3D Challenge No. 2 - Wine glass

Here's what I suggest for my second challenge.
Create a glass of wine with wine in it. Put the glass on a marble table.
Even better, sit the glass on a coaster of your choice.

Here we go...

3D Challenge No. 1

Blender Challenge

These challenges, which will be posted once a month is aiming at Blender users of all levels. It consists of creating an image as directed by the post but the creator has to explain clearly how his image was done - a tutorial.

The prize? PRIDE! As this blog gains popularity, users will vote for their best tutorial and the winner will be very proud of his/her work.

Sooooo, for the first challenge...

Challenge No. 1: Creating a "infinite" mirroring image.
Using two or more mirrors as walls, explain how one could create an image that reflects in these mirrors as often as Blender will allow.

Blender 3D - Tutorial Glass Sphere (Ball)

Hi all,
This is my very first post for my new Blog (12-February-2007).
I became kind of frustrated of starting a Tutorial I found on the web and was never able to get to the end of it because it lacked explanation for a newbie - One exception: http://www.blendernation.com/ - excellent tutorials there!

So here is my first tutorial.

Making a transparent glass ball (Blender3d 2.42)

Step 1. - Cleaning up the world
Open Blender and clear the pad - if the initial cube is showing, press Delete and select Erase Selected Object(s). You should have no objects on the 3D world.

Step 2. - Creating the ball
a) Press Space Bar
b) Mouse-over Add> Mesh> UVSphere
c) Select 32 Segments, then 32 Rings
You should have a nice Sphere (ball) with lots of vertices (dots).

Step 3 - Making a bigger ball
With the ball selected:
a) Move you mouse cursor close to the centre of the ball
b) Press 'S' key
c) Pull the mouse cursor away from the ball and set it the size you like

Step 4 - Creating a smoother ball
Currently, the ball looks quite edgy. We'll make it smoother.
From the Editing Panel (F9), click on Set Smooth at the bottom right of the Links and Materials sub-panel.

Step 5 - Texturing / Materials

a) Shading: Click F5 to go into the Shading sub-panel.
b) Currently, we have no materials defined. Click New to create a new material. A bunch of sub-panels will open for many other options.
c) Click on the Shaders tab.
d) Set Spec at 2.0 (it is probably at around 0.5 currently).
e) Now, set Hard (right below Spec) at 500.
f) In the Materials Tab, set A: to 0.05 - This is the Alpha parameter.
g) In the Links and Pipeline Tab, click on the Ztransp button to turn it on.
h) Now, back to the Shaders tab. Set Ref to 1.0
i) In the Mirror Transp tab, set Spectra to 1.0 as well.

Step 6 - Changing the World Background Color
The default background is probably Blue. When you will render, your cristal ball will show tranparent and all you'll see is a Blue ball.
So, Let's make the world white.
a) Pres F5 to go in Edit mode.
b) Click the button showing a blue and white earth (globe) - the one right after the radiosity button (yellow and black).
c) Click to left-most color bar (mine is blue) and change the color to white.

Step 7 - Adding a floor under the ball.
We will add a floor so that through the cristal ball, we can see it and it will be difformed by the ball refractions and reflections.
a) Go to top view (NumPad 7)
b) Tab to Object Mode
c) Press 'A' key until no object is selected.
d) Press Spacebar, mouse over Add, Mesh, then Plane
e) Now we will make that plane very big (to the infinite). Bring your mouse cursor to the centre of the plane, presse 'S' key, then pull away the mouse cursor as far as you can.
f) We will bring this plane below the ball. Go to Front view (NumPad 1). Press 'G' key. Press 'Z' key. Move the plane so that it sits just under the ball.


Step 8 - Texture the plane (floor).
I have chose to have a wood floor. To texture my plane with wood, I have found a wood texture at: http://www.imageafter.com/category.php?category=woods
From this site or any other sites where you can find texture files, download the texture you like and save it on you hard drive.

Here are the steps - make sure your plane is still selected:
a) Go to Edit Mode (Tab)
b) Press F5 key
c) Click the Materials button (red sphere button)
d) Click the Link to Object - Add New button
e) Press F6 key
f) Under Texture, click Add New
g) Under Texture Type, Click the None selection list and choose Image
h) In the Image sub-panel, click Load Image. This will open a dialog box asking you to choose the image file. Obviously, you do remember where you stored your image file.
i) Verify that the camera is well positioned [NumPad 0] and move it around to make sure the ball is in view.
j) You may have to move the floor around as well to ensure it is large enough so that the ball is not display on the white background too much.

Step 9 - Refining the ball transparency and other parameters
a) Select the ball in Object Mode (Tab to get to the Object Mode).
b) Go to Materials [F5]
c) Experiment with the Shaders and Mirror Transp sub-panels to see what happens.
d) Press [F12] to render your image and keep playing around with various RayMirror and RayTransp parameters.

Step 10 - Playing around Duplicating spheres
Lastly, duplicate the ball, resize the duplicated balls and place in your world.
Render again [F12] to see what the result is...

Hope this helps!
Guy Levert, Ottawa, ON, CANADA