Blender 3d Modeling Tutorials

[Staer9]

Does anyone know how to make rounded surfaces on a Blender model? Staer9? I know the game smooths a certain amount of the model out, but it would be cool to know how to make the edges of a ship rounded while working on it in Blender. I've experimented with a couple ideas, but no dice. It isn't an absolute necessity, I realise, but it would be a cool thing to know.

There are a couple of techniques that I know,
1) Smooth edge groups (time consuming, but doesn't increase model complexity):
select the faces to either side of the edge you want smoothed and press 'w' and click 'shade smooth'
I think that Oolite supports smooth groups...
2) modifiers (the spaner icon in the properties section, not time consuming, but vastly increases model complexity):
in Object mode click 'add modifier' choose bevel (only do this if you havn't textured it already because it will ruin you uv map) play with the width settings until you are happy then click 'apply'
3) subsurf (another modifier, this one will vastly increase polygon count and if not used carefully can easily make the model un-usable):
click 'add modifier' and choose 'subdivision surface', which from now on will be known as subsurf, DO NOT CHANGE ANY OF THE DEFAULT SETTINGS, if you are happy with the result click apply.
4) smooth (another modifier, this one is safe to use though because it doesn't add any polygons):
click 'add modifier' and choose 'smooth', play around with the settings until you are happy with the result, then click apply.

try out all these methods until you find whatever one suits you best, try them in this order:
4 - 2 - 3 - 1 (due to easyness of each method)

[mandoman]

Fantastic! Thanks a lot, Staer9. I'm anxious to try them out.

[mandoman]

Excellent instructions, Staer9. Thanks a bunch. I haven't even tried 1, 2, or 3 yet, as the fourth suggestion was just the ticket.

[Staer9]

It's worth playing arround with modifiers as some effects are quite awesome.

[mandoman]

I definitely plan on doing just that. I've become comfortable enough with Blender that trying different stuff with it isn't nearly such a struggle. You have taught me a lot, and I appreciate it very much.

[jadenrayn]

Thanks to all the friendly people iv met here iv gone from how do i load oolite to being in blinder.
Bad things for new blinder users...
1) when you have a vector lit up dont hit the numbers on the num pad, its a bad thing. Always end with hitting "a" to unequip your vertex!
2)learn to save your ships(said the guy on ship 32 already)
3)it takes time to get both sides right...dont worry about paint ai and that.(we can bug smivs later shhh)
4)when streatching your model e will pull it and hitting e a second time will want to eat the inside along the old path. coo stuff
5)start with makeing a 8 blocked ship streatch it out kinda how you see it and hit a and then w again. the wings you made will then have a bunch of vertexes added for more detail later.
6)OH makeing both sides the same..... grab the left side and e it out on (lets say it calls it the y axis, just because i dont watch closely) that vertex number in the n that stear listed will have the y wing set at say 12.005 now on the other side light up the same vertexes click on the number thing and put a - in frount. a positive 12 and a pos 12 from the left will make both wings go right. you have to negative one side - <---like that.
and lastly the number pad on the right of your keypad.. that number 5 will take you out of the verg/ortho thing and put it in picture mode.
1,3,7and 9 line it up very nice.

i hope that helps some stuck people

[jadenrayn]

i have hopefully run into an easy fix. i have a name.png and after i have the lower grid set up ,when i hit "a" the ship 's template its white. how can i fix this?

http://s1259.photobucket.com/albums/ii5 ... hoto14.jpg

[mandoman]

This is a new problem for me. I don't know why it's happening. I used the "Smooth" option in the "Modifiers" list, and when I went back to the model, all the stuff I had installed on it were separated from the main body. So, in Edit Mode, I put all of the little details back into place, which was a pain, but when I finished and checked it in Texture Paint Mode, all the detail pieces were hanging outside the ship surface again. In Edit Mode, it all looks right, but in Object Mode, or Texture Paint Mode all the details are messed up. Here are some screenies to show what I mean.

In Edit Mode





In Object Mode





Does anyone know why this is happening, and how/if I can fix it? Thanks.

[Staer9]

Does anyone know why this is happening, and how/if I can fix it? Thanks.

Unfortunately that is one of the bugs in the smooth modifier, there is a way (sort of) of avoiding it:

In edit mode select one of the vertices from the main part you want to smooth
Hit CTRL-L
check to make sure you've selected what you want to smooth and nothing more
Hit 'p' and choose the 'selection' option
Go to object mode
select the main body (it should be a separate object)
Apply whatever modifiers you want to it
scale/move the modified object until it takes up almost the same space as it did before (so as to not need to move little details)
select everything and hit CTRL-J
continue working in edit mode

It still requires some faff in order to get it to work, but the separate objects greatly facilitate moving stuff

[mandoman]

FANTASTIC!!!! It's always a rush to learn something more about this application. Thanks, Staer9.

[mandoman]

Man, I'm in the dark again. I crashed my whole system, and had to do a complete reload. When I reinstalled Blender, I thought I had most things back to where I liked it, but there is something missing that I can't figure out how to fix. Before the crash, I remember that I could use the View menu to snap the model into front, back, right, left, top, and bottom, all against a grid. Well, it will give me those view points, but the model isn't snapped exactly to grid. It is always slightly off center, so I'm having a heck of a time getting everything centerred. I use to get a grid background, whether I put it to a side view, front, or back view, as well as top and bottom view. Now it's only top and bottom where I get the main grid, but once again, the model is never snapped to the center of that grid. I have to slide it into center, using the Shift key, and middle mouse button. I vaguely remember this when I first started using Blender, but I can't remember how I changed it to the grid setup. Does anyone know the fix for this, or even understand what I'm referring too? Thanks.

[Staer9]

Check to make sure that when you re set up your user prefs that you changed veiw to orth rather than persp

[mandoman]

Check to make sure that when you re set up your user prefs that you changed veiw to orth rather than persp

Sheesh!!! That was one of the first things in your tutorial, and I totally missed it. Thanks, Staer9.

[mandoman]

Okay, here's a new one. I switched my OS to Fuduntu, from Ubuntu, because I hate the newest Ubuntu distro, and they don't support the one that was working best on my computer. Maybe I shouldn't have changed, though, because even though Blender loaded up really well onto Fuduntu, it looks, and works different than it did on Ubuntu 10.10.

For instance, when I press "n" to get the window in which I adjust the grid from 1,000 to 10,000, this is what appears:



It is decidedly different than what shows should happen in the tutorial. I've been able to figure most of it out, except this one point. Does anyone know how I change the grid to the correct perspective?

[Staer9]

That is the long-extinct pre-2.5 version of Blender,
Where did you download it?

it's always worth getting the latest build from http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender

(especially seeing as the latest version is 2.63a)