Virtual Realm

Blender 3D and WPF

Sunday, January 18 2009 - xna, blender-3d, wpf

Over on Channel9.msdn.com there is a good series of Video Tutorials being released that take you though the process of Creating a Model in Blender 3D and transferring that into a WPF Application.

The good news for XNA Developers is that the tutorial series goes through the basics of using Blender 3D and creating a simple model, this includes texturing the model. Now I know the series is for WPF in the end, but once you have the model if you export it using the fbx exporter you should be able to use the same model in your XNA Games.

Creating 3D Models for WPF

• Part 1 – Blank paper to blocky outline
• Part 2 – Blocky model to Colourful Model
• Part 3 – Colourful model to Smooth Textures
• Part 4 – Smooth Texture to WPF Application

3D has traditionally been complex and challenging but with the advent of WPF, incorporating 3D into your applications is much more realistic. These 4 videos walk through the process of building a very simple 3D application.
I start by creating a re-usable 3D model of a yoghurt pot in Blender with textured surfaces representing interchangeable product artwork. This model is then imported into a WPF application via Expression Blend. I add some animation and user interaction via the 3D tools library on CodePlex and show how easy it is to switch the imagery to represent different products.
For an idea of what the final application looks like, visit my blog post or click here for the xbap.