Blender

Fixing Blender 2013-40

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Second Life™ users have an interest in Blender. Since a new round of discussion is starting on regard to the Blender user interface, now is a good time for us to get involved. Of course we want to avoid coming across to the Blender community as total ignoramuses and losing credibility… if we have any. So…

Andrew Price has a video up discussing the important points of User Interface design. Whether you are going to make suggestions for Blender or the Second Life UI this is an import video to watch.

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The survey he recommends you take is here: Blender User Interface Survey. This is a two-question survey. Please watch the video BEFORE taking the survey.

The follow on second half is not yet out.

Blender 2.68a Released

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A couple of days ago Blender released version 2.68a. It seems a number of bugs are getting through the release candidate testing. The development team is talking about how to change their testing procedures.

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The video is about Google Summer of Code work being done on Laplacian Surface Editing with Hook Objects. Don’t ask me… I don’t understand what is happening in the video. I would have to make some guesses. But, it seems to be an aid to animation, which is not what I expected from the title. 

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Blender 2.68 Weight Painting Updates

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Gaia Clary, operator of Machinimatrix.org and purveyor of Avastar, has a new video tutorial out showing the changes in Blender 2.68 weight painting. This video is just about the changes, not a basic weighting tutorial. It is however a must see for anyone doing weight painting. 6:29 minutes.

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The addition of weight tools to the Blender Edit Mode is great. The improved vertex weight editing in the right-hand Properties panel of the 3D window, is a major help in figuring out what’s wrong with a weight painted object that is misbehaving.

You can discuss and ask questions in the SL Forum in: Blender 2.68: Weight Tools Overview. If nothing else stop by and thank Gaia and click the KUDO’s button.

Blender Measurements for Second Life

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There is a good thread in the SL Forum for those that are interested in making to-scale objects with Blender. See: Getting a good measurement for SL within Blender.

Blender Units - by Aquila Kytori
Blender Units – by Aquila Kytori

Codewarrior Congrejo makes a suggestion in the thread that I use in my modeling. Put an avatar in the scene. I strongly urge furniture makers to go to the trouble to do that. I literally do not have ANY furniture that fits my avatar. Couches are ridiculous. The distance from the face of the back rest cushion to the front edge of the seat can be a couple of meters. WTH?

There are bits in the forum thread that may surprise even experienced Blender users.

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