Blender Overview: Module 1

Interface & Basic Modeling

SEPT 2014 (v1.0)

• A questionnaire will be handed out at the end of the course. Completion will give you access to download future cheat sheets of this module, which will be expanded as the course evolves.• This is an evolving course that will eventually become a pay course

as it is refined and info is accrued to give quality instruction on the Blender tool. A series of courses will be designed based on 3D Printing, Animation, Designing for Gaming, etc.• This Module will get you up and running in Blender so that you can

start doing basic modeling and shading for 3D Printing and Rendering. Rendering can be incorporated with photography and concept design.

A Few Notes About this Course

• Why Blender?

“Blender is a free and open source 3D animation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video editing and game creation. Advanced users employ Blender’s API for Python scripting to customize the application and write specialized tools; often these are included in Blender’s future releases. Blender is well suited to individuals and small studios who benefit from its unified pipeline and responsive development process. Examples from many Blender-based projects are available in the showcase.”*

• Blender will enable you to create 3D models for 3D Printing, concept renders, composite photography, game design, animation for movies, prototyping for product design, physical simulations, and many other uses. Although it is perceived as more of a hobbyist grade 3D tool due to its Open Source roots, it is very capable and many artists have utilized it to create many standout projects.

*From http://www.blender.org/about/

Why Blender?

Topics Covered• Blender Interface• Panels

• Editing • Info • Outline• Properties

• Basic Navigation• Object Manipulation• Basic Modeling

Topics Covered

ReferencesResourceshttp://www.blender.org

Tutorialshttp://cgcookie.com/blender/cgc-courses/blender-basics-introduction-for-beginners/

Inspirationhttp://www.artstation.com/

Blender Interface

Editing Info

tShow /hide menu

nShow /hide menu

Outliner

Navigation

Properties

Blender Interface - Outliner

Click object to select in 3D View.All 3 buttons are toggle, so they hide and unhide an object.

When you select Cube in the Outliner window it highlights in the 3D View window w/ orange border

The “eye” button hides the object in the 3D Window View

The “arrow” button prevents an object from being selected

The “camera” button hides the object from rendering in a scene

Basic Object control

Transform handle (g-grab)Moves object along 1 of 3 axesRed= X-axisGreen= Y-axisBlue = Z-axis

Rotation handle (r – rotate)Rotates object along 1 of 3 axes. Red= X-axisGreen= Y-axisBlue = Z-axis

Scale handle (s – scale)Scales object along 1 of 3 axes. Red= X-axisGreen= Y-axisBlue = Z-axis

• To change units to something like mm, go to scene tab and select Metric.

A scale of ‘1’ in Metric equals 1 meter(M). To convert to mm as default, need to set scale to ‘0.001’ as illustrated above.

Units and Scale

• To scale up or down in Metric mode (mm) use the scale window in Transform (N). In this case, a 10.0 scale is equivalent to 1 cm.

• When you are done scaling and everything looks right, Apply Scale. This will resize the figure to what the actual scale is. Without apply scale, it is still the same size as it was before. This is especially important for exporting for 3D Printing.

Selection Options in Blender (Edit Mode)

Box selectionselects vertices based on click & drag box

b

Box Select – click, drag, release to create selection box. Mostly good in vertex mode.

Box Select – a selection box was made around top vertex row.

a Select/De-select All selects vertices based on click & drag box

cCircular SelectThis selection allows you to select vertices, edges, & faces based on a circle that can enlarge or shrink using the middle mouse scroll wheel.

Circle Select – It’s like selecting but with an adjustable size area. Good for coarse/fine selection of an area. Good for detail work.

Circle Select – The LMB is used to actually select the vertices and the circle is the capture area. Use the scroll wheel to adjust the circle size.

Selection Options in Blender (Edit Mode)

This will select individual vertices, edges, or faces

RMB

Alt

Loop Edge SelectThis is a really handy selection for editing and saves lots of time. RMB select in either vertice or edge mode on an edge of a loop while pressing the Alt key and you will select the whole loop edge as long as the mesh is continuous.

vertice edge face

RMB+

Select & Join Multiple Objects into 1 mesh

1. Shift + Select the objects you want to combine into one object.

2. Once all objects are selected, press ctrl+j. Then all selected objects will become one object.

Select whole connected mesh by selecting 1 vertice (multiple mesh/1 obj)

• Select vertice on mesh. Then press ctrl+L

Align a group of vertices on a straight line

• Select vertices you want to align. Then press s, then the axis you want to align to (x,y,z), then 0 to align all vertices on a straight line.

Loop Cut: ctrl + r

Radius Circle Select: c button

Select & Join Commands and Methods

Center Origin Point1. Go to Object Mode2. ObjectTransformOrigin to

Geometry (shift+ctrl+alt+c)

Centering

Origin Point before Origin Point after

• NOTE – If making walls or complex shape, better to plan shape or walls first, then extrude it up.

• N key: Right Hand transform menu hide/show that has all object details. • File User Preferences Input Select with: Change to left to select object w/ LMB.

(Don’t forget to save user settings)• Alt F: Centers View to cursor.• Ctrl+Home: Centers Window View.• Tab: Switch between Edit + Object Mode• Alt+S: Scale by Normal • Shift+A: Brings up Mesh Create GUI• F6: Brings up Operator panel

• 2 Do: Tutorial on creating 3D text.

General Notes

Basic Modeling

Alt+RMB to loop select center loop edge

Next press ‘s’ to scale the middle in about 20% or so.

Press Ctrl+b to enable bevel, and set segments to ‘5’

Now select the top edge of the bottle using Alt+RMB

Press Ctrl+b to enable bevel, and set segments to ‘5’ again.

Modeling a Bottle (contd)

Alt+RMB to loop select center loop edge

Next press ‘s’ to scale the middle in about 20% or so.

Press Ctrl+b to enable bevel, and set segments to ‘5’

Now select the top edge of the bottle using Alt+RMB

Press Ctrl+b to enable bevel, and set segments to ‘5’ again.

Modeling a Bottle (contd)

Modeling a Bottle (contd)

After a few more tweaks, we have the bottle you see above.

I’ve gone ahead and deleted the center vertex point. Now Alt+RMB on the bottom loop edge and hit ‘f’ for Face to join the loop points to form a new bottom.

I’ve gone ahead and deleted the center vertex point. Now Alt+RMB on the bottom loop edge and hit ‘f’ for Face to join the loop points to form a new bottom.

Modeling a Bottle (contd)

Press Ctrl+NumPad 7 to see the bottom of the bottle. Now press ‘e’, LMB clikck to end, then ‘s’ and scale the circle down to a smaller size as pictured above.

Repeat the process to create a smaller circle. Then press NumPad1 to go to the side view and move the smaller circle up to form a raised center bottom.

Once you’ve raise the bottom, it will form a concave

Turn on Smooth Shading

Go to Object Mode and select Smooth Shading

Flat Smooth

Notice how the Solidify Modifier with a thickness of 0.04 ads a wall to the bottle.

No thickness .04 thickness

Tape Dispenser - one pieceby maurerpe, published Nov 18, 2012

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:34816

3D Printed ObjectThis object was chosen to demonstrate the creation of an object for 3D Printing in Blender. This exercise is for basic modeling purposes only. We will go into more detail with 3D Printing and Blender in a future module.

Add Background Image

Maker sure the Background Images is selected and press the Add Image button. It is in middle of the Info panel.

Maker sure your view is looking top down on your object where you want to load the image and press the Open button.

Find your file in the file browser window and press the Open Image button.

Add Background Image (cont'd)

Once the image is loaded you can do things like move the image, re-size it, and change it’s opacity. This will help you to place the reference image where you need it to be before you start modeling.

If you do not see the image loaded on the view window, press 5 on the NumPad to switch to “Ortho” view

Opacity reduced to 0.2. The range is between 1 and 0. This helps you to see the mesh better.

Plane mesh

Add Plane Mesh and Re-sizeNext, create a plan mesh and re-size the mesh to encompass boundaries of the tape dispenser

Press Subdivide twice/ start outlining hole

Next, select all (a), and press the Subdivide button twice(in the Editing panel). This should give you enough vertices to start doing a rough outline of the tape dispenser.

Press Subdivide 2X Outline edges of circular hole.

Select 4 corners of box surrounding hole

Press ‘s’ (scale) and scale 4 corners to create a rough outline of the hole

Press ‘alt+r’ to create 2 more lines, 1 diagonally and 1 vertically, that will roughly center overt the hole.

A rough outline of the hole.

Box select the hole and press delete and select Faces.

Hole create after deleting faces Now outline the rest of the tape dispenser using a combo of RMB clicking vertices and Grab (g) to move the vertices into an outline.

Continue outlining mesh

Press ‘Alt+r’ to add additional vertices.

Another line of vertices added with ‘Alt+r’.

After shaping the tape dispenser, in this case we are going to delete 2 vertices.

Now press Extrude (e) and then press LMB. Then scale (s) to create the inner hole.

Use Box Select or Alt+RMB to select the hole.

Use Circular Select (c) to select all vertices that are going to be extruded into an edged wall around the outside.

Select the inner vertices Press ‘e’ for Extrude and LMB to end. Then press ‘alt+s’ to scale by normal.