In this article we see how to open and close windows in Blender, this is something that you have to practice and master as soon as possible since in general we are going to work with multiple windows.
All the IMPORTANT information is summarized in the following TUTORIAL FROM MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL
We start with the Blender Viewport window shown in Figure 1.
Fig. 1: Starting from a standard Blender window
To create a new window in Blender we take the cursor to one of the corners of the window, in this case the lower left corner, at a certain point the cursor icon changes, as shown in figures 2 and 3, this indicates that we can make a change in the layout of the windows.
Fig. 2: The mouse is being moved to the lower left corner of the window.
Fig. 3: When reaching the corner the mouse pointer changes, indicating that we can split the window.
If we click on that corner and move the cursor upwards, we separate a second window horizontally, as shown in Figure 4, while if we move the cursor to the right, the windows are separated vertically.
Fig. 4: By clicking and dragging upwards the window is split horizontally.
Fig. 5: By clicking and dragging to the right the window is split vertically.
Each of the windows can be further subdivided into other windows, as shown in Figure 6, in the new window we created on the right, by moving the cursor to the lower left corner, clicking and dragging upwards, I divide that window into two horizontally.
Fig. 6: With the new window that appeared, the process can be repeated.
The content of windows in Blender
In Blender we always work with a set of windows, although we have not noticed it, when we install Blender and open it for the first time we will see the “3D Viewport” window, the “Timeline” window, the “Outliner” window and the “Properties” window and maybe I am forgetting some others. In figures 7 and 8 we can see the icons corresponding to the “Properties” and “Outliner” windows respectively.
Fig. 7: The properties window that comes by default in Blender.
Fig. 8: The Outliner window that comes by default in Blender .
At any time we can change what each window displays by simply clicking on its icon and choosing the required window from the list shown in Figure 9.
Fig. 9: In the upper left corner of each window is the icon that allows you to change the contents of the window.
In figure 10 we have divided the main window into 4 and made each one show a different window.
Fig. 10: Multiple windows in Blender in which each one shows a different content.
How to combine windows in Blender
Now let’s see how to undo multiple windows in Blender, we start with the situation seen in Figure 11, where we have three windows that we would like to merge into one.
To join windows in Blender you have to take into account the following: two windows can be joined if in the border that divides the two windows the height or the width of these windows match.
Fig. 11: We start from this multiple window layout to combine them.
For example, in figure 11, the upper left and right windows coincide in height where they meet, but not the bottom window with any of the upper windows, so we start joining the upper windows.
To join the windows we go to one of the corners where they join until the cursor icon changes as shown in figure 12. If at that point we click and drag to the side of the other window, the icon shown in figure 13 will appear,
Fig. 12: Move the cursor to a point in the window where the corners of the windows meet.
This means that we can merge the windows into a single window, and if at this point, while holding down we move to the side of the other window the icon changes as shown in figure 14, which allows us to decide what will be the content of the window that will result from the merge.
Fig. 13: By clicking and dragging one window to the other, this arrow appears, indicating that the windows can be combined.
Fig. 14: If we hold the click and move the mouse to the other window the arrow changes direction.
When the mouse is released, the two windows are combined into one and we obtain the result shown in Figure 15.
Fig. 15: The two windows were combined into one.
Notice that both windows now coincide in width where they meet, so we can combine them by taking one of the windows at one of the contact corners and moving it into the region of the other window, as shown in Figures 16 and 17.
Fig. 16: The cursor is moved to one of the common corners of both windows.
Fig. 17: The click-and-drag process is repeated to combine Blender windows.
The result is shown in Figure 18 where we have combined all the initial windows into a single window.
Fig. 18: Result of combining the multiple initial windows into one.
Extra detail
Earlier it was mentioned that windows could only be combined if they matched in width or height at the junction area, however small windows can be dragged to other windows with which they do not share the same width or height, in Figure 19 the upper left window is taken and dragged to the lower window.
Fig. 19: Returning to the case of the three windows, the cursor is moved to one of the corners of a small window.
As shown in Figure 20 and the result in Figure 21, this allows us to change the distribution of the windows, so that the small window now occupies all the vertical space.
Fig. 20: In this case the windows are not combined but their distribution on the screen changes.
Fig. 21: Resultado de la operación anterior.
Introduction
In this article we see how to add edge loop to a 3D model to obtain extra geometry allowing us to increase the detail on our model.
All the IMPORTANT information is summarized in the following TUTORIAL FROM MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL
We start with a 3D model like the one shown in figure 1, what we want is to add subdivisions to the mesh distributed along the cylinder.
Fig. 1: We start from the 3D model of a cylinder in Blender edit mode.
Press CTRL+R and move the mouse to the object you want to cut until you see a representation of the new edge loop as shown in figure 2, if you left click on that moment you will create the edge loop, but you can also increase the number of subdivisions by turning the mouse wheel, so you get what you see in figure 3, a certain number of edge loops equispaced along the model.
Fig. 2: With CTRL+R you can add edge loops.
Fig. 3: With the mouse wheel the number of loop cuts can be increased.
When we confirm and create the edge loops, the window shown in Figure 4 appears in the lower left corner of the Viewport window, in which we can specify the number of slices and other parameters.
Fig. 4: When applying the cuts, a window appears in the lower left corner to modify the parameters.
How to remove an edge loop in Blender
Now what we are looking for is to get rid of some edge loops but keep the shape of the object, we start by selecting the edge loop we want to remove (later we will see how to remove several loops at once). A quick way to select an edge loop is to press ALT and click on the edge that is part of the loop we want to select, figure 5 shows where I clicked and the result of the selection.
Fig. 5: To remove an edge loop we start by selecting the edge loop with ALT+Click.
To remove those edges without leaving a hole in the model what we have to do is to dissolve those edges, so with the edges loop selected we press X and choose the option “Dissolve Edges”, this produces the result of figure 7.
Fig. 6: Pressing X displays a window with delete options.
Fig. 7: Selected edges were dissolved.
How to remove multiple edge loops in Blender at once
When we want to remove multiple edges with the previous method problems could arise if adjacent edges are selected, as shown in Figure 8, when trying to dissolve two edge loops that are together the result is as in Figure 9.
Fig. 8: Two adjacent edge loops are selected and dissolved.
Fig. 9: Dissolving adjacent edge loops causes problems in the object geometry.
An alternative is to select edge loops leaving an intermediate loop unselected, as shown in Figure 10.
Fig. 10: Several edge loops can be selected with the SHIFT key.
Fig. 11: Again a dissolution of the selected edges is made.
In this way the problem of figure 9 does not occur and the loops can be dissolved correctly, as shown in figure 12.
Fig. 12: Result of the dissolution of the selected edges.
Introduction
In this article we are going to see measurements in Blender, for example how to change from meters to millimeters or how to change the measurement system from metric to imperial in Blender.
We start with any 3D model in which the lengths of the edges have been displayed as shown in Figure 1, we see that the edges of the plane measure 2 meters each and if we go to the Transform window of the object we see that it is positioned at the origin and that distance is also expressed in meters.
Fig. 1: Plan in which the lengths of each edge are shown.
Fig. 2: In the object transformation window the lengths are expressed in meters.
The unit system window in Blender is located in the properties tab of the scene, we can access it using the icon shown in figure 3.
Fig. 3: Scene properties tab in Blender where you can change the measurement system.
There we go to the “Units” section and there we have the options to change the unit system, we are going to change the “Length” property from meters to millimeters, as shown in figure 5.
Fig. 4: In the units section you can select which units to display and apply a scaling.
Fig. 5: Once the measurement system has been selected, the units for a given quantity can be changed.
Now the lengths of the edges and the lengths appearing in the windows are expressed in millimeters, as shown in Figure 6.
Fig. 6: By changing the length units to millimeters, dimensions and lengths are now expressed in millimeters.
Using the imperial measurement system in Blender
If instead of meters we want to use feet or inches we must change the unit system from “Metric” to “Imperial”, as shown in figure 7.
Fig. 7: The imperial measurement system can be selected to express lengths in feet and inches for example.
Fig. 8: The dimensions in the plane are expressed in feet.
Now in the parameter “Length” we find the units feet and inches.
Fig. 9: The units are changed to inches.
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In this article we are going to see how to combine two textures in Blender to apply them to the same material using nodes, this is going to be a somewhat extensive article but with quite interesting content, we will see step by step how to go from a standard plane as in the image on the left to the result of the image on the right, in which two textures have been combined, a rock brick floor with a mud texture that is applied mostly in the spaces between the rocks, all this in a procedural way.
Download .Blend file with implemented nodes
Textures from this example
If you want to follow the procedure step by step here are the images I used. Right click and save the images.
Initial configuration of the model and material
We start with the standard plane in figure 1 and create a material for it.
Fig. 1: To combine textures in Blender let’s start with a plane.
Fig. 2: We create a material for the 3D model.
Configuration of the textures to be combined
With the object and the material selected we open the Shader Editor window to visualize the material nodes, we can see it in figure 3, by default a material in blender is created with the Shader Principled BSDF, to have a very basic idea, a Shader is like a code fragment that will be executed in the graphic card and that will determine how the 3D object will be seen on screen, it is not necessary to go deeper into the subject, Blender offers us the Shader Editor to create complex Shaders in a visual and intuitive way.
Fig. 3: We open a “Shader Editor” window to work on the texture mix.
What we are going to do now is to load the two textures that we want to combine, for that in the Shader Editor window we press SHIFT+A to add a new node and clicking on “Search” we look for the “Image Texture” node and position it to the left of the Principled BSDF node, the Image Texture node should look like in figure 5.
Fig. 4: Window for adding a node to the Shader.
Fig. 5: An image node is added to the material.
As we are going to combine two textures we will need two image nodes so we repeat the previous step and place the second image next to the first one.
Fig. 6: Two image nodes for combining textures in Blender
Now we load both textures, for that we click on Open and in the popup window we look for the textures we need.
Fig. 7: Textures are loaded in both nodes
Fig. 8: Both nodes have their respective textures.
Blend Node Configuration – MixRGB
The next step is to add the node that will be in charge of mixing the textures, press SHIFT+A and click on Search to look for the “MixRGB” node, which is shown in Figure 10, place it in the middle of the images and the Principled BSDF node.
Fig. 9: The window to search for a node and add it is displayed.
Fig. 10: Search for the “MixRGB” node that will be used to combine the two textures.
The MixRGB node combines two colors, as in this case we have textures, what it will do is to combine the colors of each texture pixel by pixel according to a mixing factor, this factor can be a constant or it can also be a black and white texture in which black represents 0 and white represents 1, being the grayscale all intermediate values. In figure 11 we see how to connect the textures that we want to combine to the mix node and in this we see the value “Fac” in 0.5, that is the mix factor, by default the textures will be mixed in a factor 50-50.
As shown in Figure 12 we connect the output of the MixRGB node to the color input of the Shader Principled BSDF.
Fig. 11: Both images are connected to the blending node.
Fig. 12: The output of the mix node is connected to the input of the base color of the Shader Principled BSDF.
First result of the mix of textures
To visualize the result we go to the Viewport and with the Z key we switch to “Material Preview” or “Rendered” mode, although for the latter we must take into account the lighting. As can be seen in Figure 13, the result is a 50-50 mix between both textures in all points equally.
Fig. 13: Switch to the “Material Preview” view to display the applied material.
If we take the factor to 0 the result is that the texture connected to Color1 is completely applied, as shown in Figure 15.
Fig. 14: The factor determines how the textures are combined, we set the factor to 0.
Fig. 17: With the factor at 0 the mixture results in the first image.
If we take the factor to 1 the result is that the texture connected to Color2 is fully applied, as shown in Figure 17.
Fig. 16: We set the factor to 1.
Fig. 17: With the factor at 1 the mixture results in the second image.
Mixing textures using noise
Now what we are going to do is that the texture mix is not homogeneous throughout the space, we want that in some parts the brick texture is more visible and in others the mud texture, an alternative could be to use a noise node, which generates a random grayscale texture to which you can control certain parameters and generate different patterns.
In the Shader Editor window press SHIFT+A and click on Search to find the “Noise Texture” node.
Fig. 18: Searching for another node to add.
Fig. 19: We add the “Noise Texture” node.
We place the node in a comfortable place that allows us to connect it to the mixing node, we make the connection as shown in figure 20.
Fig. 20: The output factor of the noise node is connected to the input factor of the RGBMix node.
In the material view you will notice the first results, however I am going to add an intermediate brightness and contrast node so that the grays of the noise texture are shifted to white or black.
Fig. 21: Searching for another node to add.
Fig. 22: We add a brightness and contrast node.
The brightness and contrast node is placed between the noise texture and the MixRGB node (Figure 25 shows how it is connected). In this case I am going to increase the contrast a lot so that there are almost no grays, in figure 23 we see that it has the value 50.
Fig. 23: The brightness node is placed between the noise and the RGB Mix node and the contrast is set to 50.
The result is that the model has some parts where the brick texture is applied and others where the mud texture is applied, as shown in Figure 24, you can play a little with the texture node parameters shown in Figure 20 to see how the texture mix behaves. You can also combine different noise textures with different scales to create large areas of a texture that has micro details. However we will leave it here and continue with the final step.
Fig. 24: Both textures are combined according to the noise texture.
Mixing textures using another texture as a factor
What we want to do now is to use the rock brick texture itself to determine how to blend the textures, note that conveniently it is a grayscale texture in which the whiter areas are rock while the darker areas are the cracks, we are going to use this information to make the mud texture blend into the cracks of the brick texture.
For convenience we can select the brick texture node, duplicate it with CTRL+D and position it where the Noise Texture node was. As we are not going to use this image as if it were the color of a material but as a factor we must change the “Color Space” parameter to “Non-Color” as shown in Figure 25.
Fig. 25: Now the noise node is changed to an image node with the brick texture and the Color Space is marked as “Non-Color”.
By adjusting the values we can get a result like the one in Figure 26, in which the mud texture has been combined with the rock texture in such a way that it appears mostly in the cracks of the rocks.
Fig. 26: The mud texture is combined with the brick texture where the brick cracks would be.
Introduction
In this article we are going to see how to subdivide a 3D model in Blender to multiply the amount of geometry and be able to increase the level of detail.
All the IMPORTANT information is summarized in the following TUTORIAL FROM MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL
How to subdivide the faces of a 3D model in edit mode
We start with a standard cube with 8 vertices and 6 faces, as shown in figure 1 next to the number of polygons, in edit mode we will select all the elements, right click and choose the option “Subdivide” as shown in figure 2.
Fig. 1: To make the subdivision of the Mesh we start from a standard cube with eight vertices.
Fig. 2: Clicking on the selected model displays a window that allows the subdivision of the mesh.
In the lower left corner of the Viewport window there is a “Subdivide” window with options to configure the subdivision parameters, for example the number of slices.
Fig. 3: When applying the subdivision, a window for modifying the subdivision parameters appears in the lower left corner.
Figure 4 shows the result of applying 4 cuts to the initial cube, note how the number of vertices has increased.
Fig. 4: The initial cube has been subdivided with four cuts.
A subdivision can also be made on a single face or a selected set of faces.
Fig. 5: Subdivision can be applied to a specific set of faces.
Fig. 6: The selected face has been subdivided.
Subdivisión con modificador Subdivision Surface
Another way to subdivide an object in Blender is by applying the “Subdivision Surface” modifier which not only subdivides the mesh but also executes a smoothing algorithm, to apply this modifier we select the object, go to the modifiers tab, click on “Add Modifier” and look for the “Subdivision Surface” modifier as shown in figure 7.
Fig. 7: The “Subdivision Surface” modifier also performs subdivisions on the Mesh.
EIn figures 8 and 9 we see the result of applying the subdivision with this modifier, the new faces appeared but also the cube had its corners rounded. When we use this modifier it is important to define the level of subdivision, a very high level could slow down the computer or even make it crashes.
An alternative to not slow down the computer is to use a level of detail while we are working and for rendering take a higher value, this with the “Level Viewport” and “Render” properties shown in Figure 8.
Fig. 8: The Subdivision Surface modifier, besides subdividing the mesh, smooths the polygons.
Fig. 9: The number of vertices in the model has increased due to the Subdivision Surface modifier.
As it is a modifier applied to the object, the subdivisions are procedural, i.e. the final 3D model is the result of the application of a computational algorithm that has as input the initial 3D model. If we enter the edit mode of the object we see that it is still a cube with 8 vertices.
Fig. 10: In edit mode the model remains an eight-vertex cube.
In figure 11 what I do is to press CTRL+R and add two cuts to the cube, then I scale these cuts to obtain the result of figure 12, notice the shape that the object took when doing this because it has applied the Subdivision Surface modifier that is now applied on the new faces.
Fig. 11: Two cuts are made on the cube model.
Fig. 12: When cutting the part and arranging the loops, the smoothing applied by the Subdivision Surface modifier can be seen.
In the properties of the Subdivision Surface modifier we can configure it so that it does not round the objects, simply add new geometry, for this we click on the “Simple” button shown in Figure 13. The cube in figure 14 seems to have 8 vertices at first glance but if we see the information of the polygons it tells us that it has 26.
Fig. 13: The Subdivision Surface modifier can be set in Simple mode.
Fig. 14: In this case no smoothing is done but we can see that the number of vertices of the model has increased.
Finally, if we want to keep the 3D model with the geometry subdivided to make modifications we can apply the modifier by clicking on the arrow above the single button in Figure 13 and put the option “Apply”, but be careful, once we apply the modifier and make several changes there will come a point where we can not go back by undoing changes. You should consider this carefully before applying a modifier and it may be useful to save a backup copy of the object with the modifier.
Introduction
In this article we see the procedure to bevel a model in Blender on an edge and on multiple edges. The bevel is an oblique cut on one or more edges of a model.
To make a bevel on an edge we have to be in the edit mode, then we select the edge, press CTRL+B and move the mouse slightly, with this we get a result as in figure 2, we can change the size of the bevel by moving the mouse to one side or the other, when we have the result we want we click to confirm.
Fig. 1: An edge of the model is selected for beveling.
Fig. 2: Press CTRL+B to bevel the selected edge.
When confirming the bevel, a window with options appears in the lower left corner of the 3D view window, where we can change different parameters such as bevel width, subdivisions, among others.
In figure 4 I increased the number of segments to 4 and reduced the Shape parameter, which made the cut on the part have the curvature shown in figure 5.
Fig. 3: When applying the bevel, a window with options appears in the lower left corner.
Fig. 4: In the bevel window, the segments and the bevel shape have been changed.
Fig. 5: The result of applying the parameters in the window of the previous figure.
Bevel on multiple edges
If we select two or more edges and press CTRL+B the bevel is made on all edges and normally taking as reference the midpoint of the selection, depending on the pivot point we have selected.
Fig. 6: Press CTRL+B to bevel the selected edge.
Fig. 7: Beveling of the cube with all edges selected.
Introduction
Sometimes we have a lot of unwanted geometry in our models, in this article we are going to see how to remove duplicate vertices in Blender, that is to say vertices that are overlapping other vertices or very close to each other and can cause 3D model visualization problems.
If you prefer to watch a video I have the right video for this topic:
To begin with we have the following cube that at first sight seems normal, however if we see the information of its polygons we notice something strange, this cube has 11 vertices although it seems to have only 8, this means that there are other vertices and probably they are overlapped with the others.
Fig. 1: The geometry information tells us that this cube has eleven vertices.
By the way, you can display the geometry information this way:
To eliminate the duplicated vertices we select all the vertices of the model (key A) and with F3 we open the operation search window, look for the option “Merge By Distance” and click on it.
Fig. 2: To remove duplicate vertices first select all vertices of the model.
Fig. 3: In the search window we type “merge” and choose the option “By Distance”.
In this case, as shown in Figure 3, a message appears at the bottom of the window informing us that 3 vertices have been removed and now the cube has 8 vertices.
Fig. 4: A message at the bottom informs us of the result of the operation.
Fig. 5: By selecting again all the vertices we see that now the model has eight vertices.
In case the operation did not work it could be because of the distance with which the operator was applied, in the lower left corner, after applying a “Merge By Distance” we get the window shown in Figure 6, there we can set the distance that is considered to merge the vertices, we can try increasing this distance but we have to be careful with two things, one is that a very big distance could ruin other parts of the model without us noticing and second, once we change the distance, the next time we use “Merge By Distance” Blender will remember that distance and apply the operation with it.
Fig. 6: The distance can be set to consider which vertices should be merged.
Introduction
In this article we will see how to show only the selected object in Blender and hide all the other objects, this is a simple trick that works for objects and also geometry, that is to say, we can select a couple vertices or faces and isolate that geometry from the rest and work better.
If you prefer to watch a video I have the right video for this topic:
Procedure to isolate objects and geometry in Bleender
Let’s consider the situation we have in figure 1, in which we have a selected object that is surrounded by other objects, we would like to be able to visualize only the object we have selected and hide the rest, for that we can use the shortcut SHIFT+H, which results in what we can see in figure 2. To make visible again all the hidden objects we press ALT+H.
Fig. 1: A selected object in a scene with more objects.
Fig. 2: The selected object is displayed in isolation for better working.
Introduction
When we are Rigging and creating animations in Blender it is useful to be able to visualize the animation bones in front of the 3D model to make it easier to select and manipulate them, in this article we will see how to make bones always appear in front of everything, regardless of whether there are other objects in front of them.
All the IMPORTANT information is summarized in the following TUTORIAL FROM MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL
We start with a 3D model and its respective Armature object (animation skeleton), as shown in figure 1 the Armature is barely visible in solid mode, so let’s switch to Wireframe mode to be able to see and select the Armature, as shown in figure 2.
Fig. 1: In the scene we have a 3D model and an Armature object that is obstructed by the object.
Fig. 2: In Wireframe mode you can see objects that are hidden behind other objects.
With the Armature selected we go to the properties window with the icon shown in figure 3 and in the “Viewport Display” section we check the “In Front” checkbox.
Fig. 3: With the Armature selected, go to its properties tab.
Fig. 4: In the “Viewport Display” section, check the “In Front” checkbox to display the animation bones in front of the objects.
Now the animation bones are always visible from any perspective no matter if they are inside the model or even if there are other objects in the scene in front of them, making Armature easy to use.
Fig. 5: The animation skeleton is now visible even if it is inside the 3D model.
Fig. 6: In this other view we see how the Armature is inside the model but still visible.
Introduction
Sometimes we are looking at a certain part of a scene in Blender and we need to visualize an object that is located in other place, if we don’t have so much experience using Blender this can be a big problem because controlling the view and the render camera could be quite challenging.
The TIP we are going to see in this article could save you in more than one time, we will see how to quickly focus the view on an object and also how to make the rendering camera move and focus a target object.
Video tutorial on how to focus the view on an object in Blender
In order to quickly FOCUS the view on an object in Blender we select the object and press the dot key on the numeric keypad (Numpad .), with this we go from the situation shown in figure 1 below to figure 2, in which the view is centered on the origin of the selected object. If you don’t have a numeric keypad you can select the object, click on “View” and then choose the “Frame Selected” option, this will focus the view on the selected object aswell.
Fig. 1: We start from this situation in which the selected object is not centered in the view.
Fig. 2: Pressing the dot on the numeric keypad moves the view to focus on the origin of the selected object.
Focus the camera on an object in Blender
The idea is similar in this case, but we want to move the RENDER CAMERA so that is focused on the selected object.
We start from the situation shown in figure 3 below in which we are seeing the camera perspective, the camera view can be activated with the zero key on the numeric keypad (Numpad 0).
We go to the view tab shown in figure 4 and activate the “Camera to View” checkbox, this will allow us to control the position and orientation of the rendering camera by zooming, panning and rotating the view. In case you do not see the View panel is because it is hidden, it can be displayed with the N key or the arrow icon that is observed in the upper right corner of Figure 3 (slightly above and to the right of the green circle with the letter Y).
Fig. 3: We start from this situation in which the rendering camera is not centered on the selected object.
Fig. 4: Option to lock the camera to the 3D view.
When the camera is locked to the 3D view you can see the red dotted box, now to center the camera on the object we select the object and press the dot on the numeric keypad, so we go from the situation in figure 5 to the situation in figure 6.
Fig. 5: When the camera is locked to the 3D view it shows a red dotted line.
Fig. 6: Pressing the dot on the numeric keypad centers the view on the origin of the selected object.
Introduction
In both Blender and Unity you can establish a hierarchical relationship between objects in the scene, in Blender this is reflected in the Outliner while in Unity we see it in the Hierarchy window. If we have an object that is related to a second object called parent, when the parent object is transformed, meaning by transformation the state of position, rotation and scale or a change in these properties, this transformation also applies to the child object since the properties defined in this one are calculated relative to the parent. In this article we see how to parent objects in Blender and then how to remove that parent relationship.
Video tutorial on how to parent and unparent objects in Blender
How to parent objects in Blender – Detailed process
We start with a scene containing two objects, “Object1” and “Object2” as shown in the Outliner window in Figure 1.
The first thing we are going to do is to select the objects we want to parent.
ATTENTION
In figures 2 and 3 both objects have been selected but both cases are NOT EQUIVALENT, notice that one of the objects is highlighted in yellow, in the case of figure 2 it is the cube on the right while in figure 3 it is the cube on the left.
The object highlighted in yellow is the “Active Selection” and when we parent these objects the parent will be the object we have as the active selection.
Fig. 1: In the scene we have two objects to be related.
Fig. 2: Both objects are selected, the active selection is the object on the right.
Fig. 3: Both objects are selected, the active selection is the object on the left.
To relate one or more objects to another parent object we press CTRL+P which displays the window shown in Figure 4 in which we can choose the type of relationship, in general I choose the option “Object (Keep Transform)“, which makes the child object calculates its local transformation from the origin of the parent object and also keeps the position in which it is.
Fig. 4: Window for parenting objects to the object that is the active selection.
In figure 5 we see the result of applying a rotation to the parent object, the child object rotates as a whole due to the parent relationship. In figure 6 we see that we can rotate the child with respect to its own origin and this does not affect the parent object.
Fig. 5: When the parent object is rotated this rotation is transferred to the child objects.
Fig. 6: The child object can be rotated individually and this does not affect the parent object.
In the Blender Outliner we see the parent relationship that has been established, object 1 is now contained within object 2.
Fig. 7: In the Blender Outliner the relationship between these objects is reflected.
How to unparent objects in Blender – Detailed procedure
Starting from the previous objects that are related, we are now going to unparent the objects. To do this, select the object to be unparented and press ALT+P, the window shown in figure 8 appears, generally I choose the option “Clear and Keep Transformation” which removes the parent relationship and keeps the position, rotation and scale of the object. As shown in figure 9, now both objects are at the same hierarchical level.
Fig. 8: Window for removing an object’s parent relationship to other objects.
Fig. 9: In the Outliner we again have both objects at the same hierarchical level.
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The normals of 3D models are vectors that are used to know the orientation of each face of the model and have many utilities, mainly for the rendering of a 3D model, for example they allow to calculate how the model will be illuminated, how the light will bounce, how the shading will be; they are also used in physics for collisions, so it is important that the normals of our models are consistent with what we need, occasionally some normals of the model are pointing in the opposite direction and this brings problems. In this article we are going to see how to make visible the normals of a 3D model in Blender.
In the following video we see how to display NORMALS in Blender.
We start from a generic 3D model like the one in figure 1 and we are going to enter the edit mode, this is IMPORTANT because the normals can only be made visible from the edit mode and they are only displayed in the edit mode.
Fig. 1: 3D model selected in object mode in Blender.
Fig. 2: The Edit Mode of a 3D model in Blender.
We click on the icon shown in figure 3, which displays a window that allows us to configure the elements that overlap in the 3D view window.
Fig. 3: Window of overlapping elements in the Viewport.
To show the normals we click on one of the icons in the “Normals” section, in general I am interested in seeing the normals in the center of the face, so I choose the option in figure 5, although sometimes I also use the option to show the normals at the vertices. Mathematically it does not make sense to talk about the normal vector to a point, but in the rendering the meshes consist of lists of vertices that form triangles and each vertex has a normal vector associated with it, those normals vectors are generally interpolated.
Fig. 4: Option to display the normals on the vertices of a 3D model in Blender.
Fig. 5: Option to display the normals in the center of the faces of a 3D model in Blender.
Figure 6 shows the normals in the center of the faces of the 3D model when in edit mode.
Fig. 6: The normals of the 3D model are now displayed in the center of the model faces.
Using the “Size” parameter we can change the length of the normals, as shown in Figure 8.
Fig. 7: Modification of the length of the normal vectors to be drawn.
Fig. 8: The normals of the 3D model are displayed longer.
Introduction
Sometimes it is necessary to know the length of the edges in Blender, for example when we are modeling parts from a schematic or building a model for 3D printing, in this article we will see how to display the length of the selected edges.
All the IMPORTANT information is summarized in the following TUTORIAL FROM MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL
We start with the 3D model shown in figure 1, to activate the display of the edge lengths you can be in object mode or in edit mode, in this case, with the model selected, I will enter in edit mode and select an edge of the model, as shown in figure 2.
Fig. 1: 3D model whose edge length needs to be known.
Fig. 2: In edit mode an edge of the model is selected.
Let’s locate the icon over the cursor in figure 3, when we click on it the “Viewport Overlays” window is displayed, which allows us to configure which elements overlap in the Blender’s 3D working space, here we will activate the “Edge Length” checkbox, which is shown in figure 4.
Fig. 3: Window of overlapping elements in the Viewport.
Fig. 4: Option to display the edge lengths of a model in Blender.
In doing so, the edge lengths of the selected model are now displayed, as shown in Figure 5.
Fig. 5: The 3D model now has the lengths of the selected edges overlapped in the Viewport.
Introduction – Why mirror objects in Blender?
In this article we are going to see how to prepare a 3D model to use the “Mirror” modifier in Blender, which allows us to model with symmetry with respect to one or more axes.
When mirroring an object in Blender we can focus on creating just one side of the model and then Blender, in a procedural way through a “modifier”, will produce the rest of the model based on one or more symmetry axes, this makes it much easier to create symmetrical pieces, as it could be the basics of a human face, once you have covered the basics you can apply that “modifier” and continue working with the full 3D model, introducing asymmetries if needed.
Given any 3D model that we want to mirror, the first thing we have to do is to see where its origin is located, this is very important because the origin is the point from which the geometry will be mirrored, so it is important to place the origin in a consistent position.
In this particular case we are going to use the cube shown in the figure, notice that the origin of this object is in an unusual position, what we are going to do is to place the origin in the geometric center of the object.
Fig. 1: To configure the mirror modifier we start from a simple cube.
To do this we select the cube, right click on it, go to “Set Origin” and choose the option “Origin to Geometry”, as shown in figure 2. This, as the names indicate what it does is to move the origin of the object to the geometric center of it, the result in figure 3.
Fig. 2: The origin is set to the geometry of the selected object.
Fig. 3: The object has its origin at its geometric center and is also at the center of the scene.
The next thing we are going to do is to make a cut in half using the command CTRL+R and bringing the mouse to the object, when the cut lines appear as shown in figure 4 we click to confirm. This adds an edge loop as shown in figure 5.
Fig. 4: A loop cut is added over the center of the cube.
Fig. 5: The cube now has a loop of vertices passing through its center.
I did this to obtain a symmetrical piece with respect to the X axis and eliminate one of the halves of the cube, for this I enter Wireframe mode, select the vertices that are in one of the halves of the object (do not select the ones in the center) and with the X key we eliminate those vertices, as shown in figure 6.
With this we obtain the piece shown in figure 7 and we are ready to apply the mirror modifier.
Fig. 6: The vertices in the left half of the object are removed.
Fig. 7: We keep one half of the cube to use the mirror modifier.
How to mirror a model in Blender – Mirror Modifier
With the model we want to mirror selected we go to the modifiers tab by clicking on the icon in figure 8 and add the “Mirror” modifier (figure 9).
Fig. 8: Modifiers tab of the selected object.
Fig. 9: The mirror modifier is selected from the list of modifiers to be added.
Immediately we see that the missing half appears and if we go into edit mode and modify the position of a vertex we see how the change is reflected symmetrically (see figure 10), note that in one of the halves the vertices do not appear, it means that the other half of the model is being generated procedurally.
Fig. 10: The object reflects the geometry automatically.
You can change the symmetry axis or add more symmetry axes in the modifier properties.
Fig. 11: Mirror modifier options panel in Blender.
The model going through the mirror
In this particular case, as we have configured it, the mirror would be like a vertical plane perpendicular to the Y axis and located at the origin of the object, which in this case coincides with the origin of the scene. Normally if we take a vertex we can make it cross the mirror plane, as shown in Figure 12.
Fig. 12: Result of the mirrored model geometry going through the mirror plane.
To prevent this from happening there is the “Clipping” check box shown in figure 13, when this option is activated the vertices that touch the mirror plane will remain attached to it and can only move in the two directions of the plane, in figure 14 the selected vertex is on the mirror plane and cannot move in the X axis, only in the Y and Z axis. If we need to remove a vertex from the mirror plane we can uncheck the box “Clipping” remove the vertex and then re-enable it or leave it disabled.
Fig. 13: The “Clipping” option prevents the geometry from crossing the mirror plane.
Fig. 14: Vertices that lie on the mirror plane cannot move out of that plane.
How to apply the mirror modifier
In case we need to work on the geometry of the object and add asymmetric details we will have to stop using the mirror modifier and switch to working with the complete geometry of the object. Before applying the mirror modifier it may be a good idea to save a backup copy of the model, for example by duplicating and hiding it or moving it to another collection.
Fig. 15: This object is used as the starting point for applying the mirror modifier.
To apply the mirror modifier we click on the arrow icon to the left of the cross to remove the modifier and choose the “Apply” option, as shown in Figure 16.
Fig. 16: Option to apply a modifier in Blender.
Now the model whose geometry was being procedurally mirrored became a full 3D model with all its vertices and faces that can be repositioned without being mirrored.
Fig. 17: When applying the mirror modifier the result is a mesh with the complete geometry.
How to revert a Mirror modifier that has already been applied
It often happens that we apply the Mirror modifier, we do several actions and then we regret it and we want to undo the changes until we have our object with the Mirror modifier applied but it turns out that we ran out of actions to undo, for this reason it was a good idea to save the backup copy of the model, However there is a very simple way to remove the vertices of the model and reapply the Mirror modifier, for that we select the model, enter the edit mode, switch to Wireframe mode (figure 18) and arrange the view in a convenient way to see the mirror plane vertically and have both parts of the model well separated.
Fig. 18: Switch to “Wireframe” mode.
Then we draw a selection box as shown in figure 19, in such a way that we select all the vertices of one of the halves of the object but without selecting the middle vertices, the result of the selection is shown in figure 20.
Fig. 19: The vertices in the left half of the model are selected.
Finally we delete those vertices and we have one of the halves of our symmetrical object, ready to reapply the Mirror modifier.
Fig. 20: The selected vertices are deleted.
Fig. 21: One of the halves of the 3D model is obtained.
Fig. 22: The Mirror modifier is applied again.
Fig. 23: The 3D model with the Mirror modifier was recovered.
Introduction
In this article we see how to get information about the geometry of the 3D models in Blender, that is to say the vertex count, the amount of edges, faces and also the amount of triangles.
If you prefer to watch a video I have the right video for this topic:
We start with a 3D model, what we are going to do is to locate the icon on which the cursor is located in figure 2, it may be necessary to change the working mode to object mode or edit mode.
Fig. 1: Starting from two objects in Blender with Shade Smooth applied.
Fig. 2: Window of the overlapping elements in Viewport.
The window that appears, “Viewport Overlays”, allows us to configure the elements that are overlapped on the 3D view window, there we will click on the “Statistics” checkbox, this will show us in the upper left corner information about the models that we have in the scene and the amount of polygons.
Fig. 3: “Statistics” option that allows the display of 3D model information such as vertices, edges and faces.
If we select an object, the number of selected objects appears next to the total number of objects, as shown in figure 4.
Fig. 4: Polygon information is displayed in the upper left corner of the Viewport.
If we enter the edit mode of the selected object now the information changes and shows us the number of vertices, edges and faces of the object we are editing together with the total number of elements of that particular object.
Fig. 5: Information about the geometry of an object within the Edit Mode.
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