Creating a Chain-link Fence

by David Ward

In this tutorial, I show you how to use the “Curvacious Gallore” add-on to create a Helix shape, which we modify to be easily tileable, then use the Array modifier to tile it vertically, then another Array to tile it horizontally. Then we create a fencepost with a cap and support piece, then use a third Array to tile each full fence segment to create a full fence row.

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Discussion

64 Responses to “Creating a Chain-link Fence”
  1. gregzaal
    Posts: 28

    Not cool guys, not cool… this is getting out of hand…

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    1
     Feb 18, 2011 at 11:09 am
    Reply
    • jonathanwilliamson
      Posts: 1761

      Mind if I ask what is getting out of hand?

      -Jonathan

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      1.1
       Feb 18, 2011 at 12:06 pm
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      • Trench
        Posts: 3

        He’s trolling. Try not to feed him.

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        1.1.1
         Feb 18, 2011 at 12:54 pm
  2. Don S
    Posts: 7

    Thanks David,

    I was thinking about this recently, wondering how I would do it.

    Regards,

    Don

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    2
     Feb 18, 2011 at 11:09 am
    Reply
  3. JoKaYo
    Posts: 50

    thanks for the tutorial ,Could we make that CLF with texture , thats will make the work run faster :)

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    3
     Feb 18, 2011 at 11:13 am
    Reply
  4. larssl
    Posts: 43

    Getting out of hand: The awesomeness of Blendercookie.

    I don’t have to work on Blender-related things these days, but hanging around here 30 min every second day is pretty educational without even opening the software.

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    4
     Feb 18, 2011 at 12:36 pm
    Reply
  5. Marky
    Posts: 1

    Why do not you shorten the tutorials? They are too big for something as cool as anything about a model. Our time is precious, remember. I found this tutorial for a long time on the net (another author), with seven minutes long.

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    5
     Feb 18, 2011 at 2:02 pm
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    • Day
      Posts: 5

      Many of the tutorials here are longer than they could be. They are done in real time (mostly) and without editing out mistakes which is something I am very grateful for personally. As a total beginner I wouldn’t know what to do to fix mistakes (or why they happen) without it being left in. Just saying “Do this…Do this…Do that…” may work for intermediate/advanced, but as it says at the top of the page this is for beginners.

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      5.1
       Feb 18, 2011 at 4:26 pm
      Reply
    • Raymond
      Posts: 8

      Thy are perfectly lengthened. Thy show me exactly how to do it. I don’t even watch those sped up tutorials. I like how thy show me every step and explains why thy do that. Whit out these extremely good tutorials. Unedited showing me what mistakes are made and so on I would not be half the modeler I’m now. I come here almost every day and watched all the tutorials so far, some even more than once. Keep it up.

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      5.2
       Feb 19, 2011 at 2:09 am
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    • ristridyn
      Posts: 141

      Agree with “Day” because these tut. are longer it’s easier to learn more from them then “just to create a fance” for me as a beginner it’s a necessity that I can keep up with what the instructor says and that isn’t always easy for people whom do not speak english in there native tong.
      because they say more then first…after that… then … but also give additional information I tent to learn more from a tutorial and that makes them WORTH that extra 20 minutes. but if you whish some shortened tutorials, there are some great text-tutorials on the web, that are as short as they can be for they only say
      1: delete basic mesh
      2: add-mesh
      etc.

      greetings Max

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      5.3
       Feb 19, 2011 at 3:22 am
      Reply
    • baerenpapa
      Posts: 9

      I also agree with both of my forespeakers. Personallly I am always looking for tutorials, which are not just telling me to that and then this and so on, but instead I want to know, WHY doing this or that.
      A five minute howto on creating a chain linked fence may work well … for that particular fence. But when it comes to transfering the knowledge gained from this tutorial to creating something totally different which could be done with the same workflow is something you won’t probably learn from that seven minute howto you mentioned.

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      5.4
       Feb 19, 2011 at 5:19 am
      Reply
  6. templar_320
    Posts: 14

    Very nice tutorial, David! I had no idea that there was a Curveaceous Galore feature! I will definitely have some fun messing with it.

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    6
     Feb 18, 2011 at 2:07 pm
    Reply
  7. pendowski
    Posts: 5

    Finally David’s back ;)
    The long render time probably was the result of keeping those helix parts resolution to 100 (+ subdiv modifier on them)

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    7
     Feb 18, 2011 at 4:07 pm
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    • ward7299
      Posts: 261

      well thanks for missing me :)

      yeah, and i also tend to forget to take the subsurf render setting off of the default “2″ when “1″ would do perfectly fine in most cases :P

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      7.1
       Feb 19, 2011 at 1:39 am
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      • pendowski
        Posts: 5

        I thought you got into some fight with Jonathan and that’s why you’re not here anymore. Watched whole dragon series with you which in crazy world means we’re friends so of course I missed you ;)
        I tend to scream at the screen when someone forgets about stuff like that – well not really screaming but it’s a tutorial turns into a nice thriller when I wait for that someone to realize his/her mistake – additional value of tutorials.
        And thanks for that one – actually inspired me to make a simple brick wall the same technique (I like to use something I’ve learned in some different way instead of just copying steps). Waiting for more David wisdom :)

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        7.1.1
         Feb 20, 2011 at 2:28 pm
  8. lovetoplay94
    Posts: 5

    I attempted to do this a couple nights ago but I just couldn’t get the result that I wanted, thanks so much!

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    8
     Feb 18, 2011 at 4:32 pm
    Reply
  9. spender
    Posts: 34

    Thanks David for one another great and simple tutorial. [IMG] http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/af353/Spender19/Skrmavbild2011-02-19kl000417.png [/ IMG]

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    9
     Feb 18, 2011 at 5:18 pm
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    • ward7299
      Posts: 261

      looks awesome! good job, glad you learned something :)

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      9.1
       Feb 19, 2011 at 1:33 am
      Reply
  10. Tio Ilmo
    Posts: 22

    I was almost asking where is David and here he is again with another great tutorial.

    I hope you stay here to bring us many other tutorials.

    Try to do another simple set of tutorials starting in the model until the game engine.

    Congratulations!!!

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    10
     Feb 18, 2011 at 6:51 pm
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    • ward7299
      Posts: 261

      well thank you :) i haven’t gone anywhere, i’ve just been working on a super-secret, hush-hush project ;)

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      10.1
       Feb 19, 2011 at 1:34 am
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      • ginoskotheon
        Posts: 169

        Oh no . . . now i’m gonna be checking Blender cookie every half an hour. Thanks for getting me all fired up and stuff.

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        10.1.1
         Feb 19, 2011 at 4:49 pm
  11. haqzaf
    Posts: 54

    Hi, David,

    thanks for providing nice chain link metal fence tutorial technique.

    my progress link

    http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=gallery%3Ahaqzaf%2F9410305#/d39v26j

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    11
     Feb 18, 2011 at 10:35 pm
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    • ward7299
      Posts: 261

      looking good! now just throw an abandoned soccer ball in there and it’ll be complete :D

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      11.1
       Feb 19, 2011 at 1:38 am
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  12. ginoskotheon
    Posts: 169

    Welcome back Dave. I notice Jonathan is breathing easier :)

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    12
     Feb 19, 2011 at 12:15 am
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    • ward7299
      Posts: 261

      yeah, i had to give him some “breathe-right” strips, but he’s all good now :D

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      12.1
       Feb 19, 2011 at 1:39 am
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    • jonathanwilliamson
      Posts: 1761

      Ha indeed! A occasional break does me good :)

      -Jonathan

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      12.2
       Feb 19, 2011 at 1:27 pm
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      • JoKaYo
        Posts: 50

        I wondr where is Corun Delin “sorry If I type the name wrong” its been quite long time , he do great tutorials

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        12.2.1
         Feb 20, 2011 at 5:30 am
  13. Becky
    Posts: 19

    Very nice tutorial.

    I really don’t understand some of the comments above from people complaining, they really ought to be more grateful for this wonderful and mostly free resource that never fails to deliver professional content in a way that people can actually understand and learn from.

    Keep up the great work guys.

    Becky

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    13
     Feb 19, 2011 at 2:29 am
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  14. ristridyn
    Posts: 141

    Welcome back David :) please tell jonathan he should stop publishing a tutorial every other day, he’ll give himself a hart-attack someday :P haha just kidding great tut.

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    14
     Feb 19, 2011 at 3:24 am
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  15. birches1
    Posts: 1

    Nigel
    I think it is bad that people criticise the Tutorials ,they are more informative than anywhere on the net.
    It is good that people like Jonathan and David give time and effort to help people like myself who have just started.If you dont have time:dont watch.
    Nigel

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    15
     Feb 19, 2011 at 7:01 am
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  16. Taco bell
    Posts: 35

    …

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    16
     Feb 19, 2011 at 8:53 am
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  17. trinity5150
    Posts: 55

    This is an awesome tutorial. Definitely something very useful for some good outdoor scenes :)

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    17
     Feb 19, 2011 at 11:54 am
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  18. verticies
    Posts: 140

    Another awesome tut. I think one of the real learning tools you have to offer is showing us how you work through the problems you encounter. THANKS!

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    18
     Feb 19, 2011 at 12:57 pm
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  19. Taranis
    Posts: 1

    Well thx. I like it. And for me the legth is ok. Its better to follow. So thx for your efforts …

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    19
     Feb 19, 2011 at 1:04 pm
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  20. verticies
    Posts: 140

    Sorry for the double post, but I wanted to say your render times could be cut dramatically. I have a small computer and after playing with different combinations of what I need and don’t need in a render, I can get the same results with a fraction of the time.
    http://www.blenderguru.com/13-ways-to-reduce-render-times/

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    20
     Feb 19, 2011 at 1:05 pm
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  21. Happy
    Posts: 6

    Nice! Could make a nice normal map out of this too ;)

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    21
     Feb 19, 2011 at 3:31 pm
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  22. SannY
    Posts: 2

    After watching this I, for some reason have a stron urge to do some fencing :)
    Don’t know why tho.

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    22
     Feb 19, 2011 at 6:35 pm
    Reply
  23. rainers
    Posts: 7

    Another enjoable tutorial. I don’t feel quite at home with curves, so this is something to look again some time.
    Btw you said ctrl+n flips the normals. But doesn’t it just recalculate them? If it would flip them, the result would still be messed up, just the opposite way. Or am I wrong?

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    23
     Feb 20, 2011 at 11:36 am
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  24. fabbe
    Posts: 4

    Only thing about blendercookie tutorials that drive me crazy is all the “ok, i’m gonna start/begin” “let’s start of with” “first of we’re gonna”…
    AND
    blenderguru has a nice “show which key is pressed”-function in the lower corner. Use that and you dont have to say each keypress. Blenderguru and blendercookie should have a lovechild. You guys have things to learn from eachother!
    Apart from that i love this page =)

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    24
     Feb 21, 2011 at 2:17 am
    Reply
    • jonathanwilliamson
      Posts: 1761

      Hi Fabbe,

      As far as the keystrokes go we actually have the same script but unfortunately it’s very buggy with the latest versions of Blender and cause it to crash a lot. Rest assured that when it’s either improved or there’s another good option we will make use of it!

      -Jonathan

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      24.1
       Feb 21, 2011 at 10:11 am
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  25. car313
    Posts: 1

    Could you consider making text or pdf tutorial for people without broadband?

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    25
     Feb 21, 2011 at 5:56 am
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  26. serpent
    Posts: 3

    I’can’t believe that someone out there could actually complain about the length of the tutorial.People should learn to appreciate other’s time and effort.Your tutorials are priceless.Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us! Regards!

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    26
     Feb 22, 2011 at 2:36 pm
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  27. goldenesayo
    Posts: 6

    did one of these but in a very low res..happy to see these one!

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    27
     Feb 27, 2011 at 7:40 am
    Reply
  28. Jake
    Posts: 2

    Hey I need help every time I go to the middle array modifier on the chain link and click “Start Capp —> Cylinder” It makes everything twice the size (see link below) Any idea how I could fix this?

    http://tinypic.com/r/c6qok/7

    thanks

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    28
     Feb 28, 2011 at 3:52 pm
    Reply
    • narcotic
      Posts: 10

      I have the exact same problem have tried all sorts of things

      BTW really great tutorial David :)

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      28.1
       Nov 22, 2011 at 4:01 pm
      Reply
  29. Andy
    Posts: 1

    For the life of me I just cannot get the two points to merge together when using the array modifer, it simply refuses to work!

    I really wanted to do this tutorial aswell >:(

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    29
     Mar 2, 2011 at 2:44 pm
    Reply
  30. Frank
    Posts: 1

    Thanks for a great tutorial David.

    I am having a problem with the lower lip of the cap though. I put in the sub divider and lowered it to just above the bottom. I then use the ‘B’ button to select all the points at the bottom, hit ‘E’ and click out, then hit ‘S’ and “Shift Z”. It scales exactly the way you said but there is no inner ring on the bottom. The entire bottom is extruding not just the faces.

    I’m new to Blender and 3-D in general so I’m probably not hitting the correct key strokes. Can you tell me where I messed up, please?

    Thanks

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    30
     Mar 2, 2011 at 3:38 pm
    Reply
    • Chris
      Posts: 2

      I got the same problem. Could someone give a solution to that, please?

      Thanks :)

      Btw love those tutorials!

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      30.1
       Sep 22, 2011 at 2:54 pm
      Reply
  31. The Hammer
    Posts: 9

    I had several problems; as soon as I enabled curveaceous galore, all the ‘file,’ ‘render,’ etc. buttons dissappeared. when I clicked shift-A only a few signs came up instead of the labelled thingies. when I did manage to add a c.g. there were no settings for it in the left panel.

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    31
     Mar 18, 2011 at 2:57 pm
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  32. The Hammer
    Posts: 9

    actually the same thing is happening for all my add-ons.

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    32
     Mar 18, 2011 at 2:58 pm
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  33. Nate
    Posts: 2

    WOW great tutorial

    but how did u move the camera to another layer

    Ive tried but id like to know the shortcut for it ;)

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    33
     Mar 25, 2011 at 1:03 pm
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    • jonathanwilliamson
      Posts: 1761

      Select the Camera, press M > move to layer :)

      -Jonathan

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      33.1
       Mar 25, 2011 at 2:46 pm
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      • Nate
        Posts: 2

        Thanks Jonathan :D

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        33.1.1
         Mar 25, 2011 at 11:40 pm
  35. Kartal
    Posts: 1

    Thanks :)

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    35
     Sep 9, 2011 at 11:08 am
    Reply
  37. narcotic
    Posts: 10

    hey!!!!!! I just want to say that these tutorials are the worst!!!!
    now that I have got your attention lol I love these tutorials they really have helped me come a very long way I knew nothing about blender or 3d modeling in general and taught me alot of things and still teaching me :)

    just one problem when I add the cylinder to the array modifier in the middle and add it as the start cap it increase to about double the size and it ends up above the fence

    thanks

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    37
     Nov 22, 2011 at 4:14 pm
    Reply
    • jonathanwilliamson
      Posts: 1761

      Haha thank you!

      To fix the array problem you should just need to select the cylinder in Objet Moe and press CTRL + A > Apply Scale.

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      37.1
       Nov 22, 2011 at 7:19 pm
      Reply
      • narcotic
        Posts: 10

        Thank you so much it worked 100 percent :)

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        37.1.1
         Nov 24, 2011 at 3:54 am
  38. blenderturkey
    Posts: 45

    How can i the join?

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    38
     Dec 2, 2011 at 9:15 am
    Reply
  39. Dano
    Posts: 3

    This is kind of bugging me that the Object tool menus for these add-ons keep disapearing as soon as it’s deselected or moved or messed with. It seems like there should be a way to access that after you’ve placed it somewhere for future tweaking..Does anyone really know the exact modification to use as soon as they decide to place it in the scene? Especially if it’s one of the first objects created in a large environment. Maybe I’m missing something?

    I’m new at blender so I’m just a little frustrated. I really want to like this program; I came from 3dsMax so I’m trying to get over that application and move on to this one.

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    39
     Dec 13, 2011 at 10:34 pm
    Reply
    • jonathanwilliamson
      Posts: 1761

      Hi Dano,

      Unfortunately the only way to get these settings back is to readd the object or reperform the tool operation. Currently the settings are only available immediately after performing an action, then are removed as soon as you perform another action. Hopefully this will change in the near future, there have been some proposals on how to do it.

      -Jonathan

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      39.1
       Dec 14, 2011 at 8:18 am
      Reply
  40. jbrushes
    Posts: 1

    Hey, just wanted to drop a note of thanks. Nice tutorial. Just learning Blender after ten years of Max, a bit of a curve. Really like the new gui and 64 bits. Wish the fence I put up around the yard went up as easy as the one in this tutorial.

    Good job!

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    40
     Dec 13, 2011 at 11:41 pm
    Reply
  41. darkraider
    Posts: 3

    Great tutorial, great for outdoor scenes.

    A tip for all the 2.6 users, you will probably have a problem with setting the cilinder as “Start Cap” of the array, the pole will come out even more big then is already is, to fix this select the cilinder then Object–>>Apply–>>Scale.

    Grz,
    Thomas

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    41
     Feb 19, 2012 at 10:33 am
    Reply

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