21. November 2022

NEW PUBLICATION >> Blender Fundamentals

21. November 2022 By admin

Helge’s new publication – a step-by-step Introduction into Blender – is out on November 22, 2022!

In 114 lessons with a duration of 20+ hours, Helge takes you through the complete fundamentals of Blender and the basic workflows you need to know to get started with this amazing free software. This training is designed to get you up and running quickly, enabling you with the skills needed to work effectively in this incredibly powerful 3d package. 

Additionally, it lays the foundation of essential concepts and paradigms to understand more advanced topics for other areas and workflows of Blender 3d down the road.

Link to the Tutorial: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/blenderfundamentals

Content

01 First Steps in the Blender User Interface (2h 33m)

02 Working with Primitives & Transformations (2h 58m)

03 Working Modes & Selections (1h 6m)

04 Polygon Modeling (4h 30m)

05 Subdivision Surface (1h 8m)

06 Plus+ Sculpting* 

07 Curves & Text (1h 19m)

08 Modifiers (1h 16m)

09 Materials, Shader & Textures (2h 45m)

10 Plus+ Working with UVs*

11 Lighting, Cameras & Rendering (2h 32m)

*PLUS+ content coming soon!

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1. November 2022

Blender Days 2022

1. November 2022 By admin

Helge is speaking about Blender at the amazing Girona Film Festival on Saturday, Nov. 12, 10:00 – 12:00

Great to see Blender in action on so many creative projects. Here’s the full program:
https://programa.gironafilmfestival.com

My sessions are Saturday, Nov. 12, 10:00-12:00:

Blender 3.3 – The free Production studio for Indies
Blender 3.3 – Rigging, Animation & non-realistic rendering (NPR)

View Conference 2022
7. September 2022

Learn Blender at View Conference 2022

7. September 2022 By admin

The amazing program for the VIEW Conference 2022 (https://www.viewconference.it) is online!

If you join this year’s Conference you will have the chance to start your Blender journey with 3 workshops for beginners:

Blender 3.3: The Free Production Studio for Indies
Tuesday 18th, 14:00 – 15:00

Blender 3.3: First Steps into Rigging of Props and Characters in Blender
Sunday 16th, 10:00-12:30

Blender 3.3: First Steps into Blender’s 3D Animation System & 2D Grease Pencil
Monday 17th, 11:15 – 14:15

Here is the direct link to the program:
https://www.viewconference.it/assets/html/view_CET.html

Don’t miss the opportunity to visit also the other exciting workshops and talks.

I am looking so forward to meeting you all in person!

CU,

Helge

Blender BagaPie V7 Addon
9. August 2022

Free BagaPie V7 (Blender Add-on) has landed!

9. August 2022 By admin

Do you know BagaPie?

The BagaPie Modifier is an “all in one” free Blender addon, you can use it for any purpose by Antoine Bagattini.

Also watch the version V6 reel to understand a little bit more, what this great tool is capable of: https://youtu.be/FlLotEd0zFU 

And the BagaPie version for Blender 3 feature reel:


It started as a collection of cool tools for lazy artists and has evolved over the last versions to a very powerful and useful multi tool for all kinds of operations.

I mostly use it for Scattering purposes of my own assets for nature scenes.
If supports a really fast scatter process, an easy to use Painting system for you instances, Proxies and also Camera Culling. Wow, and that’s for free!

But if you like the addon, you can get also the BagaPie Asset collection (around $55) which gives you around 200+ environment assets for your scenes.

More information and the free download:

https://abaga.gumroad.com/l/BbGVh?_gl

Hope you like it!

Helge

Blender Hair Curves - Project Heist
10. July 2022

The Future of Hair Grooming in coming Blender 3.3 LTS

10. July 2022 By admin

The next version of Blender, version Blender 3.3 LTS, is coming at the beginning of September 2022. At the moment I am testing the Alpha version to follow the developent of the new features of this version. As a LTS version, it will then receive bugfixes for 2 years, so it is a big milestone for development and production.

One of the most exciting features will be the new Hair system, which will be based on curves. The existing Hair system of Blender uses the Particle system, which is great, but also a little bit “old-school”.

Through geometry nodes it is possible to build your own geometry generators and procedural modifiers. Now with this new curve based approach for Hair you can build very easily procedural modifiers for Hair, for example you build only a basic Hair groom and then the Hair is filled procedurally and also reacts to weather conditions and wetness and so on by a modifier. This is awesome!

Andy Goralczyk from Blender Studio presents a new hair system for the upcoming Blender 3.3. The new hair system uses new high performance curves objects and combine the flexibility of Geometry Nodes with powerful destructive tools for hair grooming.

You find more information here in this article:
https://code.blender.org/2022/07/the-future-of-hair-grooming/

If you have any questions, please let me know. For Blender Trainings (remote, for companies and individuals please check www.pixeltrain.net or contact me directly under info(at)pixeltrain.net ).

Have a nice weekend,

Helge

Fusion for Production - VFX Compositing with Fusion - 03 Deep Pixel Fundamentals, Tools & Workflows
10. June 2022

[Tutorial] Fusion for Production – VFX Compositing with Fusion – 03 Deep Pixel Fundamentals, Tools & Workflows

10. June 2022 By admin

In this tutorial series, we will talk about Blackmagic Fusion Studio and Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve (Fusion page) as a professional VFX Compositing package. We will dive into basic workflows and techniques to make your daily compositing work more effective and fun.

In this tutorial, you will learn the Fundamentals of Fusions Deep Pixel workflows, which gives you as a compositing artist an extremely powerful toolset inside of Fusion. You will see which data channels are transported through the composition node flow as Deep Pixel information to help specialized Fusion tools / nodes to make operations like SSAO, Re-Lighting, Re-Texturing, Depth of Field, Vector MotionBlur, Depth Merging, Z-based Masking, ObjectIDs, MaterialIDs and much more. You will see how to generate them directly in the OpenGL renderer of Fusion from a 3D scene so that you can later use the same techniques with MultiChannel EXRs from other 3D packages like Blender, Maya and Houdini.

If you have questions or topics, which should be added, please let me know.

If you want to support me for publishing more free tutorials you could join my Patreons:
https://www.patreon.com/pixeltrain3d

or give me a fast Coffee time Tip:PayPal: https://paypal.me/pixeltrain

These topics are covered in this tutorial:

00:00 Overview of the series and the lesson
00:38 Deep Compositing in NUKEX vs Deep Pixel in Fusion
01:04 What is the Deep Pixel Approach?
04:20 Importing Data into Resolve
05:30 Generating a Fusion Comp inside Resolve
06:55 Bringing a Fusion Studio composition to DaVinci Resolve
08:37 Working with 3D-Scenes in Fusion
10:15 Renderer3D Node
13:12 Understanding Multichannel EXR channels
13:42 Channel mapping in Loaders and MediaIn
16:20 Setting Output Channels for Deep Pixel
17:00 Sampling channels in the Viewer
17:46 Z-Depth
19:31 Deep Pixel Tools / Nodes
19:59 Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) Tool
20:38 Normals
21:05 Settings and usage for Ambient Occlusion
24:12 Depth Blur Tool for Depth of Field
27:55 Fog Tool & Settings
29:03 Volume Fog Tool for Position-based Masking
30:00 World Position Pass
33:20 Using Volume Fog as a Mask
34:45 Z-Merge / Depth-based Merge operations
37:13 Motion Vectors & MotionBlur with the Vector Blur Tool
39:38 Working with ObjectID and MaterialID
42:21 ReLighting & Reflections with the Shader Tool
46:50 Re-Texturing with the Texture Tool
47:44 Understanding UVs / Texture Coordinates
48:45 Outro

As a Senior 3D & VFX Trainer, Helge Maus teaches 3D- & VFX Applications for 20 years. His focus lies on VFX, but he also works with many studios and agencies from different visualization areas. He focuses on Houdini FX, Blender, and NUKE for his daily work and training.

Find more information on www.pixeltrain.net
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/pixeltrain3DVFXTrainings
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pixeltrain
Blog: http://www.helgemaus.com
Mastodon: https://mastodon.art/web/@pixeltrain3d
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pixeltrain3d/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pixeltrain/
Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/pixeltrain

26. April 2022

Learn Blender in Summer 2022

26. April 2022 By admin

We have good news for everyone who wants to dive into Blender, learn the Fundamentals, and beyond.
Together with Visualisierungs-Akademie Schweiz GmbH, I will host another season of Blender online workshops in German language this summer.
Starting in June with 2 days of Blender Fundamentals, after that in July we have 2 days deep dive into Rendering in Cycles and Eevee and then in August 2022, we finish with another 2 days Animation and Rigging in Blender.

If you are interested, please check the following dates or just write me an email (info (at) hmaus.de).

Have a wonderful time!
Yours,
Helge

Introduction to Blender
June 23 + 24, 2022
– online –

in cooperation with Visualisierungsakademie Schweiz

On June 23 and 24 I will teach you online taking your first steps in Blender.

If you are interested, please check out the detailed information here:
https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/bildung/blender-einfuehrungskurs/

On request I also teach this online course in English. Please do not hesitate to ask your questions (info(at) pixeltrain.net). I am always happy, to hear from everyone who is interested to become an Artist in Blender, Nuke or Houdini FX.

Some of the topics you learn in this course:

  • Getting to know the Blender 3.2 Infrastructure
  • Installation, AddOns and Konfiguration
  • User-Interface and Navigation
  • Scene-Organisation, Outlines, Collections
  • Polygone-Modeling Techniques
  • Working with Curves & Surfaces
  • Modifiers
  • SubDivision Surfaces
  • UV Editor
  • Lightening, Types of Lights, Previews
  • Camera & Physical Setting
  • Materials & Shader
  • Using Textures
  • Photorealism & PBR
  • Preview with Eevee (Realtime)
  • Using Shading Workspace
  • Rendersettings with Eevee and Cycles
  • Final Rendering
  • Simple Compositing in the Compositing Workspace
  • Introduction to Sculpting Workspace
  • First Keyframes and Animationen
  • Rendering of Animations

On request I also teach this online course in English. Please do not hesitate to ask your questions (info(at) pixeltrain.net). I am always happy, to hear from everyone who is interested to become an Artist in Blender, Nuke or Houdini FX.

If you have any questions, please write me on this adress: info (at) hmaus.de.

Hope to see you soon!

Rendering in Blender with Eevee and Cycles
July 14 + 15, 2022
– online –

in cooperation with Visualisierungsakademie Schweiz

On July 14 and 15 I give an Online-Training on Rendering in Blender -> https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/bildung/blender-vertiefung/

Two days of intensive advanced training for everyone who wants to use Blender to create sophisticated materials and visualizations for architecture, product design, games & film.
In addition to photorealistic rendering, you will also learn techniques for non-photorealistic rendering for animation, motion design, manga, comics and architecture / product sketching.

Some of the topics you learn in this course:

  • Cycles Render-Engine for Photorealism
  • Physical Lighting and Cameras
  • Eevee for Realtime Rendering
  • Shader Editor
  • Building complex Shaders
  • Creating photorealistic Materials
  • Architecture- & Design Materials
  • Detail-Sculpting & Baking
  • PBR Workflows
  • Image-Finishing with the internal Compositor
  • Exchang with Photoshop, After Effects & NUKE
  • Internal Freestyle Renderer for Sketch & Toon
  • Creating Freestyle Materials
  • Creating Comic Shader
  • Refining Comic & Manga Stile in the Compositor

For further information, please visit this website:
https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/bildung/blender-vertiefung/

On request I also teach this online course in English. Please do not hesitate to ask your questions (info(at) pixeltrain.net). I am always happy, to hear from everyone who is interested to become an Artist in Blender, Nuke or Houdini FX.

If you have any questions, please write me on this adress: info (at) hmaus.de

Blender Animation Training
August 18 + 19, 2022
– online –

in cooperation with Visualisierungsakademie Schweiz

On August 18 and 19 I give an Online-Training on Animation in Blender -> „Introduction to Animation and Rigging“

You learn how to work with the powerful Animation Tools of Blender. You get to know helpful add-ons for MotionGraphics and Rigging and you build your first technical and organic animation rigs. We bring camera animations to life and also learn how to export these animations for game engines like Unity, Unreal or Godot. You will get to know Timeline, Dopesheet, Graph Editor, NLA, Shapes and Drivers.

  • Wichtige Blender Konzepte für Animatoren & Rigger
  • Projekteinstellungen für Animation
  • Blender Timeline
  • Keying, Keying Sets & Autokeys
  • Channels & Keyframes im Dopesheet
  • Erstellen von Playblasts
  • Motion Path Tool
  • Graph Editor & F-Curves
  • Interpolation & Handles
  • Curves Modifiers
  • Channel Groups
  • Basics des Rigging
  • Armatures
  • Aufbau von Rigs für mechanische / organische Objekte
  • Bone Layers, Bone Groups & Bendy Bones
  • Binding Meshes & Weight-Painting
  • IK Setups
  • Poses
  • Shape Keys
  • Arbeiten mit Constraints
  • Drivers & Expressions
  • Action Editor & Blender’s Action System
  • NLA System
  • Arbeiten mit Audio
  • Basics des Grease Pencil

For further information, please visit this website:
https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/bildung/blender-animation/

Find more information on www.pixeltrain.net

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/pixeltrain3DVFXTrainings

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pixeltrain

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pixeltrain3d/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pixeltrain/

Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/pixeltrain

16. February 2022

Learn Blender in Spring 2022

16. February 2022 By admin

This spring I will again host three Blender Classes, an Introduction Course, a course about Rendering with Eevee and Cyles and the third class deals with Animation and Rigging in Blender.

If you are interested, please check the following dates or just write me an email (info (at) hmaus.de).

Have a wonderful spring!
Yours,
Helge

Rendering in Blender with Eevee and Cycles
February 24 + 25, 2022
– online –

in cooperation with Visualisierungsakademie Schweiz

On February 24 and 25 I give an Online-Training on Rendering in Blender -> https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/bildung/blender-vertiefung/

Two days of intensive advanced training for everyone who wants to use Blender to create sophisticated materials and visualizations for architecture, product design, games & film.
In addition to photorealistic rendering, you will also learn techniques for non-photorealistic rendering for animation, motion design, manga, comics and architecture / product sketching.

Some of the topics you learn in this course:

  • Cycles Render-Engine for Photorealism
  • Physical Lighting and Cameras
  • Eevee for Realtime Rendering
  • Shader Editor
  • Building complex Shaders
  • Creating photorealistic Materials
  • Architecture- & Design Materials
  • Detail-Sculpting & Baking
  • PBR Workflows
  • Image-Finishing with the internal Compositor
  • Exchang with Photoshop, After Effects & NUKE
  • Internal Freestyle Renderer for Sketch & Toon
  • Creating Freestyle Materials
  • Creating Comic Shader
  • Refining Comic & Manga Stile in the Compositor

For further information, please visit this website:
https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/bildung/blender-vertiefung/

On request I also teach this online course in English. Please do not hesitate to ask your questions (info(at) pixeltrain.net). I am always happy, to hear from everyone who is interested to become an Artist in Blender, Nuke or Houdini FX.

If you have any questions, please write me on this adress: info (at) hmaus.de

Blender Animation Training
March 7 + 8, 2022
– online –

in cooperation with Visualisierungsakademie Schweiz

On March 7 and 8 I give an Online-Training on Animation in Blender -> „Introduction to Animation and Rigging“

You learn how to work with the powerful Animation Tools of Blender. You get to know helpful add-ons for MotionGraphics and Rigging and you build your first technical and organic animation rigs. We bring camera animations to life and also learn how to export these animations for game engines like Unity, Unreal or Godot. You will get to know Timeline, Dopesheet, Graph Editor, NLA, Shapes and Drivers.

For further information, please visit this website:
https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/bildung/blender-animation/

On request I also teach this online course in English. Please do not hesitate to ask your questions (info(at) pixeltrain.net). I am always happy, to hear from everyone who is interested to become an Artist in Blender, Nuke or Houdini FX.

If you have any questions, please write me on this adress: info (at) hmaus.de.

Hope to see you soon!

Introduction to Blender
April 13 + 14, 2022
– online –

in cooperation with Visualisierungsakademie Schweiz

On April 13 and 14 I will teach you online taking your first steps in Blender.

If you are interested, please check out the detailed information here:
https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/bildung/blender-einfuehrungskurs/

On request I also teach this online course in English. Please do not hesitate to ask your questions (info(at) pixeltrain.net). I am always happy, to hear from everyone who is interested to become an Artist in Blender, Nuke or Houdini FX.

Some of the topics you learn in this course:

  • Getting to know the Blender 2.9 Infrastructure
  • Installation, AddOns and Konfiguration
  • User-Interface and Navigation
  • Scene-Organisation, Outlines, Collections
  • Polygone-Modeling Techniques
  • Working with Curves & Surfaces
  • Modifier
  • SubDivision Surfaces
  • UV Editor
  • Lightening, Types of Lights, Previews
  • Camera & Physical Setting
  • Materials & Shader
  • Using Textures
  • Photorealism & PBR
  • Preview with Eevee (Realtime)
  • Using Shading Workspace
  • Rendersettings with Eevee and Cycles
  • Final Rendering
  • Simple Compositing in the Compositing Workspace
  • Introduction to Sculpting Workspace
  • First Keyframes and Animationen
  • Rendering of Animations

Find more information on www.pixeltrain.net

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/pixeltrain3DVFXTrainings

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pixeltrain

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pixeltrain3d/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pixeltrain/

Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/pixeltrain

25. November 2021

New upcoming tutorial series

25. November 2021 By admin

Thanks to the new USD export in Blender, the exchange between Blender’s powerful motion tracker and NUKE or Houdini is becoming easier and easier. Blender is becoming more and more team-minded – thanks to the developers.

My upcoming Blender free tutorial series offers a deep dive into camera and object tracking.

More information then on YouTube. Coming soon: https://www.youtube.com/pixeltrain3DVFXTrainings

If you like Helge’s Tutorials, give him some support to go on!

If you want to support Helge Maus for publishing more free tutorials, you can join his Patreons:
https://www.patreon.com/pixeltrain3d

Or if you want to buy me a coffee or pizza, here’s my Tip Jar:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=72PHXB852BW5A

Thanks for your support!

Find more information on www.pixeltrain.net

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/pixeltrain3DVFXTrainings

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/pixeltrain

Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/pixeltrain

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pixeltrain3d/

26. October 2021

New Blender Online Classes – Winter 2021

26. October 2021 By adminLeave a comment

We have good news for everyone who wants to dive into Blender, learn the Fundamentals, and beyond.

Together with Visualisierungs-Akademie Schweiz GmbH, I will host another season of Blender online workshops in the next weeks.

Starting in November with 2 days of Blender Fundamentals, after that in December we have 2 days deep dive into Animation and Rigging and then in January 2022, we finish with another 2 days Rendering in Cycles, Eevee and NPR.


As said, these workshops are in german language BUT, English is planed now. More information on that in the next days.

So keep in touch 🙂

Find more information on www.pixeltrain.net

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/pixeltrain3DVFXTrainings

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pixeltrain3d

VIMEO: vimeo.com/pixeltrain

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/pixeltrain

Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/pixeltrain

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pixeltrain3d/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pixeltrain