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DVD training 5: Chaos & Evolutions

45

The Blender Foundation have announced their fifth training DVD: 'Chaos and Evolutions'. Durian art director and concept artist David Revoy takes 20 hours to talk you through several areas of digital painting. Of course, everything is done using Open Source software. Unlike other Blender Foundation products though, this DVD focuses completely on 2D digital painting.

By purchasing this DVD, you'll be supporting the Blender Foundation. Pre-orders receive a 10% discount: €24.75 instead of €27.50. Delivery starts in March.

From the announcement:

This DVD covers all aspects to create advanced digital paintings, concept art, character design, creature design, environments, illustrations and model sheets. Seven main tutorial videos are devoted to teach the best tips and tricks about digital sketching, drawing, Alchemy, coloring, painting, finishing and creating model sheets. And eight additional videos will present you more than 20 hours of full timelapse in HD (1440x896) minimalisticly commented to let you free to explore and learn the part you are interrested in.

The DVD assumes you already got a tablet and know the basic of drawing from imagination, 2D painting software and image manipulation. It is especially targeted at people who look for a a strong workflow to create 2D project from A to Z in a collaborative or professional environment.

Chaos & Evolutions includes Alchemy and GIMP 2.6.6 patched with GIMP-painter for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux, as well as a customized brush kit, and all WIP files. it also includes MyPaint for Windows and Linux.

All the examples have been done with only free and open source software, mainly GIMP. You can follow the tutorials with your own 2D application too; like Photoshop / Painter / TVPaint / Krita / etc... ( Note: one bonus video uses Mypaint!).

Link

About the Author

Avatar image for Bart Veldhuizen
Bart Veldhuizen

I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Head of Community at Sketchfab.

45 Comments

  1. Watching David Revoy's workshop at the Blender Conference was the highlight for me. He works at an alarming rate and his work is always top notch. I'll definately be adding this to my wishlist.

  2. Chaos. I like chaos.

    Chaos and Evolutions sounds like a book on Tzeentch (if there are Warhammer 40k fans out there :p)

    I think I might take this book, I have a used Cintiq waiting for challenges...

  3. Haha we finally get a 20 hour dvd from the blender developers...and its a 2d painting DVD??? Where is our 20 hour game engine tutorial DVD instead?? I mean there was what, half an hour of that on the YoFrankie dvd? There are many hundreds of 2D painting video tuts on the net...but very few decent game engine ones. Bit of a waste if you ask me.

  4. @miffed: I understand you would rather have 20h of BGE content but there are also people like me who are eager to learn something about 2D painting. If it's also to benefit the Blender Institute, I'm in! Ordered already ;)

  5. @Miffed: I 'remember' my mom tutor'd me to strap my boots, depending on perspective, even a simple welldone tutorial is a great addition, this to say, I don't agree with 'bit of waste'...

    From a total production perspective, The Blender Foundation can issue many things, from storytelling/writing, drawing, anatomy, modeling, painting, acting, animating, cameraman, mattepainting, directing, compositing, marketing, programming C/Python, gameplay and many, many more.

    If I were chairman of the foundation I would hold all tutorials till 2.5 is 'done'/'production-stable', so tutorials aren't deprecated uphand... This make the 2D tutorial an excellent choice?

    Niels

  6. This I am very interested in.

    Normally my work is 3D, but 2D apinting is a necessity for anyone in 3D.

    A really good tutorial on texture painting in Blender would be good for me. Does this DVD cover that?

  7. @Miffed: I can certainly see your point but think about it a bit more carefully. When this dvd production was started blender 2.5 ALPHA 1 wasn't out yet. Who knows at what point the 2.5 project was at during it's production. If they released a 2.49 blender dvd, it would be outdated as soon as 2.5 came out. With the rapidly changing 2.5 project they probably opted to do this digital painting dvd so that the dvd wouldn't be outdated the second 2.5 came out.

    I can certainly see your point about the Blender Foundation released a dvd that is not about Blender. Maybe that was the point though. We are lucky to have David Revoy in our blender community and maybe his dvd get some attention from non-blender users. I dunno.

    Regardless, this dvd will be about half the price of your average Gnomon DVD. :)

  8. Justin Operable on

    I must say that I'm really happy this is being made. It's truly gonna be a must have for me. But I have to ask, why does Blender have their stuff together so much better than other Open Source projects. The GIMP team puts out a wonderful piece of software, but why weren't they making DVD's like this a while agoi. There should be art book and training DVDs benefiting the GIMP team. More open art software projects should follow Blenders lead. It obviously works. They have a better catalog of Art DVD's than some small publishers that specialize in that area, and thats not even their primary product.

  9. Thanks for the warm welcome of my future DVD !

    @Bart ; thanks for the article ; "takes 20 hours to talk you" it's not really a talking 20 hours ; a tutorial part will describe shortly and efficiently all big step and tips of my digital painting workflow ; and additional 20h on DVD of the full timelapse of the project used as example with minimalistic text over.

    @Redbyte and Wybren van Keulen ; thanks to be a sympatic public at the BConf , I must check my files to find this crazy concept art I did at this moment.

    @nemesis : No , this DVD contain no texturing and no mate painting , it's oriented illustration and concept art ( drawing from imagination ). If the DVD sales are good enough to make my producer happy about this first 2D product, may be there will be others.

    @Miffed :
    I feel you are really negative in your messages , and I see you mix things in a funny way. So, it's my work to stop the confusion :
    1) "...[...] from the blender developers" : I'm not a blender developers, I'm an independent 2D artist who created a DVD from A to Z with GIMP , I was wisely guided with the experience of Ton, Pablo, William, Andy & Bassam ( who did exellent Dvd ) and trust in the Blender Foundation produce it , and offer it to the community under CC.

    2) "Around 60 2d painting dvd’s" .Gnomon don't do exclusively 2D and your number sound false (btw, I didn't checked). Btw, nothing to compare cause they didn't use Free Open Source Software , and don't release them under CC. Gnomon and other 2D tutorials produce expensive DVDs , with often just an accelerated timelapse ( not a wide range of project ) and an artist that improvise 40 min of voice over. If you would read Chaos&Evolutions descriptions, you would see it's something else.
    Don't you think you prefer learn 2D from a Dvds using FOSS and support the Blender Foundation , -OR- paying Gnomon and feed a private school with their closed content and partnership with Autodesk and Adobe ?

    3) "There are many hundreds of 2D painting video tuts on the net" ; A lot of poor timelapse with bad qualities an undecent video compression . Sorry but I don't want Chaos&Evolution project to be compared at this.
    Of course their is good one on the net. I know the Youtube/Dailymotion/Vimeo offer very well concerning this, and this DVD is not targeted to do the same.

    So.... I just conclude you didn't knew how to express yourself in a positive way to express your frustration that no DVD will come next month to help you 'learning the very good Blender Game Engine'. Next time, if I can permit to propose you an alternative way of writing your comment , just say : " Hey , a new DVD is ok , but think to one about the Blender Game Engine ; I would be more exiting and interesting for me."

  10. I usually don't post anything here, but i read it a lot.
    @David: I already ordered your DVD. I think it's a great product for anyone interested in 3d or in game development because if you don't have the concepts you would not go anywhere. You also made a clear and polite answer to Miffed. He probably is pissed as he wanted a dvd tutorial about BGE, so the corret way of doing so would be asking Blender foundation or collecting signatures and making a petition. I looking for your DVD.
    Thanks.

  11. Thank you David for your DVD. I am especially happy you used GIMP, Alchemy and MyPaint - all great OpenSource products. This is great the information every 3D artist should know. Already ordered.

  12. @ David Revoy:

    "Gnomon don’t do exclusively 2D and your number sound false (btw, I didn’t checked)"

    Well maybe you should have. :) That number is pretty accurate. Also, any 2d artist worth his salt knows that which program you use is irrelevant, so a photoshop tutorial can be used in the GIMP just as easy. Also, the GIMP is a image manipulation tool at best, it has never been good for anything else. MyPaint is the only decent 2d open source tool in my opinion, for proper painting anyway. If the GIMP had been developed anywhere near as well as Blender over these years, it would be a serious contender for Photoshop, but I don't think they treat its development seriously.

    Also, I have never found an issue with 'timelapse with audio put on over it'. Maybe some people have 20 hours here to spare, watching someone draw; but for proffesionals, a lot of information fast is what is needed, so I don't know if it's such a good thing, having it recorded in another way. After all, the artist sees every stroke/layer trick in a timelapse anyways, just sped up.

    So, this isn't a Blender DVD and I don't understand why it exists (especially when documentation was so badly needed but so unprovided for on the yofrankie DVD, I guess thats my main problem with this)...I'm sure you could have released a free video tutorial, maybe an hour long, and shown a lot of the tools/methods used.

  13. @David, great work. This is going to be a great contribution to the Blender Foundation's DVD bookshelf! This is something I've personally been really interested in learning more about lately, and your work for Sintel has been top notch!

    @Miffed, who are you miffed at anyway? David? He doesn't do game engine stuff.

    As for not understanding why it exists, I know I'll certainly buy it, and many others will too. In fact, I reckon it will be a pretty solid seller to support the Blender Foundation and it's continued projects and development. There's your reason, sport. If you don't want it, don't buy it. Problem solved.

    If you want a 20 hour game engine DVD, then nobody's standing in the way of you making one, by the way.

  14. Thanks TonyM ;) CGEX ;) Shiru ;)

    @Miffed:
    Ok I believe 60 "2D" Dvd on Gnomon. I will not check , I believe you.

    I can't let on internet the affirmation you let , it's pure intox. I don't want to let doubt about my DVD for other users, so, correcting time again :

    *[Miffed] quote : "MyPaint is the only decent 2d open source tool in my opinion"
    Mypaint isn't a decent 2D apps for the 2D industry even if I like it a lot : no layers blending mode / textures / custom brush with pattern / deformation and cropping tools etc.... By the way, it's a solid sketch application, and "full screen oriented" 2D project.

    *[Miffed] quote : "photoshop tutorial can be used in the GIMP just as easy"
    So , you didn't know a lot about Photoshop and Gimp ; or surely both. The advanced feature used in pro Digital painting are different on both programs . Btw, my Gimp tutorial will can be adapted to Photoshop easily.

    *[Miffed] quote :"but I don’t think they treat its development seriously"
    Gimp developpers are really serious, I read daily the mailing list, and this softly insult a group of poeple I highly respect for the free development they did. I don't agree.

    *[Miffed] quote : "Maybe some people have 20 hours here to spare, watching someone draw; but for proffesionals, a lot of information fast is what is needed "
    You didn't read the e-shop page.
    So I repeat in other way :
    The seven first chapter, are tutorial , they use only part of 8 project I did , to illustrate the 2D technics.
    01 Sketching
    02 Drawing
    03 Alchemy
    04 Coloring
    05 Painting
    06 Finishing
    07 Model Sheet
    This videos are shorts , and go to the point. Nothing more nothing less. So, I respect your professional time.
    The next videos :
    08 Character Design (Full timelapse) : Shain the Ogre
    09 Character Design (Full timelapse) : Lia Turtle
    10 Character Design (Full timelapse) : Cendrea
    11 Creature Design (Full timelapse) : A Sci-fi waterhorse
    12 Environement Design (Full timelapse) : Lia Planet
    13 Digital painting (Full timelapse) : Shain against the Dragon.
    14 Digital painting (Full timelapse) : Portrait of Cendrea
    15 Model Sheet (Full timelapse) : Steampunk Lia
    16 Bonus : Quetzalcoat
    Are full timelapse ; only 2X speeded and HD 100 % of my screen , without cuts ; it's here the 20h ; but you don't need to watch them, and I didn't force poeple to watch them fully.
    The goal is for them to use the "time bar" on the "control" of the video to choose what part they want to study. I want poeple to have a HD content , and be free to watch how I manage things. It's like offering the "source" on a open source project. ( did you watch each files on BBB ? surely not as a professional you don't have 20€ to watch each little vertex of a 3D file , maybe more on the Yofrankie... if not, you should !)
    No other DVD or internet video offer this possibility.

    *[Miffed] quote : "I’m sure you could have released a free video tutorial, maybe an hour long, and shown a lot of the tools/methods used"
    .... And it's what I do if you read me + 20h of free HD timelapse for studing ( as the "Open-source" philosophie ) . So you will be happy, you will not loose your time, and have my source as extra playground content.
    Other users specially interrested in a little part will can study it , without being lost in a very fast timelapse.

    After I'm sorry for you and I regret too their is no YoFrankie Game engine DVD tutorial. But their is other way to express your frustration than wanting to convince other poeple my Dvd have no legal reason to exist or will be bad.

    As TonyM says : "There’s your reason, sport. If you don’t want it, don’t buy it. Problem solved."
    I agree.

  15. I'm impressed David. In a positive way. It seams you still have hope to encourage everybody to learn and to improve in this world - even the people hitting you.
    I stink at drawing 2D, so I think your DVD will not be of interest to me, but it's great to see every recource being given to people who have interest in this topic.
    Unfortunately I see that it would be great for me to improve in this topic, because it helps the whole production line for a 3D product.
    Well, following the whole Durian project, it inspires me (and it seams to me also the Blnder community) to put much more energy into sketches and 2D work, so that the final 3D product gets a high quality.
    Thanks a lot for your DVD. Perhaps one day I will consider it ;)

    Tom

  16. yay! after watching the durian timelapse painting by david, i was waiting more more. its so good to see this DVD now. and whats this hoopla about blender foundation and dvd? isn't 2d part of making 3d films? what so bad if blender foundation provides a DVD for that?

  17. The point of these DVDs is they show quality work is possible with Open Source Apps.
    Yes there are lots of quality digital painting tutorials, but most involve proprietary apps.

  18. "The point of these DVDs is they show quality work is possible with Open Source Apps."

    Not really, they are more of a testament to the artists involved than the software. The development method behind the software is irrelevant, always has been always will be, unfortunately the technical limitations of said software remain and for a lot of us the gimp is simply not useful and any time we point this out the open source sociopaths flame us for it.

  19. As a struggling intermediate artist and Blender fan, I see the value in this, and have pre-ordered a copy. I also see value in supporting the Blender developers. It's one way I can say thanks. (Also pre-oredered Sintel/Durian.)

    I use the Gimp on Gentoo linux and find it intuitive and easy to use. Haven't tried mypaint yet, but I did get it to compile here... Looking forward to trying something new and improving my skills.

    Thanks for putting this out, David. Can't wait for it to arrive. :)

  20. @I.P. Friely,

    I don't really get your logic. You say that a quality finished product is a testament to the artist, and that the software doesn't matter, and then in the same paragraph you go on to say that the software is too limited for you to do something with it. Wouldn't that also be a "testament" to the artist?

    It's true that Gimp has limitations. However, it's also pretty obvious that in the hands of a capable user, Gimp is perfectly usable for concept art, storyboarding, texturing, matte painting and such things that Blender users need in a 2D app.

    At the risk of saying something that might be mistaken for a "sociopathic" flame, I'd be very interested to know exactly what functionality is missing in Gimp that makes it unsuitable for you to use for those purposes?

  21. Let me say to the fellow that spoke about Gnomon DVD's and online tuts, yea Gnomons great, but they don't use GIMP, they use Painter or Photoshop and though they are still somewhat applicable, I am a digital painter who is really excited to see a FOSS Specific workflow, especially incorporating the Gimp Painter plugin. Plus, Gnomon doesn't release their content CC and giving money to Gnomon does not encourage the creation of further free content. I am a pretty experienced digital painter, and I have watched Gnomon DVDs and other art vids til my eyes bled, and as great as they are I still could not be more excited about this.

  22. Also, if you honestly think that the software you use is irrelevant then I would say you're not a very experienced digital painter. Painter and Photoshop are very different, and there's a lot of tools and assumptions in making a video for one that isn't true in the other. Plus he's providing a workflow that includes Alchemy and Gimp Painter plugin, pretty bleeding edge stuff as far as FOSS is concerned, and giving you information on Model Sheets, character design and a bunch of other things. Why are people compaining about getting a freely licensed DVD that is tailored to a FOSS specific workflow. Pearls before swine I say.

    And if you think GIMP isn't useful, then you haven't really used it. I'm sorry, call me a FOSS sociopath, but I paint digitally for FOSS production and I use GIMP exclusively. And call me a FOSS Sociopath but I can put my money where my mouth is.

  23. @filip
    No dvd is going to turn you into an artist(except bob ross and his happy little trees)... but practice might.
    go setup a bowl of fruit and try drawing it from observation, try drawing your room or sit down a friend and start a portrait. That's a good way to get started.

  24. @anonabus
    That's what I fear. :)
    But if computers can help people without arms, couldn't they help people without talent ?
    Surely as my wife has left me for an artist.

    @Justin
    I think the dutch government policy has something to do with the success of Blender.
    Which makes us think of what could have been if communism still existed.

  25. Meee wanteeee *screech*!
    The Blender Foundation might as well produce a DVD about how to do Photography, it is ALL a part of the skillset a 3D artist needs, as I painfully discovered. I'll own this one, definitely, I'll pre-own it next week. I'd also want a rendering DVD, and so on, and if David chooses to make a painting DVD and if the Blender Foundation chooses to publish it, it is their decision, where's the problem? Good design and visuals have to come before a game engine anyway, a game with poor visuals and concept will also be perceived as such.

  26. There is always a need for 2D and 3D tutorials, and this seems very detailed and organized. David the work looks really good, I have also found some really good tutorials on other subjects over at http://www.cmivfx.com they seem to be really affordable and offer some high end projects.

  27. I use to draw but it is not worthy at all.
    I do all my comic with blender.
    2D graphics will died inevitably....

    What would I learn from buying this DVD DAvid?

    Repond s'il te plait...

    Oh yeah one thing I would like to learn is making texture!!!
    Can I lear that from your DVD?

  28. Thanks for the new comments :-)

    +1 with Mike, that's right.

    @pixelnolve : 2D graphic are a totally different process than 3D. I don't think it will die one day. In my DVD you will learn :

    Tutorials :
    -----------

    01 Sketching
    A video about the firsts steps; the firsts brushes strokes, the first setups.

    02 Drawing
    Drawing with a tablet technics.

    03 Alchemy
    Inspiration, creativity with this special tool.

    04 Coloring
    Blocking colors, choosing colors, light and shadows...

    05 Painting
    Various material rendering, painting tricks, smoothing, modification...

    06 Finishing
    FX, Textures, final touch

    07 Model Sheet
    Alchemy and Gimp for modelsheet

    Timelapse :
    -----------

    08 Character Design (Full timelapse) : Shain the Ogre
    A character design with full details, and hi-rendering. Long method.

    09 Character Design (Full timelapse) : Lia Turtle
    A character design with enought details for production, mid-rendering and good time.

    10 Character Design (Full timelapse) : Cendrea
    A speedpainting character design , fast but low-rendering details.

    11 Creature Design (Full timelapse) : A Sci-fi waterhorse
    A creature design from an Alchemy experimentation, hi-rendering.

    12 Environement Design (Full timelapse) : Lia Planet
    An environment design mid-rendering, to use custom brushes.

    13 Digital painting (Full timelapse) : Shain against the Dragon.
    A digital painting mixing and environment , a character, a creature ; hi-rendering.

    14 Digital painting (Full timelapse) : Portrait of Cendrea
    A digital painting portrait; hi-rendering.

    15 Model Sheet (Full timelapse) : Steampunk Lia
    A professionnal model sheet, front / rear / side view + weapon ; all details in line-art rendering.

    16 Bonus : Quetzalcoat
    A digital painting portrait; hi-rendering ( Mypaint method ) .

  29. preordered as well. Watching painting timelapses is fun! I am aware that just owning DVD won't make me a better artist, i allready have a bunch of books and DVDs about drawing/painting. I guess i should be starting right now. Can't wait for the DVD however! And yeah, mypaint rocks! I set up the hotkeys in GIMP like they are in mypaint, to switchting between them won't be as annoying ;)

  30. Je me dois de te repondre en Francais,
    C'est vraiment trop sympa de m'avoir repondu en prenant le temps
    de detailler les tutorials et les timelaps.

    David Revoy vous etes un grand et vous avez tout mon respect,
    Je compte sur vous pour mener ce projet a terme.

    I feel that this DVD will be a great source of inspiration,
    Ce sera peut etre l'occasion de renouer les liens avec la 2D,
    ou pourquoi pas combiner la 2D et la 3D.

    Merci encore c'est trop sympa.
    du coup je viens de preorder le DVD.

  31. Got my copy last friday. Haven't had the time to take a closer look but really liked what i saw.
    No doubt i will learn a lot from this dvd... just what i need to really get startet with digital painting.

    Thank you for making this David. GREAT work!

  32. I understand that we should all buy as much as we can because it supports Blender. But as the whole point is this is free open source content we can also download it right? I have been searching for a download link for a few hours now and am not seeing one. There are a lot of shadey sites online that ask for email and whatnot to download but they seem like scam sites to me.

    So can anyone point me to a trustworthy download location?

    Also I bought Blender T-shirts and stickers because you can't download them and I DO like to support Blender with my cash, so please refrain from bashing those of us who LIKE free stuff (like Blender, and this tutorial btw).

    Cheers.

  33. Hi Máirín Duffy,

    The aim of this DVD ( for the software distribution ) was to provide in priority a solution with some packages for the user who want to mimic my workflow ( debian distrib based, with Linux Mint ) as well as the code to install it ; of course for more casual computer user ( the ones that don't install linux ) , mac & windows package where added on the dvd too.

    There is more than 20 populars distributions on Linux actually - including Fedora you use- , and if I took time to find packages or 'compile how-to' and try them for each distrib for i386 and 64, I would surely can't make this DVD. Sorry again if you are 'very disappointed' but the target of this DVD is the lessons of digital painting at first. If the software are open-source and can be compiled on any Linux system, there is no major problem.
    May be just ask to the Fedoa packager team a package for Gimp-painter

    Google is your friend ; a solution for you is here to compile it :
    http://rajivmudgal.com/?p=820

    ... and the official thread on blenderartist.org for support/faq/questions :
    http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=179695

    Thanks for buying it :)

  34. @David Revoy:
    First thank you for making this lovely DVD. I have one question though, in the full timelapse movie 14 (cendrea-portrait) what happens at minute 37? The movie jumps from a close up gray sketch of the face to a full colored picture and I cannot really follow.

  35. @David Revoy:
    Thanks a lot for the quick response and especially for the missing part! It's a great DVD. Wish you luck with your projects.

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