Blender is an extremely multifunctional open source media toolkit. I say toolkit because it covers so many different facets of digital media production, it can be intimidating to experiment with. Its multifunctional nature can be good and bad. Me? I try to be a glass half full kind of guy, and the fact that this very dense UI is identical across OSes (Mac, Win, Linux), makes the learning curve worth it for me.
I’ve been using Blender software to edit videos taken for use with The Center for Teaching and Learning’s hybrid course curriculum. In my offtime, while I probably should be “getting out more,” I’ve been experimenting with Blender’s 3D animation functionality (admittedly what the software was designed for).
I warn you the following video samples are not pretty, but they are very early experiments with rapid digitization of analog objects, and processing in a 3D space.
Video A: Here we have simple puppet moving in front of a 3D landscape. Not particularly inspiring I know, but it is a start.
Video B : This is an example of what happens when you are lagging through instructions and tutorials, hit too many keys when playing around that you forget what they do, and realize you have to go back and walk through the initial stages.
Video C: Here I have rigged the bones to my paper character and set posed based animation with autopose keyframing and then manually inputted keyframes with a camera view
I plan to build on these attempts to achieve a valid sample for an extended workshop on the video capabilities of Blender (arguably the most professional open source video editor available). My hypothesis is that students across disciplines could find interfacing with a 3D environment helpful for creative purposes, or useful as a gentle introduction to higher-level purposes in fields like medicine, architecture, or engineering.
Here is what Blender is truly capable of:
My main interest, beyond giving students an introduction to a very capable multi-media editing interface, is to at least get to the point where I can create some simple effects to enhance lecture video deliverables. We’ll see how much experimentation time allows…
