nemesis wrote:

> navigating through 3D space:
> numeric keyboard:
> 1 - front view
> 7 - top view
> 3 - side view

This seemed like a pretty weird choice, until I noticed the position of 
these keys on the keypad.

Also... Blender seems to incorrectly assume that Z is "up" and Y is 
"back". (It should obviously be the other way around.)

> with the mouse:
> alt+LMB - rotate the scene around by moving the mouse

Well, at least it works.

> now, here's a first lesson to you:
> 
> 1) ctrl+x to create a new scene
> 
> 2) cube is already selected so tab to enter mesh edit mode
> 
> 3) input this:  s (scale) y (restricted to y axis) then move the mouse 
> until its reasonably thin in y axis

Interesting how the amount of scaling is apparently completely unrelated 
to the mouse movement... (Seems to scale the cube by about 20% of the 
distance the mouse is moved.)

> 4) a to deselect all
> 
> 5) ctrl+tab and select face mode
> 
> 6) ctrl+space and select "Enable/Disable" so it doesn't get in the way
> 
> 7) select the right face  (you may zoom in a bit to make it clearer)
> 
> 8) alt+shift(+Windows)+LMB and drag the cube to the left corner of the 
> screen
> 
> 9) ok, right face selected all you do now is extrude it in the xy plane 
> with ctrl+LMB clicks.
> 
> You may trace it along funky paths in the xy plane (as default view is 
> top view in the z axis) as long as the steps are about same length as 
> the original cube.

OK, this one took me a while to figure out. You'd think you extrude it 
by dragging the face that you want to extrude... but no. You just click 
and Blender places faces at random for you.

> now:
> 
> 10) tab to exit mesh edit mode
> 
> 11) F9 -> Modifiers panel down there -> Add Modifier -> Level 3

F9 doesn't appear to do anything. However, I did manage to find the 
command, and it did turn the tangled mess of polygons into... a rather 
liquid-looking mess of smaller polygons.

> 12) In the Link and Materials panel to the left, click Set Smooth down 
> there.

Now with fake light smoothing. (If it weren't for the 
self-intersections, it might even look like a real curved surface...)

> 13) in the numeric numeric keypad, hit 5 to enter perspective mode (5 
> again to go back to orthographic)
> 
> 14) drag your scene around with alt+shift+LMB, zoom with mouse wheel and 
> rotate with alt+shift+LMB to get the "belt" centered on screen
> 
> 15) once you're satisfied with it, hit ctrl+alt+0 to get the camera set 
> in this position
> 
> 16) F8 -> World ajust the default black blue sky to a color of your liking
> 
> 17) in the panel just next to it, click on the Amb Occ tab and turn on 
> Ambient Occlusion (default settings ok)
> 
> 18) hit F12 to render with default settings

One very, very, VERY grainy grey image...

Oh, wait, I think the light source might be on the other side... Yeah, 
OK, that looks a bit better. Still horrifyingly blocky, but at least 
with some specular hilights now.


-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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