@@chrisprenn Please Upload more Blender 2.83 modeling tutorials, and a hard surface modeling tutorials series for beginners and Intermediate Individuals would be appreciated, thank you for everything you do ♥️
this is one of those classic videos where you have a suspicion something can be done in Blender, but watching somebody actually do it is a great help. Thank you
Yes, it got popular again after years of polygonal techniques. When I started with 3ds2 backin the day we only had the lathe modifier no poly modelling or at least no smoothing modifiers. Later polycage modelling became popular, because it gave more control and was simply fun. I still use both teckniques combined.
It's not rare that watching a blender tutorial blows my head by how much you can do. This tutorial is one of them. And extremely clear, thank you so much
when making the zoom part, i think its easier using an 'array' modifier and a 'simple deform' instead of 'curve' modifier. that's because the simple deform will make the start of the array meet the end of it perfectly without needing to tweak it to match.
Mr Chris prenninger i can't thank you enough for this valuable break up video. I learned a lot. I learned from this one video more than i have from watching many other in a whole year ! Most tutorial makers were always starting from a default cube and would show applying modifiers and such on that poor cube only ! I had a hard time grasping the practical application of modifiers earlier. This video taught me very clearly. Please make more and more such videos on real products like this.
I find it sad to read the comments section full of things like "it's mind blowing what you can do in blender", or "I didn't think this was possible in blender". Guys/Girls, this is one of the 3 basic modeling techniques to learn, and it is available in any serious 3D software, like Blender, 3DS Max, Mays, C4D, AutoCAD, etc. It's called "Curves modeling" and is a part of the trio - Nurbs, Curves, Poly. It's not sad that people find this fascinating, or they are astonished by the power of blender. The sad thing is lack of proper education, a sort of syllabus. Chris has done a brilliant job in this video, he's introduced us to Curves modeling, but there is so much more. This is one of those pain areas of self-learning where there is no specific guideline on what to learn first. As a thumb rule, learn about curves modeling before jumping into quad modeling. Anyway, good video Chris. Thank you for sharing it with us 🙏🏻😇
Thanks a lot for the tutorial - I enjoyed learning your tricks. A few notes you or your viewers might find useful: 1. While vertex groups give you maximum control over a Bevel mod (as you demonstrated while creating the main shape of the lens), it’s often easier to use the modifier in the Vertices Only mode and adjust the Mean Bevel Weight of individual vertices (in the n-menu), thus, applying the same Bevel mod to the different vertices to a differing degree. 2. You can use the Screw modifier as a sort of improvised ‘extrude modifier’: if you set the appropriate axis and the angle to 0, then the Screw parameter extrudes whatever you have in a linear fashion (instead of twisting, as the Screw mod is normally used). For instance, you can extrude a single edge into a plane in this way. This allows you to create complex surfaces retaining a lot of control and editability. (For example, I modeled the rubber ridges not as you did, but my mocking up a general shape (depth) of one ridge by extruding a single vert, then beveling the result with a Bevel mod in the Vertices Only mode, extruding it with a Screw mod, then making an array out of it, then solidifying it, then bending it (see 3.)). 3. A simpler way to bend an array into a circle is to use a Simple Deform modifier and its Bend option. I'm looking forward to part 2. Thanks again.
I would love to see a video of your technique if you wouldnt mind. Also, he relaseed part 2 the same day as this part 1! Here you go ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YclX1A9bkEE.html
Hey I'm trying to figure out how to do point one here. I set the bevel weight of a single vertex in edit mode. However nothing happens. It will only show me a result when I switch to vertex mode (insetad of edge) which makes sense since I'm just selecting a vertex. But this just gives each vertex a bevel which is not what I want. The only way to get it to work now is to add a vertex to a vertex group as shown in the video. It would be so much easier if we were able to set the weight of a vert and it would translate over to that full edge bevel while keeping the screw modifier there.
@@benjaminvos3365 Not sure I understood what you're trying to do and what is the problem but my guess is this. You need to switch the modifier (in the modifier options pane) to vertices, and change the Limit Method from 'Angle' (the default one) to 'Weight' (the same, in the modifier options pane). Then the modifier will affect only the vertices with the bevel weight above 0. Hope this helps.
@@dommafia Sorry, I missed your comment. I don't make tutorials but I remember that Chris made a video exploring pretty much the same technique I described in my comment afterwards. I failed to find it now (maybe he deleted it) but I myself learned it from Chipp Walters's tutorials or his course on parametric design in Blender (called NITROX3D) available on Blender Market.
But let me say to both of you that all these techniques are already obsolete. All the workflow is (still does no harm to understand the modifiers, though). Now, if you want to do parametric design in Blender, you should learn geometry nodes. They're the future. And it's better to start now, before they get too dauntingly complicated. The best channels I know covering it are Erindale and Default Cube here on YT.
Great Tutorial! You might want to try the 'Fit Curve' Fit Type in the Array Modifier to avoid guessing how many instances need to be placed in the circle.
the sharp edges along the cylinder around 3:25 are there because you selected both edge loops and it selected the edges made between the points from those two edge loops as well, if you set the crease for each edge loop separately you get what you look for
Hello Chris, PERFECT THICKNESS AND DIFFERENT COLORS ON ANY OBJECT, To get a perfect dynamic thickness copy the outside shape of the object, Then move the copy on the X axis, Then select each vertex from Left to Right, Select 4 vertex and press F to create a face, Do THIS for the rest of the object, With this you have the object with thickness and faces, Then you can manipulate it as you need it... Thank you fort the GREAT tutorials.
Thanks a lot for showing this, as someone aiming to start using Blender in a professional setting, this is tutorial is great. Can draw many parallels with 3dsmax already.
Im new to Blender (spent the last month trying to grasp the workflow and tools) and many times Ive thought of giving up; but watching the amazing results you achieve and better yet, your sharing step by step of the process, I decided it's worth keeping up with Blender all the way in, thank u very much!
Yes, I can confirm, I learnt something new today :-) Thank you very much for this tutorial! It took me a while, though, to realize that I had to activate some add-on to be able to add a single vertex to an empty plane - "my" add context menu didn't show the corresponding menu item in the beginning, but in your video I could clearly see them. Finally, after some thinking and head-scratching, I found this hint to the add-on in the Blender manual when searching for "add single vertex".
sir sir sir sir sir sir sir sir sir you're probably the best blender user i've ever followed so far when it comes to modelling you rely on intelligence and practicality to do everything with and i quote as little time as possible and i can't even express how much this video has helped me so THANK YOUUU and please the more you can upload on this subject the better
so glad I stumbled on this. One of my first models was of a lens (the 70-200) and I can see already how I made it a lot of extra work, by not using modifiers enough. Like using 'checker deselect' and trying to extrude the 'ribs' on the focus ring, instead of modelling 1 rib and using an array. Very nice tutorial. edit: if you modelled the internal lenses precisely, does that mean you can look through the lens in a scene and see a zoomed-in view of the objects it's facing?
Just a quick tip, at 3:20 you creased the line edges connecting the two circular edge loops, that's what caused the weird looking shading. This can be avoided by either creasing each circular edge individually or just using edge select mode.
16:35 And, we can also use bevel weights for each individual vertices instead of multiple bevel modifiers (which, if we want to edit any one vertex, we would have to look around for that specific modifier which controls that vertex).
Hello! I am workin' in Cinema 4D (just started to learn the Blender). One day I accidentally noticed an interesting feature - material on the object is a tag, you can apply it to the faces. In this scenario 17:35 in Cinema 4D you can do next steps: 1. Make a copy of the object. 2. Convert it from rotation into polygonal 3. Apply materials to the faces as you want 4. Copy this tag from polygonal object to the original parametric object and it will match this "fake" faces. Maybe there is such a loophole in the blender too?
Its called "Nurbs Modelling" in Maya and since I came from Maya I was always confused why blender people always used mesh/poly geometry to model everything. Of cause you cant compare Maya's overwhelming Nurbs Toolset to blender but I really hope this will make some progress as well as blenders particle node system. For my simple 3D task I already left Maya for Blender :)
This is a very pleasant and time saving workflow in creating technical high symmetry objects. Generally I like non destructive workflows very much and I wish this would be better supported also by image editing programs like Gimp. Thank you very much!
In Photoshop at least you can do a lot non-destructively with adjustment layers with masks. You can change or re-order adjustments any time you like and change where they apply by changing the mask. I've missed this workflow a lot in other tools. For photo editing as a subset of image editing, non-destructive editing is luckily the norm with tools like darktable.
Good question, in fact I asked an almost similar question while studying modeling techniques at college. My professor explained things with a unique analogy, he compared modeling techniques to cooking techniques. In his words "you can cook a pizza on stove, in an electric oven, in a gas oven, or in a traditional stone oven. The texture, speed, taste and quality of your pizza will vary, and different styles will have different level of comfort for you. Similarly you can model an object using any technique, it all depends on how comfortable you are with the application and how quickly you can deliver". Different modeling techniques can be used for different modeling processes. Hard surface modeling depend heavily on booleans and bevels, while character modeling can utilise a combination of Sub-D, Boolean and Bevels, Sculpting etc. This process of modeling falls under "Curves modeling", and usually is a branch taught before quad/poly modeling to introduce the challenges, pros and cons, and different modifiers to the student. After the students have familiarised themselves with different modifiers, learnt how to use and manage modifier stacks, we move to quad/poly modeling techniques. There are no specific rules to model an object or character in a 3D software. It's all about understanding the workflow, and easy management of the pipeline. Our final goal is to deliver on time, a perfectly usable geometry so that the texturing artists can do their job with ease (considering you specifically focus on modeling only). In case you are the modeling, texturing, lighting and rendering artist, all in one, then the goal changes to easing up the workflow, and to increase speed utilising different techniques to model an object without bad geometry.
I should try it, but couldn't you have used a mirror mod on the focus ring(s) so you just had to make one half. You could apply a mirror after curving it around the lens?
WOW My compliments such a magnificent tutorial....At frame 8:39 you show 2 different ways to add volume...is there any reason or advantage why you chose the second option over the Solidify Modifier...it just seems like extra unnecessary work
Hey! I now this video is a bit older BUT ther was just a new plugin realeased specificly for this type of modelling! Its actully only called ND might wanna have a look
Very good stuff. I'd been watching about non destructive but nothing has made it this clear. (I'd been watching the Nitrox 3D workflow which is similarly awesome). Can't wait to watch the whole series!
Wow this is honestly amazing... Maybe blender is actually usable even for CAD design? I have to investigate further (I'm used to freecad and how it works...). Considering all the other features blender has, using it also for technical/parametric modeling would be awesome. Thank you so much for this tutorial.
do you need to assign new vertex group and new bevel modifier to the each edge even if parameters (crispness) of the edge is the same? I was trying to add the same vertex group with bevel to few edges at once but I'm getting "funky" results.
Hi Chris, can you explain more in detail why don't use Solidify modifier and instead why we have to close the vertex path? Thanks in advantage for a reply!
Dear Mr. Chris Prenniger, first of all, thank you so much your very useful tutorials include so many effort by you. Personally I've got so many new information. A small note from my side: In 4:00, to get sharp edge back after "Subdivision" modifier, we select vertex with ALT + LMB in "edit mode" and give value "1.00" to "Mean Crease". My finding by chance: if we choose "edge" instead of "vertex", then "Smooth Shade" does not get effect or cause artifact. So, we don't need to make "Loop-Cuts" for getting sharp edges back. Would you like to confirm if this information correct one? :) PS: Beside of this, of curse, your unique method of non-destructive design is the best! :)
Hello! Yes, creasing works great when working in the sub-d workflow ... but with the non-destructive (modifier-based) workflow shown in these tutorials the creases have no useful effect...
Thanks for this. Great tutorial. Not always easy to know all the right techniques to use to gain the non-destructive modeling. Definitely learned a lot of useful techniques and tips.
Thank you! The information is systematized and presented in an understandable way. It would be great to see tutorials on modeling various technical devices. Respect from Russia.
You can be very proud of your work! I would like to learn Blender but is hard to migrate from CADs like SolidWorks, FUSION360, etc.... to Blender as we don`t have control of, even, zoom, especially is very hard to measure things precisely
I've tried to recreate this with the techniques that I know and what I did was less efficient than yours. At 23:22 you used curve, but I used simple deform modifier there which bends at 360 degrees on Z axis.
Another way could be to move the Array Object to its position in Edit Mode (the origin needs to be at 0, 0, 0), then add an empty, and in the array modfier turn of "Relative Offset" and turn on "Object Offset" and select the empty. Then if you have e.g. an array count of 130 you select your empty, and in the 'N' side bar menu go to the rotate z axis and type in 360/130 and et voila you have a perfect closed ring of your 130 objects.., It's a bit math.., if you have just 25 then you type in 360/25.. and so on. ^^
May be a dumb idea, but how about this for adding materials: You first model the line, as you did here, then apply a screw modifier to that (e.g. at a 10 degree angle but creating only one extra copy) that way you have a triangular slice of the model which has faces, then apply your materials, and then you have a second screw modifier to repeat that?
It took a bit of doing (I'm really new to 3D), but I probably had edge selection selected when I created the vertex (you have you to install Add Mesh: extra objects or you won't see the option to add Single Vert)..
Are you familiar with the Blender plugins called "HardOps" and "Boxcutter"? They were created by youtube user MasterXeon1001 for making modeling of hard surfaces very easy. He has many many videos on it. I mention it because it pretty much does all this. The plugin does not do anything special. It just takes operations that take about 10 steps to do, into one or two clicks. Boxcutter expands on what HardOps does. I like your video. it is showing me some techniques I may have to to outside of HardOps/Boxcutter. Thank you very much.
Extrude X... Extrude Y... Extrude X... You know there is a shortcut for placing vertices? Ctrl+RMB, and for constrain to an axis, MMB while dragging. Also you can use the bevel weight of a single vertex to control the bevel modifier, instead of wasting time with vertex groups.
This maybe non destructive, but its not parametric, parametric is using fully dimensioned and constrained parameters, ie you define angle and length of every edge etc, all you did was trace the initial profile off a photo
I really like your approach to modeling and appreciate your talent and time. But I must be missing something -- I'm unable to achieve the bevel and in wireframe all I show are vertices. I'm new to Blender and am using v2.91. I also added the "Mesh Extra Objects" which are great. Any help/insight would be surely appreciated. Thanks for a great tutorial!
