Blender Beginner Part 04
Step 93
Select the glass object. In the Links and Pipeline panel select Add New.
Step 94
Now a new material has been attached to the Glass objects. Rename the material from MA:Material to MA:glass.mat. The ME:glass_mesh tells us that the material is attached to the glass mesh.
Step 95
In the Material panel click the LMB on the color to the left of the button Col. A color palette will show up and select white. This changes the color of the object.
Step 96
The Alpha slider is marked as A and the value is currently 1.000. Change the Alpha value to 0.302. This is necessary to make the object transparent. Alpha means how transparent and object is. An object at 1.000 would be completely opaque whereas 0.000 would be completely transparent.
Step 97
Hit Render(F12). So far are glass does not look like it is made of glass.
Step 98
Select the Mirror Transp panel and press the Ray Transp button. This will enable ray traced transparency. Hit Render(F12). The surface has black areas instead of being completely transparent.
Step 99
To change this problem, first change the Depth. I changed the value from 2 to 10. Change the Fresnel(Fresnel Effect) setting to 5.00. Render with these settings. These settings will not be described in detail. For more information can be found at these websites:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Raytraced_Transparency
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refractive_index
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_indices_of_refraction
http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/farp/metal2/Transparent.htm
Step 100
Although, the index of refraction(IOR) for glass is 1.5, I liked the look of the glass at an IOR setting of 1.11. Change the SpecTran setting to 0.5 and the Falloff setting to 0.90. Specular will be described in detail later. Turn the OSA setting on at 5. Render.
Step 101
Go to the Shaders panel. Shadow and Bias should be selected. Change the Tralu(Translucency) setting to 1.00, Spec(Specularity) to 0.760, Hard(Hardness of specularity) to 312. Specularity is the highlight in a 3d object. Render. Save the render as Render02.jpg. Save your file as Room05.blend.
Step 102
Select the Mirror Holder.
Step 103
In the Material panel change the diffuse color(COL) to 8FCEB5. Changing diffuse colors changes the color of an object.
Step 104
All of the rest of the material setting have been set so select the Mirror. Add a new material called mirror.mat.
Step 105
Change the diffuse color to white. In the Mirror Trans panel press the Ray Mirror button. This will allow for reflective surfaces. Change the RayMirror to 1.0 which will make the mirror completely reflective. Render. Notice that the reflection is incorrect.
Step 106
To make the reflection work correctly change the Depth to 4. Also change the Fresnel setting to 0.27. Render.
Step 107
Go to layer 5.
Step 108
Move the Figurine and Base to layer 1.
Step 109
Move all of the objects and camera to a good place on the table trying to emulate the first picture. Do not move the lamp light. Align the Lamp Base with the lamp light from top view so that they both share the same center point form the top. This will later be used to make the lamp look like it is emitting light.
Step 110
OSA can be turned off for now. Render.
Step 111
Select the Figurine and press . on the numpad. Change the viewports to front and side.
Step 112
Go to the Editing Context(F9) and the Modifiers panel. Near the word Subsurf there are three buttons that are selected. Deselect the middle button that looks like a cross. This allows for the Subsurface modifier to not be shown during regular displaying.
Step 113
Rotate the Figurine by selecting the base and rotating it from the top view. Using the arms and head for reference make the figure facing a certain axis. I also changed the viewport shading to wireframe to get a more accurate view for rotation.
Step 114
Left click with the mouse button to align the 3d cursor with the shoulder in both front and side views.
Step 115
Go to Add>Armature. This will take us into Edit mode to add an armature. An armature is used as a skeletal system for a mesh object.
Step 116
The first bone added may be large.
Step 117
Press G to move the bone to a proper place.
Step 118
Press E to extrude the bone. And press E again to extrude a bone again. Now we have made a bone for the arm.
Step 119
Make sure the all the bones are deselected and move the mouse cursor again to the other shoulder. Also select the X-Ray button under the Armature panel. This will be very useful later on.
Step 120
Go to Add>Bone. Repeat the previous process. Move the cursor to the lower pelvic region.
Step 121
Add bones for a basic spine and head.
Step 122
Now there should be a basic bone set for the Figurine. Because X-Ray was turned on, the bones are visible through the mesh in shaded mode.
Step 123
In the Armature panel select the Draw Names button. Press A twice to select all of the bones. In the Armature Bones panel all of the bones should appear.
Step 124
By typing in the Bones Panel you can change the bones from being named BO:Bone to BO:L.Arm. Now we will name the bones L.arm to indicate an upper left arm bone, L.forarm to indicate a lower left arm bone, and L.hand to indicate a lower left hand.
Step 125
Do the same for the other side except use R to indicate the right. Notice that although I selected all of the bones, that all of the bones were not displayed in the Armature bones panel.
Step 126
Select a bone individually by right clicking on the inside of the bone. It should now appear in the Armature Bones panel. Change the rest of the bone names.
Step 127
Now that the bones are named. The armature should also be named. Go to object mode(or press Tab) and select the armature.
Step 128
In the Editing Context Menu under the Links and Materials panel change the armature name to AR: a.busey and the object name to OB:skeleton.
Step 129
To test how the armature works go to pose mode(ctrl + Tab).
Step 130
Although the armature is not attached to the Figurine, we can still see how it will move. Select a specific bone and press R to rotate that bone. Notice that the upper arm bone controls the other bones on the chain. These lower bones(forarm and hand) are called children. These bones are considered to be on a chain or in a hierarchy. Every bone that is above the other on the hierarchy is called the parent. When the parent moves, the children move. This type of movement or control is called forward kinematics or FK.
Step 131
Notice when we move the chest, the arms do not move. This means we need to make bones R.arm and L.arm children to the chest bone. Another way to say this would be make chest bone parent for both R.arm and L.arm bones.
Step 132
Go back to Edit mode and select the L.arm bone. In the Armature Bones panel select the drop down menu for L.arm that says “child of” and select chest.
Step 133
Now there is a dotted line from the base of L.arm to the tip of chest bone. This indicates that it is a parent but the bones are not connected. Do not do the following!!! Bones can be connected by selecting the Con button which is to the right of the child of dropdown menu. Although this feature is usefull, we will not need to do this in the tutorial.
Step 134
Do the same for the other arm and go to Pose mode. Rotate the chest bone. The chest bone should control the arms bones. Save the files as Room06.blend