Tutorials ‐ Intro to Blender

Background Info

Note : This is my first tutorial, it will be most likely missing out on info you want since I'm not sure of your skill level (xkcd 2501) A more reliable option would just be the donut tutorial. Also this tutorial is based on 4.2 but 4.0 or above is fine

Terminology

• Scene - The main big window that shows the large gray grid and all of your models.
• Ctrl - A Windows key, this is Command on Mac.
• Vertex/Vertices - A point in space. These are the most basic components of a mesh.
• Edge - A line connecting two Vertices.
• Face - A polygon connecting three or more Edges.
• Normal - A vector pointing perpendicular outwards from its associated geometry.

The majority of projects won't require custom models, as New Horizons and the Unity assets repository can handle a lot of stuff. However, sometimes you may need a detailed planet or a custom item model. If you don't know how to 3D model yourself, this means you'll need a 3D modeler to do it for you. But if you can't find a 3D modeler or you wish to work alone, you will need to learn how to create custom models yourself. Many programs exist that are excellent for this, like Maya, Houdini, and ZBrush. These cost money however, and generally most people don't want to spend money on making a mod.

A great option, however, is Blender. It's free, relatively easy to learn, and has all of the tools that you need for custom models. While it may appear scary at first, its much more intuitive compared to other software options.

Installation

Blender can be installed either through their main website (Blender Website) or, if you wish to have it automatically update for you, it can be installed with Steam (Steam Download). Note that when Steam updates the app it will uninstall all your addons and reset your preferences.

If you installed it through Steam, you may find it annoying that Blender opens Steam before running. There is a way to turn this off, but doing so will not count time spent on Blender towards your displayed playtime on Steam.

To stop Steam from opening, find Blender in your Steam library and click the gear icon on the right, then under "Manage" there should be an option to "Browse local files". Click that and find the file called blender-launcher.exe, then- if you're on Windows- right click it and either pin it to your taskbar or pin it to Start. If you're using Mac you can just put the file somewhere easily accessible. You can now use this file to directly open Blender, which will stop Steam from opening and will still auto-update the app.

Startup

Upon opening Blender, you will be greeted with a splash screen. You can simply click off of this to close it and continue to the project. In the future it should show your recent projects on the splash screen as a quick way to get back to work.

The default project that is opened on startup consists of 3 things: a default cube (the one in all of the memes), a camera, and a light. Only the cube is important right now.

Basic Camera Controls

While modeling is important, it's also important to be able to see your model. Here are the basic controls for moving the camera:

• Middle Mouse (drag) - Rotates the camera
• Shift + Middle Mouse (drag) - Pans the camera
• Scroll Wheel - Zooms the camera in/out
  • You can also use Ctrl + Middle Mouse (drag)

These are some more advanced ones, but are still very useful:

• Alt + Middle Mouse (click) - Re-centers the camera
• Alt + Middle Mouse (fast drag) - Rotates isometric view
  • Isometric view removes all of the depth in the scene
  • This will rotate the view to a different axis (XYZ) depending on which way you move the mouse
  • You can also do this by clicking the different axes shown on the top right corner of the scene
  • Rotate the camera to exit this
• Numpad Period - Re-center the camera on the selected object
  • If you don't have a number pad, you can do this by using View > Frame Selected
• Shift + Backtick - Enters free-cam
  • The controls for free-cam are shown at the bottom of the Blender window

Basic Selection Controls

Selecting an object in the scene lets you make changes to it. You can do this by doing any of the following:

• Left Click (on object) - Select an object
  • If you keep the cursor still and continue clicking, it will cycle through all of the objects overlapping the one currently selected
• Shift + Left Click (on object) - Select another object
  • If you do this on an object that is already selected, it will deselect it
• A - Select all objects
• Alt + A - Deselect all objects
• Left Click + Drag - Selects an area
  • The type of selection area can be changed by pressing W (the default is Select Box)
• C - Enable circle selection
  • Holding left click in this mode will select everything that passes inside of the circle
  • Scroll wheel changes the size of the circle
  • Right click to exit

You can also select objects in the Outliner, which is normally shown on the top right of the Blender window and will look like a list of orange icons. The controls differ slightly for this window:

• Left Click - Select an object
• Ctrl + Left Click - Select another object
• Shift + Left Click - Select a range of objects
  • Starts at the last selected object, then goes down/up and ends on the object you selected
• Left Click + Drag - Selects an area
  • This is only box select

Basic Transform Controls

This covers the main methods of manipulating objects or geometry in the scene. Make sure you have something selected before doing this. You can press Escape or Right Click to cancel any of these.

• G - Move
• R - Rotate
• S - Scale

After pressing one of those, you can also press the button of an axis (X, Y, Z) to constrict the transformation to that axis only.

Additionally, you can do Shift + Axis to transform the object on every axis except the one specified.

For example, I could do G and then Z to move my object up or down, or I could do S and then Shift + X to only scale my object on the Y and Z axes.

Object Creation/Deletion

To delete an object, first select it, then press X or Delete (Backspace will not work).

To create a new object, press Shift + A, then expand the Mesh section and click one of the options. Clicking Cube will create another default cube. You can also choose any of the other options, which will add different types of objects to the scene.

To duplicate an object, press Shift + D. The duplicated object will automatically enter Move mode, but if you want it in the same place as the last object you can just press Right Click.

Want some practice?

If you're new to Blender and are just now learning all of these controls, try messing around with them. Add some new cubes to the scene, maybe some spheres as well. Maybe move them around a bit, make them super big or something. Try and make something that resembles a real-world object. And make sure you know the camera movement controls.

Object Mode vs. Edit Mode

Sure, you know how to make big cubes and cylinders and such. But how in the world do those become such complex objects?

Object Mode lets you select entire objects and make changes to them. Edit Mode, however, lets you change the actual shape of the objects. This is done by manipulating the geometry of the objects, which consists of Vertices, Edges, and Faces (these are all defined at the top of the page).

To open Edit Mode, select an object and press Tab, or select an object and open the Modeling tab at the top of the Blender screen.

Edit Mode

When in Edit Mode, you have 3 ways of changing the geometry of the object; manipulating the Vertices, Edges, or Faces of the object. You can filter the selection to each of these by pressing 1 (Vertices), 2 (Edges), and 3 (Faces).

Edges and Faces can be moved, rotated, or scaled. Vertices can only be moved as a point in space has no rotation or scale.

When you're done making your changes, you can press Tab again to re-enter Object mode, or- if you're in the Modeling tab- you can open the Layout tab at the top of the Blender window.

Adding Geometry

If you want your default cube to have a little more complexity, you can add more geometry to it. Here are the simplest ways of doing so:

• Shift + D - Duplicates the selected geometry
• E - Extrudes the selected geometry
  • Extruding a Vertex will duplicate it and create an Edge between them
  • Extruding an Edge will duplicate it and create a Face between them
  • Extruding a Face will duplicate it and create new Faces on all of the sides
• I - Inset the selected Face
  • Only works on Faces
  • Creates a smaller Face inside that is connected to the outside Face

Tips for Extruding

• If you want to cancel, don't just press Right Click, as this will create overlapping geometry. Press Right Click or Escape to cancel the movement, then press Ctrl + Z to undo the extrusion.
• You can extrude faces inwards as well as outwards. Extruding a face inwards will create a sort of hole.
• Extrude a Face, cancel it, then scale up the Face and extrude again to create a cool outcrop sort of thing.
• Press one of the axis keys (X, Y, Z) to override the default extrusion direction.
• If you're trying to extrude multiple faces at once, try doing Alt + E then Extrude Individual Faces to extrude each of them individually.
• Use Ctrl + Right Click to extrude a piece of geometry to your cursor.

Other Edit Mode Functions

• Right Click > Subdivide - Subdivides the selected geometry
  • This can only be done on Edges or Faces
  • Subdividing an Edge will split the Edge in half
  • Subdividing a Face will split it into four parts
• J (two Vertices) - Joins the two Vertices if there is a path across a face between them
• F - Creates a new piece of geometry
  • Vertices (2 selected) - Creates a new edge between the Vertices. This is not the same as using J, as the new edge will not be connected to any faces.
  • Edges (2 or more adjacent selected) - Creates a new face between the Edges. Useful if you have a hole in your geometry
  • Faces - I don't really know how this one works, but it messes up your mesh
• K - Enables the Knife tool
  • Works by creating Edges on Faces like a connect-the-dots puzzle
  • Left Click on a face to create a new point
  • Right Click to get rid of the connection to the last point
  • Escape to cancel
  • Space to confirm and apply the changes
  • Hold Ctrl to turn off snapping, as it normally snaps to nearby Edges or Vertices
• Ctrl + R - Create a loop cut
  • Works best on geometry made of square Faces
  • Splits a ring of Faces by adding a loop of Edges
  • Use the Scroll Wheel to increase the number of Edges added
  • Right Click to cancel
  • Left Click to confirm, then Right Click to leave it where it is or Left Click after moving it around to confirm its position
• B - Bevel
  • Sort of rounds out an Edge or the Edges of a Face
  • Increase the number of bevels with Scroll Wheel
  • Right Click to cancel
• O - Enables Proportional Editing
  • Any geometry that you move, scale, or rotate will apply the same transformation to the surrounding geometry
  • Use Scroll Wheel while moving/rotating/scaling to increase or decrease the area of effect
  • The button on-screen for this is on the top of the scene window next to the magnet button and looks like a target
  • You can change the curve for the area of effect by clicking the dropdown next to the on-screen button
    • The curve changes how much the surrounding geometry is affected

Removing Geometry

Unlike Object Mode which just lets you delete objects, Edit Mode makes you pick from several forms of deletion.

• Delete
  • Vertex - Removes the selected Vertex and all connected Edges.
  • Edge - Removes the selected Edge and all adjacent Faces.
  • Face - Removes only the selected Face.
• Dissolve
  • Vertex - Removes the selected Vertex and all connected Edges, then attempts to join the affected faces.
  • Edge - Removes the selected Edge and attempts to join the adjacent faces.
  • Face (multiple selected) - Attempts to join all of the selected faces at the edges where they meet.

More practice

Try making a tower out of a default cube by insetting faces (I) and then extruding the smaller faces (E).

Sculpt Mode

Sculpt Mode is the primary way of making more detailed or organically shaped models. It lets you move the geometry of a model more easily with different brushes.

To enable Sculpt Mode, select an object and click the Sculpting tab at the top.

WARNING: Before sculpting an object, make sure you have reset the scale of the object with Ctrl + A > Scale, and if you have any modifiers on the object, make sure you apply them.

Sculpting Your Model

Before sculpting your model, you need to make sure it has enough geometry. You can add geometry by going into Edit Mode, switching to Face mode (3), selecting all of the Faces with A, then using Right Click > Subdivide to add more geometry. If you know how to use modifiers, you can also just add a Subdivision Surface modifier to the object.

Once your model has enough geometry (enough Faces), you can switch to Sculpt Mode.

Sculpting works by moving around the Vertices of your model with different brushes, which are all listed on the left. The default brush is the Draw brush, which- if you hold Left Click and drag it around on your model- will simply bring up the vertices within the blue circle, like you're clumping more geometry onto it.

If you hold Ctrl, it will invert the brush. Usually this means that instead of making a mountain it will make a hole instead.

To change the size of the brush, press F and move your mouse to the desired size. You can use Left Click to accept and Right Click to cancel the change.

To change the strength of the brush (how much the geometry is affected), press Shift + F and follow the same process as with changing the size.

Common Brushes

Along with whichever brush you currently have selected, you can quickly switch to the Smooth brush by holding Shift and dragging your mouse around. The Smooth brush will smooth out the geometry and usually shrinks it in the process.

If the names of the brushes on the sidebar aren't visible, you can expand the sidebar by dragging from the right side of the sidebar.

Some other brushes that I use in Sculpt Mode:

• Blob
  • Sort of a weaker version of Draw
  • I prefer this over Draw for terrain modeling
• Pinch
  • Useful for creating sharp edges
• Snake Hook
  • Lets you drag around the geometry, similar to Proportional Editing
  • Best used with a larger size and smaller movements
• Flatten
  • Self-explanatory
• Multi-plane Scrape
  • Can create some wacky geometry if you move it in circles

Dyntopo

Instead of subdividing your cube 5 times before sculpting, you can enable Dyntopo on the top right of the scene, which will automatically create more geometry when you sculpt.

Make sure you have reset the scale and applied any modifiers before enabling Dyntopo!

If you expand the title, it will show you the settings.

Detail Size controls how detailed you want the new geometry to be. Higher numbers will add more Faces when you sculpt.

Refine Method is best kept as it is on Subdivide Collapse.

"Detailing" is how it should change the amount of detail it adds. I only use two of these options:

• Relative Detail
  • This will increase the detail of the new geometry as you zoom in
  • Can lead to some sections of the model having a ton of geometry while others are mostly empty, but this can be solved with a Decimate modifier
• Constant Detail
  • This will add the same amount of geometry regardless of how zoomed in you are
  • Can lead to overall cleaner models but also makes it harder to add small details
  • You can click the eye dropper next to the Detail Size setting and click somewhere on the model to set the Detail Size to the average of where you clicked

Sculpting Practice

Make a cube and subdivide it so it has more geometry. Then, go into sculpt mode and try turning it into a mushroom. It's okay if you can't get a photorealistic impression of one; a blob with a stud sticking out on the bottom will do.

Now, make another cube, but don't subdivide it this time. Instead, enable Dyntopo in the Sculpting tab. Make sure the Detail Size isn't too high, otherwise you might crash Blender. Then, try giving the cube a pair of horns (Snake Hook will be very helpful for this).

Don't forget: you can invert the brush with Ctrl and you can switch to the Smooth brush by holding Shift.

// TODO - Add sculpting tips like affecting the other side of geometry