In this multi-part series, I’ll be covering how to box-model a stylized dragon, making heavy use of the various sculpt tools. The texturing will cover creating tangent normal maps and using the “toon shader” to get a nice cel-shaded look. I’ll also go into some intermediate rigging with some nice animations; from walking to pouncing to flying. and finally we’ll look into setting up a good composition with props and lighting.
In this first part, I talk about the style I’m wanting to achieve, and show you a few examples of what I’m going for. I then go on to begin the model, starting with the default cube and using regular techniques combined with heavy use of the multiple sculpt tools to get the stylized look that we’re going for.
Note: Get the latest version of Blender at http://www.graphicall.org/builds
*This download is a biggy also just under 500MB. Dial-upers beware. 
A bit specific maybe but nice nonetheless
sir may i borrow your user and pass in this file?because we have projects then i will download the file up to 6 then you can change your pass please i beg you..please reply with my yahoo mail ajotino@yahoo.com and this is my yahoo messenger we can chat if you want to simoun_12@yahoo.com,,thank you very much..please reply as soon as possible..^^,
I really like this tutorial, Great work David
I wanted to do a replicate of Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon
So this will definitely help out.
off-topic: yay borderlands haha..
“Lookin’ like a big ol’ cow”
glad you enjoyed it
Can’t wait to try this! Unfortunately due to limited downloads, I’ll have to wait until I have access to internet elsewhere to download it.
Thanks for this useful tutorial!
You helped me to discover that Blender is very powerful!
indeed it is
I think its a very nice start to a great project. I’m following along quite nicely. The only thing I noticed that could have been done better was instead of duplicating the first eye and having to adjust it, it would be easier to mirror the first eye, apply the mirror and then separate the mirrored eye as a separate object. I find that it makes keeping things symmetrical much easier. Will we be adding wings to this dragon later in the future? I would like to know how to rig a wing.
yessir, stay tuned
I agree I have been trying to wind a good wing rig and wasn’t able. Thats what I would love to learn.
really nice series! keep up your impressive work!!!
well thank you
Love it! thx a lot, the sculpting tools are getting better and better, I hope they make in the future something where when you rotate the object it turns like low poli and when you realease is back to the High poly, just like in zbrush, I know theres different about pixols, voxels, etc… anyway, thx a lot for this, keep it up!
Fast Navigate in Sculpt Mode is just what you are looking for.
Wonderful subject! I love the long term plan for ths project. Great for any skill level, to see something from start to finish.
david will do the rigging of the dragon too?
thx
still got it man
,,, really great tut and can’t wait to see part two… u have the best series of tuts on this site and thanks alot… (mr. extreme hobbyist :p ) 
I’d like more to see new techniques instead of making other things with same like always, because it’s just related with your imagination, but I need to say it’s a pleasure to see your videos and that’s much much better than tv serial etc. Keep your great work and I’m waiting for something fresh new
Agreed! There is nothing on tv what at all when summer hits and I’m out of school. I am now just back tracking through all these tutorials and having great time.
Agreed with yah, this series should touch on some new things with the shading, and especially on the rigging section. I am super keen to see a dragon with a wing and body rig.
This is great! I love stylized characters, and this one looks awesome! Can’t wait for the next parts!
Excellent tutorial Dave, great pace for us more seasoned users, and still many great tips! One question, does sculpt affect the mesh at a vertex level or at a subsurf level, ie crease/smooth subsurf? *As a side note I think I have linked this site to more people than any other site
You guys are doing a fantastic job here!
Thanks Jay – Appreciate the comments and the support of our cookin.
so im a noob, and i think ive learned more here on this project than i have on th beginner tuts, thanks alot
Very tight as usual, here’s tip you can bevel your edges for a nice crease (hit the w key and scroll now and select Bevel). But again very,very nice.
i don’t think that feature’s available in 2.5 (might’ve overlooked it tho, i guess…)
This looks to be a great tutorial! I’m a newbe on Blender so I look forward to follow this tutorial. I have bought the 2010 tutorial set that you have on this site, and its great!
Welcome to Blender! Thanks for hanging with us on the site here and the training series. Be careful though Blender can be addicting. Trust me as I am/was a 3D Studio max user and XSI.
Wow the dragon looks great. Not really my style though. But awesome tutorial anyway
I think I may have found out why when in sculpt mode the grab tool doesn’t work and seems to spazz out. When you go into edit mode you will notice that the vertices aren’t anywhere close to what the wire frame shows. In sculpt mode find a spot where you can’t seem to use the grab tool, then go into edit mode and put the cursor onto the vertices you were trying to grab in sculpt mode, go back to sculpt mode and try grabbing where you put the cursor.
I hope that makes sense Dave! I was having the same problem trying to use the grab tool! =D So its not your keyboard!
must be a development bug, glad to hear it
No, the problem was that you accidentally pressed “A” on the keyboard and activated “Anchored” in the Stroke options. Turning this on allows you to drag the brush’s effect outward from where you click. This is useful for placing alpha textures, but not good with Grab or Smooth.
Great tutorial nonetheless!
Oh, man, I’m glad I decided to read all the comments….thank you, I must have done the A key, too and certainly was in anchored mode….back in space (where no one can hear me scream) all is well.
Thanks again.
Hi, Duoc!
Did you reported this to the bug tracker? If it wasn’t fixed maybe dev guys will take a look on this (and I’m sure – they will).
Wow, this tutorial is very useful. I just can’t wait for the other parts !
As I’m new to Blender, I have a question: what’s the difference between the Draw, Smooth, Grab and others in the Brush tab and the ones in the Tool tab ?
Thanks in advance for the answer, and the overall content of the awesome site !!!
It’s TROGDOR!!!!
S is for….hehe, just kidding. Nice tut!
Nice! This series is going to be awesome. Just one thing, is it possible to also have a download link with only the .blend or without the video, because 500Mb take too much time and often I just watch the video on the site and want to download the .blend
That is a great suggestion – it will take some time to implement but maybe at least going forward to separate those. Thanks!
hi david very cool tuto
ps:angry cow lol
!Wow! THis is just what I need..
nice tutorial! cant w8 for the next part(s)
here is what i ended up with half following your tutorial
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_R3iHnsxMkgw/TBwIxC0TvNI/AAAAAAAAAKo/dczmvYkyCHM/s1600/dragon+2.png
Dave when you put the second part of the tutorial? I can not wait. : D
It is good, it realy guide even the one who is a beginner (like me), by the way when are we going to have the part 2, can’t wait! Good work David, blendercookie, cgcookie and all.
Hey guys we are working to have Part 2 hitting the streets very early next week.
another awesome series!
here is an idea / suggestion for a tutorial
is it possible to use an existing simple human rig wiht a mesh model
to remove or copy the rig onto another character and how !
i mean i can see some simple rig that seems easy to use but the mesh model does not look really good for the scene i need and would like to use the rig and transfer it to another character
is there is a simple way of doing this and relatively fast !
thanks for all the nice little videos tut & happy 2.5
After “How to train your dragon” came “How to model your dragon”.
Ha ha, nice video tutorial. ^^
When you guys asked for suggestions on further education here, I mentioned I’d like to see more long-term projects with the whole creative process from ground up being shown and I’m really glad to see a series like this coming out. I’m not too much into dragons and stuff but the topic doesn’t really matter all that much here. Anyway, that’s one nicely modeled dragon there. Thanks David
great tut david i’m new to blender and found this first part great to follow thanks to all you guys at blendercookie keep up the good work !!!
Dave, this comes at a perfect time for me . . .
I have a huge dragon project
that I will be working on for at least a year.
Thanks for putting this together.
Are you taking suggestions on what we would like you to cover in this tutorial,
or do you have that pretty much set right now?
Hi, I tried to download the part I of “Dragon series” three times but every time I can open all the files but not the .mov file
When I unzip the file appears a message concerning a CRC error.
Could you help me please?
Thank You
Hey Airsnake – I sent you an e-mail on this. Also if you guys need direct support please hit up the link above or drop an e-mail directly to us at support@cgcookie.zendesk.com This way Jonathan and I are immediately notified of it and get reminders if we don’t answer.
Thank You! Sorry! I’ll use support@cgcookie.zendesk.com next time!! Thank You Wes!
Borderlands at 2:03, what an awesome game. Awesome tutorial also!
I’d like to use this same sort of model as a boss in my game. Would you recommend that I leave the subsurf at 1 or should I do something else?
Can any subscriber can confirm the following problem with the archive?
I downloaded it 4 times and everytime I get the same problem.
The archive is corrupt:
bad CRC 85e9d723 (should be 08636183)
Hey Carsten – I was able to download and unzip this tutorial from my remote machine, but doesn’t mean there may be something going on. But again please for official support or if you guys are running into trouble please click the “Official support” link next to the comment or send an e-mail to support@cgcookie.zendesk.com. Jonathan and I will then get instant notification, tracking and reminders if we don’t respond. Here comments get lost and are unable to see all of them if you guys are having tech problems
Hugs all around and Carsten I will send email direct and any others please drop us a note if you having troubles with this one. It is a big boy and will help troubleshoot if there is something a-foot.
Bests – W
Hey really good tut, but I got the latest build of blender and when I go to sculpt mode blender crashes. help?!?!?
Have some problems getting to unzip this comlete video from zip. tried several times with new dowloads. Same prob. This is the only tutorial i have experienced this prob with, more than 20 other dowloads works perfect… strange….
Othervise keep up your outstandingly good work… highly recomedable
Hi, David!
Thank you for this great tutorial. It was a bit long but I got from it this cool technique – using standard tools then tweaking a result with sculpt tools. This combination wasn’t on my mind when I just seen the title picture. I’ll definitely try it sometime.
This is poetry in motion… kick arse character!!!! Cant believe my eyes, and you do it in 50 min. F.M.D. Nothing but praise!
Sydney
Thanks Dave. Loved the tut and what a great coincidence. I was thinking of modeling a dragon for some fan art on a game site. This will help a lot. Once again thanks to you guys at Blender Cookie. I am gonna have to break down and buy a membership come Christmas…
Chris
Does anyone know why Blender 2.5 crashes when opening Sculpt Mode? 2.49 works for me. Is my integrated chip no longer suficient as a graphics card?
Emachine W6409
Intel(R) Pentuim(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
2G memory
ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 128 MBytes
Great tut,very helpful and insightful. Thank you for your time.
Thanks Dave.. very helpful tutorial… keep up the good work…
Thanks a lot for the tutorial, and for all of your other tutorials, by the way your mumbling is great loved the “he isn’t a mean dragon, he’s a stern dragon. You don’t want to anger him.”
Great tutorial, very in depth and easy to understand, thanks!
This is the best blender tutorial I’ve ever seen! I had on problem though, I can’t use the grab tool in sculpt mode. Is there something i forgot?
et vous pensez au français défois …
Wow! Great Tutorial.
I’ve been interested in cg/animation, modeling, and stuff for years now, half messed around with a few other applcations, but always needed the inspiration to really start me off. Well I’m inspired. Blender has turned into an awesome piece of software, I think this tut has provided a great introduction to some of the tools and techniques, that might (with a LOT of practise) allow some of the stuff bursting to get out of my head, to finally take shape. Many many thanks.
Hey David ! Thanks for , ALL your time here in this tutorials .
I love this tutorial, it is awesome. See, that would be all apart from the fact that I hate how the video player is retarded so I cant select a place in the video to start watching and the player insists that I watch from the very beginning. WHICH MEANS that I was about 5 minutes away from the ending when I accidentally pressed refresh and was stuck for 15 minutes (or more, i dont know) waiting for it to load that far.
However, thats not your fault. And I love this tutorial, it is awesome.
Great stuff, man! Very useful tutorial!
this is weird under 2.54… the “w” menu brings up a menu called “specials”. and I can’t seem to find the “subdivide” item. even with the spacebar search I type subdivide and it doesn’t show up. I get “multires subdivide”, which doesn’t seem to work, and “subdivision set” which looks to be the modifier.
I’m still new to blender so if I’m doing something wrong I don’t really know what.
you have to go into edit mode
oops. just realized I wasn’t in edit mode… sorry, my bad.
AWESOME! The techniques are exactly what I’ve been looking for to learn Blender. I’ve learned more in just one video than many of the others. For a newbie, this is great. Thanks!
Amazing tutorial! But I’ve a problem with it, I don’t know how to add new edge rings to a mesh in this new version of Blender, as you do with the dragon’s nose. Please answer my question, than you.
@Smith it’s Ctrl+R in edit mode
hello
soluciel apology sculpturing problem for 29 minute
Thank you for your attention
sooo , can anyone supply a list of shortcuts and names for all the commands used in this video please?
Blender Guru has a short cut guide. It seems that it was on the Blender site as well. You can also open up your inputs in your user preferences to see EVERY shortcut in Blender… There are HUNDREDS!lol
Awesome modeling David! At the halfway mark you took that mesh from Moooo to MMRRWWAAAAARR! in like 10 seconds!! haha
man i keep screwing up for some reason…..
How do you make tutorial videos like that?
Like without pointing a camera at the screen
is there a program you use?
he is using a screen recorder.. eg. hypercam..or camtasia studio..
So the folder called “blender latest” is it supposed to be there from the start or have you made it yourself???
Hello…I am following this wonderful tutorial (this is my work thus far http://www.elektralusion.com/blenderbits/ElesDragon03.png) and have run into this little snag. Suddenly, when I use the grab brush, instead of it grabbing and moving, the radius circle goes small and as i move, it enlarges, affecting the mesh. I am on a MacBook Pro running 10.6.5, Blender 2.55. You can see my Scult Prefs on the left of the image. I also am having trouble using certain things like using my command button to emulate the 3d mouse (which I have engaged in prefs). I have to use my Wacom mouse or pen button which I am not happy about. If anyone has solutions to any of these, I will be very grateful…thank you. And Happy New Year!
Found the problem was Anchor mode on my grab brush by reading the previous page comments (how naive of me not to think there would be more than one page of comments, heh) and so that part is resolved. Still need help with what I am guessing is a problem with not having a mouse (or having one, but wanting to use keyboard).
oops, sorry on the link…the closed parentheses got attached…it’s: http://www.elektralusion.com/blenderbits/ElesDragon03.png
I kept thinking…when is David gonna address those cow ears…lol… yay. http://www.elektralusion.com/blenderbits/ElesDragon04.png
wish there was an edit…hah…. http://www.elektralusion.com/blenderbits/ElesDragon05.png
Boy, I sure don’t mean to spam, but I’m so excited to get to the end of this video and have my own version of the dragon….thank you, David! http://www.elektralusion.com/blenderbits/ElesDragon010.png
Chris that’s a great job! Like the decagon pic
Something is wrong with scaling for me. When i try to scale from sideto make form of dragon head it scales not like in the vid and when i go to top view head is not cliped. what to do?
By the way, do you have to use trunk builder to model this dragon?
OMG!!! this is wonderful, thank you thank you sooo Much, this helped me a lot!!! i’m newbie and i have learned a lot from u!. keep it up! Good work (thumbs up)
i want to make my dragon look more menacing but i cant seem to do it can someone help me out?
most dragons dont realy have ears.
Took me the whole evening to follow the tutorial and build the dragon at the same time. My dragon is really not how it should be but I’ve learned alot of things from this tutorial.
Questions:
?
-Is there a faster way to switch from editmode to sculptmode ?
-Why do my edges just get very sharp instead of anything else when I use the grab tool
-The points of the ears are very hard to get right, they keep getting inverted somehow.
[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/607/screenhunter01jan252333.gif/][IMG]http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/6815/screenhunter01jan252333.gif[/IMG][/URL]
great tutorial so far. see how i do for the rest of them =D