Render

Set up infrastructure

The simplest way to start with blender is to browse in [our gfx repository] (https://github.com/unknown-horizons/gfx) and take a building. You can reuse a lot of artwork and create a shiny new one. To copy the gfx repository to your computer or to upload something you should install git, if you use windows you can use [tortoisegit] (http://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/).

To upload changes to the repository, you have to register at [GitHub] (https://github.com/) and upload your ssh key there, after that your account needs to be added to the authorized users.

That will be done by another team member, so just ask us in the IRC channel. Check this list of admins for folks that can help you.

Our graphics repository

Our graphics git repository:

git clone [email protected]:unknown-horizons/gfx.git

You find information on how to use git in the Git cheatsheet and in our Github How-to.

Getting Started with Modeling (Blender 2.5)

Blender can be downloaded [here] (http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/).

You can find a lot of useful video tutorials [here] (http://www.blendercookie.com/getting-started-with-blender/).

If you are new to blender you should try to make your live a little bit easier, especially if you have a lot of objects else go to the step

Rendering:

• try to give objects, material, textures and all you use a useful name (like wood, bottle, ...)
• try to join objects to reduce complexity (for example join "stone 001 to 999" into "wall" by pressing ctrl + J)
• try to use the "Array modifier" and "Mirror" instead of copying objects
• you can reuse a lot of stuff out other blender files via "append" in the main menu

Most used commands

command	what happens
ctrl+J	join objects
ctrl+L	select an mesh in edit mode
...

Rendering

A sample blender file with standard settings can be found here: [default_scene_259.blend] (https://github.com/unknown-horizons/gfx/blob/master/orakeldel/default_scene_259-BLENDER-v259.blend) at orakeldel's gfx. It contains all important settings (light, camera, shadow) and a script to export the properly rendered files in UH's directory structure.

Append these settings to your own blend file.

• Depending on the mesh size the setup has to be adjusted in size (which is handled by a parent empty)
• The light energy needs to be slightly increased
• The camera needs some shift on the y-axis.
• The simplest way to render all rotations is to rotate the appended Empty at 90° for each rendering (F12)
• Set Anti-aliasing > Pixel filter to Catmull-rom.

Note: the adjustments are quite individual from scene to scene to get good render results!

Rotation and orientation

See Tile size for a description of building size and orientation.

TODO: small tutorial, to create a building

TODO: @ dauerflucher: we can insert the "tile size" (like 1x1 = 64x32px) in the default scene by adding just the correct resolution as camera preset.

render fire/smoke

TODO: @ all artists: we should provide a little how-to and a sample file (like signal fire) for the smoke rendering. It would be very nice if anyone can write an howto for the new particle system in blender.

Textures

To get a good transparency of the ground texture you should go in the "Textures" menu in the section "Influence" and set "Dvar" to 0 and "Alpha" to -1.

Also you have to select the RGBA output in the "Scene" menu (camera symbol).

Useful textures can be found here:

Source	License	Comments
http://opengameart.org	different FLOSS licenses	everything on here is ready to be used in UH
http://www.burningwell.org	CC0 (public domain)	everything on here is ready to be used in UH

Please edit this table if you found something useful.

NOTE: Please keep in mind that you have to use textures with accepted licenses, like public domain or CC-BY-SA 3.0

Animation

Information on Action sets used in UH can be found in Action sets.

Attention: In blender 2.55 and 2.56 the animation data is reworked. To open already existing animations you have to use blender 2.54 or earlier!

Most used commands

• Path animation --> add Follow Path in "Object constraints" menu (example the mountain mine - runs only in blender 2.54)
• I --> (in object mode) for insert key frame
• alt + I --> delete key frame
• ...

Do you need help? Further questions?

It's generally a good idea to join our IRC channel if there are any open questions. In case you do not have IRC clients at hands, we also provide a [web applet] (http://www.unknown-horizons.org/irc/).