Is Blender 3D Good for Source/How to Start

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Is Blender 3D practical for Source Mods?

As it stands, Blender 3D has limited support for exporting .SMD files. There are two .SMD exporters available for Blender 3D, both created by third-party community members.

The first is an .SMD export plugin available for Blender that "does not support skeletons, multiple materials, or animations, but it does support hard/soft edges". You can download it with this link (that's a dead link, use .smd exporter instead, noting the info here). If using this script, Blender 3D is only useful for creating prop models for Source maps. Despite its limited export capabilities, it is one means of using Blender to create custom content for Source maps.

The second and presently (July 2007) more versitile script that is also currently in the works is a script being created by Dragonlord. For more information about the usefulness of Blender 3D as a program, its applications for the Source engine, and the new plugin that is being created to add full .SMD exporting support to Blender, see these forum threads: plugin, ModDB Forums - Blender 3D. The advantages of using this script is that the developer is very actively involved with those interested on the afore linked thread. Make sure to let him know of any problems you have, as thus far he has been very receptive and helpful.

For those in the Source editing community who want a full and complete 3D editing program that is both free and requires little HD space (Blender 3D is a 10MB program, and is comparable to XSI or even 3DS MAX, which are both well over 100MB), Blender 3D is a godsend. Moreover, with the prospect of a new fully functional .SMD exporter on the horizon, Blender 3D is looking like an excellent 3D model-authoring solution for Source projects.

Beginning with Blender 3D

The following are video tutorials from the Blender3D.org website that detail certain vital aspects of Blender that you need in order to get started. The video tutorials are highly illustrative and may prove to be more helpful to those users who are less than enthusiastic about text tutorials. While the video files are large in size, new users should strongly consider viewing them.

Blender Beginner Video Tutorials (blender.org). It is recommended that you watch the videos in the order they are presented.

Another set of good tutorials are available at blenderunderground and at their Viddler page here.

When finished with the video tutorials, try taking a look at the Blender 3D: Noob to Pro wiki. It gradually steps through a few different projects that will provide some additional experience with the tools already learned from the video tutorials.

Beyond the beginning

For more advanced video tutorials: Greybeard's Blender Tutorials

Useful keys in Blender 3D

Manipulation

  • S (scale)
  • G (grab/move)
  • R (rotate)

Selection

  • A (select all)
  • Ctrl-Leftclick (freehand select)
  • B (border select)

Faces

  • F (create face)
  • Shift-F (connect selected vertices with faces; all vertices must be connected by edges in some way)

Special Keys

  • K (knife tool)
  • W (special actions menu)
  • Ctrl-J (join selected objects)

3D Cursor

  • Shift-S (3D cursor options)

Other Toggles

  • Tab (toggle edit mode/object mode)
  • Z (wireframe toggle)
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