Open Ground Wiki

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====== Blender Learning Notes ======

Make notes here about things learned from practice or tutorials. Blender is massive with hundreds of controls to remember, it's clear not everyone can just learn things organically.  Making notes about the complex features helps you brute force recall. 

==== Software Blender Can't Outcompete ====

  * Houdini
  * Maya
  * Nuke
  * ZBrush

==== Learning Path ====

  * What can you do in blender (Oct 2022) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giuwmXFrmgc
  * Speed Art - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3FzIxjlwdE 
  * Create Stylized Shield - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72QMEmrQ3Z8
  * 2-part tutorial Python automation
    * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCR7q1HJ4FU
    * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6lKaOeoDMc
  * Stylized map room in Blender - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JUvCK78R58
  * Product Design Animation in Blender - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1dNYYiJu30
  * Turn one object into another - Geo nodes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NopMAW8ni6k
  * Topology Hacks - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceMOjFUVP68
  * Example to do in blender - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/unisys_ai-cloud-activity-7287474483269914624-dctO?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

==== Lighting Tips ====

This video from SouthernShotty is kind of excellent as it goes over different Blender light types and tips tricks in a really simple way with nice examples. Of note, area light portals, object emission shader as lighting, lighting textures (IES?) and HDR images to light a scene - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0uc4sRArjE 

==== UV Texturing, seamless patterns and moving geometry (GGG) ====

When you have a seamless texture and you start moving geometry, it's easy to introduce stretching.  To avoid this when grabbing geometry, instead of just pressing "G" do "GGG". 

==== Color Matching for Logos etc ====

I ran into an issue where my logo colors weren't the same as expected despite using the same RGB values. This was a result in having certain render properties for color management. Normally this wouldn't be a big problem but with motion graphics of brand logos they need to match up as much as possible. This could mean that using "Filmic" in your render properties and any sort of added contrast can be a problem. Instead try...

  * Render Properties (camera icon) > Color Management
  * In my case I upped the exposure to 1.085 (YMMV)
  * Gamma 1.0
  * View Transform: Standard
  * Look: None
  * sRGB

I ended up using an emission shader on the logo color and for this particular logo I color matched adobe illustrator on screen and bumped the emission for one of the colors (maroon) from 1.0 to 1.150. This boosted the red to pop a little more. 

==== Using the compositor to get light rays / fog ====

Once you get your composition right and the camera view, angle everything is set, you can add a lot of changes in the compositor such as glows and even pretty sophisticated room ambience.  Here's a video where he's adding light rays, fog, bokeh and it makes pretty good looking light rays. Why do this when there are other ways?  Well in the case of static images rather than animations where the camera moves, this can save a lot of render time. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH2ZoEvhsTs

==== 3 of the best resources for Blender Models, Textures, etc.  ====

  * Polyhaven - http://polyhaven.com
  * Blenderkit - http://blenderkit.com
  * Blendswap - http://blendswap.com
  * MyColor.space (color palette generation)- https://mycolor.space/

==== Starting points are key ====

This is a note from me.  In order for blender modeling to go faster, have better starting points.  No more of this default cube stuff.  For example, if you're going to do a product render, have a product render scene set up as a default. That could be background, lights setup, even some texturing set up to color. 

==== Making Money with Blender ====

Stock art is a great way to make money with Blender. And stock art, you can target what people will do with it. For example, think about digital signage and company customization.  Make things that people will want to pay for and put in their own stuff.  Think of the cyclical things companies do, the challenging things maybe they don't want to do and make it for them to use.  Holidays, corporate notices, special events, basic human work interactions. 

==== Kit bashing ====

Look at setting up kit bashing opportunities to experiment. With Blender's new 3.0 inventory features it can be a lot easier to have libraries and kitbash from other people's work or your own.  Maybe kitbashing is particles. Maybe kitbashing is animated text features. Maybe kit bashing is basic scenery in an apartment. Maybe kitbashing is certain architectural details and proviles. Maybe kit bashing is doing artwork in a particular style (art deco). 

==== Great video ====

so many tips for modeling in this video. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwgDXP9lG_I

=== Geometry Nodes particles ===

Great blenderguru geometry nodes tutorial for particles - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA4maNXlIf0

=== Blender Guru's How to learn 3D effectively ===

This link has a path to learning 3D in a month - https://www.blenderguru.com/podcasts/episode-4 - Bonus in the comments of his video, some people recommended other channels to check out. 

  * Derek Elliot
  * ian Hubert
  * Chris plus
  * Crossminds studio
  * Ryan King art
  * Bla Tadej
  * James Tralie
  * Arrimus 3D
  * CG Matter
  * Thilaknathan Studios
  * Sketchy SQuirrel
  * Blender Secrets
  * Dylan Neil
  * Iridesium
  * Sam Bowman (nodes)
  * Tutor4u Neb Motion Olav
  * Keelan Jon
  * Polygon Runaway
  * Dikko
  * XG Interactive

==== Add Transparent Logo (PNG Alpha) to Mesh ====

  * https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaS7BQniaSNfBZDYiLimKxQ

==== Low Poly Assets from single Image ====

  * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRrTdbCSbkU