Progress update for my new web developer portfolio. Creating a 3D museum to showcase all my stuff from 10 years of film and video production. Final product will be a static HTML website that features a full screen 3D museum environment that the user can walk through and interact with.
As a new web developer, I’m looking for a unique way to showcase all of my skills that I’ve acquired over my 10 year career in visual media. I hope you guys like it!
Hey guys, what’s going on! In this video, we’re going to take a look at how to use the 3D cursor in Blender. The 3D cursor is, if you take everything and delete it, it is this little circle here in the center. That is the red and white circle; the little crosshair thing. In 2.8 and above, they have added a special 3D cursor tool to allow you to move and drag the cursor around. If you’re familiar with any kind of word processor or typing code, it’s very much the same idea. A cursor is just a thing that helps you know where you’re working.
First Example
For example, if I hit SHIFT+A on the keyboard that will bring up the “Add” menu. Let’s just say I want to add a cone. This will add a cone to the scene, but it will add it exactly where I’ve put my 3D cursor. So for example, I can take the cursor tool, move the cursor way over here, and add a monkey head. That monkey head will appear here, exactly where I’ve put the cursor. So that’s cool, to have it put stuff exactly where I want it to appear. Especially if you have a massive scene and you’re adding stuff all over the place. If I want to add something way out here I can do so without having to go all the way up and get something that appeared somewhere that I didn’t need it to appear.
Another Example
Another great use for the 3D cursor in Blender- you can hit SHIFT+S to bring up the snapping menu popup; and this is especially useful if you’re going to do some editing. So for example, if we bring up the monkey Suzanne here for a second, and I hit TAB on the keyboard to enter edit mode. Let’s just say I want to create something in the center of Suzanne’s eyeball. I’m going to hit X on the keyboard and delete the center vertex on the eyeball. So that is going to open up a hole in the eyeball. Next, I’m going to hold ALT on the keyboard and click this edge and that’s going to select all of the vertices inside of this eye socket area. And so what I can do is go back to the SHIFT+S menu to bring up the snapping popup. Then I can choose to snap the cursor to what I have selected. So the cursor will appear exactly in the center of the eye. So then I can go and add a cone or something that will be specifically in the center of the eye.
The pivot point menu
Actually, that was not a great example because I have ‘active element’ currently selected. So this menu up here is the pivot point for transforms. I’m going to choose 3D cursor and then let’s see the difference that that’s going to make. So I’m going to go ahead and add a cone and it’s going to scale it now, this time, scaling from the 3D cursor. It’s a great reference point to be able to pivot scales and rotations around an element or a point that’s not a vertex. So if I go to- this is what I had it on previously- the active element, so here, you can see I’ve selected all the vertices on the bottom of this cone; whichever one (I’m shift-clicking) is white is the active selection, so it will scale from that point. So anyway, the cursor is always available if you’re trying to scale something, rotate something, or create a pivot point, or define or create a center on something, the 3D cursor is a great way to do that.
The Door Example
Okay, here’s a good example use case for the 3D cursor: Let’s say for example, I want to model a door. I might start with a plane and I might rotate it on the X axis for a little bit and scale it along the X. And this is just a rough, general idea for the shape of my door. But when I rotate it like this, it doesn’t rotate quite like I want it to. So an important concept for animations especially, is the idea of knowing where your pivot point is. Usually on all objects that are added through the context menu have the default pivot point (or ‘origin’ as it’s known in Blender) located in the center of mass. Of course, if you model a lot of new geometry onto a base shape, the origin will remain exactly where it was in object mode, even if you completely change the location of the whole shape.
So back to the door example, I want my door to rotate from the edge, like a normal door. So what I can do is go into edit mode, and have edge selection mode enabled, and select the left edge. Then hit SHIFT+S to bring up the snapping menu, and choose Cursor to Selected. That’s going to bring the cursor to the center of these two vertices, basically the center of this left edge. Then hit TAB to go back into object mode, and in the pill menu at the top, choose Object > Set Origin > Origin to 3D Cursor. The origin defines the point at which the object will rotate and scale. So if we hit S on the keyboard to scale the object, it will scale from that left edge.
Using the Cursor to Scale and Rotate
Another example, if we go back into edit mode and choose vertex selection, and choose the bottom left corner, we can SHIFT+S to snap the cursor to that selection, go back into object mode, and then choose Origin to Cursor. Now the origin is at the bottom left corner, and we can scale it from the bottom left corner. That is a super useful case for the 3D cursor in Blender if you’re modeling something or if you’re animating something, and you need it to scale or rotate around a specific point, the 3D cursor is a really great way to set that location.
Simply put, retopology is essentially the process of taking a 3D model with a high poly count and reducing the number of polygons to the smallest number possible to still retain the original shape.
If that sounds confusing, don’t worry, retopology is basically the process of simplifying. I’ve included an article that breaks down 5 tips for helping you improve your retopology, regardless of what software you use.
In addition, there are plenty of awesome tips in further detail over on topologyguides.com so check them out!
First, add a plane into your scene and enable snapping. Next, in edit mode, snap each vertex to the surface of the model that you’re going to retopologize. And then it’s just a matter of extruding that shape over and over until you start to rebuild a lower resolution of your model.
Next, just buckle in for the long haul. It’s not going to be fast. Retopology is going to be a tedious process. Just put on some music and approach it like it’s a puzzle. Just focus on tackling the big shapes and making general pieces come together while keeping your tiles as large as possible without losing detail.
Here are some fun tips to improve topology on your modeling projects. If you’ve done any high resolution sculpting, or imported some very dense 3D scans, you’ll definitely want to do something with all those vertices. Here are a few tips and tools to help you massively reduce the amount of verts in your absolute unit.
Have a Plan
Every single retopology job is going to be different, so it’s good to get an idea for what you’re going to do and how you’re going to approach it before you go diving in. As a general rule of thumb, go for cylindrical parts first (legs, arms, and torsos are relatively easy), and then try connecting them afterward (hips, shoulders, and heads can be more challenging).
There are several tools available for Blender users to help speed up your retopology job and/or make your life easier. Perhaps the most notable being Retopoflow. Others include Tesselator, LoopTools (addon included with Blender), Grease Pencil, and BSurfaces (included in 2.79).
1. Think Big
Start by thinking in LARGE, general shapes. Don’t get into the fine details too early. You can always add that extra detail later on with loopcuts and subdivisions to give you any extra geometry that you may be missing.
2. Even Detail
Keep mesh density as even as you can. This is especially difficult in the beginning. You may be tempted to dive into the finer intricacies of a dinosaur’s toenail or something like that, but don’t! This will give you tons of geometry in one part of your model, and not enough in other parts.
3. Work Smarter, Not Harder
A lot of these tips are related, but it’s good to keep them all in perspective. If your sculpt or scan is symmetrical, do yourself a favor and use the mirror modifier. Not only does this cut your work in half (no, literally), but it also keeps the number of vertices even on both sides so you don’t have to remember how many loopcuts you put around your model’s left elbow. They’re already in place.
4. Think In Loops
If you just go placing quads all over your model with no plan, you’re going to end up with some problems. Yes, there are tools and addons that make adding squares a walk in the park, but that’s not the way you should approach an entire model. Start by targeting cylindrical shapes first. Think: arms, legs, fingers, toes, torsos, thighs, elephant trunks, tentacles, etc. Once you have those in place, focus on joining those shapes later. Connect the arm to the torso (shoulder), leg to the torso (hips and groin), etc.
5. Keep At It
Practice. Seriously! I’m terrible at retopologizing, but that’s why I spent the time creating this video series. I made these mistakes so you don’t have to. Hopefully this helps you out! So if you only get one takeaway from this entire series, just keep practicing retopologizing models. There are tons of models online that have less than stellar topology for animation, so why not give retopology a shot!
Let’s take a look at some concepts that will help you gain a better understanding of layout control in Blender 2.8. In this video, we’ll cover:
Every single window type in detail
Creating and deleting custom tabs
Creating custom themes and loading from the theme preset library
Saving your custom workspace as the new default
Splitting and joining windows
Changing window types
This is one of several upcoming Blender tutorial videos, so stay tuned for more! If you’re not already, consider subscribing to be notified when new videos are posted. If you’re just getting started in Blender, check out my introduction video. Should you have any questions, feel free to drop a comment below, or ask using my contact card at the bottom of the home page.
The transition from Blender 2.79 to 2.8 has completely changed the way that users are able to take control of their layouts. To be honest, the default tabs for layouts have worked for my purposes about 95 percent of the time. Every so often I find I need to pull up a new window to create a timeline that didn’t exist before, but that’s about the extent of my layout modifications. Good luck, have fun, and keep creating!
This is a high-level overview of Blender 2.8. In this video, we take a look at:
Information provided on the Splash Screen
Navigating the 3D view
What the 3D cursor is and how to use it
Creating, editing, and manipulating objects
The Collections system and how you can use it to organize your scene
Restrict object visibility using Collections
Perspective vs orthographic views, what they are and how to switch between them
Hotkeys for changing your view quickly
How to add materials to objects
Detailed exploration of each of the panels in the ‘layout’ view
If you haven’t already, you can download the latest copy of Blender from blender.org. Please note: At the time of the this recording, Blender was in the alpha testing stages of version 2.80. However, by this time, most of the visual and back-end changes in the transition from version 2.79 had already been made. Versions 2.81 and later may have slightly different icons or menu placements, but if you’re watching this video and are brand new to Blender, those changes shouldn’t effect you that much.
If you have any problems, or would like to see and updated video, feel free to drop a comment below! All feedback is much appreciated.
Hey guys! If you’re hear, you probably already know what RAM is and you’re excited to learn how to add swap in Manjaro. If not, this is sort of a follow-up post to how to download more RAM. Anyway, let’s get started!
Using a Swap File
There’s a ton of different ways to add swap to your system, some more advantageous than others. In my experience, it’s always been easier to add swap to an existing install by using a swap file. First, just confirm that you don’t already have swap enabled. To do this, just run sudo swapon. If that command does not return any output, then you don’t have swap enabled. Also, if you have and/or use htop, it will actually display your swap status right below your RAM usage bar. if it reads empty and 0/0kb, then you don’t have swap enabled. Great! Now we can add a swap file.
Creating and initializing a new swap file
To create an initialize a new swap file, we’ll be using the fallocate command. To initialize a 16GB swap file just run the following in a terminal:
sudo fallocate -l 16G /swapfile
then run: sudo mkswap /swapfile
Setting permissions for your new swap file
Manjaro will likely give you a warning about changing the permissions of your swap file. You can change permissions using the chmod command. The swap file should only be readable and writable by the root.
sudo chmod 0600 /swapfile
Enabling your new swap file
Enable your new swap file by running the following:
sudo swapon /swapfile
Make your changes permanent
Make sure Manjaro knows to use your swap file every single time it boots up. Do this by running:
And that’s it! The only thing left to do is reboot and just double check to see if your swap is up and running. Again, you can just run those commands from the beginning of the tutorial swapon or htop and you should be good to go! Happy blending!
I use Adobe CC on a Windows machine for my video production pipeline at work. I do video side work on the weekends, and have used Windows and Adobe for those projects as well, but I’ve always felt trapped. Like I’m a slave to Adobe or something. I’ve spent most of my professional career learning and using software like Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop.
Making the Switch
I’ve used Ubuntu a TON, as it’s a super popular distro, and it was my introduction to Linux. A few months back, I was checking out https://opendata.blender.org/ and noticed that a good chunk of data was coming from a distro called Manjaro, but I’d never heard of it. Shortly after seeing all that performance data, I decided to give Manjaro a shot. After some basic research, I discovered Manjaro is actually based on Arch (unlike Ubuntu, based on Debian).
I gotta say, installing Manjaro was a breeze (cursor theme). I will admit however, I have never known the pain of installing Arch. Like actual Arch. But I’m aware of the memes. So I’m sure it’s pretty involved. While I can’t exactly go around trolling like, “btw I use arch”, I was seriously surprised at the installation and how much was up and running right out of the box! Ubuntu is pretty straightforward, but depending on the hardware, you may need to find a few hacks or packages to get everything full up and running. For example, I couldn’t get the wifi working when I put Ubuntu on my 10 year old Macbook until I installed a special package that didn’t come with the default install.
Everything Works.
Immediately… Very first boot up. Everything works. Hardline network connection works. Wifi card works. GRAPHICS look great. Manjaro automatically grabs graphics drivers for you upon install! And I was actually impressed with the pre-installed software collection. Most of the time, in Ubuntu, I have to delete a bunch of crap software I’ll never use. But Manjaro… Like, I use Steam all the time. It’s pre-installed. Libre Office pre-installed. Tweaks pre-installed. Gparted pre-installed (this might be normal). But I was really surprised how little I actually had to do post-installation.
Smooth UI Experience
It’s a bunch of little things that add up to a massive amount of time saved. One of my pet peeves in Windows is switching apps on the task bar. If your app has multiple windows (like Blender, and a render window), you have to click once to reveal thumbnails, then click the thumbnail of the window you want. If they’re small or detailed windows like terminals, good luck. I love the single hot corner in the upper left to give you an expose-like look of all your running apps. I love the best-of-both worlds option to launch a full-screen app tray from the bottom left, or tap the drop-down xcfe-like ‘start menu’ from the upper left. It’s pretty awesome. Just gotta get used to typing pacman -S instead of apt-get
Haven’t logged a ton of hours on Manjaro just yet, still very much in the “moving in” phase. Feeling great so far. Looking forward to diving into my brand new postproduction workflow in Manjaro using Blender, Resolve, Gimp, Inkscape, and Ardour. More on that in the coming weeks! Peace
