A Summary of Blender Tutorials for Creating Cover Art

Blender is a free, open-source software package for modeling 3d objects. While Sketchup is much easier to learn, it has a number of limitations that make it more difficult to do more detailed modeling. Blender has a plethora of features, including cloth, particle, and water simulation, that make it very useful. You can also design and export 3d models to .STL format, for 3d printing purposes.

 

 

 

I have found a series of free tutorials and additional customization that works very well. If you dedicate a week to learning the software, you will be more than competent enough to tackle some basic animations as shown here. If a picture is worth a thousand words, some of these animations are worth millions in terms of communicating the mechanisms of our science.

List of software:

• Blender
  • Base software. Install a 64 bit version if possible
• Blender Sensei Format
  • Custom packaging of Blender that has an improved UI in a number of ways
• Blendermada Material Plugin
  • A Convenient online library of materials. Install after watching the tutorials.

Tutorials

• Blender Sensei Crashcourse
  • There are about 104 videos in order, from installing the software to the finer points of compositing. I recommend watching the first half in order; beyond that you will know enough to be dangerous, and the rest is mostly making you a better artist and animator.
• Volumetric Rendering Water Highlights
• Realistic Water Splashes
• Chain Physics

 

 

Happy animating!