New here to the boards! I discovered blender while searching for a good (and free) 3-D modeling program. I am a high school math teacher with more tech knowledge than the average bear per say, but no genius either. I am teaching a “prescribed” curriculum for my geometry class (prescribed meaning I’m forced to teach pre-made lessons by someone else, a fact that I wish I’d known before I signed a contract) along with Algebra I, Algebra 2, HS Pre-Calculus, and “co-teaching” an online College Algebra and Trigonometry. I’m a bit overloaded to put it lightly.
However, with what little software experience I do have, I like to do everything I can to help students visualize a concept, and in the case of geometry, a powerful tool to have is a 3-D modeling program that helps students grasp the concepts in real time manipulation. I recently created a file (which took me hours as I had no clue what I was doing) to help students picture certain questions when it came to a lesson on Points, Lines and Planes. The included graphic for a set of questions was so bad that I decided to recreate the intended visualization of the “intention” of the graphic to better help my students grasp the idea of what was required of them to understand. Needless to say, it was a huge success, but I have two problems as of now…
I need to figure out how to change the background color in the 3-D window to white so that the students can better see the objects versus being displayed against a gray background where the objects themselves are gray. We have a physical window set up that lets a lot of light in and can make our Promethean Board hard to see. I figure gray objects against a white background will help there.
Also, I have always had an affinity for 3-D creation, and having so little money on hand to purchase the likes of 3DS Max or the time to even learn them, I would like to purchase an introductory book to get me started. I’m aware there are online tutorials, which I intend to consult, but I also work quite well out of a book to get the ball rolling (old school, I know). At this point, I need to know how to work Blender to the extent that I can help students visualize concepts, but ULTIMATELY, I’d like to also learn the software to where I can also become proficient at it for both educational and personal enjoyment purposes. Being that I’m strapped for cash at the moment, I have been looking at introductory books for Blender, including the “Dummies” series, but before I sink some money, and more importantly, time into a book to help me get started, I thought I’d ask for suggestions from those who’ve been there and done that and bought the T-Shirt.
To change background colour
File / User Preferences
Go to Theme settings
Enable 3D View
At the bottom of the panel change the “Gradient High/Off” colour to whatever you want
Save the new settings as your default with the ‘Save User Settings’ button
There are a number of presets to choose from or make your own custom theme
Being “old school” myself (um, obvious from my pic, eh?) I too believe that I learn well from books. Here’s what I did when I first came to Blender a few years ago: I started with the wikibook Blender 3D: Noob to Pro. It gives a great orientation and should get you started. Even so, I strongly believe that learning is best done by having a project, a goal, in mind. That way I learned common techniques and tools by repetition and every project required new learning. But searching through a book, even an electronic one, is tiresome when one has a specific question in mind, so I relied heavily on Google searches, articulating my question as specifically as possible. The web is loaded with tutorials from wonderfully helpful people and frankly I haven’t gone back to the book for a long time. There is also the fact that Blender changes so rapidly that book authors are hard put to keep up, but tutorials keep up with new features and techniques much more easily.
I think I understand your affinity for 3D - I’ve got it too and to tell the truth my 2D art, painting and drawing, has suffered for it! Besides, I was always better at geometry than algebra, lol.
Another way to change the background (and this works for more than just the color), is to use a backdrop object. This might be a plain, or part of an icosphere, or part of a cylinder. Scale it up, assign a material (color) and maybe a texture to the side of the object to be viewed from the front, and place your object in front of it.
As to introductory books: one recommendation is John Blain’s Introduction to blender graphics, available by means of free download at <http://download.blender.org/documentation/pdf/John%20M%20Blain%20-%20An%20Introduction%20To%20Blender%203D%20-%20A%20Book%20For%20Beginners%20(2011).pdf>. This is an older version, though it uses (for the most part) the current interface. A later version of the book is available as The Complete Guide to Blender Graphics, which seems to cover similar material and uses a more recent version of Blender. Similar, but to a great extent, complementary to this is Roland Hess’ Blender Foundations. Geared towards a slightly more advanced user is Ben Simonds Blender Masterclass, which builds on the first two. Tony Mullen has a book on Character modeling, but I’ve not yet seen it, though I am acquainted with his book, Mastering Blender, which is the most advanced off the offerings with which I am familiar, and probably best used after the other three I cite.
I would also commend to you two on line courses in blender: one under the auspices of Central Dauphin High School, in Harrisburg, PA, created by James Chronister (cf. <http://www.cdschools.org/Page/455>); the other, by Neil Hirsig, under the auspices of Tufts University (cf. <http://gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html>). The latter is keyed to John Blain’s books.
ns
NB: if the links don’t respond to clicking with your mouse, copy and past to the address bar.
