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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Hello Frances,
Select your curve and go into the Object menu (at bottom, leftish) and go up to Convert to make your curve into a mesh object. Once it's a mesh, go into Edge mode* (once you're in Edit mode by pressing tab) and select it. You should be able to extrude to your heart's content. ;)
Something to remember...when you extrude a point, it becomes an edge. When you extrude an edge, it becomes a plane (face).
Hope this helps!
James
* - there are three major editing "modes"...working with Vertices, working with Edges, and working with Faces. In more complex modeling, you will find the need to switch among the three depending on just what you're doing at the moment. (more on that later) :)
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Thanks James, now I have another problem I have added some planes and joined them together behind the fabric which is looking more like plastic at this point and the mirrored ball but the image I've imported into blender doesn't seem to want to map to them.
Here is my blender file I'm not sure if the textures will be saved with the file I haven't figured out how to pack it.
Any help will be much appreciated! Note: I zipped the file as the forum wouldn't accept the blend file.
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Hello Frances,
I'm happy to look at that for you.
To get your mapped images (and other "assets") to be included in the blendfile, just go to the menu item ("File" on far left, top) that says External Data. The first option there is to Pack the blendfile. Once you've activated this, then saving the blendfile will also automatically include all graphics, etc. Remember that (depending on the size of those graphics) the blendfile can get quite large.
Though the graphic was not included, I simply replaced one of mine and it did NOT render or map. I'm not quite sure what you did, but when I deleted the texture and simply added another, it worked fine. Take the one that I included and just hit the X to get rid of my texture and reload yours and see if it now renders... [The mapping will be slightly stretched at the place where the fabric object "rolls" (is ruffled). See note below.]
By the way, I notice that you have the rotator tool normally activated... I never use that. I think you will have it a lot easier if you mainly have the tool selected as per the following graphic. If you want to rotate, just press "r" and it will allow you to rotate, you don't need the circular tool thingy that gets in the way. Remember that, unless you enter a constraint after pressing "r", it will rotate based on which view you have. In other words, if you're looking from the TOP, and you rotate, it will rotate only in X and Y. If you're looking from the FRONT, and you rotate, it will rotate only in X and Z, etc. With the transform tool, as mentioned just above, when you need to position objects, it really helps, since you can grab hold of any particular axis and only move along that axis. Makes it much more intuitive and easy.
Attachment 84036
In the object that you're trying to map to, it doesn't fit one of the normal mapping types, Flat...Sphere...Tube...etc. Because of this (ie. that your fabric object is NOT planar), it really needs to be unwrapped to map perfectly and that is a slightly more advanced topic. Though I'd be happy to show it to you, in time. :)
Hope this helps!
James
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Quote:
Originally Posted by
angelize
I haven't figured out how to pack it.
I can help with this one: file => external data => pack into .blend file
as James mentioned ....
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Intermission:
I was just playing around in the modeler and come up with I don't know what. Still, it looked kind of cool (looks like an artsy ashtray for some reason or perhaps alien robot fallopian tubes) so I share it.
Attachment 84038 Attachment 84042
Also, here's a little text "appetite whetter" for Frances...
Attachment 84040
We return you now to your regularly scheduled programming...
James
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ODdOnLifeItself
Though the graphic was not included, I simply replaced one of mine and it did NOT render or map.
I have the feeling that Frances and I are making the same mistake when trying to map an image as texture to a plane. It just doesn't work. I tried it for the beachball scene and it never rendered, so I imported a picture (the sandy beach) as a plane.
I didn't bother too much, as I'm working my way through the blender for dummies book, and 'giving models texture' is the next chapter. If I find out what i did wrong I'll post it here.
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Hello Guy,
Normally, I use that technique (mapping images to planes) all the time, and normally it works. In Frances' file, I could not figure out why it appeared to have a texture applied but would not render. Even after switching the graphic, it would not render. Some setting had to be set wrong, but I couldn't find it. I deleted that texture and reapplied another one (from scratch) and it worked fine.
If you do find out why you were having problems with the mapping, please do post it (as you said), because I am very curious. As I said, normally, no problems whatsoever with that feature.
Are you enjoying the book? It was highly recommended, so I have a feeling that it will surely help in step-by-step approaching this (wonderful) beast that is...BLENDER. :)
Have fun!
James
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ODdOnLifeItself
Are you enjoying the book?
Enjoying might not be the right word, but it's a good reference and yes, one chapter at a time, you get introduced to the different aspects of Blender.
Also, there are quite a number of exercises that one can go through, and results are on a dvd that goes with the book, along with a few tutorial videos.
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Thanks James and guy I have a full day ahead of me, but maybe later this evening I'll have time to do some more blender learning :)
James I'll have a look at your edited file and hopefully I'll learn from there.
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Here's what I found: I added a plane, added a new texture (image) and it doesn't render.
What I didn't know then, is that I also have to add a material to the plane, before adding the texture. Working that way - adding plane, material, texture - renders as it should
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Good sleuthing, Guy! :)
That makes perfect sense.
In my workflow, if I'm adding a plane with image mapped to it, the first thing I do is add the material and turn off the specularity, so had never run into this problem of adding a texture without having attached the material (of which the texture is a sub-element).
Good work that you found it.
Peace
James
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Made a few rings in Xara and applied them with different mappings to different meshes - fun to do
Attachment 84062
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Those are very cool, Guy!
You could have just one of those much closer and make almost a whole piece out of it. They look that good...
Peace
James
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
I like those Guy, the cylinder reminds me of a candle, all it needs is a wick and a flame!
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
I'm trying to do a delicate teacup. I'm stuck on two things: one when I smooth the shading I get weird raised vertical lines that I don't want. and two I am having trouble creating a handle that has a smooth curve.
Here is my blend file I think I have the texture packed this time. When I get the tea cup right I have a liquid texture file that I created in Xara that I'm going to map to a circle to make the cup appear to be filled with tea (I hope)
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Hello Frances,
The raised vertical lines that you see indicate that part of the faces you've created are pointing inward and part are pointing outward. With the "flat" shading, there's no problem since it makes them two-sided, but when doing smooth shading an exaggerated edge is created in order to make the two (opposite facing) regions smooth. Just select the offending object and go into Edit mode (tab) and select all of the object's faces and on the left hand toolbar there is a button for recalculate. This will make the normals consistent and get rid of the weird effect you mentioned.
The teacup looks really nice. The geometry isn't quite right, because from 90° you can see that it's not symmetrical. From your view (the camera) it does look symmetrical, so no harm if you'll only see it from the front. Currently, it appears paper thin. With the cup selected, you can click the Modifiers button (looks like a wrench) and Add Modifier - Solidify. This will give some thickness to your cup, which you can modify with the thickness value of the modifier.
In the file that you sent, you are in perspective mode. If you'll press 5 on the numeric keypad, you'll go to Orthographic mode, which will be much better for when you are trying to model things. (since perspective is removed, everything lines up "properly")
Once you have the teacup looking like you want it, you won't have any trouble using the circle to make the cup appear filled.
Take care
James
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Tea is served! :) I'm not happy with the handle but I'm learning. Today I learned that a circle needs faces before you can map an image to it :o but I figured it out with out asking for help :) All the textures in this I created in Xara, tablecloth, teacup pattern, and liquid.
Attachment 84066
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Very Good so far Angelize! (I haven't gotten far enough to have a Handle on things, to worry about) You are making much better progress than I am. Keep showing us what you have accomplished! Tom
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Thanks Tom. I found an online course with all kinds of links, tutorials, lessons, and a pdf manual with illustrations Blender 3D Design course I haven't been through a lot of it yet but I think it may be a good resource.
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Well done, Frances. It's nice to see where Xara and Blender come together, and the problems you meet in Blender look quite familiar to me ;)
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Hello Frances,
Very nice teacup scene. You're learning to map textures onto objects and doing some modeling, so you're definitely moving right along!
Hirsig's tutorials are a good start, because he tends to teach about various functions, one-by-one. (rather than having a large project made up of many functions where each one is casually mentioned in snippet form)
You're really making progress and I look forward to seeing more!
Take care
James
P.S. Remember also that a texture can control many things, not only color. Especially useful are textures as bump maps and for the alpha channel, where you can even make objects have various amounts of transparency, all the way to completely invisible. Like the checkerboard sphere that I made, it was much easier to make that sphere by just mapping one texture than to go back and hand-select and remove all the various faces. Also, with the texture, you can always modify it by just modifying the texture.
P.P.S. Did you print out the cheat sheet reference for the keyboard shortcuts? Blender has many, many buttons and menus, but there are a lot of functions that there are only keyboard shortcuts for, so it pays to have that reference. Here's a handy one for you. Shift-H. When you press Shift-H, the currently selected object remains, but all the other objects are hidden. When you have a complex scene or you just need to get to some part of an object that might be obscured by other objects (like a wall!), then Shift-H makes it so that you can focus on that one part and get it right. When you have it, then you can press Alt-H and everything comes back (but be careful, since it all comes back SELECTED.... just press A afterwards) If you just need to hide some particular object, then you just have to have it selected and press H.
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Thank you Guy and James.
Yes I did print out that keyboard reference, and it's already been helpful! From it I learned to hold the alt key to select an edge loop, came in very handy for modeling the teacup. I'll remember the Shift-h alt -h. thanks for the encouragement it's really helped me to not give up.
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Quote:
Originally Posted by
angelize
Thanks Tom. I found an online course with all kinds of links, tutorials, lessons, and a pdf manual with illustrations
Blender 3D Design course I haven't been through a lot of it yet but I think it may be a good resource.
Thanks for the Link angelize -the site looks like a great place to learn (123D update did not work for me -something about video card, yet the prior version was fine) So, I will be 'Blending' for a while -I just hope the Tutorials will stream to South America [many won't] - Tom
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
I like the pdf-tutorials, because then I can work at my own pace. The results I get when trying to follow the videos usually don't match the assumed outcome...
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Quote:
Originally Posted by
guyke
I like the pdf-tutorials, because then I can work at my own pace. The results I get when trying to follow the videos usually don't match the assumed outcome...
I have that happen (a lot) too...
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Me too, I thought I was probably the only one who had trouble following the videos. What would really be helpful would be if they would slow down for the beginners and if they could be more clear sometimes when using the keyboard short cuts!
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
I prefer written tutorials (html more so than pdf). The Pause button helps with video tutorials but often the person making the video forgets to mention the keyboard shortcuts they use.
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Hello Frances
Re: Keyboard shortcuts in Blender tutorials
There's no excuse for it, since Blender will display the keyboard shortcuts as they are pressed, while recording. They should show up in the bottom left of the main viewport. They have to be turned on.
James
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ODdOnLifeItself
Hello Frances
Re: Keyboard shortcuts in Blender tutorials
There's no excuse for it, since Blender will display the keyboard shortcuts as they are pressed, while recording. They should show up in the bottom left of the main viewport. They have to be turned on.
James
Speaking of Keyboard Shortcuts -I made a crib sheet you can Print Out to have as a Handy Reference.
Attachment 84149
Now, I was printing on A4 Size; So, you might have to tweak for Other Size Paper. If anybody wants the file, PM me with your email and I will be happy to email it to you.
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
I've been reading this thread since the beginning and have found it extreamly interesting. I had blender a few years ago but found it too complicated. I then had TrueSpace installed but while trying to start it while reading this thread, it refused to open. Rebooting the computer, re-installing, nada, something has changed and the program is dead as far as I am concerned and has since been uninstalled. I downloaded the newest version of blender last winter but have not bothered to install it yet, possibly never will, who knows. Still, a very interesting thread.
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Try Blender again Frank, The newest version is 2.5 and I found that on the blender site they have some getting started tutorials, they are very helpful. And of course ask for help here, James has been very encouraging and helpful as have others. You may find it a bit frustrating at first, but don't give up! I'm starting to imagine some interesting stuff!
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Hello Frank,
I agree with Angelize. 3D is not for everyone, in that it takes patience and a different set of "tools" as many other approaches, but you won't know unless you give it a real effort.
Blender is a large program in terms of options, menus, etc., so it is intimidating, especially in the very beginning, where you feel all revved up and nowhere to go!
Divide and conquer (to me) is the only way to really learn it. Decide something you want to do and then track down the steps to make it happen. Start small. Another approach (and the one that I used, actually) is to decide that Blender is really an amalgam of functions...and thereby learn it function by function. I would read about certains functions in the program and then go try them out on something that I imagined. It allows you to expressly learn but while still being creative. (ie. more active than passive about it)
I'm glad to see that you're enjoying reading this thread. Even if I wasn't doing 3D stuff, I'd still find it interesting too. Since you're a Xara user, doubly so, because the two work well together.
If you take the plunge and run across problems or have questions, I'd be happy to help!
Take care
James
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Angelize, have you run across how-to make a reflective surface, like a Mirror? Tom
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Hi Tom, I've tried and had some success using the mirror panel in textures although I'm sure James would be the best one to ask about that, I've seen him post some very nice highly reflective stuff.
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Thanks angelize - Are you exporting you stuff from Xara as 'svg' to import into Blender? ( I downloading the Learning File & Intro due to my connection -eu wee they are big)
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Yes I have exported graphics that I want to extrude and model with as svg, textures and images that I map to objects I export as png.
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Thanks - I exported some extruded numbers, then imported to Blender - I didn't see a thing... Oh well, Maybe the Intro will Help me -(only another 1+ hour)
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
your svg object will be imported as a curve you need to convert to mesh see James explanation here post #41
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Re: Xara plus Blender questions
Hello
In creating a realistic mirrored surface in Blender, one of the most important things is to make the Diffuse color quite dark. Without this, the mirrored surface often looks overly plastic and artificial. Also, use a relatively high Reflectivity setting if it's really a mirror/chrome surface. If you have several mirrored surfaces in proximity, then you may have to turn up the depth to get the inter-reflections correct. (If the Depth is set to low, then once it has "bounced" the light "depth" number of times, it defaults to the environment coloring set in the World tab.)
Attachment 84155
The two spheres are identical except for the Diffuse color. The one on the left is white, the one on the right, black. Because the diffuse color is mixed in with the reflection, the one on the left looks more plastic or even slightly fake somehow. The one on the right, seems correct. Additionally, the sphere on the left looks like it is light, like some mylar balloon. The one on the right appears to have more mass, be more solid, more like chrome.
Hope this helps!
James
P.S. Something that really helps with simulating plastic-like surfaces is to use a touch of reflectivity. Without this hint of reflection, your mind doesn't quite believe it's real.