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Navigating and Modeling in Blender

Blender is a powerful 3D modeling software. It has a massive community and is frequently updated with new features that greatly improve the software. Since its support of photo-based materials and its UI update in version 2.8, Blender has become a legitimate professional option for 3D artists. It can perform most of the operations in the 3D modeling pipeline, such as sculpting, modelling, UV unwrapping, rigging, and much more. Blender is a massive generalist software that goes beyond just modeling and rigging. It also provides multiple physics engines, a compositor for video editing, and even 2D animation tools. However, the most impressive aspect Blender has going for it is not its impressive capabilities but, rather, the fact that it gives us these amazing capabilities and still remains completely free.

In this chapter, we will take a look at Blender's user interface (UI). We will learn how to navigate the different tabs that we will be using and the 3D viewport. Then, we will learn basic modeling techniques and hotkeys. Finally, we will take a look at specific tools used to check topology.

In this chapter, we will be learning the following subjects:

• Making sense of the Blender UI
• Navigating using the viewport
• What a 3D mesh is and how it can be manipulated
• Adding more vertices to enhance a mesh's geometry
• Manipulating a mesh using modifiers

Technical requirements

In this book, we will be using a vanilla Blender release, version 3.2, with included add-ons. All examples shown will be compatible with version 3.3 LTS, which is the latest version of Blender released at the time of writing. The latest version of Blender can be downloaded for free from https://www.blender.org/download/.

An external mouse will also be required, and a keyboard with a number pad is strongly recommended.

Making sense of the Blender UI

If this is your first time booting up Blender, it can be overwhelming - so many tabs and gizmos feeding you information. Of course, because you can do so many things in Blender, that also means there are a lot of options. So, before diving straight into topology, let's take a moment to look through the UI.

Figure 1.1 - The Blender UI

The Blender UI houses all of the different sections we will be using. The UI is broken up into five sections, the Header, Workspaces, Areas, the Toolbar, and the Sidebar. You can see these sections highlighted in Figure 1.1. Let us get a sense of what each of these areas contains:

• The Header, highlighted in red, contains object interaction mode, which determines how you want to affect an object, and the options for that mode. In the preceding figure, it is set to Object Mode.
• The Workspaces, highlighted in green, are preset tabs set up for a specific operation. In the preceding screenshot, we are in the Layout workspace.
• The Areas are where each of the individual editor types, highlighted in orange, are contained. Editor types are used to manage the many workflows of Blender.
• The Toolbar, highlighted in yellow, displays the tools for the object interaction mode that you have selected. Its visibility can be toggled by pressing T.
• The Sidebar, highlighted in blue, shows specific details about the object you have selected, such as its dimensions. It can be toggled by pressing N.

Figure 1.2 - The main region workspace

The workspace we will be working in the most will be the Modeling tab. The main region, highlighted in red in Figure 1.2, is the area that takes up the most screen space. The Modelling tab's main region is the 3D Viewport by default. The viewport is the editor type that shows the 3D object. This is the area that allows you to move around in 3D space. These are highlighted in Figure 1.2.

Now that we know where the major parts of the Blender UI are, we can take a look at how to navigate in the 3D Viewport. This is the main area we will be using when looking at our models.

Navigating using the viewport

While modeling, we spend most of our time in the viewport, so getting comfortable with its navigation is important. You navigate the viewport using three main avenues of movement, orbiting, zooming, and panning. To orbit, simply press the middle mouse button (MMB), and you will rotate around a hidden pivot point. To zoom, use the scroll wheel to scroll forward to zoom in and scroll backward to zoom out. To pan, press Shift + the MMB and move the mouse in the direction you want to pan.

Figure 1.3 - Navigation gizmos

The top right of the viewport has a few helpful gizmos, as shown in Figure 1.3. These can all be used to control the viewport using just the mouse. The gizmo listing the X, Y, and Z positions in Figure 1.4 can be used to orbit by pressing the left mouse button (LMB) on the icon and moving the mouse.

Figure 1.4 - The orbit gizmo

The magnifying glass icon below the orbiting gizmo in Figure 1.5 can be used to zoom by pressing the LMB on the icon and moving the mouse.

Figure 1.5 - The zoom gizmo

And finally, the hand icon in Figure 1.6 can be used to pan by pressing the LMB on the icon and moving the mouse.

Figure 1.6 - The pan gizmo

Now that we have some understanding of the viewport's gizmos and the features of Blender's UI, we can take a look at what we will be using these tools for.

What a 3D mesh is and how it can be manipulated

First, we will talk about what a 3D mesh actually is. A mesh constitutes one or more geometric points called vertices. These vertices can be connected by edges, and those edges can be connected with faces. A mesh is contained within an object. You can see all of these in Figure 1.7. An object contains one or more meshes and acts as a container for all of the data stored in the mesh.

Figure 1.7 - Vertices, edges, and faces forming a triangle

To edit the mesh of an object directly, you need to have the object you want to edit selected in the object selection mode called Object Mode (see Figure 1.8). To select an object, follow these steps:

1. Press the LMB on the object in the viewport.
2. Then, switch the object selection mode to Edit Mode by pressing LMB on the icon at the top left and selecting it from the drop-down list.

Figure 1.8 - The Object Interaction Mode tab

Alternatively, you can also press the Tab hotkey to switch to Edit Mode with the object selected.

Now that we are in Edit Mode, we can start to manipulate the mesh, starting with selection. Select modes are located in the top left of the header, as shown in Figure 1.9.

Figure 1.9 - Select modes - vertex, edge, and face from left to right

Select modes allow you to select a part of the mesh to change. The three buttons from left to right enable you to select a vertex, select an edge, and select a face respectively. You can enable these individually, or hold Shift and select multiple modes to enable.

To select a vertex, hover over the vertex you want to select and press the LMB. To select multiple vertices, hold Shift while selecting the other vertices. Selections have two types: selected and active. Selected vertices are a darker orange, while active vertices are highlighted in a brighter orange or white. Figure 1.9 shows two vertices selected, with one of them...