Blender beginner question

Hi. I want to know what kind of files can be uploaded into Blender for modeling, texturing, animating, etc. Can I simply save a free jpg, bmp, png file from the web and upload this into Blender for manipulating or, is there some pre-requisite as to the file, file type, etc.? I attempted the aforementioned and I am unable to do anything in Blender with the image file I uploaded. Thank you. =)

 

Blender is for 3d ... you can use images as textures or for reference to modeling. But it is not for manipulating images.

 

You can edit the texture in blender. Switch the view to the UV/Image view.

If you want to put the texture on a model, then you can edit the texture in realtime on the model itself, just by going into "Texture Paint" mode.

But you can't convert a jpeg to a model with blender. That would take different software (and usually a ton of pictures).

 

Thank you. Now I can give you a lil background on my question. I watched a very neat tutorial on character design and, the original file used were two .jpg images. One saved as a frontal view, the other in a side view. Saved they way they were they appeared as just flat (2D) images containing just an X,Y axis. These were the images that were then modeled, rigged, animated. That's what made me "think" I can save any image file type to create it's 3D result. Which, brings me to my next question, can 3D saved external image files be uploaded in Blender for any further 3D manipulation? Thank you. =)

 

You can load images into blender, and use them as a reference by opening the property panel ("N", or choose it from the bottom menu), and then selecting an image for the background. But you have to actually model the 3D mesh, there is no shortcut for that. There are different methods to start out, and some fine one or the other easier. Basically, you can do "box modelling", or "Sculpting". Box modelling, you start out with a box, and then slice it up, and extrude faces, adding more and more detail. Sculpting, you start out with a big giant high poly mesh (that you've basically subdivided a lot), and use "sculpt mode" to carve it up (and add to it).

So basically yes, you can create a 3d mesh in blender (not an image), and save it as an FBX for import into Unity. But it's a lot of work.