I recently found a great collection of Star Trek ship models for the Blender 3D modeling program, and started playing around with the Voyager one. Then I decided to see if I could cast a shadow on the ship and the monkey head included with Blender fit the need perfectly. After all, it WAS designed to test shading and reflection settings, just like the teapot in other programs, since it can cast a shadow and reflection on itself.

I’m nowhere near being well-versed in Blender(I didn’t design either object in the scene), but this recent bit of play has helped. Before this, the only things I’ve made in Blender were a snow man and a very simple scene that was meant to get perspective right on one comic(simpler to just draw it). I had intended on using Blender for the backgrounds in the comics, but then I got on Second Life and it was at least 10x easier. Been building the backgrounds in Second Life ever since. I need to switch to a higher-quality program, though, since Second Life has lots of building limitations, is slowed by cheap broadband, and is intended to be a SOCIAL  environment. People will talk to you even if you’re in Busy mode, which I normally am.

I plan on having some 3D backgrounds set on land, and Second Life is best for flat, non-natural surfaces, so I ‘m testing out Blender and Unity3(game development program) for those. Not sure what I’ll end up using, but Blender seems more versatile, since I can render high-quality videos with that as well. On the other hand, Unity3 has a tree-making function and is designed for easy landscaping. I don’t know.

Whee!

If you’re not a 3D modeler, you can ignore this link-of-the-week.

This class is now closed. There will be another one in October.

I’m working on switching to Blender(a free open-source 3D modeling program that’s actually very powerful, although w/ a high learning curve), and this class for intermediate/advanced users(not me, yet) looks very useful. It’s called The Nature Academy, and is created by the guy at BlenderGuru.com(home of many great free tutorials). I was amazed at how realistic everything was in the previews. The preview tutorial for building mountains(just for his newsletter subscribers, & I think it’s offline now) was great, and even though my computer had troubles halfway through, at that point the mountains already looked realistic, even without having the ground showing through in spots.

Other tutorials in the class show how to make rippling water, flowers, grass, trees, and more. The video showed some VERY realistic scenes with movement. These are very in-depth tutorials & will have you creating realistic nature scenes in Blender within 9 weeks. In addition to the tutorials, it also comes with 138 royalty-free 3d nature models and 636 nature textures(created by the guru himself). The models alone are worth the cost. I’ve seen models like these for sale on sites like TurboSquid and the value he came up with sounds realistic to me. I’ve seen single BOAT models sell for more than the cost of this class! It’s very useful to have a library of plant models on hand to fill in a scene. One person made an entire forest with just the 9 free nature models the newsletter subscribers got.

Signup ends on July 12, so if you’re comfortable using Blender(i.e. not a complete noobie like me) and would like to learn how to create very convincing nature in 3D, go to thenatureacademy.blenderguru.com to find out more information. This info is essential if you do this stuff for a living. I look forward to becoming experienced enough to understand that compositing tool.

There will be another series of classes in October, but the price WILL go up, because he’ll be adding some more tutorials for it. Current students will get free updates.

Oh, and if you’re just curious about what Blender can actually do, see the site and scroll down to the screenshots. They are breathtaking.