Blender Tutorial: Wood Chipping Text Animation

in this video I'll be demonstrating how to use blender to make this animation of text that appears to be carved by chipping away a block of wood I'll be using blender version 2.7 1 let's start by creating a new project so from the file menu select new and then click on reload startup file next right click on the cube to make sure that it's selected and then delete it by pressing X now let's add some text so press shift a and select text I'll zoom in to see it better to make the text stand up we'll rotate it on the x-axis so press R then X then 90 then enter to edit the text press tab to enter edit mode now use the backspace key to delete the text and enter in your own text then press tab to return to object mode next let's add some thickness to the text so click on the object data button I'm going to use an extrude value of 0.1 to round out the edges you can enter a bevel depth value I'm using point zero three then set the resolution to three to round off and smooth out the beveled edges now let's add the block of wood that the animation starts with so press shift a and select mesh and then cube now press 5 on the number pad to switch from perspective to orthographic view then press 1 on the number pad to switch to front view next we're going to adjust the size of the cube to make this easier switch the wireframe mode by clicking the viewport shading menu and then select wireframe you can also do this by pressing the Z key now drag the red arrow to Center the cube over the text then scale the cube on the x-axis by pressing s then X use the mouse to adjust the width of the cube until it's a little wider than the text click the mouse button when you're done now drag the blue arrow to Center the cube over the text then scale the cube on the z-axis by pressing s and then Z use the mouse to adjust the height of the cube until it's a little taller than the text next drag the blue arrow up until the bottom of the cube is even with the bottom of the text now press 3 on the number pad to switch to right side view then scale the cube on the y-axis by pressing s and then Y now use the mouse to adjust the width of the cube until it's a little wider than the text now press 1 on the number pad to switch back to front view next we're going to bevel the edges of the cube to do that click on the object modifiers button then click add modifier and select bevel set the width to 0.2 then to make the bevel smoother set the segment value to 5 then click apply you'll notice that the width of the bevel on the left and right is wider than on the top and bottom so let's make some adjustments to do that press tab to go into edit mode then press a once or twice until nothing is selected then press B and draw a selection box around these right-side vertices then scale on the x axis by pressing s then X then point to then enter then drag the arrow until the cube is a little wider than the text now we'll do the same on the left side so press a to deselect everything then press B and select the left side vertices then scale by pressing s then X then point to then enter then drag the arrow until the cube is a little wider than the text now press tab to go back into object mode since we're going to be chipping away this cube during the animation we need to add more geometry to it I'm going to do that by using the remesh modifier this will generate a new mesh while keeping the same overall shape of our cube so click the add modifier button and select remesh we want a lot of detail so set the Ox tree depth to seven then click apply now click the viewport shading menu and select solid to add extra smoothing click the tools tab and then click the smooth button next let's set the material for the cube so click on the material button and then click new now come up here and change this from blender render to cycles render then click the use nodes button will keep the diffuse surface type next click on the little button on the right side of the color and select image texture I have an image of a piece of wood that I'm going to be using you can find a link to this image in the video description to select the image click the Open button then navigate to the image and select it to make the image appear on the object we need to UV unwrap the object we're going to do the UV unwrap based on the position of the object so rotate the view a little until the top and right side are visible then press tab to go into edit mode and press a once or twice until everything is selected now press the u key and select project from view bounds next press tab to return to object mode now if you click down here and select material you can see the image next we'll add a displacement to the material to add some depth to the wood texture to do that click the screen layout button and select compositing then click the shader nodes button this node into the image and I'm going to use the color output for the displacement so add a connection from the color output to the displacement input this will add some depth to the wood texture now using the images color output for the displacement it's not something that I would expect to work well for all textures but it has worked well for me whenever I've used wood images now click the screen layout button and select default we're going to use this material later so give it a name to do that click here and type a name I'm going to name it wood now let's apply this material to the text so let's hide the cube so that we can see the text so go up to the outliner and find the cube then click the button that looks like an eye to hide the cube now right-click on the text to select it then to set the material click the new button then click the little button on the left side of the material name and select wood we need to UV unwrap the text but first we need to convert the text to a mesh to do that press alt C and select mesh from curve meta surf text now to do the UV unwrap press tab to enter edit mode then press a once or twice until everything is selected then press U and select project from view bounds then press tab to return to object mode now we can turn the visibility of the cube back on so from the outliner find the cube and click the button that looks like an eye now is a good time to save what I've done so far so from the file menu I'll select save as I'm going to name this animation dot blend next let's set up the floor that the cube will be resting on so press 1 on the number pad to switch to front view then press shift a and select mesh and then plane use the arrow and move the plane until it's just below the cube then scale it up in size by pressing s then 100 then enter then set the material by clicking the new button I'm going to keep the diffuse surface type and the white color now let's set up the lighting so press 3 on the number pad to switch the right side view and zoom out then right click on the lamp to select it and drag it over here to the left then drag it down then press one on the number pad to switch to front view the lamps should be positioned above and a little to the right of the cube next click on the object data button if it's not already selected make sure the point lamp is selected and then set the size to 3 now click on the use nodes button and set the strength value to 3000 now let's make a duplicate of this lamp so press shift D then use the mouse to position it on the left side of the cube press the mouse button when it's in place you'll notice that the left lamp is positioned a little farther from the cube than the right lamp is now let's set up the camera view so press 0 on the number pad I'll zoom in a little now I'm going to lock the camera to the view to do that press n to open the properties panel and put a check mark next to lock camera to view then press in again to close the properties panel now I can zoom pan and rotate while looking through the camera so now I'll adjust the view you you you to see what this looks like so far click on the viewport shading menu and select rendered now let's add the wood chipping effect so from the viewport shading menu select solid then right click on the cube to select it then from the object menu select quick effects and then quick explode this will automatically set up a modifier and particle system for us next click on the particle button you may need to expand this panel to bring it into view since we're going to be creating an animation we'll be using the timeline we can use the timeline to see and control which frames are being displayed this green line is the time cursor and it shows the current frame that we're on if you click on the timeline then the time cursor will go to the location that you click this value here displays the current frame number these values set the start and end frames this animation is going to be 100 frames long so set the end value to 100 the wood chips are going to be particles and these values control when the particles start to appear and when they end set the end value to frame 70 and the start value to frame 20 the end value needs to be larger than the start value so set it first the lifetime value controls how long the particles are displayed set this value to 100 so that the particles will stay visible throughout the entire animation this value controls how many particles are emitted for now set this value to 500 we're going to be changing this to a larger value later but for now keep it set to 500 as soon as I change this to a large value later on blender will start to respond more slowly I'll click the play button so that you can see what this looks like so far when we reach frame 20 pieces of the cubes start to break away but you'll notice that they are breaking away at random locations across the cube we want the pieces to start breaking away on the left side of the cube and then work across to the right to do that scroll the particle panel down to the bottom and open the section named textures then click the new button you can see that it added a texture now click the texture button then click here and select particle system texture now click here to set the texture type and select blend this texture will create a smooth progression across our cube make sure that there is a check mark next to time so that this blend texture will control when the particles will break away from the cube now I'll click this button to jump to frame 1 and I'll play the animation again this time the pieces start breaking away on the left side of the cube and work their way to the right so this is looking good so far I'll play this animation again this time notice that the pieces don't have a thickness and that they are falling through the floor so to add a thickness click the object modifiers button click Add modifier and select solidify I'll keep the default thickness value of 0.001 next to keep the particles from falling through the floor right-click on the floor to select it then click the physics button now click the collision button to prevent the particles from falling through then set the particle damping factor value to 1 to prevent the particles from bouncing on the floor also set the particle friction factor value to 1 to prevent the particles from sliding on the floor next let's prevent the particles from falling through the text so right click on the text to select it now click the collision button to prevent the particles from falling through the text then set the particle damping factor value to 1 to prevent the particles from bouncing on the text I'm going to leave the particle friction factor value at 0 this will help the particles to slide off of the text now I'll play the animation again you this time the particles have a thickness and they don't fall through the floor or through the text next we're ready to add more particles so right click on the cube to select it then click the particles button at the top set the emission number to 20,000 now let's set up some rendering options so click on the render button then open the sample in section you can increase the render samples value to produce a higher quality animation but it will increase the render time I'm going to leave it set to 10 to help minimize the rendering time now come up to the output section this is where you set the directory where your animation will be saved on my computer the contents of this default temp directory are deleted when blender closes so be sure and select a different directory to do that click on this button and select a directory next click here to set the file format there are multiple movie formats that you can choose from I'm going to use oh GG thei Ora now we're ready to render the animation but I'm going to save the project first it's a good idea to save the project before rendering in case something goes wrong during the rendering process to render the animation click on the animation button if you want to abort the animation before it's finished then press the Escape key this is going to take a while so I'm going to pause the video until it's done the animation is done rendering now it took about 17 minutes to render this is the final frame that was rendered if you want to return to the previous view you can click this button and select 3d view to view the animation go to the render menu and click on play rendered animation or you can press ctrl f11 the animation will play through to the end and then start back at the beginning again now if you open up Windows Explorer or something equivalent you can navigate to your movie file now assuming that you have a video player that will play the movie format that you specified you can now play your video I've set up this player to repeat the video in a loop so that it will keep playing well that concludes this video thanks for watching and please subscribe and leave a comment

Channel: tutor4u

Views: 1,610,782

Keywords: blender, animation, text, 3d, cycles, cycles render, blender version 2.71, how to, tutorial, tutorials, 2.71, tips, tricks, beginner, intermediate, Blender (Software), 3D Modeling, Animated, Bevel Modifier, Remesh Modifier, Image Texture, UV unwrap, Project from View, Node Editor, Displacement, Quick Effects, Timeline, Particle System, Blend texture, Solidify Modifier

Id: YFmN7eTNfNw

Length: 17min 42sec (1062 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 15 2014