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[edit] Your First Animation in 30 plus 30 Minutes Part I

This chapter will guide you through the animation of a small "Gingerbread Man" character. We will describe each step completely, but we will assume that you have read the interface chapter, and that you understand the conventions used throughout this book.

In Part I of this tutorial we'll build a still Gingerbread Man. Then, in Part II, we will make him walk.

Note For a much more in-depth introduction to Blender that focuses on character animation, check out the Blender Summer of Documentation Introduction to Character Animation tutorial. Just like the "Gus the Gingerbread Man" tutorial you see here, the BSoD Intro to Character Animation tutorial assumes no prior knowledge. It guides you through the process of making a walking, talking character from scratch and covers many powerful features of Blender not found here. The BSoD Intro to Character Animation also has a downloadable PDF version (3.75 MB) for offline viewing.

[edit] Warming up

Let's start Blender. On the screen you should see, from the top view, the default set-up. A camera, a light, and a cube. The cube should already be selected, as indicated by its pink color.(Default Blender screen as soon as you start it.).

We will organize our working area by placing objects on different layers where we can hide them; we can also bring them back in the current scene whenever we need them. Here is how layers work:

Blender provides you with twenty layers to help to organize your work. You can see which layers are currently visible from the group of twenty buttons in the 3D window header (Layer visibility controls). You can change the visible layer with LMB and toggle visibility with ⇧ ShiftLMB . The last layer that is turned on becomes the active layer. The active layer is where all objects that will be created are stored.

So let's clean up the place.

Select the camera (triangle in bottom right) and the lamp (circle with dots) with ⇧ ShiftRMB and press M. A small toolbox, like the one in (Layer control toolbox), will appear beneath your mouse, with the first button checked, which means that the selected objects are stored in Layer1. Check the rightmost button on the top row and then click on OK. This will move your camera and lamp to layer 10.

Now make sure that only Layer1 is visible, because we wouldn't want to erase the lamp or the camera ; select everything on that layer using A and erase it with X >> Erase Selected Object(s). This leaves all the room we can wish for to begin our modelling job.

[edit] Building the body

Change to the front view with 1 NumPad and add a cube --if one is not present-- by pressing Space >> Add >> Mesh >> Cube. A cube will appear. Press ⇆ Tab, and it will be in Edit Mode. (Our cube in Edit Mode, all vertices selected).

Edit Mode and Object Mode Edit Mode is a mode in which you can edit the vertices of the mesh. By default, all vertices are selected for every new object created (selected vertices are highlighted in yellow - unselected vertices are pink). In Object Mode, vertices cannot be selected or individually edited; the object can be changed only as a whole. You can press ⇆ Tab to switch between these two modes, and the current mode is indicated in the header of the 3D window.

We will call our Gingerbread man "Gus". Our first task is to build Gus's body by working on the vertices of our Cube. To see the Blender tools that we'll use for this purpose, press the button showing a square with yellow vertices in the Button window header (The Edit Buttons Window button), or press F9

Now locate the Subdivide button in the Mesh Tools panel and press it once (The Mesh Tools panel in the Edit context (F9)). This will split each side of the cube in two, creating new vertices and faces (The cube, subdivided once).

The Mesh Tools panel in the Edit context (F9).

The cube, subdivided once.

With your cursor hovering in the 3D window press A to deselect all elements. Vertices will turn pink.

Box Select On many occasions you may have vertices hidden behind other vertices, as is the case here. Our subdivided cube has 26 vertices, yet you can only see nine because the others are hidden. A normal RMB click selects only one of these stacked vertices, whereas a box select selects them all. But beware that by default this is true only for the wireframe drawtype : in any other mode, Shaded, Solid or Textured we can only select visible vertices, even with box select. To select vertices that are hidden behind others uncheck the Limit selection button. The button is selected in the image at the right.

You must have the Limit selection button unselected to continue this tutorial.

Now press B, the cursor will change to a couple of orthogonal grey lines. Move the cursor above the top left corner of the cube, press and hold LMB , then drag the mouse down and to the right so that the grey box encompasses all the leftmost vertices. Now release the LMB (The sequence of Box selecting a group of vertices).

Press X and from the popup menu select Vertices to erase the selected vertices (The pop-up menu of the Delete (X) action).

[edit] Mirror modelling

To model symmetrical Objects we can use the Mirror modifier. It allows us to model only one side of Gus while Blender creates the other in real time. Go to the Edit context (F9) and find the Modifiers panel, (The modifiers panel). Note that on a small resolution monitor this may be off the screen. Clicking one of the downward pointing arrows in the top left of the other panels minimises these panels so you can see the panel you desire.

The modifiers panel.

List of modifiers.

It is pretty empty for the moment. Clicking the button marked Add Modifier opens a list from which you'll choose Mirror(List of modifiers).

Nothing much seems to happen; that is because the modifiers offer quite a bit of control over what's displayed and what's not. In our case we will check the Cage Mode button so we can see the transparent faces in Edit Mode, (Cage Mode button). We choose the axis that will run from the modelled side of our character to the side Blender is completing by checking either the X, Y or Z button; the mirror plane is perpendicular to that axis. In our case it is the X-axis, (Axis perpendicular to the mirror plane).

The Merge Limits button (Merge Limits button) acts as a safety net. Any vertex closer to the mirror plane, than the limit we set, will be placed exactly on the mirror plane. The limit can be set from 0.000 to 1.000 units and how big it should be depends on the nature and the scale of the current job.

For modeling Gus, a vertex that would be more than 0.1 units away from the mirror plane would be noticeable but anything closer might not. Our mesh could end up ripped in the middle if vertices that should be on the mirror plane aren't. To avoid inadvertently neglecting a wandering vertex, we should set the Merge Limits to 0.1. Finally, with the Do Clipping button checked (Do Clipping button), our mirror becomes a frontier that no vertex can cross. If this were to happen it would cause quite a mess. Also, when Do Clipping is active, every vertex that is on the mirror sticks to it.

As you can see, the Mirror modifier gives us a lot of features to make our lives easier.

[edit] Arms and Legs

Let's create Gus's arms and legs. Using the sequence you just learned, Box Select the two top-right-most vertices (Extruding the arm in two steps), left) which will actually select the other two behind them, for a total of four vertices. Press E and click on the Region menu entry to extrude them. This will create new movable vertices and faces which you can move with the mouse. Move them one and a half squares to the right, then click LMB to fix their position. Extrude again with E then move the new vertices another half a square to the right. (Extruding the arm in two steps) shows this sequence.

[edit] Undo/Redo

Blender has two Undo features, one for Edit Mode and the other for Object Mode.

In Edit Mode press CtrlZ to Undo and keep pressing CtrlZ to roll back changes as long as the Undo buffer will allow; ⇧ ShiftCtrlZ re-does changes. AltU opens a menu with a list of possible undos so that you can easily find the point you want to revert to.

Two things to remember:

• Undo in Edit Mode works only for the Object currently in that mode.
• Undo data is not lost when you switch out of Edit Mode, but it is as soon as you start editing a different Object in Edit Mode.

In Object Mode the same shortcuts apply. CtrlZ to undo, ⇧ ShiftCtrlZ to redo and AltU to see the history. If you made changes in Edit Mode that are not lost for that Object, they will all be undone in one single shot with CtrlZ when this step --marked as Edit Mode in the Object Mode (AltU) history-- has its turn.

If you change your mind in the middle of an action, you can cancel it immediately and revert to the previous state by pressing Esc or RMB .

[edit] Coincident vertices

Extruding works by first creating new vertices and then moving them. If in the process of moving you change your mind and press Esc or RMB to cancel, the new vertices will still be there, on top of the original ones! The simplest way to go back to the state before you started extruding is to Undo (CtrlZ). It is sometimes useful to intentionally create new vertices this way and then move, scale or rotate them by pressing G,S or R.

Gus should now have a left arm that you modelled (he's facing us) and a right arm that Blender added. We will build the left leg the same way by extruding the lower vertices three times. Try to produce something like in (Body). If you are using Extrude - Region, you will have to clear the transformation constraint Mirroring by unchecking Do Clipping in the Mirror Modifier panel, and rechecking it after extruding (otherwise Gus will end up with a skirt rather than pants).

You can free the movement of the extruding vertices by clicking MMB after you have pushed E but before you click LMB . If you do not do this your legs will end up going straight down, rather than down and to the side as in (Body).

We're done with mirror modelling. In the next steps we will experiment with other techniques. We need to make the right part of our model real since nothing done with modifiers is permanent unless we apply the changes. With Gus being in Object Mode (press ⇆ Tab), click on the Apply button of the Mirror modifier.

[edit] The Head

Gus needs a head.

Change back to Edit Mode (press ⇆ Tab)

Move the cursor to exactly one square above Gus's body (leftmost image of Adding the head) and add a new cube (Space>ADD>Cube). To place the cursor at a specific grid point, position it next to where you want it and press SHIFT+S to bring up the Snap Menu. Cursor to Grid places the cursor exactly on a grid point. That's what we want right now. Cursor to Selection places it exactly on the selected object, which is sometimes handy.

Now press G to switch to Grab Mode and move the newly created vertices down, constraining the movement by moving the head down a bit and clicking MMB , for about one third of a grid unit (rightmost image of Adding the head.).

[edit] SubSurfaces (subsurf)

For the next step we'll need to select all of Gus, and not just his head. So far what we have produced is a rough figure at best. To make it smoother, locate the Modifier panel in the Editing context (F9) and add a Subsurf modifier, (The Subsurfmodifier in the Modifiers panel). Be sure to set both Levels NumButtons below or at 2. The first Level is for what you'll see in the 3D Window area, the second for the renderer.

SubSurfaces SubSurfacing is an advanced modelling tool, it dynamically refines a given coarse mesh creating a much denser mesh and locating the vertices of the finer mesh so that they smoothly follow the original coarse mesh. The shape of the Object is still controlled by the location of the coarse mesh vertices, but the rendered shape is a finely smooth mesh.

• Switch out of Edit Mode (⇆ Tab) and from the current Wireframe mode to Solid mode using Z to have a look at Gus. He should look like (Setting Gus to smooth, left).

• To make Gus look smooth, press the SetSmooth button found in the Link and Material panel of the Editing context (F9). Gus will now appear smooth although he may wear some funny black lines in his middle. This is usually avoided if you used the Mirror Modifier but it might happen when extruding and flipping, as it was done before the modifier was introduced. (Setting Gus to smooth., middle). These lines appear because the SubSurf's finer mesh is computed using information about the coarse mesh normal directions, which may not all point in the right direction, that is, some face normals might point outward and some inward. To reset the normals, switch back to Edit Mode (⇆ Tab), select all vertices (A), and press CtrlN. Click with LMB on the Recalculate normals outside box which appears. Now Gus should be nice and smooth (Setting Gus to smooth, right).

Press MMB and drag the mouse around to view Gus from all angles. Oops, he is too thick!

[edit] Constrained Scaling

(Slimming Gus using constrained scaling., left).

Let's make Gus thinner:

• Switch to Edit Mode if you are not there already (⇆ Tab), then back to Wireframe mode. (Z), Switch to side view using NUM3 and select all vertices with A. You can do the following steps just as well in Object Mode, if you like.

• Press S and start to move the mouse horizontally. (Click MMB to constrain scaling to just one axis or press X, Y or in this case Z to obtain the same result). If you now move the mouse toward Gus he should become thinner but remain the same height.

• The header of the 3DWindow toolbar shows the scaling factor (Slimming Gus using constrained scaling., center). Press and hold Ctrl. The scale factor will now vary in discrete steps of value 0.1. Scale Gus down so that the factor is 0.2, then set this dimension by clicking LMB , (Slimming Gus using constrained scaling., right).

• Return to Front view and to Solid mode (Z), then rotate your view via MMB . Gus is much better now!

[edit] Let's see what Gus looks like

We're just about ready to see our first rendering, but first, we have some work to do.

• Switch to Object Mode if not already there (⇆ Tab).

• ⇧ ShiftLMB on the top right small button of the layer visibility buttons in the 3DWindow toolbar (Making both layer 1 and 10 visible.) to make both Layer 1 (Gus's layer) and Layer 10 (the layer with the camera and the lamp) visible.

A Tip Remember that the last layer selected is the active layer, so all subsequent additions will automatically be on layer 10.

• Press N to bring up the Transform Properties window (The Panel for numerical input of object position/rotation etc). The location of the camera is specified by LocX, LocY, and LocZ.

• Select the camera (RMB ) and move it to a location like (x=7, y=-10, z=7). Do this by pressing G and dragging the camera. You may need to change views and move the camera a second time to adjust all three coordinates. If you prefer to enter numerical values for an object's location you can do so by holding ⇧ Shift and clicking LMB on a NumButton and then entering the desired value. Remember to press ↵ Enter to confirm your input.

[edit] Camera setup

To make the camera point at Gus, keep your camera selected then select Gus via ⇧ ShiftRMB . The camera should be magenta and Gus light pink. Now press CtrlT and select the TrackTo Constraint entry in the pop up. This will force the camera to track Gus and always point at him. This means that you can move the camera wherever you want and be sure that Gus will always be in the center of the camera's view.

Tracking If you choose the option Old Track and the camera has a rotation of its own, as is often the case, it could point in an unexpected direction. In that case select the tracking object (in our example the camera), and press ALT-R to remove the object's rotation. Once you do this the camera will really track Gus.

(Camera position with respect to Gus) shows top, front, side and camera view of Gus. To obtain a camera view press 0 NumPad or select View>>Camera.

if tracking doesnt work in game mode then you can track gus with logic go to logic button

The tutorial seems a bit muddled (top and front seem confused) so you may need to select Gus, then hit R then start dragging the mouse and click X until Gus is rotated to have all the axis pointing the same way relative to him and the camera - as you see in the image above.

make sure camera OB:Gus the object you want to link the camera to and scene, set camera is selected with the OB:Camera the camera that want to use.

[edit] The Ground

Now we need to create the ground for Gus to stand on.

• In top view (7 NumPad or View>>Top), and in Object Mode, add a plane

(Space>>Add>>Mesh>>Plane).

Note It is important to be out of Edit Mode, otherwise the newly added object would be part of the object currently in Edit Mode, as when we added Gus' head.

• Switch to the Front view (1 NumPad or View>>Front) and move (G) the plane down to Gus's feet, using Ctrl to keep it aligned with Gus.

• Go to Camera view (0 NumPad or View>>Camera) and, with the plane still selected, press S to start scaling.

• Enlarge the plane so that its edges extend beyond the camera viewing area, as indicated by the outer black dashed rectangle in Camera view.

[edit] Lights

Now, lets add some light!

• In Top view (7 NumPad), move the existing Lamp light (if you do not have a Lamp light in your scene you can add one with Space>>Add>>Lamp>>Lamp) in front of Gus, but on the other side of the camera; for example to (x= -9, y= -10, z=7) (Inserting a Lamp.).

• Switch to the Shading context (F5) and then the Lamp buttons window via the sub-context button with a lamp in the Button Window header (The Lamp buttons window button.).

• In the Buttons Window, Preview Panel, press the Spot toggle button to make the lamp a Spotlight (Spot light settings.) of pale yellow (R=1, G=1, B=0.9). Adjust Samples: to 4 and SpotBl: to 1.0.

• Make this spotlight track Gus just as you did for the camera by selecting Spot, ⇧ Shift, then Gus, then by pressing CtrlT>>TrackTo Constraint.

• Add a second lamp that provides more uniform fill light via (Space>>Add>>Lamp>>Hemi). Set its Energy to 0.5 (Hemi lamp settings). Move it a little above the camera (x= 7, y= -10, z=9) and set it to track Gus as before.

Two lamps? Use two or more lamps to help produce soft, realistic lighting, because in reality natural light never comes from a single point.

[edit] Rendering

We're almost ready to render. As a first step, press the Scene context button and the Render sub-context button in the Button window header (The Rendering buttons window buttons.).

We will use the default rendering settings, as shown in (The Rendering Buttons window).

Now press the RENDER button or F12. The result, shown in (Your first rendering. Congratulations!), is actually quite poor. We still need materials, and lots of details, such as eyes, and so on.

[edit] Saving our work

If you have not done so already, now would be a good time to save your work, via the File>>Save menu shown in The Save menu., or CtrlW. Blender will warn you if you try to overwrite an existing file.

Blender does automatic saves into your system's temporary directory. By default, this happens every four minutes and the file name is a number. Loading these saves is another way to undo unwanted changes.

[edit] Materials and Textures

It's time to give Gus some nice cookie-like material.

• Select Gus. Then, in the Button Window header, select the Shading Context by pressing the red dot button (The Material Buttons window Button.) or pressing F5. Then press the red dot sub-context button to access the Material panels.

• The Button window will be almost empty because Gus has no materials yet. To add a material, click on the Menu Button in the Material Panel (the one with two triangles, pointing up and down) and select Add New (The Material Menu button.).

• The Buttons window will be populated by Panels and Buttons and a string holding the Material name, something like "Material.001", will appear next to the white square button. Click the name and change it to something meaningful, like "GingerBread" (don't type the quotes).

• Modify the default values as per (The Material Buttons window and a first gingerbread material) to obtain a first rough material. Note that you must click the Shaders tab to reveal the shader panel.

• Press the Menu Button in the Textures Panel area (The Textures menu button in the Material Buttons) and select Add new. We're adding a texture in the first channel. Call it "GingerTex."

• Select the Texture Buttons by clicking the button in (The Texture Buttons window Button) or by pressing F6.

• From the columns of ToggleButtons which appear in the Texture panel select Stucci and set all parameters as in (The Texture Buttons window with a stucci texture).

• Return to the Material buttons (F5) and set the Map Input and Map To tabs of the Texture Panel as in (Settings for the Stucci texture in the Material Buttons window). Release the Col Toggle Button and set the Nor Toggle Button, then raise the Nor slider to 0.75. These changes will make our Stucci texture act as a "bumpmap" and make Gus look more biscuit-like.

• Now add a second texture, name it "Grain", and make it affect only the Ref property with a 0.4 Var (Settings for an additional Noise texture in channel 2). The texture itself is a plain Noise texture.

• Give the ground an appropriate material, such as the dark blue one shown in (A very simple material for the ground).

[edit] Eyes and detail

To give some finishing touches we'll add eyes and some other details.

• First make Layer 1 the only one visible by clicking with LMB on the layer 1 button (Layer visibility buttons on toolbar). This will hide the lamps, camera, and ground.

• Place the cursor at the center of Gus's head. (Remember that you are in 3D so be sure to check at least two views to be sure!)

• In Object Mode, add a sphere (Space>>ADD>>Mesh>>UVsphere). You will be asked for the number of Segments: (meridians) and Rings: (parallels) into which to divide the sphere. The default of 32 is more than we need here, so use a value of 16 for both. The sphere is in the first image at the top left of the sequence in (Sequence for creation of the eyes).

• Scale the sphere down (S) to a factor of about 0.15 in all dimensions, then switch to side view (3 NumPad) and scale it only in the horizontal direction (Y) a further 0.5, see the second two images in (Sequence for creation of the eyes).

• Zoom a little if necessary via + NumPad, Wheel , or CtrlMMB , and drag the sphere (G) to the left so that it is halfway into the head, as shown in the first image in the second row of (Sequence for creation of the eyes).

• Return to front view (1 NumPad) and move the sphere sideways, to the right. Place it where Gus should have an eye.

[edit] Flipping a duplicate around the cursor

Switch to Edit Mode (⇆ Tab). Select the crosshair pivot button in the header of the 3D window (pivot: 3D Cursor). The eye should still be selected (if not, press A to select all), now press ⇧ ShiftD to duplicate and Esc to stop placing it with the mouse. Then press M to mirror, X to mirror around the X axis, followed by LMB or ↵ Enter to confirm the mirror. Return the pivot button to its default setting (Median Point).

Mirroring Mirroring can also be done in object mode using Ctrl M.

Now Gus has two eyes.

[edit] Mouth

• Exit Edit Mode (⇆ Tab), and place the cursor as close as you can (remember the ⇧ ShiftS key) to the center of Gus's face. Add a new sphere and scale and move it exactly as done before for the eyes, except make its over scale smaller (0.1 instead of 0.15). Place it below and to the right of the cursor, centered on the SubSurfed mesh vertex, as shown in the middle frame in the image below: Creating a mouth with Spinning tools..

• Switch to Edit Mode (⇆ Tab). Now, in the Edit Buttons (F9), locate the group of buttons at bottom in the Mesh Tools Panel (The Spin Tools buttons in the Edit Buttons window.). Set Degr: to 90, Steps: to 3, and verify that the Clockwise: TogButton is on. Then, with all vertices still selected, press SpinDup. This will create three duplicates of the selected vertices on an arc of 90 degrees, centered around the cursor. The result should be Gus's mouth, like the last image of the sequence shown in Creating a mouth with Spinning tools..

• Now go back to Object Mode and add three more spheres (below the head and centered along the Z-axis) to form Gus's buttons. Once you have made one button, you can simply exit Edit Mode, press ⇧ ShiftD to create a duplicate, and move the duplicate into place, as shown in The complete Gus!.

Attaching the spheres If we want to be able to grab Gus and move him around as a whole (this goes beyond the animation in the second part of this tutorial), we now need to attach the small spheres representing eyes, mouth, and buttons to the body. Enter Object Mode and press A until nothing is selected. Now right click one sphere (if more than one is selected as a group, that's ok). Holding ⇧ Shift, select the body. Then hit CtrlP and left click Make parent on the pop up. Deselect everything and repeat the process to attach each element.

[edit] Eyes material

Give the eyes a chocolate-like material, like the one shown at the top in Some other candy materials.. Give the mouth a white sugar-like material, like the second one shown in (Some other candy materials), and give the buttons a red, white, and green sugar-like material. These are shown from top to bottom in (Some other candy materials) too.

Objects sharing a material To give one object the same material as another object, select that material in the Material Menu list which appears when you press the Menu Button ButtonWindow Material Panel, see (Material Menu).

[edit] Rendering

Once you have finished assigning materials, make layer 10 visible again (remember how? Hint, look at the 3D window header), so that lights and the camera also appear, and do a new rendering (F12).

The result should look more or less like (The complete Gus still rendering).

[edit] Saving

Save your image by pressing F3. Enter the name of your image in the file window and save.

You must choose the image format (JPEG, PNG, and so on) by setting it in the Rendering buttons before pressing F3 (The Rendering buttons window buttons) and using the Menu (File type selection menu in the Rendering Buttons window) in the Format Panel.

Blender does not add an extension to the file name; you must enter one if you wish.

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