Let this in-depth professional book be your guide to Blender, the powerful alternative to expensive CG packages like Maya and 3ds Max. Using clear step-by-step instruction and pages of real-world examples, expert animator Tony Mullen walks you through the complexities of modeling and animating, with a special focus on characters. From Blender basics to creating facial expressions and emotion to rendering, you'll gain all the skills necessary to build and animate a well-modeled, fully-rigged character, which is included as a .blend file on the DVD.

Table of Contents

PART I: CREATING A CHARACTER WITH BLENDER. Chapter 1: Blender Basics: Interface and Objects. Chapter 2: Working with Meshes. Chapter 3: Completing the Model with Materials, Textures, and Particles. Chapter 4: Armatures and Rigging. Chapter 5: Shape Keys and Facial Rigging. PART II: BRINGING IT TO LIFE: ANIMATION. Chapter 6: Basics of Animation. Chapter 7: Armature Animation. Chapter 8: Facial Animation and Lip Sync. Chapter 9: Nonlinear Animation. Chapter 10: Further Issues in Character Animation. Chapter 11: Lighting, Rendering, and Editing Your Animation. Chapter 12: Using Python Scripts. PART III: BLENDER IN PRODUCTION. Chapter 13: Blender Institute. Chapter 14: A Look Inside Blender Open Movies. Chapter 15: Behind the Scenes at Sintel. Chapter 16: Plumiferos. PART IV: BLENDER AND BEYOND. Chapter 17: Other Software and Formats. Chapter 18: Resources for Further Learning.

About the Author

Tony Mullen, PhD, has a broad background in CG-related work. He teaches at Tsuda College and Musashino Art University, where his courses have included modeling and animation with Blender and programming with Python. Mullen has been a cartoonist and an illustrator; his screen credits include writer, codirector, and lead animator on several short films, including the award-winning, live-action/stop-motion film Gustav Braustache and the Auto-Debilitator. He is the author of Blender Studio Projects: Digital Movie-Making; Mastering Blender; and Bounce, Tumble and Splash!: Simulating the Physical World with Blender 3D, all from Sybex.