Flame[1up]'s 3D Modeling Tutorial Part #1-Getting Started With Blender

[Flame[1up]]

This Tutorial Will Go Over These Objects:

-Downloading Blender
-Installing Blender
-Making Your First Object
-Important Keys and Key Combinations
-Making Your First Scene

Downloading Blender:
Blender is a free 3D model making program and since we will be using Blender 2.49 in these tutorials I will link to to it.


Find the Install for your computer and select it
Download Blender 2.49



Installing Blender:
Execute the Install File

When the window opens hit the Next Button



Read and Agree to the Following Terms after that.

Choose and Select what you want to Install.

Select The Destination where you want Blender to be Installed



Choose where you want Blender to install the User's Data

Let Blender Install

If it says you must download Python then go Download Python 2.6 or 2.7

Making Your First Object:

Execute/Start Blender.

When it is done loading you should see this:




now with that Window being selected hit the X key
A Dialog should appear saying "are you sure you want to delete the selected objects" Click it
the Cube that was on the grid should have disappeared.




Now put your mouse over the grid and hit the SPACE key this menu should come up



Now go to Add>Mesh>UVSphere and click it



And hit OK at the next Dialog



and......POOF,WAPPOW,WOOOOOO, Like magic a UVSphere appears 



Now lets say you want this Sphere to be more Spherical and less bumpy. that can be done.

Go down to the Bottom of your screen and hit the button "Set Smoot"(short for Set Smooth)



and all of the sudden your Sphere is Spherical 






Important Keys:
Note-Selected Objects will have a pink outline

Transformation keys:
G key-Move Selected Object(s)
R key-Rotate Selected Object(s)
S key-Scale Select Object(s)


View keys:
Middle Mouse Button+Mouse Drag-3D rotation of your view.
Numpad 1-Front View
Numpad 3-Side View
Numpad 7-Top View
Numpad 2-Rotate view downwards by 11.6 degrees.
Numpad 4-Rotate view leftwards by 11.6 degrees.
Numpad 6-Rotate view rightwards by 11.6 degrees.
Numpad 8-Rotate view upwards by 11.6 degrees.

Misc:
Right Click-Select/Deselect the Object the Mouse is over.
Shift+Right Click-Select/Deselect Multiple Objects.
A-Select/Deselect all objects
Space bar-Menu

Advanced Transformation keys:
G key+X key-Move an object only in the X direction(red line)
G key+Y key-Move an object only in the Y direction(green line)
G key+Z key-Move an object only in the Z direction(blue line)
R key+X key-Rotates the object as if the X axis was a stick going through it(pitch)
R key+Y key-Rotates the object as if the Y axis was a stick going through it(roll)
R key+Z key-Rotates the object as if the Z axis was a stick going through it(yaw)
S key+X key-Scales an object only in the X direction(red line)
S key+Y key-Scales an object only in the Y direction(green line)
S key+Z key-Scales an object only in the Z direction(blue line)


Making Your First Scene:

A Scene is one of those picture moment types of things

So We Are going to make a robot

So Make a new project File>New
Making the Body:
you should start out with a basic cube
Push the Numpad 1 to go into Front View
Now Deselect your Cube(push A)
And add another Cube(Space Bar  Add>Mesh>Cube)
Scale (S key) it to about 2/3 the size of the first cube
Now position it on top of the first Cube(with the red and blue arrows or the G key)
Now go into Side View (Numpad 3) and center it(with the green and blue arrows or G key)
You Should now have something like this:


Making the Eyes:
Now go back into Front View(Numpad 1) and Add a UVSphere(Space Bar Add>Mesh>UVSphere)
now Scale (S key) it so it is about 1/5 the size of the cube
position it where an eye would be (with red and blue arrows or G key)
Now go into Side View
And make it so about half of the Sphere is in the cube(green and blue arrows or G key)
Now go back into Front View and hit the Set Smooth Button
now hit Shift+D(Duplicate key) and without moving your mouse click.
now a red and blue arrow should be coming from the eye, drag the red one to where the 2nd eye would be.
You should now have something like this:

Giving the eyes color:
Go to your Materials Tab(Shown in the Below Image)


Hit Add New and this should show up, only worry about the highlighted part

Now put the R to 0
The G to 1
and the B to 0

and now select the other eye
now instead of hitting Add New, hit the little button to the left with an arrow.
and select the one with a green ball which should be Material.001
You should now have this:


Coloring the Body:
Select your Base Cube(the bottom one) it should already have a material on it(Material)
make it to a more darker color
R: .15
G: .15
B: .15

Then Select your Upper Cube and put it's material to Material(Same as base cube)
You should end with something like this:


Adding the Arms:
Add a Cylinder(Space Bar Add>Mesh>Cylinder)
now scale it so it is about 1/2 width of the robot's eye.
then Scale to the Z axis(S+Z) so it is about 3X longer in that direction
Hit the Set Smooth Button.
and Set it's Material to Material
then Rotate it 90 degrees(R then type in 90)
now position it into the base cube at about the height an arm would be
and then go into Top View(Numpad 7) and Center it.
Go Into Front View(Numpad 1) and Duplicate it (Shift D) and Click Instantly.
Rotate This 135 Degrees(R then type 90).
then position it onto the end of the other cylinder so hit arm points downwards.
Now Select Both Objects(Shift+Right Click) and Duplicate it (Shift D) and Instantly Click.
go into Top View and Rotate the Selected Object 180 degrees(R then type 180).
then use the Red arrow to move it to the other side.


Adding the Legs:
Select one of your already made Cylinders that is pointing down(from making the arms) and Duplicate it.
now place it on the bottom of the base block(where a leg would go)
now Duplicate that and put it where the other leg would go.
now add a Cube(Space Bar Add>Mesh>Cube) and Scale it to about half the size.
now Scale the Z axis so it is only one grid block tall
now put it at the Bottom of the Cylinder(Center it using the red arrow).
now go into Side View and Center it using the green arrow.
now go back into front view and set the material to Material.
now Duplicate the Cube and put it on the bottom of the other leg.


Adding A BackGround:
For a Scene to be a Scene we need a background and for this we can use a factory
add a Cube and Scale it 10 times bigger(S then type 10)
put that cube under the Robot.
now for this we need to add a New Material
so hit Add New and make it
R: .55
G: .55
B: .55

now Duplicate it and put it to the left of the floor.
now move this up so it is more like a wall
Now go into Top View(Numpad 7)
and Duplicate that wall so it goes to the top of the floor


Moving the light:
now you see that little thing that kinda looks like a mini sun, select that and move it to the bottom right corner of your block.


Now What Do We Get?:

Numpad 0-Camera Key
Try that above key and look at what you have made

it should look something like this:


F12-Render key
Try that above key and look at what you have made with lighting.

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[Pyrite[1up]]

impressive

[sw00n]

nice flame
Great tutorial 

[Flame[1up]]

Thanks    now on to Tutorial #2 Advanced Modeling and UV Texturing

wooo wont this be fun >.<

[Cell[1up]]

make sure the uv unwraping and uv texturing is good ill def. check out that one.
Maybe you could do spec and bump maping tutorials too?

[Flame[1up]]

make sure the uv unwraping and uv texturing is good ill def. check out that one.
Maybe you could do spec and bump maping tutorials too?

by spec do you mean speculation, like how big and shiny the light circle is on an object

and I havent really messed with Bump maps so count me out on that.

I was hoping just to go into 5 sections maybe a little more
-Getting Started
-Advanced Modeling and UV Texturing
-Lighting
-Animating Models
-Models in Games


but if anyone thinks there needs to be more tell me I may think about doing it

P.S.-Speculation will be in my lighting tutorial