Tutorial: Blender MODELLING For Absolute Beginners - Simple Human

>> If you've ever wanted to learn how to
do things like 3D modeling in a 3D software

like Blender, for example, this tutorial is
aimed at absolute beginners, by which I mean,

I'm going to be approaching
it from the perspective

of somebody that's never even opened up Blender.

I'm going to be showing you how to move around,
how to -- basic navigational things work.

And the goal of this tutorial is
to show you how to get started

with modeling your first-ever object.

In this case, we're going to be modeling this
really, really basic little character here.

It's not fancy or posh like some
of the other tutorials I've done

and modeling techniques on my channel.

This one is really going to
be kept absolutely basic.

Very low poly, by which I mean the amount
of points and faces and things you're going

to be selecting are going to be to an absolute
minimal to make it as simple as possible.

I'm also going to be showing you
guys how to use modifiers in Blender,

which are these things over here.

So one I'm going to be showing
you how to use a mirror modifier.

And this mirror modifier allows
you to be modeling on one side

and it mirrors over to the other side.

And this is something that
really saves you a lot of time,

and it makes for a more consistent,
even topology.

And then I'm going to show you how to
add a subdivision surface modifier,

which is this thing here, which
just smooths out your model.

We're pretty much going to be starting
with a default primitive object.

In this case, it's going to be the default cube.

And once we've modeled it, we're
going to end up with this here.

So once again absolute beginners,
I hope you enjoy this.

I hope you learn something, and this
gets you a good start with Blender.

So let's get started with this
absolute beginner's tutorial in Blender.

[ Music ]

So just in case you have not already downloaded
Blender, I'm just going to quickly touch on it.

If you go to Blender.org, and then you go up to
the top, and you click on the download section,

you can download a version of Blender.

So in this case it says download Blender 2.92.

For me, I downloaded it, and it made a
zip folder which was in my downloads,

and then I just simply extracted
that zip folder.

And then I took that file and I
just put it into a Builds folder.

So I'll quickly show you here.

If I go to Builds.

I just put that extracted zip
folder in the folder here.

And it can be anywhere on your computer.

So you're just going to open that up wherever
it's extracted, and just run Blender.

You can also right-click and you
can just pin it to your taskbar

or your Start, which is also what I did.

So in this case I'm just going to run this
version of Blender, which is Blender 2.93.

Even if you use Blender 2.92,
that should all be fine.

So go ahead and just run it
once you've installed it.

And you do get options for
Mac, Windows, and Linux.

So I'm going to run mine, which is for Windows.

And when you open up Blender, this
is what you're going to see, right?

So it's not too complicated
of a software to use.

I know it can look a little bit intimidating,
but it's actually very well-organized,

and it's better than a lot of other
softwares I've used in the past.

So what you're going to do is, if you want to
move around in Blender, one of the main ways

to do that is you -- if you have a mouse,
you're just going to click and hold

in the scroll button, the
up and down scroll button.

And if you hold it in, you can move your
mouse, and you can see you're actually able

to turn around in your scene, right?

So just practice that for a bit.

Just press your middle mouse button, and you
can turn around and rotate around an object.

If you want to move side to
side, you simply hold in Shift,

click the middle mouse button,
and you can move side to side.

That's with Shift.

And you can also hold in Control if you want.

So just hold in Control or Command on a Mac,

your middle mouse button afterwards,
and then you can zoom in or out.

So super simple commands to use.

To make it a little bit easier, I'm
just going to hit N on my keyboard.

You guys don't have to do this.

And I've got an add-on in Blender that I'm using

that just allows you guys
to see what I'm pressing.

So I'm just going to enable that.

This is not something that you guys
will see in your version of Blender,

because I've specifically downloaded
it and installed this as an add-on.

But you can now see down here the keys I
am pressing are now visible to you guys,

if I press A or S or D or whatever.

So once again just quickly recapping, we hold
in the middle mouse button to turn around.

We hold in Shift and then the middle
mouse button to pan side to side.

And we hold in control or command and our
middle mouse button to zoom in or out.

So once we have that kind of out of the way,
how to actually move around in the interface.

I'll quickly show you what
we have in a default scene.

So in a default scene, if I'm moving around here

with the middle mouse button,
you can see we have a camera.

So if you just left-click, you can
select the camera, or if you left-click

on the cube here, you can select that.

Or if you left-click on this object
here, that's your lamp or your light.

And that's what's going to eventually -- we're
not going to be talking about that today,

but that's what will light your
scene if you were to do a render.

So for now the only thing we're going

to be interested is this default primitive
here, which is just a default cube.

Now if you, for example, wanted to
start with any other kind of primitive

to model it, you could just go Shift-A.

So if you hit Shift-A in Blender,
that's what brings up your Add menu.

So usually when you're going to do
modeling, the thing we're always going

to be starting with are our meshes.

These are the actual pieces
of geometry in the 3D software

that you can manipulate and
extrude and move around.

So in this case you can see
there's the default cube.

Here's just a simple plane.

Here's the circle.

Here's your UV sphere.

It's all just like playschool-level stuff,

like little shapes you would have
learned about in kindergarten.

So let's just not worry about that,
because we already have the default cube.

And if we want to work in Blender,
we have usually a front view.

So if you have a number pad on your
keyboard, you can hit 1 and that'll take you

into the front orthographic view.

If you hit 3, that'll take you
into the right orthographic view.

If you hit 7, it'll take you
to the top orthographic view.

Now if you have a laptop and you don't
have a number pad, you can go to Edit.

You can go over to Preferences.

And you can go over here to Inputs.

And you can go Emulate number pad.

So if you don't have a number pad, and
you just have the basic 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,

and so on on the top of your keyboard,
you can press Emulate number pad,

and then you can close this
and that'll do the same thing.

If you want to do it manually, you can just
go to View and then you can go to Viewpoint,

and you can choose top, bottom, front, and left.

So up here in View, that's how you do that.

But I would definitely recommend getting
accustomed to the viewpoint shortcut.

So for example, 1 is front orthographic
view, 3 is the right orthographic view.

So what we're going to want to do is we're
going to want to hit 1 on a number pad.

And you're going to see up here
it says front orthographic.

You can see right up here
it says front orthographic.

And once again, you can just go here
to Viewpoint, and go into the front

if number pad didn't work for you.

And we're going to now select the default cube.

And the way you know it's selected,
you can see it has this orange outline.

So if I quickly deselect it, you
can see there's no orange outline.

But if I click on it, I can
see it's an orange outline.

So I know it's what we call active.

And I can also look up here
in my Scene Collections,

and I can see under this
collection, here's my cube.

And the cube is highlighted.

It's got this blue bar around it, so I
know it is an active element in my scene.

So it's not my light, it's not my camera,
but it's the cube itself that is selected.

Mow we're currently in what we
call object mode in Blender.

So that's this mode up here, right?

In Object mode, we can see objects.

We can also move them around and rotate them.

But what we want to do today is we actually
want to edit the geometry itself, the mesh.

And to do that with this cube
active, we need to actually go

up to Object mode and go into our Edit mode.

There are other things you
can do in Object mode.

For example, if you hit the G key, you can move.

If you hit the R key, you can rotate.

If you hit the R key twice, you
can rotate on all axes like this.

But if you also hit S, you can scale.

So that's super useful.

But we're not going to be
focusing on that today.

We're going to actually be
getting into the Edit mode.

So let's go over to our Edit
mode with the cube active.

And what we can see here is all of these
points here which we call vertices, right?

If it's a single vertice --
or we call it a vertex, okay?

So what we're going to do now is, you
can click on any one of these verts here,

and you can see they become active.

You can also see up here we are currently in
Vertex Select mode, which means if we have

that enabled, we can select the vertex.

If we then want to select one of these edges,

we can click on the Edge Select
mode, and then we can click on edges.

So if I click on this edge or this edge,
you can see we are able to select them.

Then we have this thing here
called Face Select mode,

which enables us to as the name
implies, we can select individual faces.

So I'm selecting this face.

Now I can select this face.

So what we're going to be
doing in this tutorial,

we'll be going in between
these little modes often.

So let's start by just practicing
some selection.

So with the Face Select enabled, if you want
to select more than one face at a time, right,

so for example, I want to select both of these.

What you can do is you can click on the
face first like this one for example.

And if you hold in Shift, you can click on
the second face, and then the third face.

And then you can hold your middle mouse
button, you can still move around.

Then just hold in Shift again,
and you can keep selecting faces.

And holding in Shift will allow
you to select multiple faces.

If I let go of Shift, and
then I click on another face,

all of a sudden it just selects that face.

So that's how you do multiple face selections.

The exact same thing goes with edges.

If I select one edge and then I hold
in Shift, I can select another one.

Hold in Shift, I can select
the third one, and so on.

And the exact same thing
applies to the vertices.

If I want to select one vertex,
I can go over to the next one

by holding in Shift, and so on, so forth.

So you can see that's how it all works.

So that's just different ways of
selecting essentially the same mesh,

but just in a different way.

So what we're going to do is we're going to hit
1 now to go into our front orthographic view.

And once again, if you go to View, you can go to
viewpoint, and do that over here by going front.

And if we want to be able to model
this, one thing that I'm going

to teach you about are modifiers.

So modifiers are these things down here.

If you go and you click on
the modifier Properties,

you can see something here called Add modifier.

So if we click on Add modifier, you're
going to see a whole bunch of things

which we won't be focusing on today.

But they essentially give our mesh or geometry
certain kind of properties that are applied

to them that can sometimes
make things easier for us.

For example, if we go over
down here under Generate,

we can go over to what's
called a mirror modifier.

And the mirror modifier is essentially just
going to take this geometry and take one side

of it and mirror it exactly
the same on the opposite side.

So let's quickly go ahead
and add in a mirror modifier.

And now we need to select our
geometry and just move it to the side.

So what we're going to actually do is we
can hit A to select all of the geometry.

Then in our front orthographic view, we
can go G, X, and move it over to the side.

You can see it's actually
mirrored on this side here.

And over here, you can see that's our x-axis.

The x-axis you can also see up here, this little
gizmo, shows us the X goes this way, right?

The Z goes up and down like this,
and then the Y goes like that.

But that's from our right orthographic
view, which we're not working in currently.

So just hit 1 to go back to
your front orthographic view.

And over here, you can see
we have the cube mirrored

on the X. You can also change these by the way.

So you can change them like this if
you want to work on different axes.

But we won't be doing that.

Just focus on the X for now.

But what we also want to do is we want
to come over here and enable clipping.

When we enable clipping and we take this cube
and we go G, X -- remember it's all selected,

because we hit A to select everything --

so we're going to go G, X,
and we're going to move it in.

And you can see these are clipping together now.

They're in the middle.

So we're going to bring it
in just about this much.

You can see they're clipping together.

See there.

And if we hit G and then X to move it back
on the X. I hit G and X, move it this way.

You can see they're kind of stuck together.

And that's what clipping
is for, which is all good.

Now they're fused together, and whatever we
do on this side, we'll copy on that side.

But at the moment, if we hit Z,
so if you hit A on your keyboard,

you can go to what we call wireframe.

So you can actually see through this.

And at the moment there is actually a face in
between these two which we don't want, okay?

There's actually a face here.

If I just come over here and I hide the
modifier, you can see there's a face in here.

So let's just go to Face Select,
select this face by clicking

on it, then hit X and delete that face.

Once again, select it, hit
X and just delete the face.

Now we can just bring that back,
and make sure clipping is enabled.

So now what we can do is we can hit A
again to select all of the geometry,

and this time we want to flatten it,
but on the y-axis, this one over here.

So what we're going to do is we're going
to hit S to scale, and we're going to go Y,

and we're going to scale it
down on the wire to flatten it.

So about this much, okay?

If you hit 1 to go back to
your front orthographic view,

you can hit G, X and you can move it like this.

So we want something that looks like this,
and then from the side looks like that.

Doesn't have to be exact, but
just roughly these proportions.

And then what we're going to do is we're
going to go over to our Edge Select option,

and we're going to hit A
twice to deselect everything.

So double-tap A.

And then we're going to select
this face here or edge.

So make sure you're in your Edge Select.

And once you've clicked on it, hold in Shift, go
to the other side, and then click on this edge.

Now they're both active, as you can see.

And then we're going to go S and we're
going to hit Y and we're going to scale it

on the Y like this, as you can see.

That's really easy to do.

And then we're going to hit 1 to go
into our front orthographic view.

And then what we're going to do is,
we're going to hit Z on our keyboard

and we're going to go to wireframe.

Then we're going to go to
our Vertex Select option.

I'm going to click here,
and we're going to drag.

So click and drag.

And we're going to select
just these bottom verts.

And then we're going to go G, Z and move
them up to where that red line is here.

That's our x-axis.

So you can see it's our floor, pretty much.

And then we're going to go G,
X and we're going to move these

in just a little bit on the X, like that.

Snd while we have those verts selected or
active, we're going to go E to extrude,

and then Z. And we're going
to extrude them down.

So extruding them down to about here, like that.

So you can see we have almost
like an hourglass here.

And if you want to go back into solid view,
you can go Z, and then just click on solid.

So now we're back in solid view.

And now we kind of have the torso
of the body, as you can see.

The upper chest and the bottom of our
model here, the bottom of the torso.

But what we want to do now, where this
face is here, we want to extrude a leg.

So we went into our front view, and with those
faces or verts still active in our front view,

we're just going to go R to rotate, and we're
going to rotate it a little bit like this.

But one of the issues we're going to run
into now, if we hit E to extrude and we try

to extrude that face in, they're kind

of clipping together here,
which is not what we want.

So we're going to just hit
Control-Z to undo that or Command-Z,

and we have to temporarily just
come here under our modifiers

to our mirror modifier, and
just untick clipping.

So now if we hit E to extrude and we
extrude it out, so I just hit E to extrude.

So we're extruding it out.

And then just click somewhere
here to stop that action.

You can see we've now extruded the legs.

We can now enable clipping again,
as we do still need the clipping.

With these verts still selected or
active, you can now go S to scale them.

And if you accidentally did deselect them, all
you have to do is just click somewhere here,

just drag over them and select them.

You can also just go to your Face
Select and just select the face.

So for now, let's just actually go
to Face select and select the face.

Go into our front view again
for that face active.

We're just going to go down to about
here, which would be where our knees are.

Bring them in a little bit closer
and then we're going to just rotate.

So hit R to rotate in your front view.

Flatten them out just a bit,
and then E to extrude.

Bring them down to about here.

And then S to scale with that face still active.

And then G and just move it over to the side.

So hit G and just move it over like that.

So you can see now we have the
legs coming down like that.

Very, very simple, very basic so far.

But let's get started with the top here.

So we're going to go -- so holding
in my middle mouse button to rotate,

I'm going to select the top face here.

And then what we're going to do
is go back into our front view,

and we're going to go R to rotate.

And we're going to rotate that
face just a little bit like this.

Just to give a bit of a slant to the shoulder.

And then we're going to do something that might
be a little bit tricky if you're new to it.

But we need to add in some extra geometry here.

And the way we're going to do that we're
going to go over to our edge selector.

So click on Edge Select.

Then you're going to hover your
cursor over this edge here.

And if you hit Control-R or Command-R,
you should see this yellow line appearing.

And if you roll your middle mouse button,
you can see these yellow lines increase.

If you roll it down, they decrease.

So that is what we call a cut.

We're adding in an edge loop here or a cut.

So once you see the yellow line, just
left-click and you can move the cursor,

once you left-click, done
your left-click, to slide it.

Once you've kind of let go of it -- so if you
click again and that option is no longer there,

you can just hit G twice
with that edge still active.

So hit G twice.

And that allows you to slide it along the edges.

So what I'm going to do now is I'm just
going to slide it right down to about here.

And that gives us this square over here.

So let's quickly go to our Face Select option.

Click on the square.

And we're going to go into
our front orthographic view.

And we're just going to go S to scale.

I'm going to scale that square down a bit.

So just S to scale and go
back into your front view.

Rotate it a little bit more and then
G to move it over to the side of it.

So just hit G. And then you're
going to go E to extrude.

And then with that face still active,
you're going to go R to rotate.

And once again I'm always going to my front
orthographic view by hitting 1 on the numpad.

So we're just going to rotate
that face like that.

Then we're going to click on this bottom face.

Once again back into our front view.

R to rotate it a little bit like this, G
to move it up, and now we're going to go E,

and we're going to extrude that face out.

I'm going to bring it to about here.

And then S to scale it, and then hit
G and move it just to the side here.

You can kind of use a bit
of creative license here.

Place it however you want.

But I'm just going to put mine here.

And then we go R to rotate.

Then I'm going to go E to extrude.

And I'm going to go S, X and just
flatten that face just like that for now.

And then I'm going to hover over
this edge here with my cursor.

And I'm going to go Control-R.

Once again, we see the yellow line.

Just left-click.

You can move the cursor to move it, but I'm just
going to leave it there by left-clicking again.

Go into your front view and then
with that active, you can just hit G

and just move it out just a little bit.

And then R to rotate that edge.

So now we have the arms coming together.

It's still very primitive at this point, but
we are trying to make this as basic as possible

for beginners to understand how modeling works.

So let's hold in Shift in our front
view, just so we can move around.

Once again, just remember that.

And roll your middle mouse button to zoom in.

And now we're just going to hit Z
and we're going to go into wireframe,

and we're going to go to
our Vertex Select option.

And over here in the front, you
can just click anywhere and drag.

And we can select vertices.

So I'm just going to select these guys here.

I'm going to hit G and I'm just going to move it
up just to make the legs a little bit shorter.

And this is where you can come in and you
can correct the proportions however you want.

So it's completely up to
you how you want to do that.

But for now I'm just going to leave it as is.

And with these bottom verts actually selected
here, what we're now going to do is we're going

to scale them just a little bit more,
and we're going to make the feet.

So in your front view with those
selected, we're going to go E

to extrude them down to about here.

And then what we're going to do is we're going
to hit Z. We're going to go into Solid View.

Go to your Face Select, and once
again select the face over here.

We're just moving over to the side a bit.

In fact, hit 3 on your number pad to
go to the right orthographic view.

And with that face active, you're going to
go E to extrude, and then Y and you're going

to extrude it forward on the Y like so.

Go to your Edge Select.

Select this edge here and then
go G, Z and bring it down.

Go back to Face select.

Select the face here.

And then we're going to hit 7
or Control-7 or Command-7 to go

into the bottom orthographic view.

You can also just go to View,
Viewpoint, and then go to Bottom.

And with that face still active, we're
going to go R to rotate it and then S,

X. I'm going to scale it a little bit

on the X. Maybe just rotate it a
little bit like this by hitting R.

Then go to your Vertex Select option and
holding in Shift, just click on this vertex

and this vertex so they're both active.

Control-7 again to go into
the bottom orthographic view.

And then G just to move them out like that.

And then hold -- click on this one.

Hold in Shift and select this one.

Control-7 again to go to the bottom.

And you can just move that however you need to,
just to kind of make the bottom of the foot.

So just use how much however
much creative license you need.

But just something like that
basic should be fine.

And then we can come over this
corner here with our cursor.

Hit Control-R and you can
see a yellow line appearing.

Just left-click and then move down to here.

Left-click again and then just S to scale
that in, to kind of make a bit of an ankle.

And that's how simple that is.

Double-tap A to deselect everything.

Shift and Alt.

So if you hold Shift and Alt in,
you can actually click on an edge

and that will Loop select the whole edge.

So once again just practice that.

Shift-Alt, and then click on an edge.

It'll loop selected.

And you can go S to scale
that as well however you want.

So I'm just going to scale
that down just a little bit.

You can also just hit G in your
front view just to move it like that.

So just position the knees where you feel
you need to, but about here should be okay.

So far it's all coming together pretty well.

So let's start working on the upper body here.

To come to the upper body,
select this vertex here,

and then double-tap G just
to slide it back a bit.

And then we're going to go
to our Face Select option.

We're going to select this face here.

And now we're going to hit E to extrude.

And once we've hit that, we're going
to hit S right after it to scale in.

So we're going to scale it into here.

And then we're going to go G,
Y and we're going to move it --

or G, X and we're going to move it in like this.

And I'm going to go G, Z and just
move it up a little bit like that.

And then to flatten it, we're going to go S
and then Z. So S and Z, and we're just going

to flatten it on the Z just a little bit.

We're then going to go E to extrude.

move it up like this.

And then G, X to move it in a bit.

And now what we can do with that face
still active, we can hit Control-Plus

or Command-Plus just to grow the selection once.

Then we can go G, Y, and that'll allow us
to move that all back just a little bit.

If you now hit 3 on your number pad, you
can go to the side of orthographic view,

and over here you can also hit G if you
want to move it around a little bit easier.

So just about here we don't want the
neck too forward or right in the middle.

Just a little bit more back.

Then you can go to Vertex Select and you
can select these chest vertices here,

and just move them to flatten them out a bit,
just so the chest isn't as pointy at the front.

So just like that, you can also select the
verts at the back and just move them in.

The ones on the shoulder
here, you can also move it in.

The arm itself should not be
sitting too forward in the body.

In fact, an easy way to solve this is just
to go Shift-Alt, click on an edge down here

to loop selected, go Control-Plus and grow
the selection till the whole arm is active.

So that should be enough.

And so just make sure it's only these
here that are selected, the arm.

Go to your thing here called
Proportional editing.

So if you click on that, you can
now go G, Y and move it back.

And if you roll your middle
mouse button while you're doing

that you can control the falloff,
so how much goes along with it.

So we're going to roll the middle
mouse button until it's quite small.

And I'm only going to move the arm back
on the Y just a little bit like that.

So once again I just hit G, Y to move it
along to Y. So just back a little bit.

You can go into your right
orthographic view by hitting 3.

And you can actually see the arm
doesn't need to be in the middle,

just a little bit back like that.

And what we can also do is just select this
vert down here, and just bring that in a bit.

It doesn't need to be so
thick here at the front.

So just using proportional
editing here, you can select verts.

You can move them around and you can roll your
middle mouse button to control the falloff.

So this is a really powerful modeling tool here.

I use it a lot in my own work.

At the moment, the waist here is a
little bit thick, so if you come here

to the edge here, you can go Control-R.

Just click twice.

Disable Proportional editing,
and then just go G, Y --

or G, X. So G, X and just move
it in a little bit like that.

So we already have this little
guy coming together quite well.

So let's go over to our head.

So we're going to go over to our Face Select.

Select this face here.

And then we're going to go E to extrude.

We're going to extrude it up to here.

And then we're going to go E one more
time to extrude it about this much.

And then we're going to select this face.

Holding in Shift, we're going
to select this face as well.

And then we're going to go E
to extrude forward, and then S,

and we're going to scale that like so.

We're then going to select this back face here.

Go into your right orthographic view,
and then go G and just move that back.

And then select this top face here.

And just G and move it up in your side view.

You can also just hit G, Z;
G, Z to move it up on the Z.

But we're going to move it up to about here.

And we're just making a really basic head.

If you hit 1 to go to your front orthographic
view, you can just rotate that face like so.

And you can also just select these
side faces here in your front view.

G just to move them over to the side.

And at the moment, the neck's a bit thick.

So if we come in here over this corner, we can
hit Control-R, click twice, and then S to scale.

And now we can just add a little bit
of -- more definition to the neck.

And we can also go Shift-Alt
and click on this edge here.

And in our front view, we
can go G to move it around.

And this is an easy way to kind
of define the neck a little bit.

It really depends on the
character you're making.

You might want a bit of a thicker neck, but
just something like this should be fine.

So you can now kind of see we're getting
this guy coming together quite well.

In the front view as well, you can just
select some of these points on the face.

Just kind of move them around.

And by no means are we trying to
make this look really accurate.

This is very low poly.

We're just going to select this face here,

and we're going to go G and
just also move that down.

So just creating a super basic head model here.

Maybe just grab this edge here,
hit G and just move it in a bit.

So now we have a very low poly
character here, but what we can do

to make this look even better, once
again we can go to our Modifiers tab,

and now on top of this modifier
here, let's go down, click on it.

Go to Generate.

Let's add a subdivision surface modifier.

What the subdivision surface modifier does
essentially, it just subdivides each face.

And it's something that you can turn on and off.

And you can also come here to the
Viewpoint level and increase that.

The render here is simply just what it's
going to be when it does a final render.

But we're going to be focusing
on here is actually just

at the moment the viewpoint display,
because that's what we're actually seeing.

So I've clicked on that now,
and I've bumped it up to 2.

And now we can see it's a lot smoother.

But we're still seeing this cage out here,
like the rough cage we originally modeled.

If you want that to kind of
hug against that modifier,

you can come over here and
click on this cage on.

And it'll put that on it like so,
and it looks a little bit nicer.

So I'm going to click on that.

And now we can just do the exact same thing.

You can go into your front view.

You can just select edges.

So I still have my Edge Select here.

You can hit G to move it.

You can enable Proportional editing to
control the falloff, whatever you need.

So this is where you can kind of
look at a reference image and kind

of just define the shape of your model
or your character a little bit more.

And that's a very, very fun
and powerful tool to use.

And you can select different edges on the torso.

Bring them in a bit just define the mesh
a little bit more and stuff like that.

You can come over here to your leg.

Shift-Alt, just click on this edge here.

Go to your right view.

And just go G and just move the leg
forward a bit to give it some dynamic.

And you can also go hit Z. Go to wireframe.

Go to Vertex Select, and then just click
and select these bottom verts and go G,

Y and just move them back a bit like so.

Just create a little bit of
a bend in the legs there.

So here you can see, using some very basic

and rudimentary modeling techniques,
we've kind of made a figure.

And once again I'm keeping this
super basic for absolute beginners.

That's why it's a very basic-looking
model with no like big features.

It's just getting the main
proportions established.

So what we can do now if we want
to make some very basic hands,

is we can simply just go to our Face Select.

Then just select this face down here.

And with that active, we're going to
hit G and just move it in a little bit.

I'm in my front orthographic view.

And then just E to extrude it a little bit more.

And then I'm going to come over here over
this edge here, and I'm going to go Control-R.

Click twice.

And then double G just to slide it up a bit.

Then I'm going to go to my Face select, and
I'm going to select this face right here.

Then I'm going to go to my
right orthographic view.

And I'm going to go R to rotate,
and then G to move it forward a bit.

Then I'm going to go E to extrude like so.

And then E to extrude one more time.

And then I'm going to disable Proportional
editing, and with that face active,

I'm just going to go Control-Plus.

And then I'm going to go S, X and I'm
just going to scale that down a bit.

Just to make a very, very simple-looking thumb.

We can select this face here.

We can go G, Y and just move back a bit.

And then if you come over this edge, Control-R,
click twice, double G to slide down to here.

And then S just to scale it like that.

Just create a basic wrist.

So this is a very, very simple character.

You can just select edges
anytime you want, G to move them.

So I might want to select this edge here.

G to move that.

Very, very simple.

All I'm doing is I'm with my Edge Select
here, I'm moving around just clicking

on edges, and I'm hitting G to move them.

Let's hit 1 to go back into
our front orthographic view,

and here you can see we have
the basic character done.

So I'm just going to go back
into Object mode over here.

So go into Object mode.

You can also hit the Tab key
as a shortcut to do that.

And at the moment it's not looking very smooth.

So with this cube still active, we're
going to go to Object mode up here,

and we're going to go Shades Smooth.

Now we have nice smooth shading on here.

And if you want this guy -- so example, in
Object mode, if I were to hit R to rotate him,

you can see he's actually
rotating around this point here,

which is what we call an origin point.

But what we wanted that origin point
to be is at the bottom of the feet.

A quick way to do that is just to tab into Edit
mode, hit A to select everything, and then go G,

Z and just move it up 'til his feet are

where that little orange dot
is, or where the floor is.

So you should be sitting right on the floor.

Then we're going to go back into
Object mode, and now if we hit R,

you can see he rotates around that origin point.

So here now in our scene, we have this
character here that's really low poly.

So that means there's very
few points you actually have

to edit when you go into Edit mode.

But he also has a subdivision surface
modifier which makes him look nice and smooth.

So once you've learned these basic extrusion
techniques, and also just how to select verts,

how to select edges, and how to select
faces, and also how to scale them,

rotate them, and extrude them, right?

Once you've learned that, you can
pretty much make anything in a 3D space,

and you can also use your
subdivision surface modifier.

You can at any time come over one
of these edges here, hit Control-R.

Click twice, double G to slide,
and add in more geometry.

And that's how simple this is.

I hope you guys enjoyed this absolute
beginner tutorial on modeling in Blender.

I know it's a little bit lengthy,
but it is for absolute beginners.

So this is probably -- if you're really new to
this, this might be one of your first creations

in Blender, and I really hope you enjoyed it.

I'm just going to go back into object
mode here and yeah, that's pretty much it.

I'll quickly show you guys the one I
made earlier when I was practicing this.

You can see this one, exact same thing.

I just spent a little bit more time on it.

Defined the proportions a little bit more,
but it's pretty much the exact same technique.

And I kept it really simple for beginners.

So I will see you guys next
time for another tutorial,

and if you want to see some more
advanced things, you can check out some

of my other tutorials where I go over
things in a little bit more detail,

but they're also a little bit more advanced.

So I'll see you guys next time.

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