Eventually you will wonder how the bezier curves work in Blender…You will add one & get a snakey line, but not be able to make it a solid…Ahem…(That was me!)…Finally…Here is how you do it:Go to Object data…Scroll down to the BEZEL slider…Slide that around-wow! Your curve becomes a tube! This is exciting…The other curves follow that same process…Use the other sliders beside the bezel one to further alter your solid…Resolution slider is neat too! Thank me…This was simple & yet for some reason, took me a while to figure out…But very very cool, no?

Style Note: Ok, so I changed the theme of this blog to Chalkboard…I love the way it looks…It makes me wonder if people will be inclined to read more because the chalkboard feel is very familiar…On the other hand I am breaking the rule that black on white is better than white on black…Please tell me if you have strong feelings about the theme…I am only using free themes for now, so there is no real commitment & I could really change it when I please…

Are you online for extensive periods of time but are lonely in the real world? Are you finding that even your online friends are tired of your aching neediness? Have they told you in not so many words? STOP…Get a life…Leave the computer…Really…Go out…Find some real company…If your career does involve online communicating you may be hurting your business by confusing business contacts with social contacts…Case in point:If you are a male artist & you are communicating with a female artist, this is not the time to discuss your sexual desires…I write this because I encounter this confusion quite often…If I am talking to another artist online I expect some professional boundaries, like in any other profession…Just because this is art does not mean that sexual innuendo is ok…Take a hint…

Ok back to business…A very neat thing to do in Blender 3d animation is this:

Add a mesh, like a cylinder or cube…In Edit Mode, select a vertex & extrude it-it will be like a line…Do this several times in different places, just for fun…

Ok, now go to the Modifiers(in Object Mode now), & select SKIN…This will skin your stick lines…Now in that same area select CREATE ARMATURE…This creates a workable rig inside your stick figure…

Now just select the stick figure, Hold SHIFT, THEN select the armature (right click on it)…Now hit CONTROL P…Select the choice “with automatic weights”…

Now the armature is the parent to the stick figure…

With armature selected go into POSE MODE…

Now you can ANIMATE your stick figure!!! So COOL!

Update theme: Well, chalkboard theme lasted about 5 minutes! Back to SELECTA…I did change the colour palette though to a neon green background…Probably because I am doing animation…

Ok, so here is how to use HOOKS in Blender…With the Bezier Curve…

So you add your bezier curve…Go to Object data & change the bevel depth & resolution to suit you…

Now go into Edit Mode…

Hit CONTROL H…This brings up the Hooks…Choose the first option…Hook to new object…

Tadahh , you have now attached a hook to your Bezier curve…

What this means is that now, in Object Mode, you can move your curve around to Animate it!

The video shows two curves with hooks attached! neat eh?

In the video above, I tired putting many hooks into a face sculpt…Theoretically, the hooks help with when you go to animate, to make the mouth move…I sort of got the idea, but it could be better…One extra thing about adding hooks-so in Edit Mode, select a vertex on your object…Now if you want to select say several vertexes in that same area, just hit SHIFT, then CONTROL + … Control + selects additonal vertexes near to the one you already chose…Keep hitting Control + & the area increases…Then when you add a hook there, CONTROL H, your hook will control that whole area…Like the cheek of a face, or a lip, or an eyebrow, or a clump of hair…

If you increase the render resolution from the default 50% to 100%, of course your finished render will be much bigger…It also takes alot longer…This last video is a render at 100%…Notice how it is different…

Ok, so, combine your above lessons to get to here…In the video above, this is what I did:

First I added a bezier curve…In object data I adjusted the bevel depth to make it a solid…& the resolution there as well…

Ok then I went to the object modifiers & added an ARRAY modifier…Then I adjusted the slider to make many iterations…So your curve becomes many curves, sort of all attached together…

Then I copied that one-manied curve, using SHIFT D(d is for duplicate)…

Did that several times…

Now select one of the curves in Object mode, click TAB to go into Edit Mode, & add a hook-remember how-hit Control H to add a hook…

Do this for each curve you have…

Now when you go to animate, each curve has a hook you can grab onto & move around to make your curve move…

But remember, your curve is actually an array-so when you move your hook, your whole array of that curve moves…So you get like grass…

I only did a few…But you could do more to have really animated grass…

I slowed the frame rate down to 12 frames per second…It is jumpier, but good enough to get the point across…

I also dropped frame resolution back down to 50%…It was way too slow with it set at 100%…

The plane has a green colour on it, then in the TEXTURE menu, an Image file that has the colour UNCHECKED & the NORMAL checked…(scroll down in texture to see these two boxes…) Then I slid the Normal bar way up…This makes the plane have a texture but not the colour of the image file I inserted…I also did this for the material & texture of the grass pieces…

The background image is just a design I did for a heated bird nest…To set a background image you go to World & add New…Then from there, in that order, go to Textures, & add an Image file…Then unclick Blend & click Horizon(in Textures)…Go back to World & click Paper Sky…

I render the film in Quicktime at Mpeg4 setting…

Then drop the file into SimpleMovie, copy it, then paste it back several times to get several loops…Then file Export, AppleTv setting…

From that file, I drop that into Garageband, show Loop browser & add some loops…Then share that to my iTunes folder where I store them…