Blender School: Camera Rig

Extension: Add Dolly Cam (Now pre-installed by default) 

If you want to use Blender's default camera setup for anything like a real-world camera operation, you'll have your work cut out. Almost every common camera operation requires extra functions and constraints. For example, orbiting a Blender camera around a target object can be achieved by adding an empty object and parenting the camera to it. That's fine as far as it goes, but you can go straight to a fully integrated camera rig.

Add a Camera (Dolly Camera), and this is what you win...

The Dolly includes a collection of bone-system-based widgets configured with various constraints to mimic the functions of a real-world camera rig.

Given this is a bone system, you edit it using CTRL+Tab.
Or you can select the rig and go into Pose mode.

The Main Dolly Rig sits beneath the camera; move it to move the whole rig around, much like the default camera.

The Camera Offset sits immediately behind the camera. Move this as if you were placing the camera on a mount that is located away from the rig. For example, you can place the rig on a car model; they use the Camera Offset to position the camera on the side of the car, pointing back at the rig.

The Aim widget is always located in front of the camera's optics. When you move the aim widget, the camera moves to point towards it. This is really useful when you want to move the camera relative to a target.

 Hitem3D Upgraded!

I held off following through with their offer until the v3 model arrived. I'm gone for the 70% discount deal for a year on their pro account, but I absolutely must cancel or downgrade before next year, as I can't afford the full price of £350. In fact, let me create a Google Calendar reminder! 

Generated figures, old and new. Some super results!

 Blowing the dust from terrains with True Terrain 3.5 and True Sky 3. Plus an explosion cloud from my Cloud volume collection.

Boom today!

Blender School - blending object materials

 

Blending into the ground

There are techniques for placing terrain assets to blend with the ground material and remove obvious seams. The same technique can be used in other situations, but this scenario was raised by Drew, the director. Given that I try these things, then forget what I did some weeks or months later, I thought I'd make this a Blender School post.

Technique 1: Geo-Nodes (From James Combridge)

 Concept: Create a mask to apply to an object's material that checks the distance from the ground object.

Object info node that looks at the Relative position of the GroundPlane Object via the Geometry Proximity Node (distance). The result is pushed through the Stored Named Attribute node and is given the name GroundMask. Simples!

The Rock (object) material gets the Ground material added via a Mix Shader node using the "GroundMask" attribute we just set up.

For more control over the blend placement, make the following edit to the GroundMask:

Take the Geometry Proximity output and feed it through a Map Range, using its adjustments to fine-tine where the blend happens. You can further improve the look by adding another Map Range, mixing them (Mix node) using a Noise Texture as the factor.

Technique 2: Normal Mapping (From SpennyFX)

SpennyFX looked at an alternative to the above technique using normals.

First tip: These materials shouldn't be wildly different or the results are not likely to be convincing, at least close up.

This technique produces a more ambient-occlusion-like mask suitable for smaller objects.

The factor for the Mix node is the object's normal separated on the Z-axis and pushed through a colour ramp (default) that is adjusted to mix in the ground to the bottom of your target objects.

There's a third technique available that I won't go into here. It handles the blend as a compositor step. See more about it on the CG Matters channel.

Testing Blender 5.1

In spite of a number of quirky errors, Blender 5.1 looks functional. The only major addon that remains incompatible (as far as I've tested) is Geoscatter.

Small teams don't always have the bandwidth to update addons prior to a new Blender release. That's fine. I would maybe not sling mud, though. Blender has updated its underlying Python version. It seems a bit unfair to characterise this as "breaking" most addons. It's a major, breaking product change, but it's well understood and planned. It falls on addon developers to track and keep their products up-to-date.

I guess that Geoscatter will be updated in due course, and it's possible that Blender 5.1 might need a hotfix if any serious issues fall out of general use.

Project progressus

 Earlier in the week, I installed PlantFactory to use it to generate custom plant assets for Halo: Raptor. This should help dodge the limitations of our very constrained asset collection. PlantFactory looks very powerful but very complex. So this morning I'm starting to learn the basics.

It looks like the old E-on software suite (VUE, PlantFactory, etc.) will be open source soon, which makes the time investment seem more worthwhile in the long term.

First big lesson: the plant collections are accumulative; you need to download and install all of them, not just the latest one. 

Sample tree ....oooh nodes nodes nodes!

Introduction to the UI

More soon!

Halo: Raptor

I'd got the shot's altitude wrong, based on the director's last comment, which he meant for the next shot, not the "next" shot. Nothing wasted, but I'm jumping back to the high altitude shot.

Happy Back To Work Day!

 It's Monday, it's work-o'clock!

My productivity ground to a halt a few days ago. Today is the day that I get my s*it together and return to productivity city.

Sparrow Films/Raptor (SF/Raptor) 

Established that there's no zoom in the establishing shots. I only need the camera positions for the top-level and mid-level shots. The outstanding work is to generate a much larger planet map that incorporates realistic terrain texturing that works at close range. But how big? I tested 21k (21,000 pixels along the horizontal axis), which is enormous and also inadequate.

The fix?

Two options:

A separate model that doesn't need the entire planet's texture file, leaving more pixels for smaller areas.

UDIMs that support areas of a model having higher texture resolution. This technique is used for character models where you want the face to be super-detailed but are less bothered about the character's feet and toenails.

Let's explore UDIMs, which I've never used.

UDIMs

UDIMS (U Dimensions) are a texture-mapping technique that increases efficiency and supports different texture resolutions on the same model. 

When a 3D model uses texture mapping, it usually projects texture files onto its surfaces using UV space, which you can think of as a flat-packed version of the model's 3D surfaces. Usually, all the textures in a single UV must fit into the UV's grid space, which can be very limiting.

UDIMS tiles the UV space, so that you can use different textures for different UV islands, which are moved to different UDIM tiles.

Setting up in Blender

There's no special setup for UDIMS workflow. 

Create a new image and make it Tiled.

Under the image's N-panel, you can add additional UDIM tiles

The first UDIM tile has the ID 1001. The next tile along is 1002, through to 1010. Then a new row of tiles is started, beginning with 1011.

So, in theory, my planet UDIMs will look like this:

Main tile 1001: 4k; 1002 is the cutout area in a separate 16k tile.

Running on rails??

<A few hours later>

Well, that was a lot of faffing about in trial and error. It looks like my fine idea of imposing UDIM on the existing setup was never going to work because the UDIMs are instantiated through the non-standard filenames.

I had to go back to basics and create from scratch.

scratch-built UDIM files with flat colours in place.

Test UDIM success!

Now here's the extra faff; If I want to show some actual texture maps, I'm going to need to create my own, otherwise I breach my NDA. I could go back to the Aurore map I started creating.

More in the week

This is going to be my main effort, and while I have conquered the basics of UDIMs, I suspect that getting actual texture maps into place will pose its own challenges, as there will be a seam/visible split between the maps, which might look obvious. That's the next test, I guess.

Modelling

More HardOPs practice, possibly continuing with the space ship crew chair.

More on the Shamrayev. I'm not sure it's a ship that would find a market place, but a ship model might be a future commercial endeavour.

Commerical

I want to start selling more stuff on Superhive. I will need to consider what I can do well, which will also attract a market. I think a really good set of planet maps or a Blender planet could be a good option.

Hard Ops Tutorial

 I've now moved on to the section of the course that runs through a modelling exercise. I watched keenly, but I didn't like the model they were building. I thought that instead, I would watch the videos, then build something else using the same Hard Ops functions.

I'll build a space vehicle's crew console, based on modern jet fighter ejector seats. Starting with this:

I'll concede that the Blender Bros ship will look a lot better when completed, but in the early stages, it's a bit "Silly-Sci-Fi."

Sketch from this morning:

Geo-Scatter on the cards (Alpha Tree only has flat planes (cards), not real geometry trees.

Ops Hardest: The last of the Hard Ops lessons

 Let's get the lessons completed, so we can zip through the build tutorial.

Josh confirms that at this point, we've covered the main functions of Hard Ops, and what's left are supportive tools.

S Mark

In edit-mode.

Edit-mode context menu

The S Mark tool lets you do localised sharpening. 

Check out the Sharpen/Csharp tools with Tild+Cntrl menu

Tild+Cntrl for HOps Helper menu

Reverse Bevel

This is cool!

1. Create a cut, such as a circular cut into a face.

2. Once created, use Ever-Scroll to select the circle cutter and go into edit mode - Tab/select faces. 

3. Select the top face. Press Q then Ctrl + (s) Mark to add a bevel. In this case, the bevel is reversed because you are adding it to the cutter, not the target object.

Making nice bevels without needing to apply the boolean and tackle the resulting mesh.

Adjust Bevel Weight

You normally can adjust Bevel Weight in the item N-Menu

Instead, you can use the (s) Mark.

Q, (s) Mark + Alt

Add Modifier

This does exactly what it says. It's just a convenient way of accessing the modifiers without using the Modifiers side-panel.

Vert-to-Circle

This is very useful. Select vertices, then Q, Circle (E). This converts vertices to circles.

Select Shift+Circle (E) to use a more powerful method that lets you use more options, such as adding more segments to the circle.

Scroll for more!

EM Macro

This is another vital supporting tool. 

After selecting faces, Q, EM_Macro

Standard (LMB) creates a grate
LMB+CTRL creates knurls
LMB+Shift creates a panel along the edges
LMB+Alt creates panels along face normals.

Mesh tools

Referred to in the course as ST3 Mesh Tools which provide a suite of functions for cleaning up mesh geometry.

Flatten to Face

This has its uses. If you have selected faces that don't share alignment but you want them to be aligned (flattened) to a single face. Use this tool!

Faces in a mound are flattened to the selected face.

Selection to Boolean

Select a face and turn it into a Boolean cutter. Then LMB to move to the depth.

Edit Mode

This is a quick edit menu for fixing/altering an object's mesh.

Snap Cursor

Snap and rotate cursor along selected item.

Display Marks

Enable/Disable Marks from the viewport

Demote

The Demote tool removes all markings from selected edges

Mirror

Another useful mirror tool that speeds up the mirroring of an object. I've tended to use the one built into Random Flow (Shift+Q), but this one might be quicker to invoke.

With Mirror Menu enabled

Spin

The spin will spin a selected face based on the viewport orientation. The menu lets you fine-tune settings.

To Floor

Select a face and use To Floor to place the face on the 0,0 "floor".

To Shape

Convert the selected face into a shape, based on the following list:

Decap creates a visual copy but removes the cap.
Convex Hull is a simplified object that surrounds your selected mesh (like a low-poly shrink-wrap), like a collision detection box in a game engine.

To Rope

Shift+To Rope for an alternate mode, which adds a central thread in the rope.


I missed a few of the smaller steps out due to time.
Look up Uniquify, Late Parent, Quickly join Verts and Recut.

Finish something!

Cloud layer parked below the ground for an easy fog layer

 Another week begins. What are we doing with it?

Over the weekend, I did a bit more work on the aerial shot as we drill into the details. I really need to finalise the concept shots. I should have sketched all this! Modelling concepts is too slow when fundamental questions like point of view and basic composition are still in play.

Let's continue with the Hard Ops/Boxcutter course.

Dice Tool

The dice tool is very useful. If you have a model that contains n-gons, then you can't do loop-cuts through it. The conventional fix is to manually add loop-cuts using the knife tool. The Dice Tool projects a series of knife cuts along one axis through the object.

Ctrl+Dice Tool to project along all three axis.

Twist 360

This tool creates an array and deforms it along 360 degrees creating a loop. Deformations require more geometry for a smooth effect. This is no longer the dark magic it was before the advent of the new array system. Still useful to have!

Radial Array

This offers similar functionality to Twist 360. Instead of a deformation that works on the object's geometry, a radial array creates the circle by instantiating the object.

Taper Deform

Add a taper to your object. Simple to use with hotkeys for each axis and "1" to reset.

Sphere cast

This combines the subdivision surface modifier with the Cast effect modifier. It's an easy way to turn a cube, with its ideal geometry cast in the sphere mode. See Blender's Cast Modifier which is a modern spin of "Spherize".

Curve Extract

Oh man, this is a good one. It really simplifies a potentially fiddly but quite common operation: when you edit a mesh, select edges, create a copy of the element, convert the edge into a curve, and add depth to the curve to make it a parameter-driven pipe. 

This just does all that if you have selected edges.

Shift+click Curve Extract on a face, and you get the same effect: a plate is created from the face.

Ctrl+click Curve Extract on a face, you get the shape extracted without the solidify step.

Alt+click Curve Extract on a face, it deletes the face and creates the edge curve, instead.

AutoSmooth

This is just a shortcut to the regular autosmooth function.


AutoUnwrap

Josh says don't bother. That's a questionable attitude in a training course. It's a bit arrogant to mistake your "perfected" workflow as actually perfect for all users in all cases.

Auto Unwrap

Or

Blender's own Smart UV projection

Or

UV Flow unwrap with Zen UV's quadrify function applied to the curved end-section.

Josh may be right, here. The Hard Ops docs describe this as a quick-and-dirty solution.

Same for Hops Reset, which backs-out of a workflow.  See docs.

Selection Options

This set of tools lets you view n-gons/triangles as part of the Polygon Debug function that we already covered.

N-gons red!

Settings Menu

The settings menu contains a lot of useful extras for overall control of Hard Ops

LookDev+

Lets you use a quick environment light to check how your model responds to lighting changes.



About

This is good for confirming you are up-to-date

Needs Update! Oh my!

Solid Shade Duplicate

Cool Trick! Create a cut into your object. Select Ever Scroll, click, and then go to settings and choose Shift+Solid Shaded. It turns a duplicate of the cutter into a solid object.

 

A very easy way to fill a hole with a matching form. Just add a bevel for the win!

That takes me to 60% of the course!

A quick scatter on a terrain -- checking the stability of the latest version of True SKY

Ops Harder: More Hard Ops course

 I started with a quick exercise to see how much of the previous lessons I'd retained. Not bad, not brilliant. I got lost in the snap grid settings, turning it off then not getting the previous interaction when I turned it back on. I also got stuck trying to apply an array because I couldn't change the array distance. I got the answer from the docs. 

Press "V" to get the array parameters

I scratch the HopsCutter surface with this 80s-style desktop

Next Lesson:

Mirror

When you want to mirror a cutter

Place your cutter
With the object selected, Alt+X  

Note that you click on the side of the existing cutter, not where you want the mirrored cutter to apply.

Reset Mirror: X

Add New Mirror: A

Mirror Help List: D

View Orientation: S

Help/Mods: H / M

Mirror an entire object

Alt+X


In advanced mode, change the pivot point to Cursor (for example).

Again, use the gizmo on the side of the object you want to mirror, not the side of the reflection.

There are plenty of useful mirror options available, such as Bisect and Symmetry

See the Mirror docs.

Operations

We've passed the Hard part of the course, and we are now dealing with the Operations bit. 

Modifier Scroll

Essentially, this was the original tool for cycling through modelling elements (cutters and operations), which was superseded by the Ever Scroll. 

Bevel/Edge Manager

Very straightforward. You have bevels? You want to modify them? Bridge up the Bevel/Edge Manager, and you have all the Bevel parameters to adjust.

 

Bevel/Bool Manager - LMB
CTRL Bevel/Divider (Half the size of the bevel)
Alt - Bevel Multiplier (Double the bevel)
LMB + Shift - Edge Manager

Note: The Bevel Divide/Multiplier can be run multiple times to increase or decrease the bevel.

Edge Manager - Josh doesn't use it. It's a big panel where you can apply sharpness changes to your model's edges.

Sharpen - This does the same thing as the sharpen menu, which was already covered.

Step Bevel - A Step Bevel makes the next bevel half the size of the previous one. This option can accumulate if you run it several times — each run uses the previous bevel as the guide.

(C) Sharpen - Already in the sharpen menu

Clear Sharp - Use this to remove the Sharp edges from a model.

Clean Mesh - This is a really cool attempt to automate the steps you would normally follow to clean up a mesh. Useful for doing an on-the-spot mesh cleanup.

Smart Apply - this shortcut opens the Smart Apply tool we've already covered.


UV Display - This oddball tool lets you peek at the current UV mapping applied to an object. It just saves you needing to switch to the UV Editing context.

To Shape

A note to the developers. Shapes are flat; a three-dimensional shape is actually a form. A square is a shape, a cube is a form.

Another oddball! Appy To Shape to a mesh, and it generates a new object based on the bounds of the selected object.

Scroll to cycle through different shapes. Here I scrolled to a plane.

AccuShape V2 - Use AccuShape to bound your object to make it fit into a smaller unit area. Good for 3D printing when you want to take greater care with real-world dimensions.

Add camera - Cool because it places the focus on an empty which gives you a different way to control the camera. 

Add lights - Cool way to add some random lights. You probably want to make manual adjustments once the rando lamps are out.

Mirror - Already covered.

Polygon Debug display - Got some nasty geometry?  See it using this useful tool. Ngons and triangles reveal themselves as they get a colour treatment. Apply again to remove the colours.

Add Modifiers - Same as before

Add Mesh Machine - Only appears if Mesh Machine is installed. Which is, here! Mesh Machine is its own rabbit hole of modelling-tool goodness, which I'll look into once this course is complete.

Shortcuts!

On the Q-menu, note the underlined letter! 

Press Q, then press the underlined letter.

MeshTools

The meshtools are an extensive set of helpers for editing meshes.

Reset Axis/Align/Select

Select the object and click Reset Axis to remove transformations from Blender's origin. Nice for when objects need to be reset to their origin along all axes or along a specific axis.

Align is not so useful as you can Align to a selected face:

1. Select the face
2. Shift + Number Key 7 

Select tool 

A  curious bundle of niche tools manage the selections on a mesh.

Set Origin

While this looks niche, it has some important uses. By way of an example:

You have a slice element in an iregular face. You add a cut which you want to mirror to the other side of the slice. It won't work because the mirror tool is tied to the original origin, so it can't mirror the slice to the other side.

1. Select the Slice
2. Q+M+S
3. Select two corners of the object and while they are selected, click F to place the centre point. This defines the slice's centre point.
4. Repeat, but this time select a corner, hold shift and ensure the rotation is correct.


Now this initially didn't work for me, as I think I was in the wrong mirror mode. I then fixed an unexpected displacement by moving an empty gizmo on the mirror operation.

Go there in the end!