Mastering Drivers - Training DVD

Support Tutorials, Tips and Tricks
#1

Welcome to the Official thread for the Mastering Drivers - Training DVD! :slight_smile:

Here you can discuss everything about it, and post videos of what you create.

You can watch free tutorials from the DVD or buy the full version at http://exploreblender.com

Happy Blending!

Regards,
Gustav Nilsson

#2

Great Ladder tutorial!
Thanks for your invaluable work. This first tutorial is full of information and great tips!

#3

Thanks MarcPag! :slight_smile: I am glad you liked it!

#4

Hi GustavN,

We just purchased your tutorial, really great videos and very professional. I’ll start dig in :slight_smile:

#5

Thanks for the freebies!

I like the short overviews and tips.

#6

Bought the course via twitter with bitcoin.
Really awesome experience :smiley:
Thanks GustavN. :yes:

#7

Hi. Two great videos so far.

I have a couple of questions about the time keeping in the second video.

(a) Why ask the user to enter the frames per second (fps) as a custom property when it can be got directly from the scene?

(b) Why add an empty and use its location to store the time? Why not add a “total_seconds” custom property to the clock empty and drive it from the frame, fps, and offset values?

#8

Thanks! :slight_smile: And two good questions;

(a) I decided to do that for the analog clock because it is easier to create, as a “slower start”. If you look at the Digital Clock sample, I am using the fps of the scene in the control, as you suggest. However, using a property of the scene does not work well when we link the object, since the scene itself will be linked, so I wanted to delay that explanation a bit. I will talk more about linking and appending in a video in the end though.

(b) That would have worked as well. Any “behind the scenes” values can be done without objects or bones and just values directly, but I chose to do it through the location of an empty to make it more visual. However, having a driven property added to the Clock empty would expose a value that the user should not see, since it can’t change it directly. So even if I decided to add a total_seconds property, I would not want to add it to the clock empty anyway.
But you are right, I should probably have mentioned that in the tutorial.

I hope that answers your questions! :slight_smile:

#9

Hi GustavN, satisfyed preorderer here!

Wow that clock one got mathematic. I’ll have to go through it a couple more times before i get all the expressions going on, but your explanations are great so I’m sure I will. Eventually :stuck_out_tongue:

Is there any “function list” up there in the internet we can look up to when in the need of python functions to exploit?

Thank you!!

#10

Thanks! :slight_smile:

As for a list of functions, you can take a look at this page https://docs.python.org/2/library/math.html. All of these math functions should be available for you to use.

To really get a list of everything available though, you would have to check inside Blender. To do this, you open the Python Console window, type “bpy.app.driver_namespace” (without quotes) and then press CTRL+SPACE. A list will appear.

However, unless I am blind, in default Blender this list seems to be identical to the Python documentation link from above, so I would just stick to that since it has good explanations of what each function does and what input it wants :slight_smile:

(And also, here is a link with all the different operators, like % (modulus) and >= (comparing bigger or equal to) http://www.tutorialspoint.com/python/python_basic_operators.htm)

Good luck!

#11

Here a satisfied buyer. :eyebrowlift:

Congratulations for this great work job.
Do you think make more?
What you think about secondary animations controlled by drivers?

Thanks you.

#12

The full DVD is now available on the website! :slight_smile:

Sav Martin: Thank you! I might do more in the future if I feel like I have something more to teach :slight_smile: But right now it feels like this DVD covers everything I had to say pretty well! But time will tell.

Thanks again.

#13

Completely satisfied with this series. Excellent work. Well worth the pittance you’ve asked. :slight_smile:

#14

Hi there
Great tut Gustav. I’ve searched quite a long time for something like that. Comprehensive and clear explenation. Worth every penny spent on this dvd. Hope You do something more in the future.
Thanks for Your knowledge
V.

#15

to the OP and author of this training DVD I say bravo dear Sir !

great insight of how Blender drivers work and also some other nice comands/shortcuts/tips that I didn’t know about.

this tutorial sparked some ideas about precision modeling/dimensioning in Blender.

the watch tutorial is also nice if only to keep track of time spent in the Blender viewport :slight_smile:

in the future i would be interested in seeing more material about deforming/driving values of simple meshes with the purpose of simulating the inventor/solidworks CAD math formula expresion editors inside Blender.

also I am interested in ways to replicate or reach the same or similar functionality regarding matting/constraing/driving assemblies from inventor/solidworks CAD environments inside Blender.