OC Entertainment

I’ve been doing some fiddling with After Effects and came up with this little number:

I can’t remember what inspired this, but I had fun making it. I borrowed more than a couple techniques from VideoCopilot.net . Not comprehensively, the bump-mapping on the wall and floor (barely noticeable without the light moving, but trust me it’s there), and the displacement map over the whole thing, giving it a watery look.

Then there’s the bubble particle system overlaying the whole thing. The bubbles don’t really look real, and I wasn’t going for realism either.

Another thing I played around with on this one was the graph editor.

For the panning motion, I had to animate a null object (which the camera was parented to), and the Bubbles Comp. The image above shows the speed of the motion (in pixels/sec). As you can see, at first, it moves just under 150 px/sec, but as it nears the end, it makes a not-so-sudden drop down to under 50 px/sec. The default behavior of two keyframes in an animation is to move at a constant rate. But if you want to modify the speed of movement, without messing with a ton of keyframes, the graph editor is a great way to do that.

I then had to do the same with the Bubble layers. With the regular animation, the bubbles seemed to suddenly change direction, as the camera controller reached the point where it was moving slower than the bubbles.

I’m making the project file available, if you’d like to take a closer look at what I did. Also, feel free to use it for any project, commercial or otherwise.

This project was done almost entirely in After Effects. I did make use of one texture, that I shot myself. Feel free to use that texture for any of your projects as well.

Ocean Project File
Yellow Concrete Texture

Bonus: While waiting for the upload to finish, I was playing around with After Effects. I’m not really sure what this is, but you can have this, too:

Project File here:

Wavey Thing

As a warning, for this thing, I didn’t really care about keeping this thing clean, so there’s probably a way more efficient way to do this. Which means this thing is gonna take longer to render than necessary. Now you know.

With the new year fast approaching, I figured it would be a good time to sit back and reflect on where we’ve been and what new horizons the future has in store for us. What lessons I’ve learned, what heartaches have taught me, who I need to strengthen my relationships with, and who to let go, remembering fondly the past, but acknowledging it as just that. The past.

Not that you’re gonna hear about any of that here. Instead, you get the 2009 movie schedule! If there’s one thing I can’t seem to get enough of, it’s big movies coming out, especially in the summer. Midnight showings are my absolute favorite, of all time, forever.. The energy is high, and all the hardcore fans are there. Naturally excited, I started poking around for release dates to look forward to in 2009. Here’s some of the pickin’s:

Inkheart – January 23rd

A man who can bring characters out of the pages of the books he reads must fight a villian he released. I have mixed feelings about Brendan Fraser a lot of the time, but generally, I think he can be pretty ok. This story looks fun, too. Not a bad opener for 2009.

Push — February 6th

A movie about super-powered psychics and such. Also, Dakota Fanning with pink highlights in her hair? If there’s one movie I won’t be broken up about missing in this list, this is probably it. But it looks like at least a semi-decent way to pass the time until….

Watchmen — March 6th

I was never really interested in 300. But I always enjoy a production team with a style that makes people go, “Wha-?!” I’ve seen trailers for Watchmen and it looks just fantastic. I can’t wait to marvel at the special effects in this movie, if nothing else. It really just feels……massive, I think, would be a good word for it.

Note: This release date is pending the result of some actually pretty annoying legal crap between 20th Century Fox, who claims they have the legal right to distribute the Watchmen movie, and Warner Bros. who, you know, *made* it.

Dragonball : Evolution — April 8th

I’m not a huge animé fan. I like some stuff, but generally, I’m geared more towards either American or, in the event I’m feeling more experimental, European movies. But Dragonball looks to be an interesting case study, if nothing else. There were rumors that, after a terrible reception of the trailer, the studio decided to reshoot a lot of footage. It turns out only a single scene was reshot apparently.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine — May 1st

And the real fun begins. Wolverine is pretty much at the top of my Must-See 2009 movies. I will always be a sucker for a superhero movie, and this one is no exception. Not to mention all the potential for the work-ins for the Avengers. And also, at least one other surprise. I won’t spoil it, but check out the trailer if you want to see why I’m so excited.

Star Trek — May 8th

Yes. I admit it. I’m going to see Star Trek. And I’m not ashamed of it, either. This movie is actually looking to be pretty big. Not to mention, my main man Sylar in the role of Spock. Well. I’ve *gotta* see how that’s gonna turn out.

Night at the Museum: Escape from the Smithsonian — May 22nd

I like the first Night at the Museum. However, I could see this one suffering from Home Alone syndrome*. Much like National Treasure did recently. But as funny as I found the last one, I’m willing to at least give it a chance. But it will have to wait until the daytime. The midnight showing on May 22nd is strictly reserved for…

Terminator Salvation – May 22nd

Even though this movie breaks the Terminator pattern of one movie per decade, I’m looking forward to seeing Christian Bale rail on some truly massive and ugly pieces of machinery. It certainly has potential, I’ll give you that right now.

Up — May 29th

May is the month for movies. Starting with a superhero movie and ending on Pixar? I could think of no better way to run the month. You can’t really infer much from the trailer, but Up is a Pixar movie. That’s all I need to know. Note to self: watch Ratatoullie before that happens.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen — June 26th

Alright, let’s get one thing straight right off the bat. The first Transformers was not great. I don’t really like Michael Bay as a director. I think that if we knew each other in high school, he would’ve made mean jokes about how being a nerd is lame, and I would have made snide jokes about how he’s not smart, but he wouldn’t get them. That’s just my completely unfounded perception. Nonetheless, giant robots beating the crap out of each other is good at least once. And you simply cannot argue with the effects in the first movie. 38 hours per frame goes a long way. Not to mention Transformers is part of my childhood. So there’s really no getting around it. I have to see this movie. I hope that girl isn’t in it, though. Shia LaBoof can stay.

G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra – August 7th

First off, I’m one movie away from banning the use of “Rise of the Blank”. I would even take “Cobra Ascending”. In any case, this one is more for my brother than me. Growing up, he was the G.I. Joe guy, I was the Power Rangers kid. Naturally, he will want to see this movie, and I, being the supportive brother I am, will go with him.

There will probably be others I’ll take an interest in as I hear more about them (and some on here that I may kick off the list). But for the most part, there it is. May is going to be one fun month.

As a bonus, here’s a list of movies coming out in 2009 I do NOT plan on seeing, thankyouverymuch:

– My Bloody Valentine 3D
I know nothing about this movie. But the title could not sound worse. Especially the “3D” part. Ugh. Some things should not be 3D.

– Friday the 13th
By an AMAZING coincidence, this comes out February, Friday the 13th. Oh, my GOSH. *What* are the odds?

– Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li
I thought fighting-game movies died a long time ago?

– Land of the Lost
Yes. That one. I had to look it up to be sure.

– Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Scrat can only carry so much mediocre movie on his tiny little back before it’s just not enough anymore.

– Final Destination 4
It’s over, ok? Let it go.

– Saw VI
I think it should say something about a horror movie series when it suffers the same over-abundance as The Land Before Time

– Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel
I wish I were kidding.

So, that being said, what do you think? Any movies didn’t make the list that should have? Can you see in this list a horrible, ten-dollar mistake in my future? What does 2009 look like for you in movies?

******

* - ‘Home Alone’ syndrome is defined as the condition a sequel suffers when it bears far too much resemblance to the original movie, including the most, if not all of the same jokes. Ironically, Home Alone 2 is generally considered one of the few acceptable instances of this phenomenon.

It’s Christmas Eve, so why wouldn’t this be a good time to give you, my reader, a present. Not one, but *two* videos.

Numero Uno: Cowbell Hero

This one is the result of our Christmas Skit Blitz. Roxy vs. The Dancing Santa Claus.

Next up: Rubik.

This one was actually shot over a year ago and remained unfinished until earlier this week. You actually have The Annie Kim to thank for that one. Not only did she do most of the editing on this one, but she reminded me it exists earlier this month and asked me to button it up and load ‘em up. So now it’s online.

Interestingly, this video, titled ‘Rubik’, actually predates my *other* Rubik’s cube related video, Unraveling the Cube. Which, by the way, remains one of my favorite videos that I’ve worked on. Not sure why, but I’m just satisfied with it.

Aww, what the heck. It’s Christmas. Here you go:

It’s been an interesting year. I haven’t finished nearly all the projects I set out to do. But I’ve had fun. We’ve had fun.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I use to use Yahoo! mail back in the day. It was available and wasn’t terrible. At the time. But this year, I’ve switched over to Gmail. And I have not looked back since.

This guide is for those who have started using Gmail but may be unaware of some of the other more powerful features Gmail has to offer. Such as…

Tasks

This is a newly released feature that gives you a simple To-Do list that lives on top of your window much the same way the chat windows do. (If you haven’t used Gchat….start using Gchat. It outweighs Facebook chat in all arenas.) It’s a very simple to use interface, and sitting on top of a page you use frequently helps as a reminder.

What’s that? You don’t use Gmail that often? You will, don’t worry. I’m just getting started.

To enable Tasks, go to your Gmail account settings, under the Labs section. You will find Tasks (as well as a lot of the other features I’ll be going over) in this menu. Select ‘Enable’, then scroll to the bottom and select “Save Changes”. These instructions will be the same for the other features, unless otherwise noted.

Google Docs Gadget

The GoogleDocs Gadget gives you quick links to your most recently opened GoogleDocs, as well as a quick-search box for the rest.

I don’t use GoogleDocs for too much, but what I do use, it comes in handy for. For example, I frequently forget some of the keyboard shortcuts to Blender (anyone who has used Blender is free to give me a hearty ‘amen’). So I made a list of the ones I frequently forget and put them in a GoogleDoc so I can access them from anywhere with an internet connection. The GoogleDocs gadget (found in the Labs) makes this even easier. Especially since nearly every click in GoogleDocs opens a new window, which is rather annoying.

Filters

Anyone who has Facebook has had their Inbox thoroughly taken over. Not that we clean out our Inboxes anyways, that’s too much work. But that does leave a bunch of pesky notifications waiting around, claiming they haven’t been read. We could turn off e-mail notifications but…..well, I’m an archive hog. I can’t stand to turn off a notification if I don’t have to.

Enter filters. Filters give you the flexibility to dictate what to filter and what Gmail does with your e-mails. For example, I have a filter set up to find any incoming e-mail from the domain ‘facebook.com’. I then have it apply the label “Facebook Notifications”, mark it as read, and then archive it.

Trust me, filters are magic and will change your life. Poke around with them.

Twitter

There is little explaining the Twitter phenomenon. When I describe micro-blogging to people, everyone agrees; it sounds stupid. Who wants constant updates to your life, limited to 140 characters? And who wants their life to be known that well. Well, apparently we humans do love to talk about our lives because it works.

The only problem I find with Twitter, is frequently, it’s annoying to get to. I don’t want to have to open up a whole ‘nother tab, and do a whole ‘nother login just so I can give a 140-character-or-less update on what’s going on *right now* which is, by this point, not *right now* anymore.

Enter the Twitter Gmail gadget. To enable this, go to the Labs section and enable “Gadgets by URL…”. This allows you to use external gadgets not developed by Google. You get a new section in your settings called “Gadgets”. Go there, add new, and enter the following URL:

http://www.twittergadget.com/gadget_gmail.xml

This will enable your Twitter gadget. I measure the usefulness of a Twitter client, usually, by how often it makes me sign-in. This one seems to be pretty good about staying signed in. Again, though, that may be because I never close this tab.

With all these gadgets filling up your sidebar, this may be a good time to introduce:

Navbar Drag and Drop

With all the left-side modules flying around, scrolling down to see them all can be a bit of a pain. Especially if the one you use the most is on the bottom. With this Labs add-on, you can rearrange your gadgets by simply dragging them around. Convenient, eh?

Right-Side Chat & Labels

If you did everything I’ve mentioned here, even with Navbar Drag and Drop, you’ve still got a bunch of stuff to go through. If you have a wide screen, and don’t much care for the last few words of the preview you get on your e-mails, you may consider enabling Right-Side Chat and Right-Side Labels. This Labs feature will move those modules to the right side of your screeen (who’da thunk, right?). This may not look so good on a cramped monitor, but if you’ve got one of those new, fancy, wide-screen monitors, it definitely helps.

POP Mail From Other Accounts

Gmail also supports POP (sf: Post Office Protocol). Think of it as an RSS feed for e-mail, if that helps. It allows you to retrieve your e-mails from one account using a different service. So, if your other e-mail supports POP transfer, you can set your Gmail account to receive e-mail from more than one address.

I will say this, much to my disappointment, Yahoo! is not one of the services that supports POP transfer. At least, not without paying. Proceeding with my plans to abandon them are a little harder now, but no matter.

You can set up multiple accounts to receive from under Settings > Accounts tab. This is also where you can set up….

Send Mail As…

Collecting all of your accounts into one place can be more than a little convenient. But what about when you want to reply to all those e-mails? All of a sudden, they’re getting replies from people they don’t recognize, or worse, you get blocked by their obnoxiously strict Spam filter.

Enter “Send Mail As…”. Here you can set up multiple e-mail addresses that you can choose from when sending an e-mail.

Mail Goggles

Perhaps the funniest of all add-ons for regular old Gmail, this Labs feature will require you to solve a simple math problem (you get to define what “simple” means) before you are permitted to send an e-mail late at night. This feature ensures that you are in a right state of mind while writing it. Or at least sober.

Bonus for Firefox Users:

Integrated Gmail

For the Google power user, who is not satisfied with just Gmail, but also uses Google Reader for their RSS feeds, Google Calendar to plan their life, or any of the other Google services including Picasa, Maps, Groups, or News, the Integrated Gmail plugin is for you.

This plugin makes your Inbox collapsable (like all the other gadgets on your Gmail page), and adds in Google Reader and Calendar by default, with options to add in panes for several other of Google’s services.

This is an experimental plugin, which means you’ll need to sign up for an account with Mozilla to be able to use it. Being an experimental plugin, it may be subject to bugs, but I’ve been using it for a while now with minimal difficulty.

Experiment!

Google is not short on shiny new features that, in any other service, you’d have to pay to get. So, I encourage you to poke around. For myself, I use most of the above-mentioned tricks. While it hasn’t necessarily reduced the amount of time I spend online, it has at least helped make some of it a bit more productive.

The most important thing, though, is to try out different tools and see which one works best for you. I’ve used several calendar and to-do list programs (and real-life paper ones) in my life. It just so happens that integrating with my e-mail, that I check frequently, works best for me.

Hope you find this guide useful. And have fun!

One of the coolest things about the internet is finding new, fun programs to play around with. Today’s program is called Songbird. A music player application, who’s deliberately competing with iTunes. It’s cross-platform (which means, Windows, Mac, and Linux users are all welcome), and probably the most interesting part, is it’s developed from the same code base as Firefox and Thunderbird, Mozilla’s flagship open source applications.

Don’t be startled by my funky interface. This is just one of the skins (or “feathers” as they’re known in Songbird) that I chose to apply. I like black, can you tell. Looks better on my Linux machine, though.

There’s a bunch of fun stuff just on this main page. The left-hand pane is actually quite similar to the iTunes playlist section. In fact, the playlists you see were imported directly from iTunes, as was my whole library on this machine. Yes, that’s right. Installing this app does not inherently mean re-ripping everything. Songbird aims for universal compatability.

But what about all those other panes? Well, that’s one of the more fun parts of Songbird. It’s extensibility.

Veteran users of Firefox will notice, at this point, just how similar Songbird is to Firefox. Songbird supports third-party add-ons. Such as the LyricMaster plugin you see on the right side of the screenshot above which will retrieve lyrics for you while online and offer to save them locally so you can still access them offline (you can also choose automatic save).

Or the mashTape plugin (one of Songbird’s recommended plugins when you install it), that gathers Artist Info, News, Photos, and Videos from online (I was not aware Brad Sucks even has any videos on YouTube).

Also, the Concerts plugin which, once set up, will gather information on which artists are going to be in your area and when.

But it gets better.

Songbird has, not surprisingly given it’s roots, an embedded tabbed web browser.

Given all this fun new information, it might be nice to have a way to book those tickets or watch that video without having to jump to another program. Well, Songbird can do it. It’s not really so innovative. The iTunes store is really just another website that’s specialized to run in a specific program. All Songbird did was give the program an address bar.

Though I wouldn’t recommend it for casual browsing. I tried to check Facebook with it and I did succeed, but Facebook gave me a giant, ugly message saying that I needed to upgrade to the newest version of Firefox.

Yeah, shows what you know, Facebook.

All that being said, Songbird 1.0 has just been released. Prior to this, a release candidate had come out and got a pretty poor review on Lifehacker for all it’s bugs, though they say it’s looking a lot cleaner with this newest version.

I’ve been using it for roughly a week. I can say it definitely needs work. For one, it can’t natively burn CDs (or at least, I haven’t found that feature). I’d also like more keyboard shortcut support. But if you’re feeling adventurous, go ahead and give it a shot.

No matter what, though, this should be at least somewhat interesting over the next several months, to see just how this goes.

The Short Version: Tutorial9.net is hosting a contest to raise money for children. You should take part. Write a tutorial, money goes to children. Don’t you feel good?

The Long Version: It’s called The Gift of Knowledge Giveaway. To enter, write a tutorial to be published on Tutorial9, and $100 is donated to charity. The Save the Children organization to be precise. Their goal is to donate $5,000.

Oh, and there’s also prizes apparently, but you’re not really interested in that, are you? *wink*

If you want to enter or learn more, check out this link.

A good while back, I attempted a regular video series, a video every week*. It ended when, around the end of November, beginning of December, I took a hiatus for the busy holiday season.

What is the deal with trying to start producing regular content in October/November? Ain’t gonna work.

Long story short, I’ve got a few projects that are gonna require a good bit more of my attention, so I’ll be focusing less on updating this site.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go document India, build a train, and do some secret stuff with a dancing Santa Claus.

That poor Santa probably can’t survive another year of our videos.

—-

* - Yes, that video series is online, no I will not tell you how to find it. I hate that series, it was terrible and I hate it. But I also hate the Lucas syndrome, never being able to accept your previous mistakes, so I’ll leave it up. Up to you to find it.

I’m not one to rip off an idea directly, so I will give my attribution to Lifehacker for this idea. With Thanksgiving coming up, though, they’re right. It is a good time to say a thanks to the free software crowd for all the programs I use on a regular basis. However, loquacious as I am, I’m not satisfied with just a comment in a thread naming the apps. So, in honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving, here’s a run down of free software most to be thankful for. In no particular order whatsoever:

Firefox — Web Browser (Cross-platform) - The most inarguable of free software, Firefox is an open-source extensible tabbed browsing experience. Firefox maintains a good deal of great functionality right out of the box, but it’s biggest help is the add-on library, with thousands of add-ons, including AdBlock Plus (I have not seen a banner-ad/pop-up in years), DownloadHelper (for downloading YouTube videos and others), and many others, Firefox is truly the crown-jewel of usable open source software.

VLC – Media player (Cross-platform) -This program is absolutely a must-have for anyone playing any kind of media. VLC can play absolutely any format of media known to man. Many-a times I’ve been called in somewhere an people say “It won’t play, I need such-and-such a codec.” Install VLC. It plays. End of story.

Blender — 3D Modeling/Animation (Cross-platform) - Every category of multimedia production has an open-source equivalent trying to compete. From video editing to image editing, even 2D animation. But Blender, a majorly multitasking 3D modeling program, is the only one I’ve seen that does such an incredibly good job of it. The only major downside is it’s interface. Once you get beyond that, though, you’ve got 3D modeling, a game engine, rigid- and soft-body physics and fluid simulation. And I believe there’s even a rudimentary non-linear editor hiding in there somewhere. Definitely worth the time it takes to learn.

Pidgin/Adium — Instant Messenger Client (Cross-platform, Adium for Mac) - A very powerful IM client that supports a host of IM protocols including (but not limited to) AIM, MSN, IRC, and even gChat. Consolidating buddy lists is really quite convenient. Pidgin is cross-platform, but Adium is a sister project that does a better job, in my opinion, for the Mac. Windows users may be interested in Digsby which does a bit more than just chat, though I’m still waiting for the Mac/Linux version so I can test it out.

Launchy/GnomeDO – Application Launcher (Multi-platform) - An application launcher useful for keyboard-shortcut enthusiasts who want to launch programs (and more) faster without touching the mouse. Launchy can be customized with scripts to do more than launch applications. At work I also use Launchy to provide a quick shortcut to folders I access frequently. GnomeDO is a Linux version, though Launchy can be used on Linux as well, I simply haven’t made the switch yet.

OpenOffice — Office Suite (Cross-platform) - The open-source community’s answer to Microsoft Office, OpenOffice has been the premiere free office application choice. I don’t do much Office work beyond keeping a spreadsheet of my tapes, but what I have I use OpenOffice for. Helpful is the fact that OpenOffice can save into Microsoft Office compatible formats, so you can keep using it and stay in the loop.

Audacity — Audio Recording(Cross-platform) - Free audio recording program, we use this at our church to record sermons, and I have used in several projects for audio recording. Very well-versed program for the cost. Lightweight as well.

Handbrake — Video Encoding (Cross-platform) — Video ripping program for pulling video from DVDs. Especially for the folks who like to make compilation videos. I have used it for several projects. It never disappoints. Must-have.

Update: Handbrake has received an upgrade which touts the following changes: 1.) it can now receive video from nearly any source, and 2.) it has removed built-in support for ripping from encoded (read: commercial) DVDs. Though, there’s something about it using a piece of program code that VLC uses to be able to do it, you just have to have both installed. I haven’t checked this out, but take a look. And besides, you should have VLC installed on your machine anyways.

Transmission/µTorrent — Bittorrent Client (Cross-platform, µTorrent for Windows) - I prefer peer-to-peer technology, and yes even for legitimate uses. I usually download my new Linux distributions, or Jamendo music from a peer-to-peer source because I love the idea of peer-to-peer networks. But that’s just me. For anyone else looking to torrent, these are your programs. Transmission is lightweight enough to run on a small flash drive, for both Mac and Linux. µTorrent is a recommended Windows equivalent. I don’t use µTorrent, but a friend of mine does and she approves.

Update: The day after writing this, µTorrent for Mac was released. I’ll be experimenting with this program.

AVG/AdAware — Anti-virus/anti-malware (Windows) - It should go without saying that the most noble of the free softwares are the malware hunters. AVG and AdAware are must-haves on the anti-virus, anti-spyware front, though not the only ones by far.

GIMP — Image Manipulation (Cross-platform) - Open-source alternative to Photoshop. Admittedly, it’s no comparison to Photoshop and, in a weird contradictory way, doesn’t try to be. However, for the up-and-comer trying to start out in image manipulation that can’t afford Photoshop, I’d highly recommend it. I still use it for some simple tasks. It also has a few filters I like that Photoshop doesn’t have.

k9copy/gcStar — DVD ripping/Library Catalog (Linux) - I obviously can’t leave out these pieces of software, combined with VLC, that have made my DVD server what it is. k9copy for DVD ripping (while maintaining menus), and gcStar for the library software, this plus VLC makes for a great movie watching/storage experience.

XBox Media Center (XBMC) — Media Center (Cross-platform) - This is one of my newest experimentations, and I’ve still got some testing to do with it, but it already looks beautiful.  Originally created to run on the first-generation XBox, XBMC is a full-blown media front-end that can play just about anything (allegedly, I haven’t tested), and can receive media from a variety of sources. It is also extensible (meaning it supports third-party add-ons). The biggest thing it offers, though, over some other programs I’ve tried out, is a unified experience, not unlike Front Row on the Mac (though XBMC looks prettier, in my opinion). I will be testing it on my Linux machine in the future, and a more full review (and likely a DVD server update) will follow pending those tests.

Ubuntu — Operating System - Last but not least, my personal flavor of Linux (though literally hundreds exist), Ubuntu is out to make Linux an operating system usable to humans, and stay free. Ubuntu already comes with an impressive library of free software loaded, including many of the ones on this list like Firefox, OpenOffice, the GIMP, Pidgin, and Transmission, as well as a ton of others I’ll never use. Plus access to thousands more free programs. Ubuntu is quickly becoming the standard Linux distribution, while maintaining the freedom of choice that comes standard with Linux.

So, that nowhere near wraps it up, as I’m sure I’ve missed probably a dozen different free or open source apps I’ve used/still use. And that can’t even give credit to peripheral free software. Firefox plugins, free photoshop brushes, desktop themes, iPhone/Android apps. Not to mention free music at Jamendo, images at the Stock Exchange, and all the folks who offer their videos free to view on YouTube. Simply put there’s a ton of free software and other stuff out there, and they’re made by people who put a lot of work into them, and don’t demand payment for the software in return.

I don’t know how they do it, but to them, I tip my hat. *tips* Thank you, kind sirs and ladies.

Alright, for this tutorial, here’s what we’ll be making:

Simple glass beaker. For all your mad scientist labratory needs. Or maybe that’s just me. Anyways, moving on.

Alright, so, open a new project and delete the standard cube. Select the cube with a Right Mouse Button (RMB) click and delete with the X key. Don’t worry about the light and camera for right now.

Alright, now I am a stickler for keeping perspectives proper, so go ahead and press NUM-1 to get a front view.

Views

Blender has several built-in default camera angles to help you visualize your project. The four most helpful are Top, Front, Side, and Camera (in my experience). These can all be accessed from the number pad with the numbers 7, 1, 3, and 0 respectively. Refer to the following diagram (taken from the Essential Blender book, downloadable here).

This image made it all make sense for me.

Alright, so once we’re in front view, add a UV Sphere. Spacebar will bring up a context menu from which you can add just about anything to a scene.

From here you want to select Add > Mesh > UV Sphere. Go ahead and accept the default settings. (Segments 32, Rings 32, Radius 1.0).

Now you should have a nice clean sphere in the center of your screen.

Alright, time for some mesh modeling. Optionally, press Z. This will change your view to Wireframe mode. I find this view easier for what we’re about to do, but do what works best for you. After that, press Tab to enter Edit Mode.

Edit mode is where you can edit an object’s parts (vertices, edges, and faces) individually. When you first enter edit mode, you’ll probably see all the vertices selected. Any vertices or edges that are selected will be yellow. And faces that those vertices or edges make up will be light purple.

Press A to deselect all vertices (pressing A when you have no vertices selected will select all). Now, press B. This will give you a tool to rectangular marquee select vertices. We’re gonna select *most* of the bottom vertices, like the following:

If you count from the center line of vertices (here running along the X (red) axis), I started my selection two rows down. As always, feel free to experiement.

The rectangular selection tool we used selects all vertices (or objects) in the defined area. Both the ones you see and the ones behind those. This can be seen if you tilt your object slightly (Alt/Option+click and drag):

Alright, once you have this selected, go back to front view (1) and press S to scale, and then press Z to constrain scaling to the Z axis. We want to mostly flatten this set of vertices so they look about like this:

It needs to be only *almost* flat. We’re also gonna make this bottom curve around the bottom edge. Once you’ve got this, grab the next highest row of vertices:

The move tool in Blender is activated with the G key (for “Grab”, traditionally). Drag this row down to just above the bottom of the beaker. Then scale it (S) down just a bit. Do not constrain the scale at all for this one. Regular will do fine.

You may only barely be able to see the difference in radius in the picture above, but be sure that yours is slightly smaller. Do this one more time with the next highest row of vertices.

Note: For more precise movement/scaling, you can press the arrow key while moving/scaling/rotating. Blender handles precise movements a little oddly. Moving the arrow keys while modifying actually only nudges your cursor slightly. Which means that the closer your view is to the object, the more precise movements you get.

Don’t worry if you don’t get it perfect, we’ll be changing a setting in a bit that will help smooth this out.

Next step is to grab the next highest set of vertices and scale it in to form the body of the beaker. Pay attention to the angle of your curve at the bottom. It should be flush along the curve, no corners. You’ll also need to finagle the other vertices here, because you don’t really have enough room between the bottom and your remaining vertices. I suggest grabbing all of the above vertices and dragging them upwards along the z axis, far enough to be out of your way.

You should come up with something like this:

You may find this a good step to fix any problems with the bottom. I found that the bottom was a little too small, so I stretched it out. I also adjusted those two rows of vertices we just made.

Alright, next we need to make the neck of the beaker. Can you guess how? Yep. Another row of vertices. This one needs to be straight above the row that forms the base of the neck (the one we just modified).

This will form the neck of the beaker. At this point, it’s alright if the neck isn’t quite long enough. Later on you’ll be able to adjust that pretty easily.

I’m gonna let you on your own for a bit. Using the same techniques from above, we want to make a curved lip for the beaker. Here’s the commands we’ve learned so far that you’ll need:

B — Rectangular marquee select vertices
G — “Grab” vertices to move them. Constrain the movement to the z axis with Z.
S — Scale. Use this to adjust the radius of the rings of vertices.

This is what mine ended up like. Yours should look similarly curved around the top. Note we still have more vertices up top. We’ll work with that in a minute.

Here’s a closer view of one edge so you can get an idea of how the lip is curved:

Alright, now that we have that, we need to bring in the tip of the beaker just a bit. Bring down another row of vertices and scale it in as shown below:

This row should be smaller in radius than the neck of the beaker, and just slightly below the lip of the beaker.

Alright, this should do it. Go ahead and select all the remaining vertices above and delete them by pressing X and then choosing “Vertices” from the menu that appears.

You now have your beaker set up. This model is also fairly adjustable. However, it’s still polygonal and oh so opaque. Let’s fix that next.

First, press Tab to go back into Object mode. If you were modeling in wireframe mode, your model will look like a bunch of pink lines. Press Z to make the model a bit more solid.

Now, with the beaker selected, press F9. This will bring up the Editing panel in the bottom section of your window. Press the New button in the Link and Materials section. (There’s two “New” buttons there, so make sure you get the right one.)

Also while you’re in there, click the “Set Smooth” button. (Ok, technically, it says “Set Smoot”, but who’s counting?)

Once you’ve done this, press F5, which will bring you to the Materials panel.

The following material was taken from the wikibook Blender 3D: Noob to Pro. This glass material has the following properties under the designated tabs:

Material
Alpha: 0.1 (A)
Color: White (Click the colored box next to ‘Col’ to bring up a color picker, or enter RGB values of 1.0 for all.)

Shaders
Reflectivity: 0.2 (Ref)
Specularity: 1.5 (Spec)
Hardness: 511 (Hard)
Translucency: 1 (Tralu)
Ambient: 0.5 (Amb)
Emit: 0 (Emit)

Mirror Trasp
Ray Mirror: enabled
Ray Mirror: 0.2 (RayMir)

Ray Transparency: enabled
IOR (angular index of refraction): 1.37 (IOR)

Once all these values have been entered, you’re ready to preview! You can either render out the current frame (assuming the object is within the camera’s view) from the menu with Render > Render Current Frame, or for a quick preview, pressing Shift+P will pull up a Heads-Up Display type window that acts as a viewing glass to see just a portion of your model previewed from your current viewpoint.

Your model will probably look a bit odd. And a lot blue. This is because the way a glass object looks depends heavily on it’s environment. Either what you’re seeing through it, or what it’s reflecting. For the example at the top, I created a box out of six planes. This really helps in trying to work with glass or other reflective materials. I suggest you set up a quick environment anytime you mess with new, reflective textures.

For any practical purpose, you’ll also have to work a lot with lights for this or any other glass object to look right. This is true, of course, for real life glass objects as well.

That wraps it up! Happy Blending!

If there’s one thing that any video/effects/design person can’t get enough of, it’s free materials. Especially royalty free. So, just for you folks, here’s a collection of some sites that offer up a ton of stuff that’s either free or free with simple conditions (mostly just attribute original author).

Jamendo — (Music) - A web collection of music all licensed under Creative Commons. Which means, among other things, all the music on the site is free to download. Not all of the music is free to use in a video, but some of it is. Use advanced search for options to specifically find music you can reuse. There’s some pretty good stuff out there that merely asks you give credit to the artist. Right now I’m hooked on Chronique, but that’s just me.

Soundsnap — (Sound FX) - I’ve just discovered this site recently, so I haven’t had much chance to use it, but their collection of royalty-free sound effects is ample to say the least. May take some sifting to find the best ones. (Courtesy of Lifehacker.)

Stock Exchange — (Stock Photos) - This site requires a log in to use, but contains a large number of free or mostly free images. Some restrictions apply. Also, as Tutorial 9 pointed out a while back, the Stock Exchange can be used to find some pretty amazing, free to use textures. Don’t forget that!

Brusheezy — (Photoshop Brushes) - Free to download Photoshop brushes. Having a full arsenal of brushes can give you a huge amount of flexibility when designing an image. Of course, I find that half the brushes I download, I don’t ever even install, much less use. Nonetheless, you’ll be incredibly glad you have this site in your repertoire. Be sure to check licenses for individual brushes just in case.

Dafont — (Fonts) - Huge collection of mostly free fonts. Some are free for personal use, others are just free, so be sure to check. BONUS: I’ve also recently become aware that, when searching, you can enter your own custom text and see your text generated in all the fonts you preview. Very handy if you wanna get a better idea of just how a font will look for your project. (Which, of course, you do, don’t you?)

Video Copilot — (After Effects) - It should go without saying, a toolbox is only as good as the knowledge you use it with. Video Copilot makes it on the list of free stuff because it does, in fact, have some free presets (Tutorials tab, Presets….at least get the Lightsabre preset), but the real helpful stuff is the tutorials. If you’re learning After Effects, I suggest you get started on the basics, and then, come here. (Conveniently, you can also learn the basics here.)

Art of the Title — (Inspiration) - There’s plenty of design and design theory books and websites out there that will give you inspiration in the form of still images, teaching you about layout, colors, shapes and so on, blah de bloo. But the one thing you can’t learn from a book is movement. Enter Art of the Title. This website is nothing more than a collection of movie title sequences. Very handy for inspiration. Also, check out the Submarine Channel. I haven’t looked through it yet, but a teacher of mine highly recommends it.

If you know of any other good free stuff around, do let me know. And share with others! Several of the sites listed above all have ways to contribute your own creations back to the community of multimedia folk. So, have at it.