Blender 3D Basics Beginner's Guide

Book excerpt: The complete novice's guide to 3D modeling and animation with step-by-step tutorials Key FeaturesExplore Blender's unique user interface and unlock Blender's powerful suite of modeling and animation toolsLearn how to use Blender, and also the principles that make animation, lighting, and camera work come aliveStart with the basics and build your skills through a coordinated series of projects to create a complex worldBook Description This book teaches you how to model a nautical scene, complete with boats and water, and then add materials, lighting, and animation. It demystifies the Blender interface and explains what each tool does so that you will be left with a thorough understanding of 3D. This book starts with an introduction to Blender and some background on the principles of animation, how they are applied to computer animation, and how these principles make animation better. Furthermore, the book helps you advance through various aspects of animation design such as modeling, lighting, camera work, and animation through the Blender interface with the help of several simple projects. Each project will help you practice what you have learned and do more advanced work in all areas. What you will learnUse the Blender user interface for building and animating projectsBuild objects using Box Modeling, Subdivision Surfaces, and NURBS CurvesCreate landscapes and trees with Blender's powerful procedural modeling pluginsUse movie lighting theory to make your images popManipulate cameras for dramatic effectMake entertaining animations with keyframes and motion curvesConnect graphics nodes to create stereo 3D animation from two separate image streamsWho this book is for This book is for 3D Artists and Designers who want to learn efficient building of 3D Animations. Knowledge of 3D Modeling is essential but no prior experience with Blender is required.