Book Image

Squeaky Clean Topology in Blender

By : Michael Steppig
5 (1)
Book Image

Squeaky Clean Topology in Blender

5 (1)
By: Michael Steppig

Overview of this book

This book is an introduction to modeling and an in-depth look at topology in Blender, written by a Blender topology specialist with years of experience with the software. As you progress through its chapters, you’ll conquer the basics of quad-based topology using triangles and Ngons, and learn best practices and things to avoid while modeling and retopologizing. The pages are full of illustrations and examples with in-depth explanations that showcase each step in an easy-to-follow format. Squeaky Clean Topology in Blender starts by introducing you to the user interface and navigation. It then goes through an overview of the modeling techniques and hotkeys that will be necessary to understand the examples. With the modeling basics out of the way, the next stop on our journey is topology. Working through projects like a character and a sci-fi blaster, the book will illustrate and work through complex topology problems, and present solutions to those problems. These examples focus on deforming character models, non-deforming hard surface models, and optimizing these models by reducing the triangle count. By the end of this book, you will be able to identify the general flow of a shape's topology, identify and solve issues in your topology, and come out with a model ready for UV unwrapping, materials, and rigging.

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Table of Contents (13 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
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Conventions used
Get in touch
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1
Part 1 – Getting Started with Modeling and Topology
Part 1 – Getting Started with Modeling and Topology
Free Chapter
2
Chapter 1: Navigating and Modeling in Blender
Chapter 1: Navigating and Modeling in Blender
Technical requirements
Making sense of the Blender UI
Navigating using the viewport
What a 3D mesh is and how it can be manipulated
Adding more vertices to enhance a mesh’s geometry
Manipulating a mesh using modifiers
Summary
3
Chapter 2: The Fundamentals of Topology
Chapter 2: The Fundamentals of Topology
Understanding good topology using grids
Understanding the three rules of topology
How should grids intersect?
Identifying grids on a complex shape
Summary
4
Chapter 3: Deforming Topology
Chapter 3: Deforming Topology
Applying the bending and stretching deformation rule
Applying the twisting deformation rule
Applying the intersecting grids deformation rule
Topology for cloth simulations
Summary
5
Chapter 4: Improving Topology Using UV Maps
Chapter 4: Improving Topology Using UV Maps
What is a UV map?
Ensuring clean topology for clean UV maps
Unwrapping the mesh
Improving unwraps
Summary
6
Part 2 – Using Topology to Create Appropriate Models
Part 2 – Using Topology to Create Appropriate Models
7
Chapter 5: Topology on a Humanoid Head
Chapter 5: Topology on a Humanoid Head
Introduction to retopology
Retopology of the face
Retopology of the ear
Retopology of the back of the head
Summary
8
Chapter 6: Topology on a Humanoid Body
Chapter 6: Topology on a Humanoid Body
How to retopologize hands
How to retopologize shoulders
How to retopologize hips
Connecting the body parts together
Summary
9
Chapter 7: Topology on a Hard Surface
Chapter 7: Topology on a Hard Surface
Normals on a hard surface
Retopology of the grip of a blaster
Retopology of the front shielding
Retopology of the front grip
Retopology of the barrel
Retopology of the main body of the blaster
Summary
10
Chapter 8: Optimizing Geometry for a Reduced Triangle Count
Chapter 8: Optimizing Geometry for a Reduced Triangle Count
Why we optimize topology
Optimizing hard-surface meshes
Optimizing deforming meshes
Summary
11
Index
Index
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12
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Navigating and Modeling in Blender

Blender is a powerful 3D modeling software. It has a massive community and is frequently updated with new features that greatly improve the software. Since its support of photo-based materials and its UI update in version 2.8, Blender has become a legitimate professional option for 3D artists. It can perform most of the operations in the 3D modeling pipeline, such as sculpting, modelling, UV unwrapping, rigging, and much more. Blender is a massive generalist software that goes beyond just modeling and rigging. It also provides multiple physics engines, a compositor for video editing, and even 2D animation tools. However, the most impressive aspect Blender has going for it is not its impressive capabilities but, rather, the fact that it gives us these amazing capabilities and still remains completely free.

In this chapter, we will take a look at Blender’s user interface (UI). We will learn how to navigate the different tabs that we will be using and the 3D viewport. Then, we will learn basic modeling techniques and hotkeys. Finally, we will take a look at specific tools used to check topology.

In this chapter, we will be learning the following subjects:

  • Making sense of the Blender UI
  • Navigating using the viewport
  • What a 3D mesh is and how it can be manipulated
  • Adding more vertices to enhance a mesh’s geometry
  • Manipulating a mesh using modifiers
Previous Section
End of Section 1
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