Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Preparing an ideal Cycles interface for
material creation
Before starting with the actual organization, it's a good idea to prepare a material cre-
ation screen to be saved in your Blender preferences.
It is possible, in fact, to prepare a basic scene setup including the elements and the
settings we need to do the job in the best way.
In any case, just take this paragraph with a pinch of salt; that is, more as a suggestion
or as a starting point that you can eventually modify to better agree with your needs.
How to do it...
1. Start Blender and in the upper menu (
Engine to use for rendering
button)
switch to
Cycles Render
.
2. Split the 3D view into two horizontal rows: move the mouse cursor onto the
edge of the window; the cursor changes to a double arrow icon, right-click,
and from the context menu select
Split Area
.
3. Change the upper window into a
Node Editor
by selecting the item from
the
Editor type
button in the left-hand corner of the bottom bar.
4. Select the default cube in the scene and press
Tab
to go in edit mode.
5. Press
W
on the keyboard; in the
Specials
pop-up menu select
Subdivide
Smooth
. Do it three times; the cube is now a Spheroid made by 386 ver-
texes.
6. Go out of edit mode and set the cube's
Shading
mode to Smooth using
the
Object Tools
panel on the left.
7. Move the cube two units upward on the
Z
axis (
G
|
Z
|
2
|
Enter
).
8. Being careful that the cursor is still at the center of the scene (if not, press
Shift
+
C
to center it), press
Shift
+
A
|
Mesh
|
Plane
to add a plane.
9. Still with the plane in edit mode, scale it four times bigger.
10. Split the bottom row into two parts, put the mouse cursor in the 3D window
on the right and press
0
in the numpad of the keyboard to go in Camera
view; then press
T
to close the
Object Tools
panel on the left.
The following screenshot shows where we are so far:
