Any Unreal Engine Experts Here?

[Huntn]

If he's using the keypad numbers, then he's not rotating the sphere, he's orienting the view to the top of the sphere. If you don't want to use the numpad to rotate your view, you also hit the Tilde key to bring up a pie menu showing your orientation selections (which is what I do).

And he's hitting Ctrl+ Numpad Plus key, 3 times. That grows the selection out from your initially selected element. You can shrink it with Ctrl + Numpad Minus.

That’s it! Thanks! When I started with the first Blender tutorial, I went though the Interface and typed up a hierarchal list of most of the settings and tools. This helpes me greatly, with familiarization, then as I learn about different controls and tools, I insert outline notes for the appropriate tool/control/setting. Otherwise I feel lost in a sea of settings.

Not to be argumentative but with the NP numbers, you can look at top, left, right, with the sphere makes it rotate around which is would properly called orientation, but for 3 of those keys something called relative perspective view pops up and if you hit any one of those specific keys multiple times repeatedly, it appears to make the sphere rotate in a direction a small number of degrees, either left or right or top to bottom. but maybe those are considered orientations too.

 

[Renzatic]

I rarely ever use the numpad for viewport switching. Though from what I remember...

1 - Front orthographic
2 - Rotates downwards
3 - Right orthographic
4 - Rotates left
5 - Switches between orthographic and perspective projections.
6 - Rotates Right
7 - Top orthographic
8 - Rotates upwards
9 - Rotates the view 180 degrees from your current position (you'll never use this).
0 - Switches between last view, and the camera.
. - Focuses view on selected model/element.

If you're wondering what orthographic means, it's simply a way to view your your model without any depth projection, like an isometric drawing. Some people prefer to model using orthographic exclusively, but I prefer them just for the cardinal angles: left, right, top, bottom, front, and back. When I'm free rotating, I prefer the more natural looking perspective.

 

[Renzatic]

Okay, here's the video. I set the hotkey display to the center of the screen, and tried to go slow enough to be easy to follow along with. If you've got any questions, you know the drill.

 

[Huntn]

Okay, here's the video. I set the hotkey display to the center of the screen, and tried to go slow enough to be easy to follow along with. If you've got any questions, you know the drill.

I‘ll check this out soon and report back. Thanks so much!

 

[Renzatic]

I‘ll check this out soon and report back. Thanks so much!

The one cardinal rule to all things 3D is to first make a lumpy representation of what you want, then add geometry to smoothen it up and add details.

I guess it's like any art in a way. No one just draws a full on face starting out. They always begin with putting down an oval, and blocking out the basic shapes before going all in on the fine details.

 

[Huntn]

The one cardinal rule to all things 3D is to first make a lumpy representation of what you want, then add geometry to smoothen it up and add details.

I guess it's like any art in a way. No one just draws a full on face starting out. They always begin with putting down an oval, and blocking out the basic shapes before going all in on the fine details.

Based on traditional art that depends a little but I see what you are saying and agree. Painting landscapes frequently start as a outlines and shapes, then filling in details, building up textures.

What caught my attention in the Forest tutorial is that the author says it’s mostly about presentation. And when you look at the elements, while their placement requires some general rules as in what you might spect to see in nature, including some perspective decisions, such as he chose to place the largest trees far away, it appears simple to place them. And finally I had no clue just how non-complex the basic terrain shape grid was. However the master texture will require some study.

I remember first looking at this scene, regarding how complex it looked, and I would have never guessed that the terrain involve was so simple. Of course this does not mean I’ll be able to duplicate it, but that is what this is, duplicating to learn. Because natural settings is a significant area of which I am interested in creating. Hope I’m not too disappointed.

One very cool aspect of digital art is lighting that can be controlled by a few settings changes where in a painting the entire painted surface, the artist must micromanage lighting, considering how light and atmospheric conditions effects the appearance of every object in the scene. Yes there are lighting settings that regarding digital art may seem complex to master, but the work load is handled mostly by the engine, and the artist is just faced with knowing which settings to change and how.

 

[Huntn]

@Renzatic,
I've created my account at BlenderArtisits.org you can find me here (PhantomFlyer):

Blender Newb Inquisition

Hi guys. I am new to Blender, learning it in conjunction with Unreal Engine, a newb there too. Anyway I am studying blender documentation, and have taken one of those quick version tutorials, and have been researching, but some things are very easy to ask. 😄 So if you are interested in helping...

blenderartists.org

I saw no way to PM you there, but maybe that is because I'm new there for security reasons....
I could not connect to TA forums this morning for over an hour....

 

[Renzatic]

@Renzatic,
I've created my account at BlenderArtisits.org you can find me here (PhantomFlyer):

Blender Newb Inquisition

Hi guys. I am new to Blender, learning it in conjunction with Unreal Engine, a newb there too. Anyway I am studying blender documentation, and have taken one of those quick version tutorials, and have been researching, but some things are very easy to ask. 😄 So if you are interested in helping...

blenderartists.org

I saw no way to PM you there, but maybe that is because I'm new there for security reasons....
I could not connect to TA forums this morning for over an hour....

I just saw that, and was coming over here to ask if that were you.

 

[Huntn]

I just saw that, and was coming over here to ask if that were you.

I’m back for a while until my next episode of not being able to connect To TA.

Thanks for putting up with me at blenderartists. At first it was like a crawl and not knowing which tool the author of the Forest video was using, and then suddenly it was coming together, but then I was getting funky distortion results because I had multiple meshes superimposed on one another, which you figured out, thanks! and that shadow shading tool was the on the project.

Most/all of the distortion of the mesh was a combination of grabbing faces, edge, vertex, combinations, and pulling them one way or another.

Suddenly the project went from flailing to finished so I can get back to Unreal Engine, and I’m still working on the last 5 sections of the Unreal tutorial, but I will do the Blender tutorial because I can see that in my future for these type projects. I hesitated at the time on that suggestion because I did not want to get overloaded learning two systems at once. And once I got used to just a couple of Blender, tools, loop, move, scale, and duplicate it was easy to reproduce (several times) the basic mesh shape I needed to import into UE.

On Thursday I have a colonoscopy (fun) with propofol, the drug that makes being knocked out tolerable, almost fun. Then Friday, we hit the road from Houston to Minneapolis to deposit our Grandson who has been living with us for the last year, back to his home town. He’s a good kid, but it will be a burden lifted.

 

[Renzatic]

Thanks for putting up with me at blenderartists. At first it was like a crawl and not knowing which tool the author of the Forest video was using, and then suddenly it was coming together, but then I was getting funky distortion results because I had multiple meshes superimposed on one another, which you figured out, thanks! and that shadow shading tool was the on the project.

Don't worry, I wasn't getting frustrated with you over there. I was pressed for time, and it was difficult figuring out what your problem was by description alone. Once you posted that screenshot, I knew what you meant by "double lines", and was able to drill down on helping you fix it.

And by the way, you don't have to use your iPhone to take pictures of your screen. Just hit Win+printscreen, and it'll pop a shot into your pictures folder. That'll probably save you some time,

 

[Huntn]

Don't worry, I wasn't getting frustrated with you over there. I was pressed for time, and it was difficult figuring out what your problem was by description alone. Once you posted that screenshot, I knew what you meant by "double lines", and was able to drill down on helping you fix it.

And by the way, you don't have to use your iPhone to take pictures of your screen. Just hit Win+printscreen, and it'll pop a shot into your pictures folder. That'll probably save you some time,

I’m not that used to Windows, I tried to use the Blender SS function, but that did not work. Before this it was only for gaming, and it bothers me a bit that I’m not doing this stuff on my Mac, but the Windows machine as configured is clearly the more powerful machine. Although for this trip to the Twin Cities I have loaded both UE and Blender on my 2016 MBP and will continue with my tutorials.

As far as the Forest Project, next I have to learn about materials/master materials in UE.

Of interest, as far as saving time, since all of my comms are via Mac/iOS, a pic on my phone is actually the fastest method of transfer from Windows.

 

[Renzatic]

As far as the Forest Project, I have to learn about materials/master materials in UE.

The nice thing is that materials are a lot easier to figure out that raw geometry manipulation. Once you learn what your various textures do, it's all just a matter of stringing them all together.

 

[Huntn]

The nice thing is that materials are a lot easier to figure out that raw geometry manipulation. Once you learn what your various textures do, it's all just a matter of stringing them all together.

3 sections on materials including instances, and master materials, did the first section, 2 more to go, I’ll post my notes for the scoop,

 

[Renzatic]

3 sections on materials including instances, and master materials, did the first section, 2 more to go, I’ll post my notes for the scoop,

Hey, figured this would probably interest you. It isn't too expensive, either.

 

[Huntn]

Hey, figured this would probably interest you. It isn't too expensive, either.

Thanks!
I maybe just a little pissed, although not a huge trajedy , I bought an inexpensive starter plant pack, in the Epic Market Place for $5, but it might not be compatible with UE 4.7 (4.6 and earlier), I need to check it again. There were a bunch of free things I added to my library and after the fact, discovered they were not 4.7 compatible.

In my ignorance I would think that a mesh created by UE 4.6 would be able to be exported to a newer version of the engine, cause it’s just a mesh which is fundamentally the same, but maybe not… the newer engine might not be compatible, maybe you‘d need a conversion program.

 

[Renzatic]

In my ignorance I would think that a mesh created by UE 4.6 would be able to be exported to a newer version of the engine, cause it’s just a mesh which is fundamentally the same, but maybe not… the newer engine might not be compatible, maybe you‘d need a conversion program.

That might be due to some random difference in versions that effects animations, shaders, or what have you. If you can export the raw mesh and textures out, you might be able to fix it in Blender, then bring it back in.

 

[Renzatic]

Hey, Huntn! You might want to look at this. Epic is having a big giveaway for education week. Gotta grab it by Nov. 1st though.

Join us for Education Week 2021!

See the full schedule for Education Week 2021. Career and portfolio tips, project breakdowns, special livestreams, educator interviews, and more.

www.unrealengine.com

 

[Huntn]

Hey, Huntn! You might want to look at this. Epic is having a big giveaway for education week. Gotta grab it by Nov. 1st though.

Join us for Education Week 2021!

See the full schedule for Education Week 2021. Career and portfolio tips, project breakdowns, special livestreams, educator interviews, and more.

www.unrealengine.com

I’m learning about master materials…still. Only studied one evening on this trip so far. It’s funny how travel and visiting friends can screw up your habit patterns.

Most of the free stuff seems to be educator materials, but I will take a closer look at them before the first. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Renzatic]

I watched this, and thought you might be interested in this too. It's exclusively Blender, but as you should be learning by now, anything you learn in one is more or less directly transferable to the other.

 

[Huntn]

I watched this, and thought you might be interested in this too. It's exclusively Blender, but as you should be learning by now, anything you learn in one is more or less directly transferable to the other.

My studies have been radically reduced with this week away from home. I have learned how to make a master material, notes forthcoming for your curiosity. We should be home on Sunday evening. Yes Blender will be part of this future.

I had a bazaar dream last night, I was taking notes and I was looking at a form that took up my entire field of view (in the dream) and when I would make a note, it was acting like a program that would add comments, references and cross references. And in this dream, I was puzzled, as to how this program was working trying to figure it out. I’m confident this is a direct result of my graphic studies, but it won’t stop me.

As long as I worked in aviation as a pilot and got into intense study regimes I would end up dreaming about procedures and what would drive me crazy is that the procedures I dreamed were always wrong so it was really not reinforcing what I was really studying.

I also hated manuals which were typically verbose. I always created my own outline format manual with just the facts I needed to review, which is especially important when watching a video that has no written reference.