Here’s what I’ve been up to over the last 30 days. It’s been highly productive, even though what I have achieved was not quite in line with what I had set out to do. It’s always interesting for me to see how unpredictable creativity is. SUPER SURVIVOR – Season 1 (Podcast) I’ve turned my second …
In this episode I will (try to) explain the concept of Story Sheets to you. Those are writing aides, akin to writing bibles and index cards. Think of Story Sheets as a supercharged version of a post-it note. They let you define relatively vague “things” like plot points, characters, settings, scenes, character development points and …
In this episode I’ll show you how Storyist lets you import images and how you can use them in your project. Images are not linked and are stored with your project, so feel free to delete the original. Storyist can use images in-line with your text, or they can be part of the storyboard view …
In this episode I’ll show you how to install 3D Content with Install Manager into another directory of your choice. By default, Install Manager will use a folder called “My DAZ 3D Library”, but sometimes you may need a second directory to install content in. For example, to keep pre-release files separate from “release versions”, …
In this episode I’ll show you some of the shortcuts I find useful when using Storyist. I’ll show you how to navigate words, paragraphs and whole lines from the keyboard, and I’ll also explain a couple of tab key shortcuts. Lastly, I’ll show you how to access a full list of shortcuts that are supported …
In this episode I’ll show you how parent objects to one another, and how to create groups, and the implications either of these actions has on your scene. I’ll also explain the Null object and when/how to use it. Understanding these concepts means you’ll be able to build scenes more efficiently: hierarchies let you move …
In this screencast I’ll show you how to customise the headers and footers of your document. The principle is the same for either. In particular, we’ll look into aligning the page numbers in the footer: off numbers to the left, and even numbers to the right – just like some books do. Storyist can help …
In this episode I’ll show you how to change the location of the Pivot Point in DAZ Studio. It’s the point at which the 3D manipulator gizmo shows up and from where objects are translated and rotated. Blender calls this the “origin point”. DAZ Studio uses the Joint Editor to manipulate this point. While I’m …
Another busy month draws to a close. Let’s see if I can remember all the exciting stuff I’ve been able to create, which consisted mainly of video content.
Blender Logo Creation – Mini Series
I’ve created a 5-part mini series on how to take a rasterised image, turn it into an extruded 3D object in Blender and use it to create a snazzy logo.
I’ve used this technique to create thumbnails for two of my recent projects (the DAZ Studio 101 series and my WordPress podcast). There are many steps to the whole process and I thought I’d record how I did it. I also created thumbnails for the videos in the series using the same approach, showing bit by bit what each video is about. Like this one:
In this episode I’ll show you how to customise the print-ready PDF we’ve created in the previous video. When Storyist formats a PDF with templates, it create intermediary files that we can tap into and further refine the output to make it look exactly as we want our book to look. https://www.versluis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Storyist-13-PDF-2-v2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 15:51 …
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Julie Rothenberg MS, RD, LDN (@julienergynutrition) I found this post by my wonderful nutritionist Julie Rothenberg in Instagram this month. It struck a chord in me about awareness and helped me through a day on which I felt angry and aggravated. I really didn’t want to …
In this final episode of our serves I’ll show you how to create and apply a Density Map for use in Blender’s Particle Emitter. This will allow us to specify where objects are replicated and how may we want at which point. I’ll also explain how to invert the map. I will touch on how …
In this episode I’ll show you how to manipulate objects in the viewport using numeric values and the Parameters Tab. This can be useful to make precise adjustments to the alignment and placement of your objects.
In this episode I’ll show you how to create PDF version of your document. In Storyist, this is done using an intermediary Book Object that takes care of the page setup and formatting options. https://www.versluis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Storyist-12-PDF-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 18:16 — 16.7MB)
In this episode I’m giving our objects some colour with simple shaders: I’m making the grass green, give the ground an earthy brown and add a shiny golden touch to our logo. I’m also covering the logo with another replicator, simulating an interesting effect. This is part 4 of a mini series about how to create …
In this episode I’ll show you how to manipulate objects in the viewport using four tools: the translate, scale, rotate and universal manipulator tools. I’ll also explain the concept of world vs local/object coordinates and touch on screen coordinates. These are tough concepts to grasp, but with a bit of practice, you’ll be flying around …
In this episode I’ll give you some tips about ebook formatting when using Storyist. For this demo I’ll use an EPUB document we’re creating from my dummy manuscript and open it in Apple s iBooks for macOS. I’ll show you how to replace the section separator, how to deal with empty lines, and you’ll see …
In this episode I’m building several simple grass stalks and replicate them along a plane using Blender’s Particle Emitter. I’ll talk you through the scary options we need and explain some of the concepts in using the Particle Emitter as an Object Replicator. This is part 3 of a mini series about how to create a …
In this episode I’ll talk you through the various Viewport Drawing Styles. The default we usually see is “texture shaded”, which is a nice compromise between displaying a good looking “live” picture, while keeping your computer responsive for navigating and posing. However, with larger scenes your system may become slower and less responsive. We can …
In this video I’ll show you how to create a Kindle ebook from your manuscript and several other items in Storyist. Amazon’s Kindle uses the .MOBI ebook format, while other e-readers support the .EPUB format (such as Kobo, Nook and iBooks). Storyist supported them both equally well. https://www.versluis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Storyist-10-Kindle-ebook-v2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 20:18 — 18.6MB)
In this episode I’ll show you how to use the SVG file with curve information and turn it into an extruded logo using Blender. I’ll setup the scene and ground plane, get the camera ready and turn the default light into a strong side light. This will serve as a starting point to creating our …
In this episode I’ll show you how to navigate your 3D world within the viewport. I’ll explain several ways to do this, and I’ll also show you how to customise the modifier keys for faster navigation using your mouse and keyboard. In addition, there’s also a fully immersive way to “walk” through your scene using …
In this episode I’ll show you how to use the Project Trash option in Storyist. It works just like the trash function in macOS and Windows, with which you never directly delete documents from the system. Instead, they’ll go into the “trash”, which when emptied, will delete a document from the hard drive. Storyist has …
The other day I wanted to convert a logo into a path, so that I could use it as a shape in Blender. It was in fact the WordPress logo that was provided as a PNG or PDF from the WordPress Branding section.
The trouble was, both the PNG and the PDF are rasterised, and as such cannot easily be used for an extrusion in 3D as an SVG file would. The question then was, how do I convert an image into an SVG in Photoshop, so that I could import it into Blender?
It took a bit of fiddling, but here’s how I did it.
Quick introduction to SVG Files
SVG files can actually contain three types of data:
Vector Graphics, such as paths (which is what we want)
Raster Graphics, such as bitmap images (which we have, but don’t want)
and Fonts
What I needed in Blender was indeed a Vector Path. Although the other two data types can be contained in an SVG file, Blender can only read path information at the time of writing. It makes sense too, because really I’d like to the path information available as a curve in Blender, not the potential raster or font information.
I’m mentioning this here because
a.) I didn’t know this, and
b.) importing an SVG containing either fonts or raster graphics will import nothing into Blender – which had me stumped.
Hence, for Photoshop to export vector data instead of raster data in our SVG file, we need to jump through a few hoops – but it is possible. Let’s see how!
In this episode I’l explain how we can utilise Install Manager to update both DAZ Studio as well as content if and when updates are available. I will also show you how to update Install Manager itself. This happened to me today and was not a planned part of the series, but I found it …
September has been an incredibly productive month for me, and I’m excited by the fact that I’m not exhausted as a result. September felt as busy as this post reads, but it didn’t feel as if I had to compromise on quality or that all important “me time”. In a nutshell: I feel like I’m …
It’s been a fun-packed month full of exciting discoveries – on and off the web. Let’s take a look at what I’ve found over the last four weeks.
Music
I was taking a late night walk after some heavy screen casting for those DAZ Studio videos, when I wandered by one of those restaurants South of Fifth in our neighbourhood (one that changes owners every 6 months or so). They were playing something that sounded almost live, and it immediately peaked may curiosity.
It was a cover version of the old Rod Stewart song “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy”, in a Jazz Combo style – much like Paul Anka did on his 2005 album Rock Swings. The voice of the woman singing was remarkable, something of a mixture of Diana Krall and Sarah Vaughan.
In this episode I’ll show you how to use the main functions in Storyist for iOS, on an old iPhone 5s. I’ll show you how to navigate, switch between Draft Mode and Formatted Page Mode, and how to insert chapters and sections into your manuscript. I’ll also demonstrate how to find and replace in your …
In this episode I’ll show you how you can customise the interface in DAZ Studio. I have previously shown you how to select Workspaces and Styles, and now we’ll see how to make the interface your own by changing the colours of the interface. In addition, I’ll elaborate more on the macOS intricacies on moving …
In this episode I’ll demonstrate how you can use the Writing Goals feature in Storyist to your advantage. With Writing Goals you can keep on track of a deadline and get an impression of how many words per day you write over a longer period of time. Writing Goals have become popular with competitors like …
