Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Model a Silver Goblet
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[edit] Basic Shape
On first pass, the goblet looks like it is composed of a cylinder(s). While it is possible to model the goblet with a cylinder mesh, we can just use a cube. What is the benefit of using a cube? It is faster to make and there are fewer vertices to track.
--Chuey 14:22, 6 June 2007 (UTC) (Noob) Fastest way I use to make any cylindrical object is to first create a cross-section of half the goblet using vertices connected by edges. Then place the curser on the center vertex and revolve around the center axis (Editing – Mesh Tools – Spin Button) 360 degrees. This allows you to create complex geometry very easily. The earlier Creating a Simple Hat tutorial explained how to do this.
--note that if you use the above method, the goblet is made of 2d faces, so the actual "cup" part doesn't have a 3 dimensional feel to it. (I'm sure there is a way to correct this, but it seems beyond the scope of this tutorial). It is a great method for making completely solid objects with no hollow parts.
Starting with the default cube in NUM 1 view and Edit Mode, extrude the top face three times. Scale each extrusion vertices to create the first knob. This example scaled E1 and E3 to 0.300 and E2 to 0.700.
Note that it would be extremely difficult to scale later extrusions in this tutorial if you scaled the first 3 extrusions(the ones you've just made) now because later extrusions will be based on the scaled areas of the first 3 extrusions(precisely the third extrusion). A better approach is to extrude 12 times subsequently, then scale every extrusion individually(after making all extrusions)"I dont belive that i did it your way and found it harder" . Noobie Jon says: You can scale/extrude as the tutorial says; just scale the vertices that are supposed to be .700 after the initial 3 extrusions to 2.333. It's not difficult, just basic math. "Noobie Dave says: This pic shows how i think the extrusions should go http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c366/1h23/Blender/Goblet.png This is before you re-size them, now follow the rest of the tutorial. I hope this helps
Continue extruding up. This design will take 12 total extrusions - 3 to make the first knob + 1 for the stem + 4 to make two upper knobs + 4 for the cup.
After moving and scaling the first 10 extrusions, select the top 8 vertices (shown below). Scale these in along X and Y to 0.900. This will make them only slightly smaller than what will be the outside of the cup. Pull E11 down so that it is level with E10. This makes the rim. Finally, pull E12 down inside of the cube to form a container.
Noob Note: Because this section is really a bit vague I will try to explain it step by step: first select the top 4 vertices of the cup then extrude (EKEY) them by e.g. 1 in Z-direction -> then scale (SKEY) them to 0.9 -> hit GKEY and -1 in Z-direction (back to the top of the cup) -> now hit the EKEY and bring those 4 vertices back to the bottom of your cup (good to know how deep your cup is...) HTH
(Yoshi says Note: This section is vague so try experimenting, the main thing to do is to make knobs by making a small box, then a big one, then a big one, then a small one. (If you follow the tutorial: small = scale to 0.3, big = 2.333). Then at the end of the cup make a box the same size than hit G then Z and pull it down.
Alternative Method: The following is an outward scale & extrusion from the cube.
Looking blissfully at a 'new' cube, in Edit Mode. Move to the side view (NUM3KEY). Box select (BKEY) the top edges of the cube. Extrude (EKEY → Regions) upward about one grid square. Hold down CTRL while extruding, for incremental movement, and press the ZKEY to restrict movement to the Z-axis. Repeat 2 more times. Now Extrude a longer piece, for the Goblets stem, of approx. 10 grid squares. Next we will define the area for the 2 top knobs & the bottom of the glass, by Extruding upwards 5 more times at 1 grid square each. The glass itself will consists of another upward Extrusion of about 10 grid squares.... resulting in a tall rectangle, with several horizontal edges... minus the E11 & E12 extrusions as seen in the image provided below.
Now, lets begin to inflate the glass. First, clear all selections by hitting the AKEY, once or twice. Starting at the base & still in the side view (NUM3KEY). Box select (BKEY) the original cube, at the bottom. Then expand it outward by scaling (SKEY), followed by 'SHIFT+Z to lock/prevent any scaling in height along the Z-axis. Repeat in a similar manner for the ornate knobs (what would be E2, E5, & E7), 1 below the stem & 2 above, just use you imagination. Then expand the top, Goblet (vessel) rectangle, until it is about 12 grids in width.
Last is the cups interior. Once again, you should still be in the side view (NUM3KEY). Box select (BKEY) the very top most edges of the Goblet. Once selected, get a better view by changing to 'Orbit Up' (NUM8KEY). With the top surface selected, initiate an Extrusion (EKEY → Regions), followed by a termination with the ESCAPEKEY. It will appear as if nothing has happened, but new (overlapping) edges have been created & are now selected. Next Scale (SKEY) the selected edges to create the inside lip of the cup. You can eyeball it, or just type .8 and press the ENTERKEY as a thickness. Almost finished. Extrude (EKEY) the interior lip, along the Z-axis (ZKEY) downward to create the bottom interior of the Goblet. Finish off with a 'Remove Doubles' (WKEY → Remove Doubles), for good measure.
Note: If the thickness of the vessel sides or bottom is too thin. The Goblets interior faces may 'bleed through' affecting the exterior of the Goblet, when you apply a subsurf.
You many want to try modeling the inside/bottom of the Goblet (sim. to "Die Another Way" tutorial). Turning on "Occlude Background Geometry" will be helpful, as it turns off the ability to see & select through the model. Although, there is currently no Hotkey for it (shoud be CTRL+TAB+4... but it's not). The button icon is that of a "ISO Cube" located with the 3 select mode buttons (4 dots, 2 lines, & a triangle) of the 3D Toolbar, in Edit Mode.
[edit] Smoothing and Defining
Time to take the mesh and turn it into a proper goblet. Add a subsurf level 2 to the mesh. Change to Object Mode (TAB) and select the Set Smooth button under Links and Materials. The cube-looking mesh will now look like an object that was created from a cylinder. This has removed all our crisp edges, and our globlet is looking very unstable! Let's rectify things by flattening the bottom.
Noobie Jon says: If your goblet has a bulge in it after applying the subsurf, go to edit mode (Tab), select all (AKEY), press WKEY, and select "remove doubles".
[Noob Question: The Newer version (2.49b) of blender uses WKEY for boolean operations, what would I press then??] -answer- you must be be sure to be in edit mode before using WKEY.
Select the four edges that surround the small circle at the very bottom (the very lowest set of edges) and press SHIFT + EKEY to enable creasing. Now drag the mouse up and down to select the level of the crease. When you're satisfied, hit LMB. Repeat the process for other edges you want to be sharp. I've turned on Draw Creases under Mesh Tools 1 to illustrate which edges have been creased (highlighted yellow) in this example.
Note: Due to the vagueness of this tutorial I had problems trying to follow what was wanted. I got around it by beveling the goblet (for the cup-edge/thickness), and then merging necessary vertex. Here is how it turned-out:
That concludes the creation of the goblet. Save the scene for use in the lighting tutorial. To jump to the relevant lighting section, go to Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Light a Silver Goblet
[edit] Transparency
Okay, this is pretty much just because I wanted to show off my work, but also because transparency was really hard to find and really easy to actually do. I don't know if there's a lesson on transparency in this, but I really wanted glass, and I'm impatient. This little bit is for anyone else who's interested in modeling the goblet as glass and is impatient like me. If you try this, first keep the non-transparent goblet saved somewhere, it is used in the "silver goblet and lighting" follow-up tutorial linked above.
Hit F5 to go the texture context and then click the red ball icon to open the material buttons.
The following images show the settings needed, and the final render of my green glass goblet.
In Materials is an Alpha slider- goes from 0.00 (invisible) to 1.00 (opaque). It needs to be pretty low, less than .25, I'd say. Also in the Edit buttons (F5) is a section called "Mirror Transp", for me it's a tab between "Shaders" and "SSS". In here the "Ray Transp" button must be on. The IOR value is refraction rate- the value of glass is 1.51714. Next to that is Depth, determines how deep to apply transparency. I recommend maxing it to 10, to play it safe.
- Tilescreen's addition
Ray transp stands for Ray Tracing Transparency, this basically involves shooting light out from the camera and bouncing it about your 3d scene. The depth value of the ray tracing settings determines how many times a ray of light can 'mirror' (reflect off a surface) or 'transp' (refract through a surface, just like at school with prisms and the light bends). It is possible to work out how much depth you need as each time it enters or exits a surface you will need +1 level of depth. So for this you should need about 4 or 5 depending on how complex you have made this goblet. If you don't have a sufficent depth it will just come out a solid colour with no transparency.
More on Ray tracing. Samples refers to how many beams of light will be fired out of the camera to calculate the refraction and reflection. higher numbers = better quality but also increase render time, but the real killer is the depth. Increasing it by one means it has to work out an (in my case) an additional 18 bounces. Also try adding a filter to slightly blur your reflections and refractions but only a tiny one.
To get a softer shadow then click on the lamp, press F5 and increase the samples (found in Shadow and Spot) this will shoot out more shadow rays and give you softer shadows.
- End of my addition
- Yoshi's addition:
Try experimenting with the colours. The easiest way I know to do this is:
Select the goblet in object mode. Go to the textures tab (next to the red ball), and under 'texture type' pick 'blend'. Then click 'colours' next to the textures subwindow, and hit 'colorband'. You can change the colours by click on the left of the bar, then double clicking the coloured bar under it. Once you pick the darkest colour (left), click the far right of the checkered bar and do the same as before.
- End of Yoshi's addition
If you want a shadow, you'll need to create a plane and go into the "Shader" settings for it. Turn on "TraShado", otherwise the shadow will be a flat black one and look all wrong.
- Noob says: Even when I turn on TraShado, the shadow is flat black... I can't get those lighter edge shadows. Solution: Make sure that TraShado is applied to the plane rather than the cube and that Shadow is also selected.
Reader note: If the ray tracing transparency does not work for you, make sure that the ray tracing is enabled in the Scene (F10) menu. It's the Ray button in the Render panel.
- Noob says: No matter what I do, my goblet stays opaque and my goblet has no shadow when on a plane. Do I have to somehow link my goblet to my plane?
noob answer:adjust the alpa press (f5)look in the material
and adjust the (A)slide under RGB slides (bottom right) to somthing like .250
Here's the final result:
Noob Note: If you have problems with a sandy texture showing up (like in the picture above) your cup is clipping through the plane, just move it up a little bit on the Z axis, and it should go away
