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Introduction
Chess pieces are great things to make in Blender. In this tutorial, we will model the outline of a pawn using a Bezier Curve and then spin that shape into a 3D pawn. Then we will give it color and render! This tutorial is explained at the basic level so no prior knoledge of Blender is assumed. This tutorial was made using Blender version 2.48a. To download the latest version of Blender, go to blender.org .
Modeling
-> Hit XKEY and click to confirm to delete the cube that is in the center of your screen.
-> Hit SPACEBAR and go Add>Curve>Bezier Curve.
Now we have a basic curve to work with. This curve will become the outline of our pawn.
-> Hit TAB to enter EditMode
Here's where your creativity comes in.
-> Use your RMB (Right Mouse Button) to select points on the curve. If you want to select an entire curve point, RMB on the middle dot of a set of three dots. Use GKEY to grab points, RKEY to rotate points and SKEY to scale points.
-> Type EKEY to extrude a point.
Working with curves can be chalenging but keep trying until you get something that looks like this:
-> Hit TAB to get back into ObjectMode.
-> Go to SideView (NumPad3) and hit RKEY to rotate the Curve. While not moving you mouse, type on you NUMPAD (be sure NumLock is on) 270.
If everything was ok you will have just rotated you curve 270 degrees. Play around with FrontView (NUMPAD1), TopView (NUMPAD7) and SideView (NUMPAD3) to see your curve. Also, pan around you scene with the MMB (Middle Mouse Button).
-> Go to FrontView and do ALT+CKEY and click to confirm.
We have just converted the curve object to a mesh object. Now we can take this outline and turn it into a 3D pawn!
-> TAB into EditMode.
-> Go down to the EditButtons in the bottom of your screen and go to the "Mesh Tools" panel. Find the "Degr" field and change it to "360".
-> Change the "Steps" field to "20".
-> Go to TopView and hit AKEY to select all the verticies (the purple dots on the pawn outline will go yellow).
-> Finally click the "Spin" button!
Alright, what just happened? When you use the Spin feature, the selected verticies get duplicated in a circle around the 3D Cursor (The cross-hair in you screen). In order to get the verticies duplicated like they are, you had to be in TopView. There are now some overlapping verticies so lets fix that:
-> Type AKEY to delesect all verts and AKEY again to select all verts.
-> Go down to the "Mesh Tools" panel again and click the "Rem Double" and click to confirm.
Now pan around you scene (MMB) to see your pawn!
Now your pawn is going to look a little different than mine, but thats ok. Getting to undererstand curves and how they behave with the spin command is difficult, but keep trying.
-> Lets TAB into ObjectMode.
-> Go down to the EditButtons again and go to the "Link and Materials" panel. Find the "Set Smooth" button and click it.
Materials
That's one cool looking pawn! Lets put a material on it and give it some color!
-> Go down to the EditButtons and in the upper left corner you will see six icons. Click the "Shading" icon (the grey circle).
-> Click the big "Add New" button. (you can't miss it!)
You can name the material something if you want (a good habbit to get into).
-> In the "Material" panel, click on the color field and make it pure white.
Your pawn should now look like this:
Pan around to get a view of your scene like the above picture:
-> Do CTRL+ALT+NUMPAD0.
This will position the camera right were you were looking.
-> Now lets adjust the lighting by panning around and selecting the Lamp (the black circle) and using GKEY to move it in front of the pawn.
-> Press F12 to render.
Now sit back and relax as your computer makes a pictorial output of your scene.
Now save your file by hitting CTRL+WKEY or do File>Save.
I hope this has been a useful tutorial on modeling with Blender. If you don't like the way your pawn looks, try this tutorial again. Happy Blendering!!
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