Modelling a lightsaber with the free ND addon for Blender

What an amazing addon! I really can't believe this is being put out for free!
Blender 4.2 first look: • What's hot in Blender ...

[@HugeMenace]

Thanks for showing off ND! It's always interesting to see what people create with it and how they use it. I've noted the feedback you gave in the video and will look at addressing what I can. We're always looking for ideas to make ND more intuitive and streamlined. Also, that shading issue at 21:34 shouldn't be happening, so I'll look to fix that in the next release. :) -Tristan.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Thanks so much Tristan. Honestly this is SO good and to hear from you about the feedback is amazing. I was going to wait to contact you incase anyone commented on the video with other ideas or pointing out why any functions need to be the way they are. That you'd comment shows just how responsive you are and that speaks volumes about you at Huge Menace. Thankyou so much for this addon!

[@emmamarx9284]

Just picked up and supported your software! Can’t wait to try it out! ☺️

[@HugeMenace]

@@emmamarx9284 Thank you! Your support is greatly appreciated! - Tristan.

[@HugeMenace]

@@ArtisansofVaul Thank you! We're super happy you found ND and that you're enjoying it! :) - Tristan.

[@minicartel]

Hi there, Just FYI, I asked a couple of weeks ago and Tristan and Ian (of Huge Menace) very quickly (i.e next day) added an option to turn off the autosmoothing to help with showing the actual mesh you'll get when you convert to an STL for 3D printing. They're a really responsive and helpful pair on their Discord.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

That's awesome to know 👌🏼 Always great to hear when add on creators are so responsive. 😁👍🏻

[@HugeMenace]

Hey, so I'm clarifying a couple of points (hopefully, it will help anyone watching this video as well). I only noticed this after watching the start of the video again, where you briefly had the ND preferences open at 1:20. - ND's boolean operations may feel slower than Hops because you have 'Use fast booleans' disabled, forcing ND to use Blender's exact boolean algorithm. This algorithm, while slower, is more precise. Both ND and Hops use Blender's built-in boolean modifier. This means that the performance of ND and Hops is not inherently different but rather depends on the settings you choose to use. My recommendation is to use fast booleans by default and only switch them to exact when you're having trouble with a particular operation (you can use the swap solver op to do this quickly). - The shading issue at 21:34 is not a bug but a consequence of having 'Enable auto smoothing' turned off. This is because a recon poly is constructed procedurally using only a single vertex and a stack of modifiers, making flat shading impractical. If you wish to create a non-destructive cylinder (without the inner radius), you can use a flat plane and the 'Circularize' operator. This will enable you to both flat and smooth shade it :) Thanks again for this superb little introduction to modelling with ND! - Tristan.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Thanks for the summary of these points. Really appreciated! So is there no way to set flat shading as your automatic preference? I've noticed this can be a pain with a number of other Blender tasks as well, not just ND though.

[@HugeMenace]

@@ArtisansofVaul Oh, you definitely can, just leave the "enable auto smoothing" feature in ND turned off, as you have it. It just means that a small subset of procedurally generated objects (e.g., recon poly) will have that odd looking shading when you solidify it. Unfortunately there's no way around that, unless you apply most of its modifiers then shade it flat afterwards. - Tristan

[@jeffellis1149]

I've used this since you previously mentioned it. It makes modifiers easier to use and more intuitive for me. The workflow is kind of how I think they should work natively. Brilliant, thanks!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Totally agree, such an easier way to use modifiers and set them up.

[@mind_of_a_darkhorse]

It's a great add-on and has been around for a few years! Between your overview video showing its potential and ND's tutorial series that goes in-depth, it makes it easy to try!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Their tutorials are great. This was actually my first try with it after those videos and they really are very clear to be able to then use it this easily.

[@jeffdavies2824]

I picked this up today so I could follow along in your tutorial. I left a token payment so far (I didn't realize it was in Aussie Dollars). This could have a big impact on my workflow, but will require me to re-wire my tiny brain to start thinking in more of an ND fashion. Thanks for this great video introducing the addon and showing off it's immediate value.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

👍🏻 It can be just something you think of for an addon. I used it here possibly a bit more than I naturally would. But it really is a nice workflow system

[@racastar]

Hell yeah! ND Addon is *sick AF* Massively sped up my workflow with the short cuts and the overlay popups for stuff like bevels.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Totally agree. Thanks for watching 👍🏻😁

[@taerog]

Really good overview of features! Thank you.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

No problem. There's a lot more it can do but this seemed like a good demo of range of tools.

[@Suffering_Succotash_]

15:07 - 15:22 I would be quite interested in a video of the pros and cons of HardOps to ND. I've been pretty happy with ND but I don't own HardOps and was wondering the major (or minor) differences between the two. Also more videos about ND gets my vote as well. 👍

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Cool. I'll keep playing with it and making some more videos. When I've used it more I can look at doing a comparison 😁👍🏻

[@richardconway6425]

Yes, I think this a question a lot of people will be asking, especially people, like me, who already have Hard ops and Boxcutter. At this stage, I'm reluctant to add more add ons to my blender set up if they effectively duplicate existing functionality of other addons I already have. I just don't want any more complication !!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@richardconway6425 I think if you have Hard Ops all of the functionality I would use from ND is covered with one exception I can think of, the radial array for ND can be made to be only part way around "circle". I don't think you can do that in HardOps.

[@richardconway6425]

@@ArtisansofVaul ok, thanks for that, that's very helpful. Now that you've mentioned that one particular feature of radial array in ND, I think people are going to explore how to do that exact thing in hardops, because .... they can !!

[@trevorgreene5059]

Press 'P' on you keyboard to pin the options when running ND. That makes it easier to manipulate the options.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Oh nice tip! Thanks!

[@trevorgreene5059]

@@ArtisansofVaul You are welcome and if you want to move the options elsewhere on your Blender screen, press 'P' again to unpin, and 'P' again to re-pin the options elsewhere. Very useful when scrolling with the mouse to increase values. I have gotten used to the shift, control, and alt once the option menu are pinned in place.

[@pbkobold]

Pretty decent at Fusion 360, but I've bounced off Blender in past. Your channel is great. Though having your key strokes on screen helps a lot, I despair that I'm never going to learn Blender because I will never remember all these hot keys, especially if I only use it a few times a month.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Honestly I felt the same when I started. But I was surprised how quickly they become natural and without thinking. I actually have to edit out me saying the wrong key presses all the time as my fingers do it without thinking but I have to look to see the keys 😅

[@richardconway6425]

pbkoblod yes, I know what you mean, as a beginner in blender this is an issue ... but, I realised as soon as I started using blender that I had to start writing these keyboard shortcuts/hotkeys down, and then structure that information visually into 'most used', commonly used, and least used. And then, of course, always have this information to hand, right by the keyboard. It's the only way, I'm certain of that. I did a similar thing with nodes for the shader editor and compositor. I had difficulty remembering node set ups and connections, so I made little sketches of boxes joined together, with the correct names for nodes and sockets. It makes so much difference. You can also take screenshots of your node setups, and save them all as jpegs in a folder on your hard drive, and use them later for reference, for how to do a particular thing. I would never remember otherwise, and it's a very easy way to reference the information. Remember that, in general, writing things down is a really good way of reinforcing your learning. Broadly speaking, it's all about managing information, because learning blender requires us to absorb a great deal of information, much of it not very intuitive. Also, writing down lists or very simple flow charts of all the steps and actions required to perform a particular task, with the associated keyboard short cuts is very helpful. Make sure your notes are always readily available - because they're not much use otherwise! The whole thing, I think, becomes a sort of 'repetitive mantra', the more you do it, the easier it gets. As AofV says, it's actually surprising how (relatively) quickly we can pick these things up. Although I will say that, the thing that really helped me, was getting stuck in to my first proper modelling project. It was my first 'scene', a scifi corridor type of scene, which involved so many different types of skills. There was so much work involved, and the whole thing became quite an intense challenge, which involved many hours of work at a time. But it was during this project - that's when I really began to get going with blender. Something clicked, and I just kept on until I finished it. Luckily, perhaps, I had chosen to do something which was just within my capabilities, but I was learning a lot of things for the first time as I was doing it, like lighting, using modifiers, trim sheets, as a few examples. These many hours of intense work really helped cement my memory of the basic keyboard shortcuts for modelling. I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised when I started doing the final renders in cycles, it actually looked so much better than I had hoped it would. Just a few different camera positions to find the best one, then a hq render. I would like to revisit this scene, and animate it, with a camera fly through. Going back to the issue of remembering shortcuts, there are two solutions to this which can help, and that is the search box, which gives you the keyboard shortcuts to anything you type that it recognises, or the drop down menus at the top left of your modelling window in object and edit mode - select, 'mark as', edge options, face options (roughly speaking, I can't remember their names exactly). I think the shortcuts are always written next to the operation, if there is a shortcut. This is really helpful, and is kind of the 'manual' way of doing things, but at least you shouldn't get stuck. My final thought is that if you can do Fusion 360, then you can do blender. There were times when I wondered if I was ever going to learn to do blender well, whether I was capable, but I don't worry about that anymore, because I think I can. It just takes a lot of patience. Take your time, and enjoy the process !!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@@richardconway6425 Great summary!!!

[@richardconway6425]

@@ArtisansofVaul thank you !!

[@KimHarderFog]

Brilliant addon - gonna have a try with it!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

It's REALLY impressive.

[@marsmotion]

love this. thanks for making it more visible

[@ArtisansofVaul]

My pleasure 😁👍🏻

[@emmamarx9284]

Are you planning on doing a video in the future for the new big update that just dropped? My eyes just kinda glazed over reading the change log.. It all sounds like fifth dimensional quantum astrophysics to me until you break things down in a video lolol 😅 no rush obviously just inquiring 😊

[@ArtisansofVaul]

I'll have to check it out. I hadn't seen there was an update to be honest. I will have a look for sure!

[@richardconway6425]

Hey Mr Artisan (of Vaul), could you tell us about your matcap for your solid view ? Apologies if this is something you've discussed before, but is it a standard blender matcap, or a special custom matcap that you've installed in your blender setup? I don't remember seeing it in the matcap options, and it has a very pleasing sort of matte quality, which makes it very easy to interpret. But it also looks like you've got some sort of ambient occlusion enabled, and perhaps the 'cavity' option too. I am imagining that you like this matte finish, because it helps you visualise what it would look like being 3d printed in plastic (?)

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Exactly right, It shows off facets in objects more clearly which will often be visible when 3D printing. I've got a video on the settings here 😁 kzbin.info/www/bejne/paPUpWt8rJykbtE

[@richardconway6425]

@@ArtisansofVaul Excellent, thank you for that. That answers all my questions about your matcap. Very effective. You mentioned some addons to enable, which are native to blender, but I was a little surprised you didn't mention: Node Wrangler !! Loop Tools Import Image as a Plane But otherwise, all really good choices. I was not aware of '3d-' , that looks very useful. I've never seen anyone else mention this, so I definitely learnt something new here. Your whole approach to blender is very thorough, perhaps it's because your primary interest is 3d printing, and you have to get things right, but it's still very commendable, and a good example for us all, including other blender instructors on KZbin. Thank you again. 🚀🚀🚀

[@yakusa_3dart]

thank for the review, i try with interestin addon

[@ArtisansofVaul]

It's really good. I've been super impressed with it.

[@BPCustomCreations]

Yo! Thank you for sharing this!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

My pleasure 😁👍🏻

[@TheGuardianofAzarath]

How would one go about making an array along a spline using this addon? Like creating a tail for something, or a chain. For some reason, that sort of thing seems to be very difficult for me in blender, where as in maya, it was relatively easy.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@TheGuardianofAzarath I'm not sure you'd use this addon for that. I'd use Geometry nodes as its pretty easy with that. And you can save the setup so you can use it again in other files with the Asset Browser. If you're interested let me know and I can find the video on it.

[@TheGuardianofAzarath]

@@ArtisansofVaul I think i found it in your video list

[@k4x4map46]

nice workout!!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Cheers!

[@Z-add]

9:47 that is a very long winded way of adding a chamfer on your geometry. Isn't their a simple way

[@ijidau]

This is the way to do it non-destructively with a mesh that dense. ND workflow has pros and cons like anything else.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Yes there is. You could do it destructively instead which is faster. It just depends what you want to be able to control non-destructively.

[@richardconway6425]

@@ArtisansofVaul Destruction is so much faster !! 😜

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@richardconway6425 Until you want to edit it later.... but I agree, that's why I use Mesh Machine so I can edit a destructive modelling workflow later. But then that has a cost (though I think it's well worth it)

[@Starflight_Miniatures]

More! 😂😅

[@ArtisansofVaul]

😁 I'll get thinking of some other things we can do.