Software How to use Blender?

T.Neo

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Animations in Orbiter are defined in the code (whether Sc3 or .dll). To make the object animatible, just make sure it is it's own group.

Making animations like walk cycles, etc, in Anim8or or Blender has nothing to do with Orbiter.

EDIT:
Plain .cfg vessel can't do animations, you have to have either Sc3 or .dll.
 

n72.75

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in my opinion, blender sucks. its is a very good rendering tool but i cant seam to get the hang of modeling or animating in it
 

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Blender has a rather steep learning curve, much like Orbiter. It works far better if you learn the shortcut keys. Once you get the hang of it, it's very fast and easy. In fact, several movie companies use Blender for "pre-viz" animations because of it's fast workflow. All three Spiderman movies, for instance, used Blender for pre-viz work.

Many other 3-D apps are easier to learn the basics of, but Blender offers tools (especially for animation) that the other free solutions lack, like fluid and rigid body dynamics, etc. While those won't help in Orbiter, they can come in handy for other things. The built in game engine is another plus.

If your only interest is in modeling for Orbiter, many free and non-free apps will work just fine. If you want a more complete 3-D app, Blender is far superior to any other free app, and not far behind the expensive commercial apps like Studio Max and Maya.
 

Juanelm

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IMHO Blender is the least user-friendly software I have used. Anim8or, on the other hand, is one of the best user-friendly ones..
 

Tommy

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IMHO Blender is the least user-friendly software I have used

Not quite the worst I've used, but it's close. The interface is designed for fast workflow, and it's very good for that - once you learn it.

If you just want to do 3D modeling for Orbiter, Blender is overkill. Anim8tor will do everything you need with a much shorter learning curve. If your needs go beyond models for Orbiter, you can't beat Blender for less than hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. Even then, Blender will be faster. Unless you're doing special effects for big screen productions, or creating for certain specific game engines, Blender is more than adequate. It's also the fastest developing software I've ever seen. For quite a while they were adding new features every few weeks, faster than I could keep up! It already has a feature set comparable to Professional level software, and is still improving.
 

unussapiens

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I've said it before and I'll say it again: Blender has one of the steepest learning curves you'll find, and an interface that looks like utter c**p when you first look at it. But once you've learnt some hotkeys and how the interface works you can work very quickly and efficiently. Blender is designed to use keyboard commands more than buttons, to increase speed.

Yes, blender can be considered overkill for Orbiter, but it has many tools which are useful for modelling. It's also good if you want to develop for orbiter and do more complex things.
 

Epsilon

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I'm actually quite fond of Blender, myself. >_>

As far as learning how to use Blender, the above posts are correct - it's not a simple or quick process, and the learning curve is steep. That being said, if you search out the "Noob to Pro" tutorial at http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php...eginner_Tutorials/Print_version&printable=yes (oh, look, I had it bookmarked still! :p), and you follow the exercises, it'll give you a -very- good leg-up as far as getting into the whole modelling thing. Once you get moderately good with it, you can hack together a "quick" model of something with Blender in about 15-30 minutes - and it'll look pretty decent, too. Enjoy. :cheers:
 

T.Neo

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Is it possible to do photorealistic animations in Blender? Or is it reserved for more "cartoon" graphics?
Also, is it possible to scan a physical model into a computer program?
 

Epsilon

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Is it possible to do photorealistic animations in Blender? Or is it reserved for more "cartoon" graphics?
Also, is it possible to scan a physical model into a computer program?

Not sure about the physical model thing, but I know there's a subset of the Blender community that works with using Blender for modelling stuff like human movement, faces, bodies, etc. I'm not all that great with the whole art thing - I can do the modelling, but I can't do the art/textures, and I still haven't figured out animation (not that I've had a need for it - in Blender, at least...)

The n00b to Pro link I posted up top actually has a tutorial where you're using a picture of something from multiple angles to get it into Blender - it still requires you to do the grunt work, but it works pretty decently. Myself, I just visualize it and roll. It's a bit messier, takes a bit longer, but it puts more -soul- into it. ;)

Of course, I don't really use it for organic modelling, so YMMV. I still think it's a pimptastical program, especially for being one you get for the free.
 

T.Neo

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I'm wanting to do animations of creatures that appear to be part of a real environment.
I'm wondering about scanning in a physical model because I've done such models before, and they were pretty good, yet I shudder at the thought of modeling anything with organic curves or shapes, though I haven't had any experiance with anything other then Anim8or.
 

unussapiens

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Blender does not have the functionality to automatically model objects, but you should be able to use whatever technique you used in Anim8or with blender.

As said before, the blenderf forum has many tutorials (more than you will ever read), so have a look around there. I also recommend Noob to Pro, it's where I learnt a lot of stuff.

I'm a blender advocate, and after using it for a couple of years I've found it very hard to work with anything else, since it all seems to be done so slowly.
 

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in my opinion, blender sucks. its is a very good rendering tool but i cant seam to get the hang of modeling or animating in it

Just because you're having problems with modelling or animating in it doesn't mean it sucks. In the right hands its a very powerful tool, i know professional artists who use it day to day.

It is very powerful which makes it very complex, it's often accused of having a very painful interface which doesn't help things, but really all of the major fully featured packages are tough to use at first, max, lightwave, maya, xsi all have very steep learning curves for a beginner.

You'll get there, It's just a matter of persevering with it.
 

T.Neo

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Blender does not have the functionality to automatically model objects

I was thinking of having some other program do the scanning in of the objects, and importing to a program like Blender. But I guess both the hardware and software required are very hard (and expensive) to aquire.

but you should be able to use whatever technique you used in Anim8or with blender.

That's fine, but I doubt I can use that technique to do anything organic.
I'm afraid I'll end up with a very bad model, and I'd rather have badly lit jerky stopmotion.
 

N_Molson

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No doubt about that, Blender is a professional-quality free software. The best artists achieve photorealism and even better than that.

I agree that the first time you open the software, you can feel some despair. Nothing is where you expect it. So its a bit like learning a specific OS lol ? But Blender is much much more capable than Anim8tor, it is the right stuff to learn.
 

n72.75

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in my opinion, blender sucks. its is a very good rendering tool but i cant seam to get the hang of modeling or animating in it
Please never listen to 2009 me, haha. I mean, I still haven't figured out... but that's not Blender's fault.
 

llarian

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Even Andrew Price (The Blender Guru) who has been working with Blender for 19 years says there are parts of it he doesn't or hasn't used. To become fluent with it, you almost have to be using it every day. Still Andrew suggest working the 80/20 rule ... 80 percent of what you do only needs 20 percent of Blender. For the capabilities it offers versus the cost (free) it is worth the effort. That being said it is not Blender's fault that we seem to be stuck with DirectX and we really need an enhanced import/export tool that doesn't force us into using additional software tools to ensure proper model and texture export.
 
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