How to Make a 3D Object In Blender to use on AXON HD & HD Pro Media Servers

IntroductionWe assume you have reasonable Blender knowledge. If you are unfamiliar with Blender or want to review, please visit these resources:

• Blender Tutorials• Blender Manual

Create or Import your Model:• You can either create your model in Blender or in another 3D modeling program

and import the model into Blender.• For this tutorial, we created our model in Blender.

Setup Blender:• In this step, you will change the render engine and the view. This is for a better

workflow and an appropriate workspace.Create and Apply the Texture:

• Creating and applying the texture will allow you to check if the UV Faces are arranged correctly and to see how the UV Faces will need to be arranged.

Arrange the UV Faces:• This is where you adjust UV Faces to change how the texture is wrapped around

your object. The texture represents how your image or movie will be wrapped around the object when being used on the media server.

Export the .OBJ File:• Before exporting your object as a .obj file, you will need to make all the faces

triangular. This is done by selecting your object by hitting A and then using the keyboard shortcut CTRL +T.

• Exporting your object as a .obj file will allow the Axon to use your object.

Create or Import Your

ModelSetup

BlenderCreate and Apply the

textureArrange the UV Faces

Export the .OBJ file

Create/Import Your Model• You can choose to either create your model in Blender, this requires a familiarity

with modeling in Blender, or you can import your model that was created in a different program.

• Import your model by going to File -> Import -> select the file type you wish to import -> Navigate to the desired file

Setup Blender and Your Object to Create a UV MapYou will change the render engine and the view for a better workflow. Changing the view will also allow you to arrange the UV Faces and see how it is wrapping the texture around the object because the UV Editing view opens two spaces to edit in, the UV/Image Editor and the 3D View

1. Change Object Mode to Edit Mode by hitting Tab

2. Change the render engine from Blender Render to Cycle Render3. Change the view to UV Editing

• Your screen will now have two editors open, the left is the UV/Image Editor and the right is the 3D View

Creating and Applying a TextureThe texture is to show you how an image or video will be wrapped around the object. Having the texture will also make it easier to make a usable UV Map.

1. Click New

2. Name your texture3. Change Generated Type to Color Grid4. Click OK

5. Select the Shading/UV’s tab

6. Select your object by hitting A7. Click Mark Seam8. Click Unwrap -> Unwrap

9. Change the UV/Image Editor to Node Editor

10. Check Use Nodes

11. Add a New Image Texture Node

12. Place the Image Texture Node on the screen and connect the Node with the Diffuse BSDF Node

13. Navigate to the texture by clicking on the picture icon in the Image Texture Node

14. Change the 3D output from Solid to Textured

15. Change the Node Editor back to the UV/Image Editor

The boxes on the Color Grid are the UV faces. Each UV face corresponds to a face on the object.

Arrange the UV FacesArranging the UV Faces will adjust how the texture is wrapped around the object. You want to arrange the UV Faces the way you want your image to be wrapped around the object.

• Arrange the UV Faces on the Color Grid to match how you want your image to appear on the object

• Drag the vertices to arrange the UV Faces

Export the .obj FileYou will prepare the object to be exported by making the faces triangular, and then you will export the file as a .obj.1. Make all the faces triangular

1.1. Select the object by hitting A1.2. Hit CTRL +T

2. File ->Export -> Wavefront (.obj)