Tutorial for blender + get models ingame

[macuser]

Jorzi, Remotehorst, and I are making a blender + GIMP tutorial for warzone. This is the area where discussions about the tutorial will happen and where the material will be posted. Once the tutorial is complete i will compile it into a pdf and html.

NOTE: remotehorst may be doing a video tutorial too

-regards macuser

[macuser]

*reserved*

[Remotehorst]

One important thing in blender is its interface. The golden Rule for this interface is:
Use the shortcuts (keystrokes) because they save you very very much time and allow precision modeling!

For sure you will need some time to remember them, but you will be incredibly fast after a while, if you learn them from the beginning! Here i will post some of the common and usefull shortcuts. This list will be expanded soon. The most usefull shortcuts are on the top of this list.

First time when you use blender you will have a feeling common to the "lost in cyberspace", its like "OMG too much stuff here, too complex, i want to close it!" But after a while you will see that its interface is very good and well planned.
I suggest to NOT make anything if you didnt read a basic tutorial for blender. There is almost no chance that you are understanding blender by "just trying around". You will get frustrated with this and think "Blender must be crap!".
But if you do some tutorials you will see how genius it really is!

Oke enough explained. Here are the keystrokes:

Some of these Keystrokes work only in Edit mode, some of them work only in Object Mode.
If not marked it will work in any mode. Most of these shortcuts only work if you point your mouse inside the 3D window.
(EM) = Edit Mode
(OM) = Object Mode
(LMB) = Left Mousebutton
(MMB) = Middle mouse button
(RMB) = ... I forgot it

"Shift" + "RMB" Multiselect
"A" - Select/Unselect all
"Ctrl" + "J" Join Objects (OM)
"Selected Faces/Verts/Edges" + "P" - Seperate from Object (Creates a new object with the selection) (EM)


These commands need to be applied with Return to close "Command mode" and apply the changes.
If you decide to not change your Object you can abort with "RMB".

"S" - Scale
"SX" - Scale on X axis (apply with "Return" or LMB)
"SY.5" - Scale Y axis to half size
"SY2"- Scale Y axis to double size
"S" then "Shift" + "Z" - Scale all axis but NOT Z (Works with other axis too )
"RX45" - Rotate X axis 45degree
"M2" - Move Selection to layer 2 (OM)
"Shift" + "D" - Duplicate selection (Press "RMB" to not move the object with mouse)



"Num0" Camera view
"Num1" Side (Y) view
"Num7" Top (Z) view
"Num3" Side (X) view
"Num2 4 6 and 8" Rotate view Down, Left, Right, Up

"Ctrl" + "Num+" - Increase selection of Faces/Verts or Edges (EM)
"Ctrl" + "Num-" - Decrease selection of Faces/Verts or Edges (EM)
"Ctrl" + "U" Save actual Scene/Materials and Textures to User Default. (Everytime you start a new scene it will look like your save)

[macuser]

Also tab toggles edit mode/object mode

[Jorzi]

I could propably do a create-a-cannon tutorial, explaining the modeling, unwrapping and baking procedure (unless someone is already on that task)

[macuser]

well if you want to demonstrate blender by going through the process of actually making a model i can do the texturing part then

[Jorzi]

BTW, should I make the tutorial for 2.49 or 2.5?
2.5 is far easier to get into and has a friendlier interface, but 2.49 has the import and export scripts.
On the other hand you can easily open .blend files from 2.5 in 2.49 and vice versa, and therefore easily use 2.5 for modeling and 2.49 for import/export

[macuser]

why can't 2.5 export/import?

[Jorzi]

2.5 is a complete recode of the whole program, with a completely new python API. The syntax is changed, making any 2.4x scripts unusable.

[macuser]

i say do it for 2.5

[macuser]

I got blender 2.5 I LOVE the new mac like interface!!!! BTW 2.55 has import export for 3ds and obj

[Jorzi]

Just finished the first part of my extensive make-a-cannon tutorial.
Please leave feedback and suggestions for future improvement

[Safety0ff]

3ds and obj

You could do that before 2.5...

[milo christiansen]

Good work! Now for part 2...

[Jorzi]

Thanks Might take a few weeks though, considering that I have a lot of other stuff going on...
@SafetyOff: I think he was referring to my post about all 2.49 scripts being unusable in 2.5. Fortunately, some of the more important ones have already been rewritten, although the .pie scripts are still only available for 2.4x