Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Creating a Simple Hat

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This tutorial uses the simple person model from a previous tutorial. If you didn't do it, go back and do it now---or find it pre-made just for you here. Alternatively, if you just want to make the hat without putting it on a person at the end, you can go ahead and do that without having completed the other tutorial.

Contents 1 Adding an object 1.1 Setup 1.2 Create a circle 2 Deleting a selection 3 Creating the hat profile 4 Spinning the hat 4.1 Setup 4.2 Spin the curve 5 BIG UPDATE 6 Final touches 6.1 Now it's time to subsurf

[edit] Adding an object

The first step to hat-making is editing a simple mesh circle.

[edit] Setup

• use the orthographic view (NUM5);
• get a sideways view of the model (NUM3);
• if you're starting with the simple person model, pan the view (SHIFT+MMB) to place the scene center a good distance above the simple person's head;
• make sure you're in Object Mode (TAB) to add the hat as a separate object. (Note: It will cause problems if you do not switch into Object Mode)

Now, place the 3D cursor on center of the view (LMB) and snap it to the nearest grid node (SHIFT+SKEY then Cursor → Grid).

[edit] Create a circle

Do SPACE → Add → Mesh → Circle, with 12 vertices. In the latest Blender version the default is 32 vertices but you may use the arrows to set it back to 12: click the arrows to change, or click and drag left or right, or click on the number and type a new one. Change the radius to 1.41. Click on OK. We now have a selected circle. In the bottom left corner of the viewport, you should see the name of the selected object: Circle.
If all you see is a line, then you are looking at the side of the circle. Rotate it around to see it from a different angle, or switch to Top view(NUM7)

[edit] Deleting a selection

Make sure you are in Edit mode, then switch to Edge select mode (CTRL+TAB) and have only the three edges selected as seen in the picture (AKEY to deselect all, then click RMB; hold down the SHIFT key when selecting the second and the third ones).

Delete these edges by pressing XKEY → Edges.

[edit] Creating the hat profile

Now make sure you're in edit mode and switch back to Vertex select mode (CTRL+TAB → Vertices), and try to make the line to look something like what's shown to the right:

• AKEY to select/deselect all vertices
• RMB to select/deselect a vertex
• SHIFT+RMB to select/deselect multiple vertices (or BKEY to use the Border select tool)
• GKEY to move a selection (hold down CTRL while moving to use snapping)
• EKEY to create another vertex attached to the one selected

Notice: Be sure that the Proportional Edit Falloff button is off (orange is on; gray is off). You can toggle this control with the OKEY. We'll learn more about proportional edit in a later tutorial, but for this step, it should be off, meaning that you have full control on each vertex separately.

[edit] Spinning the hat

To make a hat out of this curve, we'll use the Spin tool to create a surface of revolution.

Note: the Spin tool, like some other Blender operations, works differently based on the rotation of the 3D view you are on: it will rotate the polyline around the axis that is perpendicular to the plane of the active 3D view and that passes through the 3D cursor.

[edit] Setup

This will make sure the 3D cursor is placed exactly at the rightmost vertex:

• select the rightmost vertex (RMB),
• then choose SHIFT+SKEY and Cursor → Selection.

Then select the curve to spin and choose the rotation axis:

• select all the curve vertices using your favorite method (AKEY, BKEY, etc...),
• choose the top view (NUM7).

[edit] Spin the curve

Switch to the Editing panel (F9, or CMD+F9 for Mac users). In the Mesh Tools tab, locate the Spin, Spin Dup and Screw buttons and fill the fields as indicated below:

Degr: 360
Steps: 12
Turns: 1

Noob Note: There are 3 similarly named tabs [Mesh], [Mesh Tools] and [Mesh Tools 1] (in Blender 2.46, [Mesh Tools More]). Look under [Mesh Tools], which can be found in the editing tab.

Now hit Spin to create a surface of revolution around the Z-axis.

Troubleshooting: in case you have more than one 3D window open, your mouse cursor may change to a "?" sign: additionally click on the window in which you want to perform your rotation (the top view window).

Note: the rotation axis is parallel to the Z-axis because we chose the top view.

[edit] BIG UPDATE

After much struggling to follow many tutorials based on older versions of Blender, I have downloaded multiple versions to discover why the tutorials based on versions such as 2.43 don't work when attempted on updated versions such as Blender 2.48a and above.

Newer versions such as 2.48 have added a new option to /not/ have added objects rotated to the current viewpoint. With older versions, being in top, front or side view would cause any newly added objects to face different directions on creation. Newer versions of Blender introduced the ability to force all objects into the same global orientation; even worse, they set it up that way BY DEFAULT! This means that unless the user deliberately changes the settings in the new versions, many older tutorials will act as if they are broken.

Here is how newer versions of Blender can be set to act in the same way as the older versions: resolved by simply setting the (i): USER PREFERENCES menu in the right way. Newer versions of Blender (such as version 2.48) can be made compatible with older tutorials by changing some important settings:

1) Find the "(i): User Preferences" window 
2) Select the [EDIT METHODS] tab (find it by dragging down the user preferences window)
3) Under the header "Add new objects", click the "Aligned to View" button.
4) Optional: For some tutorials it may also be helpful to click on the "Switch to Edit Mode" button.

Making these simple changes will "unbreak" tutorials written under Blender version 2.43, by allowing new objects to be automatically oriented to whatever viewscreen orientation is selected in the active viewscreen. Any time object rotations, lattices or whatever else end up completely out of alignment with what older tutorials say should happen, these steps are your first best fix for almost every such situation.

[edit] Final touches

We'll now extrude the hat front to make an eyeshade:

• use the top view (NUM7),
• choose Edge select mode (CTRL+TAB),
• then select the four frontmost edges of the hat (RMB for the first one, and SHIFT+RMB for subsequent ones),
• finally extrude the selection (EKEY → Region): drag them down; you can press the YKEY to limit the extrusion to this very direction.

[edit] Now it's time to subsurf

In the Editing buttons, from the Modifiers panel choose: Add Modifier → Subsurf. Rotate the view around and you will notice that your hat has a "split at the seam". Because of the Spin tools options we chose, there are several pairs of vertices that share the exact same spot in 3D space which produce those subdivision seams. To solve this issue: in Edit Mode select all vertices (AKEY) then choose WKEY → Remove Doubles.

Now all our seams will display correctly, since you've removed the unnecessary overlapping vertices in the mesh. Whew! You now have a lovely new hat! Pat yourself on the back, good work! You can neaten it up a little more by hitting WKEY → Set Smooth to give it a nice smooth finish.

If you do not remove doubles, your hat will look like this:

Keep this simple person/simple hat file open because you'll need it in the next tutorial.