In the previous part of the Panda3D series we were talking about transformations in Blender. Today we’ll be talking about object mode and edit mode.
Here’s the video version of this article:
Let’s create a simple scene with just one UV sphere in it:
And now let’s talk about modes in Blender. There are several object interaction modes you can work in. You will see them if you expand the drop-down list in the top left corner:
As you can see in the drop-down list, the object mode is the one that is currently selected. In object mode, as the name suggests, you work on whole objects, so you can scale them, rotate and move.
On the other hand, in edit mode you work on the particular elements that make up an object. We’re going to see what the elements are, but first let’s see how to switch between object mode and edit mode. Well, you can simply select either in the drop-down or you can hit the Tab key on your keyboard. This shortcut is used to switch between object mode and edit mode.
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Before you go to edit mode, you have to select the object that you want to edit. In our case it’s the UV sphere. So, with the sphere selected hit Tab to go to edit mode (A). Now the sphere looks a bit different (B):
Table of Contents
Vertices, Edges, Faces
Now you can see the elements the object actually consists of: vertices (singular: vertex), edges and faces. Let me zoom in so that you can see them better:
So, the vertices are points, the edges are lines that connect the vertices and the faces are surfaces contained between edges.
In edit mode you can use the same shortcuts as in object mode. So, for example to deselect all you can hit Alt + A:
Select Modes
To select one or more vertices you must be in vertex select mode. This is the default one. There are three select modes altogether: vertex select (A), edge select (B) and face select (C). You will find them next to the object interaction drop-down:
You are now in vertex select mode, in which you can select vertices. If you press the edge select mode button, you’ll be able to select edges. And if you want to be able to select faces, you have to press the face select mode button.
Let’s select some vertices first. After making sure we’re in vertex select mode, we just have to hold down Shift and left-click the vertices we want to select:
Let’s hit Alt + A to deselect all. Now let’s go to edge select mode and select some edges:
Let’s deselect all again and move on to the face select mode. Now we can select some faces:
Now 2 faces are selected.
Now you know how to select vertices, edges and faces. Now you can perform operations on them. There are many operations you can perform, but the ones we’re going to need most are extruding and loop cuts, so let’s have a look at them briefly.
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Extruding
To extrude a vertex, edge or face, just hit E. You can then immediately hit X, Y or Z to constrain the extrusion to one of the axes.
When you’re done extruding an element, just hit Enter or the left mouse button to confirm. If you want to cancel the extrusion, hit Esc or the right mouse button.
Let’s start by extruding a vertex. Here’s a vertex that I extruded several times, each time constraining the extrusion to one of the axes:
Undo the operation three times so that we remove all new geometry. Now let’s go to edge select mode, select and extrude an edge, this time without constraining to any of the axes:
Undo again. Go to face select mode and select a face. Then extrude twice. When you extrude a face, the extrusion will be automatically constrained to one of the axes:
Undo twice. Naturally, you can also extrude multiple vertices, edges or faces. Let’s select some of the faces and hit E 2. This will extrude the faces and move them two units away from their original position:
So, as you can see, you can also type in the number of units. Undo the last operation.
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Loop Cuts
The next modeling technique is loop cuts. First let’s delete the sphere and add a cylinder (Shift + A -> Mesh -> Cylinder). Set Vertices to 16 (A), Radius to 2 (B) and Depth to 10 (C):
Go to edit mode and deselect all:
Let’s talk about selecting loops first.
If you want to select multiple edges that form a loop, you can do it by selecting one of the edges in the loop with the Alt key down. So, let’s select the edge loop at the top of the cylinder. Go to edge select mode, hold down Alt and left-click one of the edges (A). The whole loop will be selected (B):
We can also add loop cuts. You can add new edge loops if you need more geometry. Let’s add a loop in the middle of the height of the cylinder. Deselect all and hit Ctrl + R.
If you now hover the mouse cursor over the cylinder, a yellow loop will show up:
You can now left-click or hit Enter to confirm. A new loop has been added:
Let’s add another loop in the lower part of the cylinder. Hit Ctrl + R and hover over the lower part of the mesh where you want to add the loop. You will see a yellow outline of an edge loop again. Hit Enter to confirm. Now you can slide the loop up and down (B) so you can position it wherever you want. If you want it to stay in the middle, just hit Esc.
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If you confirmed a new loop and want to slide it later, just select it, hit GG and move it:
Hit Enter or left-click when ready.
Hit Ctrl + R again. If you now hover over the horizontal edges, you will see a vertical loop:
But don’t confirm this loop, we don’t need it here. Just hit Esc.
You can add more than one edge loop at once. All you have to do is hit Ctrl + R, hover over the place where you want to add the edges and scroll your mouse wheel until there are as many loops as you need. So, let’s add four evenly spaced loops to the upper segment of the cylinder:
Now hit Enter or left-click to confirm and Esc if you don’t want to slide the loops. Alternatively, you could type in the number of loops you need. So, let’s add ten loops to the bottom segment of the cylinder. To do that, hit Ctrl + R and then type 10 and hit Enter to confirm:
In the next part we’ll start modeling our first game asset, a building. We will be discussing all the Blender topics that we haven’t covered yet as we proceed. After modeling the building, we’ll texture it. Then we’ll export the model and load it in Panda3D so that we know right away what it looks like and whether it is displayed correctly.