====== Blender Model Export and UV Texturing ======

  * Here are the steps required for exporting a textured object from [[http://www.blender3d.org|Blender3D]] to Panda3D, you can view these steps in action in the video that has been uploaded into MySchool (under Demos).
    - Configure your Blender 3D environment by "dragging down" the top menu bar to reveal configuration options. You may want to change "Selection" to "Left Mouse Button" and rotation to "Turntable"
    - Select the cube (Left mouse button if you have changed the configuration, Right otherwise)
    - Name the selected object "Box" (press "n" for the "name" box)
    - Switch to Edit Mode (The mode selector currently shows "Object Mode")
    - Switch to Edge Select Mode (Three buttons on the bottom bar of the window: vertex, edges and polys)
    - Multi-select the "seam" Edges of the Box (for a fold-out cube)
    - Mesh->Edges->Mark Seam
    - View->Front
    - View->Orthographic
    - Split main window (RMB on bottom line of window->Split)
    - Select "UV/Image" view for new window
    - Select your object again in the 3D view (press "a" to select the whole object)
    - 3D Window: Mesh->UV Unwrap (you should now see the fold-out texture from the cube appear in the right UV/Image window)
    - Exit Edit Mode (into Object Mode) and then Enter Edit Mode (to "burn in" the change...a bug actually)
    - UV Window: UVs->Scripts->Save UV Face Layout..

  * And now you have a texture which you can edit in your favourite paint program (like GIMP, which is free). Once you're done painting it, you can import it back into Blender like this:

    * UV Window: Image->Open (pick your file here and it is applied to your object)

  * Exporting the object to Panda3D requires that you have the "Chicken Exporter" plug-in, which you can get from the course wiki page (at the bottom). If it is properly installed, simply choose "Chicken" from the File->Export menu.

  * You can now load the model like any other model with loader.loadModel("Box.egg")