(Ebook) Animating with Blender: How to Create Short Animations from Start to Finish by Roland Hess ISBN 9780240810799, 0240810791

(Ebook) Animating with Blender: How to Create Short Animations from Start to Finish by Roland Hess ISBN 9780240810799, 0240810791

I have found a new way to torture myself: read books about all the magnificent things you can do with Blender - and lack the artistic talent necessary to do them.Blender is a wonder. It is an open source, free 3-D modeling program equivalent in many ways to commercial programs that sell for many thousands of dollars. For artists, architects, animators and many others, Blender is a dream come true. It delivers to them capabilities for free that they might never otherwise had access to.There is an indirect price to be paid. Blender has a very high learning curve, which is to be expected with a program this powerful and capable.Among Blender's many capabilities is animation, which is very demanding. Animation also requires some modicum of artistic skills, which - to my great regret - I lack.But if I possessed the skill to draw something beyond a very crude stick figure, this is the book that would teach me how to animate in Blender.The author, D. Roland Hess, has a marvelously clear writing style, which is very helpful for novices.Hess takes it in a step-by-step manner, beginning with an overview of the "short animation process". Much to his credit, Hess doesn't engage in sugarcoating the process: it is time-consuming, difficult and complex. Success is anything but assured.The core example of the book is "The Beast", a 4 minute animation that took the author to in somewhat more than 200 hours. That's 50 hours for each minute of finished animation!And you'll understand why as the author leads you through the process, explaining how Blender is used at each stage. He also puts a lot of emphasis on things like the story - don't leave home without a finished story - and extras you may need, such as sound equipment.The true beauty of the book is in the chapters on the mechanics of Blender: gems like creating rought drafts, rigging and skinning, facial motion and controls, lip sync and so on. All of the chapters are very well illustrated and Hess's descriptions are very easy to follow.A word of warning: this is not a book for people first starting with Blender: you must have at least a basic understanding of Blender if most of the book is going to make sense to you.Other than animating squares, circles and other geometric shapes - or developing a relationship with a very generous artist - I won't be doing any animations with Blender. But if I had the requisite artistic talent or partnered with someone who did have it, this is the book I would learn Blender animation from. Even though I can't put the lessons to work, it is also a fun read just to see how accessible such capabilities have become.Jerry