harkyman.com

"Open source development will mess you up fool!"

My name is Roland Hess. Here is a list of things that I do in no particular order:

• Develop for the Blender open source project
• Write books (here and here, another one coming in 2011)
• Serve as the technical expert for other people’s books (here, here and here)
• Build, configure and run Linux servers
• Develop AJAX-based web applications on the LAMP stack
• Create art, animation
• Plumbing, roofing, electrical, masonry, septic, carpentry
• Try to become a better shot
• Apply my expert knowledge of Photoshop, Illustrator, QuarkXPress and InDesign at work
• Brew and keg my own beer
• Play the organ (all four manuals plus the pedals!)
• Play various other instruments
• Sing (I’ve performed on-field at an NFL game, and sung the National Anthem at a MLB game)

"My dog does not respect you, but I do."

I also graduated from an Ivy League school (Penn). It’s neither here nor there in general, but that really impresses some people. So if you’re one of those people and have lots of cash you want to throw at a Penn grad, call me!

I like to be busy, and if I’m not writing a book at the moment, it means that I need more to do. So, if you have an animation or web development project that needs someone with an artistic eye but an engineering temperament, shoot me a message. You can grab a .PDF of my resume here.

Why “harkyman?” My oldest daughter asserted several years ago that all girls like Barbies and all boys like – what’s that called, dad? Harkyman? She meant to say Pokemon, but I liked “harkyman” better. I still do.

"From time to time, sacrifices have to made."

77 Comments »

77 Responses to “About Me”

1. on 31 Oct 2007 at 2:37 pm1Niels

   I came across this: http://www.blender.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5143&highlight=audio

   I couldn’t find your email-address, I don’t know if it’s still one of your occu’passions’…

   Niels

2. on 01 Mar 2008 at 2:03 pm2Steve

   Missing image on TUT page.
   http://www.harkyman.com/searsbarn01.html

3. on 01 Mar 2008 at 2:49 pm3harkyman

   Thanks. Updated.

4. on 07 May 2008 at 2:19 pm4marcia

   Hi there, Roland. Could you please email me at marcia@modernfeed.com ASAP? We were hoping to use one of your pieces for our company’s website. I’ll explain further privately. Thanks!

5. on 07 Jul 2008 at 7:59 pm57/27 - Short Animation Screenings at Creative TreeHouse

   [...] of Elephants Dream and Big Buck Bunny will start at 5pm and will include a special appearance from Roland Hess who will do a presentation on Blender and talk about Elephants Dream in which he as involved [...]

6. on 04 Sep 2008 at 9:18 pm6Asoc

   Your Link to the BlenderPeople documentation is down.

   http://www.harkyman.com/blenderpeople/blenderpeople.0.8.pdf

7. on 23 Jun 2009 at 4:13 pm7jeff clermont

   Hi, I saw your example in this post: http://www.blender.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6541
   How did you manage to apply softbodies/wind to a skeleton rig ?

   I’m searching like crazy over may forums and didn’t find anything.

   Thank you !

8. on 28 Nov 2009 at 4:55 pm8luana

   Help me I can not do with the attack bp movements with swords and even with whoever attacked drops to the ground. really need your help urgently. In the tutorial I can not do the movements of walking of the dolls .. required desde ja nanamcunha@yahoo.com.br

9. on 25 Jan 2010 at 2:59 pm9kip ross

   Hi Roland,

   I’m new to Blender. I love this program and think it is very generous of the developers to provide it free of charge.
   I recently purchased your book “The Essential Blender”. It is a wealth of wonderful info! I am, however, having a problem. I can’t find certain tabs and controls that you refer to in your book. I have version 249.2.

   Example:pgs 294 and 295 (Particles). I can’t find the “Particles Panel”. Is it called something else now vs. the time of publication of your book?

   Also, I can not find a “Deflection”panel. In the illustration on page 294 it reads “Field and Deflection”. Is Deflection now referred to as “Collision”?

   I’m spending a tremendous amount of time learning this awesome program but find myself spending equally large time blocks looking for panels that may or may not be there or referred to by some other name than a previous version.

   Any wisdom you care to impart, I would be MOST appreciative!

   Thank you for your consideration and fine book!

   Kip Ross

10. on 13 Feb 2010 at 6:11 am10Marc

    Hey Harkyman,
    I’ve just started learning Blender a few weeks ago, with your great book Essential Blender. That book seems to be a good start for a noob like me. The difficult program Blender is very clear explaind by your instructions. I’ve tried to learn Blender before with other documentation, but it didn’t work well for me.
    You are the best. ( I’m doing a wave right now …. )
    You have the knowledge of an old wizard, but you still look 21 !
    My first language is dutch, so I hope this is readable englisch.
    Kind regards, Marc

11. on 23 Apr 2010 at 2:10 pm11kip ross

    Hi Roland, I’ still using your great book! I was hoping to defer to your expertise with a question I have regarding Saving UV face layout. I’ m trying to save a face UV layout so it can be colored in Photoshop. Working with v4.5, I don’t see “Save UV Face Layout” anywhere. I’ve tried contacting a certain Mr. Mullen (the author) but am unable to locate ANY contact info.

    Any advise would be really helpful. Thanks again for the “Essential Blender” book. It’s very educational!!

    Respectfully,

    Kip Ross

12. on 04 Aug 2010 at 8:50 pm12Hannah C.

    Hello,
    i just got your fantastic book, but i have run into a couple of snags with the F-Curves in chapter 3. I have followed the instructions in the right way (at least i think so) but every single time when i return to my graph the Z-Euler rotation curve ends up at a point of about -95…EVERY TIME. All of the other curves match with your example in the book except for the Z-Euler curve. Please, if you can, try to identify my problem and write back.
    Thanks!
    Hannah

13. on 09 Aug 2010 at 4:23 pm13Jakot

    Hi there!
    Recently I got your book “The Essential Guide to Learning Blender 2.6″, but I cant find Blender 2.6. In my system I have 2.5.3 beta (same at blender.org). Im asking because the interface in the book is a little bit different than the book.

    Thanks,

14. on 04 Sep 2010 at 10:37 am14Alen

    In the 3rd chapter on using advanced animation graph, wouldn’t it be easier to achieve the no Y rotation, by simply not setting that Y rotation property on the second keyframe?

15. on 08 Sep 2010 at 12:39 am15Sarah Cain

    Purchased “The Essential Guide to Learning Blender 2.6?, but can’t find 2.6 available anywhere. Can you please tell me what’s going on, and where I can get 2.6? Thanks.

16. on 20 Sep 2010 at 9:27 pm16Wayne

    Harkyman you live large and are very interesting, but my question is about the link to your Massive type program. Followed to GraphicAll to a dead link. Is it still available? Thanks.

17. on 21 Sep 2010 at 8:32 am17Roland

    Hmm… Make sure you’re on the BP page linked from the tab at the top of *this* page. Not sure if the old page even works anymore. Anyway, in the “System Requirements” section at the bottom, I’ve just clicked through the link and downloaded the special 2.42a build from graphicall with no problem.

18. on 30 Sep 2010 at 9:03 pm18Kevin McCoy

    Hi Roland –

    I picked up your book “Blender Foundations”, really glad I did! I have a well worn copy of “The Essential Blender” but was looking for technique over tools – as a real bonus I was surprised at how Blender is changing (I was using the latest release, I would have been a bit shell-shocked if I switched to 2.53 without this book).

    I’ve found a few problems with the http://www.blenderfoundations.com site though, a few href’s for the blend files have a typo (chapater instead of chapter) so the links don’t work (unless manually corrected in the browser).

    It’s also the first site I’ve seen where the blue blocks that look like buttons aren’t but the text does expand the content, which is about my skill level in CSS to be honest

    A special thanks for the tips and techniques in the book (as well as the files), I’ve been messing with 3D for about 10 years since accidentally discovering it at a trade show for my real job (boring business application programming), only since reading “Fundamentals” and “Blender Foundations” do I feel like I can do the cool stuff I want to do!

    Regards,
    Kevin McCoy

19. on 22 Oct 2010 at 6:40 pm19Jim

    In studying I discovered a minor stylistic issue with your prose. If I were to correct that with an edit, would you rather I consult you first to avoid fooling with your unique voice? Or should I just jump in?

    Regarding the web site I listed for myself; it has nothing to do with graphics of any kind. Rather, it’s just my thoughts on theological and philosophical topics.

20. on 03 Nov 2010 at 4:25 pm20Robert

    I have downloaded Blender 2.54 and bought “The Essential Guide to Learning Blender 2.6. I am enthousiast and I am beginning Chapter 6.
    I have downloaded the base_head.blend. But I cannot find the background image « 06.24 front.png» as shown at page 131.
    HELP! Where can I find that?
    Robert

21. on 08 Nov 2010 at 9:50 am21Randy Noseworthy

    Ahh. I meant to get to your site 2 years ago, er, 3 years ago after the 2007 Linux Fest. Better late then never?

22. on 08 Nov 2010 at 9:52 am22Randy Noseworthy

    Oh yea, nothing on facebook, twitter, or identi.ca for you? – Maybe that’s why you have the time to write books?

23. on 21 Nov 2010 at 7:59 pm23Neil Wells

    I just purchased “Blender Foundations” from a local bookstore chain. Unfortunately my computer has died so i have not had the chance to actually do any of the excersices in it, but just reading through it ive already learned some things i didnt know previously. This book is awesome, and i recommend it to anybody unsure if they should pick it up, especially if youre newer to blender like i am (only been using blender seriously for about 2 or 3 months now). Thank you for this book Roland!

24. on 28 Apr 2011 at 3:07 pm24soulofsound

    Any progress regarding this superb technique? http://www.blender.org/forum/viewtopic.php?highlight=&t=6541

    I’m about to start creating animated tree in Blender, that should look really good. But it would be nice if your technique had somehow advanced during those 5 years. Thanks.

25. on 28 Apr 2011 at 4:48 pm25soulofsound

    something advanced as this in Blender would be heaven :
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28ZOMiPdY30&feature=related

26. on 28 Apr 2011 at 11:02 pm26Ashlee Hines

    Hi I bought your book Blender foundations : The essential guide to learning blender 2.6… I cant seem to download or find blender 2.6. Also I try to download the new version and it doesn’t start up after the download. Do you know a way to help me. I have a 64 bit.
    Thank you for your time,
    -Ashlee Hines

27. on 16 May 2011 at 9:38 am27Anonymous

    The windows compile for blender people is gone again. You will probably need to re-upload it for the new graphicall.org site.

28. on 19 May 2011 at 11:39 am28Nick

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAARrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
    How do you get the chair back to merge properly in chapter 4 of Blender foundations!
    I have spent hours on it and keep getting an x shaped merge, tried everything! Scrutinised the web bucket images from every angle and can’t see where I’m going wrong.
    sob
    Nick

29. on 21 May 2011 at 6:05 pm29anonymous

    Someone, What? Who said that? When i told her that your dog doesn’t respect me. Why doesn’t piper respect me?

30. on 21 May 2011 at 6:07 pm30anonymous

    sorry, there should be “got all like” after Someone before the comma

31. on 21 May 2011 at 6:09 pm31anonymous

    wow i really messed up when i said after Someone i meant in the first sentence of comment 29.

32. on 26 Jun 2011 at 2:20 pm32dacres

    will you update this book as new versions of blender come out … you know, up to 2.6, like the book is titled? Kindle allows errata and updates to books.

33. on 27 Jun 2011 at 7:26 am33James Playfair

    G’day Roland (that’s Australian for “Hi, Roland”),

    Just bought your latest book (Kindle on lap right now), only 20 pages into it and I’m already enjoying it (yes, I agree that chocolate is an important ingredient in all puddings).

    I presume by AJAX-based web applications you mean JQuery? I recently went against our department policy and wrote a LAMP/JQuery application and it totally kicked @$$ over the “DOT NOT” stuff I’d previously been forced to work in. (this is an irrelevant sidetrack – but I never miss a chance to dis Microsoft on a public forum).

    Anyhow, keep up the great work!!!
    James

34. on 23 Jul 2011 at 6:11 pm34displaced

    I bought your essential guide to blender 2.6 about 4 months ago.
    Since then, I’ve been rethinking the manual that I’ve been using in class. I teach blender in a small private school in Atlanta and I’ve been amazed at how easy it is for my students to learn this program considering the learning curve that is Maya and 3D Studio. My hope is that one day I’ll have a student who goes into 3D animation for a living. Having said that. the manual that I’ve been using is the blender basics book freely available online at the Central Dauphin School District website. I like the way he teaches but I’m comparing the way you present the information and the order of subject compared to the one in this manual. I like yours better. he doesn’t cover lighting much, if at all and barely explains texturing or surfacing as you call it.
    These are two very important subjects from my point of view. he also doesn’t explain anything about the animation part of this program until chapter 9 where as it’s discussed in chapter 3, in your book. This is much sooner in the learning cycle and leaves the student with the basic knowledge needed to understand much more advanced subjects sooner in my honest opinion. Your information on lighting is amazing, not only explaining each light and why to use it. You also explain the limitations of each light and what NOT to use it for. I love the fact that you actually build, and light the scene before actually surfacing anything. This gives a much more realistic scene in the end. you explain surfacing in a much more comprehensive way and explain several different techniques to make it work. You explain how you use each technique and why.
    I hate to say this but I personally prefer your method of disseminating information over his even though his style is much more aligned for teaching in a classroom environment. Having said all of this, would you mind if I used the information in your book to rebuild his manual using some of your information and his style of classroom teaching? This would not be given out or used outside of my classroom unless otherwise ok’d.

35. on 01 Oct 2011 at 5:12 am35Columbus Code Camp

    You should come do a talk!

36. on 24 Oct 2011 at 6:11 pm36anonymous

    I love LOLZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    I live the ceiling cat too.

37. on 11 Jan 2012 at 4:07 pm37Christina

    Hi Roland, am enjoying Tradigital Blender. In the chapter 5 files both blends appear to be the scene file rather than one being walking.blend. No biggie but there doesn’t seem to be any simple way to report an error.

38. on 14 Mar 2012 at 6:34 pm38Stephen

    HELP!! Blender Foundations, Chapter 4, pg 88. I’m using v2.62 (Mac) and have been inching through the book project. Hit a wall with the “Manipulating Object Centers Only” button. You say it is available in both object and edit modes, but I only get it in object mode and — since I’m new to all this — have no idea what to do with it there. It seems the directions for spreading the chair legs using scale are meant to be done in edit mode. I don’t know enough to figure out a work around.

    Interestingly I note on your site that there is already some errata referred to on page 88. That stuff I don’t see at all. This seems to be something else. I looked at your Yahoo page screenshots and they do show that button visible in edit mode. So I’m stumped. If you could email a suggestion, I’d be grateful as I’m really getting into doing this. Thanks.

39. on 19 Mar 2012 at 2:54 am39Ajit Chiplunkar

    John,

    My name is Ajit Chiplunkar and I am the director of Training & Development at 3D-Upside-Down studio / Artist Exchange International, here in Mumbai, India.

    As a content producer for small and medium size production companies in the US, Australia, and France, 3D Upside Down is a pioneer in open source 3D production in India. However, 3DU’s growth has been significantly constrained by the lack of suitable artists. Artist Exchange International was therefore conceived with the goal of establishing India’s first open source training facility to not only satisfy our need for open source artists, but also the massive perceived demand of the coming years. We are looking for a Blender trainer, who would design the courses and conduct batches at this training facility. He should be available in India for at least 6 months.

    After researching your credentials we believe that you would be a valuable resource to our organization, especially in its inaugural year. The fact that you are a Blender Certified Trainer would lend significant credibility to the courses. Though, we are not a large organization backed with significant investment, we do stand to offer you an incredible experience: living and working in the financial and cultural capital of India – Mumbai. And a significant opportunity: being part of the first of its kind open source training facility in the sub continent. The courses would be structured in such a way that you would have ample time to explore the city and the country – we would manage the logistics involved like accommodation, visas, etc.
    We look forward to hearing your ideas. When would be a good time to have a skype video chat?

40. on 27 Mar 2012 at 1:07 am40Ajit Chiplunkar

    Hi Roland,

    I would love to see you come here in Mumbai, India and help us setting India’s first open source training facility. Could you make yourself available for a couple of months starting April / May 2012?

    To discuss further, i’m available on Skype (uc_ajit).

41. on 21 Jun 2012 at 12:50 pm41Pete Robie

    I just purchased the E-Book version of Blender Production and noticed that there is an issue getting to the online archive site where there is just a timeout that occurs.

42. on 25 Jul 2012 at 2:37 pm42Svcam04

    Just ordered the Blender Production book. Can’t wait. Loved the Foundations book. Expect the same with this book.

43. on 06 Sep 2012 at 6:41 pm43Bryan

    Roland,

    I am working through your Blender foundations book. In the box modeling a chair tutorial in the very beginning it says after you subdivide the cube to raise the “Preview level” from the Modifier panel. Where is this “Preview level” I found “View” but that only turns the cube further into a ball and has no resemblence to the shape we are supposed to be working with.

44. on 27 Nov 2012 at 2:47 pm44TDenton

    I am using Blender Foundations: The Essential Guide to learning Blender 2.6 in my animation class. I was wondering if you or anyone had created any chapter questions or exams. I don’t like to remake the wheel unless it is absolutely necessary so I thought I’d search and post a few inquiries before creating my own tests.

45. on 29 May 2013 at 1:33 pm45Anonymous

    Hello. Can you please email me? Im wanting to learn how to create cg 3d graphics and animation and i ran across the blender site. I am beginner with this and would be learning from scratch. Do you teach or know of anyone who does?

46. on 03 Jun 2013 at 6:55 pm46John

    Hello

    I’m trying to run your blenderpeople.0.8.blend script using B3D v2.67 – on line 759 for– there is a syntax error, I tried to fix, but not -100% familiar with Python syntax. Can you help? Thank for the script by the way…

    newType = ActorQueries.newType()
    if newType -1:

47. on 31 Aug 2013 at 5:15 pm47Anonymous

    Hola, y gracias. Gracias por tu libro, yo ya llevaba usando Blender algo mas de un año y creia que sabia suficiente ( nunca se puede saber todo ) cuando vi tu libro en una libreria al principio dude de comprarlo, creia que no me serviria para nada, ( menos mal que al final lo hice y lo compre ) pero me equivoque, no solo me ayudo a afianzar lo que ya sabia sino que ademas me enseño algunos truquillos, y cosas que no sabia, actualmente sigo usando Blender y es una herramienta maravillosa en mi humilde opinion. Si te doy las gracias es por que te las mereces. Por cierto yo aprendi a usar Blender de manera autodidacta ( a base de ensallo y error ). Puede parecer ridiculo con la multiples paginas que hay por ahi de tutoriales, pero no hay forma mejor de aprender. Como dices tù en alguna parte de tu libro, experimenta, prueba y disfrute de Blender. De nuevo, gracias Roland.

48. on 12 May 2014 at 4:46 pm48Michael Beaird

    Hi I recently purchased your book Blender Foundations The Essential Guide to learning Blender 2.6.

    You reference the Blender foundation Web Bucket. I can not find this URL. I would like to download the code that goes with this book.

49. on 15 Jun 2014 at 11:07 pm49mzsade

    This is my second shot at Blender, nothing beats your Essential Blender wiki doc2.4, IMHO, to get started with. That is why i have two versions of Blender running on my PC; 2.49b and 2.69. Please update that wiki for v2.6 too.

50. on 14 Sep 2014 at 4:48 pm50Svint

    Hey there i am a beginner with blender and I know that blenderpeople is something you have retired from. I was wondering how much of a trouble it was to connect to a mysql database for you. For me it is quite a challenge. I have been looking for working examples all over the place for something that posts and retrieves data from mysql. There are no tutorials that I have seen (Google/youtube/blenderartists). Did you have to program all of it yourself?

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