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Hey all!

While that may be like stating the obvious, I have to say, I am amazed that GOD uses me every day to reach out to the CG industry with educational material in the form of tutorials. I never run out of material, because GOD never stops teaching me and I need to learn so much!! Wow!


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Hey all!!

Tutorial time again!! :D

I really luv doing video tutorials, especially when it's something that GOD showed me and then I get to pass on. I do have to say, I was quite surprised to see how many people did something along the same lines already, that focused on a much stronger effect, instead of the more authentic things that I was going for. Eh, feel free to mix and match and have fun! haha

Anyhow, here is the tutorial!!



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Hey all!

There is a website out there that markets independent (aka, unsigned) Christian Artists of various trades in multi-media. It's called IndySpotlight. The lady who is the steward thereof, posted in Christian Animators (a facebook group) on Sunday about this website, but I basically glanced over it. Later that night, I felt GOD wanted me to share this video on that same group:


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Hey all!

Long time no post, but today I don't come with a work in progress, but as one making an appeal.

Today I felt an earthquake for the first time. I'm not one to feel these all the time, as we live in a nation that is largely free of such things. Mining areas apparently have more, which is understandable, but earthquakes are much more than just a thing that occurs.

They are:
- A sign of GOD's power (Hebrews 12:26)
- Nature's travailing in waiting for the Sons of GOD to be revealed (Romans 8:1...
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Hey all

Today I'd like to take a look at a previous image I had made, also toon shading, but reveal a clever trick I don't think you may know yet, and if you do, it's a great reminder! :D

First, the image:


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Hey all!

When I saw I hadn't shared this yet, I was really surprised. Must be because I'm so tired, hahaha. No worries, here we go:

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Hey all!!

Finally back with another QBT and today's is about a topic that bugged me for a while. Nothing wrong with Blender, I just didn't get it until today.

Now, I've been a huge fan of node textures for a while and I've noticed that on node textures they don't always come out right in the normal department. For those who don't know what normal maps and normal influence and depth maps are, here you go:


These are created for the simple purpose of not having to use physical detail, while the sur...
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Hey everyone!!

Today I get to share a little progress shot from something I'm currently working on:

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Hey all!

Today we talk about lamps in BGE. Now, for all intensive purposes, this does cover some functions of lamps, but this is about what you can accomplish with lamps in BGE.

Now, you will find that I've already done a post on making sure that you don't lose your shadow in game and this you can find here.

In games, you see the following on lamps:
 - Point Lamp, no shadow projection
 - Sun Lamp, limited shadow projection

 - Spot Lamp, shadow projection and no volume yet (hopefully the improvement...
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Good day everyone!

Before I get to the tip, I'd just like to remind you guys that shared and liked the BGE page (which I really appreciate btw), that the URL to it has changed. So if you'd like to share the knowledge there and help others get started, just go here and share.

Thank you again!

Now, onto the tip. In the Game Engine, you have what is known as an action actuator. This tool allows us to trigger separate animations on characters, like crouching, ducking, rolling, etc. But! This tool ca...
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Hey all!

Looks like we're 5 for 5 this week!! Amazing!! Huge blessing! Only 3 posts on tooning though.

Now, today is a really special day in regards to tooning, because, we have been working on this fantastic topic all week. With a lot of grace and teamwork, we got a spectacular result and learned quite a bit. So, let's recap.

When we started the week, I shared a very comic-like style with you all, focused on normal influence of the ramp in both Diffuse and Specular options. It looks fantastic, ...
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Hey all!

Today I bring you a QBT that I find incredibly useful and yet it works for you, passively; the default project in Blender.

When you open Blender, it opens with "factory" settings, which is usually a camera, cube and a light with either Cycles Render or Blender Render as the default engine. Also, most of the Add-ons are turned off, so your functionality is a lot less varied.

Here's where it becomes helpful; you can change this default project.

It is very simple and here's how:
- Open Blend...
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Hey everyone!

Here you go! Andrew's proposal for the Blender UI (user interface)! In the YouTube description there is a survey to answer, but to make it easier for you all, I will link to everything in this post. Just see the end of the post for a collection of links; a post-map if you will.


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Hey all!

Today I can give you a tip. While I mentioned it earlier, I wanna reiterate this:
- Warping is not a solid state influencer, in other words, as the camera moves, so does the warping. This plays to your advantage, as it can be used for various ice effects without having to use reflections.

Here are two examples:

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Hey all,

Coming at you with another Quick Blog Tutorial on black light in Blender Render! Here is the result:


I don't know how many know that you can actually do this in Blender, but I only found out while writing the book. GOD wanted me informed about where the textures apply and how to make them visible, but for this specifically, HE hadn't given me any practical application apart from possible caustics on stationary objects, l...
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Hey all!

Today I want to share with you the background in focus. This has three purposes:
1) I believe GOD wants me to share this
2) To show you that procedural textures look great, even close-up and
3) To show you one of the techniques in the upcoming book

Now, here is the image:

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Hey all!

Busy with some things on the book, but all the tutorials for it are done, so I don't really have much of an image to share today, so I thought I'd update you all on how Cycles is growing.

Cycles is the relatively new render engine native to Blender. It is by far more realistic than Blender Render, but also a bit more difficult to work with, especially for new users and those that avoided the Node Editor like the plague. In it's initial phases it was not only so unpractically slow that ...
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HE showed me how to remove the ghosting almost completely!!!!!

I am super excited to let you all in on this! Earlier today, I was busy with the 3D tutorial again and trying very hard to figure out what the problem was with the new method video in the previous post. It just seemed so flat, as though the 3D and shards were on a flat surface, suspended in mid-air. And after much fiddling with the system and trying to see what outputs look how where, HE pointed me to the Depth Map. So I looked at ...
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A few posts back my brother's logo was shown. He was given some inspiration to update its look quite a bit and he asked me to put it together from the old one and so here it is:

If you follow this site regularly, you could have seen that I posted this in the portfolio section of the site earlier today, next to the old one. Out of the two, I really do prefer this one and enjoyed making it. In keeping with the old design, perspective was still left out, but I had to split the contact info, becau...
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When you use the halo lamp in Blender to create some form of beams or solid light, you need to remember that Blender is still growing in it's alpha support and the halo lamp has only two settings when it comes to transparent objects: visible and invisible.

This means that you have to know that the light-beams are not going to shine through a transparent object, only the light itself:


Another thing you need to be careful of is reflective materials. When a halo lamps shines through a transparent ...
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These four tutorials will be in the Blender Render section of the book! I just know that these would be instrumental in helping you all achieve what you are looking to!

Hope you're looking forward to the book's release as I am!
(^v^)

Thank YOU for all YOUR constant guidance and assistance. There is nothing I can do without YOU!

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I can see a massive difference between the two, but I don't want to call one better than the other, because one is more developed and the other works different. So I'll say this: I personally still prefer Blender Render (BI)

Here's why I do.
I've used the same project, creating first a Cycles Render version and then a Blender Render version. Out of the two I like the overall look of the Cycles Render one more, but the capabilities in procedural textures in Blender Render overshadows the quality...
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I really want to start with a massive commercial tutorial for Blender Render and Cycles, focusing on procedural textures and what you can do with them. Like the one already done, except very very much expanded.

So, as I said, this is something I want to do, but can't make any promises yet.

Here is an image I made with Blender Render (aka Blender Internal) that I would like  to use as a title page for the Blender Render section:

This image took a day's ...
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I've seen some works by people on the BlenderArtists.org threads and I was amazed at how much 3D models can look like cartoons if done right so I asked a friend there, bizla, if he knew anything about it. He did, thankfully and he told me where to find the settings for it and after fiddling with it a minute or so, I found out the following:

Your object's outline size is not gonna change if you increase the edge threshold. Increasing the threshold only makes it more sensitive to the mesh and if...
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Usually when you have a very long space, you want to divide it up into sections, so the space doesn't seem so overwhelming and it creates two spaces then. Going from 'oh now, what are we gonna do with this huge room' to 'oh cool, open plan'....
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