I Spent 100 Hours Perfecting Topology in Blender

👉 FREE 3D Modeling Topology Guide
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[@zekiz774]

When you have problems with flipped faces, in most cases you can also just select everything with A and press Shift + N to recalculate the normals. Just double check that everything on the outside is blue and not red or else you’re going to have problems.

[@jlmussi]

I appreciate the tip...This will come in handy!

[@javiereliasbarronlopez3366]

Wow, you really stepped up your workflow from the soda can video (I just saw it yesterday), great job. I'm pumped, I might model something later just to blow some steam.

[@jlmussi]

I appreciate the love! 🙏

[@JPax-og5ip]

Not sure if you learned this by now, but limited dissolve will remove any planar geometry that isn't surface defining, barring two edges which will provide link support for details on a surface. It'll also strip any quad topology you'd made, but in that first example it seemed as though it'd be faster to limited dissolve and then reconnect the quads.

[@jlmussi]

I just tried that, yea that would have definitely helped! Thanks for the tip.

[@blpreH]

imma happy to see your progress in blender

[@jlmussi]

Thanks, will do!

[@danialsoozani]

oh my 3D BEAST! what an amazing journey and consistency on trying blender! I love it when I see an unbiased person that knows the knowledge and doesn't bother with the tools! I used to experience the same transitioning from 20 years of 3Ds max to blender 3 years ago! those experiences stay the same, you'll learn how to use them differently in another software! keep doing it I really enjoy your videos ❤

[@criticalwokeracisttheory4645]

Autodesk really fucked up by not allowing a full purchase of Maya with incremental upgrades. Blender isn't yet a full competitor to Maya but it's getting there...and its free.

[@hectorescobar9450]

Ooooh nah man.. For modelling at least, Blender left Maya in the dust years ago. This is coming from a former Maya trainer

[@xanzuls]

Blender isn't a full competitor of maya yet because it's superior to maya in almost every aspect.

[@hectorescobar9450]

@@xanzuls its on its own league now

[@rano12321]

I don't know about that, maybe for rigging and animation it's true kinda but for pretty much everything else Blender is far superior to Maya and for poly modeling it's the best DCC out there IMO.

[@iahdon]

Our studio transitioned from Maya completely in 2020. Maya is a useless dinosaur for us

[@sagbag856]

damn what a journey. his efficiency w blender evolved so greatly its all mindset and how to tackle solutions. i love it. both softwares are great for modelling. i still cant abandon maya cause even if i model less on it i still animate. but modelling workflow is interesting on both sides. impressive progress. you really are a modelling beast lol

[@Paranoia_APEX]

this shows where to improve, i got inspiration to start modeling vehicles from playing days gone, i liked the motorcycles that much.

[@jbro808]

True 3D Beast, it's not the tools it's who's using the tools. Top notch vid!

[@Shalfatk01]

One important thing to remember. Some modifiers are affected by your scale. Bevel for example. If you have uneven scale you will have uneven bevel. ( 2:1:1 , X:Y:Z your bevel will be 2 times intense in X direction. )

[@cjellichheissen2379]

It's been three years since I moved on to blender, it's great to see some of my favorite KZbinrs switching from Maya to blender too.

[@flangflangsnorg6634]

It's great for people in gaming too because it leaves more jobs for people who know maya.

[@ahmedsouody1765]

Thank you for providing this Blender tutorial. I look forward to seeing additional Blender tutorials in the future.

[@CalvinT-w5q]

Your topo is clean af man!

[@jlmussi]

I appreciate the love! 🙏

[@metalman2140]

Your videos are like diamonds of best practices and professional workflows. So much knowledge packed so densely. Thank you for uploading this, I'll be rewatching and taking notes!

[@DaRealGoosebumps]

That's what im talking about!!! welcome to blender JL❤ I'm so happy, hope you will continue

[@jlmussi]

I'm here to change the game 🎮 Thanks for being here with me on my journey. I appreciate ya!

[@DaRealGoosebumps]

Hell yeah!!!

[@zer0skills720]

With setting hard edges on a subdivision instead of going to the Tools menu, going down to Edge Data, then finally editing the mean crease slider, you can use Shift+E as a shortcut

[@clearscreations]

Love that "Make Moves Scale Up" shirt. Might have to grab that

[@pralaykumarkhatua7755]

Sir, we need a tutorial on Modelling in Blender start to end, Navigation to workflow.

[@Keilnoth]

Oooh, just realized you are doing some Blender stuff now! Nice!

[@eddiethyette]

That looks clean! This motivated me to try more hard surface stuff in blender. I sometimes had problem with corners due to adding bevels+chamfer without knowing how to properly holding the edges. Appreciates the most excellent explanation, thank you so much for video! 🙏

[@dutchdykefinger]

if you use subdive edge creasing you can split meshes and kind of have different subdiv rules, then join them after applying the subdivs making vertices to match some other part with subdives on single edges, and then "merge by distance" can really help quickly merge some stuff :D

[@EhsanKhadim_FRS]

cavity sure seems helpful when working with hard surface modelling

[@YEAHKINDA]

Dude I love your content, you're giving amazing tips that help me so much and all, but Bruh. The fact that you took one look at a foldable angled grip and said "yeah that looks like a place for a magazine" when there was already a clear magazine at the rear, REALLY hurt. Also, here's a few limited pieces of gun vocab for future reference: Picatinny rail: That repeatable section that showed up all over the piece, including the top where the sight is mounted Iron Sight: This is a piece of the gun that can be used to aim (NOT attached, like the sight featured on this gun Charging handle: The part of the gun with the loop on either side. That one specifically is ambidextrous as it can be used on either side. Bullpup: A gun that has the trigger in front of the actual firing mechanism. A common characteristic you can look out for is where the magazine is placed. If the magazine is behind the trigger (further from the barrel), then it's a bullpup. Muzzle: The tip of the barrel. It can be multiple various things, but the overarching term that I see used a lot is "muzzle" to refer to the tip of the barrel. Grip: This is a protruding piece of the gun, or an attachment you can put onto the gun, to hold it. Magazine: A solid piece that holds ammo, and feeds it into the gun. If it's permanently attached to the gun, it's called an "internal magazine". Clip: Usually a simple bent piece of metal that holds ammo temporarily, which is pushed off of the clip and into the gun, usually into an internal magazine. Trigger: The trigger is the thing you pull to fire the gun, which is pretty standard information, but I thought I'd mention it just to complete the list. This is by no means exhaustive, there's a lot of things I didn't mention like a gas blowback system and stuff, but the simpler landmarks of guns. I'm no 3d artist of any capacity to even think of rivalling you, and I'm not particularly good at drawing guns in 2d either, but it genuinely gives me psychic damage when I see this sort of thing because I refuse to believe that I know even an ounce more than the average person about firearms despite studying them for a lot longer than should be healthy.

[@Kirron7]

Awesome Video! I tutor basic 3d modeling and animation at my local college. But still always learning more just from these videos. Wish I could take a class. I know you're a very busy fella, but damn I'd love to see you make more videos like these. Keep up on leveling up you 3D modeling BEAST!

[@bajra_mahardika]

for radial array using addon from captain cirno is life saver

[@eduardo0250]

Nice, maybe in the future you can do a video about what do you like in blender and what do you think it needs improvement

[@kanoneno]

Amazing video, it’s full with a lot of very helpful topology methods information and I love that it’s in Blender. Thanks for sharing this process with a timeline. That helps to understand a lot about the length of the building process. I just have one question: How much time would this have taken if you have done it with Maya?

[@jlmussi]

Thanks! It's not exactly how long, but it would have been a fraction of the time, probably in a day or two; a lot of the process with Blender was getting used to the hotkeys and getting that muscle memory down.

[@kanoneno]

@@jlmussi Yes I also struggle a little with things such as the radial array, jajaja. Some things are just counterintuitive

[@seokinchung]

5:42 for split second, I thought the rifle model resulted in turning into sofa model with photoreal rendering

[@ZrannA]

Thumbs up! I really do want to do weapon modeling but i need to master the techniques first before going to this kind of complex object

[@handle7675]

as a programmer who doesn't have all the time in the world to learn a new skill, blender is a life saver. Simple and also the community is friendly as hell

[@HarvestrX]

I'm glad to see JL on Blender as I watched many hours of his Maya tutorials and he has a great way of doing things. I have since moved to Blender as my status as a teacher changed when I changed careers. I can't afford anything other than the free academic Maya. I'm glad you found JL. What type of stuff do you work on? I've done some coding myself too (C++, OpenGL, and Python, (grad school classes), Java (taught APCS), HTML, CSS, JS(taught and personal projects)).

[@nosirve9458]

Loving your content! keep it up!

[@jlmussi]

Thanks, much appreciated!

[@Alex-mc4fh]

Blender modifiers like bend taper arrays are usually a pain to use in my experience

[@s3bl31]

Hi at 11:22 where the normals are flipped you can just mark everything and press shift N that recalculates the normals and flips them to the right side. Otherwise good Video keep it up.

[@WoodenToaster-C4U]

Love the Video, Quick Tip if you did not know, Clicking on two vertices and pressing (J) will do the same as the knife tool, It will cut through the mesh and connect them. And it was funny that you made the magazine at the front grip with a hinge where the barrel of the gun is >_< (Gave me a good laugh)

[@yangmpire]

Looks amazing

[@angulinhiduje6093]

judging by the thumbnail it took him 100 hours to find the subdiv modifier?

[@icedriver2207]

I like to use an Empty object as the basis for the Mirror. I just name it something like Mirror Empty and put it in its own collection. Then I don't have to worry about where the origin of an object is when I mirror it.

[@hankhunker-down8265]

GREAT STUFF! I was wondering... what videogames did you do 3D art on? I would love to play them! Thanks!

[@promalachi117]

Can you make a tutorial to make a collapsible katana???

[@riuken1234]

Thanks for the the video, JL you maybe wan to look for some videos on YT that show how made a radial array using Geometry nodes, I made one still a WIP combining different videos and is faster that set up the the radial array with the empty. Also have the advantage that you can save as a tool, and you can select were this tool show in blender. After this you can save it on you Assets Library to be use any time you need.

[@Rallypoly]

Maybe update with Lowpoly in - Harden and Soften edges

[@raahven123]

i'm a bit confused as to why "remeshing" is refered to as modifying the topology. The topology is unchanged here... The local parametrisation sure changes tho.. I'm genuinely curious.

[@CamSpaghett]

Wait how’d you do that? It looks like a Boolean but you didn’t do that. Or did you just cut the part where you added the circle to the mesh? 9:37

[@ednardoguimaraes4340]

Use more modify in blender. Is more easy for modeling

[@jlmussi]

I'll check it out thanks!

[@strangeapprentice]

Oh Pinoy! Keep going kabayan. haha. Nice video!

[@jlmussi]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@strangeapprentice]

@@jlmussi Yeahj its pretty cool seeing you learning Blender. Funny enough I'm learning Maya modeling now. I'm tempted to learn Blender now seeing you switching. What is your advice? Will I continue learning Maya or just go learn Blender instead?

[@BlackoutfromMD]

You made a few mistakes when you were using bevel you added extra geometry you had to select the boundary loops and not the face but the edges.

[@dutchdykefinger]

unless of course you want to bevel all the edges for that face, which can be helpful for insets the also have a height difference (sticking out) nothing alt+click on edge mode couldnt'fix, it would select the loop all the 4 edges all the same, so yeah, use edge mode for bevels :D

[@anshjaiswal_6424]

I am also a Beginner and made a MCOR 17 Rifle in Maya. Can you review my file as well and tell me what to improve??

[@serwizzart]

Wow, great explanation! But now Im curious, do game models always have this kind of topology the model initially had or whats the workflow there, wouldnt it be just better creating the model like you did in the first place and before subD-ing just keep a copy of the low res? Im not an expert, just asking so I can do it right haha

[@jlmussi]

Yes, you are correct; creating a clean SubD High Poly and then stripping down the hip poly and baking out the details is a common workflow for games.

[@LousyNine]

There are so many different ways to model, and I've tried a few, so, as someone trying to get into the industry as a modeler/level designer, which work flow should I mainly practice?

[@HarvestrX]

Why the focus on making sure everything in quads? I know that it makes adding edge loops much easier (and thus any vert merges are better saved late in production, after a mesh is finalized in its form), but other than that everything my topology learning has led to is a large consensus saying for hard surface models ngons are ok. It is deformations, which are almost exclusive to organic modeling, and its associated sub-d workflow, where they cause issues (pinching and odd surface abnormalities in rendering). So, is this adherence to quads just for editing, or is there more to it? Also, why so many extra edge loops (kzbin.info/www/bejne/bIm8lp6mZZKBi9k)? Doesn't this make for too dense a mesh for games?

[@Manar80s]

what is the background music 0:50

[@anon35468]

20:40 I learned Linux in 7 days.

[@Kullervo456]

Pardon my ignorance is this hard surface workflow also required for game assets or primarily for VFX hard surface assets?

[@jlmussi]

No ignorance; it's great that you are asking questions. Clean SubD modeling is required for VFX but can also be part of the initial stage of game production to create a High Poly 3d model. You can quickly create the low poly mesh from a clean high poly. There are other methods of creating high poly meshes as well, but advantage of having a clean Sub D model as a HP is that its easy to strip away some details and be left with a clean Low Poly mesh to bake your details onto. Hope that helps. And keep asking questions, that's how you learn.

[@Kullervo456]

Awesome advise. Appreciate your response. I did watch till the end and believe you answered the question towards the end of video but I wanted to be sure. Thanks again.

[@antoneveraert1989]

All the same principles would apply technically only i you even have 1/10 of this topology it’s too much for a game asset. 5 mil tris for parts of a gun would be absolutely criminal for a game asset

[@ntshgoku]

Hey i don't understand his game gun model and your sub? what is difference his game model and your sub d model?

[@aidanprinsloo5473]

Overall there are a few different things that differ between the two models: 1. The Game model has one good purpose: to be implemented in a game. Other than that, it doesn't have any other good uses. You can't use it for animation because its too "floppy". So the uses are more limited. Whereas the other Sub-D model can be used in various other situations except games. 2. Then another thing, the reason it's called a Sub-D model is because it won't get screwed up if you subdivide it. The game model will get completely messed up if you apply a subdivision to it as it is. Also another thing that's useful to note is that the Sub-D model is kinda needed for texture baking. Which is basically a process of texturing a high poly Sub-D model, and then "copy and pasting" those high definition textures onto the low poly game-ready model to make it look as good as the Sub-D model

[@ntshgoku]

@@aidanprinsloo5473 Thank you for the this understanding explanation

[@asbcreations567]

Hii sir, will it be right for me to go into modeling in the future? Because AI is improving so much

[@zekiz774]

If you’re not just doing it for the money then sure. You can’t really make money with something you’re not passionate about.

[@raindrop533]

AI makes a rough shape, yes(but with a very, very bad topology that can't be used in-game, film, or construction). I understand you are worried, but my answer is that AI can't really model stuff for you; it can't replace the 3D job.

[@yosupajin]

Really good but too much polygons, can be done with less. Of course just an opinion and a different style. (what i mean, at the end you used Nurbs to show the final result...........so you can do the same with less poligons).

[@jlmussi]

The end result is not nurbs, it's a SubD preview with Subdivision.

[@alvoltta]

Man, buy hardops and mech machine addons. U will be happy, and never go back maya))

[@earcosta93]

Why this guy at the beggining looks like AI? Very weird

[@pauljarvis5384]

If you want topology, follow Aryan

[@ja3d]

Easy if you use boolean in mode blenderbros... :D

[@ZalvaTionZ]

You must have missed the "clean topology" part of the goal.

[@pauloandrade3D]

great video u can also use the spin tool instead of the array with a empty

[@jlmussi]

I appreciate the tip...This will come in handy!

[@ebixxdracion]

The empty method was well utilised here. The mirror method allows you to see and edit circular designs at the same time, but the spin tool doesn't, since once it is applied that's it. Best to use the spin tool on a section that is done modelling, not in the process of being modelled.

[@benschnitter4057]

Can't you just use Quad Remesher and bake the detail to the remeshed mesh? Wouldn't that be a lot easier and faster than doing the cleanup? I'm new to this, so I'm just earnestly asking :)

[@jeysurya2003]

JK Mussi Iam new to game development just started learning blender can you make blender tutorials or can you suggest a best blender tutorial channel

[@asr59]

have you tried using the bevel modifier first and once you are happy with it, apply it? you can use it "weight" mode to have control on what edges you want to bevel.

[@mrdixioner]

Sometimes doing everything from scratch is much faster than redoing it. Personally, I would do the following: I would select the entire model, go into editing mode to work with edges, select all the edges, press X (or Del) on the keyboard and select Limited Dissolve from the menu that appears. This command removes all edges on flat surfaces, in other words, only the shape of the model remains. After that, I would make the topology from scratch.

[@jlmussi]

Nice! Thanks for the heads-up; I'll have to check that out.

[@wonderchannel4464]

Do you recommend me to learn blender or learn Maya please help me make a choice

[@rodolflum3444]

with a few free addon this will be faster and a bit of QOL.

[@alexanderkosachev6593]

No no no Mussi. One video was funny..

[@MrPaulowillians]

Great!!!