Introduction to Visual Effects and Blender

• The History of Visual Effects
• 3D: General Principles
• Downloading, Installing, and Setting Up Blender
• Getting Around 3D
• Making and Rendering Your First Scenes

 Editing Objects

• Basic Principle: Data blocks
• Introduction to Edit Mode
• Separating and Joining Objects
• Object Modifiers
• Converting to Mesh from Curve

 Texturing, Principles, and Practice

• How to Visually Break Down Materials
• Materials, Textures, and How They Get onto Surfaces
• UV Mapping Basics
• Textures in More Depth
• More Complicated Procedural Textures with Nodes
• Material Nodes

 Further Texturing and Rendering in Cycles

• Three-Point Lighting Setup
• Advanced Textures
• Camera Effects and Properties
• Cycles Renderer and Its Settings
• Sculpting and Baking Normal Maps
• Preparation for Sculpting

 Sculpting Detail

• Baking
• Re-topologizing
• Automatic Tessellation and 3D Sketching

 Compositing

• Breakdown of a Scene
• Buildup of a Scene
• Color Correction and Texture Editing
• Sweetening and VFX

 Basic Animation—Camera and Objects

• Concepts of Animation
• Constraints for Automating Animation
• Animated Textures
• Output to Video Files

 Camera Mapping and 2.5D

• Parallax Described and Demonstrated
• 5D Plate Preparation
• 5D When?
• Web and Interactive—2.5D/3D GIF and VR Imagery

 Tracking and Replacement

• Tracking and Replacement Principles
• Tracking—Practical Examples
• Tracking—Addition and Replacement
• Use of Green-Screen (Monochromatic Environment Removal)

 Rigging of Characters

• The Armature
• Bones
• Poses and Keyframes
• Tips for Animation

 Particles and Fluid Mechanics

• Particle Basics
• Setting Up Particle Systems
• Texturing of Particles
• Particles as Hair and Fibers

 Video Editing and Addition of Sound

• Working with Sound/Video Sequence Editor
• Compositor
• Sound Effects

 Rendering and Final Output

• Render Settings
• Rendering using Cycles Render
• Rendering Using EEVEE Render
• Creating Video Output and Saving in Playback Format