Open your mind to the possibilities

Let this in-depth professional book be your guide to Blender, the powerful open-source 3D modeling and animation software that will bring your ideas to life. Using clear step-by-step instruction and pages of real-world examples from talented Blender users, expert animator Tony Mullen walks you through the complexities of modeling and animating, with a special focus on characters. From Blender basics to creating facial expressions and emotion to rendering, you'll jump right into the process and learn valuable techniques that will transform your movies.

• Walk through the complete process of building a character
• Master mesh modeling tools and organic modeling
• Fashion skin, hair, and clothing with material shaders, textures, and other tools
• Learn to sync lip movements with a sound file
• Understand interpolation curves, keyframes, and the basics of animating

Model your characters using a variety of mesh editing techniques

See how armatures, lattices, and IK interact

Light and render your work for exactly the effect you want

Valuable DVD with complete Blender installation

The companion DVD provides the Blender installer for Windows(r), Macintosh(r), and Linux(r). You'll also find:

• All the source files you need to produce the examples and tutorials in the book
• The short film Elephants Dream and all the files used to create it
• An impressive gallery of short animations created by Blender artists around the world
• Plenty of useful links to related Blender resources
• A large collection of third-party software and plug-ins, including Audacity, Python, and the popular BlenderPeople