Maybe I should just buy some clay and a good camera...

[Problem]

A question for all you folks wanting to ship me off to Blender Summer School: I've got Blender 2.64a on this system. Is there any way to change the interface background color from that dark, dark gray, that effectively blots out the menu items, to something more readable?

In the "User preferences" Window you can choose between several themes and also create your own.
I'll recommend Blender too. It takes some time to get used to the interface, but once you get the hang of it (and once you know the most important hot keys!), it is a fantastic tool for all kinds of 3D animation.

[jwalt]

@Problem

You are a gem! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! You have saved my eyes. Whoever came up with that default color scheme should be shot.

[dactylopus]

I'm also a fan of Blender, and if you can catch onto the controls you should do pretty well.

The new walk cycle looks much better.  I didn't mind the shadows at all.  The bounce in the step helps, but you currently have him bouncing on only a single foot.  Try the head bob on both steps of the cycle and it will look more natural.

And don't worry, your secret is safe with me.

[Armageddon]

You're still going frame by frame and it's jerky, tween dat stuff.

[Tosek]

Hi,

you can change every color of blender. Just go to File-> User Preferences -> Themes and change whatever you want (Don't forget to save your changes)

Looking at your character: There seem to be some Normals not flipped correctly.In blender you can fix this by using "recalculate normals"

Thinking about anim8or: Nice approach, but far far away from blender, even if you think about the advanture game making needs. You really should invest some time to learn the basics of blender. You will love it. Making a character for your game could start with: Making a modell using "Make Human", export it und load it into blender. Clean it up in Blender, make some clothes and then adjust the texturing. Use and place the rig from "rigify" and use the auto-rig funktion. Some small adjustments to the rig with weight paint. Use Keys with inverse cinematics for the animation, render the frames to file and use whatever you want. (<= Sound all complicated, but it is not that complicated as it seems)

Regards
Tosek

[jwalt]

@Tosek

Problem also gave me that solution; I was able to change the Blender interface. I'd been using sPatch (a very old modeler) and rendering the stuff in Bryce. Bryce doesn't "rig" things, but using linking and origin handles Bryce, movement can be "spproximated." There is no way to "skin" in Bryce, as far as I know. I did wade into Blender, but only up to my ankles. I found an outstanding tutorial for Anim8or, and have been making, what I feel, substantial progress with Anim8or. I think I may need Anim8or as a stepping stone into Blender.

@All

I've gotten a lot of really good feed back here. Thanks, everybody! In the Anim8or tutorial I've been working with, Phoxo was suggested as a useful painting program. I did download it, but haven't used it enough, yet, to have formed an opinion. Anyone use it and have an opinion?

[Armageddon]

I'd highly suggest just learning 3Ds Max or Blender and using Photoshop or Gimp to make textures. Those tools have everything you need to make nice 3D models. Also head over to Polycount for more advice, those guys are pros and they help people all the time.

[Monsieur OUXX]

Rgarding your original question : "is the boat moving too much".
It is, and it isn't.
It isn't because that's how it would move in reality.
It is, because the waves stay still even though there should be big waves.

So, it's like a boat shaking on non-existing waves.

[jwalt]

Anim8or vs Blender...

I went looking for some tutorials on skinning in Anim8or because I was having some problems. Bumped into some Anim8or vs Blender comparisons. Interesting stuff, albeit not at all unbiased. The consensus from you folks seems to be Blender, and I may get there, someday. Again, thanks everyone. And thanks also for the suggestions about the float plane, and the anasazi head. I got sidetracked, but hope, eventually, to return to those projects and take action on some of your suggestions.

[Armageddon]

It would be much easier to just learn Blender or 3Ds. IMO Anim8or is a piece of crap.

[Anian]

Learn basics of Blender, might take a week or two longer, but later when you'll want/need advance features, it'll be easy in Blender, while Anim8or doesn't have them.

[jwalt]

@Anian and Armageddon

I'm going to take a look, in a bit, for rigging and skinning tutorials in Blender. I've made two figures in Anim8or. I eventually abandonded the first, since I'd made a number of mistakes along the way. This is the second, and I'm in the process of weight painting, which is proving pretty tedious.



If Blender has a "better way" to skin this stuff, it may be enough to get me to concentrate on Blender. I've appreciated the feedback you've both given.

Apologies about the image. Just noticed it's a jpg.

Edit: Well, I viewed two tutorials using Blender to bone and skin a model. Looks like I wade into Blender. Still, Anim8or did clarify several things for me.

[dactylopus]

Good deal!

I like the new image, you're showing improvement.

Looking forward to seeing what you get out of Blender.

[Armageddon]

Maybe read 'Figure Drawing' here. Your anatomy is all off.

[Problem]

@jwalt: Instead of using vertex groups and weigh painting, you could also use envelopes: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Rigging/Skinning/ObData#Envelope

[jwalt]

@Armageddon - Thanks. I'll snag the book next time I fire up the broadband. It was too big; I'm on a dialup at the moment. I'll add it to the stack of stuff I've accumulated to read about Blender.

@Problem - Anim8or also has the envelopes, but for that first model, I was having issues with them, so I tried weight painting. The envelopes are working better, now, with the second one. I gave up on the first one, but learned some things in the process.

[Minimi]

I'm not really into Blender or TrueSpace, as I am an SoftImage XSI user, but what I do in character creation, is first drawing on paper, the front and sideview. Making sure that the proportions are exactly as I want. Then you import the front and side view pictures into your modeller, as a rotoscope guide, and model on top of those.
Afterwards, create a bonestructure/rigging. And start animating within your modeller.

It all sounds more easy than it really is, lol! Just keep looking out for tutorials. If you look for great tutorials, try Digital Tutors.com. Itll cost you about $40 a month, but you'll have access to great video tutorials. I improved heavily through DigitalTutors over the last year.
Check out some sample video's out there, if you're interested

[jwalt]

@ Minimi

Thanks for the suggestion about Digital Tutors. I'll check them out. I'm not making much headway with Blender. I've been using Hexagon, lately, but no bones/rigging in Hexagon. I have some of the same issues with Hexagon that I'm having with Blender, in that the tutorials for both use so many shortcut keys, not all of which are mentioned by the teacher, so it doesn't take much to get lost. I may also just be dense.

I'm new around here, but "welcome back" anyway.

[Minimi]

If you are just about modelling, then I've been advicing for many years now to use Wings3D to start out with! It's like the easiest modeller, though it's just plain box modelling, but i've been making great models with it, and sold many of them online. But for more questions on 3D modelling I advice you to go to www.renderosity.com, it has a great community. And on the chat there, are always some friendly modellers who will help you out.

I personally hate blender, I could never get myself around that application, but I know alot who love it. I ended up paying over $2000 on software. lol.