Make backgrounds
From Tirnua
Contents |
Make your own Backgrounds
Enjoy the uniqueness of your own background with just a little knowledge of Blender!
You can download the sample backgrounds in your preferred size : Media:BrickPatio5x6.blend, Media:BrickPatio10x6.blend, Media:BrickPatio10x12.blend or Media:BrickPatio12x20.blend and edit it to transform it at your convenience.
To begin
Open the blender file “BrickPatioXxX.blend”. (If you do not have Blender, Download Blender 3D).
The background is in Camera 0 view. The view scope that will be rendered is defined by the larger dashed rectangle in the left panel (3D Window 
).
On the right panel are all the image components (Outliner window 
).
- The sample files include the Tirnua lights, the Tirnua isometric camera and the textures.
- The fixed template elements for Tirnua are the camera, the Tirnua lamps (LampLeft, LampMain, LampNear and LampRight) and the structure : Render Object -> Background, Foreground.
These elements should not be changed.
- All elements of the background must be children of the "Background" empty object.
- If you put objects in the "Foreground", they will be rendered over the entire background so you need to be careful because these objects could overlap your building lot.
- The building lot size (the pink rectangle) depends on your size lot.
- It can be 5X tiles by 6Y tiles, 10X tiles by 6Y tiles, 10X tiles by 12Y tiles or 12X tiles by 20Y tiles. A tile is 1x1 meter.
- The bottom left corner of the building lot should be centered at X=Y=Z=0.
To see the rendering of the background, hit the F12 key on your keyboard (It takes a little time to render depending on your computer power; if you want to abort the rendering, hit the “esc” key on your keyboard). You should get the image underneath in a new render window.
To render the 4 views of the background
To render and see the 4 isometric views that the game will use, you can just change the properties of the camera.
- Select the camera
- Open the "transform properties" window at the top left of the 3D window.
- Below are the 4 sets of properties for the 4 views:
- Camera 0 -> Loc X:-9 / Loc Y:-8.5 / loc Z:10.5 / Rot X:60 / Rot Y:0 / Rot Z:-45
- Camera 1 -> Loc X:14 / Loc Y:-8.5 / loc Z:10.5 / Rot X:60 / Rot Y:0 / Rot Z:45
- Camera 2 -> Loc X:14 / Loc Y:14.5 / loc Z:10.5 / Rot X:60 / Rot Y:0 / Rot Z:135
- Camera 3 -> Loc X:-9 / Loc Y:14.5 / loc Z:10.5 / Rot X:60 / Rot Y:0 / Rot Z:225
Now You can play with this background, replace textures, add objects and vary the lighting!
Note : The following tutorial will be explained using the BrickPatio5x6.blend file.
Change the textures
We will change the background from bricks on grass to wood on flagstones.
1. Download the new textures:
2. Delete the grass particles
- Select the terrain
- Select the object button
in the Button Panel 
- Select the particles button
- Delete the particles modifier by clicking on the X
3. Change the texture of the terrain
- Select the shadings icon
in the Button Panel
- Select the material button
icon in the Button Panel
- Rename the material from "moss" to "flagstones"
- Change the green color to the color that you want that will represent the flagstones texture (optional)
- Rename the texture to "flagstones"
- Select the texture button
in the Button Panel
- Click the folder icon
in the image panel and load the 'flagstones.jpg' texture.
4. Play with the mapping of the texture and the shaders to tweak the resulting effect.
5. Select the building lot and repeat the same process for the wood texture (No need to delete a particles system).
- for the wood texture, select "repeat" instead of "extend" in the texture window.
Hit the F12 key to render the result
Add an object
(Note: The plant that you downloaded is not the same as on the pictures)
First of all, we cannot add any object in the building area of the lot and the object cannot overlap it in render. We can add objects only to the background surrounding it.
Say that we add a plant on the flagstones.
1. Download the plant: Media:plant.blend
2. In the file menu at the top of the blender file, select “Append or Link” (or shift-F1), select the file plant.blend”, then select “Object”;
right-click on “render Object” , "group", "0bj_plant", "obj-pot", "obj_soil" ; click “Load Library”.
At the cursor place will appear the plant in the 3D window, and a “Render Object.001” in the outliner window.
3. In the outliner window, rename the “Render Object.001” to “plant”.
This object needs to be part of the background, so still in the outliner window, select “plant” by left-clicking on it and with the shift key activated, left-click on the “Background” object.
Go to the 3D view and hit ctrl-P; a menu will appear: click “Make Parent”.
The plant is now part of the background.
4. In the 3D window, hit A to deselect everything.
5. In the outliner window, select “plant”.
Hit 7 then 5 on the numpad of your keyboard to go in orthographic top view (it is easier to place an object exactly where you want it) and move the plant with the 3 arrows to position it where you want it to be.
Hit 0 on the numpad to return in camera view and verify in all views that the plant does not overlap the building lot.
The plant can be resized using the S key and rotated using the rotate button 
in the 3D window menu.
Tweak the light
We will add some warmer light with shadows.
1. Hit the space bar on your keyboard, select Add - Lamp - Sun
2.Switch to Front View (1 on the numpad; sometimes you will need to hit 5 also), select the Lamp that you created, place it and rotate it as on the picture below.
3. In the Buttons Panel, go to shadings 
then hit the Lamp button 
You can play with the energy intensity, the distance and the light color to change the background luminosity.
Note that you need to hit the button "Ray shadow" to create shadows in the scene.
The length of the shadows can be change with the Lamp rotation.
Hit F12 to see the result
Just a little taste of modeling : Raising the building lot
1. Set the cursor at the center (shift-C) and go in front view (hit 1 on the numpad)
2. Create the first horizontal deck edge :
In the same way as the lamp, hit the space bar on your keyboard, select Add - Mesh - Plane
3. Rotate the plane 90 degree to face you and set the plane dimensions to 5 wide x 0.3 high.
Place the plane on X=2.5, Y=0 and Z=-0.15 to align it with the building lot.
4. Give a texture to the mesh : With the plane still selected, hit the shadings button and select the wood material.
Select the number (2) on the right of the material name and select "single User" to create a new material for this plane.
Change the "Map Input" material settings to fit the plane.
5. Duplicate the plane by selecting it and hitting shift-D to create the second deck edge. Right-click then move the new plane to X=2.5 and Y=6
6. Create the first vertical deck edge : Duplicate the plane again, rotate it 90 degree in the Z axis and set the plane dimensions to 6 wide.
Place the plane on X=0, Y=3 and Z=-0.15 to align it with the building lot.
7. Duplicate this plane by selecting it and hitting shift-D. Right-click then move the new plane to X=5 and Y=3.
8. Attach the edges to the building lot : select the 4 planes you just created, select the building lot then, in the 3D window, hit Ctrl-P and select "Make Parent".
The 4 planes are now attached to the building lot.
9. Lower the terrain : Now you just have to lower the terrain (The building lot must always be on Z=0).
Select the terrain and place it at Z=-0.3.
Hit the F12 key to render the background.
To learn more about modeling with Blender 3D, you can find tutorials at http://www.blender.org/education-help/tutorials/
When your background is ready
Send a zipped folder including the Blender file and the associated textures to joelle@Tirnua.com to be processed by Tirnua.