Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/2D Image (logo) to a 3D Model

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Contents 1 Using Bezier Curve to Model a 3D logo from a 2D logo 2 Set up 3 Introducing the Bezier Curve 4 Rough Tracing 5 Polishing the Tracing 6 Adding a Third Dimension 7 Continue tutorial using bezier curves 8 Adding the circle 9 Johnos Addition (the tutorial on the next page does this too) 10 Adding The Circle 11 Extra Practice

[edit] Using Bezier Curve to Model a 3D logo from a 2D logo

{Construction on hold, feel free to complete}

The image to the left is used in this tutorial. However, the tutorial is easier to follow using letter/numbers, or simple shapes/curves. Basically we will be using the graphic as a template for a 3d logo, tracing it, then discarding the 2d image.

[edit] Set up

You need a 2D logo similar to mine (preferably in JPEG format as Blender understands jpegs fairly well). If you haven't already done so, open blender and select one of the orthogonal view angles by pressing NUM7, NUM3, or NUM1.. At the bottom of the 3D viewport on the left, there are some menus, click View-->Background Image

A small window will appear containing just one button marked use background image; click this button. A few more buttons will appear. One of them says image: and has a small button with a picture of a folder on it; click this button. You are now presented with a file selection screen. Using the navigation techniques from the previous tutorials, find your 2D jpeg image on your computer, click the file in the list once then click the Select Image button at the top right of the screen.

Blender now displays this image in the background of the 3D view for you to trace its outline. The image is only displayed in orthogonal view. If perspective view is enabled, toggle to orthogonal view by pressing NUM5. The image will not be rendered as it is not part of your scene.

Once a background is selected you'll have a dialog like this one. (Note: This tutorial was originally generated from Blender v2.37. v2.43 has been added - older versions may differ.) The background dialog buttons are described below:

The is a toggle button that turns display of the image on or off. Turning the button off will not clear the settings; it just hides the image. When you turn the button on again, your previous settings are back. Try it - click the button a few times. In v2.43 the equivalent button is the button.

Image selection is controlled on the row labeled . There are 2 buttons, a text box, and a final button. The first button is used for browsing for an image. The 2nd button is for selecting an image from a history list. (This will be empty for the first time. Selecting it now will display the image you currently have selected.) The text box allows typing in the file directly. The button removes the current background image. Version 2.43 is the same with the addition of the button that refreshes the image or movie, and the button which shows the number of users of the image block.

The third row is called Texture and will not be used for this tutorial.

The fourth line, labeled blend controls the transparency of the background image with a slider. A setting of 0 is completely solid and 1 is completely transparent. You can adjust it by clicking left or right of the knob for gradual changes, clicking and dragging on the slider for rough settings or clicking directly on the blend text for numeric entry.

The use of the blend function will become obvious once we start tracing our logo. For now, play around with it, see how it changes the image, and put it back to the 0.500 default.

The fifth line, size, controls the size of the image. This size setting is independent of the zoom for the 3D view window. To see how the size works move the default cube off to the side so that you can see both the cube, the background dialog and the background image. Now watch both the cube and image as you change the size. Notice how the image changes size but the cube doesn't? Now press NUM+ and NUM- to change the view's zoom. Now both the cube and image change size.

The final row controls the X and Y offset for the image. These controls move the image up and down (Y) or left and right (X). These settings can be useful if you need to reposition the image from the default position. Like the size, these offset values are independent of the view. As you change the offset values the cube you added earlier won't move. Now scroll the view using by clicking and dragging the SHIFT MMB and notice how the cube and image move together?

Once you start tracing the image you won't be using the size or offset setting. Delete the cube (select it, press XKEY and select All from the Erase menu), and set the size so that the entire image is viewable. Then set both the X and Y offsets to 0. Finally minimize the Background Image dialog. You'll only need it to adjust the blend setting until you finish tracing.

[edit] Introducing the Bezier Curve

The Bezier Curve allows drawing graceful, complex curves and only requires a few control points. Specifically, it only requires 4 points for a curve. Two end points and two control points.

For the moment set the blend to 1 on the Background Image dialog. With the center of the 3D view still selected, press SPACE -> Add -> Curve -> Bezier Curve. Alternatively you can use the Add menu at the top of the screen or press SHIFT -> AKEY to jump directly to the add menu. You should now have something like this:

Unlike the traditional Bezier Curve each Bezier vertex has 3 points. I've labeled the 3 points for the left vector: A, B and C.

Point A is an end point. The curve will always go through this point. Points B and C are control points. These points influence the path of the curve as it leaves Point A. Because the path stops at A, Point B has no real effect on the path. Instead B is currently locked with C. (If you move either B or C, the other will move.) We will fix Point B to move independently a little later.

The control points have 2 effects on the path exiting the end point: direction and distance (these are termed slope and magnitude in math circles) from Point A. The direction will provide the direction that the path will follow when it leaves A and the distance will determine how long the path follows that direction before it starts making its way to the next of the curve.

The example to the left shows how the control points influence the path of the curve. In the top picture, we see three curves. The top curve is the default curve. In the next curve down, C has been moved to give a drastically different direction. Notice how the path leaving A moves away from the other end point. The third curve, the distance was changed dramatically. Watch the path move much higher than the other two curves.

In the bottom example, I've built a heart shape using just the points shown. Dragging the bottom end point down will make the shape closer to a leaf. You'll be able to do the same at the end of this tutorial. Go ahead move around the points for the curve and see how they all interact. Get a good feel working with the curve and when you're ready we'll move on to tracing.

Now that you know how to work with a bezier curve set blend back to 0.5 on the Background Image dialog so we can start tracing.

[edit] Rough Tracing

The first step in tracing is to click the Polygon convert button on the curve tools panel. You'll find this in button on the Buttons Window. You may need to select the Edit Panel. Press F9 if this panel isn't visible. If you don't already have a curve add one now. It will help to move the curve to the center of the yellow lightening bolt if you must add a new one.

User's Note: The 'Curve Tool' panel will not appear if you don't have a bezier curve already placed. I learned this the hard way.

Next, move the vertices of the curve to the points shown in the image to the left. This is called Rough Tracing because you don't need to exactly trace the image. You only need to approximate the image. Moving the vertices should be done using the instructions from the Creating a Simple Hat tutorial.

Note: Selecting the best place to put a vertex is a bit of an art that you'll acquire as you work with curves. For now follow the arrows along the cutouts and place each of the vertices as shown.

This tracing uses all the vertices of the polygon. Other cases, you'll need add or remove extra vertices. Adding and removing vertices as shown in Turning a Cube into a Puppy tutorial (Note: To add a vertex select the end point of your curve press CTRL and click LMB. At the place you clicked a new vertex will appear connected to your curve.).

After moving the last vertex, we finish the rough tracing by pressing the CKEY to close the polygon. You should see an image similar to the one on the right. (If you only have an outline switch your view port shading to solid by pressing the ZKEY for now.) Notice how the polygon doesn't cover all of the yellow of the bolt and how in some places the polygon fails to conform to the shape of the bolt. This is expected and should not be a cause for concern. We correct this in the next section.

Once you've finished several logos you should begin to get a feel for the required placement of vertices. Until then, here are some general guidelines to keep in mind:

• A gradual curve may only require a single vertex.
• Tight curves will likely require two closely placed vertices.
• Curves may not require a vertex at all - you can define some curves using the control points of the adjacent vertices. We did this for both of the inside curves of the bolt above.
• Corners require a single vertex placed where the curve bends. A square, for instance, requires four vertices - one at each corner - to be modeled properly.
• The end point of a curve will always be on the curve. So should all of the vertices you place.

We are now ready to move onto the next step modeling the logo. Press ZKEY to return to wire frame mode and prepare for the next step.

[edit] Polishing the Tracing

First, press the Bezier convert button to convert the polygon back to a curve. This will convert your polygon back into a curve. Nothing obvious will happen. If you look close, you should notice the number of points on the curve tripled. When you converted the curve back to a Bezier curve, Blender changed all of the polygon vertices to Bezier vertices. While the polygon vertex is a single point the Bezier vertex is made of an end point and 2 control points. So the extra points are the control points of the Bezier vertices. These control points are placed along the curve to produce the same shape as the converted polygon.

Our job is to move the control and end points so that the curve follows the edge of the bolt. The trick is to move the 2 control points between adjacent end points to bend the curve to the edge of bolt. First, move the right control point of the top-left vertex. This should pull the curve from its end point to more closely match the line of our bolt. After placing this point, we move to the next control point following a clockwise direction around the bolt. Use the RMB to select the point you want to change and move it with GKEY to place it.

As you move the second point notice how the curve exiting the first end point is drawn away from the edge of the bolt being traced. We now have to adjust the first control point again to get that line back on track. This quickly turns into a balancing act adjusting each set of control points. The trick is to make smaller movements for each iteration of adjustments. Make a game of it and move the control points all along the bolt. Always move along the clockwise direction. This practice is not just for consistency, it keeps your place and ensures that moving a control point doesn't change a portion of the curve that you've already completed. In time you learn to move the first point only part of the way. Then moving the second brings the curve for the first into correct alignment.

If you have some trouble aligning the curve to the edge of the bolt, consider adding a new point. There are two (at least) ways to accomplish this:

• Select 2 points that surround the problem spot where you want a new vertex and click the Subdivide button on the Curve Tools 1 tool panel.
• If near an end point, Select it, press the CKEY to open the curve, then Control+LMB click to add a new point beyond the end of the selected final vertex. Press the CKEY to reclose the curve.

The new end point should be positioned and then you have to adjust the curve on both sides of the end point you move. Any time you move an end point be sure that the curve going into both adjacent (clockwise and counter-clockwise) end points still aligns with the edge of the bolt.

Once you've made the complete circuit around the bolt, you're ready for the final polishing of the edge of the curve. Press the TAB to switch to the object mode. This makes the polishing easier as Blender hides the points and lines for editing the curve. Now zoom in on the bolt's edge using the NUM+ or Control+LMB drag. Use Shift+MMB drag the screen so that you closely observe the entire edge of the bolt while zoomed in closely. Look for places where the curve pulls away from the edge. Also look for sharp bends at each of the end points that should be smooth. You can see several defects that I found in my project after tracing the bolt. Switch back into edit mode to fix the curve and then go back into object mode to look for more defects.

Sharp end points are adjusted by decreasing the angle between end point and the control points. For Blender specific case that I know of, sharp points have a tendency to show to the side of the end point. This typically requires adding a new vertex between the two end points to smooth out the curve. Places where the curve pulls away from the edge can be resolved by moving the control point closer to the edge. In the above image the curve was found to have been pulled away from the edge. This was fixed by moving the control point a little to the left.

Here's the final polished curve for my project. It is shown in both edit mode and object mode so you can clearly see both the control and end points on the left and the curve to the right.

Note: If you have never worked with Bezier curves before, try it with a 2D paint program such as Inkscape or Paint Shop Pro. It might be quicker and easier to learn proper placement of control points in a program where drawing the curves is quick and simple.

Helpful Tip: In blender 2.37 and later (not sure of earlier versions) pressing the HKEY toggles the control points between free and aligned (Edit Mode). Free Control Points are good for sharp angles, and aligned are good for smooth curves. This shortcut is in the Space>Edit>Control Points menu.

This concludes the tracing of the bolt. All that remains is making the curve 3 dimensional, applying a material and positioning the final object. Before doing that, we will trace the circle in the next part of the tutorial. Save this project if you want to take a break before continuing. You'll need it on the next turorial.

[edit] Adding a Third Dimension

First, give the object some depth. Leave editmode, go to the editbuttons screen, and under the "Curve and Surface" tab, set the following values:

Extrude: 0.2 (the height of the extrusion on either side)

Bevel Depth: 0.02 (the radius of the round bevel applied to the exruded edge)

BevResol: 4 (the number of subdivisions on the bevel curve)

(Note: In previous versions, Extrude and Bevel Depth were Ext1 and Ext2.)

Also, if you have a simple logo go ahead and increase the DefResolU value to 25. If you have an extremely complicated image this is totally overboard but looks nice when you are just tracing text or numbers.

Now you can use your knowledge from earlier in this book to change the material and/or add texture to your logo. Feel free to rotate, add lighting, or whatever floats your boat. Don't forget to press ZKEY to toggle wireframe mode.

-=< Tutorial under Construction, ready soon, thanks for input spiderworm >=-

[edit] Continue tutorial using bezier curves

- This continues the tutorial, finishing up the sample logo from the image in the tutorial using bezier curves. These instructions make the assumption that you completed the first part in front view with NUM1. An alternative method for doing this using mesh circles has been presented below.

First, to make the lightning bolt distinct from the second part of the logo, it may help to apply a yellow material to it before getting started.

[edit] Adding the circle

Switch to object mode by hitting TAB if you aren't already there. Press space -> Add -> Curve -> Bezier Circle to add a closed bezier curve with four points forming a circle. If you are in solid draw type, switch to wireframe with ZKEY so you can see the underlying image better. Hit SKEY to scale the bezier circle to fit over the circle in the image. You will probably find that the bezier circle is not dead center on the sample logo so you will need to move it with GKEY to center it. You may need to scale it and move it several times to get it right. You will also find that the circle in the sample image is actually a slight oval, so scale and position the bezier circle so that it touches the circle in the image on the left and right sides. Normally, you could then scale the circle and constrain it on the z axis by hitting SKEY then ZKEY, but it turns out that the oval isn't regular anyway, so just select the point on the top and hit GKEY then ZKEY to move it down until it touches the top of the oval in the image. Then do the same for the bottom point and you should have a pretty good fit.

Just to understand what's happening in the next steps, switch to solid view with ZKEY. As you can see, you now have a circle, but it's filled in the middle where you want to be able to see through it. To cut a hole out of the circle, hit space -> Add -> Bezier Circle while you still have it selected in edit mode. A new circle will appear inside the larger circle. As you should be able to see in solid mode, the new circle actually cuts its shape out of the larger circle surrounding it. Switch to wireframe mode with ZKEY so that you can see the underlying image again. Scale up the smaller circle so that it approximately fits the inner part of the circle in the image. Don't worry about getting it exact since you'll be manually moving all four points anyway. Move the bottom point of the bezier circle to the top left corner of the bar that crosses the circle.

Move the right point of the circle to the other corner. When you create a Bezier Circle, Blender by default sets the alignment of all the control points to aligned. To make the diagonal bottom edge you need to break the alignment on the two lower sets of control points. Hitting the HKEY will toggle between free control points and aligned. Once you've selected the two lower bezier points and hit the HKEY to make them free you can move each of the inner control points to create a nice straight edge.

Then move the other two points and adjust their control points until you have a pretty good approximation of the rest of the inside curve. Next step is to press space -> Add -> Bezier Circle again and repeat the same steps, but for the lower opening in the logo. Once you've completed both openings, switch back to solid view with ZKEY and examine your work. Make any adjustments you need to swithing the draw type back and forth as needed.

The next step is to make this part three dimensional like you did with the lightning bolt. Go to object mode with TAB, then select the editing buttons. Under curve and surface, set Extrude/Ext1 to 0.2, Bevel Depth/Ext2 to 0.02 and BevResol to 4. You can also set DefResolU to 25 as suggested for the lightning bolt. Looking at the results, the bevel effect may not be enough, so try increasing Bevel Depth/Ext2 to something like 0.15. That should look better, but there will be a problem. Switch back to wireframe mode with ZKEY and you'll see that the bevel has widened everything so that the circle no longer matches the original image. This can be fixed fairly easily by reducing the width parameter under curve and surface until it fits again.

For final steps, select the lightning bolt again and switch into sideview with NUM3 and hit GKEY and then YKEY to move the bolt backwards. Move the bolt back so it no longer intersects with the circle and bar. Apply a red material to the circle and bar portion. Finally, you can go to view, then to background image and hit the background image button to hid the image now that it is no longer needed. At this point, you can add any finishing touches for lighting and camera angles and render the logo.

[Noob Note: I'm new to Blender but have been dealing with bezier's for a long time, and this method of creating the slashed circle seems excessively complicated (whereas the other alternative presented bypasses the point of using curves altogether). The inside of the circle is just 2 half circles cut out from the original larger circle and would only need 2 points to draw out (for each half). Here's what I did.

Another noob note: I found that instead of doing all of this, just insert the inner circle, rotate by 45 degrees, and scale and grab along y and x axis and you will have a much better looking circle

After placing the large circle as instructed above, add a Bezier curve space -> Add -> Curve -> Bezier Curve.

Select the individual points and use to move them to the ends of the half circle. grab the control points and pull it up and away from the actual vertex points until the shape of the curve fits the image.

Select the vertex points again and hit HKey to change the control points to Free mode.

Now adjust the remaining two control points so they are pointed right at each other (so it will draw a straight line when we close the shape). Then CKey to close the shape and there is a Bezier half circle.]

[edit] Johnos Addition (the tutorial on the next page does this too)

- The following tutorial assumes that you were creating a logo from the one above, and that you are willing to listen to an idiot. :-)

I am new to Blender3D but I will try to finish this tutorial, and leave you with this:

[edit] Adding The Circle

OK, what you have so far is a lightning bolt, which is great. It's also nice and rounded which is even better. However, what we are missing at the moment is the outside circle. This is probably not the best way of doing it, but it is one way. Instead of using the Bezier Curve, I am using Circles.

Go to the top view (NUM7), and press SPACE -> Mesh -> Circle. Accept the 32 vertices, you can make it less but it won't look as good.

Move it into the center of the circle, if you don't then I advise you have wireframe on for the moment (press Z). Then press S, for scale, and make it the correct size for the inside of the circle. Once you have that in the correct place, like so:

You may notice that I needed to stretch it sideways a little; you will too. OK, deselect that, (press A, once or twice). Now make another circle, move it into the middle, and change the scale (SKEY, remember) so that is reaches to the outside of the big red circle, bigger than the circle that you added before. Now here is where I am sure there's an easier way of doing it, but I don't know how so what I did to fill in the circle with faces was this.

If you don't read this carefully, then you may not get the wanted end result. Deselect the second circle, then select four vertices, that are in a square and will make up a face.

Once you have that, press F and a face will appear, i.e. the box will be filled (turn off Wireframe, press z). Now do this right around the circle. To do this, hold down Shift and Ctrl, then draw a circle around the two vertices you wish to deselect with the Left Mouse Button. Then draw a circle around the next two vertices while holding down Ctrl and LMB, NOT SHIFT. Shift changes the control from selecting, to deselecting. This might take a while, sorry. Once you have got right around the circle it's time to make the line through the middle... this is easy!

NOTE: A quicker way of making the circle object in this scene is to only create the small circle, select it, press 'E' to extrude (choose Only Edges), press 'S' to scale and another sized circle will appear, size this appropriately then click LMB. Then to create the cross, select 2 vertices at either side of the circle near where the cross overlaps, then press 'F' to create a face.

This way is a lot faster, thanks for your help :-) To make the crossing line however, you need to move 4 of the vertices slightly; example below:

Once you do this, highlight the 4 you moved, then press F.

Making the circle 3D

Highlight the full circle by pressing A either once or twice. Go to Side View, and press E for extrude and drag it down so that it is the same thickness as the lightning bolt (you'll see why). Now this bit is purely for art's sake, you won't probably learn anything here but it's good practice.

Now look at what you have made... it looks nice enough but where the lightening bolt goes through the circle it looks a bit odd so we will make it look like the circle is lying on top of the bolt. Where the bolt goes through the circle, note the edges and the vertices. Move them so that the lines are just either side of where the bolt goes through. Then make new edges using CTRL+R on the outsides of these edges. Like so:

Now you have squares where the lightning bolt hits the circle. Change to Wireframe (z) if you are not already in it then highlight the 16 vertices of these boxes and raise them. Now do the same for where the center line crosses the bolt but create 4 lines instead of two. To explain why, I've done a diagram.

Now we can make the finishing touches, add subsurf and set it to 2 or 3 and add color! Then you are done :-) I won't go over subsurf and adding color because people have covered that better than I could in previous 'Noob to Pro' pages. I think that's everything. I did this and ended up with the first screenshot so I'm sure you will as well. Sorry about any spelling mistakes, and I'm sure I didn't use the easiest methods but I've only been doing this kind of stuff for 3 days :-) Good luck

[edit] Extra Practice

An Alternate More Difficult Tutorial