Hi Matt - What an interesting and informative tutorial. I've used Steve Goods patterns for many scroll saw projects and like your tutorials they are easy to follow. I. notice that it's a year since your last Blender tutorial (and I'm only just starting, having previously given up with all the 'advanced' tutorials). Have you in the mean time discovered a way to design in Blender without first having to draw in 2D?
Interesting question about drawing in Blender; 2D or 3D. I ONLY draw in 3D using Blender. I have not done any 2D drawing in Blender (yet). (Drawing in 2D using Blender is a whole different topic. I think you've given me an good idea for a follow up video, thanks!) For the sake of making this video, I decided to make a 2D drawing of the puzzle pieces using a different program called LibreCAD. I did this so I could switch easily between the 2D LibreCAD drawing and Blender (3D) as I explained how I made the puzzle pieces in 3D using Blender. If I wasn't making the video, I probably would just make a simple pencil sketch to reference while drawing in 3D. I hope this makes sense. In the very beginning of the video, I showed how to create a simple rectangle of ANY size and shape by entering in X, Y, and Z lengths in the side panel that comes out when pressing the N key. If you understand how to do this, you can create rectangles just by entering in the 3 lengths. (It occurs to me as I write this, that maybe I should make another video that explains this in more detail and with more examples so thanks for giving me the idea!) If you didn't want to enter any lengths, you can use the tools on the left side of the screen to make your rectangles by eye (no exact size). I have done this from time time and this is VERY fast and VERY powerful. At the risk of rambling a little bit, for YEARS, I have wanted to find a simple way to draw in 3D without the complications of drawing to an exact size, I can do that using Blender. It's like drawing in 3D on paper except that you can spin the objects around on the computer screen and can't on paper. Hopefully, that makes sense. (I can't tell you how many notebooks I have filled up drawing 3D objects using pencil and paper and then feeling frustrated because I couldn't easily change the view.) I could go on and on, but I won't and just leave you with one other thought. If you have ever looked at any books or videos that teach basic drawing, one of the 1st skills explained is to begin to look at ALL objects as a collection of very basic shapes (rectangles, spheres, cones, pyramids, etc.). Blender has all of these basic shapes already drawn for you in 3D. Each of these shapes is called a mesh. Just add a mesh to your scene, adjust the size, and then position it relative to all of the other objects (meshes) in your scene. That's all I am really doing in this video when I draw the puzzle pieces (animating the pieces is a separate procedure). For the puzzle pieces, I only needed to use several copies of the cube mesh, adjust the size, and position them to form the shape of the puzzle pieces. Hopefully this makes sense. What I would suggest is that you watch the video again and try to draw the puzzle pieces in Blender. You can pause, rewind, slow the payback speed, etc. of my video as much as you need to so you can see exactly what I am doing. You can make a pencil sketch first if that would help you. Just draw the pieces; don't worry about learning how to animate them yet. Thanks for your question and for watching.
Nice job man!
Thanks. I was a fun animation to work on.
Thanks for your comment and for watching.
Tremendous work! 👍
Thank-you
😍😍😍😍😍
Thanks.
Hi Matt - What an interesting and informative tutorial. I've used Steve Goods patterns for many scroll saw projects and like your tutorials they are easy to follow. I. notice that it's a year since your last Blender tutorial (and I'm only just starting, having previously given up with all the 'advanced' tutorials). Have you in the mean time discovered a way to design in Blender without first having to draw in 2D?
Interesting question about drawing in Blender; 2D or 3D. I ONLY draw in 3D using Blender. I have not done any 2D drawing in Blender (yet). (Drawing in 2D using Blender is a whole different topic. I think you've given me an good idea for a follow up video, thanks!)
For the sake of making this video, I decided to make a 2D drawing of the puzzle pieces using a different program called LibreCAD. I did this so I could switch easily between the 2D LibreCAD drawing and Blender (3D) as I explained how I made the puzzle pieces in 3D using Blender. If I wasn't making the video, I probably would just make a simple pencil sketch to reference while drawing in 3D. I hope this makes sense.
In the very beginning of the video, I showed how to create a simple rectangle of ANY size and shape by entering in X, Y, and Z lengths in the side panel that comes out when pressing the N key. If you understand how to do this, you can create rectangles just by entering in the 3 lengths. (It occurs to me as I write this, that maybe I should make another video that explains this in more detail and with more examples so thanks for giving me the idea!)
If you didn't want to enter any lengths, you can use the tools on the left side of the screen to make your rectangles by eye (no exact size). I have done this from time time and this is VERY fast and VERY powerful. At the risk of rambling a little bit, for YEARS, I have wanted to find a simple way to draw in 3D without the complications of drawing to an exact size, I can do that using Blender. It's like drawing in 3D on paper except that you can spin the objects around on the computer screen and can't on paper. Hopefully, that makes sense. (I can't tell you how many notebooks I have filled up drawing 3D objects using pencil and paper and then feeling frustrated because I couldn't easily change the view.)
I could go on and on, but I won't and just leave you with one other thought.
If you have ever looked at any books or videos that teach basic drawing, one of the 1st skills explained is to begin to look at ALL objects as a collection of very basic shapes (rectangles, spheres, cones, pyramids, etc.). Blender has all of these basic shapes already drawn for you in 3D. Each of these shapes is called a mesh. Just add a mesh to your scene, adjust the size, and then position it relative to all of the other objects (meshes) in your scene. That's all I am really doing in this video when I draw the puzzle pieces (animating the pieces is a separate procedure).
For the puzzle pieces, I only needed to use several copies of the cube mesh, adjust the size, and position them to form the shape of the puzzle pieces. Hopefully this makes sense.
What I would suggest is that you watch the video again and try to draw the puzzle pieces in Blender. You can pause, rewind, slow the payback speed, etc. of my video as much as you need to so you can see exactly what I am doing. You can make a pencil sketch first if that would help you. Just draw the pieces; don't worry about learning how to animate them yet.
Thanks for your question and for watching.