Synopses & Reviews
Blender has become one of the most popular 3D/Animation tools on the market - with 2 million + users, and it is free There is very little available for Blender users and animators on how to take Blender to the next level - beyond creating 3D still images - to the world of animation. Animating with Blender is the definitive resource for creating short animation projects from scratch with Blender, the ideal platform for experimenting with animation, as it's totally free. The book comes directly from the Blender Foundation's Roland Hess, noted Blender expert and author. Hess walks animators through the entire process of creating a short animation from: writing, to storyboarding and blocking, through character creation, animation and rendering. A single short animation project is created from start to finish, providing an in-depth look at how all of the Blender tools work together.
The accompanying DVD includes the Blender software, and quality renderings of the example short animation project, as well as all files used to produce the finished animation. The files are available for examination and re-use.
--Author, Roland Hess, is one of Blender's original developers and supremely well-connected with the President/Founder of the Blender Foundation. We are sure we will be able to secure official status for the book, with Blender Foundation Approved starburst on the cover and in marketing copy.
--A practical, tools-based look at producing short animations for FREE - Blender is a free, open source produce, which makes it ideal for small animation projects.
--Story and Thematic Insights covered - Roland Hess is trained and experienced in story mechanics and the screenplayformat, and provides animators with simple, practical guidelines to creating a story of the proper scope and infusing the project with theme-supporting elements.
--Peach Interviews: each chapter contains a Peach Perspective sidebar that includes interviews with the Peach animation team providing reinforcing information and additional perspectives having to do with the topic at hand. The Blender Foundation's Peach project is their second open movie short animation project, the first one of which generated an enormous amount of publicity and interest in Blender as an animation tool. The short is scheduled to be finished in April or May of 2008.
--DVD includes the Blender software package, as well as all animation files that lead to the finished feature - so users can study, pick apart and reuse all of the files used to produce the final animation.
Synopsis
Blender has become one of the most popular 3D and animation tools on the market, with over 2 million users, and it is free! Animating with Blender is the definitive resource for creating short animation projects from scratch, the ideal platform for experimenting with animation.
Blender expert and author Roland Hess walks you through the entire process of creating a short animation, from writing to storyboarding and blocking, through character creation, animation and rendering.
* Learn the ropes from Roland Hess, one of Blender's developers and a community guru for this FREE animation program, which was used in the previz for Spiderman 2
* Create a single short animation project from start to finish, take an in-depth look into how all of the Blender tools work together
* Study, pick apart and reuse all of the files from the animation referenced throughout the book, with the Blender software and sample animation files included on the companion DVD
About the Author
Blender Certified Trainer, Member of Blender Trainer Certification Board. Roland Hess has been working with graphics and imaging software for over twenty years and is the leading expert on Blender. As one of a handful of people involved with Blender from the very start, Roland is uniquely welll-qualified to teach the software, as he is still both an active user and developers. Hess brings a unique perspective to Blender instruction that helps to bridge the difficult gap between technical knowledge and artistic endeavor. He wrote: Blender Foundations for Focal (2010), and The Essential Blender, No Starch, 2007.
By Roland Hess, working with graphics and imaging software for over 20 years, Roland is the leading expert for Blender software. As one of a handful of people involved with Blender who is both an active user of the software as well as one of the developers, he brings a unique perspective to Blender instruction that helps to bridge the difficult gap between technical knowledge and artistic endeavor. Hess wrote: Animating with Blender for Focal 2009, and The Essential Blender, No Starch, 2007.
Table of Contents
Creating Short Animations with Blender
At A Glance
Chapter 1: An Overview of the Short Animation Process
This chapter gives a brief overview of the entire process of creating a short animation. It also provides advice and rationales about why it is important to actually follow the steps, as well as common pitfalls and how to avoid them.
Chapter 2: Story
Deciding on a story that fits the scope of your resources. Objective vs. subjective story lines, and why you need to know the difference. Deciding on a theme, and adding theme-supporting details and elements to the story. Also, screenplay format is introduced and advice is given on where it's appropriate (or unnecessary) to use.
Chapter 3: Storyboarding and the Story Reel
Emphasizes the absolute necessity of storyboarding, even if you can barely draw, and suggests some tools and techniques to make the job easier. Examples of how good storyboarding can lead to shorter production and render times later. Analyzing your storyboards for later optimization of shots, angles, and necessary sets and props. Also, it is shown how Blender can be used to assemble an initial Story Reel with a temporary sound track.
Chapter 4: Character Design and Creation
Although rough character designs have already been done in the storyboards, at some point you must decide how your characters will actually look. The chapter emphasizes matching character design with the theme of the story and ways to think about encoding the character's place in the theme into their appearance. Modeling to the needs of the character's storyboarded appearances and actions is shown, as well as optimizing meshes and materials for animation rendering.
Chapter 5: Libraries
Blender's library and linking system explained. Creating libraries for proper reuse and unification of digital assets. How libraries will benefit your production.
Chapter 6: Rough Sets, Blocking, Good Sound and an Animatic
Building the basic shapes for your sets, then blocking the shots from the story board with the low resolution set and static characters. Updating the story reel with a hard dialogue track and OpenGL stills and camera move animations.
Chapter 7: Rigging and Animation Testing
Rigging and skinning modeled characters with respect to their animation needs within the project. Testing the rig with sample animations. Creating facial morph targets for expression and lip sync.
Chapter 8: Character Animation: Blocking and Finishing
Per-shot files are created, and characters and rough sets are linked in from their libraries. Pose to Pose animation is shown. The story reel is updated with a pose-to-pose breakdown and gross timing is tested and adjusted. Blender's tools for refining animation, creating offsets, follow-through, anticipation, etc. are demonstrated.
Chapter 9: Lip Sync
Using the previously created shape keys to add facial expression and lip sync. Adding and scrubbing sound files.
Chapter 10: Special Effects: Physics, Fluids and Particles
Physics and particle tools are shown, with suggestions on when and where it is best to use them or to just fake their effects. Also, it is shown how to integrate this sort of procedurally generated animation into the main keyframed animation. Attention is given to render times and careful planning from the animatic.
Chapter 11: Final Sets and Backgrounds
Using the story reel as a guide, decisions are made as to static backgrounds vs. backgrounds created from live geometry. Sets are built to match the roughs with full resolution objects, sectioned per shot requirements, and saved as libraries for efficient linking and re-use. Static backgrounds are rendered and tweaked, with Normal and Z data for better compositing.
Chapter 12: Rendering and Post-Processing
The render layers system and compositor is shown, bringing together the final animation elements, final sets, backgrounds and special effects created previously. Common post-processing techniques like Blender's vector-based motion blur, depth of field and bloom/glow are shown.
Chapter 13: Editing and Final Output
Using Blender's Sequence Editor to edit the rendered, composited animation into the final product. Generating a variety of output formats (.avi, MPEG, Quicktime) and which are best for what.