My Sculpted Prims Tutorial - Derived from Amanda Levitsky's site
You can get Blender 2.44 here
1) Open Blender (of course).
It always starts with a cube when I open it, already selected.
Just press your delete key (keyboard) to remove it.
The little 'OK' menu will pop up and just click the Erase Selected Objects on it.
2) Add cylinder.
Now, I guess SL is really only set up to work with the cylinder or sphere so far.
There are a couple more steps needed for using a sphere (or closed cyliner),
and I havent included those here (yet).
But the steps are here if you wish to try and follow this tute to prepare a sphere.
Top Menu Bar > Add > Mesh > Cylinder.
It should pop up this window:
Click the bottom button Cap Ends to turn that off.
We don't want end caps, or you have to
prepare it the same as you do a sphere.
If it looks like this now, click OK.
Now, it should look something like this:
This cylinder is rotated, which you can do by holding down
ALT and left-clicking your mouse in the area around the cylinder
and dragging it in the direction you wish to turn your camera view.
You can change the view to Front, Side, Top, etc on the objects menu bar too:
3) Split Window
Now is a good time to set up 2 views/split window.
Near the edge of your objects window you should get the 'resize arrows'.
Along the top will split the window in half vertically.
Along the side will split the window in half horizontally.
Place your cursor along the top and right-click when you get the arrows.
You should get a little pop-up menu. Click Split Area.
Now change the right hand view to UV/Image Editor by clicking the
first button on the window's menu bar along the bottom of the window.
Now it should look something like this.
Sorry, large pic. >.>
4) Seams
You need to mark your seams so Blender will know how to make
this 3D object flat, so we can make an image map of it.
I don't know if you have to do a certain order,
but I find it works better if I do the top seam first.
Go to Front View, and select all the dots along the top edge.
An easy way to select a group is to: (make sure cursor is in the object's window)
Press the B key on your keyboard (stands for Border Select)
Left-click and drag out the selector 'box' to surround the dots you want.
When you let go you should now have all the top dots selected.
This will get the ones in front as well as back
(remember that, you might not want ALL in that row, front and back, heh)
Now, to create a seam, with cursor in the objects window,
press CTRL + E to get the seams menu.
Click Mark Seam.
Now unselect all dots (A key will select/deselect all)
Now we need to select the side seam. I prefer the back of the object.
I go to Front View then ALT + Left-click drag the object down.
Select one dot along the top by right-clicking on it
follow the 'grid' line down to the bottom of the object and
holding your Shift key down, right-click the dot at the bottom.
Shift allows you to add more to your current selection.
I forgot to take a pic, but here is Amanda's. She chose to make a seam on the side.
It really doesnt matter where, but it can bother your texture graphic later, so thats why I chose the back.
On something you've left 'round' and doesnt really have a front or back
(vase, column, etc) it wont matter at all where the seam is.
CTRL + E to mark that seam too.
With all unselected (A key) it should now look like this:
Seams will be orange.
5) Divide the cylinder.
Amanda says it this way:
Explanation: The vertices (divisions) of the original cylinder give you the vertical vertex
positions in the sculpt/object. The vertices created here provide the horizontal vertex positions.
Together, they give you a grid of vertices, which you can later move around as you please to
mould into any shape you like, provided you don't add or remove any vertices.
The best way I have found so far to add dots/vertices is to use one of
the options at the very bottom of the program.
Select all dots/vertices(A key) with cursor in the object's window
Then at the bottom, sort of near the middle, you should see this:
Beauty will split it around/horizontally, Short will split it vertically (which we don't need now, as it already is).
Click the Beauty Button only, then click Subdivide.
Click Subdivide as many times as you think you will need divisions.
Here is mine:
6) Unwrap.
Change the object from Object Mode or Edit Mode to UV Face Select.
at the bottom of the object's window.
Make sure you have all dots selected (A key)
and with cursor still in the object's window, press the U key.
This will give you the Unwrap Menu.
If at any time you don't get the expected menu, check to see where your cursor is, lol.
Click Unwrap.
Now you should finally have something in that right hand window,
A scrunched up shape map.
7) Move and scale the UV coordinates.
<sighs> This has to be the part I hate the most. So tedious.
Amanda says:
Because the map/sculpt texture is a result of the UV mapping of your mesh,the more
accurate your UV coordinates are, the more accurate your resulting sculptie will be.
Ideally, your UV coordinates will be as evenly spaced as possible, aligned neatly
without any jagged coordinates, and fit from edge to edge. Using the UV > Layout
Clipped To Image Size menu (at bottom of map window) option can make adjusting
the UV coordinates easier by confining movement and scaling to the UV image area (the grid).
I turn on Proportional Editing for this part (don't forget to turn off when done!), it seems to help some.
I also turn on the Snap To Pixels while here. Its really not needed until the next step though.
Make sure none of the dots are selected (A key) and then press B key
(keep cursor in the map window). Left-click and drag the selection around the top row only.
You can resize the map window for this (drag the left edge, squishing the object window down)
Zoom with your mouse wheel. Shift your view by clicking with the mouse wheel and dragging the image around.
Now, with the top row of dots selected, press your G key This will GRAB the dots.
Watch where your cursor is. It has to be in the window with the map.
Also, the closer your cursor is to the selection, the harder I find it to control.
It doesn't matter if your cursor is above, below, or to the side of the selected dots though.
After pressing G, drag your cursor up. The map should start to stretch and follow your cursor.
Often you have to stretch so far that the bottom row moves up too.
After you get your grid to the top, deselect all (A) and
select the bottom row (B and drag selection). Press G, drag down.
Keep alternating top and bottom rows until your dots/map cover the lighter gray grid.
As you can see from mine, it doesnt come out even, even with the proportional editing
on, but a lot better than it does without it.
Now we have to even it out. -.-
Sometimes its a single dot out of place, sometimes its half or all of a row.
The more even you get this part, the better your sculpt in SL.
TURN OFF PROPORTIONAL EDITING FOR THIS NEXT PART! lol
Bottom map menu, UV > Proportional Editing.
Deselect all (A). B and drag to select several dots. (right-click for a single dot).
Zoom and shift view as needed with mouse wheel.
G to grab and drag.
You can select more than one row at a time. Drag as many around as you like.
Align with the grid behind it, it helps a lot even though it is hard to see.
Try to make it look as 'perfect' as you can get it.
*Whew*...done...(not sure if needed, but I always Select All when done for the next part.)
8) New Image.
Menu bar at the bottom of the map window:
(first do UVs > Snap To Pixels if you didn't set before)
Now do Image > New
You will get this:
You need to change from the 256 x 256 to 64 x 64.
Currently SL only supports this at 64 x 64. -.-
You can use the little gray arrows to scroll the numbers
or click on the wording to get a text box and change 256 to 64 on both.
Click OK when done.
9) Material and textures.
Even though this usually doesn't show anything, it is needed for the texture
map to be made. First we add a material. On the bottom part of the screen,
on the little Panels Menu, make sure the Editing Icon is clicked.
Then under the Link and Materials window click New.
Then, on the Panels Menu again, click the Shading Icon, and on the new menu that pops
up next to these, click the Material Buttons (both are ball shapes)
and change the buttons in the Materials window to TexFace.
Then, on the far right (probably have to scroll browser window) in the Texture window, click Add New.
Click the next button under the new Tex button and Add New.
Do this for the 3rd button too.
Now go to the Textures Button
Click each Tex button and set to Blend
Now go back to the Materials Button
(little red ball on 2nd set in the Panels next to the leopard print Textures Button)
(2nd and 3rd pics back show it)
10) Set Input and Output on Textures.
Now that you've added some textures, and set them to Blend, the
Textures window will show (bottom, far right) new tabs, Map Input, Map To.
Click the first Tex button, click the Map Input tab, and set to:
Then go to the Map To tab and set like this: (drag the slider on the blue down to zero)
Go back to the Texture tab, click the 2nd Tex button
and change the settings on the other tabs as follows:
(drag sliders on red and blue to zero, green all the way up)
Go back to the Texture tab again, click the 3rd Tex button
and change the settings on the other tabs as follows again:
(only need to drag the slider on red to zero)
Now...if both myself (in setting this up) and yourself (in following this)
have done this correctly, you now have a prepared object to sculpt!!
I could have just linked you to my prepared one, but if something were
to happen to it, or to yours, you wouldnt know how to get back to this point. lol.
So, pat yourself on the back, you've done a good job! ^.^
First thing I would do is save this. Top Menu Bar, File > Save As...
Name it something like PreparedCylinder.blend
I would also go to Windows Explorer, right-click on the file > Properties and set for Read Only.
This would prevent me from saving over it.
11) SCULPT!! lol
You should now have something like this...(see below...sorry, big pic again)
You can resize/shrink the map window for now.
Be sure to change back to Edit Mode on the object's menu bar.
Use the same controls you did when resizing the map texture. A, B, G, etc.
You can also scale (S key) and rotate (R key).
Zoom is mouse wheel. Slide view around by CTRL + arrow keys on 10-key pad.
Tip and rotate view by ALT + left-click and drag.
If a HotKey doesnt respond right (A, B, etc) check that your cursor is on the window with the object.
Amanda:
Blender's sculpt mode is lovely here for organic shapes. Here I've unimaginatively created a vase. Note that while the
cylinder mesh appears to be more like a tube, and lacking a top and bottom, when rendered in SL the top and bottom
will be closed (though ugly; for better control you may want to scale the top and bottom rings of vertices down
to one point and shape the ends yourself, perhaps bringing them into the body of the vase to create a true hollow).
Tip: When building your model, it's a good idea to first move more of the vertices to the areas which will have the most
detail. In the vase below, you can see that the region in the middle of the vase only has one row of vertices, while the
curved neck has many more. This prioritisation of vertices is what gives you fine control over the detail in a sculptie.
12) Bake
Click the Scene button on the Panels menu.
I dont know if it matters, but I select all (A) before Baking.
Go to the Baked tab on the very bottom, center window.
Click the Textures button, Set Margins to 0, click the Bake button.
Amanda:
If after baking you notice aliasing artifacts in the baked image, try increasing the Margin by 1 or 2.
You should now have a nice rainbow image on the image map:
Don't ask me what this is, I just tortured it so I had something to take a pic of, lol.
Amanda:
Tip: Using the Ambient Occlusion mode instead of the Textures mode will allow you to bake a shading/lighting
texture which shadows the corners and crevices of your object quite naturally. This can then be applied to the sculptie
as a regular texture to add shadowing. If you want to do this, consider using a higher resolution for the UV image when
baking the ambient occlusion map, and the normal 64x64 resolution when baking the sculpt map.
13) Save UV Image map
From the menu under the rainbow mess (may have to expand that side again)
click Image > Save As. Name it whatever you wish.
Save as a TARGA file. It doesn't lose as much data as a jpg does during compression.
Upload that .tga file to SL and apply to the shape.
You can get Blender 2.44 here
1) Open Blender (of course).
It always starts with a cube when I open it, already selected.
Just press your delete key (keyboard) to remove it.
The little 'OK' menu will pop up and just click the Erase Selected Objects on it.
2) Add cylinder.
Now, I guess SL is really only set up to work with the cylinder or sphere so far.
There are a couple more steps needed for using a sphere (or closed cyliner),
and I havent included those here (yet).
But the steps are here if you wish to try and follow this tute to prepare a sphere.
Top Menu Bar > Add > Mesh > Cylinder.
It should pop up this window:
Click the bottom button Cap Ends to turn that off.
We don't want end caps, or you have to
prepare it the same as you do a sphere.
If it looks like this now, click OK.
Now, it should look something like this:
This cylinder is rotated, which you can do by holding down
ALT and left-clicking your mouse in the area around the cylinder
and dragging it in the direction you wish to turn your camera view.
You can change the view to Front, Side, Top, etc on the objects menu bar too:
3) Split Window
Now is a good time to set up 2 views/split window.
Near the edge of your objects window you should get the 'resize arrows'.
Along the top will split the window in half vertically.
Along the side will split the window in half horizontally.
Place your cursor along the top and right-click when you get the arrows.
You should get a little pop-up menu. Click Split Area.
Now change the right hand view to UV/Image Editor by clicking the
first button on the window's menu bar along the bottom of the window.
Now it should look something like this.
Sorry, large pic. >.>
4) Seams
You need to mark your seams so Blender will know how to make
this 3D object flat, so we can make an image map of it.
I don't know if you have to do a certain order,
but I find it works better if I do the top seam first.
Go to Front View, and select all the dots along the top edge.
An easy way to select a group is to: (make sure cursor is in the object's window)
Press the B key on your keyboard (stands for Border Select)
Left-click and drag out the selector 'box' to surround the dots you want.
When you let go you should now have all the top dots selected.
This will get the ones in front as well as back
(remember that, you might not want ALL in that row, front and back, heh)
Now, to create a seam, with cursor in the objects window,
press CTRL + E to get the seams menu.
Click Mark Seam.
Now unselect all dots (A key will select/deselect all)
Now we need to select the side seam. I prefer the back of the object.
I go to Front View then ALT + Left-click drag the object down.
Select one dot along the top by right-clicking on it
follow the 'grid' line down to the bottom of the object and
holding your Shift key down, right-click the dot at the bottom.
Shift allows you to add more to your current selection.
I forgot to take a pic, but here is Amanda's. She chose to make a seam on the side.
It really doesnt matter where, but it can bother your texture graphic later, so thats why I chose the back.
On something you've left 'round' and doesnt really have a front or back
(vase, column, etc) it wont matter at all where the seam is.
CTRL + E to mark that seam too.
With all unselected (A key) it should now look like this:
Seams will be orange.
5) Divide the cylinder.
Amanda says it this way:
Explanation: The vertices (divisions) of the original cylinder give you the vertical vertex
positions in the sculpt/object. The vertices created here provide the horizontal vertex positions.
Together, they give you a grid of vertices, which you can later move around as you please to
mould into any shape you like, provided you don't add or remove any vertices.
The best way I have found so far to add dots/vertices is to use one of
the options at the very bottom of the program.
Select all dots/vertices(A key) with cursor in the object's window
Then at the bottom, sort of near the middle, you should see this:
Beauty will split it around/horizontally, Short will split it vertically (which we don't need now, as it already is).
Click the Beauty Button only, then click Subdivide.
Click Subdivide as many times as you think you will need divisions.
Here is mine:
6) Unwrap.
Change the object from Object Mode or Edit Mode to UV Face Select.
at the bottom of the object's window.
Make sure you have all dots selected (A key)
and with cursor still in the object's window, press the U key.
This will give you the Unwrap Menu.
If at any time you don't get the expected menu, check to see where your cursor is, lol.
Click Unwrap.
Now you should finally have something in that right hand window,
A scrunched up shape map.
7) Move and scale the UV coordinates.
<sighs> This has to be the part I hate the most. So tedious.
Amanda says:
Because the map/sculpt texture is a result of the UV mapping of your mesh,the more
accurate your UV coordinates are, the more accurate your resulting sculptie will be.
Ideally, your UV coordinates will be as evenly spaced as possible, aligned neatly
without any jagged coordinates, and fit from edge to edge. Using the UV > Layout
Clipped To Image Size menu (at bottom of map window) option can make adjusting
the UV coordinates easier by confining movement and scaling to the UV image area (the grid).
I turn on Proportional Editing for this part (don't forget to turn off when done!), it seems to help some.
I also turn on the Snap To Pixels while here. Its really not needed until the next step though.
Make sure none of the dots are selected (A key) and then press B key
(keep cursor in the map window). Left-click and drag the selection around the top row only.
You can resize the map window for this (drag the left edge, squishing the object window down)
Zoom with your mouse wheel. Shift your view by clicking with the mouse wheel and dragging the image around.
Now, with the top row of dots selected, press your G key This will GRAB the dots.
Watch where your cursor is. It has to be in the window with the map.
Also, the closer your cursor is to the selection, the harder I find it to control.
It doesn't matter if your cursor is above, below, or to the side of the selected dots though.
After pressing G, drag your cursor up. The map should start to stretch and follow your cursor.
Often you have to stretch so far that the bottom row moves up too.
After you get your grid to the top, deselect all (A) and
select the bottom row (B and drag selection). Press G, drag down.
Keep alternating top and bottom rows until your dots/map cover the lighter gray grid.
As you can see from mine, it doesnt come out even, even with the proportional editing
on, but a lot better than it does without it.
Now we have to even it out. -.-
Sometimes its a single dot out of place, sometimes its half or all of a row.
The more even you get this part, the better your sculpt in SL.
TURN OFF PROPORTIONAL EDITING FOR THIS NEXT PART! lol
Bottom map menu, UV > Proportional Editing.
Deselect all (A). B and drag to select several dots. (right-click for a single dot).
Zoom and shift view as needed with mouse wheel.
G to grab and drag.
You can select more than one row at a time. Drag as many around as you like.
Align with the grid behind it, it helps a lot even though it is hard to see.
Try to make it look as 'perfect' as you can get it.
*Whew*...done...(not sure if needed, but I always Select All when done for the next part.)
8) New Image.
Menu bar at the bottom of the map window:
(first do UVs > Snap To Pixels if you didn't set before)
Now do Image > New
You will get this:
You need to change from the 256 x 256 to 64 x 64.
Currently SL only supports this at 64 x 64. -.-
You can use the little gray arrows to scroll the numbers
or click on the wording to get a text box and change 256 to 64 on both.
Click OK when done.
9) Material and textures.
Even though this usually doesn't show anything, it is needed for the texture
map to be made. First we add a material. On the bottom part of the screen,
on the little Panels Menu, make sure the Editing Icon is clicked.
Then under the Link and Materials window click New.
Then, on the Panels Menu again, click the Shading Icon, and on the new menu that pops
up next to these, click the Material Buttons (both are ball shapes)
and change the buttons in the Materials window to TexFace.
Then, on the far right (probably have to scroll browser window) in the Texture window, click Add New.
Click the next button under the new Tex button and Add New.
Do this for the 3rd button too.
Now go to the Textures Button
Click each Tex button and set to Blend
Now go back to the Materials Button
(little red ball on 2nd set in the Panels next to the leopard print Textures Button)
(2nd and 3rd pics back show it)
10) Set Input and Output on Textures.
Now that you've added some textures, and set them to Blend, the
Textures window will show (bottom, far right) new tabs, Map Input, Map To.
Click the first Tex button, click the Map Input tab, and set to:
Then go to the Map To tab and set like this: (drag the slider on the blue down to zero)
Go back to the Texture tab, click the 2nd Tex button
and change the settings on the other tabs as follows:
(drag sliders on red and blue to zero, green all the way up)
Go back to the Texture tab again, click the 3rd Tex button
and change the settings on the other tabs as follows again:
(only need to drag the slider on red to zero)
Now...if both myself (in setting this up) and yourself (in following this)
have done this correctly, you now have a prepared object to sculpt!!
I could have just linked you to my prepared one, but if something were
to happen to it, or to yours, you wouldnt know how to get back to this point. lol.
So, pat yourself on the back, you've done a good job! ^.^
First thing I would do is save this. Top Menu Bar, File > Save As...
Name it something like PreparedCylinder.blend
I would also go to Windows Explorer, right-click on the file > Properties and set for Read Only.
This would prevent me from saving over it.
11) SCULPT!! lol
You should now have something like this...(see below...sorry, big pic again)
You can resize/shrink the map window for now.
Be sure to change back to Edit Mode on the object's menu bar.
Use the same controls you did when resizing the map texture. A, B, G, etc.
You can also scale (S key) and rotate (R key).
Zoom is mouse wheel. Slide view around by CTRL + arrow keys on 10-key pad.
Tip and rotate view by ALT + left-click and drag.
If a HotKey doesnt respond right (A, B, etc) check that your cursor is on the window with the object.
Amanda:
Blender's sculpt mode is lovely here for organic shapes. Here I've unimaginatively created a vase. Note that while the
cylinder mesh appears to be more like a tube, and lacking a top and bottom, when rendered in SL the top and bottom
will be closed (though ugly; for better control you may want to scale the top and bottom rings of vertices down
to one point and shape the ends yourself, perhaps bringing them into the body of the vase to create a true hollow).
Tip: When building your model, it's a good idea to first move more of the vertices to the areas which will have the most
detail. In the vase below, you can see that the region in the middle of the vase only has one row of vertices, while the
curved neck has many more. This prioritisation of vertices is what gives you fine control over the detail in a sculptie.
12) Bake
Click the Scene button on the Panels menu.
I dont know if it matters, but I select all (A) before Baking.
Go to the Baked tab on the very bottom, center window.
Click the Textures button, Set Margins to 0, click the Bake button.
Amanda:
If after baking you notice aliasing artifacts in the baked image, try increasing the Margin by 1 or 2.
You should now have a nice rainbow image on the image map:
Don't ask me what this is, I just tortured it so I had something to take a pic of, lol.
Amanda:
Tip: Using the Ambient Occlusion mode instead of the Textures mode will allow you to bake a shading/lighting
texture which shadows the corners and crevices of your object quite naturally. This can then be applied to the sculptie
as a regular texture to add shadowing. If you want to do this, consider using a higher resolution for the UV image when
baking the ambient occlusion map, and the normal 64x64 resolution when baking the sculpt map.
13) Save UV Image map
From the menu under the rainbow mess (may have to expand that side again)
click Image > Save As. Name it whatever you wish.
Save as a TARGA file. It doesn't lose as much data as a jpg does during compression.
Upload that .tga file to SL and apply to the shape.
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