| A Simple Winter Scene |
pages (3): 1 2 [3] |
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The Ground
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Step 19 -
Select another layer and add a plane (Add > Mesh > Plane). Now select the 3
layers you used, and (with the plane still selected) grow the plane to be
bigger than the forest. This is going to be the ground.
Switch to the object mode (Tab) and make sure in the front or side view (1
or 3) that the ground is not floating above the trees, but directly under them. |
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Step 20 -
Now go to the shading menu (F5), and instead of choosing "Add New", click on
the small arrows on the left of the Add New button and choose "Snow". |
The Camera & Lights
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Step 21 -
Let's start with the camera. Select it, and try to point it at the snowman
(with G and R), so that you can see the snowman and also the forest. You can
go in the camera view (0) to help you (you can move the camera while you're
in this view). Here I show you the place I chose to put the camera. |
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Step 22
- This part is a little more difficult, because the quality
of the image could change a lot depending upon the lights, and there's no
"magical tip" that will make them always look right. In general
you'll have to try many times before creating something good. Select the
light/lamp (the small yellow circle with a yellow dot inside that
you can see on images 18 and 19), then go to the shading menu (F5) and
click on "Lamp Buttons" (the square button with a light bulb). Select "Sun"
(one of the green buttons on the left). Then try to place it (G and R)
somewhere where it will light the scene properly (as in image 19 for
example... Don't forget to try rendering (F12) to see what it looks like).
You'll notice that the "sun" doesn't cast shadows. Only "spots" can do that:
Add another lamp (Add > Lamp) and, in the same menu as before, click on
"Spot", and then on "OnlyShadow", so the spot will not light the scene
but add shadows to it.
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Step 23 -
Try to place the spot approximately at this place with the grab (G) and
rotate (R) tools. (I colored the snowman in red to show you where it is). |
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Step 24 -
Select the camera, and on the shading menu (F5) try to make the "world"
color sky-blue. |
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Step 25
- On the Scene menu (F10), select "OSA" (this will enable
anti-aliasing). The 5,8,11,16 buttons below set the quality of the
anti-aliasing (the higher, the best). Also select the "100%" button to
render the image at 100%, and then change the values of the SizeX and SizeY
(this is the size of the final image). Then you'll only have to click on the
big "render" button (or F12) to start the rendering. To save your image,
press F3 after the render.
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Step 26 -
Here is what it should look like :)
You'll find the Blender source of this scene below. I added some fancy stuff
on the last layer (the one on the bottom right) so you can try some
renderings with the 3 layers + this one. |
- Tutorial written by DuskBlue
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Nice tutorial... thanks!
I found it looked better to just turn on "ray shadows" for the sun object instead of adding a seperate shadows only spotlight.
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i rendered mine but the "ground" has shadows that don't belong to anything and when i tried to add the spot i couldn't find where it went |
Reply to this post |
User: Boutoo (#56103)
Date: Fri Feb 27, 2009. 20:36:14 | Post #45 of 47 |
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This was my very 1st venture into 3D modelling as well & it took me quite a while to get used to the interface & all the very many buttons etc. However, I'm happy with my result

The way around the cone issue I found was to make it very small, position it on he snowman's face, deselect it, then select just the tip with a right click & uses the vertical & horizontal arrows to make it a bit more carrot like & pointy.
I found the lighting ok to do, but the camera was a real pain at the end....somehow I got it all out of line by accident & then I couldn't get it back to where I wanted it :(
I'm ready for more tho' :D |
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Thanks for the tutorial - really enjoyed working through it.
Any other newbs working through it- the tutorial is not as obvious as some- but with a bit of trial and error it is possible to get through it quite easily. If you get stuck just experiment a bit.
I think that there are a lot of user setting that can be changed that mean that the screen shots do not always match my screen. |
Reply to this post |
User: Ethrax (#55365)
Date: Tue Dec 30, 2008. 17:57:33 | Post #43 of 47 |
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I had a few issues at first, but as I worked my way through the tutorial "Blender 3D: Noob to Pro" beside this tutorial, everything fell into place and I even tried to make something of a hat, and a pipe! Snowmen must have a pipe, and added some buttons. I even tried to make the landscape more natural, by subdividing the plane a number of times, and created some hills and a more "chaotic" surface. This is my first project in Blender, and my first attempt at 3D at all. This is what I came up with:

I know the hill behind the snowman is a bit huge, and the subsurf could've been better, but I'm pretty satisfied. |
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