Anyone use Blender?

[Emily]

I've been teaching myself how to use a very nifty piece of software called Blender. ("Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, video editing and 2D animation pipeline").

My plan is to make time-lapse videos: I'm a painter, and am hoping to condense eight or nine hours of a painting process into a few minutes of a film with an audio overlay (where I explain what I am doing).

Blender has fantastic scope; one of my boys is a games developer and another a media producer (film & TV), and both of them use this in their chosen fields. I was thinking as I was learning that it would be a brilliant tool for writers to make promotional videos, short films, advertisements etc for their books. It's rather confusing initially trying to figure it out, but like anything, it eventually makes sense I found this guy who makes short instructional YouTube videos and his instruction is clear and accessible.

I was particularly thinking of you, @Paul Whybrow ; and when I came on here I spotted a post you wrote about same, I think? This might be a good one to look into, now you have the audio side of things sorted!

 

[RK Wallis]

I haven't, but maybe @Rachel Caldecott-Thornton's daughter?

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

I haven't, but maybe @Rachel Caldecott-Thornton's daughter?

My son does all the editing of my daughter's films (sets up the camera, lighting, then does the editing and soundtrack). He doesn't use Blender and was surprised that your sons do, as it was mainly made for 3D animation and 3D environment set up. But he guesses it would be ok for 2D stuff, but it wasn't designed for it. He uses Adobe Premier Pro. But there is also Final Cut, both of which you have to pay for.
But we'll see, once he's started film production at uni later this year (fingers crossed) he may sing a different song.

 

[Emily]

My boy (film production one) mostly uses Adobe Premiere Pro (and another one, possibly Final Cut? I'll ask) but has used Blender on small projects too. Blender is free so for anyone not wanting to spend a fortune making shorts or promo stuff, it's a great option

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

My boy (film production one) mostly uses Adobe Premiere Pro (and another one, possibly Final Cut? I'll ask) but has used Blender on small projects too. Blender is free so for anyone not wanting to spend a fortune making shorts or promo stuff, it's a great option

I'd love to see your artwork. So get filming!!!

 

[Barbara]

I'd love to see your artwork

Emily's artwork is AMAZING!! Well, Emily is AMAZING!!

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

Emily's artwork is AMZING!! Well, Emily is AMAZING!!

Well, I WANT TO SEE IT! I already know that Emily is amazing. That is obvious. Her kids sound cool too. But where can I see her work? Emily? Come out from under that bushel!

 

[Emily]

@Barbara , thank you, I love your bias

When I make the film, I'll show you, promise ( )

 

[Jonny]

This looks amazing but (for me) too baffling.

I have always fancied doing multimedia projects but the prospect of learning this type software from scratch looks daunting.

It's taken me over a year to become vaguely capable of basic photo-editing and image manipulation with GIMP. This looks a step too far. I'll just have to sell the rights of a book to Spielberg and have him make it for me.

I'm in awe of painters and have a friend who paints book jackets, among other things, for a living. He's amazing and was even commissioned to do an official set of postage stamps. He tells me that painting is a series of visual tricks, inferences and optical suggestions.

The old Bob Ross shows are on BBC4 currently and they are a fantastic way to spend half an hour. Relaxing and mesmerising too.

Come on @Emily - post a painting pic. I'd love to see one. Ah go-on go-on go-on go-on go-on GO ON!!