Helios enables the distributed rendering of 3D models building on open source technologies that are all 100% pure Java. The rendering engine is Sunflow with the distributed computations managed by the JGrid service-oriented Grid system that uses the Jini technology as its base. This is what is written on the homepage of the project. Puzzled? This simply means that using this piece of software, you will be able to enslave numerous computers from your own private network into an efficient Render Farm.
Using boids, it is easy to set animations with some prey/predator-like behaviour to some extend. In these cases, using Spherical Fieds emitters with negative Strength (repulsive, predators) or positive Strength (attractive, preys) will be quite easy and effective. Moreover, using the Die on Hit option (in the Extras panel) would prove useful also, when a predator successfully reaches a particle.
This tutorial is designed for Blender 2.50 and supplements Blender 2.50's release Logs about Boids particles systems. You need a SVN version of Blender to use it! Special thanks go to Janne Karhu for all the cool tips he provided me, both for the documentation and this tutorial.
Normal maps have become very popular these last few years, shown as a large improvement in the Game Industry but also in more traditional CG Industry and in the movie Industry, even if less obviously. Nowadays, solutions to sculpt models to an incredible level of detailing exist (ZBrush, Mudbox but also our beloved Blender, with its now famous Sculpt mode) but building normal maps to enhance the surfaces of our Blender models is still somehow lacking. Blender now has the capability to bake Camera Space Normal Maps directly from a higher level of resolution and apply it to a lower level of resolution, thanks to UVmapping and the Multi-resolution meshes. But the very last step, the one which will bring Blender up to the standards is still missing) : Tangent Space Normal Maps. If Blender now supports these maps, it still doesn't know how to bake them.
The messages on Blender forums and boards are countless about smoothing problems. Most of the time, the users report black blotches on the surface of their models, while using the Set Smooth on them. This article is not a tutorial. It's more a discussion, a collection of observations and know-how. It is intended for beginners, but seasoned users could also find it valuable in their own attempts (as ressource or reference) to help beginners. Isn't the community about helping each other, after all?
Vector Blur is an interesting solution to go beyond the limitations of regular Motion Blur. It relies on the Composite Nodes Editor to perform. But even if the Nodes Editor could look intimidating at first glance, it's in fact very easy to set up. This short tutorial will go through the basics steps for enhancing your renders (both stills and animations) with good looking motion blur.
You will find hereafter a comprehensive lists of PDF tutorials about learning how to do some Python scripting for Blender. These tutorials were originally printed in the french Linux Magazine, so they are unfortunately in french. They are available on the Internet, courtesy of Diamond Editions. Please do not copy, distribute or translate without written authorization from me (I'll refer to my Chief Redactor for proper authorization if needed).
Bump mapping is a well known but old technique for faking 3d reliefs. The relief information is stored in a gray-scale image. But a new and very popular method in the 3D game industry offers to store the relief information in a RGB image, increasing the precision and, obviously, the realism of fake reliefs on your 3D models: Normal mapping. This short tutorial is about showing you how to build your own Normal maps without expensive tools, and of course how to use them.
This tutorial aims at showing how works the SubSurface Scattering Script of the MakeHuman project. The script is a different version of the Superficial Scattering script already featured on ::feeblemind.org::, and, as it can simulate the translucency of the material, it gives more realistic results for such materials needing transparency to be taken into account.
This tutorial aims at showing how works the Superficial Scattering Script of the MakeHuman project. The script is a different version of the SSS script still under development, specific to superficial scattering, and is refered to as the Quick SSS script. It's called "Quick" because it is optimized for skin and other things without translucency. When translucency is needed, then the regular MHsss script is required.
Obviously, learning first to use the Quick Superficial Scattering script gives a better hang over the use of the regular MHsss script, as a third component color will be available for the user, as well as other settings about the subsurface scattering effect. This will be the point of another tutorial when the script will be officially released.
Using boids, it is easy to set animations with some prey/predator-like behaviour to some extend. In these cases, using Spherical Fieds emitters with negative Strength (repulsive, predators) or positive Strength (attractive, preys) will be quite easy and effective. Moreover, using the Die on Hit option (in the Extras panel) would prove useful also, when a predator successfully reaches a particle.
