is a Blender Foundation Certified Trainer. He has has studied 3D since 2004 and used diverse commercial 3D software before stumbling onto Blender in 2008. Since then, he has used Blender professionally as a freelance 3D designer and tutor. In 2010, he founded blendtuts.com to offer high-quality Blender training videos to the community. He authored this book's first and second editions and the video, Introduction to Blender LiveLessons (Addison-Wesley, 2015). Villar is now co-directing Luke's Escape, a 3D animated short film made with Blender. He is also teaching Blender at online schools focused on teaching for the Spanish community and teaches 3D for online schools and the University of Murcia in Spain.

"Oliver Villar's book will give you a solid foundation in Blender and computer graphics in general. Filled with well-crafted examples and lessons, this book will give you the tools you need to succeed as an artist." --David Andrade, Producer, Theory Studios "The days are now over when beginners found learning Blender 3D difficult. Oliver Villar introduces to beginners the best of Blender's 3D features and 3D fundamentals in fun and exciting ways. His approach of completing a character from scratch, touching every aspect of 3D from Blender's point of view, is truly filled with explanations of techniques and important tools that will help readers to bring their ideas to life creatively while following professional workflows in 3D. Starting with the fundamentals of 3D, this is a great resource for every beginner artist who is looking to learn Blender 3D. It's truly a book written with great dedication!" --Waqas Abdul Majeed, CG Generalist, www.waqasmajeed.com "I found Oliver Villar's book, Learning Blender, to be an essential tool for not only getting users acquainted with Blender, but also preparing them by explaining the history and the magic that has made Blender what it is now. His book also prepares users to be productive and informed by explaining the community and its various portals. His book is complete in explaining all the aspects of the UI and acquainting users with the classic G, S, and R. The exercises are perfect for getting users on the level to begin making their own worlds. I was even pleased to see him discussing F2, ripping with V, and even Knife Project, which are classics I usually consider to be more advanced. This book is a no-holds-barred approach to getting the most out of this capable little program. I must also add that the character created is attractive and well created, and is a fine example of using the program for character modeling. Oliver is truly a skilled artist and that shines through in his use of this program." --Jerry Perkins, 3D Conceptor, Fenix Fire

• Preface xxvAcknowledgments xxxiAbout the Author xxxiii Part I: The Basics of Blender 1Chapter 1: What You Need to Know About Blender 3 What Is Blender? 3 Commercial Software Versus Open-Source Software 4 History of Blender 6 Blender Foundation and Blender Development 8 Who Pays for Blender’s Development? 10 The Blender Community 10 Summary 11 Exercises 12 Chapter 2: Blender Basics: The User Interface 13 Downloading and Installing Blender 13 Using Blender with Recommended Hardware 13 Using Blender’s User Interface 15 Understanding Areas and Editors 16 Using Workspaces 21 Getting to Know Blender’s Interface Elements 23 Understanding the 3D Viewport 26 Navigating the 3D Scene 31 Selecting Objects 33 Understanding the 3D Cursor 35 Understanding Blender’s User Preferences 37 Creating Your Own Startup File 39 Summary 40 Exercises 40 Chapter 3: Your First Scene in Blender 41 Creating Objects 41 Moving, Rotating, and Scaling 42 Arranging Objects in Your Scene 48 Naming Objects and Using Datablocks 49 Using Interaction Modes 51 Applying Flat or Smooth Surfaces 53 Working with Modifiers 54 Using Workbench, EEVEE, and Cycles 57 Turning On the Lights 62 Moving the Camera in Your Scene 62 Rendering 63 Summary 66 Exercises 66 Part II: Beginning a Project 67Chapter 4: Project Overview 69 Three Stages of a Project 69 Defining the Stages 71 Making a Character-Creation Plan 73 Summary 74 Exercises 74 Chapter 5: Character Design 75 Character Description 75 Designing the Character 78 Adding Color 84 Finalizing the Design 85 Making Character Reference Images 86 Using Other Design Methods 88 Summary 89 Exercises 89 Part III: Modeling in Blender 91Chapter 6: Blender Modeling Tools 93 Working with Vertices, Edges, and Faces 93 Making Selections 95 Using Mesh Modeling Tools 100 Using Modeling Add-Ons 120 Using Other Useful Blender Options and Tools 123 Summary 125 Exercises 125 Chapter 7: Character Modeling 127 What Is Mesh Topology? 127 Choosing Modeling Methods 129 Setting up the Reference Images 131 Modeling the Eyes 135 Modeling the Face 139 Modeling the Torso and Arms 150 Modeling the Legs 159 Modeling the Boots 161 Modeling the Hands 164 Modeling the Cap 168 Modeling the Hair 172 Modeling the Final Details 176 Summary 180 Exercises 180 Part IV: Unwrapping, Painting, and Shading 181Chapter 8: Unwrapping and UVs in Blender 183 Seeing How Unwrapping and UVs Work 183 Unwrapping in Blender 184 Considering Before Unwrapping 191 Working with UVs in Blender 193 Unwrapping the Rest of the Character 200 Packing UVs 202 Summary 203 Exercises 204 Chapter 9: Painting Textures 205 Defining the Main Workflow 205 Texture Painting in Blender 206 Creating the Base Texture 214 Understanding the Elements of a Texture 215 Texturing in Other Software 216 Seeing the Painted Character in Blender 223 Summary 223 Exercises 224 Chapter 10: Materials and Shaders 225 Understanding Materials 225 Masks and Layers 230 Channels 231 Shading Your Character 236 Running Render Tests 246 Summary 252 Exercises 252 Part V: Bringing Your Character to Life 253Chapter 11: Character Rigging 255 Understanding the Rigging Process 255 Working with Armatures 257 Rigging Your Character 267 Skinning 278 Creating Custom Shapes 305 Making Final Retouches 306 Reusing Your Character in Different Scenes 307 Summary 310 Exercises 310 Chapter 12: Animating Your Character 311 Using the Character’s Rig 311 Posing the Character 312 Working with Animation Editors 315 Animating a Walk Cycle 321 Summary 326 Exercises 326 Part VI: Getting the Final Result 327Chapter 13: Camera Tracking in Blender 329 Understanding Camera Tracking 329 Shooting Video for Easy Tracking 330 Using the Movie Clip Editor 332 Tracking the Camera Motion 333 Testing Camera Tracking 343 Summary 343 Exercises 343 Chapter 14: Lighting, Compositing, and Rendering 345 Lighting Your Scene 345 Rendering and Compositing Your Scene in Cycles 356 Rendering and Compositing Your Scene with EEVEE 361 Exporting the Final Render 365 Summary 367 Exercises 367 Part VII: Keep Learning 369Chapter 15: Other Blender Features 371 Simulations 371 2D Animation 373 VFX: Masking, Object Tracking, and Video Stabilization 373 Video Editing 374 Sculpting 374 Retopology 375 Maps Baking 375 Add-Ons 375 Python Scripting 376 Summary 376 Index 379