Blender modeling Notes

This  page documents my first steps learning blender. I'll also add to the page over the next week or two as I explore more of what blender can do. So far I'm really impressed.

Click HERE for an older interview with  Ton Roosendaal. It gives some history and context to blender.

Note: Page last added to  on 18/10/17

As blender relies heavily on numPad keys,  and the "emulate numpad" overrides various shortcuts, I'm using a numPad keyboard for easy access on the left of my keyboard.

Hotkeys:

Navigation:

• MMB = Orbit
• Ctl + shift + Middle Click /or/ Scroll Wheel = Zoom
• Shift + F5 = Viewport
• 0(numPad) = Camera Mode (Enter/Exit)
• 5 = Orthographic Perspective
• 1/3/7(numPad) = Front/Right/Top View
• Ctl + 1/3/7(numPad) = Back/Left/Bottom
• Home = Frame All
• .(numPad) = Frame Selection
• Shift + C = Reset Viewport
• Shift + F = Video Game Navigation

Object Viewing - In Viewport:

• /(numPad = Frame Selection
• Z = Wireframe
• Alt + Z = Toggle Texture/Shader
• Shift + Z = Toggle rendered/Shaded
• (Shift + B + release) + Drag = Zoom into Portion

Editing/Creating Objects:

• Shift + A = Add Objects
• Ctl + Tab = Switch Edge/Vertex/Face panel
• Tab = Edit Object Mode
• Left Click = Move 3D Cursor
• Ctl + A = Apply objects transformations (like freeze trans)
• Y = Edge Split
• Ctl + 1/2/3/0 = Subdivision Amount
• Ctl + # = Add Subdivisions
• U = UV uwrap
• K = Knife Tool
• I = Inset
• E = Extrude
• Alt + M = Merge Vertices (options panel ex: merge to centre)
• Ctl + R = Loop Cut(Scroll wheel to add loops - pre right click)
• Ctl + J = Join Objects
• Ctl + B =Bevel (scroll for subdivs)
• G + G = Slide Vert/Edge/Face
• V = Rip
• Alt + V = Duplicate Edge Loop on Object
• F = Fill/Bridge Edges/Verts
• P = Separate Selected (Verts/Face/Edge)
• G + O = Offset and slide vert across edge

Within the Sculpt Brush

• D = Draw Tool
• Click + Drag = Add
• Shift + Click + Drag = Subtract
• F + Drag = Brush Radius
• Shift + F + Drag = Brush Strength
• C = Clay Brush
• 2 = Clay Brush
• G = Grab Brush
• 7 = Grab Brush
• I = Inflate/Deflate Brush
• 8 = Inflate/Deflate
• Shift+5 = SculptDraw
• Shift+6 = Smooth
• S = Smooth Brush
• Shift+C = Crease Brush
• L = Layer Brush
• 9 = Layer Brush
• M = Mask Painting
• 0 = Mask
• K = Snake Hook Brush
• Shift+T = Flatten/Contrast Brush
• P = Pinch/Magnify Brush
• 1 = Blob Brush
• 3 = Clay Strips Brush
• 4 = Crease Brush
• 5 = Fill/Deepen
• 6 = Flatten/Contrast Brush
• Shift+1 = Nudge Brush
• Shift+2 = Pinch/Magnify Brush
• Shift+3 = Rotate
• Shift+4 = Scrape/Peaks
• Shift+7 = Snake Hook
• Shift+8 = Thumb

Moving Objects:

• G = Move  (+ X/Y/Z to Constrain)
• S = Scale   (+ X/Y/Z to Constrain)
• R = Rotate (+ X/Y/Z to Constrain)
• G + 5 = Move 5 Units
• R + 2 = Rotate 2 Units
• W = Panel (select Bridge)
• Shift + C = Cursor at 000 (plus frame focus)

Selecting;

• A = Select/Deselect All
• B(release) + Drag = Box Selection
• B(release) + Drag + Shift = Box Deselect
• B(release) + Left Click(drag) = Rectangle Select(add)
• B(release) + Middle Click(drag) = Rectangle Select(Remove)
• C + Left Click = Circle Selection(add) - (+ Scroll for Circle Radius change)
• C(release) + Shift = Circle Selection(remove) - (+ Scroll for Circle Radius change)
• Ctl + Left Click - Lasso Selection(add)
• Ctl + Shift + Left Click - Lasso Selection(add)
• Alt + Right Click = Select Edge Loop
• Ctl + Alt + Right Click = Select Edge Ring
• L = Select shared Verts/Edges/Faces
• Ctl + +(numPad) / -(numPad) = Grow/Shrink Selection

Duplicating/Deleting/History/Hiding Objects:

• H = Hide
• Shift + H = Hide Unselected
• Alt + H = Unhide
• X = Delete Panel
• Shift + D = Duplicate
• Alt + Shift + D = Duplicate
• Ctl + Alt + Z = Undo History Panel

Snapping/Cursor;

• Shift + S = Snap Cursor to Selection
• Ctl + Shift + Alt + C = Set Origin (Geo to Origin/Origin to 3D cursor etc)
• Shift + S = Cursor options (ex: Cursor to center)

Animation:

• Alt + A = Play/Pause
• Shift + Alt + A = Play in Reverse
• Left/Right Arrows = Next/Previous Frame
• shift Left/Right Arrows = Beginning/End of Timeline
• Shift + Up/Down Arrows = Jump Forward/Back 10 Frames

Windows & Panels:

• Shift + Spacebar = Window Focus
• Ctl + Ring Arrow = Scroll through window setups
• Shift F4 = Python Console
• Shift + F10 = UV Unwrap Window
• F10 = Image Window
• Shift + F7 = Editing Window (modifiers etc)
• N = Transform Window Toggle
• T = Tool Bar Toggle
• Ctl + I = Invert Selection
• Shift + F9 = Outliner
• Shift + F3 = Node Editor
• Shift + F11 = Text Editor
• Shift + F7 = Properties Editor
• Shift + F2 = Logic Editor
• Ctl + .(NumPad) = Object Focus
• Spacebar = Search Menu

Layers:

• M = Move object to Layer Panel
• 1/2/3/4 etc = Layer number

Changes - By right clicking on a menu we can add a shortcut hotkey to an item. We can also add it directly into user Preferences/Input:

Hotkeys added:

• Ctl + ` = Smooth Shade

I also switched the '"select with" mouse buttons around:

I'm used to the way the Maya Viewport looks so I installed the following "Maya Lover" Theme from Here. It's just cosmetic but I like it.

Modeling Practice - Ant (I'll document my first modeling attempt in blender)

• Shift + S to center the cursor via the panel
• Shift + A to add - mesh - cube

•  Ctl + R to place a loop cut through the center of the object
• Z to make the object transparent (so we can select the back faces)
• 1(numpad) to switch to front view
• B + Release + drag for rectangular selection of left side faces

• Spacebar - "type add m" bring up the add modifier panel
• Add mirror modifier

• To constrain the central verts to the Y and Z axis we need to enable "clipping":
• To see the mirrored mesh we need to turn on "cage to modified result":

• Show the back facing verts so we can select them

• Base mesh for the head, abdomen and thorax.

• Extruding some legs

• Within the transforms window(N) / display / Shading there are a number of Metcap shaders which are excellent for picking up surface imperfections while modeling.

• Subdivisions with cage

• To isolate an area for modeling the details we select the faces we want to isolate and Shift + H.

• A little more tweaking

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Testing Out the Sculpt Brush

• Before starting to sculpt - Apply Mirror Modifier and delete Subsurface Modifier if we are starting from a model created with the above method

• Spacebar + "add m" to add modifier  Multiresolution

• Switch to sculpt mode
• For roughing in a sculpt we can switch to Dyntopo

• Choose Brush and start sculpting

• Hotkeys of Note: F = Brush Radius Shift F = Brush Strength
• Sculpting from a poly UV Sphere, (in Dyntopo mode), allows us to sculpt in a similar way to zbrush - as we would in real life with clay.

Once we are happy with a Dyntopo sculpt we can retopologize the mesh in one of two ways:

1. The easy way is to buy a script like "RetopoFlow" which appears to be similar to Maya's quad draw tools.
2. The second/free way  is explained HERE  by Zacharias Reinhardt.

Process notes:

• Create plane with cursor at 000.
• Ctl + R to slice in half /  delete Left Side
• Add Mirror modifier / enable clipping
• Add Subsurf modifier / set as simple (not Catmull-clark)
• Add a Shrink Wrap modifier / choose target mesh / set the offest to .002 / enable "keep above surface" / make sure the triangle icon is enbled so that we see the Verts.
• To avoid selecting verts on the other side - (alt + b = Clipping border) - (alt + b to remove clipping border).

Alpha brushes in sculpt mode:

• choose brush mapping style

• We can use a stencil - (note hotkeys: RMB = move stencil / shift + RMB = Scale Stencil / Ctl + RMB = Rotate stencil)

• Some details added to the mesh with alpha brushes

• With a shiny gold met material we can see more details

Modeling with Blender's Skin Modifier

Setup:

• Create plain(shift + C to center Pivot) / Alt + M  / Merge at center / Edit Mode / Spacebar/"Add Modifier"/ Mirror/Skin/SubDiv 

Modeling:

• Extrude + G + Move / Ctl + A(x,y,z) for Scale / Ctl + R = Add Vert

Test - Bipedal Character:

• Starting with Torso and Feet - a little bit tricky

• Attempt at constructing the hand

• Base mesh completed

• From here we could use the sculpt tools to refine the character and then retopologize the mesh once we are happy.

 In sculpt mode - start clay style sculpting:

• Clay Brush / Area Plane 
•  Dyntopo Enabled / + Subdivide Edges / + Brush Detail

 

•  Ogre type creature created from the base mesh using the above brush settings

---

Blender is a much loved, free and open source 3D application with a thriving user community. It was originally created by Ton Roosendaal as an in house software tool at  NeoGeo - an animation studio he co-founded. It was later released as free creation tool.
Visit:

• The Blender Foundation
• Ton Roosendaal Wiki Page

Open Project Films created by the Blender foundation:

• Cosmos Laundomat
• Sintel
• Tears of Steel
• Big Buck Bunny