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

[@grey8_]

I watched so many topology videos and for some reason, NOBODY EVER EXPLAINED WHY AN EDGE FLOW (shift+click an edge) STOPS (Vertex needs to have 4 edges connecting to it)! I don't know why, I've heard the term "poles" but that was accompanied by showing the top vertex of a UV circle. To be fair, I probably just misunderstood. In any case; your video was super clear and easy to understand. I've had that issue a few times now and didn't understand why. Now I do! Thank you, the whole video was great! ❤

[@Jack_Wolfe]

i do enjoy the "have a go at that" bit, before showing how to do it. Thats extremely fun to try it yourself before deleting it and following along.

[@stanislavefanov8688]

I was waiting for your tutorial on how to model a knight. Brilliant model but in my humble opinion a couple of ears would make it even better. Thank you.

[@grabbitt]

I completely forgot to put the ears on 😀

[@samljer]

Why stop at a couple

[@tloosh]

Some things other viewers may find helpful: - You can add a single vert directly from the mesh menu by enabling Extra Objects under Add-ons, rather than merging a cube - 10:14 Turning on Backface Culling under Viewport Shading will hide inverted (incorrect) faces, so you don't have to manually check face orientation Thanks for the great tutorial!

[@damjanzugic6343]

For someone who wants to go step further, on 11:00, add bevel modifier, in settings limit method to weight and under geometry/mitter outer set to arc. Add to that weighted normal modifier and you get no pinching or shading issues at all. Also you get completly non destructive workflow and much much less loops and geo fixing. Works great with SubD too.

[@CadenRodgers-h7w]

Too good. You explains difficult topology handling so easily.. Such a densely packed tutorial without being overwhelming. Awesome..

[@TylerThomas]

Saying the keyboard commands out loud is really nice, thank you

[@ArBee123]

Such a densely packed tutorial without being overwhelming. Awesome.

[@Kholaslittlespot1]

Excellent. Id say this was more 'beyond intermediate' but still a nice step up for people and a stepping stone to facial topology. Looking forward to more!

[@MrBfg586]

I always admire anyone that takes the time to teach. Thank you for the videos.

[@uzdefrederic1055]

topology is not easy at all. I have not checked all messages here, but using "shading smooth" in Blender in a regular basis help me a lot to progress. Please feel free to comment

[@jacobhernandez4347]

Its amazing to see that you did no sculpting while making this, definitely looking to see what your courses are about!

[@moculinan1175]

Awesome tutorial, love how calm and comprehensive your tutorials are!!

[@onlyeyeno]

Thanks for another fantastic tutorial, and I must say that find the "format" of these tutorials very compelling and useful. Best regards.

[@watLegends]

I love how you teach, giving us opportunity to experiment as begineers is great for critical thinking.

[@n3onkn1ght]

9:30 You can hit Alt+E to extrude along normals directly and skip a step.

[@grabbitt]

I had forgotten that. Thanks

[@RichardGDBaker]

Fantastic Grant. You are so generous with your tutorials and your education. Thank you so much.

[@sudipto30]

Too good. You explains difficult topology handling so easily.

[@Jez1963UK]

I think I've just found the best Blender modelling trainer on KZbin. Subscribed, purchased the course, let the journey begin :) (ps - I also love chess, so this is going to be so much fun). Thank you for your fantastic way of explaining (I really cannot praise you enough!), I'm 60 years old, a veteran 3DS Max user (though, believe it or not, not that great at modelling) and am loving learning Blender. Some how, Blender seems to encourage (me) to take up modelling, and, in a short space of time, I have indeed, by modelling simple objects which I was never interested in modelling 3DS Max. It's sooooo refreshing (for me) to be having fun again in a 3D virtual world!

[@grabbitt]

Great to hear

[@overseastom]

You sound like you may be in a similar situation to me, mate. I'm a veteran Max user coming from the archviz side of 3d, where I learned a lot about the program and 3d, but not much about sub-d modeling, since the buildings didn't warrant it. It simply wasn't a good use of our time to learn it (unfortunately), when it was significantly faster & cheaper for the boss to just buy an asset pack with the furniture or object we wanted, than have us spend the time & expense of making the really complex stuff ourselves. I always wanted to learn it though, so I'm really pleased to see how fully featured Blender is nowadays! Also, this guy's tutorial is one of the best I've ever seen re explain edge flow, and how to fix it. Good luck to us both - cheers mate!

[@borohidruro_]

I did the previous version of these challenges some years ago, following the categories in your site. Time goes by quickly. I also wanted to suggest that you inset the faces before extruding the mane, in order to "isolate" its topology from the rest of the mesh (thanks to the poles formed around it). Thanks for your videos, they are a big part of the foundation of what I know.

[@3DKLUB]

"I" for inset inwards and "O" for outwards. Just an additional comment, as I learned it today and seems super useful!

[@alejoservin9362]

I love the hard surface more than sculpting, thanks for teaching us I would like to see more hard surface

[@Kholaslittlespot1]

Boxcutter is your friend!

[@AleksandarPopovic]

Very, very nice, for beginning and I watch your channel from beginning and its lot of road, for all new artist's, keep calm and lowe modeling, and don stops!

[@николайголиков-о7в]

Hey, i am glad, that I am able to see this 3 hrs after you posted. Thank you for your tutorials, they are pure gold. I am quite new to subD modeling, and your series is amazing place to start my journey in this space. But I would be really cool, if could show an UV unwrap workflow !

[@grabbitt]

See my uv unwrapping playlist

[@josephcowan6779]

The knight's form is quite complicated, so I wasn't able to get mine to look exactly like the reference, and got frustrated a few times but it still looks fine, and I learned a lot about edge flow, thanks!

[@wotok7]

A very thoughtful video clip, respect to the author

[@vextormull]

How have I never realised modelling is pretty satisfying 😂

[@geettube4173]

Great tutorial, I learned some very needed skills for my 3D advancement!

[@Joenyoshua]

Woooo!!!! bro the short cut was insane due!!! i learned alot a thing on this video woooaa!!!😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

[@zules]

Great tutorial and just perfectly helpful for my skill level :) Edge flow is something I'm still trying to wrap my head around.

[@burnieking1401]

Good tutorial, some different techniques and workflow than Im used to seeing.

[@Stephen_Newport]

Great video, excellent instructing. Answered a lot of questions I had about topology management

[@andrewwoan]

Incredible tutorial! Thanks so much; I always struggle with complex meshes. The more I see the better I get!

[@andylastname566]

Yeah..this one was a doozy on my mind xD Very rewarding at the end but boy my poor brain lol.

[@andrewwoan]

@@andylastname566 Aye aye XD

[@SteelBlueVision]

That massive pole (22:31) right above the eye, though, really needs some topology cleanup to get rid of it.

[@tenorei]

Wow these tutorials are great, thanks so much!

[@markwtal9453]

These are so nice to make! Can't wait for the next one 😅

[@stanleychukwu]

thank you, i love this modelling series

[@everythingeverybody6526]

Thanks for sharing. Very helpful video.

[@MartKart8]

This was good, the ears was missing, I added them in after you mentioned the auto mirror in the Y, I shift + D on a face of the horse and scaled it down E extrude, scaled the top face and done a ear.

[@GameBacardi]

I remember doing these first time with "3ds max 8", if you opened documents window, good to get Blender version 👍

[@TheSatzy6699]

Amazing and detailed learning ❤

[@ShopTherapy623]

awesome video! I'm a beginner, and I learned a lot of nice tips from you vid! thanks!

[@giladharnik2499]

Great video! However, there is a nice trick that can make sharpening the edges A LOT easier - it's called bevel miter. There's a video by Blender Bob named "Modeling for the VFX industry in Blender - EP1c". Roughly at 8:30 you can find it.

[@grabbitt]

Thanks for that. Just checked it out and that would have been a lot faster

[@jaimeeoww]

im impressed that youtube does not flag "pawn" when said with a british accent

[@jabberdoggy4444]

Really fun way to learn. Thank you!

[@TangoMikeLima]

Really good, compared to a lot of the "instructional" Blender videos one finds here.

[@RC-Heli835]

Well I have the bishop and the horse complete now and have to say I have learned some very handy tips from you Grant! Did you forget the ears or intentionally leave them off? I managed to extrude some ears out of the top of the head that turned out really nice. I picked 2 faces just outside of the bevel one wide and one narrow. For some reason I had trouble bridging the knight to the base and had to manually do it. Faced long triangle edges kept forming two or three faces farther than specified.

[@darkphoenix68]

Just wanted to comment on your CTRL-1 shortcut for adding a subdiv modifier. You pressed CTRL-1, then bumped the subdivision level up to 2 -- but CTRL-2 does that; it applies a subdiv modifier with a subdiv level of 2. I just tested this to confirm my memory was correct -- and it also works with CTRL-3, CTRL-4, and CTRL-5. 🙂 (I guess they decided 5 was enough; CTRL-6 does not do it...) EDIT: Oh yeah. I see you used CTRL-2 later in the video. Never mind 🙂

[@grabbitt]

yes I introduced that badly :)

[@uzdefrederic1055]

Very well done it was the video I was looking for...new subscriber !

[@Alex-tn7pv]

This piece looks great!

[@sral8769]

Thank you. That was very useful

[@al3xmusic671]

Thank you very much. Great tutorial.

[@indigo0086]

This was a great tutorial

[@_TetKaneda]

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

[@181Cade]

Great tutorial

[@gxrsky]

I think I made a horse straight out from a Family Guy's episode, ahahah. Great lesson, will try again :D

[@MikkoRantalainen]

Great video! Positioning the poles correctly is always the hardest part for me in topology. I once thought it would be good idea to reduce poles to absolute minimum possible even if it caused worse edge flow but that's not the correct solution to use. Just use poles but be wise where to put those.

[@vaillancourtalain7160]

That is just GREAT!

[@ronaldbell7429]

Excellent tutorial

[@llirik88]

Спасибо за подсказки)

[@TheTimeProphet]

You do a good tutorial. If I wanted to use Blender I would definately watch your course, however I am a 3ds Max guy. Your tips on topology are good. However I wouldn't have used bevel on the edges. It always causes a mess to clean up. In max I would have found the eges I want to sharpen and I would have used the connect tool.

[@andriiponomarenko7154]

Very useful video. Thank you!

[@terryjames3827]

finally someone who knows how to use BLENDER like how I use MAYA. You now need to churn out more my friend. WE ARE NOT WORTHY, BUT THANKS FOR SHARING!

[@terryjames3827]

Thanks for noticing me on your comments, for that, you have have got yourself a customer to the series of courses relating to the knight topology lesson Purchasing 27 May 2023. I know topology quad/ngons from Maya but I dont use Maya since Blender 2.93 . The problems was where are the tools kept, shortcuts too which I will be hoping to find in your tutorials. please send a link to other tutorials you think will benefit my advancement to Blender. Thank You.

[@Dapper_the_slapper]

Very helpful. Thanks!

[@PaulEmsley]

It must take ears and ears to get this good at Blender.

[@apocalypticdunia]

👂

[@samehmoner514]

This man is the GOAT in blender

[@emrekoryurek4194]

at this point I'm beginning to believe that every problems solution is adding a loop cut

[@yahootube90]

Hey Grant, is there any benefit to using extra edge bevels for supporting loops vs just dialing up the mean crease for the mane?

[@grabbitt]

Mean crease gives you less control

[@darkphoenix68]

That aside: love to see a tutorial covering modelling a Knight. When I found the first two in this series I hoped you'd cover a knight. (The last chess-set I built digitally was in Pov-RAY, so I'm keen to attempt it in Blender, but the Knight always made me hesitate.)

[@deaultusername]

@26:00 loop tools circle. A 3D cursor at the correct height and "To Sphere" would give better results.

[@grabbitt]

Good point

[@rlopez7016]

This is brilliant! I am new To 3D, my question is this: WHEN IS IT BEST TO USE SCULPT MODE VS BUILDING WITH TOPOLOGY? Thanks -

[@grabbitt]

Tricky to say and completely up to the individual

[@tobiasreckinger2212]

Good tutorial. I think the horse might like a pair of ears 👂👂

[@SneakyJoeRu]

This reminds me of some good old 3dmax tutorials I was learning on. Very easy to follow along, good job man!

[@MagnumMotions]

at 6:00 I do not understand the terminator edge and why is it obstructing the edge flow, can you please explain why this happens?

[@Kavukamari]

really fun tutorial

[@notaleproductions]

Thank you

[@abatzdesignaz]

Thanks for the tutorial

[@petit_ecureuil_malin]

thank you

[@raymondtjong2455]

i make it on rhino with nurbs and create a quad mesh, and then sub D it.. then export it with bit polygon

[@englishshadrick5296]

1:17 i seriously need an add-on to summon just one vert 😂

[@bookle5829]

11:00 Shift+E! Shift+E!! "bevel" Noooo!

[@bookle5829]

Though people should be careful if they need to crease edges or bevel. Like you can't export obj file with crease edges since the feature is exclusive to blender.

[@richeeze]

Well, my horse looks slightly,... how do I put this nicely... extraordinary 😇

[@enso8762]

Thanks so much!!🙆‍♂

[@nic-ori]

Thanks.

[@lIlIIIIllIllIIIlIlII]

Grant's tutorials show me how shit my 3d teacher was...

[@Eltoxxx]

7:43 - For me the middle edges aren’t locked to the middle and they move with those 3 parts, and that makes a big hole in the knight. I unfortunately can’t continue making the knight if it will not work, please help

[@grabbitt]

perhaps send me a screen shot of what you mean

[@keithseymour9316]

Really good!

[@PieterHanja]

Thank you!

[@Catastroish]

You're a great teacher :)

[@AnittaDeady]

You're a good teacher you know that right?

[@kevinhoward9930]

why are my vertices sticking out when I use subdivision at 2.21 ? :(

[@worldsbrother9704]

If you can please make robot tutorial

[@marcapouli7805]

Topology is one of the reason why I have never been and will never be able to finish an object.

[@drakeintentions]

Man, figuring out where to place edge loops takes a lot of planing and fore thought. I'm guessing there is just experience at play here, knowing what you need to do to end up on the final product. But is there like a rule.of thumb other then just quad it out? There was just so much that happened so quickly through out this when adding the edge loops.

[@grabbitt]

It takes a bit of practice that's all

[@adicsbtw]

I'm curious why you would choose to add in a bevel to add definition and sharpen the edges rather than using a crease. I tend to use creases because they're super easy to apply and edit later. Is there some disadvantage to creases?

[@grabbitt]

Yes less precise control and its about learning what's happening under the hood more

[@tobiasreckinger2212]

There is another reason. There isn't one universal crease standard between different modeling software. When you bring your model into another software the crease might not work properly. I know it is a bit nitpicky as many people won't work with multiple software but it might become relevant when sharing models online.

[@googleyoutubechannel8554]

This is great advice, but it reminds me of how sad it is that in 2023 3d modeling still requires vertex-by-vertex, counting to 4 fiddling, tediously adjusting each and every vertex... just like in 1991. Amazing there hasn't been any advancement since.

[@juliankg]

Is it wrong to just join both objects on 24:47 using ctrl+j without working on attaching the mesh vertices?

[@grabbitt]

its not very good topology and you can have inside faces

[@theumbrella6406]

Yooo no wayy 😂 awesome videoo

[@joerivera6166]

Instead of beveling and creating extra topology on the mane, couldn't you just Shift E(I don't really know the command name) the edges of the main and sharpen them up?

[@grabbitt]

edge crease is not as effective

[@Bird-pl5hz]

Please make robot tutorial

[@corneliussianturi476]

can I ask something? can this method can be applicable for modeling 3d person or animal??

[@grabbitt]

Yes