I have three questions regarding Blender.

1: How is it possible to tell which way a normal is facing on a polygon?
2: When you extrude two vertexes to meet at the same point, how do you weld them together to make one vertex?
3: I have heard mswf say something about rotoscoping, so how do I get a picture into Blender?

Wonderboy wrote:I have three questions regarding Blender.

1: How is it possible to tell which way a normal is facing on a polygon?
2: When you extrude two vertexes to meet at the same point, how do you weld them together to make one vertex?
3: I have heard mswf say something about rotoscoping, so how do I get a picture into Blender?

1.)Look at the header for the 3D window. On it, you'll see a cube with brown faces in a drop down box. Click it, and select Textured Mode. Any face that you can't see in Blender, you won't see ingame.





2.)Either press W>Remove doubles, and if that dosen't work, delete one vertex, select the vertex it was extruded from, select the other vertex, and press F

3.)On the header, click View>Background Image.


I'll post pics in a 'lil bit

EDIT: Done. Sorry 'bout the handwriting. I couldn't find the text tool untill the last photo.
If there's any more questions, this site is very helpful. ----->Blender3D: Noob to Pro

To join any number of any verticies together, select them in edit mode and hit alt+m. It'll then ask if you want to join them at the location of the first vertex selected, the last, or at a point located centrally between them. Aside from that, pressing w and then 6 will remove doubles (multiple verticies in exactly the same (or at least very close to the same) position)

another way to put in an image, or i believe even video, is to create a plane with the desired aspect ratio and then set the image as a texture. imo you need to do it by hand if you want realistic lightsabers, though. my cousin tried using blender for lightsabers and they just don't glow quite right. not that you can't experiment, though.

Jaspo wrote: Aside from that, pressing w and then 6 will remove doubles (multiple verticies in exactly the same (or at least very close to the same) position)

Unfortunatley, the verticies have to be almost exactly on top of each other.(Within like 0.00001 units.)

re: normals if you need a quick fix, check out the menu options of recalculate outside, recalculate inside, and flip. these options usually work as desired. need any old object? recalculate outside. need an interior? recalculate inside. want to flip just a part of it? select that part and flip.

shortcuts:

flip: w, 0
recalc outside: ctrl+n
recalc inside: ctrl+shift+n

Ok. Thanks you two. First off, remove doubles does not work for what im doing, im basically offsetting the edge of a square, but the alt-m worked becuase now i will be able to 4 edges.
The normals: The textured does not appear to work, sorry Knight. When i do, only 2 sides are illuminated, but when i move the lamp around i can see all the parts, so your proposal is based on the lamp. The recalculate probably works, but i cannot tell whether or not a face has a normal on that side or not, they are the same in appearance. And the backround image, im assuming you must save the image in the blender directory?

The image can be saved anywhere. just navigate to it when you load the image. Also, the textured mode DOES work, but when there is a lamp in the image, the image is also shaded.(I should have remembered this) Just delete the lamp. That lets you see all the faces without having to move it. Then, if a side is transparent, it's normal is probably facing the wrong way.

U guys are doing it wrong.

Wonderboy wrote:I have three questions regarding Blender.
1: How is it possible to tell which way a normal is facing on a polygon?

The sides that are black are the ones that will be "transparant" ingame, the bluegrey ones are the ones that will be solid. Flip the black ones the way it was described in this topic.

Wonderboy wrote:2: When you extrude two vertexes to meet at the same point, how do you weld them together to make one vertex?

Select the vertices that you want to weld together and press "ctrl"+"m" and select whichever option you want. Now the 2 vertices are 1. (or 3 are 1, whatever you want to do)

Wonderboy wrote:3: I have heard mswf say something about rotoscoping=setting up reference image, rotoscoping in Blender is something else, so how do I get a picture into Blender?

First, make sure you're viewing your model in the angle you want to look at the reference.Press step 1, open your image by browsing to it by clicking on step 2. Then click on 3 and then 4 (somehow, this is sometimes necesary) and then click on 5 if you want to pack your image into your .blend file. (usefull if you're not sure you can keep your reference image in the same place as it was, otherwise it dissappears)
Move around the image (and, if necesary, scale it) with the sliders in that same "background image" window.
If you want to set the image up for multiple angles, open different 3d windows in blender.

Sorry for not reacting any sooner. Also sorry for the paint-ish (=paint) notes on the image, I'm at school ATM.
I recommend everyone who's learning Blender to read "Blender, noob to pro" fully and not skip ANYTHING.

@knightfire: thanks for clearing that up

@mswf: thanks, and its no problem for the pics, at least you don't have a firewall from preventing you from going here.
#1 The normals part, I unchecked that box and deleted the top and the inside is darker blue, so I am assuming it means there is no normal.
#2 Both ctrl-m and alt-m work, but for different situations, so thank you for that.
#3 I got a picture in, it just said there was nothing in my pic folder, so i ended up moving it to My Documents and it worked.
Offtopic: I did read blender noob to pro, but all until detailing your man 2 and then i did making a penguin, and i learned A LOT. Thanks for all your help you three.