If you are new to Freecad, switching from other software, etc., you may find you're self in a tricky situation while you are in sketch mode. What I mean by that is the habit we get overtime, while we are in 3D mode and rotate things around.
As in the following image, we can see how the default sketch does look like. "Top" view, of course.
But, as I mentioned, we may accidentally move the mouse, while holding the buttons, and orientation is "lost", so to speak. The reason is, sketch mode, by default, does not have a fixed orientation. Same situation is within other software.
So, if you got your self in the situation as in the image below:
all you have to do is to go to the Sketch menu, and select "View sketch". >> Sketch -> View Sketch
Or, simply click the same icon, which is available on the toolbar.
This method in applying vignette effect isn't quite new. To apply vignette effect, through Video Sequence editor is possible, but for quality reasons, might not be always a good choice.
It might happen, that in using this method, instead of using composer, could give some issues at the end results. But if, on the other hand, project is actually done completely in VSE, than this would be the one option to use, among few others.
I have already used this method, for the very same reason, and that is i could not go back to the Composer. I intentionally tried to do these complete projects inside Sequencer only.
These are the few examples:
The trickery is quite simple:
In the top info bar (editor), in layout dropdown menu, slelect Video Editing Layout.
After layout is opened, within Editor type drop down menu choose UV/Image Editor.
Instead of View mode, choose Mask.
In Sequence Editor, add any image, or, as in the following step, add Color strip, just for the purpose of this tutorial.
Imported image will be immediately shown in the Sequencer preview window.
Next, add the Color strip.
While mouse is over the sequencer, using CTRL+A keys, open Add menu, then choose Color, within Generate list.
We'll notice, that Color strip covers the image bellow.
In UV/Image editor, create click on the New button to create a new mask, and then, press "N" to show Properties side panel, and "T" to show Tool Shelf side panel.
Make sure, by that resolution is set to 100% with in Dimensions dialog. Use a small triangle, in the top_right corner, to add additional window, or editor, to the layout.
If it's set to 50%, instead of 1920:1080 px, it would be 960:540 px.
Use, again, triangle, to remove the Properties window, by dragging and holding triangle to the right, and after Right Arrow appear, release the mouse button.
At this point, simply press "F12", this will bring render, or, content from the sequencer, into UV/Image editor. This helps to achieve precision while making masks.
In UV/Image editor, use "HOME" key, to fit the content, or render, to window. And in the Properties side panel, under Display dialog, set current position to center.
Enter X:960px, and Y:540px.
Cursor is at the Center, as shown.
Next, in the Tool Shelf, click on the Add Circle button. Circle should appear in the center of the image.
Use "S" key to scale the circle.
And use "ALT+S" keys to set the size of the Feather, or, edge softness.
Under Mask Display dialog, check Overlay.
This option will show the mask.
In Sequence editor, under Modifiers tab, from the dropdown menu, select Mask.
Within modifier, activate Maks button, and bring the mask created earlier.
Mask is going to appear in the Sequencer preview window.
But, requires some additional changes.
Back under the Strip tab, in the dropdown menu, select Over Drop.
In the Preview window, content bellow the mask should appear.
Now, for the mask to work is it should, it has to be inverted.
To do that, use the icon, next to the Opacity parameter.
To see the change, click on the Refresh Sequencer button.
It should work.
In the Strip side panel, to adjust the strength of the Vignette effect, adjust Opacity parameter.
That's it.
If you prefer video, to help understand this tutorial, watch the video below:
It's been a while, but finally i'm having a lot of free time to work on these tutorials.
At this point, i'll be focusing more on Blender tutorials, and get back to FreeCad very soon. For some time, already, i was working on a way to animate 2D material, without using 3D space, or Node setups, as those areas can, in a way, slow down the process, for this particular method i was aiming to use. Meaning, this method is video editing, in general, but, method is for more practical when it comes to commercial software products usage. In Blender, video editing does not support such workflow, maybe yet, which could make a lot of things easier, but there is a workaround.
The idea is to, also, avoid usage of addons or plugins, scripts, etc. Meaning, to keep things as they are, and to practically see whats missing, what could be potential contribution to the Blender, which i might add, among these tutorials, as an idea for developers.
Now, about this videos. These five examples, shown below, and in a video, are in general reference for tutorials i'm going to publish in the next period. I'll probably do my best to make them available in short period of time.
When it comes to the workflow, probably, in a standard way, i would use 3D scene to make all of these, as there are available all the tools we need. But, to make things quite faster, it's possible to use only video sequencer editor, even, there's no such tools available. It would take only some trickery to include, and one of those are masks, from the UV/Image editor.
Below are 5 examples made using this method. Video, of these 2D animations, is also provided on Youtube channel.
Along these five 2D animations, few more tricks are available also in this video, which will also be included in tutorials to come.
For now, i decided to add additional Blender tutorials, and cover architectural textures and surfaces, which are too often, or, heavily used in industry. But, with one major change, i won't be using any image textures, instead, all of those materials and textures will be made using procedural method.
Reason for this, is that there will be no need for а large disk space usage, everything is narrowed to a few kilobytes or megabytes, that depends of а scene complexity, but in the same time it will give huge amount of flexibility.
Manipulating the nodes, to the full power, so to speak, needs accurate knowledge on what these nodes are able to do. There are endless possibilities, or variations, of what they can achieve.
Meaning, along with this tutorials, i'll try to cover theory also, and what those possibilities are.
At this moment, there are only four tutorials, (bricks, stucco, concrete and tiles) but will grow in time. Since i'm covering Freecad tutorials also, there will be projects, as well, in texturing Freecad projects in Blender. How to prepare files, do additional work, make corrections on objects, and render.
These tutorials, asd previous, can be found at »TutorialField« YT channel.
Here are 30 FreeCad tutorials, made for a product design learning purposes.
Please note, that, these tutorials are, at the moment, for demonstration purpose!
Website, TutorialField, is still under development, so, all tutorials made untill now, will be in-depth explained. I understand how at the beginning, or at getting started, as with any similar software, can be frustrating with not having any guiding, along with tutorial. In future tutorials, that i will be making, i'll add, as far as can, if not the full guidance, then, at least major explanations, regarding specific product i'm making.
Along with this tutorials, i'll will be covering architectural tutorials, as far as my industrial design field allows me to. How many tutorials will be made, there's no specific number, because, even with this 30 full designing length type tutorials, i'm not even scratching the surface.
One more important thing that i should mention is, do not consider all methods i've used within these tutorials for granted. But use them, rather, only for learning, or, for familiarization purpose. Learning curve is something that gives the answers in time, consequently, we'll get familiar with the correct usage of tools.
This is only the first part, there will be a lot more.
These tutorials can be found at »TutorialField« YT channel.
Most of the these product tutorials, are not fully made products to be produced, but, rather ability of what we can do. Anyone can continue to experiment further, and i'll be happy to see any results made, or even finished products. Still, there's a lot of products to upload, before i go over to the next step, where i'm going to include more elements, regarding quality of tutorials, and what material are in them, from what we all can learn from.
This is another, fairly simple, knife model. If we're going to model a knife, this way, there are just a few steps to consider. The other part, are standards or rules, regarding specific model we must follow.
One more common product on the market.
When i started modeling this hair brush, i thought i'll do it below 10 minutes, it turns out, it's the longest one. But i do want to keep tutorials as shortest possible.
Again, this tutorial is demonstrational, but one that requires narrating. I'll cover those in time. Methods, or, order of steps i used, it might be difficult to understand, but it might also have a logic as modeling progresses throught the video.
In this tutorial, you could find some useful technics to use or learn, or to know about, as in any other tutorial throughout this product design series.
