This week episode of the Blender Survival Guide is a direct response to the feedback that you have sent after Episode 9 was published. Being able to edit the value and position of each keyframe to fine tune your animation is a necessary ability and the BSG 10 shows you how to do it.
Blender’s animation tools are very sophisticated and powerful but they use a unique layout for the UI and at first it might not be that clear where everything is. That’s why I wanted to cover this topic, once again, from the perspective of the MoGraph artists so that you can now see where everything is without having to read chapter after chapter of stuff that might never be used. Like rigging, for example.
So, if you were wondering how to create a “hold frame” or how to re-time your Blender animation, or you wanted to learn how to use markers (Blender has markers?), go to the Blender Survival Guide #10, it’s available at this link:
http://library.creativecow.net/articles/ciccone_paolo/blender-survival-guide-10.php
This was another great tutorial. With each one I learn more and more tricks and shortcuts. Thank you so much for putting the time into these. I look forward to future installments.
A personal thought regarding Blender:
I find the IPO curve editor a bit cumbersome, compared to other 3D apps. While I see it is improved in 2.5, I think it might be one of the first drawbacks I have discovered in this otherwise amazing program.
Great Stuff! I am starting to feel like a “Ciccone Junky”! Love the work, it has really helped with a program I shelved years ago do to its magnitude. The NLA Editor seems redundant with the Timeline, to me. Why not just allow the keyframe commands to work on that panel instead of the NLA panel? Anyways, I know that is not your issue to deal with.
Thanks Paolo!
Whats next?
Paul
@Sterling Youngman
Thanks. About the IPO, it’s quite similar, IMHO, to the one in AE, at least the CS3 version that I have. In AE, you have to open it explicitly and from that point on it takes over that portion of the screen. I remember Shake being quite similar too. Regardless, there is probably room for improvement, we’ll see.
@Paul Rainville
This is a first: “Ciccone Junky” 🙂
What’s next? I’m thinking about showing how to get to Blender 2.6, and how to run it side-by-side with 2.49 and how to take advantage of this “technology preview.” Just to begin to get used to 2.6. It’s not far away…
Thank you for these great tutorials! Will you be creating other tutorials with “Modeling” in mind? I would like to learn how to bend objects in modeling. I have a need to bend some text created in Blender into a “arch” shape. Learning those kind of transformations would be VERY helpful.
Hi Larry, yes, I’ll be moving to modeling soon. My goal was to cover the MoGraph parts because I feel that that side of Blender has been “neglected” a bit. It’s also a matter of timing since 2.6 is not far away and so I don’t want to go too deply into 2.49 at this point.
Thanks for the feedback and the suggestion.
Another great tutorial Paolo. Only a matter of time before I start exporting 3D elements to my video work, thanks to you.
One thing I am struggling with – when you say right-click, I have to press apple+right-click?
Also, I can’t figure out how to split windows horizontally? I’m using a Macbook Pro – do I have one of the preference settings wrong?
Hi Mark.
Right click on a single mouse on a Mac is performed with Ctrl-Click but I strongly encourage to stoo reading this right now and go buy a 3-button mouse. You can’t work in Blender without it.
The splitting of windows works perpendicularly to the direction you approach a window’ s edge. If the direction is wrong you can then use the middle click of the mouse. Another reason to buy a three-button mouse.
@Pret-A-3D Cheers Paolo – Got a Mighty Mouse free with laptop – that has a third button and seems to do the job. Looking forward to the next one!
Hi Paolo,
Is option to see the keyframes you showed using “k” button available in 2.5/2.6?
Tried it but not “k”
Hi Kotin. Nope, that feature is not working on 2.5. 2.5 has still a long way before it’s ready for primetime and that’s the reason why you’ll see several other tutorials based on 2.49.