Blender 2.49 Draw Type Shaded in Blender 2.5 Beta

In Blender 2.49b had a Draw Type feature named Shaded. It allows you to see your 3D Mesh with its texture even if you haven't rendered it yet.

It's is a useful feature because it allows you to get a sense of how your model would approximately look like when it is rendered.

However, in Blender 2.5, "Draw Type" is now called "Viewport Shading". And the previous "Draw Type: Shaded" is no longer there.

Where did it go?

Let's find it.

1. Go to Object Mode
2. Set the Viewport Shading to Solid.
3. Press N
4. The Properties Panel will appear.
5. Scroll Down and find the a section marked Display
6. Click the arrow next to it to show the options for this section
7. Look for Shading
8. Click the check box marked "Textured Solid"
9. You are done.

If you will notice, the option to use GLSL rendering is also in this Properties Panel.

Blender Surface Sketching

This is something to look forward to in Blender 2.5. What you do is loosely draw lines and the script will automatically create the surface/faces.

Checkout the Blender Artist thread for more information:
Blender Surface Sketching Script

Surface Sketching for Blender (tutorial version) from Blend_Ideas on Vimeo.

Low Poly Anime Character Modeling

First in a series about Low Poly Anime Character Modeling

Modeling X Wing in Blender

If you are a Star Wars fan you will love this video made by Youdaman921.

Part 1


Part 2

Ear Modeling

One of the most difficult part of a human body to model is the ear.

It is very intricate. You will end up with a lot of edges and then you have to connect it back to the head using as few edges as possible.

The only solution is practice and looking at a lot of ears until you can see how it looks using only your imagination.

Modeling the Human Ear from Jonathan Williamson on Vimeo.

3D Hand Modeling

This video will teach one possible way to model a hand.


(3D) Hand Modeling from Carlos Bisquertt on Vimeo.

I've been looking for a nice 3d hand topology and I think this one is very good.

Correct 3D Modeling Philosophy

Before you dive into the world of 3D modeling, there is a website that you need to visit before all else. You can find it here.

This website belongs to Bay Raitt who is co-attributed to the creation of Golum in New Line Cinema's The Lords of the Ring trilogy.

After reading the entire article, here are the things you need to remember:

1. Make a mess - As you visit forums you will get advices like: your 3D model must follow proper topology, you must model in quads or triangles or ngons, you must use poles or not use poles.

This is wrong. Atleast in the initial stage. Don't follow these advises or else you will get yourself stumped.

When you are just starting your model, only silhouettes and contours matter.

It's not important if you are not producing perfect quads or tris. You're primary goal is to shape your mesh to the object or character you have in mind.

But while you are making a mess, do aim to use as few edges or vertices as possible. Because as you will eventually find ,it is hard to manage lots of edges and points and move them around in 3D space.

2. Cleanup - You should clean up. But remember this only comes after you are finish shaping your mesh.

During the clean up stage you can concentrate on turning your model to all quads or triangles.

On this stage you can also apply proper topology.

These two principles is no different from 2D drawing. In 2D drawing, professional artists first scribble sometimes producing an incomprehensible drawing.

Then they slowly refine their drawing choosing only the strong lines. Then they delete all the unimportant lines.

If you follow these steps you will save yourself from getting frustrated when you are modeling.