Friday, February 25, 2011

Book Review: Blender 3D Architecture, Buildings, and Scenery


Hi, everyone!

A few months ago, Packt Pub gave me the wonderful opportunity to review one of their Blender books titled "Blender 3D Architecture, Buildings, and Scenery" by Allan Brito.

And without further hesitation, I went ahead and read the entirety of the book, hoping to at least gather some info that would be valuable to my day job as an architectural visualizer; but it went more than just plain information, it has taught me some of the workflow and methods used in this respect, to creatively enhance the output you will make.

The book progressively leads you from the most rudimentary steps and initial set-ups with Blender to the more advanced animation and post production techniques involved.

As we might already know, using Blender for architectural visualization is such a burden at times, often caused by the lack of tools needed, but after reading the book, I realized just how powerful and fast Blender is for archi viz.

The modeling techniques presented are also done in such a way that they doesn't sound too complicated and you'll soon realize just how effective they are. This is true for exterior modeling a building and to interior modeling furnitures and other props.

Allan Brito also creatively added a chapter with using Yafaray, one of the free and powerful external renderers available for Blender.

Basically, this book teaches you everything you have to know about using Blender for architecture, from the simplest modeling process to the most profound shading and rendering processes.

Overall, I would rate this book a 9/10 score, as far as Blender knowledge and 3d workflow is concerned.

And to those of you itching to have a quick look on what the book has to offer, you can access the sample chapters here > https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/0486-chapter-2-blender-3d-quick-Start.pdf

The book is available at Packt Publishing here > http://www.packtpub.com/blender-3d-2-49-architecture-buildings-and-scenery/book?utm_source=reynantem.blogspot.com&utm_medium=bookrev&utm_content=blog&utm_campaign=mdb_006640

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Just Another Day in a Blender Artist's Life

Just had this crazy idea to record myself, I mean my hands, while at work today. I glimpsed at my hands while working and wow, I was surprised to see Blender's hotkeys in action.

This is really uber boring stuff but just wanted to share.

By the way, it's a texturing process I'm doing on the vid. Unfortunately, I couldn't show you what I'm working on. ^_^




Monday, February 21, 2011

LytMunkis Intro Clip Version 1

Some time last week, I was lucky to have some time to play around with version 1 of the intro clip for LytMunkis, our photography group (or so we call it). The whole process was quick and dirty, since I had to make do the entire thing. And hopefully, next time I find quality time, version 2 will get on its way. ^_^

Made with Blender, by the way.








Thursday, February 17, 2011

GIMP Tutorial: Just in time for Valentines


Let's pretend it is. ^_^

Here's the second tutorial I wrote with youthedesigner.com, in time for the love season.

If you haven't had the chance to check out the previous GIMP tutorial we did, please head over to http://www.youthedesigner.com/2011/02/07/a-design-tutorial-on-creating-shiny-buttons-with-gimp/

And here's a link to the GIMP Valentine Tutorial: http://www.youthedesigner.com/2011/02/15/gimp-tutorial-just-in-time-for-valentines-2/

Please, if you have article suggestions, please feel free to contact me at reynantem[at]gmail[dot]com. You can also find me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/reynantem) and Facebook (http://facebook.com/reynantem). See you!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Blender's Particle Textures Reincarnated

Yes, yes, yes! You read it from the title. But there's more to it than just that. There have been many many many improvements in Blender's particle system, this we owe a lot to Janne Karhu (aka Jahka) and all to the Blender developers (most of which does voluntarily) who has been dedicating their time and effort to improving Blender as we see it now.

I have long been waiting for this feature to be reimplemented to 2.5. And, yes, it's now a dream come true.

Without further ado, you can check the video below for a proof of concept:






Wednesday, February 9, 2011

GIMP Tutorial: Creating Shiny Buttons


Hi! Recently, I have had a great opportunity of teaming up with YouTheDesigner (http://youthedesigner.com), a part of the UPrinting.com Network, and an inspirational design site in my opinion.

It has been a while since I last talked about GIMP designs and such, and with youthedesigner contacting me, I felt really honored, thus giving me an opportunity to better play around with GIMP and refresh in retrospect.

And yes, I believe I already have babbled a lot. ^_^

So, to you unpatient folks out there, you can go ahead and check out the mini tutorial:

http://www.youthedesigner.com/2011/02/07/a-design-tutorial-on-creating-shiny-buttons-with-gimp/

Thank you so much to all those who liked, commented, and tweeted on the article. More power to youthedesigner.com!

Please, if you have article suggestions, please feel free to contact me at reynantem[at]gmail[dot]com. You can also find me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/reynantem) and Facebook (http://facebook.com/reynantem). See you!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Blender Node Editor Transparency

I have been so shocked with this news from the community. Our ever-so-kind Phonybone has added transparency feature to Blender's node editor backdrop, which is, in my personal opinion, sooooooo sick! I'm loving it! Thank you so much, Phonybone!