I’m a complete noob at this, so please forgive my screwy question here. I have an entire library of images that I have painstakingly put together so that I’d have good textures, etc., to use. however, there is no intuitive way of taking these images, and converting them to .blend files. I’m realizing this problem from when I (following various video tutorials) try to add a texture, (using append) nothing happens, except to say that I get a error msg that says "Report: Error Not a library. So this tells me I need a .blend library of my images, but a) how to convert them, and b) how to import them? I’ve already tried to import my images, but nothing happens, and I’m sure it’s me not doing something right. I was trying to follow the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yw_RmW6jeo. At about the 18:45 mark or so, is where he’s appending and getting his images. What do I have to set up that I haven’t already? Thanks in advance.
You can open the image in the uv/image editor tab , select Image->open image
Blender is great, but is hard to learn, so you prob. need to look at some interface tutorials.
Good luck,
Cheers,
/Thomas
In that video he’s not appending images, but materials.
Appending is for accessing parts of existing .blend files. You can open the file like a directory structure and pick what you want, thereby re-using your (or other’s) former work. That material he appends contains a “link” to the texture image on disk, that’s why the material comes in textured. Appending images is not really necessary, as they already exist as browsable files on your storage device.
If you want to create materials with textures in Blender, it would help tremendously if we knew which render engine you want to use. Blender comes with two “inbuilt” ones: Blender Render (aka Blender Internal) and Cycles. Material creation is different between those two, so, what can we do you for?
Well, I have tried both. Cycles seems to be a lot more complicated than Blender Render, but also seems to provide better results. At least from what I’ve seen so far. Again, being such a noob at it, I’m probably imagining half of what I think I see lol. Is there a preference among most, and what would be the reason? One of the things I’m having issues with obviously in the video tut’s is that while a tut from 2.69 to 2.7 may not contain significant changes, from 2.5 to 2.7 most certainly would and the updated tuts just don’t seem to be keeping pace. So, does opening the image in the uv/image editor tab actually turn it into a texture? If so, how can I take my current image library and do all of them at once? The tut’s don’t explain these types of things. At least none of the ones I’ve seen so far, and I’ve viewed many. Right now, I’ve started over again with the Blender cookie videos, and hopefully, he’ll do things one step at a time. I’m even going to pay for the subscription lol. Gotta remember, things like 3D design and such (most computer things) are ‘new age’ items. They didn’t have such things when I was growing up, and at age 55, I’m doing good just to be able to wrap my brain around it lol. As an example, I will go thru a video tut, and will actually stop it and write down the diff steps…writing was the way to learn ‘back in the day’. Unfortunately, the written tut’s are all out of date. I’m trying to not only learn a new technology, but how to think the same way you youngun’s do lol. Thanks for your continuing help.
Well, Cyles is a relatively young alternative, but is developing quite rapidly. I’d say Cycles makes it easier to achieve photorealistic results, while Blender Internal has its strengths if you’re after more stylized looks. What kind of image do you want to create?
No. A texture always serves a purpose in a certain context, in most cases to drive any kind of material property (color, reflectivity etc.). Opening the image in the UV/image editor per se is perfectly contextless, because Blender doesn’t know what you want to do with that image.
I’m not sure if that would make sense. As I wrote above, you need to “connect” the images to certain material properties or effects, thereby creating the “context” for that image. Without that it’s just an image and perfectly fine as it is as a file on your hard drive.
Hm… I’m turning 40 in a few months. Not sure if that qualifies as “young gun” any more…:eyebrowlift2:
I sincerely appreciate your taking time to explain this stuff to me. I wish somebody would create a series of video tutorials called “Game, from beginning to end” or something like that lol. I guess I’m just going to have to keep sifting through what I can find and try to make something of it all. (btw…40 to me classifies you still as a ‘young-un’ lol. Enjoy it b/c it’ll never come again). Trial and error I guess is what it’s going to take. I wouldn’t typically say that I’m the type to ask a lot of forum type questions, but learning this new-fangled stuff, I’m likely to ask LOTS of questions over time, and I hope you’ll be there to answer. You’ve been very kind and not at all demeaning. BTW, if there’s any part of this stuff you think I should particularly look into for learning purposes, any suggestions would be very welcome. Maybe one day, once I know all this stuff, I’LL create ‘step-by-step’ style tuts. 
Thank you again.
There are some sites for tut like
blenderguru
Cgcookie
noobtopro Ebook
and others
they do basic tut for beginners and some more advance stuffs
but don’t expect to learn all CG in a month or 2
it takes times
so good luck
happy bl
Again, I thank you. Got a couple other questions if you don’t mind. Not sure this is the correct thread for it, but since you seem to be very knowledgeable, I’m hoping you’ll provide me with answers. I’ve gotten the Blender Sensei since it seems to be a good deal more logical to me and my ‘used to’ mouse clicks. And while I’m watching all the videos in every category, I can’t seem to find what I’m looking for. I’m using Blender Render rather than cycles (for the moment) and I’ve created a “stack of lumber”. Following instructions, I’ve added a texture on the ends (to look like the ends of a stack of lumber) and I’ve added the sides and top to look appropriate, except that when I unwrap and add the new textures to sides, the ends change also. Can’t seem to get them to stay separated. Also, when I save this image, HOW do I wish to save it so that it is model ready. Currently, when I pull the image I’ve saved back up, it’s blank again. Correct shape, but blank. Do I need to save them in a particular format? BTW, I’m using Shiva3D for my game engine (one day lol). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Perhaps I should also mention, that when I say I bring it back up and it’s blank, I’m referring to Blender, not Sheva.