Blender...

Helena

Helena
I think I want to learn Blender. I have tried to learn different sofware in past but never stuck with it.

Now, I went first with written tutorials because I prefer that format. Then I got stuck because of different version or missing steps. So I thought, hey someone here linked to a tutorial on that donut and things? I went to follow. Oh yikes, that man just talk and talk and talk and talk, and you get confused about when he's messing with stuff and when you are supposed to do things and save for the progress. :D I went to step 4, and suddenly the subtitles of youtube turned into Japanese and I could not change. Oh darn it, shut the whole thing down.

(yes I am deaf, as some of you MIGHT remember)

Now, I guess I am gonna try to find another tutorial! :D

But so far, I like the whole "modifier" thing. Fun stuff.

Ok maybe unnecessry thread this one. But maybe it can be used for us to write as about our journey to learn how to make 3d stuff? :)
 

JaySL1

JaySL1
Helena said:
So I thought, hey someone here linked to a tutorial on that donut and things? I went to follow. Oh yikes, that man just talk and talk and talk and talk, and you get confused about when he's messing with stuff and when you are supposed to do things and save for the progress. :D
Click to expand...

I think I know who you are talking about. I stumbled upon this guy as well and he got me confused because he was doing things while talking and I had to rewind his videos several times to figure out what he was doing. [big grin]

I'll recomend to search videos that appeal to the things you want to make in blender. For instance, you can start searching for tutorials on blender user interface, after you managed to understand what button does what, next step is search for basic modeling, next for materials and textures and so on.

Try to narrow your search and look for things you want to learn. [happy]
 

OlaHaldor

OlaHaldor
Welcome to one of the most rewarding and frustrating journeys: 3D modeling!

When you're completely new with 3D modeling, let alone new to the software, try to find something simple to model. Something like a bowl, or a cup.

Gather reference, either physically in front of you or google for photos of what you'd like to model. Modeling from memory seldom ends good, believe it or not. [wacky]


While I'm not familiar with Blender, I use Modo, know my way around Maya, and find LightWave handy from time to time for very specific tasks. I cannot answer Blender specific things, but I am here to share and care, regardless :)
 

Crowdpleaser

Crowdpleaser
JaySL said:
I think I know who you are talking about. I stumbled upon this guy as well and he got me confused because he was doing things while talking and I had to rewind his videos several times to figure out what he was doing. [big grin]

I'll recomend to search videos that appeal to the things you want to make in blender. For instance, you can start searching for tutorials on blender user interface, after you managed to understand what button does what, next step is search for basic modeling, next for materials and textures and so on.

Try to narrow your search and look for things you want to learn. [happy]
Click to expand...

Well it was me posting the Tutorials, and yes Blender Guru's Tutorials can be confusing at times. It got me frustrated too. Sometimes he forgets that he has to explain simple stuff he does. That way it feels like he skipped a step. It is helpful that his Key presses are visible on screen... BUT function keys are not shown. So it is easy to miss when he presses ALT for example. Which you have to do a lot in this Program

But i was proud of myself when i finally "graduated" his tutorial and produced my very first scene as a complete and utter noob to the Program. It is a very good feeling.

Doughnut_2.png


But i guess we can help each other out when we get stuck. So i would be willing to share the knowledge i have got so far, and i would be asking for help too :D
 

OlaHaldor

OlaHaldor
Looks great! :)

I've seen some of BlenderGuru's tutorials, and from my point of view, they're not for the novice, more into the intermediate/advanced because of the pace he's at and the general "go there, do this" but doesn't explain why/why not, options etc.
 

KickAir8p

KickAir8p
Expose Academy did a set last year that covers simple modeling (a mushroom, would probably look good in PlanCo), uv unwrapping, and texture painting in Blender -- it has subtitles:

Part 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKBj2KmfNtM&t=3s
Part 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjS8f-BHb7w&t=3s
Part 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYOvvmGjwn0&t=4s
Part 4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNonWw1tlcY&t=4s

It's been a while since I did this one, but to my recollection it was pretty beginner-friendly.
 

Helena

Helena
as said, his subtitles turned into Japanese I could not follow anymore!

I went to different text based tutorials and then with my little knowledge gathered by these, I dabbled and made a mushroom. Dabbling is the keyword.
I am confused now by materials. How to make it matte?! ;) At least I managed to color sections differently!

shroomie.png

EDIT: Realized that link by KickAir8p shows mushroom as well. :D I prefer my mushroom's shape though! :D
 

Crowdpleaser

Crowdpleaser
Helena said:
as said, his subtitles turned into Japanese I could not follow anymore!

I went to different text based tutorials and then with my little knowledge gathered by these, I dabbled and made a mushroom. Dabbling is the keyword.
I am confused now by materials. How to make it matte?! ;) At least I managed to color sections differently!

View attachment 2372

EDIT: Realized that link by KickAir8p shows mushroom as well. :D I prefer my mushroom's shape though! :D
Click to expand...

Yay :D Looks awesome :D what material settings did you use? can you post a screenshot of the material section?

also, try to apply the "subdivision surface" modifier. This makes the model look a bit rounder. especially if you increase the amount in the render box.
 

Phenix Studios

Phenix Studios
I used brackies tutorial... Created a nice little barrel. But I'm confused about texturing and uv mapping. I'm just not getting it. Maybe it was just too late and I was too tired. I did model a 4m log though. If I can get it textured well... I'll be uploading it as my first.
 

Spanky

Spanky
The upcoming version of Blender is 2.8. Because it's currently in Beta phase you'll will not find many tutorials yet for this version. But you should try to learn the basics with 2.8. Most of the former tutorials work well with 2.8.
 

Helena

Helena
Crowdpleaser said:
Yay :D Looks awesome :D what material settings did you use? can you post a screenshot of the material section?

also, try to apply the "subdivision surface" modifier. This makes the model look a bit rounder. especially if you increase the amount in the render box.
Click to expand...

As for materials go.. I just add a new one, choose color in "specular".. that's what I have done. I do not know how to change material type. :p

As for the modifier. If I apply it won't make it more vertices heavy, right? Which is not good for game? :p
Also it would like destroy the sharp edge of the hat-stem part. :p (yes the shroom is made of one single object)
 

Jammy3112

Jammy3112
Wow...what a start! Loving the candy text.
I've always wanted to dabble in Blender, and now that PlanCo are allowing custom things with the Toolmaker's kit, I think it's time to start [happy]
I think all I want to do, is put my phoenix bird in my logo into a park as a 3d object...is that a simple thing to start with on Blender?
 

Crowdpleaser

Crowdpleaser
Helena said:
As for materials go.. I just add a new one, choose color in "specular".. that's what I have done. I do not know how to change material type. :p

As for the modifier. If I apply it won't make it more vertices heavy, right? Which is not good for game? :p
Also it would like destroy the sharp edge of the hat-stem part. :p (yes the shroom is made of one single object)
Click to expand...

You can change the materials via the shader nodes in the node editor window. Even without those nodes you can change the shader type in the materials tab.

The subserv modifier makes it a bit heavier, but that’s what the LODs are for.

Also, by adding loopcuts and dragging them near the edges you can make them sharper.
 

kasukana3000

kasukana3000
New to Blender..dabbled in AutoCAD...totally lost

OK I have tried multiple iterations of this to try to upload a SIMPLE cube to the game as a proof of concept before I try more complex creations.

Maybe I am reading too much into the instructions.

I started out creating 6 layers with the cube in each layer named Cube_L0, Cube_L1, etc

Added the materials information per the workflow using the example workflow in the bottom

Created a 300x300 pixel PNG with the SAME color to match the names of the material PNG needed

Attached the materials to each layer in the Blender file and it renders fine in the application

Exported according the instructions (all rotations X,Y,Z are at ZERO; and Y forward and Z up for the export parameters - with Animation unchecked)

I upload and I get:
No render mesh found for level [Missing Render Level]
"No render mesh found for level : {'Level': 0}"
No render mesh found for level [Missing Render Level]
"No render mesh found for level : {'Level': 1}"
No render mesh found for level [Missing Render Level]
"No render mesh found for level : {'Level': 3}"
No render mesh found for level [Missing Render Level]
"No render mesh found for level : {'Level': 4}"
No render mesh found for level [Missing Render Level]
"No render mesh found for level : {'Level': 5}"
LOD contains no polys [EmptyLOD]
"LOD contains no polys : {'LOD': '0'}"
LOD contains no polys [EmptyLOD]
"LOD contains no polys : {'LOD': '1'}"
LOD contains no polys [EmptyLOD]
"LOD contains no polys : {'LOD': '3'}"
LOD contains no polys [EmptyLOD]
"LOD contains no polys : {'LOD': '3'}"
LOD contains no polys [EmptyLOD]
"LOD contains no polys : {'LOD': '4'}"
The pre-build checks failed. [ugcPreBuildFailed]
"Prebuild failed. :"
Build process failed. [ugcBuilderFailed]
"Conversion process returned a non zero exit code: 1"
For further help, please refer to our User guide.
​

I talk to someone in Discord and send him my Blender file (It's a simple cube, nothing too big)

He tells me that I need to have 6 FBX files - I didn't read that in the User Guide, but he's building a Gazebo in Blender, so I don't argue, since I'm the noob

So I create 6 FBX file with only one layer named accordingly: Cube_L0.fbx with layer Cube_L0, Cube_L1.fbx with layer Cube_L1, etc

Upload and I get the SAME errors as above.

I have to be missing a step somewhere because I'm such a noob at Blender/3D modeling - I have dabbled in AutoCAD but this is totally different (definitely not Structural/Architecture stuff at all).

If anyone needs my ZIP file, View attachment Cube.zip
 

Spanky

Spanky
I like the colourful texture on the Candy sign. I think it will look great on roof of a Candy Shop or as Wall design. Don't out it away as a testobject. i could imagine, that Tillietwos would liove this for her colourful creations too.
 

Helena

Helena
Spanky: Thank you. I can see that. But I have a little higher demands than that. Then it has to be a nicer objects overall and a little more edited texture so it is not a total copy from the tutorial. :)
(Plus I have noticed many fonts give very janky wireframe with super dense parts and loose parts)

I have ideas to make some signs yes! But I want to learn more about Blender first. I only know so little. I do not know most of what needs to be done for the upload. Right now I just know how to tweak primitives (scale up, down, rotate, move, add rings, remove faces etc) and writing text and tweak those properties. And of course how to navigate the 3d viewport and the numpad views.
How to add a couple of modifiers.

That's about it.
I will learn more today. :)
 

Castaway1

Castaway1
kasukana3000 said:
OK I have tried multiple iterations of this to try to upload a SIMPLE cube to the game as a proof of concept before I try more complex creations.

Maybe I am reading too much into the instructions.
Click to expand...

Hey ! So here how it should look in Blender (example : Cube_L0, Cube_L1, etc...) :
Capture d’écran 2018-11-23 à 11.38.51.png

You don't have to create 6 different fbx, this is wrong. And the Hitcheck box is optional, don't need to do it.

This is what you have in the zipfile (you don't need all the textures, just what you want, you can only have a "BC" for example) :
Capture d’écran 2018-11-23 à 11.41.30.png

Make sure the textures have the same name as the material in blender. If your material name is "material_01" then the png name must be "material_01_BC", etc... For me in this example the material name was "WALL_SET_03"

Does your cube has a UV MAP ?



Quick tips for blender users :

-UV MAP
Your object needs a UV map. To do this select your object and enter in edit mode (tab), select all your mesh (A to select or deselect all), then press U > and choose "Smart Uv Project".

Once this is done, you can get out of edit mode (tab again). Your object has now a UV map for textures.

-ADD A MATERIAL
If your object doesn't have a material, make sure to add one in the material tab (on the right of the blender interface) and click on "new" if you don't see any material. Then rename the material to what you want. (example : rename "Material.001" to "Cow_material")
This will be your LOD_0.

If you want it to be flexicolor, just join with your .fbx in the zip folder a white square image (1024x1024 by example)under the good name <Material_01_Name>_F1.png. You will also need a background image, an almost white square image (1024x1024 by example)(90% HSB). <Material_01_Name>_BC.png.

-LOD LEVELS
To make quick LOD levels in Blender. Select your object and duplicate it, and in the modifier tab (on the right of the blender interface), click "add modifier" > "Decimate" (don't need to the modifier if it's just a cube). Then in the ratio instead of 1.000, put 0.8 (80%), rename it with "_L1" at the end and duplicate again your object in Blender. Then change this value to 0.5 (50%), rename it with "_L2", etc... This method is quick and easy but not perfect.
As said in the toolkit instructions, if your model doesn't have much faces, then you don't need to decimate to a very low ratio, just duplicate your L2 for example and change the name to L3. Do the same for L4, etc... Make sure to click "apply" on the decimate modifier of each LOD before exporting as an FBX
 
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