REVIEW: BLENDER 2.5 LIGHTING AND RENDERING
REVIEW: BLENDER 2.5 LIGHTING AND RENDERING
Blender book written by Aaron Powell and published by Packtpub Publishers.
The book delves into lighting and rendering in Blender 2.5, the latest version of the Blender software.
The book has 217 pages in 9 chapters.
Chapter 1
This chapter covers an introduction to color and lighting basics.
For you to understand lighting and how to achieve it realistically you need to understand the basics of color and how they relate to each other.
From there we get to learn the different light s in blender then how to set up a lighting rig. There are of three types:
♣ 1 point light rig
♣ 2 point light rig
♣ 3 point light rig.
Chapter 2
After understanding that, he now sets up a scene.
Chapter 2 is now about setting up different lighting scenes depending on the environment like outdoor scenes.
When lighting up a scene, there are things that must be taken into consideration before going ahead and just lighting up a scene. For example, if it’s an indoor scene than an outdoor scene.
For better understanding of what is being described, Aaron provides files to be used as practical examples hence better understanding.
Chapter 3
Ambient light-its light reflected off of surfaces, that’s light not attributed to any specific light source.
In Blender 2.5, we have 3 ambient lighting features:
♣ Ambient Occlusion
♣ Environment Lighting
♣ Indirect Lighting
He further gets to explore and learn how to activate the different features of lighting, understanding how each feature affects a scene, how to customize each of the features for a particular scene and also how to use one rendering algorithm over the other.
After this you would be really pleased with yourself!
Chapter 4
Adding light to a scene is only half the battle, we also have to learn and know how to add material to achieve a particular feel.
Chapter 4 goes about breaking down the process of applying material to an object. Blender 2.5 has four material types having 2 new ones in this version not available in the previous ones.
♣ Surface
♣ Wire
♣ Volume
♣ Halo
This can be very useful and saves you a lot of time. Surface mesh is the typical mesh we get normally when creating an object. Wire renders out meshes in wire frame.
The newly added ones volume, which creates a volumetric fog effect and halo which enables mesh to emit light and glow.
It covers all aspects of a material from diffuse and specular properties and shader models.
We are taken through the functions of the each feature available to meshes when adding materials and as always there we have experimental files to download and work with.
Chapter 5
Chapter 5 explores indoor lighting. The previous chapter was about applying materials to an object depending on the scene/environment and the lighting to be used.
For this chapter we have been given a project file of an indoor scene to use in this chapter.
First, Layers. Using layers to enhance our render. To be able to light an object more than the rest. We explore this feature in this chapter. Apart from learning how to organize layers to achieve maximum render. This chapter is also about lighting an interior scene. What lights to use, how to place them and adding of ambient light.
A pretty good experience.
Chapter 6
It was hard at first for me to actually get to start learning UV mapping. I found it tedious ,hard to understand and wondering if the effort is worth it.
But, it is. Normally when I take a look at a complex render scene. I get amazed and impressed by the detail of modeling, lighting and texturing. Which means the effort is well worth it.
Continuing with the scene from the previous chapter, we map a bottle. Unwrapping and applying custom made labels at specific parts of the bottle using Gimp to create the texture..
By the end of it all, we should have a pretty good idea of how to go about UV mapping.
Chapter 7
Chapter 7 is a continuation in the texturing of the whole scene.
But we also get to learn about nodes and using them to create materials. In this case, glass material.
Chapter 8
Combining Indoor and Outdoor Lighting techniques
It’s not always that we use the same lighting techniques; sometimes we combine them to achieve another level of realism.
It’s called Hybrid Lighting.
It was pretty exciting reading through it and learning a few tricks about lighting a scene freestyle. Which is probably how we start out anyway but at least now we do it with more knowledge about lighting, material and textures.
Chapter 9
Hybrid Lighting: Materials and Textures
This chapter is continuation of building an indoor scene. We started out with light and in this chapter we continue with materials and texture side by side with reference image as a guide.
Book Review: Architecture, Buildings and Scenery
Book Review: Architecture, Buildings and Scenery.
by Chepkech Kevin
This is another of Allan Brito’s books’, a little over 300 pages with 14 chapters (published by Packtpub Publishers)
I was really excited about this book and couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.
I have to admit my expectation of this book was totally different from what I got. What it does, is expound on important things to consider in the art of 3D Architecture, Buildings and Scenery.
Chapter 1
This chapter is an intro to Blender and its software and hardware requirements which I wrote in my previous book review. This being a book about Architecture, Allan shows us how to work with files from CAD software such as AutoCAD, ArchiCAD, QCAD and other tools. Sometimes there’s never enough time to work on something and we have to retrieve already completed models mostly of furniture from a previous project or go through the internet to looks for them. Some of the sites that provide free models are:
http://resources.blogscopia.com: Furniture models in the native Blender file format.
http://www.e-interiors.net: Lots of pictures and free models of furniture. Most files are in 3DS or DXF file formats.
http://www.linedstudio.com: More furniture models and scenes already in Blender native file format.
http://blender-archi.tuxfamily.org/Models: A collection of models to be used in Blender for Architectural Visualization, all in the Blender native file format.
Chapter2-3
In these chapters, Allan explains on the workings of Blender, its interface and its tools from merging windows to using modifiers such as the array modifier in architecture.
Chapter 4-6
This chapter focuses on modeling. When it comes to modeling other things not related to architecture like cars, characters and what have you there’s no pressure of precision modeling unlike when dealing with architecture modeling. Well, Allan explains how to go about getting the right and precise dimensions of models. It’s really cool to discover new things that you didn’t know about blender. He gives short examples to practice with.
Chapter 7-9
We learn how to add materials, textures and UV mapping when there is need for more control over the texture.
Chapter 10-12
Proper lighting can make a big difference in a virtual scenario or architectural model. A good lighting setup is the key which doesn’t come easy but with enough practice very much possible.
Knowing and understanding the different lamps in blender will greatly enable you to know which lamp is suitable for which scenario or model. In these chapters we get to learn about radiosity and ambient occlusion, global illumination with YafaRay.
Chapter 13-14
So far it has been about still images but there is also animation. Animation in Architecture can make a strong impression to any person especially when selling your portfolio to a potential employer or marketing of a project. Blender has what other 3D software’s and that is interactive animation made possible with the Blender Game Engine.
As you read along, you will get to learn how to plan, set up key frames and manage them, edit animations with IPO curves.
One more thing that excited me was the video sequence editor in-built in blender. It allows us to edit and merge video files without the need of video editing software. There is more to learn about the sequencer (video sequencer editor) and animation process as you go along.
The post production process can be frustrating especially when the rendering process took so many hours ad the final result is not what you expected. This is where Gimp comes in. The brightness or color can always be adjusted with Gimp. You will get to learn more about Gimp and how much it improves a rendered result saving a lot time of adjusting the rendering engine.
This book is for those into architecture like me.Those into something else, sorry….this book isn’t for you.
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