# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Penguins from spheres

|previous=Modeling a volcano
}}
```
Note: Some Pictures are outdated.

## Setup

Start with the default
scene: it should
contain a selected cube. Delete this cube by pressing
 → *Delete*.

![](Blender_3D-cursor.png "Blender_3D-cursor.png") Put the 3D cursor at
the scene center by pressing
+.

:   ***Note:** after deleting the cube you must be in*Object Mode*. If
    not, Press CTRL-Z and switch with
    and redo the operation.*

## Creating the body

!Z-scaled sphere

**Noob note:** to ensure that you don\'t become confused, make sure that
your viewport is set up in the same direction you see in these pictures.
The colored arrows are red, green, and blue and they control the *x*,
*y*, and *z* axes, respectively.)

-   We start by creating our main body from a sphere. Press
    + *→
    Mesh → UVSphere*, then choose 16 segments and 16 rings.

We\'re going to make it look like a penguin body:

-   Press  to enter Edit mode
-   press  to switch to the front view,
-   with all the vertices selected (if not,
    ), choose the scale tool
    (),
-   restrict scaling to the Z-axis (),
-   and move the mouse away from the 3D cursor while holding down the
     key (this snaps the scale values
    to whole numbers),
    -   \'**\'Note:** Make sure the mouse cursor is not too far away
        from the sphere when hitting the
        or else you may not be able to reach a 2.000 scale value. The
        scaling steps are proportional to the distance from the 3D
        cursor when calling the scale tool.
-   the current scale shows in the lower left corner of the viewport,
    click when you\'ve reached 2.000 ).
    -   ***Note:** You can also do this by typing in 2 after starting
        the scale and restricting movement to the Z-axis*: S -\> Z -\> 2

This is our main body!

## Shaping the head

We're going to shape the penguin head from the top of the sphere.

![](Blender3D_Limit_selection_to_visible.png "Blender3D_Limit_selection_to_visible.png"){width="200"}
Start by selecting the top-most single vertex as well as the top two
smallest circle segments.

:   ***Note:** Selection has been explained in a previous
    tutorial.
    Here, the easiest methods are either box selection
    ) in the front view
    ) and*Limit selection to
    visible*off, or lasso selection
    (+)
    in the top view () and*Limit
    selection to visible\'\' on. You can also switch to top view, center
    your mouse on the topmost vertex and use the circle tool. Don\'t
    forget to deselect all first ()

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:   **Noob note:** You can also select the top vertex and press
    +
    twice to select the circle segments.

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:   **Noob note:** Make sure the *Limit selection to visible/Occlude
    background geometry* button is in the right state each time you
    select vertices, edges or faces. When it\'s off, selection affects
    any item, visible or not.\'\'

### Building the neck with the 3D transform manipulators

To turn on the 3D transform manipulator, either push down its button
![](Blender_Handicon.png "Blender_Handicon.png") or use
+ and
choose *Enable/Disable*.

#### Moving the two selected circles up

![](Blenderpenguin2a.png "Blenderpenguin2a.png"){width="200"} Go to the
front view (). Drag the blue arrow
while holding the  key down to move the
selected vertices 0.3 units up.

:   **Noob note:** you may not be able to snap the extrusion lengths to
    tenths of units.  snaps to the grid
    size by default: if you can only translate by one unit (1.0), zoom
    in until the grid divides itself into tenths (**SCROLL**). Some
    Blender versions allow to snap to one tenth of the current step by
    holding both the  and
     keys while moving the mouse.

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:   **Noob note:** instead of the *Transform* manipulator, you can use
    the  and constraint the movement to
    the Z axis ().\'\'

#### Rotating the neck

![](Blenderpenguin2b.png "Blenderpenguin2b.png"){width="200"} Now switch
to the side view () and make sure that
the rotation/pivot point is set to \"median point\" either by selecting
it from the third drop down menu right of the \"Mesh\" menu, or by
pressing  +
. Choose the *Rotate* tool
(). Move the mouse with the
 key down to rotate the selection 30
degrees counter-clockwise. Use  to
validate the rotation.

![](Blenderpenguin2c.png "Blenderpenguin2c.png"){width="200"} Select an
additional ring of vertices by expanding the selection
( +
(*Note:*NUM+*Refers to the addition symbol on the NUM Pad,*KEY+*will not
do.*). You can contract the selection by pressing
 + .
Move these vertices an additional 0.3 units up, then rotate them as
previously 30 degrees counter-clockwise in the side view.

![](Blenderpenguin3c_-_2.png "Blenderpenguin3c_-_2.png"){width="180"}
Repeat those steps (selection expansion, translation and rotation) two
more times and you\'ll end up with the body seen in the below.

That doesn't really look like a penguin, yet!

![](Blenderpenguin3c.png "Blenderpenguin3c.png"){width="200"}

Now move all of the selected vertices to the left 0.4 units by pulling
the manipulator\'s green arrow (and of course holding the
 key down). This straightens out the
neck as seen in the next picture.

:   **Noob note:** you can also use the
    and translate the selection by -0.4 as displayed in the bottom left
    corner of the viewport. Still do this in the side view
    ().

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:   **Noob note** if you had to pull the red arrow, not the green one,
    then you probably didn\'t switch to side view, and modeled the neck
    in front view. If you realize here that you have this done from
    another view then press AKEY twice, then NUM7, then Space -\>
    Transform -\> Rotate and type 90 or 270

#### Creating the beak

![](Blenderpenguin4b.png "Blenderpenguin4b.png"){width="180"} Switch to
the front view (), and select the
frontmost vertex (the one that originally was the top vertex of the
sphere) with the . Then switch to the
side view () and translate this vertex
to the left by 1.2 units using the manipulator\'s green arrow or the
translate tool.

:   ***Note:** some Blender versions allow moving the vertices from the
    keyboard with the following sequence:
    , ,
    -1.2, .*\

The main body of the penguin is now finished. The next step is to create
some flappers for the poor little guy.

## Extruding the wings

We are going to create the wings by extruding faces on each side of the
penguin.

:   **Noob Note:** You can rotate the whole object by pressing A to
    select all of its vertex and then rotate it pressing R or using the
    Rotate Manipulator until the axis on your screen matches the axis on
    the example image. That way, also, you can practice a little more.

![](Penguin_from_sphere_-_wing_start.png "Penguin_from_sphere_-_wing_start.png"){width="200"}
Choose the side view () and switch to
the *Face select mode*
(+ →
*Faces*, or click on the orange-sided cube icon in the toolbar).

![](Blenderpenguin5b.png "Blenderpenguin5b.png"){width="200"} Now,
select two faces that will make up the penguin's shoulder as shown on
the right (either select the first one with
 and the second one holding
, or use box selection
() to select them both in a single
operation).

!Wing extrusion{width="200"}
Then switch to front view () and
extrude the selection:

-   choose  → *Region*,
-   constrain to the X axis (),
-   hold  to snap,
-   and move the mouse to extrude the shoulder by 0.2 to 0.3 units.

!Bottom face
selection{width="200"}
We\'ll now extrude the bottom face of this new extrusion. Rotate the
view to show it with:

-   a  drag,
-   or several presses on ,
-   or
    +
    (bottom view).

Press the  to deselect all, and select the
bottom face (), switch to front view
(), extrude by 1.4 units down
( and ).

Now do the same on the penguin\'s other side: use
+ to
view the left side (you can also rotate with
, or press
 several times).

## Smoothing the wings

We're going to smooth out the shoulders and improve the wings. Though
this can be done in many ways, we\'ll only use the merge tool.

![](Blenderpenguin4-04.png "Blenderpenguin4-04.png"){width="200"}

Rotate your penguin so that you can see one shoulder from above. Then
switch to *Vertex select mode*
(+ →
*Vertices*). Press  to deselect all, then
select the two shoulder vertices with
and .

Press
+,
choose *At Center* from the popup in order to merge the two vertices at
their center. Finally dismiss the message saying *Removed 1 Vertices*.

!Edges to
smooth{width="250"}
Repeat the steps with the two other vertex pairs shown on the right
picture, and smooth the other wing. I'm leaving the middle segments for
now, else the wing tips will be too pointy.

:   ***Note:** if you have troubles merging vertices, it comes from
    vertex duplicates in your mesh. You probably chose*Individual
    Faces*instead of*Region*when extruding the wings, which creates
    duplicate vertices and neighbouring faces. To clean up your model:
    select all vertices () and choose
     →*Remove Doubles*.*

You must do them one by one!

Or, Alternatively, change into *Edge select mode*
(+ →
*Edge*), select the edges to smooth
(+),
press
+,
choose *Collapse*

![](Blenderpenguin6b.png "Blenderpenguin6b.png"){width="200"}

Finish off the wings by selecting the two backmost vertices of the
wings, and moving them up using the blue arrow by 0.1 unit.

!Wings
complete{width="200"}

You should now have something like this:

## Cutting the underside

![](Blenderpenguin5-01.png "Blenderpenguin5-01.png"){width="200"}
![](Blenderpenguin7.png "Blenderpenguin7.png"){width="200"} We\'re going
to cut the penguin\'s lower end, for it to stand up! Select the bottom
vertices (bottom vertex and the first ring above it) as shown in the
picture. There are many ways, this is left as an exercise.

Once they\'re selected, delete them ( →
*Vertices*). Now our penguin is hollow: select all the vertices around
the hole, and fill it using
+.

:   **Noob note:** To quickly select all the vertices around the hole,
    you can enter edge mode
    +-\>
    \"Edges\", and then select one edge that goes around the hole. Now
    press **CTRL+E** -\> \"Edge Loop Select\", which should select all
    edges around the hole. Now go back to Vertex select mode and
    continue with
    +.
:   **Noob note:** For Blender 2.56 In vertex select mode and occlude on
    hold down ALT and select one of the vertices all the vertices in the
    ring will be selected.

## Adding the feet

![](Blender_-_Penguins_to_spheres_-_feet_start.png "Blender_-_Penguins_to_spheres_-_feet_start.png")
The next step is to provide the little guy with feet. To do this, we're
going to extrude two of the front faces:

-   choose the front view (),
-   switch to *Face select mode*,
-   turn on *Limit selection to visible*,
-   and select the face to the left and right of the middle two faces of
    the penguin.

![](Blender_-_Penguins_to_spheres_-_feet.png "Blender_-_Penguins_to_spheres_-_feet.png")

Then switch to the side view () and
extrude the selection by -0.6 units ( →
*Region*, restrict to the Y axis: ).

![](Blenderpenguin5-05.png "Blenderpenguin5-05.png"){width="190"}

Keep the selection and look for the *Mesh Tools* in the Tool Shelf. If
you can't see it, press  to make the Tool
Shelf visible. Then click on the *Subdivide* button (under Add in the
Tools tab). Or press  and choose
Subdivide.

![](Blenderpenguin5-06.png "Blenderpenguin5-06.png"){width="190"}

Switch to \"Vertex Select Mode\", Now select the three middle vertices
(or two edges) vertically at the tip of each foot, and drag them along
the Y axis by 0.3 units towards the penguin

:   **Note:** if something goes wrong here, you may need to remove
    double first. As always, to move the vertices, either use the
    manipulator or  and
     sequence.\'\'

![](Blender_-_Penguins_to_spheres_-_feet_selection.png "Blender_-_Penguins_to_spheres_-_feet_selection.png"){width="200"}
You should end up with what\'s shown in the right picture (minus the
selection).

!\|190px The feet look too thick,
let\'s flatten them a bit. Switch to the front view
() and select the two bottom vertex
rows (*Limit selection to visible* off, use either the lasso or box
selection).

!\|190px Then choose the scale tool
(), limit its action to the Z axis
() and scale down by a factor of 0.4.

The feet still look rather peculiar, so please go ahead and move the
vertices around on your own as you like.

\'**\'Reminder:** you can use the  and
restrict movements to the X or Y axis using the
 or . Try
not to move vertices along the Z axis to keep the penguin\'s bottom
flat.

## Extruding a tail

![](Blenderpenguin5-09.png){width="250"}
![](Blenderpenguin5-10.png "Blenderpenguin5-10.png"){width="250"}
![](Blender_-_Penguins_to_spheres_-_tail.png "Blender_-_Penguins_to_spheres_-_tail.png"){width="250"}

To complete the penguin, we have to add a tail (the end of the tuxedo):

-   go to the back view
    (+),
-   make sure you\'re still in *Vertex select mode*,
-   and that *Limit selection to visible*/*Occlude background geometry*
    is on.

Select the three middle vertices in the second row up from the bottom.
Then, switch to the side view () and
extrude the edges 0.3 units away from the penguin and 0.08 units down
( → *Edges*), so that the end of the tail
is at the same level as the bottom of the penguin.

**Noob Note:** Or you can extrude the edges 0.3 units away from the
penguin, then
 -0.08,
or .

Press +
to save your work!

## Subsurfing

!Now that\'s what I call a penguin. But then again, there are no
penguins where I live, so I might be
wrong.
Go to *Object Mode* (), and make sure
the penguin is selected. Then check for the *Modifiers* toolkit in the
*Buttons* panel. Press *Add Modifier → Subsurf* (or Press
+).

Look at the penguin now, he's much smoother. You can alter the levels of
the subsurfing if you like, but I'll settle for level one. Under the
*Links and Materials* toolkit, you can press the *Set Smooth* button as
well, which makes the penguin really slick.

:   ***Note:** you may see some weird effects at the bottom and the tail
    after subsurfing the penguin. If so, there is an issue with normals:
    they have to be all pointing outwards. This can be achieved by
    selecting all vertices in*Edit Mode*and recalculating the normals
    outside
    (+).
    Click on the message to confirm. Note that
    ++
    will turn the normals inwards and that
     →*Flip Normals\'\' flips them.

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:   \'**\'Question:** The finished penguin looks fine in Object Mode,
    but when I render it, it looks odd. Quite patchy.
:   \'**\'Answer:** Make sure you adjust the \"Render Levels\" parameter
    (directly under \"Levels\") to be greater-or-equal than \"Levels\".

```{=html}
<div style="clear: both;">
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## Extra

The penguin can be colored or textured, but that will be part of later
tutorials!

Image:Penguin_orbisonitrum.jpg\|This is what the penguin (sans tail)
looks like, textured and ready.
Orbisonitrum

Image:peng.jpg\|The eyes are there, just not easily visible in the
thumb. At the top of the white part, two faces on the chest were
subdivided to give the white more of a curve at the top. The faces were
selected that were going to be white, and the I used separate (**P**) to
make them a different mesh. I used a white material for the chest, black
for the body, and grey uvspheres for the eyes. Apparently, an easier way
to colour the chest can be found at Multiple
Materials*please
feel free to replace this with your own image of the penguin you made,
with comments on how you put your own style into it*

Image:Penguin.jpg\|A pretty basic picture of a penguin. I subdivided the
stomach and eyes, but then I also added some eyeballs by making a
UVSphere, cutting the top of it off, and then placing it inside of my
penguin\'s head. All the colors have specular colors, giving the penguin
a slight blue glow under the black.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Dicing With Depth

|previous=Penguins from spheres
}}
```
![](DieAnotherWay18.png "DieAnotherWay18.png")
**Dice** are objects which are familiar to us all,
used in countless games. Here we will model how to make a single *die*
(or a single dice, if you prefer).

The end result should look something like at right. Notice the following
features:

-   different colours for the pips versus the body of the die
-   rounded edges and corners, while the faces are (mostly) flat
-   round, recessed pips.

Achieving all these effects will be a good exercise of your
mesh-modelling skills.

### Characteristics of the Die

![](9_posiciones.jpg "9_posiciones.jpg") The number of pips on each face
of a die ranges from 1 to 6. However, in order to space them correctly,
there needs to be 9 positions for a pip on each face, even though not
all of them will be filled on any face.

![](Muescas_y_espacios.jpg "Muescas_y_espacios.jpg") We will also
proportion our die so that the diameter of each pip will be twice the
horizontal or vertical distance between pips, even though if you look at
the illustration the pips on the finished die look smaller because they
eventually do not occupy this full diameter. As you will see, this makes
it easy to get the proportions uniform with a relatively small number of
*loop cuts*.

![](Standard-Die-Layout.jpg "Standard-Die-Layout.jpg") Also note one of
the characteristics of real dice is that the number of pips on opposite
sides adds up to 7 as depicted in the Standard Die Layout.

## The Basic Mesh

Open a new Blender document. Select  the
default cube, and  into Edit mode.

![](Bevel-done.png "Bevel-done.png") First of all, let's apply a small
amount of bevel to the corners and edges: with *all* the vertices
selected, press  to start
bevelling---not too much, press  when
you see something like at right.

!The first cut is the
deepest Now, we
need to make a bunch of loop cuts to mark out the areas where the pips
will go. To simplify things, we will do cuts through the middle of each
pip, as well as between pips---a total of 9 loops each way---then go
back and remove the unneeded cuts. That way we get the 2:1 proportions
correct with a minimum of effort. Who says it doesn't pay to plan ahead?

To make a loop cut, press , then
move the cursor over the edge you wish to subdivide: you should see a
single magenta loop appear. Now press ,
and you should see this change to 9 loops. Next, click
 to change the lines to yellow and
really start cutting, then immediately press
 to finish the cut *without* moving the
cuts from their initial positions.

You will need to do this 3 times, between the 3 pairs of opposing faces.

!First loop to remove
selected
!First loop gone Now look at
each face of your cube: you will see an 11×11 grid of vertices, with the
corner vertices each adjoining a triangle at the corner. Make sure
nothing is initially selected. Count the *third* vertex in from a
corner, and move the mouse slightly so it is over the edge leading from
this vertex into the interior of the face, just to avoid confusion; now
, and you should select a loop
like at right.

If you get the wrong selection, just
to clear it, and try again. Remember to click over an *edge* that is
running the right way, rather than a vertex, otherwise Blender is liable
to select a loop running the wrong way.

Press  or
, and in the deletion menu that
appears, select "Edge Loops". The selected loop should disappear.

!Middle loop selected
!Middle loop gone Going in
from the edge of the face, skip over one loop, and remove the middle
one.

!Third loop selected
!Third loop gone Then
finally remove the third one in from the opposite edge.

![](BlenderDieanotherway3-00.png "BlenderDieanotherway3-00.png") You
need to do this deletion of loops on every face that has the original 11
X 11 grid of vertices. When you are finished, the resulting mesh should
look like at right.

## Making the Pips

![](Alt-m-five-spots.png "Alt-m-five-spots.png") Now we will hollow out
the spots or pips. The idea is to *extrude* selected ones of the large
squares on each face *inwards* into the cube ("intrude" rather than
"extrude", perhaps?), then split the bottom of each resulting pit into
four triangles each by adding an extra vertex in the middle; then
pushing in this vertex will give us the hollow for the pip (as at
right).

We will show three methods for doing this.

Do this individually for each face that is to be made into a pip.

### Method 1 (Slowest)

Select all the large squares to be made into pips (perhaps do one entire
face at a time). Press  to
triangulate these faces. Now switch to edge-select mode, and select the
new diagonal edge that has appeared in the middle of the original
squares; bring up  for edge
Specials and select Subdivide (leave the number of subdivisions at the
default 1). Things won't look any different, but each triangle is now a
quad, with an extra vertex added to the middle of each of those
diagonals.

Now switch back to face-select mode, select those subdivided halves of
all the squares, and  to
triangulate again.

### Method 2 (Faster)

Switch to face-select mode. Select all the large squares to be made into
pips (perhaps do one entire face at a time). Do
 to extrude, and immediately press
 to leave the new extruded vertices in
the same positions as the old ones; now do
 to merge and select the "Collapse"
option.

### Method 3 (Fastest)

Select the relevant large squares on each side to make the required
numbers for each face of a real die. From
 for face Specials, select "Poke
Faces" (or more directly, do ).
Leave the settings at their defaults (in particular, leave the Poke
Offset at 0).

### Digging The Holes

Now that you have crossed the faces of your pips, select the middle
vertices one side at a time, and rab
inwards by a distance of 0.17 (make sure you do it at the appropriate
axis, pres ,
, )
along the appropriate axis.

**Noob Note:** Do this side after side, otherwise you will translate all
your vertices to one side and not all inside.

## Rounding Things Off

![](DieAnotherWay12c.png "DieAnotherWay12c.png") Now apply a subsurf
modifier and set the shading to smooth, the result should look something
like this.

The trouble is, the pips look too much like dimples rather than proper
holes. To fix this, we can apply a *crease* to sharpen up the edges.

![](Creasing-five-spots-selected.png "Creasing-five-spots-selected.png")
In edge-select mode, select the four edges around the opening of each
pip. Press , and move the mouse
until the edges take on the darkest magenta tint. That should firm up
the edges of the holes a bit.

## Colouring Your Die

First, go to the Materials Context
![](Blender255MaterialContextButton.png "Blender255MaterialContextButton.png")
and set up the colour for the main part of the die (say, make it red as
in the illustration above). This can be done in Object or Edit modes.

Next, click the "+" button to add a second, initially empty, material
slot, then click the "+New" button that appears below it to create a new
material for this slot. Make this material white, for the pips. Then,
select the pips themselves, and use the "Assign" button to colour them
with this material as detailed below.

### Quickly Selecting The Pips, Method 1

Go to the Select menu, and select the option "Select Faces by Sides". A
panel will appear at the bottom of the Tool Shelf (use
 to toggle the visibility of this),
with a field titled "Number of Vertices", initially showing 4; change
this to 3, and it should select all the triangles, which includes the
pips as well as the corners of the cube. You can deselect the latter one
by one by ing them.

### Quickly Selecting The Pips, Method 2

Alternatively, you can do just select the faces of each pip.

### Quickly Selecting The Pips, Method 3 (Fastest)

(Works in blender 2.6, not sure about earlier versions.) In face select
mode select one of the triangular faces of one of the pips. Hit space
and type \"select similar\" then choose \"area.\" If this selects too
many faces along the edge of the die, cancel and try again with
\"perimeter.\"


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Model a Goblet

|previous=Dicing With Depth
}}
```
Why a goblet? After all, goblets (fancy containers for consumable
liquids) are not really all that important in the real world. However,
they represent a very large class of interesting objects: those that are
radially symmetric. Also, they are fun to play with.

To model a goblet and actually see the result, we do the following
steps:

-   create the actual mesh of the object.
-   apply a *material* to the object.
-   create and light a scene to display the goblet
-   render the scene.

The following tutorials demonstrate three different approaches to
creating the mesh model, and then show two different materials (glass
and silver) that may be applied to the goblet. Finally, we add the
minimal elements to the scene to permit an \"interesting\" rendering.

## Three ways to build the mesh

As a beginner, you may wonder why we describe three different ways to
build the mesh. After all, surely the Pros know of a \"best\" method?!
The answer is that there is not really a best method. Blender provides a
sophisticated toolkit, and different blender artists will become
familiar with different tools. If, after you gain experience, you become
comfortable with cube extrusion, then this may become your preferred
tool. If you need more than four vertices per \"circle\" you may find
that cylinder extrusion is better for some particular object. If you are
comfortable with \"spinning\" an object, then spinning may be right for
you. All three techniques generate an object that is defined by a set of
vertices on a set of circles that are \"stacked\" on a common axis.

After we build the mesh using one of the three methods, we can apply any
number of fancy techniques for texture and rendering. We provide two
simple \"cookbook\" approaches in this section so you can see the
result, but materials are treated much more extensively in other
sections of the book.

In the next three sections of the book we describe the \"cube
extrusion\" approach, the \"cylinder\" approach, and the \"spin\"
approach. Following sections describe three textures that can be applied
to objects that are created with any of the approaches, and the final
tutorial provides a simple way to render the result.

The \"cube extrusion\" approach is a basic technique that all blender
artists will become familiar with, to model most types of objects. Since
it is such a basic technique, it may become the most efficient way for
you to create objects, and you may choose to use it wherever possible
rather than switching to a less familiar technique. You can see from the
tutorial that this technique is perfectly acceptable for goblets, and by
extension it will work for similar objects.

You may prefer the \"cylinder extrusion\" technique when you need more
than four vertices per circle, because cylinder extrusion is very
similar to cube extrusion. Thus your proficiency with cube extrusion
will directly carry over to cylinder extrusion.

\"Spinning\" is conceptually different, even though it creates the same
mesh as cylinder extrusion. Spinning is the easiest way to create a
radially symmetric model from a two-dimensional description of the
cross-section of an object.

## How many circles?

right\|400px
right\|400px Each of the three
methods defines a set of stacked circles, with vertices equidistant
around each circle. The \"cube extrusion\" technique has four vertices
on each circle, while the cylinder and spin techniques have a
user-specified number of vertices per circle. But how did we pick the
number of circles and the spacing between them?

The answer is that we know in advance that we intend to use a technique
called \"subsurf\". Subsurf interpolates additional vertices between
those we explicitly specify, and this \"smooths out\" the profile of our
goblet.

This will cause problems where we need a fairly sharp \"bend\" in the
profile, as between the base and the stem and between the stem and the
\"bulb\" of the goblet. At each point in the profile that has a (fairly)
sharp bend, we need for the vertical circles to be close to each other.
The two images illustrate this effect. Each image shows an outline of
the object, the spun object, and the result after subsurf (level 2) has
been applied. The outlines and the spun images are nearly identical, but
the subsurfed result is very different, because there are three extra
vertices in the second outline: one just above the bottom of the base,
one at the top of the base, and one below the bulb: these are the three
locations where we need relatively sharp changes in contour. When we
spin the outline, the first outline generates seven circles and two
degenerate circles, while the second outline generates ten circles and
two degenerate circles. Those extra three circles make all the
difference. The same phenomenon occurs with the other two modelling
techniques.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Model a Silver Goblet

|previous=Model a Goblet}}
```
## Basic Shape

right\|200px

At first glance, the goblet looks like it is composed of cylinders.
However, while it is possible to model the goblet with a cylinder mesh,
it is easier to make a goblet by using cubes. Cubes make the goblet
faster to make and it makes fewer vertices to track. Now, lets start
making the basic shape of the goblet.

Start with the default cube and go to Edit Mode
(). Toggle off \"limit selection to
visible\". Move to the side view ().
Toggle to ortho view. Box select () the
top edges of the cube. Extrude () upward
about one grid square. Hold down  while
extruding for incremental movement; by default movement should be
restricted to the Z-axis (normal to the selection); if necessary, press
 to toggle this effect. This extrusion is
called E1. Repeat 2 more times for extrusion 2 and 3 (E2 and E3).

Now Extrude a longer piece upwards, for the Goblet\'s stem, of 10 grid
squares (E4). Next we will define the area for the 2 top knobs and the
bottom of the glass by Extruding upwards 5 more times at 1 grid square
each (E5-E9). Next do another upward Extrusion of about 10 grid squares
(E10). This is the actual glass itself.

### Inflate the Glass

!Sizing the first
knob{width="400"}
Now, let\'s begin to inflate the glass. First, clear all selections by
hitting the . Make sure you are still in
the side view (). Box select
() the bottom most cube (all 8 vertices,
not just the bottom 4). Then expand it outward by scaling
(), then pressing
+ to
lock/prevent any scaling in height along the Z-axis and finally pressing
 to quadruple its size. Next, deselect all
vertices (), select
() the 4th pair of vertices (E2), scale
them (), lock scaling
(+) and
triple the vertices in size ( and
).

Do the same for E5 and E7 (the 7th and 9th pairs of vertices,
respectively). Then expand ( and
+) the
top, Goblet rectangle (E9 and E10) to 6 times its current size
().

### Make the cup\'s interior

!All extrusions\|left !View of the
finished basic
goblet\|right Last
is the cup\'s interior. Once again, you should still be in the side view
(). Box select
() the very top most vertices of the
Goblet (E10). Once selected, get a better view by changing to \'Orbit
Up\' (). With the top surface selected,
initiate an Extrusion (), followed by a
termination with the . It will appear
as if nothing has happened, but new, overlapping edges have been created
and are now selected (this also creates E11). Next Scale
() the selected vertices to 90% of the
original size (). This creates the inside
lip of the cup. Now, Extrude () the
interior lip, along the Z-axis downward
() to create the bottom interior of the
Goblet (E12). Finish off by selecting all, and then a \'Remove Doubles\'
( → **Remove Doubles**), for good measure.
It should look something like this.

## Smoothing and Defining

Time to take the mesh and turn it into a proper goblet. Add a subsurf
modifier with 3 view subdivisions to the mesh. Change to Object Mode
() and select smooth shading. The
cube-looking mesh will now look like an object that was created from a
cylinder. This has removed all our crisp edges, but our globlet is
looking very unstable! Let\'s rectify things by flattening the bottom.

**Noob Note:** *If your goblet has a bulge in it after applying the
subsurf, go to **Edit mode** (), select
all (), press
, and select \"Remove doubles\". (If a
menu for boolean operations appears when you hit the
, then you\'re not in **Edit mode**;
change immediately to Edit mode and try the
 again.)*

Select the four edges that surround the small circle at the very bottom
(the very lowest set of edges) and press
+ to
enable creasing. Now drag the mouse up and down to select the level of
the crease. When you\'re satisfied, hit
. Repeat the process for other edges you
want to be sharp. I\'ve turned on Draw Creases under *Mesh Tools 1* to
illustrate which edges have been creased (highlighted yellow) in this
example.

That concludes the creation of the goblet. Save the scene for use in the
lighting tutorial.

!Applied subsurf modifier
!Crease edges

## Quick links for the impatient

To jump to the relevant lighting section, go to Blender 3D: Noob to
Pro/Light a Silver
Goblet.

What about applying glass look already? Take a sneak peek at Blender
3D: Noob to Pro/Spin a
goblet#Material.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Model a Silver Goblet cylinder

|previous=Model a Silver Goblet
}}
```
## Preliminaries

This is a version of \"Model a Silver Goblet\" but starting from a
cylinder rather than a cube.

Start Blender or start a new scene ( +
) and delete the default cube.

Change to Top view (), make sure
you\'re in Object mode and add a cylinder
( +
Mesh \> Cylinder): in the popup menu, change the number of vertices from
32 to 16, the Radius from 1.000 to 1.800, the Depth from 2.000 to 0.100
and leave \"Cap Ends\" as it is.

Change to Front view ().

## Description of the modeling steps

The steps in this tutorial are almost all made up of \"extrude\" and
\"scale\": so, to avoid repeating key sequences every time,

extrude : means

1.  make sure \"Limit selection to visible\" is off !Shows \"Limit
    selection to visible\"
    icon
2.  box select the top vertices of the cylinder: press
    , click and drag
     to make a rectangle around the top
    vertices
3.  press , press
     and type in the amount of the
    extrusion and press ; you can move
    the mouse instead but it is quicker and easier to type it in.

For example, the following keystroke sequence extrudes by 1.5:\
, click and drag
 to make a rectangle around the top
vertices;
.

scale : scaling is by default restricted to the X-Y plane; although the numbers in the bottom left corner of the 3Dview show Z changing, in fact only X and Y change, and by equal amounts.

1.  press , type in the value and press
     --- you can use the mouse instead
    but it is quicker and easier to type in the number.

## Creating the Goblet

!E-numbers and construction
steps
This diagram shows the connection between the E-numbers and the goblet
construction.

-   **E1:** Deselect all vertices (),
    Box-select the top vertices (B-key), and extrude by 0.2: you may
    need to zoom in () to do this as
    it\'s quite thin. Scale to 0.1.
-   **E2:** Extrude by 0.2, scale by 2.
-   **E3:** Extrude by 0.2, scale by 0.5 to make the lower knob.
-   **E4:** Extrude by 4 to make the stem.
-   **E5:** Extrude by 0.2, scale by 2.
-   **E6:** Extrude by 0.2, scale by 0.5 to make the upper knob.
-   **E7:** Extrude by 0.2, scale by 8 to make the base of the cup.
-   **E8:** Extrude by 4, if you wish to make a flared cup, you can
    scale by 1.5.
-   **E9:** Extrude by 0.0, scale by 0.9 to make the rim of the cup.
    (This will create a new ring of vertices and then move them in
    towards the centre.)

    :   Now go into Wireframe mode () so
        you can see inside to guide the next few steps.
-   **E10:** Extrude by -3.9, that is, downwards. and scale by 0.69: you
    can do this last scaling with the mouse, if you like, to get the
    edges of the inside of the cup and the outside parallel.
-   **E11:** Extrude by 0.0, scale by 0.0 to make the inside of the cup.
    Press  Remove Doubles to merge the
    centre vertexes.

You now have a goblet, the base of the inside of the cup is the face of
the last extrusion, is circular and flat as it derives from a cylinder.

If you haven\'t already saved your work-in-progress, now would be a good
time.

## Subsurfing and smoothing the goblet

The last step is to subsurf and smooth: go into Object mode and enable
Solid mode again ().

Select the Editing panel from the Buttons window
() and, in the \"Modifiers\" panel, click
on \"Add Modifier\", select \"Subdivision Surface\" from the popup menu
and, in the Subsurf display, increase \"View subdivisions\" from 1 to 2.

!Shows the Editing panel icon and the Modifier
panel

At the bottom right of the \"Links and Materials\" panel, click on the
\"Shading: Smooth\" button. At the bottom of the cup you will see
fluting --- this is an artifact caused by smoothing and subsurfing
triangles on a curved surface. Here it adds to the appearance, don\'t
you think?

*In Blender v2.78, the \"Smooth\" button is located in the \"Tools\"
menu under the \"Edit\" tab.* !Tools
shading

## Flattening the base of the goblet

The base of the goblet is curved due to the subsurfing, so needs to be
flattened.

Go into Edit mode, deselect all, box-select the lowest set of vertices,
then crease (remove the subsurfing) by pressing
 +  then
 .

The final result should look something like this:

![](goblet-smoothed-sharpened-front.png "goblet-smoothed-sharpened-front.png"){width="200"}
![](goblet-smoothed-sharpened-top.png "goblet-smoothed-sharpened-top.png"){width="200"}

Save the scene for use in the lighting tutorial. To jump to the relevant
lighting section, go to Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Light a Silver
Goblet


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Spin a goblet

|previous=Model a Silver Goblet cylinder|Model a Silver Goblet from a cylinder
}}
```
The **spin** technique is a good choice when you want to model an object
that is radially symmetric and you know what the cross section of the
object looks like. This the virtual equivalent of using a
lathe to create an object in the real world. With
the spin technique, we draw an outline of one half of the outline of the
object, and then spin the outline about an axis to create the object\'s
mesh.

## Modeling

!Photo of a real-world
goblet{width="300"}
Here is a real-world goblet. The picture is not an orthographic image,
so we cannot directly copy the outline, but it is close.

### Setup

We now model the outline. Let\'s start with the default model. We want
to create an initial object consisting of a two-dimensional outline, so
select the cube, go to edit mode, and delete all the vertices. This
leaves us with an object that has no vertices as a nice place to start.
We want the resulting goblet to sit at the origin with the Z axis as its
axis of symmetry so we get a front view (press
). Since we will be working directly
with mesh vertices, the *manipulator* is a hindrance, so turn it off
(press ). (With the manipulator
on, it is easy to accidentally move a vertex out of the editing plane,
but we want a 2D cross-section.) We are now ready to create the
two-dimensional outline as a chain of vertices with the first and last
vertices on the axis.

### First Vertex

Now, place the first vertex: this will be the center of the bottom of
the goblet, so place it slightly above the origin on the Z axis
(). Why? Well, for two reasons: in
the real world, the bottom of a goblet is not actually flat. Instead,
the rim is lower than the center of the bottom, so the bottom is concave
and the goblet sits on a flat surface without wobbling. The second
reason is that we intend to use the \"subsurf\" technique, and this
technique will make a flat surface slightly convex in our virtual world,
so we will preemptively start the bottom of the base with a slightly
concave surface.

### Finish the outline

Add the second vertex, which will be on the rim of the goblet\'s base:
move the cursor to the X axis at about -3, and add a vertex (press
, or
,). Add
additional vertices to your outline by moving the cursor to the desired
location and adding,[^1] for as many vertices as you need to accurately
model the outline. Since you will be using subsurf later, make sure that
you place two vertices near each other when you need a sharp curve in
your outline. Otherwise, subsurf will convert your sharp curve into a
wide smooth curve.

Eventually, you will place the last vertex, which will become the point
at the bottom of the inside of the goblet. This point should be on the Z
axis. Your outline is done!

### Spin

Now, to spin it. first, make sure that you are still in edit mode, and
that the last vertex is selected. Set the cursor to the selection
(, then *cursor→selection*). Now,
get a top view (): you are now looking
at your outline from the top, and it should look like a straight line
along the X axis with one end at the cursor on the Z axis. (If this is
not the case, select and move points to the X axis and check your work
by switching back to the front view, then come back to the top view.)
Now select the whole outline and then move to the button menu to perform
the spin (or use the Spin option under Mesh Tools, Add, in the
Toolshelf). Set the rotation to 360 and the steps to 12 (or another
number of your choice).\" An elaborate circle will appear. Go to the
front view () to see your un-smooth
goblet.

### Finish up

Since you are in edit mode and you have the whole mesh selected, this is
a good time to remove duplicate vertices. The two vertices on the Z axis
(base bottom center and bulb bottom center) were duplicated 12 times,
and the entire outline was duplicated once when the circle closed at the
end of the spin. Remove the duplicates (press
 and select *Remove Doubles*). If you
fail to do this, the subsurf operation will create a cusp at the two
centers, and a crease at the duplicated outline.

If you placed the two Z-axis vertices by hand, they may not be exactly
on the axis, and therefore may still be duplicated, leaving a tiny
\"hole\" at the axis. Fix this by merging each of the two sets
separately:

1.  select the vertices to merge.
2.  merge at center (press ,*Merge → At
    Center*, ).

Now start to smooth by using the subsurf in the button window. First add
a modifier and select subsurf. Set levels to 2 Then, click on *smooth*
in the Tool shelf under \"Tools\" -\> \"Shading\". You now have a goblet
model.

![](Spin_a_goblet.png "Spin_a_goblet.png"){width="500"}
 The image shows four objects: the
two-dimensional outline, a smoothed version of the two-dimensional
outline, the result of spinning the outline, and the result of
subsurfing and smoothing. As you follow the procedure above, you will
not actually have more than one object at a time as shown here.

## Rendering

![](Rendered_spun_goblet.png "Rendered_spun_goblet.png") As with the
other two goblets, It is difficult to fully evaluate the model unless
you render it. However, a \"pretty\" rendering requires at least minimal
materials, lighting, and scenery. This section is a cookbook approach to
providing these minimal elements and is not really a useful tutorial, so
we won\'t explain the concepts. These topics are treated at length in
later tutorials. If you wish to explore these subjects in more depth, go
to the appropriate tutorials.

-   The Goblet material: plain glass.
-   The tablecloth: A (non-existent) table with a white tablecloth, in a
    featureless room painted yellow.
-   The lighting: one bright lamp.

### Material

-   Go to object mode and select the goblet.
-   In the Materials button window, add a
    material to
    the goblet, and name it \"glass\".
-   In the *Material* tab, change the color in *Diffuse* section to
    black (set R, G, and B all to 0.000). Here, \"black\" merely means
    \"do not add any color\". It does not mean that the goblet looks
    black.
-   In *Transparency* section, pick Raytrace. Set Alpha to 0.1 (i.e.,
    quite transparent), set IOR to 1.5, and set Depth to 6 (or higher on
    a very fast computer).

### Tablecloth and room

-   In the main window, put the cursor at the origin (Center) and switch
    to top view. In object mode, add a plane and then scale it to quite
    large. This is your tablecloth
-   Go to object mode and select the tablecloth.
-   In the *Material* tab, set the color to white and ensure the Alpha
    is 1.000 (i.e., opaque.)
-   In the *Shadow* section, check the Receive Transparent checkbox.
    (Older versions: in the *Shaders* tab, click on Trashado.) This
    allows the tablecloth to show the ray traced shadow of your goblet
    instead of a fake shadow.
-   To paint the room, in the *World* tab check Blend Sky and change
    Zenith Color to e.g. yellow.

### Lighting

If you started with the default camera and light the scene will be too
dark and the shadow effect from the lamp will not be too pretty. To fix
this:

-   Move the lamp higher and farther away.
-   Turn up the Energy.
-   In the lamp\'s *Shadow* section, pick Ray Shadow.

### Camera

Now adjust the camera:

-   Shift to camera view.
-   Dolly and aim the camera.
-   Move the camera back some.
-   Render.

[^1]:


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Light a Silver Goblet

|previous=Spin a goblet
}}
```
Note that the images are outdated.

## Techniques

You should know how to:

-   Perform actions discussed previously in the tutorial.

This section will recap or introduce:

-   Reflective material
-   Positioning camera and light
-   Editing the World colors

## Objects in the Scene

Create the goblet discussed in Model a Silver
Goblet or
load it if previously made. If you haven\'t already made the goblet,
feel free to try the tutorial using a sphere or something else instead
and you will still get a good outcome. In Object Mode with **NUM 7**
view, add a plane mesh. Scale the plane to a very large size and make
sure the goblet is sitting comfortably on top of it.

Select the camera and move it so that the goblet, and its reflection in
the plane will be seen or else if you want. You can see the numerical
location of the camera by bringing up the *Transform Properties* window
by pressing **NKEY** in the viewport. In my example where 0,0,0 is the
bottom center of the goblet, the camera is located at 27, -21, 19 XYZ
with a rotation of 63.5, 0.62, 46.7.

Create a Sun with **Shift+A** → Lamp → Sun. And (in the lamp properties
\"Object Data\") set \"energy\" to \"0.5\", and place it above the
goblet. Move it at around 80 points on the Z-axis. It is very important
that you place the lamp on the right spot cause it will give your goblet
anon 100 times more true to nature when you will give your goblet a
silver texture. You can try placing a point or another lamp but it\'s
very difficult to get a realistic image then. If you choose a different
lamp click on the World button in the \"Properties\" header (the section
where you can edit the sky). Check the Environmental Lighting box. Set
energy to \"0.800\".

The rendering of this scene yields:

!Current render Old Picture.

## Adding the Atmosphere

In Object Mode, select the goblet and go to the \"Material Properties\".
If no material is linked to the goblet, add new material. Rename the
material \'cup\' or something similar. The area of interest is the
*Mirror* window. Highlighted below are the mirror options we\'ll be
playing with. Press the Mirror button to make the material act like a
mirror and reflect light.

Move the \"Reflectivity\" slide to 0.85 or type it in after **LMB** on
the number. This is how reflective the surface will be. A low number of
0.00 means that it reflects little while a high number of 1.00 reflects
everything.

Also change the Fresnel slide from 0.0 to 1.4. This will increase the
power of the Fresnel function. What this means is the color of the
material will be strong because the light source is taken into
consideration. If the Fresnel wasn\'t used, the object would appear dark
because the light source isn\'t directly calculated in the mirror. Also,
change the color of the goblet to white. Using a light color will give
your goblet an interesting patina if you so choose.

!No material linked

!Make the goblet reflective

Next, select the plane and modify the material, add if it is not there.
We want the plane to be dark and shiny. Set *Diffuse* and *Specular* to
near black for the color. For reflectivity, turn on *Mirror* to about
0.15 Reflective and ignore Fresnel this time.

!Edit the materials of the
plane

There is only one more thing to do before rendering the scene: change
the world. Under the \"Properties\" Header is the \"World\" panel. Here
you have *Paper Sky*, *Blend Sky*, and *Real Sky* buttons. There are
also options for changing the color of the horizon (Horizon color),
zenith (Zenith color), and ambient (Ambient color). We\'re interested in
these two windows at the moment.

Using *Real sky* and *Blend sky* will affect the way the horizon and
zenith interact. Experiment with them to see what they do in the
preview. In this example, *Real* and *Blend* are turned on.

The *Paper* button works a little differently in that what you see in
the preview will essentially be the background of your render. This
effect is most noticeable when your camera is rotated. Despite the
camera rotation, the preview would still be \'wallpapered\' on the
render.

For our world, set the color close to black for the horizon, zenith, and
ambient.

!World shading

That was the last step! Make sure the camera is in the right spot and
render the scene. Here is the output of this example

!Final rendering

## Creating a metallic texture for the goblet:

The metallic look can be achieved by these steps:

1.  **Materials** \> **Diffuse**. Set color Hex value to: **C7C8CB** or
    you can set it completely black for dark metal. Set intensity to
    \"0.8\".
2.  **Materials** \> **Specular**. Set color to white(Hex: **FFFFFF**).
    Change **Intensity** to \"**1.000**\", left of the color-swatch, set
    the *specular shader* to **CookTorr**. Also change the **Hardness**
    to value around \"**16**\".
3.  **Materials** \> **Mirror**. Make sure the Mirror check-box is
    checked. Set **Reflectivity** to **1.000** and color to white(Hex:
    **FFFFFF**). Make sure that under \"Gloss\" the \"Amount\" is set to
    \"1.000\".
4.  (not compulsory but it may be required) Use the texture from this
    earlier tutorial: Procedural Wood
    Texture
    on the planes that are below and behind the goblet as in the picture
    below. It will give you a much better contrast.

![](3d_Modelled_steel_goblets2.jpg "3d_Modelled_steel_goblets2.jpg")

**Notes:**

*Problem:* When I render I see brown where I have used \"Shift-E\" and
\"G\" and I followed everything. *Answer:* Please remember, the author
did say play with the settings a bit, this tutorial should be used as a
guide. We are learning how to use all the tools that Blender has to
offer, that is the important thing. It is up to us to experiment more
with the settings set forth in these tutorials. If the settings in these
tutorials do not give us the same results, that is OK, we should be
changing them anyway to express ourselves! Also remember, NEVER strive
for PERFECTION, but ALWAYS strive for EXCELLENCE. Perfection only leads
to frustration, and it is frustrating enough, at times, to learn
something new. Have fun learning, I know I am.

*Noob Question:* I managed to get it looking like the first picture
above. How do I get it to look like the second?\
*Pro Answer:* Change the reflection settings. a higher depth and a
larger raymir value will make the goblet more \"mirror\" like as in the
2nd picture. the other settings should be left alone, or you can
experiment with them to achieve the effect that you want. lighting is
also important. the object that is to be reflected has to be illuminated
as well as the object that is doing the illuminating. Different lights
(don\'t use a hemi if you want it to be realistic) at different angles
will give you a more realistic effect.

*Noob Note:* On the answer above, I didn\'t manage to do it with any of
the things the pro said in the answer here, I found out that the key is
to change the color of the material which is white (or close to white)
in the upper picture. In the lower picture the color is set to black (or
close to black). This eliminates the \"un-metallic\" whitish sheen that
the goblet in the upper picture has.

*Noob Note:* I don\'t know about those using lower versions but those
using v2.5x have a choice of different shaders both for diffuse and
specular colours. I strongly suggest that for the same object one should
try playing around with the shaders. They can create different effects.
for eg. here if you change the diffuse shader type to **oren-nayar** and
the specular shader type to **wardiso**, the goblet will have a glossy ,
finished look.

![](Silver_goblet.jpg "Silver_goblet.jpg")

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


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Simple Vehicle

|previous=Light a Silver Goblet
}}
```
!Let\'s make this jeep. The idea of
this tutorial is to learn to face a complex project. A vehicle is a nice
object to use to test yourself and find new problems.

First, we must understand that a project does not reproduce the real
world; a project shows an idea or thought and will result in a final
image or video. Whatever does not appear in the final result is
unnecessary to include in the model.

What vehicle should we make? Let\'s go with the classic jeep. This will
allow for a lot of doodads.

Let\'s decide what objects of the jeep model will need to be made -
body, wheels, seats, and a rocket launcher for good measure. Objects we
can ignore include the engine, which remains hidden under the hood.
There are many additional objects you can make such as a steering wheel
to customize your jeep. {{-}}


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Simple Vehicle: Wheel tutorial 1

|previous=Simple Vehicle
}}
```
There are 2 tutorials for the tires. This and the next tutorial: this is
the basic tutorial but the next tutorial is more complicated and you can
end up with one of the four different versions.

## Techniques

You should already know how to:

-   Make a mesh
-   Navigate the viewport
-   Extrusion
-   Create, edit materials

This section will recap and introduce:

-   Forming faces
-   Subsurfing
-   Merging vertices
-   Object naming

For our premise, envision jeep tires. They\'re not too sleek but rather
rugged for all kinds of terrain. We need a tire that can handle any
obstacle in its way.

During this tutorial we will be primarily using orthographic view. Feel
free to switch to perspective view (**NUM5**) from time to time to see
how things are developing. You may also want to rotate in the XY plane
using scroll **MMB** or **NUM2**/**NUM4**. Switch back to orthographic
view (**NUM5**) to edit.

## Model the tire

Hit **NUM1** to set front view (XZ coordinates), then delete the cube.

### Create the outside of the tire

Add a cylinder **Shift+A \> Mesh \> Cylinder** then in the tool shelf
use 32 vertices, set the radius to 4, depth to 3, choose Cap Fill Type:
\"Nothing\", and click on \"Align to view\". By default, objects are
aligned to the *global space* axes. The \"align to view\" option rotates
the cylinder so that it is aligned to the *view space*.

### Create the inside of the tire

Switch to orthographic mode (**NUM5** to toggle) and then go into **Edit
Mode**.

Select all vertices, hit the **E Key** and directly after that the **ESC
key** to make the new faces, then **Alt+EKEY** and choose \"Individual
faces\" and extrude the individual faces into the circle.

You may either type in -1.2 and hit enter, or hold **SHIFT CTRL** and
move the mouse to extrude the faces until the sides come in -1.200
units. Now select all with the **AKEY** and remove doubles by pressing
the **WKEY** -\> Remove Doubles.\
!Checking the outer
mesh{width="300"} !Reduce the
width{width="121"}

### Subsurf the tire

Now it\'s time to make the tire look like a rugged tire.

Return to Object Mode, and apply a subsurf modifier (use the Modifier
menu in the properties header - it looks like a wrench) click on \"Add
Modifier\" and select Subdivision Surface - select VIEW level 1 or 2.
The tire will now look like a bead necklace.

### Crease the edges

A little creative use of creases will restore our tire.

Switch back to orthographic mode (**NUM5** to toggle) if need be then go
into to **Edit Mode**. Check that Limit Selection to Visible is off
(that is, so you can see the extra edges and vertices).

Enter **Edge Select** mode

Bring up the circle selection tool (**AKEY** to unselect all, then
**CKEY**).

Use the scroll wheel to change the circle selection size to be in the
center of the tire, between the inside and outside edges. This will
select all of the inside edges, as well as the triangles on the side of
the tire, as in the picture below. Then hit **Enter**

Now press **SHIFT+EKEY** to Crease these edges - type 1.000, and press
**ENTER**, or hold **CTRL** to pull in steps till you see 1.000 in the
status bar at the bottom of the view window.

!Applied subsurf{width="300"} !Crease
the edges{width="311"}

## Model the hubcap

The tire is almost done. Let\'s add a simple hubcap to it.

### Create a cylinder

Be sure you\'re in **Edit Mode**.

Hit **AKEY**, once or twice till all the wheel\'s vertices are selected.

(The scene should be in front orthographic view - hit **NUM1** for front
view, **NUM5** for orthographic if not).

Press **SHIFT+SKEY**, from the popup menu, choose \"Cursor to
Selected\", to put the cursor at the center point of the existing tire.

Hit Shift+A =\> cylinder with 32 vertices, radius of 1.9, depth of .5,
choose Cap Fill Type: \"Nothing\", and click on the checkbox of \"align
to view\".

Turn orthographic view off: **NUM5**. Hit **NUM7** for top view.

Hit **GKEY**, then **YKEY**, then type 2.2, and hit **ENTER** to move
the hubcap into part of its eventual location and a place we can work on
it.

!Add another tube
mesh{width="300"}

### Create the outside of the cap

In top view, hit **AKEY** once, so that nothing is selected.

Zoom in with the **MMB** till the hub cap fills most or all of the view.

Switch to **Vertex select** mode. Make sure \"Limit selection to
Visible\" is off (that is, so you can see the extra edges and vertices).

Hit **BKEY** for box select, then holding the **LMB**, drag the box to
enclose the vertices along the top edge of the hubcap.

Hit **SKEY**, then **SHIFT+YKEY** to only move in the XZ axis, then type
in .35, and hit **ENTER**

Hit **GKEY**, then **YKEY** to only move the Y axis, then type in .35,
and hit **ENTER**

!Shorten the hubcap
width{width="218"}

### Create the Axle Cover

We\'ll merge these vertices together to create a flat surface.

Hit **Alt+EKEY**, on the popup select **Edges only**, then hit **ESC**,
to create the edges we will need.

Hit **ALT+MKEY** on the popup pick **At center**. Blender will reduce
the 32 vertices to 1.

Hit **NUM3** for side view.

Hit **GKEY**, then **YKEY**, to only move the Y axis, then type in -0.4
and hit **ENTER**.

!Scale in the front
vertices{width="300"}
!Pull the center vertex
in{width="193"}

### Final sizing of hub cap to tire

The final mesh editing is to scale the hub cap to a size that is
slightly larger than the hole of the tire.

Hit **NUM7** for top view, **NUM5** for orthographic if needed.

Position the mouse over the hubcap, and press the **LKEY** to select the
entire hubcap.

Hit **SKEY**, then **SHIFT+YKEY** to move only the XZ axis, then type
1.48, and hit **ENTER**

Hit **NUM3** for side view.

Hit **GKEY**, then **YKEY**, to move only the Y axis, then type -1.11
(use -0.77 if you want your hubs sticking out) and hit **ENTER**.

### Renaming the Wheel

The last thing to do is to rename the wheel so we can find it easier
later.

Enter Object mode and select the wheel only.

In the outliner window you\'ll see the tire called \"Cylinder\". This
name was created because we started with a cylinder mesh.

Click on the name with the right mouse button and click on Rename -
rename the object to something like \'wheel\'. Save your file where
you\'ll find it later and continue to the next step.

## Extra

!Rendered tire{width="200"} Change the
materials to make it look like a tire. As you have seen in previous
tutorials, one object can have multiple colors/textures.

*If you\'d like to review how to do this, then refer to the
materials section
for an explanation on how to, or to the Blender manual: Multiple
Materials*


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Simple Vehicle: Wheel tutorial 2

|previous=Simple Vehicle: Wheel tutorial 1
|subcat=Project
}}
```
There are 2 tutorials for the tires. This and the previous tutorial. The
first is basic but this is a more complicated tutorial with a total of 4
different versions.

Congratulations on making it this far; you\'ve proven you have what it
takes to finish this book. At this point you don\'t need me explaining
the simple things like the differences between or how to select
vertices, edges or faces. Feel free to swivel the camera this way and
that. I\'ll leave it to you to decide when to turn snap on or off
\"Limit Selection to visible\". At every step I hope you think, "Ah-ha,
now it looks more like a tire!" since that\'s essentially what I did.
I\'m writing this tutorial because I don\'t want this book to become
outdated. Also\... I really like tires!

## Build the Tire

!A real world wheel

This is the real world wheel we\'ll be modelling. It has three parts: 1)
tire 2) rim 3) hub. We\'ll create the wheel laying down starting with
the tire and working our way in.

### The wheel

Delete the default cube and hit  to go
to the top view.

Center the cursor and add cylinder with 32 vertices, radius 4, and depth
2. Set Cap Fill Type to nothing. Set snapping to Increment:
++
and enable snapping:
+.

Next we will make a series of cylinders which will become the tire and
the rim. Switch to edit mode. Extrude the cylinder inwards by pressing

+

 . Do
this a total of two times, then extrude another cylinder inwards by 0.8.

!only select the vertical
edges Unselect
everything () then select only the
vertical edges of the innermost cylinder, as follows: ensure \"limit
selection to visible\" is turned off, switch to vertex-select mode,
circle-select the innermost vertices, switch to side view
() and edge-select mode, block-unselect
the top edges with
+, and
do the same for the bottom edges.  !merge
collapse the edges
Merge-collapse
(+ \>\>
Collapse) these vertical edges to create a circle that\'s vertically in
the center of the other cylinders.

### The Hub

!completed simple
wheel\|left The inner
ring should be already selected. Extrude it and scale to 0.4. Move the
new circle down by 0.5, then extrude it up
( ) by 0.5.
Extrude and scale to 0.25. Move the circle up by 0.15, and lastly press
 to make a face in the inner circle.
 To be safe before saving highlight all and
remove doubles. We can add different types of tread to this simple tire.
If you\'re feeling ambitious come up with your own tread design. Save
your work now.

## Finish your tire several versions

Working on the vertical faces of the outermost cylinder in face select
mode.

### Type 1

Subdivide the outer faces one time, and rotate, with Z-Lock, the newly
created central edge by 12. !rotate the middle edge by
12\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
Stager select every other outer face and extrude size out 1.15 (\"Ekey\"
then \"Enter\" then S and then 1.15). Make sure your sizing outward from
the center of the wheel. For quick selecting, Alt-select the two rings
of faces and press Select-Checker Deselect !select tread pattern and
extrude outward by
1.15\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
What you can also do is Alt+E click on individual faces, 1.15 and then
\"S key\" scale it down some points. !nice round
wheel\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\

### Type 2

This tread is a little trickier but the extra work is worth it.
Subdivide the outer faces and change the number of cuts to 2. There are
now 96x3 outer faces. Think of these as being on 3 levels bottom middle
and top. ! creating
faces\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
Select 2 of the bottom faces skip 4 faces then select 2 more go all the
way around the circle. The pattern for the middle level is select 2 skip
one select 2 starting at the top left vertex of the bottom level. The
pattern of the top is the same as the bottom select 2 skip 4 start at
the top right vertex of the middle level just not the same middle
selection that the bottom is\... see the picture :) ! select tread
pattern\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
Extrude size out 1.15 from the center of the wheel \"Ekey\" then
\"Enter\" then S then 1.15)! extrude outward to create
tread\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\

### Type 3

Evenly loop-cut the faces of the outer cylinder ! loopcut center of
wheel\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
CTRL-R, center the mouse on the outer cylinder -\> Enter -\> Enter. Now
subdivide the outer cylinder. There are now 3 inner edges. rotate, with
Z-Lock the top inner edge by 12 and the bottom inner edge by -12.
!rotate edges\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
This time make a Z-pattern with the faces and extrude size out by 1.15
from the center of the wheel \"Ekey\" then \"Enter\" then S then 1.15).
! select tread pattern and extrude
outward\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\

## Finishing

To get the wheel standing up lock the y axis and rotate everything 90°

The wheel object as well as the wheel mesh are both named Cylinder in
the outliner lets rename both Wheel. Right click the name and select
rename ! rename object/mesh
wheel\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
Lets add a sub modifier and set shading to smooth. ! subdivide to
smooth things
out\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
Crease the hub edges. Shift EKEY 1 enter. By the way the easiest way to
remove a crease is just to add a negative crease. Shift EKEY -1. !
crease the hub\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\

## Colouring

Now for some color. By the way, think of diffuse as being the base color
and specular as being the reflected color. If you\'re curious about
words like lambert and fresnel just look them up in your favorite
dictionary.

In the properties menu select the materials icon.

Create three material slots by clicking the plus button that\'s above
the minus button 3 times. !after you click new rename the
material\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
Select each material slot and click new to add a material to it. Name
the first material Rim, the second Tire and the last Hub.

We\'ll leave the rim default white. Select Tire and change the diffuse
color to almost black RGB of 0.010 and the specular intensity to 1. This
gives our tire a very shiny black look. Give the hub a dull gray look by
setting the diffuse color to RGB 0.05. ! create dark gray by lowering
all colors to
0.05\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
The first material added becomes the default material for the entire
object. So we only need to select the parts of the wheel mesh that are
not rim.

Select the tire that\'s the two outer cylinders- with the tire material
highlighted click assign. ! assign the tire color to the tire
mesh\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
To make selecting the hub easier close the subsurf eye in either the
properties or outliner menu. Assign the hub material to the hub mesh.
I\'ve left adding the red hub oil seal up to you. ! turning subsurf off
makes selecting
easier\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
!The final Tire
rendering\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
That\'s it! Hopefully my instructions weren\'t too painful. Be sure to
save and good luck!

If you want you can create a more complex tire. Otherwise you can skip
this.

## Creating a more complex tire

Start by loading a basic cylinder and rotating it so it rests on its
side.

!Cylinder\|thumb\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\

Next, remove the faces from the top, and bottom of the cylinder. !No
Faces\|thumb\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
Now Press the num5 key to enter orthographic view. !2
Cuts\|thumb\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
Then press num7 to view the front of the cylinder.

Then click on \"Loop cut and Slide\" in the tools shelf and make a cut
of \".5\" to each side as shown in the picture (ctrl+R -\> 3 -\> Enter
-\> Enter) select the middle then (X -\> edge loops).

Next, make 2 more cuts .4 on each side (ctrl+R -\> 4 -\> Enter -\>
Enter) select the unneeded then (X -\> edge loops). !Total Count Of
Cuts\|thumb\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
Next, press the b key to enter box select mode.
!Boxselect\|thumb\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\

you will want to select all the middle faces.

Next. type \"S key\" then X or Y, dependent on direction your cylinder
is in, then .5 !Scale The
Middle\|thumb\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
Then press the A key to select everything, then \"S key\" -\> X or Y,
and type .5 to squish the whole wheel.

Then use the \"B key\" to reselect the middle faces. Now, with the
Middle faces still selected rotate them so they look similar to the
picture shown by typing \"R key\" \"X key\" or \"Y key\" and then\"10\".
!Rotate The
Middle\|thumb\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
Next, select all the faces beside the middle and in the middle and
rotate them all in the opposite direction so it looks similar to the
picture shown by typing \"R key\" \"X key\" or \"Y key\" and
then\"-10\". !Rotate The Middle And
Sides\|thumb\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
Next press the A key to unselect everything. !Select The
Faces\|thumb\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
Then start selecting faces as shown in the picture. Continue this all
the way around the wheel leaving 1 space of unselected faces in-between
each row.

With the faces selected press \"Shift+S\" then \"Cursor to Center\" then
**EKEY** then **ESC** and then \"S key\" to scale them. While scaling
type \".9\" then press enter. !Extrude And
Scale\|thumb\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
Next, select all of the side edges as shown and Then Press the \"S key\"
and type .7 then press enter. !Outside
Edges\|thumb\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
!Sides The
Tire\|thumb\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\

Type \"S key\" then X or Y, and then type \"1.5\" to move both sides
outward slightly.

Type \"E key\" then \"Enter\" , then the \"S key\" type \"0.75\" as
shown in the image. !The Inner Of The
Tire\|thumb\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
!The Render Of The
tire\|thumb\|left\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
You\'re done!

Feel free to add the hub cap from the previous wheel, or one of your own
design.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Simple Vehicle: Seat

|previous=Simple Vehicle: Wheel tutorial 2
}}
```
## Techniques

You should already know how to:

-   Make a mesh
-   Navigate the viewport
-   Extrusion
-   Subsurf
-   Crease edges

This section will recap and introduce:

-   Loop Cut and Slide (Loop Subdivide)
-   Small, consistent vertex movement

The design will be an all-terrain bucket-type seat.

## Extrude the Seat

!Basic setup of
shapes.{width="200"} Start in
 view of the default cube and rename
it.

Extrude the cube multiple times to make your basic shape. In this
example a 3x3x1 block composes the body with one cube coming out the top
for the headrest, and the bottom cube\'s front faces extruded out to
create the seat.

**Noob Note:** best practice is use \"Face\" selection mode, select the
face, or faces you want to extrude with the
, then hit
, select an axis to move on by pressing
the , , or
 keys, and pull with
 held down.

## Add cushion seams

!Multiple Loop Cut and
Slide.{width="200"}
**Noob Note:** Before starting on this, you\'ll need to make sure you
don\'t have any unnecessary faces **inside** the seat, or else you\'ll
get strange cushion seams.

To add a little texture to the mesh, we\'ll add some cushion seams. Use
Loop Cut and Slide
(+ and
you\'ll see the pink selection loop. You can use the
 key to increase the number of loops
made at the same time. Use mouse wheel or press
 3 times to form 4 loops and
 the center column of blocks. You may
also find it easier to add them one at a time in the correct place, than
inserting them and then moving them.

(To get multiple Loops instead of pressing
 just press the number of loops you
want in this case , this is a fast easy
way to achieve this.) You can use a mouse-wheel as well. Finally pres
\"Enter\" 2 times.

**Noob note:** If the loop comes up with green lines rather than purple
you have gone one step too far, just press
 and try again. When you see the purple
lines use your  or the
 button.

## Position the cushion seams

!Where the 3D cursor should be placed and what to
select{width="200"}
Go into ZX view () and make sure the
view is orthographic ( to
activate/deactivate orthographic view). Place the 3D cursor on one of
the sides of the head rest (, or
+ to
move cursor).

!Positioning the
seams.{width="200"} The idea is
to move the 4 loop cuts just created away from center to the sides. Set
the pivot to 3D cursor and select the two closest loop cuts. Scale
() it down on the X axis
() to 0.3. The goal will be to have the
loop closer to the cursor to go into the cushion to become a seam. Now,
do the same thing for the other side of the head rest.

`<b>`{=html}Noob note:`</b>`{=html} The easiest way to select the two
closest loop cuts is to first select (,
+) one
edge of each loop, and then go to Select Edge Loop
( -\> `<i>`{=html}Select`</i>`{=html}
-\> `<i>`{=html}Edge Loop`</i>`{=html}). Or hold down
 when selecting one of the loop\'s
edges. This should select the entire loop. In order to select more than
one loop, hold down  as well.

`<b>`{=html}Noob2 note:`</b>`{=html} in Ortho view with \'Limit
selection to visible\' disabled, just box-selected with one drag of the
mouse.

## Add Depth to the seams

!Vertical seam
creation.{width="200"} In
overhead view (), select the vertices
in vertical parts of the two front facing seams of the seat back, grab
them (), move only along the Y axis
(), and type in
**.05**.

!Horizontal seam
creation.{width="207"}
Switch to  view and move the vertices
in the horizontal parts of the same two seams, grab them and move them
down by moving them -0.05 along the Z-axis.

**Noob Note**: I\'ve found that an easier way to do this is selecting
each loop of the seam one by one and scaling to .95 (make sure the pivot
is set to \"Bounding Box Center)

## Subsurf the seat

!Subsurfed seat{width="250"} Add a
\"Subdivison Surface\" Modifier to the object. Hit in the Tool shelf:
\"Smooth\" under \"Shading\" **Not Necessary:** *Select the edges
between the back and seat and crease
(\'+)
them. Crease any edges you feel like to create your perfect jeep seat.*
**Noob note:** it\'s best to be in **Edge** select mode when creasing

A subsurf level of 2 or 3 looks best, and don\'t forget to change the
render level to 3 or 4.

Select all () then either hit the \"Set
Smooth\" button at the bottom of links and materials, or hit
 and select \"Set Smooth\" for a much
smoother subsurf.

**Noob note:** If your seat is noticeably misshapen after adding the
subsurf modifier, you may just have to delete internal faces in your
model.  into edit mode, and hit
 to get into wireframe mode. Click the
face select button and look for faces that are totally inside the model.
There will probably be a couple vertical faces (in YZ-plane) under the
seams in the seat. I found a few elsewhere, also. Deleting all these
cleared everything up.

**Noob note 2:** Another way to remove the extra faces (which can cause
the \"seams\" to be very deep) is to go into edit mode, select your
whole seat (), then hit
() and select \"Remove doubles\" from the
menu. This is much quicker than finding them individually, and should
solve the problem.

**Noob note 3:** The problem may also be solved by going into edit mode,
using  to select all, and using
 \> Edit \> Normals \> Recalculate
Outside ( +
).

## Resize the seat

!Change the widths.{width="245"}
Next, resize the seat\'s height and width.

**Note:** Be sure to change the rotation/scaling pivot back to center
point!

To make the whole seat narrower in width, select all
 twice, then hit
, followed by
 then type 0.8 and press
.

right\|250px
To make the seat back a bit narrower in thickness, select around the
seat back (in vertex mode) with the circle select
. Once you have it completely selected on
all of the sides, hit , lock axis with
, and type 0.75, and hit
.

## Final touches

This final seat renders to: !Rendered
seat.{width="300"}

### Leathery look

To give the seams a leathery cord look, Hit
 twice to select all, then
 and choose Subdivide Fractal on the popup
menu (in 2.6x select Subdivide and then press
 and choose 1 for fractals); just keep
the defaults and the seams will look like a bunch of vines until you
render it and they look like leather seams, and set in \"Material\" in
the \"Properties header\" diffuse color to deep black.

### More concave

!Making it concave.{width="200"}
Also the seat can also be made slightly more concave to look like it
would hold a person better.


# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Simple Vehicle: Rocket Launcher

|previous=Simple Vehicle: Seat
}}
```
## Techniques

You should already know how to do:

-   Previous Simple Vehicle techniques

This section will recap and introduce:

-   UVspheres
-   Changing object\'s center

## Overview

Two assumptions are going to be made here. One is that the rocket will
not be launched in the future (use separate objects if you want to do
that). The other is this is going to be a simple design.

If you want to add options to your gun (think sight, trigger), go for
it!

## Create the Launcher

Start a new file and delete the default cube.

### Add a cylinder

In  view, add a cylinder mesh with 24
vertices with \"Cap Fill Type\" at \"Triangle Fan\" and set it to
\"align to view\". We\'ll use 24 because the default 32 is overkill and
will only increase rendering time. Rename and elongate the cylinder
along the Y axis(\"S key\" then \"Y key\" then \"6key\" ). This will be
the length of the launcher (minus the rocket).

!Elongated cylinder{width="400"}

### Hollow the cylinder

right\|400px

Circle Select (  ) the vertices at one
side, then extrude (\') them, and press
 to create a copy of the vertices.

Scale () them by 0.7.

Do the same at the other side.

Extrude at one side the inner circle vertices
() then \"Enter\", then press \"N key\"
and change the value at \"Z\" in 1.2 or -1.2 dependent on what side you
take. Then press hit \"A key\" \'till you have the whole cylinder
selected then press \"W key\" and say \"Remove doubles\".

## Create the rocket

For the purposes of this tutorial we will add the rocket on the left end
of the launcher.

!Finishing the rocket
head{width="300"}

### For a one piece rocket + launcher

400px\|right

Select the inner ring of vertices using circle select
()

Extrude () the \"edge\" along the Y axis
() press \"Num1\" then \"S key\" then
\"0.95\" select the all the faces second from the outside and press
\"X\" then \"Only Faces\". Select the inner ring vertices then \"E key\"
\"Y key\" then \"0.5\".

Extrude the \"edge\" along the Y axis with 1.5, and scale the new edge
by 1.5.

Extrude the \"edge\" along the Y axis with 1.

Extrude the \"edge\" along the Y axis with 3, and scale the new edge by
0.2.

Extrude the \"edge\", hit , and merge
(+) at the
center to form the face for the nose

For fun you could extrude the left end of the rocket with -11 in the
cylinder and then \"F key\". you can separate the objects by pressing
\"P key\" after selecting the objects you want to separate. you can
manually delete the edges that stayed at the cylinder.

### For a two piece rocket and launcher

-   **Method 1:** create a cone, rotate it, then extrude and scale to
    get the rocket shape.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
-   **Method 2:** create a cylinder, scale it along the Y-axis, then
    extrude one side, scale to about 1.3, then extrude two more faces,
    scaling the first about 0.3 and merging the vertices of the second
    at center.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
-   **Method 3:** Create a UV sphere with 4 rings, and model it - much
    in the same way as the penguin - into a rocket.

## Create the mount

Having a launcher is nice, but we\'ll need to affix it to the jeep
somehow. Let\'s add a mount to the tube.

Make sure you\'re in edit mode, not object mode!

### Add a cylinder

!Mount arm{width="200"} Add a cylinder with 24
vertices with \"Cap Fill Type\" at \"Nothing\", since we won\'t be
seeing the ends.

Scale to about 0.55, then move it to the bottom of the tube.

### Add a UVsphere

!Place the sphere{width="200"} The
easiest way to have a wide range of motion for the launcher is to use a
ball joint. We can simulate one by just adding a UVsphere. The default
32 segments and 12 rings will be fine. This creates a smooth sphere.

You can think of the number of segments as being the wedges visible when
the sphere is viewed as you added it. The number of rings then could be
described as the depth of the sphere from that same view.

Resize and place the sphere at the new cylinder arm.

### Reposition the center point

This next step will be important for continuing the tutorial. Get the 3D
cursor to as close to the center of the sphere as possible. While the
sphere is still selected after creation, you can press
 +  and
snap cursor to selection, putting it in the exact center of the UV
Sphere.

Switch to Object Mode. In the \"Tool shelf\" under \"Tools\" you\'ll
find the button \"Set origin\", click this and click on \"Origin To 3D
cursor\" This should move the large pink dot where the cursor is
located. This will give it a new center of gravity around the ball
joint, making it easy to manipulate later.

!Change the center of the
object{width="400"}

## Subsurf

Be in **edit** mode!

Apply subsurf, level 2

Select everything ( twice), and hit the
**set smooth** button ( at the bottom of the links and materials panel).

This makes the ends of the rocket launcher tube too rounded, as real
ones are squared up.

### Square up the tube edges on the right side

On the right side (without the rocket sticking out) be in **Face**
select mode

right\|400px

on one of the faces in the outer ring, then circle select
(), and select all the faces at the end of
the launcher tube. You can also do a lasso selection by
+ in
face selection mode.

Crease the edges of the faces by hitting
+ and
set it to 1.0.

### Squaring up the tube edges on the left side

right\|400px
Now do the left side exactly like the right side.

**Noob Note** Be sure to deselect everything on the other side first
( )!!

### Squaring up the rocket

right\|400px

**RMB** on one of the faces in the middle surface, then circle select
(), and select the faces all the way
around

Crease the edges of the faces by hitting
+ and
set it to 1.0.

## Final touches

Apply materials or additional items to the object and save for later
use.

Do not forget to name the rocket for later use.