# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Mesh Edit Mode

A  is one of the most important
and frequently-used object types in Blender. While there are other types
of objects that can be used to model parts of a model or scene (text,
NURBS patches, etc.), they often get converted to meshes at some point
anyway, because it is the object type that offers the greatest amount of
detailed control. And as it happens, Blender offers more functions, both
built-in and available as addons, for dealing with meshes than for any
other object type.

is the mode in which you make changes to the internals of the *active*
object. Not every object has an Edit mode (e.g. cameras), and the
details of what you can do in Edit mode vary between the object types
where it is available. This module specifically covers Edit mode for
mesh objects.

## What Is a Mesh?

A *mesh* is made up of one or more *vertices*; each *vertex* is just a
point in space. A pair of vertices can be joined by a straight line
called an *edge*, and a complete loop of edges can be filled in to form
a *face*.

It is the faces that make up the visible surface of the object. The
edges and vertices are essentially geometrical \"scaffolding\" necessary
to hold the object together.

A face must have three or more sides (edges). Prior to version 2.63,
only three or four sides were allowed, so faces had to be *triangles* or
*quadrilaterals* (usually abbreviated to *quads*) respectively. Starting
with v2.63, and the introduction of the BMesh architecture, that
restriction has been lifted. You can have faces with 5 or more sides,
but you will usually find that things work best if all faces, as far as
possible, are quads. Particularly when constructing a model for
animation purposes.

![](Blender263AddMeshSubmenu.png "Blender263AddMeshSubmenu.png")
Blender's Object-mode "Add" menu
() contains a Mesh submenu with a
collection of pre-made mesh objects. Think of these as starting points.
They make building your own objects easier by enabling you to modify an
object that is an approximation of the form you want instead of having
to construct a mesh entirely from scratch.

## Introduction to Edit Mode

Start a new model. Hide the manipulator if it is visible
(). You should be in Object mode.
Click with  on the default cube to
ensure it is selected and the active object.

framed\|right\|The default cube in Edit
mode You can switch
modes using the mode menu, as you previously learned. However, because
switching between Object mode and Edit mode is such a frequent
operation, it has a keyboard shortcut: .
Do this now, and you should see the appearance of the cube change, as
shown at right. The mode menu should also update. Press
 again, and you should be back in Object
mode. Press  once more before
continuing, to ensure you are in Edit mode.

Note the following features of the cube, and how they relate to the
description of a mesh above:

-   The dots at the corners are the vertices.
-   The lines joining them are the edges.
-   The filled areas bordered by the lines are the faces.

## Selection Modes

!Select mode buttons in a 3D View header, showing Vertex select mode
active. (Found below the edit
area.)")
In Edit mode, the header (it\'s at the top) of the 3D View window
changes to show the selection-mode controls. If you hover over each of
the buttons in the group of three, you will see they represent
vertex-select, edge-select and face-select respectively. You can
shift-click to enable more than one at a time.

In vertex-select mode, you select a single vertex by clicking on it with
, and select more than one by
shift-clicking on additional vertices with
. Shift-clicking with
 on an already-selected vertex will
deselect it.

Pressing  will select *all* vertices if
none are currently selected, otherwise it will *unselect* all vertices.

Edge-select mode works in a similar way, except with edges instead of
vertices. Similarly, face-select mode will allow you to select and
unselect faces.

The single button immediately to the right of these three is titled
"limit selection to visible". When it is active (the default), the mesh
object being edited is displayed as *opaque* which means that vertices,
edges or faces on the side away from you are hidden and cannot be
selected. Click this button, and the object becomes translucent,
allowing clicking *through* front faces to select parts of the mesh
behind them.

Another useful display mode for working in the 3D view is
, which can be selected from
the Viewport Shading menu or toggled with the
 key. In this mode, the faces become
transparent, almost invisible, and the edges and vertices are displayed
more prominently.

![](Blender263EditSelections.png "Blender263EditSelections.png") Here is
what these various selection and display modes look like in combination:
in the first row, a single vertex is selected. In the second row, a
single edge, and in the third row, a single face. In the first column,
limit-selection-to-visible is enabled. In the second column, it is
disabled, and in the third column, wireframe mode is enabled.

### Selection Mode Hotkeys

You can also switch selection modes with
. In the menu that appears, you can
switch to a single selection mode by selecting it with the mouse or
up/down-arrow keys and pressing  or
. But if you press
 or
 that toggles the enabling of only
that selection mode, without affecting the state of the others, as does
shift-clicking on the icons above.

In common with other Blender popup menus, you can quickly select an item
from the  menu and immediately
confirm by pressing one of ,
 or
to select the first (vertex), second (edge) or third (face) item in the
menu. Or, ,
 and
 while the menu is up, will
toggle the enabling of vertex, edge, and face-select modes respectively.

## Multiple Selections

You can use  to select multiple
items, and  to invert the
selection, just like in Object mode. Only here, the "items" are
vertices, edges or faces, depending on the selection mode in effect. The
active (last-selected) part is shown in white, while the rest of the
selection (if any) is drawn in the usual orange-yellow colour.

As mentioned above,  works similar to
the way it works in Object mode, only instead of applying to everything,
it applies to all parts of the object being edited.

## Hiding Things

,  and
 work in a way analogous to their
behaviour in Object mode. Again, instead of applying to everything, they
apply to all parts of the object being edited.

**Remembering What\'s Hidden:** If you switch out of Edit mode with some
parts hidden, they will reappear, then disappear again when you re-enter
Edit mode, i.e. each object remembers what was hidden when you last
edited it.

## Local Versus Global View

You can toggle local/global view in Edit mode, as you can in Object
mode. However, instead of narrowing the view to one or more selected
objects, it narrows it to just the object being edited.

## Border Select (Box Selection) & Circle Select (Brush Selection)

and  work analogously to the way they
do in Object mode, i.e. you select multiple items by drawing a box or by
"painting" over them.

## Select More, Select Less

Edit mode has some additional selection capabilities. To demonstrate
them, let's use something other than the default cube, for a change.
 back to Object mode, and delete the
cube. Now add () a Grid object.
 into Edit mode, and you will see that
the grid is made up of 9×9 faces, or 10×10 vertices. Initially they will
all be selected. Use  to unselect them
then  to brush-select a few vertices in
the middle. End brush-select mode with
or . Now watch what happens to the
selection when you press  (select
more). Additional vertices adjacent to those already selected are added
to the selection. Now try  (select
less), and you will see the vertices on the edge of the selection are
removed from it.

## Manipulator, Transformation Hotkeys, Pivot Point

All of these are available for use in Edit mode as they are in Object
mode, except for the "Manipulate center points" button.

Note that scaling vertices scales the distances between them. The
vertices themselves have no size, so they do not get larger or smaller.
Similarly, rotating vertices only changes their direction relative to
the pivot point, since a featureless point itself has no orientation.

### Transform Orientations

The Global, Local and View options in the Transform Orientation menu
apply in Mesh Edit mode as they do in Object mode. In addition there is
Normal mode, where the transformation axes are aligned relative to the
selection:

-   If a single face is selected, the X and Y axes are aligned along the
    face, while the Z axis is aligned perpendicular (normal) to the
    face.
-   If a single edge is selected, the Z axis is aligned along the edge,
    with the X and Y axes perpendicular to it.

Other selections are also possible. Feel free to investigate their
behaviour for yourself.

Thus, with a single face selected,
  will move
the face along its normal.

In addition, it is possible to define the current Normal transformation
orientation as a custom orientation for use in transforming other
vertices and even other objects. To do this, you need to go to the
Properties Shelf, which is made visible on the right of the 3D view with
. Near the bottom is the Transform
Orientations panel which contains a Transform Orientation menu which
looks the same as the one in the header of the 3D View window, except it
also has a "+" button next to it. Click the \"+\" and the current Normal
transformation orientation will be added to the menu initially labeled
"Vertex", "Edge" or "Face", depending on what is currently selected (and
with a unique numeric suffix added if there is already a custom
orientation defined with that name). Now if you look in either Transform
Orientation menu, you will see a new selectable item, in a separate
section above the five standard items.

With your new orientation option selected, an editable text field will
appear in the Transform Orientations panel, allowing you to change the
name if you wish, and there is also a "X" button allowing you to delete
the orientation item when you no longer need it.

With your new orientation option selected, you can now select a
different part of the object, or even
into Object mode and select some other object. The manipulator and the
doubled axis hotkeys will now align their transformations along this
custom orientation. This is handy, for example, for aligning objects to
a sloping plane.

## Proportional Editing

When trying to produce natural, organic shapes, moving vertices one by
one gets tedious. To produce smoother looking shapes, you need a mode
where unselected vertices close to the selection also get some movement.
In contrast to the sharp distinction between selected vertices which are
moved and unselected ones that remain in place, there is a gradual
transition from one to the other.

This is where
comes in. If you select "Mesh" in the header and examine the pop-up
menu, you will see two submenus, titled "Proportional Editing" and
"Proportional Editing Falloff". The former toggles the mode on and off,
the latter controls the falloff function choice. There is also an icon
for "Proportional Editing" in the header of the default 3D view. Look to
the right of the \"Limit Selection to Visible\" (on edit mode). The hot
key is the letter O. Pressing  will
toggle between Enable and Disable. Pressing
+
will change the Falloff type.

The "Proportional Editing" submenu has 4 options: "Disable", "Enable",
"Projected (2D)", and "Connected". Do you still have the Grid object you
created in the "Select More, Select Less" section above? If not, add a
fresh Grid object. Switch to Edit mode, and ensure that just a few
vertices in the middle are selected. Enable proportional editing, and
now use  to move the selected vertices.
You should notice 2 things:

-   unselected vertices near the selected ones also move, and
-   there is a white circle enclosing all the vertices that undergo any
    movement.

Try using the mouse wheel while moving the vertices, and you will see
the white circle grow or shrink, and the proportional region of
influence will grow or shrink correspondingly.

Try different falloff functions in the "Proportional Editing Falloff"
submenu. Some ensure the mesh stays smooth and curvy, others give a more
angular effect, etc.

The third option to \"Disable\" and \"Enable\" proportional editing is
\"Projected (2D)\". This view is similar to enabled, except depth is
ignored. The radius of the influence region is applied to the mesh two
dimensionally.

The fourth option to "Disable" and "Enable" proportional editing is
"Connected". This one makes a difference in more complicated meshes,
which might have folds or concavities in them. In this situation,
"Enable" affects all vertices within a particular distance of the
selected ones, while "Connected" only measures the distance *via
connected edges*, rather than directly through space. This lets you move
one part of the mesh without affecting another part which might be
located nearby purely as a result of a fold.

Of course, proportional editing works with scale
 and rotate
 operations as well.

## Deleting Things

![](Blender263MeshDeleteMenu.png "Blender263MeshDeleteMenu.png") Now
let's try deleting parts of a mesh. This is the menu that comes up when
you press  or
 when editing a mesh. For now, we will
concentrate on the first three items.

![](Blender263MeshFaceDeleteBefore.png "Blender263MeshFaceDeleteBefore.png"){width="120"}
![](Blender263MeshFaceDeleteAfter.png "Blender263MeshFaceDeleteAfter.png"){width="120"}
First, go into face-select mode. Select one face of the default cube,
press the delete key, and select "Faces". As shown in the screenshots,
the selected face should disappear.

![](Blender263MeshEdgeDeleteBefore.png "Blender263MeshEdgeDeleteBefore.png"){width="120"}
![](Blender263MeshEdgeDeleteAfter.png "Blender263MeshEdgeDeleteAfter.png"){width="120"}
Use  to undo your previous deletion.
Now go into edge-select mode. Select one edge this time. Press delete
again, this time select "Edges". As the screenshots show, the selected
edge disappears, but *the faces bordering that edge also disappear*.
Faces cannot exist without their bordering edges!

![](Blender263MeshVertexDeleteBefore.png "Blender263MeshVertexDeleteBefore.png"){width="120"}
![](Blender263MeshVertexDeleteAfter.png "Blender263MeshVertexDeleteAfter.png"){width="120"}
Use  to undo your previous deletion
again. Go into vertex-select mode. Select one vertex, make sure it\'s
the one closest to you so you get the best view of the effect. Press
delete, and select "Vertices". Not only does the selected vertex
disappear, but also the edges connected to that vertex. Edges cannot
exist without their endpoint vertices. And since those edges
disappeared, the faces dependent on them for their borders were deleted
as well.

So, to recap:

## Undo/Redo

You can undo your last Edit-mode operation with
, and undo your undo with
, similarly to Object mode.
However, Edit mode maintains its own undo stack, separate from the
Object-mode stack. To undo/redo an Edit-mode operation, you must be in
Edit mode, not Object mode.

## Adding Things

Back to the default cube and Edit mode. Ensure you are in vertex-select
mode with nothing selected. Do a
somewhere near the cube. Do you see a little orange-yellow dot appear
where you clicked? You just added a new, unconnected vertex to the mesh.
(If not, you may need to set this hotkey in user preferences -
 and search for \"duplicate or
extrude\".)

Undo your addition (). Select an
existing vertex with . Now
 to add a new vertex again. You
will notice that it is connected to the previously selected vertex by a
newly added edge as well. Since the newly added vertex is now the
selected vertex, doing  again at
another position, and so on repeatedly, lets you construct a whole chain
of new edges. But what good are edges and vertices without faces?

To construct a face, you will need a closed loop of edges. To close a
loop of edges, select all the vertices in the chain, and press
. That will add another edge joining
the first and last vertex into a complete loop of edges and fill in the
loop with a new face.

If you want to close the loop without filling in the face, select only
the first and last vertex in the chain before pressing
. Since only two vertices are selected,
a new face will not be added, i.e. it will only add an edge joining the
two vertices.

You can also *extrude* new sections of mesh with a single click in this
way. Try selecting two adjacent corner vertices of the cube (i.e. two
joined by an edge). Now  near them,
and you will see you've created *two* more vertices, joined to the
previous two by a new face.  again,
and you can construct a whole sheet of new mesh in this way.

![](BlenderCtrlLmbFace.png "BlenderCtrlLmbFace.png"){width="120"} Undo
all your additions, and get back to the pristine cube. Now select all
four vertices of a single face.
near your selection, and you should have four new vertices
(corresponding to the original four you selected), plus a new face
connecting them, plus *four* new faces connecting them to the original
four. (You may not have noticed it, but the face formed from the
original four vertices has been removed as well.) Another
 does the same thing again. So with
just a few clicks, you started with a cube and ended up with something
(see at right) that is starting to resemble --- who knows? A
square-cross-sectioned piece of some wonky-looking pipe, perhaps?

## Simplifying Things

It is possible to remove vertices without leaving holes behind in the
mesh, by  two or more vertices
into one. Select the vertices you want to merge, and press
; a menu will pop up with some
options, including whether to position the resulting vertex in the
middle of the ones being merged, or at the position of the first or last
one you selected. The resulting vertex inherits all the edges that were
connected to the vertices being merged, as well as the faces connected
between those edges.

Sometimes an operation creates duplicate vertices in exactly the same
positions, or very close together. You can merge these *en masse* by
ensuring you have selected all possible candidate vertices (e.g. the
whole mesh), bringing up the Vertex Specials menu
() and selecting the "Remove Doubles"
item. Look for a message saying "Removed *n* vertices" to show briefly
in the Info window. If *n* is 0, nothing was done. If you look in the
lower left part of the Tool shelf, you will see a "Remove Doubles" panel
has appeared, with a "Merge Distance" slider that governs the maximum
distance allowed between vertices that are merged. Change this value as
appropriate (either by clicking on the left and right arrows, or by
clicking and typing in a new value and pressing
), and the Remove Doubles operation is
immediately redone. A new message will indicate how many vertices were
removed. Simply keep adjusting the value until you are satisfied you
haven\'t removed too many or too few vertices.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Normals and Shading

|previous=Mesh Edit Mode
|previousText=Meshes and Edit Mode
}}
```
![](Blender263LowPolyUVSphere.png "Blender263LowPolyUVSphere.png"){width="120"}
Open a new Blender document. Delete the default cube, and add a "UV
Sphere" mesh. In the "Add UV Sphere" panel which appears at the lower
left of the Toolshelf (press  to make
the Toolshelf visible if it's not), set both the Segments and Rings to a
low number, e.g. 8. The result will be very angular, as shown to the
right, not round like you would expect a sphere to be.

![](Blender263LowPolyUVSphereFlat.png "Blender263LowPolyUVSphereFlat.png"){width="120"}
Press  to do a quick render. The 3D view
will be replaced with the

![](Blender269UVImageEditorIcon.png "Blender269UVImageEditorIcon.png")
view, showing the rendered image, as at right. Press
 to return to the 3D view
![](Blender2693DViewIcon.png "Blender2693DViewIcon.png").

![](Blender263LowPolyUVSphereSmooth.png "Blender263LowPolyUVSphereSmooth.png"){width="120"}
Select the sphere object (). Now look in
the Toolshelf for the shading buttons:
![](Blender263ShadingButtons.png "Blender263ShadingButtons.png"), and
click on "Smooth". Now try a new render with
.

As you can see, the *surfaces* of the object look a lot smoother and
curved, even though the *outline* or *silhouette* is just as angular as
before.

![](Blender263LowPolyUVSphereNormals.png "Blender263LowPolyUVSphereNormals.png"){width="120"}
Return to the 3D view with . Ensure the
UV sphere object is selected, and you are in Edit mode. Bring up the
Properties shelf at the right side of the 3D view with
 if it's not already visible. Look for
the Mesh Display panel, and find the settings for Normals.
![](Blender263MeshDisplayNormalsSettings.png "Blender263MeshDisplayNormalsSettings.png").
If you check both icon boxes, the display of the UV sphere should change
to look something like the image to the right.

Those spiky little lines are the
; the green ones in the middle
of each face are , the
blue ones protruding from each vertex are
.

In the physical theory of light, the *normal* is a line perpendicular to
the surface of the object the light is hitting. When your eye (or the
camera) *C* is positioned on a plane through the normal of a particular
surface observing a certain surface point *P* illuminated by a coplanar
light source *L*, a specific amount of light will be reflected and hence
be registered by the camera depending on the physical characteristics of
the surface. The observed intensity of reflected light is at a maximum
if the angle *C-P-L* is divided into two equal halves by the normal.

In the real world, a lot of surfaces are curved or otherwise not flat.
But a mesh can only be made up of straight edges and flat faces. So how
can it represent an object with a curved surface?

When you added the UV sphere to your scene, you had the option of
specifying how many segments and rings it was made from. The more of
those present, the closer the geometry approximates a curve. However,
the more there are, the longer the render will take, and the more memory
the model will consume to hold information about all the extra vertices,
edges and faces.

Which is where that "Smooth" shading button you clicked comes in. It
applies a trick called *Phong shading*.
Instead of doing the lighting calculation based on a normal for each
face as the physical theory says you should, it starts with a normal
assigned to each vertex, and interpolates the normal at each point on a
face from the vertex normals at its corners, based on the distance at
that point to those corners. The result fools the eye into seeing
curved, rounded surfaces where there aren't any.

This completely violates the laws of physics. To start with, how can you
define a "normal" which is perpendicular to a *point*? But as you can
see, the results look rather good, with relatively little extra
computation involved, much less than actually generating all the extra
geometry.

As you learn more about computer graphics, you will come across more
tricks like this. Physically accurate modelling is still very difficult
to do, even with modern computers, and the results may not look all that
good. But by adopting a bit of lateral thinking that goes completely
against physics, we can often, ironically, come up with much more
realistic-looking results.

## Not So Smooth?

![](Blender263LowPolyUVSphereSmoothGlitch.png "Blender263LowPolyUVSphereSmoothGlitch.png"){width="120"}
If you have been adding lots of vertices, edges and faces to your mesh,
you may end up with discontinuities in smooth shading causing unsightly
blotches, as shown to the right.

Assuming your mesh is constructed properly (e.g. no edges and faces
cross each other in physically impossible ways), the most likely reason
for this is the normals in the newly added vertices and faces are
pointing the wrong way. To fix it, select the troublesome part of the
mesh (or select the whole thing) in Edit mode, and press
 to recalculate all the normals.
Re-render the scene to confirm the shading discontinuity has
disappeared.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/More Mesh Editing Techniques

|previous=Normals and Shading
}}
```
You previously scratched the surface of
the tools that Blender provides for editing meshes. This page will
introduce more of them.

## Adding More Mesh Pieces

Start with the default cube again. Select it and
 into Edit mode. Press
 to bring up the Add menu.
Instead of all the submenus with all the objects you could add in Object
mode, you will see only a single menu containing only mesh objects.
Select another cube, and use  to move
it away from the first cube.

If you  into Object mode, you will see
that the two cubes look like separate, disconnected objects, but they
are in fact one object, and cannot be selected separately in Object
mode. You can  back into Edit mode, and
make connections between the vertices of the two cubes, which you cannot
do with separate objects. Therefore:

## Linked Selections

If you have some part of a mesh selected, pressing
 will select all other parts of
the mesh that are connected to the already-selected parts. In the above
case of the object made up of two disconnected cubes, you can
 on a single vertex of one cube, then
use  to select all the rest of
that cube but not the other.

Another way to do linked selections is to simply move the mouse over
some part of the piece you want to select, and press
 to immediately select everything
connected to that. Conversely,
will *un*select everything connected to the vertex under the mouse.

## Separating and Joining Meshes

You can separate a part of a mesh into its own object. The part you are
separating doesn't have to be disconnected from the rest of the mesh.
Simply select the part you want to separate in Edit mode, and press
, and in the menu that appears, choose
"Selection". You will see the selected part immediately change to a
reddish-orange highlight, indicating it is part of the object selection
but not the active object.

Conversely, you can join two or more mesh objects into one. Select all
the desired objects in Object mode, and press
, and you will see them all
immediately take on the orange-yellow highlight indicating they are
*all* the active object.  into Edit
mode, and you can confirm all are editable as part of the same mesh
object.

## Proper Extrusion

You previously discovered how to add whole new sections to a mesh with
. Blender also has a proper
 function, which lets you do
this with a bit more control.

Start with the default cube, as usual. Go into Edit mode. Select just
the top four vertices. Press  to start
extruding, and move the mouse roughly along the direction of the Z-axis.
You will find yourself dragging out a whole new face formed from four
new vertices connected to the ones you previously selected. You will
notice also that the movement of the newly-added part of the mesh is
automatically constrained to be parallel to the Z-axis. Press
 or
to finish the extrusion operation.

Deselect everything. Now try selecting another four vertices of the
original cube, say making up a face pointing along the X-axis. Now if
you extrude these, you will see that the extrusion is automatically
constrained to move only parallel to the X-axis.

A quirk of the extrusion function is that if you press
 and then immediately abort with
 or ,
*the additional mesh piece is still created*, but it is left in the same
position as the original mesh. To *really* abort the extrusion, you have
to undo it with .

### More Extrusion Options

brings up the Extrude menu, which gives you access to more options,
depending on what you have selected:

-   "Region"---extrude the entire selected area as one, exactly
    equivalent to .
-   "Individual Faces"---if you have more than one face selected, then
    they are extruded separately. In particular, any edge common to two
    selected faces will give rise to two separate extruded edges, rather
    than one.
-   "Edges Only"---extrudes only the edges; new faces are created only
    connecting the new edges to the existing ones, not between the new
    edges.
-   "Vertices Only"---extrudes only the vertices; edges are created only
    connecting the new vertices to the existing ones, not between the
    new vertices, and no new faces are created.

## Edge Loop Selection

*Edge loops* are an important concept when
constructing meshes. They are so important that Blender provides a
shortcut for selecting an entire edge loop with one click:
 on an edge or vertex that is part
of the loop you want to select, and it will select the entire loop.
Alternatively,  adds an edge
loop to the selection; or, if the part you click on is already selected,
it will *deselect* the entire loop.

For example, try experimenting with a UV sphere: every line of
"latitude" and "longitude" in this mesh is an edge loop.

## Loop Cuts

Sometimes you need to add more vertices to the interior part of a mesh,
perhaps to flesh in some detail. The loop cut function lets you add more
edge loops between existing ones.

Ensure you are in Edit mode. It doesn't matter what parts of the mesh
are currently selected. Press  to
activate the  function. You
will see a magenta-coloured loop wrap itself around different parts of
the mesh as you move the mouse. You can press
 or  to
abandon the operation at this point, or once you see the loop appearing
around the correct part of the mesh, you can use
 or
to proceed. Now the magenta colour changes to the usual orange-yellow
selection highlight, and will now restrict itself to sliding along this
section of the mesh as you move the mouse. If you press
 or
at this point, you will end up with a new loop of vertices and edges at
the last-shown point, while  or
 will still create the new loop, but
leave it positioned at the midpoint.

When the loop is still at the magenta stage, you can use the mouse wheel
to increase the number of cuts to 2 or more. You can also type a number
of cuts using  \...
.

## Edge Loop Deletion

Conversely, you can get rid of edge loops as well, reducing the
complexity of the surface without leaving holes in it. Select the edge
loop (the quick way is  on a
component edge or vertex as described above), then bring up the deletion
menu ( or
) and select "Edge Loop". The selected
loop will disappear, and adjacent edges and faces will be merged.

## Subdividing Parts

A loop cut always cuts a complete loop. Alternatively, you can
 just a selected part of the
mesh: make your selection, then press
to bring up the Vertex Specials menu, and select the top option,
"Subdivide". This will create one cut, but a panel will appear at the
lower left of the Toolshelf ( to make
it visible at the left of the 3D view if it's not), where you can alter
the number of cuts and other settings. This same option is also
available on Edge Specials .

Another option is the second one on the
 menu: "Subdivide Smooth". This one
computes a
Catmull-Clark
interpolation to give more of a curve rather than a flat subdivision.

## Subdivision Surface Modifier

A  causes some change to the
geometry of an object just before it gets rendered. The change does not
affect the object as you view and edit it in the 3D view, or as it is
stored in the document (unless you
 the modifier, which makes the
change permanent). This allows you to create some complicated effects at
render time, while the original mesh stays simple and easy to edit.
Modifiers for the active object are applied and controlled in the
Modifiers
![](Blender255ObjectModifiersContextButton.png "Blender255ObjectModifiersContextButton.png")
tab in the Properties window.

![](Blender263ModifiersMenuSubsurf.png "Blender263ModifiersMenuSubsurf.png"){width="400"}
A  (also
known as a "subsurf" modifier) applies the Catmull-Clark interpolation
discussed above as a modifier. Being a modifier, it applies to the
entire object, not just to selected vertices. But since the original
mesh is preserved, you use it as a *control cage* to adjust the shape of
the interpolated curve.
![](Blender263SubsurfModifierSettings.png "Blender263SubsurfModifierSettings.png")
Start with the default cube selected in Object mode, as usual. Go to the
Modifiers tab in Properties
![](Blender269PropertiesIcon.png "Blender269PropertiesIcon.png"). When
you select "Subdivision Surface" from the "Add Modifier" menu, a new
panel appears as at right. Notice the two value sliders under the
"Subdivisions" heading; \'View\' controls the level of subdivision
within the 3D view, while \'Render\' applies to the actual render; the
higher the number of levels, the closer to a curve the interpolated
geometry becomes. Having two separate settings for working environment
and render allows for faster operation in the 3D view, with the usual
tradeoff of lower quality, while still allowing maximum quality for the
final render.
`{{B3D:N2P/Note|'''Keyboard shortcuts:''' Because the Subdivision Surface modifier is so heavily used, there is a set of hotkeys for adding the modifier to the current object if it doesn’t already have one, and setting the number of subdivision levels in the 3D view: {{B3D:N2P/Do|CTRL|1KEY}} .. {{B3D:N2P/Do|CTRL|5KEY}} for setting the view levels to 1 .. 5 respectively.
}}`{=mediawiki}
![](Blender263SubsurfedCubeObjectMode.png "Blender263SubsurfedCubeObjectMode.png"){width="120"}
As soon as you add the modifier, the appearance of the cube should
change to look something like at right (here shown with just one level
of subdivision).

The upper part of the panel (from the "Apply" and "Copy" buttons
upwards) is common to all modifiers. Note the X button at the right.
Clicking it gets rid of the modifier. Notice also a group of 4 icon
buttons in the middle, the leftmost two look like a camera and an eye.
The icons are defined as follows (from left to right):

-   Use the modifier during rendering
-   Show the modifier effect in the 3D view
-   Show the modifier effect in the 3D view in Edit mode (if this is
    unchecked and the previous one is checked, the modifier effect
    disappears while in Edit mode)
-   Show the mesh as though the modifier were applied to it in Edit
    mode.

Unchecking the first one lets you disable the modifier without losing
its settings. The remaining three can be handy if you're trying to
disentangle the effects of different modifiers during editing.

![](Blender263SubsurfedCubeEditMode.png "Blender263SubsurfedCubeEditMode.png"){width="120"}
When the third button is enabled, the mesh will look like this in Edit
mode. The original mesh remains highlightable and editable. A preview of
the effect of the modifier is also visible, and responds immediately to
any changes made to the original mesh. (Try moving some vertices around,
and see what happens.)

![](Blender263SubsurfedCubeEditModeApplied.png "Blender263SubsurfedCubeEditModeApplied.png"){width="120"}
The fourth button goes one step further and acts as if the modifier has
already been applied, while allowing you to edit only those parts
corresponding to the original mesh. (This button affects the behavior of
the third button. It cannot be used independently, and may disappear if
the third button is unchecked.)

## Sharpening the Curves

The subdivision surface modifier offers much more control over the
resulting shape than might be apparent from above. For example, you may
not want uniform curvature everywhere, you may want some parts of the
shape to have sharper edges. This can be achieved in two ways:

-   by applying a *crease* value to selected edges
-   by strategic positioning of additional vertices in the control-cage
    mesh.

### Applying a Crease

![](Blender267SubsurfedCubeCreasedEdges.png "Blender267SubsurfedCubeCreasedEdges.png"){width="160"}
Select the edges where you want the curve to be sharper. Press
. Note how the curve gets pulled
more or less closer to those edges as you move the mouse. The selected
edges take on a magenta colour, indicating they have a nonzero crease
value applied.

The crease value can be seen and edited in the Transform panel at the
top of the Properties Shelf at the side of the 3D view (you can toggle
its visibility with . Values can range
from 0.0 (no crease, the default) to 1.0 (maximum sharpness of the
edge).

### Adding Vertices

![](Blender263SubsurfedCubeLoopCut1.png "Blender263SubsurfedCubeLoopCut1.png"){width="160"}
For example, start with the subdivided cube example as above. Press
 to start a loop cut, and position
the magenta outline something like this:
![](Blender263SubsurfedCubeLoopCut2.png "Blender263SubsurfedCubeLoopCut2.png"){width="160"}
Press  or
 \...
![](Blender263SubsurfedCubeLoopCut3.png "Blender263SubsurfedCubeLoopCut3.png"){width="160"}
\... and move the mouse so the newly-added loop moves closer to one side
of the cube. See how the subdivided mesh develops a sharper curve on
this side?

To confirm the placement of the new loop, press
 or .

### Which to Use?

The basic principle is, the closer together the vertices are, the more
control you have over the curve at that point. So the question is, do
you just want a sharper edge, or do you want more detail? That will
govern whether you need to add vertices, or just apply a crease to the
existing edges.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Quickie Lighting

|previous=More Mesh Editing Techniques
}}
```
![](Blender263DefaultRender.png "Blender263DefaultRender.png"){width="120"}
Open a new default Blender document. Without doing anything else, hit
 to render the default cube with the
default settings. The result should look something like the image to the
right.

Note the lower left visible face of the cube is completely black because
the default light is at the upper right.
![](Blender263ShadelessRender.png "Blender263ShadelessRender.png"){width="120"}
Go back from the render to the 3D view
(). Now select (with
) the default light, and either delete
it or move it to another layer (with ). Go
to your World tab
![](Blender255WorldContextButton.png "Blender255WorldContextButton.png")
in the Properties
![](Blender269PropertiesIcon.png "Blender269PropertiesIcon.png") window,
and look for the Environment Lighting panel:
![](Blender263WorldEnvironmentLightingSettings.png "Blender263WorldEnvironmentLightingSettings.png")
 Check the box next to the title, and leave the
"E:" (energy) value at its default 1.0. This gives us a pervasive,
directionless light, illuminating all objects equally from all
directions, which means there will be no shadows. Do another render, and
it should now look like the image to the right.

See how we have gone from inky-black shadows to no shadows at all. In
the real world, lighting is almost never perfectly uniform, and this
variation of light and shade is important to help us distinguish details
of the scene around us. Without such variations, everything devolves
into featureless blobs.

![](Blender263SoftenedDefaultRender.png "Blender263SoftenedDefaultRender.png"){width="120"}
Now undo your deletion of the default lamp (or move it back to layer 1).
Enable Environment Lighting again, but this time lower the Energy value
to 0.1. Do another render, and it should now look like the image to the
right. The shadowed face is still shadowed, but not enough to make it
impossible to see any details it may have. This is usually the type of
effect you want, unless you are aiming for really dramatic contrasts.

So the lesson is:

As you learn more, you will find that it is common to use two or three
lights, or even more, to ensure proper illumination of a scene. In
simple tutorials, where no explicit details are given about lighting,
you can probably get by with the default light, plus some environment
lighting (as we added earlier) to soften the shadows.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Quickie Model

|previous=Quickie Lighting
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
!Your goal. In this
module, you\'ll learn how to extrude and merge vertices of a mesh and
how to save a model. This module also introduces the File Browser window
type.

Your first model will be a house, which we will develop over the course
of several modules. Here we will start with four walls and a pyramidal
roof. Simple! Since you\'re going to use the default cube as a base, all
you actually need to build is the roof!

Editing in Blender generally involves four steps:

1.  Selecting an object to edit.
2.  Activating Edit Mode on that object.
3.  Selecting part(s) of the object to act upon.
4.  Specifying the action(s) to be performed on those parts.

## Bring up the Default Cube

!The default cube in Object
Mode.

1.  Launch Blender.
2.  Load the factory settings using *File → Defaults → Load Factory
    Settings*.

This should give you a perspective view of a scene containing three
objects:

-   a cube,
-   a light source,
-   a camera.

## Setting up the Viewport

It will be easier to work on the roof of your house in a perspective
side view:

1.  Press  to switch to a \"perfect\"
    right side view.

\"Right Persp\" will be shown on the top left of the 3D View. The \"up\"
() direction in the scene is now \"up\" on your
monitor as well.

It will also help to zoom in a bit:

1.  Make sure the 3D View window is active (which means your mouse
    cursor is in it).

2.      or press  a few times until the
    cube is about 1/3 the height of the viewport.

Because you just loaded the factory defaults, the 3D transform
manipulator will be enabled. For mesh editing, it will help to turn the
manipulator off:

1.  Make sure the 3D View window is active.
2.  Press  to toggle the
    manipulator on or off.

Press  once. This puts you into Edit
Mode on the selected object, i.e. the cube.

Here\'s how the cube should look at this point:

The default cube is constructed as a mesh. Now that you\'re in Edit
Mode, you can access the individual vertices, edges, and faces that make
up the mesh. The default cube consists of eight vertices, twelve edges,
and six faces.

## Adjusting the Height

Right now, all eight vertices are selected, so any vertex edits you make
will affect them all. For instance, if you were to move a vertex, the
other seven vertices would follow. In order to build a roof peak for the
house, you need to alter just the four top vertices of the cube. To do
that, you must change the selection so that only *those* vertices are
selected.

1.  Turn \'Occlude Background Geometry\' off, so you can see all
    vertices. Note, in newer versions, this button is called \"Limit
    Selection to Visible.\" It is one of the buttons to the right of
    transform orientation which is to the right of the mode select which
    should be currently set to \"edit mode\".
2.  Deselect the bottom four vertices, one by one, using
    .

![](Blender-2.5_quickie_model_stage2.png "Blender-2.5_quickie_model_stage2.png")
The picture to the right shows the cube (in right perspective view and
occlude background geometry \"off\") with the correct vertices selected.

Now you\'ll adjust the height of your house\'s ceiling. Activate the
**grab tool**:

1.  Make sure Blender is in Edit Mode, with the relevant part(s) of the
    object selected.
2.  Make sure the 3D View window is active.
3.  Press .

The 3D View header will be replaced by numbers: \"Dx: 0.0000 Dy: 0.0000
Dz: 0.0000 (0.0000)\".

You want to lower the ceiling without making the walls crooked. This is
hard to do freehand, but happily the grab tool provides an option for
doing just that.

With the grab tool activated:

1.  Press  to limit movement to the global
    Z-axis.

When your ceiling is the height you want, confirm the grab with
 (or
).

## Extruding

!Step 7: the extruded attic, ready to
confirm{width="450"}

Now you\'re going to \"add on\" to your house by **extruding**.
Extrusion begins by duplicating selected parts of an object. Then the
new parts are pulled away from the old ones, with new faces and edges
created as necessary.

To add an attic to your house:

1.  Make sure Blender is in Edit Mode, with the top four vertices
    selected.
2.  Make sure the 3D View window is active.
3.  Press  to activate the **extrude
    tool**.
4.  Restrict movement to the Z axis and move the mouse pointer upward.
5.  When the attic is the height you want, confirm the extrude with
     or
    .
6.  Keep the extrusion visible: you will need it for the next exercise.

## Merging

!The Specials
menu{width="350"}

You can change the roof from a flat one to a pyramidal one by merging
the vertices of the roof:

1.  Make sure that you still have the extruded roof from the previous
    exercise visible.
2.  Make sure Blender is in Edit Mode, with the four top-most vertices
    selected.
3.  Make sure the 3D View window is active.
4.  Press  to bring up the *Specials*
    menu.
5.  Select *Merge*. (You can also access this by pressing
    +.)
6.  The *Merge* menu should pop up, select *At center*.

A message should appear on the Info header saying that 3 vertices have
been deleted, this is because in order to merge four vertices into one,
three vertices must be deleted.

!Your house now has a pyramidal
roof!

## Saving your Work

!Saving the
.blend{width="550"}

We will be developing the house in later modules, so save your work now.
To save the current scene in a `.blend` file:

1.  Press  (or select *File → Save As*).
    The active window temporarily changes into a File Browser window.
2.  Navigate to the directory (folder) where you want to write the file
    by clicking  on directory names in
    the File Browser window. (Clicking on \"..\" will take you up one
    level.)
3.  If you wish to name the file something other than
    \"untitled.blend\", type a filename in the text box to the left of
    the \"Cancel\" button. (The .blend suffix will be added
    automatically.)
4.  Click  on the \"Save As Blender
    File\" button. As soon as the save operation is complete, the window
    will automatically revert to its former type.

### Saving Further Changes

Once you have saved your work to a file for the first time, you can save
subsequent changes to the same file name by pressing
 and confirming you want to
overwrite the existing file.

## Additional Resources

-   A Video Tutorial on Edit
    Mode


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Quickie Render

|nextText=Enter the World
|previous=Quickie Model
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
![](Blender-2.5_quickie_model_render.png "Blender-2.5_quickie_model_render.png"){width="350"}

If you haven\'t completed
, do so now. You will need
the resulting model for this module.

Now that you\'ve created your first model, you\'ll probably want to try
rendering it. Your first render, with a single light source and only
nine faces, should finish quickly. However, as your 3D scenes become
more complex, you\'ll find that rendering can take a long time.

In this module, you\'ll render your quickie model and save the result in
various file formats. You\'ll also learn how to aim cameras and create
lamps.

## Rendering the Quickie Model

1.  Launch Blender and load factory settings.
2.  To load the house model from the previous module, select *File →
    Open Recent*, and select the file you saved. Alternatively, press
     or select *File → Open*, find the
    file, and open it. As soon as the operation is complete, the window
    will load the quickie model that you created in the previous
    exercise.
3.  Press  or select *Render → Render
    Image*. This opens the
     so you can watch the
    render progress.

-   With the new Apple keyboard, use
    to avoid the Mac Dashboard.
-   With Macintosh OS X 10.5, use
    .
-   With Gnome, use  to avoid the
    Gnome Search Dialog.

## Seeing Your Render

By default, pressing  will switch to the
UV/Image Editor window, and show your render there. You can switch back
to the 3D view with . Pressing
 in the 3D view will switch you to the
UV/Image Editor window without redoing the render, i.e. you will see the
same image as last time.

## Aiming the Camera

If you don\'t get a picture of the house, or if the picture is not
framed well, try moving or re-aiming the camera:

1.  Press  to get back to Edit Mode, if
    needed.
2.  Press  to take the camera\'s
    viewpoint.
3.  Press  to put the 3D View window
    into .

In camera fly mode, you can:

-       and  by moving the mouse
    pointer up, down, left, or right.

-   Accelerate by  forwards.

-   Decelerate by  backwards.

-   Press any key or button to exit fly mode.

(It works differently in version 2.70 and later, more like a FPS game
with possibility to slide and so on, buttons are regular FPS controls)

When you\'re done positioning the camera, try rendering again.

## Lighting

If your cube is completely black, you may not have a lamp in the scene.
Either the default lamp got deleted, or you\'re using a version of
Blender that doesn\'t provide a default lamp.

To add a lamp:

1.  Make sure Blender is in Object Mode.
2.  Place the 3D cursor where you want the lamp to go; or add the lamp
    then immediately grab it, and move it somewhere else.
3.  Press .
4.  In the popup menu, select *Lamp → Point*.

## Saving the Render

This is old information and is no longer valid. Saving the scene (with
, for instance) does not save any
renders. Saving renders is a separate step.

To save your current render :

1.  Make sure you are in the Image Editor. If not press
     to render
2.  Press . This temporarily changes the
    active window into a File Browser window. (in the older versions you
    use F3 but in the newer versions the button can be FN + S or SHIFT +
    S
3.  Navigate to the directory (folder) where you want to write the file.
4.  Type a filename in the text box (to the left of the \"Cancel\"
    button).
5.  To the left of the window, choose your preferred file type.
6.  Click  on the \"Save as Image\"
    button. As soon as the save operation is complete, the window will
    return to the Image Editor.

## Renderer Selection

![](Blender263RendererSelectionMenu.png "Blender263RendererSelectionMenu.png")
Blender offers a choice of different rendering engines for producing
images. The menu for selecting from these appears in the Info window
(the thin one that contains the menu bar at the top of the default
layout). In most of these tutorials, you will leave this choice set at
Blender Render. But it is worth knowing what other choices are
available:

-   Blender Render---the oldest renderer, commonly known as the Blender
    Internal renderer. Built into Blender right from its early days. Can
    still produce good results with the right tricks, but considered by
    the Blender developers to be antiquated and not worthy of continuing
    development.
-   Blender Game---this is the renderer used by the Blender Game Engine.
    Designed to be fast enough for interactive use in a game, which
    means there are limitations in the quality of renders it produces.
    You also use this renderer to create rigid-body physics simulations.
-   Cycles Render---for this and other choices, see Advanced
    Rendering.

## Render Control

![](Blender263RenderRender.png "Blender263RenderRender.png") The top
panel under the Render tab
![](Blender255RenderContextButton.png "Blender255RenderContextButton.png")
in the Properties window shows 3 buttons and a menu. The first button
renders a single frame, equivalent to .
The other two buttons are more relevant to
animations.

![](Blender263RenderDisplayMenu.png "Blender263RenderDisplayMenu.png")
The "Display:" menu controls what happens when you press
: the default "Image Editor" causes the
3D view to be switched to the UV/Image Editor showing the rendered
image. "Full Screen" causes the UV/Image Editor display to take over the
entire screen, while "New Window" makes it appear in a separate OS/GUI
window (similar to how older versions of Blender used to work). Finally,
"Keep UI" causes no changes to your window layout at all; you have to
explicitly bring up the Image Editor with
 to see the rendered image.

## Render Image Dimensions

![](Blender263RenderDimensions.png "Blender263RenderDimensions.png") You
can control the size of the image that Blender creates when rendering.
This is specified in the "Dimensions" panel under Render
![](Blender255RenderContextButton.png "Blender255RenderContextButton.png")
properties. Apart from the menu at the top, the settings in this panel
are grouped into two columns:

-   The column on the left controls settings for a single image.
-   The column on the right specifies additional settings for rendering
    a whole sequence of images as part of an
    animation.
    These settings will be discussed
    later.

At the upper left, under "Resolution:", we have the dimensions in pixels
of the image (the default settings are 1920×1080 as shown in the
screenshot), plus an additional scale factor slider below (showing 50%
by default). With these settings, the image will actually be rendered at
(1920×50%)×(1080×50%) = 960×540. Having the scale factor is a
convenience. Rendering smaller, lower-quality images is faster, which
speeds up initial work on your model, but you\'ll want full quality for
the final result. Instead of mentally having to work out numbers for
render quality, you can simply set the resolution to full quality, and
use the scale factor to reduce this to, say, 50% or 25% for interim
work, then set it to 100% for the final output.

## Image File Formats

![](Blender263RenderFormats.png "Blender263RenderFormats.png")

You set the format and location for saving rendered images in the
"Output" panel under the Render
![](Blender255RenderContextButton.png "Blender255RenderContextButton.png")
properties.

In current versions of Blender, the default format for saving rendered
images is PNG. This is a
*lossless* format which has the option for *alpha transparency* (which
means the sky background is replaced by transparent pixels---enabled by
clicking the "RGBA" button). This is a good format if you intend to do
further work with the image (e.g. in an image editor like Gimp or
Photoshop), but the files can be large.

JPEG is a lossy
image format, which means it throws away information that the human eye
doesn't see. This produces much smaller files than PNG, and is adequate
if you just want to upload the render directly for use in a Web page or
other such document, but is not the best choice if you intend to do
further processing of the image. It also doesn't support alpha
transparency.

To change the render file format:

1.  Switch to the Render tab in the Properties window.
2.  Look for the "Output" panel.
3.  Click  on the popout menu with the
    current file format.
4.  Select your preferred format.

## Additional Resources

-
-   Tutorial on Using Multiple
    Cameras ←
    Pictures are missing from this tutorial

-   Ira Krakow\'s Basic Blender Camera Positioning
    (Rigging)


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/World Settings

In the properties panel, the World
![](Blender255WorldContextButton.png "Blender255WorldContextButton.png")
settings control the background or sky settings for your scene. A scene
doesn't have to have a World, in which case, the background will simply
be black. If you save your images with a transparent Sky setting, the
background doesn't matter. But in other situations, you will want to
control what appears here.

![](Blender270WorldSettingsDefault.png "Blender270WorldSettingsDefault.png")
Here is what the top two panels in the World Context look like in a new
default document. (Settings further down for Ambient Occlusion,
Environment Lighting and Indirect Lighting will be discussed later, when
we discuss lighting.)

"Ambient Color" is a sourceless, shadowless light, coming from all
directions, applied to all objects. Trouble is, its effect is very
"flat", i.e. it washes out detail. It\'s probably better to use the
Environment Lighting or Ambient Occlusion options (in panels further
down) to soften murky shadows.

With none of the boxes checked, "Zenith Color" has no effect, only
"Horizon Color" does. The sky will simply be a flat expanse of this
colour. Selecting "Paper Sky" and "Real Sky" on their own has no effect,
they work only in conjunction with "Blend Sky".

Check "Blend Sky" on its own. Now the sky takes on a gradient from
"Zenith Color" at the zenith (straight up) to "Horizon Color", not at
the horizon, but at the nadir (straight down).

Check both "Blend Sky" and "Real Sky". Now you get "Horizon Color" at
the horizon, with a gradient to "Zenith Color" at both zenith *and*
nadir.

The effect of "Blend Sky" with "Paper Sky" is a bit more subtle. It
means the horizon is always in the middle of the image, regardless of
the orientation of the camera. The effect is more noticeable if you
check "Real Sky" as well, otherwise it looks little different from
"Blend Sky" on its own.

![](Blender270WorldSettingsExample1.png "Blender270WorldSettingsExample1.png")
Here is an example with contrasting horizon and zenith colours. I also
set the camera field of view to 90°.

![](Blender270WorldExample1BlendSky.png "Blender270WorldExample1BlendSky.png")
With only "Blend Sky" checked, a render looks like this.

![](Blender270WorldExample1RealSky.png "Blender270WorldExample1RealSky.png")
With "Blend Sky" and "Real Sky" checked, this is how the render comes
out. Note how the cube is noticeably off-centre relative to the horizon
band, because the camera view is at an angle to the horizontal.

![](Blender270WorldExample1RealPaperSky.png "Blender270WorldExample1RealPaperSky.png")
With all three of "Blend Sky", "Real Sky" and "Paper Sky" checked, the
result is this. The cube now looks like it is on the horizon, even
though the camera angle is the same as the previous image.

You can also add a texture to your sky. That will be discussed
later.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Understanding the Camera

|previous=World Settings
|previousText=Enter the World
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
## Real-World Cameras

Before discussing the camera in Blender, it helps to understand
something about how cameras work in real life. We have become accustomed
to so many of their quirks and limitations when looking at real
photographs, that 3D software like Blender often expends a lot of effort
to mimic those quirks.

When taking a photo with a real camera, a number of important factors
come into play:

-   the *focus* --- because of the way lenses work, only objects within
    a certain distance range from the camera (the *depth of field*) will
    appear sharp in the image. Objects outside this range will begin to
    appear noticeably blurred, the blur getting worse the farther they
    are outside the focus range. The narrower the range of in-focus
    distances (the shallower the depth of field), the more quickly this
    blurring happens with objects outside it.
-   the *exposure time* --- how long the shutter remains open. The
    longer this is, the more light is captured, but also the more likely
    the image is to pick up *motion blur* from moving objects.
-   the *aperture* --- how wide the iris opening is. This is expressed,
    not as an actual distance measurement, but as a fraction of the
    *focal length* of the lens (loosely, distance between the lens and
    the image-capturing surface when the image is properly focused),
    written as *f*: thus, say, *f*/2.8 ("*f* over 2.8", not "*f* 2.8")
    is a larger number, hence representing a wider aperture, than *f*/8.
    A wider aperture increases the amount of light being captured
    *without* contributing to motion blur, but it reduces the depth of
    field. The extreme case of a *pinhole camera* has a very tiny
    aperture with infinite depth of field (no need to focus at all), but
    captures very little light, so it needs a very well-lit scene, a
    long exposure, or a very sensitive image-capturing surface.
-   the *sensitivity* of the image-capturing surface to light. In the
    days of film cameras, we talked about film sensitivity ("fast" film
    being more sensitive to light than "slow" film). Nowadays, with
    digital cameras we talk about the *gain* of the light-amplification
    system. High-sensitivity film was more likely to produce a grainy
    image. In a somewhat similar manner, high light-amplification in a
    digital camera is more likely to produce a noisy-looking image under
    low-light conditions.
-   the *field of view* --- how much of the scene the camera can see at
    once. A *wide-angle* lens gives a wider field of view, but you have
    to be closer to objects to be able to see them, and there is greater
    perspective distortion. At the other extreme, a *telephoto* lens
    gives a very narrow field of view, but can take pictures of things
    from much further away. A wide-angle lens also has a shorter focal
    length than a narrow-angle one (remember that aperture is expressed
    as a ratio of the focal length *f*), therefore the telephoto lens is
    going to capture *less* light than the wide-angle one with the
    *same* aperture width. You may also have heard of the *zoom lens*,
    i.e. one with a variable focal length. It can be adjusted from a
    wide-angle mode to a telephoto mode.

As you can see, many of these different factors interact with each
other. The brightness of the image can be affected by the exposure time,
the aperture, the gain sensitivity and the focal length of the lens.
Each of these have side-effects on the image in other ways.

Blender and other computer graphics software are, in principle, free of
the problems of focus, exposure time, aperture, sensitivity and focal
length. Nevertheless, it is common to want to introduce deliberate
motion blur into an image, to give the impression of movement. Sometimes
it is useful to introduce a deliberately shallow depth of field,
blurring objects in the background in order to draw emphasis to the
important part of the image, i.e that which is in focus.

Exposure (the total amount of light captured in the image) is also less
of a problem in computer graphics than in real-world photography,
because in computer graphics you always have total control over the
amount and placement of lighting in the scene. Nevertheless, if you're
not careful, you can produce overexposed (bright parts losing detail by
saturating to a solid, featureless white) or underexposed images (dark
parts losing detail by becoming solid black).

The field of view issue arises from basic principles of geometry, and
Blender's camera is just as much subject to that as real cameras.

## The Camera In Blender

Here we are going to concentrate on the important issue of *field of
view*.

You can change the field of view in two ways - move the camera closer to
or farther from the scene (called *dollying* in film/TV production
parlance), or change the angle of the lens (*zooming*). You do the
latter in the Object Data
![](Blender267CameraDataContextButton.png "Blender267CameraDataContextButton.png")
tab in the Properties window (the Camera has to be selected by
 in Object Mode, or the required tab
will not be visible).

*Perspective* is the phenomenon
where objects that are farther away from the viewer look smaller than
those nearby. More than that, different parts of the *same* object may
be at different distances from the eye, leading to a change in the
apparent shape of the object called *perspective distortion*. The
mathematical theory of perspective was worked out by
Alhazen in the 11th century, and famously
adopted by the Italian Renaissance painters four hundred years later.

Here are two renders of the same scene with two different cameras, to
illustrate the difference.

This one moves the camera closer but gives it a wider field of view:
![](BlenderPerspWidepng.png "BlenderPerspWidepng.png")

This one moves the camera back, while narrowing its field of view, to
try to give the scene the same overall size.
![](BlenderPerspNarrow.png "BlenderPerspNarrow.png")

The latter is like using a "telephoto" lens with a real camera. Notice
how the wider field of view gives you a greater perspective effect. The
boxes are all *cuboids*, with parallel pairs of opposite faces joined by
parallel edges, yet there is a noticeable angle between
notionally-parallel edges in both images, which is more pronounced in
the upper image. *That* is what perspective distortion is all about.

### Specifying the Field of View

![](Blender267CameraDataContext.png "Blender267CameraDataContext.png")

When you select a camera object, its settings become visible in the
Camera Context
![](Blender267CameraDataContextButton.png "Blender267CameraDataContextButton.png")
in the Properties window, which should initially look something like at
right.

Photographers are accustomed to working in terms of the focal length of
the lens - longer means narrower field of view, shorter means wider
field of view. But the field of view also depends on the size of the
sensor (image capture area). Modern digital cameras typically have a
smaller sensor size than the exposed film area in older 35mm film
cameras. Thus, the focal length measurements have to be adjusted
accordingly, in order to give the same field of view.

Blender allows you to work this way, by specifying the focal length in
the "Lens" panel, and the sensor size in the "Camera" panel. It even
offers a "Camera Presets" menu, which sets the sensor size for any of a
range of well-known cameras.

Also, you might be doing compositing of your computer-generated imagery
on top of an actual photograph. In which case, to make the results look
realistic, you need to closely match the characteristics of the camera
and lens that were used to take the photo. If you know the lens focal
length and camera sensor size, it makes sense to be able to plug those
values in directly.

![](Blender267CameraLensAngle.png "Blender267CameraLensAngle.png") But
if you're *not* doing photo compositing, but generating completely
synthetic imagery, you might consider this a somewhat roundabout way of
working. Why not specify the field of view directly as an angle?

Blender allows for this as well. From the popup menu in the Lens panel
that says "Millimeters", select "Field of View" instead, and the Focal
Length field will turn into a Field of View field, showing the angle in
degrees directly. This is *much* easier to relate to the geometry of the
scene!

## See Also

-   Improving Blender Renders with Photography
    Techniques
    --- another explanation covering similar ground.

es:Entendiendo la cámara


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Improving Your House

|previous=Understanding the Camera
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
!Your goal. In this
module, you\'ll refine the house model you created two modules ago. In
the process, you\'ll learn how to access Blender\'s predefined meshes
and how to set a pivot point. You\'ll also learn how to select, extrude,
delete, and subdivide the edges and faces of a mesh model.

\_\_TOC\_\_

To begin, set up Blender as follows:

1.  Launch Blender and load the factory settings.
2.  If you have a numpad, make sure NumLock is on.
3.  Load the house model you created in
    .
4.  If the 3D manipulator is active, disable it.
5.  Adjust the viewpoint until you can clearly see two walls of the
    house and two sides of the roof.

## Adding a Ground Plane

Your house needs some ground to rest on. You can model the ground as an
object in your scene. Blender has many predefined mesh objects built in.
Happily, one of these is a flat, square surface.

Recall that new objects are added at the 3D cursor. Before creating the
ground, you should position the cursor at ground level:

1.  Select the house by clicking  on it.
2.  Enter Edit Mode by pressing .
3.  Select one of the bottom vertices by clicking
     on it.
4.  Bring up the *Snap* menu by pressing
    .
5.  Choose *Cursor to Selected*.
6.  Leave Edit Mode by pressing  so your
    ground is created as a separate object.

!The ground
added.
Now create the ground object:

1.  Activate a 3D View window.
2.  Press .
3.  Choose *Mesh → Plane*.

!The scaled
ground.{width="200"}
To enlarge (or scale) the ground object, use the
:

1.  Make sure Blender is in Object Mode.
2.  Select the ground by clicking  on
    it.
3.  Activate the scale tool by pressing
    .
4.  Type  to enlarge the ground 7x.
5.  Press  or
     to confirm and exit the scale tool.

## Scaling with a Pivot

Suppose you want to shrink the house by 50%. As you can probably guess,
this would be done with the scaling tool. However, if you did so right
now without the right pivot point, the reduced house would no longer
rest on the ground (check this by selecting the house and scaling it to
0.2). Blender scales (and rotates) objects around a
, which by default is
located at the
(geometric center) of the selected object(s).

In order to scale the house while keeping its base on the ground, you
need the pivot point to be at ground level. Since the 3D cursor is at
ground level, you can do this as follows:

!Origin to 3D Cursor Menu
Item.

1.  Make sure Blender is in Object Mode.
2.  Select the house by clicking  on it.
3.  In the 3D View header, click  on
    menu item \"Object\" and put the mouse cursor over *Transform* and
    select *Origin to 3D Cursor* from the pop-up menu. This can also be
    done with Ctrl+Shift+Alt+C, select *Origin to 3D Cursor* from the
    pop-up menu. (A.K.A. select \"Object\" which is just left of where
    you\'ve been going into object mode/edit mode, as shown in the
    image. So Object\>Transform\>Origin to 3D Cursor)

The origin of the house is now at the center of the 3D cursor. If you
scale the house, the place where the 3D cursor is located will remain
fixed, and everything else will expand or contract from that point. The
pivot is marked with an orange-filled circle. Do not mistake it for a
selected vertex.

## Edge Selection

It is often useful to select edges instead of vertices.

!The select mode
buttons.

1.  Make sure Blender is in Object Mode.
2.  Select the house by clicking  on it.
3.  Press  to enter edit mode.
4.  Click  on the Edge select mode
    button in the 3D View header.

In Edge select mode, edges appear as orange or white line segments when
they\'re selected and as black line segments when they\'re not.

Just as you selected vertices in Vertex select mode, you can now select
(and deselect) edges in the same way as vertices. This is also the same
for Face select mode.

It may be because those edges are
. This can happen if you
cancel an extrude operation and forget to undo the duplication. Here\'s
a solution:

1.  Switch to Vertex select mode.
2.  Activate a 3D View window.
3.  Select all vertices by pressing
    once or twice.
4.  Press  to bring up the \"Specials\"
    menu.
5.  Choose *Remove Doubles*.

## Extruding Edges

You can extrude edges in much the same way as you extrude vertices.

!Step
5{width="200"}
To add an overhang to the roof of your house, first move the pivot point
to the peak of the roof:

1.  Switch to Vertex select mode.
2.  Select just the vertex at the peak of the roof.
3.  Press  to bring up the Snap
    menu.
4.  In the Snap menu, choose *Cursor to Selected* to move the 3D cursor
    to the peak.
5.  Use the \"Pivot\" menu (located to the left of the 3D Manipulator
    button) in the 3D View header to change the pivot to \"3D Cursor\".

!After step 2 Now
extrude by scaling from that point:

1.  Switch to Edge select mode.
2.  Select just the four edges at the base of the roof.
3.  Press  to activate the extrude
    tool. The effect is that you have just made a copy of the four
    edges.
4.  Press  to scale the four edges
    uniformly from the pivot point.
5.  As you move the mouse pointer away from the pivot point, the roof of
    your house will expand.
6.  When the roof is the size you want, confirm by
     (or pressing
    ).
7.  Press  to toggle the
    manipulator on then make the overhangs slanted by holding
     on the blue arrow that appears in
    the center of the house, and dragging down.

!After step 7

## Face Selection

It is often useful to select faces.

!The select mode buttons after step
2

1.  Make sure you\'re in Edit Mode on the house.
2.  Click  on the Face select mode
    button in the 3D View header.

In Face select mode, the center of each face is marked with a small
square. Faces appear as orange or stippled grey areas with orange edges
when they\'re selected (depending on which face is active), and as grey
areas when they\'re not.

Just as you selected edges in Edge select mode, you can now select (and
deselect) faces:

-   If any faces are selected, press
    to deselect all faces.
-   If no faces are selected, press  to
    select all faces.
-   To select a single face (and deselect the rest), click
     (or
    ) on the center of the face.
-   To toggle the selection status of a face (without affecting the
    rest), click  on the center of
    the face.

!The three faces on the +X side,
selected
Use these techniques to select all three faces (two roof and one wall)
on the +X side of your house, as shown.

-   Remember that the positive direction of the axis is the direction
    the arrows point to.

## Extruding Faces

Just as you extruded edges to grow the roof, you can extrude faces to
grow the entire house.

!After step 6 To
double the size of your house without changing the pitch of the roof:

1.  With the three faces on the +X side selected, activate a 3D View
    window.
2.  Press  to activate the extrude
    tool.
3.  Press  to extrude along the X axis
4.  As you move the mouse pointer in the +X direction, the +X half of
    your house will expand.
5.  Press  to expand by exactly 2 Blender
    units. (If you scaled your house earlier, you must change this value
    accordingly, e.g. scaling by 50% means you press
    .)
6.  Confirm and exit the extrude tool by clicking
     (or pressing
    ).

## Deleting Edges

!After step
2{width="250"} If you
look closely at the model, you\'ll notice an extra edge, inside the
house, connecting the seams between the two halves of the roof. To
delete this edge:

1.  Edit the house object in Edge select mode.
2.  Select just the edge you want to delete.
3.  Press  or
    .
4.  When the \"Delete\" menu comes up, choose *Edges*.

## Subdividing Faces

In order to add openings such as doors or windows to the walls of your
house, you\'ll need to subdivide the wall (vertical) faces into smaller
faces.

!After step
2{width="150"}

To subdivide each wall face into a 10x20 grid:

1.  Make sure you are not in wire-frame mode (otherwise the occlude
    hidden geometry button will not appear)
2.  Edit the house object in Face select mode.
3.  Select all six wall faces of your house.
4.  Press  to bring up the *Specials*
    menu.
5.  Choose *Subdivide*.
6.  Set the number of cuts to 9 in the Operator panel (also accessible
    through F6).

You might be wondering why to make 9 cuts instead of 10, the reason is
that in case of dividing a finite surface along one axis there will be
always n-1 cuts to generate n single faces. Here the number of cuts is
applied in 2 dimensions. So, if you count the number of faces on the
subdivided walls, you will find a 10x20 grid. The reason why there are
20 faces instead of 10 lengthwise is because you doubled the size of the
house along the X axis (lengthwise). !After step
6{width="150"}

!Step 2 !After step
3.2{width="150"}
Now you can extrude windows and doors:

1.  Edit the house object in Face select mode.
2.  Turn on the \"Limit selection to visible (clipped with depth
    buffer)\" (for old Blender versions \"Occlude background geometry\")
    option by clicking  on the toggle
    button in the 3D View header.
3.  For each wall of the house:
    1.  Go to the perfect view for that wall:
        -               for \"front\"

        -               for \"back\"

        -               for \"right\"

        -               for \"left\"
    2.  Select faces where you want to create a window or door. An easy
        way to do this is by:
        1.  Deselecting all faces by pressing
             once or twice.
        2.  Pressing  to activate the
            Border Select tool.
        3.  Clicking and dragging  to
            delimit a rectangular area.
        4.  After you release , all
            faces in the rectangular area will be selected.
    3.  Press  to activate the extrude
        tool.
    4.  Extrude inward 1/10th of a BU by typing
         and confirming it with
         or
        .

## Final Steps

1.  Adjust the position of the lamp and aim the camera until you obtain
    a good render.
2.  Save your work!


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Modeling a Simple Person

|previous=Improving Your House
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
!Your simple person will look like
this.
In this module, you will model a simple human figure. Along the way, you
will practice using extrusion and learn additional ways to select
vertices, edges, and faces. \_\_TOC\_\_

## Start a New Scene

1.  Start with the default cube (*File → Load Factory Settings*) and
    NumLock \"on\".
2.  Press  to edit the cube.
3.  Scale the cube down 50% by pressing

    .

## Selection Methods

Just as you did for the house model, you will begin by selecting the top
four vertices of the cube. This section presents six methods for doing
so.

Ease of selection depends partly on the viewport settings and viewpoint.
For greatest ease, you want a view in which the parts you are trying to
select are both visible and close together.

For clarity, use a view of the cube in which all vertices are visible:

-   Go to right side view with .
-   Disable the manipulator widget with
    .
-   Make sure the Limit selection to visible option is \"off\".

![](Blender-2.5_quickie_model_stage2.png "Blender-2.5_quickie_model_stage2.png"){width="450"}
The picture on the right shows the cube with the correct vertices
selected.

To begin, make sure you start in Vertex select mode.

### Border Select Tool

The  selects things
that lie in a rectangular region of the viewport.

1.  Activate (place the mouse pointer in) a 3D View window.
2.  Deselect all vertices by pressing .
3.  Press  to activate the border
    select tool. Two dashed gray lines should appear, one vertical and
    one horizontal, forming a crosshair in the viewpoint.
4.  Click and drag  diagonally across
    the area you want to select. The area will be outlined in dashed
    gray lines.
5.  When you release the mouse button, the vertices inside the rectangle
    will be added to the selection.

Practice selecting the top four vertices this way. If you make a
mistake, press  and try again.

### Circle Select Tool

The  selects or
deselects things that lie in a circular region of the viewport.

1.  Activate a 3D View window.
2.  Deselect all vertices by pressing .
3.  Press  to activate the circle
    select tool. A dashed gray circle should appear. note: Prior to
    Blender 2.5

    twice.

When this tool is active, you can do various things:

-   To move the select area, simply move the mouse pointer.
-   To resize the select area, use
    or
    /..
-   To select all vertices within the circle, click
    .
-   To deselect all vertices within the circle, click
     or
     +
    .
-   To deactivate the tool, press  or
    .

Practice selecting the top four vertices this way. If you make a
mistake, press  and try again.

### Lasso Select Tool

Like many graphics programs, Blender 3D has a
.

1.  Activate a 3D View window.
2.  Deselect all vertices by pressing .
3.  Click and hold .
4.  Drag the mouse pointer in a loop around the vertices you want to
    select. As you drag, a dashed gray line will appear.
5.  You can deselect with lasso by pressing
    ++.
6.  Release the  when you\'re done.

### Vertex by Vertex Selection

You can select (or deselect) vertices one by one, as you did in
.

1.  Click  on a vertex to make it the
    only selected vertex.
2.  Toggle the select state of additional vertices by clicking
    .

### Edge Select Mode

You can select (or deselect) edges one by one, as you did in
.

1.  Click  on the Edge select mode
    button in the 3D View header.
2.  Select the top left edge of the cube by clicking on it with
    .
3.  Toggle the select state of top right edge of the cube by clicking on
    it with .
4.  Switch back to Vertex select mode by clicking
     on the Vertex select mode button in
    the 3D View header.

After you switch back to Vertex select mode, all four vertices in the
two selected edges are selected.

### Face Select Mode

You can select (or deselect) faces one by one, as you did in
.

1.  Click  on the Face select mode
    button in the 3D View header.
2.  Select the top face of the cube by clicking on its center dot with
    .
3.  Switch back to Vertex select mode by clicking
     on the Vertex select mode button in
    the 3D View header.

After you switch back to Vertex select mode, all four vertices in
selected face are selected.

## Extruding Limbs

!The view menu. The
illustrations in this section are in front orthographic view, so:

-   Use  (or *View → Orthographic*) to
    switch to orthographic view.
-   Use  (or *View → Front*) to switch
    to front view.

### Region Extrusion

1.  Make sure you\'re still in Edit Mode, with the top four vertices
    selected. (Only two will be visible in front ortho view.)
2.  Activate the extrude tool by using
    (or *Mesh → Extrude Region*).
3.  Move the mouse pointer upwards. As you do, four *new* vertices will
    appear, each connected to one of the four that were previously
    selected.

The new vertices and their associated edges will move with the mouse
pointer. You can lock them into place with
 or ).

### Extruding a Leg

![](Blender-2.5_simple_person_snapping.png "Blender-2.5_simple_person_snapping.png")

Suppose you want to extrude a region the same size as the default cube
\-- in other words, one Blender unit on a side.

1.  Undo your previous extrude by pressing
    .
2.  Activate the extrude tool again by using
     (or *Mesh → Extrude Region*).
3.  This time, as you\'re moving the extruded vertices around, hold down
    the  key. You\'ll see that the new
    vertices will only move in multiples of a Blender unit. This is
    called , and it makes it
    easy to extrude by exactly one blender unit. The size of the
    snapping depends on the zoom level; if you are zoomed out a long way
    from the object the snapping will be done in large increments and if
    you are zoomed in close you can snap in finer amounts.

Continue extruding until you have five cubes of equal size stacked atop
one another. This will be one leg of your figure.

### Extruding the Pelvis

![](Blender-2.5_simple_person_step2.png "Blender-2.5_simple_person_step2.png")

1.  Press  until all vertices are
    deselected.
2.  Rotate the view (by dragging ) so
    you can see all four vertices on the right face of the top cube.
3.  Select those four vertices.
4.  Extrude twice to the right.

### Extruding the Rest of the Body

The same trick is repeated over and over to build the rest of our simple
body.

1.  Create a second leg by extruding down four times from the last cube
    of the pelvis.
2.  Create the torso by extruding up five times from the middle cube of
    the pelvis.
3.  Extrude to each side from the next-to-top cube of the torso to
    create arms. (Making sure there are five on each side. Refer to the
    picture on the top of the page)

Image:Blender-2.5_simple_person_step3.png\|Legs and Pelvis
Image:Blender-2.5_simple_person_step4.png\|Torso
Image:Blender-2.5_simple_person_step5.png\|Arms

To be safe, remove any double vertices you may have inadvertently
created:

1.  In Vertex select mode, press  until
    all vertices are selected.
2.  Make sure that you are in Edit Mode, Press
     to bring up the Vertex Context
    Menu.
3.  Scroll over Merge Vertices, and then select By Distance.

Now check your work:

1.  Return to Object Mode by pressing .
2.  Make sure the viewport draw type is Solid. (Press
     if it isn\'t.)
3.  Rotate the viewpoint and examine the body from every side (it might
    be useful to return to perspective view for this).

This is easily fixed. To create a face:

1.  Press  to go back into Edit Mode.
2.  Select four vertices.
3.  Press  (or choose *Mesh → Faces →
    Make Edge/Face* from the 3D View header).

-   Note that you can also make edges with this tool if you select two
    vertices.

## Adding the Head

![](Editmodewithhead.PNG "Editmodewithhead.PNG")

1.  Move the 3D cursor to a point above the neck by clicking with the
    .
2.  Adjust the cursor position in orthographic top, front and side views
    (,
    , and
     respectively) until the 3D cursor
    is about where the center of the head should be. It may help to use
     → *Snap* → *Cursor to Grid*.
3.  Make sure you\'re in Edit Mode with a 3D View window active. (If you
    create the head in Object Mode, it will be a separate object from
    the body, and changes to the body later in this tutorial won\'t
    affect the head.)
4.  Create a sphere using  → *Mesh*
    → *Icosphere*.
5.  Leave the default settings for subdivisions and size in the bottom
    left of the screen. (Note: Your computer may slow down if you set
    subdivisions above 6)

You should now have a small sphere at the top of the body. To make it
more proportional to the body, resize it using the scale tool:

1.  Make sure you\'re still in Edit Mode, with a 3D View window active
    and the head selected.
2.  If necessary change the pivot point to *Median Point*.
3.  Activate the scale tool by pressing
     (or *Mesh → Transform → Scale*).
4.  Move the mouse pointer until the head is the size you want.

You may also adjust its position using the grab tool:

1.  Make sure you\'re still in Edit Mode, with a 3D View window active
    and the head selected.
2.  Activate the grab tool by pressing
    (or *Mesh → Transform → Grab/Move*).
3.  Move the mouse pointer until the center of the head is where you
    want it.

Now check your work:
![](Objectmodeverification.PNG "Objectmodeverification.PNG")

1.  Return to Object Mode by pressing .
2.  Make sure the viewport draw type is Solid. (Press
     if it isn\'t.)
3.  Rotate the viewpoint and examine the body from every side. Make sure
    that the head connects properly to the neck.

## Save Your Work

You will continue working on your simple person model in the next
module.

To save the scene in a `.blend` file:

1.  Press  +
     (or select *File → Save*).
2.  Navigate to the directory (folder) where you want to write the file.
3.  Type a filename in the text box to the left of the \"Cancel\"
    button.
4.  Click  on the \"Save Blender File\"
    button.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Detailing Your Simple Person 1

|previous=Modeling a Simple Person
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
!Your goal. Few
real-life objects have perfectly sharp edges. People, in particular,
consist of mainly smooth surfaces. How does one model a smooth object
using flat faces and sharp edges?

In this module, you\'ll learn how to smooth a mesh by using subsurfaces
and smooth shading.

\_\_TOC\_\_

You\'ll need the simple person model from the previous module. If you
haven\'t done it, either go back and do it now or download the pre-made
model from
.

If the model doesn\'t look solid, your Viewport Shading setting may be
set to Wireframe. To switch to Solid shading:

1.  Activate the 3D View window.
2.  Press .

## Subsurfaces

!The sub surface
modifier.
So far, all the meshes you\'ve created have had sharp edges, giving them
a faceted appearance like that of a cut diamond. To model a smooth
object (like a human body) you might think you need a huge number of
vertices and faces.
partly solves this problem by automatically subdividing a mesh into a
finer mesh suitable for smooth rendering.

You subsurface in Blender by adding a
 to an existing mesh
object. A  is simply an
algorithm (automatic process) which can be added to an object. (Blender
modifiers are analogous to Photoshop adjustment layers.)

To get started, make sure Blender is in Object Mode, with only the
simple person object selected:

1.  If Blender is in Edit Mode, press .
2.  To select the simple person,  on it.

To add a subsurf modifier to the selected object:

1.  Click on the modifiers tab (wrench icon) in the Properties window.
2.  *Add Modifier → Subdivision Surface*.

You could also add subsurf modifier by pressing
.

The object\'s appearance should immediately become more faceted and more
rounded. In addition, several subsurface controls will appear in the
Modifiers tab.

The model may include some double vertices. To get rid of these:

1.  Edit the model in Vertex select mode.
2.  Select all vertices.
3.  *Mesh → Vertices → Remove Double*
4.  Try again.

You need to look in to upgrading (or possibly even downgrading) your
graphics drivers. Having the right graphics driver can avert many
problems.

What just happened? The default subsurf modifier (one level of
Catmull-Clark) subdivided each face of the object into four smaller
faces that are progressively angled. This softened the sharp edges of
the original model where faces met at 90-degree angles.

### Controls

For this model, one level of subsurf isn\'t quite enough. To increase
the number of levels to two, just increase the number in the text box
directly underneath *Subdivisions*. The *View* setting controls the
number of subdivision levels visible in the viewport. This is very
useful when you have a high-poly scene, just decrease the number of
visible subdivisions to speed up viewport action.

You can specify additional levels of subsurfing to be used during
renders. For extra smooth renders, you might want three levels of
subsurfing. Set this with the *Render* control immediately below the
*View* control.

The *Apply* button applies the modifier to the mesh. Do not click it
yet. We\'ll be playing with the model a bit longer before we apply the
changes. While useful with some modifiers, applying a subsurf modifier
produces a very complex mesh, and there\'s no need to do so here.

Remember that you can undo any accidental modifications with
.

Blender can combine a series of modifiers by
 them. For this reason, the
Modifier tab includes buttons for arranging and removing modifiers.

You can hide edges created by the modifier by activating the *Optimal
Display* toggle button. The effect is especially clear with the
Wireframe draw type.

You can edit the mesh in modified form (without actually applying the
modifier) by activating the *Adjust edit cage to modifier* toggle
button, a small button with a triangle and vertices, to the left of the
Up/Down arrows (the arrows are for changing the position of the modifier
in the stack) in the Modifier panel.
![](Modifier_editmode.png "Modifier_editmode.png")

Try this out:

1.  Press  to enter Edit mode.
2.  Make sure Blender is in Vertex select mode.

    :   Note that the vertices no longer lie on the surface of the
        object.
3.  Activate the *Adjust edit cage to modifier* button.

    :   Now all vertices lie on the surface of the object, and you can
        adjust the (modified) vertices directly. However, any additional
        vertices created by the modifier cannot be directly edited
        without applying the modifier.

You will be editing the boxy version of the simple person awhile longer,
so before continuing, deactivate the *Apply modifier to editing cage
during Editmode* button.

## Smooth Shading

!Your simple person after setting
smooth.{width="400"}
Subsurfaces do a good job of smoothing out corners in meshes. Even with
two levels of subsurfaces, however, the simple person does not look
completely smooth; when viewed close up, it has a scaly appearance. This
is because each face is
---shaded to resemble a
flat surface---resulting in sudden changes in brightness at most edges.
For a smooth object, you want
, which smooths out the
changes in brightness.

1.  Go to Object Mode.
2.  Set the draw type of a 3D View window to \"Solid\".
3.  Select your subsurfed object.
4.  In the Toolshelf on the left, look for a caption called *Shading*.
    Under it should be a button called *Smooth*.

    :   All the mesh edges will be smoothed out, leaving no sudden
        changes in brightness. The faces blend smoothly into one
        another, making the edges nearly invisible. If the icosphere has
        not smoothed properly and is dimpled, enter Edit Mode by
        pressing , select all
        vertices (A) and recalculate the normal direction (CTRL+N). This
        is also available in the Toolshelf under *Normals*.
5.  Click the other button under *Shading* in the Toolshelf, named
    \'Flat\'.

    :   The edges will reappear. Now you know the difference between
        Flat and Smooth.
6.  Since the model looks better with smooth shading, click
     on the \"Smooth\" button again.

Note that if you didn\'t have subsurf enabled, then the mesh wouldn\'t
look much different. This is because smooth shading doesn\'t affect the
mesh shape, it just changes how the computer draws the triangles.

Smooth shading also removes a lot of definition. A good way to get rid
of this is simply to add a subsurf modifier like you just did. The
modifier will not only require fewer vertices, but add definition.

<File:Blender3D_FlatShading.PNG%7CFlat> Shading
<File:Blender3D_SmoothShading.PNG%7CSmooth> Shading

Save your work. You will continue refining this model in the next
module.

### Additional Resources

-   For more about modifiers, see

-   For more about Blender subsurfaces, see
    .


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Detailing Your Simple Person 2

|previous=Detailing Your Simple Person 1
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
In this module, you\'ll edit a subsurfed mesh using the scale and grab
tools, all the while improving your character. \_\_TOC\_\_

You\'ll need the simple person model from the previous module. If you
haven\'t done it, either go back and do it now or else download the
pre-made model from
.

## Widening the Torso

To be realistic, the simple person\'s torso needs to be three times
wider. In order to keep the torso symmetrical, you\'ll expand it by
scaling both sides from a central point.

![](Blender-2.5_simple_person_detailed2_torso_scale.png "Blender-2.5_simple_person_detailed2_torso_scale.png"){width="350"}
Select the sides of the torso:

1.  Enter edit mode on the simple person.
2.  In the 3D View header, set Face select mode.
3.  From the 3D View header, choose *Pivot → Median Point*.
4.  In the 3D View header, make sure Proportional Edit button is off.
5.  Select the two faces on both the left and right sides of the torso,
    between the armpits and the waist.

We will now scale the torso with the scaling tool:

1.  Activate the 3D View window and press
    , .
2.  Adjust the amount of scaling. Either:
    -   Move the mouse pointer until the torso is the width you want.

    :   or

    -   Press
3.  Confirm and exit by pressing or
    clicking .

Continue selecting different parts of the torso and scaling them to get
more practice using the above scaling methods.

## Bending the Arms

!Removing the
forearm{width="250"}
When you\'ve got the basic shape of the torso, make the person hold up
his hands. You\'ll do this by deleting the forearms and then extruding
upward from the elbows.

Select both forearms:

1.  Enter edit mode on the simple person.
2.  In the 3D View header, set Face select mode.
3.  With the 3D View window active, press
     until all vertices are deselected.
4.  Select the five faces at the end of the forearm.

Now erase them:

1.  Press  to open the Delete menu.
2.  Choose *Faces*.

The forearm will disappear, leaving a hole. Don\'t panic; we\'ll fix it
later. Now to make the arm point upwards:

1.  Select the top face of the last remaining \"arm cube\".
2.  Extrude the region upward by two Blender units
    ,
    and confirm with  or
    .

The hole in the elbow is caused by a missing face. To fill in the
missing face:

1.  Deselect all vertices.
2.  Select the four vertices surrounding the missing face.
3.  With the 3D View window active, create the face using either
    -   *Mesh → Faces → Make Edge/Face*

    :   or

    -
The new face should be smooth. If it isn\'t, make it so, using *Mesh →
Faces → Shade Smooth*.

!Repeat on the other
side
Go through the same steps (erase, extrude, and fill) on the other arm.
Be sure to deselect all vertices in the first arm before selecting any
in the other arm. If you have difficulty making the arms symmetrical,
undo your work and go through the steps simultaneously on both arms.

## Making Feet

To make feet for your simple person, you subdivide the ends of the legs
and pull the front edges forward.

1.  Edit the simple person in Face select mode.
2.  Select the two bottom faces of the legs (front of the feet) by
    clicking  on the first and then
     on the other.
3.  Subdivide both faces, either with:
    -           *Subdivide*

    :   or

    -   *Mesh → Edges → Subdivide*

Each face gets subdivided into four smaller faces.

Now select the front edges and pull them forward:

1.  Switch to Edge select mode.
2.  Press  until no edges are selected.
3.  Select the four bottom front edges of the soles (two for each feet)
    (where the toes should be).
4.  Press  and limit movement to the Y
    axis.
5.  Move the mouse pointer until the feet are the length you want.
6.  Confirm and exit by pressing  or
     or clicking
    .

!Congratulations! You now have
feet.{width="150"}

## Reshaping the Head

When you\'re satisfied with the torso and limbs, you should do something
about that head. A bit too spherical, isn\'t it? You can elongate it by
scaling along the Z axis.

When scaling the head, you want to make sure that it stays connected to
the neck.

First, place the 3D Cursor at the base of the head, where it meets the
neck. An easy way to do this is as follows:

1.  Go into Vertex select mode.
2.  Make sure the *Limit selection to visible* option is \"off\".
3.  Select the vertex at the base of the head using
    .
4.  Snap the cursor to this vertex using
     *Cursor to Selected*

Now select the entire head:

1.  Hover the mouse over a vertex/edge/face of the head
2.  Press  to select all parts linked
    to that part.

Tell Blender that you want to pivot around the 3D Cursor by changing the
pivot point to *3D Cursor* on the Pivot menu (the small button located
to the left of the 3D Manipulator button).

Now scale the head along the Z-axis, using the scale tool
(, scaling by 1.5 should be about
right).

![](Blender-2.5_simple_person_detailed2.png "Blender-2.5_simple_person_detailed2.png")\
You\'ll need this simple person later, so remember to save your work!