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Posted by: Admin
on Tuesday, March 06, 2007 - 10:20 PM |
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Place the 3D cursor where you would like to start placing objects by
left clicking in any 3D window.
Press the space bar to bring up the pop-up menu. Let's start
by
adding a simple cube. From the pop-up menu, select mesh and
then
cube.
Press the space bar to bring up the pop-up menu. Let's start
by
adding a simple cube. From the pop-up menu, select mesh and
then
cube.
Once the cube is added, you will automatically be sent into
'Edit' mode. All of the vertices, edges and faces of the cube
will be highlighted. The cube is added where ever you have
the 3D
cursor placed.
The cube is shown below with one lamp and the camera in the scene.
When you go to edit mode, your button panel (in my case, the lower left
panel is set to display the control buttons) switches to display all of
the specific buttons used for editing a mesh.
With your mouse over this panel, you can move it around by either
scrolling your mouse wheel or clicking with your middle mouse button
(button wheel). Holding the 'Ctrl' button while doing this
will
allow you to zoom in and out on the buttons. Right clicking
this
pannel will allow you to align the functions windows horizontally or
vertically.
For basic modeling, we really don't need any of the items in this
window, so don't frustrate yourself now by trying to decipher
everything there. We can go over these things in detail at a
later date.
Now, place your mouse cursor back in the 3D window so we can begin
shaping our cube into something more meaningful.
While in the 3D window:
Rolling the mouse wheel will zoom in and
out.
Clicking with the middle mouse button
and moving the mouse will rotate around the current view point.
Holding shift and the middle mouse
button will let you pan the view.
Most use keys:
G - Grab selected items.
S - Scale selected items.
R - Rotate selected items.
X - Deleted selected items.
E - Extrude a vertex, edge or face.
B - Box selected items.
B -
again.. 'Paint Brush' select items. Mouse wheel
will adjust the size of the brush.
A - Select all (Deselect all).
K - Loop cut mesh faces.
Z - Switches between 'Solid' and 'Wire
Frame' views.
CTRL Z - Undo.. multible times if needed.
CTRL W - Save.. like any software, it
crashes sometimes so save your work often.
The menu bar at the bottom of the 3D view window contains a few buttons
we'll need to use for basic modeling.
 This button changes between
different mesh views like the Z key.
 This group of 4 buttons contain
the most import buttons for modeling. From left to right,
they are Vertex Mode, Edge Mode, Face Mode and Visible/Clipped mode.
The last one, I usually turn on. This
will make the object appear solid (Z key - 'Solid View') so vertices,
edge and faces behind the object will not be selected when I use the
box select method (B Key). For example, if I need to select
vertices completely through an object, I will press the Z key to switch
to 'Wire Mesh' view so all vertices will be visible.
  
(Solid View, Transparent View, Wire Mesh View)
Use the other 3 button to switch between Vertix mode, Edge Mode and
Face mode.
Let's make a simple chair out of our cube. Press '1' to view
the object from the front. I usually work in Vertix Mode, so
make sure you can see the individual vertices on your object.
If not, press the vertix mode button (See above).
Let's scale our cube vertically first to make the seat.
Select all of your vertices if they are not already by
pressing 'A' ( They should all turn pink to show they are
selected). Press 'S' to scale them and press 'Z' to only
scale them on the Z axis (in blender, that is the up and down axis).
Scale it similar to the image below.
Press 'A' to deselect all of the vertices. Next, let's make a
couple of loop cuts for our legs and the back of our chair.
Press 'K' for the loop cut menu and select the first option
'Loop Cut'. Moving your mouse over your object at this time
will reveal the possible paths your loop cut could be by a purple ring
or line.
Click once to select the path, then you will be able to move your cut
to different positions along this path shown by a yellow ring/line that
you can still move. Make the first cut in the location shown
below by left clicking again to finally make the cut.
When you make the cut, the new vertices will be selected.
Press 'A' to deselect all the items. Make more
cuts, until your cube looks like this:
Next, Switch to 'Face Mode' by pressing the button on the tool bar (See
above). You'll know you're in 'Face Mode' because each face
will have a small black square in the middle of it. While
looking down from the top ('7' key for top view), select the 3 face
shown below by holding the 'Shift' while right clicking each face.
Switch to the front view ('1' Key). With the 3 faces still
selected, press the 'E' key to extrude from those 3 faces.
Select 'Region' so all the faces will be connected together.
Move your mouse up about as high as I have and Left Click to
complete the extrude. Pressing the 'Z' key during the
extrude, will lock the movement along the Z axis only (up and down).
CTRL-Z to undo if you make a mistake.
With the same 3 faces still selected, let's scale them down a bit to
give it a more tapered look. Press the 'S' key to scale the
items around their average center point. Left click to
complete the scaling.
Let's make the legs next. Press 'SHFT-7' to view the object
from the bottom. Select the 4 faces in each corner.
Switch to the side view ('3' key). Extrude the 4 faces down
by pressing the 'E' key, select 'Region' and begin dragging down the
legs. Press the 'Z' key to lock this movement perfectly
straight up and down along the 'Z' axis (You'll see a light blue line
when the Z axis is selected). Bring the legs down to a normal
looking height and Left click to complete the Extrude.
Finally, you can individually, select the bottom face of each leg,
scale it down a little ('S' Key) to taper each leg slightly.
Save your finished product by pressing 'CTRL-W' and typing in the name
for your file.
Scott.
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