A Pawn in a Hurry at BlenderNation

A Pawn in a Hurry

The Result

To finish your animation, set up some lights and set up your camera. Since your camera is just another object like the pawn, you can animate it, too. Try making it rotate slightly from left to right (insert rotation keyframes only). A few degrees is already enough to make your final animation a lot more dynamic.

To render a single frame of your animation, go to the desired frame and press [F12] or click the 'Render' button.

Usually you will want to render an entire animation to disk, either as a series of images or as an AVI file. To set this up, first enter a filename in the filename box. For a series of images (not for AVI files), this name will become the base prefix of the filesnames. For example, entering '/render/pawn' will result in a series of images called 'pawn0001, pawn0002, …' stored in the directory /render.

Set the correct file format. Selecting 'AVI raw' or 'AVI jpg' here will cause Blender to store your animations not as single images, but as an AVI file. AVI jpg is the most compact way of storing your anima- tions, but it comes with a slight quality loss. Change the 'Sta' (Start) and 'End' values to match your animation. For the current animation, values of 0 and 31 should be entered.

Press the 'Anim' button to render the entire animation.

Play it back from within blender by pressing 'PLAY'. This opens a new window - press [ESC] to stop playing.

A Little Extra

There is an extra rendering option called 'Motion Blur'. Motion Blur simulates the effect of a shutter time - fast moving objects will become a bit blurred. Motion blur takes a lot of time to calculate, but in some cases it really adds to the realism of your scene.

Before rendering, select the button 'MBLUR'. Leave the 'Bf' (Blur Factor) on 1.0; this value represents the shutter time. Ahigher value corresponds to a longer shutter time.

Here is the result of the same image as before, but now motion blurred.

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75 Responses to “A Pawn in a Hurry”

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1 Toon Scheur Mar 12th, 2006 at 2:50 pm

Nice to see those old tuts revamped. They should all kept up to date for an upcomming manual. Only thing I miss is that you should show the new capabilities of Blender too, like vector motion blur.
2 bart Mar 12th, 2006 at 6:12 pm

Hi Toon,

maybe that's better suited for a new tutorial! This one is only about keyframe basics, the motion blur was a little 'bonus' ;-)

Cheers,

Bart
3 Sephiroth Mar 12th, 2006 at 9:49 pm

This is a great tutorial

I'm begining and it has cleared some dudes about it.
4 Lex Mar 13th, 2006 at 5:21 am

hi,
Isn't there a way to do the chessboard by bscript?
Chess are often used for programmation example, so why don't do the same with blender? :)

thx
5 Scott Mar 13th, 2006 at 6:12 am

I love this tutorial. I'm afraid I'm a tad past it though. This site has grown so much and provides GREAT resources that It's my new home page :D
6 Halley Mar 13th, 2006 at 2:45 pm

wow, it's greate. thx.
7 Orion Apr 20th, 2006 at 4:04 am

Great Tutorial…
It helped me alot with some of the Blender Animation Tools I was missing.

My 1st 30-frame Blender Animation came out pretty good.

I sort of Tricked-Out the ChessBoard, BackGround, Pawn, Lighting and Paths + added 150-Frames amd WOW… Awesome Output !

Appreicate this site very much !

Much Thanks,
Orion
8 Terence May 7th, 2006 at 10:25 am

This tutorial is very educational.

Im a newbie so I struggled with this one a bit. Would be a good idea to mention that duplication can be achieved with SHIFT-D.
I also managed to create the chess board as part of the pawn object :/
I'm still trying to work out how to separate it out into a descrete object.
These things may seem obvious to experienced users, but you can't assume too much for the people who need the tutorial the most.

I hope these suggestions are useful.

I'm gonna have a crack at the other ones on this site.
9 adhi May 11th, 2006 at 9:20 am

wow, nice tutorial, thx
10 Daz May 31st, 2006 at 6:40 pm

This is by far the best tutorial i've done!…I gained so much from this!

This was my first introduction to animation and all the rest looked so complicated,
But when you said press alt + A i was amazed at what i had done without much work at all!

Thank you so much!
11 chaseb Jun 2nd, 2006 at 12:29 am

wtf i cant add a color to just half the squares…. when i select half the squares then add color it adds it to all the squares
12 harry Jun 5th, 2006 at 9:31 pm

i cant figure out how to find the New effect button in the Anim Buttons window, i just dont see it can someone help
13 B13nd3r 633k Jun 15th, 2006 at 9:44 pm

Here's a helful hint: When making your pawn, if you find that there is a hole in the top or bottom of it, simply select all the vertices around the hole, press [w] , select merge, then select 'to center'.
14 new 2 blender Jul 7th, 2006 at 11:02 pm

WOW! thats all i can say. exept that i never thought it would be so easy to animate something like this thankyou very much. :)
15 Christian Blackburn Jul 27th, 2006 at 12:46 am

Dear Author,

Thank you so much for taking the time to make this tutorial. I have every intent of following it to completion. However, I am sure the steps below leave a number of things out. For starters if you created that plane in Front view, you wouldn't be able to have it lay directly on the grid. Please revise this portion and send me the steps, because as it exists now I can't follow.

>I start by adding a new plane to my scene. In front view, enter editmode ([TAB]), select all vertices ([A]) and >extrude the vertices upward a bit ([E]). With the vertices still selected, scale them down somewhat to create >beveled edges.

Thanks,
Christian Blackburn
16 Laura James Aug 28th, 2006 at 7:34 am

Hello,

I too would like to thank you for this tutorial. I have really enjoyed learning how to do the modelling and rendering and now I get to add animation to the list. I just have one question. When I play the avi everything goes perfect. Makes me thrilled! But when I go to watch the video on winamp or any other program it just shows a black screen. Did I miss something??????

Thanks for your time,

Laura J.
17 Domin Sep 5th, 2006 at 1:37 pm

Very nice and clear tutorial. I have put my avi on Youtube. Thanks Domin
18 Domin Sep 5th, 2006 at 2:08 pm

the link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=256DqiItA-4
19 neyo Sep 11th, 2006 at 3:52 am

Yo this very cool tute very clear
20 Alan Sep 22nd, 2006 at 2:45 pm

good lesson :)
21 odie Sep 25th, 2006 at 6:07 pm

To add more points in the curve doesn't work at my version.
22 G-Unit Nov 7th, 2006 at 8:20 pm

I dont get it, the curve line thing is werid and I cant figure it out.
23 Bli Blah Nov 7th, 2006 at 8:47 pm

THATS PRETTY DANG SWEET DAWG!!!
24 barney Nov 15th, 2006 at 1:19 am

Great tutorial!

I have one question though. If we make the pawn and the chess board separately. How do we import the pawn into the chess board scene?

thanks
25 Buddy Nov 15th, 2006 at 8:22 pm

great
26 Sergio Rivera Nov 22nd, 2006 at 8:29 am

Felicidades por el tutorial
Lo seguí paso por paso, claro que previo ya había visto
2 o 3 tutoriales. Excelente tutorial para aprender algo
más sobre rendering.!!

Muchisimas Gracias.
27 Ben Anderman Dec 2nd, 2006 at 12:34 am

Nice tutorial! I'm rendering mine now. One little comment: rotating 180 degrees doesn't seem to make the "black" squares fit, you have to rotate it 90 degrees instead.

@Barney: I'm sure there's a way to do that, but personally I just didn't make them separate. Since the pawn in the first frame is pretty high up, it doesn't get in the way of the board.
28 VVIROS Dec 26th, 2006 at 4:05 pm

THANKS , ITS MY FIRST WORK IN BLENDER AND ITS PRETY GOOD
THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
29 obsticle714 Dec 29th, 2006 at 5:34 am

first of all im only 15 so i prolly shoudnt be messing with this program but im trying to figure
out how to delete the default cube . as well as understand how to get to the point in which you can draw out the object i can move it i can copy it and make mutiple of the same i just dont get alot of this if any one would no of a manual or a starters guide that would be much apriciated

obsticle714 osc official stencil crew dbk drippy bomber kids
30 Kwid Jan 6th, 2007 at 5:10 am

@obsticle: A great introduction to blender, along with basic tutorials, can be found in "Blender 3D: Noob to Pro" @ wikibooks - http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro

Good luck - blender rocks!
31 carvin Jan 8th, 2007 at 3:25 am

awosme tutorial this would be the first successful thing i would make
32 carvin Jan 8th, 2007 at 4:07 am

i did something wrong it turned into a vase not a pawn lol
33 blender newb (matt) Jan 17th, 2007 at 8:53 pm

This tutorial is awesome! Didn't realize it was so easy to make a smooth, good-looking animation. Props man, very well explained, it introduced a lot of new concepts and helped me practice a lot that I already knew but was still uncomfortable with.
34 Dylan Jan 21st, 2007 at 1:40 am

hey….

is there anyway that I can animate a texture using keyframes?

email me at hakisakbassist@sbcglobal.net

Thanks
35 Ryandell Feb 4th, 2007 at 12:07 am

Hello,
I wasn't playing much with animation in Blender before and found this tutorial really nice.
I have encountered a small problem though. I'm using Blender 2.42a and for me the pawn sinks a little into the "ground" when it's rotated on frames 12-15 and 17-20. It looks like if the rotation is calculated by Blender using the object center.

Rotation was created with 3D cursor as a pivot set on the bottom edge of pawn and manually rotating the pawn was looking correct. Keyframes 11, 16 and 21 were set with pawn position and rotation as shown on pictures in this tutorial.

Did I miss something?
36 Anonimous Feb 11th, 2007 at 11:49 pm

GREAT TUTORIAL

I'm a begginner and this is one of the only tutorials I actually understand. I have a question though (it's not about the tutorial itself but about blender and my computer) is it normal that it takes so much time to render an animation?
thanks for answering

Anonimous
37 Anonimous Feb 12th, 2007 at 12:01 am

BIG EXTRA

PS: this is a big extra if you want to make it neater (you really should consider it). To make the pawn land in an elastic way on the shessboard, first go to frame 41. Now move the pawn to the right and down so it is at floor level. Rotate it so it's horizontal. Then make it like in frame 16 (squished). Insert keyframe (I) LocRotScale. Now go to frame 51 and make it like befor (z axis: 1.3, y axis: 0.7 and x axis: 0.7). Now insert keyframe (I) LocRotScale. This will make the pawn land elasticly. GREAT WAY TO IMPROVE: IT LOOKS REALISTIC.

thanks for acknowldeging.
38 chuckwagon Feb 27th, 2007 at 8:19 pm

hi when I press [I] in the animation part of the tutorial i do not see the key option LocRotSize all I see is LocRot, could somone help me pls?
39 Mark Mar 2nd, 2007 at 4:06 pm

Wow that blur is cool, but it slows the render r-i-g-h-t d-o-w-n!

Thanks from a Blender noob. 8-)

Oh and chuckwagon, in my version of blender (243) it's LocRotScale in the key-frame menu.
40 VisakhanC Mar 11th, 2007 at 5:23 pm

Hello Bart,
I found it easy making animations in blender. I'd be so grateful if you started some tutorials on 'Lighting' and 'Texturing and shading'

Thank you
41 Karola Mar 15th, 2007 at 8:21 pm

Swietny tutorial!!
Dziekuje
42 lazykate Mar 25th, 2007 at 6:20 am

The squashy effect really is brilliant, and so simple to do. thanks!

This is a great tutorial, and has left me inspired with an idea for my first Blender comedy short - "A Prawn in a Curry" :p
43 bailey Apr 2nd, 2007 at 4:21 pm

what happened to the next pages???
44 Chris Apr 2nd, 2007 at 7:37 pm

Where is the whole tutorial I can only find the first part
45 Bart Apr 3rd, 2007 at 7:20 pm

Oops, sorry guys, I had installed a new plugin that ate some of the HTML. Everything's back to normal now.
46 L. Mitch Apr 9th, 2007 at 2:58 am

a really nice tut
I know it has nothing to do with this but, do you know how to make more human shapes?

thanx
47 Mardson May 4th, 2007 at 6:31 pm

for all the other newbs (like myself) that had issues with the pwn being attached to the checkerboard … i figured it out!

when go you to make your surface (" … I start by adding a new plane to my scene. In front view, enter editmode ([TAB]), select all vertices ([A]) and extrude the vertices upward a bit ([E]). With the vertices still selected, scale them down somewhat to create beveled edges …") make sure that all other objects are deselected. That was is. Happy modeling
48 MaH May 10th, 2007 at 4:29 am

how do you paste??? I'm using 2.43 :)
this is a cool program
49 Otto May 18th, 2007 at 8:07 pm

It's not that easy to work with the curves… =/
50 TaT3rs May 21st, 2007 at 11:05 pm

hi im having trouble with this step

On frame 16, Place the 3D cursor at the base of the object. Enter scale mode and start decreasing the object's size by moving your mouse vertically. Next, click the MiddleButton to indicate that you only want to change the objects Z size.

where is scale mode?
51 mark May 27th, 2007 at 9:14 pm

just want to say thankyou for sharing your knowledge openely so that others can get to grips with the tools on blender complete beginner!!! but following your instructions is much welcomed many thanks again
mark
52 boaz Jun 26th, 2007 at 3:05 pm

this is the most clear tutorial about blender i have seen.
53 Anonimous Jul 10th, 2007 at 9:08 am

CAn anyone tell how to add extra points to the bezier curve because when i hold ctrl and left click on the endpoint it doesnt do anything i also dragged it and it made a gray line but then it went away when i left go of the mouse click

can sum1 tell me what im doin wrong plz
54 Anonimous Jul 10th, 2007 at 9:28 am

wait i worked out a different way to do it i think its coz i got versoin 2.44

but its such a good tutorial thanks!
55 Tom Jul 11th, 2007 at 2:46 am

When i spin it it tuns into a wierd cup like thing or sometimes the normal one but with curved lines but when i press all the things and press z and 5 it satys the same and doesnt go 3-d or anything

can sumone help me please
56 Graham Jul 16th, 2007 at 7:54 pm

locRotSize

I don't seem to have this I'm only showing locRotScale?
57 Astrono (Roel) Aug 8th, 2007 at 4:11 pm

Hello Bart,

It's great that you make tutorials to help us all getting better in such a fun program but i have some problem.
i tried out your tutorial but as strange as it is when i ended part 2 of the tutorial i stopped because i inserted all key frames with the I key and LocRotScale but when i play the animation it isn't animating, but just at the same place.
I don't know why it is doing like this though.

- Roel
58 Astrono (Roel) Aug 9th, 2007 at 12:11 am

Hello again Bart,
it is getting even stranger now, i just made a short animation of something like 2 seconds where you see some model rotating while it moves a little, i did it by using the LocRot buttons at different Keyframes but the strange thing is.
If i try the same thing again now in other new projects, it doesn't work :/

Maybe you can help me out?
Help is appreciated.
59 Astrono (Roel) Aug 9th, 2007 at 12:21 am

Oh, i think i already found out what the problem was, just switching to object mode while pressing the I key and using LocRot seems to work.
Thanks anyway, and especially for the great tutorial. :)
60 Jaztex Oct 12th, 2007 at 5:56 pm

How do i apply the materials to multiple objects at once. i have selected all the chess board objects and select the colour i want, but it just appears on the last square i clicked.

Fantastic tutorial,
many thanks.
61 RAJKE Dec 18th, 2007 at 1:20 pm

exelent tutorial! :)
62 new guy Dec 27th, 2007 at 11:13 am

I can't seem to add more points in the Bezier curve… can anyone help me???
63 alex dekker Dec 30th, 2007 at 8:26 pm

RE: new guy

I had a problem whereby my window manager [kwin] was intercepting some modifier+click commands. Check the settings in your WM.
64 Alvarez Feb 18th, 2008 at 11:20 pm

very good tutorial, but in the machine world ther is always a weird problem, here's mine:

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/407/model2rf6.jpg

can you see those extrange shadows in the squares?
i tried changing the light but it doesn't seem to be the problem.
before rendering and before seting them smooth i could see that too in the 3D view.
i'm more curious than worried, if someone knows what causes that.
unfournately i'm using win XP so maybe that's the problem XD
65 alienkid10 Mar 3rd, 2008 at 8:06 pm

My pawn comes out looking awful.
66 Vinicius Souza Mar 17th, 2008 at 1:03 am

Cara, muito bom tutorial !!!
Aprendi muito !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Obrigado !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
67 LightningIsMyName Apr 6th, 2008 at 2:24 pm

Thanks a lot,

I got blender several hours ago and the techniques in this tutorial really helped me.

Thanks again =)
~LightningIsMyName (LIMN)
68 Melo May 24th, 2008 at 4:47 am

Help wanted,
why is it that when I render on Mac tiger, all I see is black surface on blue background? but when render on PC, I se the fully shaded textured object??
Thanks.
69 Don Jomar Jul 1st, 2008 at 2:25 am

that's cool. really cool.
70 DJ_Boxer Jul 1st, 2008 at 2:51 pm

In the tutorial the second figure with the curves of the pawn is there a larger picture somewhere because when I zoom in it gets blurry? But other than that a great tutorial.
71 DJ_Boxer Jul 17th, 2008 at 8:00 pm

Is anyone out there willing to message me on Blenderartists with this?
72 Ganapathy Subramaniam Jul 24th, 2008 at 8:52 pm

Thanks for this tutorial. It has some very important concepts that a beginner can learn quickly.
73 Andrew Jul 26th, 2008 at 4:30 am

I'm having trouble creatingthe shape of the prawn with the bezier curves, it's really hard controlling the lines and stuff, I guess this is the 3rd tutorial I've stuffed up already.. ;__;
74 Daniel Jul 30th, 2008 at 7:29 am

how do I delete keys? I mean, ive got a little problem with the keys I dont want… they eat up my animation sequences. please help!
75 DJ_Boxer Aug 6th, 2008 at 2:18 pm

@Andrew: This is what I was talking about with the pic being small and have wondered if there was anyone out there who has a bigger pic with the bezier curves for the pawn.