Jennifer's Classroom

[pappou]

Jojon Map of the Island -2.png (131.54 KiB) Viewed 8781 times

by Jennifer_P on Wed Mar 05, 2008 5:02 am

Well, thank you Jen for the offer of the free lessons. I would like to take you up on it. Ruvinka is so clever in those things, she will race ahead. So, do mind waiting for me to catch up? (He said puffing up the hill.)

Sweet! But now we have to see if Ruvinka actually does want lessons...?

Okeyday, so a few quick questions need answers before we begin:
1. Do you have Blender 2.45 installed? (Version 2.45 shows a picture of some flowers when it starts up, and when it is running there will be a little maroon bar towards the upper right hand corner where it says "www.blender.org 245")
2. If you have Blender 2.45 installed, then open it up...two windows should pop up, one the standard blender screen where you have a picture of a cube, and the other a black window with plain white lettering on it. What does the lettering in the black window read? (That black window, called the console window, tells us how happy Blender is with us--or not. )
3. What sort of mouse do you have? I.e., does it have one button, two buttons, three buttons, two buttons with a wheel, or...?

And if you don't have Blender 2.45 installed yet, or you have an older version installed, we can take care of that tomorrow. And now I must sleeeeep...

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by Monkeyboy on Thu Mar 06, 2008 6:51 pm

Ok, I'm interested in the Blender tutoring! and I have 2.45 loaded, and I have a 2 button (sometimes 3 button mouse ). And I have half a Monkey Man modeled ! Then I got sidetracked and never finished and I haven't got back to it. Anyway still willing to be tutored.

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by Jennifer_P on Fri Mar 07, 2008 12:44 pm

Excellent, perfecto, muy bien! So, at least we can start off with Blender being installed. Ruvinka's still going to need to do that, so I'm going to go find the Alcugs link she'll need to get that and Python (a computer language) installed. I'm also gonna need some more info on your guys' mice, so bear with me here...

I have a 2 button (sometimes 3 button mouse ).

So how's the third button thing work

And I have half a Monkey Man modeled !

Ha, I bet you mean you have half a Monkeyboy modeled! Tsk, tsk, such vanity...

i have laser light one eyed mouse, with cord and a wheel;
and this one has no more of those little buttons on the top;
however, there are a pair of forward and backward thumb buttons on the side;
do they count?

/blink
That's a new one on me. But at least nobody had a three button mouse with a thumb ball. Okay...So, you have two thumb buttons and one wheel. Which button do you use to close windows and drag windows around the screen, the forward button or the backward button? Also, can you use one of the buttons to click on the screen (anywhere) and bring up a menu?


And I'm still going to need this from both of you:

2. If you have Blender 2.45 installed, then open it up...two windows should pop up, one the standard blender screen where you have a picture of a cube, and the other a black window with plain white lettering on it. What does the lettering in the black window read? (That black window, called the console window, tells us how happy Blender is with us--or not. )

I just want to check and see if your Blender installation is happy, or if it's complaining that it wants Python installed.

[pappou]

Which button do you use to close windows and drag windows around the screen

Close & drag with the left 'button' (lever to the index finger);

can you use one of the buttons to click on the screen (anywhere) and bring up a menu?

Yes, the right 'button' (lever to the middle finger);

The buttons i have are thumb buttons: One advances the browser window and one returns to the previous window;

...the other a black window with plain white lettering on it.

Pappou has the two Blender windows separated by a menu line, but the bottom one is gray, and has a ton of small buttons, slots, bells and whistles; however, i do not find the ominous black thing.

I have Python 2.5 installed.

[Jennifer_P]

Close & drag with the left 'button' (lever to the index finger);
Yes, the right 'button' (lever to the middle finger);

Okay then; we will treat your "left button" as the Official Left Mouse Button and your "right button" as the Official Right Mouse Button--and hope that they really are equivalent buttons.

And that black window I was talking about (the console window) looks like this:

It usually just runs in the background while you play with Blender.

I have Python 2.5 installed.

Ah, excellent--hopefully all should be well then...Nonetheless, best to check the console window just to make sure.

[Monkeyboy]

Well, I found my way here. And I did miss a question about the infamous black box, heheehe, and I do have it, and it finds Python just fine. And my 3rd button would be my wheel, it can act like a middle button, but sometimes it doesn't register while I'm pressing down on it. So I just use the alternative way of using 2 buttons, which I think you press ctrl or alt or something, can't remember, it's been awhile.

[Jennifer_P]

Okay, excellent then! I think we're almost ready to start the lessons then.

So everyone's console panel reads this, right?

Compiled with Python version 2.5.
Checking for installed Python... got it!

[Monkeyboy]

Wow! Jennifer you're up early! Yes, mine says that.

[Jennifer_P]

And Ruvinka, what you'll need to do to get Blender running is to go here: http://alcugs.almlys.org/PRPBlenderInstallation
And then just click on those first two "Windows Download" links and the downloads should start automatically. You only need to download Blender 2.45 and Python 2.5.1; the others aren't necessary to learn Blender.

Wow! Jennifer you're up early! Yes, mine says that.

lol, yeah--I actually went to bed at 9 pm instead of 1 am or whatever, so then I woke up at 4 am. But good, it looks like you are all set. I'll put the first lesson out tomorrow, with any luck.

[pappou]

How do i get to the 'black' pane? When my Blender opens it looks like this:

Blender opening pg 01.jpg (210.36 KiB) Viewed 8718 times

Edit:
OOOOHHH; that one; the command prompt looking window; sorry; i have ignored that screen so many times that it has no residue in the gray matter.
Yes, it seems to be happy with finding Python 2.5.1.

All is well tonight in Mudville

[Kierra]

heh, you'll want to keep your eye on that console window while its exporting later on down the line. It will tell you if there are any errors with your age.

Whether or not you'll be able to understand them is a different story

~Kia

[Jennifer_P]

Yup, the good ol' console window will be verrrry important one day when we start messing around with all the Uru Age creation software and techniques. For now though, we just want to make sure that it's satisfied with Python.

Okay, so for Szark, Tai'lahr, David, and raider7, I have some questions for you all to answer before we can begin:

1. Do you have Blender 2.45 installed? (Version 2.45 shows a picture of some flowers when it starts up, and when it is running there will be a little maroon bar towards the upper right hand corner of the screen where it says "www.blender.org 245")
2. If you have Blender 2.45 installed, then open it up...two windows should pop up, one the standard Blender screen where you have a picture of a cube, and the other a black window with plain white lettering on it. What does the lettering in the black window read? (Incidentally, that black window, called the console window, tells us how happy Blender is with us--or not. )
3. What sort of mouse do you have? I.e., does it have one button, two buttons, three buttons, two buttons with a wheel, or...?

And if you don't have Blender installed yet, you can go here to get it: http://alcugs.almlys.org/PRPBlenderInstallation
And then just click on those first two "Windows Download" links and the downloads should start automatically. You only need to download Blender 2.45 and Python 2.5.1; the other downloads aren't necessary to learn Blender.


Lesson 1
And for those of us who are A-OK with the mouse, installation, and console window, I have tomorrow's lesson: navigation. Navigation is fairly simple, but it's probably the most important and useful Blender skill you'll learn. Today we learn how to zoom, pan, and rotate your view so that you can see any side of that cube which you get when you first open up Blender. I'm just going to teach you the basics of navigation today; there is more to be learned, but you can only absorb so many techniques at once. So we'll learn the rest of the navigation strategies later.
So, first a word about keyboard shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts, such as "r" or "4", can be used in Blender in place of navigating the menus and submenus and mouseclicking the options therein. They can save a lot of time and are often more convenient than their corresponding menu options, so eventually you'll come to rely on them heavily. Unfortunately, keyboard shortcuts can also be rather difficult to remember unless you use them all the time. For this reason, it's a good idea to make sure to learn the locations of the Blender commands in the menu system before you switch to calling the commands completely by means of keyboard shortcuts. If you know where to find a command in the menu system, then you can look it up in the menus, and to the right of the command you'll find the keyboard shortcut listed. But if you don't know where to find the command in the menu system, then you'll be stuck hunting its shortcut down on the internet instead, which is a bummer.
And what menu are the zoom, pan, and rotate controls located in? Well, in the screenshot of the Blender start up window, do you see the bright teal bar? (Sadly, It will be a boring, dull gray in your Blender installation.)

Show Spoiler

At the far left of that bar, you will see the menu option "View." In Blender, go ahead and open up the View menu, and inside of it, open up the submenu "View Navigation." Whooftee, look at all those options! Let's see here...We have "Orbit" which is actually rotation, then we have Zoom and Pan. Go ahead and try out Zoom and Pan from the menu; they work about as you would expect. Try the rotation commands as well; since the cube is pretty featureless, watch the bright red, green, and blue arrows that are centered at the middle of the cube in order to better tell what effect your rotation command had.
Are you tired of the menu yet? I know I am! ;p Well, now let's do things the easy way. (And in spite of my earlier advice, I actually don't know where to find these commands on the menus (yes, I had to look them up on the internet--again!), so you'll just have to memorize them.)

To rotate (easily):
If you have a scroll button (that's clickable, like a middle mouse button) hold this down and drag your cursor around the screen. You should be able to rotate the cube in any which way you want.
Or alternately, hold down the "alt" key and then, holding down your left mouse button, drag your cursor around the screen to accomplish the same result.

To pan (easily):
Hold down "shift" and "alt" and then, holding down your left mouse button, drag your cursor around the screen. You should be able to pan in any direction you want.

To zoom (easily):
Scroll in and out with your scroll wheel.
Or if you don't have a scroll wheel, then hold down "ctrl" and "alt" and your left mouse button, and then drag your cursor up and down the screen. (Dragging it left and right won't do anything.)
Okay, that's it for today. Have any problems??? Just ask.