Bits of Blender #79 - Stroke Material Add-On

In this Bit I show you my new Stroke Material Display add-on/extension. If you work with the Grease Pencil, you may find this very helpful.

Stroke Material Display on Blender Extensions

The superhero in the video is Safeguard, one of the heroes from MOST: The Adventures of Ion and Echo! and used courtesy of MOST Comics, LLC.

MOST is a free web comic book done in the classic style of the Silver/Bronze age of comic book. It was done by Richard when he was in college.

Bits of Blender #78 - Mirror and Bisect

I watched a great video by Lino Thomas at the Blender 2022 conference. Afterwards I felt like I had to explore further mirroring and bisecting (and flipping) to create complexity using the mirror modifier.

One hour of greeble - Live workshop at the Blender Conference 2022

Bits of Blender #77 - Distribute Strokes Extension

I created a simple extension/add-on to distribute Grease Pencil strokes. 

I show you how the add-on works, how you can get it, and where you can find the code if you have interest in seeing how extensions work. 

Bits of Blender #76 - Joining Strokes in 4.4 vs 4.2

The way you join Grease Pencil strokes has changed. In this video I show you how it was in 4.2 LTS and compare it to 4.4.

Bits of Blender #75 - Run multiple instances of Blender on a Mac

How do you run multiple instances of the SAME version of Blender on a Mac?

It is a quick tip, in a nutshell... Run this in the Terminal: open -n -a Blender

Bits of Blender #74 - Bézier Curves, Part 2

This Bit builds on Bit #73, going further into using Blender’s beautiful Bézier curve tools.

Bits of Blender #73 - Bézier Curves, Part 1

Blender has powerful Bézier curve tools that are a bit different than what you may be used to in other vector programs. This episode introduces you to how Blender handles Bézier handles.

It’s a little different from other vector programs like Adobe Illustrator and Affinity Designer, in fact I think it is better being able to easily see the handle types.

Bits of Blender #72 - A REAL 3-button Mouse

With Blender I use a trackpad, Wacom, and a Huion tablet monitor, but I’ve always wanted a good ol’ fashioned 3-button mouse, and I finally found one! This is not a paid endorsement, just news of a cool mouse I found to use with Blender 🤠 You can get the Elecom mouse here: https://www.amazon.com/ELECOM-Japan-Brand-BlueLED-Symmetrical-M-CAD01UBBK/dp/B07W5CXW6M

New Logo and New Bit!

Blender can be a challenge to learn at first, but its key commands are instantly addictive. I started using Adobe Illustrator with version 1.1 in 1987, but when I discovered Blender 2.37a in 2005, its shortcuts like G, S, R, X, and E quickly overtook 18 years of Illustrator muscle memory. I even caught myself trying to use them in the venerable vector tool! 

So for the new Bits of Blender logo (my series of quick tips and tutorials for the Blender community), I turned to Blender itself. I began with thumbnails using the Grease Pencil. For the final artwork, I switched to Blender’s Curve object using version 4.4. 

The Curve edit mode’s Pen tool, introduced a few years ago, should feel familiar to anyone who’s used vector drawing tools like Illustrator. The circular design features text wrapped around the outside of a bezier circle and the inside of another. Getting the text to align inside the circle had me stuck for a moment. I realized it was a matter of scaling the circle on the negative Y axis, which is not something you'd do in Illustrator! 

I created a one-minute Bit tutorial to share the solution. Let me know what you think of the new logo, and/or share your own tips for working with Blender’s Curve tools!

I did thumbnails using the Grease Pencil. Here's an example of the one I picked to move forward with.

It is always good to design in black and white first. This is just a step from being final, I decided I preferred the text in the circle to be all caps.

Final art, animated.

The logo mentions the year we started, has two sillouettes of the Blender Monkey object to represent me and Richard. The "o" is a nod to the 3D cursor pioneered by Blender. And of course it has a 0 and 1 to represent the computer "bit", which we use as a play on words for our series (a "bit" as in "a brief performance").

A Tour of Blender (and Bits of Blender turns 17)

Seventeen years ago, Bits of Blender launched on YouTube, back when videos were 320x240 and could not exceed 10 minutes. That was long enough for me and my 9-year-old son, Richard, to share quick Blender tips.

Blender 2.4x had a reputation for being challenging, but we thought a 9-year-old using it might inspire others to get over that initial hump in learning it.

For our anniversary, we’re dropping a special Bit... a 45-minute guided tour of Blender 4.4 as we build an animation from scratch, visiting each of the workspaces.

Watch now and share your comments on the video or memories of our old Bits! #blender #blender3d

Side note, this 45-minute episode about Blender was also edited in Blender with its Video Sequence Editor (VSE)!

Distribute Grease Pencil Strokes

I’m happy to share my first Blender Add-On! I couldn’t find a tool to evenly distribute grease pencil strokes in Blender or existing Add-Ons, so I built one myself. It’s simple but gets the job done! Check it out and let me know your thoughts.

#blender #blender3d

https://github.com/johnrnyquist/distribute_grease_pencil_strokes

ABGC On Sale

My course A Blender Game Character is on sale at CartoonSmart thru Saturday, $25 (usually $39) #b3d

Bits of Blender #67 - Text Boxes

Did you know you could use text boxes/frames in Blender? John and Richard show you how in this Bit.

 

Bits of Blender #66 - Object Fonts

Do you know how to create your own fonts using Blender objects? This Bit shows you how.

Bits of Blender #65 - Typography

It's the Bits of Blender Christmas edition! In it we show you how to do some typographic tricks using nodes.

Bits of Blender #64 - Scene Linking Revisited

Bits of Blender #63 - Lists in 2.69

Weather won't stop Blenderheads

Seven Blenderheads braved some cold, wet Colorado weather to come out for some hot coffee at the CBUG meeting at the Fika Coffeehouse. Clockwise from the left: Ryan, Ben, Ben, Chris, Richard, and Harrison (with me behind the camera), thanks guys for coming out!

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

Blender to Acrobat 3D

A co-worked was talking about Acrobat 3d yesterday. It sounded cool so I had to try it!

The first thing I found out was Acrobat imports the Universal 3D (U3D) format. Looking at my export options in Blender, I did not see an option for that. So a quick Google brought me to the open source MeshLab. With MeshLab I was able to export the BLEND to OBJ and then convert U3D. That worked on a simple model (a cube with a UV), but crashed repeatedly when I tried a more complicated model.

Searching further, I found out the free (but not open source) DAZ Studio exported U3D. I use DAZ and I like it. So I brought my OBJ into DAZ (no problem) and exported the U3D. DAZ exported a large file very fast!

Then I went into Acrobat Profession 8, opened a document, went to Tool=>Advanced Editing=>3D Tool. With the 3D Tool, draw a box into which you will import your U3D.

You can see a quick test of the Blender Basics mouse in Acrobat here. I didn't do any tweaking to the lighting or materials after bringing it into DAZ via the OBJ format, it is just a straight import/export with no finessing: Blender=>OBJ=>DAZ=>U3D=>Acrobat.