Blender for Beginners Part 2 - Third Edition

<p><strong>Advance your Blender animation skills with lighting and compositing techniques to turn static scenes into finished high-quality 3D renders ready for your portfolio</strong></p><p><strong>Free with your book: DRM-free PDF version + access to Packt's next-gen Reader*</strong></p><p><strong>Key Features:</strong></p><p>- Level up from static assets to polished shots with clean animation simple rigs inverse kinematics (IK) and timing controls</p><p>- Explore beginner-friendly Geometry Nodes through mini-projects covering scattering instancing and simple generators</p><p>- Light render and composite your scenes in EEVEE or Cycles using reusable AOV node stacks for professional results</p><p><strong>Book Description:</strong></p><p>Blender for Beginners Part 2 builds on the solid foundation from Part 1 guiding you from modeling to motion animation systems and fully realized rendered scenes.</p><p>You'll start with animation essentials: placing keyframes easing motion and nudging the curves for smooth movement. Then you'll learn to rig with constraints and discover how inverse kinematics (IK) makes posing more natural than fiddly. Through fun practical mini-projects you'll explore beginner-friendly Geometry Nodes and finish with quick speed checks so your node setups stay responsive on normal hardware.</p><p>In the final chapters you'll bring everything together for presentation lighting for readability balancing exposure and shadows and knowing when to pick EEVEE or Cycles to get the look you want. You'll build reusable AOV-driven compositing stacks that add polish with precision use vertex painting and quick texture touch-ups to add believable variation and apply no-nonsense optimization tips and tricks with instancing LODs Simplify and sensible render settings.</p><p>By the end of this Blender book you'll have a complete repeatable pipeline from first keyframe to final composite along with professional habits to keep projects organized efficient and client-friendly.</p><p>*Email sign-up and proof of purchase required</p><p><strong>What You Will Learn:</strong></p><p>- Animate with keys interpolation graph edits constraints and simple IK rigs</p><p>- Add flexible deformation and variation using shape keys and drivers</p><p>- Build simple Geometry Nodes: scattering instancing and simple generators with basic profiling</p><p>- Add surface variation with vertex colors and light texture paint sessions</p><p>- Manage contrast shadows and render engine trade-offs for cinematic lighting</p><p>- Render with EEVEE and Cycles using sensible quality and performance controls</p><p>- Wrap up projects professionally with tidy assets naming conventions and predictable outputs</p><p><strong>Who this book is for:</strong></p><p>If you love games and want hands-on experience in 3D modeling animation and scene finishing for props assets and full environments this book is for you. It's ideal for character artists animators environment artists and game or motion-graphics designers who are ready to move beyond modeling into animation lighting and rendering.</p><p>No prior Blender animation experience is required. However familiarity with Part 1 or basic Blender navigation will help you progress faster. This book serves as a practical path from motion to final render helping you build portfolio-ready projects that look professional and well-organized.</p><p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p><p>- Rigging and Weight Painting for Beginners</p><p>- Mastering the Basics of Blender Geometry Nodes</p><p>- Unlocking Creativity with Blender Texture Painting</p><p>- Releasing Colorful Creativity with Vertex Painting in Blender</p><p>- Introducing Blender's Rendering Engines: A Comprehensive Exploration</p><p>- Enhancing Realism in Blender: Mastering Light Linking Light Portals and the Shadow Catcher</p><p>(N.B. Please use the Read Sample option to see further chapters)</p>