This is a classic technique to give your renders a wireframe overlay on top of your existing materials. It's been in Blender for some time, though it seems to slip through the cracks every so often. But never fear, BlenderNewbies has a video tutorial on how to do it!

Update [bart]: new script version

Continue Reading 'Video Tutorial/Script: Rendering Wireframe Overlays' »

The MascotCapsule plugin exports data created in Blender to BAC (model) data and TRA (animation) data. The exported BAC and TRA files can then be used with MascotCapsule.

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If you have been considering learning Python and are confused about how and where to start, there are several good suggestions that have recently been posted over at BlenderArtists.org.

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Bees, wasps, fish, butterflies - these are just a few of the things that you can animate with this nifty little script. Swarm Script by Macouno at AlienHelpDesk has recently updated his script that takes a series of objects and animates them within a defined space and makes them act like swarms each avoiding the other and surrounding objects.

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After some quiet reflection on how to support armatures, Illusoft has released an update to their Collada 1.4 plugin for Blender (now version 0.3.91) with - guess what - beta armature support, and the following features/bug fixes:

Continue Reading 'Collada 1.4 Script Released With Armature Support' »

While at Siggraph, I had the pleasure of meeting the Khronos Group member and Blender artist Dominic Agoro-Ombaka (he was at the Khronos group booth).  During a Collada Birds of a Feather meeting he discovered something with the Collada 1.4 importer that comes packaged with Blender 2.42a.

Continue Reading 'Collada Scripts in Blender 2.42a Requires Updating' »

Blender can create stand-alone versions of Game Engine content but it can only create a version for that platform that you work on. Enter blenderStarter, a clever script created by Jan Albartus that separates the Stand Alone executable from the game data.

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Alienhelpdesk is a well known site that houses numerous Blender scripts, including Caliper and BRayBaker, though you have to see the comprehensive list to really appreciate the many useful scripts you can find in one place.

Continue Reading 'Alienhelpdesk Scripts Updated' »

If you are a laptop user, you might be frustrated with the lack of easy access to the number pad when you want to quickly navigate from the camera, the front, the top, or the side views.  Thanks to mugwah, laptop users can finally use the number pad without remapping keys* thanks to a python script.

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Have you been struggling with architectural visualization? Been frustrated with being unable to create meshes to scale? Looking for Standard and Metric mesh creation? Then Ron Walker is your new best friend.

The Blender Mesh Attribute Editor (BMAE, pronounced "B-May") is a mesh creator for use with Blender whose main function allows you to set the size and location in Standard and/or Metric values. Other features include mesh naming, axis orientation, edit mode/object mode draw type selection, mesh resizing and a fraction to decimal calculator/ledger combo. The size feature has some limitation and special needs to be effective. And it also comes with an instruction manual.

*Edit:  Since this was posted Ron has released the script under the GPL license.

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A lot of Blenderheads want to customize Blender to their designing preferences. Some like dark colors and others like light colors. Some like blue others, such as VenomGFX like pink! Back in the day, people would pass their default blend files around. When this became cumbersome, Willian P. Germano created the simple Blender Theme Script which allowed for a whole new way of saving and loading Blender Themes. It has now become one of the many features that Blender offers (File>Export>Save Current Theme…).

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The creator of the Blender Library script, Mariano Hidalgo, did it again, a new amazing script is ready to be downloaded from his site, it's name says it all: Materializer.

Continue Reading 'Materializer: Instant Random Materials in Blender' »

After trying out Gen3 I have to give a negative answer to this question, Gen3 is simply the better attempt to create a full-fledged tree generator for Blender since now and the one with the most complete (and complex) GUI, full stop. And it can only keep improving week by week.

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BlenderPeople's Roland Hess has posted on his blog that for the final stages of his next BlenderPeople release he needs your help!

Continue Reading 'BlenderPeople Call For Content (Armatures and Actions)' »

Thomas Jourdan has created Innerworld, a node based landscape generator script for Blender.

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Illusoft has released an update to their vital Collada 1.4 plugin for Blender (now version 0.2.22) with some major enhancements (do I hear materials?).

Continue Reading 'Collada 1.4 Import/Export Script Updates Released' »

Malte Reimold (intermalte) has developed a script that I have been hoping for for some time… the chemical structure conversion script pdb2blend!

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Michael Schardt (Michael S) has posted an updated version of his "Espresso" displacement painting script (now version 1.1.1). Similar in concept to SharpConstruct, Espresso is integrated into Blender with some great features.

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