Welcome to Appending or Duplicating!
So in this video we're going to learn when you would duplicate
an asset model and choose when appending would
be better. So Duplicating vs Appending!
So when you append another .blend file into a
brand new .blend file or another one that you're working on, appending picks
out key parts of a .blend file, so you can pick the object,
materials, the textures, any other of the scene
information but you bring them in one by one, so other scene data
would have to be appended separately. Now, with
duplicating, as the word suggests, would be exactly
the same as the original file, with everything
intact. It's essentially the same starting
file both times. So there are times when you would duplicate,
and there are times when you would append, depending on your circumstances,
certainly after you are dealing with only a very basic
level, at the moment. If you're dealing with more than
two separate objects, separate .blend files, and you're
moving them all into one scene, then you're certainly going to need to
append, at that point.; you can't just keep duplicating because that's it, you've got the original scene.
So I'd like you to create the rest of the pawn! So
duplicate the base piece .blend file. So we're not going to
append it, and the reason why we're going to duplicate is so we preserve
that background image that we've put in place, so that later on,
in a few moments, we can create the rest of the pawn against that material.
So make sure you're working on the new .blend file that you've created, so you
want to name it, straight away, and recommend a sphere for
the top of the pawn, rather than doing it any other way. Finally, complete
that pawn and share it with us in the discussions! Pause the video
now, and give that a go!
OK guys, welcome back! Let's hop straight on over
into Blender!
So here we are in Blender, and I am going
to go and open up the Chess Piece Base that we've been working on.
There we go! Brilliant! So I'm going to duplicate
this file, rather than append it, and the main reason
for that, more than anything else, is our reference
material is already placed in this scene. So if we move
around to the Front and pop it into
Orthographic projection.
There we go! [Laughs] And turn up the Opacity of our image,
I almost lost it there, then, we can see our pawn is
ready there for us. Now, if we were to append it into a new piece,
we'd also have to append this background image and adjust it again
to fit our current base, and we certainly don't want to do that,
at the moment, since it's already there. So I'm going to go to File and
Save As, and I'm just going to call this Chess
and then change it to Pawn. There we go!
So Save As Blender File, and I'm just going to check at the top, Chess Pawn.
Brilliant! So we're working on a brand new file now, so the
first thing I'm going to do is grab the very top of this
and simply extrude it up. So hopping into Edit
Mode, I'm going to grab that surface face at the
top there, pop straight back around here, and raise it
all the way up to there. Brilliant! I'm just going to add
some loop cuts in, I'm not quite sure how many I want. There's a nice curve
there, I'm going to need a few towards the top, that'll do for the
moment, I can work on the rest. So that will slope down to about there. Then,
it comes in and there's a lot of detail here, so I'm going to select a loop
edge there and bring this up. And I'm going to bring this other one up
really close, as well, just so I can add
more detail there. We may need to adjust things as we go, anyway.
And finally, I'm just going to lift this one, select that loop
there, edge loop there, move it up to roughly the middle
of this and just scale it into roughly the right
place. I'm going to zoom into our model and pan
up. I'm going to move this one and this one, at the same time,
inwards, so remember to hold down Shift when you're selecting
multiples of anything. I'm just going to scale them both
in to roughly the right place. I'm going to grab
this edge loop here, move it down slightly. I'm just trying to
match up the photo the best I can and move that bit out,
and that's absolutely fine! I just need to scale this
top one in a little. In fact, I want a little
resting place for where the sphere will meet, so I'm not going to
scale it into an absolute point, but I'm going to scale it in quite a bit,
probably to there. Now, this is obviously quite jagged,
so there's a couple of options we can do in there. I'm going to add
a bevel in here, just to smooth it out a little bit.
Now, it's just going to be about that much of a bevel, and there we
go! So that produces a nice smooth curve around there! Now, this one
is very pointy, and we may have to play with it quite a bit
to get it how we want it. I certainly
want one line through the middle, whatever happens,
and I can't really go any further than that, so I think I'm going to have to
add in some extra geometry, before we do this. So let's add in
another loop cut up here
and scale that out slightly
and add another loop cut underneath and scale that
out, as well, so then, it's not quite so
blocky. I'm just going to lift this up for no
other reasons than ease of use. So I'm going to pop that pretty much
in the middle, and then, I'm going to select all of these
edge loops, there and there, and apply
a bevel to that, as well. Not much but
just enough to smooth that out. And of course, what I haven't
been doing is hopping quickly on over into Object Mode. I'm just going to
turn... I don't need to turn that off, just to see how that's looking!
And I'm actually quite hoppy, happy, with how that's
looking, at the moment! So we just need to concentrate on the sphere that goes on top.
So let's move quickly around into Front
View again, and we're going to create a sphere. Now, I'm going to create it as a separate
object. Now, that's important because that will allow us to mate
these two surfaces together, if they're all one mesh, that can be quite
difficult. So I'm going to go Shift A,
Add a Mesh, and Add a UV Sphere. I'm going to move
that up and place it roughly on there,
and I'm going to have to scale that down. I'm literally using the image as
pure reference material here, to get the sizes as close
as I care to make them. Now, there's obviously a difference here, so what we're
going to do, at this point, is go and I'm going to
hide the Image, by just rotating away slightly. And this might be
a little fiddly but I'm going to turn on the Snap and
Face, and I'm simply going to move our
sphere down on top of this face. So I'm going to hit the
G Key and press Z to lock it on the Z axis
and literally just move it down, level with that face, and you can see it snapping
straight in and flipping around. I can see that's touching perfectly!
So one final thing that I do want to do, to make this thing just
a little neater is, I'm going to now turn off
our reference material. In fact, I could
delete it... Nooo, I'll probably just turn it off! So we've got
this point here, nothing in real life would ever exist like that, it can't
possibly just come to an infinitely small point. So I'm
going to hop into Edit Mode on our sphere, grab this
edge loop that runs around the bottom of our
sphere, and literally lower that
down, so it snaps onto the face, as well. So we're still on the Snapping Tool
here, which is great! We don't need to turn it off, unless you're going to press G, because we're moving
that set, and I'm going to press Z, because I only want it to move
up and down. I'm simply going to lower that onto this face, and there
we go, it snaps straight away! So then, when we view it from the side, we can see
there's a good contact point. Now, I'm going to
go straight back to this bit here, and I'm just going to move
this top bit in. So I'm going to go into Edit Mode, because I do want it to match,
and I'm going to select this top edge loop,
in edge select. And I'm not going to do it to Face, I'm going to
try and do it to Vertex and see if we can match one of these ones coming in. So I'm just
going to scale it in, see if we can snap that edge, so it's a nice, smooth,
curve going in. And I'm just going to add
another edge loop here and scale it out, so it's just not quite
as slanted going in. Alright, I
like that lots, there's a slight difference here. We are still dealing with
two models, so the first thing I am going to do is combine
these together. So I'm going to select, hop into Object Mode,
and then, I'm going to make sure I've got both selected,
and I'm going to go down to Object and Join
or Control and J. I'd forgotten what the shortcut was! Good
job, I knew where the menu option was. So we're dealing with objects and we're
going to join them together and that makes them one mesh. And of course, they're called
Sphere, which is no good anymore, so I'm simply going to call it
Pawn because I'm happy with that. And as we
can see here, this one hasn't got the smooth shading applied to it yet,
so over, making sure you're in Object Mode, over in the Tool
Shelf I'm simply going to click on smooth shading, so it's just a bit easier on the
eye, as I go around. Excellent! So we've got our basic pawn
piece complete. Excellent! How did you guys do? Please
share your results in the discussions! Brilliant! Well done for getting this far,
and I shall see you in the next lecture!