# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Building a House

|previous=Model a Low Poly Head|Model a Low Poly Head
}}
```
In this tutorial, you will learn how to make a simple toy-like house
with a fence around it. You will learn how to use *array modifiers* to
replicate the palings of the fence, saving you from duplicating them one
by one.

This tutorial is based on Bart Veldhuizen\'s \"Building a House\" from
Tutorial #01 published by NaN in 1999 which is also available in a PDF
at
<http://download.blender.org/documentation/BlenderTutorialGuide1.tar.gz>
(a tar.gz containing BlenderTutorialGuide1.pdf) or
<http://download.blender.org/documentation/BlenderTutorialGuide1.zip> (a
ZIP file containing the same PDF).

Permission was asked to use it and Ton Roosendaal said \"Be assured that
everything that was produced by NaN now is open and free content for
everyone to reuse, including the tutorial "Building a House".\"

## Setting the Scene

![](Blender267Split3DView.png "Blender267Split3DView.png"){width="300"}

Start a new document (). Split the
view into four views as at right, by pressing
. This gives you a standard set
of views: top, front, side and camera, the first three orthographic and
the last one in perspective. You can switch back to the single 3D view
at any time by pressing  again.

Leave the default cube, it will be the walls of the house.

## Make the Roof

![](Blender267HouseRoofCube.png "Blender267HouseRoofCube.png"){width="300"}

Ensure you are in **object** mode (
switches between object and edit mode)

Now, in the Front view window (lower left)

Press
+ to
duplicate the cube, grab mode is automatically selected, press
 to restrict the move to the up-down
axis and move the cube to rest on top of the original (pressing
 while moving will snap it to the grid
and make it easier to position accurately.) Press
 when it is in place.

You can see how useful this four-paned window is; it shows you exactly
what\'s going on.

Note: It helps to simply grab one of the arrows, press
 and then press 2 on the key pad, this
will move the block 2 units in the z direction. the standard starting
cube is 2 units tall.

![](Blender267HouseRoofCubeEdit.png "Blender267HouseRoofCubeEdit.png"){width="300"}

The top cube is going to become the roof and needs to be given a
triangular cross-section.

Select the top cube (if it is not already selected) by clicking
 on it

Press  to go into **Edit** Mode (check
the box in the middle of the 3D window header)

Press  to deselect all the vertices.

In the top view, select the top four (
the first one and  the rest). You
can check in the other views that only those four are selected.

Note: another way to do this is to have \"limit selection to visible\"
turned off, and then press the  for,
border select, and make a box around the top vertices. (it helps to view
it from one of the sides, by pressing either the 1 or 3 keys)

Another Note: Or, with \'limit selection to visible\" turned on, press
 for circle select and turn the mouse
key to make the circle large enough to enclose all four vertices before
you press .

### Make the Apex of the Roof

![](Blender267HouseRoofApex.png "Blender267HouseRoofApex.png"){width="300"}

Now press  for scaling and
 to limit the scaling to the X-axis
(left to right). You could try to move the mouse back and forth to bring
the top vertices together, but you will have a hard time lining them up
exactly, so it\'s best to just type in
(zero) followed by  to set scaling to
zero.

Now it looks like there are only 2 vertices where there were 4, but in
fact there are still 4, even though 2 of them are occupying exactly the
same positions as the other 2. With these 4 still selected, bring up the
vertex specials menu with  and select
"Remove Doubles". You should see a message briefly flash up at the top
right saying "Removed 2 vertices". Now there really are only 2 vertices
where there previously were 4.

### Form the Eaves

![](Blender267HouseRoofEaves.png "Blender267HouseRoofEaves.png"){width="300"}

The roof needs to project over the walls of the house to form the eaves.
To do this, we will scale it, but only along the X- and Y-axes, not the
Z, so it doesn't become taller.

Select all the vertices in the roof object by pressing
 once or twice.

Press  to scale, followed by
 to scale uniformly along all
axes *except* Z, and scale to about 1.1. Confirm the operation with
 or
in the usual way.

## Naming the Roof and House Objects

In a complex project with lots of objects, it can be helpful to keep
them straight by giving them names. This is less of an issue in a simple
tutorial like this one, but for practice, let's give names to your
objects anyway.

Go to the Object context
![](Blender255ObjectContextButton.png "Blender255ObjectContextButton.png")
in the Properties window, and at the top you should see an editable
field containing the name of the currently-selected object. The walls of
the house should be called "Cube", and the roof should be called
"Cube.001" (note the automatic addition of a numeric suffix to keep the
names unique). Try changing these to, say, "House" and "Roof"
respectively.

### Object Name Versus Mesh Name

If you look in the Mesh Data context
![](Blender267MeshDataContextButton.png "Blender267MeshDataContextButton.png"),
you will also see a name like "Cube" or "Cube.001". This is a separate
name for the object-type-specific data (the mesh data, in this case),
quite independent of the object name. Don't worry about this name for
now; you will learn about its significance
later.

## Colouring the House

The roof now needs to be given a different colour to the default grey.
Select the Materials Context
![](Blender255MaterialContextButton.png "Blender255MaterialContextButton.png")
in the Object Properties window. In the list at the top, you should see
a single entry, called "Material" (the name of the initial default
material). Below that is an editable field containing the name, and
immediately to its right should be a small box with the number "2" in
it. This number indicates that the same material is being used in two
places---in this case, we know the other place is the object
representing the walls of the house. Click on this "2", and that will
force a new copy of the material to be made (leaving the house walls
with the original); the number will disappear, and the material name
will change to "Material.001" to be different from the original.

![](Blender267HouseRoofMaterial.png "Blender267HouseRoofMaterial.png")

Change this material name to "RoofRed", to make it clearer what it is
for. Next, find the panel "Diffuse" further down, showing a swatch of
the diffuse (non-reflective) colour, which is initially white. Click on
this to bring up a colour picker, and choose some suitable shade of red
for the roof. (Notice that when using shades of red, the white to black
slider on the right actually creates shades of brown from the red.) As
you do this, the 3D view should instantly update to show your new colour
being applied to the roof of the house. If you want to exit the colour
picker and leave the colour unchanged, press
; otherwise, to confirm your choice,
simply move the mouse outside the picker window, and it will close,
leaving your last-chosen colour in effect.

![](Blender267HouseWallsMaterial.png "Blender267HouseWallsMaterial.png")

Follow a similar procedure to choose the colour for the house walls:
click the "House" object with  in one of
the 3D views, go to the Materials Context
![](Blender255MaterialContextButton.png "Blender255MaterialContextButton.png")
in Object Properties, change the material name from "Material" to
something more appropriate (here I'm choosing "HouseSandy" because I'm
going to give the house walls a sandy-yellow colour), click on the
colour swatch in the "Diffuse" panel and choose a suitable colour for
this material. **Noob Note:** I have found it very useful, when I
re-name anything, to type my new name in ALL CAPS. This makes it easier
for me to pick out what I have done.

![](Blender267HouseColoured.png "Blender267HouseColoured.png"){width="300"}

Your house should look like this now.

## Make a Chimney

![](Blender267HousePlusChimney.png "Blender267HousePlusChimney.png"){width="300"}

Go into Object mode, if you\'re not already in it.
( flips between object and edit mode.)

Go to the Front view (lower left window).

Click  to position the 3D cursor on the
right-hand side of the roof, this will select the spot where the chimney
will be created.

Press  to Add → Mesh → Cube from the
popup menu --- a bit large, isn\'t it?

Scale it along the X and Y (,
) to about 0.2.

Now grab it (,
) and move it into position looking at
the front view (lower left window). (Feel free to use the mouse wheel to
zoom in the view to make things easier to see.)

When this is correct, move it into position along the Y axis
(, )
looking at the top view (upper left window).

You can check the side view (lower right window) and the camera view
(upper right window) to see that it looks OK.

### Name and Colour the Chimney

In the Object context
![](Blender255ObjectContextButton.png "Blender255ObjectContextButton.png")
in the Object Properties window, change the name of the chimney object
to \"Chimney\".

Next in the Materials Context
![](Blender255MaterialContextButton.png "Blender255MaterialContextButton.png")
in the Object Properties window, you will notice there are no buttons,
and there is an icon
![](Blender267MaterialsPopupIcon.png "Blender267MaterialsPopupIcon.png"),
and next to that a button with the word \"New\" in it. You can now
choose to have the chimney a different colour to the roof or the house
or reuse one of these colours.

If you want a new colour, the \"New\" button, and it will create a new
material with a default name and settings. You can rename this and give
it an appropriate colour.

If you want to reuse the same colour, you can click on the icon
![](Blender267MaterialsPopupIcon.png "Blender267MaterialsPopupIcon.png")
and select from the available materials, namely \"RoofRed\" and
\"HouseSandy\".

## Adding a Window

### Make the Window Frame

![](Blender267HousePlusWindow.png "Blender267HousePlusWindow.png"){width="300"}

Be in Object mode.

Using the front and top views, click  to
place the 3D cursor where you want the window to go: use the top view to
place it against the front wall, and the front view to place it a little
to the left and up from the centre of the wall. (Of course, it's easy
enough to reposition the window after you've created it, so exact
initial placement is not critical.)

In the front view (lower left) add a plane:
 Mesh → Plane). This will
initially be laying flat, facing upwards instead of forwards; to fix
this, just rotate it 90° about the X-axis:

.

Scale  it down to 0.4, and press

To give it a rectangular shape, scale the plane by about 0.8 along the
X-axis
.

Move it into position (), using the top
and front view, on the left hand side of the house a little higher than
midway.

Be in the Side View window (lower right).

Move the plane along the Y-axis (,
) until it is just in front of the
house. You may want to zoom in () to see
better.

Now, still in Side View,

Switch to **Edit** mode ()

Extrude the plane towards the house (,
-0.07) until it is embedded in the wall.

### Make the Window Sill

!Box-select in
progress
To make this box into a window frame will require a larger view: move
the mouse into the Side View window and zoom in with the mouse wheel.

Deselect all () and select the outer
(leftmost in the right view) vertices using box select
().

![](Blender267HouseExtrudeWindowFrame.png "Blender267HouseExtrudeWindowFrame.png")
Press  and immediately (without moving
the mouse) press . This will extrude,
but leave the newly-created vertices on top of the previous ones.

Scale the newly created vertices by 0.9
(

).

![](Blender267HouseExtrudeWindowFrame2.png "Blender267HouseExtrudeWindowFrame2.png")
Extrude again inwards to most of the depth of the box about -.03 to -.05
along the Y axis, depending on how you have your window into the
wall(,
, -.03,
).

This screenshot shows a side view in wireframe mode (use
 to switch wireframe mode on and off).

### Name and Colour the Window Frame Object

Change the name of the window object, as you previously did for the rest
of the house pieces. It will be initially called "Plane" (because that
is the kind of mesh object you started with); change it to
"WindowFrame". Also give it a new material, and make it white. Change
the material name to "WindowFrame".

### Make the Window Glass

The glass of the window has to have a different material from the frame.
There are two ways to achieve this: make them separate objects, or make
them the same object, with different materials assigned to different
faces. We will do the latter.

![](Blender267HouseGlassMaterial.png "Blender267HouseGlassMaterial.png")
Deselect all ()

Be in **Edit** mode .

Switch into **Face** select mode (
-\> faces) select mode (you\'ve been in **Vertex** select mode up to
now)

on the face in the center of the window frame, to select it.

In the Materials Context, click the \"+\" button next to the list of
materials, and where that was previously showing just the "WindowFrame"
material, you should see a new blank item appear. The rest of the window
will go blank, but the "New" button will appear; click this to create a
new material. Give it a colour reminiscent of glass; I chose to colour
it light blue ("87ceeb" SkyBlue).

Now to connect the new material to just that one face, press the Assign
button just under the material list.

![](Blender267HouseWindowGlassColour.png "Blender267HouseWindowGlassColour.png")

Note: If you do decide to make the windows with real glass material, as
explained in previous lessons, make sure you use the materials on both
faces in the front and back of the window. Also use loop cuts or knife
to cut out a hole in the wall in place of the window. And add a point
light inside the house.

## Adding a Door

![](Blender268HousePlusDoor.png "Blender268HousePlusDoor.png"){width="300"}
Add the door using the same method:

Be in Object mode

Deselect all,

Create a plane, rotating it to face forward as necessary
(

) to align it with the front wall of
the house.

Scale the plane down by .7 and then again by .5 along the X axis.

Move it into position using Front view and then move it against the wall
of the house in Side view.

Change the Object name to "Door". Create a new material for it; change
the material's name to "Door" and choose an appropriate colour for it.

## Building the Fence

The fence will consist of long sequences of identical palings. Creating
them one by one would be a long, tedious process---which is something
the computer, not a human, should do, right? In fact, even creating just
*one* paling and making duplicate copies would be a long, tedious
process. Which is where the magic of modifiers comes in.

Blender's *array modifier* lets you make any number of copies of a
single object, all neatly arranged in a row or in various other ways.
Being a modifier, the copying only happens at render time, so there is
still only a single object to edit while modelling: change that, and the
change is automatically propagated to all the copies.

### Make a Paling

200px\|right
Be in object mode, with nothing else selected.

Add a plane, orient it vertically (
 90 ),
scaled to 0.4 and then 0.1 along the X axis in Front view.

200px\|right
Switch to edit mode. Ensure you are in **vertex** select mode
(+ -\>
\"vertex\"), in case you were still in face-select mode from making the
window (above).

To give it some thickness, go into Side view and extrude it to 0.05.

200px\|right
The pointed top is made by going back into Front view,

Selecting the top vertices and extruding them by 0.07 (along the Z axis
is selected automatically),

200px\|right
Scaling them to 0 along the X axis and then removing the doubled
vertices (, \"Remove Doubles\": it
should say \"Removed 2 vertices\").

In Top view move the paling to the intersection of two grid lines at a
suitable distance from the house.

In Front view again, check that the bottom of the paling is level with
the bottom of the house.

Change the name of the object and the mesh to \"Paling\", create a new
material for it called \"Paling\" and make the colour white.

### Duplicate the Paling

![](Blender267HouseAddingArrayModifier.png "Blender267HouseAddingArrayModifier.png"){width="300"}

Be in Front view, as the flat face of the paling is along the X axis and
it is easier to create the front fence first.

Change to Object mode. Select the paling. Find the Modifiers Context
![](Blender255ObjectModifiersContextButton.png "Blender255ObjectModifiersContextButton.png")
in the Object Properties window. Click the "Add Modifier" button, and in
the menu that pops up, select "Array". You should see a second copy of
the paling appear next to the first.

![](Blender267HouseArrayModifier.png "Blender267HouseArrayModifier.png")

Look at the checkboxes: "Relative Offset" should be checked, "Constant
Offset" and "Object Offset" should *not* be checked. Under "Relative
Offset", there are values for X, Y and Z; these are the distances
between copies, relative to the dimensions of the object. Change the X
value to something like -2 (the negative value causes the duplicated
paling to appear on the other side, away from the gap we want to leave
in front of the door). Now increase the number under the popup that says
"Fixed Count", and watch the line of duplicates lengthen until it
reaches the point that you want to be the corner of the fence line---a
count of about 12 did it for me.

![](Blender267HouseFencePalings2.png "Blender267HouseFencePalings2.png"){width="300"}
Now type  to make a duplicate of
the row of palings, followed by  to
constrain its movement to the X-axis (parallel to the row of palings).
Move the duplicate row to the end of the existing row so it looks like a
continuation of it. Now type
 -90
to rotate it so it lies parallel to the side of the house. Increase the
array count for this row to something like 24 so it extends all the way
past the side of the house to a suitable corner point.

![](Blender267HouseFencePalings3.png "Blender267HouseFencePalings3.png"){width="300"}
Again, type  to duplicate this
second row, this time followed by  to
constrain its movement parallel to the side of the house. Move the
duplicate so its looks like a continuation of the same row. Rotate it
parallel to the back of the house by typing
  -90
. Adjust its array count as necessary
to get the right length.

![](Blender267HouseFencePalings4.png "Blender267HouseFencePalings4.png"){width="300"}
Once more, type  to duplicate this
third row, followed by  to constrain
its movement parallel to the back of the house. Move the duplicate to
the end of the row, and rotate it to be parallel to the side of the
house with
 -90
. Give it the same count you did to
the array on the other side, so its length will be the same.

![](Blender267HouseFencePalings5.png "Blender267HouseFencePalings5.png"){width="300"}
One last time:  to duplicate,
 to ensure it only moves parallel to
the side of the house, move to the end of the row, rotate into position
with
-90 . You'll probably find it's so
long it runs into the original row of palings you started with on the
other side of the front of the house; reduce its array count to
something like 8 and you should end up with a nice gap in front of the
door.

**Noob Note:** I encountered a problem when rendering the fence. It
became grainy, and when I say grainy, there are random clusters of black
all over every rendered post. Some had few of this \'grain\' while
others were almost black. I have environment lighting at 1 and it\'s
still goofed up. Would this be due to hand-sizing them instead of
putting in all of the above values?

**Noob Answer:** I don\'t think hand sizing would make any difference.
The first thing I would do is go back into edit mode on the original
paling and select all vertices. Then I would hit \'W\' and click remove
doubles. After that, recalculate the normals by holding \'Ctrl\' and
hitting \'N\'. Those operations typically fix common rendering issues
for me, hopefully it will work for you too.

**`Alternate Noob Solution:`**` I encountered this problem and it turns out it is caused by having more than one copy of the fence in the exact same place. Try moving the affected fence pieces, to find the duplicate then delete it. Remove doubles did not work for my instance of the problem.`

### Make the Horizontal Bars (Left Side)

![](Blender267HouseFenceHoriz1.png "Blender267HouseFenceHoriz1.png"){width="300"}
The fence needs horizontal bars to hold the palings in place: be in
Front view

below the middle of the left-hand fence.

Create a plane, rotating it to the vertical as necessary
(  90
) and scale it to the length of the
fence.

Scale it again to 0.05 along the Z axis and move it into position. ( if
you keep  pressed while you move it, it
will snap to the grid.)

Go into Edit mode ()

In Side view move it so it is against the back of the fence and extrude
it by -0.04 along the Y axis.

Go into Object mode (). Give the
horizontal bar the same material you previously created for the palings.

Duplicate it () and move it
(keeping  pressed) along the Z axis
() to make the bottom bar.

### Make the Horizontal Bars (Right Side)

![](Blender267HouseFenceHoriz2.png "Blender267HouseFenceHoriz2.png"){width="300"}
To make the bars on the right-hand part of the fence: In Front view,
select *both* the horizontal bars you just created:
 on one, then
 on the other (you may need to
zoom in to be able to select them without accidentally including the
rest of the fence). Duplicate them with
. Move your duplicates along the
X-axis  until they are horizontally
centred around middle of the right-hand fence; now scale them
horizontally
 until they are the right size.

You could have done the bars one by one, but it's quicker to do them
both at once, don't you think?

### Put the Horizontal Bars Around The House

Select the two horizontal bars you created above for the front fence
(make sure you don't select anything else, like the palings). Press
+ to
make a duplicate, then
 to rotate the duplicate about the Z-axis,
type 90 for the angle and press  to
confirm the rotation. In the top view, move the duplicate
() you just made so it's against the side
fence. Keep scaling it along the Y-axis (
) and/or moving it along the Y-axis
( ) until
it's the right length and position.

Having done the side of the house, press
+ to
make another duplicate of the horizontal bars, and
  90
 to rotate it into the right alignment
for the back fence. In the top view, move
() it against the palings. Now keep
scaling and moving it along the X-axis until it has the right length and
position.

Having done the back of the house, do the other side: another duplicate
of the bars, rotate 90° around the Z-axis, move against the palings,
move and scale until they're the proper length in the right position.

Again, another duplicate, rotate and move/scale into position against
the palings on the other side of the front of the house.

![](fence-complete.png "fence-complete.png"){width="400"}

Your house should now look like this.

## The Ground Plane and a Path

![](house-complete.png "house-complete.png"){width="400"}

### Make the Ground

In Top view put the 3D cursor somewhere near the middle of the plot,
(click )

Create a plane

Be in camera view (bottom right-hand window)

Scale it to extend just past the boundaries of what the camera sees
(10.0 seems a good number).

Go back into Object mode and change its (object, mesh) name to
\"Ground\",

create a new material for it, rename it \"Grass\" and select a suitable
green from the colour selector (\"00cd00\" green3).

Check in Front view that it is level with the bottom of the house and
fence and move it (along the Z axis) if necessary.

### Make the Path

![](Blender267HousePath1.png "Blender267HousePath1.png"){width="300"}
For the path: Go into Top view, create a plane.

Scale it to fit the gap in the front fence with some space on either
side and position it just outside the fence.

Check, in Front view, that it lines up with the door and is level with
the bottom of the house.

Scale it along the X axis to the same width as the door.

![](Blender267HousePath2.png "Blender267HousePath2.png"){width="300"} Be
in Top view, Select the two vertices closest to the fence, and extrude
 away from the house
 to make a suitable width for the footpath
outside the fence.

![](Blender267HousePath4.png "Blender267HousePath4.png"){width="300"} Of
those four vertices just outside the fence, select the left two and
extrude a suitable distance to the left, and then the right two and
extrude a suitable distance to the right, to make the path passing the
house.

### Give the Path Some Thickness

The path is still just a flat plane. Let's give it some thickness, so it
rises slightly above the ground.

Go to Object mode. Make sure the path is still selected. Go to the
Modifiers Context
![](Blender255ObjectModifiersContextButton.png "Blender255ObjectModifiersContextButton.png"),
click Add Modifiers, and look for Solidify. The default thickness (the
top-left editable field) is 0.01; change this to -0.01 so the path
protrudes above the ground rather than into it.

## Improve the Lighting

![](Blender267HouseLighting.png "Blender267HouseLighting.png"){width="300"}
If you were to try to render now, you will probably find that most of
your beautiful house is lost in gloomy shadow. To fix this, let's add a
bit more light to the scene.

In the top view, find the existing default Lamp object. Duplicate it a
couple of times, and position your copies around the house to give it a
more even lighting.

## Check the Camera View

![](Blender267HouseCameraView.png "Blender267HouseCameraView.png"){width="300"}
Before doing the render, check your camera is properly positioned to
capture the beauty of your work. In the camera view (top-right quadrant
of the split view), you should see something like this; note the
*passepartout* (darkened area) outside the rectangle denoting the
visible area of the scene that will be rendered. If you
 on the rectangle, you can reposition
the camera from side to side or up and down with
, or do
  to move it
closer to or further away from the scene.

**Pro tip :** To adjust camera view, select camera view by
, then  +
 to enter \"Fly\" mode. Then, use FPS
control to move the camera (WASD keys to move around, mouse to change
direction and  or
 to acsend or decsend.

## Final Render

Now hit , and hopefully you should see
something like this!

500px


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Pipe joints

|previous=Building a House|Building a House
}}
```
How to model pipe joints.

## T joint

Start in top view, and delete the cube.

!**Figure 1:** Modeling a simple T
joint.{width="150"}

-   Add a cylinder object (*Add-\>Mesh-\>Cylinder*)
-   16 Vertices, Depth 4, Cap Fill Type *Nothing* (For recent versions
    of Blender create the cylinder then press F6 to get these options)
-   Switch to front view (*View-\>Front* or
    ).

The X axis now points to the right. We will work along the X axis from
now on.

-   Change to Edit mode ().
-   Create a Loop Cut in the middle of the cylinder
    ().

Make sure that the 3D cursor is placed in the middle of the cylinder
()

-   Switch to right view ()
-   Box select () the 7 vertices at the
    front

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
-   Rip the mesh with .

Tap on *Proportional editing* and set it to *connected*
, and select *Falloff Type* to *inverse
square* .

-   There will be 7 overlapping vertex pairs: 7 vertices linked to the
    top half of the tube, and 7 vertices linked to the bottom half of
    the tube.
-   Either the upper middle vertex or the lower middle vertex should be
    selected. Depending on which set of vertices is now selected you
    will need to grab at the Z-axis by 1 (upper) or -1 (lower)

    make the circle that indicates how round your hole will be larger
    \'till you get a beautiful half circle.
-   Once you have grabbed the first, deselect
    (), then select the other middle
    vertex
-   grab at the Z-axis the selected vertex by +/- 1 BU. The pipe should
    now be straight again thanks to the rotations.

Set \"proportional editing\" off

-   Box select  the vertices of the gap
    and extrude \"edges\"  along the X
    axis.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
-   *Pivot -\> Median Point* (**CTRL+,KEY**)
-   To flatten the front: scale at the X axis by factor 0.
    ().

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
-   Add the *Subsurf* modifier in combination with *Set Smooth*,
    *LoopCuts*,
-   Use *Edge Crease* to get a nice transition. In *Edge Select Mode*
    select the edges around press
     and move the mouse until
    you\'re done.

## Six-cylinder joint

!**Figure 2:** 6 cylinder
joint{width="200"}
Be in Object mode (have nothing else selected)

Add a cube.

Switch to Edit mode

-   (**1**)

    :   Select all , then Subdivide the
        cube once (,
        ),
    :   Select the 12 vertices in the middle of the cube\'s edges.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
-   (**2**)

    :   Scale by factor 1.4142 (press
        and type in the factor with the keypad) .

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
-   (**3**)

    :   Select all vertices, and Extrude \"Individual Faces\"
        ( -\> individual faces),
    :   Select all vertices,  and
        *Remove Doubles*.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
-   (**4**)

    :   Select the center vertex of each tube, and delete them
        () to open the ends.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
-   (**5**)

    :   Select the original vertices in the middle of the object and
        delete them.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
-   (**6**)

    :   Clean your mesh as described above.

## Three-cylinder joint

!**Figure 3:** 3 cylinder
joint{width="201"}
This is very similar to above, only the selection for scaling is
different.

-   Select the middle vertices at the edges where the cylinders shall
    come from. Additionally select the middle vertices at the faces that
    shall be kept free. You have to select 12+3=15 vertices.
-   Scale your selection by 1.4142.
-   Select the faces that shall be extruded.
-   *Extrude-\>Individual Faces* (**5**)
-   Select all, then *Remove Doubles*.
-   Delete the inner vertices (**6**, **7**).
-   Select 3 vertices (which were middle of faces that were kept free)
    and 1 corner vertex in middle of the free faces (**8**).
-   Make sure your 3D cursor is at the origin (and that you added the
    cube at the origin)

and switch to 3D Cursor Pivot (**.KEY** in v2.49b), then scale
(**SKEY**), and type in 0.7071 (inverse of square root of 2, or Sin(45
degrees) or Cos(45 degrees)) and **ENTER** (**9**).

-   Make sure you switch back to Median Point Pivot (**SHIFT**+**,KEY**)
    to straighten out pipe ends (**10**).

Clean your mesh as described above.

If your joint looks odd, it might be because of some edges in the mesh.
Delete those by selecting it and delete (**XKEY**) edges (not vertices).

## T-joint with smaller diameter

framed\|**Figure 4a:** Basic structure for a T joint with a smaller
diameter
framed\|**Figure 4b:** The
result We\'re
going to create a structure like in **Fig. 4a** and extrude the inner
circle. To do that we place a circle with *Retopo* (\"Snap during
transform\") on the cylinder and join both objects afterwards.

-   *Add-\>Mesh-\>Cylinder*
    -   8 vertices (of course you can use more vertices if you like)
    -   *No Caps*
    -   *Depth 4*
    -   **Noob note:** *More vertices in your cylinder will mean more
        intuitive work and figuring \[more loop cuts, face making,
        etc.\] later on when retopo-ing. First, follow the tutorial,
        then try to do a more advanced model with more faces / vertices
        when you understand the tool. If you have trouble getting really
        nice geometry, do a search for some tutorial videos. There are
        many really helpful ones.*
-   *Add-\>Mesh-\>Circle* (**Noob note:** *To make sure you create these
    as separate objects, be in Object Mode (not Edit Mode).*)
    -   8 vertices
    -   *No fill*
-   Rotate the circle by 90° at the Y axis (**R**-\>**Y**-\>**90**).
-   Move the circle in front of the cylinder(**G**-\>**X**-\>**2**).
-   Switch to side view (**Num-3**).
-   Scale the circle to the diameter of the smaller cylinder.

(**Noob note:** *I felt this was a little unclear. What the author means
is, scale the circle down until it is the size of the diameter of the
smaller cylinder you are going to create from it later by extrusion.
Scale it so it fits (straight backwards from view) inside the two
closest faces of the cylinder as per **Fig. 4a** if you wish to follow
the tutorial.*)

-   Switch to edit mode, select all vertices of the circle.

(**Noob note:** *To recap: you should be in edit mode for the circle,
with the all of it selected, with the cylinder object directly behind it
in from your viewpoint in orthographic mode.)* Make sure that you don\'t
work in *Wireframe* view.

-   Click on *Snap during transform*, that is the icon of the magnet in
    the 3D view header, select \"Face\" and after that a third box will
    appear, select there \"closest\". After that, push: \"num3\" and
    then \"G key\" and reposition it a little. After that you will see
    it lies perfectly around the cylinder.

(**Noob note:** *What \"retopo\" (Snap during transform) does \[in this
case\]; is project the selected topography of an object in edit mode
directly backwards from your selected view point onto the topography of
another \[separate\] object. So you must be lined up view-wise for this
to work. It is necessary to press the **Enter key** for the \"Snap
during transform\" to take effect even if I\'ve selected it with the
**LMB***.)

If the vertices of the circle are not adjacent to the cylinder but have
jumped to wrong places undo the last step (**Ctrl-Z**), deselect and
reselect all vertices and try again. This does help (strangely). *Snap
during transform* works with limited accuracy, if the vertices don\'t
fit perfectly you have to move them by hand.

-   Change to object mode, select additionally the cylinder and join
    both objects (**Ctrl-J**).

Now you work best in *Wireframe* view.

-   Add three loop cuts (**Ctrl-R**-\>**3**)
-   Delete the middle vertex.
-   Connect the free vertices (**F**).
-   Select the circle.
-   Extrude and clean up.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Lighting Suzanne: Introductory one lamp lighting

|previous=Pipe joints|Pipe joints
}}
```
# Lighting Suzanne: Introductory one lamp lighting

If you have followed all these tutorials you now have quite a library of
images: A simple figure with a hat, a penguin, a volcano, a jeep and
several goblets, not to mention dice, a head and a house! To show them
off to best effect, you need to experiment with lighting.

**Lighting** is a complex subject, as any photographer can tell you.
Blender allows many different arrangements and numbers of lamps to be
used in combination to light your image. For this introductory tutorial,
let us consider single lamp lighting and do some experiments to see how
it works. (In later sections more complicated lighting is covered:
Lighting
Rigs.)

\_\_TOC\_\_

## Suzanne, Our Star

We need an object to light. Who better than Blender\'s favorite resident
simian, Suzanne! Open the default startup page. Delete
 the default cube. Be sure the 3D
cursor is at the origin. Add a plane. *Add\>Mesh\>Plane*, scale it up
nice and large
,
and in the Properties panel (which by default is the lower right panel)
add a material
![](Blender255MaterialContextButton.png "Blender255MaterialContextButton.png")
color such as light blue that will render well. In that same panel be
sure that under SHADOW the Receive box is checked.

Now Add Suzanne, the famous monkey. *Add\>Mesh\>Monkey*. Move her up
about 1.5 Blender units so she is above the plane but close to it.
.
Rotate her around the Z axis so she is facing the Right View.
.
Add a material
![](_Blender255MaterialContextButton.png "_Blender255MaterialContextButton.png")
color such as red (red is my favorite color).

## The default light

!300 px\|Default Quad
view!300 px\|First
Render Now lets change to
the Quad view, which you should refer to extensively throughout this
tutorial. Press

to bring up this view. You now have the TOP, FRONT and RIGHT ORTHO
views. In the top right you will see your camera view. Suzanne should be
seen in 3/4 profile just above the plane. If not, rotate and scroll in
or out until she is. Then I suggest you bring up the object panel
, scroll down to View and put a check
next to Lock Camera To View.

In the outline panel, select Lamp. You will see the default lamp
position. In Ortho Quad view, we can see that the default lamp is up, in
front of and slightly to the right of Suzanne as she now faces. If you
don\'t see it, scroll out in each view window until the lamp shows up as
a point with a double dashed circle around it.

When your screen looks like the screenshot, render for the first time to
get a good image of Suzanne and her shadow.

## Types of lamps

Lamp should still be selected in the Outline panel. In the Properties
panel, click the
![](Blender-2.5_lamp_radio_button.png "Blender-2.5_lamp_radio_button.png")
button to see the properties of the light. The default lamp is a POINT
lamp with ENERGY 1.000. Let\'s experiment with those settings. First,
click in turn each of the different kinds of lamp, SUN, SPOT, HEMI and
AREA, and render after each one. You can see that each of the light
types has its own characteristics. With the light in the default
position, your images should look like this:

!800 px\|Comparison of light
types.

### Point lamp

This is the default type. The light rays are assumed to originate in a
single point and spread from there. At the default value of ENERGY 1.000
is not very bright and covers a limited area. It casts a good sharp
shadow. Point is the basic general purpose lighting in Blender. Advanced
lighting rigs will frequently use several point lights with different
settings.

### Sun

The sun is assumed to be infinitely high in the sky so its rays are all
parallel. It puts out a bright light and casts heavy shadows. It is the
lighting type of choice for outdoor scenes but can also be used to good
effect indoor.

### Spot

The Spot lamp behaves very much like a theatrical spotlight (DUH). It
casts a limited circle of light. Within the circle it is bright and
casts a heavy shadow, but outside the circle all is dark. (Note: Under
the Shadow setting, the Spot lamp is the only one that can cast a Buffer
shadow. The distinction is subtle but important in some more advanced
applications.)

### Hemi

The Hemi lamp resembles lights photographers choose for indoor shots. It
is the only kind of light that does not cast shadows. It gives a very
bright lighting that is relatively even over the entire picture.

### Area

This light behaves more like a flood light, as if the area is flooded
with it. It is extremely bright and casts a very heavy shadow.

## Light Energy

Each type of light has its own brightness. This is controlled mostly by
the ENERGY setting of the light. Obviously less energy reduces the
amount of light, more energy increases it. Still in the Properties
panel, try different settings for ENERGY and see how it affects the
image.

Begin with energy increased to 2.000. Render each type of lamp. We can
see that reacts differently to the energy settings. Area is almost too
bright at Energy 2.000, while Point and Spot are just reaching nice
bright levels. Sun is \... Sun. Remember that it is infinitely far away
and its rays are parallel. Little changes with the Sun. Now reduce
energy to 0.300 and render each type of lamp. Point and spot at these
settings are way too dim, while Area becomes a very useable setting.

!800 px\|Lighting varying energy
settings

## Distance and Height

The distance of the lamp also affects brightness and its position
affects several things, particularly including the shadows. In the quad
view, grab the default lamp and raise it up quite high, say to Z=25. The
light falls off with distance, so point becomes very dark. The spot area
increases with distance so the circle in the spot example is now quite
large. The Sun \... well, the sun was infinitely far away already,
remember? The shadow cast by the sun does not change, and hemi still
casts no shadow. But the shadow cast by the other three lights moves
considerably and is now almost directly under Suzanne.

Lower the lamp to Z=3, placing it almost directly at a level with the
subject. Both the distance and the angle of light change. The brightness
increases, the size of the spot circle shrinks, and now the shadow is
long and far behind the subject, except, of course, for the Sun which
remains infinitely far away and casts parallel rays.

!800 px\|Effects of height on
lighting

## Rotation

!400 px\|Effects of Rotation on
lighting

The last setting we will consider in this lesson is Rotation. The Point
light cannot be rotated since it is equal in all directions. Each of the
others reacts differently to being rotated.

The Sun finally shows a different effect when rotated. I am not sure how
Blender interprets the difference between location and rotation for the
Sun. It seems rather counter intuitive. The sun when rotated seems to me
to behave as if it has been moved. But in any case you can see that the
shadow and the lighting show a distinct difference.

The Spot behaves very much like a real spotlight. Its circle of light
moves with the rotation and frames whatever it is pointed at.

The Hemi lamp also finally shows a bit of difference. Even pointing it
entirely way from the subject still lets light leak through it and give
that same shadowless flat lighting.

The Area lamp has its characteristic brightness over a large field, and
then suddenly cuts off in to total blackness. The contrast is very
striking.

## Experiment!

You can experiment with other placements of the light, and see the
effects on the illumination and the shadow. There is an almost infinite
variety of ways to light a Blender image, and this is just with a single
lamp. Multiple lamp setups increase the variety many fold as will be
seen in the Advanced portion of this tutorial.

## Note on Transparency

thumb\|left\|300 px\|Where does that shadow come
from?thumb\|right\|300
px\|Plane Shadows set to Receive
Transparency A special case of
lighting is transparent objects. What sort of a shadow do transparent
objects cast? You can try an experiment. Click on Suzanne to select her.
Now in the Material panel
![](_Blender255MaterialContextButton.png "_Blender255MaterialContextButton.png")
scroll down to Transparency and put a check in the box. Just below that
is the Alpha setting, which controls the amount of transparency, with
1.000 being fully opaque and 0.000 being completely transparent to the
point of invisibility. Lets try setting it to 0.200 for an almost glassy
effect. Render your view, and then ask yourself, why does this glassy
object still cast a thick black shadow in the render?

The answer is not in Suzanne, but in the settings for the plane which is
her background. Recall that we checked Receive under shadows for that
plane. But go back to the properties panel for the plane, and notice
that there is another check box under Shadows that says Receive
Transparent. By default, to save rendering time, Blender assumes that
all objects block light equally. Only if that box is checked does it
make a check for transparency in the object casting the shadow. Now
render your view and you will see that the shadow is suitably glassy.

Experiment with this one. Try different types of lamp (Area is so strong
that transparent objects effectively disappear) and different values for
the alpha setting. You might want to remove the color material from
Suzanne and see what effect that has.

## Note on World Lighting

It is not absolutely necessary to use any lamp source. In the World
panel
![](Blender255WorldContextButton.png "Blender255WorldContextButton.png")
you will find several lighting settings that simply produce light
throughout the scene without any particular source. Experiment with
Environment Lighting and Indirect Lighting and see the effects they
produce.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Curve and Path Modeling

|nextText=Intro to Bézier Curves
|previous=Lighting Suzanne: Introductory one lamp lighting
}}
```
## Why Use Curves?

You've learned how versatile mesh objects can be, and how they can
easily produce flat surfaces with sharp edges and even give a convincing
representation of curved surfaces with rounder edges. So why do we need
a separate kind of curve object at all?

There are important reasons.

-   The various kinds of curves and surfaces/patches (Bézier, NURBS etc)
    were used in computer graphics before meshes were developed. In the
    days when memory was more expensive, they offered a more compact way
    to represent complex shapes. Even now, they are still common in CAD
    and other technically-oriented graphics applications, where they
    make it easy to precisely specify the shape of a curve. Thus, if you
    are importing data from such applications, you will need the ability
    to represent such curves---even if you end up converting them to
    meshes before applying materials and textures for rendering.
-   You can use curves as guides for shaping meshes. This makes it
    easier to construct certain kinds of complicated curved shapes.
    Particularly since it is simpler to make changes to the curve (with
    fewer control points), than after it has been converted to a mesh.
    To this end, Blender defines *scaling radius* and *tilt angle*
    settings for curve control points, which make no difference to the
    appearance of the curve itself, but have an effect when it is used
    to deform another shape.

## Bézier Versus NURBS

In the following pages, you will come across two kinds of
curves/patches.

*Bézier* objects only occur in Blender as curves, while *NURBS*
("**N**on-**U**niform **R**ational **B**-**S**pline) objects can be
curves or surfaces. If you've used 2D drawing programs like Inkscape or
Adobe Illustrator, you would have come across Bézier curves before.
NURBS curves are a mathematical generalization of these, which are
heavily used in CAD applications. Unlike Bézier curves, NURBS curves
allow the specification of a variable *weight* for each control point,
which governs how closely the curve passes to that point.

## More Than You Wanted To Know About Curves

As usual, Wikipedia has the lowdown on all the interesting trivia about

-   Bézier curves
-   NURBS curves


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Intro to Bezier Curves

Note: Some pictures are outdated.

## Bézier Curves

!It should look like
this.{width="300"}

-   First start a new Blender project, and delete the default cube.
-   Press:  → Curve → Bezier to
    create a new curve. Switch to top view
     for a clearer look. You may want
    to zoom in a bit as well.  into Edit
    mode.

The black line with the extra angled lines like centipede legs coming
off it is the Bézier curve. The white or orange dots are the *control
points*, with the ones in the middles of the pink handle lines defining
the endpoints of the curve segment.

Press  to deselect the selection, so
that all the control points turn black, and the lines connecting them
turn red. You can  on any point to
select it; however, selecting a curve endpoint selects the entire handle
line passing through it.

You can move a selected point in the usual way, with
: note how moving an endpoint causes
the curve to bend so it always connects to the endpoint. Moving just a
point at the end of a control handle affects the inner part of the
curve, making it bend more or less sharply away from the endpoint: try
moving one of these points around, and note how the handle gets longer
or shorter, and automatically rotates as necessary to remain a single
straight line.

Alternatively, you can select an endpoint (which selects the entire
control handle, remember) and use  to
rotate the handle, and  to make it
longer or shorter.

### Resolution

![](Blender267CurveDataContextBezier3D.png "Blender267CurveDataContextBezier3D.png")
In the Curve Context
![](Blender267CurveDataContextButton.png "Blender267CurveDataContextButton.png")
in the Properties window, further down you will see the Active Spline
panel. (This is only visible in Edit mode.) Note the editable field next
to the label "Resolution:", probably showing "U: 12". That number
governs the number of straight-line segments that the curve is converted
into for rendering purposes; the more of these, the smoother the result,
but it will add a bit to the render time.

This resolution setting is also used when converting the curve to a mesh
().

### Extending Your Curve

So far your Bézier curve only has one segment. You can add segments in
several different ways:

-   Back in EDIT mode,  on an endpoint
    at either end of the whole curve, and use
     to extend a new curve segment
    connected to the same endpoint. (We won't say "extrude", to avoid
    confusion with a different extrusion function discussed further
    down.)

-       on an endpoint at either end of the whole curve, and
     where the endpoint of the new
    segment will go; the new segment will immediately be added between
    the previous endpoint and the new one.

-   Select the endpoints of a single curve segment, press
     and choose "Subdivide" from the
    menu. This splits the curve segment into two new connected segments.

Note that if you  when the
selection is not precisely one endpoint of the whole curve, it will add
a new handle that is not connected to any part of the existing curve.
You can extend from this handle to create a whole set of new curve
segments that are still part of the same curve object, even though there
are no lines running between this piece of curve and the previous one.
You can join two separate pieces of the curve with a new segment by
selecting an endpoint of each and pressing
.

You can also add new pieces with
in Edit mode.

### Removing Points and Segments

You can delete any control points by selecting them and using the
familiar  or
. The menu that pops up asks you if you
want to remove the "Selected" points, the "Segment", or "All".

-   "Selected" removes all points that are part of the same handle(s) as
    the selected point(s). Removing an endpoint of a curve piece removes
    the connected segment. Removing an interior endpoint causes the
    replacement of the curve segments on either side of it with a new
    one running directly between their remaining endpoints. Thus, the
    curve piece of which that segment was a part remains a single curve
    piece afterwards.
-   "Segment" removes a segment between two connected endpoints. If
    neither endpoint was an endpoint of the curve piece, then the
    remainder of that piece of the curve becomes two disconnected
    pieces.
-   "All" removes *all* of the control points, leaving an empty curve
    object!

### Handle Types

So far, all the handles on your curve have been *aligned*. This means
that adjacent curve segments are guaranteed to join smoothly. If you
select a control point and press , you
will get a menu allowing you to set other types for the handle:

-   *Free* means the two parts of the handle on either side of the
    endpoint are free to rotate independently, so the two curve segments
    can now meet at a corner.
-   *Vector* means the selected part of the handle points at the other
    endpoint of the same curve segment, and will keep pointing that way
    even if you move either endpoint. If you set the part of the handle
    from the other endpoint pointing back this way to "Vector" as well,
    then the curve segment becomes a straight line. However, as soon as
    you explicitly move the handle itself, it reverts to being "free".
-   *Automatic* is like "aligned", except Blender will automatically
    adjust the orientation of the handles as you move the endpoints, to
    try to keep the curve smooth. Moving either end of the handle will
    change it back to "aligned" type.

### 2D Versus 3D

At the top of the Shape panel in the Curve Context
![](Blender267CurveDataContextButton.png "Blender267CurveDataContextButton.png")
in the Properties window, you will see buttons labelled "2D" and "3D".
"2D" means the points of the curve are constrained to lie in a single
plane, while "3D" means they are free to be located anywhere in 3D space
relative to each other. Initially "3D" should be selected.

Try moving one point along the Z axis. Now click the "2D" button, and
you should see all the points you moved snap back into the same plane as
the rest. Also the "centipede legs" along the curve should have
disappeared (their presence indicates a 3D curve). You can alter the
orientation of this plane by bing into
Object mode and then rotating  the
whole curve about any desired axis.

### Closing, Filling and Extruding

Each curve piece can be individually *closed*, meaning that an extra
curve segment is automatically added between the two endpoints of the
piece. This is governed by the "Cyclic: U" checkbox in the Active Spline
panel in the Curve Context
![](Blender267CurveDataContextButton.png "Blender267CurveDataContextButton.png").
Each closed piece of a 2D curve is automatically filled to form a flat
surface.

The curve can also be *extruded* into the third dimension, effectively
turning it into a ribbon-like shape. Look for the "Extrude:" editable
field in the Geometry panel, and put a nonzero value into that to
specify the extrude width.

If you extrude a 2D closed curve, the flat surface becomes a solid
object, and the result is a *prism*---a solid shape with a uniform, but
arbitrarily complicated, cross-section.

### Scaling and Tilting

Turn your curve into a ribbon by specifying a nonzero Extrude value.
Change your view so it is not exactly from the top or bottom, but at
some angle. Notice how the ribbon is of constant width and always
perpendicular to the plane of your curve.

Select an endpoint, and press . As
you move the mouse, you are changing the *radius* of the endpoint from
its default 1.0 value, and this causes a corresponding scale factor to
be applied to the width of the ribbon at that point. You can see (and
also edit) this radius value in the Properties Shelf
, in the Transform panel at the top.

With an endpoint selected, now try
 (**Note:** This only has an
effect with 3D curves, not 2D ones). Now as you move the mouse, you are
applying a *tilt angle*, which correspondingly alters the angle of the
ribbon at that point. This value is also accessible in the Transform
panel in the Properties Shelf.

The scale radius and tilt become particularly useful when you apply a
*bevel shape* to the curve---then you will start to get much more
complicated shapes than simple ribbons.

## NURBS Curves

![](Blender267NURBSPointTransform.png "Blender267NURBSPointTransform.png")
Start a new Blender document, and get rid of the default cube.

This time, do  → Curve → Nurbs
Curve, and  into Edit mode. The result
looks a bit similar to a Bézier, except there are no control handles,
only the segment endpoints. Instead of dragging handles, you can adjust
a weighting assigned to each control point. Bring up the Properties
Shelf with  if it is not already
visible. If you have a single point selected, in the Transform panel at
the top, you should see four editable fields under the heading "Control
Point:", labelled "X:", "Y:", "Z:", and "W:". The first three are of
course the position of the point; the "W" value is like a gravitational
field strength that attracts the curve to the point. Try adjusting this,
and see how it influences the shape of the curve near that point.

You can move endpoints in the usual way, but there are no handles to
rotate. All the other options for add and deleting endpoints apply as
for Bézier curves:  or
xtend,
→Subdivide,
eting Select/Segment/All. The curve can
be 2D/3D, extruded and cyclic, and each endpoint has a
cale radius and a
ilt angle. In the "Active Spline"
panel in Object Properties, there is an additional "Endpoint: U"
checkbox which forces the curve to pass through the endpoints (this is
ignored if Cyclic is enabled).

→Curve→Nurbs Circle inserts a NURBS curve with eight control points
arranged in a square, "Cyclic: U" enabled, and the weights of the corner
points adjusted so the curve is an exact circle.

→Curve→Path inserts a NURBS curve with five control points in a straight
line, and the "Endpoint: U" option already checked.

## Which Curves To Use?

As mentioned earlier, NURBS curves are heavily used in CAD applications,
while Béziers are popular in 2D drawing applications. If you are
importing data from these applications, then you won't have any choice
about which one you end up with.

But if you are creating your own curves, then you have a choice. If you
have done drawing with Bézier curves a lot, then you should feel at home
with them. If you just want simple curves to deform a shape or guide an
animation, NURBS curves could very well do the trick---you could even
leave the W values at the default, and just add, delete and position
points to get a suitable curve.

## Extruding from 2D to 3D

You may have noticed you can only modify the curve in two dimensions,
and now it\'s time to explore the third dimension! Extruding is where
you define a two dimensional \'profile\' shape, and it is \'swept\'
through space to create a volume.

**Noob note** Bézier circles are not true circles, they are
approximations. For artistic purposes, this may not really matter, but
for precision modelling only NURBS circles should be used. This is due
to the math used to describe the Bézier and NURBS curves.

## Make a Simple Face of Bézier Curves

-   **Make a curve and fill it**: Being sure you are in 2D mode, Use the
    steps above to create something simple, and fill it in using

.

**Noob note:** you may find it easier to use Bézier circles, instead of
filling discrete curves.

![](Face_Bezier_Curve.png "Face_Bezier_Curve.png"){width="400"}

Note that the eyes and mouth of the face above are parts of the same
curve object. Blender can only identify holes in a filled curve if the
holes are part of the same object as the outer curve. If you had created
four separate curves then filling the outer curve would have covered the
eyes and mouth. To create a detached section of a curve, be in edit mode
and deselect all the points (). Then
create new points (you will need two or three) with
+.
Alternatively you can create the pieces as separate curve objects and
join them later with  in object
mode. You might prefer the alternative way if you don\'t want a lot of
control handles and \"centipede legs\" to distract you.

### Extrude the Simple Face

![](Curve_and_Surface_Box.png "Curve_and_Surface_Box.png")

**Set the extrude depth**: Click on the Object Data button and find the
Geometry panel. (Older versions: find the \'Curve and Surface\' box in
the Editing tab of the Buttons window.) There is a slider called
Extrude. Set the Extrude depth to something other than 0, and probably
less than 1.

!Bezler
Geometry\|right\|300px

Behold, your 2d curve has transformed into a neat 3d structure. The
great thing is, you can still edit the curve as if it were just 2d, and
the changes will update in real time.

### Bevel the Simple Face

Now you have an extruded shape, you should start playing around with
some of the other curve settings on offer, so here is a description of
how the Bevel depth and Bevel resolution sliders work.

Try setting the Bevel depth to a small value, say 0.02. This will cut
off all of the sharp edges, and give a bevelled effect all around the
shape.

![](Bezier_Face_Bevel.png "Bezier_Face_Bevel.png"){width="400"}

As you may guess, Bevel resolution decides how many times the algorithm
divides up an edge. Higher values than 0 result in smooth curves rather
than sharp edges, but dramatically increase the number of vertices in
the shape.

Try setting the resolution to 3 or 4, you should see an effect like
this:

![](Bezier_Face_Bevel_4.png "Bezier_Face_Bevel_4.png"){width="400"}


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Bevelling a Curve

|previous=Intro to Bezier Curves
|previousText=Intro to Bézier Curves
}}
```
A simple, non-extruded curved line on its own will not be visible when
rendered in Blender. Things are different, however, when you *bevel* the
curve---that is, use some two-dimensional shape as a cross-section, and
the line curve becomes a guide for extruding the shape into the third
dimension.

## Built-In Bevel

!Bézier curve with default
settings
Start with a curve object---any curve will do. Here we use a Bézier
curve.

![](Blender267CurveDataContextBezier3D.png "Blender267CurveDataContextBezier3D.png")
Look in the Curve Context
![](Blender267CurveDataContextButton.png "Blender267CurveDataContextButton.png")
in the Properties window, for the Geometry panel. There you should see
two editable fields with the title "Bevel:" above them, one labelled
"Depth:" and the other "Resolution:". Try setting the depth to something
like 0.1.

!Bëzier curve with bevel = 0.1, fill = half, resolution =
0
Now your curve is no longer a simple line. It should have a V-shaped
cross section, perhaps like a piece of bent angle iron.

!Bëzier curve with bevel = 0.1, fill = half, resolution =
3
Now try increasing the "Resolution:" value, and you should see the V
cross section start to smooth out, until at about a resolution of 2 or
3, it looks like a curved half pipe.

Now look further up, in the Shape panel. There should be a popup menu
with the title "Fill:" above it; for a 3D curve, by default the item
selected is "Half". Try the "Front" and "Back" items, and you should see
that these give you just halves of your half pipe.

!Bézier curve with bevel = 0.1, fill = full, resolution =
0
!Bézier curve with bevel = 0.1, fill = full, resolution =
3
Now try "Full", and your half pipe should now be a complete pipe.

!Bëzier curve with bevel = 0.1, fill = full, resolution = 3,
cyclic
You can also join the ends together by checking the "Cyclic: U" box
under the Active Spline panel.

**Start and End Bevel Factors:** These reduce the extent of the bevel
shape, so that instead of extending the full length of the curve, they
go from and to the specified fractions of the length. These become more
useful when the cross section of the shape is no longer uniform, when
you apply a custom taper (below).

!Bézier curve, 2D,
cyclic Now
change the curve to 2D. The Fill options now become "Both", "Front",
"Back" and "None", where "Both" is like the "Half" setting for 3D
curves. Note there is no equivalent of "Full". But there is a new
feature: if you check the "Cyclic: U" box, it will fill in the entire
interior of the curve!

!Bézier curve, 2D, cyclic, extrude =
0.1
Try this with a Bézier circle or a NURBS circle, and you should get a
pancake-like object. For added flavour, give it a nonzero Extrude value,
and this will make the shape even thicker. !Bézier curve, 2D, cyclic,
extrude = 0.1, bevel = 0.1, resolution =
3

## Custom Bevel

!selecting just the *end points* of the
handles
Now we will try using another curve to supply the cross section. Add a
Bézier circle shape.  into Edit mode.
Now, select *just the end points of the handles* (*not* the control
points themselves). In the Pivot Point menu, select "Individual
Origins". Now cale down to 0.4. !if they
highlight like this, you're doing it
wrong
 !handles scaled to
0.4 The
result should be something close to a square, but with rounded corners.

Go back to your first curve, and find the field titled "Bevel Object:"
in the Geometry panel in the Curve Context
![](Blender267CurveDataContextButton.png "Blender267CurveDataContextButton.png")
properties. Click on it, and a popup menu should appear, and you should
see the name of the second curve (e.g. "BezierCircle"). Select that
name, and you should see your bevelled curve immediately take on the
cross-section of the new curve.

![](Blender270BezierBevelCustom1.png "Blender270BezierBevelCustom1.png")
In fact, you may find the bevel object is a bit large; select it and,
while still in Object mode, cale it by a
factor of 0.1. The result should appear something like this.

Select the second curve again, go into Edit mode, and try messing around
with the control points: you should see your changes immediately get
reflected in the shape of the bevelled curve. You may find that the
orientation of the second curve doesn't coincide with the orientation of
the bevel cross-section. This is easy to fix, because any change you
make to the rotation and position of the second curve *in object mode*
will have no effect on its use as a bevel, so you can freely reorient
and reposition it to make it easier to match its shape up with the bevel
cross section. (Scaling does, however, have an effect.)

## Custom Taper

Now try adding a *third* curve object. (As with custom bevels, only
curve objects will work.) Go back to your first curve, find the "Taper
Object:" field (it should be next to the "Bevel Object:" field you've
already used), and select the name of your newly-added curve. The
bevelled shape will now most likely squish down in a most peculiar way.
Select your third curve, that you are using as a taper, and go into Edit
mode. Now try adjust control points, and observe the effect on the
bevelled shape: what you should find is that the object-local
Y-coordinate of each control point governs the thickness of the bevelled
shape at the corresponding position along the shape given by its
X-coordinate, while the object-local Z-coordinate doesn't have any
effect.

As with the bevel shape, you can freely rotate and reposition (and this
time, even rescale) the taper shape *in object mode*, and it will have
no effect on its taper function: only alterations of the control points
in edit mode have an effect.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/NURBS Patches

|previous=Bevelling a Curve
}}
```
What Blender calls *surfaces* are more commonly referred to in computer
graphics as *patches*. It makes sense to stick to the commonly-accepted
terminology, particularly when talking with users of other software.

You previously saw how a NURBS curve consisted of a single row of any
number of control points. A NURBS patch consists of an *n*-by-*m* grid
of points, where *n* and *m* can be any positive integer (and not
necessarily equal). The grid has a rectangular topology, but of course
the points may be positioned anywhere in space, to shape the curve
accordingly. The resulting object can look a bit like a mesh in edit
mode, but it behaves very differently.

## Your First NURBS Patch

![](Blender267SurfaceDataContextNURBS.png "Blender267SurfaceDataContextNURBS.png")
Start a new document, delete the default cube, bla-bla-bla, but stay in
Object mode. Add a new NURBS surface:
→Surface→NURBS Surface. Switch to
Edit mode, and find the Surface Context
![](Blender267SurfaceDataContextButton.png "Blender267SurfaceDataContextButton.png")
in the Properties window.

For NURBS curves, you previously had the "Cyclic: U" and "Endpoint: U"
options for making the curve open or closed, and extending all the way
to the endpoints or not. Now you also have "Cyclic: V" and "Endpoint:
V", because the surface has two dimensions, and you can control these
settings independently along each dimension. Try checking just one
Cyclic box at a time, and the patch turns into a closed ribbon shape
along the corresponding dimension; check both, and it forms a solid
object, shaped perhaps reminiscent of a pillow or an unusual loaf of
bread.

As with the curve case, you can move selected points around to alter the
shape of the curve, and adjust the "W" value of each point to control
how strongly it attracts the curve. Radius-scaling and tilt settings are
still adjustable, but don't seem to achieve anything, since you can't
apply a bevel to a surface.

### Adding and Removing Control Points

Adding and deleting points in a NURBS surface need to follow some rules.
The irritating thing is, if you try to do things not in accordance with
these rules, Blender will simply ignore you, with no error message.

Remember how I said that the control points form a *n*-by-*m*
rectangular grid? Any addition or deletion of points must preserve this
characteristic. Thus, you can only add or remove points an entire row or
column at a time. For example, to extend the patch, you select all the
points along one outermost edge of it, and press
 to add the same number of new points.

Or you can select all the points in two adjacent rows or columns, and
use →Subdivide to add a new row/column
of points in-between. Similarly, you can only delete points by selecting
an entire row or column of them at a time.

### NURBS Curve, NURBS Circle?

The first two options in the
→Surface menu are "NURBS Curve" and
"NURBS Circle". Try adding these objects; at first glance, they look
exactly like the "Nurbs Curve" and "Nurbs Circle" entries in the
→Curve menu. However, regardless of
appearances, these really are surfaces, not curves.

To observe the difference, ensure all points are selected, and now use
 to extend the curve: this will create
a *whole row* of new control points, instead of just one! As with the
different options in the →Curve
menu, the ones in →Surface offer
premade objects for you to choose whichever is the most convenient
starting point for the shape you actually want to create.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Deforming Meshes using the Curve Modifier

|previous=NURBS Patches
}}
```
## Understanding the Curve Modifier

The *curve modifier* lets you use a curve shape to deform a mesh. The
mesh will follow every twist and turn of the curve as far as it can
bend, depending on how many vertices it has---clearly, the more vertices
there are, the more faithfully it can follow the curve.

The curve modifier is also very easy to confuse yourself with if you're
not careful in how you set it up. A common situation is you try to move
the deformed object in one direction, but it ends up moving in a
completely different direction! This happens when you choose a
deformation axis that doesn't correspond to the predominant orientation
of the points in the curve.

There are in fact some predictable rules that govern the behaviour of
the curve modifier. Once you understand these rules, you shouldn't need
to keep trying different things at random to try to achieve the effect
you want, you should be able to go straight for it.

### A Simple Example

!Grid plus path objects, ready for
action
Let's do an illustrative example to clarify things. Start a new Blender
document; delete the default cube, and add a grid object instead, with
the default 10×10 subdivision to give it plenty of vertices that can be
deformed. Also add a path curve on top of it---this will give you a
NURBS curve with 5 points, initially in a straight line. The result
should look like at right.

!Grid deformed by path, default
settings
Now  on the grid, go to the Modifiers
Context
![](Blender255ObjectModifiersContextButton.png "Blender255ObjectModifiersContextButton.png")
in the Properties window, and add a new Curve modifier which you will
find in the \"Deform\" column. Click under \"object\" in the empty box
and choose \"NurbsPath\".

The grid object should immediately jump a little way in the direction of
the negative X-axis. Why?

If you select the curve and  into Edit
mode, you should see that, while the origin of the curve's local
coordinate system (the fat orange dot) is in the middle of the curve,
the first point (the one at the end of curve in the same direction that
the "centipede legs" are pointing) has a negative X-coordinate. Select
just that point, and from the Snap menu
, do "Cursor to Selected". Now
 back into Object mode, and from
Object→Transform do "Origin to 3D Cursor". This will adjust the origin
of the curve's local coordinate system to that first point (keeping the
curve itself in the same place), whereupon the grid object should jump
back to its original location.

You can of course freely move around, add and delete the other points.
Just be sure to keep that first point always at the origin of the curve.

![](Blender267DeformModifierSettings.png "Blender267DeformModifierSettings.png")
Now look at the settings for the Curve modifier. Notice those six
buttons under "Deformation Axis:"?

When a path curve is created, all its points initially lie along its
local X-axis. Since the default for the Deformation Axis is "X", all
works pretty much as you expect. If the two do not coincide, then weird
things happen when you try moving things around.

If you *really* want to mess around, you could go into Edit mode on the
curve, select all its points, rotate them to, say, orient them along the
local Y-axis, then get out of Edit mode, select the deformed mesh, and
change the Deformation Axis on its modifier to Y, and things should
still work consistently. But why bother?

As long as you obey the above rules, you can move, rotate and scale the
deforming curve *in object mode only* as much as you like, and the
deformation will still behave in a reasonable fashion. Of course, you
can do what you like to the deformed mesh in object or edit modes, and
this will still be true.

!Fiddling with the deforming
path
Select the curve,  into Edit mode,
select the middle point, and move it a little to one side, as at right.
You should see the grid mesh immediately bend in a corresponding way.

Now  into Object mode, select the mesh,
and move  it around: notice how it
tries to follow the shape of whatever part of the curve lies nearest to
it. What shape does it take when you move it off an end of the curve?
How about to one side?

Alternatively, you can similarly drag the curve instead of the mesh, and
the same thing will happen: it is only their relative positions that
governs the actual deformation.

Also try changing the scaling radius
 and tilt angle
 on particular curve points: note
how the former causes the deformed mesh to get wider and narrow at those
points, while the latter makes it tilt from side to side.

## Another Example

### Setting up your Mesh

While this example will be done with a cone primitive, you can use the
default cube or another shape of your choosing so long as it can be loop
subdivided along the axis you wish to curve. Delete the default cube if
you\'re not going to use it as your base mesh, and add your chosen
primitive. In this example, we\'ll be using a Cone.

! A basic cone in Edit
Mode{width="220"}

Do everything with the 3D cursor at the center.

-   Set your view to the X-Y Axis (Top View) by pressing **NUM7**, the 7
    on the keypad.
-   Press *\'Shift+A \>*Mesh*\>*Cone\'\'
-   A smaller number of vertices are needed, since this cone will become
    just the tip of the finished shape.
-   Reduce the number of vertices to 12.
-   Press **TAB** to enter Edit Mode, or choose Edit Mode from the
    bottom of the 3D viewport.
-   Switch views to the Z-X Axis by pressing **NUM1** (1 on the keypad).
    Your screen should now look something like the picture at left.
-   If your cone is selected (one or more vertices are yellow) press
    **AKEY** (Select/Deselect All) until they are deselected.
-   Select the point of your Cone with the **RMB** and drag it upwards
    with the blue arrow. You can hold down the **CONTROL** key if you
    want to constrain the scaling to set units. For this example, 5
    squares of height were added to the cone.

### Subdividing the Cone

!Extruded cone{width="100"}

-   Go to front view by pressing **NUM1**

The best way to do it is by selecting the side edges and subdivide them
by pressing **WKEY** then clicking on *Subdivide*, after that you can
select the number of cuts you want. You need at least \"5\" segments.
The more segments you have, the smoother your curved cone will be. be
sure you have \"Limit selection to visible off\" and to first deselect
all \"A key\" and you are in \"edge select\" mode

-   You can also do: still in Edit Mode, press the **NUM8** repeatedly
    to rotate your view to the underside of your cone. Select the center
    vertex of the circle, and hold down **CONTROL**, then press the
    **+KEY** on the keypad. This will select all of the adjacent
    vertices of the base. Then extrude using the **EKEY** Pull the new
    vertices away from the cone a distance at the Z-axis and click the
    **LMB** to set them in place. Press the **SKEY** and widen the new
    base of the cone a bit.

### Making a Curve

![](ConeCurve3.jpg){width="100"}

-   In Object Mode, Z-X orientation (**NUM1**\'), make sure you have
    nothing selected and press *\'Shift+A* \> *Curve* \> *Bezier Curve*
-   Rotate your curve 90° (holding down the **CONTROL** key to make it
    rotate in 5° intervals) Note- or just R-KEY and then type 90, so
    that it lines up with your cone. Move it off to one side so that its
    not hidden by your cone.
-   Go into \"wireframe\"
-   Grab the center vertex of each end and adjust its rotation
    (**RKEY**) until you have a nice shallow dome shape.
-   Scale the curve in size (**SKEY**) until it is larger than your
    cone.
-   The name is highlighted in the \"Outliner\" Window: \"BezierCurve\"

### Applying the Curve to the Mesh

!Modified cone{width="120"}

-   Select the cone in Object Mode. Choose in the \"Properties\" Header
    the \"modifiers\" tab and click \"Add Modifier\"
-   Click the *Add Modifier* button and choose *Curve* from the popup
    list.
-   Under Object tick the empty box, and select the name of the \"Bézier
    Curve\" (it will be \"BezierCurve\" without the quotations if you
    left it as the default.)
-   Notice the six buttons underneath, They are **X, Y, Z, -X, -Y, -Z**.
    They affect which plane the curve deforms. For this example, you\'ll
    need to select the **X** button.
-   Move your Cone so that it overlays the curve in the \'3D View\"
    windows, and notice how it follows the Bézier Curve.
-   You can modify the Bézier Curve as well as the cone repeatedly until
    you are happy with the design.
-   If you switch to Edit Mode, notice that the cone returns to its
    straight orientation.
-   To apply the deformation to the mesh permanently, in the Modifiers
    panel, click the *Apply* button next to your Curve modifier.
-   Move the curve up \'till the cone is around the curve


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/The Empty Object

|previous=Deforming Meshes using the Curve Modifier
}}
```
![](Blender268ObjectContextTransformPanel.png "Blender268ObjectContextTransformPanel.png")

Every object in a scene has common settings in the Object
![](Blender255ObjectContextButton.png "Blender255ObjectContextButton.png")
Context. This includes the common transform settings shown at right:
location in the scene, overall rotation and overall scaling. Most
objects also have additional properties, such as the geometry of a mesh
and the materials that govern how it appears in the render.

The **Empty object** has none of these additional properties. It has the
overall transform settings, and not much else. And it has no appearance
in the final render. So what is the point of having such a thing?

In fact, it has many uses, such as:

-   In the Physics
    ![](Blender255PhysicsContextButton.png "Blender255PhysicsContextButton.png")
    Context, it can be set as the source of a force field (e.g. wind).
-   It can be used as the parent for multiple
    other objects. That way they can be moved together just by moving
    the Empty, rather than each child object individually.
-   It can be used as a target object in an **array modifier**, where it
    adds its transformation to the copies of the object being modified
    by the array.
-   It is a handy marker and place holder if you are moving things
    around. You can mark an object\'s original position, and then put it
    back easily where the empty object is.

In these situations, the invisibility of the Empty in the render is an
advantage, because it can be placed wherever necessary, without
introducing unwanted clutter into the final image.

## Using an Empty With the Array Modifier

!The types of
Empties Open a
new default Blender document, complete with default cube. Add a new
Empty object to the scene. It doesn't matter what type of Empty you
choose; the options just control its appearance in the 3D view, not the
actual behaviour of the Empty. Besides, you can change your mind about
this later anyway.

![](Blender268ArrayModifierWithEmpty1.png "Blender268ArrayModifierWithEmpty1.png")
Now select the default cube, go to the Modifiers
![](Blender255ObjectModifiersContextButton.png "Blender255ObjectModifiersContextButton.png")
Context and add an Array modifier. In the properties header, there are
three different ways the modifier can produce its copies of the original
object: via a Constant Offset, Relative Offset, or Object Offset. The
Constant and Relative offsets only allow a simple displacement for the
copies, but the Object Offset looks at the full transformation of the
specified object, which can include rotation and scaling.

Here I have unchecked the default Relative Offset, checked Object
Offset, and from the popup menu for selecting the target object, I have
selected my Empty (which by default would have been called "Empty").

But if you look at your 3D view, nothing seems to have happened: the
cube is still sitting, unmoved, in its original position. In fact, it
might be hard to see the Empty, because it would have been inserted in
the same position as the cube, so it ends up within it. If you switch to
Wireframe  view, you should be able to
see the Empty sitting within the cube.

Before doing anything further, increase the Count field in the cube's
array modifier to 3. This will give you a clearer idea of the effect of
subsequent manipulations. Doing so will not have any noticeable effect
to start with, because all the copies will be lying right on top of each
other.

Now select the Empty, and move it to one side: you will immediately see
a second copy of the cube follow the empty, and the third copy move *by
the same amount in the same direction*, so it ends up beyond that.

Return the Empty to its original location, and this time try moving the
cube. As the original cube moves, you will see the second copy stay with
the Empty at the centre of the scene, while the third copy moves beyond
that, by the same distance and in the same direction as the second copy
is removed from the original cube.

Now if you return the cube to the same location as the Empty, select
both and try moving them together, you will see no additional copies of
the cube appear, because they remain exactly on top of the original
cube.

The rule for using an Object Offset with the Array modifier is this:

In other words:

-   the translation applied is the difference between their origins.
-   the rotation applied is the difference between their object
    rotations.
-   the scaling applied is the *ratio* between their object scaling
    factors.

Try moving the Empty to one side, as before; this time leave it there,
so the three copies of the cube are nicely spread out. Now try applying
a rotation to the Empty; see how this applies the corresponding rotation
to the second copy (the one located where the Empty is), while the third
copy gets *twice* that rotation.

Return the Empty to its unrotated state, and this time try rotating the
cube: see how the second copy (where the Empty is) stays unmoved, while
the third copy gets the opposite rotation.

Undo the rotations, and now try scaling: shrinking/enlarging the Empty
correspondingly shrinks/enlarges the second copy, while the third copy
gets transformed by the *square* of the shrink/enlarge ratio (the ratio
multiplied by itself, or alternatively the ratio raised to the second
power). Or shrink/enlarge the original cube, and see the second copy
stay unchanged (as before), while the third copy enlarges/shrinks by the
*inverse* ratio.

When you change the transformation of the original cube, the second copy
always stays unchanged because the Object Offset transformation is the
*inverse* of the transformation you are applying to the original; hence
it always cancels out for the second copy, but you can see corresponding
increasing powers of it applied to subsequent copies.

### Editing the Modified Object

Make sure the Empty is positioned so the array instances are well
separated. Select the cube,  into Edit
mode, select all the vertices, and try transforming them: moving,
rotating or scaling.

Note the difference in behaviour from doing this to the cube in Object
mode: this time all the copies of the cube transform along in unison.
This is because we are not affecting the object transformation, which is
what controls the behaviour of the array modifier.

### Arranging Object Copies in a Circle

Which brings us to a convenient trick for a common need: arranging
copies of an object in a neat circle.

The easiest way to do this is start with the cube and the Empty in their
original central positions. Suppose you want 8 copies of the cube in
your circle; the angle between them then needs to be 360° ÷ 8 = 45°. So
rotate the Empty by 45°. Now select the cube. Set the Fixed Count field
of its Array modifier to 8.  into Edit
mode, and move all the vertices to one side. You should see the other 7
copies of the cube correspondingly move away from the centre in
different directions, maintaining a nice neat circle arrangement. Your
cube mesh is simply being rotated about its origin, which is not where
the vertices are, but where the Empty is!


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Background Images

|previous=The Empty Object
}}
```
You will often need to use reference photos to guide your modeling.
Among the many things you can do with photos and other images in
Blender, it is possible to use them just as guides in the 3D view, such
that they do not appear in the final render. Furthermore these images
will only be visible when the view is *orthographic* and exactly aligned
to one of the X, Y or Z axes (or the camera view). This way, they can be
used as a precise reference for positioning elements of the model.

![](Blender270BackgroundImagesDefault.png "Blender270BackgroundImagesDefault.png")
In the 3D view, make sure the Properties Shelf
 is visible. Look for the Background
Images panel; it will most likely be collapsed, so expand it. Initially
it will look like at right, with no background images in your view.

![](Blender270BackgroundImages1Image.png "Blender270BackgroundImages1Image.png")
Check the box at the top. Click the "Add Image" button once, and this
will add one entry to the list of background images, as at right.
Initially there is no image opened in this entry; you will need to click
the "Open" button and select an image file.

![](Blender270BackgroundImages1ImageLoaded.png "Blender270BackgroundImages1ImageLoaded.png")
Once you have chosen an image file, the list entry expands with
additional options.

Clicking on the eye icon lets you temporarily hide a reference image,
without actually removing it from the document. Or you can uncheck the
box at the top of the Background Images panel to temporarily hide all
reference images; just check it to make them visible again. Click the X
to delete an entry from the list of background images.

If you have multiple scenes in your document, the document's background
image settings apply to all of them.

![](Nibelungendrache.jpg "Nibelungendrache.jpg") If you don't have an
image handy to experiment with, how about downloading this simple 2D one
from Wikimedia Commons. Flat images with no perspective work best for
use as a precise modelling reference.

Having loaded your image, it might not immediately appear in the 3D
view. For it to show, you must be in a *perfect* (axis-aligned) view
(i.e. one of ,
, ,
,
 or
) which is in orthographic, not
perspective, mode (use  to toggle
between these), or alternatively it will show in
 the camera view.

![](Blender270BackgroundImagesAxisMenu.png "Blender270BackgroundImagesAxisMenu.png")
You may not want the same reference image visible in all views. For
example, you might have one reference image for top view, another for a
side view, and so on. The Axis menu lets you choose which view this
image is visible in.

## Other Ways To Bring In Reference Pictures

Maybe you don't want to use a reference image for precise, axis-aligned
modelling, but only as a rough guide. There is a standard Blender addon
called "Import Images As
Planes",
which will create a plane object and apply an imported image to it as a
texture. This can then be aligned whichever way you want in the scene.

![](Blender279bImageEmptyPanel.png "Blender279bImageEmptyPanel.png") In
Blender 2.58 or later, an empty with the type of image can be created.
In the object data pane an image can be selected. Like the image plane,
the image will be present in the 3D view and can be aligned in any
orientation.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Aligning Vertices with a Guide Image

|previous=Background Images
}}
```
Note: Some pictures are outdated.

This tutorial is about using guide images to place vertices in their
proper places in 3D space. The second tutorial is on how to take good
reference pictures. This tutorial assumes that you have completed all
previous tutorials.

This tutorial describes the use of the *background image* feature of
Blender to assist in creating models of 3D objects. The background image
provides a reference for the dimensions of the object, similar to the
way the floor plan and elevation views of a house provide dimension
information for the actual house. Guide images are not rendered, and may
be removed after the model is completed, or they may be retained as part
of the internal documentation of the model. Background images are not
generally useful for other \"image\" purposes such as materials,
textures, and actual background images in a scene, just as a floor plan
is not actually visible after a house is constructed.

## Background: orthographic projection

!orthographic projections in six
directions{width="300"}
**orthographic
projection** is a
technique used by architects and engineers to describe a
three-dimensional object by the use of several two-dimensional images,
or \"projections.\" In architecture, the projection as seen from above
is called the \"plan view\" or \"floor plan,\" the projection as seen
from the front is called the \"front elevation,\" and the projection as
seen from the right side is called the \"right elevation.\" Orthographic
projections are intended to assist builders in creating an actual 3D
object.

A Blender user also wants to create a 3D object, in this case a model.
Blender provides a way to use a set of one or more orthographic
projections as a guide for object creation. Because the images are
conceptually \"behind\" the object from the appropriate point of view,
Blender calls these 2D images *background images*.

Each background image is located \"at infinity\" in an orthographic
view, and there may be one image in each direction: back, front, top,
bottom, left, and right. we can use one or more background images to
assist our modeling effort.

For example, to model a house, we can put the \"floor plan\" on the
bottom, and build the house above it. We put the front elevation image
on the back background, and build the house in front of it. We put the
right elevation image on the left background, and build the house to the
right of it. The background images can be diagrams such as floor plans,
or they can be photographs of an object taken from sufficiently far away
to provide undistorted dimensional information.

Reasonably enough, an orthographic projection is only useful in Blender
when in orthographic mode. Blender enforces this to prevent you from
making mistakes: the orthographic image is only displayed in the
background when you are in the orthographic view mode.

## Making a Simple Pyramid

![](BlenderMakePyramid.png "BlenderMakePyramid.png"){width="300"} First
we are going to create a pyramid the easy way. Then we are going to show
how to use different viewpoints and images as a guide to place vertices
correctly in 3D space.

Get rid of the default cube. Press
and select Mesh→Cone. Set the number of vertices to 4, and Set \"Capp
fill Type\" to \"Nothing\". Click OK. There's your pyramid.

**Note:** Do not render this looking up from the bottom, as it will
appear invisible, as the interior faces of models are ignored by most
rendering engines.

### Save the top vertex for later steps

Enter Edit mode (). First, unselect all
the vertices by pressing . Next, select
the bottom four vertices of the pyramid and delete them with
 or .
The only vertex left will be the vertex which makes the tip of the
pyramid. This will be used later.

## Using the guide images

Now that we have the pyramid the easy way, let\'s learn how to use guide
images as references to build models.

### Window Layout

![](Blender3d_view_name_setting_location.jpg "Blender3d_view_name_setting_location.jpg"){width="300"}

Split the Main 3D view window in to 4 windows (2 x 2).

:   **Reminder**: to split windows, move the mouse to the border of the
    view, when the cursor transforms into arrow, right-click and choose
    \"Split Area\". (Explained in the guide: Noob to Pro/Blender
    Windowing
    System.)

\
The point of view in each window are like this:

:   {\| border=1 width=\"30%\"

\|- align=center \|**NUM7**\|\|**NUM0** \|- align=center
\|**NUM1**\|\|**NUM3** \|}

And if you click on View, you can see that these windows are
respectively:

:   {\| border=1 width=\"30%\"

\|- align=center \| *Top* \|\| *User* \|- align=center \| *Front* \|\|
*Right* \|}

By knowing which view you are looking at you may find that you quickly
get the idea of what you are doing and can proceed somewhat intuitively
in this section on your own without following all of the step by step
instructions.

Note: The quick way to achieve this layout is to go into Quad-View
(CTRL-ALT-Q)

### Guide images

Now, we need some images. These come from a source outside of blender.
For this tutorial, we need a floor plan of our pyramid, a front
elevation view, and a side elevation view. The floor plan of our pyramid
is a square, and the front elevation view is a triangle, as is the side
elevation. We will cheat and use the same source image for both the
front and side elevation. We can make a picture of a white square and of
a white triangle in the GIMP, Paint :) , or some other image editor. Or
we can find appropriate images somewhere.

#### Method 1 download and use

!Save the triangle with a black
background
Download the black and white triangle image on the right of the screen
and use that. This image is, minus the checker pattern at the border,
198 x 198. (click it once to get the larger version, right click on the
larger one, and save)

#### Method 2 roll your own

!The square and triangle
relationship

You want to make a triangle, for the ground plane you don\'t need a
picture.

**Noob note** Make sure that the *drawing* of the square is *square* and
not just rectangular. Make the triangle the same width and height as the
square. Make sure the apex of the triangle is directly above the
midpoint of its baseline.

##### Specific instructions for Photoshop

Make a square selection of \"n by n\" size, remember the value of \"n\".
Fill it with white color and save. To create a triangle of needed
properties make a rectangular selection of same (n by n) size, on a new
layer, click **RMB** on your document, choose \"Transform selection\"
option in the pop-up menu. Once you are in \"Transform selection\" mode,
right-click the blank image again. This time the pop-up menu would be
different. Choose \"Perspective\" from it, and with **LMB** drag one of
the two top vertices toward the other. Once the vertices meet (in the
top-center of the image), exit the transformation mode, and fill the
resulting triangular selection with white.

Save the files to a place that is easy to access. Blender only supports
the TGA, PNG, and JPG image formats.

##### Specific instructions for Gimp

Turn on the grid (View-\>Show Grid, View-\>Snap to Grid), use the
rectangle select with a fixed aspect ratio of 1:1 (in the tool options
panel) to select a square that you can flood fill. For the triangle, use
the node tool to draw a triangular path, convert to selection
(Select-\>From Path) and fill it. Or you could just use Inkscape\...

Save the files to a place that is easy to access. Blender only supports
the TGA, PNG, and JPG image formats.

### Background Images

![](Importing_Image.jpg "Importing_Image.jpg"){width="300"} Load the
images (as described in the previous module) like this: In the 3D view,
make sure the Properties Shelf `<b>`{=html}(N)`</b>`{=html} is visible.
Look for the Background Images panel; it will most likely be collapsed,
so expand it. Initially it will have no background images to view. Check
the box at the top. Click the "Add Image" button once, and this will add
one entry to the list of background images. Then, with \'Image\'
selected, use the Open button to navigate to your image file.

Load the white triangle (the front elevation view): this places it
infinitely far \"behind\" the model. You can see the image in the front
view. Similarly, load the right elevation (coincidentally, you can see
the same triangle image in the right view window, to place it infinitely
far to the left.

If necessary, zoom out so that you can see the whole background image in
each view.

Now you have now placed your guide images for making your pyramid.

### Sides

![](Blender2.75a_make_vertices_background_image.jpg "Blender2.75a_make_vertices_background_image.jpg")
Make sure you\'re in Toggle Quad Mode. The vertex that is left will be
the topmost point of the pyramid. Use the **GKEY** to move the vertex
around. To get it in the right spot, line it up at the top most point in
the **front** and **right** windows. If you look in the **top** window
the vertex should appear to be in the center. Make sure to keep the
vertex highlighted for the next step.

\
Now you can begin to create individual vertices with **CTRL + LMB**. Be
sure you don\'t create vertices in the Top view cause that will confuse
you completely.

First line in the pyramid in front view then place a new edge between
the last made vertex and the top vertex by selecting them and hit \"F\".
Then do the right side, after selecting the top vertex, exactly the same
way. (Don\'t do the bottom side)

### Make Faces

![](Blender2.75a_make_faces_background_image.jpg "Blender2.75a_make_faces_background_image.jpg")

Select the side vertices of the corners were you want a Face and Tick
\"F\" Do this for every Face you want to make.

![](blender2.75a_make_faces_made_background_image.jpg "blender2.75a_make_faces_made_background_image.jpg")

![](blender2.75a_Pyramid_background_image.jpg "blender2.75a_Pyramid_background_image.jpg")