Bits of Blender #41 - Snapping Tools

Richard and I have just released another episode of Bits of Blender. This episode is on Blender's snapping tools.

We now have a channel on blip.tv as well. Blip is higher quality than YouTube and allows you to subscribe to it via iTunes.

blip.tv
vimeo
YouTube

Bits of Blender #39 and #40

My boy, Richard, and I have come out of a long hiatus. We just made two new episodes of Bits of Blender. We're getting back into the swing of things so pardon any rough edges. We're doing some things a little differently, the biggest change is we now publish at at higher resolution. I am also (finally) giving Vimeo a try (I've had an account forever but hadn't taken the time), they look so nice there.

For those of you not familiar with "Bits", it is a set of casual tutorials done by my 10-year old and me. We do them both for fun and to serve as a video reference of many Blender features. We're warming up so we are ready for 2.5. These cover in 2.49b. Enjoy!

Bits of Blender #39 - Environment Maps

YouTube

blip.tv
vimeo


Bits of Blender #40 - Making a Lego Head
YouTube

blip.tv
vimeo

iCrash

I have a first generation iPhone. For a long time, whenever I put my iPhone on my dock, iTunes would launch and freeze. It was very frustrating. On a couple of occasions I searched for solutions, finding none that worked for me. Each update to iTunes I hoped would correct the problem.

I had a workaround. If iTunes was already running, then it wouldn't crash when the iPhone was connected. It was not a desirable work around because I don't want iTunes running all the time. It was a drag having to remember to launch iTunes each time before connecting the iPhone.

I'm running Vista, and I my periodic searches (when frustration would peak) I noticed that Mac users also had similar problems. A few months ago, playing with my settings, I discovered how to prevent it from crashing iTunes (and went on my happy way, neglecting to blog on it). The solution was simple, turn off "Automatically sync when this iPhone is connected". It's not an ideal solution, but it fits my workflow very well. I don't need to sync the phone every time I connect it, so as long as I remember to do it once in a while, I'm good. Since most of my important info is kept "in the cloud", syncing frequently is not a necessity.

1006

Bits of Blender has reached 1006 subscribers! We are also approaching 100,000 views for the series. My co-host Richard and I have not released an episode since February (#38), but we are ramping up for some new Bits for the new year. Blender is on the verge of a huge change from version 2.49b to 2.5. It is a major overhaul on the user-interface. As we learn more of the new Blender, we'll pass it along (as time allows).

I'm also doing some reading on compositing in Blender. This aspect of Blender I've been light on, and many folks are not even aware of Blender's ability to do video editing and compositing. The best source I've found on the subject is Roger D. Wickes exhaustive Foundation Blender Compositing. It's got a nice layout, full-color, and Roger it very thorough in his coverage and also very honest in how he covers it (not to mention occasionally funny).

Bits of Blender #38 - Blender Versions

Richard and I did another episode of Bits of Blender tonight. We show how and where to get earlier versions of Blender and talk about why you might want to do so. :-)

The Glass Studio

One of the best feelings I have as a teacher is hearing that I helped. A cool thing about Blender is we get an international audience. Richard and I received a great letter the other day regarding our Bits of Blender YouTube series. I asked the artist if I could post it and a sample of his work, the above is his work and below is his kind note. Richard said it best when as he watched it "Cool! Awesome! Cool!"

Thanks for your video tutorials!

Hello Greetings from France !

I am a British artist (painter). I am currently working on 3d animation and today I put on line (on YouTube) a my first Blender animation. The video is called: The Glass Studio.

I have learnt a great deal from your videos. I believe that I would have given up on the program had it not been for the excellent tutorials that you published. Of course there are many video tutorials about Blender on YouTube, but I found myself constantly referring to your tutorials. The way you focus on teaching very specific things in Blender was very useful to me. You have succeeded in opening up this daunting program to me and I am sure, to many other Blender newbies!

I still have a great deal to learn for example, I have not yet succeeded in creating bones that work properly. The figure in the animation has no bones! I hope that you enjoy my simple animation!

I wish you continued success with all your creative work.
Best wishes from Ian Marke

Bits of Blender #35-37

After a long absence... On Sunday, Richard and I released 3 new episodes of Bits of Blender (yes, I'm slow on the blogging).

Bits of Blender #35 - Appending and Linking
Ever wonder how to get a model (or other data) from one .blend file to another?




Bits of Blender #36 - Rendering an Image in the Background
If you want an image to replace the background color, how would you do it?




Bits of Blender #37 - Text in Blender
Need 3d text?