Fresh Blender News, Every Day
About Blender
Blender is the open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. Available for all major operating systems under the GNU Public License.
You can download Blender free of charge on www.blender.org. On the Blender site you will also find a gallery with cool Blender art.
Introduction
Okay people, let's start off by saying I'm not a great character animator. But I promised some people to do an underwater tutorial, so here goes. We'll be building a scene consisting of an ocean floor, a dolphin swimming by, a school of small fish and some sea-bottom vegetation.
The techniques that you will learn in this tutorial include:
- Character modeling
- Working with nurbs
The dolphin
As a preparation, I collected some pictures of dolphins from the Internet. I recently discovered a GREAT picture database for this kind of stuff: http://www.corbis.com. Just enter a keyword and off you go. These are some of the pictures I studied:
We'll build the dolphin using a deformation lattice. Of course, it can be done in a lot of other ways aswell, but let's make this interesting for me, too, shall we?
Fire up blender, and delete the default plane in the middle of the screen. Next, hit the spacebar to bring up the Toolbox and select add>surface>sphere. A small sphere appears in the middle of the screen. Now use resize (KEY S) to make it a bit bigger, and use resize with the middle mouse button to elongate the sphere. When you're done, your sphere should look like this:
Switch to Front View (NUMPAD-1) and leave edit mode (KEY TAB). The model will now turn pink to show it's still selected, but you're not in edit mode anymore. Left-click in the middle of the sphere to bring the 3D cursor to the centre. Enter the Toolbox (KEY Spacebar) and select add>lattice. The sphere is deselected and a pink square appears in the middle of the sphereoid. Go to the EditButtons window (F9) and enter the following data for the lattice:
Before the lattice can actually affect the sphereoid, we need to attach the two together. To do this, first select the spheroid, hold shift and then select the lattice. Both should be pink now, but the lattice is brighter to indicate it's the active selection. Now we'll make the lattice the parent of the spheroid. Select CTRL-P, and a message comes up: Make Parent: Normal Parent, Lattice Deform. Select the Lattice Deform option.
First, get a feeling for the way the lattice looks. Select it, hit tab and play around with the trackball mode (push the middle mouse button and move the mouse). As you can see, the lattice consists of several layers of control vertices. Remember this when you make selections in the next step of the tutorial. It is important to use the box tool to select several vertices at once and then move then. When you've had enough, restore the front view with keypad+1.
Now we'll start building the shape of the dolphin by modifying the shape of the lattice. You'll see that the lattice acts as a 'magnetic' boundary for the spheroid - when it's changed, the spheroid will follow. Okay, so now let's start the real work. Each time you need to move a vertex, right-click to select it, hit b for box selection and drag a little box around the selected vertex. This will also select the vertices that are 'behind it' in other layers. Now hold ctrl and move selected vertices with the right-mouse button. Release the ctrl button as soon as you start moving. This ensures that you don't accidentally de-select a vertex.
In the front view, keep working untill your lattice and sphere look like this:
Now, switch to top-view (keypad-7) and re-arrange the vertices untill they look like this:
By now, we've already got the basic shape of the dolphin ready! Let's take a sneak peek. Hit keypad-5 to turn on perspective view, hit z to turn on shading and play around with the trackball option. Here's how it should look:
We're getting there, but it's not quite finished yet. Let's add some fins. Return to unshaded, orthogonal, front view (that's 'z',keypad 5 and keypad 1). I'm going to make the fins by drawing an outline and bevelling it. Hit TAB to leave the edit mode of the lattice. Place the 3d cursor above the dolphin's back (left click). Bring up the toolbox and select add>curve>bezier curve.
When in curve edit mode, you can add vertices by first selecting an endpoint of the curve, then leftclick while holding down the ctrl key. When you're satisfied, close the curve with key-c. Play around with the location and the direction of the bezier control points untill your curve looks like this:
Hit TAB to leave the editmode and F9 to go to the EditButtons screen. In there, change the Ext. 2 value to 0.15, and the BevResol value to 4. This should give you a nice, rounded fin. When you go to the right-view (keypad-3), it should look like this:
Now we'll duplicate this fin to create two other, smaller, fins. Duplicate the selected fin with shift-D. Move it away from the top and left click to place it. The position doesn't really matter yet - we'll attach it to the body later. Rotate it about 220 degrees (key r and move with the mouse - ctrl key constrains the angles), then scale it to a factor of about .6 (key s and move the mouse, ctrl key contrains here, too).
Duplicate this smaller fin and rotate it -80 degrees. Next, in the front and right view, move the three smaller fins around untill they are attached to the body in a proper way. This is how it should look (I rotated the fin on Willy's back a little bit to make it match the angle of his back):
We're almost there. As a finishing touch, we'll add to eyes. Switch to top view, use the toolbox to add a sphere. Scale it down and place it in the head, so that a little less than half of the sphere sticks out of the head. The height of the eyes should be equal to the top of the dolphin's beak and they are located a littlebit towards the back of the head.
Select the eyes, go to the MaterialButtons screen (F5) and create a new meterial. Make it black.
Next time, I'll elaborate on creating a little environment for our dolphin.
For the time being, here's a little preview of what's it going to be like:
Hi, I'm trying to learn how to use blender. Do you have any tips fordoing the actual molding in the 3D space? I read the tutorial but I can't seem to make anything nice looking.
Could you perhaps sometime make a beginners video tutorial?
–neptunus
Your tutorials are really fantastic, but I'm having some trouble with the dolphin. It's just not working. Basically, I've made the sphere and the lattice, everything looks just like in the pics, and I've parented it too. But then when I try to move the lattice points around, the sphere doesn't follow. I'm not quite sure what's wrong… But great tutorial! How do you make such wonderful textures? I don't come close! (I actually really don't know how to make texturing work…Blender is so complicated…) Anyway, any advice on making the sphere morph to the lattice? Thanks.
Ah! Parenting objects to lattices works slightly different in Blender these days. I have updated the relevant text:
To do this, first select the spheroid, hold shift and then select the lattice. Both should be pink now, but the lattice is brighter to indicate it's the active selection. Now we'll make the lattice the parent of the spheroid. Select CTRL-P, and a message comes up: Make Parent: Normal Parent, Lattice Deform. Select the Lattice Deform option.
It should work fine now.
Cheers,
B@rt
When I press CTRL-P i don't get the question to make the parent normal or lattice deform. I just gets the question of "make parent? ok"
I use blender on mac if that has something to say… Would love an answer
Hi Henrik, are you using the latest Blender version? I just checked again in 2.41 on a Mac and I do get the message.
Hi, I've submitted before, you told me that the way parenting works has changed in 2.4.1. When I first tried the model, I wasn't using the new version, but when I read your response, I downloaded it. Now, I am having so many new problems. Could you check the tutorial to see if it still works with 2.4.1? I create the sphere and stretch it, then create the lattice, but I have two problems at this point: 1. The lattice does NOT show up in object mode at all. When I change the data inputs for its dimensions, I don't see the lattice forming as I remember seeing when I tried this before on the older version. So I switch to edit, mode, and I get the second problem. 2. In edit mode, I can see the lattice, but it's really small. The size of a lattice square isn't big at ALL; if I tripled or quadrupled the length of the lattice it might be the size of the sphere. What's going on here? Frustrated and confused, I can't wait for your response.
~AS
P.S.: Thanks so much for your support, you are amazing!
Hi AS,
I've completely reviewed the tutorial and you were right: there were a few things that have changed with the new Blender versions. Please have a look and let me know if things are better now.
Bart
Hey, that worked! You are very helpful, B@rt! But I still have ANOTHER problem (they never end!). When I parent, this time they actually stretch with one another, but as soon as I parent them, two BAD things happen: 1. The stretched sphere splits into two halves that separate and switch places, or something like that. 2. Suddenly, the lattice is smaller than the sphere (not by as much as before, but by a good distance). It's like the sphere grew a bit. Other than these two things, its ok, but when I try to get the detail of the tail (no pun intended) I just can't because there aren't any points down there. Thanks!
~AS
I just tried this tutorial and it worked perfectly on a PC running Windows XP SP2, Blender V2.4.1
I really appreciate this kind of tutorial becuase it is simple but gives the student a result that builds their confidence in their own ability to build their own models using the same methods.
I am new to modeling and something like this really helps me out more than I can say.
Thanks much!!!
p.s. I am looking at this tutorial on one computer while doing the actual modeling on another so I am not Alt-Tab'ing back and forth, I don't know if that will cause any problems for anyone, but I know in other programs I have used, Alt-Tab'ing has caused problems, might be something to check out for those of you having problems.
Hey Just having issues when modeling the dolphin. When I move the lattice to follow like the tutorial it deforms it, and doesnt shape the way the tutorial shows. Should I do it a little at a time, does the order make a difference? I'm stuck right after I make the lattuce stick to the sphere.
Thanks,
Krissy
Hi Krissy,
you have to modify the lattice in editmode (press tab). When you move the individual vertices, the sphere will follow them.
Cheers,
Bart
hey,
the images in this tutorial aren't loading for me. it looks like the url is wrong. the images are in locations like:
/news/wp-content/xoom/tutorials/Dolphin/IH106245_wm.JPG
but they are actually found at
/wp-content/xoom/tutorials/Dolphin/IH106245_wm.JPG
maybe you could make a symlink from /news to / on the server as a quick work-around?
pix.
Oops, so sorry about that. The images are back!
Cheers,
Bart
Great Job! Keep it up Bart!
Johnathon
Hi,
I'm trying this tutorial and it seems very promising. The problem I've got is with modelling: this is supposed to be the creative part…
But could there be any suggestions as to for example the size of the lattice to be chosen with respect to the size of the "dolphin"? I think this is of great importance, because with a little lattice a little movement will affect a lot.
A littel picture with the lattice and the dolphin chosen (BEFORE modelling) could be of much help!
Thank you very much!
First off, great tutorial. Second off, I keep getting stuck on making the bezier curves add vertices.I can't add vertices by clicking the end point, holding control, and moving the left mouse button. I've tried adding more points by using the spacebar, but when I go to close the points with c, only portions of the curve close. I have the latest version of blender using a pc. Please help!
The tutorial is fantastic, and i would like everyone for asking the questions i would have been asking myself.
This was a very nice tutorial. I liked it because it gave people challenge, you have to model the dolphin yourself with only reference pictures so you actually learn something. From now on I will be learning from BlenderNation and BlenderWiki only!
This was a very nice tutorial. I liked it because it gave people challenge, you have to model the dolphin yourself with only reference pictures so you actually learn something. From now on I will be learning from BlenderNation and BlenderWiki only!
[IMG]http://i2.tinypic.com/vn2d08.jpg[/IMG]
http://i2.tinypic.com/vn2d08.jpg
One of those should let you see my dolphin, "Bubbles".
cool the dolphin but I new to blender and got to use Blender ast the software for animation at University and i gettin a real haedache ! plz help1 your advise be the most welcom
Hi Bart
Thanks for this very nice tutorial. Simple and source for inspiration. I have a question: apparently the Lattice deformation is just computation at rendering, much like the SetSmooth. Is this possible to make it permanent, i.e. deform the mesh for real (and therefore removing teh ability to further use the Lattice)?
Thanks
Jean-Paul
I still having trouble my dolphin looks strange I will keep practicing.
Great tutorial Bart! I must admit it was hard for me at first, especially as many people have said, with the lattice, but I learned that this is a great tutorial for quickly adapting to Blender.
Here's a render of my Dolphin (I hope to re-render it with a background)
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b224/DukeAndrey/2ae80d88.jpg
And here's an example of how big my lattice was. I made it just about as big as the NURBS Sphere.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b224/DukeAndrey/2079c93f.jpg
Jean-Paul posted:
————————————————————————–
Is this possible to make it permanent, i.e. deform the mesh for real (and therefore removing teh ability to further use the Lattice)?
————————————————————————–
I've been wondering the exact same thing. Can someone please explain how to make the dolphin into it's own independent mesh? Like where it's not bound by the lattice. I've tried everything I can think of, but I can't get it to work.
well…hi everyone, i'm new to blander but i would like to be A MASTER…
I´m new at blender modelling. Loved this tutorial…Thanks!
In the past I have used 3ds max and I was wondering do you have to make a box to build evreeything in when you are making a level for a game cause I wanna make a game. Thanks. And could you E-mail me telling me how to if you jave to. Ok thanks. O ksee ya.
wow~ tht's kul~~!
im sooo gona try n make tht~
thx~ XPP
To DKW and Jean-Paul: In Blender 4.1 if you select the dolphin in Object mode and go to the Editing tab, under "Modifiers" you can select "Make Real" next to the Lattice deform modifier. This should be it :-)
i started using blender 3 days ago so im not a plain noob LOL and to those people having problem with shaping the dolphin, like if the sphere turned out to be some huge iregular mesh. Just try adjusting its size.While the lattice is selected, Hit N and adjust its XYZ size, i assumed that you know that when you select the mesh it will show you its ariginal shape and not the modeled shape. Just remeber, the tutorial said to model it until it looks like the one in the image, no one knows the size of the sphere he is using anyway, right? ;P while when you create lattice all of the sizes of lattice are the same for you and me. lol… thats all..and also im using v4.1 of blender
you mean 2.41 :P and you can just use the S key to scale instead of the N key and messing around with XYZ.
I finally figured out how to make it into an independent mesh!
You have to select the dolphin in Object mode and hit Alt-C (Convert Object Type) select the only choice (Convert To Mesh), and you've got it! Of course, you also have to do that with the fins, as they aren't initially independent meshes either. And you might wanna assign a new Material to the dolphin so it won't turn black (the same color as the eyes).
Actually, I think you were right about the "Make Real" thing. What you do is just click Make Real, then Apply, and it's a separate mesh… I think.
By the way, using this method I've modelled a rabbit. It's still got some work left, but here's what it looks like.
http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/9966/rabbitsofar8xq.jpg
Hi Bart
lovely tutorial.thanks.
meaning to learn basic animation Ive tried to asign Ikey to the lattice (hoping to achieve a simple up&down movenment of the tail) but it didnt work. tried to lock both, child an parent. nada. tried to convert the nurbs to mesh and the dolphin spurted a huge tail and his snot has shrunk. Im at a loss here and Ill appreciate your help. or anybody's
Danny K, read the posts above for the help you seek.
not really but thnx. my problem is that Blender does things it does not suppose to…like not maintaining the shape of the surface after converting it to mesh. (and its not that it returns to its original sphere, it something in between, like a horrible mutated dolphin freak…)
This tutorial is a lot more thourough than others I've tried. Great job, but I have one question. I'm using a mouse without a middle button, so how do I elongate objects?
Thanks for the tutorial,
Avedis
nice… I didn't appreciate trying to figure this stuff out until I was done. I actually like how you left us to figure out how to shape the dolphin w/the lattice. BTW, I'm a complete noob n I did it. I figure it shouldn't be that hard for anyone w/any knowledge or experience in 3DS or Maya. Anyways… nice tutorial.
Yey! I made a diseased dolphin!
Great tutorial, but it took me a while to realise the importance of the initial size of the lattice compared to the sphere.
Hey Bart,
This is a great tutorial, however; I just have one question.
After creating the model, with fins and eyes included, do you recommend any method for joining all elements together as one?
I would like to create an environment for my dolphin, but when I try to move the body, I end up just moving each individual piece, and not the entire model (Fins, Eyes, etc..).
I have tried Ctrl+J to join all elements, but when I use this method, certain objects dissapear.
Just wanted to see if you had any suggestions, as I am a N00b!
Thanks so much!
M!ke
this doesnt work anyways
@Mike: maybe, it works, if you just make them Parented:
If you grab the body, the rest floats with it^^
Ok i am a noob but i want to learn to model 3d.
Im sure i can do this just that im stuck at changing my sphere into an enlongated sheroid. I just cant figure out how to change it
@DOM
hey guys to elongate the shape what you do is hit S to scale it. now the entire thing will be sizing but to size it on only 1 dimension you just hit the corresponding letter! so S then X and you will only be sizing it along the X axis! Hope this helped. Bye now!
Um, where's the rest of the tutorial?
need some help here??when i click ctrl P it just ask me to make parent or not and did not gave me the chance to choose between Normal Parent and Lattice Deform. So I had to choose the normal parent and i don't seem to have the green lines that the picture have in the part where u have to shape the dolphin and also i do not have as many vertices….can someone please help me??
hey im useing a laptop and i dont know how to middle click or if there is any other way besides middles clicking. if anyone has an i dea that would help a lot
Ugh, I use to have the same problem when I first started, but you know where the Green Bar is in Blender that says "www.blender.org 242"? Well, drag that bar down, go into "view and Controls" and enable "emulate 3 button mouse" now you have mmb functionality whenever you hold down alt+left mouse button :)
PS - you can also emulate Numpad for switching between different views (front, side, top) in the "System and OpenGL" tab
Ok, I found a big reason why the tutorial didn't work for alot of people, including myself till I played around with it a bit.
To get the lattice distortions to look like what he has in the tutorial, befor you start moving the verticies and before you make the lattice the parent, be sure to re-size the lattic to be the same size as the sphere or your morphs will be all off. I hope this saves you all the frustration it put me through trying to figure this out.
Good tutorial otherwise!
-Lord Demos
hey thanks a lot dukeandrey that helps with a lot of things now i can start on that dolphin
new to blender love it!!
As far as the problem with applying the transformation and dicarding the lattice I found:
1- panels –> modifiers –> apply
2- switch to object mode
3- toolbar/actions bar (not sure official terminology) –> object –> parent –> clear parent –>clear parent and keep transformation
I think that whenever you have child/parent objects you can always go intot object mode, deselct everything but the child object and move it away from the parent… that breaks the link…. but if you move the parent object they will stay attatched……
Now if I could only figure out how to give color and texture to my object I would actually be getting somewhere… (maybe)…
Thanks for the tutorial
Peace
i dont understand what he means to use resize to make it a bit bigger, and use resize with the middle mouse button to elongate the sphere. i dont know hoe to elongate it
i was heveing trouble with shapeing the sphereoid, but i realised the lattice was bigger on the images. thanx for the explanation anyway lord demos even tho i didnt see it.
Hy…
i've make at first the latice, after that i've did the sphere…
This way is right for me…I can't do it following the steps of this tutorial, so i've decided to do it in a different way!
bye!
I am using Blender V 2.43, and I follow the steps with adding the sphere, but I cannot add the lattice. It tells me, when I try to add it, modifier is disabled skipping apply. What can I do?
Hi!
I am new to blender (less than a day…). Came to it in desperation to find the "right" tool for a project: an interactive, multiplayer, on-line CQB (close quarter battle field), where players have to organise an assault on the ambassador's house against baddies. Hostages are there too…
In short, a kind of "DOOM" game, but where the "targets" (friend or foe) are random, and the player(s) is (are) the "SAS" team.
The structures are designed in AutoCAD2007, 3d solids. Converted in 3ds format with 3ds max 8. Loads in blender… (that is a first after a lot of trials on other programs. THANKS!)
The targets must have human form (avatars) AND animated (H-ANIME). They must respond to shots.
On top of this, I need sound and chat (or, better, VERBAL chat).
Do you think it is feasible with blender?
I have spent four months "trialing" many programs, doing all tutorials before to realise I wasted my time.
(You can have an idea of the project at http://www.skytargets.com, Phoenix-Dodge-City game.)
In the meantime, I'll give more go to your tutorials. Thanks to them, but could they not be included in the download? Hard to be on-line for help every keypress…
JR
could you create a tutorial for more advanced modeling like a car
also a tutorial on scripting to make games usin blender would be nice
brilliant tutorial :)
but some things are wrong in the tutorial: when you make the surface sphere you should make it small before you add a lattica. size the sphere with (S) to smaller. once you did that I think you have to subdive your sphere because otherwise you get the same nose as me :p it is not detailed enough. you can go to edit mode when you have selected the sphere and on the right side there is "subdivide". then add the latic on the way given at the tutorial.
easier selecting the verticles: only use border select (B) and (G).
gonna make it again when I am back from holidays.
forget what I said about subdivide. wont work.
Great tutorial, thanks.
This is getting hard when you need to make the shape of the dolphin, I am totaly lost in this part, I am not able to do a dolphin shape with the vertice. There is probably something i don't understand… I can only get a deformed big balloon shape, the nose of the dolphin and his tail, this is mostly what I don't understand how to make them.
Great tutorial, but:
"Next time, I'll elaborate on creating a little environment for our dolphin."
Thanks for the tutorial. :)
Thanks, Bart. I just started with Blender this weekend and I have been near tears with frustration, but your tutorial was good and the thing actually worked. PHEW!
hey…looks good, but am having problems.
I have only gotten up to making the lattice, (i'm not sure if this problem was posted, only read through March 2006 or so in posting) and pressing F9 to go to the buttons window, I cannot find what is shown. ""
I see the grid of buttons in the upper-left, although none of the rest!
i cant get a proper latice it keeps filling it in making it hard to see whats going on
Hi. I hope anybody can help me. I tried to built the dolphin. But when I want to add first the sphere, the programm closes itself every time. The same happens if I try to add a surface. I don’t have a chance to do anything. Does anybody know where the problem is?? I have even reinstalled the program. But it did not help.
If I start blender, there always comes an error: only built-in modules are available. some scripts may not run. continuing happily.
do you have Python 2.4 installed? That might be the reason, 2.5 is NOT compatible with Blender yet
yes, i have just installed python 2.4 now. and the error message from starting blender is away. but blender still closes itself if i try to add a nurbs sphere. It seems that I just have this problem in adding a surface. and there in adding NURBS surface, NURBS tube, NURBS sphere and NURBS donut. what can I do??
Hi thanks for great tutorial i mannaged to use the same technique to make a UV map and thereafter import my Dolphin to Second Life(www.secondlife.com).
There is an image here
http://www.accidentdesigns.blogspot.com
By the way will the tutorial with the underwater environment be upcoming soon?
Kind Regards Mr. Bichel!
Hi,My virtual name is Hositcaos,and as I am not an expert of this programma,I ask to lend me a hand,please.
I'm annoyed being.
Bye,Bye.
Hi. I can't make a rounded fin. There's not Ext. 2 value (BevResol there is), I can only find Extrude and by decreasing that I get a thicker fin, but it's not rounded. Can anyone help?
This tutorial is great! I just need a way to get rounded fins…
great ,i only heard lattice is used for creating animations,now i knew it can be used for mesh modelling too.thanks for the tutorial..
im not great at following tutorials cud u make it ne simpler
lol at jhon. he's new to "blander", he's at the wrong place!
There must be something wrong here.
I did everything as the tutorial stated. I even used the screenshot as a background, so I could move the latices's vertices to the correct positions. I ended up with the same lattice, but with a bizarre shape (the sphere) that doesn't look like a dolphin.
I noticed in the first screenshot the camera is in a different position/rotation than the default one. Maybe something was done but not mentioned?
Or maybe something has changed in the latest versions of Blender?
Right I've improvised with the dolphin cause the directions you give don't correspond with whats on screen. There must be an easier way to model! Now on the fin you say ext.2 does that mean extrude in the curve and surface buttons? There are no faces on my fin just a shaded outline!! whats the story there??
Okay, I just had to jump in here, because I *DID* get my dolphin to work. I'm using Blender 2.4.4.
Here are the changes from the tutorial:
The lattice shows up INSIDE the sphere. I had to resize the lattice to exactly match the sphere BEFORE making the lattice the parent. Then it worked.
For bevelling the fin's edges - these are the settings that worked for me:
Extrude: 0.05
Bevel Depth: 0.13
BevResol: 4
These are the only things that I had to do different to get it to work with this (as I write this - the latest) version of Blender.
Great tutorial even with the changes in Blender.
Great tutorial!! I managed to create the dolphin on my first day with blender.
@Bobbo: I had the same problem with the fins and solved it by using a bezier circle instead of a curve.
The first thing I want to say is GREAT TUTORIAL!!! The second thing is a problem: if you have trouble with the lattice, SELECT THE LATTICE AND PRESS CRTL-P
Stijn
when i try to select the lattice and the cube,nothing happens.
and if i try to parent the latice, it says "error,must select three or more vertices to parent"
what am i doing wrong?
i cant even enlongate the sphere, when he says the middle mouse button he does mean scrool button rite?