Mullen - Introducing character animation with blender 2.5

Acquisitions Editor: Mariann Barsolo

Development Editor: Stephanie Barton

Technical Editor: Terry Wallwork

Production Editor: Eric Charbonneau

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Cover Images: Alligator image copyright Julia Korbut

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Copyright 2011 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-470-42737-8 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-09065-7 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-09063-3 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-09064-0 (ebk)

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Dear Reader,

Thank you for choosing Introducing Character Animation with Blender, Second Edition. This book is part of a family of premium-quality Sybex books, all of which are written by outstanding authors who combine practical experience with a gift for teaching.

Sybex was founded in 1976. More than 30 years later, were still committed to producing consistently exceptional books. With each of our titles, were working hard to set a new standard for the industry. From the paper we print on, to the authors we work with, our goal is to bring you the best books available.

I hope you see all that reflected in these pages. Id be very interested to hear your comments and get your feedback on how were doing. Feel free to let me know what you think about this or any other Sybex book by sending me an email at . Customer feedback is critical to our efforts at Sybex.

Best regards,

Neil Edde

Vice President and Publisher

Sybex, an Imprint of Wiley

To Beni Nitha Mullen

Acknowledgments

As always, I am grateful to the dedicated Blender developers around the world who devote their time and effort to improving Blender. I would like to thank my editor Mariann Barsolo, editorial manager Pete Gaughan, development editor Stephanie Barton, technical editor Terry Wallwork, production editor Eric Charbonneau, and the rest of the team at Sybex who made this book happen. I would also like to thank the Blender user community for its support and particularly those readers of the first edition of this book who offered their comments on how it could be improved. Lastly, I am grateful to my wife, Yuka, and my daughters, Hana and Beni, for their love and support.

About the Author

Tony Mullen, PhD, has a broad background in CG-related work. He teaches at Tsuda College and Musashino Art University, where his courses have included modeling and animation with Blender and programming with Python. Mullen has been a cartoonist and an illustrator; his screen credits include writer, co-director, and lead animator on several short films, including the award-winning live-action/stop-motion film Gustav Braustache and the Auto-Debilitator . He is the author of five Blender-related books from Sybex including Blender Studio Projects: Digital Movie-Making (with Claudio Andaur) and Bounce, Tumble and Splash! Simulating the Physical World with Blender 3D .

Foreword

Truth be told, the first time I downloaded Blender I didnt know what I was getting into. I thought this animation stuff would be easy! I was about 14 years old when I first tried Blender, and if I remember correctly, it was probably about a year after the software was released as open source. That first day I spent about eight hours trying to model a cube, vertex by vertex. When I ended up with something that more closely resembled a scrambled egg, I wiped Blender from my hard drive out of frustration. I was not ready for Blender, and Blender was not ready for me. It was clunky and intimidating and hard on the eyes.

But when I came back to it only a couple months later, with a bit more patience and determination, I fell in love.

I feel in a way that I have grown up with Blender. As I have matured as an artist, I have witnessed Blender mature. Over the years I have been astonished at the rate of its development and the increasing breadth of its feature set. Blender has always been a capable 3D tool, but I think its only recently that it truly stands its ground next to its commercial counterparts. It has been my privilege to watch the software and the Blender community grow.