Question Stew!

Support Basics & Interface
1

I just titled it that because I have a whole mix of various questions that have accumulated while working with Blender as a noob.
I’d be very grateful to have these questions answered. Most are probably noobish, so I’m putting these under “BASICS and Interface” so they’re all here in these categories

Basics and interface:

Smoother way to pan across screen other than click then press “c”?

Is there a way to transfer selected objects to other files? “ctrl+c andn ctrl+v” don’t work.

Is there a way to load files from other programs (like SketchUp, a 3D drafting program) into Blender?

Modelling

I have two objects together that seem to be attached to one another: I selected my object, copied it, then pasted it next to the original. However, when I tried to rotate it, the other object got skewed. I had only this one selected, but it’s as if the program counted the space in between as a single, stretchable part of the objects.

I worked on making a hilly landscape by taking the fractal clouds texture (“noise” function), but I find that when I try to keep mutating it (trying to make the hills higher and the valleys lower) it ends up trying to raising the entire plane instead of just mutating it. Why is this, and how do I increase the height of the hills dramatically?

Is there a way to hook up a separate device and operate in blender? Either a drawing pad or a special pen I’ve seen used for game design modeling.

Textures:

How do I import my own texture? I tried (think I browsed my folder), and no matter how small I made the object, it wouldn’t work. Does it have to be a certain type of file?

Also, I have some 2D artwork that I want to be able to layer on top of a 3D object (like a portrait of someone from a scanned-in painting with their face around a sphere). How do I do this?

Are there pre-made “3D texture skins”

2

Basics and interface:

Smoother way to pan across screen other than click then press “c”?

Answer - Shift & middle mouse button or alt-shift & left mouse button.

Is there a way to transfer selected objects to other files? “ctrl+c andn ctrl+v” don’t work.

Answer - This is done in blender by ‘Apending’ more info in this
link > http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Using_Linked_Libraries

Is there a way to load files from other programs (like SketchUp, a 3D drafting program) into
Blender?
Answer - If you go to the main menu, File>Import you’ll see a list of differant file types you can import into blender.

Modelling

I have two objects together that seem to be attached to one another: I selected my object, copied it, then pasted it next to the original. However, when I tried to rotate it, the other object got skewed. I had only this one selected, but it’s as if the program counted the space in between as a single, stretchable part of the objects.

Answer - If you duplicate a mesh object using ALT-D it create an instance of it ie you can move the object positions individual in object mode but in edit mode they are the same mesh, move the vertices of one and it will change the instanced copy.
In order to make an individual copy use shift-D, the meshes will be able to be editing in edit mode seperateratly.

I worked on making a hilly landscape by taking the fractal clouds texture (“noise” function), but I find that when I try to keep mutating it (trying to make the hills higher and the valleys lower) it ends up trying to raising the entire plane instead of just mutating it. Why is this, and how do I increase the height of the hills dramatically?

Answer - The noise function works by moving vertices based on the colour range from black to white, black is no movement & white is maximum movement. The cloud texture you are using is not big enough that all vertices have some amount of white in them even if only slight. To cure this you could de-select all vertices then go Select>Random and choose a percentage then press ok, as the noise function works on the selected vertices only the ones that are now not selected will stay where they are.

Is there a way to hook up a separate device and operate in blender? Either a drawing pad or a special pen I’ve seen used for game design modeling.

Answer - Support for tablet pen with pressure sensitivity is being added to the next version of blender that is out soon

Textures:
How do I import my own texture? I tried (think I browsed my folder), and no matter how small I made the object, it wouldn’t work. Does it have to be a certain type of file?
Also, I have some 2D artwork that I want to be able to layer on top of a 3D object (like a portrait of someone from a scanned-in painting with their face around a sphere). How do I do this?

Answer - The link below is the blender manual chapter for textures it will answer both your above questions.
Link> http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Textures

Are there pre-made “3D texture skins”
Answer - No, only procedual textures.

3

Wow, thank you so much! This is exactly what I needed!

I’m grateful to all these helpful experts on this forum…

4

While tablet pressure sensitive supprt is not there, you CAN use a Wacom …etc tablet as a “mouse” / input device… that’s what I use now :slight_smile: A featherlight stylus is much easier to use than a bulky mouse and probably better for preventing carpal.

Mike

5

Hm, how much does one of those cost, and is it not available in a store like Best Buy?

And can you “right-click” on it? Middle-click?