Emperor Moloch

Blender Notes

As with all other learning pages it’s just like my super rough sketchbook where I track things I found useful, usually for low poly stuff, illustration block-ins and small Blender prototypes. Hm, maybe useful is the wrong word, more like “harder to remember” or “how did I not use this all these years?!”. In short, anything that catches my attention.

Excues the randomness, this tends to jump from extreme basics to “woah, what an interesting super-specialized technique”.

Favorite shortcuts

Camera / View / Selections

Shortcut Function
Num / Local view of selected object. Press again to exit.
Ctrl+Alt+LMB Select Edge Ring (not edge loop!)
Ctrl+Shift+(Num+) Select next active (useful for every n-th edge)
N Bring up sidebar
H Hide object
Shift+H Hide everything except selected object
Alt+H Unhide all

Modelling:

Shortcut Function
1,2,3 Vertex/Edge / Face selection
Shift + Spacebar Modelling options quick menu
Ctrl + B Bevel
Shift + C Cursor to Center (Also resets camera)
Ctrl + 3 Add subdivision to the modifier stack
Ctrl + E Edge menu (eg. for Mark Seam)
I Inset
I->B Inset Boundary setting. Determines if open edges will be inset
E Extrude
G,G Edge Slide <3
Right-click->S (In edit mode) Quick way to subdivide.
Ctrl+1 Quick Subdivision Surface
E Extrude
Alt+E Extrude Menu
Alt+Shift+S To Sphere

Bevel: Hold S + mouse movement to adjust # of segments. Also mouse scroll wheel (without mouse movements).

Data Manipulation

Shortcut Function
ALT+D Duplicate Linked

Radial/Pie Menus:

Shortcut Function
ALT+S 3D Cursor Radial Menu (RM)
CTRL+ALT+X Origin menu (eg. Snap origin to selected!)
` Quick View pie menu
Q Quick Favorites

Edit->Addons-> search for Pie to turn on 3D Viewport pie menus. Enables many more shortcuts.

Editor Types:

Shortcut Function
SHIFT+F5 3D Viewport
SHIFT+F3 Cycles between Node editors (shader, texture etc.)

Modelling Techniques

Using Lattice

Lattice Modelling Use a sufficiently subdivided mesh. Add a Lattice object. Add a Lattice modifier to your original mesh. Set your Lattice as the target object for the modifier. Now you can deform the lattice and the mesh will follow the deformation. You can control the degree to which it follows the lattice with the Strength slider. Lattice density is controlled in the Data tab.

Inset-Bridge

Inset-Bridge techique illustration Inset faces on both sides of the mesh. Ctrl+E to access Edge menu. Use Bridge Edge Loops.

Literal bridge =)

Inset-Bridge techique illustration Select two faces, CTRL+E, Bridge Edge Loops, use the menu to increase Number of Cuts.

Array of Objects rotated around center point.

  • Create an Empty where you want your rotation center.
  • Select the game object you want to make an Array of. Set it’s Origin to where the Empty is.
  • Add an Array modifier, uncheck “Relative Offset” and check “Object Offset”
  • Set the Empty as your Object Offset em…object.
  • Increase # of copies and rotate the Empty! Voila!

Quick Notes / Other Useful

  • Face-> Grid Fill.

Rendering Tips

Various bits and pieces of knowledge I actually use in my process from time to time.

Camera Notes

15mm Lens approximates the human eye, also happens to be the default setting

Using an “Infinite Background” like in photography

  • Create a large flat plane.
  • Extrude one of it’s edges vertically
  • Use Bevel (Ctrl+B) with a lot of segments, like 70-90. Make sure to set these freshly beveled faces to Shade Smooth.

Infinite Background Modelling Pic 1

HDRI Images

  • Shader Editor -> Shader type dropdown to “World” (right next to the editor type dropdown)
  • Useful addon: Node Wrangler
  • Shift + A -> Texture -> Environment Texture. Allows to select an .exr texture file.
  • With the texture node selected and NW enabled, ctrl+T to add texture mapping and coordinate nodes.

HDR nodes setup

Rendering - Eevee

  • Render -> Shadows -> Cube size for more accurate shadows.

Mini-Tutorials

Simple step-by-step how-to’s resulting in small ready-to-go assets.

Grass

Grass example

  • Create a Plane
  • Assign any kind of photographic Grass Texture
  • Add a Particle System, of the type Hair and make sure Advanced is checked.
  • Adjust length, Particle Amound (about 50k), segments.
  • In Physics andd some Brownian noise/motion.

Other Useful / Uncategorized

There may never come a day when I sort all this. And that’s allright. Until then I do my best =).

Removing unused data manually (materials with 0 users etc.)

In the outliner view, right next to view selection you can change the “Display Mode” to Blender File. There you will have all data listed (objects, materials, meshes, nodes, many more). You can delete unused materials from there.

Delete unused

Making an object unselectable / Making the Selectable toggle available:

Right-click on object (in Object mode)-> Shade Smooth by Angle (Adjust angle options in the lower left corner) You can also add a “Smooth by Angle” modifier and then just use shade smooth.

Toggle Selectable

Object display options

Properties window->Object-> Viewport Display dropdown.
Show single object as Wireframe. Add Wireframe overlay to a solid object etc.

Don’t forget the quick menu!

Right-click any menu item to add to quick favorites!

Useful QuickMenu examples:

Origin to Geometry

Project Statistics

Overlay dropdown -> Statistics : Display Vertex/Edge/Face count.

Viewport Shading

Viewport Shading -> Top-right dropdown in the 3D Viewport to customize default shading for editing.

Save scene as default

File->Defaults->Save Startup File

Selecting all faces forming one plane:

Shift + G (grab menu)-> Normal. Selects all planes with the same normal

References & Resources

A lot of the things here are from experienced pros kind enough to share their knowledge. I try to keep a list with everyone I got ideas from. Also another list of where I get resources from.

Resources:

Schoolism Blender 3D course.