How to make a lightsaber in Blender

Earn your Jedi or Sith rank by creating your very own lightsaber in Blender. This tutorial is a great crash course in hard surface modeling, texturing, and lighting.
Download the finished project file here bit.ly/31QNQiN

[@Giltcrab]

So after downloading blender from an interest in wanting to design airsoft guns it remained on my desktop collecting dust after only just about an hour of messing about. Fast forward to a new interest in wanting to design my own lightsaber and I am back to trying to understand the program. I typed in "Lightsaber Blender" into youtube and found this video. I have not completed it fully yet but just wanted to take a moment and thank you for creating this tutorial. The techniques shown have allowed me to implement a bit of my own creativity and has resulted in, so far, a really cool piece of work. This really being my first ever 3D project I am quite proud so thank you very much.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

That is so cool to hear thank you for letting me know. And you're not the first to say similar things about this video. As someone who loves teaching I live for those moments when someone has an Aha moment. When you're done send me the render I'd love to see it! [e-mail]

[@travisyee7278]

What are you doing with Blender nowadays?

[@ntinos8024]

Thank you so much! This is perfect for semi-beginners like myself. I'm tired of modelling donuts and chairs, I wanted to do something that I'm actually interested in and is relatively easy!

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Thank you! I agree lets slice that old doughnut in half and make something cool and nerdy! Thanks for watching check out my other videos are they are mostly aimed at newish users that are ready to go to the next level.

[@AlbertRyanstein]

lol, also doing donuts and chairs - I went to a sculpting from there now here

[@Viilap]

True who cares about donuts lightsabers are the way

[@wargaurdian6010]

Vader actually uses it a lot as did Count Dooku, plus Ezra trained with Kanan's saber length changer.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

That is very interesting! I have not yet seen or read of any controls being used on a saber (length or width) but that means nothing as there's SO much material out there even shows I haven't seen (Clone Wars and Rebels). Thanks for commenting!

[@nighpaw4651]

@@DanielGrovePhoto well I've seen the length being changed, I don't remember seeing width though idk

[@marcoseuller5861]

**Hello my name is Daniel and this, is my masterclass** One of the best tutorials i've ever seen about blender

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Haha, one day! And thank you so much that is the best comment! Be sure to share with any other friends who want to learn!

[@marcoseuller5861]

Can you tell me which version of blender you were using the day of that vídeo btw ?

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@marcoseuller5861 Oo not exactly sorry. Probably 2.83 I think.

[@marcoseuller5861]

Alright, that i'll help

[@apex3d595]

This is such a great tutorial. Very clear and easy to follow. Great pacing as well. Not too fast and not too slow. Had a lot of fun doing this one, thank you!

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed and benefited from it. That's why I do all these! Also, it's fun :D

[@kingsleyjackson5849]

this is one of the best tutorials one making a saber hilt. Well paced, very well explained and easy to follow. Cant wait to use the knowledge to make my own hilts

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Thank you so much! Sabers are fun to make! One of mine is now in production by Crimson Dawn! It's the Invictus. Maybe I'll do another saber build video for fun.

[@rishatmirgaliev6722]

Your tutorial is one of the best about lightsabers, thank you!👍

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Thank you so much! I think I'll make a new ones with version 4 coming out.

[@rishatmirgaliev6722]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Are you planning to make a tutorial of Kylo Ren sword? It seems much harder to create for a beginner. I've tried to do one, but all I got is a shrinkwrapped picture on 3d model surface 😅. Kylo's lightsaber have lot of difficult geometry(Boolean cuts, scratches, edge wear, cables etc) and annealing color on a hand guard.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@rishatmirgaliev6722 I wasn't planning on it but you're right it has so many shapes and materials it'd be a good lesson. I'll think about it!

[@channelFluffyXtreme]

Exactly what I was looking for! Thank you sir! c: Changed my general understanding of hard surface modelling quite a lot. I tried to model a lightsaber out of 1 cylinder before and struggled really bad with subsurf. Thought that was the way to go in therms of shading and such.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Ya I do things a bit unconventional sometimes I just shoot for a good end result and ease if editing /tweaking. For me that means multiple objects within one mesh. Since I don't do character or rigging work I don't care about topology or low poly lol. Bad habits to some but for me it gets the results I want.

[@twisty.mctwisterson]

The length control is actually used in Star Wars Rebels, during Season 1 where Kanan trains Ezra he changes the length of his lightsaber blade to adjust for Ezras shorter stature

[@AlbertRyanstein]

I'm getting a lot of enjoyment out of this, thanks. It's come at a time I'm out of work and need a creative recovery. Cheers

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Well I think my channel is just what you need! Check out my other tutorials and assets online search Daniel Grove Designs on gumroad

[@traskulgo]

Now a have a good reason to convince myself into learning 3D modeling. Great content man. Good job!

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Yes, anyone can learn! just make what you know and love most and then branch out with challenging modeling projects. Hope my channel helps you in your journey.

[@dakotaridge]

I think you were born to do this kind of work. I seriously admire the concept of taking parts of different lightsabers and piecing them together. The quality of this tutorial goes without saying. But I'm going to say it anyway. This is really a quality tutorial. Thank you!!!!

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

I couldn't agree more! I was just talking to my wife the other day about how as a kid I was always drawing schematics for scifi things, when we got our first home PC I discovered MS Paint and was amazed at it's seemingly endless possibilities! I drew spaceships, robots, and weapons with cross sections galore. And here I am doing the same thing as an adult professionally!

[@dakotaridge]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Sounds just like somebody I know: moi! My kidhood was spent in the 60's and early 70's; at that time my hero was Chesley Bonestell. Most of his artwork was from the 50's but it still inspired me to the ends of the universe! Anyway I made my low battery light blue. 🤣 Just taking creative license. 🤣

[@richietwinz6824]

Best tutorial I've seen so far! I have a keen interest in 3D modelling and printing (haven't actually started yet but I wanted to see how it's done) but I'm into painting 3D printed sabers. It was getting frustrating watching other tutorials when they clearly didn't know about sabers! (them: "the bottom and top piece" me: "that'll be the pommel and emitter then!" smh) Thanks for this, I've subbed to see what else you do!

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Thank you so much for watching and enjoying this video! I feel like this is a really great early tutorial for new blendr users and I'm glad to see you liking it. You're not the first to say it's the best I've seen and that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Also I'm pretty much obsessed with lightsabers I think they're one of the coolest fictional pieces of Technology and there are a lot of fun to make. Once you make some of your own designs you should definitely print and paint them that would be awesome.

[@richietwinz6824]

@@DanielGrovePhoto something I’d like to know is when constructing a Saber in Blender, is it possible to add connections to each piece I.e. peg and hole or male/female threaded ends to physically join them together if 3D printed? Again I thank you for such a great video.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@richietwinz6824 Absolutely! Though it take a bit more thought and tedious work but it is doable. You'll want to use boolean modifier to cut holes in objects to make the female end and then make the male end by merging the same shape to the saber piece.

[@richietwinz6824]

@@DanielGrovePhoto you’re a star! Thanks for getting back to me. I’m gonna download Blender later and start creating then later this year when I get round to buying a 3D printer I’ll be adding to my expanding collection of 26 canon hilts with some customs of my own. I think I may have an addiction but during the current situation we’re all facing and being stuck indoors what else is there to do? lol

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@richietwinz6824 Very cool! I recently got my first sabers (3) from Viresabers and am also a fan of Crimson Dawn sabers too. I've designed 2 for Crimson Dawn already but they are not yet in production hopefully this year they will be made available.

[@gambite.6834]

Thanks. Really happy with the result while also learning some really useful shortcuts and tricks

[@alperenatmaca8986]

You are seriously an amazing Yoda, thank you man

[@SpeedstersUnited]

Loved this video. Created many different hilt designs and some from the films by following this tutorial. Thank you my good sir!

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Thanks! That's awesome to hear making sabers is fun and good modeling practice.

[@HonestOtaku98]

Freaken amazing, good video love how you explain everything

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Thank you so much! I appreciate it.

[@similorradique2670]

Thanks man, gonna try today hopefully it will come out good, its my first full model in Blender ;-;

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Best of luck! I'd love to see the results [e-mail]

[@similorradique2670]

@@DanielGrovePhoto just sent a mail this morning hope i get some feedback :)

[@MrJedijunkie]

This tutorial is well done! do u have tutorials for spaceships? if not...can U do a tutorial like this style for making a spaceship?

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

I surprisingly havnt done a spaceship building one due to the length it would likely be. I have done many kitbashing videos as that's my preferred method of building ships. Check out my latest kitbash here blendermarket.com/products/sci-fi-spaceship-kitbash-vol3 And my latest video in my blender Playlist here shows animations using it and how it works.

[@Mocorn]

"I'm gonna use my own node group" ... What on earth? How do I not know about this? Alright, time to learn some new stuff in blender! Awesome tutorial :)

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Haha node groups are great! Especially when you save them in their own Blend files for later reuse AND save your common ones to your startup file so they are already there ready to go. Check out my procedural scifi panels tutorial I think I covered it first in there but I do node groups in many of my videos.

[@Mocorn]

@@DanielGrovePhoto groovy stuff. Also, I've made a couple lightsabers as well. It's almost meditational :)

[@148840Texas]

At 13:55, the bool tool wasn't enabled in my preferences. Under Edit -> Preferences -> Add-ons you need to add the bool tool, then doing ctrl + shift + - did it take out the cylinder

[@andrealopez8551]

Thank you!!!

[@rmis6109]

Thank you ! Very helpful man !

[@Drums712]

THIS is great! Thanks man! Very nice.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Thanks so much! As you can tell I LOVE LIGHTSABERS!

[@Drums712]

Well yea. But you can tell you love what you do! The detail is great. I had a fun time following this. Learned a lot as well. Thanks again!

[@carlogarneri7873]

Sir, love this tutorial ❤️

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Thank you! I loved making it. Also one of my custom designs is for sale at Crimson Dawn Sabers! It's the Inviktus.

[@qaswar6940]

this is a great tutorial it was very fun to make the light saber thanks man

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Thanks for watching! I may do another just for the fun of it and I'll use 3.0 release as my excuse haha.

[@qaswar6940]

@@DanielGrovePhoto hellya

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@qaswar6940 What else would you like to see tutorials for in Blender?

[@qaswar6940]

@@DanielGrovePhoto the other day i was trying to model a clone troopers helmet but found that quite hard for my level so if u can do that would be amazing

[@peterhall8797]

Excellent tutorial!

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Thank you very much!

[@skyrim4713]

Wish you add treads on some of the parts for 3d print.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Treads? I'm not familiar with 3d printing techniques. Would be fun to have these printed and painted. 😊

[@sveveroni]

Thank you so much for making this video! I've been wanting to learn how to do this forever. One thing, though... All of your renders look so clean! I've set certain roughnesses, reflections, etc., but it looks so much more low quality! Maybe this is a lighting setting I'm missing?

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

First, are you rendering in Eevee and cycles?

[@sveveroni]

@@DanielGrovePhoto I think I'm only rendering in Eevee... is there a way to render with both?

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@sveveroni Ah well that is why it doesn't look like mine. Cycles does raytracing, eevee does not, and therefore refletions and light are handled better in cycles. You cannot render both simultaneously but you can do a render (F12) and when the render is complete press J to go to another render slot, go back to Blender, change the render engine to the other render engine, and press F12 again. You can then press J to switch your render back and forth between eevee and cycles final render to see the differences. You can save them as separate image files too if you want.

[@mazashayeri1411]

High quality tutorial! thank you!

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Thanks so much! I appreciate it.

[@marcoseuller5861]

Anybody knows the version of that blender ?

[@simonorolofan1485]

this is so good

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. Check out my other hard surface and blender tutorials too. Lots of gems.

[@djbrayj7670]

The bool tool thing is confusing me when I went to hit apply in modifier it’s not working the cub doesn’t disappear and my emitter isn’t showing up as hollow when I’m sure I made it hollow

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

yes boolean operations are known for being problematic. Sometimes it's the geometry of one of both faces that needs to be prepped before a boolean works, sometimes a face of the cutter / target are intersecting and causing issues. Sometimes the cutter needs to be moved or in the right place for it to work. Try some practices in another blend file to find the best way. Also try fast / exact option in the boolean modifier.

[@cyber5873]

My saber is looking pretty good now how do we make the beam?

[@stuffimade8994]

Very good video man!:)

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Thank you!

[@ATERSMASH2000]

Can you make a tutorial about how to create the actual saber it self? That would be amazing lol

[@CommanderSummit]

that's literally what this tutorial is. do you mean the blade? just extend the length of the cylinder and give it an emissive texture

[@Jbarrel1]

22:07 I cant do the cut it wont work it just zooms my camera out any other way??? great tutorial btw its very easy to follow for a semi beginer like me

[@No_TrickPony]

Time to make some star treck lazar swords.... Jokes aside, keep it up my guy!

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Haha. I once did a photo of a guy holding a phaser prop firing the beam and people thought it was a lightsaber and were getting on my case for it not looking right! Face palm!

[@mas6860]

For some reason, whenever I do ctrl-B to make the bevel, it never turns out right and it makes it too high up, I'm not sure I described it correctly but how would I fix this? Should my settings be the same as yours?

[@projectash1941]

Happened to me as well

[@projectash1941]

Hey! I figured it out. When you change the size of something and want to bevel it, first go into object mode, hit object (top left corner), apply, and then scale. When you try to bevel afterwards, it will work!

[@mas6860]

I figured it out too thanks for replying bro

[@projectash1941]

@@mas6860 No problem

[@IsakiMichi]

@@projectash1941 Thank you

[@MinishMilly]

Hmm.. isn't the button a bit too way up, if you want to grab the saber at the rubber part? I have short fingers so maybe that's my first thought. xD Other than that very very cool tutorial! Really helped me. Was planning to make a little render for a friend of mine, where I also put his name on it. c: (Hopefully I will push through to do that, lol)

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

I've always felt that many saber switches were too low and even in the middle of the grip which could be disastrous in the middle of a fight accidentally pushing it! Luke's huge protruding ignition switch would destroy your palm when holding or twirling. So I try to make mine ergonomic, safe, and usually double handed.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

But thanks for watching I'm glad you enjoyed it and learned stuff! When adding the name you can use an image texture and put the image texture node to clip instead of repeat so the name texture doesn't tile. Also use uv unwrapping to place the name on the right faces. You could also use the text object which is more 3d.

[@attisonss]

does anyone know why "ctrl + minus" doesn't work on my blender?

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Turn on Bool Tool addon in the preferences.

[@darix360]

tankyou sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

You're welcome! Happy saber making.

[@mariofeito4020]

I'm having trouble with the how you rotated it to in 4:18

[@jeremymullins1294]

Thank you for this tutorial. It's great! I highly recommend people go through this one before they do Blender Guru's donut tutorial. The only issue I had here was figuring out my keyboard mapping, which is a bit different than yours.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Ah yeah some of my settings I've had for years and I forget which ones are mine vs default. And thank you! I agree my saver video should be the new donut.

[@jeremymullins1294]

3:48 I had to do Shift+Alt+LMB to make this work.

[@honeyspringsbw7852]

what hdri are you using? it seems to be heavily affecting the way your blend appears in preview and in final, and the look is really cool.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Can't recall sorry! I have a folder full of them all from poly haven.

[@danielalejandro4961]

How come all his metals are so reflective. My metals dont reflect anything

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

It may be the renger engine, the viewport setting you're in, the lighting setuo/hdr, and or the roughness/metallic settings you're using.

[@lolo_riv]

Hi there, great tutorial! Is there a way I can save your group so that I can apply it to other projects?

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Yes! Make the nodes in to a node group then append it into your startup file from your lightsaber file and save the startup file. I show it here kzbin.info/www/bejne/r3rbopKHdrRqhck

[@bubo1]

I see quite a few of your hard surface models use overlapping parts rather than having a final merged mesh. I am new to Blender and was wondering if this what people mean by hard surface modelling? I guess it does not effect the final render but I was wondering if this modelling style was a kind of halfway house to going to the extra effort to remove overlapping geometry, as I am thinking that in big models there would be quite a lot of hidden faces still being rendered. I've seen quite a few tutorials and it seems some of them go to great lengths to optimise things.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Hard surface just refers to the types of models that are being made - if they were in real life they would have hard surfaces. Usually metallic things, stone, wood also may qualify. But the overlapping meshes and shapes is just a result of my laziness but also of my need for total control. If I want to reposition or tweak a part of my model, I like having it has a separate object rather than a part of a larger mesh which requires more work when tweaking smaller parts. And since I don't do game design or very much animation optimization is something I'm less concerned about.

[@ozgurcaglkose2040]

The problem is that I can't see the node groups in the job I started. It appears when I open a new Blender file. Before starting work you should download the link in the description and save the node groups permanently.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Node groups will disappear if they aren't in any active materials. You can prevent them from being purged by giving the node group a fake user. Go to Outline change view mode to Blend file expand the node groups tree and right click and give a fake user to all the node groups this protects them from being deleted if not used.

[@ECAKJ]

Hey I could really use help. I’m new, but everytime I add the first grip piece, it becomes part of the cylinder and I can’t select it to duplicate it or anything

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Don't add the cylinder while in edit mode of another object.that joins them in to one object.tab out of edit mode and add new shapes that way.

[@ECAKJ]

@@DanielGrovePhoto thanks for the quick reply! It’s going great now

[@talat2k4]

I'm still waiting for the spaceship from the thumbnail of "10 Hard surface tricks for Blender" video.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Haha yeah I haven't forgotten. I have however been thinking about how I can make that video. It'll probably more of a breakdown and explanation video rather than a full tutorial on how to make the ship from beginning to end cuz that would be quite a few hours worth of tutorial.

[@talat2k4]

@@DanielGrovePhoto You could make full tutorial and split it in parts, then release each part once a week.

[@kevinkelly5780]

@@DanielGrovePhoto I'd still watch it. As a scifi author I'm basically learning Blender to make my own spaceships and cities

[@Shotshuper]

for darth vaders emiter how did u cut it it cause u said crtl minus but that just zooms out. is there an alternate way

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Sorry about that! It's the keyboard shortcut for boolean operation. First select the saber piece. Then shift select the cutting piece. Then ctrl minus should do the boolean for you. You can do it manually with a boolean modifier set to difference. You may need bool tool addon enabled for the shortcut to work

[@cyber5873]

The Ctrl Minus has to be done on the number pad not the regular minus

[@jrdouble567]

@@DanielGrovePhoto how do I enable the add on when I go to preferences then add ons I dont see it

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@jrdouble567 use the search bar in the Addons screen and search for "bool"

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@jrdouble567 actually I'm wrong. I disabled bool tools and CTRL and - still did the boolean operation. Like previous user said use the numpad minus not the one by + / =

[@Kjleed13]

I got stuck rotating the grips. It was rotating around the center point of the object not global axis. Edit: I figured out how to change origin.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Great! Changing origin point and knowing how to set your 3d cursor to exact spots in your scene is a great skill to have and can save you a lot of time. Also median point for multiple objects.

[@tarikdizdarevic2183]

​@@DanielGrovePhoto Yeah i'm stuck on the same part. How do I fix this?

[@MT-07-Rookie]

Hi, I try do exactly same what u do, but i got totally different effect :/ I mean bevel in 3:44 in my looks strangely

[@MT-07-Rookie]

and also Ctrl+(-) do not make a hole in cube :/ 13:50

[@icedriver2207]

The reason why you get bloom at about 43:37 even though you are in Cycles is because look dev uses Evee to Render. Rendered mode actually uses the render engine you have selected.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Oh interesting thanks! So what's the difference between look dev and eevee?

[@icedriver2207]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Honestly I don't know all the differences between look dev and Evee, but I'm pretty sure it was on Blender Today where they said look dev uses Evee. I might be wrong and heard it somewhere else I have watched a lot of videos.

[@noredem]

Look dev and Eevee are pretty different I compared both of them and Eevee was superior

[@icedriver2207]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Honestly I think Look dev is a cut down version of Evee

[@projectash1941]

(Solved) For some reason, the bevel is off on mine. Instead of doing it normally, it does it very oddly and stretched very far down the cube. Help?

[@dadancingdino8438]

Go into object mode, select the item you want to bevel and then ctrl + a and select scale

[@projectash1941]

@@dadancingdino8438 I figured it out, thanks for helping though.

[@SlimeTlme]

@@dadancingdino8438 bro thank you

[@lenaoxton8540]

Some of the hotkeys you name aren't working for example pressing the + key to smooth and the number 7 for top down view. I'm running blender on an MSI Pulse if that makes a difference?

[@reyesvisuals8533]

(LOST ME) 4:40 Alt-D then R (rotate) 30 More info needed as it's doing something completely different. That is where following along doesn't work for everyone. Something must be set up differently or active on your setup vs standard....

[@UnholyGaia22]

Still in the middle of watching it but at the Boolean part where you're making the cut outs on the left and right (where you mention the windows near the emitter). Aren't n-gons from doing that really really frowned upon?

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

They sure are! By a certain crowd. I do not cater though, whatever gives me the look I want is all care about. Proper topology is overrated.

[@UnholyGaia22]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Fair. I guess for things that don't get deformed it's not a huge deal. Especially on personal projects. Just had instructors drill into me for 2 years at college that n-gons are the devil and using them kills my chances or getting work. Which is odd considering every tutorial I see on youtube uses n-gons like they're a normal occurrence

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@UnholyGaia22 haha yeah it's just the tradition. If an ngon makes weird shading or smoothing I fix it. Watch Ian Hubert he's so messy but he's fast and focuses on what really matters for the end goal.

[@HrafnNordhri]

Rather than a boolean, why not use the knife tool to cut the emiter?

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Does the knife tool cut all the way through? Even if it does I'd then have to select that cut off part and delete it and close up the cavities made by the cut. Boolean is quick and visual and this cut is a good way to show how even a cube can help cut and make things interesting.

[@HrafnNordhri]

@@DanielGrovePhoto yes it will cut all the way through. Boolean is good, but can make a mess of your mesh and topology.

[@TH3BLURRR]

when i try to add emmisive light to the buttons, it gets rid of the color for the object that the switch is on.

[@TH3BLURRR]

EDIT:: figured it out, had to change the slot in color to a different one.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@TH3BLURRR that's it! Multiple materials in one object. Use assign to map that material to the selected, assigned faces.

[@bishnuabhay350]

Sir please make videos on computer Hacking animation sir .....

[@redfrostedpain751]

I have a question. Starting at 4:15, you begin to duplicate the objects around the cylinder, but when I try to rotate the object, it doesn’t rotate around the cylinder, it just rotates. How do you get it to rotate around the cylinder?

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Set your 3d cursor to the central object you want to rotate around and then change the pivot point to 3d cursor.

[@schobsi.8581]

Control minus isn't working, what should I do? Do I need to change my settings?

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Oh sorry! Try enabling Bool tool and let me know if that adds that shortcut.

[@schobsi.8581]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Thanks for the fast reply, i tried it, it is working, but sadly Blender crashes eveytime i try it with the saber already modeld. I feel like it is only working when there are only 2 objects in my file. Any thoughts how i can change that?

[@TH3BLURRR]

how do you select more then one edge? i cant get it to work

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Hold shift. Also alt select will grab a ring or loop of edges

[@ernie3120]

Rotation doesn’t work. Tried it for multiple hours on that single step and every time it kept messing up.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

What are you rotating? Can you share the time signature of what you're trying to do?

[@ernie3120]

@@DanielGrovePhoto 4:15

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@ernie3120 Be sure you'r ein object mode and that the object pivot point is in the middle of the hilt. Alternatively you can put the 3d cursor in th emiddle an duse that as a pivot point for the rotations.

[@682660]

Hi, I dont know if you'll be able to respond asap but I have this dumb little render video bar thingy at the bottom of my blender application and when I tried to press space for searchbar and do edge loops it just starts playing the little bar

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Ah that's because in your preferences Keymap page your spacebar is set to Play animation rather than Search.

[@pizzamozzarella420]

Press F3

[@AlluttajaYT]

How can you make a blade / when the lightsaber is activated?

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Easy! Make a cylinder with a rounded end. Give it a material with an emissions node turned up high. Set the origin point of that cylinder to the base where the blade emitter. Animate the Z scale from 0 to 1 which will simulate the blade emitting and going to full size.

[@AlluttajaYT]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Yeah makes sense. Ty!!

[@karrots14]

Hello, you probably won't see this as its been 2 years. I'm probably using a different version of Blender because Ctrl+minus and Ctrl+Plus doesn't do what it does in this tutorial. For me Ctrl+minus and Ctrl+Plus zooms in and out. I hope you respond. Cheers!

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

I see it! Notifications :) go to Addons in preferences and enable Booltool addon.

[@karrots14]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Thank you do much!

[@TH3BLURRR]

how do i enable screen space reflections? i am using cycles but the lightsaber is only casting a shadow, not reflecting, i have the values right

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Screen space reflections is an Eevee option. To make an object reflective in cycles simply turn down the Roughness slider on its bsdf shader.

[@AlexAprelius]

как сделать эффект включения?

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Анимируйте шкалу Z цилиндра лопасти от 0 до 1. Также анимируйте мощность излучения в графическом редакторе. Используйте ключевые кадры. Google translate.

[@alexanderrod7181]

After you're done with the button I notice my cylinder does not look as smooth as yours, am I just seeing things or did you do something to your cylinder? I tried re-watching it but nothing appeared, my cylinder has 120 vertices just like yours.

[@alexanderrod7181]

nvm you shaded smoothed it after I unpaused the video

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@alexanderrod7181 yep smooth and auto smooth in the normals panel is a great trick for smooth curves.

[@nsayoungbig13lorisudnwtfigo]

ok cool, but how the hell do you grab this 😂

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

3D print it!

[@Evakkay]

For some reason when I press Control - the Cylinder disappears, but it doesn't leave that cut through it like yours. I enabled Bool tool and have both selected in the right order and everything. Please help I'm in dire need

[@Evakkay]

I ended up fixing it. Had to switch the Solver to Fast

[@tylerterror6186]

@@Evakkay Where do you find the solver?

[@awesomeperson8092]

Will this work for 3d printing?

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

I can't say with personal experience but in theory yes! I have a friend who printed one of my sabers.

[@awesomeperson8092]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Thank You!

[@awesomeperson8092]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Also, do you know the measurements, of which the handle is supposed to be?

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@awesomeperson8092 no but you can find schematics and measurements online.

[@IsakiMichi]

At 4:38, pressing r - 30 - enter keeps the object in place instead of automatically moving it like it does in the video. Does anyone have a solution?

[@IsakiMichi]

Got it! I had to change a little drop down menu to cursor. I was so confused because it doesn't appear to have to happen in the video

[@jrdouble567]

Ctrl - doesn’t work for me for the boolian any idea how to fix it?

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Use the numpad minus and make sure both objects are selected.

[@jrdouble567]

@@DanielGrovePhoto still didn’t work

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@jrdouble567 sorry to hear that. I'm looking in to how my shortcut works and yours doesn't. You are not the first! You'll need to do it the normal way. Make the modifier, and in it select the cutter object.

[@VOgaming51official]

control minus isn't working for me what do I do?

[@VOgaming51official]

nevermind I don't want the top part of vader's saber anymore.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@VOgaming51official That's fine. But when doing the boolean shortcut key (CTRL -) be sure to have two separate objects selected that are overlapping or it won't work. You can also do the boolean operation the old way: create the boolean modifier on object A, and in it's modifier settings select object B in "object".

[@lil_bietpomp5853]

would this work for 3d printing?

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Yes! But it all depends on your modeling. I do not 3D print so I'm not a great person to ask but I hear my printing friends repeatedly say "It has to be water tight" which means no open faces, everything sealed. I'd look up videos on 3D modeling rules for 3D printing especially in Blender.

[@lil_bietpomp5853]

@@DanielGrovePhoto alright thank you for the info, appreciate it 😉

[@alliedfilms9956]

When I do ctrl - to cut with the cylinder it just zooms out

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Sounds like our keyboard shortcuts are customized differently, sorry! be sure Bool Tool addon is enabled.

[@leonhumphreys5758]

@@DanielGrovePhoto how would we see the key binds.

[@tarikdizdarevic2183]

yeah mine does the same

[@jeremymullins1294]

it's CTL + SHFT + B for me, and that brings up a little window of different Boolean options

[@leobrasil9423]

Hi! I'm not sure if you're going to see this, but when I create the plane, it doesn't reflect the saber and I'm not really sure why. I can see the trees reflection and stuff just not the saber. Thank you for such a detailed tutorial.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Hmm not sure what's going on exactly but are you using Cycles and is the reflection there when you render? Be sure the material on the plane has a very low roughness value so that it's reflective.

[@dadancingdino8438]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Mine also doesnt reflect, neither does my friends

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@dadancingdino8438 Cycles or Eevee and material view or render view?

[@dadancingdino8438]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Sorry, still new to blender and Im not sure what cycles or eevee means, but Im viewing it in both the render and material views

[@dadancingdino8438]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Alright, I found that I am in Eevee, with both material and render views not showing a reflection

[@tarikdizdarevic2183]

When I go to bevel my edges they aren't turning out as good as yours and I don't know why. I'm literally copying exactly what you do but the slope of the bevel isn't as angled as yours.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Have you tried increasing the number of bevel segments by using + after using CTRL B?

[@tarikdizdarevic2183]

@@DanielGrovePhoto hmm let me try that hopefully it works lol

[@tarikdizdarevic2183]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Yeah can you explain that again im confused lol

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@tarikdizdarevic2183 With an edge or face selected type CTRL and B to start beveling. Then move your mouse around to increase or decrease the amount of bevel. You can also type the plus or minus button to add or subtract segments to the bevel this will make it smoother or rounder. Once you're happy with the result his the Enter key.

[@BallsInJaw69]

alt+select isnt working??love your video btw

[@Evakkay]

For some reason after I used Boolean to cut the Emitter. I have the shape and everything perfectly, but when I go to Edit Mode it goes back to regular Cylinder shape. Any idea what the problem is?

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

That's not a problem it's just that the edit mode view is turned off for that boolean modifier. Go to the modifier tab, find that boolean you made and turn on the switch for edit mode visibility.

[@Evakkay]

@@DanielGrovePhoto For some reason I've been having some problems around 38 minutes. Especially with the Lighting in Renderview mode, for some reason yours just looks much shinier than mine in every way. Even the floor and shadowing stuff. Any reason why mine isn't looking as sharp as yours does? Thanks for any help man

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@Evakkay Look in your render tab (camera icon) are you using Eevee render engine or Cycles?

[@Evakkay]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Hey at around 41 minutes. I was selecting the Button panel like you, but I've noticed that I've accidentally had the Buttons panel and Control part. (The Piece the Button Panel is connected to) as one full object instead of separate objects, so whenever I press Control L it selects the button panel and Control piece. Is there anyway I can separate these 2?

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@Evakkay Sounds like the polygons are connected then if CTRL L grabs both pieces. You'll have to manuall select the verts or faces of one piece and then press P to separate it to it's own mesh. Or just make that part over and be sure they are separate meshes.

[@Eywhatwithyourattitudebruh]

29:17 my boolean its not make empty like you :(

[@kamikera5456]

I put in the camera but when i press CTRL+ALT+0 nothing happens.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Make sure Numpad is turned on with the Numlock key.

[@kamikera5456]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Thank you.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@kamikera5456 Select the top face, hold Shift, then select the bottom face. I use ALT and click drag to rotate my view.

[@Sparten1920]

I'm stuck on the rotating rubber grips part. I've looked at the comments and messed with the 3D cursor and im just not getting it

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

I know it can be a lot at first but after some practice it's muscle memory. If your saber is built centered on the center of the world grid press Shift C to reset your 3d cursor to the center of your grid. Alternatively you can select a symmetrical object like a ring of edges or a cylindrical mesh and press SHIFT A and select cursor to selected. Then your 3d cursor is in the averaged center of that mesh or selection. With that set in place you're ready to duplicate objects around the 3d cursor as long as you have the 3d cursor option chosen in the origin point which is a drop down along the top of the 3d viewport. Once you duplicate an object and press R to rotate it uses that 3d cursor as an axis on which to rotate your newly duplicated object. Hope this helps. Check out my hard surface modeling tips I do it in there I believe.

[@Sparten1920]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Thank you so much bro! only thing now is that i dont get a reflection of the saber on the plane, other than that amazing!

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

If you're not getting any reflection you need to lower your roughness on the grounds material. That will make it more reflective.

[@tarikdizdarevic2183]

@@DanielGrovePhoto this doesnt work for me at all. When I press Shift C it just moves me further away from the center. Shift A opens up the Add tab, instead I have to press Shift S, which opens up a bunch of options. Then when I click Cursor to selection it just moves it to my selection. I dont know how to get this to work.

[@tarikdizdarevic2183]

nvm i figured it out

[@hws_wolf6963]

How many faces total did this turn out to be? I have been challenged to make a detailed Hilt in less than 100 so i am trying to figure out how would be best to do it

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Less than 100 polys!? Not sure if that's possible with it being detailed. Unless you get fancy and bake normal maps and have some really good texture painting to give the illusion of detail. The whole scene has 36k faces and 82k triangles. But as you can see with my techniques I don't care about poly count.

[@hws_wolf6963]

@@DanielGrovePhoto yeah normally i dont either it turned out nice for sure...... Going to be trying Blender after watching this

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@hws_wolf6963 Cool! Well Blender is a fun and powerful tool just take it one step at a time and learn all the basics first. I have a intro to Blender video as well as a basics on hard surface modeling tools. This one as well is a good practice video to learn Blender.

[@hws_wolf6963]

@@DanielGrovePhoto does one of the other videos go through the settings because ctrl minus is not doing the diagonal cut in my program

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@hws_wolf6963 is Booltool addon enabled?

[@praneelbhatnagar2333]

For some reason control minus is not working in blender 2.9 please help🙏🏼

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Is booltool addon enabled? I think it may be connected to that addon.

[@tarikdizdarevic2183]

@@DanielGrovePhoto I enabled booltool and it helped

[@Golox2]

Hey! There is no node group to download D:

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Oh did I promise a node group download and not link it? Tell me the time I talk about it so I can remember what I said? The project file download is in the description though.

[@Golox2]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Thanks for anwsering!! In the min 46:09

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@Golox2 It's already in the project file that is for download in the description. Go to the Aluminum material and you'll see it plugged in to the roughness socket. You can append this to other projects to use it in your own stuff.

[@Golox2]

Thank You so mucho Daniel! Great tutorial if not the Best! Thx for all

[@Golox2]

@@DanielGrovePhoto i cant find how to save it to use it in my project

[@Bem-0]

Honestly im sure you explained it well but I got confused within 10 mins of the video

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Sorry to hear that! I try to explain each step and keyboard shortcut I use for commands. The key to working efficiently in Blender is learning keyboard shortcuts for selections and hard surface modeling techniques. Maybe check out my hard surface modeling tricks videos if you're newer to these types of techniques.

[@Bem-0]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Will do

[@dooomswear303]

Ahhhhhhh jshdwbeb there is another one it's like an bottom less chest of treasures

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Yeah I love making lightsabers. One of mine is actually being sold and in physical production at Crimson Dawn . com! It's the Invictus Have fun!

[@sublimazed]

Ctrl + minus isn't doing anything at all? @13:58.. ugh

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Sorry! Enable booltool addon in preferences.

[@Levi_Zacharias]

23:38

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

What is your question? At 23:38 I beveled a control knob using CTRL+B. You can then use + or - to change the number of segments to smooth out the bevel.

[@Levi_Zacharias]

@@DanielGrovePhoto Oh sorry. i was simply bookmarking the position in the video where I left off so I could return later.

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

@@Levi_Zacharias ah okay! I think KZbin might do that automatically if you close it and if you're logged in. Not sure though.

[@urdad1931]

13:55 help plz

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

Without any information on what you need help with I'm going to assume the CTRL - shortcut didn't work? If so go to your addons and enable Bool Tool. This will allow you to use CTRL - to create a boolean operation between two selected objects. Booleans are used to cut holes or sections out of an object using another object as the "cutter".

[@urdad1931]

@@DanielGrovePhoto thank you so much

[@urdad1931]

@@DanielGrovePhoto also im pressing space bar but it wont pop up search bar 21:04

[@urdad1931]

@@DanielGrovePhoto nv got it

[@iamyzk]

On 44:24 yiu did a huge skip and didn’t even show how to do it 👎👎

[@DanielGrovePhoto]

As you can hear me say "Get out of solo mode..." earlier I explained that solo mode is done by typing forward slash / and it solos your selected object(s). Press again to exit solo mode. Thanks for watching! 👍👍