CGmasters Character Creation Vol.2 Rigging

CGmasters - Character Creation Vol.2 - Rigging
English | Videos + Project | AVC1 1280x720 | AAC 128 Kbps | 5.58 GB
Genre: eLearning / Blender

Lee Salvemini returns with Volume 2 of his Character Creation series. This second installment will take the modeled Ninja and make it animation ready. This is truly a complete reference for rigging that you can come back to again at any point during your time learning Blender.

Sintel artist and Blender Certified Trainer Lee Salvemini returns with Volume 2 of his Character Creation series. This second installment will take the modeled Ninja and make it animation ready. The DVD begins by going over all the rigging tools from a fundamental level (great for beginners!), all the way to building professional level animation rigs seen in the industry today, with full control via python scripted custom sliders. Lee will also include solutions to problems you'll come across while building a practical and powerful rig in blender.

This is truly a complete reference for rigging that you can come back to again at any point during your time learning Blender.

Bonus Chapters Include Rigging with Cloth Simulation, and what you need to know about Rigify, Blender's auto-rigging system.

DVD Features

Every single second of the creation process recorded.
Full narration for every chapter, with complete explanation of methods and techniques.
Various visual cues, such as: Zooming to smaller menus on the screen, hot-key pop ups, buttons and areas of interest highlighted, efficient mix of timelapse and real-time video.
All chapters include stepped .blend files so you can follow along and research a chapter mid-creation.
Character design by David Revoy, Art Director of Sintel
Final character model and rig included under the Creative Commons license.

Chapters:

Introduction to Rigging
Blender's Armatures: A Crash Course
Creating the Skeleton
Head Rig
Upper Limb/Arm Rig
SecondaryAppendage/Hand Rig
Lower Limb/Leg Rig
Humanoid/Biped 'Heel & Toe' Foot Rig
Torso/Pivot Shifting Spine Rig
Rigging Weapons & Accessories
Creating Expressive 'Left & Right split' Facial Blend Shapes
Creating Drivers and 'Custom Animation Properties' in the 3D View using Python Scripting
Weighting the High Quality Character Mesh with Weight Painting and the Mesh Deform Modifier
Rendering for client presentation: Materials/lighting/compositing nodes
Rigging with Cloth Simulation
Rigify: Blender's Auto-Rigging System

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Blender 3D - Learn Character Animation Using Blender FULL

Blender 3D - Learn Character Animation Using Blender | project files | .iso | 1.48Gb

William Reynish (Character Animator for Big Buck Bunny or Blender Open Project Peach) Takes us through the Theory Lessons of animation using blender. I say theory lesson as he doesn't teach you anything step by step. in fact a lot of this goes very fast. and he seems to assume a lot of blender knowledge before hand. good thing he has a small gloss over of the Blender Basics as well as Apollos great Blender Basics Tutorial Series to help fill in his gaps.
He doesn't lead you by the nose, However like i said before he really teaches nothing. Just shows you how it's done so that you can get an idea on how to make character animations of your own.
It's not really fair for me to say that I didn't learn anything from this DVD. In fact I have learned a thing or two about animation i would have not other wise known.
The Videos them selves are of a so so quality in visual and audio. there is one video where two audio sources over lapped and became really hard to follow strait off. thre are so some video glitches as well.
Lastly the HTML index page was totally useless to me. I had Quicktime and VLC installed correctly and in other cases it still works perfectly how ever the HTML menus system they have on the DVD does not work with firefox (and I refuse to use Internet Explorer)
I did however find the .mov files on the DVD it self and after a little trial and error, I discovered the proper viewing order to watch these videos in.
After following along and watching some of these videos over twice, I used the character rigs provided on the DVD to make a few of my own really basic animations. a walk/run cycle, and a small crappy zombie shamble animation.
I would have liked a more detailed Tutorial Lesson about rigging, skinning and weight painting joints and the like, but what i got from this DVD was a lot more then I knew before despite it's rather fast gloss over of Animation Theory.
I would have expected better from the blender foundation but beggars can't really be choosers. Fortunately there is a wealth of other Tutorials as well on the subject that William glossed over out there. so Coupled with a good solid theory, this works rather well in the end. Just another part of the puzzle that is Character animation in blender.
I am going to have to rate William Reynish as a teacher a 4 out of 10. He knows his craft but nothing about teaching.
The DVD it self is a 4 out of 10 as well. It's good but far from ideal and just plain rough in areas.

Homepage:  http://www.adventuresinblender.com/cgi-bin.../hw.pl?paged=34

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The Wow Factor - Andrew Price

The Wow Factor - Andrew Price | .mp4 | .pdf | 808Mb

  The Wow Factor - Andrew Price
The Wow Factor is an eBook that teaches you how to create jaw dropping effects within the compositor! The lessons and tutorials taught inside, are a combined total of everything of using Blender.This time round Andrew has produced an EBook in PDF format that covers various techniques of creating special effects in Blender 2.5-s using the Compositor. The Ebook is organised in to a series of bite sized sections, each covering a different special effect, achieved using the Compositor.

Topics Covered Listing:
- Soft Glow
- Bright Glow
- Anamorphic Flare
- Bloom
- Lens Flare
- Glare Ghosting
- Reflecting Glare
- Glare Burnout
- Depth of Field
- Chromatic Aberration
- Vignetting
- Motion Blur
- Lens Distortion
- Dirty Lens
- Color Grading
- Image Sharpening

Each process is described in a step by step, numbered manner, with numerous screen shots showing the various stages of Compositing, showing the progressive results of the different Compositing Nodes. Each different topic is also assigned a completion time indicating how long it should take the reader to carry out the task. I am not sure of the point of timing each process, but some users may find it useful.

Most of the topics are covered with minimal reading involved, which to be honest when dealing with the Compositor is a good thing. The pictures within the EBook are very clear and Andrew takes enough time to explain most of the important node features used to achieve the particular effects he is after. I would have liked a more detailed description of some features used by certain nodes, but for the purposes of getting certain effects, they were described adequately.

For the amount of information and number of pages within the EBook, some could argue that the price is a little high and while it certainly isn’t a cheep EBook, it probably justifies the price. Because it covers Blender 2.5-s way of doing things (one of a very few that do) and covers special effects using Blender’s Node editor, so it is worth the price for people who want to get up and running with Blender 2.5?s Node Editor as quickly as possible and have a set of special effects technique available to them after having read the EBook. As an added bonus Andrew mentions that the book will be updated as things change in Blender 2.5-s Compositor up to year 2012, so looking at it from that point of view, the price is not quiet as high as it seems.

The Beginning and Intermediate Blender users will, I think, get the most benefit out of this material rather than an advanced Blender user, as it is likely that someone with extensive knowledge will already know the Compositor tricks to produce the demonstrated special effects.

Overall an excellent resource for special effects and Blender 2.5 Compositor functionality.

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CGmasters - Environment Modeling and Texturing

CGmasters - Environment Modeling and Texturing | project files | .mp4 | 8.83Gb

  CGmasters - Environment Modeling and Texturing
CG Master Christopher Plush takes you through each stage of modeling, texturing, and lighting an abandoned warehouse level. Learn how to create this realtime environment in its entirety including environment assets, and learn how to use the new Blender 2.5 series while you’re at it.
Over 35 hours has been recorded for this DVD and edited to an extensive 14-hour, voice-narrated video tutorial taking you through every single step of production. Select segments have been timelapsed, but nothing has been edited out. This is the entire creation process start to finish, and it covers all the tricks of the trade for realtime content creation.

Homepage:   http://www.cgmasters.net/training-dvds/env...-and-texturing/

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Lynda.Com Blender Essential Training

Blender Essential Training
by Lynda.com
(tutorial videos and project files)

DESCRIPTION:
Blender is a powerful open-source tool for 2D and 3D graphics, full-on animation, compositing, and post-production. It is used to create movies and special effects, even in HD. In Blender Essential Training, Roger Wickes offers new Blender users a thorough explanation of its interface, tools, and features. He also demonstrates practical techniques and shows how to access the online and openndash;content resources of this amazing tool. Specific 3D techniques covered include navigating in 3D space, using cameras and lights, and rendering. Roger demonstrates how to rig, animate, and composite a character over live action. Exercise files accompany the course.

Topics include:
- Navigating Blender’s user interface and accessing open assets
- Modeling with vertices, Bézier curves, and NURBS surfaces
- Lighting and using multi-point light rigs
- Working with cameras in a 3D environment
- Painting and shading 3D objects
- Creating realistic hair, smoke, and swarms
- Animating objects and characters
- Compositing rendered layers
- Sequencing video strips with audio into a final product

 Download Link:


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