Setting Up Reference Image in Blender 3D

In this short tutorial, I'll just show you how to set a reference Image in Blender 3D version 2.7
Most tutorial in using reference image for modelling with Blender 3D suggest you to assign the image into the background, which is quite cumbersome since you can't actually rotate or zoom in the 3D View Window without losing your image to mesh alignment. Even, panning the camera will mess your image to mesh alignment.

Most 3D modeller are using the reference images in the 3D space(world) itself, not in the separated background. So, this is why I would like to share how I set the image reference in Blender 3D.

First, of course you will need the image reference itself. For now, I'll just use one I found on CG Cookie site at https://cgcookie.com/max/2012/02/28/exclusive-resource-character-modeling-sheets-krystal/

Next is of course open Blender and add a Plane

Then, edit the plane to make something like this

The next step is to load the image and map the uv so you'll have the right view of the image when viewed from the right angle, that is, you got the front view when viewing the model from front, and the same when viewing from left/right, etc.
Also you might want to add Material into it and make it Shadeless.

Now adjust the model height so you have a good proportion.

There now you have an image reference in 3D view port. The next step is to prepare the 3D object you're going to working on.

Add another 3D object in to the scene.
Now here's the trick, do you notice that the new object is always shaded the way your preference is shaded. That is, when you switch to Wireframe, the reference model will be in Wireframe too. That's not good since you'll might want to view your reference Textured while the object you're working on in Wireframe(so you can always see the reference image while working the object).

Now go to object properties and set the Maximum Draw Type to Wireframe and viola...

Now I believe you can do it yourself from here ;)
Happy modelling...

Cheap Murky Water FX Using Projected Image

When I'm working on my current Unity3D project, Hi:Breed, a smart phone zombie shooter, I decided to add a sewer level, half flooded with murky water. So I tried a couple of standard water FX and found none of them fit the gloomy environment. I only can use the Basic Water Shader since I use Unity3D Basic Version.

The picture to the left is the standard DayLight Simple Shader, obviously not suitable since I don't want the 'water' clips all polygon under it. The middle one is using simple UV shifted transparent mesh, looks much better for me but the water is way too clean, the water should be dirty so I can only see only anything near the surface. Now, the one to the right is the, uh, right one. The submerged part near the surface is still visible, while anything deeper is harder to see.

I've read some article about this 'Murky Water Shader' and almost all of them require the render-to-texture feature, something I can't use in my Basic Version, to sample the depth buffer.

So, I've come with this stupid idea, "Hey, why don't I use this lightning fast standard image projector to fake the volumetric fog for the fake murky water"...

I know a little bit of writing fixed function pipeline shader but I'm too lazy to create the shader from scratch, so I took the standard "Shadow Material" shader and make some small modification

Here is my fake volumetric fog shader

Shader "Projector/Fog" {
  Properties {
        _Color ("Main Color", Color) = (1,1,1,1)      
     _ShadowTex ("Cookie", 2D) = "" { TexGen ObjectLinear }
  }
  Subshader {
     Pass {
        ZWrite off
        Fog { Color (0, 0, 0) }
        Color [_Color]
        ColorMask RGB
        Blend DstColor zero
        SetTexture [_ShadowTex] {
           combine texture, texture
           Matrix [_Projector]
        }
     }
  }
}

And here's the projected 'fog' texture:

And here is the result:

Still looking like a poisonous fog than water for me, something is still missing, the water surface. So, let's add the UV shifted transparent mesh on top of the fog...

And viola... Le Cheap Murky Water FX that works smoothly even on my ArmV6 powered android device