Luke Schantz is giving a 12hr workshop on 3D design and animation at Harvestworks. The workshop is focused on getting you familiar with the exciting open source software application Blender 3D. Blender is bridging the gap between open source software and content. The software application is available at no cost, and your 3D models can be imported into Jitter for live realtime video processing.

Why Blender 3D?

3D design and animation is not just for architects, engineers and Hollywood studios. Artists and Designers of all sorts can incorporate 3D design into their work-flow. Blender is an incredibly flexible application that you can use for a wide variety of purposes; Creating 2D / 3D Graphics, 3D Animation, Simulating Physics, Interactive 3D programs and Game Design.

Blender is a free 3D graphics application. It can be used for modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, rigging, water simulations, skinning, animating, rendering, particle and other simulations, non-linear editing, compositing, and creating interactive 3D applications. Blender is available for several operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, IRIX, Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD with unofficial ports for BeOS, SkyOS, AmigaOS, MorphOS and Pocket PC. Blender has a robust feature set similar in scope and depth to other high-end 3D software such as Softimage|XSI, Cinema 4D, 3ds Max, Lightwave and Maya. These features include advanced simulation tools such as rigid body, fluid, cloth and softbody dynamics, modifier based modeling tools, powerful character animation tools, a node based material and compositing system and Python for embedded scripting.