Trial and Error – Topology Edits

In this chapter, you'll see how moving and adding edges and vertices affects the appearance of your hand. You'll add extra edges to round out surfaces, outline new details, and control the sharpness of other edges. You'll learn new editing techniques to help streamline your process. The chapter will cover the following topics:

• Learning about the advantages of quad faces over triangles
• Using the Loop Cut and Slide tool to better shape the hand
• Creating extra edge loops to flatten the base
• Selecting a whole edge loop at once
• Using Edge Slide to move existing edges
• Changing Blender's Pivot Point to better control rotation
• Editing groups of vertices with Blender's Proportional Editing tool

Preparing yourself mentally

Shaping the hand will be difficult to relay in step-by-step instructions. Real hands vary from person to person. Our modeled hands will certainly vary, as will our tastes and aesthetic preferences. This chapter will provide you with tools, strategies, and considerations as you embark on your journey of fine-tuning your hand. I have two thoughts before you even make your first mouse click.

Embracing failure

My first piece of advice is to not strive for perfection. Allow yourself to make mistakes. This type of modeling is one where you are going to have to pay your dues and practice. Accept that your hand is not going to be perfect right away. Accept that you will become intimately familiar with the...

Adding extra edge loops

As you begin to better shape your hand, you will most likely be adding additional edge loops. A few common scenarios are controlling rounding, shaping details, and flattening the base.

Controlling rounding

As we have seen, the Subdivision Surface Modifier rounds and smooths things out. There are cases, however, where we would like to have better control of the rounding. An example in this model is the right side of my hand. It initially has a very flat feel. Doing a Loop Cut and Slide down the cross-section of the entire hand gives me extra control to start to round those areas out:

Adding an extra edge loop provides extra vertices to round out the side of the hand

I also add extra edge loops down...

Moving vertices and edge loops

You should touch every single vertex in your model. Whenever you add another edge loop, you should expect to tweak all the new vertices it adds. It may sound tedious, but that effort is exactly what is going to make your model look more real and organic. As you work, you will be naturally reinforcing lessons and techniques from previous chapters:

Technique	Chapter
Switching viewpoint to evaluate work from different angles	Chapter 2, Using a Background Image and Bezier Curves
Turning Limit selection to visible on and off to see hidden vertices	Chapter 4, Flattening a Torus and Boolean Union
Using Border Select to pick multiple vertices at once	Chapter 4, Flattening a Torus and Boolean Union
Using the white circle, axis arrows, or the G hotkey to drag and drop vertices, edges, and faces	Chapter 4, Flattening a Torus and Boolean Union
Using...

Modeling fingernails and wrinkles 

Depending on the size and the detail of your print, you may want to add additional details such as fingernails and wrinkles. As with most things in this book, there are many options in Blender. If you were going to print this model in Full Color Sandstone from one of the 3D Printing Service Bureaus, one option is to add that detailing by coloring your model. Adding colors and UV maps will be covered in Chapter 14, Coloring Models with Materials and UV Maps. If you are using a single color printer, you would want to convey those details in the model itself. It is best to save modeling such details for last when you are satisfied with the rest of the work.

Using Inset and Extrude for fingernails

...

Summary

In this chapter, you did a lot of adjusting to fine-tune the shape of your hand. You learned how extra edge loops could be used to control rounding, shape large details such as muscles and tendons, and flatten the base of your piece. You learned how to select entire edge loops at once and how to slide them without distorting your shape. You learned how to correct a poorly positioned thumb by rotating vertices around the 3D Cursor. Finally, you learned about Blender's Proportional Editing tool and how it can adjust multiple items at once.

The 3D Printing Service Bureaus support full color printing. In Chapter 14, Coloring Models with Materials and UV Maps, you will learn how to take advantage of that by adding colors to your 3D model.