I decided to have a bit of fun this week by jumping on the popular “S**t Girls say” meme bandwagon and creating a blender equivalent.

There’s really no point to this other than to have a laugh. Enjoy!

What parts can you relate to?

If you liked this post you may also like:

• 10 Reasons Why Your Render Sucks
• Calling All Naive Artists!
• Top 10 Tutorials from 2011

Wow, what a year! We’ve seen some massive changes to blender in 2011, along with some massive tutorials right here

So to round up the year, here’s the Top 10 Tutorials from 2011:

10. How to Make a Realistic Asteroid

9. Create a Realistic Water Simulation

8. Create an Eye Catching Energy Drink Advertisement

7. Create Realistic Outdoor Lighting

6. Create a Flame Thrower

5. Smash an iPhone

4. Create a Realistic Earth

3. Introduction to Rigging

2. Introduction to Cycles

1. Create an Underground Subway Scene

Thanks for sticking around and making this year a blast!

I normally don’t share my new years resolution, but since you’re all here, let’s talk…

Blender Guru’s Goals for 2012

• Cycles focused – All new tutorials are to use the new renderer, Cycles.
• New Product range – Textures, models etc.
• New staff
• Regular fortnightly tutorials

What else should be on the list?

If you can take a moment to fill out the survey below and tell me what you want out of Blender Guru this year, I’d really appreciate it!

Complete the Survey!

Here’s to new year of blender tutorials!

PS. Sorry I haven’t posted a new tutorial in a while. I am moving to South Korea in 4 days, where I will remain all this year. So I’ve been a bit preoccupied with that. Expect to see a new tutorial mid-January after I have settled in. Thanks for your patience

Wow! In just 3 weeks, there have been 284 entries! That makes this the most popular Blender competition to date!

I was blown away by the quality of entries. Have you all been saving up your talent for the end of the year?

Let’s start with the entries, the Honorable mentions and then the Winners.

All Entries

In reverse alphabetical order:

Honorable Mentions

These entries caught my eye and deserve to be seen at full size:

Created by DerekG1080

The attention to detail is what makes this. The frozen texture on the letterbox, the icicles and the imperfections in the snow all show that you put a lot of thought into this. At first I thought the footprints were too small, but then I realized they are from elves! Nice touch Keep up the good work!

Created by saikafu

From a purely technical viewpoint, this is almost flawless. The modeling, skin shader and lighting are spot on. You’ve demonstrated that blender really is capable of professional, studio quality results. However subject wise… I found it a little inappropriate. I won’t go into detail, but for obvious reasons I can’t award this a prize. You’ve got some serious skill saikafu, and I hope everyone notices the amount of work you put into this!

Created by wjbarber

This certainly isn’t the cheeriest of stories, but it does show a Christmas that some people experience. You’ve done a great job at portraying a grungy, ghetto styled apartment, whilst also using the Christmas elements to tell an interesting (if depressing) story. Great job!

Created by OscarM

Everyone’s favourite childhood memory of Christmas: a big jolly Santa. I particularly like the cartoonish feel and warm lighting. I can see this being used in a TV commercial or Christmas card. Well done!

Created by Reynante

Another depressing one! Traditionally Christmas doesn’t usually involve nooses, jail cells or death notes. But then that’s what I like about the freedom of art. It allows non-traditional ideas like this to make it’s way to the forefront. I’d never really given much thought to people who are in jail over Christmas, but it is a very real story. Well done Reynante for bringing this to life! The lighting and colors are fantastic. Keep it up!

Created by Damien

Technically this entry doesn’t qualify, as the you admitting that you “used ZBrush for modelling”. But I’m giving it a mention here anyway as it’s a great image. The cold blue winter environment goes well in contrast to the glowing yellow heart. The modeling on the characters is some of the best in the competition, and the out of focus background really helps draw you into the scene. Great!

Created by Milksnake12

I love the childhood innocence and colorful lighting that the lights paint on the walls. The characters aren’t perfect, but if you can look past that it’s a great image. The scene has a very cosy and comforting feel that makes it a pleasure to look at. Great job!

Winners

This time round there are three places.

Winners were selected based on the following 3 criteria:

1. Technical – Lighting, modeling, composition etc.
2. Story – Told an interesting story
3. Relevance to the theme

Third Prize

Created by Pratik Solanki

Congratulations! You’ve won any item from the Blender Store!

Another amazing entry from Pratik Solanki! For those that missed his last work, he previously won the Slum competition.

This is another solid entry, showing a comic story of mishaps and hijinks. I particularly like the detail that you put into the snowy environment and the aurora lights. It makes the whole thing feel more “complete”. I like the way that you used Christmas lights to add lighting to the key areas of the scene. Very clever. At first the story is a little unclear, so that could have perhaps been portrayed a bit better, but overall it’s a great image. The expression on Santa’s face is priceless

Second Prize

Created by Robo3Dguy

Congratulations! You’ve won an iPod Nano!

This image just makes me feel happy. Aliens aren’t a traditional theme for Christmas, but it’s done in such a colorful, cheerful way that it just looks right. The wacky characters and surreal city give it a very Dr Seuss feel. You’ve done an excellent job at getting the cartoon-ish mood just right. Congrats! Hope enjoy the Nano

First Prize

Created by eisklotz

Congratulations!! You’ve won a Kindle Fire + $100 Christmas spending money + a permanent spot in the Winners Hall of Fame!

This image portrays the Christmas that we all want to subscribe to: a warm Christmas morning, opening presents under the tree.

Choosing to make a dog the focus of the scene is a daring, but excellent move. Animals are notoriously difficult to create, and furry ones even more so. But it looks fantastic, and so does the rest of the scene. The out of focus Christmas tree in the background look almost photo realistic.

Overall I thought your image best portrayed the atmosphere of Christmas, whilst also being an excellent stand alone piece of work. Congratulations! Enjoy your prizes

To everyone else: Thank you so much for entering! With 284 entries, you’ve made this one of the biggest Blender competitions in history!

Unfortunately I don’t have enough time to personally critique each artwork, but if you’d like feedback, post a link to your image below and I’m sure others will be more than happy to chip in with advice.

Have a very Merry Christmas! See you all in the New Year

Ho ho ho! With December almost upon us, it only makes sense to have a Blender Christmas competition.

The rules are simple: Create an image related to Christmas. The best image wins.

Prizes

Christmas comes but once a year, so these prizes are a little bit more “special” than normal:

First Prize:

A Kindle Fire!

PLUS:

• $100 cash for your Christmas Shopping!
• Permanent spot in the Winners Hall of Fame

Second Prize:

An iPod Nano!

Third Prize:

• Any item from the Blender e-Shop

Guidelines

• It must be created with Blender
• You may use any external renderer you wish
• Minor post processing in Gimp or Photoshop is allowed
• Minimum image size is 1280 x 720, but the bigger the better (any aspect ratio is fine)
• Your image must be a new creation, not an existing project
• It must be your own work. No bought/borrowed or third party models allowed (including MakeHuman)
• Photographic elements are allowed, but must not be a central part of the image (sky backgrounds are okay)
• Your image must in some way relate to the theme
• The winner will be required to submit the .blend file for proof of it’s creation

Submissions and Deadline

Entries must be submitted before 11:59pm GMT on the 19th of December.

Inspiration

Ultimately what you do with the theme is up to you, but here’s some inspiration to get your brain firing…

Created by Martin Nabelek

Created by Baolong Zhang

Created by Elif Serencio

Created by Keytoon Animation Studio

Tutorials that may help:

• Create a Fluffy Santa Hat
• How to Create Realistic Snow
• Create a Christmas Wallpaper in 10 minutes
• Model a Set of Christmas Lights

5 Reasons to Enter:

1. Competitions push you to better your work by exploring new techniques
2. It teaches you the importance of deadlines
3. Focusing on a theme helps you to think creatively
4. Competing against other artists is great motivation to improve your work
5. Great way to showcase your artwork and get noticed

Don’t forget, the deadline is 11:59pm GMT on the 19th of December.

May the best artist win!

DISCLAIMER: Apple and Amazon are not participants in or sponsors of this promotion. All prizes come out of my lowly pocket.

Since the blender community thinks a little differently to the general public, I was excited to see what they had in mind for the future. I was not disappointed.

From futuristic cars, to alien invaded planets their were entries of all kinds. 87 people in total stepped up to the challenge and presented their predictions for The Future.

Of those entries I selected 4 Honourable mentions and One Winner. Check ‘em out:

All Entries

Here are all 87 entries in alphabetical order:

Honorable Mentions

Created by Nathan Wilkinson

The style and subject of this image remind me instantly of Half Life 2 and the Star Wars prequels. I like that you have real human characters in the scene. Not only does it give the viewer a sense of scale, but it adds a human element that helps the viewer relate to it. The ‘greebles’ on the wall and ceiling look great, making the scene even more interesting to look at. However, the bottom right hand corner of the image is a little bare. I would have liked to see either a better texture or a new object to add make the scene more balanced. But overall you’ve done a fantastic job Nathan. Well done!

Created by Oana Vinatoru

This almost won. The only thing letting it down is the lack of a story, and/or human element. Everything else is wonderful. I love the beautiful integration of nature and technology. Unlike most people’s predictions of the future, you’ve envisioned a future where we rely more on nature and less on man made cities. Inviting the idea that the future may look like this, if we play our cards right. Well done on this beautiful optimistic approach at the future

Created by kimballdenetso

This gets a mention for its informative and unique approach to the subject. Your image gives as a glance at the possible infrastructure of the future and how we could use the resources at our disposal for energy. I can imagine this image being used to pitch an energy saving idea at G20 or TED. Some of the textures are a little stretched and the characters on land could use a bit more focus, but it gets the point across. Well done on creating a thought provoking and well presented idea

Created by Maenny

Powerful storytelling. This image made me wonder how I would feel witnessing the destruction of the earth. Would I miss it? That to me is what makes great art: when you start to relate to the feelings of the character in the picture. The expression on the astronauts face is perfect and the lighting is great. However the earth and it’s explosion is it’s only downfall. The colors don’t really compliment each other and the explosion isn’t immediately clear to the viewer. If you were to fix that, you would have a fine piece of artwork that would look great on a wall. Excellent job Maenny!

Created by Jonathan Hodges

The reference may be lost to some, but I recognized it as the scene from the 1927 sci-fi film, Metropolis. Whilst there are elements of it that could use some work (smoke, shading on the top of the building), overall I thought it came together nicely. For a film that is mostly destroyed from age, you’ve restored it beautifully. When you compare it to the original scene, you can see how much effort went into getting all the details just right. From the control panels down to the rivets on the engines, it’s almost perfect. Well done on bringing this iconic sci-fi movie scene to life!

Winner

Created by "Square"

Congratulations Square! Your image of a lost robot trying to get home is a touching look at a future where technology has taken on a life of it’s own. The texturing in the windows is fantastic, as is the rubbish and wear and tear to the rest of the station. Trying to convey emotion through a bulky robot is difficult, but you’ve done a great job, capturing the helpless pose and empty stare. The bouquet of flowers is icing on the cake.

Whilst the lighting is a little unbalanced in the background, it wasn’t a deal breaker, and overall I thought the scene came together great. Well done on a fantastic image Square!

As the winner of the competition, you’ve won:

• Any item from the Blender e-Shop
• $500 donated to a Charity of your choice
• A permanent spot in the Winners Hall of Fame

A big thank you to everyone else that joined in the competition. I’m hoping that by entering you were able to learn a couple of new tricks and improve your skills.

Unfortunately I don’t have time to go through each entry and explain why it didn’t win, so if you’d like feedback on your image, just post your entry in the comments below and ask for feedback. I’m sure the community would be happy to give you a few pointers

Thanks for playing!

The next competition will be announced on Tuesday. Can you guess what the topic will be?

In case you missed the news, Blender recently underwent a “merge hurricane”. Meaning that a bunch of new features that were in alpha development phase, have now been merged into the trunk version Blender.

These features are massive and are going to change the way we use Blender in the future.

Here’s a brief explanation of each feature and how to start using them:

1. Cycles

In a nutshell: New improved rendering engine, more realistic renders

Arguably the biggest thing to happen to blender in the last few years is the Cycles rendering engine. Cycles is a completely new way of rendering in Blender that produces far superior results to the outdated internal renderer. Bounce lighting, caustics and glass are now available as standard without any messing around.

Cycles will eventually replace the internal rendering engine, becoming the standard that every Blender user will soon use. The sooner you can jump aboard, the better.

To get started, check my Introduction to Cycles tutorial.

2. Camera Tracking

In a nutshell: Allows you to add 3d elements to moving video footage.

Anyone who’s tried adding 3d elements to video footage knows that if the camera is moving, you need to use a camera tracker to match the motion to your 3d scene. However dedicated camera trackers aren’t cheap, some costing cost upwards of $3,000. But thanks to Sergey Sharybin, we now have this feature in blender.

You can now track camera motion, add 3d elements, composite it, render it and edit the video, all without leaving Blender. Expect lots of budding film makers to suddenly show an interest in Blender as this is developed further.

To get started, check out this early Camera Tracking Tutorial by Sebastian Koenig.

3. Dynamic Paint

In a nutshell: Makes the environment react to interaction

When a character walks through snow, or a car skids it’s tires, it helps to have the environment react accordingly. Previously this wasn’t possible without doing some fiddly workaround, but thanks to Dynamic Paint it’s a piece of a cake.

The way it works is by baking animated textures onto the objects surface. These textures can these be used for reflections, displacements or anything else you wish.

To get started, check out this Dynamic Paint Guide by the developer Miika Hämäläinen.

4. Ocean Simulator

In a nutshell: Allows you to simulate a realistic ocean.

A much desired feature for the nature buffs out there is the ability to create realistic oceans. Whilst this may seem like a rather specialized feature, oceans are an incredibly necessary part of 3d work as they make up 2/3 of the earth, and without a dedicated feature they are almost impossible to create realistically.

To get started, check out the Ocean Wiki or wait for The Nature Academy to reopen.

How to Get These Features

The features are now included in the official blender version!

Just download the newest release here. Anything from v2.61 will have it.

A massive thank you to Brecht Van Lommel, Sergey Sharybin, Miika Hämäläinen and Matt Ebb for developing these four incredible features!

Which feature are you most excited about? Leave your comment below.

Focused critique is the segment where I review your artworks, and suggest ways they could be improved. It is aimed at helping serious artists who want to improve their skills by discovering the weak points in their artwork.

All the artworks are submitted with consent by the original artist.

For a chance to have your artwork featured in next month’s segment, go here: Submit your artwork.

Watch the Episode

The next episode will be posted in one month  Submit your artwork here.

Featured Artwork in this Episode

I hope you enjoyed this month’s Focused Critique episode! To submit your work to be featured in next month’s episode, go here.

Oh yeah. Lace up yer moon boots because it’s time for another Blender Guru competition.

Obligatory banner:

Theme: The Future!

I want to see your predictions for how life on earth could look in the future. Flying cars? Holographic iPhones? Life without cancer?! It’s up to you. Be creative.

The best image related to the theme wins

The Prize

Any item from the Blender e-Shop + $500 donated to a charity of your choice + a permanent spot in the Winners Hall of Fame!

A charity prize? Yep! I personally feel more motivated when the competition is for a good cause. I hope you do too!

The winner of the last competition was Sakari Leppa who donated his $500 to Sea Shepherd, which helps to protect ocean ecosystems and end the slaughter of marine wildlife. What a great cause!

Guidelines

• It must be created with Blender
• You may use any external renderer you wish
• Minor post processing in Gimp or Photoshop is allowed
• Minimum image size is 1280 x 720, but the bigger the better (any aspect ratio is fine)
• Your image must be a new creation, not an existing project
• It must be your own work. No bought/borrowed or third party models allowed (including MakeHuman)
• Photographic elements are allowed, but must not be a central part of the image (eg. sky backgrounds are okay)
• Your image must in some way relate to the theme
• The winner will be required to submit the .blend file for proof of it’s creation

Submissions and Deadline

>>Submit your entry here<<

Entries must be submitted before the 14th of November at 11:59pm GMT.

Inspiration

As you know, the theme is ‘The Future‘. Here’s some inspiration to get your brain firing…

Created by: Stefan-Morrell

Created by: Andreas Rocha

Created by: Andreas Rocha

Created by: Linh Mai

Created by: Marek Okon

Created by: Jan Ditlev Christensen

Tips for this competition:

• Go easy on the sci-fi. Please. The average viewer has seen enough spaceships and pointy cityscapes to last them 3 lifetimes. Be creative but realistic. Make it believable to current life on earth.
• It should be pretty, but not pointless. Try to tell a story with your image.
• Become a sponge for inspiration. There are tons of movies, books and video games set in the future. By submersing yourself in their worlds it may help you to visualize yours.

6 Reasons to Enter:

1. Competitions push you to better your work by exploring new techniques
2. It teaches you the importance of deadlines
3. Themes help you focus on a topic and create new ideas around it.
4. It gives you motivation to finish a scene
5. Great way to showcase your artwork and get noticed
6. You’re competing for a charity prize! This is a rare opportunity to help the world through your art

>>Submit your entry here<<

Don’t forget, the deadline is the 14th of November at 11:59pm GMT.

May the best artist win!

Hello there,

I wish to seek as many young naive artists as possible for a new video game I am working on. Time is of the essence here, so let’s get straight to business.

It will be an “epic” video game

I use that word very loosely here, but what I’m trying to say is that I have absolutely no idea idea what I’m doing. If I did then I wouldn’t have come so utterly unprepared as this.

I know you all want details like the story, concept or even a basic structured plan of action, but I haven’t got any. Instead I’ll distract you with big words like “revolutionary” and “exciting” in the hopes that you’ll forget what a dodgy sounding project this is.

I need you…

…to do all the hard work for me. I can’t even begin this project until I have someone on board that actually knows what they’re doing.

I play a lot of video games so I will be the director of this project. If you don’t know what the connection between playing and creating is, don’t worry, neither do I.

The pay is “good”

And by “good” I mean “almost non-existent”. You will have to wait at least 4 years after the game is released (provided it actually finishes) before you receive the minimal monetary reimbursement for your efforts. I’m thinking around $200 for the entire project.

Also your name will be in the credits, which will add a net value of zero (0) dollars.

ACT NOW!

Nothing would please me more then to take the creative talents of many people and run them straight into the ground.

So don’t miss out on this once in a lifetime opportunity to bring my vision to life!

Sincerely,

Someone you should never work with

To avoid further confusion: This is a joke. I am most certainly not creating a game project. I wrote this article is to draw to light some of the more dodgy job offers that make their way to forums and job boards.

Rule of thumb when job searching: Don’t join any project that promises to pay you “on completion”. It is most likely a scam. Legitimate jobs will pay you per hour, immediately.

After the relative easiness of last month’s competition, I decided to throw a curveball to the blender community: Make an Underwater scene.

Some people flat out refused claiming that it was above their skill set, but 120 brave people rose to the challenge and submitted an entry.

The winner is revealed at the bottom of the page.

All Entries

Here are all 120 entries (hover over the image to see the artist’s name):

My Favs

These are the entries that stood out to me and almost won:

Created by ClaytonJ

You almost had me convinced this was a photo! I even did a search on Tineye to check. Wow! The caustics and murky atmosphere make this image super realistic. The only thing letting it down is the texture stretching near the mouth. I know that’s caused by the caustic lighting, but it still looks odd. To make the scene even better a few light streaks shining through the water would add some much needed “wow”. But as a photorealism artpiece, it works amazingly well. Well done Clayton!

Created by Falksen

In regards to composition, detail and completeness, you win. The turtle alone is a huge task, let alone the coral reef and fish. It falls short of realism however when inspecting the turtles skin and also the lighting on the underbelly. But it’s almost there! I could definitely see something this hanging on the wall of someone’s house. Just a little bit more detail and this will be amazing. Great effort.

Created by Pratik Solanki

The winner of last month’s competition returns for another shot at the title! Ha! Well this is another fine image. The detail and depth separates it from others. From the rusty chain to the schools of fish swimming around, you can see the amount of work that’s gone into it. The low camera angle assumes dominance, and makes the sea god look big and powerful. Nice! However, artistically I think it fell short in the composition. The bright light in the background draws the viewers attention more than the main figure, which is wrong. It’s tricky to create backlight shots, so I don’t doubt you spent a while on this. But in future, high levels of contrast (ie. bright lighting) needs to be on the main area of focus (the sea god’s face), not the background. But overall this is a fine image. Great attempt!

Created by Tonituo

This one is just cool. The smug look on the octopus’ face makes it easy on the eyes. It’s far from realistic, but I’m sure that wasn’t your goal. I like the natural frame that the ground provides and also the caustics shining through the water. Definitely an ambitious project to attempt with Luxrender! The repetitive texturing and lack of detail on the octopuses (or is it octopods?) are it’s biggest downfalls, but overall I like the simplicity of it all. Well done!

The Winner

With 121 entries, deciding on a winner wasn’t easy (as every judge inexplicably states), but I finally narrowed it down to my favourite:

Zagupi!

You sir have talent. I almost skipped this because I thought it was a real photo! You’ve done exceedingly well in getting the mood and lighting just right. Most artists (myself included) would be tempted to add environment lighting, but you kept it true to life by leaving the backdrop a terrifyingly black. It’s exactly the way real photos from the deep look, so it looks very realistic. If I were to critique anything I’d say that the scene is a bit simple, and could use some more objects. But maybe it’s the simple-ness that makes this work.

Congratulations Zagupi! You’ve won your pick from any item in the Blender e-Shop + $500 donated to any charity of your choice + a permanent spot in the Winners Hall of Fame

Thanks!

A big thank you to everyone who participated in this competition! As much as I’d love to give feedback on each individual entry, it would take up too much of my time. So if you’d like to know why you didn’t win, leave a comment with your name, and ask the community for feedback. I’m sure they would be more than happy to provide it.

I hope you got something out of this competition! The next one will be announced in a week from now. They will no longer be monthly, but instead 6-weeks in length. This is to give people with jobs and school (and a life) more time to compete.

Focused critique is the segment where I review your artworks, and suggest ways they could be improved. This session is aimed at helping serious artists improve their skills by highlighting areas that could be improved.
All the artworks are submitted by the artist, who have given me consent to review them.

Submit your artwork here.

Watch the Episode

The next episode will be posted in one month  Submit your artwork here.

Featured Artwork in this Episode

I hope you enjoyed this month’s Focused Critique episode! To submit your work to be featured in next month’s episode, go here.