DT228 Graphics & Image Processing
Lab 7: Blender Modelling & OpenGL
In this lab we will take a look at modelling 3-D objects in the blender tool, shown in
figure 1 below. In this lab we will model a simple character in blender, export this
model and view it within OpenGL.
Figure 1: A screenshot of a character being modelled in Blender
Task 1: Begin by installing Blender from the website www.blender.org. This will
require Python to be installed also which should be possible.
Task 2: Begin by reading the blender interface and window tutorials available at:

Interface tutorial: http://www.blender.org/education-help/tutorials/tutorialfolder/blender-user-interface-tutorial/

Window tutorial: http://www.blender.org/education-help/tutorials/tutorialfolder/the-blender-windows/
Task 3: There are a selection of fantastic Blender tutorials available at:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro#Learn_to_Model.
You
should follow the first step of the “Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Modeling a Simple
Person” tutorial to create the simple man shown in figure 2.
Figure 2: A simple man modelled in Blender
Task 4: Save your model as a .blend file and export your model as Lightwave .lwo
file. There are a many other choices for export formats, including your own custom
format, but the .lwo format is relatively easy to read into OpenGL.
Task 5: Use the project LightwaveLoaderNet (based on code from Ultimate Game
Programming) to load your model and display it in OpenGL.
The
Ultimate
Game
Programming
tutorial
is
available
at:
http://www.ultimategameprogramming.com/demoDownload.php?category=OpenGL
&page=6)
Task 6: Continue through the rest of the Simple Man tutorials, or try the army jeep!