Blender Intermediate: Character Workflow

Name: Blender Intermediate: Character Workflow
Author: Jay Grewall

Learn the process behind modeling a 3D character, including details that give it personality and a bone-based armature

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Course: On-Demand

Hello, and welcome to Knowledge City's course on Intermediate Blender 3D. My name is Jay, and today we'll be learning how to build a basic 3D character. We'll be using very simple methods beginning with a default cube, just to get a good foundation of the workflow that goes into Character Modeling. Before we get started, let's make sure that one of Blender's very powerful add-ons is currently turned on. I'm going to go up to Edit, Preferences, I'm going to click on the Add-ons button, and I'm going to do Search for Mirror. We're going to activate this add-on right here called Mesh Auto Mirror. I'm here in Blender, and I'm going to go ahead and create a default cube. I'm going to go into my front view and position this here to be the upper body. Now I want to create the left arm, so I'm going to add another cube, and I'm going to scale it down by pressing the S key on my keyboard. I'm going to be using the Transform tool here in my tool panel to the left, which gives me the ability to move, rotate, and scale any object using one tool. I'm going to go ahead and move this left arm to the upper body and move it outward, and I'm going to scale its width. Now I'm going to create a leg by adding another default cube. I'm going to scale it down using the S key on my keyboard, and I will scale it upward. I'm going to move it to the left side of the body, and now I have the left portion of the character's body. Now I want to create the character's right arm. I could very easily do this by clicking on the left arm, right clicking, and going to duplicate object. It'll automatically put me in the grab tool, which allows me to move it anywhere, but I want to constrain it to the X axis, so I'm going to press X on my keyboard and move it. The problem with the method of duplicating and moving an object is that I would need to eyeball its exact position in proximity to the original one, which is a left arm. So I'm going to go ahead and delete this, and I'm going to have Blender automatically create a copy of this directly on its opposite side, which is the right side of the body. With the left arm selected, I'm going to add a modifier called mirror. Now you'll notice nothing actually happened. That is because I need to tell it exactly where to mirror it. I want to use the upper body of the character to be the point where it mirrors. So in my modifier's properties panel, I'm going to make sure that it is going to mirror in the X direction, and I'm going to choose the object which it's going to mirror from. I can do that by clicking on the Eyedrop tool, and then clicking on the upper body. Now whenever I change the left arm, the right arm automatically changes with it. I'm going to do the same thing with the left leg by adding the modifier called mirror, making sure it's in the X axis, and mirroring it along the upper body as well. The legs look a little bit too big, so I'm going to make the one on the left smaller, which will make the one on the right automatically smaller. Let's go ahead and make the neck. I can do so by creating another cube, scaling it down, and moving it just above the shoulders. And now let's make the head also with a default cube. That looks pretty good. At this point, the right arm is basically a copy of the left arm, which means that whenever I do something to the left arm, it'll automatically happen to the right arm, which is not really what I want. I want them to act independently. So with the left arm selected, I'm going to go over to the mirror properties and click on the drop down icon right here and go to apply. Now they are one object. Now I need to separate the left arm from the right arm, because I want to be able to animate them independently. So with it selected, I'm going to enter my edit mode. I'm going to select the left arm, and I'm going to press P on my keyboard. It's going to ask me how I want to separate this, and I'm going to separate it by the loose parts. Now when I go back to object mode, I have independent objects. If I want to rotate this arm, for this instance, I'm going to put the pivot right here at the bottom left, and I'm going to use my 3D cursor. Now when I tell the origin of left arm to be the 3D cursor, I can make my character wave. Now using the method of piecing together objects to create a 3D character works, but let's take a look at another approach which allows for a lot more flexibility. A couple of things to keep in mind. First of all, we're going to be in edit mode most of the time, which is accessible by pressing tab on the keyboard. We will be modifying the objects, vertices, edges, and faces, which can all be accessed by these three buttons up here at the top left of the screen. I will be toggling off and on our x-ray view, which allows us to view the vertices, edges, and faces, which are not visible at the front. We'll be using a lot of the inset and extrude tools, and the new method is going to involve what is referred to as auto mirror. I'm here in edit mode, and I'm going to press N on my keyboard to reveal my numeric values palette, which appears here on the right hand side. I'm going to press on the edit tab, and you'll see there is now a flyout called auto mirror. I'm going to press on auto mirror, and you'll notice that my default cube automatically now has a cut down the middle. Let's go ahead and start constructing our 3D character. In edit mode, I'm going to go ahead and select this face right here and go to my inset tool, which is I on the keyboard, and it's creating a new face, which I'm going to resize to right about here and move it just below the shoulder. Now I'm going to extrude this to be the left arm and watch what happens over here to this side of the default cube. By pressing E on the keyboard, I'm now extruding, and it is automatically extruding the other side of the cube. Now when I do anything to the geometry on the left side of my character, it'll automatically be occurring on the right. Let's go ahead and make this arm a little bit longer and taper down here. I'm going to make this arm a little bit shorter vertically, so I'm going to go to my vertices select and activate my X-ray view. I'm going to grab these vertices and move them up just to make the arm a little bit shorter vertically. Back in edit mode, I'm going to select all and move the whole thing upward, and I'm going to start working on the legs. With the bottom face selected, I'm going to inset to create a new face and now extrude it downward. The leg looks a little bit too thick, so I'm going to narrow it from the front to the back by selecting on the front face and the back face and scale them inwards. Now my character starts taking form. I'm going to move it just above the floor, and I'm now going to add a foot. Selecting on this bottom face, I'm going to extrude it and this front face to create the front of the foot. On my side view, I'm going to go to my X-ray view and I'm going to select these vertices to bring in to make the ankle. Now we can start working on the hand simply by repeating the same process over and over again. I'm going to select the face of this left arm to create the thumb and the hand. When I extrude it, I create an area for the thumb and extrude it again for the hand. Now when I extrude this face here, I have a thumb coming out, which I can further contour to make it look more like an actual thumb. I'm going to do so simply by clicking on this edge and moving it right about there, and these are the simple methods we can use to create a basic 3D character using Blender's default cube. In the next lesson, we will learn detailed character modeling of a baby alien creature. Thank you very much for watching.

Intermediate Provider : Jay Grewall 4 Lessons · 25m in English

Course Description

In these lessons, you’ll learn to construct a 3D character with the help of Blender’s object modifiers. Starting with a low-polygon default cube, we’ll go over the basics of character modeling. Then you’ll begin creating a character with more detail by adding ears and antennae. Once the character is constructed, you’ll learn how to assign a pivot point to the left arm using the 3D cursor to make the character wave.

With that basic understanding of character modeling down, you’ll go on to model a baby alien creature, beginning with its body. Using the Inset and Extrude tools, you’ll add arms, hands, legs, and feet; then you’ll apply the Subdivision Surface modifier to create geometry and a smooth appearance. You’ll also learn how activating On Cage provides better representation of the geometry of the vertices, edges, and faces.

What You'll Learn

Model a basic low-polygon character starting from a default cube
Add defining details to characters such as ears and antennae
Assign a pivot point to the left arm using the 3D cursor to make the character wave
Model a baby alien creature using the Inset and Extrude tools to add arms, hands, legs, and feet
Apply the Subdivision Surface modifier to create geometry and a smooth appearance
Use On Cage to better represent the geometry of vertices, edges, and faces

Key Takeaways

The course builds a 3D character from a low-polygon default cube using Blender's object modifiers.
Detail is added to characters through features like ears and antennae.
A pivot point can be assigned to the left arm using the 3D cursor so the character can wave.
The Inset and Extrude tools are used to add arms, hands, legs, and feet to a baby alien creature.
The Subdivision Surface modifier creates geometry and a smooth appearance, while On Cage gives a better representation of vertices, edges, and faces.

Frequently Asked Questions

What will I learn to build in this course?

You will learn to construct a 3D character in Blender using object modifiers, starting from a low-polygon default cube and progressing to modeling a detailed baby alien creature.

Which Blender tools and modifiers does this course cover?

It covers object modifiers, the 3D cursor for assigning a pivot point, the Inset and Extrude tools for adding arms, hands, legs, and feet, the Subdivision Surface modifier, and the On Cage option for better geometry representation.

What topics do the lessons include?

The lessons include Low-Polygon Character Modeling, Detailed Character Modeling of a Baby Alien, Modeling the Head, and Adding Ears and Antennas.

What skills does this course help develop?

It helps develop skills in 3D Modeling, Blender 3D, Character Animation, Character Rigging, Character Studio, and Solid Modeling.

Is this course for beginners or more advanced learners?

This is an intermediate Blender course focused on character workflow, building on basic character modeling toward more detailed modeling such as a baby alien creature.