Yesterday and today, I visited a classroom at a local school. It was really great. We haven't started animating yet or anything, or even illustrating. But we read our story (about butterflies) and talked about life cycles. One kid got carried away and after we talked about caterpillars morphing into butterflies, said something like, "and… Continue reading Animations with kids
Tag: Blender3D
New school project
Not too long ago, I grumbled on here about how no teacher wanted me to come to their class and do a free project with them. I am adept at grumbling, so why hold back if you're good at something? And besides, I can't just write about when I'm full of hopes and everything is… Continue reading New school project
Making an apple in Blender
Not a kitchen blender, mind you, but a 3D apple. This was a nice tutorial for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3INXsREoYk0 There were two others I found, but they just seemed weird. I like this one. At the end, I think the coloring of the apple to make it red got a little mixed up, but as far… Continue reading Making an apple in Blender
Get out the vote with teenagers
I met with four teenagers from the Concord Multicultural Community Student Union the other day. It was a wonderful time. They brought up issues they care about, then we plotted out how to make an effective or catchy or emotional post/video for each issue. Then, I called my dad and he rushed over to bring… Continue reading Get out the vote with teenagers
more fun stuff in Blender
I already wrote about easy panning and zooming in Blender, and now I've learned how to shorten the image on the screen so you can, for example, put a black bar of captions at the bottom. And I just now realized I can even rotate photos! In this miserable time of hopelessness and evil, this… Continue reading more fun stuff in Blender
How to pan and zoom in Blender
When you're making an animation, you actually have to "render" each frame of the film. So for example, this little snippet .... is actually composed of lots of images like this, all strung together and flipped through: It's a super nice way of getting things done, but the process of getting your computer to "render"… Continue reading How to pan and zoom in Blender
Parchment scroll in Blender 3D
I wanted to make something that looked like a constitution: That was what I came up with. I like it. However, while making an animation, the thing mysteriously unraveled and I couldn't figure out how to stop it. I thought, no biggie, I'll delete it and make another. Well! I was using this tutorial and… Continue reading Parchment scroll in Blender 3D
Cardinal bird in Blender
The cardinal is the state bird in North Carolina. I made one in Blender last night: First, I started off with a cube and shaped a little beak. Then the crown and the rest of the head and torso: The rest of the bird emerges! Still doesn't have wings here, and maybe looks like a… Continue reading Cardinal bird in Blender
Behind-the-scenes: animation
In June or July, I finished up an animation called "The tale of the Bristlecone pine." It's three minutes long, and it's about drought and tree rings. Someone asked, 'how do you make all the 3D landscapes?" So I thought I'd give a behind-the-scenes tour! First, I use a free, open-source software called Blender3D, which… Continue reading Behind-the-scenes: animation
Fifth article for WIRED
I published 3 articles within 8 days! But there are two extra weeks you should count at the beginning when I was working on them and didn't publish anything. One was about air pollution in a mostly Black neighborhood in Maryland. Oh yeah, I mentioned that here before. It's the one I did the GIS… Continue reading Fifth article for WIRED
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