Suggestions/Help With Blender

To Every Member of This Site, and All Other Sites Associated With Blender,

Well, here are some tips or suggestions I have come up with. I always try to make what I use better for everyone before I stop using it, if I stop using it at all. Blender is a VERY good program, but I’d like to see it go farther. All of these suggestions will take work, or would if anyone cares to work on them. I personally do not have the skill or knowledge to take on such a task, first of all b/c I know next to nothing about python scripting; it’s worse than Greek to me…I simply don’t understand it and the tutorials on it are WAY too vague to get me anywhere with them. I understand bits and pieces of it, but not enough to amount for anything. My biggest problem with the tutorial is that it doesn’t give you every possible solution. Like many of you, I like to have all my materials in front of me before I begin a job, especially if it’s a complicated or drawn out one. At least a list of all the python functions for Blender would be nice. All I’m left with are the very few basic instructions, that are rather vague anyways, on how to make scripting and to edit scripting.

Anyways, here are my ideas for Blender if any cares to help or do some work on them…it may be a VERY long time before anything of this magnitude gets up and running, if anyone helps.

  1. Create a script program entitled “Make Clothing”, which will create clothing of all kinds from hats, sunglasses/glasses, rings, ear rings, underwear, swim suites, shirts, pants, shorts, uniforms, shoes, socks, jackets, etc.; but also giving the added feature of either automatically sizing it up to your human-or animal if you prefer…that…anyways-(Off-shoot of the “Make Human” Scripting Program) in every proportion, but also giving you the ability to resize or size separately from your human. Every article of clothing also comes with embedded properties in Blender that can make a shirt loose, or a hat stiff, or a load of cloths wet, or a shirt or something sticky, w/e floats your boat, you choose.

  2. Create a script for importing any object-mesh, bones, properties, etc.-into your current editing menu. This one shouldn’t really be too hard to make considering I do have at least one script that allows you to export a mesh or import a mesh at any given time to your current menu and out of it from .OBJ files. This program, however, has no limit on what it can export or import, which will make it have to import several different file types (and export), so that may take a little work, but i think it’d be best, instead of being stuck in the main menu only being able to Add -> Mesh -> And then click on whatever you want…of course only from a VERY small list of Meshes. I think it’d be best if we just had one script that allowed us to “Add”, if you will, anything into our main editing menu we wanted to, instead of being limited to meshes.

  3. Create a script program that shrinks the memory size of objects while in Blender, but returns them to normal size outside of Blender…or stay the same shrunk size outside of Blender too? I don’t know how this one will work. It will obviously require a whole new “filetype” to be created in which Blender saves in-either the current type, or a more compressed/smaller type-. I do know that doing this would have to be an embedded feature in the exporting and importing scripts of the program, so it may take a while to get this one done, unless someone here knows how to do it.

  4. Create a “Make Creature” scripting program, which will create any creature you wish from Mammal, Amphibian, Reptile, to Bear, Frog, or Alligator. It is set in categories and in fact individual scripts put into one large one. -Mammal, Amphibian, and Reptile are all separate categories, but to go further, each species has its very own program under the main category of its type. This one will most definitely take some time, work, and effort seeing as there are literally thousands of species out there (to say the least, if this project EVER gets started…we’ll probably stick to only a few for now, then make more as we progress).

  5. Create a “Make Object” scripting program to make all objects thinkable to man, which will work in the same methodology as the “Make Creature” program.

  6. Create an Action Scripting Program, which will work with all of the above programs (especially “Make Creature” and “Make Object”) where a function of armature motions and mesh animations allow a specific action to take place-EX: Punch, Slap, Kick, Throw, Grab, Smile, Frown, Run, Walk, Run Into, Drive, Bounce, Fly, Explode, Roll Over, etc. Obviously this one will have to work with preset armatures, which means that it will have to already know what the armatures are for each program, which brings me to my next step. The “Make Object” or “Make Creature” programs will be simply to make the Mesh, but the “Make Action” will have an added bonus of adding the armatures to your mesh and then, if you want (you can just leave it at that if you like), give it a specific action that can be applied to that creature, or that creature’s interference with another creature, or that creature with an object, or that object with a creature, w/e floats your boat.

  7. Create a “Make Real” scripting program that works with any 2d image to make the coloring, texturing, lighting, etc. look as real as possible in the 3d image…it would be noted that this most like works best with regular photographs uploaded into your computer, unless of course you a heck of an artist. I myself am a 2d Graphic Designer and was introduced to 3d Graphics when working in high school with video production, very fun, very expensive (not if you have BLENDER, yes, Blender ROCKS!!!), and very time consuming (don’t think that’s gonna change…the ideas I’ve suggested here may have a change in that a bit if we ever get them started, but most likely not that much).

Those are all the ideas I have at the moment, but I’m sure some more will come up. I probably won’t have the time to work on them, as I’m entering the US Navy in only a few months and will have lots of work of my own to do. So guys, I’ve set the ideas out, can’t really work on them myself (though I would most definitely LOVE to, no, really guys, I would.), so it’s up to you guys. Just put it this way, if you’re willing to do the work it takes, Blender can become the best graphic program on the market…except it FREE!!!..What other graphic program has these things I suggested? NONE, at least none that I’ve seen, maybe one or two of them, but I can almost guarantee you that if all of these are created with perficiency, Blender will be most definitely that top choice in all video editing, game editing, and just plain old 3D graphic design. Either way, Blender is still awesome to me. We work with another 3D graphic program in my class, or shall I say worked (I graduated, sweet!). It was called “LightWave”, one of the best on the market…that’s it, ON THE MARKET. That thing is expensive as crap! The only way we could get it was because it happened to come along with the VT-Edit program we got, which couldn’t be high-jacked from the computer b/c it was embedded in the hardware, in other words…it WAS the hardware. It could be done, but it’d take alot of work just to get that program, which, to me, has not even a close shot against Blender. Blender is an awesome program once you learn to use it. My problem is that I don’t have Internet at home and when I have a problem, there’s really no one to ask. So, if any of you techies out there have like a hotline number or something I can use, it would be SOOOOO helpful to me. I’ve got some questions to ask that are really bugging me a lot. I’ll go ahead and name a few of them here while I’m at it. I would greatly suggest that if you wish to help me in any way, please don’t post it on here, give me a call, b/c i most likely WON’T be able to get your message, and if I somehow DO get it, it’ll be nearly a month or so before I do…and I really don’t feel like waiting that long. If you have Verizon Wireless, I can talk to you for free any time, but if you call me after 9:00 PM (that’s Georgia time in the US, don’t know what time zone it is, sry) i can talk to anyone, anywhere, for free.

So, here are my questions…

  1. How the heck do you get Python 2.5.1 to work with Blender 2.4.3!!! I installed a new python verson, from 2.2.9, from my computer and upgraded it to 2.5.1, but Blender STILL won’t recognize it when it loads up, instead it displays the familiar message:

“Compiled with Python version 2.4.
‘Import site’ failed; use -v for traceback
Checking for installed Python…No installed Python found.
Only built-in modules are available. Some scripts may not run.
Continuing happily.”
Okay, so that’s rather annoying

  1. Another annoying thing is that I don’t have Internet at home, so I have to download all of my scripts off the Internet, then carry them home, and attempt to figure out where to put them so that Blender recognizes them. Okay, so I off and figure that maybe they’re supposed to go in the “Scripts” folder (duh), but when i put them in there, most of my scripts in the menu completely dissappear. So, I’m totally at a loss for words on this one.

  2. HOW THE HECK DO YOU USE NEVERBLENDER!!! It’s rather annoying than many of the tutorials here are vague as crap (no offense guys, I know you’re working hard, and, in fact, may of them have been extremely helpful…you have NO idea, well, maybe you do). The one I got on the Never Blender program explains how to use the program, yeah? Absolutely NOT. It expects you to already have some programs installed (what programs, no idea, but I’d surely like to know). Okay, tip guys, if you’re gonna write a tutorial of any type, PLEASE start with WHAT YOU NEED before you jump into the tutorial, b/c I’ve started some of these tutorials here and they just jump into it (not all of them, some of them do say, You need Blender version 2. w/e, or that it’s written with that version or it even specifically says what extra programs you need), but guys, not everyone coming here are game freaks. Like myself, I’m a video editor, now you talk to me on that and I’ll give ya some darn tutorials, but if you start talking game designing, you’re no longer talking Greek, you’ve completely switch over to Turkish. I saw Never Blender as a chance to make weapons and stuff, and maybe even design my own from something else, but noooo, i can’t figure out how to use the stupid thing…and what the heck is Never Winter Nights? I dunno, but some help on this one would be nice.

Please guys, do not get insulted on some of my remarks up there, they are not meant to hurt, or to criticize, rather to help, instruct, and construct. I do not like to criticize someone else’s work, which, to my ignorance, may be better than I anticipate. From what I can see, not only have you guys done a lot of work, you’ve done a lot of GOOD work. I see, however, that a lot of you are also just guys like me, who came in here not really knowing what Blender was, maybe even just accidentally catching it on a web search, and thought, “Oh, wow, a free graphic program, MINE!” and hopped on board. I must admit, I was looking at 3d design like 2d design, but it’s a TOTALLY different field, completely, and even that’s an understatement. So hats off to you guys here who make this thing work, who make it worth while, and who give your all to it, congratulations guys and awesome work! I would like to help wherever available.

I have my own problems, however, being that I only just got into this and don’t really understand it too well. Also I’m going into the Navy, so my time is limited, but on top of that, I’m also going into the ministry (church for those of you who don’t understand what that means) to teach others about Christ and the more and would like to use Blender to my advantage with its best potential. I have some nifty ideas with video editing, and now that I’ve gotten into 3d design, you best bet that I’m gonna be all up in it as well. It takes skill guys, and I don’t think I’m quite ready for that, so I leave it in your hands, do what you can with the ideas I gave you, tweak them, w/e, just make Blender awesome(er)! Like I said, I always try to make things better when I leave than when I came aboard. This time, I just don’t have the skill for it yet, still need some practice and learning, but I know someone here knows what to do with this stuff, so have at it, get to work, hop to it, jelly that bean… yea, a little carried away there. Good work guys, good luck, best to ya, and God Bless.

Eric Wright

  1. You forgot the “Make Game” script, which will, through a series of questions, create the levels, basic map layout, game logic, cut sequences, characters, and import the results from the Make Creature script into the game, fully rigged with walk cycles.It needs to have fire and explosions, ammo and guns, health bar, directional arrows, AI for the opponents including attack/defend/teamwork, inventory/equipment, power up and teleporter spots. You should be able to choose between different settings (space, planet, underground, building) and it will load the appropriate set of textures. Oh, and sound too.

  2. There is also needed a “Make Movie” script which will use any background video you have filmed with your digital camera and create keyframed masks and stuff to incorporate your CG objects from your scene into it, adjust the lighting to match the video so that it doesn’t look fake, and save with titles and credits as an FFMPEG video that plays on all platforms.

<<I think you need to head over to DAZStudio with your wallet>>

You don’t, you use Blender 2.44

  1. Also sorely needed for years is the Make MMORPG function. How hard can it be really to have Blender auto-create low-poly characters with tangent-space normal baked bump maps and dynamic lighting, then have them auto-animated to allow online players to interact with each other with REALISTIC PHYSICS and BLOOD SPATTERZORZ that btw I don’t understand why someone hasn’t made a VIDEO TUTORIAL that i can download with a 28.8baud modem about how to decapitate an OGRE and have the viens all sticking out and spurting blood, I mean how hard can that be!!!111!!! I think my idea is sound.

Also how do I seperate objects in Blender?
[/snark]

Yeah, there also should be an “explosion” button, which models, textures, and animates a high poly object, then blows it up with photorealistic flame and smoke. I can understand if this will take a while to put together, but that’s okay. We can work together. :slight_smile:

These forums seriously need a button that bans all the nubz automaticallzy!!!

I want a button… “Make Suzzane My Slave Monkey”

I’m tempted to lock this thread, but I’t’ll be more fun to make you live with it.

%<

rofl. simply rofl. Just to keep the count straight, that’s #12; explosion modifier is #10 since CD38 can’t count or spell “the” correctly. Although the DECAPITATE script might count as another script, so Decapitate is #13.

@Fligh: Surely with nearly 9,000 posts to your credit you could add #14. please. We’d really like to hear.

Too Late: #14: MAKE IT SO: This script would find the button you are looking for and click it. It would monitor, in the background like as an external process or something, what you are doing. When you Gesture (this could easily be added to the existing Gesture system I read about somewhere) with like a question mark or a WTF symbol, it would be invoked to present you with like a list of suggested “next steps” and then automatically move your mouse and click for you. There are so many buttons and menuz that it makes it almost impossible to find anything, and this script would like know where everything is and click it for you. Windows had this as a puppy dog or paper clip that would popup and say stuff like “I see you are trying to print your worthless rambling short story. Would you like help?” or “I see you are running with scissors. Would you like some fries with that?”

#15: MAKE GUI: This script is a minor extension to the existing Save Theme script that opens another application (like Maya or Word), figures out its GUI, and the automagically creates a theme and does something to the panels so they are not square so like it looks like PowerPoint or whatever. Oh, and color scheme too. With that cool Aero transparent effect. I could probably make this myself but i dunno what the BPY thing does so I got stuck.

Surely you could add #14. please. We’d really like to hear.

OK, Make birds nests; I can never remember which bird goes in which nest.

%<

that is really lame and does not count. Please try to add meaningful suggestions that would be helpful.

#16: I got tired of waiting whole minutes for my ray-traced multi-res sculpted SSS chrome Suzanne to appear so I am working on a script called SpeedUpRender, that when you hit OK in the Maya-based GUI will Speed Up your Renders at least 10-fold, maybe even 11-fold. I could use help and comments. Here is what I have so far:

#############################################
#      SpeedUp Render                    
#############################################

import bpy


If anyone wants to help just PM me.

Inspired by Star Trek, I would suggest #17 : The Borg Button.
I would like a button/script embedded in Blender to suck up all the features of every other open program on my comp, and then become Borg Blender - no more Photoshop/Illustrator/Audacity/Gimp/WindowsXP/Calculator… no, wait, the calculator is already there :frowning:
Okay, but the solitaire would be nice, floating across the 3d view while I try to model a cube again…
:smiley:

http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/1678/blenderrenderrx7.gif

I suggest you get off the drugs before you go to boot camp.

Yeah guys, nice suggestions, keep em comin. The more we get, the more of a chance we’ll have to actually get some of them done. Sry LarryPhillips, i don’t do drugs, hate to burst ur bubble :D. I do have to comment, however, on the auotomatic button clicker thingy dingy…um, wouldn’t you find it kind of annoying if it clicked the wrong button every time you tried to do something, or that menu of suggestions got in your way when editing? Perhaps if it was small and to the side and didn’t require you to actually click “Yes” or “No” before you can do anything else it’d be okay. Anyways, i had some pretty needy questions in there as well. I have some more too, if you would like to hear and one heck of an idea to help Blender, if anyone wants to hear. so here it is:

More Tips For Blender,

  1. Create a “Scripts Manual” which can be updated every month or so on as the company chooses. The “Scripts Manual” is created for one specific purpose: to reduce problems and questions with scripts associated with Blender. For example, if a script doesn’t work and an error shows up, the manual will give a troubleshooting and explain exactly what that error message means and how to fix it. The Manual’s main purpose, however, is to go step-by-step and explain what the purpose of the script is, how to use it, and what one needs in order to use it. This will not only solve many questions, but give more flexibility with the Blender program, allowing people to have more confidence in what the program can do and how to use the scripts to their advantage.

  2. Now this one i just thought about, but it’s AWESOME…if only it can be done. This is kind of a question too, but, if Blender uses Python Scripting, doesn’t our computer use the same thing for some of its own programming? In other words, is there any way that we can upgrade Blender to produce the following effect:

Okay, ready? Take Blender to a whole new level…instead of only graphic design, can we make it an operating system for computers? Kind of like Windows 98, Xp, w/e? I mean, take the desktop, make the entire thing three dimensional. You can move around the desktop and actually see 3d renders of folders and documents and all the words, all the pictures, EVERYTHING, is now in 3d instead of 2d. Instead of having to look at the same old bland 2d crap, we could spice it up a bit by making it 3d. Some of you are probably thinking, “What purpose could this possibly serve?” Well, okay, how bout this…do any of you have a really cluttered up desktop and it’s like folders and icons covering the entire screen and it’s sometimes a bit difficult to find what you need? Alright, just put the folders in not a horizontal line, not a vertical line, but actually BEHIND another existing folder or icon…so, now, if you want to have a cluttered board, not only do you have space horizontal and vertical, you also have it in depth, meaning you can put as many folders as you like in one SINGLE horizontal-vertical icon space! Okay, anything else? ABSOLUTELY! I’m talkin the ability not only to operate your computer on 3d graphics, but have the best of Blender graphic design in there as well, up and ready to design what ever floats your boat! Think about it, you can design your own 3d icons, screen savers, pointers, and even play a video game right on your desktop BACKGROUND! I don’t know about you guys, but this sounds pretty cool to me. The only problem is, for me anyways, there are alot of unknowns here. It is unknown how much work this would actually take. It is unknown how much time this will take. It is unknown how the entire computer would react to a natural Blend crash (of course we could have a backup boot of Blender operating system separate from the Blender 3d Design). There are a whole bunch of variables involved here, but i am convinced that Blender can work around them and if it is truly applied, those barriers can be broken and a whole new age of computer operating systems will be on the horizon. Let me put it to you this way, since Blender itself is an entirely free program, perhaps Blender could request a portion of the money that is from someone buying a computer with a Blender OS (Operating System) on it. All these funds we need, all these problems we keep having, Blender being so small and unknown in the large world…what better way to shake the world’s boots but with a huge explosion!

More Questions For Blender,

  1. I just downloaded the “BJF: Blender Julia Fractals”. I know it’s made for creating worlds, but…how do I use it? I can get it to work, make the funny pattern of vertices (or fractals, w/e), but i am yet at a loss on what exactly I should do with it from there. How do I create this world with these fractals? Is there something other than Blender I need to make these worlds in their entirety? Any help, please?

  2. I also downloaded the “Knife” program. However, when I get the GUI loaded, and set it up, and I select everything just as it says, and press “cut”, it pops up this error message: “Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “knife.py”, line 412, in bevent
    File “knife.py”, line 315, in DoTheCut
    AttributeError: ‘module’ object has no attribute ‘getSelected’”
    So yeah, I’m totally lost on this one.

  3. Yet another scripting program I downloaded, called “Blender Analytical Geometry Tool” (which I really have no idea what it’s actually used for…mostly since it won’t work), continues to come up with the following error message when I try to run the script from the .blend file:
    “Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “BAG-0.0.5.py”, line 172, in ?
    ImportError: No module named xml.sax.handler”
    I’ve had that one show up more than once in more than one script. help?

  4. The Script “BMG: Blender Mechanical Gears”, which i also have absolutely no idea on what or how to use it, continues to give me the following error when i click on anything other than “No Pinion”:
    “Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “BMGm-0.0.2.py”, line 1154, in bevent
    File “BMGm-0.0.2.py”, line 946, in DoTheTooth
    RuntimeError: expected tuple of one item.”
    Yet again, no idea on what this means or how to fix it.

  5. In another script i downloaded (i basically went on the site and downloaded anything and everything i possibly could), named “Blender World Forge Tool”, in continue to get the following error:
    “Traceback” w/e you know the rest of that one,
    " File “BWF-0.1.0.py”, line 236, in ?
    ImportError: No module named xml.sax.handler"
    The same error message in question number three.

  6. I am trying to edit a character in my book, in which his Abdomen is brown while his skin is
    green. I’ve got the skin done, but MakeHuman180 (MH 180) doesn’t allow me to select individual body parts to color. I tried to select those particular vertecies and duplicate them (i know of no way to simply copy and paste objects or vertecies like you would words in a text document), so the duplicate was fairly horrible b/c it was so rigid. The second problem with it was that once i had duplicated it, it had become part of the origin mesh in object mode (which, coincidentally is also the only mode where i can attach color or texture to it). So I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. The abdomen make up alot of the character, b/c he doesn’t wear a shirt b/c he has horns sticking all out of his body and such. Anyone have any tips on how to do this?

  7. I’m still having trouble with my Python Program (version 2.5.1) to work with Blender. I looked at the HTML document that came with Blender, and it sort of told me what to do, and i followed the instructions there precisely (Go to the Python Standalone Screen-i assume that this would be openening python25.exe?- and typing these two commands after one another: “import sys”>ENTER; “Print =sys.executable”>ENTER. Then go into Blender’s Interactive Consol and type the same exact thing. Then i believe, it really didn’t specify, you go to the Blender main menu, pull it down to reveal the “File Paths” button, click it, and change the Python File Path to what the Python Standalone Screen reavealed after typing Print =sys.executable), but my problem is, i think, the fact that no matter what i change in my file paths, once i close Blender, it sets them to default again: C:/. I did get it to work one time, but even then, even when Python25.exe was set as the set area, it STILL wouldn’t recognize it as existing in Blender. Still, i’m at a total loss. I’ve exhausted my entire mind over this trying to figure it out and have absolutely no clue. I have looked all in the tutorials and none of them have anything on this problem.

Well, that seems to be everything so far. Please, comments on the suggestions, and answers on the questions?

God Bless and In Him,

Eric Wright

  1. Scripts Manual is here, various types to choose from, all downloadable: http://www.python.org/doc/

  2. Knife is now integrated into Blender, you can delete the script. In Edit mode, press K for Knife.

  3. Mechanical Gears was cool - it makes gears that mesh together automatically. Use an earilier version of Blender to run it. It should say in the comments what version it was last tested with.

  4. See http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Multiple_Materials. That page has to be one of the most popular that i have written.

  5. After making your changes, press ctrl-U to save your new defaults. see http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/User_Preferences

dude…ur the BOMB!!! lol, thanks so much for that help…it’s the little things like that which really give me a headache. I have a slight case of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and if there is something wrong, even if it doesn’t really matter, i’ll spend weeks trying to fix it…i like things to run as smoothly as possible…lol. I attempted to go there and just download everything possible from the wiki site (i don’t have internet at home and have only an extremely limited amount of time on the net at school, that’s only while summer school is open), but my computer froze when i did, so i’ve been finding it quite difficult to find and retrieve the information myself. you’re a life-saver!

Eric

Oh! One more quick problem i’m having. I don’t know how this will work (b/c i just downloaded the newer 2.44 version of Blender…like opening a box of chocolates…i was SO excited to see what new stuff was there!..lol), but in Blender 2.43, when i would download a scripted program (like MH180), i didn’t have internet at home and would have to download it to a flash drive and then go home and put it in the computer. at first i didn’t know where to put it, but then someone here on the site told me, so i put it in the scripts folder. But it’s wierd, i’d figure it added stuff to the scripts menu in the blender program when you pressed “Update Menu”, but NOOOOO, it took almost everything away compeltely! As soon as i took them out of the scipts folder, it worked absolutely fine and dandy. Now, i don’t know, perhaps there are some things that interfere with one another in the programming of scripts, but perhaps it’s b/c i just dumped it in there all in one big folder and didn’t allow it to be put into the correct spot. perhaps i need to redownload the application and extract it directly into the scripts folder, and see how it separates everything out and if it works then, but (and please accept my appology if i’m asking something that is in that tutorial-if i am, just say so and i’ll read it later-i just haven’t had time to read all that yet.) do you have any answers?

Eric

The problem may be in your user defaults and where Blender is looking for scripts.

Regarding MH180 specifically, that script has evolved into a complete standalone program from www.makehuman.org that you run and create you mesh, then export as an .obj and import into blender via File->Import->.obj.