Doc:2.6/Manual/Modeling

Modeling in Blender

As you have seen in the Quick Start chapter, the creation of a 3D scene needs at least three key things: Models, Materials and Lights. In this Part we will delve deeper into the first of these issues: modeling. Modeling is the art and science of creating a surface that mimics the shape of a real-world object or fits your imagination of abstract objects.

Objects come in many forms, shapes and sizes, so Blender has many different tools available to help you make your model quickly and efficiently:

Objects

Working with objects as a whole

Meshes

Working with the mesh that defines the shape of an object

Curves

Using Curves to model and control objects

Surfaces

Modeling a NURBS surface

Text

Textual tools for putting words in 3D space

Meta Objects

Globs and Globules

Duplications

Duplicating Objects

Modeling Scripts

Since Blender functionality is extensible via Python, there are a number of very useful scripts that assist you in modeling.

Many people use "box modeling" which starts with a basic cube, and proceeds with extruding faces and moving vertices to create a larger, more complicated mesh. For flat objects, like walls and table tops, you can use "curve modeling" which defines the outline using bezier or Nurbs curves, and then extrudes it to the desired thickness. Either method is fully supported in Blender using its modeling tools.