In this episode I’m building several simple grass stalks and replicate them along a plane using Blender’s Particle Emitter. I’ll talk you through the scary options we need and explain some of the concepts in using the Particle Emitter as an Object Replicator.
In this episode I’ll talk you through the various Viewport Drawing Styles.
The default we usually see is “texture shaded”, which is a nice compromise between displaying a good looking “live” picture, while keeping your computer responsive for navigating and posing.
However, with larger scenes your system may become slower and less responsive. We can use a lesser detailed Drawing Style to bring responsiveness back into our scenes.
In this episode I’ll show you how to use the SVG file with curve information and turn it into an extruded logo using Blender. I’ll setup the scene and ground plane, get the camera ready and turn the default light into a strong side light. This will serve as a starting point to creating our logo.
In this episode I’ll show you how to navigate your 3D world within the viewport. I’ll explain several ways to do this, and I’ll also show you how to customise the modifier keys for faster navigation using your mouse and keyboard.
In addition, there’s also a fully immersive way to “walk” through your scene using the ASD and W keys. I’m going into more detail on how to navigate like that here or on my View in iTunes Store.
The other day I wanted to convert a logo into a path, so that I could use it as a shape in Blender. It was in fact the WordPress logo that was provided as a PNG or PDF from the WordPress Branding section.
The trouble was, both the PNG and the PDF are rasterised, and as such cannot easily be used for an extrusion in 3D as an SVG file would. The question then was, how do I convert an image into an SVG in Photoshop, so that I could import it into Blender?
It took a bit of fiddling, but here’s how I did it.
Quick introduction to SVG Files
SVG files can actually contain three types of data:
Vector Graphics, such as paths (which is what we want)
Raster Graphics, such as bitmap images (which we have, but don’t want)
and Fonts
What I needed in Blender was indeed a Vector Path. Although the other two data types can be contained in an SVG file, Blender can only read path information at the time of writing. It makes sense too, because really I’d like to the path information available as a curve in Blender, not the potential raster or font information.
I’m mentioning this here because
a.) I didn’t know this, and
b.) importing an SVG containing either fonts or raster graphics will import nothing into Blender – which had me stumped.
Hence, for Photoshop to export vector data instead of raster data in our SVG file, we need to jump through a few hoops – but it is possible. Let’s see how!
In this episode I’l explain how we can utilise Install Manager to update both DAZ Studio as well as content if and when updates are available. I will also show you how to update Install Manager itself.
This happened to me today and was not a planned part of the series, but I found it was a good opportunity to demonstrate how to handle updates (since we’ve just been talking about it a few days ago).
In this episode I’ll show you how you can customise the interface in DAZ Studio.
I have previously shown you how to select Workspaces and Styles, and now we’ll see how to make the interface your own by changing the colours of the interface. In addition, I’ll elaborate more on the macOS intricacies on moving Tabs in the interface.
In this episode we’re launching DAZ Studio for the first time after a fresh installation, we’ll fix the database manager, and we’ll learn how to customise the interface.
I will also show you where those important context sensitive menus are hiding.
In this episode I’ll show you how to get started with DAZ Studio, namely by installing it.
To be able to install both DAZ Studio as well as content, and update both those things going forward, the easiest thing to do is use a helper application called Install Manager. I’ll show you how to get it and how to operate it.
In this course I’ll explain how to use DAZ Studio, a free 3D content manipulation and rendering app. It’s aimed at beginners and medium casuals alike, it explains the foundations of how the software works, and also illustrates how 3D software works in general (sort of a “3D for Humans” approach).
This episode is a quick introduction to the concept, and I’ll talk a little bit about my history with DAZ Studio.
