Making a Disco Ball using Blender and Inkscape

Awhile back I started doing a few experiments using Blender and Inkscape together. One of my creations from this was a ball.

Blender/Inkscape Sphere (by hellocatfood)

Recently one Inkscape user created a tutorial describing how to make a disco ball directly in Inkscape. Looking back at that ball that I made it kinda resembles a disco ball, so I decided to write a tutorial on how I did it.

This tutorial assumes that you know at least something about Blender and Inkscape. If not, go look at these tutorials for Inkscape and these tutorials for Blender. As with any program, the more you use it, the better you get at it.

We’re going to need three things before we begin. First install Blender. It’s available for Mac, Windows, Linux and probably any other system you can think of. Did I mention that it’s completely free? Next, install the VRM plugin for Blender. This is a free Blender plugin that allows you to export your Blender objects as an SVG (the file format that Inkscape uses by default). I’ve discussed the usefulness of this plugin before. Lastly, install Inkscape, if you don’t have it already. I’ll be using a beta build of 0.47, which should be officially coming out within the next two weeks. If not, just grab a beta build as it’s pretty stable.

Once you’ve installed these programs open up Blender and you’ll see the cube on screen.

The cube is usually the first thing you see.

The cube is usually the first thing you see.

Depending on how best you work you may want to switch to Camera view. You can do this by either clicking on View > Camera or pressing Num0 (the 0 key on the keypad). What we now see is what the camera sees. If you were to export this as a jpg or SVG this is the angle that you’d see it from.

oooh, shiny 3D!

oooh, shiny 3D!

We need remove this cube and add a UVsphere to the screen. Right-click on the cube and press X or Del to delete it.

Bye bye cube!

Bye bye cube!

To add a UVSphere, in the main window press the Spacebar and then go to Add > Mesh > UVSphere.

Add a UVsphere

Add a UVsphere

You’ll now see another dialogue box asking you to specify the rings and segments. This is important as it’ll define how many tiles there are in your disco ball. Think of these options in this way. The segments option is like the segments of an orange and cuts through the sphere vertically. The rings option cuts through it horizontally. These diagrams might explain it better:

Segments go vertically

Segments go vertically

Rings go horizontally

Rings go horizontally

Put the two together...

Put the two together...

The default is for both to be 32, but, if you want more tiles increase the value and if you want less decrease it. Once you’ve chosen press ok and your sphere should be on screen.

UVsphere

UVsphere

You can reposition, rotate or scale your sphere if needed. To reposition it, with the sphere selected (right-click it if it isn’t selected) press the G key. This grabs the object that’s selected and allows you to move it freely. Try moving your mouse about. This can be useful, but we’re working in a 3D environment which…er.. has three dimensions that you can move along. To move it along a set axis you can either left-click the arrows coming out from the sphere or, after pressing the G key, press the key that corresponds to the axis that you want to move it along. For example, if I wanted to move the sphere along the X axis (the red line) I’d press the G key, the the X key. Now, no matter how I move the mouse the movements of the sphere are constrained to the X axis.

Similarly, to rotate the sphere press the R key and to scale it press the S key. The same rules about constraining it to a certain axis can still apply.

You can do things such as repositioning the camera other such trickery but for that you’ll need to learn more about Blender for that.

With your sphere now ready go to Render (at the top of the screen) and then press VRM.

The VRM options window

The VRM options window

I left the options as they are, but if you feel adventurous have a mess around. When you’re ready press the Render button and then choose the place on your computer to save it and what name to give it and finally press Save SVG. You’ll notice the egg timer appears in place of your mouse cursor to let you know that something’s happening but otherwise there’s a handy progress bar at the top of the screen.

Blender Screenshot

Open up the saved object in Inkscape and voila!

It's an SVG Sphere!

It's an SVG Sphere!

That’s the first part of this tutorial done! The next part draws upon some of my own experiments but is also taken from the original tutorial.

When you’ve opened up the sphere you’ll notice that it’s all one object. This is because all of the paths (the tiles) are grouped into one. You can ungroup it if you want but for this tutorial you don’t need to. Give your object a base a fill and stroke colour. You can do this using either the colour palette at the bottom of the screen or the Fill and Stroke dialogue (Object > Fill and Stroke or Ctrl + Shift + F).

Applying fill and stroke colour

Applying fill and stroke colour

The final step of this tutorial from me is the following. With the base colour selected we’re now going to randomise the colours but within that hue. To do this we’re going to use the randomise filter which is located in (in Inkscape 0.47) Extensions > Color > Randomise.

Leave the Hue option unchecked (unless you want a multicoloured sphere) and then press Apply.

Your finished disco ball!

Your finished disco ball!

There is of course more that you can do to make this disco ball look more realistic but take a look at the tutorial that inspired this one and come up with something of your own 😉

Click to download the SVG

Click to download the SVG

Anything you can do I can also do

Recently at my job at any one time there’d be up to four different operating systems in just one room. There’d be Windows XP, which was on most of the computers, Windows Vista, which I used to dual boot, Ubuntu, my OS of choice and Mac OS X. I’d often have chats with one of my collegues about the differences between each operating system, and they’d always proclaim that Mac’s are superior to everything else. When asked why they’re so much better he could never give me an answer.

He’d show me his shiny interface, dock full of cracked Adobe software and impressively pointless window transitions. Then, I’d load up Compiz and do exactly the same. “That’s just copying Mac”, he’d say. So what? Mac weren’t the inventors of modern interface design y’know. I’d then show him the rotating desktop cube and one of the many other Compiz settings available. He was quite impressed and asked me how he could get those effects for his Mac. Wait, your precious Mac doesn’t have these features? What a shame. I paid only £500 for my laptop and can have more ponies amazingly kewl effects.

A few days later we had some visitors and he kept saying that Mac’s are better because they don’t get viruses. What a load of bull. As the popularity of Mac grows so too will the desire for crackers to write malicious code. Also, are Mac’s in a worse position than Windows when it comes to viruses? Mac users have rarely had to worry about viruses, so maybe its users are more inclined to just click on anything. At least Windows users are constantly being reminded of virus threats. This, of course, doesn’t equate to a more secure system but at least it educates users that the moment you put any personal or precious data onto a computer you are at its mercy and should take caution.

Linux will soon be in a similar position. As it yet isn’t big or attractive enough to crackers we’ve yet to see if the collective efforts of 1000s of coders is more effective than Norton, AVG et al.

This post isn’t a jab at Apple either. In fact, if I could afford to I’d probably buy a Mac laptop and just load Ubuntu on to it, not because it’s a better operating system but because, after using all three for awhile I’ve found Linux systems to do what I need it to and offer me a level of customisation to satisfy my needs. Oh, and it’s free. The Mac laptop is just a well designed piece of hardware and I could see why anyone would want that.

I’ve discussed my disliking for Operating System superiority complex on Twitter before. My argument was that all three major operating systems can do what the other can. After some great feedback regarding this I’d like to change that and say that all operating systems can do what the other can, the difference is just how you do it and how much effort is involved.