Mullen - Mastering Blender

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Copyright 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-470-40741-7

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mullen, Tony, 1971- Mastering Blender / Tony Mullen. p. cm. ISBN 978-0-470-40741-7 (paper/cd-rom) 1. Computer graphics. 2. Computer animation. 3. Three-dimensional display systems. 4. Blender (Computer file) I. Title. T385.M847 2009 006.6930285536--dc22 2009001899

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Dear Reader,

Thank you for choosing Mastering Blender. 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.

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To Hana Marie Mullen, with love

Acknowledgments

As always, my thanks go first and foremost to Ton Roosendaal and all the Blender developers for all their hard work and dedication. You guys are doing important work and deserve the heartfelt gratitude of the entire community of Blender users. I am tempted to begin naming names, but I would not know where to stop. Please visit http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/List_of_Contributors for a complete list of the current developers and the specific work they have done. I would, however, like to single out Blender developer Nathan Letwory (jesterKing), who allowed me to benefit from his expertise as technical editor of this book.

Many other developers and users have helped me in researching and writing this book, and Im very grateful for all the support Ive received from the Blender community. I cant list all of the individuals at BlenderArtists.org whose artwork, comments, and tutorials have helped me to learn what I know about Blender, but I am particularly grateful for those who helped me as I ventured outside my comfort zone to write about the Blender Game Engine. Special thanks to BlenderArtists.org forum members Social, Mmph!, Blendenzo, and the other BGE gurus who were always eager to help me with my questions and investigations of this sometimes arcane functionality. Im also very grateful to Dolf Veenvliet (macouno) and Campbell Barton (ideasman_42), who helped me enormously to deepen my knowledge of Blenders Python API.

Throughout this book, I have referred to websites, tutorials, support threads, and other resources created by members of the community, and I am very grateful to all of those who have shared their knowledge. Once again, many thanks to Bart Veldhuizen and the contributors to BlenderNation.com, and to Roel Spruit and all the moderators and administrators at BlenderArtists.org for their support and for the great service they provide the Blender community.

This book would not have been possible without the efforts of my editors and colleagues at Sybex/Wiley, and Im very grateful to all of them. Thank you to Mariann Barsolo, Pete Gaughan, Kathryn Duggan, Rachel Gunn, Kelly Trent, and everyone else who had a hand in publishing and promoting the book.

Im also very grateful to my colleagues and students at Tsuda College for their support and encouragement of my Blender-related work.

As always, I am grateful to my wife, Yuka, for her tireless support, and especially for looking after the baby while I was spending all those hours working on this book!