Design Your Own Custom Dice for Free | Blender Tutorial | DIY with Cly Ep. 21

[@Toastii_Broskii]

Timestamps for each die: D6 7:12 D4 11:32 D8 15:49 D10 17:50 D12 23:03 D20 26:07

[@ClyFaker]

Thanks for doing that. I've been too absorbed in tweaking the print design for making cap molds and I completely forgot to list out the time stamps. Pinned.

[@Toastii_Broskii]

@@ClyFaker No problem, mostly just commented it for myself

[@TrueRueTube]

May the dice gods always give you critical success!!!

[@dread_lord3697]

3 year old video, but absolutely amazing! I added a bit of a change to the method in how I did it while following the video, and it has made new iterations much quicker and easier (e.g., if I want to use a new font) Basically, do everything as described in the video, except for the following: 1. Instead of creating an svg file with the numbers premade, create a text object in blender for each number (still extrude the text) 2. When copying the numbers into the scene for a new die, place them in their own collection (I called mine "Numbers") 3. When positioning each number, do NOT delete the number and do NOT create a boolean modifier for each number. Instead add the die as a parent to the number (this way it will hold its position as you rotate the die) 4. Once all numbers are positioned, select them all, duplicate, move to a new collection (I called mine "Numbers_Meshes") 5. Finally, add a single boolean modifier to the die, targeting the meshes collection (I pointed to "Numbers_Meshes") Making this change to the process has meant that when I want to use a new font, all I need to do is change the font on one number, then select all numbers and link fonts (this copies the font settings across), then just delete the existing meshes and repeat steps 4 and 5. There is no longer any need for me to go through the whole positioning and rotating process again :) I hope this helps someone who is looking to try more than one font in their masters

[@maxineheather924]

would you do this for each dice and keep a master of each with it's orientations? I'm imagining that you've got basically a set of dice + their number's in orientation set aside, and when you want to have a different font you basically copy that master, then change the fonts to the copy? and how would you change the font once you've made them into meshes?

[@dread_lord3697]

@@maxineheather924 To answer your first query, you are right, I have each of the dice saved with the numbers in the correct location and rotation. These are stored in individual files in a single folder on my computer, named by the font. If I want a new font, I copy the folder full of dice files, then modify the font in each. This way I have a folder for each font I am using. To answer your second query, I keep the text objects in a collection, then I duplicate this collection and the text objects within, I then convert the duplicates to meshes and hide the text objects. This then lets me add the singular Boolean modifier on the die model, targeting that collection. When I come to changing font, I simply delete the mesh duplicates, and repeat the above steps. I hope that makes sense :)

[@CreamSota]

@@dread_lord3697 Do you have a simple fix for repositioning the numbers when a font is changed? Or just doing your best to eyeball center based on how the text is now offset from the origin point versus the old font?

[@roastman9753]

For anyone wanting an update, Blender 2.83 has simplified the D20 modelling. Simply go to add mesh - ico sphere - and then the bottom left menu that pops up, change subdivisions to 1.

[@Crisisdarkness]

Wow, thank you so much. This is awesome.

[@wisegirl_athena3458]

im working in blender 3.1.2 and I don't know how I can do the D12, what I should do?

[@robeyjenkins1711]

@@wisegirl_athena3458 Hi. I'm also working on a d12 and am a Blender novice. You have to go to Edit>Preferences>Add-ons and check "Add Mesh: Extra Objects". Once you've done that, when you go to Add>Mesh, you'll get the option Add>Mesh>Math Function>Solid Object. Go to the object menu at the bottom left hand of the screen when the default tetrahedron pops up and select "dodecahedron" from the drop-down menu.

[@lomaxdesigns1716]

DO NOT DO THIS! The Icosphere will create your D20 with a different orientation to the video's method and you won't be able to re-orientate your D20 with precision.

[@maggie3060]

@@lomaxdesigns1716 surely one could just rotate it to match the video then follow along?

[@ammonloveless6666]

Incredibly helpful and to the point. Thank you for your tutorial, Cly! You've got another subscriber here just for the quality of this one video. For anyone lost on the d12 and d20 like I was, see if these help. I wrote down a step-by-step list for each: d20: 1. Place & Bool 20 | 1 2. Rot 60 Z, apply 3. Rot 41.81 X, apply 4. Place & Bool 14/8/2 | 19/13/7 5. Rot 60 Z, apply 6. Rot 41.81 X 7. Place & Bool 6/10/18 | 9/5/17 8. Set X Rot 0 9. Rot -120 Z, apply 10. Rot 41.81 X 11. Place & Bool 4/16/12 | 3/11/15 12. Set X Rot 0 13. Rot 60 Z, apply 14. Rot -41.81 X, apply 15. Rot 120 Z, apply 16. Repeat steps 3-15 three times (3-14 on third pass) 17. Rot 60 Z, apply 18. Rot 180 X, apply 19. Repeat steps 1-16 20. Finished! d12: 1. Place Bool 12 | 1 2. Rot 36 Z, apply 3. Rot 63.43 X 4. Place Bool 8/6/4/2/10 | 3/11/9/7/5 5. Set X Rot = 0 6. Rot 72 Z, apply 7. Repeat steps 3-6 five times 8. Rot 36 Z, apply 9. Rot 180 X, apply 10. Repeat steps 1-7 11. Finished!

[@ClyFaker]

Glad I could help, and thanks for the rundown for my more scatterbrained sections. 😅

[@ammonloveless6666]

@@ClyFaker Haha, I was just glad when I came to the comments and saw I wasn't the only one lost! Even after figuring out what you were saying, I kept getting confused because of the sheer number of steps. After writing them out it became very simple, so I thought I'd share!

[@naemi7614]

Thanks !

[@ink5665]

This helped me immensely thanks! One note though, and I'm not sure if I was doing something incorrectly and just stumbled my way to correctness through sheer luck, but when placing the odd numbers on the d12 my step 3 rotation always had to be -63.43 or it wouldn't end up on the correct face.

[@MoonHawke]

Thank you so much for this! I was getting so lost following the video and this really cleared up which steps I was supposed to be skipping when moving on from the first sets of numbers.

[@shanewilliams4614]

First of all, awesome tutorial. I did want to talk a bit about that numbering convention on the d10, because there is a line of reasoning for why the standard dice set adds to 9 rather than 10. The opposite ends of the dice generally add to the number that most closely represent the average in any two dice rolls, this keeps the number distribution relatively even across the die and prevents it from having a high and low side (like counting d20s used in Magic the Gathering). For most dice, that number from 1 onward, that average is going to be .5 higher than the number of faces on the die. So they go up one from the number of faces in design. In the case of the d10 when used as a lone die your numbering style maintains this, but their design in commercial sets where the tens ten is included assumes you're using the dice together as percentile dice by default, and when rolling percentile dice the 0 actually does represent zero in any case except for the tens ten when you roll 0 on both dice. Because of this the average on 2 dice rolls of a d10 is actually 8.5, and for the tens ten its about 8.6. This is why they round up to 9 for what the opposite sides add to to keep a relatively even number distribution. Your numbering style is actually worse than theirs when using the percentile dice together as it creates a pair where the opposite sides add to 1 effectively. This is also the reason why the d10 has a 0 rather than a 10. It's not to maintain a single digit aesthetic, but because in its assumed use it is actually a zero. There are some d10 dice sold that do use your numbering style, especially when sold individually. Also they typically use a 10 or a symbol rather than a 0 like standard sets. Personally I agree with your numbering convention as i use the d10 most often as a d10 and not a percentile. I just wanted to share some random knowledge.

[@TheCrystalHive]

The opposite sides of dice are far simpler to deduce than this. The opposite sides of all dice, in a standard arrangement, equal the number of sides on the die plus 1. Opposite sides on a d6 = 7, on a d8 = 9, on a d10 = 11, etc.

[@psukhopompos]

@@TheCrystalHive Except d10s are also used as percentile dice, where rolling a 0 and a 00 means you rolled a flat 0. The die being "non-standard" doesn't matter because the numbering convention still serves it's purpose: To balance high and low numbers across the die.

[@adamtheimpaler]

Sooooo. I used this wicked awesome tutorial to make dice in blender. However, instead of making mesh and boolean the font, I parent>object them to the die. This allowed me to keep rotating and adding numbers without losing the ability to change the font... That's my contribution. Thanks for the awesome video.

[@CommanderGhost]

Hi, could you maybe expend on that idea? I'd like to try it for myself. Much appreciated.

[@adamtheimpaler]

​@@CommanderGhost I used the blender font type and then parent>object them to the dice. That kinda feels like repeating but there's not much more to it.

[@CommanderGhost]

@@adamtheimpaler Gonna try that, thnx for the fast reply

[@adamtheimpaler]

@@CommanderGhost lol yeah I mean I watched this video and was like but? Then i just googled how to pair objects in blender. The only real difference is that you boolean everything after you choose a new font, instead of face by face like in the video.

[@nolithify]

@@adamtheimpaler The big brain play right here.

[@TheSlacey08]

For anyone else having problems making the boolean work in version 2.92, try the following: "we want to make sure we have consistent normals. We do this by going into edit mode, select everything, and hit Shift+N. ". I spent hours trying to figure out why my boolean wouldn't work (first time using blender, don't judge me too harshly), but found this treasure in a random article and it finally worked.

[@Xaalderan]

Thank you so much I was having this issue for like an hour now

[@adelefleury6444]

THANK YOUUUUUUUUUU

[@ethanzalac1395]

A year later and this comment was a lifesaver! I was doing a custom logo for the 20 on my d20 and could not get it to work, even though the numbers did. Thank you!

[@madeleighplace4759]

saved my life too! shift+a>mesh>clean up>merge by distance . apparently they renamed this so shift+n doesn't work as I've found. (also it's easier to do this while still at the extruding and centering font stage as i learned LOL)

[@amberbiorn922]

This comment saved me hours of heartache, thank you so much!

[@NarcolepticLTD]

For those having issues getting their fonts to extrude with solid faces instead of jagged messes, Make sure you hit the A key after you switch to edit mode - this will select all parts of all the meshes. extrude them out and then double check back in object mode to make sure you have some nice shiny surfaces, and if not, try again. There's lots of threads in here with similar issues going off on tangents, so I'm posting this as it's own comment so it may be a bit more visible. it's still a bit random which is why I state you should double check and try again. Saving my initial font image file in gimp as .png or .jpeg didn't seem to make any difference, both worked or bugged out. Also of note from another thread in the comments, If you're trying to create your font file in Gimp using 250 point, ending up with absolutely massive characters - Cly had his settings a bit different from stock - Use 250 pixels for the character size as a starting point and most fonts should fit the 2066 x 1548 image size properly

[@KuroNocte]

This comment needs more appreciation. Thanks so much for this. I'd thought my font might just not be the first one for dice, but no, I was just using the wrong method before. I'll always be hitting A for the selection now~

[@ethang2709]

For some reason, when I hit the "a" key, nothing is highlighted or selected. I have to use the mouse and select all the numbers. How do I fix this?

[@oniiwave]

Oh my! This is what I looked for. Thanks!

[@daedelus_]

For the people who need the D20 instruction from the 16 to continue to get the 20 up, and then orient correctly. After you made the 16 continue as follows: 0 on X , 60 on Z, apply - 41.81 on X, apply 120 on Z, apply 41.81 on X apply Now you can continue using the 2. Afterwards, use the same steps as for the 6 and then the 4 (so next step would be: 60 on Z, apply 41.81 on X - do not apply ) Hope that helps!

[@bobbybob1471]

The D20 was really confusing to have explained, what with jumping around so much in the video. Having it all written out for me made it easier to follow so here's hoping it can help someone else. The process can be broken down into batches of 3. Once the 3 numbers in each batch are finished you must reset the die back to the Base number and set it up for the next batch. The order of numbers to be applied is as follows: 20 (Base) 14>16>4 8>10>16 2>18>12 -------------------------------- START at Base: 60°Z (ONLY FOR FIRST BATCH. IGNORE FOR SECOND AND THIRD.) FIRST number in each set of 3: simply apply 41.81°X SECOND number: apply 60°Z then 41.81°X(Not Applied) THIRD number: apply 0°X, -120°Z, and 41.81°X(Not Applied) RESET back to the Base: apply 0°X, 60°Z, -41.81X SET UP for the next batch: apply 120°Z ------------------------------ ^ This is the pattern that is followed for each batch. The only exception to this rule is the 12 face, which is the final even number before switching to the other side. Immediately after finishing up the 12, follow the standard pattern up to the RESET stage. Do not do the normal SET UP rotation: instead, apply 60°Z and 180°X. This will give you a blank face upon which you will place the 1 which will be your new Base. The process from here is identical to the first set of number batches. Follow the exact same pattern of steps with the same degrees of rotations in order, just with a new set of numbers. An additional benefit to doing the odd numbers is that you are able to check if they are correct by adding up the numbers on opposite faces. If the total comes to 21 you are doing it right. The second set of batches are as follows: 1 (Base) 19>9>3 13>5>11 7>17>15 -------------------------------- START at Base: 60°Z (ONLY FOR FIRST BATCH. IGNORE FOR SECOND AND THIRD.) FIRST number in each set of 3: simply apply 41.81°X SECOND number: apply 60°Z then 41.81°X(Not Applied) THIRD number: apply 0°X, -120°Z, and 41.81°X(Not Applied) RESET back to the Base: apply 0°X, 60°Z, -41.81X SET UP for the next batch: apply 120°Z ------------------------------ Hope this helps someone. Thanks so much for the tutorial my man, aside from that little bit of confusion the whole thing was incredibly easy to follow even for a complete Blender noob like myself.

[@MrDanielKrauss]

This was so immensely helpful. This is real gold. I would have given up if it weren't for this comment. Thank you!

[@karaokeang]

OMG.. You have helped me so much.. I couldn't figure out how I wasn't getting the rotations right and if I was returning back to the top the right way.

[@lacrimosaangel5606]

OMG, THANK YOU! this helped so much! But you have a typo in your first set! In your batches, You have 16 twice, where the first one should be a 6?

[@Namivi]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! You literally saved my life :D

[@williamstapleton9758]

That doesn't make any fucking sense

[@jasoncompton5280]

I know it's been almost 2 years on this video but: You can make round edged dice by selecting all the edges in edge mode and bevel them. Make sure all of the edges are selected and do this before you do anything with the numbers. You can (and should,) use the pop up menu to control how many bevels are used and how far in it bevels (on a D6 for example I use 1 meter if you follow this tutorial.)

[@maggie3060]

You can do this after adding the numbers too. Go to edit mode and manually select the edges you want beveled. Use the bevel tool. (I think its b)

[@alexandriavancartier7308]

Where is that second video?!?!?!?!?!?1 i need it haha thank you for the tutorial!!!!

[@madeleighplace4759]

I know this is a 2yr old vid, but like a lot of people have said it's still one of the only comprehensive and easy to follow tutorials on youtube still, so thank you! for blender noobs like me who are probably using 3.1.2 (or some newer version than 2.81.16 in the vid), some things have been moved about, so i recommend googling if you can't find a specific menu or a hotkey or two isn't doing the same thing. other things I ran into (on 3.1.2) : -Boolean not actually cutting into die: 2 things with this one. One was that my text to mesh made a ton of extra triangles and vertices, and the second was that my boolean wouldn't cut into the die, just make verts and edges on the surface. I'll address the first point below. to fix the second point however, I just clicked "fast" instead of "exact", and then applied it. In the video, he doesn't show the option (not sure if version he's using has it), but it's there on 3.1.2. -Text to Mesh making a ton of triangles & verts: took a lot of googling, but I reduced this using this method AFTER doing the conversion he does (actually i ended up doing it after extruding and centering everything, but it doesn't matter which order.) in edit mode: Select everything (Shft+A)>Clean Up>Limited Dissolve. Then, while everything is still selected, Clean up>Merge by Distance. At the bottom where it shows version number & etc, it should say something about how many vertices it deleted, and each type of font i did had like 10k verts removed. The triangles also sometimes mess up booleans from what I understand, so this should help! Frostybritches' comment about normals is what lead me down this path - the method is different in 3.1.2! -depending on your font of choice, you'll have to modify the origin and where it's centered on the die, which should be a given ;) I made a spreadsheet with the exact numbers i needed for each font i was using since it'll be different each time lol this isn't really a problem, just made it much easier to replicate work each modelling session.

[@schmorgasboard92]

This was an amazingly helpful video, a lot of content so it required a lot of replaying, what I would recommend for anyone doing this is, once you've sized your dice, to go through ALL of your numbers and resize/relocate them first then one they're all set and should be overlapping each other (you can hide the ones you don't want to see at the time) do all the rotations of the dice and do the boolean differences, a minor change but it was one that helped me get into a quick rhythm of making them

[@iamthediz]

I DID IT!! They look SO good! I'm so proud of myself! Thank you thank you THANK YOU of this video! It helped me SO much!

[@ClyFaker]

I'm glad it helped. 😁

[@maddielyon22]

Would you like to be hired to design some for me? Im not tech savvy at all and need some original non copyrighted dice

[@tcd3077]

@@maddielyon22 still looking for someone? I know its been a while but I just came across this

[@Isofyre]

Great video and it helped me a lot with my dice project ^^! I wanted to add a few things that reduce the steps you need to do so you can work faster! (I hope this is okay for you) When you have a blank dice, select one number and type in all the Infos for scale and location. Then select all numbers you have to use for this dice. Go the tab over the modifier, the one with the yellow square named object properties. On top of this tab you see the name of the selected main object, so click on the tiny arrow that points down and select the number with the correct scale and location. Now, you have to right-click on the light grey field where you type in the numbers and select 'Copy to all selected' Do this for location and scale, now every number is in the intended position. Don't worry if it looks weird, you can make the numbers you don't need invisible by clicking in the eye symbol on the top right. Now you don't have to type in scale and location for every number. I hope this is helpful for folks ^^

[@ClyFaker]

Very helpful indeed! I'm getting ready to design yet another set of masters, and I'll be sure to try that out.

[@BlackBeastWorkshop]

super helpful thank you

[@libbyspaur605]

As someone with 3d printing and vector experience, but zero experience with Blender, this was so easy to follow and gave me a lot of confidence in making custom dice. It also eased me into Blender without getting incredibly overwhelmed. Thank you! I had a couple things to add from my experience with Illustrator to handle the fonts - it's important to convert the text object to outlines with the "Expand" function prior to making the SVG, but of course that only applies to the adobe software. Now I am interested in playing with the action recorder blender add-on in order to script all the angled rotations. Save my fingers all the typing on this tiny laptop keyboard :)

[@RidleyofZebes]

Hey Cly! Just wanted to drop in and say THANK YOU SO MUCH! for this video! I've been trying to do exactly what you outlined here, but my process was slow, painful, and imprecise. I'd been trying on and off to do it since March, dozens of hours poured into this and multiple afternoons wasted, having scrapped several attempts already, and today I just sat down and did it in a handful of hours -- thanks to you! You're a lifesaver man, this video is the best thing. Can't wait to see what they look like once they come off my Elegoo Mars. Thanks again, man. Your process is the bomb!

[@ClyFaker]

I'm glad I could be of help. 😁 I just finished my third set of masters, and at this point I'm averaging just over an hour per set. Years of data entry has turned me into a demon on a numpad. 😈

[@Chrachen]

I just successfully completed your tutorial. Thank you so much for providing all this information. It was hard to follow at times especially with the d20 on parts where you state "just to follow the other rotations" and I think, that in the "other rotations" there was already a rotation on Z with 60° too much, but when you pay attention while you follow the tutorial and SEE how something rotates and write all the values onto a piece of paper you can easily mark the spot with a highlighter to remind yourself not to do that one rotation. Extremely helpful for me was the transkript of the video to get all the numbers. You can not pause the video to see all the numbers at times. So for everyone who wants to follow: press the three dots and choose to see the transcript of the video. Thank you again ♥

[@ClyFaker]

Getting the transcript is a great tip. I definitely feel like I could have done a few things better when it comes to relaying the info (especially with the D20). I got aggressive with condensing the info to keep the video from running too long or having to split it up. Live and learn. 😅

[@Chrachen]

@@ClyFaker Yes but it was okay that you have to pay attention at the end (instead of in the beginning), because when you did all the other dice first you get the hang of it. I'm soooooo thankful you did this. This is truly a thing I haven't seen anyone do for the community before ♥

[@ClyFaker]

Aww, shucks. 😄 I've just about got the sequel ready to begin recording. I may need to hammer out some minor details in the design (printing the latest test now), but soon there will be a tutorial for cap molds. Even the early versions are easy to use and produce great looking dice. You can find a few of my experiments under the "community" tab on this channel.

[@kylejohnson6788]

Great video! 2 addons I thought I mention. 1> size of font should be 2.50 points not 250 2>extrude your font before you turn it into a mesh as doing so after can cause it to extrude funky.

[@abbeyroad653]

I just used this guide to make my own masters. 10/10 Amazing video! Very detailed. I created a set with numbers and I am looking forward to doing a sent with a logo or two on them next. Thanks a bunch!

[@ClyFaker]

I'm glad I could help. 😁 Now I just need to finish up the tutorial on how to turn these masters into cap molds.

[@epicarc9616]

I was having issues with my text using gimp so I made the numbers in blender using add > text. and doing that for each numbers so they'd be individual objects. Then I was having issues using boolean because the text wasn't the right kid of format so I had to convert them by going to object > convert > mesh. Then the rest of the tutorial worked for me outside of having to tweak the scale on my font a bit! Thank you Cly for helping me get these models done! Hope this helps the people who had issues like I did!

[@HalfwingAeon]

this is the BEST Dice Mastering tutorial out there! Thank you so much for it! Any chance we could get an update on the 2 part molds? Did they not work out or is it still being worked on?

[@celineg.7236]

I've been able to design three different dice sets using this video, thank you so much!!!!!!!

[@papafhill9126]

9:14 - This is where this goes awry for me. When I do the boolean modifier on the d6, the number mesh only leaves an outline of vertices rather than leaving the subtracted area. Any help would be awesome!

[@desyx471]

Just wanted to say thank you so much for this awesome tutorial! I made my first custom models of dice back in March, using a lot of makeshift/inaccurate angles and a nightmare software to create one set in a whole week's worth of work. With your help I just finished a new set of dice in Blender in less than a full day, and they look awesome to boot!!! Very useful tutorial with easy to modify aspects for personal customization like logos and fonts. THANK YOU for this amazing video!!!

[@ClyFaker]

The experience you described is similar to what I went through when I first tried designing masters. I'm glad the hodge podge method I came up with can be of help to others.

[@desyx471]

@@ClyFaker Your methods and tutorial are amazing and easy to follow; thank you for sharing your expertise with us!

[@ClyFaker]

Here's hoping the sequel will be as well received. I'm addressing some of the common issues people experience with this one as well as sharing the secret of how I make my no cut cap molds. It's a bit behind schedule though. 😓

[@shinyranger1]

I used this tutorial starting last week to make my own masters, and I already have a half dozen iterations. I love it! Now I'm dying to see how these promised molds turn out. :) Maybe just a hint on how they are made for those of us willing to experiment? Either way, thanks again for putting this out there, and can't wait to see what's next!

[@ClyFaker]

I've used the molds in my last few dice making videos if you want to see them in action.

[@sihplak]

Fantastic tutorial -- fast but thorough

[@ClyFaker]

Thanks. 😁

[@krisrobinson3787]

Fantastic tutorial! I did hit a snag myself though, once I converted to mesh my numbers had bits missing. So I had to go to the Object Data Properties > Geometry > extrude 0.01 m then convert to mesh. Unfortunately, I don't know how to use blender so I had to repeat this process for each object. Smooth sailing otherwise, seriously I really appreciate the effort you put into this tutorial! I did use Blender 2.83.4 for this.

[@HeySarahBernadette]

OH. MY. GOD. I was LITERALLY struggling with this for TWO HOURS. You are my hero!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much for posting this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@HeySarahBernadette]

I'm freaking printing this. Thank you too, Autosave!!

[@xcosmicvoidx]

you're literally a dice saver- so much frustration solved!

[@dragonsmediacavern]

nice part one. can't wait till the next part comes out.

[@studiovulcan4411]

5:40-6:40 I didn't understand this step. I'm not sure why we're doing this and elaborating on that would really help myself and others out. Perhaps an updated guide? So far though, enjoying the tutorial and appreciate what went into it! EDIT: When you get to the boolean section, the menu has changed. There's not a super small "v" down arrow (next to the "boolean" field) that you need to click and it will show the "apply" option you need to hit.

[@swingalingdragon]

Tip for anyone else following along - you have to press "N" to get to where you can change the object dimensions as mentioned at 8:40 in version 3.2.1

[@canonicaltom]

Blender can work with fonts directly, as well as extrude font objects. So there's no need to convert from a vector to a bitmap to a vector to a mesh.

[@incongruentcreative]

Can you please elaborate on this? I've been having a hard time with the font part of this tutorial. The font I'm using is my own, so I'm not sure if it's the font itself that is the problem or if I'm doing something wrong with the program. When I go through the steps he talks about in the tutorial, my font has weird chunks taken out of it rather than being solid, even though the font itself has all solid lines.

[@Dunbras]

Great Vid. Really could do with the follow up video. Want to make dice for my gaming group for Christmas presents.

[@ClyFaker]

The follow up kept getting pushed back thanks to me always finding one more small problem every time I printed a set of masters. It doesn't help that I'm not printing often thanks to how hard isopropyl alcohol (especially 90%+) has been to find. Fortunately I have a new cheap and easy to find solvent for washing prints (that might get its own video), and if everything goes well with the masters I'm printing later this week I'll be ready to finally wrap things up with the sequel. The master design works as is (you can see examples in my recent dice making videos), but there's one last quality of life improvement I want to test.

[@ovoid_ovvie]

Just bought Tabletop Playground and wanted to make my own dice! Thank you so much for the help. I've only made the D6 so far, but at the moment it's a wire lattice with the numbers just under the lattice. I thought I'd call it Caged Values. Thanks so much!

[@chaserjjay]

Hey I'm having trouble finding your follow-up video that you referenced in this video. I am dying to know why I put all the 1s back on top of the dice.

[@joefoster6715]

Holy crap, I did it! Thank you so much! I think my eyes were starting to cross with all the angles on the D20.

[@ClyFaker]

Yeah, the D20 is a beast, but once you practice a bit and get a rhythm going you can knock it out pretty quickly.

[@Evildragon168]

Hey Cly, Any thoughts on when we will be getting the other part to this video about using the models to create separate molds?

[@anms_brk]

Never, it seems. This seems to be a keyboard channel now. :(

[@DG-er1wt]

are you ever going to do the follow up video? I was very surprised when I went looking and realized you did not have one.

[@wonderfulmystical4316]

Man, this video is so helpful! I can't believe this is still the only video I could find on this topic! Thanks so much for sharing this!

[@ClyFaker]

Not gonna lie, I fully expected another video on the topic to be out by now. Now if only I could stop dragging my feet on the sequel, right? 😅

[@wonderfulmystical4316]

@@ClyFaker Crazy! Especially because this is such a well kept secret, I though the internet would go nuts over trying to outrun each other with more videos on the topic. Patiently waiting over here. ;) I know how much work such a video is though. Don't feel pressured. I'm very happy with this one already. :)

[@ClyFaker]

The main thing that's been delaying the sequel is the shortage of gloves and alcohol during the pandemic. I needed to do a lot of printing to hammer out the details, and thanks to the shortages that didn't happen until relatively recently.

[@CoolTrainerJulio]

Thank you so much for this video! I can’t wait for the dice molds video. Those look perfect!

[@SuperSmashRiolu]

Does the Illusive mold (second) video exist yet? lol

[@TAiiNE]

Still nope. I assume the concept failed as while its nice to be able to make your own base for a mold, how exactly are you going to 'clean up' the 3d print, sand, polish and such to remove all the print lines inside a object designed to be used to make a mold? After all you want to make a clean object to make the mold, otherwise the mold will have all them imperfections.

[@SuperSmashRiolu]

@@TAiiNE its a pretty common process to create molds from 3D prints, both from SLA and FDM prints.

[@TAiiNE]

@@SuperSmashRiolu I am aware but the issue is is you normally create masters, dice, and clean them up first. polish up and make ready to use to than set up to make a mold out of. But what we see is hes bypassing that and going right for a master for the mold its self. But that master, how are you to clean it up? Theres edges and faces tucked away inside lips and I don't see anyway you can sand that down and polish it so when you make the silicone version well, thats don't hto be stuck with all the imperfections you couldn't clean up, and thus, the dize will look just like the 'master' with all the 3d printed sacan lines and bits you couldn't clean? Pretty much instead of just making dice that you set up, hes bypassing that and directly making a set up to make the mold. but yeah... how when your not going to be able to clean it up?

[@jon_franklin]

Here's a small tip. You only need to apply the rotation after filling in both the x and y. You can do it after each step if you like but considering that there are 70 faces to fill in this information saves some tedium. For example, the step for doing the D8, as laid out in the video, are as follows: Rotate X -35.265 degrees Apply rotation Rotate Y -90 degrees Apply rotation Rotate X 35.265 degrees Apply rotation When in reality you can just do: Rotate X -35.265 degrees Rotate Y -90 degrees Apply rotation Rotate X 35.265 degrees Apply rotation I know this is minor but like I say, saves some time

[@pasqualemazzei6754]

any clarity on how the angles were achieved?

[@lcm361]

The second video never came, right? I really needed it...

[@Imahuph]

sooo, still looking for part 2 bbut part one was awesome thank you

[@jackparker8551]

Brilliant. this was amazing. made several little mistakes but repeated the sections and corrected them easily enough. I found my scales were different due to the Fonts i used, but find what works best for your font on each die and note it down.

[@NODHLAN]

This is a really awesome tutorial! Im waiting for the next tutorial of those 2 parts mold!

[@ClyFaker]

I've finally gotten the last kink out of the masters for those molds, so now I'm compiling my notes. Just about ready to start recording.

[@NODHLAN]

@@ClyFaker just las one question do you have a text for this tutorial? im messing with d20 (actualy i cant do it, im missing some info i think)

[@ClyFaker]

I don't, but I think there's at least one comment on this video that wrote everything out.

[@DavidClunie]

Any chance to get that follow up for part 2 of the improved molds? Great video and channel!

[@jadetapper7500]

thank you! this is pretty niche but so so helpful for beginners at both D&D and blender like myself so I just wanted to let you know how much you've helped out at least one person with this!

[@PollyLWorld]

I just finished my first set of masters thanks to your video. Thank you a thousand times for taking the time to make this!

[@joshuamiller4733]

Used this to design my own d6 dice for a 2d20 system! It was my first time designing an STL. Thanks for the tutorial!

[@Patrick-gm3fb]

I have zero experience with 3D printing or blender but I'm fairly certain I can follow along with this video to make almost exactly what I want. Thank you so much for the tutorial. So just one question: How do I make the edges rounded instead of sharp?

[@PhrooVFX]

Very late response but go to edit mode, select all edges and bevel them

[@Patrick-gm3fb]

@@PhrooVFX not a problem actually. I never did get around to finishing this project because I ran into another problem and lost interest for the time being. When I get back to it I'll keep this in mind. Thnx!

[@babynee225]

FYI to all using illustrator b4 exporting your font convert the numbers to outlines then export as .svg will save you a few hours and a headache

[@ClyFaker]

Thank you for that. I already knew about Blender hating Illustrator, but I had no idea how to work around it. Now to see if there's something similar I can do with InkScape.

[@Mekareism]

Thank you so much! I will absolutely try...I have never worked on 3D.

[@couldntpickausername4099]

this video is super helpful. I'm using a different font so different number placement but the angles are so good to have. I've been going over different sections multiple times taking notes in a reference document.

[@ClyFaker]

I really need to update my notes as well. I still refer to my script when making new matters, but I didn't do the best job organizing the info in it. 😅

[@VideoFromJake]

Was there ever the follow up video mentioned at the end? Would be keen to try that

[@GregAtlas]

The reason why your sizing is different in the modeling program compared to the slicer is typically because your units setup is off. For example: When I'm working in 3DS Max, in the units setting area, I can set the "display unit scale" to whatever unit I want to work with, but for some reason it has another setting within this section called "System unit setup" and once set both of those to the proper millimeters setting, the modeling program is not only displaying the proper units, but it is also exporting the proper units that will be accurate in the slicer. There is probably something similar in Blender.

[@NuclearMuse]

When a 30 minute video tutorial takes you four hours. :D It was good though! I have NO experience with 3D modeling programs, and I was able to get it done in a few hours; I ran into some issues I had to google because I was using a newer version of Blender, but I was able to solve them all! Thanks!! I ran into the problem of my numbers being jagged when extruding and not making imprints in the dice; make sure you hit "a" before "e" to extrude and it solves that issue, guys! :) I'll be making a second set with a different font, and maybe an illustration later!

[@ClyFaker]

Glad to hear it worked out for you! Four hours sounds about right for your first time. You'll get faster with practice though. 👍

[@wyatthebb9962]

Thank you sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much, hours spent trying to figure out what was going wrong

[@zealashthorn]

thank you for paying attention and fixing the d10

[@foreveryoung8648]

I have no idea HOW you managed to type on GIMP in 250pt...In order to get my canvass big enough, I need to make a canvass bigger than GIMP will allow...sooooooooo confused haha

[@calspigler6371]

I dove through all the comments and at one point he addressed it. he sets his pixels/inch to 72 which allowed him to fit it all on one canvas. At the default 300 pixel/inch he said 60 pt font would be the same size.

[@onlyafling]

I love this tutorial! While working on my D6 I have ran into the issue where all of the numbers I imported are hollow. So my boolean is not working properly.(only took 3 people about 4 hours to discover exactly what was happening LMAO. Now we need to figure out how to fill the numbers and we can continue. Thank you so much!

[@2dividedby3]

I'm intrigued by the mold you printed near the end more specifically how you make them for all the dice set

[@ClyFaker]

I'm going to be making a video about those in the future once I iron out all of the kinks. Version 3 is about ready to hit the printer.

[@bridgeotto3320]

@@ClyFaker Any update on this?

[@ClyFaker]

The follow up kept getting pushed back thanks to me always finding one more small problem every time I printed a set of masters. It doesn't help that I'm not printing often thanks to how hard isopropyl alcohol (especially 90%+) has been to find. Fortunately I have a new cheap and easy to find solvent for washing prints (that might get its own video), and if everything goes well with the masters I'm printing later this week I'll be ready to finally wrap things up with the sequel. The master design works as is (you can see examples in my recent dice making videos), but there's one last quality of life improvement I want to test.

[@bridgeotto3320]

@@ClyFaker Great! I look forward to seeing part 2! :) (91% alcohol and nitrile gloves, I feel your pain)

[@ClyFaker]

I've been using vinyl gloves since they sometimes pop up in stores. For cleaning off my prints I've been testing out LA's Totally Awesome concentrated cleaner. It's $1 for 32oz. at Dollar Tree, and it does a really nice job cleaning prints (I'm using it at full strength). I'm so glad I found it since I'm finally starting to run low on my alcohol despite constantly recycling it. 😓

[@mediocreknights2334]

nice man. This also makes the process very scriptable!

[@ClyFaker]

No problem. 👍 To be honest, I've never scripted anything in Blender so I'll just take your word for it for now.

[@Nobody_dw]

Okay I don't know if anyone here could help me but, I can't seem to have both the numbers tab and the tab of the die open at the same time? I've tried doing some research online and it seems that belnder doesn't let you have multiple projects open at the same time. Could anyone help?

[@omenwatcher]

I went through this a year ago to make some custom dice to 3d print, coming back now because I'm working on something else I need to use a svg like a punch for and forgot the modifier you used for the dice. So it's helped me on 2 projects

[@kellygayda6024]

Like @Candice Francis, I was wondering if there was a formula to figure out the angle calculations? I am attempting to create a custom crystal d4 by elongating one half of a d8, but doing so changes the angles of the faces. My poor feeble brain cannot figure out how to compensate!

[@Corinnander]

This tutorial has been seriously so helpful. Making my own dice masters is so fulfilling and I can't wait to make a set from them. EDIT: I had issues with applying the rotation, but I figured it out!

[@philliplovelace6147]

I am currently having issues with the rotations of the D4. Can you please share what you did to get the proper rotation?

[@Corinnander]

@@philliplovelace6147 I ended up deciding against using the pyramid D4 entirely! I instead made a crystalline D4, so a D6 base with two square pyramids on the sides. I personally like it better and it saved me a lot of work. I'm sorry, I can't really help you with the normal D4.

[@willichillmann9463]

Thank you so much, this helped a lot! Maybe I missed it, but I had to set the Pivot Point to Indiviual Origins first to be able to enter the location values as shown in the video. I created a d20 and it did not work out with the values of the video (I'm sure I made something wrong), but I finally made it by rotating the dice and the numbers manually. Thank you!

[@DianaProbst]

If you're having trouble selecting each number pair and then being unable to join them, shift-click on one of the numbers to make it active. (Or hold down shift and select each individually rather than drag-selecting.) It will turn yellow, and then you'll be able to pair the numbers.

[@theBteam2013]

This is absolutely incredible and helped me make my very own masters - thank you!! Any chance of doing another like this for variant shapes, like the shard d4 please? Thanks again and keep up the phenomenal work!!

[@maddielyon22]

Would you like to be hired to design some for me? Im not tech savvy at all and need some original non copyrighted dice

[@bishoppope2921]

@@maddielyon22 lol I could do it for you

[@BUtheBabyUnicorn]

Thank you so much for the video! Super happy with how my dice masters have turned out. Is there any chance that the dice mold video is still in the works? Or I could at least some hints for how to make them?

[@cassiekerns9395]

I don't understand why we work so hard with the underscore, when we can take care of that when we originally type the numbers in the image file? Does it cause issues with character spacing once we place them on the die face?

[@IncoherentSchizo]

I realize this is an old video so the likelihood of having this question answered is low, but would this method also work for vectors of a whole face of the dice? As in, would you be able to take a full vector image that covers a whole face of the die and apply the same method? Any answers are appreciated.

[@Snip3rj0e6788]

I'm embarrassed to say that I'm stuck at the image editing step. I'm using the latest version of Gimp, but when I set the font to 250 pt the numbers come out too large. I can't for the life of me figure out what I'm doing differently

[@vikydeven1288]

The numbers are quite large for me as well (I continued to after the image editing step- setting the scale to 1250 on the d6 made the numbers WAY too huge). The solution I'm going with is to keep the 250 pt but adjust the scale of the number objects manually in blender to whatever I feel is best (but keeping the scale uniform for all numbers on the same dice). Hope this helps!

[@Keelondus]

Awesome video! How did you go about knowing all of the exact angles for which to turn the dice? I'm sure its mathematical but just wondering how you went about it for my understanding.

[@jj_fantabulous4405]

I am just now starting with Blender and this creative hobby and I am already so excited and all the comments are so encouraging! I am having trouble with the rotation of the D4 though... Is there anyone who can help me witht his?

[@ChozoSR388]

Really diggin' that pink on green!

[@stkleim]

I have been following along with the tutorial and everything has been going well until I did the boolean thing on the faces. It appears that the cube is hollow unlike shown in the video. I have have tried it in both the current version of blender and the one used in the video with the same result. I know this is an older video and you probably won't see this but any help or advice would be appreciated

[@GingerTron2000]

I know it's been a while, but did you ever find a solution to this? I believe I am having a similar problem (Blender 3.3).

[@lill_evil_moose]

such an awesome, helpfull video - thanks alot! but I was just wondering what happened to the following video you where talking about as I couldn't find it. I am very interested! :D

[@jonnyharmon1218]

I'm having an issue with moving my numbers. After I set the origin to the center of mass volume at around the 5:20 mark I attempt to set the X,Y, and Z to zero only to have my be floating in the middle of my numbers instead of at the origin. When I attempt to do the same to other numbers it seems each number has a different 0,0,0, even after setting the origin the way you do in the video. Any help would be appreciated!!!

[@ClyFaker]

Yeah, some fonts are easier to center than others. Apparently I got extremely lucky at every stage when making this video. You're basically going to need to manually center each number. It's pretty much the same way I showed with the 6 and 9 with dots. To make life easier you can center the camera above your selected number after moving it to 0,0,0 (before manually centering it) using either numpad 7 or clicking "view", "viewpoint", and then "top". This will also give you a grid to use when adjusting the number's position. After you have it where you want it just set the origin to the 3D cursor.

[@Nat-ki6cr]

You mentioned some steps being in a future video. Has that video been posted yet?

[@ClyFaker]

Not yet. I've been working on the final version of the mold on and off for a bit, but I wasn't printing many prototypes since gloves and IPA were hard to get for a while. I now have the final version, so I just need to organize my notes so that the process is relatively easy to follow.

[@ianedwards1255]

after i import the text and make them 3d the geometry is super fucked with holes and incomplete lines making it in the general shape but unusable im following exactly as im supposed to but i dont know how to make my text work

[@RadioGala]

This video was fantastic, thank you dearly.

[@YakuzaTenma]

I am having an issue with when i make my font in gimp i cant seem to get it to be 250pt. I tried just 100px and when i turned it to a vector it came out all jaggady. Do you have any ideas on how to fix that?

[@Sirshags790]

Hey Cly, I was wondering if you ever posted the dice mold video, can't seem to find it

[@jenb1412]

Question: if I want to 'erase' a side that has a number on it (for me it's 1 on the d20) and add a new mesh of my logo or any image I imported into blender, how do I smooth that side so I can do the boolean with a new mesh? I want to make multiple sets but I don't want to spend another 20 hours making new faces again

[@ClyFaker]

I had no idea how to do this until a second ago, so please excuse me if I explain it poorly. First, you need to completely remove the face you want to change. To do this, enter "edit mode" and then "face select" mode. You get to face select mode by either hitting the "3" key on your keyboard's number row or by clicking the third box next to where it says "edit mode". Once you're in the correct selection mode you need to select all of the parts that make up the face. Once you've done that hit "delete" and select "faces" from the menu. You may have some stragglers, and those are easiest to select by rotating the camera into the die looking outward. If any of the stragglers are lines you'll need to enter "edge select" mode ("2" in the number row or the second box next to "edit mode") to take care of those. Just select "edges" after hitting "delete" this time. For the final step you need to be in "edge select" mode (see above). Select all of the edges touching the empty face and then hit the "F" key. You now have a new blank face ready for your logo.

[@mathaeis]

How do you get the regular solid dialog box to pop back up after you click off the original object for the first time? I can't find it anywhere.

[@eduardosavii]

amazing job! U help me a lot! Thank you soo much.

[@skywaterblaze]

Because I spent 2 hours figuring our what the hell I messed up on: If your origin point isn't centered when you click the set origin to volume button, PLEASE CHECK if you have all the pieces of your number. Complex fonts will mess up your origin point if you don't join them ALL together.

[@danielhartung6841]

Very good Video, thank you! Little tipp, you can just type Text in Figma and export it as SVG, it's free and easy!

[@wyatthebb9962]

Blenders mesh made my numbers look terrible and when I go back to object mode, it is not fixed like his appear to be. What should I do??

[@jinxyork7332]

Will you ever be doing the second video for the 2-part mold?

[@hunterpataski4487]

What’s a good font to use? Every one I think is a nice simple font gets distorted when it’s converted to a svg

[@Ch33sePot4to]

My dice look great in blender, thank you. However, I have run into the issue that my Anycubic Photon prints the dice with no numbers. Just solid polygons. I have done everything the same way that you have. Any ideas as to what could be causing this?

[@ClyFaker]

Sounds like you are having a manifold error somewhere. The quick fix that I've used in that exact situation is to add a "remesh" modifier to each of the dice. You will find it in the same column of the modifier menu as "boolean", and you'll want to set your octree depth to 9. This will leave you with large file sizes on your STLs, but you should have no problems printing them.

[@Ch33sePot4to]

@@ClyFaker I will give that a shot. Thank you so much for the quick response! Subbing for sure

[@Ch33sePot4to]

@@ClyFaker Obviously I can't print fast enough but the slicing looks great! Thank you so much again.

[@ClyFaker]

The slicing preview is what's important, so I'm glad it's looking good. 👍

[@Cerena06]

Did you ever make the part two to this video?

[@ClyFaker]

Not yet. I didn't do much 3D printing during 2020 to hammer out the fine details (yay for a glove and alcohol shortage). I've only recently started messing around with it again.

[@Cerena06]

It was an incredibly helpful video and you basically took me from not knowing how to use Blender at all to able to make a custom set, so I really appreciated it :) I'm a beginner at dice but I think those molds look fascinating. Thank you so much for this video, and I hope you have fun when you get to play with it again :)

[@Flux_One]

Great video. Would you be able to make a video on how to create stellated shapes in Blender?

[@thedollardm4672]

This has got to be one of the best technical tutorials I've ever come across! Thank you! Though, it does make me wonder if you could achieve similar results with less fiddling in Sketchup?

[@Randoperson63]

Thank you! I’ve been looking everywhere for someone how to tell me what to do. Lol

[@ClyFaker]

No problem! I've seen a few videos from folks making one die per video, but I thought having the full set in one would be useful as well.

[@jtmcdole]

So Blender can take any font you have in your system and let you create a Text object - which is a curve. Skip the whole image editing -> svg. Why you're exports are messed up: the world values are in meters. For precision editing, I use mm and the world scale to 0.001. It'll import perfectly after than. Enable "Bool Tool" in preferences ->Addons and use the difference brush; great for moving around your "cutter" in a non-destructive way. Also: Blender has face snapping. If you click on the "magnet" at the top, you can transform the object and have it snap to any face. E.g. on the D4 I snap and then move it towards the top. When I'm happy with the location; I extrude by ~1mm (making sure to recalculate outsides if you choose -1!). Then I dupe + rotate by 120 a couple of times. If you wanted to be completely non-destructive (so you could change fonts... that's not possible right now. You can "extrude" a curve, but you cannot bool it with something else. Best I've got there: Use all curves (even extruding), align, dupe/rotate/whatever. Then when you're happy, dupe the curves and convert to mesh + bool tool. That way you can delete the dupes later, change the font, and go about your day.

[@jtmcdole]

... and parent the curves to the die. Rotations of the die then affect it. So your method of rotation continues to work.

[@maxineheather924]

If I want to make my own shapes, (eg elongated D4's, D10's,) what's the math or method i would use to get the angles in which to rotate them? I've kind of figured matching them to a flat plane, but then how do i get that number to replicate?