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

Understanding meshes

An object in Blender can be broken into two parts:

  • The underlying mesh
  • The object’s location, rotation, and scale

In Blender, you edit these two things separately. There’s Object mode for moving, rotating, and positioning objects. Meanwhile, Edit mode lets you edit the actual mesh. (Chapter 3 teaches you all about editing.)

But what is a mesh?

A mesh is the underlying shape, the model part of a 3D model. Mesh typically refers to only the 3D shape, though: the term doesn’t refer to any of the model’s colors, materials, or where it’s located in your scene.

Mesh can also be used to mean any 3D model—a little bit confusing sometimes, but you’ll get the hang of it.

A mesh is made up of three basic components: vertices, edges, and faces.

Take a look at the diagram in Figure 2.1:

Figure 2.1– Faces, edges, and vertices

Figure 2.1– Faces, edges, and vertices

These are the different parts that...