This is the second part in my Blender tutorial series. The series index is here.

So, on to the fun part: 3d modeling! 3d modeling is of course a massive subject. I’m not going to try to teach it, since I’m really not an expert or even particularly skilled. I’m going to teach you the basic tools you need to make low-poly models in Blender.

What to make?

I’ve drawn up a turnaround of the character I’m planning to model. It’s pretty simple, inspired by Phantom Hourglass because I love it so. Let’s call him Farmer Joe for now.

Click here to download the turnaround.
It’s important the the turnaround images are the same dimensions. You can either download mine, make your own or ignore turnarounds completely (to be honest, I generally do for low-poly work)!
Now, open up Blender and let’s get going!Interacting

First off, the real basics. Here’s a simple rule to remember when using Blender:

• Left mouse button interacts with objects and uses tools.
• Right mouse button selects objects.
• Middle mouse button controls the view.
  • Unmodified Middle mouse rotates camera.
  • Shift + Middle mouse pans.
  • Control + Middle mouse zooms.

There’s some irritating exceptions to this rule (notably the lasso selection, which is operated with the left mouse button), but mostly it holds true, and makes a fast interface.

Setting up the turnaround

If you plan to keep just a single 3d view screen in Blender, prepare to be irritated if you’re using a turnaround for a background image: Blender doesn’t differentiate between front/side/top views when displaying the background image. Instead, you will be best off creating a few different views. Here’s what I’ve got set up:

To get this setup, just right-click on the indented border between the 3d view and select Split Area. Drop the line where you want to make the split. Right click on the new border and select Join Area to reverse this.

To set the new views to front and side, click the View menu at the bottom of the 3d views and select Front, Side or User.

To set the background images on the Front & Side views, first save the blender file in the same location as your turnaround images. Hit control-W (yeh, I know) to save the file. Then go View->Background Image… in the 3d view you want the background image to appear on. Click the little folder and find the image using Blender’s irritatingly bare-bones file browser and you should be good to go. Do the same for the other front/side view.

You can also set your Side & Front views to wireframe for easy background image inspection by using this button:

Let’s go!

Okay, okay for real now! Something fun!

On any of your 3d views, click the big old button that says Object Mode and select Edit Mode. You’ll see all the buttons in the panel below the 3d views change. Now they’re relevant to the nitty-gritty of modeling. There are some useful tools to be found here:

Ultimately though, to use Blender you’re gonna be learning a whole lot of shortcut keys. But first Subdivide the cube to get started. Do so once, then move your cube onto Farmer Joe’s head, using the handles. Okay, now let’s begin! Here are some keys:

• S key scales objects
• G key moves objects
• R key rotates

These three functions can be modified by (once you’ve pressed S, G or R) by pressing Z, X or Y keys to limit movement in only that axis.

Left mouse button will finish the transform once you’re done and the right mouse button will cancel.

Scale up the cube to fit Farmer Joe’s head.

Now, some more controls:

• Control + Left mouse lasso selects vertices
• Control + Shift + Left mouse lasso de-selects vertices
• but… Right mouse button selects/de-selects individual vertices!

I’m assuming you have some basic knowledge of 3d modeling. Vertices are the little points at the ends of the lines in your cube. Move them into a head shape!

You can also download the file from today’s lesson here (you’ll need the turnaround images in the same folder to see them in the blender file).

Next up:

More of the same!

Filed under: 3d, blender, software, tutorials by isaac on Dec 10, 17:54