Blender Advanced: Advanced Meshes

Name: Blender Advanced: Advanced Meshes
Author: Jay Grewall

Learn how to create, modify, and animate meshes in Blender

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 8 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

Hello, and welcome to Knowledge City's course on Advanced Blender 3D. My name is Jay, and today we'll be learning about Blender's add-ons, specifically the Mesh add-on and the Curve add-on. Add-ons are basically extensions of features in Blender, almost like extra sets of tools, which help us save time when creating and modifying 3D objects. And they can be used simply by activating them. Normally, when we go to add a new Mesh, we see a list of the default Mesh objects Blender offers us, plain, cube, circles, fear, same when adding a curve. So in order to have extra options, we need to activate certain add-ons and Blender. Let's start by heading over to Blender's Preferences by going to Edit and down to Preferences, and in the left panel we're going to click on Add-ons. In the search field at the top right, we're going to start typing the word Extra. And we see add-curve-extra objects and add-mesh-extra objects appear in the list below. To activate these, we simply click on the checkbox to the left of each one. And we can now close the preference window. Now we see there are lots more Mesh objects to choose from, as well as curves. Let's take a brief look at some of the more commonly used ones. Let's say we want to add rocks to our scene. And instead of having to create an object and modify it over and over again to create a series of rocks, we're going to go to the top and click on Add, Mesh, and go down to Rock Generator. At first, we see one rock appear in our scene, and at the bottom left of our screen we have the Add Rocks dialog box, which allows us to input parameters for our rocks. Right now there's only one rock. I'm going to go ahead and increase that from the default of 1 to 5. And you'll see in my scene collection panel that Blender has added 5 new individual rocks. This panel allows us to modify the X scale, Y scale, and Z scale. There are two important things to keep in mind. All these parameters are random. So when I increase the deformation, each time is going to be something different. The other thing to keep in mind is that as soon as I click outside of this dialog box, I have committed to these new rocks, and I no longer have the ability to modify these parameters. Let's assume that I'm happy with the rocks that are in my scene. I can now click in the gray area. And now in my scene collection panel, I can click on each individual rock and move them around. Let's take a look at what Blender has actually done here. I'm going to select this rock right here, and I'm going to go over to my Modifier Properties panel. We can see that Blender has actually added a bunch of modifiers to this object. I'm going to turn them off to see exactly what they're doing. Blender has taken a default cube and applied a subsurface modifier on it to give it the round appearance. Blender has also given it a series of displacement modifiers which give it the appearance of roughness. We can see the same modifiers applied to the other rocks on our scene. Let's take a look at another one of our meshes. I'm going to go to the top and add, mesh, gears, and click on gear. Again we have our dialog box at the bottom left which allows us to modify the initial parameters of our gear. When Blender adds this new mesh, it automatically does it in the Z axis, so I'm going to go to my top view, and I can now increase or decrease the number of teeth on the gear. I can increase the overall radius, the width which indicates the thickness of it, and the base which indicates the center of the gear. I can also modify the angle associated with these pressure angles. Once I'm happy with this gear, I can click in the gray area and I now have a gear. If I needed to create a machine that involves gears, I can simply take this gear, duplicate it, and move it into its exact position, and animate each one of them. Thank you very much for watching.

Advanced Provider : Jay Grewall 8 Lessons · 46m in English

Course Description

Blender is a powerful 3D rendering software that lets you unleash your creativity like never before. By understanding how to fully utilize Blender’s add-ons, you can unleash your imagination and bring your designs to life by creating realistic objects such as gears and architectural renderings. Learning how to create and modify complex geometrical shapes and structures in Blender is an essential skill, which is why this course explores how to use the Spin Tool and Screw Modifier through practical, real-world examples. But how can you modify 3D text and animate a sentence along a path? And how can you morph an object by animating its geometry using Shape Keys?

In this course, you will learn how to install and use add-ons to create, modify, and animate complex geometric meshes. We will also discuss how to import Blender objects directly into a Blender scene while retaining their original properties. By the end of this course, you will be able to import Blender objects into a Blender scene, animate text, and animate the geometry of objects.

What You'll Learn

Activate and use mesh add-ons in Blender to create complex geometric meshes
Import Blender objects into a Blender scene while retaining their original properties
Animate 3D text and create text along a path
Use the Spin Tool and Screw Modifier to create and modify complex geometrical shapes
Animate the geometry of objects using Shape Keys

Key Takeaways

Blender add-ons can be installed and used to create, modify, and animate complex geometric meshes.
The Spin Tool and Screw Modifier are used to create and modify complex geometrical shapes and structures through practical, real-world examples.
Blender objects can be imported directly into a Blender scene while retaining their original properties.
Shape Keys allow you to morph an object by animating its geometry.
3D text can be created, modified, and animated along a path in Blender.

Frequently Asked Questions

What will I learn in this course?

You will learn how to install and use add-ons to create, modify, and animate complex geometric meshes, how to import Blender objects into a scene while retaining their original properties, how to animate 3D text, and how to use Shape Keys to animate object geometry.

What tools and techniques does this course cover?

The course covers mesh add-ons, Blender building tools, the Spin Tool and Screw Modifier, importing objects, creating and modifying 3D text, and Shape Keys.

What skills will I gain from this course?

You will develop skills in 3D Modeling, Object Animation, and Blender 3D, along with related areas including Advanced Mathematics, Autodesk Animator, and Autodesk Maya.

Is this an advanced Blender course?

Yes. This is an advanced course focused on advanced meshes, exploring how to create and modify complex geometrical shapes and structures in Blender.

How is the course structured?

The course is organized into eight lessons: Mesh Add-ons (Parts 1 and 2), Blender Building Tools (Parts 1 and 2), Spinning Tool and Screw Modifier, Importing Objects, Creating and Modifying 3D Text, and Shape Keys.