Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Simple Vehicle: Alternative Shooting Machine

NOTE - Under Development.

This is a forthcoming tutorial module for the Noob to Pro/Simple Vehicle series. All development work is being performed in my Sandbox. Just in case somebody finds this, the page you're viewing was created by adding a link in the N2P ToC directly following Rocket Launcher & Publishing and then subsequently deleting the link & Publishing.

The result was checked to ensure the ToC was "reverted" properly (it was) and both of the following links on either side of the add/del tested to validate they functioned properly (they did):

• Simple Vehicle: Rocket Launcher

→→This Page←←

• Simple Vehicle: Body

Two specific items were being researched:

1. Could a new Noob to Pro page be created using the “broken link” approach and still remain available for development (i.e. I can reach it with a bookmark) but be “invisible” (not reachable via the ToC) until development/testing is completed; preliminary results indicate a positive outcome
2. Can Source Code copy&paste be used to transfer Sandbox content if a move for some reason is a problem now that I’ve added content to this page; again preliminary results indicate a positive outcome

TESTING

Fig. 01: Big Game Camera Final Render and Components

This tutorial can be followed as either a follow up to or a replacement of the Rocket Launcher (the same techniques are addressed), depending on your personal predilections. Both cases are covered.

A fantasy simple Big Game Camera (appropriate for a Simple Vehicle) for use on a photo safari will be created; a render of the completed product is provided (Fig. 01). It is primarily based on cylinders and is comprised of five components:

1. Lens Casing
2. Camera (very simple, apologies to the “photophiles”)
3. Stability Brackets (2)
4. Stability Braces (2)
5. Ball Joint/Swivel Mount (from the Rocket Launcher)

Test open in new window

NO Joy

Arch-Bak for V1 brackets

• 

  F 23: reusing LC

  Select the lens casing, switch to Right Ortho view and enter Edit  Tab  mode ensuring “Limit Selection to Visible” is toggled off (ILI)
• Select the 8 faces directly in front of the handle stem; the easiest way is using Border Select  B 
• Duplicate  Shift + D  and move to clear area (Fig. 23) Separate selection  P  and exit Edit mode  Tab .

Now click on the Materials context in the Properties window.

Layer Lost & Found

Having trouble remembering which layer contains what?

While in Object mode click on the Layers tab of the Tool Shelf to view/use the Layer Management capability. Layer Management enables the naming of visibility layers and facilitates management of visibility; quite handy. (This is an Add-on in Blender; if you don’t see a Layers tab go to the Add-ons section of User Preferences and look for “3D View: Layer Management”. If you’re not finding this Add-on mostly likely you’re using an older Blender version.)