CG Masters - Master It - Volumes 1 & 2 - DVD Training Review

CG Masters have released another one of their tutorial series this time called "Master It"; 

It's a two volume Blender video training course which is aimed at beginning Blender users.  With it's aim being to take those beginners and give them broad exposure to many of Blenders different tools and features, enabling them to get up and running quickly when using Blender.

This course is presented by Christopher Plush and Aidy Burrows.  Both Christopher and Aidy are very talented Blender users with a lot of Blender knowledge to impart.

Product Specifications:

• Name : Master It - Volumes 1 & 2
• Author : Christopher Plush & Aidy Burrows
• Price : $60 (on 29th November 2013)
• Runtime : 17Hrs 54Min 54Sec
• Format : Download
• Shop URL : http://www.cgmasters.net/training-dvds/master-it/

 

If you decide to purchase this training course then you have two options, you can either buy a physical DVD or you can download an electronic version.  In either case the price of the course is the same and both version present the same material.

The price is one of the first things I noticed.  For $60 dollars you get almost 18 hours of training material.  So the value for money aspect is very high given the quality of the training material.

As with all CG Masters tutorial materials the content is produced to an extremely high quality;  The video and audio are very clear and easy to follow.  With lots of realtime and occasionally timelapsed video recording.  Chris and Aidy are very good an explaing what they are doing throughout their videos.

The materials provided in the course include all the Blend files, videos, textures and final results of all the work for you to examine. You can access the videos and other resources either directly using your own media player of choice, or alternatively access all the content from inside your web browser.

The web browser interface neatly organizes all the course content into manageable sizes allowing you to quickly navigate to the sections that interest you most.

This is a course for beginning Blender users so it is designed to be watched from start to finish and where possible you are advised to follow along and try and carryout the tasks shown in the training videos.

Unlike a lot of beginner type courses this one tries to cover all of the most fundamental features of Blender and it's tools.  By necessity it can't cover every single feature but it does cover a lot of different topics, and most of the important tools and features are covered.

Topics List:

Volume 1 - Section 1 - Welcome To Class 

• Chapter 1 - How To View
• Chapter 2 - Common Terminology

Volume 1 - Section 2 - Understanding Blender

• Chapter 1 - 3D Space
• Chapter 2 - Anatomy Of A Mesh
• Chapter 3 - Saving And Loading
• Chapter 4 - Window Types
• Chapter 5 - Creating A New Layout
• Chapter 6 - Toolbars
• Chapter 7 - Layers
• Chapter 8 - User Preferences

Volume 1 - Section 3 - Working with Blender

• Chapter 1 - Object Mode
• Chapter 2 - Part 1 - Edit Mode & Modeling
• Chapter 2 - Part 2 - Creating A Toon House
• Chapter 3 - The 3D Cursor And Object Origins
• Chapter 4 - The Specials Menu
• Chapter 5 - Materials And Textures
• Chapter 6 - UV Unwrapping
• Chapter 7 - Color, Normal, and Specular Maps

Volume 1 - Section 4 - Lighting and Rendering

• Chapter 1 - Blender Internal VS Cycles Renderer
• Chapter 2 - Camera
• Chapter 3 - Lighting
• Chapter 4 - Lighting And Rendering A Scene

Volume 1 - Section 5 - Modifiers

• Chapter 1 - Introduction to Modifiers
• Chapter 2 - Generate Modifiers
• Chapter 3 - Deform Modifiers

Volume 1 - Section 6 - Animation and Physics

• Chapter 1 - Introduction to Animation
• Chapter 2 - Object Animation
• Chapter 3 - Cannon Blast Exercise

Volume 1 - Section 7 - Game Engine

• Chapter 1 - Introduction
• Chapter 2 - Adding The Main Controls
• Chapter 3 - The Keys
• Chapter 4 - Opening The Door
• Chapter 5 - The Final Product

Volume 1 - Section 8 - Tips And Tricks

• Chapter 1 - Tips And Tricks
• Chapter 2 - Creating Normal And Specular Maps
• Chapter 3 - Normal Maps, Bump Maps, Displacement Maps, Which One Do I Use?

Volume 2 - Section 1 - Acoustic Guitar In Cycles

• Chapter 1 - Setting Up The Blueprints
• Chapter 2 - Modeling The Body
• Chapter 3 - Neck And Headstock
• Chapter 4 - Fretboard
• Chapter 5 - Turning Pegs
• Chapter 6 - Strings
• Chapter 7 - UV Mapping
• Chapter 8 - Creating The Texture Maps
• Chapter 9 - The Environment
• Chapter 10 - Rendering In Cycles

Volume 2 - Section 2 - Game Scene Overview

• Chapter 1 - Baking AO And Shadow Maps
• Chapter 2 - Game Scene Overview

Volume 2 - Section 3 - Finishing The Toon House

• Chapter 1 - Addons - Grass, Ivy, Clouds
• Chapter 2 - Nodes
• Chapter 3 - Finished Toon House Overview

Volume 2 - Section 4 - Cool Extras

• Chapter 1 - More Addons
• Chapter 2 - Cloth Simulation
• Chapter 3 - Face Modeling Made Easy
• Chapter 4 - Making Tileable Textures

As you can see from the topics list above the range of topics covered is very extensive.

Videos range in length from just a few minutes to over an hour.

The course is split between two volumes. The first covers the very basics, while the second volume covers slightly more advanced topics.

The standout part for me in volume one was the creation of a cartoon style house.  Using a select few tools Chris was able to create a very fun looking house.  This house is later improved on in volume two.

The second volume can be thought of as using all the topics and tools covered in the first volume to product bigger more complex projects.  For example volume two goes over how to model and texture a guitar, using all the tools mentioned in the previous first volume.  Volume two also covers various extra features and tools that Blender provides, such as addons and simulation features.

I personally would have prefered more and deeper coverage of the Blender Game Engine and a little more focus on the Shading Nodes of Blender Cycles Render.  Although both Blender Internal features and Blender Cycles render features are covered, a little more coverage of the Cycles nodes would have been welcome.  That said for a beginner course there is more than enough coverage to keep you busy learning and digesting what is in this course for a long time.  Also note that the Blender Game Engine coverage does not cover Python Scripting.  The Video Sequence Editor is not covered but is planned for a future course.

So all in all these two volumes are excellent and will get a beginner up to speed and confident in using Blender very quickly.  Even if you are not a complete beginner you will likely learn something from the second volume with its more advanced coverage.

So two volumes of training videos at this price, with this level of quality, it's a good choice;  If you are wanting to get a handle on Blender they are well worth having.

Review Score 90%

Nathan Vegdahl's - Humane Rigging - DVD Review

Another month and it's time to do another Blender Foundation Open Movie Workshop training DVD release review.

The Blender Foundation Open Movie Workshop training DVD are high quality training DVD's covering all aspects of production and training in relation to Blender 3D. They are the nearest thing to official/gold standard training that the Blender Community currently has access to, as they tend to be created by the people that created Blender. Each DVD is released under Creative Commons Licensing.  The sale of the training DVD helps support the Blender Foundation and helps in improving Blender.

This time the DVD released is "Humane Rigging" created by Nathan Vegdahl, the irrepressible guy who has worked on many of the Blender Foundation's Open Movie Projects and has produced many different training products.

For those who don't already know Nathan is an extremely talented Blender user who specializes in all things rigging. Which means that he is the ideal person to be producing this training DVD, as it covers rigging in Blender.

Product Specifications:

• Name: Training DVD 8: Humane Rigging - Rigging For Human Beings
• Author: Nathan Vegdahl
• Price: €27.50 (as of 10th July 2012)
• Type: Video Training DVD
• Runtime: 6 Hours (approximately)

The first thing to say about this DVD is that it only covers certain concepts related to rigging in Blender.  It will not cover how to animate the rigs you create with this DVD, nor will it cover deformations in any great detail and weight painting is only briefly demonstrated.  This is to be expected as rigging is a vast and sometimes complex topic, and trying to cover both rigging, weight painting and animation at the same time would make this DVD much longer than it already is.

What is covered are the major rigging structures and controls that are needed to make flexible rigs which can stand up to a real world production requirements of a professional animator, giving the animator the flexibility they need to get their job done.

The approach Nathan takes to do this is simple and effective, he goes over the topics he wants to teach by introducing and creating 3 character rig types.  Each different rig type explaining an important rigging concept in Blender.

The 3 different rig types are loosely ordered from simple to complex, using a process of continued refinement to the rigs to make them more flexible as new topics are introduced to the watcher.  This helps greatly when trying to get to grips with some of the more complex theoretical concepts that Nathan explains throughout the DVD.  It is important to note that Nathan does introduce a lot of theory as well as practical instruction when creating his rigs.  I found this very useful and educational.

The DVD is very well narrated and Nathan on the whole is very clear when it comes to explaining the topics of rigging.  Though rigging is a complex topic and by necessity you will have to be paying complete attention to what he is saying if you want to understand the rigs he makes.  Rigging at the best of times can be confusing but Nathan does his best to keep it understandable.

Over the course of the 6 chapters, Nathan shows you how to rig some of the major parts of a character (fingers, eyes, hands, palms, feet, legs, etc.).  He also covers using various modifiers and constraints to make the job of rigging more efficient and his rigs more powerful.

By the end of this DVD you will have good knowledge of what Rigs, Bone Constraints and Drivers can be used for.  The Bone and Driver Constraints are used extensively in Nathan's rig and his descriptions of how to use these features if very good.  Another highlight of the DVD was Nathans discussion of Intermediate Parenting and it uses.  I found this very useful once I was able to wrap my head around it.  Also the use of drivers to prevent alterations to specific rig values was very clever.

I personally think that if you are a beginner/intermediate Blender user starting out in the rigging side of things that you will learn a lot from this DVD.  Be warned though that you will be required to be paying attention and probably have to rewatch parts of the DVD repeatedly to get your head around a lot of the topics Nathan goes over.

All in all an excellent DVD, well worth adding to your collection especially if you have an interest in wanting to rig more effectively in Blender.

Review Score 85%

Angela Guenette - Blenderella - Character Modeling In Blender 2.5 - Training DVD Review

If you use Blender enough and stay in the irc channels for long enough, certain artists popup repeatedly or are mentioned in tones of awe. We see their work, are suitably impressed. One such artist is Angela Guenette, who has worked on everything you can do in the 3D modeling world (website Ponder Studios.org), see her youtube channel for examples of her work.

The people at the Blender Foundation were so impressed they decided it would be a good idea if they made her one of the main 3D modelers on the Sintel open movie project which was released a while back. She was the person responsible for modeling the character of Sintel the heroine of the movie.

So when i found out that Ms Guenette would be creating a training video DVD, I went right to the Blender EShop and ordered a copy.

Product Specifications:

• Name: Blenderella - Character Modeling In Blender 2.5
• Author: Angela Guenette
• Price: €27.50
• Type: Training DVD
• Length: 6 Hours 38 Mins (Roughly)

Topics Covered:

• Section 1 - References
• Head
• Body
• Hand
• Section 2 - Head
• Eyeball and Cornea
• Background Images
• Eye Socket Blocking
• Nose Blocking/li>
• Mouth Blocking
• Eyeball Fitting
• Eye Socket Detailing
• Mouth Detailing
• Nose Detailing
• Cheek, Jaw, Forehead, Scalp
• Neck
• Shaping
• Ear
• Final Shaping
• Geometry Eyelashes
• Section 3 - Body
• Background Images
• Torso
• Pelvis
• Leg
• Arm
• Fingers
• Hand and Thumb
• Rest Pose
• Section 4 - Hair
• Hair Base
• Hair Strands
• Section 5 - Clothing
• Pants
• Shirt
• Boot
• Masking Under Clothing
• Shirt 2 And Corset
• Boot Detailing
• Corset Detailing
• Pants Finishing
• Section 6 - Wrap Up
• Wrap Up

A few days ago the "Blenderella" DVD arrived, and given what I had heard and seen of Ms Guenettes works, I was very eager to see what the Blenderella DVD would be like.

The first thing to note is that Blenderella is not a beginners DVD. Very little time is taken to go over the basics of how to use Blender, although Ms Guenette does cover the basics of the Blender 2.5 interface. You are expected to know the basic ins and outs of Blender before you watch this DVD. I personally think a beginner may be able to follow along so long as they know the basics of vertex manipulation, but they would have to be paying complete attention as things move along at a fairly brisk rate on this DVD.

A combination of commentary and timelapsed sequences are used to explain and visualize the various steps and processes involed in modeling a high quality (but not vertex heavy) 3D model of a woman from start to finish.

The start of the DVD goes over how to use and setup reference images before you start modeling within Blender. This is the first time I have seen on a Blender Foundation DVD, how to properly setup reference images. Yes other tutorials have gone over setting up background images but rarely in the amount of detail as this DVD. Not only is how to assign background images described, also how to alter the contents of reference images so as to get the most accurate reference to work from is also explained. Normally most tutorials skip over this step or only lightly cover it, which is shame, as it is such an important step, that must be done correctly.

Having setup and corrected the background images such that they are usable, things move on to modeling the individual parts of the Blenderella model. The different video sections range in length from a few minutes to just under 30 minutes. So there are many different video section, each gernally describing and visualising a different part of the Blenderella model. Each video moves from blocking (rough modeling), through to very detailed modeling as the sequences of video progress.

The tutorials emphasize not just making a model look nice visually, but also making sure that topologically the models are of a very high quality. One of the ways this is achieved is by only modeling using quad polygons and diamond quads. Unsurprisingly the quality of the mesh geometry is excellent, watching the videos it seems that Ms Guenette never puts a vertex in the wrong place and almost never hesitates when she is placing and maninulating vertices. As a handy hint to the viewer Ms Guenette also indicates the topoligical flow of the models different parts by highlighting various parts of it using simple material coloring techniques. Some may find this useful while others will find it a distraction, but at least the time was taken to try and make things clearer to users not as sure of themselves as far as mesh topology goes.

Unlike a lot of Blender training DVDs this one does not resort to sculpting to add surface details, instead a combination of subsurfacing, proportional editing and manual vertex pushing are used to form all the detail of the Blenderella model. This has the advantage of keeping the mesh geometry very clean and light weight. Also it allows the viewer to see how to add creases and wrinkles in the Blenderella model using just basic vertex manipulation rather than sculpting. I found this very useful when watching the modeling of the hand knukles and similar items. Often it is difficult to determine how wrickles are constructed for items such as fingers, but it is much easier to see when done manually, rather than just going directly to sculpting them.

The Subsurf, Mirror, Mask and modifiers are used to aide in construction of the Blenderella model, their use is clearly explained. One surprising part of the DVD is that at the end after the model is almost completed Ms Guenette goes over how to check your finished model to make sure it is in a sane state, by checking for triangles and doubles and applying scales and transformations. It may only be a small thing to check but forgetting can cause annoying problems and it is good that time was taken to highlight this often overlooked step.

So the overal quality of the modeling is excellent, I couldn't find any fault in the videos or the modeling techniques used in them. If you want to know how to do mesh modeling and do it to a very high standard, these videos will be a massive help.

The finished blend files and all the resource files are included on the DVD, so if you do not want to watch all the way through all the vidoes you can still experiement with the finished blend file.

All the above text are the good points of the DVD and normally this is where the review would stop, however there is unfortunately an issue with the production of the DVD. Apparently if you are using a Windows machine the html interface to the DVD does not work because of a prodcution mistake when the DVD was created. The Blender Foundation is aware of this issue and has issued a patch which can fix the issue on Windows. If you want a replacement DVD they will replace it on request. Please bear in mind that even if you don't apply the patch or get a replacement DVD, you can still access the video files on the DVD directly from inside the video folder on the DVD. The encoding of the video is not effected and is very clear and will play on any video player which supports MKV (Matroska) video files. MKV file format is an opensourced video format that is playable in all the major video players. If you can't play the MKV files you can download VLC media player which will play the videos. I am not sure why ogg or webm wasn't choosen instead but if you have problems, VLC is very easy to use and install and is available for all platforms. Maybe next time a training DVD is released by the Blender Foundation it will have its video encoded in webm format, at which point you won't need a seperate video player, it will be directly supported in your browser.

Even taking the production issues mentioned above the videos are of excellent standard and are well worth watching if you get the chance.

Review Score 80%