Creating a Low Poly Tractor

Time for a challenge!

In this chapter, you’re going to build a tractor in Blender. This is the most complex project yet—but don’t worry, it’s not so bad.

We’ll break the tractor up into separate pieces to simplify the modeling process. We’ll build each piece and put them together as we go. The end result will be awesome!

When it’s all done, we’ll create materials for it.

In this chapter, you’ll do the following:

• Build a simple tractor model from scratch
• Learn how to use the Mirror modifier
• Learn how to use double Mirror modifiers for parts such as wheels to mirror them twice
• See an example of breaking a concept into pieces for modeling

We’ll start by taking a look at what we’ll be making.

Breaking it down

Before we start modeling, let’s take a look at the tractor we’ll be making.

When you’re working with a complex model like this one, it’s difficult to know where to start. I’ve found a useful trick to solve this problem: break the subject into small, easy-to-manage pieces.

Figure 7.1 – The tractor we’ll build

This tractor is pretty easy to break up. I’ve highlighted the main parts of the model here:

• The wheels
• The engine
• The body
• The cab
• The details (headlights, mirrors, lights, wheel hubs, etc.)

Next, let’s dive in and model all the main parts of the tractor.

Adding the main parts

In this section, you’ll learn how to model each of the main parts in dedicated subsections. We’ll put the parts together as we go.

Figure 7.2 – The different parts of the tractor. We’ll model them all separately

Figure 7.2 shows all the main parts of the tractor—we’ll go through them one at a time and model them.

The wheels

The first of the main parts we’ll work on is the wheels. First up are the big back wheels.

The back wheels

We’ll start with the big back wheels. We don’t have to start with those, but the rest of the tractor relies on the size and shape of the big back wheels, so it makes sense to start there.

The big wheels are one of the more complicated parts of the tractor—you’ll be using extrude, loop cut, inset, and most of the other tools you’ve learned about.

If we make the wheels first, we’ll have a nice guideline...

Adding the details

Adding details to the tractor will make it a much more interesting model. The details will really help the tractor look more like a tractor. It’ll also make it more fun to look at.

We’re going to add the following details:

• Axles
• Wheel hubs
• Mirrors
• Headlights

Most of these are pretty easy, so this should be quick.

Wheel axles

We’ll start by adding the wheel axles:

1. In Object Mode, press Shift + A to add a new cylinder.
2. Rotate the cylinder 90 degrees on the Y axis, and scale it down until it’s small enough to serve as an axle.
3. Scale it on the X axis to make it longer.
4. Press 3 for the Right view (enter X-Ray mode if you want). Position the cylinder at the center of the wheel to serve as an axle.
5. Duplicate the cylinder to make a front axle.
6. If either axle protrudes through the wheels, select it and scale it down on the X axis to fix it.
7. Now rename the cylinders Back axle and...

Adding materials

The final step before we can call our tractor done is to add materials to it. It’ll look awesome when we’re done!

First, we’ll make the material that’ll cover most of the tractor: a basic orange color. Switch to the Shading tab and take the following steps:

1. Select the Engine object.
2. Press the New material button at the top of the Shader Editor.
3. Name the new material Orange. Change the base color to orange and lower the roughness to make it a little shinier.

Now we need to assign this material to the other parts of the tractor. This is very tedious. There’s a really helpful add-on that can make this process way faster. It’s not a default Blender functionality (though it should be), but the add-on is included with Blender, so all we have to do is enable it.

Open Preferences (Edit | Preferences) and navigate to the Addons tab. Search for Material Utilities and check the box to turn it on.

Let’...

Summary

In this chapter, you learned how to build an entire 3D tractor from scratch. You learned how to break a concept into pieces for modeling. You also learned how to make low poly wheels, and how to use Mirror modifiers to speed up the process.

You also learned about the emission shader for making things light up.

Great work!

If you only remember one thing from this chapter, it should be that the Mirror modifier can save you a ton of work. It’s a good idea to use it whenever you’re making something complicated and symmetrical.

In the next chapter, you’ll learn about creating environment components in low poly—trees, rocks, grass, the works!