Animating with Blender: Creating Short Animations from Start to Finish

Front Cover......Page 1
Animating with Blender......Page 4
Copyright Page......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Foreword......Page 12
Avoiding Death By Natural Causes......Page 14
Preproduction......Page 15
Production......Page 17
Postproduction......Page 22
The Importance of Following the Work Flow......Page 23
What Makes an Engaging Story......Page 26
Writing It Down......Page 32
Story Scope, Your Resources, and Reality......Page 34
Scope Example: Adding a Second Character......Page 35
How Long Is My Story?......Page 36
The Way That Blender Handles Assets......Page 38
A Suggested Organizational Structure......Page 39
Storyboarding Basics......Page 42
Suggested Tools......Page 48
Pen Tablets......Page 49
Paint Software......Page 50
Blender\'s Image Editor......Page 51
Creating the Storyboards......Page 53
Telling the Story......Page 55
Recording a Temporary Soundtrack for Timing......Page 56
Assembling a Story Reel in Blender\'s Sequence Editor......Page 57
Sequencer Tools for Working with Image Strips......Page 63
Watching and Exporting the Story Reel......Page 67
Designing in Line with Your Theme and Reality......Page 70
The Beast......Page 72
The Mom......Page 73
The Dogs......Page 74
Faces, Hands, and Clothes......Page 75
Level of Detail......Page 76
Normal Mapping for Greater Detail at Lower Resolutions......Page 77
Mesh Animation Issues......Page 80
Quads, Edge Loops, and Joints......Page 81
Bind Pose......Page 85
Polygon Count......Page 86
Preparing the Model for Future Work......Page 88
Libraries, and Why You Should Bother......Page 90
Linking Assets That Do Not Animate......Page 94
Creating an Animation Proxy......Page 99
Creating and Linking a Dupligroup......Page 100
Linking Assets for Character Animation......Page 103
Managing Your Links and Libraries......Page 105
Finding and Fixing Broken Links......Page 106
Moving a Shot File and Maintaining Its Links......Page 107
Moving an Asset File......Page 108
Creating Rough Sets......Page 110
Preparing the File for the Rough Set......Page 111
Building Your Template Scene File......Page 114
Matching Camera Angles to Storyboards......Page 115
Placing Your Characters......Page 119
Proceeding Through the Story Reel......Page 122
Additional Detail: Moving Cameras, Moving Characters......Page 123
Replacing Storyboards in the Story Reel......Page 125
Finding Decent Equipment and Environments......Page 130
What to Use......Page 131
Making the Recording......Page 132
The Goal of the Recording Session......Page 133
Some Sound Processing Basics......Page 134
Removing Noise and Adjusting Levels......Page 137
Previewing the Recorded Sound......Page 138
An Iterative Method for Rigging, Skinning, and Testing......Page 140
Control Structures......Page 141
General Rigging and Skinning Work Flow......Page 142
Building the Rig in Layers......Page 145
Inverse Kinematics/Forward Kinematics......Page 146
Another Rigging Example: The Fingers......Page 154
To Deform or Not?......Page 155
The Armature Modifier and Vertex Groups......Page 156
The Mesh Deform Modifier......Page 159
Lattices......Page 161
Combining Different Deformation Methods with Vertex Groups......Page 165
Testing Your Rig......Page 167
A Final Example of Fixing a Rigging Problem......Page 168
A Checklist for Preparing Rigged Characters for Life as a Library......Page 170
Blender\'s Method for Controlling Facial Expressions......Page 174
Creating a Library of Shapes......Page 177
Expression Fragments......Page 178
Splitting Expressions......Page 179
Tips for Creating the Shapes......Page 183
Mouth Shapes for Lip Syncing......Page 186
Constructing Shape Controls......Page 188
Spherical Eyes......Page 195
Flattened, Squashed or Otherwise Nonspherical Eyes......Page 196
Creation of Per-Shot Working Files from the Scene Template......Page 200
Animation Basics......Page 202
Animating in Blender......Page 205
Working in the Action Editor......Page 206
Straight Ahead Animation......Page 208
Pose to Pose Animation......Page 209
A Practical Example......Page 210
Timing......Page 214
Overlap......Page 215
Fine Tuning Your Animation......Page 217
Analyzing Motion with Arcs......Page 218
\"Automatic\" Motion: Breathing and Blinking......Page 219
Pick it Up......Page 221
Hold On!......Page 222
Walk This Way......Page 223
A Final Note......Page 227
Adding Audio Strips to Shot Files......Page 228
Creating the Sync......Page 230
Mixing and Exporting Sound for the Final Edit......Page 232
Work Flow......Page 236
Matching the Rough Set......Page 237
Movable Objects and Construction......Page 238
Raytracing, of Course......Page 239
Subsurface Scattering......Page 241
Full OSA......Page 242
What Not to Use......Page 243
Lighting Exterior Shots......Page 244
Lighting Interior Shots......Page 247
Layering......Page 249
Getting Help......Page 251
Fluids......Page 256
Common Methods of Faking Water and Fluids......Page 261
Cloth......Page 266
Cloth Pinning......Page 268
Rigid Bodies......Page 271
Fire and Smoke......Page 275
Bits o\' Stuff......Page 279
Strands—Hair and Fur......Page 283
Setting Up and Adding Parent Strands for Grooming......Page 284
Filling it Out with Children......Page 288
Materials......Page 289
Blubber......Page 294
Hair......Page 296
Linking Issues with Simulators......Page 298
Goals and Overview......Page 300
Lighting Your Shot Files......Page 301
Faster Renders......Page 303
Contrast Boost......Page 315
Midtone Brightness......Page 316
Combining the Techniques......Page 317
Color Adjustment......Page 318
Motion Blur......Page 320
Getting a Good Render on Your Local Machine......Page 322
Final Animation Review......Page 324
Preparing for Render Farming......Page 325
Setting Up and Using a Render Farm......Page 326
Using Render Farm Software: Farmerjoe......Page 327
Running Farmerjoe Remotely......Page 334
Staying Organized......Page 335
Putting All of the Renders Together......Page 338
Color Correction and More Post Effects......Page 343
Editing for Timing......Page 345
Sound, Music, and Foley......Page 346
Music......Page 347
The Wrappers......Page 349
Web Distribution......Page 350
Audio......Page 352
DVD......Page 353
Afterword......Page 358
C......Page 360
I......Page 361
O......Page 362
R......Page 363
S......Page 364
Z......Page 365