New Media Fun

For a large part of my time the last 2 weeks have been focused on learning Blender. A free open source 3D tool that is incredible powerful and complex.

The learning curve is aided by Lynda.com’s exceptional tutorials for Blender and Lee Brimelow’s tutorial on GotoAndLearn. When creating 3D in flash, Lee’s tutorial shows you how to build a model in Blender and bring it into flash using Papervision. Very helpful in understanding the process from beginning to end.

One trick I have found helpful is after you have exported the UV map outlines in Blender (UVs –> Scripts –> Save UV Face Layout), in Photoshop keep the layer with the outlines on the top and change the layer blend mode to “Color Burn”. This removes all the white and keeps the outline visible.

Otherwise, Merry Christmas Everyone!

Here is a list of handy character codes I use on a regular basis:

• ampersand (&): &
• non-breaking space ( ): #&160;
• copyright sign (©): ©
• degree sign (°): °
• fraction one quarter (¼): ¼
• fraction one half (½): ½
• fraction three quarters (¾): ¾
• en dash (–): –
• em dash (—): —
• left single quotation mark (‘): ‘
• right single quotation mark (’): ’
• left double quotation mark (“): “
• right double quotation mark (”): ”
• horizontal ellipsis (…): …

For a complete list of Common HTML Codes