ANIMATION IN BLENDER 2.79

 

 ANIMATION PART 1 -NOTES

INTRODUCTION - BASIC CONCEPT OF ANIMATION.

Animation is the process of making something appear to move  by showing a series of still images, one after another, each one slightly different from the previous one, creating an  illusion of motion. This is the concept used in movies. When the images are moved at a rapid speed of 24 pictures(frames) per second or more, then the human brain perceives such change as continuous, which is based on the concept of "Persistence of vision".

TECHNICAL DETAILS

FRAMES, FRAMES PER SECOND, DIFFERENT VIDEO STDS –NTSC,PAL ETC.

Each image in animation is called a frame. Normally 24 frames are shown per second (fps). In Blender we set up scenes using the different characters called object, which perform some action. To enhance the quality of the scene, colored back ground, lighting are included. The whole action is displayed on the computer screen. This is captured by the camera, set up inside Blender and converted into still images which when assembled sequentially becomes a video.
A series of videos assembled with proper sound effects becomes a movie. For display on television the American Standard NTSC specifies 30 fps and the Australian Standard PAL follows 25 fps.
A one minute video, will have 60X24=1440 frames, for 24 fps.

TIMELINE EDITOR.

Time line editor is basically used to set and visualize the frame movement, with its control to start, stop and rewind buttons and provision for setting the total number of frames. It is used for setting the key frames.

 PART 1

OBJECTIVE : BASIC ANIMATION -TO MOVE AN OBJECT FROM POINT A TO POINT B AND THEN TO POINT A.

STEPS

1.ADD AN OBJECT TO ANIMATE.

2.SET FRAME RATE AS 24 FPS, TOTAL NO OF KEY FRAMES 240. START FRAME IS 1 AND END FRAME IS 240.

3.SET KEY FRAME FOR THE OBJECT AT POINTS A, B AND  A AGAIN. SAVE FILE.

4. PLAY ANIMATION.

STEP 1 :ADD AN OBJECT TO ANIMATE

To add an object in 3D window, set your cursor in the 3D window and then press Shift+A keys. A pop-up menu will appear. Here select "Mesh" and then "Cube". A Cube will be added at the location where the cursor was last positioned.

Set the view to Front Ortho view, by pressing "1" and then "5", in the Numpad.

To see the x, y, z location coordinates of the cube,  press "N" key while the cursor is still in the 3D window. A  properties panel will appear on the right side where you should be able to see the location coordinates of the Cube. Set it to x=0,y=0, z=0. Let us assume that this will be point A where the Cube shall be located in  our animation.

STEP 2 : SET START AND END KEY FRAMES

The Start and End key frames are set to 1 and 240 by default. The frame Rate per second(fps) is set to 24fps, the default value.


STEP 3:SET KEY FRAMES

Key frames, are set in the 3d Window, key frame is visible in the Time line window. The current location of the cursor, indicated by the vertical green line in the Time line window is the frame number which we want to set as key frame. When a frame is set as key-frame, a small, vertical yellow line will appear along with the green line in the TimeLine Window.

To set a key-frame, SELECT the Cube, by clicking the Right Mouse Button(RMB) on the Cube. An yellow border-line will appear around the Cube. (If you want to deselect the cube,press "A" key). Let the Cube remain be selected. Note that the current location of the Cube is 0,0,0.

To SET KEY FRAME, press  the "I" button and then click on "Location", in the pop-up menu.A key frame is set  for this location of the Cube. This is indicated by the small yellow line, in the Time Line Window.

Save the File, by pressing Ctrl+S. In Blender, you need to save the file, frequently at regular intervals, to save your work.  

Now we need to repeat these steps for the two other location of the Cube at Point B and C.

Now we shall set key frame for point B.
In the Timeline Window, click on the green line using your Left Mouse Button(LMB) and drag it to frame number 120.This value is displayed on  the Current Frame Number button in the Time Line Window. We  can set the Current frame also by entering a value here. This is an alternate method to set current key frame.

Let us position the Cube at x=0,y=0,z=5, by entering these values  for location in the properties panel.

Make sure the Cube is selected, indicated by the yellow border line around the Cube. Click on "I" Button. Select "Location" in the pop-up menu. A small yellow line will be displayed at frame number 80, in the Timeline Window.

Save the File, by pressing Ctrl+S.

In the Timeline Window, click on the green line using your Left Mouse Button(LMB) and drag it to frame number 240.This value is displayed on  the Current Frame Number button in the Time Line Window. We  can set the Current frame by entering a value here. THis is an alternate method to set current key frame.

Let us position the Cube at x=0,y=0,z=0, by entering these values  for location in the properties panel.

Make sure the Cube is selected, indicated by the yellow border line around the Cube. Click on "I" Button. Select "Location" in the pop-up menu.

Save the File.


At this stage, four yellow lines must be displayed in the TimeLine Window at frame 1,120 and 240.In case you want to delete a key frame, select the key frame,with the Cursor positioned within the 3D window, press "Alt+I" key. Save the File.


STEP 4: PLAY ANIMATION

First set the current frame to frame 1 in the Timeline Window. Press Alt+A keys to play the Animation. The Cube must move from location A to B to C  and repeat the cycle.You can also press the > key, which is the play button in the Timeline Window. To stop the animation, press on the Play Button once more, or hit the "Esc" key.

This completes Part 1. Though the instruction may seem to be elaborate, it is meant to assist the first time learner. Once you get a hang of the steps, it is hardly a few minutes job.

Just play around. If some thing goes wrong, badly, start over again ! Nothing to loose.
 
 VIDEO LINK :ANIMATION USING BLENDER 2.79 PART 1 

 

VIDEO LINK : ANIMATION USING BLENDER 2.79 PART 2

 

VIDEO LINK : ANIMATION USING BLENDER 2.79 PART 3

 

VIDEO LINK : ANIMATION USING BLENDER 2.79 PART 4

 

VIDEO LINK: ANIMATION USING BLENDER 2.79 PART 5 

 

ANIMATE ANYTHING IN BLENDER

 ANIMATE ANYTHING IN BLENDER

 

 While you animate the normal parameters associated with an object with Blender like its location, rotation and scale, have you ever wondered whether it would be possible to animate other parameters, which are in plenty in Blender, like the color of the material, the texture applied, the brightness and color of the lamp, the alpha settings or  the shape of a mesh ? 

 The big answer is YES. Practically almost all parameters in Blender can be animated. You want to know how? Just get in touch, or keep watching for my next post.

ADD-ON : NODE WRANGLER

                                     ADD-ON:  NODE WRANGLER

INTRODUCTION

Node Wrangler Add-on is an add-on officially bundled with the Blender software. It has to be enabled as explained under the head Add-on in this blog.
Node Wrangler is used to add material and texture to any object designed in Blender using PBR (Physically Based Rendering) image data which gives a near real world material output of the rendered image.

DOWNLOAD
PBR image files can be downloaded from some websites, for free at no cost. Paid versions are also available.These files which are compatible to Blender, are to be downloaded. Normally it  comes as a zipped file, for each texture, from which the PBR files must be extracted and stored in  a distinctly named folder.The extracted files contain color, displacement, roughness, normal, albedo and other geometric data of the image.

APPLYING PBR IMAGE TEXTURE TO AN OBJECT
1. The  UV maps of the 3D model must be subdivided and unwrapped first before applying PBR textures.
2. Split the work area into three : 3d, View Port shading and Node Editor. Select the object in 3D window. Set the Render engine to Cycles.Go to Node editor and check Use nodes and then New. A Diffuse node connected to the output node will be added to this window. Delete the Diffuse node and add a Principled BSDF node and connect it to the Output node(Green to Green socket).

3. With the Principled BSDF node selected, press Ctrl+Shift+T. Now you must open the folder where the PBR files are saved and select all the files for a particular texture and click on "Principled Texture setup" Button at the top right corner.

4. A node tree is setup connecting all the selected files to the principled BSDF node. Save your  file. Adjust the settings in the different nodes and study its effect on the final result shown in the viewport shading window which must be set to "Rendered".

VERTEX GROUP

TO MAKE A VERTEX GROUP FOLLOW THE STEPS GIVEN BELOW:

1. Add an object, go to edit mode and sub divide the mesh once.

2. Go to the properties window in the right, and click on the data block icon which is high-lighted with blue color. Go down to vertex group panel , click on the  " + "  sign in the right. A "Group" will be added. Select some vertices, in the 3D window on the object which you sub divided and press on the "Assign" button below in the Vertex group panel.. Now the selected vertices will be assigned to a group called "Group" as a default.
Click on the Group name, it will get  into edit mode, delete it and add a new name like "Head-top".

3. The same procedure may be followed to create additional vertex groups.

4. Once vertex groups are formed, any vertex group may be selected here and used for further activities. One example can be adding hair particles to the vertex group called "Head top" to form the hair.

RIGHT OBJECT SCALE FACTOR FOR RIGID BODY PHYSICS SIMULATION

 When you want to do rigid body physics  simulation make sure that all the objects created for the scene must have a scale  factor of 1,1,1 along all three axes. To do this, select an object after scaling, and press Ctrl+A and select scale. You can see the scale factor set to 1 along all three axes in the properties panel by pressing N and looking under the head  "Scale".

 This is essential for the objects to perform properly when you do the rigid body physics simulation.

COPY LOCATION CONSTRAINT

  COPY LOCATION CONSTRAINT

For this constraint to work we need two objects - a source(owner) object and the target object. Copy location constraint is applied on the owner object and the target object is the controlling  object.

1.Once the copy constraint is applied on the source object, it copies the location of the target object. The source object will get located at the target object location.

2. Depending on whether X,Y or Z is ticked(selected), the corresponding X,Y or Z location of the target  is picked by the source.If only X is ticked, the source will take the X value of the target. Either X, X and Y or X,Y and Z can be selected or its inverted values.

3. Activating the invert option will pick the negative value of the corresponding axis of the target object.

TRACK TO CONSTRAINT

 

When we talk about constraints we talk about a source/owner and the target object. Constraint is applied to the source object. The source object, when it has to pickup  the control parameters from another object, then a target object is added. Some constraints of this type are transformation constraint, action constraint, copy location/rotation/scale constraint. Some  constraints which do not require a target object are limit location, limit distance, limit rotation and so on.

 Track to constraint, in simple terms means  a "Look at"  sort of constraint. When you have an object say a monkey(target) and the camera (source) on which the constraint is applied, the camera is set to face the monkey, irrespective of the movement or rotation of the Monkey or the camera. If the "Up" and "To" axis setting is the same, the constraint will not work. The influence setting can vary from 0 to 1. Zero means no effect, 1 means maximum effect.

 

The three images above shows how the Camera is always facing the Monkey.

The settings to activate the Track-to constraint is shown above. Some other examples of using this constraint are given below:

1. Let us say a ball is bouncing across the ground and the player's eye balls are continuously following the ball, then the constraint  is applied to the eye ball with the ball as the target.

2. Let us say a singer is moving around on the stage and a focus light is set such that the light beam always follows the singer, then the target will be the  singer and the constraint will be applied on the light(source/owner).

Experiment with the settings to get a hang of how it works.

ADD ONS

 Add-ons are scripts which are written to be used with Blender to achieve additional or special functionalities which are not coming with the core -Blender software.  Add-ons are grouped into Official, Community or Testing.

1. Official  add-ons are  provided with Blender, but needs to be enabled.

2. Add-ons which come under the Community are developed by the Blender community members. These add-ons generally needs to be downloaded from the web, and installed and then enabled to make it usable.

3. Add-ons coming under the Testing group are mostly developed by community members by still under test for performance with out any glitch.

To access Add-on set up in Blender follow the following path. File->User Preferences->   Add-Ons and enable the desired Add-on in the list provided below and click on Save User settings to save the  enable setting of the add-on, just done by you.

SAMPLE WORKS DONE WITH BLENDER

Image-Animation2 Some of the art work created with blender are made available for viewing.The links for the same are provided below. Click on the  link  to  see/play the image/video.

HEXAGON ANIMATION

TWO-SPHERES

CUBES-GRID ANIMATION

QUADCOPTER-GENERIC 6 DOF CONSTRAINT

BALL-LAMP -TRACK TO CONSTRAINT

CAR ANIMATION-GENERIC 6 DOF CONSTRAINT

GEARS ANIMATION -COPY ROTATION CONSTRAINT

 DUPLIVERTS-ANIMATION

ELECTRON-SPIN

DUPLIVERTS-PLANES 

DUPLIVERTS-ICOSPHERE 

DUPLIVERTS-ICOSPHERES1 

PARTICLES SIMULATION 

PARTICLES-ASTRO-SIM1 

PARTICLES-ASTRO-SIM2

Thermo-Electric 

DNA-HELIX

Scientific Visualization

Scientific Visualization-3

Scientific Visualization-4

Scientific Visualization-5-Magnetic Field

Scientific Visualization-6-Graphene Tube

Scientific Visualization-7-Galaxy

Multiple Gears Animation

 Drones

Swarm Drones 

Image Animation 

Cubes Animation 

Image Animation 2

BASIC OPERATIONS IN BLENDER

13/10/2020

 

BLENDER WINDOWS ICON

The icon of  these main windows are as shown in the image below.

 BASIC OPERATION IN BLENDER

ADDING OR DELETING OBJECTS

Here we shall try to add some objects and delete them. Objects are some geometric figures like a Plane, Cube, Sphere, Cylinder, Cone etc.
To begin with, click (RMB) on the cube displayed in the middle of the 3D window. Once it is selected an orange coloured outline will appear around the Cube. Next hold down the Shift key and then  press X key. A window will appear with "OK ?" and Delete Shift X. Click on the blue button to delete the Cube.

This is the standard procedure to delete any object. Select the object by clicking the RMB, once the object is selected, press Shift+X and click on the blue button.

To add an object to the 3D window, click within   the 3D window. The 3D cursor will move to the point where you clicked(LMB). Try this out a few times. Next press Shift+A, you will see a list of objects like Plane,Cube, UVSphere, Cylinder  etc appear. Click on any object name and the object will be added to the 3D window.

Try out this procedure for adding a few more objects in the 3D screen.

At any point of time,  a list of all the objects in the 3D window will be shown in the Outliner window, which is  at the top right corner of the display.

To select  all the objects in the 3D window press "A " key. All the objects will have an orange outline around it. You may delete all the objects.


SELECTING OBJECTS.

To select a particular object, position the cursor on the object and click RMB. To select all objects hit "A" key. Two other ways to select objects are  Box select and Circle Select. To use box select, keep the cursor in the 3D window, hit "B" key. Hold the LMB and draw a box to enclose the objects you want to select. To use Circle select, in a similar way, hit "C" key. A circle will appear. Re-size it by scrolling the MMB(Middle Mouse Button) to enclose the desired objects, then click LMB.


DIFFERENT VIEWS

One way of classing view type is the direction from which you view an object. Here we normally talk about Top view,Front view and (Right) side view.To change to different views, use the Number pad keys. Hit 7 for top view, number 1 for front view and number 3 for side view.

Another way of classifying view type is as Orthographic and Perspective view.In Orthographic view, all objects  appear at the same scale,irrespective of distance or depth. A pair of  railway line would appear as two parallel lines. In perspective view ,objects at a distance appear smaller. It adds depth to the view. In perspective, as in real life, the railway lines may look like they are getting smaller and closer as we see, more farther away. To change between the two views use number key 5. It toggles between the two views.

The current view type is displayed at the top left corner of the 3D window.


BASIC BLENDER VOCABULARY

OBJECT

Any 2D, 3D geometric figure is called as an object. As mentioned earlier, Plane, Cube,UVSphere ..... all these are objects. Here Camera, Light  everything is an object. It is like a character in a play. You work on it to make it do what ever you want.

OBJECT AND EDIT MODE.

We normally work  with both objects and meshes. Consider a Cube. If we want to move  the Cube from point A to point B, we select it and drag it to where ever we want and leave it there. If you want to change the shape of the cube, either you want to change it into a rectangular cube, or you want to distort it into into an irregular shape, we will  work in the Edit mode.

Object and  Edit mode is displayed at the bottom of the 3D window as shown below.

 

To change between the the two modes , hit the Tab key. It toggles between the two modes.

CENTRE OF AN OBJECT

In Blender all objects have a geometric centre. Its location and angle of rotation is specified with reference to this  centre and the 3D origin.

3D AXES IN BLENDER

In Blender we work on any object in object or edit mode with respect to the geometric origin (0,0,0) for locating an object. Its angle of rotation is with respect to the x,y,z axis. These three axis are shown in Red, Green and Blue colour respectively.The orientation of the x,y and z axis at any instant is shown at the bottom left corner of the 3D window.

 

GRAB, ROTATE AND SCALE (G, R,S - Keyboard shortcut)

To move an object from point A to B, first select it by clicking on it with RMB. Next hit "G" key to grab it. Move the mouse. The object will move in the direction of the mouse movement. Where ever you want to position the object click  the LMB.  

To rotate an object, select it by clicking RMB. Hit "R" key to rotate. Rotate  the handle with double arrow heads by moving the mouse. The object will rotate. At the desired rotated angle, click the LMB.

 To Scale  an object, select it by clicking RMB. Hit "S" key to scale. Pull   the handle with double arrow heads. The object will scale up or down to grow bigger or smaller. At the desired size, click the LMB.

To move,Rotate or Scale an object, it can be done to a specified distance,angle or size.First select the object and hit G to grab the object.

To move an object by 3 units along X axis - hit x then 3 and Enter key.
To move an object by 3 units along Z axis - hit z then 3 and Enter key.

To rotate an object  90 degrees,around x axis,    hit R then X then 90 and then Enter key.
To rotate an object  120 degrees,around y axis ,hit R then Y then 120 and then Enter key.

To scale an object  2 units along x axis ,hit S then X then 2 and then Enter key.
To scale an object  3 units along z axis ,hit S then Z then 3 and then Enter key.

NOTE: In Blender, for any feature to be used, the cursor must be within the particular window. Let us say you want to move an object from point A to point B. Then the cursor should be first clicked within the  3D window.


NUMBER PANEL

 
When you are working with an object in 3D window, we can get access to the current position of the object with respect to the x,y,z axis. Further you can also access the object's angle of rotation with respect to the x,y,z axis, its scale and dimension in Blender units. To activate the Number panel, hit the N key.To close it, hit the N key again. It toggles between the display / hide mode for the Number panel.


BLENDER KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS AND MOUSE CLICKS

 
Blender has defined numerous key board shortcuts which would help us to speed up our work. We need to quickly learn and use such shortcuts regularly. A few of these shortcuts and mouse clicks are listed below.

- Object/Edit mode               Tab key (Toggle)
- Add object                          Shift+A
- Select/Deselect all objects A (Toggle)
- Grab an object                   G
- Scale object                        S
- Rotate object                      R
- Number panel                    N (Toggle)
- Tool panel                           T (Toggle)

MOUSE CLICKS

Left mouse button clicked               LMB

Right Mouse button  clicked           RMB

Middle mouse button clicked          MMB

INTRODUCTION

 BLENDER

    I am writing this blog to share the different aspects I come to know about Blender, as I use it, to explore and learn its various features.
    Blender is a full featured free software package under the open GPL,which can be run on Windows, Linux or Mac Operating system.It is a 3D development package.
    The primary motivation to write this blog springs from my deep desire, to share the rich features of Blender with the young at heart and empower them to explore a wide range of opportunities to build their career in the CG field,while enjoying the whole learning process every single day. Blender may be learnt as  an hobby activity too, which would provides immense opportunities to explore your creative potentials.

     Blender  can be used for Modelling,Texturing,Rendering,Animation, Composting, Video editing and Game Development. Anybody interested in Computer Graphics can learn Blender which offers a rich set of tools which are comparable to the commercially available packages like Photo Shop , Maya and 3D Max.

      Blender has features to support  content development for the Advertisement industry, still/animated graphics for Websites, motion graphics, 2D/3D visualization of any product or data,character and scene development or Game Development.

     Development of Blender was started in 1988   by Ton Roosendaal as NeoGeo in Netherlands where it quickly grew up to become the largest animation studio. In 1995 this complete software was re-written which was the first version of Blender. From then it has under gone multiple revision and evolved to version 2.9 as on date.Blender Foundation is based at Netherlands which is the head quarters from where the basic development of Blender is done and coordinated. 

     Blender is supported by a wide community of users spread world wide, both novice and professionals and developed by the members of the Blender foundation and independent developers. Learning Blender at the entry level and advanced level is supported by a range of materials available on the web. Tutorials, Blogs, websites videos and interaction with other users in professional sharing networks like Github , Stackoverflow, reddit facilitate the learning process. Many popular websites provide online learning courses for Blender starting at the entry level and covering advanced levels. A quick search on the web would yield abundant results and open the door to you into a world of fun, excitement and  growth.

     This blog is based on Blender version 2.79b and it would touch upon Blender from different angles.However, the basic concepts you learn here would work in the earlier or later version of Blender like blender 2.83 or Blender 2.9, but for some minor variations.A few of the basic  modules  are listed below:

 
1  How to learn Blender ?
2. Downloading and installing Blender.
2a Hardware requirement.
3. Starting Blender, its opening screen and their description.
4. Basic Blender vocabulary.
5. Basic operations in Blender.
6. Basic keyboard shortcuts and Mouse operations.
7. Sample Blender files.
8. Use of a particular feature in Blender.
9. Blender Tips.

 

HOW TO LEARN BLENDER ?

    The basic mindset to learn Blender is to have a sense of curiosity and fun. Blender, today is a professional grade software. The opening screen of Blender would be daunting. You would feel that it is highly complicated and confusing.Its user interface has many windows,hundred of buttons and options with multiple levels of drop down menus and settings.A simple strategy to gain control in working with Blender is to enlarge your circle of learning, step by step,gradually. Biting more than you can chew at one go doesn't work. It may quickly turn you off.

   One additional approach to  learn and Master Blender is to have a "Never say die" attitude. What ever may be the level of difficulty, never give up. If you have failed a dozen times, still do not give up. Try again. Persistence only will pay. If you are faint hearted, this is not for you. Just quit. If you are read for the long haul and ready for an extended grind, a pot of gold awaits you at the end of the tunnel. So good luck ! Make a choice!
    Search for a way to understand and learn the particular task on hand. The first place to look for help is the web. Hundreds of tutorials and videos are there to help you find your way. As  you work your way forward, pause to think and analyze where you are erring. Blind effort is meaningless. Effort with focus and clarity in thought and action will speed up the learning process. A great strategy to speed up  learning Blender is to team up with like minded individuals with whom you can share your learning and queries. Form a collaborative network. This  approach would prove to be a win-win approach.  

      It is important to remember that hundreds of individuals on the web are ready to share and assist you in the learning process. All that you need to do is seek help and knowledge.

STARTING BLENDER AND ITS OPENING SCREEN

STARTING BLENDER

1. If you are working on Windows and have Blender installed, click on the Blender short cut on your Desktop,to launch Blender. The other approach would be to go to start->Program Menu  and click on the Blender icon.
2. If you are working on Linux,open the Terminal Emulator, change directory  to Blender version like 2.79 or 2.83 , depending on the version installed on your computer.Next enter "blender" and hit the Enter key in the command prompt.

OPENING SCREEN

    When you launch Blender, it opens with multiple  windows which are placed adjacent to each other on the  display screen.   

    The main working window  is in the centre, with an object like a cube or monkey placed in the middle.This is the 3D WINDOW .This is the largest window visible on the display screen. The opening screen will be displayed as shown below.

    On the right top corner is the OUTLINER WINDOW which lists the objects in the 3D window. When you launch Blender this window would show a list of a cube/monkey, a camera and a light.

 
    Below the Outliner window is the PROPERTIES WINDOW which has multiple buttons, drop down menus and options. This window is basically used to set the material or texture of an object, edit object properties, set modifiers. When the object(Cube) in the 3D window is selected, buttons for Render, Render layer,Scene, World,Object,Constraints,Modifiers, Data,Particles and Physics are displayed in the Properties window. Hovering the cursor on any button would display its name, indicating its functionality.

 

    At the top is the INFORMATION WINDOW.It has links like File, Render,Help etc on the menu bar. This window  displays the codes generated for any blender operation you perform. 

 
    At the bottom is the TIME LINE WINDOW, which is used for animation.

 

    As mentioned earlier these window as explained above are placed adjacent to each other. The line between two windows is the dividing line. Hovering the cursor on any dividing line would display a two sided arrow. Pulling the arrow head to  left/right or up/down would help resize  any of these windows.