In this multi-part tutorial, we’ll take a look at modeling an old stairway platform in an old abandoned building. In this part, we’ll focus on aligning our camera to the reference image and blocking in the main elements of the scene.
View Part 2: http://www.blendercookie.com/2009/12/10/creating-an-urban-stairway-scene-part-2/
View Part 3: http://www.blendercookie.com/2009/12/15/creating-an-urban-stairway-scene-part-3/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Support the site – Download includes:
- High resolution .mov Video
- .blend file at the state of the tutorial
Subscribe to our Blender RSS Feed to receive our latest articles and education from Blender Cookie.
24 Comments
I alreday know all of thechnics used in this videotutorial, but i jest can’t wait till you publish next part of it!
x maniak70
great turorial….very clear, to the point, and original. Keep em coming
Awesome as always!
I really love your approach to making scenes.. I think that many times people jump in to detail far too soon. Your absolutely right to worry about the overall relationships first.
I think no matter what level of work you’re doing this is very insightful. It really is more of a workflow tutorial as opposed to push button “A” then button “B”.
thanks Kernon!
It would be better to use the timelapse mode with general commentary. Could have been a smaller video.
Thanks for the feedback! The only part that’s not timelapsed is the intro, everything else is at 200% and 300%. In realtime, this took about 40 minutes.
LOOKS INSANE! Wow! Gotta watch this soon
Great tutorial, thanks for Kernon Dillon and BlenderCookie.
Wow, another great tut. I really like this approach of breaking up modelling of more complex scenes into multiple steps/parts where each of the tutorials deals with different levels of the whole process, like this rough base modeling followed by details modeling, then perhaps texturing & lighting in the upcoming tutorials… Enjoying this bite-sized education very much and hoping to gently soak in some advanced stuff along the way, while the individual parts of the tutorial step up.
Thank you.
I’m not a good modeller at all, I’ve only toyed with Wings and Blender, though never anything series. This is the first tutorial that I really found to combine both a fascinating source of inspiration and going through the basic concept of successfully modelling a scene from scratch (i.e. not start with detailed parts of the scene, but rather “block it out”).
Great video, and I’m really looking forward to the next part!
Just a quick note about the focal length. When someone uses a lens with focal length of say 18mm on a digital SLR camera the real focal length is actually something like 18mm * 1.5 or 18mm * 1.6. So it would actually make more sense to try focal length of 28-30mm in the modeling of such image.
Good tutorial anyways. More of these.
Thanks to all for the comments!
@Tero
Thanks for the tip! That would explain why using 25 worked better than 18, I was close. I got tired of tweaking, though. I think I’ll spend some time studying camera theory(?).
Smart technique blocking stuff out with the camera view, I never thought of approaching things that way! Really, really cool! Like using Google Earth to fake outdoor 3d in Photoshop…
Great stuff, one tiny itsy bitsy suggestion though. I know that your earlier tutorials cover it very well, but since it is “for newbies” I would love it if you would tell us the key strokes at least once per video of when you are doing manipulations around Blender. For example, what key stroke do you press to move the camera while in camera view. How did you stretch the cube, what tab are you using to edit the camera settings, etc.
Hearing a simple, ” hit the G key to position the camera accordingly” goes a long way for someone learning, or even someone like myself who is re-learning after about a 6 month break.
Actually, I would categorize this as an Intermediate level tutorial. It’s kind of an issue I’m having to address concerning the BlenderNewbies connection. Currently, I’m doing more advanced tutorials on BlenderCookie to try and create a distinction. At this level, it’s hard to efficiently include keystrokes because there’s so much else going on and the pace is faster. I won’t be able to do the keystroke overlays like I do at BlenderNewbies because it’s very time-consuming, but I’ll try to mention more keystrokes.
To move the camera while in the camera view (besides G, R, and S) you can use the MMB (after pressing the G-key) to move the camera back and forth along the direction it’s facing (i.e. – its normal). You can do the same thing outside of the camera view by pressing the G-key, and then pressing the Z-key twice. Also, the camera is constrained to an Empty by select the camera, then shift-selecting the Empty. Press Ctrl-T and select the TrackTo option. The Empty then becomes a target that the camera will always point toward.
For stretching the cube, I think you’re referring to the following: Press S to begin scaling the cube, then press Shift-X,Y,or Z. This will cause the scaling the exclude the axis that you Shift-selected. For example, pressing Shift-Z will cause the scaling to take place only on the X and Y axis’, causing the cube to maintain its current height during the scaling. This technique can be used for any of the transform operations.
For editing the camera settings, with the camera selected, go to the Edit buttons window and you’ll find the parameters on the Camera panel.
I hope that helps!
It does, and I appreciate the time you put into these. Again, it isn’t a must have; and like you said this video is an intermediate level; it is just that out of any tutorial I have seen online yours have always been the most helpful; and there is a slew of reasons why, but definetly the overlays and quick references was one of the leading factors.
Keep up the good work, and remember that I just offerred an oppinion. Nothing more.
No problem, opinions are always welcomed!
Thanks for the tutorials , really helpfull.I am also interested in building boats and I have tried to do this using Blender but it doesn ‘t work . Can you make a tutorial on this? It would help me a lot.Happy new year …
There is another greate page with photographies taken from old industries and Detroit.
Check it out on:
http://www.marchandmeffre.com/
Wonderful link, thanks for this!
Hello Kernond,
I don’t know wether you sorted out the focal length problem already, but just in case: here is what I know about it.
Blender’s camera is (apparently) still based on the 35mm analogue camera. Most digital camera’s however have a sensor that is smaller then the old analogue 35mm negative. This size, however, is still the standard because there are differences in the size of the sensors of the various types of camera’s of various brands and makes. A camera with an actual 35mm sensor is called a full frame.
The relation between the focal length of the lens and the size of the sensor is called the crop factor. If the size of the sensor is 2/3 of the 35 mm standard then the Effective Focal Length or EFL is 1.5 times the actual focal length. IOW: a 18mm lens gives the same image as a 18*1.5=27 mm lens would give on a 35mm camera.
Since you already have contact with the photographer of the reference photo, you could ask him the make and the cropfactor of his cameara. Most manufacturers give this information in the manual. I use a Nikon D80 and it’s cropfactor is 1.5.
Hope this helps
Well this is lovely , Yes, ugh when Kernon Dillon ,first duplicates that cube to be the second post of the staircase blender shows optically correct image of the cube at distant . I mean when I say correct ,it is simply correct presentation of the image. Because Blenders wide lens is one wild supreme quality lens with no decay distortion errors at any wide angle , where as any high quality wide lens ,still yet would fail towards the edges of the view .
Thanks for the links and camera tips!
Boats…that’s an interesting subject that can go in many directions. I’ll keep it in mind.
Hey great tutorial thanks for uploading.
Quick question: how do you move the camera while looking throught it? when i press num0 then use the middle mouse button to pan around it leaves the camera behind. I’m new to blander so its probably a pathetic mistake on my part :p
Thanks
Alex
Thanks for these tutorials…
I’m an old hand with several 3D software… Wave, Max, XSI… I’m just now attempting to try out Blender…
your tutorials are getting me up to speed very quickly… Thanks for the effort…
I did nowever learn some new techique here in this one with your approach toward blocking off first…
I use this technique when ever I do oil paintings and pencil sketching… but I have a bad habbit of spending too much time on details when it comes to doing 3D work. So this has really helped…
Thanks again for the effort…
hope to meet you in person some time…
Norvell Maples