Blender SkyRise Tutorial 1

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Epiales
Posts: 1119
Joined: Thu Aug 15, 2013 1:38 am

Blender SkyRise Tutorial 1

Post by Epiales »

I figured what the hay LOL! I'm so new to blender and not that great with it, but wanted to give something to the community. You have all done great things for me. So here goes my first tutorial with Blender...

Download Blender: http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/

Open Blender
Press 3 to go to side view
Tab to enter into edit mode
Press A to unselect all
Press CTRL and TAB to choose your mode. Choose Face
Right Click on the square

Okay, now that face of the square should be highlighted and chosen. Click the center mouse wheel and hold it and then rotate the view so that you can see the other corners of the square; but keep that particular face in view.

Example:
Image

Click the red arrow and move it out to stretch your cube as long as you want the wall to be.

Example:
Image

Now click the X key and then delete the face. Your image should look something like this:

Example:
Image

Now rotate your image buy holding the mouse wheel down and then moving your mouse, until it looks like the picture above.

Now you will want to press CTRL and the TAB key and choose Vertex

You will want to hold the SHIFT key and then right mouse click on the four edges on the left side. It should look like this when you have clicked on the edges

Example:
Image

When you have them selected, then press the X and then delete the vertices. Now your image should have only the one face, as shown below

Example:
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Now press the CTRL 1 to move to the front view of the face that is left showing

Now we are going to want to mirror this object and use some arrays to get the foundation of our walls. To do this we will be using Arrays. The arrays are an awesome way to make your work two times to three times faster than doing it all individually. You will find the array modifiers on the right of your screen where the wrench icon is at. Image below... Notice that I have already clicked the wrench, and it is highlghted.

Example:
Image

Now press the TAB key again to enter into object mode. You can switch to edit mode and object mode by using the tab key, but if you want to do it manually, which you will need to know this, there is a toolbar at the bottom of your screen. It looks like the image below

Example:
Image

Notice that mine shows Object Mode. You can click this and change to the different modes from here as well.

Once in object mode, make sure that you have the object selected. To make sure, press the A button to unselect all, and then right mouse click on the object to select again. You should see it highlighted with a color edge, indicating that it is selected.

Now you will want to click on Add Modifier from the right side settings, and then mirror. You should now see two objects that are side by side and identical

Example:
Image

Now if it only appeared to lengthen your original object, you will need to go into edit mode. You will want to click on the clipping option on the far right modifier that you just created. This will, in a basic explanation, SNAP the two objects together.

Example:
Image



Once you have selected clipping, then move the red arrow until both edges of your object are completely side by side so it appears to be one long face.

You may zoom in and out with your mouse wheel if you need in closer. This should be your finished result

Example:
Image

Okay, now that we are here, let's talk a bit about how you move around, because your going to need to know how. Up until now, you should have been able to just stay where you where by simply following along. Now you need to know som basics on zooming in and rotation, as you'll need this.

Mouse Wheel: Just use the mouse wheel to zoom in and zoom out.
Hold CTRL down and scroll the mouse wheel will allow your screen to move along the X axis.
Hold SHIFT down and scroll the mouse wheel will allow your screen to move along the Y axis.

Those will help you move around and better see what you are doing, in a great way.

Now Holding the mouse wheel and rotating your mouse will allow you to rotate your image to other sides.

Now take your mouse wheel and zoom out way far, so your object is way out there. Now hit the PERIOD key on your NUMBER pad. Not the other period. You have to use the number pad. That will zoom in CLOSE to the object or face/edge/vertex that you have highlighted. This is an awesome way to get in VERY close to see very detailed stuff.

Okay...Now that some basics are covered, let's continue.

Zoom out a little bit so that you can see the scene very well. Then click on the Add Modifier again, that's on the right menu, and then choose ARRAY. This will duplicate your entire object side by side again. Scroll out more if you need to in order to see the entire object. It should look like this now

Example:
Image

Now there is a feature that you can only use in Object Mode that we need to use, so now click over to object mode. We are going to add something called an empty. The reason we need this is to be able to move the duplicate object we created. If we try and move the stuff now, then, trust me, it will totally mess everything up and move your objects all around, and they won't match or work with anything. The reason is, is because the mirror is acting as an IDENTICAL piece of your object. If you do ONE thing to the original object that we started with, it MIMICS and does the EXACT thing that you did to the original object. So when you try and move it now, that is why it doesn't work well. If you move it left, then your mirrored objects will move in a different direction and just mess the whole thing up. Below is an example of what would happen if we tried to move things around without this empty.

Example:
Image

DO NOT DO THAT lol :) See how it messed everything up? Can't do much with this as it is, so leave it there until we get this empty in place.

o you should be in object mode now. Click the SHIFT and the A keys to bring up a menu and go down to empty and choose arrows. This will put a set of arrows there for you to be able to rotate the new mirrored object so that we can get things lined up.

Now go back to edit mode.... If edit mode doesn't show for you, make sure you have the object selected FIRST. I do this quite frequently, forgetting to have an object selected, so when I try and go to edit it does nothing LOL... So select your original object, by right clicking on it, and then enter edit mode.

Now on the right, you will see your two modifiers you have added. Your mirror, and then below this, your array. Should look like this

Example:
Image

You will want to make sure you go down to the array and then uncheck the Relative Offset and CHECK the Object Offset. When you do this, then click on the cube right there under the object offset and then add your empty that you created. It should look like this: At bottom of image!

Example:
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And now your scene should look like this. If it doesn't, it's no big deal, because your mirrored object would have been created where ever your empty was created. That doesn't matter, as long as we rotate and move it where it needs to go.

Example:
Image

Now go to the top right and click the Empty until it's highlighted in white

Example:
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Now in your scene, it should be highlighted

Follow this identical... Click R to rotate....Click Y and 90 on your keypad to ratate object 90 degrees on the Y axis. Then Press Z. Do all this without clicking anything. When done, left click in your scene. Now your scene should look something like this

Example:
Image

Now just move the object around until it's perfectly lined up to the left of the original image. The Red, Blue, and Green Arrows will help you move it into place where it needs to be. Now the finished result should look like this

Example:
Image

YAY, we're almost done with the basic setup of the walls. Now you will want to go to the Array you had created. Click on your original object...or right click should I say. Now on the right you will see your array modifier at the bottom. You will see a count there. Click that count two more times, to 4 so that your object is a four walled object. Notice the COUNT

Now it should look like this

Example:
Image

When you are where I am in the tutorial, you will want to add another modifier. Click on the Add Modifier, then add another array. Now it should look like this

Example:
Image

Now we need to make changes to the properties of this array. MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT CHANGE THE FIRST ARRAY. You will now have a Mirror Modifier and TWO Array modifiers on the right. Scroll down to the BOTTOM or LAST Array. This is the new one we created. Keep the Relative Offset checkmarked but change the values under it. Change the X to 0 and the Z to 1. This will move the duplicate on TOP OF YOUR ORIGINAL ONE. As giving it a double floor look.

Example:
Image

Will make it look like this

Example:
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Now when you change the count to the new array, you will add floors to your building. It's default to two, but if you click the arrow to up the count, you'll see with each new count, it adds a new floor. As many floors as you want.

Example:
Image

As you see, it's much taller now. I put 8 floors there just to show you an example.

This ends the first part of lesson one. YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Nothing fancy, but a work in progress!

http://gameplaytoday.net
User avatar
Jackolantern
Posts: 10893
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2009 11:00 pm

Re: Blender SkyRise Tutorial 1

Post by Jackolantern »

Very nice, and the big set of good looking pictures really helps out! :cool:
The indelible lord of tl;dr
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Epiales
Posts: 1119
Joined: Thu Aug 15, 2013 1:38 am

Re: Blender SkyRise Tutorial 1

Post by Epiales »

Jackolantern wrote:Very nice, and the big set of good looking pictures really helps out! :cool:
Thanks! I hope it's understandable. If anyone's like me, I like step by step instructions, and there are not a lot of ones out there. They use shortcut keys and don't tell you how to use them. It took me two days to figure out how to drag and copy vertexes and faces. I saw the people on videos doing it and I didn't know how to do it. I was going mad because they don't tell you everything. I only found out when I learned about using the loop tools to bridge things together. But would have helped in the beginning to have someone tell me how to do it LOL. But for this part of the tutorial it's not needed, so no worries :) But thanks again. I enjoy things like this.
Nothing fancy, but a work in progress!

http://gameplaytoday.net
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