Blender demo 03 fish modeling

>> In this video, we're going to go over
how to make a simple fish and Blender.

And, among other things, we're
going to use the mirror modifier.

So, to start off, I'm going to use a UV sphere.

And my segments and rings
are set to six and six.

So, if they're not set, go ahead
and set those to six and six.

And then I'm going to go into component mode.

I'm going to go to faces, turn on x-ray,
select one side, and delete those faces.

The next thing I'm going to do is I'm
going to go out of component mode,

and I'm going to turn on this modifier mirror.

So, I'm going to click on mirror.

And the axis is set to X. And you
can see it has made a mirror image

of the one side onto the other side.

And now, when I go into component mode,
and I select, say, a vertex on this side,

and I go to grab it, the
other side updates as well.

So, this is really, really useful for
doing stuff like we're about to do.

So, I'm going to select all my vertices
here, and I'm going to rotate those

so that they're going roughly, you
know, sort of sideways like this.

Somehow missed that one.

Let me go into x-ray mode and
make sure I got all of them.

And then I'm going to rotate those again --
rotate -- doesn't have to be exactly 90 degrees,

just to its side, and then I'm going to scale it

so that it's a little bit
more fish shaped sort of.

At this point, it's more like
a submarine or something.

So, the next thing I want to do is
I want to add an image to my scene.

And one of the coolest things about
Blender is that you can take a JPEG image,

drag and drop it into your scene.

When you are not in component mode or -- yeah.

So, drag and drop it into your scene.

There it is.

And there you go.

You've got your image to work with.

Now, when you drag it in, it
comes in kind of all skewed.

So, what we need to do is rotate it and
move it around so that it's workable

with our geometry here as a reference.

So, we're going to do that by hitting the N key.

And the N key opens up a
bunch of these little menus.

So, N will open and close this thing.

You can also use the little carrot to open it.

And, sadly, there is no closed carrot.

You have to use the N key to close it up.

So, anyway, I'm going to open
this up, and under transform,

you can see this is the rotation
values for my object.

So, they're all kind of weird rotations.

If I just grab all of these and set
them to zero, then it will be flat.

And so, probably what I want to
do is rotate this 90 degrees.

So, I'm going to set this to 90 and hit enter.

And then I also need to rotate
it this way somehow.

So, this is -- you know, when I'm rotating
it this way, it looks like it's going

to negative Z. So, I'll set
this to negative 90 degrees.

And then I'm going to just grab the object,
and I'm going to move it over here and down

and far enough behind the object so
that it doesn't really get in the way.

OK. So, now that looks pretty good.

Now, in previous videos we talked
about using the alt key and rotating

so that you can snap to orthographic views.

And this is a perfect example
of when it comes in handy.

So, I'm now going to snap
to this orthographic view.

I'm going to go into x-ray mode, and I'm going
to hit tab -- or I'm going to select my object.

I'm going to hit tab, and now I'm going
to start moving my vertices around.

So, I'm going to go into grab mode.

And I'm going to start moving
these vertices around.

And, right, at this point, I'm not too concerned
about getting like a really precise shape.

In fact, I just want to get like an overall
sort of shape that, you know, not --

it kind of resembles the final shape.

So, it can be really rough at this point.

And so, I'm just going to grab these,
pull these around like that, and --

-- for the sake of the demo, I'm
just not going to noodle it too much.

And so the next thing I'm going to do
is I'm going to make some loop cuts.

So, I'm going to make a loop cut.

It looks like there needs to
be one here, probably one here,

and at least I would say maybe two here.

And then maybe one there.

And from here, I can now grab these
things using the grab tool here.

And so, I'll just go through
here and grab and move these.

And, again, doesn't need to be super precise
-- just kind of ballpark at this point.

And we can go, you know,
come over the details later.

Now, what I'm going to recommend is
we're going to get it into a basic shape.

And then from there, you can take it into
a program like ZBrush and then sculpt

out all the details like the eyes, the gills,
even the lips you can do in ZBrush pretty easily

without having to, you know, sculpt out
every -- or like go in one vertex at a time

or like cut all of these things
and extrude out the shapes exactly.

So, now I've got the basic shape for the
fish, and it looks great from this view,

but now I turn and, oh, it looks
really weird at this point.

Like it looks great only from one angle.

So, now I'm going to go to my top view.

I'm going to hold the alt key, snap
to the orthographic view looking down,

and then I'm going to start
grabbing these vertices here.

And I'm just going to start pulling these in.

So, I'm going to drag, select,
and pull these in.

And I'm going to pull them so that they, you
know, start to make that basic fish shape.

So, that's looking pretty good.

And, yeah, we can make it maybe
a little more tapered there.

And now when I go to rotate around,

that's starting to look a lot
better, you know, a whole lot better.

So, that's the basic fish shape.

The next thing I'm going to do is
I'm going to pull out the fins.

So, the fins are a little bit tricky.

One thing I'm going to do is I'm going to cut
the parts for the lower fin and extrude those.

And then the top fin, I'm going to wait
until I'm done and I finish mirroring,

and then I'm going to extrude that one out.

And the reason why is because when you extrude
out from parts that are like right in the middle

where the two mirrored parts are joined it
makes geometry on the inside of the object.

And I'll demonstrate that here in a moment.

So, the next thing I'm going to do
is I'm going to use the knife tool,

and I'm going to make some cuts here.

So, it looks like I could make a cut
here, here -- something like that.

And then I'm going to cut here like that.

I probably didn't need to make that extra cut.

Let me undo that, and I'll
make another set of cuts.

So, I'm just going to cut --

-- there. And then I'm going to cut there.

And then I'm going to select these, and I'll
just grab them and move them so they match

up a little bit better with where the fin is.

I think that's the move.

That's the best deal.

So, now I'll move some of these around,
and, again, promise not to noodle too much.

So, now I have a spot where
the fin can come out.

So, what I'm going to do is I'm
going to go out of this mode here.

And I'm going to kind of stitch these
in a little bit, move them up a bit.

And then I do grab the face, so I'm going
to go into face mode and select this face

and extrude faces along normal
and push those out like that.

And then I'm going to make some loop cuts.

I'll make at least one cut and go back to the
x-ray mode and going to go into vertex mode

and select these vertices, grab them,
move them, and get the basic, you know,

sort of like swooping shape
that I had originally.

These are a little bit thick.

So, what I'm going to do is I'll pull these
in as well -- pull it up, pull this down,

and, yeah, that looks pretty good.

Yeah, that looks pretty good.

The next thing I'm going to do is I'm going
to make those cuts at the top for the top fin.

So, I'm going to start, let's say,
I'm going to move this so it's --

the fin starts here, and then this one is here.

And I'm going to use the knife tool, and
I'm going to make a couple cuts like that.

And then what I'm going to do is
I'm going to extrude out those cuts.

Now, I'll just demonstrate
really quick why you want to wait

on extruding things that are at the join point.

And basically, what happens is when I select
these faces, and I go to extrude faces,

let's say, along normal,
when I extrude them out,

it actually makes this geometry
in the middle here.

Even if you extrude it straight up and down,
it will still make that geometry in the middle,

and deleting it out is a real pain.

So, what I'm going to do instead is I'm going
to finalize the model by applying the mirror.

So, I'm going to go into object
mode, and I'm going to go

over to mirror, and I'm going to hit apply.

And so now my object is no longer mirroring,
and I can go in and select my faces.

And I'm going to, while looking in this view --

or I can do this in perspective and go
to extrude faces, pull those straight up,

and then go -- hold down
the alt key while rotating,

and then go into my wireframe
mode or x-ray mode.

And I'm going to go to vertices,
and I'll start moving these around.

And that would work like that.

And then I'm going to make some loop cuts.

So, I'm going to make maybe at least one cut.

I think one cut might do it.

And just grab this here like that, maybe pull
this one down a bit, and, yeah, that looks good.

All right.

So, now I'm going to look at my
object and see where we're at.

So, I'm going to first select
my image here, my reference,

and I'm going to just make it invisible.

And to do that, while it's selected, I'm
going to go over here to the outliner

and go over to this little
I, and I'm going to click it.

And so now that sort of hides it.

And so now I've got my fish.

I can take a good look at it, see what that
looks like, and this looks pretty good.

The next thing I want to do is I'm going to
smooth it maybe once, at least to preview it.

You don't really need to do that if you're
going to -- well, if you're going to use it,

first of all, as a low poly model for, like,
certain games that actually have polygon counts

that are about this high and rely mostly
on textures to give the objects detail.

Now, for the purposes that I want to use it for,
I want to make it a little bit more detailed,

and then I'm going to bring
it into ZBrush and sculpt it.

And then, from ZBrush, I can transfer
those details to a low-res mesh

and then paint on it using substance painter.

There's also a sculpting component in Blender
that allows you to sculpt similar to ZBrush.

We're not going to go into that in this
class, but just know that that's there,

and it is an option if you
want to explore that later.

So, at the very least, what I'd like to do is
I'd like to add that multi-resolution modifier,

and I'm going to subdivide it maybe once,
twice, and then I'm going to shade it smooth,

and I'm going to turn off my wireframe.

And there we go.

That's a basic fish shape.

So, from here, again, there's, you know,
there's more details that could be added.

You can go in and painstakingly like
manipulate the geometry even more, say like eyes

and mouth and everything like that.

That is an option.

But really, especially for objects like
this, then have a simple overall shape

and then smaller details, tertiary
details, that can be sculpted

in on a high-res model is
really the best way to go.

And we'll get into that at a later time.

But this is the basic fish shape.