Blender 3D is a free, multi-platform 3D modeling and 3D animation software. In our last month’s issue we spoke about basic 3D modeling in Blender (Modeling with Blender 3D, page 118); this month we will talk about creating basic 3D animation. 
When you start Blender 3D, it brings up a screen divided into four parts (top, front, side and camera). These are called Viewports. Beneath the Viewports is a Button’s palette. By default, when you run the software, it will have one three-dimensional cube object. We will use the same object to create an animation.

       STEP ONE            
First, set the number of frames that you need for creating an animation. For example, we will use frame 1 to 50. To set the frames Press F10 and come down to the ‘Anim’ Button Palettes. Here set ‘Sta’ to 1 and ‘end’ to 50. The frames number will be displayed under the Viewports in a small text box. Now you need to set the first frame for the animation. Press Shift+left arrow key. This will set the frame number 1 to start the animation. 

Adding objects for 3D animation

       STEP TWO            
Now, to enter into camera view, press ‘0’ from the number pad. This will bring a camera view, in one of the Viewports. Select the object (ie, 3D cube object) and press ‘I’ key on your keyboard. It will open a drop-down menu; here select ‘LocRot’. This is done to lock the first frame of the animation.

       STEP FOUR            
After locking the object on a first frame, you need to go to the last frame. Press Shift+right arrow key to set the last frame, which will come to 50. Now select the object and drag it to anywhere inside the camera view. If you give other effects, press ‘G’ or ‘R’ keys from the keyboard for rotation. After this press ‘I’ key from your keyboard and select ‘LocRot’, as we did in step 2.

       STEP FIVE           
Now, you need to render the display. On the Render Button palette, click on the button labeled ‘50’. To test the animation that you have created, press ALT+A key from keyboard and watch the playback from the camera view. If the animation that you have created is ok, then you need to render the frames in any format you want (AVI, JPG, Targa, etc). Select the file format (from the format Button’s Palette) in which you want to render. We selected AVI Raw format. Then from the output palette, set the output file in to a single animation file. For example, give the /tem/test.avi. This will save the output file in c:/tmp folder in Windows. From the render menu select the second option, ie, render animation. This will create the final output in the format you have chosen.

This was a small and very basic example of creating animations with Blender. You can add your creativity and experience to make a complex animation. 

Meenakshi Meghaney and Sanjay Majumder