a light intro to 3-d modeling with blender

A light intro to 3-D Modeling with Blender

Scott Janousek May 13, 2015

A light intro to 3-D Modeling with Blender // Scott Janousek // [email protected] // www.scottjanousek.com // Creative Commons

Intro


Three pieces of material

Buddha (explanatory)

LED Star (explorative)

3-D printed name plate (instructional walkthrough)


Please copy the folder on the USB flash drive to the desktop on your

computer station


Scott Janousek

Scott or “S.J.”


Digital ↔ Physical


Software, Hardware Digital Fabrication


Passionate about intersection of art, science and technology.


@scottjanousek

[email protected]

www.scottjanousek.com

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.scottjanousek.com


I work a lot with parametric modelers for mechanical things (e.g. SolidWorks).

Mesh/“organic” polygonal modelers for 3-D scanning, as well as complicated surface modeling.


Questions before we begin?


Hands-on with Blender (=~ 15 minutes)


http://vimeo.com/16292363 (watch later!)

40 Year Old 3-D Computer Graphics (Pixar, 1972)

https://vimeo.com/16292363


“Mesh Modeler” Open Source

Free Lots of features & functionality

Active user community

Why use blender?


Quick notes


Blender has many features


Blender has many modes


Blender has many keyboard shortcuts


Blender has many properties, panels, and UI elements


3 button mouse is essential


Blender can be daunting, but it is powerful and free.


Crash Course in Blender


Ways to launch the Blender

1. /Applications/Blender/Blender.app

2. Double click app to launch Blender

3. Hit Command-Spacebar then type “Blender”


“Birds Eye View” of the GUI


Exercises


Digital -> Physical

Custom Text Name Plate Exercise


In this interactive walkthrough, you’ll model your own custom nameplate for animation

(digital), and 3-D printing purposes (physical).


Exercise Goals

Learn basic blender tools and manipulation within the UI

Learn to use Text within Blender

Learn how to animate Your Name Plate

Learn how to export and reimport to a 3-D printer your nameplate


Delete the default box on the 3-D view of Blender.


Adding your name text


Goto Add->Add Text Object to Scene.


Hit 7 on the numpad to get to Top View.


Hit Tab to enter into “Edit” mode, or select from the bottom menu.


While in Edit mode, type in your name.


Change the Font type, and size (if desired).


Load up the Adobe Garamond Font from the resources folder.


Now the properties are changed (e.g. size & font loaded).


Change to top view (numpad 7). Move the text to the center of the stage.


Text object is now transformed into manipulated mesh poly for extrusion.


Adding the back plate


Be in top view (numpad 7), and add a Plane object via Add->Plane.


Select and move the plane while in Transform (e.g. translate). Constraining axis helps.


The plane is now positioned in the correct place.


Now change to edges mode and select just the right side of the plane.


Now, with the edge selected pull it to the right until it’s big enough.


Here’s another isomorphic perspective.


Now control-tab to and select Face meshing.


Once selected, then use the Transform->Extrude region button, and pull the z-axis handle up to make the backplate have depth.


Now select the text in the scene, and extrude that up (since it’s also a mesh now).


Once the mesh is up, then make sure it is manifold and complete.


Add a bevel modifier to the nameplate back.


Exporting the nameplate to .obj (or .stl)


Exporting to .stl


Exporting to .obj


Lighting, Cameras, and Animation


Changing the lighting


Adjusting the lamp to Constant falloff.


Adjusting the lamp’s energy property.


Adjusting the lamp further.


Adding movement via the timeline


Move the text into the plane hierarchy so it moves along with it.


Adding keyframes in the timeline view for animating the nameplate.


Changing the camera


Adjust the camera settings (if needed).


Larger camera, and rotated and moved to get more of nameplate in render scene.


Rendering


OpenGL Rendering.


3-D Printing the nameplate


Formlabs Form1+ SLA (liquid resin + laser 3-D printer)


PreForm Software with imported .obj (gray resin)


PreForm Software with imported object (clear resin)


Ceramic Buddha to 3-D model


Project - Yari Statue

Was approached by a friend to help Yari - a sculptural artist from New England that makes religious influenced Cambodian art.

This was pro-bono work.


Yari Livan


The Buddha Statue


Goal

To 3-D laser scan the original ceramic buddha at small scale, export mesh, scale it 5-7’ tall, CNC it out of a material, and then cast it in bronze or another metal using a custom forge.


3-D laser scanning


3-D printing the Buddha


3-D Printed Replica (resin)


Magnetic Levitation + 3-D printed Buddha


Animating the Buddha in Blender


Import the 3-D scan mesh into Blender.


Find the Yari .obj file in the resources folder.


Import the 3-D scan mesh into Blender, and set geometry to origin (it is off).


Scale the buddha down, translate Scale, “s” and make it smaller to fit in scene.


Zoom to Buddha (via mouse wheel, or shift-c.)


Adjust the z-axis of the buddha by translate z-axis only, and set it to “2.0”, or use mouse to adjust.


Reduce the # of keyframes a bit.


Add a keyframe to start rotation.


Add a second keyframe to rotate.


Now actually do the rotational transformation on the object in the last keyframe. Do this in numbed 7 top view to be more precise.


Either use the mouse to spin the buddha via z-axis, or enter properties and change z value to 360 (while frame recording).


Trim the values from the start and end frames so there is no delay, and the buddha spins freely.


Insert keyframes on 0, 60 and 120. Value for 0 something like 2, value for frame 60 like 4, and value for last frame back to 2 again (i.e. “hovering in place”).


Change the lamp to constant light source.


Point the camera at the buddha, and tweak focal length to =~ 35mm and up the size to =~ 75 to get the object in frame. Keep as perspective mode.


Render the image.


Render the animation, and export to a movie.


Rendered.


Controlling an LED Star with Blender


Work in progress …


Blender side (Virtual)


Create an Iso Sphere.


Select all the faces (control-tab).


Add a Subsurface Mesh modifier to the iso sphere.


Drop the iso sphere down in facet size.


Add another iso sphere into the scene.


Change the lighting to semi and constant source.


Experimenting with Material and Textures.


Adding keyframe animation.


Modifying camera properties.


Test Render.


Blender UI Code (Python T.B.D)


Physical Side (hardware + poly LED star)


Arduino sketch code to control the sphere (power on/off).


The Star and the Arduino that will be controlling it.


Summary


What are your questions? (=~ 15 minutes)


Thank you.


@scottjanousek

[email protected]

www.scottjanousek.com

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.scottjanousek.com

a light intro to 3-d modeling with blender

Design