MASTERING BLENDER Tony Mullen Mullen SERIOUS SKILLS. Mastering Blender The CD includes Blender 2.48 installers for Windows and Macintosh, a source tarball for users of Linux and other fl avors of Unix, and a variety of .blend fi les. Are you ready to push the envelope on your Blender abilities? This professional resource takes you step by step through intermediate and advanced techniques for Blender’s modeling, texturing, scripting, game-creation, and visual effects tools. It covers advanced topics on sculpting, compositing, and video editing, as well as provides a complete introduction to Python ® scripting suitable for people with no programming background. Intermediate Blender users will explore specific workflow topics that will help boost productivity and enhance the quality of their work. Advanced users will find tips and techniques not covered elsewhere that will help them optimize Blender’s functionality for professional projects. Learn how to create assets for use in a game engine, how to use Python in the game engine environment, and much more. If you want professional tips to reach new heights and create visually stunning 3D animations in Blender, this is the book for you. Tony Mullen, PhD, has a broad background in CG-related work. He teaches at Tsuda College, where his courses include modeling and animation with Blender as well as the Python programming language (used for scripting in Blender). Mullen has been a cartoonist and an illustrator; his screen credits include writer, codirector, or lead animator on several short fi lms, including the award-winning short The Devices of Gustav Braüstache, Bachelor of Science, and the recent live-action/stop-motion fi lm Gustav Braüstache and the Auto Debilitator, appearing at several international fi lm festivals. He is the author of Introducing Character Animation with Blender and Bounce, Tumble, and Splash!: Simulating the Physical World with Blender 3D, both from Sybex. $59.99 US / $71.99 CAN ISBN: 978-0-470-40741-7 T T T Th Mac Learn advanced texturing tricks, such as how to use Blender’s own 2D texture paint- ing functionality to create game assets Create Amazing 3D Animations As You Build Your Blender Skills COMPUTERS/Computer Graphics/General www.sybex.com Learn video editing and compositing with the Blender Video Sequence Editor and node-based compositor 07417ffirs.indd ii07417ffirs.indd ii 2/20/09 9:14:13 AM2/20/09 9:14:13 AM Mastering Blender 07417ffirs.indd i07417ffirs.indd i 2/20/09 9:14:12 AM2/20/09 9:14:12 AM 07417ffirs.indd ii07417ffirs.indd ii 2/20/09 9:14:13 AM2/20/09 9:14:13 AM Mastering Blender Tony Mullen 07417ffirs.indd iii07417ffirs.indd iii 2/20/09 9:14:13 AM2/20/09 9:14:13 AM Acquisitions Editor: Mariann Barsolo Development Editor: Kathryn Duggan Technical Editor: Nathan Letwory Production Editor: Rachel Gunn Copy Editor: Sharon Wilkey Production Manager: Tim Tate Vice President and Executive Group Publisher: Richard Swadley Vice President and Publisher: Neil Edde Assistant Project Manager: Jenny Swisher Associate Producer: Shawn Patrick Quality Assurance: Angie Denny Book Designer: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama Compositor: Jeff Lytle, Happenstance Type-O-Rama Proofreader: Josh Chase, Word One New York Indexer: Ted Laux Project Coordinator, Cover: Lynsey Stanford Cover Designer: Ryan Sneed Cover Image: Soenke Maeter Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: 978-0-470-40741-7 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per- copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifi cally disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warran- ties of fi tness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a compe- tent professional person should be sought. 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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mullen, Tony, 1971- Mastering Blender / Tony Mullen. p. cm. ISBN 978-0-470-40741-7 (paper/cd-rom) 1. Computer graphics. 2. Computer animation. 3. Three-dimensional display systems. 4. Blender (Computer fi le) I. Title. T385.M847 2009 006.6’930285536 dc22 2009001899 TRADEMARKS: Wiley, the Wiley logo, and the Sybex logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affi liates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 07417ffirs.indd iv07417ffirs.indd iv 2/20/09 9:14:13 AM2/20/09 9:14:13 AM Disclaimer: This eBook does not include ancillary media that was packaged with the printed version of the book. Dear Reader, Thank you for choosing Mastering Blender. This book is part of a family of premium-quality Sybex books, all of which are written by outstanding authors who combine practical experience with a gift for teaching. Sybex was founded in 1976. More than thirty years later, we’re still committed to producing con- sistently exceptional books. With each of our titles we’re working hard to set a new standard for the industry. From the paper we print on, to the authors we work with, our goal is to bring you the best books available. I hope you see all that refl ected in these pages. I’d be very interested to hear your comments and get your feedback on how we’re doing. Feel free to let me know what you think about this or any other Sybex book by sending me an email at nedde@wiley.com, or if you think you’ve found a technical error in this book, please visit http://sybex.custhelp.com. Customer feedback is criti- cal to our efforts at Sybex. Best regards, Neil Edde Vice President and Publisher Sybex, an Imprint of Wiley 07417ffirs.indd v07417ffirs.indd v 2/20/09 9:14:13 AM2/20/09 9:14:13 AM To Hana Marie Mullen, with love 07417ffirs.indd vi07417ffirs.indd vi 2/20/09 9:14:13 AM2/20/09 9:14:13 AM Acknowledgments As always, my thanks go fi rst and foremost to Ton Roosendaal and all the Blender developers for all their hard work and dedication. You guys are doing important work and deserve the heartfelt gratitude of the entire community of Blender users. I am tempted to begin naming names, but I would not know where to stop. Please visit http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/ List_of _Contributors for a complete list of the current developers and the specifi c work they have done. I would, however, like to single out Blender developer Nathan Letwory (jesterKing), who allowed me to benefi t from his expertise as technical editor of this book. Many other developers and users have helped me in researching and writing this book, and I’m very grateful for all the support I’ve received from the Blender community. I can’t list all of the individuals at BlenderArtists.org whose artwork, comments, and tutorials have helped me to learn what I know about Blender, but I am particularly grateful for those who helped me as I ventured outside my comfort zone to write about the Blender Game Engine. Special thanks to BlenderArtists.org forum members Social, Mmph!, Blendenzo, and the other BGE gurus who were always eager to help me with my questions and investigations of this sometimes arcane functionality. I’m also very grateful to Dolf Veenvliet (macouno) and Campbell Barton (ideas- man_42), who helped me enormously to deepen my knowledge of Blender’s Python API. Throughout this book, I have referred to websites, tutorials, support threads, and other resources created by members of the community, and I am very grateful to all of those who have shared their knowledge. Once again, many thanks to Bart Veldhuizen and the contribu- tors to BlenderNation.com, and to Roel Spruit and all the moderators and administrators at BlenderArtists.org for their support and for the great service they provide the Blender community. This book would not have been possible without the efforts of my editors and colleagues at Sybex/Wiley, and I’m very grateful to all of them. Thank you to Mariann Barsolo, Pete Gaughan, Kathryn Duggan, Rachel Gunn, Kelly Trent, and everyone else who had a hand in publishing and promoting the book. I’m also very grateful to my colleagues and students at Tsuda College for their support and encouragement of my Blender-related work. As always, I am grateful to my wife, Yuka, for her tireless support, and especially for looking after the baby while I was spending all those hours working on this book! 07417ffirs.indd vii07417ffirs.indd vii 2/20/09 9:14:13 AM2/20/09 9:14:13 AM About the Author Tony Mullen is a college lecturer, animator, independent fi lmmaker, and writer living in Tokyo. He has worked as a newspaper cartoonist, a graphic designer, a software developer, and a researcher in natural language processing, among other things. Since discovering Blender, he has been involved in CG animation to the point of obsession, but he also maintains a keen interest in stop-motion techniques, notably as the lead anima- tor and codirector of the award-winning 16mm fi lm Gustav Braüstache and the Auto-Debilitator and other independent shorts. He is an active member of the Blender community and one of the original members of the Blender Foundation’s Trainer Certifi cation Review Board. He is the author of Introducing Character Animation with Blender (Sybex, 2007) and Bounce, Tumble, and Splash!: Simulating the Physical World with Blender 3D (Sybex, 2008), as well as numerous maga- zine articles and tutorials on Blender for the Japanese magazine Mac People. 07417ffirs.indd viii07417ffirs.indd viii 2/20/09 9:14:13 AM2/20/09 9:14:13 AM [...]... 151 PART II • MASTERING BLENDER PYTHON 185 Chapter 6 • Python for the Impatient 187 Chapter 7 • Python Scripting for Blender 209 Chapter 8 • The Many-Headed Snake: Other Uses of Python in Blender 235 PART III • MASTERING THE BLENDER GAME ENGINE ... few years for Blender and Blender users The number of books and training DVDs available have gone from zero in-print English Blender books in 2006 and no DVDs to a growing plethora of books and training DVDs by major and minor publishers covering animation, architectural visualization, physics simulation, and general use The Blender code itself has changed dramatically also Although Blender has been... cultivate the mindset of regarding Blender as a constantly developing thing Even as you INTRODUCTION | read this, new and exciting functionality is being added to Blender and released in official or unofficial versions that you will be eager to learn about My advice on keeping up with all the latest developments: Read fast! The Mastering Series The Mastering series from Sybex provides outstanding instruction... chapters’ contents are as follows: Part I: Mastering Blender 3D Chapter 1: Controlling Your Environment shows you a variety of ways you can customize your Blender environment and streamline your workflow This chapter also gives you some early warning about changes to expect from upcoming Blender releases Chapter 2: Sculpting and Retopo Workflow takes an in-depth look at Blender s powerful sculpting tools and... Prepare for changes in the evolving Blender interface by understanding the principles behind its unique design Getting Your Way with Blender As I wrote in the introduction to this book, this is a book for people who want to push the envelope of their Blender abilities—people who know how to use Blender but want to know more Likewise, this is a chapter for people who know Blender s interface and workflow,... almost every element in Blender, and in some cases such as drop-down menus and pop-up panels, you can change the alpha value as well If you have a properly formatted Blender icons file, you can also change the Blender icons, but it requires a small amount of preparation To use alternate icon sets, you must create a new directory called icons in the blender directory of your Blender installation In Mac... The first part of the book is the most varied, with chapters on a wide variety of Blender 3D features The second part of the book focuses on Python and scripting for Blender, and the third part of the book deals with the Blender Game Engine The only background that is assumed is an intermediate or advanced level of standard Blender usage No knowledge of Python or the game engine is required By the end... 7 • Python Scripting for Blender .209 Editing and Running Scripts in Blender The Blender Text Editor Script Format and Templates The Scripts Window Introducing the Blender- Python API ... includes Chapters 1 through 5 This part deals with general Blender topics, and each chapter within it covers a specific aspect of Blender functionality Part II gives a complete overview of Python scripting in Blender, beginning with a basic introduction to Python itself, suitable for nonprogrammers Part III gives a thorough introduction to the Blender Game Engine (BGE), including using Python in context... Chapter 7: Python Scripting for Blender Chapter 8: The Many-Headed Snake: Other Uses of Python in Blender Chapter 9: Creating Assets for the Blender Game Engine Chapter 10: Making Things Happen in the Game Engine Chapter 11: Python Power in the Blender Game Engine 367 . MASTERING BLENDER Tony Mullen Mullen SERIOUS SKILLS. Mastering Blender The CD includes Blender 2.48 installers for Windows and Macintosh,. Mastering Blender. This book is part of a family of premium-quality Sybex books, all of which are written by outstanding authors who combine practical experience with a gift for teaching. Sybex. the Blender community and one of the original members of the Blender Foundation’s Trainer Certifi cation Review Board. He is the author of Introducing Character Animation with Blender (Sybex,