more materials libraries

http://www.idstudio.it/bullx/blender/visualappend/

http://www.blender-materials.com/

Freestyle and blender again

I've had the chance to use Freestyle and blender combined, and I can't wait for 2.50 to come out, so I can try them properly!

The linux version I have seems to hang on some of the freestyle nodes which are listed as working on the following web page:
http://maximecurioni.com/freestyle/?page_id=103

However, running a windows build under Virtualbox as a virtual machine, they seem to work fine. I may try running it under Wine again to see if I can get the windows version to work on Linux.

In the Blender artists thread for Freestyle, there are quite a few style modules being created and modified, i hope to post them here. There is also an editor (which seems to use a specific format?) for style modules.

Pynodes and NPR

This thread on Blender artists has some interesting node set ups using pynodes, most notably (for me) the halftone one, since I've been trying to get something like this for ages!
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=125741&page=6

this is the blender pynodes cookbook.
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Resources/PyNode_Cookbook

some notes on writing renderman shaders
http://accad.osu.edu/~smay/RManNotes/WritingShaders/surf1.html

more renderman shader writing links
http://www.fundza.com/

someday I'll have a look through this and try to write my own but for now I'll just post it here! I need to finish a few projects first before I can start in on node experiments with a proper project! argh! Maybe I can se them for a game or something? GLSL shaders in real time? hmm.....

paper sculptures

I've always wanted to make an animation that looks like paper sculpture. Its not really natural media, because it requires a really good lighting model (mine looks pretty fake, the shadows are awful, and the models are a bit hard on the edges.
Mostly I'd be into bas-relief. It'd be pretty neat, but fairly hard to animate I think, though the lighting would be the toughest bit.

Wibbles

This is a neat style, like water colours. The way I figure it, the effect can be reproduced by using Oyster's materials which do the charcoal/edge jitter effect, plus added to my edge expansion one. (from here)
To do this, it might be possible to make the vibrations a bit lighter? It may also be able to get the edges and getting the lines expanded like using a brush? What about finding the edge and making a bline/path with it? hmmm?

It might be possible to make a watercolour alike, which means using brushes to make strokes, what about blurring them brushes? Smearing over the paths somehow? What about leaving the camera open, or motion blurring it for ages?

Reebok/Nike style animation

This is based on an advert I saw in the internet once. Its pretty simple, just make the robots, and colour the faces with the different colours. They all have a maxed out ambient. Thats it.



The other thing I thought of, was the Spektor (um, that what his name is?) scribbles. They are kind of robots heads, half robot half rabbit really.

Also I think the Back To Mine album covers are very, very cool. I'm trying to figure out this, possibly using colours and doing an edge search, or cutting the people up, and using camera planes to do it, or even using transparent materials? hmm....

International deviance

This is a cartoon I made as a fan video for Disasteradio, a local artist. I really like his stuff, and see him play as often as I can. Its a track from one of his albums, the story is really strong, and the video pretty much wrote itself.
Anyway, its here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9LXeGg0BnA
Basically, the video was made in blender. The shapes are planes and bezier circles with an unshaded material on them. The shapes are kind of like cut-outs, the movement is all in the X and Y planes.