Get Good at Blender - Advanced Topology - Making A Bishop Chess Piece

[@assafgoldlust140]

That was Nothing short of brilliant. i think its really hard to find someone that give such a good explanation of not just what to do with topology but why

[@gabrielegagliardi3956]

This video will get probably less attention because I have a feeling that most blender's users are beginners BUT is gold. Topology and organic modelling are 3d final bosses, thank you for putting out this quality stuff Grant, have a good day :)

[@RobCardIV]

1 hour old. 800 views. good enough. i made it to 24:50 i learned about vert groups.

[@herogamerbr12]

You are everywhere lol

[@gabrielegagliardi3956]

@@herogamerbr12 if you see me everywhere you are everywhere too

[@BestMods168]

simply no. if one waits until they learn all the bad habits/topology then it will be a disaster. I've seen quite a few "popular" youtubers that teach blender and they don't teach good topology. Boolean here, boolean there, n-gon here, n-gon there, just seperate the section from the rest of the mesh to bypass the shading, merge vertice here, merge vertice there, etc. Everything in life always has a way of doing "it."

[@gabrielegagliardi3956]

@@BestMods168 I disagree. I've watched a lot of videos of people that work in the industry and they use n-gons and booleans regularly (chamferzone and pzThree are the first two that comes to mind). It depends on the purpose of the model. I don't get why a rifle should be all quads, it won't never deform or animate. Quads are a good practice and the only way to go for characters, animations and deforming objects. N-gons are ok for everything else. This is a simplification. I'm going to link you a video on the topic: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qXe2hZl3hLSNb68

[@knucklehizara4069]

Everything easy with your teaching style! I learned a lot about topology. Thank you very much Grant :)

[@YanniFotiadis]

These tutorials are great. I've been working in blender for about a year, and this is one of the best explanations of topology I've seen thus far. thank you!

[@RC-Heli835]

15:04 Hold face all the way down. Mind blown!. I did not know this trick. There are lots of nuggets in this tutorial

[@MrG00ny65]

Well I have been using Blender for some years now and never really got the hang of shrinkwrap but this video changed all that. I will now be using the shrinkwrap modifier in my other projects as well. Excellent video beautifully explained for both new and experienced users. What I found most useful was seeing how to do it the `wrong' way first. Thankyou for uploading it.

[@christianalvarezcrivellaro9185]

Yes I agree w/ comments below, Thanks Grant! Very well organized, easy to follow and learn. I am a beginner for sure and these are 5 star Tutorials

[@BestMods168]

looking good so far. I learned something new again. My inexperience self would've just added a cylinder and extrude, loopcut, resize to get the shape. I'll finish the tutorial later.

[@3zzzTyle]

Thanks, great examples of topology work/thinking around the notch. At 24:25 you can just select "notch verts" and click that "opposing arrows" button to the right of vert group field. It will then use anything *not* in the group.

[@AM-jx3zf]

I have been inspired by the whole blender community that I am going for a second masters degree in Computer graphics. :D thank you for these tutorials, Grant.

[@JoseasArt]

Man if you have considered for even a second on getting involved with blender I HIGHLY recommend his courses. You get your bang for your buck and he's an incredible instructor! Also, bring a notebook it helped me tons!

[@grabbitt]

Thanks

[@glenn_r_frank_author]

I agree. Grant you are an excellent instructor. Easy to understand and follow. Great work!

[@ceci1017]

Notebook part is so real because recently I realized I watch all these tutorials, I do follow along but after sometime you just forget some stuff🥲 better to take notes for real

[@vaibhavthombre386]

This series is very helpful. It is one thing when I see people on KZbin modelling Spaceships, Guns, etc. While watching those videos one common thing which remains in the back of my mind is that, this thing is complex, I do feel like modelling those kind of complex objects, but the path to reach there is not going to pave itself out of one video. As compared to that, when I think of Chess pieces, it is a very mundane thing, at least at some point in my life, I have played, chess, I have held those pieces in my own hand. And who could've thought that modelling them to this perfection in blender would take this much effort ! I am just amazed at how effective the chess pieces can be for learning topology.

[@penguindragonts5152]

Thank for for taking the time to explain the shrinkwrap and edge flow problems! Really gave me the push to solve added detail loops problem i’ve been trying to solve for my penguinDragon model.

[@mhikeljay595]

You are amazing grant and I look forward to meeting you someday soon. You almost single handedly helped me launch my career

[@nikefootbag]

These are the best videos you do in my opinion

[@Akanishi13]

Thank you so, so very much for this! Your videos have made it super easy to learn about something that everyone keeps telling me is really hard. I'm sure it'll take a bit of practice to perfect this on any object, but I appreciate having such a good head-start!

[@RC-Heli835]

Man you did a great job on this one! Lots of good techniques in this one!

[@misterdaz1018]

This is just what I need , Grant. Thank you very much .

[@WaterShowsProd]

I like that idea of using the Screw modifier on a sillouhette to get a base shape. The first thing I ever did with 3-D software was draw and outline and spin it into a vase, using Imagine 3.0 some 30 years ago.

[@jabberdoggy4444]

Another fun project. There's something rather satisfying about straightening out topology. Learned some new tricks for sure! Thanks for making the video.

[@whiteraven9544]

Great tutorial! This took me embarrassingly long time to finish but I made a lot of mistakes and learn a lot from them. Thank you for this great video series.

[@Jez1963UK]

Why be embarrassed? Everyone has their own pace. I've only started actually doing tutorials and whilst a video might take 30 mins to watch, I might take 1-2 hours to complete it in my own time (learning) whilst absorbing / taking the time to mull over concepts etc. Now, when I do a Pawn, Queen, King etc, they'll take me less and less time. I'm saying this all as much to myself as I am to you! We'll get quicker with each repetition and that's how I propose to go forwards, i.e. keep doing more and more chess sets until I'm sick of them, can do them quickly and then move onto another subject (eg a car :) ).

[@lonnykight8736]

Great video series!! And I love the topology problem solving steps that you challenge your viewers with. Very beneficial and will definitely help in all modeling projects in the future. Timing is such a strange thing. I haven’t been using Blender for over 3 years now. I decided to give myself a “re-introductory challenge” of making a chess set. About halfway through making my pieces I stumbled across this series. And it’s still a pretty new series at this moment…. Just strange how when you are trying something out after a really long time that someone random just so happened to make an instructional video on the very thing that you decided to arbitrarily try and do. It’s like a subtle nod from…

[@ceci1017]

I am LOVING these series!! It was a genius idea to choose chess pieces tbh they all have such interesting shapes😌 will be trying this asap. Thank you so much, Grant!🌸

[@amasiuncula2142]

This feels like Bob Ross but 3D. Grand job!!!!!!!!!

[@g0bo_4typ1c3]

fially chess pieces are a very good exercise to improve topology so GG (lol) Grant, it was a good idea i'm improving myself in topology and this is what i currently need thanks for the tutorials

[@MrTriggerpower]

That was a great one, i learned a lot from that, thanks very much

[@_TetKaneda]

Great post, great tutorial. You have my like Thank you so much. Greetings

[@mrdixioner]

To demonstrate another way of modeling it will do, but the easiest (and fastest) way is to make a cutout in the model and then adjust the topology.

[@imaginerie468]

I have been following the series so far, and I'm amazed at what I was able to learm, being a total noob at modeling. I have a slight issue though. I'm using V4.0, and I don't seem to have the "project individual elements" tick box in the snapping options. And I suppose that leads to my second problem which is that when I rotate an edge, it doesn't follow the shape (of the shrinkwrap)... it rotates in all 3 axis (what's the plural of axis?) . I know the UI is a bit different but I always managed to do a quick search in the help files to make up for this, but not this time. Thanks for this fantastic series, really cool stuff here!

[@SapiensVirtus]

after 16 bishops, I did it!! now, next figure, the king

[@herrremo]

One question, a good way to see if we are keeping a good Edge Flow is to activate CNTRL+R to see how those loops will be, right? or there is a more effective way? thanks for this content, Grant!

[@grabbitt]

Yes

[@herrremo]

thanks mate@@grabbitt big ups!

[@asimov2144]

Hello, thank you very much ! I'm a beginner and learned so much. From time to time i've lost eyes on your cursor and didn't see which part of the pieces were you talking about. Is it possible to find a way to have a more visible cursor for your future tutorials plz ?

[@glenn_r_frank_author]

This helped me understand a lot about shrink wrap use for topology work, and how to use it with vertex groups! I never knew how to include or exclude parts of the mesh like that! Thank you!

[@phonkee]

Thank you for great tutorials!

[@hammudi4lara4ka]

Thank you, that was very helpful

[@kenzietownsend6644]

I started a retopo with bad settings. : / I saw the correct settings at 10:43. Tried it. Mind blowing. :D

[@TristanGrimaux]

In every "select vertex option", there is an "invert selection" at the right of the clear button that should fit better what "don't select the notch" concept means

[@bes5164]

if you have a correct/good topology, then you can do anything you want with your mesh/object. Thanks!

[@blenderpete]

Thanks for this series. Maybe you can use a slightly bigger cursor. The YT compression makes it hard to follow with such a skinny cursor.

[@samdong8245]

thanks got much learned☺

[@Mark-zk7uj]

I'm on a frustrating repeat cycle where I'll make progress nearly to the end of the edge flow section, get frustrated with filling out the polys toward the end (usually because one vertex is a junction to five edges instead of four), delete the whole thing and start over, and then find that the snapping is all janky and no longer works properly. Blender is full of these tiny frustrations unfortunately.. stuff just mysteriously stops working as it should. I guess this is just part of the learning process.. will keep trying. Great tutorial grant.

[@Mark-zk7uj]

played with it a little more, the weird snapping happens if the original bishop, without the screw modifier applied, is hidden! which sort of makes sense I suppose. the snapping needs something to snap onto, and toggling visibility is apparently a way of turning that off. huh.

[@jimbosjunkyard]

@@Mark-zk7uj Thanks for this Mark. I was running into the same thing and thought I had the snap settings wrong.

[@nabeeghhuda9950]

thanks a bunch homie

[@laxatory]

is there ANY way of creating the cutout without doing the shrinkwrap method?

[@GeodesicGarden]

Thank you so for posting these. I find your tutorials to be, without a doubt, the best things out there and I've lost track of how many times I have recommended them to others. I've noticed in your tutorials that you don't ever crease edges, and I'm wondering if you have a reason for avoiding this tool?

[@grabbitt]

It's not as easy to control. And it's important to learn without it to truly understand support loops

[@MikkoRantalainen]

17:00 I think it would have been better to select different viewport colors for the base object and the repotopo object so that you could more easily see the missing faces in the video. It may also help your editing as a whole. I'm too lazy to set individual colors for each object so I just select Viewport shading - Color and set it to Random. That actually uses colors computed from the name of the object (basically hash the name and pick first 6 bytes as RGB) - if the colors are too close, just change the name of the object a little bit and you get another color. For example, instead of "Bishop.000" you could have "Bishop with optimized edge flow".

[@fanerv3304]

Amazing!

[@keponism]

Hi, nice tutorial as always, 1 quick question.. in video 5:48 in your setting (auto mirror) Y negative to divide the object. Yet in my blender, i need to select Z positive as auto mirror to cut in order to follow your tutorial. any solution on that? i am using blender 4.2.3.

[@grabbitt]

You must have some rotation on your object

[@keponism]

@grabbitt tqsm

[@RC-Heli835]

I am curious as to how you apply the modifiers. Obviously youd have to apply the screw modifier to have the full object but do you ever apply the shrink wrap or is it just there to have something to snap to?

[@grabbitt]

Only if you need to

[@RC-Heli835]

@@grabbitt Ok thanks! Snapping to the shrink wrapped object will be enormously helpful in aircraft modeling as well.

[@jeffMatNo2]

Loving the series and the concept of using the screw modifier, but this method routinely gives me problems when I come to bevel as the added vertices are quite often inverted. That wouldn't be a problem if you were working with faces but I haven't found a way to flip/recalculate normals for a single vertex. It can be fixed by deleting the culprits and subdividing as an alternative to the bevel, but that substantially slows down what is otherwise a pretty speedy workflow. Have I missed an important piece of information somewhere? Thanks.

[@grabbitt]

there's a button to fix that in the modifier

[@jeffMatNo2]

Thanks Grant. I'd tried that but as it flips all normals it wasn't giving the desired result. I think I've sussed it now though playing around with Flip and Calculate Order in combination. Cheers.@@grabbitt

[@assmir93]

Could this cut be done with another object that looks like a flat box placing it inside of the bishop at an angle, and then delete the sections that are the same for both objects and the new object?

[@grabbitt]

Yes

[@MaxSonicUA]

So much value in this series. Please do not stop making this. Thank you!

[@jrM5492]

Good video!

[@OidaS00d]

I've only started with Blender recently and I'm losing myself in your amazing videos. Thank you very much! I also have a question regarding the shrinkwrap. After following along with the model, I made another one where I used a subdiv modifier before the shrinkwrap (i.e., the stack was mirror, subdiv, shrinkwrap) instead of after it. It resulted in a much cleaner model without any little bumps or dents that needed to be fixed. I was wondering why this is the case and if this way wouldn't be better than having the subdiv last. The only drawback I noticed is that if you want to make any final edits without the shrinkwrap, you need to apply the subdiv as well (since it comes before the shrinkwrap in the stack) which of course makes editing more difficult. I would be very interested in your opinion on that and whether there are any other downsides to my suggested method.

[@grabbitt]

There can be but it's complicated to explain. Generally it comes with experience

[@OidaS00d]

@@grabbitt I see. Thanks for your reply!

[@donjohnson1335]

Really love these chess piece tutorials. Thank you so much for making them!

[@lowleveldog0]

15:21 What shortcut do you use to select edges quickly like that

[@grabbitt]

Alt left click

[@Deathbysnusnu125]

How important is this for 3d printing? If I don't need to make future modifications to the model? It seems better to just put it through quad remesher or something. I mostly did mechanical parts in the past but am getting more into organic pieces. I like sculpting with a drawing tablet.

[@grabbitt]

not so much for printing you can just use booleans

[@Deathbysnusnu125]

Thanks for the response! Interesting video! I'm sure it would be very useful if I was modeling for animation or something!@@grabbitt

[@Onabszy]

25:14 Wouldn't it be possible to simply remove those vertices from the shrinkwrap vertex group as we did for the notch? That way we can place them as you did in the video but without applying the modifier. I'm still learning blender so idk if this has any consequences down the line, but it seemed to work well for me at least. Thank you so much for these awesome tutorials btw, topology always seemed very daunting and this eases me in really nicely!

[@grabbitt]

Yes

[@bigorstojanov184]

It's like reconstructive surgery ...

[@manonthedollar]

If you apply the Shrink Wrap modifier at the end there, doesn't that leave the chess piece a bit distorted and "puffed up" compared to the hi-rez mesh we're shrinkwrapped around?

[@grabbitt]

no. You can take of the offset before applying if that causes a problem

[@feedertayfa8745]

can ı ask something if we use subdivison , does not it convert polygons into high poliygons

[@grabbitt]

yes

[@davy4842]

Can we have an armor pieces tutorial? Maybe like shoulder pads or helmets?

[@grabbitt]

I think I have some of those. Search my channel

[@davy4842]

@@grabbitt I did but the tutorials similar to this one are better a high quality!

[@finnmckinlay]

25:09 What makes this a pole? Does it not have 4 edges?

[@grabbitt]

If that's the case, then I got it wrong. 3 or 5 is a pole

[@SabbibXiam]

can you show us how youve made that Black Metalic Color in the End Screen or Thumbnail for the Bishop? ☺☺

[@grabbitt]

Just black colour and roughness set to 0. Then an hdri in the background

[@SabbibXiam]

@@grabbitt ❤❤❤

[@kaksspl]

Question, is there a way to align vertices into a line like those along the notch? When they're all along x y or z axis, you can just scale them down to 0 and have them perfectly aligned but with any offset, I cannot find any way to do so and even you seemed to just go by eye, roughly placing them on reference picture. My perfectionism is killing me when I know they're off even by a little. And similarly, is there a way to align two edges, faces or objects to be parallel when once again, they don't follow the global grid?

[@grabbitt]

You may be able to use loop tools

[@Jez1963UK]

Loving this series as I've never been very good at modelling, thank you for helping me build my confidence and skill level, my chess-set is nearly complete :) ! One thing I notice though is that 26:01s you can see that your Bishop's form doesn't follow the profile of the reference image, i.e. the application of Subdivision Surface Modifier has pulled it in (when you traced your mesh around the reference image, that trace follows the image but the Subdivision Surface Modifier is what pulls it in). Please can you say something about that? Thanks :)

[@grabbitt]

Often adding an extra supporting loop can help with the edges

[@Jez1963UK]

@@grabbitt Thanks, maybe I haven't explained myself well but I'm referring to the profile - I understand adding supporting loops around the object but I'm referring to the profile of the mesh following the form of the object we're tracing over. I recently saw a useful KZbin video about this phenomenon and it he showed and referred to Nurbs versus Bezier curves and the phenomenon I'm experiencing (as you are as well) is because the subdivision is using Nurbs meaning our points control the lines we create (before we add the Screw modifier) but a curve then gets made to smooth it all out and that'll either be inside or outside of our line (or sometimes also on it as well). Were this to be done using Bezier curves then the smooth curves created via Subdivision would always be *on* the points/vertices we created. Not sure if you now understand what I'm trying to explain. Anyway, my way of overcoming all of this is simply to pull the vertices I'm placing for my object to be further out of the trace object's form until my created object and the reference image line up perfectly (after the Subdivision Surface has been applied).

[@RJLpt]

My Ctrl+B function is not working. There's no flipped faces, no double vertices, all transform is applied and everything seems fine but i just can't bevel those vertices in the beggining. I can see the number of segments changing in the bottom bar with the scroll wheel but nothing new is shown in the object itself. Am I doing something wrong?

[@grabbitt]

Ctrl b on edges

[@oluwakayodeaje5887]

Hi Grant. Thanks for the tutorials on hand painted assets. They've been really helpful. I have a challenge though, I've been unable to download the files (esp. reference images) from your website. I sign up, but i never get the email. How can I resolve this Thanks

[@grabbitt]

Send me your email

[@AbstractObserver]

Why the "triangle avoidance" at the end? There is nothing wrong with tris to the same extent there is nothing wrong with quads (arguably, a quad and an ngon are just multiple tris with edges hidden for simplicity).

[@grabbitt]

its easier to model with quads

[@user-gy4xp2tu6f]

isn't GG the word that chessplayers say after the game finishes?

[@BasheerShaik-yh5bx]

Hey i use blender 4.0 there is no option for project individual elements everything looks different what should i do

[@grabbitt]

It still works without

[@BasheerShaik-yh5bx]

@@grabbitt thank you it works

[@Gage42]

Tutorials so good I can fix my mistakes now 😂 the tutorial is also so good , i was able to model the queen on my own. Props bro this has helped me so much in modeling....no more low lighting photos to hide imperfections🗣️

[@Mr_Kisch]

Hey There. I have been modelling for about a year now and I only subd model. I have an extremely complex shape that I can't seem to get right. This model has all of the worst features to try and create a 3d version of the product. Would it be possible for me to send you my blender file with the reference images (They are not the best) so that you can create a tutorial on subd modelling a really complex shape. the product is the "Anest Iwata ws400 series 2 spray gun" I know that this is a really big ask but I have searched youtube and can't seem to find a tutorial that solves the problems I am having. I think it would even be a challenge for you to try and model. Let me know if this would be possible and I will send you the blender file.

[@grabbitt]

It's not something I'm able to fit in at the moment

[@barthandelus8340]

Your channel popped up on my feed with perfect timing - I'm learning Blender because I wanted to learn how to make a chess set - I love playing! I really hope you show how to make the other pieces and a board! Thank you very much, I've subbed!

[@grabbitt]

See the playlist

[@nurnberger588]

Hello grant. I have a question as Ai is taking over and creating 3D models and rendering is it still worth it to learn blender?

[@grabbitt]

yes I would say so. even with AI "taking over" there is still an important role to be played in curating and understanding components so you can get them to work together and build your vision.

[@nurnberger588]

@@grabbitt my actual point here is that any one can generate a model or texture it so that makes our skill less valuable. can you explain in bit detail that how it is still keeping us skilled if it is. thank you

[@nurnberger588]

I have enrolled in all of your courses of blender on udemy I have finished 4 course In 3 months so I am a bit sceptical that’s why I am asking for a bit detailed answer.

[@grabbitt]

@@nurnberger588 we will still need people to check the models. Clean up glitches. Etc. There still be lots of roles

[@nurnberger588]

@@grabbitt THANKS

[@haudtalis5036]

It seems to me (I did) that the bevel on the kerf is better done with a modifier, in non-destructive mode.

[@grabbitt]

The goal of this series is more about topology than modifiers but yes you can

[@haudtalis5036]

@@grabbitt Sir, but you used mirror, shrink wrap, subdivision! 😳

[@grabbitt]

@@haudtalis5036 yes bevel effects the topology

[@ShaDowRonalDx9]

I love you.

[@ArtistAmit-s8q]

can't u just use boolean modifier ?

[@grabbitt]

This series is about learning good topology

[@ArtistAmit-s8q]

@@grabbitt oh i relised

[@tilerandom]

I finally found a channel that teaches how to model chess pieces

[@samuelfesshaye158]

👌👍

[@cekconi1773]

👍👍👍

[@trevorgoodchild666]

finished within 2 min in plasticity.

[@rubycohen8213]

Hello and good morning. I'm a beginner at blender and looking for a place where I can watch a video to learn from before working on my project. Any suggestions? thanks

[@grabbitt]

See my beginner playlist and other playist. If course there is also my beginner course bundle which is more comprehensive and detailed

[@threadlington3430]

Its ok but the other chess piece guy does it better!

[@grabbitt]

It's not about the end result It's about learning a process. There is definitely better ways of creating the bishop

[@threadlington3430]

@@grabbitt Fair enough. Good video!!

[@coreys2686]

The edit mode crosshair cursor is hard to see for me. I'm using 720p output on a 13" screen. The reference image inside the mesh blocks a lot of the object as well.

[@FlyingBanana78]

You can adjust the opacity of the reference image to allow you to see through it easier, and what's going on in the viewport.

[@grabbitt]

i'll bear that in mind for future reference

[@AshFrankArt]

@@grabbitt I agree. Amazing tutorial but you can use Windows' magnifier to enlarge your cursor for tutorials.