COMPLETE Beginners Guide to Hard Surface Modeling (Blender Tutorial)

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In this video, I'd like to present a complete, easy, and fun way for beginners to get used to Blender and hard surface modeling techniques. Hard surface modeling is actually really easy once you learn the tools, and this tutorial will show you everything you need to know in Blender.
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[@loofa4775]

Default Cube thanks you for not deleting it right of the gate like so many of its fallen brethren.

[@lucutes2936]

sad

[@Zimbob2424]

we delete the default cube,or I do, so I can adjust the size in the lower window, just like any other object. I'm guessing that is why most do. Plus I want a clean slate. You can change you're start up page, but I personally want it there since I have several instances of Blender running.

[@cryofpaine]

Default Cube is the cousin of the Companion Cube.

[@panloon7776]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/iXXIh6yuqcmGi80si=GELOq3ePioLuk3wu

[@just_for_funarts9905]

Awesome tutorial. Very clear. Unfortunately the link to the PDF for design is no more working.

[@roberto660]

9:31 If you can't seem to understand why ALT+S doesn't work for you, like it didn't for me for 20 minutes is because you first have to select the object and go to wireframe mode. After that, go into face mode, click one of the faces and press A, that will pick all of the faces. You should be able to scale it evenly using the ALT+S hotkey

[@zan6045]

i love you

[@luciusbestakafrozone]

thanks boss

[@יהונתןביטון-י4צ]

im having trouble for some reason at 21:00 the union doesnt affect the bevel between the the two objects can anyone help?

[@zot2211]

Thank you bro!

[@Vordix1-YT]

thanks

[@mogawa451]

This was extremely helpful to me. Main points that I got from this 1. ctrl+shift+b 2. bevels 3. harden normals 4. clamp overlaps 5. separating parts

[@SixySix704]

what does that mean

[@cyonu5675]

Ctrl shift b isnt for bevel it's for vertex bevel and is almost always useless unless you are doing an outline and mirroring it rather than creating the shape as a whole or adding details to anything other than a plane or spline

[@nolanbrewermusic]

dont forget fast instead of exact for bool tool

[@shinigami398]

@@cyonu5675 ctrl shift b is boolean lol

[@cyonu5675]

@@shinigami398 o lol thought he was talking about vertices I didn't watch the video tbh also I'm just wrong with what I said think it's just ctrl b idk what I was trippin on

[@TheBrandenBoy]

For the folks using Blender 4.1 auto smooth is no longer in " Data " under normal. It is now found in Modifiers > Normals.

[@jackiecunningham6538]

thank you! this helped out a ton

[@joelmulder]

This has got to be the most relaxed blender tutorial ever. Fantastic!

[@frakmar30]

I didn't had the bool tool plug-in and was confused about it. If you go in "get extension" right above the "plug-in" tab in "preferences" you can find it and download it ! Great video :)

[@FrappeChan]

thanks

[@garymcderp1146]

A cool trick to get rid of problems especially when beveling is to go into Edit mode, select the entire mesh by pressing A, then M, and select ‘Merge by distance.” At the bottom of the screen you should see Blender saying it removed a number of vertices. Those are the problematic vertices you don’t see especially when the clamping is on but they are there. This gets rid of them.

[@creatiw]

Will try this. Cheers

[@masterfarmer4124]

I love you so much, I was wondering why the bevel was giving me weird artifacts and shading issues.

[@TheFordrt]

Fantastic explanations Josh. Your speed, focus and direction was perfect.

[@thebenwoir4546]

What I enjoy about this tutorial compared to ones done by others is that you have that one thing enabled to let us see what keys your hitting and such which I find helps and that you explain things more simply. Thankyou for this tutorial

[@otherworlds9677]

For anyone having weird geometry issues that persist even after Josh's fixes, the edges of your cutting object might be too close or even overlapping the edges or bevels on your primary object. Try either moving the cutter or scaling it down along the x, y, or z axis to spread them apart. That's what fixed my issues.

[@Ayogenius67]

Do u have any e book for this channel coz I can’t find it

[@herrremo]

This message should be pinned. Thanks my friend! I was exploring ALL parameters to see what I was doing wrong . thanks again!

[@bourtaha2813]

You are the best of hard surface modeling

[@TacoBear_Studios]

Hello Josh, I have been working on and off in blender for 2yrs, I am new to your channel, I just love how thorough but to the point your teaching and explanation have been, for example your explanation of the Normal - auto smooth function was excellent! No filler or drawn out detail or theory, just straight to the point on what it is and what it does, Subscribed.

[@vashSJ]

as someone who is just starting in Blender, and i know i have to focus on modeling first. PERFECT VIDEO AND CHANNEL

[@cibulskia]

This is insane. An unusual approach, perfect for experienced people in solid modeling. It just opened my eyes. Thank you.

[@elizabethhamilton1166]

Josh, thank you! I've been using Blender for a few years but this tutorial added a real "polish" to my understanding. You are an excellent content maker and teacher. Thank you for emphasizing visual design as well. I'm going to grab your pdf!

[@JoshGambrell]

Thanks a lot Elizabeth! I hope it helps.

[@koraysaglik5693]

I have been learning blender for a couple years now but never have i been that good at hard surface, this tutorial has helped a lot and boosted my creativity for better ideas, thank you for this

[@JoshGambrell]

That's awesome, Koray, keep on pushing!

[@youdjparents]

a rare tutorial with perfect pacing 🙏

[@hamidabasifar4306]

Thank you million times. I swear that no one else could explain better than you.

[@wiseacrescartoon]

oh yeah! So many tutorials use different ways of doing similar things but after trying on my own, I got some crazy effects happening. Your methods really smoothed those out. Thank you!

[@MusiciansReflib]

I was away from blender for about 8 years. What drove me away was funky shading issues and artifacts. So glad you addressed those issues in detail. Looking forward to seeing more of your stuff.

[@Dina_tankar_mina_ord]

I started using blender about a year ago. had been struggling with lightwave back in the day some 20 years ago. Never really advanced or learned much. After the famous dounut tutorial I got in to it real fast and with you and Ryuurui´s excellent free and cost effective courses I am actually starting to get proud of some of my outputs for the first time. Still alot to learn. But with you and other excellent people in the community struggle is usually solved with a youtube search thanks to you guys.

[@JoshGambrell]

Thanks a lot, Dan!

[@dennis_mihaylov]

thank you so much! I was about to give up on Blender but then I found this video and I made something nice in Blender by the first time! thank you so much! I cannot thank you enough!

[@TheHexCube]

Excellent tutorial and teacher - so calm and soothing. Many thanks!

[@luishowin]

Hands down the best beginner blender tutorial, thanks

[@sidekick3rida]

Having never used Blender, this was the perfect intro. Thanks alot!

[@AliB0n]

first time using the Boolean tool an i just geeked out for 5 minutes straight LOL more satisfying than the last bite of a burger

[@TheOz91]

Beginner tutorials are a great way for us who use the software for a while as a refresher course. And in my case, the concepts of hard surface modeling hasn't really clicked in completely yet, so might as well do a tut or two!

[@nickbell1198]

How have I not none how amazing your videos are until now!! Thank you again

[@MrBelenus]

thanks for this great tutorial, I have always been scared off the complex look of hard surface objects and avoided them for so long. Now having seen your video , helped me a lot understanding the work flow of it, thanks

[@sinaosmani730]

I've seen ur works for about a year now and i would say u tought me a lot man so thank you...u r amazing

[@JoshGambrell]

Really happy to hear that man!

[@Nicollaos]

Большое спасибо! Потрясающий урок и особая благодарность за то, что на каждом шаге вы досконально объясняете зачем делает то или то. Спасибо! Thank you so much! Awesome tutorial and special thanks for thoroughly explaining at each step why one does this or that. Thank you!

[@rblxSivert]

If you struggle to cut the object, for those using Blender 3.3.x.x, you have to enable the Bool Tool in order for Ctrl + Shift + B to work :)

[@ArgonMatt]

omg thx

[@RelativelyBest]

I don't know what this means but I have a feeling I'm going to need to remember it.

[@Dilofi1712]

I just started learning blender a couple of weeks ago and I want to drop by and say thank you for making this tutorial. It really helped me remember the tools in blender and gave me confidence that I can be good at blender. I am really lucky to have found your channel. Keep up the good work!!

[@virgo2004]

Reason thats why im not improving because im always skipping tutorials video and now im stuck i can't do my expectations but now i have a hope this tutorial is not only about hard surface modelling its also about improvement ty!🔥

[@amirnaseri8793]

IM IN LOVE... this is exactly what i called perfect tutorial... thank you so much. ❤❤🙏🙏👍👍

[@afroham]

This helped a lot, I feel like I levelled up. Thank you Josh!

[@ChristopherAppel-c6h]

First, thanks for the demonstration of your workflow. I wanted to echo the question several have already asked about clean geo using a fast Boolean workflow. Coming from 25 years in 3DS Max modeling for games and VFX, I have steered clear of Booleans, because they create messy geometry and actually can break some of your hard surface quad modeling techniques. In Max, and some other 3d software, Booleans are a shortcut that makes long delays. Blender keeps the Boolean workflow in a nice modifier stack, allowing for a lot of adjustment, but also hiding a lot of what's going on under the hood from view. Following along, I am finding that there's unfortunate geometry hidden away. I experienced the same issue with my mesh that you encountered around the 25 minute mark, but no amount of tweaking the solvers, moving the cutter, etc., fixed the issue. Also, the concave bevels inside the cutouts have some artifacts when I zoom in close. No adjustments seem to fix that either. Any suggestions on what to do when when your mesh starts showing problems? Using version 4.2, BTW.

[@thehumanface922]

Very good channel, Your tutorials are great for learning Blender, and especially more advanced than making chairs and tables hello from France

[@a_dezmond9576]

Wow! This video is super helpful! Today I filled so many of my "gaps" about HSM) Thank you!

[@КирьУха-ю3н]

Thank you very much. I add 2 your playlists with tutorials and make daily steps to become good in blender

[@ReaperTheRager]

Thanks for the great video. I am transitioning from Maya and the bool workflow here is going to make my life so much easier.

[@jaribesonen2349]

amazing tutorial! ive tried watching many other tutorials about hard surface modeling, and this taught so much. Thank you so much and God bless

[@ohsurepal]

Thanks so much man! I'm on a very determined journey to model the entire endoskeleton from the first and second Terminator films. I need all the help I can get! 🤘🏻

[@yooyj9516]

Really good and comprehensive tutorial for modeling.

[@PITBOYMMA]

Dude u r so good explaining it...I wish we had more great tutorials like these...great job, so simple n good that makes me love doing it...thank u Bro!

[@caseytube116]

Hey Josh, this is perfect, i was working on some beginner tuts before jumping into your paid courses, so thanks for uploading this!!

[@JoshGambrell]

Enjoy! Just make sure you grab the Hard Ops/Boxcutter bundle - we use it in most of the courses since everything is much quicker.

[@richardrrays6009]

You have such a nice calm voice that much a pleasure to listen, it helped me focus on the tutorial :) Thank you for the video, it was very interesting and everything is clear. The speed of the explanation is excellent!

[@YOUmommaHAX]

You said to move the boolean above the bevel modifier so many times that I don't think I'll ever forget it lmao 🤣 great video! I love how you explain how to fix the errors that we all go through when we do these tutorials such as the glitches that might pop up or the inconsistencies the artifacts love that. A lot of other guides don't do this crucial step they just go on as if everything is always gonna be perfect and come out exactly how they show it which isn't true.

[@JoshGambrell]

Yup, it was always frustrating trying to fix shit when it didn't work. I never knew where to look.

[@noxvardeen6978]

Already worked a couple of hours with blender, but the auto-smooth already caught me. I was always confused what's happening that it looks so strange. That explains it! Great videos, they help *a lot!*

[@RyenDeckard]

Excellent tutorial, thank you! You spoke extremely clearly and went just fast enough that it wasn't overwhelming but also wasn't boring.

[@dagoelius]

Fantastic tutorial. You are a great teacher, the whole video I never felt rushed or lost.

[@Mustang-bl2vz]

One of the most detailed and very useful videos, thank you so much.

[@tigersunruss]

Great tutorial. It's quicker to hit the 1, 2 or 3 on the keyboard (not the numberpad) to change from verticies, faces or edges.

[@danielgaviriarodriguez2107]

I am five months late to the party. But I wanna say that your tutorials help me a lot. Since that short course for beginners in udemy to the whole of your channel and Ponte's, I can't thank you guys enough; I just hope that one day I can be as good as you guys.

[@nokillnina]

I need to thank you Josh.... your explanation is so detailed and well structured. I really want to try some hard surface modelling now :)

[@JoshGambrell]

You got it! Keep on studying.

[@jaedilopez3315]

just finished the video and learned a lot just by this video thank you for showing us 10/10

[@norchaaa]

big chungus of information to process. im kinda used to autodesk, but then i left for couple of years.... and my mind does double processing during these tutorials. but one is certain Machine tools could make things easy and logical to apply during blender sessions. some shortcuts never change since 3d modeling industry. thnks i really appreciate your tutorials. cheers!

[@RelativelyBest]

I started trying to use Blender yesterday and I'm definitely going to be referencing this video a lot. The one thing I'm most concerned with right now is how to get exact measurements right: I notice you keep going: "I'll make it about this size" or "I'll put it somewhere around here" but I'm highly averse to eyeballing stuff like this and basically need millimeter precision at all times. Like, when you scale down the inner duplicate of your object, what if you need to it to be an exact percentage smaller than the outer one? Or if you're beveling an edge and want the bevel to be a very specific size? Is there an easy way to do that?

[@georgeluna6217]

First days in Blender and I love your tuts. The link for PDF guide is broken. Can you relink to please?

[@dolphinwasorange2585]

This was insanely helpful, thank you.

[@garymcderp1146]

You can also apply a bevel modifier to your cutting object. This way it will cut out nice beveled edges. Useful if you don’t want to apply the bevel modifier to the entire mesh.

[@grahamcohen3850]

Great tutorial Josh. I like many others here are looking for the PDF document you list. The link is broken and it's no longer available on the website.

[@kazlee3418]

Great Tutorial as ever Josh .Many thanks to guys like you that keep that fire in the belly going helping us get better at learning Blender.

[@JoshGambrell]

Always my pleasure

[@rodrigo-do-carmo]

Your explanation is so good! Thank you for the awesome content

[@adamcramer8222]

Hi Josh. Will you do a tutorial on making or copying an existing mech someday? I've seen some work from others but it's all speed up time lapse. Some of the work I've watch it start out with a picture of a mecha then work from there.

[@JoshGambrell]

We might. We did have a Mech course, but it's over a year old and outdated so we decided to remove it from our platforms. We'll probably think of something similar in the future :)

[@MamtaSingh-em1gd]

@@JoshGambrell hi josh.... could you help us know a correct workflow while modeling

[@cgcores525]

Josh thank you so much for these free tutorials. I bought a tutorial of yours a while back and this video nicely complements it! Thank you for all your time and effort.

[@JoshGambrell]

Thanks a bunch! I'm glad it helps.

[@joncolvin5547]

Really great tutorial Josh and as a graphic designer I highly appreciated your insight on visual design..looking forward to getting back into 3D and so far this tutorial has been very well presented and informative, thank you much!!

[@kasunmaduka5668]

Thanks Gambrel, It's interesting tutorial, I will follow your tutorials. I think it help me a lot.

[@JoshGambrell]

Cheers Kasun! Enjoy

[@Revenant483]

Great Starting Tutorial! The 5 Powerful Design Elements link goes to a Page Not Found.

[@dookie7299]

This saved me. I was working non stop on blender a year ago up until school started. Then I started back up again and was going to give up cause I just forgot EVERY FUCKING THING!!!! But Thank you for this

[@FunDumb]

This is the kinda pace I can handle without blowing my mind.

[@Haya_Duke]

Great teacher Josh

[@KennyPhases]

Love your content man!

[@Jammin_J]

thank you so much josh! I needed this!

[@zaccessory]

25:50 In this section you may or may not still get some geometry issues after changing Bool Tool Solver from Exact to Fast, the way I fix this was by making the Bevel Angle Higher from 30 up to around 36 but might be different for you.

[@NateGames636]

I have this issue but I cant seem to fix it. It only fixes it after 90 degrees, but still no bevel

[@NightOwlTime]

Thanks for this. For some reason just setting it to 30.1 did wonders.

[@avalancheofawsome]

Awesome tutorial! Is there an updated link to the PDF? The one in the description isn't working

[@ty_teynium]

Have you tried Modular spaceship modeling? Would love a breakdown of the best approaches to take.

[@myxrprecious8807]

Really useful PDF document.Thanks a lot.

[@Svi3sa]

Amazing tutorial, thanks so much!

[@user-gy4xp2tu6f]

nice video tutorial may i ask, in 9:45, does it still work in blender 3.62? i tried Alt+S key and nothing happened?

[@lucaskremerart]

Excellent tutorial, really useful and clear. Thank you!

[@NorseGraphic]

16:08 Strange. In version 3.1 you only need to toggle 'Y' on the 'Axis'-tab for it to flip to both sides. If you toggle 'Z' on the 'Axis', then the flip happens on the Z-axis, meaning it ould be on the same side, but mirrored below. Turning both 'X' and 'Z' on causes to blender to insert 4 boolean insert-cuts.

[@winestein]

Great tutorial Josh!

[@JoshGambrell]

Thanks man!

[@panopboonsnongcheep4392]

I just start using Blender and your lessons has been great, thank you so much. Just wonder any chance I still get "5 Powerful Design Elements" PDF. It not on the website any more.

[@HollywoodReap3r]

This was an amazing tutorial

[@Menkeymon]

amazing tutorial!

[@matthewbrookes1680]

Thank you Josh a really helpful tutorial

[@FuzzyTues]

Very informative. Thanks for this.

[@JorgeFlores-qt1bj]

Great tutorial!! What object would you recommend to hard surface model to learn??? Thanks in advance!!

[@rodmileski]

Great Vape design :).

[@tjtjmich16p]

Relatively new to blender but not 3d, I know it my sound weird but i used to use 3d paint and 3d builder to make vehicles and ships when i was younger, And thanks to your tutorial i made a spaceship with using booleans and i kept on spamming ctrl shift b

[@angrypolygon554]

This is a very good tutorial on using the tools within Blender. Blender is an impressive tool considering it's humble origins. As I said, this is a great tutorial for learning Blender. I must also mention that, as a supervising modeler with extensive experience (over 25 years) in the feature film, television, real-time entertainment industries, that the resulting topology at the conclusion of the tutorial would not be accepted in any of the pipelines I have worked in (and there are many). The design is nice, and the tool usage is great; however, there is still a lot of additional work to be done if it were to be pushed through a production pipeline. Thank you for the great tutorial on the tools within Blender - Cheers Angry Polygon

[@JoshGambrell]

Thanks - it would certainly depend on your industry. I don’t work in those listed but have had clients in the games industry and ngons are totally fine if managed properly. VFX or deformations are a big no-no.

[@kritzstudio]

Very grateful for your tutorials! Greetings

[@JoshGambrell]

No problem, my friend!

[@COOLACADEMYFORPHYSICSANDMATH]

wowwww its really amazing. you explained really well and needed, the reason of scaling. I think it is also necessary for shading and rigid body simulation, with same reason.

[@JoshGambrell]

Thanks bro!

[@obordes]

Great video tutorial. Thanks !

[@Doffu]

Very good tutorial. I only had one issue towards the end that I need help with. When you used the slice, you were mentioning how to apply the boolean modifiers to the object and make two separate objects that could be colored separately. I followed your steps but for some reason only certain faces of my two objects would get colored, others would remain grey. Do you know why this might be?

[@RAYS1911]

this open new world for me thanks :)

[@3dartist31]

awesome bundles of thanks

[@ferdousahmedad5167]

i love your work. thank you so much

[@mathieu499]

loved the tutorial but 1 thing i'm wondering now , and it may be tackled in the other tutorial along the playlist is, what about the geometry when u use boolean we could see that one edge going up a part leading to 6 edge and a huge ngon was then made, is it okay for anything we would like to texture or rig in the future process ? thanks again !