# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/What Blender Can Do

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In this module, you\'ll learn what Blender does, both in terms of the
product (images) and the process (3D modeling).

\_\_TOC\_\_ Blender is a free software
package for authoring \"three-dimensional\" (3D) graphics (also known as
*computer graphics* or "CG"), including still images, games, and video.

While the end-product of most Blender projects is a two-dimensional (2D)
raster image on a flat surface (be it a monitor, movie screen, or sheet
of paper) except for Head Mounted Virtual Reality applications, the
images are said to be \"3D\" because they exhibit the
. In other words,
someone looking at the image can easily tell which parts are meant to be
closer and which are farther away.

## An Example

Here\'s a realistic still image that was created with Blender. !\"A
Lonely House\", by
Mayqel{width="400"}

Look closely at the building.

-   Because it is obscured by the building, you can tell that the
    tree-lined hillside is *behind* the building instead of vice versa.
-   The way the top and bottom edges of the front wall appear to
    converge toward the base of the tree allow you to judge the angle
    between the front wall and your viewpoint.
-   Your brain interprets dark portions of the wall as shadows, allowing
    you to estimate where the light is coming from, even though the sun
    is outside the frame of the image.

While an illusion of depth can be authored by hand with 2D graphics
software (or a paintbrush!), Blender provides a much easier way.

It\'s likely that the lonely house never existed outside of the
artist\'s mind. Instead of building a big set on a rural lot in Germany,
waiting for the right light, and photographing it, the author built a
scene in a virtual 3D world---one contained inside a computer. This is
called CGI (Computer Generated Imagery). They then used Blender to
 the scene (convert it into a
2D image). You can view more of what Blender can do at the Blender
gallery: <http://www.blender.org/features/>

## Steps in the 3D Production Process

To produce an image like the one above involves two major steps to start
with:

-       , which is the creation of your miniature 3D world, also known as a
     or
    . This involves defining the
    geometry of the objects, making it look like they are made out of
    particular , setting up
    the , and defining a
     viewpoint.

-       , which is the actual generation of the image of the world from the
    viewpoint of the camera (taking a "photograph" of the scene, if you
    like), for your audience to enjoy.

3D is often used to produce not just single still images, but
 as well. This requires
some additional steps:

-       --- setting up a , namely a
    way of  (changing the
    shape of) a character in various repeatable ways to convincingly
    mimic joint movements, facial expressions and other such actions of
    real-life people or animals.

-       --- choreographing the positions of the objects and their parts in
    the 3D scene over time, using the previously-created animation rigs

-   Rendering now involves creating a whole
     of frames representing
    movement over time, rather than just a single still frame.

But that's not all. There are frequently additional processes to
embellish the results of the above, to make them look more realistic:

-       --- a more organic form of modelling objects by shaping them as
    though they were made out of clay. This produces more complicated,
    irregular shapes which mimic real objects found in nature, as
    opposed to clean, simple, geometrical ones which mostly only exist
    in the world of mathematics.

-       --- You're probably familiar with programs that let you paint an
    image on a 2D digital canvas. Such programs are commonly used in 3D
    production, to create 
    which are "wrapped" around the surfaces of 3D objects to give them a
    more interesting appearance. 3D programs also often allow direct
    painting on the surfaces of those objects, so the effect of the
    design can be observed immediately, instead of having to go through
    a separate paint-on-a-flat-surface-then-wrap sequence of steps.

-       --- simulating the behaviour of real-world objects subject to
    real-world forces, for example hard balls colliding, soft cloth
    draping itself over an obstacle under gravity, water flowing and
    pouring. Mathematical formulas are available for these that give
    results very close to real life, all you need is the computing power
    to calculate them.

-       , or : producing convincing
    animations, particularly ones that look like the movements of real
    people (walking, running, dancing etc) can be hard. Hence the
    technique of capturing the motions of live actors, by filming them
    with special markers attached to strategic points on their bodies,
    and doing computer processing to track the movements of these
    markers and convert them to corresponding movements of an animation
    rig.

-       --- this is where 3D renders are merged together with real
    photographic/live-action footage, to make it look like a rendered
    model is in the middle of a real-world scene, or conversely a real
    live actor is in the middle of a rendered scene. If done with proper
    skill, in particular due care to matching the effects of lights and
    shadows, the viewer becomes unable to tell what is real and what is
    not!

And just to add another complication to the mix, there are two kinds of
rendering:

-       rendering is rendering that has to happen under tight time
    constraints, typically for interactive applications like video
    gaming. For example, most gamers expect the screen to be updated 60
    times per second in order to render smooth motion and respond
    quickly enough to player actions. These time constraints impose
    major limitations on the kinds of rendering techniques that can be
    used.

-       rendering is where the time constraints are not so tight, and
    quality is the overriding factor. For example, when producing a
    single still frame, it may not matter so much that it takes minutes
    or hours to do so, because the beauty and detail of the final image
    is worth it. When rendering a Hollywood-quality movie, it may still
    take hours per frame, but the use of a
     of hundreds or
    thousands of machines, all working on different frames at the same
    time, allows the entire sequence to complete in just a few weeks.

**But wait, there's more:** There are also some areas, which might be
considered to be stepping outside of traditional 3D production work,
where Blender provides functionality:

-   **Video editing** --- having rendered your animation sequences and
    shot your live-action footage, you will want to combine them in a
    properly-timed linear sequence to tell a coherent story.
-   **3D printing** --- Many people are
    interested in creating physical objects using 3D printers. The shape
    data may be obtained from real objects with 3D scanning, or it may
    be created from scratch using 3D modelling, or you can even combine
    both processes.

Blender is a capable tool for every single one of these processes.
There's quite a lot there, isn't there? But don't be too intimidated:
this Wikibook will take things step by step, and you will be able to
produce some fun stuff from early on.

## Additional Resources

-   
-   
-   
-   
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-   Blender Art
    Gallery

-   Blender Homepage

