Modeling Detail on round Surfaces using Retopo

10Jan10

For my latest work, a scene with a HH-65 Dolphin in it, I found a great way to model detailed shapes (like windows, little holes and similar things) onto a round and complex surface without getting ugly crases and similar things on the surface because of edgeloops destroying your round shape.

What I did:

Filed under: Blender, Tutorial   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Aircraft, Aviation, Detail, Modelling, Retopo, Topology

Finally Finished: Frecce Tricolori

08Jan10

Yes, I brought this work to an end, simply because I could not stand having it on my drive 98% finished any more.

It shows an aerobatic formation of three Aermacchi MB-339 PAN from the Italian “Frecce Tricolori”.

FRECCE TRICOLORI

Applications used:
Modelling in Blender
Texturing in Blender and Inkscape
Rendering in Luxrender 0.6 RC6 (2 Passes)
Postproduction in the Blender Compositor
Denoising in Gimp

The background is a texture from cgtextures.com. Thanks to them for the great textures.

Thanks to blendpolis.de and blenderartists.org for the friendly and helpful feedback.

Wireframe of the Scene

Wireframe of the aircraft itself:

Aermacchi Mb-339 PAN Mesh turnaround from Blendipel on Vimeo.

Filed under: Blender, Finished, Luxrender   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Aermacchi MB-339, Aerobatics, Frecce Tricolori

Blender ARt Gallery

03Dec09

I just found a new international Blender Gallery on BlenderARtGallery.com (thanks to francoisgfx for tweeting it) that is nice, simple, high in quality and therefore simply something I missed before (at least since the blender.org gallery was reduced to only a few images).

From the About-Section:

Blender ARt Gallery hopes to showcase the best artworks from the Blender Community. The site is updated weekly so please be patient. If you would like to submit an image please visit the Submit an image page.

This site is currently hosted on an iMac. I would like to raise $70 to pay for a year of hosting and not have to worry about my isp banning my ip for hosting the site. Any amount of donation is more than welcome.

I think this is cool and hope this will become what I expect it to become – the one and only Blender gallery.

Filed under: Blender   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Art, Blender, Gallery

Faking Parallax-Mapping inside the Blender Compositor

10Sep09

I recently read some article about parallax mapping when I got the idea that it could not be that difficult to realize that inside the Blender Compositor since the Blender internal render-engine does not support it.

Filed under: Blender, Tutorial   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Ambient Occlusion, Compositor, Displacement, Mapping, Parallax

Hahnweide Air Show 2009

08Sep09

Yes I know it’s a bit off-topic, but nevertheless I want to show some pictures I took at the “Oldtimer-Fliegertreffen Hahnweide” (EDST) here.

It was really a great show, although in the second part, taking photos was close to impossible because of backlight. And of course you can hardly show how impressive those warbirds and other old planes really are and how elegant they fly their aerobatic maneuvers.

Filed under: Photography   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Air Show, Hahnweide, Oldtimer

Best of Blender Artists Forums – 2009/08

04Sep09

Here my monthly list of my favorite threads at Blender Artists Forums:

Finished Renderings:

electric chair and the deep blue by poke

These pieces captivate with their special look making them both very unique and giving them a very artistic look.

While the “electric chair” builds on a very realistic environment in which a set of interesting soft-toy-characters are integrated, “the deep blue” has heavier effects and achieves a great painted appearance and also some kind of old air by simulating a very rough and structured underground. Definitely interesting stuff – and great models and textures too, of course.

.

Filed under: Best of BAF   |  2 Comments
Tags: Blender Artists Forums

Blender World Cup 2009 started

03Sep09

I have the impression it was hardly recognized (or at least I nearly missed it) so I want to mention it here:

The BWC 2009 has started!

From the official Website:

The Other World

“I couldn’t explain how, but I knew I was needed. I felt my mind being twisted and stretched as it was dragged into another world. For what… I don’t know!”

This year’s topic is focused on the other world which should contain fantasy, creativity, and interest. Good luck everyone!

Deadline

This year’s comeptition ends on the 1st Nov at 00:00 GMT

Entries

An entry form will be available by the start of October.

So get on your feet! I hope I find enought time too to submit something nice there.

Filed under: Blender, Contest   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: 2009, Blender World Cup, BWC

Aermacchi 339 PAN (Frecce Tricolori) in progress

28Aug09

A bit more than half a year ago, I started modelling and texturing the Jet of the Italian aerobatics team “Frecce Tricolori”, an Aermacchi 339. I did all the test-renderings in Indigo at that time. Now I found some time to finish the jet and transfer all the settings to Luxrender, the modelling now looking like this:

Aermacchi Mb-339 PAN Mesh turnaround on Vimeo.

And some shots of the plane in a test-environment:

Finished plane, cockpit almost finished

Finished cockpit

Filed under: Blender, Luxrender, WIP   |  3 Comments
Tags: Frecce Tricolori, Indigo, Jet, Luxrender

Rendering Techniques: Imitating Paintings

07Aug09

Based on this Article about Non-photorealistic Rendering Using Existing Tools (SIGGRAPH 2009), there was an interesting discussion on different Blender Forums about the different techniques to get a painted-looking result with the Blender Internal Renderer.

Filed under: Blender, Tutorial   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Composite, Displacement, Node, Non-Realistic, Painting, Painting with Polygons, Stroke, Toon

Best of Blender Artists Forums – 2009/07

01Aug09

Here my monthly list of my favorite threads at Blender Artists Forums:

Work in Progress:

The bugs that ate San Francisco…. by Michael W

A stunning action scene, a realistic picture of a street and great character design in one single work? Yes, it’s possible. Although being unfinished, the development of this WIP already shows that the result will be something great. I especially like the light effects making the scene dramatic and I can’t wait to see the character finished and put into this scene.

Filed under: Best of BAF   |  1 Comment
Tags: Blender Artists Forums