Mastering Drivers in Blender 3D

An introduction explaining the structure of the course and some good things to know.

Understand how Shape Keys can be used to modify the shape of objects and how they can be combined.

Understand what modifiers do and how their order is important.

Understand how armatures can be used as controls and skeletons for your objects.

Understand how Constraints make objects follow certain rules, like where they can go.

Test your knowledge

Learn what drivers actually do and how you add one to your scene.

Learn how to use the Graph Editor to adjust the final output of your drivers.

Learn the different types of drivers, how they work and when to pick which.

Learn how to access properties so you can use values from many places in Blender in our drivers.

Learn what custom properties are and how they are used to give your objects custom settings and values.

Get a look at the finished result of this section.

We create the middle section of the ladder, with the ability to select the number of steps dynamically.

In this part we add controls to be able to modify the shape of the ladder.

We add a top and bottom to the our middle section to get a complete ladder mesh.

We make the ladder obey the floor so it always stands on top of it.

We add the needed controls to our ladder.

Now it is time to make the ladder lean automatically based on where the wall is.

The leaning had some issues that we will deal with in this part.

In the final part, we make sure the entire object is easy to use, even for someone who has never seen it before.

Get a look at the finished result of this section.

We start by creating a simple analog clock out of several different meshes.

Now we make the clock actually run.

Here we add the ability to control the flow of time, like the current time and how fast it should tick.

In this part we add the ability to control the motion of the second hand, jumping from one second to the next or moving smoothly.

We wrap it up by making it more user-firendly, hiding what should not be seen.

Get a look at the finished result of this section.

We start by creating a simple digital clock out of several different meshes.

Now we make the clock actually run.

Here we add the ability to control the flow of time, like the current time and how fast it should tick.

In this part we finish the clock by putting it all in a case.

The clock has an issue with motion blur in its current form and we look at how this can be fixed by redoing the mechanism.

Here we wrap everything up, making it more user friendly.

Get a look at the finished result of this section.

We start by creating the actual domino mesh, the bricks.

Here we make the bricks fall using a clever trick.

In this part we add controls so we can easily adjust the falling of the bricks.

In this part, we will make the beginning of the line of domino work properly.

The ending of the domino is still not working so we will fix it in this part.

In this part, we will wrap everything up.

Get a look at the finished result of this section, the walking spider.

In this part we create single leg that is raised based on the height of the ground.

We will now give the single leg an automatic walking animation whenever it is moved back or forth.

Now it is time to add some controls to the leg so the user can change its walking style, like how long steps it takes and how much it lifts the "foot".

Now we will take the single leg and turn it into eight working legs by duplicating it.

In this part we will improve the way the spider follows the ground by, among other things, making the body as a whole follow the ground as well, not only the feet.

The functionality of the spider is complete, so now it is time to add an actual body, a mesh we can render,

In this part we wrap everything up by improving the object's usability.

Get a look at the finished result of this section.

We create a single domino brick and gives it a falling motion using curves.

In this part we make some changes to the brick so it can be duplicated later on, making the falling motion repeat, among other things.

Now it is time to create an entire section of falling bricks by duplicating our single brick and making them all move forward.

In this part we add the new falling section to simple domino we created earlier, saving us the work of having to redo all of it.

Currently the bricks themselves get deformed by changing the curve, but we can avoid this by changing the way the bricks are displayed.

The bricks at the end of the line should fall differently and the simplest way to accomplish this is to add different bricks for the ending.

Now it is time to actually animate the bricks at the end, making them fall realistically.

We wrap up everything by cleaning up our cluttered scene a bit.

Get a look at the finished result of this section.

In this part we create a simple glass with water that can be leaned in a single direction.

Now it is time to make the leaning work in all directions!

Here we add the functionality of calculating the amount of water, getting a number of much liquid there should be left in the glass.

Now when we know how much liquid there should left, we have to make sure that the surface is at the appropiate height.

In this part we add the ability to change the shape of the glass with the click of a button.

Now we will add a floating panel to make all controls easily available in the viewport.

Now it is time to make the floating controls actually do something!

In this part we wrap everything up, fixing a problem with the resulting animation.

In this introduction you will learn what linking and appending is and the difference between them.

In this part we optimize the ladder for linking and appending.

In this part we optimize the analog clock for linking and appending.

In this part we optimize the digital clock for linking and appending.

In this part we optimize the simple domino for linking and appending.

In this part we optimize the spider in terrain for linking and appending.

In this part we optimize the advanced domino for appending.

In this part we optimize the glass of water for linking and appending.