3D Animation using Blender

Lesson 1: Introduction to Visual Effects and Blender

• 3D: General Principles
• Making and Rendering Your First Scenes

Lesson 2: Editing Objects                                      

• Basic Principle: Data blocks
• Separating and Joining Objects
• Object Modifiers
• Converting to Mesh from Curve

Lesson 3: Texturing, Principles, and Practice

• How to Visually Break Down Materials
• Materials, Textures, and How They Get onto Surfaces
• UV Mapping Basics
• Textures in More Depth
• More Complicated Procedural Textures with Nodes
• Material Nodes

Lesson 4: Further Texturing and Rendering in Cycles

• Three-Point Lighting Setup
• Advanced Textures
• Camera Effects and Properties
• Cycles Renderer and Its Settings

Lesson 5: Sculpting and Baking Normal Maps

• Sculpting Detail
• Baking & Retopologizing
• Automatic Tessellation and 3D Sketching

Lesson 6: Compositing

• Buildup of a Scene
• Color Correction and Texture Editing
• Sweetening and VFX

Lesson 7: Basic Animation—Camera and Objects

• Constraints for Automating Animation
• Animated Textures
• Output to Video Files

Lesson 8: Camera Mapping and 2.5D

• Parallax Described and Demonstrated
• 5D Plate Preparation & 2.5D When?
• Web and Interactive—2.5D/3D GIF and VR Imagery

Lesson 9: Tracking and Replacement

• Tracking—Practical Examples
• Tracking—Addition and Replacement
• Use of Green-Screen (Monochromatic Environment Removal)

Lesson 10: Animation of Characters

• The Armature
• Bones
• Poses and Key frames

Lesson 11: Particles and Fluids

• Setting Up Particle Systems
• Texturing of Particles
• Particles as Hair

Lesson 12: Video Editing and Addition of Sound

• Working with Sound/Video Sequence Editor
• Compositor
• Sound Effects
• Final Output