Making a Cup in Blender
By: Jeremy Brooks
-Learn lathe modeling technique (Spin) to make complex objects.
-Learn to use bezier curves.
Start a new Blender project.
Press ‘3’ on numeric pad to go to side view (make sure num lock is on).Press ‘space bar’. Click Add…Curve…Bezier Curve.Press F9 (Vertex Edit Options).
Under Convert click Poly. This will make the bezier curve a polygon which is easier to work with for now.
Individually select and move each vertex into the general outline of half a cup as if you were looking at the cup from side view. If you need more vertex points to make your cup outline hold Ctrl and click the left mouse button. A new vertex will appear where you click. The cup should look somewhat “L” shaped, meaning the top should not have a horizontal line going across but the bottom should have one.
Now you have a rough outline of the cup.
Press the ‘a’ key to select all vertices (they should all turn yellow). Click Bezier under Convert.
Press ‘Tab’ to switch out of vertex edit mode. The cup object should be pink. Hold Alt and press the ‘c’ key. A dialog box will pop up; click the word Mesh.The curve is now a mesh.
Press ‘Tab’ to go back into vertex edit mode.Select the bottom and right most vertex with a right mouse click. This will be the bottom center of the cup.
Hold Shift and press the ‘s’ key. Choose Curs->Sel on the dialog that pops up. This will move the crosshair cursor to the same coordinates of the selected vertex.Press ‘7’ to go to top view.Press the ‘a’ key twice to select all vertices; they should all turn yellow (be sure you are in vertex edit mode first).Click ‘Spin’ 4 times.
Press ‘Tab’ to get out of vertex edit mode.Press ‘3’ to get a side view of your cup.Press the ‘z’ key to see shading.Click ‘Set Smooth’ for a more realistic look.
From here you can add things to your cup.
Add a handle on the side and its a mug. Make a straw out of a cylinder. Place a circle mesh with a texture map in the cup to simulate liquid refreshment :).
This is just a very simple example of what Spin can do. Rockets, lamps, vases, chair and table legs can also be quickly modeled using this technique.
Just go nuts and start experimenting!
Last Update: 07/12/2002 09:44 PM