Book Image

Low Poly 3D Modeling in Blender

By : Samuel Sullins
Book Image

Low Poly 3D Modeling in Blender

By: Samuel Sullins

Overview of this book

Step into the world of low poly 3D art with Low Poly 3D Modeling in Blender—your entry point into Blender and mastering the fundamentals of 3D art. This beginner-friendly guide ensures that you’re fully prepared for the creative adventure that follows. Through a step-by-step learning process starting with the principles of low poly art, this book gradually immerses you in the intricacies of modeling. As you progress, you’ll gain hands-on experience creating diverse projects ranging from designing a simple 3D crate to rendering complete low poly scenes. The book covers a wide spectrum of topics as you navigate Blender's interface, mastering essential modeling tools and exploring both basic and advanced modeling techniques. Advancing to the final chapters, you’ll find ways to breathe life into your models with material creation and gain practical insights into modeling a variety of low poly objects. From end-to-end scene construction to configuring Blender for rendering high-quality images, you’ll be equipped with the foundational skills to propel your career in 3D modeling and explore the boundless creative possibilities that Blender offers. By the end of this book, you'll have a solid understanding of Blender, 3D modeling, low poly methodologies, material design, 3D rendering techniques, and the broader world of 3D art.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
1
Part 1:Getting Started with Low Poly Modeling
5
Part 2:Modeling and Shading for Low Poly
9
Part 3:Creating Your Own Assets
15
Part 4:Building a Complete Low Poly Scene

Creating low poly trees

“But Samuel, I already made a tree!”

Yes, but the one in Chapter 3 was just to get you started.

The ones we’ll build here are way better. Not more realistic—these are still stylized, low-poly trees. But still, they’re a step up from what you made earlier.

This means they’ll be harder to make, too. So buckle up!

We’re going to make two different kinds of trees: a tall, pointy type of tree, and a wider, branching tree.

Both of these trees will use the same tree trunk, based on a cylinder. This means that you’ll only have to make the trunk once—less work! Let’s begin.

Creating the trunk

Making the trunk is simple. It all starts with a cylinder:

  1. Add a cylinder.
  2. In the Operator menu, change the vertex number to 8.
  3. Press Tab to go into Edit Mode.
  4. Press A to select everything, then S to scale it down pretty small, like this:
Figure 8.23 – The cylinder that will become the tree trunk
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