Blender Tutorial

Geothermal Layers

This tutorial shows novel mesh editing techniques, including:

• Fast vertex, edge or face (de)selection.
• Loop cuts.
• Vertex groups.
• Region extrude.
• Perimeter selection.

Setup

1. Press CTRL-X then Enter to create a new model.
2. Press Del then Enter to remove the box.
3. Press NUM7 to change the view.
4. Press SPACE then Add » Mesh » UVSphere.
5. Press CTRL-Tab then 2.

Select and Scale the Vertices

1. Press a to deselect all vertices.
2. Press b for the selection cross-hairs.
3. Click RMB and drag to select 1/4 of the sphere.

   

   Sphere Selection

4. Click NUM1 to see the half-selected sphere.
5. Press CTRL-Tab then 1 to be in Vertex select mode.
6. Press b for the selection cross-hairs.
7. Click MMB and drag to deselect bottom 1/8 of sphere.

   

   Sphere Deselection

8. Press F9 for the Editing buttons.
9. Click New to create a new Vertex Group.

   

   Prelude to new Vertex Group

10. Provide a name for the vertex group (e.g., Cut-away).

    

    Vertex Group with Name

11. Click Assign to associate the selection of vertices (1/8 of the sphere) with a name.
12. Press . or click the Pivot Menu to change the Pivot to 3D Cursor:

    

    Pivot Menu

13. Press e then 1 then Enter then to extrude the region (but do not move it).
14. Press s then 0.193 then Enter to scale the region.

    

    Scaled Region

15. Press CTRL-Tab then 3 for Faces selection mode.

Cut and Scale

1. Rotate the view.
2. Click the Image Selection to Visible icon:
3. Click SHIFT-RMB to select each of the three faces.

   

   Selected Faces

4. Press SHIFT-G then 4 to select the desired faces (Similar Perimiter).

   Alternatively, you could select all the faces by hand ... if you are masochistic.

5. Press CTRL-+ to increase the selection of faces.
6. Zoom into the core and deselect the Cut-away faces.

   1. Press b then b again.
   2. Click MMB.
   3. Carefully drag the red circle along the edges.

   

   Deselected Cut-away Faces

7. Press SPACE.
8. Click Select » Inverse.
9. Click Set Smooth to smooth everything except the inside faces.
10. Press SPACE.
11. Click Select » Inverse.
12. Press CTRL-Tab then 2 to go into Edge select mode.
13. Create a new Vertex Group called Faces (don't forget to click Assign).
14. Press CTRL-r to make a Loop Cut.

    

    Loop Cut

15. Press Enter to accept.
16. Move the mouse (without clicking) until Percentage equals 1.
17. Click LMB.
18. Press s then .547 then Enter to scale the Loop Cut.

    Cuts are made from the smallest to the largest.

19. Press CTRL-r to make a Loop Cut.
20. Press Enter to accept.
21. Move the mouse (without clicking) until Percentage equals 1.
22. Click LMB.
23. Press s then .577 then Enter to scale the Loop Cut.
24. Repeat the previous five steps but use .994 as the scale factor.
25. Press a to deselect the faces.

    

    Cut Faces

Assign Materials

At this point, you can use the Vertex Groups to assign materials for the different layers.

This feature is covered in the next tutorial. You can download and review the .blend file, as well.

THE END - Download