Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Building a House

This tutorial is based on Bart Veldhuizen's "Building a House" from Tutorial #01 published by NaN in 1999 which is also available in a PDF at http://download.blender.org/documentation/BlenderTutorialGuide1.tar.gz (a tar.gz containing BlenderTutorialGuide1.pdf) or http://download.blender.org/documentation/BlenderTutorialGuide1.zip (a ZIP file containing the same PDF).

Permission was asked to use it and Ton Roosendaal said "Be assured that everything that was produced by NaN now is open and free content for everyone to reuse, including the tutorial “Building a House”."

Setting the Scene

Start a new document ( CTRL + X )

Split the window into two side-by-side windows: move the mouse to the line between the 3D window header and the Button window where it becomes an up-down arrow.

Press  RMB  and select "Split Areas" from the menu. Move the line which appears to the middle and click  LMB .

Now move the mouse to the line separating these two windows,

click  RMB  again and split the left-hand window into top and bottom windows.

Do the same to the righthand window to get four windows.

Make the upper left hand window into Top view ( NUM7 );

Make the lower left hand window into Front view ( NUM1 )

Make the upper right hand window into Side view ( NUM3 );

Make the bottom right hand window into camera view ( NUM0 );

Now before you forget which direction each window is looking at, put the cursor over the lower edge of the top menu bar, and hold  LMB  as you pull it down, to expose the setting panel.

Find the View name option, turn it on, and now each of the four views will have the direction it's looking at, listed in the top left, of each window.

While you're here you should take care of the align to view setting as shown in the warning box at the top of this page.

Make the house walls

Leave the default cube, it will be the walls of the house.

Make the roof

Ensure you are in object mode ( TAB  switches between object and edit mode)

Now, in the Front view window (lower left)

Press  SHIFT + D  to duplicate the cube, grab mode is automatically selected, press  Z  to restrict the move to the up-down axis and move the cube to rest on top of the original (pressing  CTRL  while moving will snap it to the grid and make it easier to position accurately.) Press  ENTER  when it is in place.

You can see how useful this four-paned window is; it shows you exactly what's going on.

Noob note-- Make sure that you are in object mode when you duplicate the cube to create your roof. It needs to be its own object so that you can edit it separately from the house object, since you will put one through the other later on (to get the eaves to extend past the walls of the house, without doing extra extrusions)

The top cube is going to become the roof and needs to be made into a triangle

Select the top cube (if it is not already selected) by clicking  RMB  on it

Press  TAB  to go into Edit Mode (check the box in the middle of the 3D window header)

Press  A  to deselect all the vertices

In the front view, or side view, box select ( B ) the top four, you will be able to see that they have been selected in the camera view (lower righthand) window.

Make the apex of roof

Now press  S  for scaling and  X  to limit the scaling to the X-axis (left to right). You could try to move the mouse back and forth to bring the top vertices together, but you will have a hard time lining them up exactly, so it's best to just type in 0 followed by  ENTER  to set scaling to zero.

Note: Another way, although more steps, to choose 2 vertices on one side, and merge them at Center ( ALT + M , choose "Center" and click the Window). Repeat this with the other 2 vertices and you'll have the same result.

Scale the roof

The roof also needs to project over the walls of the house, this can be done in two ways: either scale the whole roof making it taller as well as wider and longer front-to-back or it can be left the same height but just scaled along the X and Y axis.

Noob note: the second method is better

Scaling method 1

This way is simpler, but changes the proportions of the roof, which you may not want to do in a project

Zoom in ( MMB ) if you need to.

Press  A  to deselect everything

Then place the mouse over the roof and hit  L  to select the whole roof.

Scale  S  the whole roof to about 1.1.

Scaling method 2

To change the roof leaving the height the same:

In the Front view (lower left) window press  A  to deselect everything.

Then place the mouse over the roof and hit  L  to select the whole roof.

Press  S  and  SHIFT + Z  and scale to 1.1

Naming the roof and house objects

It is helpful to change the names from the default names to ones which describe the objects: for instance, you could change the name "Cube" to "House" instead and "Cube.001" to "Roof".

However, there is an object called "Cube" and a mesh called Cube which is linked to it so there are two names to change. There is also a material linked as well.

To change the name of the house object, go into object mode ( TAB  if not already there), select the original cube, select the Editing panel from the Button window header ( F9  or click on the icon) and, in the panel "Link and Materials", you will see

"ME:Cube" and "OB:Cube". Click on "Cube" and it will change to a red background, type in your new name, for instance "House" and press  ENTER . Do this for both.

Now select the roof cube in the 3D window and go through the same procedure renaming it from "Cube.001" to "Roof".

Coloring the house

The roof now needs to be given a different colour to the default grey. Select the Shading panel from the buttons window ( F5  or click on the icon)

In the "Links and Pipeline" panel, click on "MA:Material" in the box under the "Link to Object" title. "Material" will appear on a red background, rename it by typing "RoofRed" and pressing  ENTER . You can now go to the second panel with two tabs "Material" and "Ramps" ("Material" should be showing, otherwise click on the Material tab to get it to show).

Note: In v2.45 you will not see any MA:Material box because the program does not assign any material to a new object. You will first have to click the Add New button to display the material info.

Now go to the second group of buttons and the line with "Col" in the second column and click on the grey bar to its left. This will bring up a colour selector, select a suitable red and press  ENTER : lo and behold, the whole house turns red. If nothing happens you are probably in wireframe mode: press  Z  in all four windows to change to solid mode.

To change the house colour to something more appropriate, go back to the lower left window and select the house cube, in the "Links and Pipeline" panel the object will change to "House".

At present, both cubes share the same material, so, to colour the house cube differently, a new one has to be created.

Click on the up-down arrow to the left of "MA:RoofRed" in the "Links and Pipeline" and select "ADD NEW", the text to the right of this arrow now changes to "MA:RoofRed.001".

Click on "RoofRed.001" as before and change it to "HouseSandy". Now click on the bar coloured red next to the word "Col" in the "Materials" panel and you will get a colour selector, choose a suitable colour for the house, press  ENTER  and the house cube will now take the colour chosen.

your house should look like this now

Make a chimney

Go into Object mode, if you're not already in it. ( TAB  flips between object and edit mode.)

Be in Front view (lower left window).

Click  LMB  on the righthand side of the roof, this will select the spot where the chimney will be created.

Press  SPACE  and select Add -> mesh -> Cube from the popup menu — a bit large, isn't it?

Scale it along the X and Y ( S ,  SHIFT + Z ) to about 0.2.

Now grab it ( G ,  X ) and move it into position looking at the front view (lower left window).

When this is correct, move it into position along the Y axis ( G ,  Y ) looking at the top view (upper left window).

You can check the side view (upper right window) and the camera view (lower right window) to see that it looks OK.

Name and color the chimney

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In the link and materials panel in the Edit button panel, change the name of the chimney object and the mesh linked to it to "Chimney".

Next in the "Links and Pipeline" panel in the shading button panel, you will notice there are no buttons, and there is a drop down box with the words "Add New" in it. You can now choose to have the chimney a different colour to the roof or the house or reuse one of these colours.

If you want a new colour, click  LMB  on the "Add New" button and select it as you did for the house and the roof. Rename the material.

If you want to reuse the same colour, you can click  LMB  on the up-down arrow to the left of MA:Material and select from the choices "RoofRed" and "HouseSandy".

Adding a Window and a Door

Make a window frame

Make the frame

Be in Object mode.

Using the front and top views, click  LMB  to place the 3D cursor where you want the window to go.

In the front view (lower left) add a plane ( SPACE  Add > Plane).

Noob note: if the plane shows up laying flat, then rotate it into the right orientation:  R   X , enter 90 for the angle, then  ENTER .

Scale  S  it down to 0.4, and press  ENTER 

To give it a rectangular shape, scale the plane by about 0.8 along the X-axis  X .

Move it into position ( G ), using the top and front view, on the left hand side of the house a little higher than midway.

Be in the Side View window (upper right).

Move the plane along the Y-axis ( G ,  Y ) until it is just in front of the house. You may want to zoom in ( MW ) to see better.

Now, still in Side View,

Switch to Edit mode ( TAB )

Extrude the plane towards the house ( E , "Region", -0.07) until it is embedded in the wall.

Make the sill

To make this box into a window frame will require a larger view: move the mouse into the Side View window and zoom in by rotating the  MW . Optionally, you can press  NUM/  to see just the window object, and then  CTRL + UPARROW , to make the view your mouse is over become full screen.

Deselect all ( A ) and select the outer (leftmost in the right view) vertices using box select ( B ), press  E , select "Region" and immediately (without moving the mouse) press  ESC .

Scale the newly created vertices by 0.9 ( S , 0.9,  ENTER ).

Extrude again inwards to most of the depth of the box about -.03 to -.05 along the Y axis, depending on how you have your window into the wall( E , "Region",  Y , -.03,  ENTER ).

Noob note: the outer panel of the window that you just made cannot be inside the wall, you will see this best on the side view. (if the outer face of the window pane is inside the wall you either won't see any paint/texture you apply, or it will half show up.)

If you used the object view, or single window views, then press  CTRL + UPARROW  and  NUM/  to get back to your original four views.

Naming and coloring the window frame object

To change the name of the object and the mesh to "WindowFrame": go into Object mode, select the Editing panel ( F9 ) and, in "Links and Materials" change "ME:Plane" and "OB:Plane" to "ME:WindowFrame" and "OB:WindowFrame". Under "0 Mat 0" click on the "New" button to assign a material to the window frame: when this changes to "1 Mat 1", click on the grey bar to the left of it and select white from the Colour Selector which appears.

Select the shading panel ( F5 ) and change the name of the material ("MA:Material") to "WindowFrame".

Make window glass

Method 2 is an easier way to make the window glass

Method 1 (Create a Separate Window Pane Object)

Deselect all ( A ),

Create a plane. Ensure it is vertical ( R   X  90  ENTER ).

Scale it to the dimensions of the window frame.

Move it in front of the frame.

Be in Side view.

Move it to the front of the window frame.

Be in front view.

Be in full screen ( CTRL + UPARROW )

Adjust the position and size so it fits within the frame.

Naming and coloring the window glass object

Go back into Object mode (on older versions creating a new object automatically puts you into Edit mode)

Change the mesh and object names to WindowGlass.

Add a new material for the glass and colour it light blue (I chose "87ceeb" SkyBlue).

Method 2 (Assign a Glass Material to the Pane Part of the Window Object)

Deselect all ( A )

Be in Edit mode

Switch into Face ( CTRL + TAB  -> faces) select mode (you've been in Vertex select mode up to now)

 RMB  on the face in the center of the window frame, to select it.

Hit the "New" button, under the 1 mat 1 material box in the Link and Materials panel, you should now have 2 mat 2 displayed in there.

Now to connect the new material to just that one face, press the assign button under the new button.

Naming and coloring the window glass face

You can now change the color by clicking in the square to the left of the "2 mat 2".

Now go to the links and pipline panel on the shading panel ( F5 ) and rename the new material to windowPaneGreen.

Now switch back to vertex select mode ( CTRL + TAB  -> "vertex").

Make the door

Add the door using the same method:

Be in Object mode

Deselect all,

Create a plane, rotating it as necessary ( R   X  90  ENTER ) to align it with the front wall of the house.

Scale the plane down by .7 and then again by .5 along the X axis.

Move it into position using Front view and then move it against the wall of the house in Side view.

Naming and coloring the door object

Change the Object name and the mesh name to "Door"

Create a new material for it

Change the material's name to "Door" and chose an appropriate colour for it.

Building the Fence

The way to build the fence is to create a paling and duplicate this as often as necessary.

Make a paling

Be in object mode, with nothing else selected.

Add a plane, orient it vertically ( R   X  90  ENTER ), scaled to 0.4 and then 0.1 along the X axis in Front view.

Switch to edit mode.

To give it some thickness, go into Side view and extrude it to 0.05.

The pointed top is made by going back into Front view,

Selecting the top vertices and extruding them by -0.07 (along the Z axis is selected automatically),

Scaling them to 0 along the X axis and then removing the doubled vertices ( W , "Remove Doubles": it should say "Removed 2 vertices").

Noob note: If the pointed end extrusion is done before the paling is given thickness, the top doesn't move with the duplicated paling.

In Top view move the paling to the intersection of two grid lines at a suitable distance from the house.

In Front view again, check that the bottom of the paling is level with the bottom of the house.

Name and color the paling

Change the name of the object and the mesh to "Paling", create a new material for it called "Paling" and make the colour white.

Duplicate the Paling (Method 1)

Be in Front view, as the flat face of the paling is along the X axis and it is easier to create the front fence first.

Change to Object mode.

Select the paling and press  ALT + D  and "0.2",  ENTER  to move the duplicate into position along the X axis 0.2 units away from the first one.

Noob note: we are using  ALT + D  instead of  SHIFT + D  as it creates a new instance of the paling. If you wish to make a change to the paling in edit mode, you just need to change one and all the other instances will change too.

Continue until you have the left hand half of the front fence complete, there should be a gap between the left-hand and right-hand halves for a path up to the front door. You can make this by increasing the gap at this point to 1.4 — this number will vary according to where the palings either side of the front door are placed.

Duplicate the Paling (Method 2)

This method uses array modifiers to save work.

Be in Front view, as the flat face of the paling is along the X axis and it is easier to create the front fence first.

Change to Object mode. Select the paling. Switch to the Editing context in the buttons window. Find the Modifiers panel. Click the “Add Modifier” button, and in the menu that pops up, select “Array”. You should see a second copy of the paling appear next to the first.

Look down under the heading “Relative Offset”, there are values for X, Y and Z. Change the X value to something like -2 (the negative value causes the duplicated paling to appear on the other side, away from the gap we want to leave in front of the door). Now increase the number under the popup that says “Fixed Count”, and watch the line of duplicates lengthen until it reaches the point that you want to be the corner of the fence line—a count of about 10 did it for me.

Now type  ALT + D  to make a duplicate of the row of palings, followed by  X  to constrain its movement to the X-axis (parallel to the row of palings). Move the duplicate row to the end of the existing row so it looks like a continuation of it. Now type  R   Z  -90  ENTER  to rotate it so it lies parallel to the side of the house. Increase the array count for this row to something like 24 so it extends all the way past the side of the house to a suitable corner point.

Again, type  ALT + D  to duplicate this second row, this time followed by  Y  to constrain its movement parallel to the side of the house. Move the duplicate so its looks like a continuation of the same row. Rotate it parallel to the back of the house by typing  R   Z  -90  ENTER . Adjust its array count as necessary to get the right length.

Once more, type  ALT + D  to duplicate this third row, followed by  X  to constrain its movement parallel to the back of the house. Move the duplicate to the end of the row, and rotate it to be parallel to the side of the house with  R   Z  -90  ENTER . Give it the same count you did to the array on the other side, so its length will be the same.

One last time:  ALT + D  to duplicate,  Y  to ensure it only moves parallel to the side of the house, move to the end of the row, rotate into position with  R   Z  -90  ENTER . You’ll probably find it’s so long it runs into the original row of palings you started with on the other side of the front of the house; reduce its array count to something like 9 and you should end up with a nice gap in front of the door.

Make the horizontal bars (left side)

150px

The fence needs horizontal bars to hold the palings in place: be in Front view

 LMB  below the middle of the left-hand fence.

Create a plane, rotating it to the vertical as necessary ( R   X  90  ENTER ) and scale it to the length of the fence.

Scale it again to 0.05 along the Z axis and move it into position. ( if you keep  CTRL  pressed while you move it, it will snap to the grid.)

Go into Edit mode ( TAB )

In Side view move it so it is against the back of the fence and extrude it by -0.04 along the Y axis.

Go into Object mode ( TAB ). Give the horizontal bar the same material you previously created for the palings.

Duplicate it ( ALT + D ) and move it (keeping  CTRL  pressed) along the Z axis ( Z ) to make the bottom bar.

Make the horizontal bars (right side)

To make the bars on the right-hand part of the fence: In Front view duplicate the left hand top bar and move it along the X axis ( X ) to the top of the right-hand fence.

Scale it to the width of the right-hand fence.

Duplicate this top bar and move it down ( Z ) to become the bottom bar of the right-hand fence.

Put the fence around the house (Method 1 (above) cont’d)

You only need to do this if you used Method 1 (above) to duplicate the paling.

It is a bit tedious creating each paling individually so, now that you have a few ready made, you can just copy them to make the fence at the back of the house.

In Top view.

Deselect all ( A ),

Box select ( B ) the whole front fence, including the gap, Duplicate it ( ALT + D  again) and move it to the back.

Go into Back view ( CTRL + NUM1 )

Select the shorter of the two fences and box select it in the camera view; then, in the back view, move it over, next to the longer fence, till they look continuous; then duplicate the shorter fence, and move it to the left to fill in the space. (This will take a little thought, as you need to use the front/back view and the top view to line the two fences up properly.)

Delete any unneeded palings that are hanging off the edge of the back, and scale the horizontal bars in the X axis (and then move back to where it needs to go) to fit what's left.

The back fence has the horizontal bars on the outside so it must be rotated:

In Top view, select the whole of the back fence,

press  R  and type in 180 followed by  ENTER .

Move the fence back into position with  CTRL  pressed to snap it to the grid.

The back fence is already selected from the rotation:

Duplicate it ( ALT + D ), press  ENTER  as it is not going to be moved and in top view,

Press  R  to rotate it and type in 90 followed by  ENTER  Press  G  to move it into position as the right hand fence and  ENTER  when it is there.

Duplicate it, rotate it and move the copy to the other side of the house.

Put the Horizontal Bars Around The House (Method 2 (above) cont’d)

You only need to do this if you used Method 2 (above) to create all the palings.

Select the two horizontal bars you created above for the front fence (make sure you don’t select anything else, like the palings). Press  ALT + D  to make a duplicate, then  R   Z  to rotate the duplicate about the Z-axis, type 90 for the angle and press  ENTER  to confirm the rotation. In the top view, move the duplicate ( G ) you just made so it’s against the side fence. Keep scaling it along the Y-axis ( S   Y ) and/or moving it along the Y-axis ( G   Y ) until it’s the right length and position.

Having done the side of the house, press  ALT + D  to make another duplicate of the horizontal bars, and  R   Z  90  ENTER  to rotate it into the right alignment for the back fence. In the top view, move ( G ) it against the palings. Now keep scaling and moving it along the X-axis until it has the right length and position.

Having done the back of the house, do the other side: another duplicate of the bars, rotate 90° around the Z-axis, move against the palings, move and scale until they’re the proper length in the right position.

Again, another duplicate, rotate and move/scale into position against the palings on the other side of the front of the house.

Your house should now look like this.

The Ground plane and a Path

Make the ground

In Top view put the 3D cursor somewhere near the middle of the plot, (click  LMB )

Create a plane

Be in camera view (bottom right-hand window)

Scale it to extend just past the boundaries of what the camera sees (10.0 seems a good number).

Go back into Object mode and change its (object, mesh) name to "Ground",

create a new material for it, rename it "Grass" and select a suitable green from the colour selector ("00cd00" green3).

Check in Front view that it is level with the bottom of the house and fence and move it (along the Z axis) if necessary.

Make the path

For the path.

Go into Top view,

Create a plane,

Scale it to fit the gap in the front fence with some space on either side and position it just outside the fence.

Check, in Front view, that it lines up with the door and is level with the bottom of the house.

Extrude it along the Z axis by 0.01 to give it a little bit of thickness.

Scale it along the X axis to the same width as the door.

Be in Top view,

Extrude the top edge of the plane to the door

Then extrude the left and right edges to a suitable distance to the left and right to make the path passing the house.

Final render

Noob note: If you followed the above instructions exactly, your final render will not look as well-lit as this. Once you have done some tutorials on lighting, feel free to come back to your saved copy of this house model to improve its lighting to look more like this picture.