forked from bartvdbraak/blender
Update of the very ancient 2.3 text of blender.html.
Thanks Nathan Letwory for the poke!
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@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1 align="center"><a name="top">Blender v2.3x series</a></h1>
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<h1 align="center"><a name="top">Blender v2.4x series</a></h1>
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<br>
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<ol>
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<li><a href="#intro">About</a></li>
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@ -25,19 +25,19 @@
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<h2><a name="intro">1. About</a></h2>
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<p>Welcome to the world of <a href="http://www.blender3d.org">Blender</a>!
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<p>Welcome to the world of <a href="http://www.blender.org">Blender</a>!
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The program you have now in your hands is a free and fully functional 3D
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modeling, rendering, animation and game creation suite. It is available for
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modeling, animation, rendering, compositing, video editing and game creation suite. It is available for
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Unix-based (Linux, Mac OS X, etc.) and Windows systems and has a large
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world-wide community.</p>
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<p>Blender is free to be applied for any purpose, including commercial usage and
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distribution. It's open-source software, released under a dual GPL / BL
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licence. The full program sources are available online.</p>
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distribution. It's free and open-source software, released under the GNU GPL
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licence. The full program sources are available on our website.</p>
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<p>For impatient readers, here the two most important links:</p>
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<a href="http://www.blender.org">www.blender.org</a> the developement/community website<br>
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<a href="http://www.blender3d.org">www.blender3d.org</a> the general website<br>
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<a href="http://www.blender.org">www.blender.org</a> the main website<br>
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<a href="http://wiki.blender.org">wiki.blender.org</a> the documentation website<br>
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<p align="right"><a href="#top">back to top</a></p>
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@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ plugins and more.</p>
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<p>If you are interested in the development of the program, information for
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coders and the CVS repository with the sources can be found at the
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<a href="http://www.blender.org">developer's site.</a></p>
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<a href="http://www.blender.org/development/">developer's section of the site.</a></p>
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<h3><a name="start_install">Installation notes:</a></h3>
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@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ it's enough to set a system variable called PYTHON to the full path to the
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stand-alone Python executable (to find out execute "import sys; print
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sys.executable" inside the stand-alone interpreter, not in Blender). To check
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which Python was linked to your Blender binary, execute "import sys; print
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sys.version" at Blender's text editor), it's probably 2.3.something -- only the
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sys.version" at Blender's text editor), it's probably 2.5.something -- only the
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two first numbers should have to match with yours.</p>
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@ -130,10 +130,10 @@ Renderman compliant ones. By <strong>animating</strong> the data and rendering
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pictures of each successive frame, movie sequences can be created.</p>
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<p>In <strong>compositing</strong> a set of techniques is used to add effects
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to movie strips and combine these into a single video. This is how, for
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example, artists add laser beams, glows and dinossaurs to motion
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pictures. Blender is not a specific tool for this purpose, but it has builtin
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support for video sequencing and sound synchronization.</p>
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to rendered images and combine these into a single frame. This is how, for
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example, artists add laser beams, glows and dinosaurs to motion
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pictures. Blender also has builtin
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support for video sequence editing and sound synchronization.</p>
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<p>The <strong>game engine</strong> inside Blender lets users create and play
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nifty 3d games, complete with 3d graphics, sound, physics and scripted rules.
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@ -158,10 +158,10 @@ yourself for your favorite window manager.</p>
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command-line prompt. Try "blender -h" to see all available options.</p>
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<p>Blender saves data in its own custom binary format, using ".blend" as
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extension. The default start-up configuration is saved in a file called
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extension. The default start-up configuration is saved in a file in your home directory called
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.B.blend. To save your changes to it, click on
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<strong>File->Save Default Settings</strong> or use the Control+u shortcut
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directly. To revert to factory defaults, erase the .B.blend file.</p>
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directly.</p>
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<h3><a name="start_1st">First steps:</a></h3>
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@ -173,8 +173,7 @@ syndrome, just relax and <a href="#faq_2">read this part</a> of the F.A.Q. </p>
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<p>Hoping the explanations helped, let's start Blender and take a look at it.
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At the top header you can see the main menu. Under "File" you'll find entries
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to save, load and quit. If <em>someone</em> ever messes with your workspace
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and you can't find your way around: press q to quit. Then erase the .B.blend
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file in your home dir and the program will be back to factory defaults.</p>
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and you can't find your way around: use the menu <strong>File->Load Factory settings</strong>.</p>
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<p>Blender's screen is divided in "areas". Each of them has a top or bottom
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header and can show any of the available builtin applications (called "spaces",
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@ -265,9 +264,8 @@ each space.</p>
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<h2><a name="resources">4. Resources</a></h2>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="http://www.blender3d.org">www.blender3d.org</a> - the general site, with documentation and downloads</li>
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<li><a href="http://www.elysiun.com">www.elysiun.com</a> - the user community</li>
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<li><a href="http://www.blender.org">www.blender.org</a> - the developer's site</li>
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<li><a href="http://www.blender.org">www.blender.org</a> - the general site, with documentation and downloads</li>
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<li><a href="http://www.blenderartists.org">www.blenderartists.org</a> - the main user community web site</li>
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<li><a href="http://projects.blender.org">projects.blender.org</a> - the project's site</li>
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</ul>
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@ -276,38 +274,15 @@ each space.</p>
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resources you will need. We can't teach you 3D in these few lines of text,
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that would take a lengthy book.</p>
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<p>The Blender Foundation has released a new guide, with hundreds of pages of
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illustrated tutorials. It comes with a CD-ROM that has Blender version 2.32,
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YafRay and many goodies: sample .blend files with models, textures and
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animations, plugins, scripts, documentation, etc. It's an extensive reference
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written by Blender gurus and also a good way to help Blender development.</p>
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<p><strong>New</strong>: the new guide's text is now available for download
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online and the second edition of the printed book has also been released.</p>
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<p>You can learn more about it at the main Blender site:
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<a href="http://www.blender3d.org">www.blender3d.org</a>. There you'll also
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find news, online documentation like tutorials, the 2.0 guide, the Blender
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Python API Reference for script writers, docs for the newest features added
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to the program, etc. There are also forums, galleries of images and movies,
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games, scripts, plugins, links for many resources and more.</p>
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<p>The main Blender community site is elYsiun:
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<a href="http://www.elysiun.com">www.elysiun.com</a>. There's a lot of
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activity in its user forums, where newbie and guru users share tips and tricks,
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show their most recent images, movies and scripts, ask for help and generally
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have a good time.</p>
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<p>Irc users are invited to try #blenderchat on irc.freenode.net .</p>
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<p>There are also local Blender community sites in some countries, that should
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be listed at the links section of the main site.</p>
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be listed at the Community section of the main site.</p>
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<p>If you are a coder wanting to get in touch with Blender development, the
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developer's site is at <a href="http://www.blender.org">www.blender.org</a>. A
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<p>If you are a coder wanting to get in touch with Blender development, a good read
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is the "Get Involved" page at <a href="http://www.blender.org/community/get-involved/">www.blender.org</a>. A
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good way to start is to follow the mailing lists for a while and check bug
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reports, to see if you can fix one. On irc.freenode.net: #blendersauce (open channel)
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and #blendercoders (official channel, where also meetings take place).</p>
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reports, to see if you can fix one. On irc.freenode.net: #blendercoders you'll find many active developers, here also the weekly meetings take place.</p>
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<h3><a name="resources_xtra">Other useful links</a></h3>
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@ -324,17 +299,14 @@ resource to create, convert and, of course, manipulate texture images.
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It is also useful for work with rendered pictures, for example to add 2d text,
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logos or to touch-up, apply factory or hand-made effects and compose with other
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images.</dd>
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<dt><a href="http://www.wings3d.com">The Wings 3D modeler</a></dt>
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<dd>A great mesh modeler, with a different approach. Some things are much
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easier to model in Wings, others in Blender, making them a powerful combination
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for experienced users.</dd>
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</dl>
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<h4>Renderers:</h4>
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<dl>
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<dt><a href="http://www.yafray.org">YafRay</a></dt>
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<dd>A relatively new and already very impressive program. Blender has builtin
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<dd>A currently inactive but very impressive program. Blender has builtin
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support for it.</dd>
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<dt><a href="http://www.povray.org">Povray</a></dt>
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<dd>One of the best and most popular renderers in the world. There is a
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@ -384,19 +356,8 @@ buttons and pulldown menus. That means also the 2D options for OpenGL should
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work good, something easily ignored or badly tested by 3D card manufacturors, who
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target more at the latest SFX features for new 3D games.<br>
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In general Blender performs
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very well on 3D cards from renowned brands, such as NVidia, ATI or 3DLabs. Recently
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however, new drivers (especially for ATI) have shown that they're dropping basic
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OpenGL support needed for proper menu drawing in Blender. Downgrading drivers then
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always works, but we're also working on rebuilding the (quite old) code for GUI
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drawing to prevent such errors from ever happening again.</p>
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very well on 3D cards from renowned brands, such as NVidia, ATI or 3DLabs.</p>
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<p>Some useful links to check:<br>
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<a href="http://www.blender3d.org/cms/FAQ.194.0.html">The graphics card FAQ</a><br>
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<a href="http://www.blender.org/modules/gfxdatabase/index.php">3D card performance database</a><br>
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</p>
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<h3><a name="trouble_py">Scripts</a></h3>
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@ -407,7 +368,7 @@ one of the submenus there, it refers to a script. Please don't report problems
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with scripts to the bug tracker or other normal Blender channels. You should
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find the author's site or contact email in the script's text itself, but
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usually the Python & Plugins forum at
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<a href="http://www.elysiun.com">elYsiun</a> is used for posting
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<a href="http://www.blenderartists.org">Blenderartists.org</a> is used for posting
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announcements, questions, suggestions and bug reports related to scripts. It's
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the recommended place to look first, specially if no site was specified at the
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script's window or source file(s).</p>
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@ -444,8 +405,8 @@ black rectangle.</p>
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<p>Setting texture map input to "uv" in the Material Buttons window is not enough
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to assign a texture image and uv data to a mesh. It's necessary to select the mesh,
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enter face select mode (modes can be accessed in the 3d view's header), load an
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image in the UV/Image Editor window and then define the mapping. Only then
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enter edit mode, indicate face selection mode (modes can be accessed in the 3d view's header), load an
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image in the UV/Image Editor window and then define a mapping (or unwrapping). Only then
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the mesh will have uv data available for exporting.</p>
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<p>If you want the fastest possible access to Blender's functionality, remember
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@ -455,23 +416,24 @@ workspace to your needs.</p>
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<h3><a name="faq_2">What's up with the interface?</a></h3>
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<p>Blender does not follow the most common, somewhat standard rules for user
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interfaces -- it doesn't look like most programs do -- which is not necessarily
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a bad thing. There used to be two sides to this: Blender was both a powerful
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production tool for professionals and enthusiasts who dedicated enough time to
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master it and also a nightmare for some newcomers who might have tried one of
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the commercial 3d modelers first. The main reason for this is that
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Blender was born as an in-house studio tool, optimized to speed up daily heavy
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work, not to please everyone. But it's true that in the past the interface
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was far from newbie-friendly.</p>
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<p>Blender uses a couple of innovative paradigms in the UI, not following more common, somewhat standard rules for user
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interfaces. In the past years several of our interface concepts have been adopted in more programs though,
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especially using a configurable non-overlapping subdivision layout and the paradigm to never block the UI from working by
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offering all editors and options in parallel. <br>
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Typically free programs offer easy-to-use interfaces for large audiences. Blender however is, like other high-end 3D tools,
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meant to be a powerful production tool for professionals and 3D enthusiasts, for people who are dedicated to become 3D artists with enough time
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and motivation to master the software. <br>
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This also has its origins in the 90ies, when Blender was born as an in-house studio tool, optimized to speed up daily heavy
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work, and not to please everyone. But it's true that you can consider Blender's interface
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to be not very newbie-friendly. Luckily you only have to learn it once, and once you get the basics it'll feel like 2nd nature!</p>
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<p>Hopefully this is not the case anymore: it has been considerably
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improved for the 2.3x series, exposing most functionality via menus, adding
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<p>Blender also has been considerably
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improved since the 2.3x series, exposing most functionality via menus, adding
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panels, color "themability", tooltips for all buttons and internationalization
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support. This is an ongoing effort or, better, a goal to keep the best ideas
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in Blender's design while expanding and making it more user-friendly.</p>
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<p>Too many buttons!</p>
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<p><b>Too many buttons!</b></p>
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<p>Again, 3D Computer Graphics is a vast and fun field. If you're only
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starting, Blender can seem daunting, specially because of all its packed
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@ -503,38 +465,39 @@ play with. A few more months and you'll probably be back asking for more ...
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<p>If you ever get the impression that it's not possible to create great
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looking or complex works with Blender, rejoice -- you are just plainly
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uninformed, as browsing galleries and community forums can easily confirm.</p>
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uninformed, as browsing blender.org galleries and community forums can easily confirm.</p>
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<h3>How does it compare to other 3d programs?</h3>
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<p>In short: it takes considerable dedication to become good, no matter which
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program you work with, as long as it is good enough not to get in your way.
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Blender is. And, like the others, has strong and weak points.</p>
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Blender has, like the others, its strong and weak points.</p>
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<p>Compared to commercial alternatives, Blender misses some features and isn't
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as "newbie-friendly". It doesn't come packed with "one-click" or "wizard"
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functionality, where you get much faster results in detriment of flexibility
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and value. It also isn't bundled with tens of megabytes of sample models,
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texture images, tutorials, etc. (which only partly explains how Blender can fit
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in a less than 4 MB download).</p>
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in such a small download).</p>
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<p>Thankfully, these are not fatal shortcomings. The pace at which features
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<p>Thankfully, these are relatively minor shortcomings. Many of Blender's modeling, animation and
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rendering/compositing features are up-to-par with the industry standards. The pace at which features
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are being added or polished in Blender is impressive, now that it's a well
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stablished open source project. More: through plugins and scripting, many
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stablished open source project. We get daily feedback from professionals and studios using Blender, and
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results from the Blender Foundation's Open Movie/Game projects such as <a href="http://www.bigbuckbunny.org">Big Buck Bunny</a>
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and <a href="http://www.yofrankie.org">Yo Frankie!</a> have set a reference standard for what a program like Blender can achieve.
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More: through plugins and scripting, many
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repetitive or otherwise cumbersome tasks can be made trivial. But plugin and
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script authors go further, teaching Blender new tricks, from importers and
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exporters to more advanced "applications".</p>
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<p>About goodies, there are many places where you can get them (check
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<a href="#resources">resources</a>). Besides the book, the main site and
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elYsiun are the best ones to start, specially because some resources you
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find spread on the net are not up-to-date with current program versions. This
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doesn't render old tutorials or books useless -- just a little harder to
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follow, sometimes -- but older scripts probably won't work. For free texture
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<a href="#resources">resources</a>). Besides the many available Blender books, the main site and
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blenderartists.org are the best ones to start. For free texture
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images, a simple search for "free textures" should bring many results, just pay
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attention to their licenses if you plan to release your work later.</p>
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<p>Commercial packages can make it easier for newbies to produce nice looking
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<p>Commercial packages might make it easier for newbies to produce nice looking
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material, but only another newbie would praise the results. There's a huge
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difference between what a skilled artist and someone poking at buttons and
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using presets can accomplish.</p>
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@ -542,17 +505,10 @@ using presets can accomplish.</p>
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<p>Last but best of all: Blender is open-source, free for all to use, study and
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improve.</p>
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<h3><a name="faq_4">Something doesn't work, what do I do?</a></h3>
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<p>First note again that errors and questions related to specific scripts
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should not be sent to Blender developers or its bug tracker. Then
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<a href="#trouble">read this short section thoroughly</a>, please.</p>
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<hr>
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<p>Thanks for reading, we hope you enjoy Blender!</p>
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<p><font size=-1>Document version 1.01, June 2004</font></p>
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<p><font size=-1>Document version 1.1, Sept 2008</font></p>
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<p align="right"><a href="#top">back to top</a></p>
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Loading…
Reference in New Issue
Block a user