In this tutorial, I show you a few basics of Blender 2.5, and cover how to use the box-modeling technique to create a full character. The box-modeling technique is a good way to quickly visualize the shape of your character, rather than creating the detail from the beginning.
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Discussion
118 Responses to “Box Modeling an Alien Character in Blender 2.5 alpha 0”Leave a Comment
An excellent tutorial! Thanks a bunch for this!
One thing though.. the view transition thing.. yeah its in 2.49, you can set it in your user preferences at the top of the screen. It is on the first tab “View & Controls”.. look for “smooth view” and set the amount. I have mine set to 700.
As per your tut, I like how you used the sculpt tool to fix the mouth and such.. great tip!
yeah i love the sculpt tool
i’ve also recently gotten into doing really detail modeling for terrains, then using the tangent normal mapping to apply it to a much lower-rez model 
keep an eye out for that in this little series 
An excellent tutorial! Thanks a bunch for this!
One thing though.. the view transition thing.. yeah its in 2.49, you can set it in your user preferences at the top of the screen. It is on the first tab “View & Controls”.. look for “smooth view” and set the amount. I have mine set to 700.
As per your tut, I like how you used the sculpt tool to fix the mouth and such.. great tip!
yeah i love the sculpt tool
i’ve also recently gotten into doing really detail modeling for terrains, then using the tangent normal mapping to apply it to a much lower-rez model 
keep an eye out for that in this little series 
I know your comment was posted forever ago Ward, but could you possibly link to the tutorial, this would be great for creating my first outdoor scene in a blender game.
Wow, I just commented the other day on your YouTube profile. I said you should do some tuts for Blender Cookie. I guess you already had that in the works!.
Cool stuff man, thanks for sharing.
Wow, I just commented the other day on your YouTube profile. I said you should do some tuts for Blender Cookie. I guess you already had that in the works!.
Cool stuff man, thanks for sharing.
you’re quite welcome, thanks for watching
dude its a great tutorial , and mumblin ait that bad . Greatwork on the lips though .
dude its a great tutorial , and mumblin ait that bad . Greatwork on the lips though .
yeah the mumbling part is unintentional, but it does provide “filler sound”
radio d.j.s will tell you that dead air is the worst thing you can do 
Very good! Muito bom!
Animandré from Paulista-PE/Brasil
Thank´s!
Very good! Muito bom!
Animandré from Paulista-PE/Brasil
Thank´s!
você é bem-vindo, senhor
I think is very kind your attempt to reply in Animandre’s native language. So, let me show you the correct way to say “you are welcome” in Portuguese.
Thank you = Obrigado;
De nada, senhor = You are welcome, sir.
Literally, it would be “você é bem vindo”, as you wrote.
Again, AWESOME tutorial. Watching your great work here inspires me to study Blender.
Glad to see you joined the Blender Cookie team Ward. I been thinking of box modeling humans for my War of the Worlds project, you’ve just made it 10x easier, thanks
Glad to see you joined the Blender Cookie team Ward. I been thinking of box modeling humans for my War of the Worlds project, you’ve just made it 10x easier, thanks
happy to be of service
OK! It will be really great to see this project.
Success, friend!
OK! It will be really great to see this project.
Success, friend!
thank you, and success to you as well
Cool! I’ve been box modeling some stuff for a music video I’m making. Really works good on more cartoonish characters
Cool! I’ve been box modeling some stuff for a music video I’m making. Really works good on more cartoonish characters
i agree. box modeling is a quick way to get a nice cartoonish/roundish look without having to get really detailed. for more realistic characters, i’d recommend the plane-modeling technique (ala my johnny blender series)
Nice one!
Hoping to see a tut on rigging him next
Nice one!
Hoping to see a tut on rigging him next
patience, young grasshopper
Thanks for the tutorial!
Great new tutor has joined BlenderCookie!
aww you flatter me
*blush*
Thanks for the tutorial!
Great new tutor has joined BlenderCookie!
aww you flatter me
*blush*
Thanks a lot… I love my new Alien. Please post an armature/animation video for it. I cant wait to make a short movie with a character like him.
Thanks a lot… I love my new Alien. Please post an armature/animation video for it. I cant wait to make a short movie with a character like him.
next up is texturing, and i plan to give him a space suit. after that comes the rigging, followed by animation
To get the add menu just use Shift+A, t will bring it up to the mouse as before.
You can still use the space-bar when the menu pops up type What you want like- Add Plane Add UV Sphere
To get the add menu just use Shift+A, t will bring it up to the mouse as before.
awesome! thanks for the tip. i was still trying to use the spacebar :{
You can still use the space-bar when the menu pops up type What you want like- Add Plane Add UV Sphere
Great tutorial! I loved the new interface of 2.5 but one thing that was really annoying me in 2.5 was that when I’m rotating, grabbing or doing anything like this, if I hit the edge of the 3D view, the cursor jumps to the opposite side. The way to disable that is going to the user preferences (ctrl+alt+u) in the input tab there is a check box called “Continuous Grab”, just uncheck the box, and now your mouse moves perfectly when grabbing or rotating…
Great tutorial! I loved the new interface of 2.5 but one thing that was really annoying me in 2.5 was that when I’m rotating, grabbing or doing anything like this, if I hit the edge of the 3D view, the cursor jumps to the opposite side. The way to disable that is going to the user preferences (ctrl+alt+u) in the input tab there is a check box called “Continuous Grab”, just uncheck the box, and now your mouse moves perfectly when grabbing or rotating…
i will give that a try. thanks for the heads up
As a modeler, I didn’t need this so much. But I do like that you took the time to show some Blender tips and tricks to those of us who would like to migrate from other packages.
I do hope that you do the rigging and such. I animate in Maya and would really like to take advantage of the tools in Blender but I have no clue where to start.
Good job and thanks for sharing.
As a modeler, I didn’t need this so much. But I do like that you took the time to show some Blender tips and tricks to those of us who would like to migrate from other packages.
I do hope that you do the rigging and such. I animate in Maya and would really like to take advantage of the tools in Blender but I have no clue where to start.
Good job and thanks for sharing.
you’re quite welcome
yeah i plan to completely finish this guy, as i mentioned above: next is texturing, then rigging, then animation. so stay tuned 
as ALPHASITE said, you can have your meny with SHIFT A, but the nice thing about the spacebar is that it is a tool search, like spotlight on the mac or something like that, so if you want to add a cube, then type CUBE, and it’ll appear the add cube and just hit enter
!
CHeers!!
another awesome tip! thanks!
as ALPHASITE said, you can have your meny with SHIFT A, but the nice thing about the spacebar is that it is a tool search, like spotlight on the mac or something like that, so if you want to add a cube, then type CUBE, and it’ll appear the add cube and just hit enter
!
CHeers!!
High resolution
Thanks
don’t thank me, thank blendercookie
altho you’re welcome, all the same 
Great tutorial! Thanks!
When adding a sphere (or any type of object) you can check “view align” to make it orientate to your current viewport. By default everything is oriented by the global x, y, z axis, where x is width, y is depth and z is height. So if you press 1 to turn to frontview and then check “view align” then it will result in a sphere that’s rotated 90 degrees along the x axis.
Just my 2c
PROTUGUESE BRAZIL ~
Belo tutorial cara, gostei bastante, isso que eu tava precisando de verdade *–*
10/10 *
PROTUGUESE BRAZIL ~
Belo tutorial cara, gostei bastante, isso que eu tava precisando de verdade *–*
10/10 *
Great tutorial, are you planning to do more of this…maybe other subjects (lighting, materials, animation…)?
regards
hey david, do you still have blender 2.49
Is it possible to maximize the tutorial ?
Pressing the 4-arrows icon next to the volume slider will maximize the video to full screen.
Thank you, I would not have found it.
Saving is not possible, I suppose.
I have allready reached my UMTS volume download limit this month.
“wish we had the UNDO command in real life”
aint that the truth…lol
Very inspiring stuff Dave from a C4D to Blender switcher.
Can you make a mouth and eye tutorial ?
thank’s for the great tutorial. that showed me a bunch of stuff on box modeling and the sculpt tool. And now I know what my butt’s for…
Um, yeah, I was a little confused when you extruded the top of the wrist then it “magically” became a single finger.
I love your tutorials! You can teach absolutely great! No blackout about what you just did, I can learn really fast! Thank you!
When I click on Sculpt Mode, Blender fails and closes. Is this because it’s an Alpha version, or is there something wrong with my computer?
Try reistalling python 2.6 and 3.1. I had same problem and i believe reinstalling python fixed it.
Btw Mr.Ward your tutorials have helped me more than a could ever say I’ve followed you youtube channel but you mostly only have 2.49 tutorials. I was attempting to understnd them with 2.5 ,but with little luck. Are you switching to 2.5 for good now?
Positively amazing especially as it is done in Alpha 0!!! XD
Thank you so much! Watching this video helped me get my topology right for my project and your tutorial on rigging made sure that my rig worked right!!!!! I really appreciate these tutorials, and I will be watching more as soon as I can!
I have problems with the scaling???
(i’m working in blender 2.5 alpha 0)
Make sure to check the “clipping” check box… very important for the mirror modifier.
Thanks,
but i got another problem:
when i added a UV sphere, the wireframe of the rest of the face desappered?
so i did ctrl+Z and the sphere desappered, but i stil cant get the wireframe…
Can anybody help me??
W.G.
p.s. I use blender 2.5 alpha 2
great tutorial but i had to keep redoing it because blender 2.5 is glitchy and crashes and i never save
Ok, I’m a green horn when it comes to 3d modeling. I’ve followed this video step by step until I’ve reached the mirror part. I know it’s supposed to mirror the object immediately, however it doesn’t. I’m not sure why my mirror modifier isn’t working.
Oh, I figured it out. It wasn’t facing the front and the mirror program only likes to add on perpendicular to the model. Because the model was on its side, it confused the program.
Ok, I’m trying to model the shape now and it keeps messing up. (I keep messing up.) How do I view my mess like the mess in the video? At front view, Mr. Ward only sees the front edge lines and modifies them accordingly. However, I see all my pts and edges while looking at the front view. I can’t grab the edges right or as cleanly as the video. How do I make my mesh less transparent?
There is a little checkbox to the right of the ‘vertex/edge/face’ selector, toggle it to view/select all, or only ‘visible’
help
I wonder what david shortcut that uses the part of the alien’s neck
that the 20:30 / 20:40 of the video?
Absolutely great tutorial! Thumbs up!
Hands-down my favorite tutorial i have completed to date. Mine looks nothing like this one, but used the same techiniques! lol.
image: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4703713&l=f89e9b18f3&id=799498753
hey, veryyy good,
i have a question, how i set all vertices in one clik like you?
i press B and only mark the first vertice in front view.
please help me
Sorry my bad english.
bye bye
brazil/Juiz de fora
it won’t let me download it!!!!! :’[!
Are you getting any kind of error and are you a Citizen and/or did you purchase the source files?
-Jonathan
Cool turtoural!
My question is, What shortcut adds an extra ring? I am trying to do the eye stalk and notice you added rings in order to make it more round. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
The hotkey you are looking for is CTRL + R to add a loopcut.
-Jonathan
Thanks so much! Concidering this is my first experiance with computer graphics, I am so glad found this site.
I’m having the same problem as vinicius fat, using the same version of Blender as well. How do I select all the verticies after pressing B as in the video? Is there an option I don’t have check? Is it a version issue? The only way I can get around it in the beginning is to switch to wire frame but that’s prove difficult the more detailed it the model becomes.
Thanks in advance for the assist
Possible version issue.
I’m doing this again, and I noticed a small button that looks like two windows, I think this is what you are talking about because it doesn’t show it in the video, and he doesn’t mention it.
Button near Vertex, Edge and Face buttons in Edit Mode.
It says “Limit selection to visible (clipped with depth buffer)
Hope this helps, sorry for double post.
Thanks Anthony that was the button!! I’m cookin’ with gas now!!! Thanks again!!
My blender 2.5 beta won’t delete all the vertices on the cube when selected from the front view.It only selects the front face.It doesn’t select the whole side.Why is that?Pretty annoing.Anyway nice tutorial.I hope you post a new one on how to texture and animate him.That would be great!Keep up the good work
AWESOME. Man, you are great with anatomy, it looks pretty nice and also funny! Congratulations!
Did you texturize him? I would like to watch it if you do.
How do i make a face not scale to its center like at 5:35.
This tutorial is good but i have a serious problem (and yes i am a noob to this kinda stuff so bare with me). Everytime i try to make his head round or whatever like you do in the tutorial, i notice when you move the verticies they all move at once. Mine however move one at a time, hard to explain but you know the is like 4 squares each way from the subdivide? Well when you move them in the video all 4 move at once, mine however i can only move 1 meaning i have to try and move them all seperatly causing the cube to look nothing like a head nor anything to be exact. Can you tell me what im doing wrong?
This tutorial is good but i have a serious problem (and yes i am a noob to this kinda stuff so bare with me). Everytime i try to make his head round or whatever like you do in the tutorial, i notice when you move the verticies they all move at once. Mine however move one at a time, hard to explain but you know the is like 4 squares each way from the subdivide? Well when you move them in the video all 4 move at once, mine however i can only move 1 meaning i have to try and move them all seperatly causing the cube to look nothing like a head nor anything to be exact. Can you tell me what im doing wrong?
I have a big issue and i think its similar to Adrian S’s comment. When i select the verticies to round the side of the cube to make the face it just takes the front side of the cube. The cubes per side from the subdivider and i can only select 1 cube on each side and move it meaning i can do the corner but the side view shows ONLY the corner vertex has been move, not the cube that go behind it, how can i fix this?
Hey, love the tutorial. However, at the beginning when you’re shaping the head and what not, how do you select more than just the visible vertices? For example: when you delete half the cube, the whole side gets deleted, however when i try that, just the 4 faces in the front get deleted.
I do believe that there is a button in the 3d view ports tool bar that looks like a cube with large white vertices, this button will allow you to edit the other vertices.
PLSS I CANT FIND THE cube with vertices on it help mee
Sounds like you just need to enter Edit Mode by selecting the Cube with your Right Mouse Button and then press Tab.
-Jonathan
Hey, love the tutorial. However, at the beginning when you’re shaping the head and what not, how do you select more than just the visible vertices? For example: when you delete half the cube, the whole side gets deleted, however when i try that, just the 4 faces in the front get deleted.
Can you please tell me how you add a ring when editing the model? – At some points you select all vertices by alt+right clicking, then do something to duplicate the ring as a new ring in the model… How?
when you grab the vertex at the begining and delete them to mirrowr you only grab the front but the back ones go aswell but when i only grab the front the front goes but the back stays making it look sillyand meaing i have to go into limut selection to visible mode which when you are modeling is really anoying so what do i do to only grab the front but it grabs the back aswell
no its not that , i am in edit mode its that when he click one vertice it selects the ones behind where are when i select one vertice the ones behind remin unselected so at the begining where he deletes the uneeded vertices after he subdived when i do that it on deletes the top plain leaving the ones behind, and going into the mode with the square and the big vertices is just really annoying when you are modeling
mine was fine until i went on object mode then it had this big box around the shape of the head. CONFUSED!!!
Wow, nice tutorial, i learned a lot from how you do fingers. it helped me.
by the way, i just thought about it, your alien wouldn’t be able to see depth :O (i know i think too much)
Here I leave my alien: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XeAkxOK0LRE/TmNSlg0PPZI/AAAAAAAAAF4/ju8bnrorJ7M/s1600/alien.png thanks for the tuto.
Hi.. just a quick question i tried doing this myself and right about 8:28 time, how did you unselect the ball and select the other part and have the vertices of the ball disappear? because everytime i try press A on the keyboard everything is selected including the ball. thanks
Please disregard my comment.. Thanks.. figured it out…. Finally…. ^_^
Good stuff. I really need to work at box modeling… I suck at it. I turned this into a robot alien dude to get around the box modeling… made up of cylinders and spheres. The most important thing I learned in this tut is to turn on clipping and applying the mirror modifier to turn your sculpt back into one coherent piece.
I’m really going about this in the reverse order… the first things I learned when I started playing around with blender a few months ago were fluid particles, realistic fluids animation, working in the compositor, the video sequence editor, camera and lighting, materials and textures… I just now got into the modeling and sculpting part. I can’t wait to rig this thing up for some animation!
how do you do the thing at the beginning by shaping the head???
Hey David
I have done this twice, once when I first started modeling, and I started again yesterday. However, each time I run into the same problem. The bottom of the torso is too thin. How do I fix this? Thanks, and keep up the great tutorials!
Hey awesome tut, just wondering though. i have worked on this alien for a year
now, i have 5 different aliens that have not turned out the way I wanted it.
so could you put the alien model on this website called http://www.blendswap.com/ you don’t have to include the rig but it would be awesome if you could. thanks :>
Hello David, i downloaded your alien character from the motion blur tutorial and found that the textures and materials were blacked out. please tell me why this happened. thanks ;P
When I use the box selection, I only select the part that I see, and not the part behind it, so when I use the box selection on the corners I only select the one corner closest to me and have to pan around and select each vertesie individually. How can I make the box selector select everything instead of just the front of the model?
You can either turn off clipping in the viewport header or just go into wireframe mode with (Z) when you want to select everything.
Button near Vertex, Edge and Face buttons in Edit Mode.
It says “Limit selection to visible (clipped with depth buffer)
Hope this helps, sorry for double post.
Sounds like you just need to enter Edit Mode by selecting the Cube with your Right Mouse Button and then press Tab.
-Jonathan