Blender Joining Objects

[Epiales]

Sometimes you need to make different objects that use two different objects within them. This can be done by using the snapping method. As an example, I will use a plane and a sphere.

Open Blender

Delete the cube by pressing X and then choosing delete.
Click SHIFT + A to open the add menu, and then at the top, under mesh, and choose A UV Sphere
Shift + A to open the add menu, and then at the top, under mesh, choose a plane

Your scene should be this:

Example:


Now click on the blue arrow to align your plane right on top of your sphere

Should look like this

Example:


Now press the number 7 key on your keypad to go to the top view

At the bottom toolbar you will now have a few buttons to click. The image below shows the ones you need to check and change.

Example:


As you can see in image one, you click on the horseshoe.
Image two you will choose FACE and it will open up more on your toolbar
Image three you choose the one that is outlined

Press the S for resizing the image, and resize the plane/square so that it fits right to the corners of the sphere. Corners on a sphere? lol... Here's the example

Example:


You have have to scroll your mouse and move the arrows to get it lined up just right...

Okay, when done, tab into edit mode, or choose edit mode from the bottom toolbar. Then press the Z key to go into wireframe view. You can also change that from the bottom toolbar.

Image now should look like

Example:


Now when you resize it, make sure you rotate it to see that the plane/square is on top of the sphere. I noticed in wire view that I had to make more adjustments. So make sure it's lined up and resized so that it looks like the image I have shown. Here's a side view to make sure it's correct

Example:


Now go back to top mode (number key 7) Hit the W key, then choose, at the top, subdivide. Do this about 3 or 4 times. Then press the G button and then LEFT click. DO NOT MOVE THE MOUSE WHEN YOU PRESS THE G BUTTON AND CLICK.

Now here's my image and what it looks like:

Example:


Notice how one of the edges didn't snap to the sphere? You just have to click CTRL Z to go back one step... then resize your plane/square until your image looks like this: *note* you don't have to repeat the G and Left Click. Just keep going back one step, resizing, until your result is this:

Example:


See now it's nice and snug on the sphere? YAY lol

Now you can click tab to go back to object mode and select the sphere and delete that puppy. And your scene now looks like this

Example:


Now it looks funky LOL. But we can use this to make different type object. Let's go ahead and finish this so that we have something created.

Go back to edit mode and make sure you have your new image selected. Should look like this

Example:


Press the E and bring it straight down
Press S to size it and Z and bring out the edge a bit.
Press E to extrude it again and go straight down.
Press S to size it and Z to bring out the edge a bit until the bottom is now square.

Example:


You can do all sorts of things with this technigue. Just a few qickies....

Example:


Example:


Maybe the first one could be the start of a ship? Maybe second one a robot? lol. Who knows, but it's limitless!

Your image is like this now, but without the door and the color




Hope you enjoyed.

[Jackolantern]

Very nice! Wow, you are learning a lot!

This is to you, but to also anyone else with experience with it. I always hear people complaining about the UI of Blender. What is so wrong with it? Is it just that it is very different from the industry standards, Max and Maya?

[Epiales]

Very nice! Wow, you are learning a lot!

This is to you, but to also anyone else with experience with it. I always hear people complaining about the UI of Blender. What is so wrong with it? Is it just that it is very different from the industry standards, Max and Maya?

Well, I think it's a personal thing to be honest. This is the ONLY 3D utility that I have taken the time to work with. So I don't find the interface confusing, nor have any issues with the thing. It's actually a great program in my opinion. Now to those that have experimented or used other programs, their interfaces might be a bit better or easier. I know that I'm enjoying blender, and really appreciate the person that threw it my direction. I don't remember whom it was, but it was from here. So Kudos to them.

YAY!

And thanks again!

[Jackolantern]

It is probably just the people who have used 3D Studio or Maya for 15 years and then tried out Blender who complain, because I do know Blender does its own thing a bit in the GUI department. But yeah, I guess if you started only with Blender and that was all you knew, then 3D Studio and Maya would have the messed-up UIs lol.

Does Blender still have a 3D game engine built into it? I saw some pretty impressive stuff made with it!

[a_bertrand]

The issues with Blender are multiples, first of all is the GUI and the mouse manipulations which are the reverse of any other software you will ever use. But that doesn't end there, many features of blender works differently that most packages, for example in Modo, Lightwave, Softimage (those which I used before) there is a "Vertex", "Edge" and "Face" mode, where in Blender those are not there, it simply depends on what you select. It may seems easier at start but it is actually hurting the productivity in the long run. Also, the render engine of Blender is somewhat.... weak. Therefore there is many external renderers which can be used, but none are at the level of Modo or Lightwave for example. At least not the free solutions that's it

So yes, blender does offer a lot for the price, but hardly compare to the payed softwares.

It's a bit the difference between photoshop and Pain.NET

[Jackolantern]

So yes, blender does offer a lot for the price, but hardly compare to the payed softwares.

It's a bit the difference between photoshop and Pain.NET

And that would be expected. You can't stay in business charging thousands of dollars for software with free 100% alternatives.

But sometimes I do wonder how much packages like 3D Studio and Maya get by just because they are the standard. I absolutely believe Microsoft Office is only staying relevant these days because it is the standard (Open Office just doesn't work well enough if everyone around is using Office, but it does pretty much everything Office does if everyone around you uses OO's native format, for example).

Not that I know enough about 3D modeling to even suggest that is the case, but I have just wondered.

[a_bertrand]

For most home/office work, open office would do the trick. However when you come to automated tasks, integration with other tools or self development like VBA or C# development, then MS Office doesn't have ANY concurrence.

For 3D, things are different. First of all, if you are alone, you could choose whatever tool you want, if you work in a team or for external customers, you cannot simply choose the tool you want but need to follow what the team or customers want. Pipelines are also extremely important, for example, if you get base architectural layouts, from a given customer, you will need to ensure that your tools can deal with them. Or if you use different tools (as 1 tool never do all) you will need to ensure that those tools works well together. Example? ZBrush doesn't natively support blender so no way to directly bring back and forth your items between the 2 softs. ZBrush being the standard (and by far the most powerful) for sculpting, prototyping and even painting. So if you don't have native support, you could check if somebody came with some solution, but usually it is not at the level of a native support.

All this could be a bit... of useless points for an hobby project, as you could say, I don't have the money for a 3D tool why should I buy ZBrush? True. Also if it's for yourself, you could use whatever you want, true again. However if you spend the time to learn a tool, you may consider at some point to go pro with those skills, where blender will hardly have its place... but again could be another useless point.

What counts more than everything else for me, is the time I spend on doing tasks, and how much the tool will do the things for me. It's the same between notepad and visual studio. Sure you could write your C# application with notepad and compile it via command line. That works and you can do it for free. But don't you think Visual Studio or Eclipse or InteliJ or whatever other IDE add a lot over the standard editor? I would say I would never code with notepad again, the time gained by an IDE is tremendous, as well as the resulting quality of the code thanks to all the refactor tools and more. Same applies to blender vs modo, the mesh edition tools on blender are at the level of notepad.... maybe notepad++ in best cases, but modo is on the level of visual studio. See my point? Rendering is even further away, quality and speed are what counts for me. I don't want to wait hours to see if my render will be of any good. And ideally it should render it great at first without much settings.

[Epiales]

The issues with Blender are multiples, first of all is the GUI and the mouse manipulations which are the reverse of any other software you will ever use. But that doesn't end there, many features of blender works differently that most packages, for example in Modo, Lightwave, Softimage (those which I used before) there is a "Vertex", "Edge" and "Face" mode, where in Blender those are not there, it simply depends on what you select. It may seems easier at start but it is actually hurting the productivity in the long run. Also, the render engine of Blender is somewhat.... weak. Therefore there is many external renderers which can be used, but none are at the level of Modo or Lightwave for example. At least not the free solutions that's it

So yes, blender does offer a lot for the price, but hardly compare to the payed softwares.

It's a bit the difference between photoshop and Pain.NET

Not sure what you mean about the vertex, edge, and face. Blender has those. At least the version that I have!

[a_bertrand]

Sure blender have those, but you don't have "modes" to work with them. It pretty much depends on what you select to make the change. This may seems good at start, but hurts in the long term.

[hallsofvallhalla]

I absolutely HATE blender and if you have ever used any other 3D software for modeling you will too. It is like driving a car our whole life then asked to start driving a forklift. Or a bicycle to a Unicycle. OOP to non OOP.

I realize many people like it and no disrespect to them. Whatever works for you then great but I have tried many times to use it and just doesn't work for me.

NOTE: If you are new to 3d Modeling then definitely try it! It doesn't work for me because I am use to traditional 3d Modeling Programs.