Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Penguins from spheres

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[edit] Setup

Start with the default scene: it should contain a selected cube. Delete this cube by pressing the XKEY and clicking on Erase selected Object(s).

Put the 3D cursor at the scene center: click near the center and snap the cursor to the grid (SHIFT+S and Cursor → Grid).

Note: after deleting the cube you must be in Object Mode. If not, switch with TAB.

[edit] Creating the body

• We start by creating our main body from a sphere. Press NUM7 to switch to top view, and then SPACE → Add → Mesh → UVSphere, then choose 16 segments and 16 rings from the pop-ups.
  • Note: You have to manually switch to the Edit Mode after creating the sphere; do this by pressing TAB (In older versions of Blender before 2.45, Blender automatically switches to the Edit Mode. This is OK, since we will start editing the mesh now.)

We're going to make it look like a penguin body:

• press NUM1 to switch to the front view,
• with all the vertices selected (if not, AKEY), choose the scale tool (SKEY),
• restrict scaling to the Z-axis (ZKEY),
• and move the mouse away from the 3D cursor while holding down the CTRL key (this snaps the scale values to whole numbers),
  • Note: Make sure the mouse cursor is not too far away from the sphere when hitting the SKEY or else you may not be able to reach a 2.000 scale value. The scaling steps are proportional to the distance from the 3D cursor when calling the scale tool.
• the current scale shows in the lower left corner of the viewport, click when you've reached 2.000 (LMB).
  • Note: You can also do this by typing in 2 after starting the scale and restricting movement to the Z-axis

This is our main body!

[edit] Shaping the head

We’re going to shape the penguin head from the top of the sphere.

Start by selecting the top two smallest circle segments.

Note: selection has been explained in a previous tutorial. Here, the easiest methods are either box selection (BKEY) in the front view (NUM1) and Limit selection to visible off, or lasso selection (CTRL+LMB) in the top view (NUM7) and Limit selection to visible on. Don't forget to deselect all first (AKEY).

Reminder: make sure the Limit selection to visible button is in the right state each time you select vertices, edges or faces. When it's off, selection affects any item, visible or not.

[edit] Building the neck with the 3D transform manipulators

To turn on the 3D transform manipulator, either push down its button or use CTRL+SPACE and choose Enable/Disable.

[edit] Moving the two selected circles up

Choose the Translate manipulator (red triangle). Go to the front view (NUM1). Drag the blue arrow while holding the CTRL key down to move the selected vertices 0.3 units up.

Note: you may not be able to snap the extrusion lengths to tenths of units. CTRL snaps to the grid size by default: if you can only translate by one unit (1.0), zoom in until the grid divides itself into tenths (SCROLL). Some Blender versions allow to snap to one tenth of the current step by holding both the SHIFT and CTRL keys while moving the mouse.

Note: instead of the Translate manipulator, you can use the GKEY and constraint the movement to the Z axis (ZKEY).

[edit] Rotating the neck

Now switch to the side view (NUM3) and make sure that the rotation/pivot point is set to "median point" either by selecting it from the third drop down menu right of the "Mesh" menu, or by pressing ";". Choose the Rotate tool (RKEY). Move the mouse with the CTRL key down to rotate the selection 30 degrees counter-clockwise. Use LMB to validate the rotation.

Select an additional ring of vertices by expanding the selection (CTRL + NUM+ (Note: NUM+ Refers to the addition symbol on the NUM Pad, KEY+ will not do.). You can contract the selection by pressing CTRL + NUM-. Move these vertices an additional 0.3 units up, then rotate them as previously 30 degrees counter-clockwise in the side view.

Repeat those steps (selection expansion, translation and rotation) two more times and you'll end up with the body seen in the left picture.

That doesn’t really look like a penguin, yet!

Now move all of the selected vertices to the left 0.4 units by pulling the manipulator's green arrow (and of course holding the CTRL key down). This straightens out the neck as seen in the next picture.

Note: you can also use the GKEY and translate the selection by -0.4 as displayed in the bottom left corner of the viewport. Still do this in the side view (NUM3).

[edit] Creating the beak

Switch to the front view (NUM1), and select the frontmost vertex (the one that originally was the top vertex of the sphere) with the RMB. Then switch to the side view (NUM3) and translate this vertex to the left by 1.2 units using the manipulator's green arrow or the translate tool.

Note: some Blender versions allow moving the vertices from the keyboard with the following sequence: GKEY, YKEY, -1.2, ENTER.

The main body of the penguin is now finished. The next step is to create some flappers for our poor little guy.

[edit] Extruding the wings

We are going to create the wings by extruding faces on each side of the penguin.

Choose the side view (NUM3) and switch to the Face select mode (CTRL+TAB → Faces, or click on the triangle in the toolbar).

Now, select two faces that will make up the penguin’s shoulder as shown on the left (either select the first one with RMB and the second one holding SHIFT, or use box selection (BKEY) to select them both in a single operation). Wing extrusion Then switch to front view (NUM1) and extrude the selection: choose EKEY → Region, constrain to the X axis (XKEY), hold CTRL to snap, and move the mouse to extrude the shoulder by 0.3 units. (User Comment: I find the final product looks better if you only extrude it by 0.2) Bottom face selection We'll now extrude the bottom face of this new extrusion. Rotate the view to show it with: a MMB drag, or several presses on NUM2, or CTRL+NUM7 (bottom view). Press the AKEY to deselect all, and select the bottom face (RMB), switch to front view (NUM1), extrude by 1.4 units down (EKEY and CTRL). Now do the same on the penguin's other side: use CTRL+NUM3 to view the back side (you can also rotate with MMB, or press NUM4 several times). User comment: I really need to do this by hand? Is there no way to tell Blender to do the same on the other side? reply:You can select CTRL+SPACE->scale and while in front view, use the red square. Just make sure the cursor is between the wings. After you select the faces to extrude, just SHIFT+SKEY->Cursor->Selection. User reply: Modifiers-> Add Modifier -> Mirror. Use the X-axis. Click "apply" when done with the symetrical stuff. User response: adding a mirror modifier resulted in the surface of the penguin looking corrupt (response to self - because the penguin body was being mirrored on top of itself, but even when half of the penguin vertices are removed an unsightly seem is left). Final user response: You can fix the 'corruption' by pressing Ctrl+W and choosing "Remove Doubles" after mirroring. Another User reply: Or you can select the bottom faces on both sides, and only then extrude.

[edit] Smoothing the wings

Edges to smooth

We’re going to smooth out the shoulders and improve the wings. Though this can be done in many ways, we'll only use the merge tool.

Rotate your penguin so that you can see one shoulder from above. Then switch to Vertex select mode (CTRL+TAB → Vertices). Press AKEY to deselect all, then select the two shoulder vertices with RMB and SHIFT.

Press ALT + MKEY, choose At Center from the popup in order to merge the two vertices at their center. Finally dismiss the message saying Removed 1 Vertices.

Repeat the steps with the two other vertex pairs shown on the left picture, and smooth the other wing. I’m leaving the middle segments for now, else the wing tips will be too pointy.

Note: if you have troubles merging vertices, it comes from vertex duplicates in your mesh. You probably chose Individual Faces instead of Region when extruding the wings, which creates duplicate vertices and neighbouring faces. To clean up your model: select all vertices (A) and choose WKEY → Remove Doubles.

I finish off the wings by selecting the two backmost vertices of the wings, and moving them up using the blue arrow by 0.1 unit.

Wings complete

(User comment on grid snapping: If you hold CTRL+SHIFT while doing a manipulation, it allows you to use smaller fractions as grid snap than with CTRL. With translation this is 1 for just CTRL, and 0.1 for CTRL+SHIFT)

(User comment on using the arrows: I mentioned earlier that the grid snap seemed inconsistent. It now seems that when I’ve got the 3d manipulators enabled (the arrows), the grid size is 1.0 units. When I have them turned off, the grid size is 0.1 unit. I don’t know why, and I haven’t found where to change this. The previous picture shows where to turn the 3D manipulators on/off, and which arrow to drag (using LMB) to achieve Z-axis movement.)

(User comment: if you spin the view it becomes 1.0 snapping, go back by pressing NUM1 and you should get 0.1 if not make sure View → Orthographic is checked and not Perspective this can also be done with NUM5)

(User comment: I've had trouble with the three axis arrows. When I click on the 'hand' icon, the three lines come up but with little blocks instead of arrows at the ends, which I believe means that they will scale instead of move. So, I have had to use GKEY for 'grab' and then ZKEY or YKEY or whatever to move along an axis.)

(Note from another user: Next to the hand click the triangle to go to Moving Mode).

(Another user comment (not from the first): Whenever I try using the arrows I always find that I click on something else, so I have to change angle and after that, it's not really worth using it anyway)

(Reply to previous comment: You can change the size of the 3d manipulator arrows in the preferences area so that they are easier to click.)

[edit] Culling the bottom

We're going to cut the penguin's lower end, for it to stand up! Select the bottom vertices (bottom vertex and the first ring above it) as shown in the picture. There are many ways, this is left as an exercise.

Once they're selected, delete them (XKEY → Vertices). Now our penguin is hollow: select all the vertices around the hole, and fill it using SHIFT+FKEY.

Note 1: Instead of using SHIFT+FKEY to make a zigzag surface, you could extrude the circle of edges (EKEY), constrain the extrusion to the Z-axis (ZKEY) and enter 0 (0KEY + ENTER) as the distance. This effectively duplicates the circule. Then do a merge (ALT+MKEY → At Center) to create a nice surface.

Note 2: Press CONTROL+NUM7 to view the penguin from the bottom. Now, without deleting anything, select four vertices, top, bottom, left, and right in the second ring out from the center vertex. Then snap your cursor to the selection. SHIFT+SKEY → Cursor -> Selection This places the cursor at the center of those vertices. Finally, select the center vertex, expand the selection to include the first ring (CONTROL+NUM+) then merge as above (ALT+MKEY) but at cursor rather than at center. This achieves the same result but without having to delete or extrude anything.

[edit] Adding the feet

The next step is to provide the little guy with feet. To do this, we’re going to extrude two of the front faces:

• choose the front view (NUM1),
• switch to Face select mode,
• turn on Limit selection to visible
• and select the face to the left and right of the middle two faces of the penguin.

Then switch to the side view (NUM3) and extrude the selection by -0.6 units (EKEY → Region, restrict to the Y axis: YKEY).

Keep the selection and look for the Mesh Tools in the Buttons panel. If you can’t see it, press F9 to switch to this panel. Then click on the Subdivide button (at the top, between Short and Innervert). Or press WKEY and choose Subdivide

Now select the three middle vertices (or two edges) vertically at the tip of each foot, and drag them along the Y axis by 0.3 units towards the penguin Note: if something goes wrong here, you may need to remove double first. As always, to move the vertices, either use the manipulator or GKEY and YKEY sequence. You should end up with what's shown in the right picture (minus the selection). The feet look too thick, let's flatten them a bit. Switch to the front view (NUM1) and select the two bottom vertex rows (Limit selection to visible off, use either the lasso or box selection). Then choose the scale tool (SKEY), limit its action to the Z axis (ZKEY) and scale down by a factor of 0.4. The feet still look rather peculiar, so please go ahead and move the vertices around on your own as you like. Reminder: you can use the GKEY and restrict movements to the X or Y axis using the XKEY or YKEY. Try not to move vertices along the Z axis to keep the penguin's bottom flat.

[edit] Extruding a tail

Back view	Side view	Tail complete

To complete the penguin, we have to add a tail (the end of the tuxedo):

• go to the back view (CTRL+NUM1),
• make sure you're still in Vertex select mode,
• and that Limit selection to visible is on.

Select the three middle vertices in the second row up from the bottom. Then, switch to the side view (NUM3) and extrude the edges 0.3 units away from the penguin and 0.08 units down (EKEY → Edges), so that the end of the tail is at the same level as the bottom of the penguin.

Press CTRL+WKEY to save your work!

• Note 1: I found it easier to select the center most, lowest vertex, and move it along the Y axis only. This creates a crude but very effective tail (that doesn't look all that bad when subsurfed).
• Note 2: to do this correctly (if I've properly understood the previous user) you can also select the two faces in the bottom row (CTRL+TAB→Faces), which are connected to the three middle vertices and their projection on the bottom line, then split them into triangles (SPACE→Edit→Faces→Convert To Triangles or using CTRL+TKEY), then select the right two of them (it was the right quad face before) and flip the triangles' orientation (SPACE→Edit→Faces→Flip Triangles Edges or using CTRL+FKEY). So, there will be the five edges connected to the middle point in the second row from the bottom and only three to the vertex, mentioned by previous user. Then just move this lowest, center most, vertex by Y on 0.4
• Note 3: don't do that extruding of the tail with only the edges or you will get an so called 'non-manifold mesh', cause you will have an edge with outgoing three faces, so blender can't recalculate the surface and you can't use the decimate modifier. this can be very nasty if you're modeling more complex things later. better select the whole two faces at the back end and extrude that and then shrink it along the z-axis.

[edit] Subsurfing

Now that's what I call a penguin. But then again, there are no penguins where I live, so I might be wrong.

Go to Object Mode (TAB), and make sure the penguin is selected. Then check for the Modifiers toolkit in the Buttons panel. Press Add Modifier → Subsurf (or Press SHIFT+OKEY).

Look at the penguin now, he’s much smoother. You can alter the levels of the subsurfing if you like, but I’ll settle for level one. Under the Links and Materials toolkit, you can press the Set Smooth button as well, which makes the penguin really slick.

Note: you may see some weird effects at the bottom and the tail after subsurfing the penguin. If so, there is an issue with normals: they have to be all pointing outwards. This can be achieved by selecting all vertices in Edit Mode and recalculating the normals outside (CTRL+NKEY). Click on the message to confirm. Note that CTRL+SHIFT+NKEY will turn the normals inwards and that WKEY → Flip Normals flips them.

[edit] Extra

The penguin can be colored or textured, but that will be part of later tutorials!

This is what the penguin (sans tail) looks like, textured and ready. Orbisonitrum

The eyes are there, just not easily visible in the thumb. At the top of the white part, two faces on the chest were subdivided to give the white more of a curve at the top. The faces were selected that were going to be white, and the I used separate (P) to make them a different mesh. I used a white material for the chest, black for the body, and grey uvspheres for the eyes. Apparently, an easier way to colour the chest can be found at Multiple Materialsplease feel free to replace this with your own image of the penguin you made, with comments on how you put your own style into it --Most recent is Bnty 11:35 PST, 19 May, 2006

A pretty basic picture of a penguin. I subdivided the stomach and eyes, but then I also added some eyeballs by making a UVSphere, cutting the top of it off, and then placing it inside of my penguin's head. All the colors have specular colors, giving the penguin a slight blue glow under the black.