Blender Lesson Ceramic Bowl

Blender Lesson Ceramic Bowl This lesson is going to show you how to create a ceramic looking bowl using the free program Blender. You will learn how to change the view, add, delete, scale and edit objects as well as add a material to them and add lighting before rendering the final image. To make things easier the instructions are colour coded to help you as you follow them step by step. Red numbers in brackets link to the same number on the pictures. Green words relate to menus in Blender Blue words are either mouse clicks or keyboard buttons. LMBC means left mouse button click. RMBC means right mouse button click. 1 LMBC on the drop down box and select Cycles Render (1.) 2 RMBC on the light source (2) to select it and press delete on the keyboard. (not backspace! It will have Del or Delete written on the key.) Then LMBC Delete on the pop up menu to delete it. 1 2 3 - RMBC on the cube (3) to select it and press delete on the keyboard. Then LMBC Delete on the pop up menu to delete it. 4 Change the view to front view by pressing 1 on the numeric pad on the keyboard. (That s the set of number keys on the right hand side of the keyboard, not the numbers along the top.) Or you can LMBC on View in the menu under the workspace and then on Front. 3 5 Change from perspective view (3D view) to orthographic view (2D view) by pressing 5 on the numeric pad. Or you can LMBC on View in the menu under the workspace and then on View Persp/Ortho. You can see if you have the correct view because it will say Front Ortho in the top right corner of the work space. You should also see a red line going across the screen (x axis) and a blue line going up and down the screen (z axis.) 6 Make sure the 3D cursor (red and white circle) is in the middle of the screen. If not then LMBC where the red and blue lines cross. When you add lines or shapes this cursor determines where the shape will appear on the screen. 7 We are going to add a cylinder to the workspace. You can LMBC on Add > Mesh > Cylinder or use the keyboard shortcut Shift (Up arrow on the left of the keyboard) + A then select Mesh > Cylinder. Remember that for any keyboard commands to work the mouse cursor must be on the workspace. 8 Zoom in on the cylinder using the mouse wheel. Roll it forward to zoom in and roll backwards to zoom out. If you hold the Shift key + holding down the mouse wheel you can move the workspace to centre objects on the screen better. 9 We need to change the view from solid to wireframe. Just like the name suggests it makes the object appear as if it s made out of wire with see through faces. LMBC on the popup menu at the bottom of the workspace to the right of the menu saying Object mode with the small solid ball (4) and select Wireframe. 5 4

10 We now need to enter edit mode so that we can make changes to the object. You can do this by LMBC on the popup menu that says Object Mode (5) or by pressing the tab key on the keyboard. This is the on the left hand side of the keyboard with two arrows pointing left and right. Remember that for any keyboard commands to work the mouse cursor must be on the workspace. 11 Two things should of happened. The first is that the menu button should now say Edit Mode and your cylinder should now be all orange. Press the A key to deselect the cylinder. Anything orange in Blender means it is selected. In edit mode you can easily select or unselect everything to do with that object by pressing A. In object mode pressing A will select all the objects in the workspace. And remember that you can also select any object in object mode or part of an object when in edit mode by RMBC on it. 12 Every object is made up of 3 parts. Vertices (the points where lines join) Edges (the lines between vertices) and Faces (the solid face that fills the gap between edges.) In edit mode we can select which of these 3 is selected when we RMBC. On the menu bar under the workspace you will see 3 boxes showing the 3 different parts of an object. For now we need to make sure that the vertices box is highlighted (the left box with the point highlighted on the box.) 13 We need to divide the cylinder up into more areas vertically to allow up to edit it better. To do this you can either LMBC on Loop Cut and Slide in the menu to the left of the workspace or you can use the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl + R. Once you have either LMBC on the menu button or used the keyboard if you move the mouse to the left or right of the cylinder you will see a purple line across the middle of the cylinder. Now rolling the mouse wheel forward 1 clicks will increase this to 2 purple lines spaced evenly apart. Pressing the LMBC will turn the lines orange. If you move the mouse all the lines move up and down together, but we want them exactly in the middle so right click to exit and the space inbetween the four lines should turn orange. 14 Press A to deselect everything on the cylinder. 15 Your cylinder should now have 4 horizontal lines including the top and bottom. We want to select just the second row of vertices. Press B on the keyboard (Remember that for any keyboard commands to work the mouse cursor must be on the workspace) and 2 white dotted lines (one vertical and one horizontal) will appear on your cursor. Place the cursor to the left and above the second horizontal line on the cylinder. Hold down the LMBC and drag a white box so it covers all the vertices on that second line. When you let go of the mouse button all the vertices on the line should be orange with fading orange lines going up and down from each. 16 We need to rescale this line so it s smaller than the line above. We are going to scale it to 90% of it s original size. To do this press S on the keyboard and.9 using the full stop and 9 along the top of the keyboard and then pressing Enter. You should see the line shrink slightly. You can also rescale using the mouse. Press S and then move the mouse before pressing Enter. 17 Press A to deselect everything again. 18 Press B again to turn on the selection box and this time drag a box over the third line down. This time we are going to scale it to 70% by pressing S and typing.7 and pressing Enter. 19 Press A again to deselect everything.

20 Press B and drag the box over the bottom line this time and press S and then.5 and Enter to scale it to 50%. But this time we are going to make to make the bottom section shorter at the same time. Using the LMBC drag the blue arrow up to make the bottom section shorter. 21 Press A to deselect everything once again. 22 At the moment our bowl still has a face on the top instead of a hole so we need to delete that face. We do that by LMBC on the face select button on the menu under the workspace. You will now see dots appear on the cylinder where the faces are. 23 Press down on the mouse wheel and slowly pull the mouse towards you. The cylinder will tilt towards you. You will notice that there is one dot that does not move as much as the others and stays at the top. RMBC on it wil the mouse and the top face should turn orange. 24 Press Delete on the keyboard (not backspace! It will have Del or Delete written on the key.) When you press it the delete menu will appear. LMBC on Faces and the top will dissapear. 25 Press 1 on the numeric key pad to go back to front view. 26 Press Tab to exit Edit Mode, or LMBC on Edit Mode on the bottom menu and then select Object Mode from the popup menu. The cylinder should light up all orange. 27 LMBC just below the cylinder to place the 3D cursor (the red and white circle.) 28 On the bottom menu LMBC Add > Mesh > Plane and a line should appear below the cylinder. 29 Use the LMBC to drag the blue arrow so that the line touches the bottom of the cylinder. This is going to be the surface for our bowl to sit on. 30 We need to make it bigger so press S, then 8 on the top row of the keyboard and then Enter to make it 8 times larger. 31 - Scroll the mouse wheel backwards to zoom out. Keep going till you can see the camera (The pyramid with a black triangle on it.) Then LMBC just to the right and above it to place the 3D cursor. 32 We are going to add another plane by LMBC on the bottom menu Add > Mesh > Plane. 33 We need to scale this plane to 5 times the size it is by pressing S, then 5 with the numbers on the top row of the keyboard and then Enter. 34 But we also need to rotate this plane by 45 degrees. So press R for rotate and then using the top row of number on the keyboard type 45 followed by Enter. The plane should turn. 35 The plane should still be lit orange. If not then RMBC on it to select it. 36 We need to LMBC on the Material button (6) in the right hand panel. If you can t see this button it might be hidden to the right. If you place your mouse on the left edge of the panel it will turn into 6

a horizontal line with an arrow at either end. Holding the LMBC you can drag the edge to the left making the panel wider so you can see the Material button. 37 LMBC on the Material button changes the side panel so you can see the name (7) of the item you are working on and a chance to add a new material by LMBC on the New button (8.) 38 When you LMBC the New button (8) it opens up a new material options panel. From here we can change the settings to make all types of different materials. To see how the material will look LMBC on the word Preview (9) to open the preview window. You will see a sphere (10) that shows you what your material will look like on your model. 39 LMBC on the popup menu labelled Surface (11) and choose Emission (the eighth one down.) This will make the plane project light and in the preview window you can see the sphere is now like a light bulb. You can change the colour by LMBC on the popup menu, but we are going to leave it at white. Below that is the Strength option. Changing this option effects how much light it produces. LMBC in the box (12) and type in 10 using the numbers along the top of the keyboard and then press Enter. You should see the globe in the preview window get brighter. 9 8 7 10 11 12 40 Now RMBC on the plane under your bowl to select it. The Material pane will reset and show the New button. LMBC on the New button but this time we are only going to choose a different colour. LMBC on the white box next to Colour and a colour wheel will appear that lets you choose a colour of your choice. After you LMBC on a colour move the mouse onto the workspace to make the colour wheel go. 41 RMBC on the cylinder to select it and again the Material pane will reset. LMBC on the New button and this time in Surface choose Mix Shader (13) (thirteenth one down.) This option allows us to mix two surfaces. Now below you have two options named Shader. LMBC on the first one (14) and select Diffuse BSDF (sixth one down.) Then LMBC on the second Shader (15) and this time select Glossy BSDF (fourth one down.) Now we need to change a few options to make it look more like ceramics. Under Surface is an option called Fac: (16) This stand for factor and controls the balance between the two shaders we picked. Between 0 and 0.5 means the first shader is stronger, anything over.5 means the second option is stronger. LMBC in the box (17) and type.1 and then press Enter. Then under the second Shader is an option labeled Roughness (18.) LMBC in the box and type 0 and press Enter. The sphere should now look like it s made of ceramic. 42 To the left of the Material button is a button with a spanner (19.) This is the Modifier option. It allows you to add extra effects to objects. LMBC on this button and then on Add Modifier. On the popup menu select Subdivision Surface (third one up on the second column.) In the options that appear underneath you will see Subdivisions: with two options below it, View: & Render: Change the amount in both of these to 3. This takes all the surfaces of the object selected and divides them up further to make it smoother.

43 We have now added our shapes, given them a material and colour and added lighting. The program will now produce a final picture using all the data we have added. This is called rendering. In the right hand pane to the left of the Modifer and Material button is one with a picture of a camera. This is the Render button (20) LMBC on it to see all the options avaliable. We need to change the default quality of the render so that the picture is good quality. Scroll down the render options till you see Sampling (21) and LMBC to drop down the options. You will see Samples: (22) with Render: and Preview: options underneath it. Change the Render: option to 150. The higher this number the higher quality of the final image, but it also takes longer to produce the image as well. To produce the final render scroll back up and LMBC on the Render button (23.) You will now see the computer render the image bit by bit slowly. It takes a little while so be patient! You can see the progress of the render at the top of the screen. 23 20 21 22 44 There is no point in producing a great image if you don t save it. When the computer has finished rendering your image LMBC on Image in the bottom left corner followed by Save As Image. You can then choose where the image is saved and give it a name. 45 Once you have saved the image you can return to 3D mode by LMBC on the Editor Select button (24) and then LMBC on 3D View. You can then make change s before rendering again. 24 The Next Step Once you finish you can try it again but explore making changes to different parts. Maybe you can try: Changing the shape of the bowl. Try rescaling manually using the mouse. Make changes to some individual vertices by right clicking on them and then using the red, blue and green arrows along with different views. Add more loops and try making a bottle. Different colours on the object, floor or lighting. Different materials on the object and the floor. Adding more objects to the scene.