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- Mikey and Ben introduce this section.
- Mike walks you through what is coming up in this section.
- This is the Lecture where you will find all of the files you will need to complete the Section.
- Please Download your Asset Pack now.
- Your files will come in a Zip file ready for extraction to your computer.
- Learn how to manage a larger project.
- Store your files for quick recall.
- This is just a suggested workflow.
- Check out the design specs of a chess board.
- Design our chess board using that info.
- Decide on a working scale.
- Play about in Blender to get it feeling right.
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Start creating our chess board.
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Take over the cube object.
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Use the grid mesh to create the grid.
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Start creating our chess board
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Replace a cube mesh object’s mesh data
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Demonstrate the grid mesh option too
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Updated 27/09/2017
- How to centre your model in the view.
- Learn how to control an objects origin.
- Chose a style of chess set.
- Decide on construction method.
- Start creating our asset.
Construction Method
- Split our models in two.
- Make a standard base asset that we can work from for all the other models.
- Box model the chess piece base.
- Using the bevel tool to round off our sharp edges.
- Learn when you would duplicate an asset model.
- Choose when appending would be better.
Duplicating Vs Appending
- Appending picks out key parts of a blend file.
- Other Scene data would have to be appended separately.
- Duplicating would be exactly the same as the original file with everything intact.
- Learning the power of bridging edge loops.
- Oops our pawn is lovely but has too many polygons!
- Open up the new LowPoly base piece.
- Make sure you are working on the new Blend file.
- Be mindful to keep the top sphere 8 segments.
- Decide how we can manage our materials.
- Creating materials in one blend file.
- Each project will have a different way of handling materials depending on it's size and scope.
- Updated (1/1/2018)
Materials In Our Project
- 32 Pieces: Black & White
- Board: Black & White & Wooden Surround
- 5 Materials in the project.
- We're going to assign materials in a Chess Scene Blend file.
- Looking for commonality to use again
- Speeds up our workflow no having to repeat ourselves. (New Lecture 28/02/2018)
- Take another look at our reference pieces.
- Look for commonality to save us time with modelling.
- Use the 3D Cursor and Origin to accurately control our piece. (New Lecture 28/02/2018)
15 Selecting Hidden Geometry
- Learn how to select geometry that isn’t visible.
- Two straight forward ways,
- Switch view port shading to wireframe.
- Toggle ‘Limit selection to visible’.
- Build the rest of the Bishop. (New Lecture 28/02/2018)
- Experiment with a boolean modifier.
- Understand how to apply it to our model.
- Can been used constructively and destructively.
- It can work in edit mode.
- Real time and live! (New Lecture 28/02/2018)
- Introducing the concept of an empty.
- An empty is a null object, and has no geometry.
- They can be used as a handle to control objects.
- Used as a parent object for a group of objects.
- Many other uses.
Keeping It Lean
- Append the bishop into our chess scene.
- Check everything is right proportion wise.
- Start filling up our board, creating the white pawns.
- Link duplicate our bishop and pawns.
- Managing our models in this scene.
- See how parents can group together objects, their children.
- Create a hierarchy which is easy to navigate.
- We'll be using this to logically group our pieces.
- Parent>Child>Grand Child>Great Grand Child!
- Great for working around more complex scenes.
- We're changing the user preferences.
- Demonstrate both zoom to mouse and rotate around selection.
- Other view options available.
View Options
- View>View Selected (NumberPad .)
- View Dolly: Ctrl + Shift + Middle-Mouse / Ctrl+ Shift + +/-.
- Walk/Fly Mode: Shift + F.
- Understand that lamps apply to Blender Render.
- Light is handled differently in Cycles.
- Adjusting lamps properties and seeing it's affect.
- We will switch to rendered mode in the viewport shading options to see this effect.
Further Reading on Blender Render Lighting:
- http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.4/Manual/Lighting/Lights/Light_Attenuation (Updated 28/3/2018)
- Discover it is useful when working on larger and more complex assemblies or scenes.
- Control whether you are hiding groups of objects as well as individuals.
- Need to understand these for getting rendering right.
- Looking at the two in isolation.
- Combining them to see the effect.
- Still using Blender Render.
Diffuse vs Specular Reflections
- Both are types of reflection.
- Diffuse is when Light scatters as it hits a surface.
- Specular is direct reflection of the light to the viewer.
- Materials are often a mix of the two.
- Show you how to add a texture to your material.
- Reinforce the defuse and specular settings.
- Model the board surround.
- Apply a texture to the board surround.
- (Updated 26/09/2017)
- Introduce procedural textures.
- Apply some to the chequers on the board.
- Better overall to make models using quads.
- Explain what they are.
- Whatever you use- it is being converted back to triangles in the background.
- Watch out making things non planer…
- (Updated 1/1/2018)
- Only happens with quads and NGons.
- Rendering & Exporting always converts geometry into triangles.
- Lose control over the rendering.
- You cannot always see this in the 3D window.
- Makes a huge difference with flat models and flat shading.
Triangles and NGons
- If your model comes to a point you might need a triangle.
- When sub dividing part of you model you are likely to create an NGon elsewhere.
- You will break loops when doing this.
Solutions
- Good mesh topology from the beginning.
- Be lean and check your model through.
- Turn on mesh analysis (not 100%).
- Manually make face(s) Planar again. Normal, SZZ0.
- Learn about edge rings.
- How they help you manage your geometry.
- Definition: A series of edges which are not directly connected, but share faces.
- How to setup and use the Mirror modifier.
- Start creating our Knight.
- Focus on creating a free form model.
- Ensuring faces are not triangulated when being created to keep with our style.
- Introduce the edge split modifier.
- This is the basis of organic modelling.
- Start the Rook from the “LP Chess Piece Base” we made earlier.
- Remember to use the reference material for a rough scale and shape guide.
- Suggest using the queen as a starting point.
- To make the King the right size by out specs, a base of 4 > 4.5 is a scale of 1.125.
- Make the king your own, and have fun.
- Learn about camera placement.
- They're a directional object.
- Overview of the camera settings.
- You can have more than one camera, but only one active camera.
- Tidy our folders for future access.
- Export your model(s) as an FBX.
- Import .FBX into Unreal and Unity game engines.
- Opening Blender models in Unity 5.
- About exporting textures and materials.
- Take our first look at the compositor
- Setup the appropriate nodes to allow a deep of field effect
- Introduction to using groups
- Great for organisation
- Great for moving multiple items from one Blender file to another
End of the Chess Section.