The Laplacian Deform Modifier in Blender is super-useful for simple posing of objects, but the usage can be somewhat obscure. That's why Frederik Steinmetz is helping you out!
Recently I had to clean up a lot of my blendfiles. Especially when you append objects that share textures with your existing objects, you wind up with a lot of duplicates.
Frederik Steinmetz shows you a wonderful trick how to force particles to emit other particles in Blender 2.63+ while Gottfried Hofmann will show you how to arrange a nice fireworks display with the Blender VSE.
One of the cool new things in Blender 2.70 is the wireframe modifier. Frederik Steinmetz shows you how to use it and explains all options.
Python scripts let you automate processes that would take forever if you had to do them by hand.
In this tutorial Frederik Steinmetz demonstrates two elegant ways to stylize renderings using the new double edge mask node. Additionally he shows how to use node groups in order to keep your compositing nice and organised.
b°wide has provided the community with a great pack of predefined node groups you can use in many situations. They are a must-have for any more sophisticated project. You can get them here. To enable the setup, you first have to select all the channels and then connect all in- and outputs. That can be very tedious, here is a one-click-solution.
If you want to apply the Sin City or Spot Color look to your footage, Blender now has all the required tools at hand. This tutorial shows you how to do it using the compositor for selective desaturation and the tracking- and masking-tools.
Dissolving text in Blender has always been a lot of work, but not anymore! Blender 2.62 got a great new addition - the Remesh modifier! Its power combined with a particle system makes this awesome effect.
In this tutorial you will learn how use the ARewO Addon and Metaballs to create a double-strand of a DNA molecule.
Blender crashed? You quit accidentally? Saved over an important step? Blender offers ways to recover all of these!
The praying mantis is going Octane! In the fifth part of this tutorial series Frederik Steinmetz explains how to mix materials in Octane using nodes and maps. If you have not seen the other parts, we recommend that you watch the scene setup and if you are fairly new to Octane, please watch the Octane Pitfalls tutorial as well.
In this tutorial Frederik Steinmetz demonstrates the functions of the Animation Replicator with Offset. This video gives you a detailed explanation on what you can use this Addon for.
The new ray length node in Blender 2.64 allows to fake absorption even without a volumetric shader. This tutorial shows you how to create your own absorption shader and make it re-usable.
In this tutorial you will learn how to install the Blender to Octane exporter by yoyos. Frederik Steinmetz will guide you through the process and help you to avoid the most common pitfalls that still exist, due to the beta status of both the exporter and Octane.
Jonathan Lampel shows you how to create custom lens flares in Blender using only the compositor. The result can even be used as a group node.
Thanks to the new ellipse mask node in the Blender compositor, creating a vignette has become more simple and versatile than ever. This quick tip for Blender 2.64 shows you how it's done!
This is Blenderdiplom's way of saying: have some nice winter holidays. In this tutorial Frederik Steinmetz will demonstrate how to set up a beautiful macro scene consisting of a few frost-covered plants with a nice backlighting effect. It's rendered in Cycles with a little compositing. Enjoy!
A stencil for an animated background is a nice element for motion graphics. Unfortunately, the compositor is not always well-suited here. But Cycles comes for the rescue!
This tutorial for Blender 2.64 or later shows you how to create an advanced particle trail in Cycles using new features like the particle info node.
The grand mantis series Part 4: Material setup for Blender Internal! Learn how to use Subsurface Scattering to create a stunning organic material in Blender Internal renderer.
Learn how to add great looking particle fur for any animal!
The Dynamic Paint system in Blender is a great tool to create motion graphics. This tutorial shows you how to use it to create an eye-popping intro effect.
The grand mantis series Part 3: Material setup for Luxrender! Organic materials in physically-based renderers like Luxrender tend to be difficult. Unless Frederik Steinmetz is your tutor!
In this guest tutorial by Christoph Pöhler you will learn how to create a cute ghost animation using the cloth simulation and some advanced Cycles shaders.
The skin modifier, which is new in Blender 2.64, has been added to the modifier compendium. The skin modifier can be used to easily create base-meshes for sculpting or to create abstract or cartoonish figures.
In this interim tutorial for the great mantis series Frederik Steinmetz will show us how to light in Luxrender and Blender. As usual he shows us possible problems and their solutions!
This tutorial explains how to create a really cool looking, stylized fire in slow motion directly in Blender. The result can be used for backgrounds of all kinds in motion graphics and stills. This tutorial will also show you a lot of tips and tricks how to render fire faster.
The first guest-tutorial on BlenderDiplom.com! Dimitris Christou aka gr8! was so kind to provide us with a tutorial for his great (pun intended) abstract submission to the Modifiers Competition.
The grand mantis series Part 2: Advanced Cycles materials! Learn how to set up advanced materials in Cycles, plus even more lighting tips from Fredrik Steinmetz!
Finally, I managed to complete the second part of the ARewO tutorial. It can now distribute objects along a path and include armatures.
This series covers all of Blender's generate and deform modifiers. Each modifier is explained in a short video.
Frederik Steinmetz is back with a comparison of Cycles, Luxrender and Blender Internal. For that series he will use a praying mantis as an example. This first installment gives you an overview of the model and tips on modeling and rigging insects in Blender.
You can use Blender to make footage look like it was shot in 1920, by using particle systems and the compositor. Here is how:
Learn how to create an animated pin toy in Blender using maps, dupliverts and the displace modifier and render it in Cycles!
Ladies and Gentlemen - introducing: Frederik Steinmetz! He has prepared an intermediate tutorial on Cycles. Not the usual "How to start Cycles and set up a simple scene" kind of tutorial but a guided tour around current pitfalls and lots of tips and tricks!