Tony Mullen's - Mastering Blender 2nd Edition - Ebook review

With the constant publication of Blender books and video training materials that are available to review, it can sometime become difficult to keep track of them all.

I managed to miss reviewing one of Tony Mullen's recent Blender related publications:

• Mastering Blender 2nd Edition

For those unaware Tony Mullen is a very experienced Blender user who writes books about topics related to Blender quicker than most people can read them;  The end result of all this writing is that he has amassed large collection of books covering many aspects of Blender.

The list of previous Tony Mullen books that are Blender related:

• Introducing Character Animation with Blender
• Bounce, Tumble, and Splash!
• Blender Studio Projects 
• Mastering Blender
• 3D for iPhone Apps with Blender and SIO2
• Introducing Character Animation with Blender, 2nd Edition

The content of his previous books have all been very high quality.  As Blender gets updated and new features get added Tony will come out with updated books covering the new features.  This is the case with "Mastering Blender 2nd Edition";  It is an update to the "Mastering Blender" book.

This update was released in December 2012, so this review is roughly 7 or 8 months late.  Luckily although Blender has had lots of new features and changes in the intervening months, the information in the book is for the most part still relevant and accurate.  There are small inconsistency but since this book is aimed at the intermediate Blender user this should not be a problem;  The book covers the 2.6x series of Blender.

Product Specifications:

• Name : Mastering Blender 2nd Edition
• Author : Tony Mullen
• Price : €48 (on 12th June 2013)
• Pages (Useful) : 630
• Format : Ebook (DRM Adobe Editions)

Mastering Blender 2nd Edition is a big book, it has to be because it tries to cover most of the major features that Blender has, giving an intermediate level Blender user a good grounding in the use of Blender.  I think this book will be a little hard to follow for a complete Blender beginner so the intermediate tag is appropriate.

The ebook version of this book that I read has full color pictures and they are very clear and numerous.  If you buy the printed book version the pictures are mostly in grayscale but there is a color inset in the book for the pictures which need to be in color to properly interpret them.  All the resources and files used throughout the book are provided on the website.  They downloaded quickly and reliably for me.

The book is split into 5 parts over 16 chapters:

Part I Fundamentals of Blender 3D

• Chapter 1 Working in Blender
  Data and Data Access
  Improving Your Workflow
  
• Chapter 2 Working with Textures and Materials
  Creating UV Textures with Blender and GIMP
  Advanced Materials with Material Nodes
  Transparency and Subsurface Scattering
  Creating Convincing Real-Time Viewport Materials with Material Capture Images
  
• Chapter 3 Sculpting and Retopo Workflow
  Sculpting with Blender
  Retopologizing the Mesh
  Normal Map Baking

• Chapter 4 Rendering and Render Engines
  What Is Rendering?
  Rendering with Cycles
  Rendering with Renderfarm.fi

Part II Physics and Simulations

• Chapter 5 Getting Flexible with Soft Bodies and Cloth
  The Hard Facts on Soft Bodies
  Force Fields and Collision

• Chapter 6 Working with Particles
  Introducing Emitter Particles
  Working with Boids
  Hair Particles

• Chapter 7 Volumetric Fluid, Smoke, and Fire
  Using the Blender Fluid Simulator
  Getting the Shot
  Simulating Smoke and Fire
  

• Chapter 8 Bullet Physics and the Blender Game Engine
  Physics in the BGE
  Rigid Body Simulation and F-Curves
  Joints, Ragdolls, and Robots
  Further Resources

Part III Video Post-production in Blender

• Chapter 9 Compositing with Nodes
  Compositing with Render Layers and Passes
  Pulling a Green Screen Matte with Nodes
  Using the AnimAll Add-on

• Chapter 10 Advanced 3D/Video Compositing
  Camera Tracking and the Movie Clip Editor
  Setting Up the Scene in 3D
  Masking in the Clip Editor

• Chapter 11 Working with the Video Sequence Editor
  Introducing the Video Sequence Editor
  Adding Transitions and Compositing in the VSE
  Working with Blender Scenes in the VSE

Part IV Blender-Python

• Chapter 12 The Blender-Python Interpreter
  Introducing Python
  Understanding the Python Development Environment
  Understanding Python Syntax

• Chapter 13 Python Scripting for Blender
  Editing and Running Scripts in Blender
  Creating an Interactive Add-on
  Working with Custom Properties

Part V Mastering the Blender Game Engine

• Chapter 14 Creating Assets for the Blender Game Engine
  Creating Content for the Game Engine
  Setting Up the World
  Getting More Familiar with the BGE Environment

• Chapter 15 Making Things Happen in the Game Engine
  Working with Logic Bricks
  Using Properties, Messages, and States
  Creating Special Effects with Textures
  Working with Sound in the BGE

• Chapter 16 Python Power in the Blender Game Engine
  From Logic Bricks to Python
  Python Power for the BGE
  Sound Effects and Multiple Viewports
  Further Resources

As can be seen from the table of contents list above the range of topics covered is extensive.  All of the chapters are well written and very clear.

The teaching approach taken in each of the chapters is to explain a particular topic in enough detail for you to follow along and then links are given for you to find even more information if you want to get even more in depth.

One very nice feature was that at the end of each chapter there are a set of challenges that the book asks you to complete;  These challenges serve to cement your knowledge of the topics just discussed in that chapter.  I found this approach very useful and I think it's a method that serves well in really getting you to understand certain topics.  If you just want to read without doing the challenges you can, the book does not require that you do them to be useful.

Each of the chapters of the book has information in them that Blender users will find useful and informative.  Standout parts for me were the coverage of materials and textures, Python and Blender Game Engine use.  I liked the  texturing section as it covered methods of creating seamless textures that I had not seen before;  The Python and Blender Game Engine coverage I liked because it's always good when less covered features of Blender are detailed.

Other topics such as sculpting, baking, retopology and sub-surface scattering are also covered in extensive detail.

Both the theory side and practical sides of the subjects are covered so if you are completely new to a topic Tony describes what it is and why it is useful.

Another section that got my interest was the coverage of Blender's Camera Tracking and Movie Clip editor.  I think this is the first time I have seen this feature covered in a book.  It was covered well and will be useful to those who want to get into Camera Tracking.

There is one major downside to this ebook and that is the DRM (Adobe Digital Editions) that is applied to the ebook.  It is so troublesome that I actually had to find a hacked unencrypted version just to read it on my Linux machine.  So if you are against DRM or not on Windows I would suggest not going for the ebook version and instead buy the paper book instead.  Wiley/Sybex really need to do something about this appalling DRM (just as other publishers have), it harms Tony's book.

So even though I am late in reviewing this book its content is excellent (even though it is wrapped in DRM stupidity) and still accurate enough to be relevant.  If you are wanting to brush up on you Blender knowledge this book will do the job very well.

Review Score 85%

Tony Mullen and Claudio Andaur - Blender Studio Projects - Digital Movie Making - Book Revie

Months ago I pre-ordered "Blender Studio Projects" book, and a few days ago it arrived and I set about getting my reading head on.

• Product Specifications:
• Name : Blender Studio Projects - Digital Movie Making
• Price : £49.99 (on 3rd June 2010)
• Pages : 270 (roughly)
• Format : Book
• Extra : DVD resources

Authors Tony Mullen and Claudio Andaur wrote this book under the Sybex Serious Skills series, meaning that it is not a beginning Blender users book. Tony Mullen has produced several books and is well known. Claudio Andaur works for Licuadora Studios and has also worked on Plumiferos (a feature film made in Blender). He is known as Malefico in Blender IRC circles.

The two authors combine their fields of expertise to produce this Intermediate/Advanced level breakdown of the various studio quality production pipeline processes, using multiple scenes from a short feature made at Licuadora Studio.

The end result being an understanding of the major tasks involved in making a short feature.

I think the book manages to work its way through the various stages very clearly and efficiently. Not dwelling too much on the little details most of the time, but when the small details do need to be described, they are.

I was especially impressed with the modelling section and the compositing sections, each gave a very clear and detailed description of the various tricks and time savers that help to keep a large production such as the one presented in the book on time and computer efficient.

One thing I did notice quiet a lot was the numerous references to other Blender books, so it would probably be very beneficial to have read most of the other Blender books out there before starting this one, especially "Introduction to Character Animation" and "Animating with Blender", I would also recommend reading "Blender for Dummies" if you are a beginner also.

Various Blender 2.5 features and changes are covered in brief throughout the material giving hints as to what to be expected when it is finally released. Although for the most part the version of Blender covered in the majority of this book is 2.49b specific using a custom build from Licuadora Studios.

Another highlight was the coverage of drivers using Python and how to leverage their power for various modelling and texturing effects. It was describe in a fair amount of detail and people interested in the Python side of things will find this small section of the book very interesting I would imagine.

It reminds me very much of Roland Hess's book "Animating with Blender", and that was a very good book also.

So all in all a very good new Blender book, well worth adding to your collection if you are interested in studio project productions using Blender.

Review Score 89%

Tony Mullen - 3D for IPhone Apps with Blender and SIO2: Your Guide to Creating 3D Games and More with Open-source Software - Book Review

I ordered this book from amazon a while back and it finally arrived. I have been looking forward to reading it for a couple of reasons, the first being that it's another Tony Mullen book and this is a good enough reason for me, the second being that it covers an area of software development for the iPhone while using Blender 3D software, which I have not seen in a book up to this point.

• Product Specifications:
• Name : IPhone Apps with Blender and SIO2
• Price : £20.49 (on 4th March 2010)
• Pages : 289 (roughly)
• Format : Book

The first thing I should make clear is that I run and use a Linux Fedora 12 operating system platform, I have never and most likely will never own an Apple Macintosh or iPhone!

This you would think would matter given that this book covers software development on an all Apple software toolchain. You will need an Apple Mac to follow along with the tutorials presented within the book. So even though the Blender and SIO2 game environments are opensourced, the iPhone SDK and Apple Mac are not.

The book does a very good job of covering the basics of how to develop iPhone applications in concert with SIO2 and Blender 2.49. So even though I don't own any Apple software I was able to follow along with the tutorials presented in the book and understand the clear and well described tutorials. SIO2 for those who do not know is the equivalent of Blenders Game Engine but for an iPhone.

Although Tony presents everything in a clear and concise manner, this book NOT for beginners, he does take some time to describe and go through much of the background information a beginner would need to follow along. However something as big and complex and C programming and OpenGL programming and SIO2 game engine programming is just not able to be covered in enough depth in such a small page count, so many times the book refers the reader to the relevant websites for more information. You will be expected to both understand C/C++/Objective C, and OpenGL. There are many code examples and some are slightly advanced but they are well described and clearly laid out.

The appendices at the back of the book will be very useful to beginners in getting them upto speed with Blender and the very basics of terminology with OpenGL.

The book starts by going through the steps required to install the iPhone SDK, configuring XCode (Apples graphical programming IDE), obtaining and installing Blender and SIO2 installation and setup for use with the iPhone OS. How to use the iPhone simulator is gone over, showing the user how to use it for debugging and testing while developing iPhone apps. Once the setup and installation preliminaries have been gotten out of the way the book then moves to actually developing a very simple Hello World type demonstration application which covers getting applications running in the iPhone simulator and uploading it to an actual iPhone device.

Once the demonstration application is covered the book moves on to creating a useful application from the ground up in stages. The first Application displays a rotatable Globe on the iPhone which responds to screen touches and tapping.

I found the sections on baking and using texture and materials as well as unwrapping textures from Blender and the details of how to export them to SIO2 using the export script very easy to understand, and I think even if a person had never used Blender before, they would be clear on what to do.

The coverage of animation and actions within Blender and how to use them within SIO2 was brief but very easy to understand. By the end of the book you have a little usable iPhone application which covers a lot of the features and functionality of the Apple iPhone.

The very last section covers widgets, rounding out the books coverage of iPhone and was a little brief but still useful.

So all in all the book does what it says on the cover, but only if you come with required prerequisites of understanding at least a little of Blender, C Programming and OpenGL information and transformations or at the very least are prepared to do a little background research.

Excellent book, clearly written and get right to the point.

Review Score 85%

Tony Mullen - Mastering Blender - My thoughts

I keeping up slightly more effectively this time as I have finished reading and digesting a new book that came out recently.

It's by Tony Mullen so I was eager to get this one and get it read:

• Product Specifications
• Price : 39.00 euros (on 2nd of May 2009)
• Page Count : 410 roughly useful pages
• CD Included : Yes

Having read it, I have mixed feelings on its usefulness and overall completeness.

The book has 12 chapters and the book as a whole is divided into 3 parts.

Below is a list of Chapters:

• PART 1 - MASTERING BLENDER 3D
• CHAPTER 1 - CONTROLLING YOUR ENVIRONMENT
• CHAPTER 2 - SCULPTING AND RETOPO WORKFLOW
• CHAPTER 3 - CREATING REALISTIC IMAGES WITH UV TEXTURES
• CHAPTER 4 - VIDEO COMPOSITING WITH NODES
• CHAPTER 5 - WORKING WITH THE VIDEO SEQUENCE EDITOR
• PART 2 - MASTERING BLENDER PYTHON
• CHAPTER 6 - PYTHON FOR THE IMPATIENT
• CHAPTER 7 - PYTHON SCRIPTING FOR BLENDER
• CHAPTER 8 - THE MANY-HEADED SNAKE: USES OF PYTHON IN BLENDER
• PART 3 - MASTERING THE BLENDER GAME ENGINE
• CHAPTER 9 - CREATING ASSETS FOR THE BLENDER GAME ENGINE
• CHAPTER 10 - MAKING THINGS HAPPEN IN THE GAME ENGINE
• CHAPTER 11 - PYTHON POWER IN THE BLENDER GAME ENGINE

Just looking at the topics of the chapters covered I was very impressed, but as I am all to aware, just using the chapter names to figure out how well particular topics are covered is always a risky business. Unfortunately this is the situation with this book.

The book is aimed at intermediate and advanced Blender users.

This is the first problem that I see with it. In that a lot of the information covered in the first 5 chapters, it's arguable as to weather the information is described in enough depth, so as to allow a truly intermediate/advanced Blender user to gain any useful information. In my opinion only chapters 2 and 3 out of the first 5 go into enough depth for an intermediate/advanced user. Chapters 1,4,5 do indeed cover some of the less well know uses of Blender but don't go into enough depth. A lot of the finer points of why things were done a particular way were not covered. To be honest if you were an intermediate/advanced Blender user you would already (or should already) know the topics covered in Part 1 of this book.

So for Part 1 of the book, I would say the topics covered were limited. An example would be the information on the use of Nodes to make textures. The amount of coverage of something so advanced and as useful as texture nodes was laughable, a few screenshots and scant explanation of why they were used and the full potential of what can be done with them was never really gone into. It reminded me of reading an FAQ there was no depth and a lack of structure.

At this point I was not at all impressed with this book, it was a shock because normally everything Tony Mullen touches is pure gold when it comes to Blender. Yes I know that intermediate/advanced books generally skimp on some details, but a good intermediate/advanced book makes up for the stuff they skip with extra stuff that people don't generally know. This is not the case with chapters 1 to 5.

It may be that if you aren't an intermediate/advanced Blender user that you may get more out of Part 1, but even if this is so, you would be much better off getting Jason Van Gumsters book (Blender for Dummies), which does a much better job than this book in a lot of areas.

However....

If we ignore Part 1 of the book and move onto Parts 2 and 3, things take a rapid upturn. So much so that all I can assume is Mr Mullen must of had a few off days while writing part 1. To me parts 2 and 3 are like reading a completely different book.

These parts cover the use of the Python from within the Blender modelling environment and from the Blender Game Engine environment. In short these parts of the book are worth their weight in gold. They contain information that is often very hard to come by and is not very well documented.

If you are interested in using Python with Blender this is the book for you. It is a shame that you have to work your way through half the book before it starts to get to really useful information.

Another problem which counts against the book is that fact that it uses black and white pictures which unfortunately because of the quality of the printing were often not very clear and cloudy. This problem is partially eased because the book does have a colour supplement in the middle of he book. The problem is some of the unclear pictures did not have references within the colour supplement. Also reference was made so often to the supplement and there were so many pictures in the supplement that it would of been quicker to just make the book have all colour pictures to start with. I know this puts the price of the book up but it would really have benefited.

The review score below would be much higher if part 1 of the book had been to the same standard as parts 2 and 3.

This book is worth getting but only if you are interested in use of Python within Blender.

Review Score 70%