Blender Tutorials

As of early 2008 I have moved to using the non-commericial Houdini Apprentice HD. As such, I don’t intend to be making new Blender videos so the material below might quickly become out of date. If you have questions about Blender’s features and how to use some of the things I show below, you might want to post your questions to the blenderartists.org forum where Blender users can help out.

All the video tutorials use the XviD codec at 1024×768 resolution (some in wide screen). For Windows and Mac, get the XviD Codec here. For Linux, Windows, or Mac you can use VLC to view the XviD files. And why the XviD codec? The simple answer is that it’s easier for me to make these things. I use CamStudio and it can create an XviD file with the click of a button. Please keep in mind that these videos are not intended to be professional as I just hit the record button and start talking… no scripts, just showing things I think would be of interest.

B – Beginner
I – Intermediate
A – Advanced

Naming Scheme: Tutorial Name (Size Time [Minutes:Seconds]) – Learning Level – Version Used.

Remember to Right Click and Save As!

Modeling
Animation
Simulation
Materials
Lighting
Compositing/Rendering
Building Blender
Blender Tips

Modeling

• Blender Tips 1-8 (10.1 MB zip 06:57) – B – 2.42a
  
• Modeling a Box Pyramid (Fill, Remove Doubles, Subdivide Edges, . key) (11.4 MB zip 05:48) – B – 2.42a
  
• Duplicate, Link Duplicate, and Instantiation/DupliGroups (7.2 MB zip 06:31) – B – 2.42a
  
• Using the Warp Tool to wrap text around an object and animate it (12.5 MB zip 06:51) – B – 2.42a
  
• Using the Shape Keys in conjunction with the Warp Tool to wrap text around an object and animate it (5.5 MB zip 03:57) – I – 2.42a
  
• Tracing 2D images with Curves (17.2 MB zip 09:05) – B – 2.42a CVS
  
• The Crease Tool (4.1 MB zip 04:07) – B – 2.43
  

Animation

• Modeling and Animating Box Flaps (using bones with vertex groups) (11.4 MB zip 10:38) – B – 2.42a
  
• Intro to the Non-Linear Animation (NLA) System and Action Editor (for Armatures/Action Constraint) (16.5 MB zip 15:31) – I – 2.42a
• Intro to the Action Editor (for Shape Keys) (5.4 MB zip 05:27) – I – 2.42a
  
• Shape Key Driver Controls – Objects (7.9 MB zip 07:43) – A – 2.42a
  
• Shape Key Driver Controls – Armatures (5.7 MB zip 05:24) – A – 2.42a
  
• Shape Key Drivers – Python Expressions (5.7 MB zip 05:23) – A – 2.42a
  
• Array Demo Explained (6.5 MB zip 04:05) – I – 2.42a
  
• Fake Muscles (Armatures/Weight Painting/Shape Keys) (17.8 MB zip 10:39) – A – 2.42a CVS
  
• Cloud Layering Effect (21 MB zip 15:45) – A – 2.42a CVS . See the result here (9 MB h264 .mov) and here (8 MB h264 .mov).
• Animating Layers and Alpha Channels (21 MB zip 08:48) – B – 2.42a CVS
  
• A post I did about my thoughts on rigging.
• Auto Keying (13.9 MB zip 3:11) – B – 2.45

Simulation

• How to do Rigid Bodies and then Bake them to IPO (14.1 MB zip 07:31) – I – 2.42a
  

Materials

• Material Indices (multiple Materials on a Mesh) (7.3 MB zip 04:11) – I – 2.42a
  
• Mixing Materials Using Vertex Painting (3.6 MB zip 03:06) – A – 2.42a
  
• Mixing Materials Using Texture Painting (with UV Uwrap) (21.6 MB zip 12:57) – A – 2.42a
  
• Animating Node Materials (Blender Tip 9) (4.9 MB zip 04:28) – A – 2.42a
  
• Fake SubSurface Scattering (SSS) using lighting in Blender (13.1 zip MB 09:13) – I – 2.42a.
• Environmental Map (EnvMap) Mirroring (17.2 MB zip 15:23) – I – 2.42a
  
• Electron Microscope Material/Displacement and Mirror Modifiers (19.6 MB zip 10:19) – I – 2.42a CVS
  
• Multiple UV Sets (13.5 MB zip 08:45) – I – 2.42a CVS
  
• Exporting Complex Materials From Blender Using Bake (and Exporting to Sunflow) (7.9 MB zip 06:50) – I – 2.43 CVS
  

Lighting

• Animating Light Attributes and Using Light Groups in Render Layers (16.6 MB zip 06:04) – B – 2.42a CVS
  
• A Dome Light Setup using Dupliverts (8.9 MB zip 07:29) – B – 2.44
  

Compositing/Rendering

• Intro to Render Layers (13.1 MB zip 10:55) – I – 2.42a
  
• Using Render Layers to do an Ambient Occlusion “Pass” (Without Using Blender’s Passes) (9.3 MB zip 07:35) – I – 2.42a
  
• Glow Effect with the Compositor or Sequencer (12.7 MB zip 12:29) – I – 2.42a CVS
  
• Animating Focal Plains (fake Depth of Field) using Render Layers and Composite Nodes: Alpha Over, Blur, Time (13.7 MB zip 12:09) – A – 2.42a CVS See the result here (640×512 30 KB 00:10 Xvid)
• What The Map Value Node Does (in terms of Z-depth) (5.8 MB zip 09:17) – I – 2.43
  

Building Blender

• Compiling Blender With Visual Studio C++ 2008 Express using CMake (written) – A
  

Blender Tips

• See all the Blender Tips in list form (written) – B
  
• Saving User Settings (2.5 MB zip 01:51) – B – 2.42a