tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8942303633191997132011-11-29T03:57:34.661-08:00Living life with technology.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.comBlogger351100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-41289880186367835202011-11-05T02:02:00.000-07:002011-11-19T15:43:17.037-08:00

Not only has Blender 2.60 come out in the last couple weeks, but also a bugfix 'a' release, which brings the latest version of Blender up to 2.60a (Which you can download here, if you haven't already...)! This release brought us 3D audio, video sequencing improvements, vertex weight groups, navigation meshes (for the game engine), even greater improvements to the animation system and better

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-55622908497399370332011-08-27T17:06:00.000-07:002011-08-27T17:06:39.074-07:00

GIMP 2.7.3, the latest development release of GIMP was released a week ago, continuing to impress those who have been using it for a while. 2.7.3 introduced a fully working single-window mode, as well as working session management, and a new scale widget which takes less space in the dockable dialogs. Those were very visible changes in 2.7.3, however that short list, doesn't go anywhere near

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-4316240826008330752011-08-13T22:32:00.000-07:002011-08-13T22:32:30.094-07:00

Blender 2.59, the final release in the 2.5x series, has been put up on the Blender website. There was some last minute hassles that popped up behind the scenes as you might have seen if you subscribe to bf-commiters, the development mailing list. This was mostly due to the fact that a number of Blender developers were away at the SIGGRAPH conference. However despite this inconvenience and a

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-78921308037072507082011-05-16T02:02:00.000-07:002011-05-16T04:06:36.738-07:00

Announced in this week's Blender Developer's Meeting notes, is a new idea for a Blender support network. - (Not code releated) Blender Network proposal is open for review http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Org:Foundation/BlenderNetwork The proposal (which can be found using the link above), is a great idea for connecting professional Blender artists and customers. It is an easy way to provide

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-25938180978272891912011-05-01T02:22:00.000-07:002011-05-01T03:21:32.738-07:00

The Buzz is growing as we learn more and more about this amazing new renderer for Blender - Cycles. After leaving the Blender Foundation to work at Octane Renderer, the amazing developer Brecht has returned and will be working for the Blender Foundation in these coming months. He brought with him a new, experimental renderer that he had been working on in his spare time: http://code.blender.org/

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-36499671363036264412011-04-16T21:54:00.000-07:002011-04-21T07:19:48.687-07:00

The last stable version of Blender was released on September 16, 2009. We've come a long way in the last one and a half years. Through three alpha releases and four betas (five if you count the 2.56 re-release). It's been a long road. One with many changes, hundreds of bugs fixed, lots of features added (and quite a few that weren't quite ready), and most of all: a lot of hard work. Someone

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-27264225125434097052011-03-08T02:53:00.000-08:002011-03-08T02:53:41.150-08:00

The rumors are out. Blender 2.57 is coming. And with it comes the light at the end of the tunnel for Blender 2.5x development. It has been announced on the developers mailing list that 2.57 will be considered the first 'stable' release. 2.57 will be a final release. The first stable one of the 2.5 series. The release is supposed to happen around the end of March, and already plans are being

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-12690329065137583412011-02-03T03:26:00.000-08:002011-02-03T03:26:01.705-08:00

Looks like Anim8or has made a partial recovery after being pronounced clinically dead. Posts were already up on Anim8or.com, BlenderArtists.org and here, when Raxx, a senior moderator at Anim8or.com posted about an email he had received from the sole developer of Anim8or, Steve. Apparently Steve has been rather busy lately, and is also completely revamping Anim8or. Because of this unfortunate

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-65948902616547341462011-01-29T21:42:00.000-08:002011-01-29T21:42:40.927-08:00

Anim8or, a small, free 3D modelling and animation program, has been proclaimed dead by the members of the official forum over at Anim8or.com. Anim8or is where I was first introduced to 3D, and it helped me learn a lot of basic concepts that have been very useful in learning other programs like Blender. A post by one of the senior moderators has brought all the fun to an end: http://

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-74929119666924562382011-01-06T07:12:00.000-08:002011-01-06T07:38:47.943-08:00

2011 has arrived (a couple days ago, but still it's here!), and with it a new Blender beta has been released, 2.56. Unfortunately a few days after the release, a show-stopping bug  was uncovered, which forced the Development team to do an update release, named 2.56a, which was just released today. So to get the latest release, which included more then 20 bugs which have been fixed since the other

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-85556134934430195422010-11-11T02:49:00.000-08:002010-11-11T02:49:57.516-08:00

Blender 2.5 has been slowly progressing, as more developers start focusing on bug fixing, and well rounding, instead of Sintel (which has enjoy lots of success). Blender 2.55 beta was released on November 4th, and continues to build on Blender's ever growing series of betas. Despite the seemingly never ending cycle, progress is being made. Hundreds of bug fixes have been made, in fact during the

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-23618928008486072202010-10-01T16:23:00.000-07:002010-10-01T16:23:21.659-07:00

Sintel is out.Download it here. A great animated short from a technical standpoint, and it lasts 14 minutes and 48 seconds too! Although as many people have pointed out, there are a couple of plot holes, I think that overall the short is very good. Although maybe not as good as the Blender Foundations previous short Big Buck Bunny, it is very close, and I would definitely recommend watching it.

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-79693392312377099192010-09-10T05:31:00.000-07:002010-09-10T05:31:02.742-07:00

Lots of people have been wondering how they can easily switch between Maya and Blender, without having to worry a whole lot about different hot-keys and such. Well there are two easy solutions that I have come up with. One. Blender now has a Maya key-map preset built right in! No need to go through the long lists of key-maps and change everything so that it is to your liking, instead right on

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-25995999034125539672010-08-25T01:59:00.000-07:002010-08-25T01:59:46.738-07:00

If you're new to blender, still developing your skills or even are an expert at it the Blenderartists Weekend Challenge is a great way to hone your skills. I usually check back there every week or two to see what the theme of the contests is and if I like it and have the time then I'll enter. You can read up on the rules here and then you can start designing! For last weekend's Weekend Challenge

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-38544925780832515932010-08-18T06:04:00.000-07:002010-11-11T02:53:18.051-08:00

The title of a recent BlenderArtist thread, and then an email in the Blender Developers mailing list: Blenderstorm... Is Back. I haven't see it before, but then, I haven't seen a lot of things. However one thing is for sure, it has one slick website. By now I'm sure you're going, "What is Blenderstorm anyway?" Well you can head over there and check it out, but I'll also give you a short summary

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-62324566642815521812010-07-25T02:47:00.003-07:002010-11-11T03:05:03.691-08:00

Although many Blender 2.5 Alphas have been release, everyone has been looking forward to the Beta, and now it is here! There has been a lot of changes since the last Alpha, including a whole new way of using add-ons (as well as including a lot of great ones), a lot more stabilizing of the python API, a whole host of improvements in sculpting, thanks in part to the Google Summer of Code, and

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-87169240639906699702010-07-02T18:38:00.000-07:002010-07-02T18:40:05.321-07:00

About a month ago Andrew Price, the man behind Blender Guru, was able to finally start working full time on making blender tutorials. And he has just finished his first month, after publishing five high quality tutorials on Blender Guru. All of them are relating to June's theme "Weather", if you want to know what next month's theme will be, visit his post here. The titles of the five tutorials he

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-12153299144937119052010-06-25T06:06:00.001-07:002010-06-25T06:06:55.215-07:00

No, my computer is not on fire! (Otherwise I wouldn't be typing would I?) Instead I've been using myPaint to come up with another piece of art! I was testing out some more brushes, and just in general playing around. To create the backround I just stroked it a couple times with the default brush. I then used an oil-pastel like brush for the base of all the logs, and after that used the

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-73391863039425293452010-06-07T01:21:00.001-07:002010-11-11T03:04:37.746-08:00

Well, I just installed Ubuntu 10.04, nicknamed "Lucid Lynx", and it definitely looks very lucid. I didn't even know what that word meant until I looked it up in the dictionary that accompanies 10.04, something very useful. The first thing I did after finishing the installation was reboot and login (obviously). Next I added the System Monitor to my top panel. Since I do lots of resource heavy

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-24410338475631830072010-05-17T04:10:00.000-07:002010-05-17T04:12:00.398-07:00

I recently completed a piece entitled "Orbs in the Grass" done completely in Blender 2.5 r28678. A simple piece which used the new Cloud Generator script to create the clouds and a couple particles systems for the grass, and although it isn't perfect it's pretty good for me. You can see my BlenderArtists thread on it here. I also just painted a little piece using MyPaint, a open-source painting

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-42092004202742837242010-05-14T01:36:00.000-07:002010-05-14T01:36:07.598-07:00

The Open Movie project "Sintel", codenamed Durian, has just released it's trailer. After starting in August 2009 the Durian team has been hard at work, modeling, animating, coding, rendering and doing all sorts of things. Finally we get to see some of the fruits of their labor, but not just in picture form. A 52 second long trailer has been released which includes all sorts of cool action and

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-77851396329128701482010-05-11T03:53:00.000-07:002010-05-11T03:53:42.564-07:00

Blender Guru just released its latest tutorial: Introduction to the Compositor. It looks like a very interesting tutorial, especially judging by the comments on the page of the actual video. Also the cover art is very nice, however I know from experience that although the cover art usually looks very nice (A tribute to the mastermind behind blender guru) the user's finished product is vastly

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-81038411886516191482010-05-08T16:40:00.000-07:002010-05-08T16:40:36.173-07:00

A couple of days ago Google unveiled their new search engine look. They have gotten rid of the old rounded logo with a shadow and now have a newer one (which I quite like!), also instead of the old rounded buttons they have changed to a more square and less glossy look. Here is the old logo: and here is the new logo, and buttons: Google also has a new way of showing searches. Much like the old

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-25972953206925875502010-05-08T04:33:00.000-07:002010-05-11T04:00:09.775-07:00

,So, you've started using Anim8or and now you're wondering (after seeing all those cool scripts here), how do I get into Anim8or Scripting? Anim8or Scripting Language (or ASL) is a very easy to learn scripting language which is based on C and is very simple. If you haven't yet you should definitely check out the language specifications. ASL supports most major data types such as ints, floats,

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-23501993953296054302010-05-05T04:00:00.000-07:002010-05-05T04:00:04.573-07:00

May 4th is Day against DRM, if you don't know what DRM is check out the Defective By Design website and this link. Basically DRM, or Digital Rights Managment, allows software to block the user's ability to access certain things such as movies, music, ect. Most Mac and Windows software have DRM, as well as things like DVDs (Most DVDs are encrypted so only certain software can access it). Defective

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-12733118101808884262010-05-02T04:28:00.000-07:002010-05-02T04:28:02.746-07:00

Well the newest Ubuntu version was just released, Ubuntu 10.04 Long Term Support(LTS), codenamed "Lucid Lynx". You can download it here and check it out. I've heard lots of good things about this latest version, especially the groovy updates to the look, namely the change from the orange/brown look of 9.** to the slick purple we see in 10.04. Although a still a little dark for my tastes, I'm sure

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-60076278869180197082010-04-27T02:38:00.000-07:002010-04-27T02:39:39.111-07:00

I recently took an About.com "course" on network security which you can sign up for here. I first found it from another website which lists interesting sources for free computer technology education: http://education-portal.com/articles/5_Sources_for_Free_Computer_Technology_Education_Online.html To use the "course" you simple sign up for the "newsletter" then, every day you recieve the next

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-7921440127939859202010-04-25T04:09:00.000-07:002010-05-17T04:17:04.301-07:00

I thought I'd show the "Blender Render" I did over Christmas, which I'm hoping to, along with the spring render, turn into a seasons series. I am expecting to do a render for summer and fall, and then have a complete collection. The blend itself was fairly simple, I used some reflective spheres for the ornaments and used a beveled curve with a cloth modifier applied for the two strings which

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-32157849957188973822010-04-24T15:48:00.001-07:002010-04-24T15:48:24.066-07:00

Before I started using Blender as my main 3D program I used a program called Anim8or. Anim8or is a small 3d modeling suite written by R. Steven Glandvill. Although it is not open source it is provided for free. The latest supported version is v0.95 although you can get the "preview" of v0.97d which is the latest released development build. In v0.97d you can use three renderers the openGL renderer

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-79283499497594105312010-04-16T16:11:00.000-07:002010-04-24T15:59:19.232-07:00

I had asked my friend to help me because he knew a lot more about computers then me, so he came over when I had all my components. He was also the one who gave me the motherboard and the power supply. Then we were ready to put it together. First we UNPLUGGED THE COMPUTER!(Don't forget otherwise you may get a shock..) We had cleared the desk, so we had lots of room, then we started taking out all

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-22022223659848968312010-04-14T01:54:00.000-07:002010-04-14T02:39:30.540-07:00

Blender is a free(as in Open Source) 3D Modelling suite, written in C with some C++ extensions and Python as a embeded(I believe) scripting language. Although many people are put off by its interface there are many tutorials out there to get you started. Blender is, in some people's minds, almost as advanced as some commercial programs out there such as lightwave, Maya or 3D Studio Max. It has

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-1811703386913502412010-04-09T04:58:00.000-07:002010-05-17T04:17:09.977-07:00

Here is a spring render I did for a weekend competition on BlenderArtists forum. I used a particle simulation to get the grass, then a colourband with alpha to make it look nice.

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-52250228591831439392010-04-07T04:42:00.000-07:002010-05-17T04:17:20.778-07:00

I am really into 3D as you'll soon find out, and I thought I'd share my latest "adventure". I called this piece "Cloud 1" for the obvious reason that there are a lot of clouds in it. I started off following a point-density texture tutorial using a 3D graphics program called Blender, which I'll tell you more about later. If you want to try it you can download the free(and only) version here:

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-80282949131331977952010-03-27T06:05:00.000-07:002010-04-24T15:56:09.354-07:00

Well today, with the a bit of help I was able to start on the journey of building my own computer for the first time. I have always loved computer but have thought of myself as more of a software guy than hardware, now I see how close these two really are. I hope all my next systems will be self build(except laptops). So here goes: My original system had these specs: Motherboard: Intel D845EPI

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-894230363319199713.post-15814876585269440742010-03-24T03:09:00.000-07:002010-03-24T03:11:09.284-07:00

This is my first blog at jaydez-tech! Yay! Hope there will be a lot more to come. I'll be focusing on upgrading/building a computer in the near future as I go through that experience myself, so "stay tuned".=)

Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473887910527959329noreply@blogger.com