Become a Boolean PRO in Blender

Booleans are one of those tricky subjects that we have inside of poly-based modeling software. They are easy to use, but can be difficult to manage. This video will teach you all you need to know about using booleans effectively.
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[@wunderkindt]

You’re a life saver, I couldn’t figure out for the life of me how to export the booleans. Seems rather simple in hindsight thanks to your short and sweet directions.

[@sector13studios]

I've been struggling with Blender for longer than I care to admit, once I learned booleans, my work flow just exploded. a lot of it leard on this channel. Coming from machining, it just make more sense to me. And yes I find Blender way easier and better to use over Cad.

[@SpoonerStudios]

Thanks for this video, explains a lot of where I have come across Boolean issues in my models. Thank you.

[@KanzakiZD]

for my workflow i've always started with lowpoly mesh, for the cylinder i usually start by 20 segments. this will make the entire workflow faster because i could just subdivide the model after applying bevels and stuff to finalize the model i desire. the result is quite great considering the topology is already cleaned up in the beginning so i don't need to overthink the other parts.

[@ALPHADUNIT]

Interesting. Might have to give this a shot. I always start with higher poly but I do have to overcome issues down the road trying to clean things up.

[@KanzakiZD]

@@ALPHADUNIT vertex cleanup is easier when you do it lowpoly first so take a shot on it ;)

[@Nervegas]

I think this is how many of us who started modeling in the late 90s/early 00's tend to do things. We had to model in low poly or our pc would explode.

[@ittefaqagro7879]

love the way you teach.... clean and informative ❤️

[@_20TWO]

Enjoying the new video edits, nice work Josh!

[@dagoelius]

You are an outstanding teacher Josh. Your process is un-rushed and the explanations are simple and direct to follow.

[@TheGameCache]

Great new video Styles. Love the editing etc. Sleek, clean and crisp.

[@chlbrn]

Great work explaining this, one thing comes in my mind is that moi3d is a free software but it is not a industry standard software, taking solidworks as an example, in solidworks, everything is parametrical and stored as mathematical data and you can always change that later or delete or append something. It is fully non destructive and as accurate as possible. The only drawbacks are it is harder to learn and it is pretty expensive, but it is a good software and industry standard.

[@Emre-lg5wj]

I am not a Beginner but i work rly rearly with n-gons. This video was rly informative. Thank you!

[@RealisiticEdgeMod]

Excellent video. Thanks for the upload.

[@AndrewConway]

Best Tut out there for this subject... TY TY TY

[@Igoreshkin]

Good tips. Thank you for sharing.

[@msFiBi]

I am new to Blender. That video was very helpful. A great insight into main problems when boolean. Thank you! ❤️

[@JoshGambrell]

Happy to help

[@kenw8875]

nice video production Josh. clean, informative, and succinct. #keephammering #neverfinished

[@NikolayZharov]

Life saver! Thanks!

[@user-nb3db3gu5u]

Awesome video!

[@lizakosmeya8233]

Thank you, Josh! I love your channel very much. In just a few videos, I learned a huge amount of important and useful information. Now I look at the modeling process in a completely different way. Thanks for your work and inspiration.

[@UncleJessy]

Okay i need to get off my ass and learn modeling in 2023... well actually I need to sit my ass back down to do this ;) Awesome video man!

[@jamesheedrpg_god-boss3676]

in cad software like solid edge you have a synchronous workflow, so you can edit or delete changes or cutouts later if you dont like them or want to change look of them

[@ChrisD__]

I've never used Moi but pretty much every other CAD software is completely nondestructive and parametric

[@deep8673]

Thank you for this video :)

[@rhomis]

Thanks for the tutorial! Subscribed. Wow, a Blender Add-On that is actually worth paying for "Meshmachine". I hope it is compatible and updateable as newer versions of Blender are introduced.

[@YTRINX]

thanks for the info

[@Tony-cm8lg]

Every time I come to one of the Blender Bros channels, half of the comments are usually flaming them for not being “real 3d modelers” because of their chosen workflow, or their use of ngons or whatever else. I don’t really understand why people are so violent towards them for using ngons and non destructive hard surface modeling 😅 But I love that the bros absolutely flame them back

[@JoshGambrell]

I wouldn’t say half, but quite a few misinformed people. Especially the ones that watch one video and come to conclusions. We have DOZENS of videos displaying different workflows depending on the situation. But yea, they always give me a good laugh, as I proceed to forget they exist a minute later.

[@frieddawk7056]

That's a POG render on the title card - better make a tut on how to make these too!

[@CubOfJudahsLion]

Thanks for the lesson. Regarding CAD, there are FLOSS options (like FreeCAD), and while I've tried FreeCAD (and it's amazing), it's not a trivial workflow to learn, and in general it's still harder to get good results with free software than with commercial alternatives.

[@nams37]

Thank you

[@justpoppinthings]

You can also just enable to Boolean in your options and select the item you want effected and shift click the item to select you want to use as the modifier, then you simply click on 1 of the 6 options of how you want it to apply and BAM. Applying modifiers isn't efficient.

[@Volyaa1]

Thx a lot!

[@designomomento]

Thanks to Quad remesher takes the huge load for any topology issues and mostly takes care well.

[@pufuletu_0275]

wow, thank you!

[@brettlochrie3391]

Great tutorial I found you because of Ducky 3D's channel.

[@VisualdelightPro]

Booleans is a very tricky CAD software detail making operation.

[@inHDia]

Is there a way to snap while using the bool tool? I'm trying to round some edges to a different set of edges, but I can't snap to those edges to make it look clean.

[@noapoleon_]

2:31 how the hell did you do that loop select?? Been trying to reproduce that but was unsuccessful so far. Blender keeps loop selecting one side face of the cylinder

[@jannovotny2737]

Booleans operation in CAD (NURBS surf), are non-destructive => mathematics of surfaces is not changed (control points are same). What you need to do is just untrim the cutted(trimmed) parts of surface and you will get starting volumes. When you know how, its realy easy to make changes on these :)

[@Cansyrian]

Thank you so much! This cleared all questions i had ! Thank you! I just have one small question, how do you get that nice edge shade on objects when viewed in solid mode!

[@cecilenaught]

I had the same question!

[@cecilenaught]

Oh I figured it out. In Viewport Shading (Solid Mode) Make sure that Cavity is checked on and that the type is set to Both!

[@Cansyrian]

@@cecilenaught aaaaaa thank you so much!!!! Ive been waiting for more than a month! Thank you!

[@3v3rb0t]

Ive been looking at your channel because I love the way you teach. I do have a question tho. From a rendering optimization perspective is this the wrong workflow? I know you said something about quad topology but I don't know anything about that. Just starting but I intend on doing a lot of custom art for my VR game in Unreal. Wondering if that intro to hard surface will have any value for me. Thanks much.

[@ALPHADUNIT]

Unreal dev here. Back in the day keeping everything quads was a must so it could get triangulated for game use, but nowadays, it's not that big a deal and having ngons isn't all that terrible. Everything gets broken down to triangles in unreal.

[@3v3rb0t]

@@ALPHADUNIT Awesome. I just wondered because I see so many games being made that are just insanely "chuggy" when rendering complex scenes. Want to make sure I'm not going down the wrong rabbit hole. Thank you.

[@JoshGambrell]

Depends what your goals are. There isn’t a one size fits all answer. For games and concept art this workflow (with ngons) is fine. For games you’ll need proper triangulation tho. VFX and other realms you’ve gotta be more pedantic with the modeling approach.

[@fitpulsenetwork]

Tell me one thing how you got a quad sphere option in your add mesh menu

[@solbenitez3553]

Hi, great video! Ive been looking to answer these questions: Can i apply more than one boolean to the same object, or even touching booleans, again, in the same object?? If I have an array, can I have them be booleans? the whole array? Several arrays?? Im trying to put several booleans (they are all arrays) to an object, the arrays also touch each other. And i just CANT, it doesn work. The first one? Great, the boolean works, i apply it and i try to do the same thing with the next array and nothing happens. Sometimes the main object DISAPPEARS. I dont know what to do anymoreee. Any help is appreciated!

[@timothyj67]

so..fixing bad booleans when using HOPS would be the same method when you have bead booleans?

[@TenuousGamingYT]

Hey, I know this video may not be relevant to my question. But sometimes when I’m zoomed on my object I’m working on, I can’t zoom back out or rotate the camera. It’s frustrating

[@matslarsson5988]

Excellent video! With textures applied and all. How many people would even notice shading issues? I've spent far too much time fixing things that noone would have noticed. Time wasted. Good enough like your say really is what people should go for. I'd rather have 10 decent models than 1 perfect.

[@JoshGambrell]

Most of the time you won’t. I actually noticed this whilst walking around observing Star Citizen models. I found a LOT with shading errors but that’s because I literally zoomed in looking for them out of curiosity. It’s not something I’d stress over in most situations, but some shading errors are so bad you def gotta fix them.

[@criticalwokeracisttheory4645]

For still objects with flat surfaces and camera away most people would never notice...I think what's bugging some people is how these courses are branded "Why you've been lied to about topology" for example. Who are they speaking to? Who was lied to? Were the modelers at Marvel lied to? ILM? A lot of the hard surface tutorials are taught by artists who are doing it for real in a pipeline and make extra cash as their side hustle.

[@harakiiro3695]

Why your Blender looks so beautiful? How can I do the same with mine?

[@Scrahdabley]

trying to learn blender really makes me appreciate maya

[@joegreen427]

What about for video games. Does shading matter based on what you ssid

[@martonlerant5672]

If we are talkkng proper engineering grade C(omputer)A(ided)D(esign), then not only is it non destructive its parameter driven, eg. you can specify diameter of a cilinder by telling the desired volume you want or other properties thag you desire as a result of geometry. There is a reason why things like moj3d (was that the name) are not seen as serious software in CAD.

[@marcfuchs6938]

Tells me nothing new, but I like to watch and like your videos anyway. To me, the Exact and Fast selections do indeed work differently sometimes. It's set to exact by standard, and sometimes, my Booleans look just crazy - then I switch to fast and it's shown correctly. Can't explain really what is happening, but it makes quite a difference to me. Say Josh, hard surface modeling is your thing. You never showed any animation, and since I believe you do that professionally, are you completely specialized on just delivering the hard surface models as they are, or do you also animate them or at least set them up for animated use? Because some of your models look like machines, that have many mechanical properties.

[@JoshGambrell]

I don’t do animation at all, just concept work and occasionally stuff for games. If I was doing animations/VFX I’d be taking a different modeling approach, or at the very least retopologizing.

[@marcfuchs6938]

@@JoshGambrell Nah, I was just thinking about the animations of your hard models. Like movement of a mechanical arm, parts sliding or rotating, such a thing. But sure, in the industry, you need to be highly specialized. I personally use 3D animation as a high level tool for the entirety of picturing something, concerning objects, landscapes, characters and all the motion that comes with it.

[@B0obai]

I know CAD, Solid Edge, Solidworks and other CAD programs. Boolean modeling gives the most sense to me in Blender out of all the options. But personally it seems so over-complicated compared to CAD programs.

[@travisyee7278]

Is offset cut gone in the new version of Mesh Machine? Downloaded the most recent version and can't find it in the UI or the documentation. They only have an offset tool which functions differently it seems.

[@JoshGambrell]

You need to enable experimental in the preferences of the addon

[@travisyee7278]

@@JoshGambrell Thanks Josh!

[@bhavyaaa003]

having another issue with boolean.... whenever I try to render the image, the object that I used difference Boolean for becomes visible, doesn't matter if I applied the modifier or not....how to fix that❓

[@LORD_OF_THE_JUNGLE]

KZbin recommended me this video like god sent Angels to save from hardest moment.

[@RoseKindred]

Interesting, even after a few years I learned a few new tips. Does anyone know what the exact add-on is for Quad Remesher at rough 5:20 ? I found 4 different ones, well one is to a site I never heard of so not looking into that one. It looks like Exoside to me, but I am unsure. My workflow is not that great for organic items, mainly due to processing power, so I do a bunch of work in Blender and remesh it in Nomad, which takes a while to transfer because of exporting. I'd rather do it all in the same software if possible.

[@JoshGambrell]

Exoside is correct.

[@RoseKindred]

@@JoshGambrell Thank you for the reply.

[@alfredovega7908]

Did you have any tutorial for 3d modeling and prints? 🧐 like small objets and big

[@JoshGambrell]

I don’t do printing, so not here

[@ibrajimenez2098]

Hell yeah

[@cekconi1773]

👍👍👍

[@kamillatocha]

but i saw some new addon or something where the bevel is applied automaticly on boolean

[@jessicathompson7992]

For some reason, no matter how many loop cuts I add, the shading does not change when I go back to Object Mode.

[@noctKaloli]

This might be a late reply, but try to setting "Shade Auto Smooth" to the cutter object.

[@zanderalberto3576]

I always thought booleans sucked or were complicated until I found out face orientation was red or duplicate faces/vertices caused many of the issues

[@Carlosnl16]

I don't know if i should buy hard ops or fluent? Any recommendations?

[@JoshGambrell]

Hard Ops all da way!

[@DonaldDrennan]

My biggest problem is booleans not working as expected at all. Sometimes both objects disappear, or one will, sometimes it does a union instead of difference, sometimes certain parts will boolean, but not the whole thing. I NEVER works right, unless I'm using simple objects like this example.

[@mariarzyt_3D]

If the objects dissappear, it might help to move one of the meshes a little bit further away, then it will appear again (if you're using brush bools) But yes, you're right, they're not supposed to work like this, I can't see what I did wrong in such cases either

[@Sykophantic]

Can someone explain the difference between hard surface modeling and Sub D modeling?

[@stevefuncke9798]

Hard surface modeling is just a broad category that refers to modeling objects with hard surfaces (plastic, glass, metal, etc.). Hard surface modeling is often handled quite differently (different workflows) than organic modeling (human characters, soft parts of plants, etc.). Sub D modeling is a specific workflow that uses a specific modifier called “subdivision surface”. Josh has lots of videos on this topic you can watch, but a simple explanation is that SubD calculates the difference between edges and adds geometry in between. So if you have two edges at a 90 degree angle from each other, they will form a curve. A cube will turn into a sphere, and so on. SubD workflow relies heavily on quads, since additional levels of SubD divide quads into more quads. It can provide better topology compared to the Boolean workflow, and give you nice smooth shapes. However, it’s very difficult to make some complex hard surface shapes like the models Josh creates. I recommend learning both workflows, because one may be vastly better than the other depending on the task at hand. Hope that helps!

[@bohemian_life4706]

What about plasticity cad software? It is free

[@Gh0StCK]

There have been problems with booleans for a long time. Is there really no way to come up with a way that will solve this problem?

[@imsubhmsingh]

Josh sir, can you please make video on QMM (Quick metal material) Addon. Which is completely free, and available on gumroad. i am very upset, i already download it but i don't know how to use it.. so please it's humble request..❤🙏

[@spellwhisperrr]

apply is so hidden it got me cursing ,tnx for the tutorial man :) , the interface is toxic as it has been.

[@MurcuryEntertainment]

Average polygon fan: Average NURBS enjoyer:

[@w0lfie00]

And what about the ngons when you need to have good topology? You can't just simply.. hide them... Plus doing retopo or remesh will alter all your model's geometry. I don't know, I don't really understand this workflow, I'm looking forward to know why is this useful.

[@JoshGambrell]

I’ve covered this topic hundreds of times before. Just search my channel and you’ll find various explanations of how ngons are useful as well as when they’re detrimental.

[@georgeschannel295]

Subtitles for other country ?

[@Glitch-Gremlin]

If anyone wants Quad Remesher, just let me know and i can get it going for you, somehow. All i ask is you send me good vibes, prayers or whatever, going though a tough time atm, but id like to help fellow Blender users, if possible.

[@tysasha]

so, you can get me a quad remesher for free ? I’m a beginner in blender and need help lol))

[@digitalmc]

Quad remesher is $15 for 3 mnths so $5 a month. And 100% worth it if you are on Blender everyday.

[@sniper_monke2151]

Or you can pirate it

[@simongravel7407]

It's certainly not as tricky as subdivision surface modeling however!

[@Mako-wh4ek]

ураааа

[@paulyeomans1065]

Long time fan/subscriber of your channel (and user of hardops and boxcutter) but please can you lose the background track, it's giving me a headache!

[@JoshGambrell]

I’ll have my editor make it quieter!

[@luke_fabis]

I would like to point out that as far as CAD goes, parametric solid modeling programs are more or less nondestructive. You can go back through your model history and change values as you go. So if you need to iterate, or if you got something wrong, you just tweak a value and you can keep going. I really would not call MoI a CAD program. It's not even a good surface modeler like Rhino or Alias. It's just an extremely watered-down NURBS modeler, and while solid modelers and surface modelers are based on NURBS, MoI just does not have a rich enough feature set. It's more of a toy. Can you make complicated models with it? Sure, but you'll be wasting a lot of time in the process.

[@eduardocorreia4610]

Most CAD softwares are non destructive

[@karthikbabu5445]

Bro please add subtitle

[@handler_music]

just use CAD

[@OfficialKpopRelease]

0:01 Why are you so cute?! 🥺

[@Qornv]

Why do you call all polygons, even quads, "n-gons"?

[@ghazi1832]

:)

[@kandydavins]

But cant you cheat with decal machine you showed us in your last video? Wink Wink

[@Dina_tankar_mina_ord]

Some of the new editing choices is too distracting and flashy, which takes away from the focus on the information being presented. This is just my perception, and others may feel differently.

[@JoshGambrell]

Can’t please everyone, but I’ll see if I can tweak the edits into something everyone enjoys. Thanks for your feedback.

[@DalXe.]

​@@JoshGambrell fire video 🔥

[@user-tl8vb2gl5p]

Жаль что нет субтитров даже английских

[@lennart-oimel9933]

There's a f*****g bevel-shader?

[@goldstick3D]

pretty sure that you got cad software completely wrong, and the whole point of them is that it's all nondestructive.

[@Shon_n2]

ніхуя не поняв

[@qwerty85620]

It's a bad habit to use mods. Never use them even for a job. if do that JUST UES CAD3D

[@T.B.E.N]

frist ps hard surface is not a rral thing it dosen mean anytying

[@talldude8155]

bro what

[@Isoshi-47]

@@talldude8155 lol ma man turned into shakespear

[@talldude8155]

@@Isoshi-47 fr 😂

[@JoshGambrell]

Dude used ChatGPT from 1806 to write this 😭

[@monochrome_soft9472]

hard surface means the object is… a hard surface. as opposed to a more organic object. how does it not “mean anything” when it’s a commonly used and understood term in 3d modeling?

[@fluxstandard8364]

NOT REAL MODEING AT ALL AVOID - WATCH JOHN DICKINSON 3D IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE CORRECT WAY TO MODEL AVOID AVOID

[@JoshGambrell]

THANKS FOR THE FEEDBACK. I COULDNT QUITE HEAR YOU THOUGH

[@fluxstandard8364]

​@@JoshGambrell I DONT CARE. I SAID WHAT I WANTED

[@jamesjudd1326]

@@fluxstandard8364 YOU NEED HEARING AIDS!

[@fluxstandard8364]

@@jamesjudd1326 I DONT THINK YOU FUCKING HEARD ME JAMES.

[@jamesjudd1326]

@@fluxstandard8364 I DON'T THINK THE MENTAL HOSPITAL HEARD YOU ENOUGH.

[@dynamic5109]

6:41 *MoI 3D* the software that you show whilst saying "CAD software can cost thousands of dollars a year" *only costs $295 USD,* which is quite misleading of you to state whilst showing a screenshot of MoI. Michael Gibson, the creator of MoI is a great guy too, extremely friendly and helpful to the MoI community. Not cool that you are damaging his product with exaggerated misinformation.

[@teemusiponen5616]

This. Also Fusion 360 is completely free with tiny restrictions that won't even get in your way. Misleading af

[@RealisiticEdgeMod]

Moi isnt very capable. A capable NURBS modeling tool like Rhino costs $1000.

[@dynamic5109]

@@RealisiticEdgeMod With respect, you don't seem too familiar with the creative industry. MoI is incredibly capable. Some of the best 3D artists in the world use MoI in their workflow. Vitaly Bulgarov, Edon Guraziu, Paul Chadeisson to name a few. I myself have used it for professional projects. It is a lite, uncluttered version of Rhino and the creator of MoI used to develop Rhino.

[@JoshGambrell]

I know it’s $295. Very affordable. My intention wasn’t to “damage his product”. I was referring to CAD software in general. Moi is probably the most affordable and easy to use. Anyways, appreciate the feedback, I will be more careful next time of such an oversight. For Reference for anyone curious: Moi - $295 Rhino - $995 Fusion 360 - $70/month or $545/annually AutoCad - $1865 Plenty of others but it simply depends on your goals/workflow.

[@dynamic5109]

@@JoshGambrell I appreciate that you were referring to CAD software in general, it's just unfortunate that you stated _"thousands of dollars a year"_ whilst displaying an image of MoI, which creates a false impression for your viewers that MoI costs that much, which it doesn't, not even nearly. I'm not even affiliated with MoI, nor the developer, I just think it would of been far better suited to have displayed a screenshot of AutoCad with your statement. Autodesk can afford that kind of criticism, MoI however doesn't deserve the exaggerated claim.

[@KojiKamori]

For someone as your self, a concept artist. Yeah this may be good advice for you. As someone of myself that has been in the industry of creating 3d animation and models for AAA studios since 2004, this is horrible advice. You will NOT get hired.

[@nevillecreativitymentor]

BAZINGA. AWESOME