Tony Mullen (bugman

Tony Mullen: a Blender Superhero

By day, he walks the halls of Tsuda college in Tokyo where he lectures and teaches not only modeling and animation classes with Blender 3D, but also programing in python.

But when his secret blender decoder ring starts blinking, he dons his Blender superhero cape and uses his years of experience in modeling & animation to educate the Blender community.

Then in the odd moment or two when he isn't answering 101 questions from the blender community at large, he wanders off and uses his years as an independent filmmaker, writer and animator with experience in both CG animation and stop-motion to write a book or two. Which then becomes part of the ever growing Blender Movement.

A natural teacher

I have known Tony for years, although it wasn't until the last year or two that I realized his name was Tony, because of course I knew him as bugman_2000, the tireless blender guru who wandered the forums answering any and all questions.

I always admired his willingness to answer so many questions. Personally, I have done my share of answering questions and I hate to say it, but you get burned out after a while. But with Tony, it didn't really seem to matter to him whether it was a new user who asked a question that had been asked and answered hundreds of times or a long time user who ran into a problem with their latest project. He always answered each and every question in the same patient manner.

Later when I learned that he taught and lectured at the college level, his patient manner made perfect sense. He is of course a Natural teacher.

The Must Have Book for Character Animation in Blender!

An in-depth professional book that guides you through modeling, rigging and animating a character in Blender.

Introducing Character Animation with Blender

by: Tony Mullen

Character animation can be confusing and frustrating for beginners, one reason why I waited so long to learn about it. Lucky for me about the same time I wanted to learn, Tony released this excellent book, explaining how to over come all the pitfalls and typical beginner mistakes.

This is a definite "must have" book for all blender animators.

Just look what he started

I don't think Tony realized the impact his first book would have on the community. For years blender users had come to rely on his extensive knowledge of blender and 3d art/animation, so when he announced that he was working on the first blender animation book, the community went ballistic with anticipation.

I remember how impatiently we all waited for it to be finished and how excited we all were to finally get our very own copies.

Captain Blender Videos

inspired by "Introducing Character Animation with Blender"

Tony's book, "Introducing Character Animation with Blender", has inspired a great many blender users to try their hand at character animation. Here are just a few of the resulting animations starring "Captain Blender" (the character that Tony shows you how to model and animate in "Introducing Character Animation with Blender").

if you have created a video or animation of Captain Blender, feel free to add it here and let the world see what Tony has taught you.

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Introducing Captain Blender

Captain Blender, a 3d character model, is the main star of Tony's book, "Introducing Character Animation with Blender". He is a big buff super hero, complete with orange tights and blue shorts.

To me he looks just a tad bit arrogant and condescending. But that could just be the way I modeled him. :P

Once you have completed the section on how to model your own Captain Blender (or you can just grab the supplied copy of him off the disc), he becomes your practice character for rest of the lessons in the book.

Where you will be learning all about rigging and animation of characters.

This is how my Captain Blender turned out. (see I can too follow instructions :P )

Building my own Captain blender

I normally avoid modeling humanoid characters. They can be very difficult to get right, and as humans, we notice mistakes in human 3d models more than we would in say an animal character. So quite honestly, I really wasn't looking forward to modeling a human character.

I know I could have just skipped past the modeling and used the model supplied on the included disc to complete the lessons, but I enjoy (okay I am somewhat obsessive about) making my own models.

And I am so glad I actually did model my own Captain Blender. Tony did a great job of breaking down the character modeling steps, making it rather easy to end up with a cool practice character. I learned a lot of new tricks and techniques I hadn't been aware of as well as ending up with a fun character model that I could use for tests and fun little animation projects.

Watch him move

For me, the high point of Tony's book was actually getting the rigging of his armature (the skeleton that helps him move) finished and then being able to see him move. I will be the first to admit, rigging can be a very time consuming and seriously frustrating task. One little thing set up wrong can prevent the entire rig from behaving.

But luckily for me (and most likely many others), Tony is very good at explaining a very complicated task like rigging.

And once it is built, it is beyond cool to watch your character move.

Captain Blender sitings

Introducing Character Animation with Blender 2.5 | max 3d models: Product DescriptionLet depth professional book be your guide to Blender, the powerful alternative to expensive CG packages such as Maya and 3ds max. With.
Introducing Character Animation with Blender Has Hit the Shelves ...: This article was submitted by Tony Mullen Hello Blenderers, It's been quite a wait, but at last Introducing Character Animation with Blender has hit the.
Introducing Character Animation with Blender 2.5 (Paperback) |: Let this in-depth professional book be your guide to Blender, the powerful alternative to expensive CG packages like Maya and 3ds Max. Using clear.

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Tony Mullen Videos

check out some of Tony's work

Bounce, Tumble and Splash Preview (Blender Physical Effects)

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Any suggestions for other people that would like to write a book such as yours?

(question from a recent interview in Blenderart Magazine [issue #17])

My suggestion would be to identify a need and fill that. For me, I was motivated to write the book originally because of my own frustration at not being able to *buy* the kinds of Blender books I wanted. If they had already existed it would have never occurred to me to throw my hat into the ring. At this point, there are still a lot of areas and applications of Blender that haven't been dealt with thoroughly in book form. The greatest benefit to the community (and the greatest chance of selling books!) comes if you can contribute something that people can't find elsewhere. Of course, the field of Blender books is filling up. There are now four Blender books in print in English that I know of, with at least 3 more that I know of on the way, so if you really want to write a book, the big challenge now is to find an original angle.

In other words, don't write a book such as mine, because there already is one!

Tony's 2nd Book: 'Bounce, Tumble, and Splash!

that's right, Tony wrote another amazing Blender book!

Obviously the Blender community wasn't keeping Tony busy enough, because he found time to sneak off and write another comprehensive book about Blender 3D.

This time around, he takes the mystery out of all the cool physics and dynamics tools, including simulations for soft body, fluid, rigid body, and rag doll dynamics. He teaches the skills needed to create stormy seas, flowing hair, or fiery flames with the sophisticated coverage of advanced Blender features included in this beautiful, full-color guide.

Bounce, Tumble, and Splash!: Simulating the Physical World with Blender 3D

by: Tony Mullen

Featuring:

Tony Mullen "Tony"'s Amazon Blog

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Any plans to write a new book about Blender? What would that be ?

(question from a recent interview in Blenderart Magazine [issue #17])

I guess this is as good a time and place as any to announce my next book, which will be "Mastering Blender" and will be part of Sybex's "Mastering" series (just as "Introducing Character Animation with Blender" was part of their "Introducing" series).

This book will be the most advanced Blender book yet. A large portion of it will be about ordinary Blender functionality, but focusing on features and functionality that are new or have not yet been described in depth in other books. Another significant portion of the book(probably about 4 chapters worth) will be devoted to Python scripting for Blender and all its variations (PyDrivers, PyNodes, PyConstraints, scriptlinks, etc), with the aim of getting newbies and non-programmers up-to-speed with scripting in Python. There will also be a significant section on the game engine, including using Python in the game engine.

It's a little early to say with complete certainty, but I also hope to have some material contributed by some other authors, who are well-known experts in the Blender community. I hope that their contributions will help to make this book especially valuable for people who want to push the envelope of their Blender skills.

Mastering Blender by Tony Mullen

Tony's next book on Blender

Mastering Blender is part of Sybex's "Mastering" series, and as such takes an in-depth, fairly advanced look at its subject. Mastering Blender is geared to intermediate and advanced Blender users who really want to get the most out of Blender.

It is divided up into three parts. The first part deals with miscellaneous general Blender 3D topics such as using multiple UV mappings and baking to create seamless photographic textures, sculpt and retopo workflow, using the nodes system to do green screen matte pulling and live-action video compositing, and editing video with the VSE, among other topics.

The second part of the book deals with Python scripting for Blender. This part begins with a simple introduction to Python itself which is suitable for people who have never done any programming at all (the book is geared to experienced Blender users, not programmers).

The next chapters go deeper into Python scripting specifically in the Blender environment, and cover all major Python-Blender functionality. The last part of the book deals with the game engine, and spans three chapters that take you from creating assets for the game engine through a complete overview of working with logic blocks all the way to using Python in the game engine.

Mastering Blender is now available

Blender, the free alternative for professional-quality 3D animation is a complex program to learn, but once users become familiar with its power, they begin to seek more from it. This book is the first of its kind to explore the more advanced features of Blender so that you can get the most out of the software. You'll take your Blender skills to a whole new level with the featured in-depth coverage of intricate uses for Blender's modeling, texturing, animation, and visual effects tools in a professional environment.