Hard Surface TUTORIAL in Blender - Mechanical Joint

In this video, we'll be designing & modeling a mechanical joint piece inside of Blender using Hard Ops, Boxcutter, and Mesh Machine.
►► Enroll in the most popular (and free) hard surface modeling course - www.blenderbros.com/jumpstart
►► The Hard Surface Academy - www.blenderbros.com/academy
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MY FAVORITE BLENDER ADDONS:
⚙️ Hard Ops/Boxcutter: gumroad.com/a/811037811
🔳 UV PackMaster 2 Pro: gumroad.com/a/1027609715
🔨 Decal/Mesh Machine/Machin3 Tools: www.blendermarket.com/creator...
🧘‍♂️ Zen UV - gumroad.com/a/997463155
⛮ Kit Ops 2 Pro: gumroad.com/a/779940979
💾 PowerSave: gumroad.com/a/442037363
🔌 Cablerator: gumroad.com/a/341111923
SOCIALS:
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🏪 Gumroad - gumroad.com/theblenderbros
☎️ Discord - / discord
🖼️ Instagram - / blenderbros3d
🎨 Artstation - www.artstation.com/blenderbros
CONTACT:
📱 Inquiries/questions - [e-mail]
**Some addons listed above may contain affiliate links, giving me a small commission from any sales made. I only promote addons that I use personally.

[@DaCapitalist1]

The sheer amount of operations that you perform Josh throughout this video is simply amazing. This video contains so much knowledge… I have a page of notes 11 min. In :) - that’s when you know it’s good stuff :) thanks Josh as always!!

[@3DCGdesign]

I started all my detailed modeling like this with Speedflow for most modeling then using Fluent for cables and pipes, but you are convincing me with some of these Hardops features and workflows. Very nice tools.

[@louissnuggleton4544]

this is by far one of the best hard surface tuts youve done. really going through the operations PERFECTLY this time, josh

[@samyos231]

You are so good at modeling it's incredible, so fast and efficient! thank you so much for sharing your techniques I always learn a lot from you!

[@TheGameCache]

Oh man. Offset cut is exactly what I was looking for to improve my unions. Thanks Josh.

[@Dina_tankar_mina_ord]

It is always a pleasure to watch your tuts. . I am constantly finding myself tying to hit the like button :) thanks.

[@modelenginerding6996]

Nice tutorial. I like seeing the different tools working together, particularly meshmachine. I like the sandblasted effect in your material and its quick. In HOPS, I like using ALT+M to scroll through metallic materials. Trimsheets look like they'd be really useful for knurling and similar patterns where one would grip a tool.

[@louismajor4394]

Love the design. Followed along. Even applied Quad Remesher to check the model out and it works perfectly. Didn

[@vinnypassmore5657]

Great stuff with a great end result, thanks for sharing.

[@nicolasallan1421]

Really nice design Josh.. Great tutorial.

[@ohimarc9983]

Also try adding object coordinates to your noise texture ctrl+t I believe and look up edge wear using two bevel modifiers in shading. Awesome work

[@EttorePolegati]

Nice tutorial!!!!! Perfect modelling

[@andrew-martin]

Another great video . Lots of good tips in there. 👍

[@CravenLovelace]

Great video. Really well-written and while your presentation has always been good in all your videos, I fancy your recent regular live sessions have improved your scripted on-camera presentation by making you so very comfortable with the camera. Anyway, that's how it comes off -- witty, natural, and entertaining. The reasoning of your arguments is clear and persuasive, and the more philosophical moments are deeply appreciated as well. Thanks for what you do.

[@mickehog76]

So awesome! 😮. I guess it's not the first time you do hard surface modeling 😛.

[@peterbalance]

very good thank you Josh

[@kevinpage]

ok 8:56 blew my mind - I don't know how many times I have wanted a 'local' transform some time down the road AFTER applying all transformations or rotations, etc. It's the little things. Thanks Josh!

[@JoshGambrell]

Always a few hidden gems that make the material worth it. Thanks!

[@joe_fabricator]

Nice Vid, thank you.

[@_blender_man_]

finally somethig interesting again! :)) not only how to use boolean with 2 cylinders ))) Thanks!

[@altafrehman-designer]

Good Work Bro

[@Tryfieldanimas]

Man i just try to learn Blender after 15 years using 3D Max and i just wished i could model same speed later on in Blender like i use to do in Max .Really hard when you have worked for years only with shortcuts and have to relearn everything again. Same operations but completely different names Looks like there is much to discover and many easy simple solutions for complex situations . Luve

[@KotChorny]

Hey, why u decided to switch?

[@Tryfieldanimas]

Actually I wouldn't like to change but in the end it has something to do with the pricing policy I think for someone who uses 3D Max more as a hobby it's not justified to ask such a huge price quite apart from that it's an absolute update jungle in 3D Max Many functions that need to be overhauled have been ignored for years. Blender has the right answers here. In general, the UI in Blender is still a bit confusing for me, but I think it's all a question of getting used to it. Of course, it's hard to get used to it after all these years having to get used to completely new terms and hotkeys, especially since you've been operating your program more or less blindly for many years. I wasn't even sure how the modifiers are all called lol First of all, learn to use 3D Max again, thank you very much, also autotest, well, I think Blender is a great program, you can do an awful lot of great things with it Enjoy your art, best wishes and continue to have fun 😊

[@KotChorny]

@@Tryfieldanimas thanks for the reply and the wishes, wish the same to you! Obvious solution for what you have said about new hotkeys is rearranging these to your liking. Long as the blender/3dmax functions correlate, the switch won’t cause any problems. Also some default hotkeys need rearrangement imo, like pressing Ui buttons, etc, would be easier to have them in qwerty zone. Its just not convenient to reach out through whole keyboard for these.

[@TripTilt]

very interesting. Which of the three addons has the trim sheet function?

[@user-on4es7qg7m]

when you want to make loop even from side to side make sure that after "gg" you press "e" and then "f" to flip sides

[@MaximumAbility]

12:27 use I - inset so after adjusting inset press ctrl key and without left mouse button up keep it moving in the same direction and the face will be pushed down without need to pull down with G > Z by custom face orientation.

[@tamjidkhantamjidkhan9260]

Thanks you

[@herberttubera6996]

Hi Josh thanks for the great tutorial. I wanted to check if there is a way for those sharp edges looks rounded w/o adding actual supporting edges. In The final rended

[@julia_aman]

Thank you Josh for your amazing work! Exactly that I tried to find for several days and finally!! I was just wandered what is the better way to join parts of geometry. For example in airplane modelling some artists extrude wings directly from the fuselage. But other models that I've seen on Sketchfab seem to model the wings separately and just place them onto the fuselage. So the parts are just sticked inside of other. The topology and shading look so weird. I know that everything depends on purpose of the model, is it still or made for animation, but what is your opinion? Thank you ❤

[@Research.Mode01]

please cover hard surface modeling that covers every thing what's is the best practices to learn modeling fast

[@digitalstudio5344]

Amazing things you have taught us in the tutorial, that was amazing but the hard surface modeling course is not totally free bro.

[@yoruichill2749]

wow

[@JohnMalcolm]

I'm going to be honest: I'd maybe watch more of these if they weren't all vague, abstract shapes. Great for practice I suppose but little thought seems to go into how these things could be made if they were real. A shape like that I imagine would be impossible to mill, so it would either have to be cast or 3d printed. I prefer Masterxeon1001's approach. Plenty of abstract sci-fi practice stuff but also tackling real world objects and solving the challenges thrown up by those. Hope you don't mind the (hopefully) constructive criticism

[@friedrichfeuerstein9886]

I don't see why this would be impossible to mill. Needs 4 axis, but not more than that.

[@JoshGambrell]

Appreciate the feedback, but the design was more theoretical (i.e the thought process going into it) and how it could potentially work. I could do more practical shapes as well if you’d like.

[@21Liberdade]

Just in case you were wondering for a 1 min or 2 why you couldn't get your mirror to work just like at the start of the video (like I did), you need to manually add the plain axis and set that as your object in the mirro modifier, and then move your cube in the Y axis I dunno, maybe my HardOps is an outdated version, but this action was not performed automatically. Now let me get back to the tutorial :) Edit to avoid multiple comments: Just finished my first pass at the tutorial, and enjoyed it very much. Minor question: Is there a difference between adding a new Orientation and choosing "Normal" orientation? Or was it simply a matter of introducing a new tool to us? Thank you

[@JoshGambrell]

Normal wouldnt work in this example, you’d need a custom. Also, you don’t need any sort of plain axis. Just make sure your object is cenetered on the 3d cursor, alt x, press s s, so that way you mirror over the 3d cursor

[@21Liberdade]

@@JoshGambrell Thanks for the feedback :)

[@sebastianosewolf2367]

@@JoshGambrell hmm did you have some custom settings for Hard Op ? Cause I work with the actual version but when I mirror it, I don't get any empty

[@ewomer100]

@@sebastianosewolf2367 Yeah, I don't get the giant empty, and when I hit g y it moves the whole object, not along the mirror.

[@ewomer100]

You have to have the advanced options enabled for the mirror. Once you do you can cycle the pivot and it will add an empty.

[@mspeir]

What are you using to get the edges highlighted while in solid rendering, i.e., the cube right at the beginning of the video?

[@JoshGambrell]

Turn on cavity in solid view dropdown

[@mickehog76]

I asked your friend Ryuurui this. So I ask you the same thing. I'm just curious. But why Blender? Why not Maya or 3ds max or something else? I love Blender myself and really happy to see so awesome tutorials for Blender from you and Ryuurui. Like I said I'm just curious. Blender is in my opinion the best 3d software. Take care and have a great weekend :). Cheers 🍻

[@JoshGambrell]

Never used them. I’m sure they’re great. Use whatever software you feel comfy in. Mine is Blender.

[@mickehog76]

@@JoshGambrell Blender is my choice too. It's incredible how much a free software can do. But Blender is really awesome even if it wasn't free. I actually prefer the UI in Blender over Maya. But in the end it's just a tool.

[@simonzhang3D]

@@mickehog76 i dont get people who say blender is too hard to learn or the ui is shit ... like dafug, have you seen 3dsmax? brooo

[@mickehog76]

@@simonzhang3D I have used both Maya and 3ds max, but not much. And I prefer Blender. Not because it's free, but prefer the UI. 3ds max has a better UI than Maya in my opinion. But not as good as Blender. I guess people are saying Blender is hard because how the UI looked like before.

[@Nortic111]

Nice tutorial! Though, when I added the 2nd trim at the end the 1st one before it then disappeared. I can’t seem to have two on the mesh at once, any ideas where I’ve gone wrong?

[@JoshGambrell]

Dont alt click after the first one

[@Nortic111]

@@JoshGambrell Just what was needed, thankyou!

[@LeranWeethDSouza]

can you do a hard surface of any car modelling

[@nonamech14]

a lot of moddeling tricks and tips are in this video

[@luke_fabis]

Is there a way to add bevels that approximate G4 continuity with their neighboring faces? The way the highlights fall off an ordinary bevel resembles G1 continuity (comparable to a simple fillet in CAD software), and it gives them an unpleasant sharpness. They don't really flow smoothly across the body; you just kind of abruptly run into these regions that don't have the same shading as their neighbors. That's generally bad practice for external surfaces in product design.

[@adosadios]

so hard)

[@GregsGrog]

Is anyone else crashing the moment they try to use boxcutter in blender 3.4? Is it not updated yet?

[@JoshGambrell]

Similar issues, swap back to 3.3. Been having headaches with addons

[@kruz3d573]

Yesss, and a restart helps.

[@Tokirealy]

when I hit left click + alt and left click (at 7:55), its select face next to this edge, not whole edge that I'm clicking

[@JoshGambrell]

Buy mesh machine, it’s part of that addon

[@Tokirealy]

@@JoshGambrell ah, i see. thanks

[@KanzakiZD]

can you try hard surface modelling without the hardops or boxcutter addon? only lowpoly with subdivisions.

[@JoshGambrell]

Yes but I might be retired by the time I finish the model.

[@KanzakiZD]

@@JoshGambrell just a simple model with lots of topology tutorials is enough for me.

[@TheGameCache]

Out of interest why not just get those add-ons?The improvements to workflow efficiency is worth ten times the cost.

[@KanzakiZD]

@@TheGameCache simplest reason is beginners to hard surface modelling tends to think that hard surface models doesn't need a lot of smoothing and focuses on topology more to increase experience. and i think it's alright since some of them also have minimum spec pc to do complex models that barely renders good enough.

[@TheGameCache]

@@KanzakiZD that's a fair enough reason. Thanks for responding.

[@Andrzej_Misiura]

Is this on Windows or Mac?

[@JoshGambrell]

Either one!

[@DraftID]

At 13:54 for some reason mine does not do a reverse bevel.

[@DraftID]

To note, I had to apply the bool and then chamfer the edge, but yeah the reverse edge was not playing nice for me.

[@JoshGambrell]

Sometimes you gotta do it twice, reverse bevel is slightly bugged

[@luro378]

Had the same problem, after ctrl clicking on mark, press N to flip the normals for beveling and it should work alright, at least that's what solved it for me

[@oguzhanturan46]

11:51 you forgot one of ngones.

[@midioutput]

As a new blender user I don't really understand this kind of modeling. You're making shapes based on nothing, so anything goes. If you can make it work exactly how you want, you can just do something else, and then through the boolean stuff you end up with wacky topology. I can't tell if it's worth it to learn modeling this way or not.

[@blenderstuffs]

Well I thought the same way when I was a beginner too, this type of modelling is known as Boolean modeling and used to get done modelling in less time as a model with good topology takes much more time. But the main issue with this type of modelling is the shading problems which he spends most of the time to explain how get rid of them. A model with good topology is much needed for example in VFX and animation because it may be deformed like dents in a car model and other details. If your model is just for rendering like for product advertisements this type of Modeling is much prefered.

[@darrenberkey7017]

Modeling with NGONS or quads both have their purpose, and it's not about one being "better" than the other, it's about knowing when to utilize the benefits of each to suit your needs.

[@moshiachhasawakened6781]

I would not be able to find a single function

[@daze4276]

Stand with Ukrainian people 💙💙💙💙💛💛💛💛

[@gamedevblog2925]

нашел где писать

[@marowak87]

Sorry but that vid shows a really bad practice of not deleting that ugly default cube - we all know that deleting it and adding a new shiny slick one in its place is the way to go XD

[@harryhill3078]

nothing is clean about this mesh lol

[@fluxstandard8364]

ANOTHER USELESS TUTORIAL

[@3pcgi959]

Don't waste your time and use plasticity

[@JoshGambrell]

Nah imma stick with Blender