Talk:Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Modeling a Simple Person

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Contents 1 Uh Oh 2 The right leg's foot? 3 Small Change 4 box-selection? 5 How about a copy and paste for the second arm? 6 Middle Mouse button on Mac? 7 Printing 8 No Cube 9 Question 10 How to scroll around the screen 11 Circle Selection mistake ? 12 Placing geometry (the head) 13 MacBooks 14 Table 15 Adding the head 16 Move the mouse with MMB? 17 Augh, help 18 Methods of Selection - display issues 19 When adding the head... 20 Noob note under "Methods of Selection" / "7. Face Selection" out of place? 21 Selecting the head selects the body 22 Extrudes Only on a Diagonal path

[edit] Uh Oh

I finished the whole tutorial, but then, as I rotated the view, only the initial cube was 3D the rest was flat! Oh no! What can I do?

• Make sure that you select "Region" and not "Only Vertices" or "Only Edges" when you press the EKEY. Or maybe you just have selected the two vertices you see in front view (NUM1) but didn't select the whole four vertices in front view (NUM7) as written in the tutorial. I hope this helps because I made this mistake by myself and then I found out that I had the wrong selection. ;) --AriesT (talk) 11:46, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The right leg's foot?

How do I create a foot for the right leg? I did the extrusions, but not foot was put on the right leg. Doing so was not described. One section tells me to grab four vertices. However, the end-product uses all cubes for the figure. Wouldn't I have to grab all of the vertices and copy the cube? I seem to be grabbing a square tile instead of a cube.

[edit] Small Change

What about changing the head object to an UV-Sphere, one could add a lot more detail when editing the head (eyes, nose, mouth)

--Marty 20:08, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I was unclear whether "top" meant up the screen, or towards me out of the screen. I had to read the whole paragraph and use both selection methods before I worked it out. I've tried to clarify this. BTW I am using this tutorial to try and understand blender as a first time user.

Pwd 11:10, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I am a first time user and I found the description of the Cursor > Grid snap (SHIFT+S) confusing. I expected (from the behavior of other applications i've used that have snap) my mouse cursor to snap to the nearest grid crossing rather than moving freely about. I finally realized that it's purpose is to place the "3d cursor" at the nearest grid intersection from where I click. The description given in this page does not make that clear to first time users, which I feel is the audience for this page.

--Matt - 04:04, Oct 12 2005 (UTC)

[edit] box-selection?

The term box-selection is uesed as a selection method in lession of "Detailing your Simple Person 1", but was not explained in any of the lessions previous that one. Therefore, I'm completly lost as of now, and have no clue what I'm doing... Care to help anyone?

I believe it's referring to the Border Select tool, press the BKEY to activate it. I'll find the offending entry and fix it. --Spiderworm 16:06, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I can't find the offending entry. Somebody care to fill me in? --Spiderworm 16:11, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Also note that box selection works differently in Blender 2.41; there's now an "Limit selection to visible" toggle button which determines whether non-visible vertices are selected. And by default, it's ON at startup, so the tutorial won't work right. --71.141.22.229 04:11, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

QUOTE: "[Note: this tool creates a box that you resize to select top four (vertices\dots) you are not selecting The (cube\box).]" — Um ... not trying to sound snotty, but did I forget how to speak English? That's unpossible.

Also: "Also, make sure the "Limit Selection to Visible" button (bottom right icon of the 3D View header in EDIT Mode) is not selected." Okay ... color me stoopid. I can't find that button and it's turning into a 40 minute speed bump.

[edit] How about a copy and paste for the second arm?

Since I am brand new to blender, I keep moving through this first tutorial, trying to grasp everything, at the same time looking to add details to the wikibook. I am not sure how to do it, but is it possible to copy the blocks that make up the first arm and paste them in place for the second arm? Would that be considered too advanced for this beginner tutorial? --Bturnip 11:34, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Select the vertices you want to copy. Hit SHIFT+DKEY. This duplicates the selected vertices. While holding CTRL (to constrain movement to increments), move the mouse around and click LMB when you've positioned it where you want. Of course, the arm needs to be flipped, so press the MKEY for mirror. I'm pretty sure it would need to be flipped on the Global X-Axis.... if I have everything in my head right. That should do it! --Spiderworm 02:24, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Middle Mouse button on Mac?

As a Mac User, my work on studying this tutorial came to a screeching halt when I realized I didn't know how to middle click on a Mac. Is there some kind of alternate button? (Jun 3, '05)

• You are supposed to be able to set the "Emulate 3-button mouse" option but it didn't work for me. Nevertheless, try it out - drag the top header down to reveal the options panel. Choose "View & Controls" and "Emulate 3-button mouse". (I think its on by default). Then, apparently, you can emulate the middle mouse by holding Alt and left-clicking/dragging. —EatMyShortz 17:36, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Printing

I just undid changes someone made to print more nicely (moved picture locations, removed a picture, no more bold keyboard shortcuts) - because here, the print view looks ok. Maybe can discuss here if changes actually are needed for printing of this page? Allefant 08:18, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

I was trying to follow a tutorial, couldn't select all points with BKEY, and on accident found a toggle to select only visible, or select everything under the lasso. I cannot find it again, and I have yet to find it mentioned in a tutorial, (which was broken for me,) or anywhere else so far.-- If I sign in

[edit] No Cube

My copy of Blender (2.37a) has a flat square on startup. ie. No cube. That invalidates about half of all the pages up to this point. Also, I can't render anything. I just get a black square, regardless of how many lights I add. I have rendered things long ago in Blender, but it looks like this document does more harm than good with new versions of Blender.

I think it is a really bad idea to make assumptions about how the scene will start up. Either provide an example file, or walk the user through every step, starting with an empty scene.

You've roated the view with the middle button (or Alt-Left button), right? It took me a bit to figure this out, but I have 2.37a, and I've got a cube (after rotating). --205.134.213.18 01:56, 2 October 2005 (UTC) (Spellcheck on Wikipedia)

I think providing a startup file is a good idea. I will take this idea over to wikiversity at [v:A Hands-On Introduction to Game Design and Production Processes]. We need to get started distributing blender files for some sets of complicated models released as open source for our learning projects to use anyway. We are looking at sourceForge for file distribution. I would like to thank those who are doing these tutorials. They is definitely doing me much more good than harm and I expect they will continue to improve. Who premise behind Wikiversity. v:user:mirwin

[edit] Question

Somebody decided to ask this question inside the tutorial. I'm moving it here to the talk page. "Question: what if it says "ERROR: Cannot make polygons with interior vertices"?" 68.126.1.251 20:49, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

Likely that you have a closed shape with a stray vertice somewhere with no connecting edge selected. Hit the akey toggle several times till everything is unselected in your entire model and then reselect the vertices you wish to work with. mirwin

I have a similar problem, only the starting square is a cube, all the rest are just flat faces, and in the second stage there isn't any mention on how to remedy that. The end example shows that it needs to be 3D, so please help! anonimous.

[edit] How to scroll around the screen

How do I scroll around the screen? I'm trying to make the person in the tutorial but I can't see the head without zooming way out.

I think you're looking for Shift + MMB. Make sure you hit Shift 1st, else you'll rotate. --RavinDave, edited by Cornmeal (changed MMB + Shift to Shift + MMB)

[edit] Circle Selection mistake ?

I have tried to deselect some vertices by pressing alt + LMB with the circle selection tool activated. But, it seemed to select more vertices instead of deselect them. After that, I tried MMB, and this succesfully deselected the vertices... Juste a small mistake in the text I think, or perhaps a change in a recent release of Blender? GroXx.

[edit] Placing geometry (the head)

When I place the head on the body that I've just made, it's too small. How do I scale it up? Thanks.
Pinkmouse 11:15, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

When you have the icosphere or other shape you chose as the head selected use the skey and roll the mouse up. The object should scale up or down depending on how it interprets your mouse motion. Someone has added this to the tutorial it worked fine for me. v:user:mirwin

[edit] MacBooks

I think that there are no PowerPC MacBooks. Not sure though.

Yeah, MacBooks are Intel only. The PowerPC Apple notebooks were the iBooks and the PowerBooks.

[edit] Table

This guide is awesome :P

I'm making a guide by myself on blender, except this time for a certain game.

Is it ok if I use your table of keys in my guide?

If I could, thank you so much!

~Besh

[edit] Adding the head

I added the head, but when I use a modifier on the body, I have to apply the same modifier on the head. Also moving the body does not move the head. How to I connect the head to the body, so that they are one object? 164.58.89.3 09:07, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

...I have the same issue adding the head. There is no explanation how to connect the head to the body.

[edit] Move the mouse with MMB?

In the 'Learning Extrusion' section it tells the use to move the mouse with the MMB. This does not appear to be necessary, the extrusion moves without the use of any button. MMB appears to add additional functionality not needed or explained here. Blender 2.4.2 on PC.

(I agree, same on 2.4.3 for OSX)

[edit] Augh, help

Ok well I am doing "modeling a simple person" and I am having trouble with extrusion. Sometimes they are missing a face or two, and sometimes the vertices arent "Shared" for example sometimes when I try to make the connecter segment, it thinks two of the vertices are of the bottom square, and not both so I cant extend regon. And sometimes instead of the cube being like this:

  []
  []
[][][]
  []

its like this:

[]
[][]
[]

(cubes flatted out)

[edit] Methods of Selection - display issues

Noticing that in IE7 (Win), looking at this Wiki, the image of the "Limit Selection" icon is overlapped by the text block to the right of it. When I refresh the page, the alignment looks fine until I move the mouse and then it goes back to overlapping again. Do we need to add a float style or something to the image to make sure it always pushes the text block away? Garmon Sutrix 15:54, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] When adding the head...

When I get to the point adding the head do I need to be in object mode with nothing selected or in just in edit mode?

--Gilgamesh007 17:14, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Noob note under "Methods of Selection" / "7. Face Selection" out of place?

Is it me or is the Noob Note in 7. Face Selection out of place? I don't understand the point it is trying to make and when I do as the note says (just to see what happens) I end up extruding a face, which is only introduced in the next section.

[edit] Selecting the head selects the body

I suppose there's some conceptual link between the head and the body, such as "both belong to the same object". But if two seemingly independent objects on the screen may belong to the same object, this needs to be explained here. I got stuck for a while because I couldn't select only the head (to move it down to the neck). In the end I moved it using the Z axis, but I found no way of moving it freely. Whenever I select it, the body is selected too.

... I did not find that the head and the body moved together. There must be some difference in versions that account for this.

[edit] Extrudes Only on a Diagonal path

I can get everything to work right except i cannot do anything but extrude on a diagonal path. I attempted to switch views to see if it is affected. however it is not I'm on 2.62