Jacen13 posted:

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Okay, know I have a question. How the HECK do I convert 3ds to .blend?

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Z-man12 posted:

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I can't figure out how to texture objects in blender. Help I am about to go mad. Can you also tell me how to make fur looking surfeces? I was wanting to render some anmials.

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Blender Tutorial Compilation

Video Tutorials

Noob to Pro

Realistic Planets

Hull Tutorial

Smooths Entire Object:

1. Select Object in EDIT MODE
2. Press the EDITING button (F9)
3. Under the MESH tab, select SubSur, and then change the drop down box next to it to Catmul-Clark
4. Your Object should now contain more vertices, and look smoother.

Smooths Selected Faces:

1. Steps 1-2 Above
2. Select Faces you want to smooth
3. Press W, and then select smooth (you might need to use W -> subdivide first)

If you render a straight cylinder primitive from the ADD menu, you'll notice that the smooth circle part isn't smooth. To fix/change this (sometimes you'll want to keep it that way):

1. Select Object in EDIT MODE
2. Select Faces you would like to look smooth
a. You can use "b" (the keyboard key) to select faces using a selection box
b. You can use SHIFT to select multiple faces
3. Press the EDITING button (F9)
4. Under the LINKS AND MATERIALS tab, select SET SMOOTH (bottom middle)
IMPORTANT! You won't see anything change in the viewport until you exit edit mode; then the faces will look smooth.

This took me forever to figure out. It requires raytracing, so renders will take longer (could be significantly depending on the scene).

1. Select Object to make Reflective/Translucent (Object Mode)
2. Press SHADING button (F5)
3. Go to the MIRROR TRANSP tab (middle tab)
4. For Reflections: Select RAY MIRROR button, and then change RAY MIRROR slider
5. For Alpha/Translucency: Select RAY TRANSP (middle) and then change the A slider on the MATERIAL tab
6. Finally, press SCENE button (F10), and select RAY in RENDER tab
7. Press Render to view results

When you first look at the Blender Graphical interface, it will look confusing. However this GUI hides a rather intutive, and fast UI that once you master, will make you wonder why other programs aren't like blender. The trick is having one hand on the mouse, and the other on the keyboard to use the shortcut keys. Here are a few that you will probably use the most.

E (Edit Mode): Extrude, use with X,Y,Z to constrict movement
X (Whenever Transforming/Moving Something): Constricts movement to X Axis
Y (Whenever Transforming/Moving Something): Constricts movement to Y Axis
Z (Whenever Transforming/Moving Something): Constricts movement to Z Axis
W (Edit Mode): Specials Menu, You can SMOOTH, SUBDIVIDE, BEVEL, and do several other things
K (Edit Mode): Face Loop Cut, Useful for head modeling, or just adding verts/edges
G (Any Mode): Move Object, use with X,Y,Z to constrict movement
S (Any Mode): Scale Object, use with X,Y,Z to constrict movement
R (Any Mode): Rotate Object, use with X,Y,Z to constrict movement