Blender User Instructions

Blender Instructions by Laurin Black (Central Highschool Student Co-operative Project 2012-2013) NOTE: To obtain maximal results, Blender is to be used after MeshLab. IMPORTING INTO BLENDER (obj) 1. Open Blender and exit out of the initial pop-up box by clicking elsewhere on the screen. 2. There will be a cube, pyramid, line and a grid present. Objects can be deleted. To delete, right click the objects (so they are highlighted orange), and press “delete” on your keyboard. The grid cannot be deleted, but it will not be seen when the objects are imported. 3. Press “5” on the number-pad to switch the view to perspective view. Another way to do this is by clicking “View” on the bottom menu, followed by clicking “View persp/ortho”. 4. Click “File” on the top menu. Click “File”>”Import”>”Wavefront obj”. Select the object desired to be imported and click “Import obj”. Only one object can be imported at a time.  5. To view this object, in the bottom left corner, click “View”>”View Selected” OR click “.” on the number-pad. 6. Continue importing all of the other files required by repeating number 4. Number 5 will not need to be conducted again as the view will remain in the location the files are being imported to. 7. Often, objects do not fit together in the way they had been crafted or are slightly out of place. To move an object, first be in object mode, seen in the bottom menu. Right click the object so it is highlighted orange. Holding the right click, drag the object to the desired location. Once in the right location, left click. This will make the object stay. STARTING FROM SCRATCH 1. If there are no objects to import, on the menu at the top of the screen click “add”. This will open a menu which offers many different objects to import. Select the desired object to import (solid shapes are under the “Metaball” heading. If an object you desire is not an option, select an image that resembles the desired object. It can be manipulated to form other shapes. 2. If the object cannot be seen, click “View”>”View Selected” OR click “.” on the number-pad. 3. Continue adding, moving or replacing objects until they are all there. SMOOTHING 1. Initially, the shape will not be entirely smooth. Select any one object (right click in object mode). Press “a” on the keyboard to select all of your objects at the same time and press “Smooth”, located on the menu on the left side. If individual objects are looking to be smoothed, individually click each object and smooth the desired pieces. 2. If an area is not smooth (dimpling, pinching, protruding, etc), sections need to be deleted and rebuilt for most accurate representation of the object. This can only occur in edit mode. To do this, select the object that needs to be smoothed. On the bottom menu, click “Object Mode”, then click “Edit Mode”.  3. In Edit Mode, all the vertexes, vertices and faces should be highlighted orange. Individual vertexes need to be focused on, so right click the highlighted object so individual vertexes can be selected. Preferably, click near or on an imperfection. 4. Identify the problem area. This area is usually discoloured or shows some misalignment with other vertices. Select the vertexes of the problem area by right clicking. 5. Highlight multiple vertexes of the problem area by clicking on the vertexes while holding the “shift” key down on your keyboard.  6. Now that all of the vertexes are selected in the problem area, press “Delete” on your keyboard. This will present the option of what to delete. “Faces” will delete the triangles highlighted and “Vertices” will delete all of the involved lines. Select desired deletion. NOTE: If the object is comprised of multiple layers, view inside the layers and look for connections between the layers. These will need to be deleted so both sides of the object can become smooth and help in other steps as well. 7. This leaves a hole, an area where there is nothing at all. This now requires rebuilding of the object. Select two vertexes that are across from each other over the whole (remember to hold shift to select more than once vertex). 8. Press “f” on the keyboard (f for fill), which will insert a vertice across the hole. This line will be used in making new faces. 9. For smaller faces, select “subdivide” on the left menu under the “Add” heading. This will insert a vertex or point which can then be used to create smaller faces. 10. To create a face, (or fill the hole), highlight three vertexes in the hole that make a triangle. 11. Press “f” on the keyboard. This will fill the hole with a face that should match the texture of the rest of your object. The smaller the faces that are made to fill the hole, the better. This will show less abrupt lines in the object. 12. Continue building these small triangles to fill the hole until it is completely filled. When finished, in Object Mode, no vertexes, lines, holes, or imperfections should be noticeable. OPTIONAL SMOOTHING: 1. If some objects are not lining up in the same plane, on the bottom menu, click “Edit Mode”>”Sculpt Mode”. This opens up a variety of techniques that could be used in morphing objects appearance by using the mouse and pulling/stretching the object. This is only practical for smaller imperfections. OR 1. In Edit Mode, press “a” on the keypad as many times as needed until the entire object i highlighted in orange. 2. On the left menu, press “Subdivide”. This will make the object comprised of smaller shapes (triangles) which could hide and smooth imperfections. WARNING, if the object is subdivided too many times, Blender will begin to act significantly slower, freeze, or shut down the program without saving. 2 subdivisions is recommended. ADDING/REMOVING COLOUR 1. Select the desired object (right click) in Object Mode. 2. On the right menu, select “Materials”, which looks like a circle with two triangles inside. 3. Select “New”  4. Under the “Diffuse” heading, click on the white bar. This will open a panel in which the desired colour can be selected. 5. Set the colour to the desired shade.  6. Here, any other aspects of the object can be altered (for example, texture or transparency). 7. Select “+” to add.  8. Continue steps 1-7 for all objects. 9. To remove colour, select the object and click materials. 10. At the top of this menu, there is a small box that lists all of the materials in affect on the object. Click the effect desired to be removed. 11. Click the (-) button to remove. This effect should no longer be present. ANIMATION: GENERATING WAVES 1. Select the object that is desired to move in a wave pattern in Object Mode. 2. On the bottom menu, click “Object”>“Transform”>“Origin to Geometry. This means that the wave will be generated from the centre of the object. If the wave is meant to be originating from the middle, this can be altered in later steps. 3. While the object is still selected, click on the wrench icon on the right menu. This represents “Modifiers” that can be applied to the object.  4. Click “Add Modifier”. 5. Then click “Wave”, which is under the “Deform” column. 6. Adjust the time, speed, width, height, and narrowness until desired movement is formed. Here, the origin of the wave can be modified as well. To view the object in motion, click the play button (triangle pointing towards the right), located at the bottom centre of the screen.