KRЯRL DЯAWINGS: May 2020

In the month of May I started using Blender 2.82a, the free 3D software program, to push my drawings as far as I can. Blender 2.8 is a complete overhaul of the software, and has been out for less than a year.

Summary VIDEO

3D Projects

The video below is a compilation of all the 3D projects that I have been working on in the last decade:

Compilation of my 3D projects

in the last decade

YouTube tutorial: Blender Video Editor Short Beginner Tutorial

Summary VIDEO

360° Animations Compilation

I created a compilation video of all the 360° animations that I created in Blender.

360° video compilation

You can change the scene by pushing your mouse across the YouTube image (while left clicking). You can pause the video, and still move the mouse to change the point-of-view. I understand that on a smart phone, one just has to move the phone to change points-of-view.

I N D E X

* MAY BLOG POSTS *

MY DRAWINGS INTO 3D

PROCEDURE

I discovered two free online programs that will convert my drawings into digital 3D objects, as seen below:

Digital 3D objects:

Top: Spinning OBJ file,

Left: created with PhotoAnim, OBJ file ,

Right: created with Vectorizer, STL file

PROCEDURE

P N G

*with transparent background*

I start off by preparing a PNG file of my drawing, with a transparent background.

I outlined my drawing on newsprint, in heavy pencil lines, and scanned it. After bringing up the contrast in XnView, I removed the background with RemoveBG.

I can also do the whole job in Photoshop Elements (which is not free), if I erase the background and save the drawing as a PNG file.

PNG file

-- with transparent background --

Drawing from May 12, 2020

There are two free programs that will convert the PNG drawing into a 3D file -- see the difference in the darker gray image above, two pictures up

PHOTOANIM

1) Best Method: The PhotoAnim software (free, but you have to download it) will give you a more robust 3D image, in an OBJ (+ MTL) format:

PhotoAnim

documentation

This YouTube tutorial clearly explains how easy it is to make a 2D image into a 3D object in PhotoAnim:

YouTube tutorial

for converting an image into a 3D file

SHORT PHOTOANIM SYNOPSIS

a) Import PNG image, and select the middle button at far right, outlined in green.

b) Animation/Intialize/3D from Front View Image...

c) At the bottom, check "Symmetry" and pull the "Guard Ring" tab all the way to the right

d) File/ Export 3D (3ds,.obj, stl) -- Export the 3D drawing as an OBJ file.

VECTORIZER

2) Alternative Method: Vectorizer is an online program, that will give some thickness to the drawing by extruding it, then converting the image into an STL file. I then have to convert the STL file into an OBJ file by importing/exporting in SculptGL (which also allows me to alter the 3D figure). This is a very flat 3D image, such at that used to make the animated GIF below.

Animation made with

drawing converted to an STL file

in Vectorizer

MIXAMO

I then upload the OBJ file to Mixamo (free, but you have to sign up) to animate the 3D figure. There are many choices, and one can download the animated figure as a FBX file.

My figure Samba dancing

in Mixamo

Check out other animations using Mixamo on Instagram.

BLENDER 2.82a

Blender is free 3D software.

One can "import" STL, OBJ (+MTL), and FBX animation files into Blender, and image files for the background and as planes. I imported a variety of file formats into Blender to make the video below (using all the free math art software that I found in the last decade).

VIDEO

MATH ART

Animation with the help

of online math/geometry programs

Free math softwares:

YouTube tutorial: Blender Constant Spinning Object or Wheel Blender 2.8

Blender
T U T O R I A L S

BEGINNING

I started learning Blender 2.82a with Grant Abbit's series of YouTube tutorials:

Blender 2.8 for Complete Beginners

BACKGROUND IMAGE

I discovered how to add a background image with Henry Egloff's tutorials:

Text tutorial (simpler method): How to Render a Background Image in Blender 2.8 Using the Document World Settings
YouTube tutorial (using nodes): How to Render a Background Image in Blender 2.8 Using a Camera Background Image

Animation with background image

Not quite turntable animation

with background image

TURNTABLE ANIMATION

The turntable animation is a little bit more difficult.

YouTube tutorial: Blender Tutorial: Turntable Camera Rigs Made Easy

Turntable animation

360° ANIMATIONS

I added a 360° scene to an animation of one of my drawings. I took the 360° photograph of the South Broadway Cultural Center in Albuquerque, when we showed 83 prints during the "Prints by Southwest" exhibition in 2017.

YouTube tutorial: Add YOUR 360 degree Image to Blender 2.8
YouTube tutorial: Tutorial: How to Make a 360 video in Blender (In under 5 minutes)
YouTube tutorial: How to make Vitrual reality VR 360 video using Blender 2.8
YouTube tutorial: 360° Render Settings (For Images and Video) - Blender Tutorial
Program: Spatial Media Metadata Injector v2.1

360° gallery view

with animation

360° from GOOGLE MAPS
ANIMATIONS

I followed the tutorial below to get the 360° street scene from Google (note: if iStreet View does not work, saying "for development purposes," keep trying).

YouTube tutorial: How to import a google map 360 image into Blender
Program: iStreet View
Program: Street View Download 360
Program: Spatial Media Metadata Injector v2.1
YouTube Playlist of the above tutorials: Panoramic scenes in Blender

Then I followed previous tutorials to make a 360° scene animation, of one of my drawings dancing in the center of Mexico City.

My drawing dancing

in the center of Mexico City

GOOGLE MAPS IN 360° 3D

YouTube tutorial: Importing Actual 3D Models From Google Maps
Program: RenderDoc
Program: Maps Models Importer

My drawing walking in the parking lot

in a Google Map scene in 3D

Blender GIS looks promising, but it was freezing my computer:

Program: Blender GIS
YouTube Tutorial: Blender GIS

GENERATIVE

BLENDER ADDONS

Generative Blender Addons:

Derived from the simplified middle 3D figure

Left: SuperPoke

Right: BY-Gen

The two generative Blender addons below, altered the simplified figure in the middle in the grey animated GIF above.

GitHub: SuperPoke Blender addon
BY_GEN -- YouTube video on BY_GEN 5

I decimated the middle 3D figure of my drawing above, with GitHub: Instant Meshes, into very basic polygons before importing it to Blender 2.82a. If the 3D image is too complex, it freezes my laptop during the final rendering phase. Download the decimated OBJ +MTL files of the 3D object, derived from my drawing (Zip file, 31.36 KB)

With the Blender cube below, I first applied the BY_GEN (Organic Shell) treatment, and then applied the SuperPoke treatment. However, when I reversed the order, applying SuperPoke first, my laptop froze and could not apply the BY_GEN treatment.

Blender Cube with 2 generative treatments --

altered first by BY_GEN (Organic Shell),

and then by SuperPoke

The figure below was altered with BY_GEN with the "Organic shell" option. I downloaded Boccioni's sculpture (by Darioc) from Thingiverse -- "Unique Forms of Continuity in Space" -- and stretched and modified it first in SculptGL (as seen in the PNG to 3D post). This is entirely different from the approach of Ander Raden and Matt Smith, who faithfully recreated some Boccioni's sculptures using digital 3D programs.

Boccioni's sculpture

severely altered,

the treated by BY_GEN

Other addons and related:

GitHub: Jaques Lucke’s animation nodes -- (video)
GitHub: Sverchok add-on
I wish that one day maybe we can have such tool for Blender VR: 3D Paint Strokes Grease Pencil.
GitHub: alessandro-zomparelli/tissue --(video) --Tissue is already shipped with both Blender 2.79b and Blender 2.80.
YouTube video: Top 10 best FREE plugins for Blender 2.8
YouTube video: Useful Addons for Blender 2.8
Fast Carve

Plus:

Style transfer Blender addon -- GitHub: EmbarkStudios/texture-synthesis -- (video)
GitHub: mtyka/attractor -- (video) -- the video explains how to add thickness to a bezier curve

DOWNLOADABLE 3D FILES

There are many sources for free 3D files online:

Smithsonian
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Thingiverse
*Boccioni sculpture on Thingiverse by darioc -- "Unique Forms of Continuity in Space"
GB3D Type Fossils
List of 50 sites (though you have to register with most of them to download 3D files)

Below is a screen capture of two 3D files I juxtaposed together, the Triceratops downloaded from the Smithsonian, and the Gudea figure downloaded from the Thingiverse Metropolitan of Art collection:

Triceratops and Gudea 3D files

remixed together in SculptGL

(download file decimated in Instant Meshes -- 3.41 MB)

Today (May 30) Greg and I hung the Horned Toad II Print Exchange in the "Gallery with a Cause," at the New Mexico Cancer Center in Albuquerque.

I posted everything on the Desert Triangle blog.

My print hanging

at the New Mexico Cancer Center

Horned Toad II Print Exchange

hanging in the "Gallery with a Cause"

at the New Mexico Cancer Center

Horned Toad II Print Exchange

listed on the "Gallery with a Cause" website

Originally we were supposed to hang the Desert Triangle Print Exchange, however because of the Covid 19 lockdown, it was not practical to retrieve those prints from El Paso.

It was nice emerging with this exhibition after more than two months of lockdown. Hopefully everything will cautiously begin to open up; and even more hopefully, the virus will go away.

BOARDED UP

ALBUQUERQUE

The next night violent protests hit downtown Albuquerque (May 31), in the wave of the George Floyd protests nationwide.

The Kimo theatre boarded up in downtown Albuquerque, after the riot on May 31st:

ACE barbershop boarded up

JUNE ARTWALK

We were originally supposed to have an opening on June 5th, during the First Friday Arwalk in Albuquerque, for our exhibition at the New Mexico Cancer Center. Naturally the Covid 19 pandemic cancelled that. However there was a curbside artwalk in downtown Albuquerque that night, amongst all the bordered up buildings.