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

Low poly as an art style

This book is primarily about creating low poly models. We’ll be focusing on low poly as an art style—flat-shaded, unsmoothed, minimalistic 3D artwork. Low poly is a clean, simplistic style—but don’t be fooled: it’s often far more complex than you’d expect.

The goal is to embrace the simplicity of an object. To create something with only the required number of polygons. To simplify as much as possible, but not too much. Low poly art is interesting because it is (ideally) a perfect mixture of simplicity and complexity.

We take an extremely simple object and combine it with advanced techniques such as realistic shading, high-resolution rendering, and modern lighting techniques. The result is a visually interesting blend of simplicity and realism.

Figure 2.7 – A low poly mountain scene (created in Blender)

Figure 2.7 – A low poly mountain scene (created in Blender)

And here’s an even more stylized low poly render:

Figure 2.8 – A low poly tree (created in Blender)...