JesterArts — Realistic 3d Orange Man

The orange men get real! Introducing the realistic orange man!

New Orange Man example below;

Project: Little Indoors Club House for My Children (2)

Continued from previous blog post – creating a little French Bakery (or cafe) for my kidlets. Below is the progress. It is going to house a little plastic kitchen set-up you can buy at many toy retailers. To the best of my knowledge, this should be safe! (Famous last words).  I created it in Blender 3d to visualize before actually creating it.

JesterArts Project: Little Indoors Club House for My Children

I’ve been taking a lot of time off from work to do more family things. Since I have to keep regular on blog posts for those all-powerful search engines, I thought I could share our little project! An indoor club-house for the tots! I whipped up the frame in 3d first to have a good idea of how to make the best end resulting little french cafe.

I plan to finish this graphically before I pick up a hammer:

Club house frame.

JesterArts Free Image: Go to the Ant

Ants just may be the most exceptional creature on the face of this planet! Perhaps I’m biased, because they have always been my favorite insect. One day I’d like to make a perfect 3d model of an ant, complete with every small anatomical detail, hair, etc.

This ant however was rendered just for the sake of making cool illustrations to depict concepts of human society. I hope you enjoy these images. Larger print quality images can be found on http://www.jesterartsillustrations.com/. These are free for web use under the JesterArts Illustrations license agreement.

See also the ant posing test animation below. Its pretty cool.

done

The Orange Man on WikiAnswers.com

Orange Man Writing History

The Orange man is very well-travelled in cyberspace. Most recently he’s set up a large camp on WikiAnswers!

Along with that has come a whole new selection of orange men available to designers. However, you will find that many of the orange men on WikiAnswers are only available for download on JesterArtsIllustrations.com and Clipartof.com.

Along with this new phase in the life of the orange man has come a unique and exciting change in his anatomy — he is now 3-d based! Before Orange Men were born of sketches and vector work, but now he has a very three-dimensional existence! It’s only a matter of time before you see his citrus little body walking among real life society! Examples below.

Orange Man Chemist

Orange Man Jobs and Eductation

Orange Woman Technology Field

Orange Woman Travel

The Orange Men Go 3d!

The Orange Men go 3d! Strangely enough, they don’t look very different! The change is very helpful on a number of levels, though:

1. I don’t have to draw them

2. They can be animated.

3. They are even more perfect-er.

done

I’m still working on the line thickness and ink effects. In Blender 3d, as a general rule, everything is extremely difficult and hard to figure out. All the more so with the external renderer I intend to use for the lines. But in the meantime, I can settle for this.

I’d love to hear your comments!

Leo

JesterArts MicroTutorial: Using Blender 3d’s Video Sequence Editor. Create Movie from Png Files

UFO -- Leo Blanchette, JesterArts

A little known fact is that Blender 3d has an awesome video sequencer built into it. You don’t even have to be a 3d artist to use it! In my animation, I usually save out my animation frames as individual picture files for greater editing ability. I’m no expert in animation, so this happens to be a method I enjoy. Feel free to download the .blend file containing the UFO scene here: www.jesterarts.net/ufo_animation

Please feel free to use this model for anything you wish! Credit JesterArts whenever possible. Note that this file takes a while to render an animation. Turn off Raytracing for faster (lower quality) results.

In this tutorial we are going to create this animation:

done

This tutorial assumes your an average level Blender 3d user. If you are not familiar with Blender 3d or its workings, please see blender3d.org

1. Download the above file and render an animation in PNG files. This is done going to your render buttons (f10) and choosing your “save as” type to Png or Jpeg. When you render an animation (ctrl f12) your animation will render as a series of Png files which can thereafter be found in your tmp folder in windows.

2. When that has been accomplished (and assuming you are using the Blender Animation set-up found in your downloaded file),  go to your right-most window and be sure you are looking at your video sequence editor.

3. Now choose “Add/Images” through the buttons or push the space bar and choose the option through there.When you’ve done that, navigate to your tmp folder in windows where you will find your series of PNG files (which probably took you overnight to render!). Select them all and place them in the editor.

4. Notice the little block you have to work with. That is the string of Png files you have loaded.

5. Lets note that in your sequence editor you can also preview your animation. In that window simply click the little box to the left of “strip” and choose “image”.

6. Want to preview your animation? In that image mode, simply push play in your animation options. Video below:

done

7. To save your animation, go to your animation buttons (f10) and choose “do sequence” and push “anim” to output your animation. It will save to your tmp folder by Blender’s default.

This has been another JesterArts Design Tip. If you want to see more Tutorials, join me on Twitter or Facebook! For more of my work, see JesterArts Illustrations.

JesterArts Free Clipart Image: Old School Arcade and Gaming

Are you an old school gamer? Do you have a blog? Do you like Robots? Here are some images free for your use! AO-Maru is a real digital hero…born in 3d and able to go back in time to days more…pixelated.

This image is free for your use under the JesterArts End User Agreement: http://www.jesterartsillustrations.com/eula Larger sized images available on my website.

JesterArts Tutorial: What the Government Doesn’t Want You to Know–How to Model a UFO Model in Blender 3d.

Put on your tin foil hats and stock up on canned foods — Its time to learn Blender 3d and create a convincing and scary UFO hoax.

So your passion of creating arcane designs in corn fields is not as lucrative as you had thought? When a very pissed off Farmer Brown is chasing you with his pitch fork, it’s definitely time to think of a career change. Why don’t you add Blender 3d to arsenal of foolery and then you can send wonder into the minds of a much greater gullible audience via the internet, and not merely the local hicks. (disclaimer — please do not take these opening lines seriously).

First, Obtain Blender 3d. Go over the basics of function/navigation here: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro

In this tutorial we are going to model a UFO from a simple primitive shape, since the classic UFO design is very basic.

Part One: Model Your UFO Shape.

1. Open blender 3d and right click/delete the little annoying cube that is there by default. Then hover over the viewport area and push Number Pad 1 to go into frontal view. Below should be what you see, roughly — Empty viewport space.

2. Now, hover over the viewport and push your space bar. Then choose Add/Mesh/UV Sphere. When the options window for the UV Sphere comes up, input the values shown below.

3. The sphere should be highlighted as shown above with a pink outline. This simply means its selected. Push TAB so you may enter edit mode for this object. All of the vertices should be selected, but if they are not push A once or twice until they all turn yellow. You will see that pushing A (Select All) simply selects/deselects all vertices.

4. Scaling. We now must “scrunch” it a bit to a more UFO-like shape. We are going to do this by Scaling it on the Z Axis. Push S for “Scale” then immediately push Z “Z Axis” and then imput the value .35 (amount to be scaled) then press enter or click. You should end up with this shape:

5. Widening the Sphere. Now hold down Alt and Right Click one of the vertices across the horizontal center vertice loop. That will “loop select” your vertices. You may have to try a few times until it selects the entire horizontal loop. (Sometimes it will select a vertice path of vertices).

6. Now we are going to mess with a little thing called proportional editing. This allows your editing to effect unselected vertices depending on where they exist in your field area of editing. Click this button to an ON state like here: . This is found just below your viewport window since you are in edit mode. If you cannot find it, see picture below:

7. Proportional Editing Field: Hopefully your vertice loop is still selected. Now push S and with your mouse wheel adjust the radius of influence downward until it’s boundary is just barely below the mesh. Right click again to cancel the action. Although you’ve canceled scaling, you’ve set the size of the circle before making changes to the mesh. Examples below:

8. Creating the Saucer Shape: Again push S and immediately after push 1.4 on the number pad then click or press enter. This will scale the loop selected to this size shown below:

9. Subsurf. Cute, but still too angular. UFO’s are smooth and sleek. Go to your buttons in edit mode (F8 if you are not already there) and select from the menue “Subsurf“. Watch as your mesh smooths out with a subdivided surface (hence the word SubSurf). The mesh you are editing now appears as a cage which the subsurfed shape now follows.

10. Define the Dome. Pay attention to how Subsurf interacts with your base mesh. We are going to define the entire dome now in step ten. This will involve a few operations, so pay close attention. First push A to deselect all vertices. Now push B (Box) and drag a down from the top of the UFO selecting vertices about a quarter down the aircraft as shown below:

10a. Now we are going to extrude the dome upward. But before we do that, lets explain some things ahead of time. Extruding simply creates new geometry and elevates to desired lengths/directions. Since we are using subsurf, we must extrude in such a way that we keep the UFO properly defined. So follow the following directions very closely.

10b. Extrude Upward: Press E and select “region” then drag the mouse UP and type on the keypad .02 then click. (Don’t forget decimal points).

10c. Extrude Upward Again: Press E and select “region” then drag the mouse UP and type on the keypad .05 then click. That will elevate it a bit higher. (Do you really need another screenshot?) It should be higher.

10d. Select a Ring of Faces. Push down the “face select button”  which can be found just below the viewport above the editing buttons.Now Alt Click that tiny loop you had created by extruding upward .02 blender units then click. Screenshot below.

10e. Scale Inward, Move Upward. To properly define the dome and the flow of our craft’s shell, we will do a few more operations here: Push S and move the mouse toward the craft and type in .98 on the keypad and click. After that you will find the area has shrunk a bit. Then push G (Grab) and move your mouse upward then type in .01 on the keypad. Click or press enter. Results shown below.

…now if you push TAB you will toggle in and out of edit mode. You can see the overall shape such as shown below:

Having Come This Far…Now that you are familiar with some basic functions such as extruding, scaling, etc, I will not be providing a screenshot for every step, but I will go through a number of operations and simply provide a screenshot to verify that you are on the right track. I know it seems hard, but UFO hoaxes must be created by intelligent people which no doubt you are!

11. Begin Creating Plasma Core. Yes, thats right, I called it a plasma core because its geekish and sounds cool. Enter back into edit mode by pushing TAB (do I really have to tell you?) and now choose “face select” and push down the “occlude background geometry” button. Shown here: Now on the keypad push “2″ a few times while your mouse is over the viewport thus allowing you to see other angles of the craft. Select the center-most faces and delete them. When you push delete a window will pop up. You must select “faces” to be deleted.

12. Once those faces are gone (creating a hole in the bottom of the craft) we want to select the edges only (push edges button) and then Alt Click an inner edge defining the hole thus allowing you to loop select the hole edges. Then push E (extrude) then push Z (Z axis) move the mouse UP and type in .1 on numpad then click.Try it a few times till it matches below screenshot:

13. TAB out of edit mode and in your edit buttons and select “Set Smooth” in your edit buttons, allowing the craft to become…you guessed it…smoother!

This should be what your resulting UFO craft should look like:

Now you have a completed UFO! Well, sort of. Typical UFO’s are just what they are traditionally called: Flying Saucers. We have the saucer shape, but who can be satisfied with just that! This is year 1009 man! We’ll call this tutorial complete for you, but I’ll add some things so you can download and play with a more developed UFO in our next tutorial.

JesterArts Free Image — Exceed Your Limitations, Ant Embraces Invention. 3d Art.

A little ingenuity goes a long way! Here is an image of the hard working ant escaping his limitations and living his dream to become like his cousin the wasp! With the power of invention, anything can be accomplished!

For more illustrations like this one, see http://www.jesterartsillustrations.com/

This is image is free for your use under the JesterArts user terms.