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Hey all!

On the post today:
> New competition - What really happened
> New images
> A brilliant tutorial
> Blender news in one place on Facebook
> The panther dynamics facebook page and portfolio blog

> New Competitions are sometimes exciting and sometimes they can really take you by surprise. I was very surprised by Andrew's latest competition on his site, Blender Guru, and the theme is: What really happened. At first you're thrown for a loop and you think: "Wha'?!", but this actually has some very...
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Hey all!

As you know, the book is in it's editing stage and I have to say, I've had some moments where I couldn't follow it, hahaha. Thankfully, when taking the time to go through it, I found that things do work out if you are familiar with Blender. Today I tested the run-off part of a tutorial and I am happy with this quick result:


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Hey all!

Only started the tree tutorial and almost finished. Yey!

Has been quite a bit of work and I am really jazzed about the result. In it, you will be shown how to do a little something like this:

I like this image a lot and I made like two other compositions, but this one just worked the best for the tutorial. While this is merely a proof of concept, I leave it up to you to really push it further in making it work in your scene (I don't have a scene requiring trees right now, so there is no...
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Heya!!

Here is an 8 image summary from start to finish on this project:
Right after modeling, this was the first look (obviously, this was pre-unwrapping)

Post unwrapping and finishing of the basic bricks, I added some dust. This dust was later edited and became close to invisible.

Of course, what ruin would be complete without run-off stains and muddy bases and so on? None. This was even after displacement was added (and before I knew of the texture bug in Cycles).

The ivies have finally been add...
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Hey all!

I find giving you all updates on the tutorials as they progress, quite fun! Anyway, here is today's update. I have finished the mask and also the colored bricks (remember though that they are far from finished, this is just their base color):
While I am very happy with how they look currently, I am not satisfied that they look old (which they don't at all here, lol). So I will experiment a bit and see what works and what doesn't, but overall, I am very happy with the ratio of the brick...
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Hey all!

I have been working hard today, trying to figure out how to make an ivy leaf without a distort category in in Cycles's node system and oh snap was it hard!! HE helped me make two different shapes. One that looks more like a heart and the other that looks more like a weirdly shaped helmet. I think both shapes will look great for the Ivy Generator.

After finishing the shapes, I like looking at the surprise HE leaves in the node system. HE usually leaves some kind of image there to discov...
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Hey all!

In the node editor, you will find that when you have something like a Mix node, that there is a Factor input. This input can be altered in varying ways, by using a texture. But, every texture has both a Color and a Factor output, both of which have an effect on the Factor of that Mix node or other node having a Factor input.

The big thing here is to remember that the Factor and Color output is not always the same and can produce very different results:


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Hey peoples!

I have been working hard this morning fixing some things, shrinking others and having quite a bit to do, lol.

Specifically, I can't disclose it yet (want it to be surprise), but I can tell you that there are at least still two pages to finish and add, bringing the total amount of pages to a round 150 for the Blender Render section (if I don't find more to add of course), but I have started working with Cycles again so I can do it justice for all of you.

I also made sure that I can r...
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Whoohoo!!!! Blender render section of the tutorial is almost complete! It is incredible to say the least. At a practical advice packed level of 130+ pages so far, I am super excited about getting it finished and released!!

And, to celebrate it's almost completeness, here is the result from the flag tutorial when ropes are added. Ogg file as always (^^,).


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Oh thankful am I!!!!!! lol

I've been working on the book for what feels like a year (think it's been 6 months, but I'm not sure). Anyway, today I got the chance to continue working on the flag tutorial for the book and got around 16 pages done!!!!!!! Double yey!!!

For the moment though, there isn't much to show from the tutorial, but I will add that it does include a how to on making the French flag as well as the SA flag (proudly SA peoples c'',) )!!

Hopefully it surprises you how flexible proc...
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Yes!! We're getting there peoples!!

Yesterday I got to work on the top shelf. Only did a handful of covers, then the weather came rumbling and I had to shut down for the evening (I need to rest too you know, lol). So anyway, yesterday's few, with today's current progress, brings it to 23 covers!!! The green book 3rd from the left doesn't count, because it's not UV'ed yet; still as cubular as ever, LOL.
Here's the current progress:


I like the fact that the order is reversed on the GRADE books. On...
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Super excited that only the last shelf remains on the bookshelf! It's the part that is the hardest, due to volume alone, but HE already gave me many titles to add to the backs and covers. It's just a matter of finish and application! Then the room will be almost complete.
There are still a few things that need to be added, like side tables and 1 plant and a few other things. Here are the shelves completed so far.

So see full resolution, right click and find the closest option to 'View picture'....
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A lot has happened since the last Blog Update!!!!!! The bottom two shelves' books are finished!!

On the thread a user commented that the titles on the spines looked too big. We have a lot of books and I double checked and decided to show him that the smoothing enhances and amplifies rounding. The below shows how the medium book looks like in 3DView with flat shading. As you can see the title sits nice and snug.


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Here is how the books would look UV'ed. These are just the first two and they were modified:


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