Blender Guide to 3D aircraft modeling, third edition

[Tango Mike]

(All credit for this topic goes to wjaworski)

// EDIT 2014-09-12: Two first volumes of 3rd edition (for Blender 2.7) are ready! They are available in the three most popular e-book formats: PDF, EPUB (3.0), MOBI (KF8). This new edition looks best on iPad (in its free iBooks application), Kindle Fire HD is the second choice. See more in post #24.

// EDIT 2013-11-10: I have published the last volume of this guide. The complete book counts 1305 pages and contains about 4000 pictures. It uses exclusively the Open Source tools: Blender, GIMP and Inkscape.

2013-11-09-small.jpg (54.05 KiB) Viewed 37204 times

// EDIT 2013-02-19: yesterday I have also published the Excerpt II:Modeling, thus updated the pictures and text in this post:

Following the development of the software used in the first edition of my guide, I am writing the second edition of this book. (As you can see on the subtitles in the images above, it uses exclusively the Open Source tools). I will note in this thread the milestones of its progress - the last one is expected on July 2013. /EDIT: finished in November 2013

So far I have finished two of the four planned volumes (excerpts):

1. finished: blueprint preparation and verification;
2. finished: mesh modeling;
3. finished: creating materials and textures (it uses the new Blender Cycles unbiased renderer);
4. finished: detailing and rendering (includes a new section about postprocessing)

This book has to introduce a newcomer into the 3D world, and teach him (her?) how to create a realistic model of an historical airplane. Thus it starts with the basics, but finally brings the Reader onto the higher skill level.

This guide is published in two languages: Polish and English. The English version is a paid book, while its Polish counterpart is free (CC-licensed). "Virtual Airplane" content looks like a semi-comic book, thus the Polish version may be usable to some extent for all. (Use the table of contents from the English version preview, to get an idea of its structure). These files are available on the web page of this project:

http://airplanes3d.net/wm-000_e.xml

This way you have an unique possibility to skim the whole book, and decide whether you need to buy its English translation!

All English books are available on lulu.com (it is a self-publishing site)

P.S.
This is a preliminary cover. The final book will receive a new one, with the picture rendered in Cycles (in progress ...).

[kevjon]

For blender users a great resource, packed full of great information for creating accurate aircraft models.